Detroit Lions Disrespected in Peter King’s NFL Power Rankings
By Zac Snyder
The Detroit Lions don’t get the benefit of the doubt from Peter King in his offseason NFL Power Rankings while the rival Minnesota Vikings get more love than they deserve.
NFL Power Rankings help pass the time between games during the regular season and as NFL fans crave more and more football even when there is no football, they are now being used to pass the time between seasons.
Peter King used his Monday spot on The MMQB to drop a fresh set of power rankings. You will need to make good use of the page down key on your keyboard to find the Detroit Lions as they lead off the bottom half of the league at number 17. King explains:
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"I don’t trust that the Lions have done enough to bolter [sic] a defense made thin by the loss of its best position group, defensive tackle."
OK, fair enough. King thinks he sees a fatal flaw and he’s calling it like he sees it. He’s the teacher not willing to grade on a curve – he’ll be tough but fair, right?
Unfortunately, the level of critique applied to the Lions is not applied equally, especially with a division rival. Checking in at number six in the power rankings are the Minnesota Vikings. You know, because they possibly might maybe be not so totally unfortunate looking:
"This is reliant on so many things. Adrian Peterson showing up number one. But finding a consistent pass-rush is key too, as is the continued maturity of Teddy Bridgewater. I pick the Vikes here because if you ask me for one rising team if two or three vital things go right, I’m picking Minnesota."
Wait…what?
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The Lions get knocked because their top five defense from a year ago might not be quite as good (while failing to mention that there is plenty of room for the offense to get better), but the Vikings get ranked sixth on the belief that they could be surprise team of 2015 if x, y and z go right?
Power rankings are purely for entertainment, especially this time of year so really the only thing less meaningful than power rankings is worrying about where one person ranks a team. The games will be played eventually and when they are, let’s hope King’s way-too-early power rankings turn out looking as good as Sports Illustrated’s pick of the Cleveland Indians in the World Series.
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