Week 1 NFL Power rankings: Everyone thinks the Colts are better than the Lions

We’re finally back into the regular season schedule. It’s Tuesday, which means it’s time for Power Rankings. You know, that thing that means absolutely nothing, but is so fun to get angry about? Yeah, that thing. As always, this year we’ll be rounding up the rankings from several sources to see what the media thinks about the Detroit Lions as well as their upcoming opponent.

Leading up to the regular season, we’ve seen plenty of examples of the media having little faith in this year’s Lions team, especially after losing Calvin Johnson and appearing to be in rebuild mode after a complete overthrow of the front office. That momentum has carried into the regular season, and no one has the Lions ranked in the top half of the league. Here’s a look at where the Lions stand just a few days before Week 1 gets underway.

• SB Nation: 27th
• NFL.com: 24th
• ESPN: 20th
• Bleacher Report: 27th
• Mile High Report: 28th
• Yahoo! Sports: 21st

Not only are the Lions unanimously in the bottom half of the league, but half of the above power rankings actually have them as a bottom six team.

It’s hard to really be surprised by this. The Lions notoriously enter the year with low expectations nationally. Of course, to be fair, the Lions have typically lowered themselves to those expectations, so it’s hard to fault some analysts. Still, considering the team’s late-season surge last year, you’d think some national writers would have some mild expectations for this team.

As for the Indianapolis Colts, they rank 23rd (SB Nation), 19th (NFL.com), 18th (ESPN), 14th (Bleacher Report), 13th (Mile High Report), and 20th (Yahoo). In other words, each site believes the Colts are entering this season a better team than the Lions. That probably explains why the Colts are favored by around 4 points. The Lions will get a chance to prove everyone wrong on Sunday at 4:25 p.m. ET.