Seahawks Top NFL Power Rankings After a 13-10 Grind

The Seattle Seahawks sit No. 1 in NFL power rankings entering Week 2 after a 13-10 win over New England on Sept. 9.

Kansas City and Denver had not taken a snap when that board froze them at No. 2 and No. 3. On Sept. 14 the Chiefs won 31-10.

A 13-10 Win Put Seattle on Top

The ranking that opened by saying it would not overreact to one week still treated a Super Bowl rematch grind as a coronation. Seattle raised its banner, then spent three quarters stuck at a field goal after Sam Darnold left with a hip injury on the first drive.

Darnold was 1 of 2 for 13 yards when Dre’Mont Jones sacked him on third down of a five-play, 30-yard series. A hip fracture has been ruled out, coach Mike Macdonald said, calling the first tests great news, though the quarterback still needed an MRI and a timetable.

Drew Lock, who threw three passes last season, went 16 of 22 for 187 yards and a touchdown. New England led 10-0 in the third quarter. Then Drake Maye, last season’s MVP runner-up, threw three interceptions in the fourth, Jaxon Smith-Njigba scored on a 45-yard catch on fourth-and-1, and Jason Myers kicked a 26-yard field goal. Joshua Jobe’s end-zone pick with 21 seconds left closed it.

NFL Research logged Seattle as the third reigning Super Bowl champion to get shut out in the first half of its opener, after the 1984 Raiders and the 1967 Packers. Lock became the first backup to throw a touchdown in a champion’s season opener. Ian Rapoport said Darnold is expected to miss the Sept. 20 trip to Arizona.

A.J. Brown’s Patriots debut ended early in the third quarter. He had three catches for 26 yards on four targets, plus a 34-yard pass-interference flag that set up New England’s first score, before a high ankle sprain sent him to injured reserve. Rapoport later said Brown is expected to miss six weeks, longer than the four-game IR minimum.

THE OPENING WEEK ON THE CLOCK

1. Sept. 9, 2026: Seahawks 13, Patriots 10 at Lumen Field in a Super Bowl rematch, the third Week 1 rematch since Denver beat Carolina in 2016.
2. Sept. 10, 2026: 49ers 27, Rams 7 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the league’s first regular-season game in Australia, in front of 100,021 fans.
3. Sept. 13, 2026: The Sunday slate lands, including Chicago 59-37 at Carolina, Minnesota 39-22 over Green Bay, and the Giants 28-20 over Dallas.
4. Sept. 14, 2026: Chiefs 31, Broncos 10 at Arrowhead Stadium on Monday night.

The full set of Week 1 box scores now sits in the books. The ranking that sorted the league did not have the last of those games when it locked the top three.

Kansas City Did Not Wait for Permission

The same board bumped the Chiefs because they had not played yet and the Rams had lost in Australia. People around the league, it said, saw a Tom Brady-ish chip on Patrick Mahomes’s shoulder. It wanted to see the run game. It got that answer in one night.

Kenneth Walker III, on a three-year, $43.05 million deal after leaving Seattle, carried 23 times for 173 yards, including a 60-yard touchdown on fourth-and-1. He added three catches for 18 yards and another score, 191 scrimmage yards and two touchdowns in his Chiefs debut. It was the most rushing yards by a Kansas City back since Jamaal Charles ran for 226 against Indianapolis in 2012.

MONDAY NIGHT AT ARROWHEAD

• 173 rushing yards: Walker on 23 carries, with the 60-yard score on fourth-and-1.
• 191 scrimmage yards: Two touchdowns in the debut, 173 on the ground and 18 through the air.
• 176 yards: Denver’s entire offense, with Bo Nix at 131 yards, an interception, and a lost fumble.
• 15 of 27: Mahomes for 184 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception in his return from knee surgery.

Andy Reid leaned on the run to ease Mahomes back, and the backs finished with 38 carries against 27 pass attempts. The ranking had Denver at No. 3 and said it actually believed the Broncos would win. Ranking two clubs that had not played into the top three was already a stretch. A 21-point home win made the stretch look worse.

A 20-Point Win Still Lands the 49ers at No. 15

San Francisco beat the Rams 27-7 on Sept. 10 in Melbourne. Brock Purdy threw three touchdowns. Matthew Stafford was pulled late. Christian McCaffrey ran for 68 yards. The travel was long, the roster is old in spots, and the ranking kept those caveats in the foreground.

The 49ers still jumped only from 21 to 15. The team they just buried dropped from 1 to 4. A 20-point road win in the first regular-season game Australia has hosted moved the winner 11 spots below the loser. The ranking pointed at remaining long trips and asked how long Fred Warner and Nick Bosa stay healthy. The scoreboard in Melbourne did not get a vote equal to that worry.

Aaron Donald sat out the opener and did not travel. Myles Garrett did travel, played 62 percent of the defensive snaps, and finished with five pressures, zero sacks, and zero tackles. Sean McVay later called the loss a humbling day. The ranking left too much coaching and roster talent to start freaking out, then watched the pass rusher Los Angeles traded a package for walk onto injured reserve.

What the Rams Traded for Is Already on IR

Garrett, the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, came from Cleveland in June for Jared Verse, a 2027 first-round pick, and two more selections. Knee swelling kept him out of most of camp. The club tried to manage it through the 15-hour flight. The opener showed that plan had failed.

This was the worst version of myself that I put out there. I wasn’t the player I wanted to be. I didn’t feel like I was the player I’ve been before when I stepped onto that field.

Myles Garrett, Rams outside linebacker, postgame in Melbourne

McVay confirmed the next morning that Garrett will have knee surgery and will miss at least the next four games on injured reserve. McVay would not put a date on the return beyond the four-game minimum, saying the staff thought the knee was something Garrett could manage, and that was not the case.

GAMES GARRETT MUST SIT

• Week 2: New York Giants, Monday night at SoFi Stadium.
• Week 3: Denver Broncos, Sunday night.
• Week 4: Philadelphia Eagles.
• Week 5: Buffalo Bills, another Monday night, with Arizona in Week 6 the first date he is eligible to return.

Donald’s status for the Giants game was still open after McVay’s Monday briefing. Kam Curl (ankle), Nate Landman (shoulder and thumb), and Davis Allen (concussion evaluation) came back with better news. The ranking’s note that surgery at this time is a red flag was the one piece of its Rams paragraph that aged on contact.

The Running Back Seattle Let Walk

On Feb. 8 at Levi’s Stadium, Walker was named Super Bowl LX MVP in Seattle’s 29-13 win over those same Patriots, rushing 27 times for 135 yards and catching two balls for 26. He was the first running back to win the award since Terrell Davis in Super Bowl XXXII. The Seahawks did not keep him. Kansas City did.

So the club sitting at No. 1 after a 13-10 night with its backup quarterback is also the club that watched its Super Bowl MVP run for 191 scrimmage yards in another team’s opener. Seattle’s defense still took the kickoff game. The offense needed Maye’s fourth quarter and a field-goal-heavy script. The back who used to finish those scripts now finishes them for Mahomes.

That split is sitting in plain sight on the board. Seattle is first because the ranking trusted the Dark Side defense and a short-term reading of Darnold’s hip. Kansas City is second because it had not played, then because Walker just did. Both things can be in the same paragraph. They should not produce the same calm.

Chicago Hung 59 Points and Stayed Sixth

Ben Johnson’s Bears scored 59 points at Carolina on Sept. 13 and did not move, holding at No. 6. D’Andre Swift ran for 124 yards. Johnson had said he wanted to break the league record of 37.9 points per game; one Sunday is not a season rate, but 59-37 is not a quiet opener either. The ranking still wanted an impact trade on defense and treated the 59 as a warning about Ben Johnson’s group as much as a statement.

Other results got the same reputation filter. Baltimore jumped from 11 to 8 after beating Indianapolis 41-23. Buffalo moved from 13 to 10 after surviving Houston 36-31. Minnesota rose from 17 to 13 after 39-22 over Green Bay, even though Kyler Murray’s Vikings debut lasted five passes (3 of 5, 18 yards, one interception) before a concussion sent him to protocol and Carson Wentz (12 of 19, 133 yards, three touchdowns) finished it. The Packers fell from 12 to 20. The Chargers fell from 14 to 22 after Arizona won 26-14.

HOW THE BOARD SAT AGAINST THE SCORES

Cincinnati sits fifth after 33-27 over Tampa Bay. Philadelphia is seventh after 24-22 over Washington. Jacksonville is ninth after 34-10 over Cleveland. Houston dropped from 8 to 11 after the Bills game. Dallas, the other name in the original headline, sits 12th. Detroit is 14th after 31-30 in overtime over New Orleans. Pittsburgh is 16th after 20-13 over Atlanta. New England is 17th. The bottom four are Atlanta, Tennessee, Miami, and Cleveland at 32.

John Harbaugh’s Giants Already Beat Dallas

The Giants are 21st, up from 24th, after 28-20 over the Cowboys on Sept. 13. It was Harbaugh’s first game in New York after 18 seasons and a 180-113 regular-season record in Baltimore, a Super Bowl XLVII included. Matt Nagy calls the offense. Dennard Wilson runs the defense. Jaxson Dart’s legs were the detail the ranking trusted, and Dallas dropped two spots for a road loss in that debut.

Washington fell to 23rd after 24-22 in Philadelphia. Arizona jumped from 31 to 24 on the Chargers win, a rise the ranking suspected was a high-water mark. Las Vegas is 27th after 27-13 over Miami. The Jets are 28th after 23-10 at Tennessee. Those are the slots. The injuries will move them faster than the adjectives.

Murray remains in concussion protocol, with Minnesota at Chicago on Sept. 20. Darnold’s hip is a muscle problem, not a broken bone, and Lock is in line for Arizona that same Sunday. Garrett will not see the Giants on Monday night. Brown will not see Pittsburgh. The board that asked for prudence already needs a rewrite, because the Monday night game it treated as a bye just finished 31-10 and the Super Bowl MVP is no longer in Seattle.