NFL power rankings: Detroit Lions drop to ‘perplexingly awful’; injuries define Week 2

Detroit Free Press

Injuries are a fact of life in the NFL. They happen every week, at every position, and impact every team, good and bad.

The Detroit Lions have dealt with their share already this season, as No. 1 wide receiver Kenny Golladay has missed two games with a hamstring injury and fellow starters Justin Coleman, Desmond Trufant, Joe Dahl, Hal Vaitai and Nick Williams all sat out last week’s loss to the Green Bay Packers.

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Golladay’s pending return should give the Lions a significant boost on offense as their deep passing game has been mostly non-existent the last two weeks. The rest of those starters should be back on the field at some point in the coming weeks, too.

For other teams bitten by the injury bug, the news isn’t as good.

Week 2 in the NFL was notable for not just the amount of injuries suffered, but the significance of the player lost to injury as well.

Saquon Barkley, Nick Bosa, Solomon Thomas and Bruce Irvin all suffered season-ending knee injuries, and Christian McCaffrey, Jimmy Garoppolo, Raheem Mostert, Drew Lock, Anthony Barr and Davante Adams are likely to miss time with injuries that knocked them out of games on a bloody Sunday. 

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Those injuries had a significant impact on this week’s power rankings, where the 49ers were one of the week’s big losers, falling six spots to No. 13 despite beating the hapless Jets (who still bring up the bottom of the rankings) for their first win.

A year after reaching the Super Bowl, the 49ers now have to survive the NFL’s toughest division — fellow NFC West teams the Seahawks, Cardinals and Rams are a combined 6-0 and rank in the top nine of this poll — without two of their best pass rushers (Bosa and Thomas), plus their quarterback (Garoppolo) and best running back (Mostert) for an undetermined amount of time.

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As deep as they are, and as manageable as the upcoming schedule is — they get the Barkley-less Giants this week — that’s a tough row for any team to hoe.

As for the week’s other big losers, the Minnesota Vikings and Philadelphia Eagles, they both are battling injuries, sure, but I simply overrated them to start the season. The Vikings might be the least impressive team in the NFL through two weeks, while the Eagles have the worst point differential in the NFC.

I lumped the Lions, who dropped another three spots in these rankings, in the same tier as the Vikings, Eagles and Falcons. None of those teams is Jets-bad, but they’ve all been perplexingly awful for stretches of this season and won’t win consistently until they clear whatever mental hurdles are in their way.

As for the week’s big winners? The Steelers have not beaten anyone of note, but they cracked the top 15 by virtue of a menacing defense and a 2-0 record, and look out for the Raiders, who had a big win over the Saints on Monday night and have the running game to be a factor late in the year.

My full NFL power rankings this week

1. Chiefs (2-0)

2. Ravens (2-0)

3. Seahawks (2-0)

4. Titans (2-0)

5. Packers (2-0

6. Saints (1-1)

7. Bills (2-0)

8. Cardinals (2-0)

9. Rams (2-0)

10. Patriots (1-1)

11. Buccaneers (1-1)

12. Raiders (2-0)

13. 49ers (1-1)

14. Bears (2-0)

15. Steelers (2-0)

16. Cowboys (1-1)

17. Chargers (1-1)

18. Colts (1-1)

19. Browns (1-1)

20. Texans (0-2)

21. Washington (1-1)

22. Jaguars (1-1)

23. Eagles (0-2)

24. Vikings (0-2)

25. Lions (0-2)

26. Falcons (0-2)

27. Dolphins (0-2)

28. Bengals (0-2)

29. Broncos (0-2)

30. Giants (0-2)

31. Panthers (0-2)

32. Jets (0-2)

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett. The Free Press has started a new digital subscription model. Here’s how you can gain access to our most exclusive Lions content. 

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