Prisco's NFL Power Rankings are back, plus picking winners of each division and Week 1 predictions

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Welcome to the Tuesday edition of the Pick Six newsletter!

In just over 48 hours, the Cowboys and Eagles will be kicking off the 2025 NFL season with a game in Philadelphia, but before that happens, we have roughly 112 more predictions to get through, so we better get started.

Not only do we have the return of Pete Prisco's Power Rankings, but we also have some divisional predictions and my Week 1 picks.

Before we get to the rundown, here's a quick reminder to anyone who missed Monday's newsletter. For our Labor Day edition that came out yesterday, I predicted the final record for all 32 teams along with all 14 playoff teams and a Super Bowl winner, and you can check out all of that here.

Finally, we have one housekeeping item: For the 2025 NFL season, we'll be changing how often the newsletter comes out. We'll only be coming at you on Mondays and Thursdays going forward. That means this will be your final Tuesday newsletter, so you might want to print it out and put it on your fridge. All right, now let's really get to the rundown.

As always, here's your reminder to tell all your friends to sign up for the newsletter. To get them signed up, all you have to do is click here.

1. Pete Prisco's NFL Power Rankings are back

After spending the past four months at an unlicensed hair restoration clinic off the Costa Rican coast, Pete Prisco is finally back to give us his Power Rankings. The last time we heard from Uncle Pete came all the way back in May when he ranked each team shortly after the NFL Draft.

Since then, Prisco has been busy trying to figure out where each team needs to be ranked to start the 2025 season. In news that won't surprise anyone, the team that won it all last year is on top of Prisco's rankings (the Eagles). On the other hand, in news that might surprise you, the team that the Eagles played in the Super Bowl (Kansas City) is not the highest-ranked team in the AFC.

Here's a look at Prisco's top 5 teams heading into Week 1:

I'm not going to spoil the rest of the power rankings here, but I am going to give you a few nuggets. Here's what has changed since Prisco's last power rankings:

The biggest jump between the draft and now went to the Dallas Cowboys, who moved up six spots. Jerry Jones has been saying that trading Micah Parsons would make the Cowboys better this year, and apparently, Prisco agrees. The Cowboys have moved up six spots since May, from 18th overall to 12th overall.
The Jacksonville Jaguars made the biggest jump in the AFC, moving up four spots from 21st to 17th. The Jags have a very winnable game to open the season (vs. Carolina), and if they can't win that one, it could be a long season for Jacksonville.
The biggest tumble went to the Los Angeles Chargers, who dropped a total of six spots. The Chargers were 10th in May but tumbled all the way down to 16th. The big things that's happened since then is the fact that the Chargers have lost starting left tackle Rashawn Slater for the season, a hit that could hurt their playoff hopes in 2025.
Now, let's talk about the worst team in the NFL. The New Orleans Saints will be starting the season at the bottom of the power rankings, and based on their QB situation, they might be staying there all season.

If you want to know where your favorite team ended up in Prisco's Week 1 Power Rankings, be sure to click here. If you want to argue with Prisco over his rankings, you can do that on Twitter by clicking here. I argue with him all the time about everything.

2. Picking a winner in every NFL division

When it comes to the NFL, it's hard to get anyone to agree on anything, and Tyler Sullivan found that out the hard way this week when he asked nine of our writers to pick the winner of each division. Of the NFL's eight divisions, our writers only unanimously agreed on the winner of three divisions: The AFC East, AFC North and AFC West.

We did NOT unanimously agree on a single division in the NFC.

Here's a look at each division, along with how many first-place votes each team in the division received. (Next to each team's name, you can see their odds for winning the division (via FanDuel Sportsbook) and how many first-place votes they received from each writer. If a team isn't listed, that means they got zero votes to win the division)

AFC EAST
Bills (-260): Nine votes

AFC NORTH
Ravens (-155): Nine votes

AFC SOUTH
Texans (+110): Eight votes
Jaguars (+270): One vote (The lone Jags vote came from Cody Benjamin)

AFC WEST
Chiefs (-105): Nine votes

NFC EAST
Eagles (-145): Eight votes
Commanders (+220): One vote (The lone Commanders vote came from Jordan Dajani)

NFC NORTH
Packers (+170): Seven votes
Lions (+185): Two votes

NFC SOUTH
Buccaneers (-110): Five votes
Falcons (+210): Three votes
Panthers (+430): One vote (The lone Panthers vote came from Zach Pereles)

NFC WEST
49ers (+145): Five votes
Rams (+200): Two votes
Seahawks (+550): Two votes

Last year, our panel ended up nailing the winner in six of the eight divisions. If you want to read our explanation for each of our votes this year, then you're definitely going to want to read our full story here.

3. Predicting the 5 worst teams in the NFL for 2025

Now that we've taken you through who's going to win each division, it's time to go the opposite route by predicting who the worst teams are going to be in 2025. We put Jeff Kerr in charge of ranking the five worst teams for the upcoming season, and here's what he came up with:

Browns. This is a team that needs to hit the reset button.
Saints. Salary cap hell has put the Saints in this position. This is a rebuilding year in New Orleans, as the Saints need to set themselves up for the best draft position possible. This team isn't going to win many games with whom they employ at quarterback.
Titans. Tennessee has a chance in the AFC South, but this roster isn't very strong. The defense leaves a lot to be desired, and the Titans will have trouble getting to the quarterback.
Colts. The quarterback situation may doom the Colts, and Shane Steichen's tenure as head coach.
Giants. This is a better Giants team than in years past, and the franchise is headed in the right direction. New York may lose a lot of games anyway.

Fun fact: The 49ers get to face all five of these teams this year, and that's one reason why they could end up being a dark-horse Super Bowl contender.

As for Kerr's list, he actually has a pretty lengthy explanation for why each team is ranked among his worst of the worst, and you can check that out here.

4. Breech's Week 1 NFL picks: Lions and Texans both pull off upsets

The best part about Tuesday is that it's the day where I unveil my weekly picks. If this is your first season with us, here's how the formula works around here: I stay up incredibly late every Monday night so that my picks are ready to roll every Tuesday morning. The newsletter will feature three of my picks, and then if you feel like reading the rest of them, I'll give you a link at the end so you can check them all out.

With that in mind, here are three of my main picks for the week, starting with the NFL opener on Thursday:

Eagles (-7.5) vs. Cowboys: The Cowboys gave up the fourth-most rushing yards in the NFL last year, and I can't imagine that number is going to improve after the loss of Micah Parsons. The first test for the Cowboys defense will be Saquon Barkley and an Eagles rushing attack that ranked second in the NFL last season with an average of 179.3 yards per game. The Eagles should just give the ball to Saquon 43 times and call it a night. PICK: Eagles 34-24 over Cowboys.
Lions (+1.5) at Packers: The Lions definitely have some question marks -- they have to replace both coordinators, they have a rookie at right guard (Tate Ratledge) and their starting center (Frank Ragnow) retired -- but they will have Aidan Hutchinson back, and I feel like his return will push Detroit to the win. The Lions have won three straight in Green Bay, and if they win this game, they might as well change the name of the stadium to "Lionbeau field." PICK: Lions 20-16 over Packers.
Texans (+3) at Rams: Stafford missed the first three weeks of training camp with a bad back and STILL hasn't taken a hit, so no one has any idea how his back is going to respond once he gets tackled. If you have a bad back, the Texans are probably the last team you want to be facing in Week 1. There were only 11 players in the NFL last season who totaled 11 sacks or more, and two of those guys are on Houston's defense (Will Anderson Jr. and Danielle Hunter). PICK: Texans 19-17 over Rams.

To check out the rest of my picks for Week 1, be sure to click here.

5. Micah Parsons dealing with back injury: 3 things to know

Syndication: Green Bay Press-Gazette — USATSI

There was a belief during training camp that Micah Parsons might be using his back injury as a negotiating tactic, but as it turns out, his back injury is very real and could impact how much he plays Sunday against the Lions.

Here's what you need to know:

Parsons has a joint sprain in his back. The Packers' new pass-rusher is dealing with an L4/L5 facet joint sprain in his back, according to NFL Media. Parsons might have to take an epidural or another type of injection before the game to help alleviate the pain.
Packers and Cowboys both knew about this. Parsons had to pass a physical before the Packers signed off on the trade, so Green Bay likely knew what kind of condition he was in. As for the Cowboys, they were doing their best to get Parsons healthy before the trade. They had "prescribed him a five-day course of prednisone, an anti-inflammatory corticosteroid to help him recover from back tightness," according to ESPN.
What this means for Sunday. There are currently three issues that could impact Parsons' playing time Sunday: He needs to be in football shape, he needs to know the playbook, and the Packers have to be sure his back injury isn't going to get worse. Parsons will only have had a week of practice before taking the field against the Lions on Sunday, so he likely won't be 100% in terms of being in football shape, and he almost certainly won't know Green Bay's entire defensive playbook by then. Based on those two factors and the injury, it would be surprising if Parsons gets anything near a full workload on Sunday.

You can read more about Parsons' back injury here. If you want to know how much he'll be playing, you'll have to tune in at 4:25 p.m. ET on Sunday when the Packers host the Lions on CBS.

6. Extra points: Rams expect Matthew Stafford to start in Week 1

It was a busy weekend in the NFL, and since it's nearly impossible to keep track of everything that happened, I went ahead and put together a roundup for you.

Matthew Stafford likely to start in Week 1. The Rams QB has been dealing with a back injury for most of training camp, but it looks like the team is comfortable enough with his health to let him start in Week 1 against the Texans. "He'll be good," head coach Sean McVay said when asked if Stafford will be able to play.
Jajuan Jennings practices with the 49ers. After dealing with a calf injury for most of training camp, the 49ers receiver was at practice on Monday. The 49ers don't have a lot of depth at receiver right now, so getting Jennings back on the field is a huge boost as San Francisco gets ready for its opener in Seattle.
Najee Harris hoping to play in Week 1. The Chargers new running back suffered an eye injury on July 4 that kept him out most of training camp, but he's hoping to be on the field in Brazil when the Chargers play the Chiefs on Friday. "I'm ramping up to it," Harris said Monday when asked if he'll be able to play. "This is probably my fifth day of practice, just trying to get back into that football shape, but I'm feeling good, though, and we'll just see where that leads."
Saints will wear gold alternate uniform in Week 1. The Saints are going to look a little different in Week 1 and that's because they're going to be wearing their new gold alternate uniform against the Cardinals. This will mark the first time in 23 years that the Saints have worn a gold jersey in a game.