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The final edition of ESPN.com’s Power Rankings is out and two NFC South teams finished in the top 10.

The New Orleans Saints are No. 2 and the Atlanta Falcons are No. 7. The Saints finished behind only the Green Bay Packers and that’s fair enough. The Packers went 15-1 and defeated the Saints in the season opener.

But I will throw out the fact that I think the Saints are the hottest team in the league right now. I’m not saying they will beat Green Bay if they meet again in the postseason. But I think the Saints are at least capable of winning that game.

No. 7 is about right for the Falcons. They were inconsistent much of the season. But they were stronger in the second half of the season and their roster is talented enough that they could do some damage in the playoffs.

The Carolina Panthers came in at No. 23 and I think it’s safe to say they’re paying for their inability to win some close games in the first half of the season. If the rankings were based just on the second half of the season, I’d say the Panthers are definitely a top-20 team.

I think our voters were exceptionally generous in putting the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at No. 29. Let’s be real honest here: The Bucs were the worst team in the NFL by the end of the season. The Vikings, Rams and Colts were ranked below the Buccaneers. But I’ll make the case that if you had thrown the Bucs against any of those teams in the last few weeks, Tampa Bay would have found a way to lose. But this miserable season finally is over for the Bucs. They’re looking for a new head coach and some respectability.

We are down to the final set of ESPN.com’s NFL Power Rankings.

The AFC East went 2-2 in Week 17. Here is how the results impacted the final rankings.

New England Patriots (13-3)

Result: W, 49-21 against Bills

Power Ranking: No. 4 (same)

Walker's vote: No. 3 (same)

Analysis: The Patriots have won eight straight, but that wasn't enough to improve their final ranking. New England finished No. 4 behind a trio of NFC teams: Green Bay Packers, New Orleans Saints and San Francisco 49ers. The Patriots remain the highest-rated AFC team and have an inside track to the Super Bowl with home-field advantage. They should be healthy following the bye. The biggest question is can the defense play well when it counts.

New York Jets (8-8)

Result: L, 19-17 against Dolphins

Power Ranking: No. 19 (down three spots)

Walker's vote: No. 17 (down one spot)

Analysis: The Jets joined the Philadelphia Eagles as the biggest flops in the NFL this season. New York coach Rex Ryan oversold this team as a Super Bowl contender. The Jets were talented in the starting lineup but didn't have the same depth as previous years. This group also wasn’t as close and had a ton of chemistry issues. The Jets are another example that chemistry matters in the NFL. New York unraveled itself with bickering, infighting and underperforming.

Miami Dolphins (6-10)

Result: W, 19-17 against Jets

Power Ranking: No. 24 (same)

Walker’s vote: No. 22 (up one spot)

Analysis: Miami sent longtime defensive end Jason Taylor out in style with a win over the rival Jets. This team isn't far away from turning things around. The Dolphins finished the year 6-3 in their last nine games. If they nail this quarterback and head-coaching search, they will be a dangerous team to watch in 2012.

Buffalo Bills (6-10)

Result: L, 49-21 against Patriots

Power Ranking: No. 25 (same)

Walker’s vote: No. 24 (same)

Analysis: The Bills gave up 49 unanswered points to the Patriots. That should be more than enough reason for Buffalo to do everything it can to upgrade the defense via the draft and free agency. It already cost former defensive coordinator George Edwards his job. The Bills showed flashes this season, particularly early. But they need to add more impact players and depth to be able to survive injuries.

Well, there's no sense in denying it any longer. It turns out that I am a pineapple. I never realized it before, but the proof is in the final edition of this year's ESPN.com NFL Power Rankings.

9. New York Giants (Last week: 12). Back on Oct. 4, the Giants cracked the Power Rankings top 10 for the first time. I was... skeptical. At the time, citing their poor rush offense numbers and obvious flaws on defense, I wrote that "If the Giants are one of 10 best teams in the NFL, then I'm a pineapple." As it turns out, however, you didn't need to be able to run the ball or give up fewer than 400 points to be one of the top 10 teams in the league this year. Flaws and all, here the Giants are -- ninth in the Power Rankings. Personally, I'd rank the Giants 11th among the playoff teams -- behind Houston and Cincinnati and ahead of Denver -- but that's splitting hairs. Their record is tied for ninth-best in the league, and if they win at home Sunday (as they surely can), they'll be one of the eight teams left playing. For me to sit here, stomp my feet and insist I was right on semantic grounds would be foolish. I was wrong, and I can own up to it. Fortunately for me, I like being surprised. It's one of the reasons I love sports -- because we really don't know what's going to happen until it does. Whatever else these Giants may or may not be, they are a lot of fun to watch, and I look forward to seeing how far they can take this.

13. Dallas Cowboys (11). I think the voters were generous to the Cowboys, in the end. They have them ahead of the playoff-bound Broncos, and two spots ahead of the Eagles, who beat them twice and finished with the same record. Yeah, I thought the Cowboys would be better than 8-8, but they weren't, and a 1-4 finish after they had the division in their pocket is just inexcusable. Good teams don't do that.

15. Philadelphia Eagles (17). The Eagles finish with their highest ranking since Week 3, when they were ranked No. 6 and we all thought they'd get things right eventually. They eventually got things right enough to finish 4-0 once all was nearly lost, and there's reason to believe they can correct their problems and be a top team next year. But for purposes of this exercise, there's little doubt that they belong on anyone's list of biggest sports disappointments of 2011.

26. Washington Redskins (25). They began the season at No. 28, got as high as No. 10 and then settled right back down around where they started. I don't think the fast start was a mirage. I think the Redskins just didn't have enough to overcome their injury problems. And yes, that means they're not a great team. The Giants had injury problems too. Maybe even worse, and look at them. Had they stayed healthy all year, I agree with Mike Shanahan that the Redskins could have been a contender. But if a frog had wings, it wouldn't bang its little froggy butt on the ground when it hopped, right?

Take a bow, Green Bay Packers. You sailed through ESPN's NFL Power Rankings as the top team from Week 1 through the regular season.

There was lots and lots of movement beneath you, however.

Our power rankings voters -- John Clayton, Paul Kuharsky, James Walker, Ashley Fox and me -- tip our caps to the four teams making double-digit jumps from Week 1 to the present.

The San Francisco 49ers finished a league-high 23 spots higher than they started, settling in at No. 3 after peaking one spot higher. The Cincinnati Bengals finished 11th after starting dead last at No. 32. Denver (plus-13) and Tennessee (plus-11) also outperformed initial expectations relative to other teams.

These four surprise teams invited skepticism for various reasons.

The 49ers were breaking in a new coaching staff following the lockout while sticking with Alex Smith at quarterback. The Bengals were transitioning away from Carson Palmer to rookie Andy Dalton. Denver was coming off a disastrous season. Tennessee got more from Matt Hasselbeck than we might have expected.

There were underachievers, too.

The Indianapolis Colts finished 23 spots lower than anticipated, dropping from ninth amid preseason concerns over Peyton Manning's health to 32nd without their quarterback playing a single snap all season. Tampa Bay (-17), St. Louis (-14), the New York Jets (-12), Philadelphia (-11) and Minnesota (-10) also fell at least 10 places since Week 1.

Two teams, No. 1 Green Bay and No. 24 Miami, were exactly who we thought they would be. Their rankings finished right where they started. Sixteen other teams finished within five spots of where they started, with Cleveland, Dallas, Houston and Atlanta finishing within one spot of Week 1 expectations.

And now, a closer look at the rankings through Week 17, beginning with a look at how teams changed (or did not change) in the rankings from last week:

Falling (10): Oakland Raiders (-3), New York Jets (-3), Seattle Seahawks (-3), Dallas Cowboys (-2), Carolina Panthers (-2), Detroit Lions (-1), Houston Texans (-1), Cincinnati Bengals (-1), Denver Broncos (-1), Indianapolis Colts (-1).

Rising (9): Tennessee Titans (+3), San Diego Chargers (+3), New York Giants (+2), Philadelphia Eagles (+2), Arizona Cardinals (+2), Chicago Bears (+2), Atlanta Falcons (+1), Kansas City Chiefs (+1), St. Louis Rams (+1).

Unchanged (13): Green Bay Packers, New Orleans Saints, San Francisco 49ers, New England Patriots, Baltimore Ravens, Pittsburgh Steelers, Miami Dolphins, Buffalo Bills, Washington Redskins, Jacksonville Jaguars, Cleveland Browns, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Minnesota Vikings.

Deadlocked: We broke one tie this week. The Cowboys prevailed over the Broncos at No. 13 based on the third tiebreaker, which team won most recently. Head-to-head and overall record did not come into play.

Like minds: All five voters ranked the Packers first and the Saints second.

Agree to disagree: Some of the wildly inconsistent teams generated larger disparities on voters' ballots. Oakland finished 8-8, for example, but how good were the Raiders, anyway?

A look at the teams generating high-low disparities of at least five spots in the rankings:

• Cowboys (5): Clayton ranked them 12th, higher than any other voter ranked them. Fox ranked them 17th, lower than any other voter ranked them.
• Raiders (5): Clayton 14th, Sando and Fox 19th.
• Cardinals (5): Fox 16th, Walker 21st.
• Bears (5): Kuharsky 18th, Sando and Clayton 23rd.
• Seahawks (5): Sando 18th, Walker 23rd.

Power rankings histories: These colorful layered graphs show where each NFL team has ranked every week since the 2002 season.

Ranking the divisions: Teams from the AFC North maintained the highest average ranking for any division, ahead of teams from the NFC North.


A voter-by-voter look at changes of at least five spots since last week:

• Sando: Chargers (+5).
• Clayton: none.
• Kuharsky: Jets (-5).
• Walker: none.
• Fox: Cowboys (-5), Eagles (+5), Chargers (+5).

For download: An Excel file -- available here -- showing how each voter voted this week and in past weeks.

The file includes a "powerflaws" sheet pointing out potential flaws in voters' thinking by showing how many higher-ranked opponents each team defeated this season.

Buffalo, Kansas City and Seattle each defeated five teams ranked higher than them this week, tied for most in the league. The teams ranked second through fourth -- New Orleans, San Francisco and New England -- were 0-1 against higher-ranked teams (the Saints lost to the Packers, but the other teams in question did not play one another).

Eleventh-ranked Cincinnati was the lowest-ranked team without a victory over a team ranked higher this week.

A quick primer on the "powerflaws" sheet:

• Column Y features team rankings.
• Column Z shows how many times a team has defeated higher-ranked teams.
• Change the rankings in Column Y as you see fit.
• Re-sort Column Y in ascending order (1 to 32) using the standard Excel pull-down menu atop the column.
• The information in Column Z, which reflects potential ranking errors, will change (with the adjusted total highlighted in yellow atop the column).
• The lower the figure in that yellow box, the fewer conflicts.

Even heading into the playoffs on a three-game losing streak, the Houston Texans hold the No. 10 slot in the ESPN.com NFL Power Rankings.

The Texans lost one spot as a result of their loss to Tennessee Sunday, but it was a game with no meaning, featuring a lot of backups, and the Texans could have taken it into overtime with an extra point at the end if they had wanted to.

They are the division’s lone playoff hope after the Titans missed out at 9-7. As Mike Sando notes in his write up on the new rankings, Tennessee gained 11 spots from its ranking at the start of the season. That’s the fourth-biggest jump and shows by what a large margin the Titans outperformed expectations.

I’m one-fifth of the ballot. Sando breaks down the whole vote here.

If you want to contact me with your feedback, please do so via Twitter, Facebook or the mailbag.

Here’s the AFC South:



As for my complete ballot, the number in parenthesis is where I had the team ranked last week.

1) Green Bay (1)

2) New Orleans (2)

3) San Francisco (3)

4) Baltimore (4)

5) Pittsburgh (5)

6) New England (6)

7) Detroit (7)

8 ) Houston (8)

9) Atlanta (9)

10) NY Giants (10)

11) Cincinnati (11)

12) Tennessee (14)

13) Philadelphia (16)

14) Dallas (13)

15) Denver (12)

16) San Diego (18)

17) Oakland (17)

18) Chicago (21)

19) Arizona (22)

20) NY Jets (15)

21) Carolina (19)

22) Seattle (20)

23) Miami (23)

24) Kansas City (24)

25) Buffalo (26)

26) Jacksonville (27)

27) Washington (25)

28) Cleveland (28)

29) Tampa Bay (29)

30) Minnesota (30)

31) Indianapolis (31)

32) St. Louis (32)