NFL Power Rankings Notes:
The above power rankings include Mitch Bannon's personal power rankings after Week 12 as well as the 'combined power ranking' generated by our computer, based on data from the 2024-25 season, so far.
Here is where Mitch disagrees with the computer most:
Most Overrated Team: Dallas Cowboys
Somebody has to inform our computer rankings that the Dallas Cowboys are dead. Either Jerry Jones hacked our computer to push up Dallas in the rankings or our computer is unable to comprehend how bad the Cowboys have been this year (and they're only getting worse with Dak Prescott done for the year). I have the Cowboys as the 26th-ranked team in my power rankings, far below the nearly top-10 ranking of our robot.
Even with Prescott healthy, this Dallas team stunk, rocking a 3-5 record in their first eight games. Now, without Dak for the rest of the season they're a bottom feeder. Turns out, making basically zero improvements to this roster in the offseason wasn't a good strategy.
The latest Super Bowl odds clearly agree with me over our computer, as Dallas currently sits at +75000 to win the title this year, 25th on the odds list.
Most Underrated Team: Pittsburgh Steelers
Regrettably, it's time to start believing in the Pittsburgh Steelers.
I'm not really sure why our computer rankings still have the Steelers as a middle-of-the-pack team, because they've done nothing but win this year. Pittsburgh is currently 8-2, atop the AFC North, with solid wins over the Commanders, Chargers, Falcons, Ravens, and Broncos – all winning teams.
They Steelers are deserving of being a top-10 team, right now, but the schedule doesn't get much easier after a Week 11 win over Baltimore. The test for this Steelers squad continues with matches against the Bengals, Eagles, and Chiefs still on the schedule (and a road game at the Ravens). Even if the Steelers finish the season 3-4 in their final seven, that still makes them a 11-win team, though. So, they have to be in our top-10 right now.
How Are Our NFL Football Power Rankings Compiled?
These power rankings show both our NFL experts' custom rankings and the computer's adjusted power ratings for an objective approach. Ranks are updated at the end of each week and are based on a rolling 10-game range. Early in the season, this date range reaches back to regular-season games of the previous year.
Standings only tell part of the story for fans who like to bet on the NFL. A first-place team may have a lousy defense but lucked into a 3-0 record by playing three teams even worse than themselves. However, beating the point spread requires the whole story – what are the stat strengths and weaknesses of each team and how can you exploit that data to find edges for your NFL bets?
Check out the NFL Football Power Rankings here at Odds Shark to get a different approach to the standings as you handicap the NFL football odds.
The computer uses different sortable stats for team offense, time of possession, ATS wins, points per game, rushing and passing yard data (for both sides of the ball), turnover ratios, and many other metrics to determine these power rankings.
Of note, these NFL football rankings will be different from other power ranking systems because our computer weighs the data over a rolling 10-game date range. We don’t start from scratch in Week 1, we look back at 10 regular-season games to give a bigger sample of data and we feel it is a more accurate reflection of true power if we consider only the past 10 games.