NFL Power Rankings, Week 3: Bengals fall after Joe Burrow's injury; 0-2 Chiefs plummet out of top 10

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Week 2 typically helps the recalibration process.

Preseason bias still lingers. Week 1 can offer fool’s gold … or cloak a team’s true potential. Doubling the sample size of game tape gives us power rankers of the world added perspective.

But this particular Week 2 was quite different — much darker. The QB injuries alone were unkind, and big names were not spared, with Joe Burrow, Jayden Daniels, J.J. McCarthy and Justin Fields among the ailing.

The Chiefs are 0-2, losers of three straight games, going back to the Super Bowl LIX humbling. The Bengals, Colts, 49ers and Cardinals are all 2-0, but how much do we trust them? Teaser: There are 0-2 teams ahead of 2-0 teams, which is sure to go over well on social media.

From Thursday’s big win by the Packers through the Monday night doubleheader, it was also a long Week 2, leaving plenty to sort out. With that comes ample deck shuffling. Remember: It’s early.

NOTE: Up/down arrows below reflect movement from the Week 2 Power Rankings.

You can’t shortchange the Eagles for narrowly beating the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium, even if it wasn’t nearly as convincing as Philly’s Super Bowl LIX win. The Eagles were the better team on Sunday, even if the Chiefs felt they were offside on some second-half tush pushes. Jalen Hurts hardly lit it up, but he found DeVonta Smith for a big connection late, and Saquon Barkley was a load all day. The defense played very well, with rookie Andrew Mukuba making the game-turning play with the interception off of Travis Kelce’s hands. Throw in two more long Jake Elliott field goals, his third of 50-plus yards after missing 6 of 7 from that distance a year ago, and it was a three-phase victory.

It was a dominant performance against the Jets, even as Josh Allen had a pedestrian day throwing the football and suffered a bloodied nose, giving way to Mitchell Trubisky for a short spell. But Allen got back in to lead a ground-based punishment of the Jets’ defense. James Cook led the way, and the Bills’ defense made a strong statement after giving up 40 points to the Ravens in Week 1. They only allowed the Jets to cross midfield once in the first 53 minutes of the game. Buffalo’s next three games are at home, and the team could be 3-0 in the AFC East by the first week of October. Things are good in Western New York.

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