Buffalo Bills reign supreme in Week 3 NFL power rankings

The Buffalo Bills are flying high heading into Week 3 of the 2022 NFL season. They blew out the defending Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams in Week 1, winning 31-10 at SoFi Stadium. On Monday night, the Bills turned a 7-7 tie with the Tennessee Titans into a 41-7 drubbing. The game was so lopsided that Buffalo pulled quarterback Josh Allen, wide receiver Stefon Diggs, and the majority of their other starters in the third quarter.

With two huge wins, it comes as no surprise that the Bills are ranked No. 1 in essentially each power rankings list released so far this week. As always, if I’ve missed one that you really like, please drop it in the comments and I’ll try to include them in future editions.

We start over at ESPN, where Buffalo is ranked No. 1 for the third straight week. Alaina Getzenberg was tasked with writing about the biggest early season adjustment the team could make. She picked “increasing the running backs’ production,” which is a sensible place to start. Getzenberg wrote that the Bills “struggled to get the running game going” at times in the 2021 season, and while she acknowledged that Devin Singletary doesn’t need a ton of carries, it would make the Bills even more lethal if they could run it and throw it at will.

Nate Davis at USA Today ranked Buffalo No. 1, as well. He wrote, perhaps a little tongue-in-cheek, that the Bills’ newest weapon is punter Sam Martin, whose first two punts with the club were muffed by Titans’ returners. Dan Orlovsky mentioned during the broadcast that Martin is known for booting end-over-end punts that are difficult for returners to field, so even though Davis might be kidding, there could be some truth in the joke.

Josh Schrock at NBC Sports was succinct in his description of the No. 1-ranked Bills. He merely wrote, “OK, the Bills might go 20-0.” While I certainly hope that he’s correct, I think that’s a bit of an exaggeration—the Bills are bound to lose a game or three that they shouldn’t throughout the season. If they keep playing at their current clip, though, they’ll be very hard to stop.

Dalton Miller at Pro Football Network provided the counterpoint to Schrock’s undefeated talk. While he ranked the Bills at No. 1, he started his discussion of the team with the following: “They won’t go 17-0. The offensive line isn’t dominant enough for the offense to consistently torch opposing defenses. Josh Allen is a monster, but he’s still human… we think. And until we see an evolution in the backfield from one of these runners, it’s tough to trust the Bills’ run game.” I can’t say I disagree with a lot of what he wrote there, but I also question how much I care about “trusting the run game” in 2022.

Austin Gayle at The Ringer ranked the Bills No. 1 in his weekly ranking, putting them atop the tier labeled “The Best of the Best.” He didn’t write anything further about Buffalo, though, focusing his analysis on the No. 2-ranked Kansas City Chiefs instead.

Vinnie Iyer at Sporting News kept Buffalo at No. 1, too. He wrote that Buffalo had plenty of time to rest after dismantling the Rams on opening night, and they were able to dismantle the Titans in an even more dominant fashion. Iyer called Buffalo’s offense and defense “loaded.”

Frank Schwab at Yahoo! also has Buffalo at No. 1 this week. He writes that the Bills have been “nearly perfect” to begin the year, adding that they might have both the best offense and the best defense in the NFL.

Bo Wulf at The Athletic has Buffalo ranked No. 1 (and yes, this one is accessible sans paywall—or at least it was for me). He wrote that there’s no argument as to which team is the best right now thanks to Buffalo’s dominant point differential. The Bills currently sit at plus-55, which is more than the next two teams (the Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers) combined. Both of those squads are at plus-26 right now. Wulf writes that “Forward-thinking hardware store managers in Glendale, Ariz., should begin marking up the price of folding tables.”

Mark Lane at Touchdown Wire also has the Bills ranked No. 1 this week. He writes that, if Buffalo is able to reach their bye week without a loss, then “talks of an undefeated season have to be considered.” That’s a little too far away for me to think about, but I understand the sentiment. He notes that the Bills have two tough road games ahead in the next two games, as they travel to South Beach to play the Miami Dolphins this week before traveling to Maryland to take on the Baltimore Ravens in Week 4.

Conor Orr at Sports Illustrated has Buffalo in the top spot, as well. He notes that it’s “scary” just how routinely the Bills are beating some of the league’s best teams. He thinks that Buffalo’s next big challenge is to evolve, if only for the moment when someone eventually devises a game plan to slow Buffalo down for a time.

Dan Hanzus ranked the Bills at the top of his list for NFL Network this week. He gave shout-outs to all the big players from Monday night, noting Josh Allen’s 317-yard, four-touchdown performance and Stefon Diggs’s 12-catch, 148-yard, three-touchdown performance. He also gave Matt Milano praise for scoring his second career touchdown (Steve Levy called it his first on the broadcast, but some of you may recall that he plucked a DeAndre Washington fumble out of midair and returned it 40 yards for a touchdown right before halftime in Buffalo’s victory over the then-Oakland Raiders in 2017). Hanzus notes that, through the season’s first two weeks, Buffalo “exists in a class of its own.”

Finally, Pete Prisco at CBS Sports also has Buffalo at the top of his rankings. He writes that, after the Bills shellacked the Titans, Buffalo has left no doubt as to who the league’s best team is. As for this week’s matchup with Miami, Prisco writes that “they face a tough road test at Miami on a short week. That won’t be easy.”