2017 NFL power rankings: Patriots lead the way
Now that the New England Patriots have prevailed in Super Bowl LI, we take one last look at how the NFL’s 32 teams rank from No. 32 to No. 1 for the 2016 season.
The National Football League’s 97th season has come to an end and the New England Patriots are Super Bowl champions for the fifth time. The team’s 34-28 overtime win over the Atlanta Falcons (which featured a 25-point comeback) cemented them as our No. 1 choice.
So here are our final power rankings for 2016. And in this case, we did see the best two teams in the league by season’s end play in the NFL’s biggest game of the year. So how did the 32 teams rank from worst to best?
San Francisco 49ers 2-14
Last week: 4th, NFC West
Last rank: 32nd
Looking Back: In a word, dreadful. After blasting the Rams on a Monday night in Week 1 (28-0), the Niners dropped their next 13 games and were often non-competitive in the process. San Francisco allowed a league-worst 480 points and were dead last in the NFL in both total and run defense. And only the Los Angeles Rams gained fewer yards per contest.
Looking Forward: We are still awaiting final word on who the team’s new head coach will be. By all indications, current Atlanta Falcons’ offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan has the job if he truly wants it. The 49ers recently hired John Lynch to be their new general manager and while he lacks experience at the job, you get the sense the franchise isn’t done yet when it comes revamping the front office. The team added former Denver Broncos’ scout Adam Peters to be the Niners’ director of player personnel. And ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports than quarterback Colin Kaepernick will be opting out of his contract.
Offseason needs: Talent are the top 3 things on the list for a struggling club that is a combined 7-25 these past two seasons. Be it via retirements, salary-cap decisions or free-agent departures, the 49ers are a shell of what they were earlier in this decade. The good news is that because the team has its share of young players, there’s not a lot of potential unrestricted free agents to have to bring back. But the quarterback position is a different story in this regard. With Kaepernick apparently set to move on, veteran signal-callers Blaine Gabbert, Chris Ponder and Thaddeus Lewis are all slated to hit the market this offseason as well.