Welcome to the 2026 NFL power rankings: Week 1 edition. We have spent months setting up the season, giving our predictions and marking our territory like a bunch of aging Dachshunds. So, I’d like to take this time to simply say thank you.
As we catapult ourselves into a post-AI world, there are still some people who choose to do what the author David Foster Wallace called a very challenging task: sitting with words and considering their meaning. Here at The MMQB we take immense pride in sitting with you (and now have an incredible Subtext group where you can ask us questions in real time, possibly allowing us the opportunity to add some depth to pieces like this one). As I enter my 16th season as either a beat writer or national NFL analyst, and my eighth season as a senior writer at Sports Illustrated, I’m filled with immense gratitude for you. Thanks for coming and thanks for staying.
