National Football League

2017 NFL Playoff Power Rankings: Divisional Round

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 1:39 p.m. ET

Fansided, Randy Gurzi/FanSided via NFL Spin Zone

It’s time for the 2017 NFL Playoff Power Rankings for the Divisional Round now that the competition has dwindled to eight teams.

Well, there wasn’t a lot of excitement this weekend now was there? The first game shown during the Wild Card Round of the 2017 NFL Playoffs was a lopsided contest in which the Houston Texans dominated the Oakland Raiders and won, 27-14. It was a rather dull game featuring inept offenses a second half in which Houston just milked the clock and got ready for next week. It was also the closest of the four playoff games.

The Seattle Seahawks upended the Detroit Lions without much fight, the Pittsburgh Steelers absolutely dismantled the Miami Dolphins and the New York Giants had a boatload of issues against the Green Bay Packers in their loss—yes, boatload, sorry about that one.

Naturally, the reaction to so many blowouts will be crazy. All four teams that won will now be the favorites in every ones minds, since their feats were on display this past week. That’s a natural response because all four teams were pretty dominant. What it doesn’t mean is that the four teams who earned the right to rest this weekend are necessarily any worse than they were just a week ago. These teams instead simply aren’t in our minds right now because they were resting up and getting ready for the Divisional Round.

Here we will try and sort things out after the lopsided four games were in the books with our Divisional Round NFL Power Rankings.

Jan 7, 2017; Houston, TX, USA; Houston Texans cornerback A.J. Bouye (21), strong safety Corey Moore (43), and defensive back Robert Nelson (32) celebrate after the AFC Wild Card playoff football game against the Oakland Raiders at NRG Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

No. 8 Houston Texans

Not only was it the closest game, but it may have been the hardest to watch. The Houston Texans should have been annihilated by the Oakland Raiders in Round 1, much like they were last year in the same round by the Kansas City Chiefs. Instead, this time they saw not one, but two quarterbacks go down with injury for the Raiders before the playoffs started.

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As the game got further away from them, the players kept dropping for Oakland. In the end it was too much to overcome. It was so bad that they realized benching rookie Connor Cook in his first ever start wouldn’t even help, even though he was an atrocious 18-of-45 passing and had three picks.

Houston still looked weak on offense. Quarterback Brock Osweiler played the best football he had all season, but that’s not saying much when he went for just 168 yards. Running back Lamar Miller was effective, but not efficient. He finished with 73 yards on 31 carries. It wasn’t pretty, but he helped kill the clock for Houston, which was pretty much their game plan once they got a lead.

They still are a bad team. Houston relies solely on their defense saving them and has no firepower on offense. They’re also a mess internally as rumblings still exist about head coach Bill O’Brien leaving the team. Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio reported that even after the game, the head coach may still abandon his club in the offseason.

The situation arises from friction between O’Brien and G.M. Rick Smith. But the team’s position is that, in an intense industry like football, people aren’t going to always get along. They don’t have to get along; they just have to work together.

Fans can be happy about the win, but this isn’t a team that looks ready to go into New England and knock off the Patriots.

Jan 8, 2017; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger (7) celebrates with teammates after a touchdown against the Miami Dolphins during the first half in the AFC Wild Card playoff football game at Heinz Field. Mandatory Credit: James Lang-USA TODAY Sports

No. 7 Pittsburgh Steelers

A win is a win no matter what, but some will read more into each and every one. This one will be read into way too much. The Pittsburgh Steelers deserve a ton of credit for the way they handled the Miami Dolphins on Sunday, but let’s not plan any parades just yet.

This is the same Steelers team that struggles with non-playoff teams like the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals like they did in Weeks 14 and 15. They are an incredibly inconsistent team. When they fire on all cylinders, they’re unbeatable. When they get complacent, they struggle. That’s just what they do.

Further muddying their waters is the injury to quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. He was hurt while throwing a pass late in the game, which was intercepted. After the play was done, he looked hobbled and left the game to be examined.

#Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger didn't leave the win over #Dolphins unscathed. He left Heinz Field with a boot on his right leg. pic.twitter.com/bYmrUSbCi8

— James Walker (@JamesWalkerNFL) January 8, 2017

The injury left the two-time NFL Champion in a walking boot, but he says he won’t miss any time. While that may be true, it’s hard to expect him at his best while he is not fully healthy. It’s tough to expect the Steelers to go on any kind of run unless they can count on No. 7 to deliver some of his postseason magic.

January 7, 2017; Seattle, WA, USA; Seattle Seahawks running back Thomas Rawls (34) moves the ball in for a touchdown against the Detroit Lions during the second half in the NFC Wild Card playoff football game at CenturyLink Field. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

No. 6 Seattle Seahawks

The Seattle Seahawks got a 20-point win over the Detroit Lions on the late Saturday game, but an assist should go to the Lions, especially their head coach Jim Caldwell. Detroit showed no signs of playing to win, and had zero aggressiveness all game.

Several fourth-down opportunities presented themselves, and Caldwell elected time and again to play things safe. The Lions kept it close, with the score 10-6 going into the final quarter, but they just never took advantage of Seattle’s inability to score.

The teams remaining are not the Lions. All the teams left in the playoffs will capitalize should the Hawks struggle to score like they did on Saturday.

However, the good news for Seattle was that their running game was back. Running back Thomas Rawls tore through the Lions defense for 161 yards on 27 carries. Receiver Doug Baldwin was also on fire as he brought in 11 receptions for 104 yards and a score.

They need those guys, and others, to get going again should they hope to advance to the NFC Championship game. They also need to finish drives like they did to end the game, rather than what they did for the first 45 minutes.

Jan 1, 2017; San Diego, CA, USA; Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid speaks to the media following the game against the San Diego Chargers at Qualcomm Stadium. The Chiefs won 37-27. Mandatory Credit: Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports

No. 5 Kansas City Chiefs

This is a really good football team, and they have a really good chance of heading to the AFC Championship Game. With Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger hobbled, the Chiefs have a real shot at beating a wounded opponent. They also have the talent to take advantage of such a situation. While the Steelers will go with a heavy dose of running back Le’Veon Bell should Big Ben be less than 100 percent, Kansas City has a tough enough defense to slow him down.

Nose tackle Dontari Poe has turned into a one man wrecking crew, but he doesn’t have to do the wrecking all by himself. Outside linebacker Justin Houston is reportedly healthy again and ready to roll with breakout star Dee Ford, who excelled while Houston was injured.

Offensively they are incredibly efficient, even with the often maligned Alex Smith at quarterback. They also have their rookie receiver/return man Tyreek Hill there to turn the tide of the game at any given moment.

The Chiefs have all they need to get to the next round. Of course, the real fun starts when their head coach, Andy Reid, gets to championship games. Eagles fans remember his penchant for getting their team to the NFC Championship Game year after year. What they don’t remember is him ever finishing the deal and hoisting the Lombardi Trophy. Maybe things will be different in Kansas City.

Jan 8, 2017; Green Bay, WI, USA; Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers (12) leaves the field after defeating the New York Giants in the NFC Wild Card playoff football game at Lambeau Field. Mandatory Credit: Adam Wesley/Green Bay Press Gazette via USA TODAY Sports

No. 4 Green Bay Packers

In the moment, there will be a whole lot of pro-Green Bay talk over the next week. It’s deserved for sure after their impressive offensive explosion in their win over the defensive-minded New York Giants. With such talk floating around like Giants receivers on a boat in Miami (promise, that was the last one) this ranking may be an unpopular choice. However, it’s probably just about right.

The Packers did blow up on New York, but that was only after the momentum of a lucky play. After being slowed down for most of the first half, quarterback Aaron Rodgers found receiver Randall Cobb for a Hail Mary touchdown as time expired. Twitter nearly broke after the catch, but it also nearly didn’t happen.

Just before that play, Rodgers made a mistake in throwing to tight end Jared Cook over the middle of the field. Cook dropped the catchable pass with six seconds remaining, which stopped the clock and set Rodgers up for the miraculous play. Had Cook hung on, time would have expired and the Pack would have been up just 7-6.

A closer game may have yielded a different second half. Instead, the two teams went to the intermission with all the momentum on the side of the Packers, and the rest became easy. Now they head back on the road, where they were just 4-4 on the regular season as opposed to 6-2 at home. There is a reason it’s called home field advantage, as Green Bay has proven this season.

On top of that they saw receiver Jordy Nelson and running back/receiver Ty Montgomery go down with injuries in this one. With Montgomery injured they have no one left to respect running the ball. And when Nelson missed all of last season, that brought on a ton of issues in the passing game for the Packers.

Dec 24, 2016; Charlotte, NC, USA; Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan (2) with head coach Dan Quinn on the sidelines in the second quarter at Bank of America Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports

No. 3 Atlanta Falcons

The NFL is fun. They give us exciting games, and on top of that cool storylines as well. The Divisional Round will hopefully feature better games than the Wild Card Round, but if not at least there’s some fun story lines. One is the Seahawks heading to the south to face one of their former assistant coaches, Dan Quinn. The Falcons coach was the defensive coordinator in Seattle from 2013-14 before taking his first head coaching gig.

Oddly enough, the defensive minded coach had a pretty rough defense this season. He did however feature the highest scoring offense in the league as the Dirty Birds racked up 33.8 points per game.

So now Quinn’s old team comes to town to try and stop the offensive powerhouse, led by MVP candidate Matt Ryan at quarterback. Ryan led the charge all season with key players like receiver Julio Jones and running backs Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman. These guys are incredibly tough to stop and worked hard to get Atlanta this week off to prepare, but even more importantly, to get a home game.

While the Falcons were actually better on the road, their home field advantage in this game comes from Seattle’s inability to travel well. The Hawks were 3-4-1 on the road this season which bodes extremely well for Atlanta to get just one step away from the Super Bowl.

Jan 1, 2017; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott (4) talks with running back Ezekiel Elliott (21) on the sideline during the second quarter against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

No. 2 Dallas Cowboys

The headlines will be there. The Dallas Cowboys beat the Packers in Week 6, but this isn’t the same Green Bay team. Well, that’s true. What is also true is this isn’t the same Dallas team from Week 6.

They too have improved. After breaking in some new offensive starters and a slow start defensively, they finished as one of the most balanced teams in the league surrendering the fifth least points per game (19.1) and scoring the fifth most (26.3).

While those numbers are great when you look at the season as a whole, what’s even better for Dallas is how much their pass rush improved as the season wore down. With stars like defensive end Demarcus Lawrence and defensive tackle Tyrone Crawford battling injuries, players like Benson Mayowa and David Irving stepped up in their place and helped Dallas record the 13th most sacks in the league with 36 on the year (ahead of even the highly touted Giants, who had 35).

Speaking of Irving, that man may be the most feared player in Green Bay. In that Week 6 win, Irving became a household name after harassing Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers all game long and forcing three fumbles. He was one of the biggest reasons they won that game, and one of the biggest reasons they can feel confident that they can slow Rodgers down at home. More importantly, slowing him down may be all they need to do.

That would be because offensively this team has proven they can score with anyone. The best example of this came in Week 10 when they were in a see-saw battle with the high-powered Pittsburgh Steelers. Every time they fell behind, they found a way to come right back. In the end they outlasted Pittsburgh for the 35-30, and silenced just about everyone who was still doubting a team led by a rookie quarterback, Dak Prescott, and a rookie running back, Ezekiel Elliott.

Now they have the keys to the Super Bowl as the road goes through Dallas, where they were 7-1 during the regular season.

Jan 1, 2017; Miami Gardens, FL, USA; New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) lines up at the line of scrimmage against the Miami Dolphins during the second half at Hard Rock Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

No. 1 New England Patriots

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady could be 98 years old and using a walker and he would still be the safest bet in the NFL. Until he shows anyone he can’t do it, just keep betting on No. 12 to win games.

Again the Patriots were in the familiar position of watching all the action in Wild Card Weekend as they just took notes. They got more time to rest, more time to study their opponents and more time to lick their chops at getting back after one of head coach Bill Belichick’s former understudies.

Texans head coach Bill O’Brien was an offensive coordinator for Belichick and hasn’t found success against him since taking the job in Houston. The most recent example came earlier in the regular season when New England destroyed Houston 27-0 on Thursday Night Football, despite starting a rookie third-string quarterback.

Now they are well rested and had Brady back in the lineup. If Houston thought stopping Jacoby Brissett was hard, they aren’t ready for playoff Brady.

Of course, the quarterback isn’t alone. Running back LaGarrette Blount had a career year with 1,161 yards and an NFL leading 18 touchdowns on the ground. They also have receiver Michael Floyd looking rejuvenated and tight end Martellus Bennett who is a matchup nightmare. Oh, and there’s also that receiver Julian Edelman. He’s not too bad.

This looks like the team to beat right now.