Shutdown Corner NFL Power Rankings: Post-preseason changes (Shutdown Corner)

The NFL regular season officially kicks off on Thursday when Green Bay travels to Seattle to take on the defending Super Bowl champion Seahawks. Shutdown Corner will be previewing everything to come all week, capped off by our awards and Super Bowl predictions on Thursday. Here are the post-preseason power rankings, updating the initial rankings from four weeks ago, and will be otherwise known as "How could I have known the Bears defense was still going to be this bad?" Chicago (seventh in the initial rankings) looked flat out putrid against Seattle in their third preseason game, when the starters play the most. The Bears didn't look all that great in the second preseason game at home against Jacksonville either. You'd think that a defense which signed ends Lamarr Houton, Jared Allen and Willie Young, drafted tackles Ego Ferguson and Will Sutton and cornerback Kyle Fuller, and got linebackers D.J. Williams and Lance Briggs back from injury would be better than last season's horrible unit. It definitely didn't look that way. [ Yahoo Sports Fantasy Football: Sign up and join a league today! ] That raises the tough question of how to weigh the preseason. The Bears weren't using a full defensive game plan. So are they that bad? Is the Buccaneers offensive line that shaky? Is the Bills offense that bad? Is the Giants offense ever going to score? Will young quarterbacks like Blake Bortles look as good in the regular season when teams actually blitz? Is there anything to make of the 49ers' preseason struggles? It's hard to evaluate because the games are meaningless. For now, the Bears have to move down a bit until their defense shows something. Other teams might find themselves bumped up or down a spot or two in our final rankings before the seasons starts (and the "last week" rankings this time are where the teams ranked before the preseason ): 32. Jacksonville Jaguars (Last week: 32) Bortles looks great. I think the only reason he's not starting this week is because the Jaguars boxed themselves into a corner in May by saying he wouldn't and now they feel they have to stick to it. Bortles is clearly their best option right now.



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