The season’s about to begin, so I’ll weigh in with my overall lay of the land. I’ve scouted the teams, I’ve seen them all play in the preseason, and I’ve settled on a general expectation of what they’re all about. I can now rank them 1 thru 32.

On the win-loss records below, those don’t reflect what I believe will actual occur. Instead, those are where I think each team would finish if it played a typical schedule. Dolphins, for example, are listed at 8-8, but they’ll benefit from playing four games against the Jets and Bills.

Cowboys and Colts are the hardest teams to grade, with star players potentially missing numerous games. So I’ve also included additional grades for those teams, showing where I rank them when they’ve got their key guys on the field.

As far as predicting actual win-loss records, I need to go through all 256 of the regular season games.

But big picture, I’m thinking the Patriots and Seahawks are the best two teams, and looking like the favorites to meet in Super Bowl LII.

2017 POWER RANKINGS
TeamWLTPct
New England1420.875
Seattle1330.813
Pittsburgh1240.750
Green Bay1150.688
Atlanta1150.688
Kansas City1060.625
• Dallas (with Elliott)1060.625
Arizona970.563
Carolina970.563
Tennessee970.563
Dallas970.563
Minnesota970.563
Cincinnati970.563
Philadelphia970.563
Denver871.531
• Indianapolis (with Luck)871.531
Tampa Bay880.500
Detroit880.500
NY Giants880.500
New Orleans880.500
Miami880.500
LA Chargers880.500
Houston781.469
Oakland781.469
• Dallas (without Elliott)790.438
Washington790.438
Indianapolis790.438
Baltimore691.406
San Francisco6100.375
Chicago5110.313
Cleveland5110.313
• Indianapolis (without Luck)4120.250
LA Rams4120.250
Buffalo4120.250
Jacksonville3130.188
NY Jets3130.188

—Ian Allan