NFL Power Rankings, 1/6/26

/ Rich Wilkins / 3 Comments

The season is over. The playoffs are set. Before I get deep into the playoffs though, I want to do my final regular season rankings. Playoff predictions and regular season football are different things. These rankings will reflect the long season that began four months ago. The playoffs are about being able to string together three or four wins.

So anyway, here’s the last rankings. The rest to follow.

12/30 rankings. 12/24 rankings. 12/16 rankings. 12/9 rankings. 12/3 rankings. 11/26 rankings. 11/18 rankings. 11/11 rankings. 11/4 rankings. 10/28 rankings. 10/21 rankings. 10/15 rankings. 10/8 rankings. 9/30 rankings. 9/24 rankings. 9/16 rankings. 9/9 rankings.

  1. Seattle Seahawks
  2. Denver Broncos
  3. New England Patriots
  4. Jacksonville Jaguars
  5. Houston Texans
  6. Chicago Bears
  7. Philadelphia Eagles
  8. Los Angeles Rams
  9. Buffalo Bills
  10. San Francisco 49’ers
  11. Los Angeles Chargers
  12. Green Bay Packers
  13. Pittsburgh Steelers
  14. Carolina Panthers
  15. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
  16. Minnesota Vikings
  17. Atlanta Falcons
  18. Baltimore Ravens
  19. Detroit Lions
  20. Dallas Cowboys
  21. Miami Dolphins
  22. Indianapolis Colts
  23. New Orleans Saints
  24. Cincinnati Bengals
  25. Kansas City Chiefs
  26. Cleveland Browns
  27. Washington Commanders
  28. Tennessee Titans
  29. New York Jets
  30. Arizona Cardinals
  31. New York Giants
  32. Las Vegas Raiders

There are so many dumpster fires in this group, but one could fairly say the top 23 teams all at least had a good point in the season. For teams #15-32, it’s the offseason. Coaching changes, the draft, and free agency await. I won’t be changing the order there anymore at this point. Obviously the most disappointing season goes to the Chiefs, which isn’t really necessarily anyone’s fault, time just caught up to them. The most hopeful of the non-playoff teams, to me, should be New Orleans.

So, about the playoffs- totally different season. If the regular season is about consistency and repeating good habits, the playoffs are about top end talent, typically. Now, there is a lot of crossover- the last three NFC champs were top two seeds- but it’s not a lock. This year you have Wild Cards like the Rams and 49’ers who have made recent runs to the Super Bowl, and teams like Buffalo with plenty of experience at this time of year. So what’s my take about this week’s games?

  • Rams (-10.5) @ Panthers- The Rams should win this and cover, however I did watch this regular season game, and Bryce Young and the Panthers offense looked really good. Also, the Panthers have been winning every other week for like two months, and are coming off of a loss. So I’m tempted to bet on the Panthers to at least cover, and I think I like the over in this game. However, in the real world, I’d be shocked if the Rams don’t win this.
  • Packers (-1.5) @ Bears- I don’t think the Bears are flukes. I also don’t think they win this game. These two teams split this season, with the Bears winning the more recent game. It was an exciting, back and forth game though, one that the Packers found every way to lose. This is a divisional game, and those are way harder to win two in a row. It also sounds like the Packers are a bit healthier this week, so I’m calling the upset.
  • Bills (-1.5) @ Jaguars- This one is a hard game to predict. Jacksonville had one of the hottest finishes in football. They are a surprise to be here though, while the only surprise with Buffalo is that they’re on the road. I feel like Buffalo needs to get it done this year. On the other hand, Lawrence has played plenty of postseason games, and has wins too. I have the least feel for this one, but I’ll take Buffalo on here, I guess.
  • 49’ers @ Eagles (-4.5)- I love my Eagles, but this is a genuine heavyweight fight. After the Eagles, the Niners and Rams are probably the best two NFC teams of the past five years. Here the Niners are again, albeit with a very different team, back in Philly for a playoff game. Purdy and Shanahan have been in plenty of games, they won’t be intimidated. With that said, the travel, the home field advantage, and health all favor the team that won the Super Bowl last year. For those reasons, the Eagles should win. I just wouldn’t sleep on it.
  • Chargers @ Patriots (-3.5)- Are the Chargers of today just the Chargers of the Rivers days? They’re really good, they have a great coach/QB combo. They’re here consistently. But is it ever their time? This is a far travel, to play a team who had a little bit better season. So the Patriots should be the favorites, and they are. Is this the time for the Chargers though? Doesn’t seem like it.
  • Texans (-3) @ Steelers- The Steelers are a lot better than people give them credit for. If they keep Tomlin and Rodgers for next season, and add more talent around them, the 10-7 division champs could truly contend. However, what they need to do is find their future QB for after next year. The Texans should give them time to do that. This defense is absolutely elite, and up to the task of a deep playoff run.

The U.S. Was Right to Remove Maduro (But Wait For It…)

/ Rich Wilkins / Leave a comment

Nicolas Maduro was a failed leader. His country was in ruins. He was a socialist lunatic. His country had pirates off of the coast. Waves of people left seeking refugee status in other nations. There was starvation. There were human rights and free speech violations. He killed his own people. He annexed his neighbor’s territory. He was a client state for Russia and China. In short, Maduro was a terrible guy. Venezuelans are happy he’s gone. I believe it is good that he’s gone.

Is it bad that Trump didn’t ask for Congressional authority? Sure, but many Presidents don’t for one off operations. Is it bad to just remove foreign leaders? Yeah, usually. Does any of this matter if Maduro is gone, we don’t get stuck in some long occupation, and things get better for normal Venezuelans? No.

We have leftists on the internet and in major cities protesting this. Just stop. You don’t need to defend Maduro just because you don’t like Trump. Of course the weirdos I’m talking about are also the kind of people who want to “change the relationship to property ownership” here in America. These people aren’t redeemable. We really don’t need them in any political party. We can win the 2026 Election talking about real world issues like health care, household debt, and wages. And well, I say that as someone who supports more public housing and thinks Presidents should ask Congress to attack foreign nations. These people live in a fairy tale land. And they want to bring that here.

Reject it. Reject it and reject people who tell you it’s what’s best for us. It’s not.

The Best Scotches of 2026

/ Rich Wilkins / Leave a comment

MensJournal.com has put out their 19 Best Scotch Whiskeys for 2026. Johnny Walker Blue Label is on there, which is predictable, but Ardbeg was the top Scotch Whiskey of the year. They gave pretty elaborate write-ups about each of their winners, which you should read there, but here was their list:

Who Will Lehigh County Dems Pick?

/ Rich Wilkins / Leave a comment

Todays’ the day that Lehigh County Democrats will pick their candidate to replace incoming Lehigh County Executive Josh Siegel in his Allentown and Salisbury based 22nd District seat. The candidates are lining up:

Four Democratic candidates — precinct committee person Erlinda Aguilar; Allentown City Councilwoman Ce-Ce Gerlach; Julian Guridy, an aide to state Sen. Nick Miller; and Lewis Shupe, who attempted to launch a congressional campaign in 2024 — submitted their names for consideration ahead of Thursday’s 5 p.m. deadline, Lehigh County Democratic Committee Chair Lori McFarland said.

A fifth, Douglas Kunkle, withdrew his nomination.

Kunkle apparently withdrew out of frustration with the process. Gerlach has also complained about who is and who isn’t an eligible voter, from what I’ve been told. Many expected that. The Allentown City Democrats did fold several years ago, leading to some questions about who is and who isn’t still on the committee, though it actually appears that this isn’t as real of a question as some believed. Jessica Ortiz, who had a Facebook page to run for this seat, did not apply for the Democratic nomination either.

If you put a gun to my head and asked me who is going to win today, well you wouldn’t need the gun, because I would tell you that it will be Julian Guridy. Guridy is publicly supported by Mayor Tuerk, Siegel, and Allentown’s other two Representatives, Mike Schlossberg and Pete Schweyer, and a functioning adult would guess State Senator Nick Miller, Guridy’s current boss. Does anyone think the committee is going to go out of it’s way to embarrass literally every significant elected official at the state level from Allentown? Of course not.

Gerlach is formidable (I don’t know the other two candidates very well, so I can’t comment there) and this is not the end. She has support from most of the more leftist groups in Allentown, and this committee selection is only binding for the February 24th Special Election. She is still more than able to run in the May Primary, and has a base of support for that race.

With all of that said, Guridy is going to win today.

Collective Political Failure

/ Rich Wilkins / Leave a comment

Donald Trump is the President of the United States and Zohran Mamdani is the Mayor of New York. One, a raging madman that has re-defined conservatism around his cult of personality, hatred towards those he perceives of enemies, and the destruction of both our federal government and the existing world order since World War II. The other, a self-described socialist that won’t say “the Intifada” is bad, wants to open city owned grocery stores, and ran on a platform of giving away a lot of free stuff to city residents that he will need Albany to come in and foot the bill for. If you read my blog regularly, you know that I have no use for either one. In fact, I think the election of both is a sign of a society in decline.

As is true with all things though, Mamdani’s first day was a mixed bag, even if it was almost all bad. He did decide to keep the city’s office that fights antisemitism, even if he weakened it a bit, which is a good thing. He also is showing signs that he is willing to cut through some bureaucratic red tape in the government to help build more housing fast. Other than those two things, his first day in office was a hellscape of terrible. You know it’s bad when the speeches by AOC and Bernie were as much about criticizing Democrats as the Trump Administration, but they were nothing compared to Mamdani’s. One line, in particular, has received almost all of the attention- “We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.” If Mao or Stalin himself had said this, we would have zero shock. The speech was literally a call to return to at least “big government liberalism,” if not an outright socialist battle cry altogether. As Putin critic and former Soviet citizen Gary Kasparov put it on Twitter, “The “warmth of collectivism” is to freeze while those with heated dachas tell you how noble your sacrifice is.” Mamdani, a man born of economic and academic privilege, is what happens when limousine liberalism gets put on steroids and hyper-charged. There is a reason China rejected Mao, the Soviet Union failed, Cuba is a failure, Venezuela is now a living hell, and no one wants to go to North Korea. This kind of rhetoric leads to failure, because the underlying system of socialism has no grounding in practical reality, it cannot be run in a functional way. Mamdani’s solution is to get the city involved in things the city probably can’t do very well, like run a grocery store. His solution to expensive transit is to make it free. His solution to some crimes is to legalize them. What he doesn’t get is that someone has to pay for it all. Politicians in Albany aren’t going to be excited to raise taxes to pay for his programs, and they probably will just refuse to do it for the most part. To the extent he’s even allowed, he may try to pin that bill on the wealthy in New York City. At least some of them will just leave. No city, not even the greatest city, can survive with no taxpayer base.

My guess is Mamdani will mostly fail to deliver, and that’s my hope. If he succeeds, it will have long lasting impacts on the city, and a few will be good, but the net will be bad. How do you get to Mamdani though? You get there through electing a Trump. How do you get a Trump? You get there by a government that the public doesn’t think meets it’s needs. A world where more people live out of debt, work more hours, and get ahead less. In short, it is a collective failure that gets you to Mamdani. Oh, the irony.