NFL power rankings, post-Week 16 edition:
1. Saints (1): You picking against them next month? Last time New Orleans had home-field advantage, in 2009, team rode Cajun cooking to its only Super Bowl.
2. Bears (3): Feels too high? Crack defense has league-best 36 takeaways. Opponents have 72.5 QB rating, easily league's worst. Who beats them in Windy City? They’re legit.
3. Rams (4): C.J. Anderson rushed for 167 yards in debut after posting 104 in nine games with Carolina. His revitalization means valuable rest for Todd Gurley.
4. Chargers (2): They play road games 16 weeks per season, so — really — how important is "home-field advantage"? They should be more concerned about potentially seeing Baltimore again in wild-card round.
5. Chiefs (5): Death by paper cut a good approach to beating this "Madden" offense. Kansas City has allowed 26.6 first downs per game, worst in league.
6. Ravens (10): Lamar Jackson's only loss came to Kansas City, the rare team that can put Baltimore in hole it can't climb out of. How else to beat Ravens?
7. Colts (6): Excellent news — Andrew Luck's all-time record against Tennessee is 10-0. Start printing those well-earned playoff tickets, Indy.
8. Patriots (9): Josh Gordon is gone. Rob Gronkowski has disappeared. Tom Brady seems to be fading. They may need to keep rushing for 273 yards to win in January.
9. Seahawks (12): Pete Carroll deserves major coach of the year consideration for what may be his best performance. He certainly deserved that extension.
10. Texans (7): They're a M*A*S*H unit heading into regular-season finale. Houston's going to postseason but really could've used that first-round bye.
11. Cowboys (13): They'd probably love to see Philly in playoff opener, but it's not possible. Minnesota and Seattle very capable of extending Dallas' 21st Century pattern of postseason putridity.
12. Vikings (14): If you think Week 17 is kind of game Minnesota paid Kirk Cousins to win … welp, it's actually kind of game they paid him to render meaningless. Alas …
13. Titans (11): Heading into biggest game of season, they won't have their best defensive player (Jurrell Casey) and seem unlikely to get Marcus Mariota back.
14. Eagles (15): What's worse, missing playoffs as reigning champions, or scraping in but then having a potentially massive Foles vs. Wentz debate?
15. Steelers (8): Since Le'Veon Bell's decision day (Nov. 13), Pittsburgh is 2-4, minus-9 in turnover department and has broken 100 rushing yards once.
16. Browns (16): They're guaranteed to finish above .500 in divisional play. The last time that happened (1994), Bill Belichick was Cleveland’s head coach.
17. Packers (19): Aaron Rodgers has uncharacteristically missed lots of receivers in 2018. But he misses defenders, too. That 25-to-2 TD-INT ratio is crazy.
18. Falcons (20): Turnover margin, run defense and pass rush — Dan Quinn pretty much laid highly disappointing season at feet of his battered defense. Maybe play Matt Bosher at linebacker?
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