The 49ers made a statement in Week 1, but not every set of NFL power rankings is ready to treat that 27-7 win over the Rams as a full takeover. San Francisco opened the season with one of the loudest results on the board - a rout of a team that entered the year near the top of the league conversation - and then spent Tuesday morning bouncing all over the ranking charts.
That spread was wide. The Athletic put the 49ers all the way at No. 1 after the performance in Australia.
ESPN slotted them at No. 5.
FOX Sports had them at No. 7.
USA Today landed in the middle of the noise and pushed them up to No. 2.
At The Athletic, Chad Graff and Josh Kendall moved fast in elevating San Francisco to the top spot. Their reasoning centered on how cleanly the 49ers handled the Rams, especially on offense.
“After the franchise’s drama-filled offseason and with questions about the aging roster, the 49ers had no trouble moving the ball against the Rams. Brock Purdy threw for three touchdowns, the running game (including rookie Kaelon Black) looked good and Raheem Morris’ defense was great. It’d be hard to draw up a better start.”
The rest of The Athletic’s top five featured Seattle at No. 2, Buffalo at No.
3, Chicago at No. 4, and Baltimore at No. 5.
Los Angeles dropped to No. 6, while Kansas City climbed from No. 14 to No. 7 after beating Denver 31-10 on Monday night.
ESPN was more restrained, even with San Francisco’s blowout win. The 49ers climbed from No. 9 to No. 5, but still came in behind the Rams at No.
- The top of ESPN’s list was Buffalo, Seattle, Baltimore, Los Angeles, then San Francisco.
FOX Sports also kept the 49ers in the second tier of its rankings, moving them only three spots from No. 10 to No. 7.
Baltimore sat at No. 1 there, followed by Chicago, Seattle, Buffalo, Los Angeles, and Cincinnati. Ralph Vacciano framed the Week 1 win as a direct response to all the preseason hype around the Rams.
“They heard all the talk about the dream team Rams and became L.A.’s worst nightmare. If the Niners stay healthy, they actually could end up the best team in the dangerous NFC West,” FOX Sports’s Ralph Vacciano wrote.
USA Today gave San Francisco a bigger bump, sliding them up five spots to No. 2 behind Seattle. Nate Davis pointed to the team’s early confidence and the way the 49ers handled the Rams in Australia.
“Their “Sleep tight” tweet served as the mic drop of Week 1 after the Niners, who were at least close to full strength after juggling so many injuries in 2025, stuck it to the apparently jet-lagged Rams in Australia,” USA Today’s Nate Davis wrote. “The NFC West is already shaping up as a three-way heavyweight bout once again, and the Niners − if healthy − have certainly shown they’ve got the goods to be a Super Sunday threat.”
The bigger picture after one week is simple: San Francisco has already forced a debate. Before the season, the 49ers were seen as the clear No. 3 team in the NFC West. After Week 1, they look like they may be the strongest team in the division, especially with Seattle dealing with an injury to quarterback Sam Darnold.
Now the attention shifts to Sunday, when the 49ers host the Miami Dolphins as a massive 13.5-point favorite.
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