What this is
A comparison of APR's Week 5 power rankings with ESPN's rankings for the same week of games. This acts as a sanity check (both ways) to see what teams are over- or underrated.
Only teams that are at least 9 positions apart are listed. The number in parentheses is the difference between APR's rank and ESPN's rank.
Teams ESPN likes more than APR:
- Giants (+13)
- In spite of their (at the moment) winning record, this is a very bad Giants team. As pointed out in the week 5 power rankings, the three teams the Giants beat are a combined 2-12. They are, perhaps, not as bad as their current #27 ranking, but there's simply no way they belong in the top half of the league right now.
- On the bubble:
- Steelers (+8), Browns (+6), Chargers (+6).
Teams APR likes more than ESPN:
- Bengals (-10)
- The Bengals are probably overrated at #10, but there aren't that many teams below them that seem solidly better, either. And looking at ESPN's rankings, I'd say the Bengals are easily better than the Falcons, Bears, Buccaneers, and Giants right now.
- Broncos (-9)
- The Broncos have 3 close losses, something that APR loves to love. APR is moving them down the rankings pretty steadily, though, and it says something about how poorly they're regarded that a #18 ranking qualifies as "overrated".
- On the bubble:
- Cowboys (-6), Vikings (-6)
