New England Patriots Ranked Fifth In The NFL By Peter King

By Cyrus Geller | Jun 2, 2015

Yesterday, Peter King of MMQB put together his offseason power rankings, which is customary in the blogging world at this time, given the lull in NFL news from now until training camp. King’s list is very interesting, as he has the Ravens at number one, the Chiefs at four, the Vikings at six, the Eagles at seven, and the Patriots at number five.

Here is what he had to say on New England:

"I don’t care if Damon Huard plays the first four games. Pats will win 11. Or more."

Now, let me get this out of the way right now: I don’t like King, I never have liked King, and I never will like King. He is a fantastic writer, who really set the bar for non-beat guys covering the NFL, but I absolutely hate his views on the game.

So with that said, let me get on with my completely unbiased reaction.

Fifth? Are you kidding me? I agree with his note on the Pats winning 11 or more regardless of who plays the first four games, but how on earth can you say there are four teams better than the Patriots, including the RAVENS, and CHIEFS. If you want to make a case for Seattle, fine. If you even wanted to make a case for the Packers I could probably live with that. But the Ravens and Chiefs? Give me a break.

King says he likes the Ravens because he trusts John Harbaugh, and because this is a team that had two 14-point leads in the playoffs in Foxboro back in January. What King fails to mention, is the Ravens blew both of those leads, and their secondary is arguably the worst unit in the entire NFL.

More from Patriots News

I will give them this: Joe Flacco showed me a lot in that divisional matchup in the playoffs. Up until that point, I didn’t buy into Flacco’s vaunted playoff success, mainly because he always had a defense, a running game, and receivers that just went up and made plays for him. But last year, it was all on him. His defense sucked, his receivers, while very good, weren’t Anquan Boldin-esque, and he still nearly outdueled Tom Brady in frigid January temperature at Gillette.

However that Flacco never shows up in the regular season, and when the Ravens have a brand new cast of receivers, a mediocre front seven, and a putrid secondary, they are going to struggle to even make the playoffs.

As for the Chiefs, they have a good defense, led by an elite front seven, and they have one of the most explosive playmakers in the game in Jamaal Charles, but their aerial attack is just horrible. Alex Smith is a game manager at best, and even with the addition of Jeremy Maclin, his receiving corps is bad. I think the Chiefs can supplant the Broncos as the AFC West champs, but they won’t do anything else in the playoffs.

Back to the defending champion New England Patriots. This is why they should be number one on this list, just holding off the Seattle Seahawks. They have the best coach in the game (Belichick), the best offensive weapon (Gronk), a top three offensive weapon (Edelman), the best safety in the game (D-Mac), a ridiculously deep and talented front seven, and most importantly, the best quarterback in NFL history, who will be playing more angry than he has ever been.

The Pats addressed their one offensive need in the draft by getting a couple of terrific young offensive lineman, and with that, their offense will blow through everyone in the league (barring any big injuries). Defensively, they have a safety that will keep everything contained with the losses at cornerback, and they have a front seven that will terrify any offense that has to face them.

And oh yeah: Brady’s pissed off.

Here is how I would rank the top five teams in the league:

1. Patriots

2. Seahawks

3. Packers

HUGE GAP

4. Cowboys

5. Colts

Home/Patriots News