Packer Central

Packers Cling to Top 10 of SI’s Beat Writer Power Rankings

Here are the latest On SI NFL Power Rankings from our team beat writers, with the Green Bay Packers set to host the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.

Bill Huber

Green Bay Packers running back Josh Jacobs carries the ball against the Chicago Bears.
Green Bay Packers running back Josh Jacobs carries the ball against the Chicago Bears. / Mark Hoffman / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers barely beat the Chicago Bears on Sunday and barely kept their spot in the Top 10 of our On SI NFL Power Rankings.

The Packers are 10th for a second consecutive week in our rankings, which are produced by the network’s team beat writers.

The Detroit Lions moved up to No. 1 after they trounced the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Kansas City Chiefs suffered their first loss of the season at the Buffalo Bills.

By remaining strength of schedule, the Packers will face the ninth-most difficult closing slate of games. That, however, is skewed to some extent by playing the Lions (9-1) in a few weeks.

Based on the rankings, here is a rather manageable final schedule:

Week 12: 49ers (17th). Week 13: Dolphins (20th). Week 14: at Lions (1st). Week 15: at Seahawks (14th). Week 16: Saints (24th). Week 17: at Vikings (5th). Week 18: Bears (23rd).

Green Bay moved into sixth place in the NFC playoff race by beating the Bears. With their 7-3 record, they have a two-game lead over the Rams, Seahawks and 49ers in the race for the final playoff spot in the conference. By computer simulation and sportsbook odds, they are in a strong position to return to the playoffs.

They will have to play better than they did against Chicago, though, especially on Sunday against what is going to be a desperation-mode 49ers team.

“You look around the league, a lot of these games are going down to the final drive,” coach Matt LaFleur said.

“There’s a good example yesterday in the San Francisco-Seattle game, as well. You better stay resilient. You better keep fighting and have that never-say-die mentality. I think that’s what showed on that final play is just the effort, strain that our field-goal block unit went out there with and made a play.”

Here are the full On SI rankings, and here is my ballot.

1, Detroit Lions; 2, Kansas City Chiefs; 3, Buffalo Bills; 4, Philadelphia Eagles; 5, Pittsburgh Steelers; 6, Baltimore Ravens; 7, Los Angeles Chargers; 8, Minnesota Vikings

9, Green Bay Packers; 10, Washington Commanders; 11, Houston Texans; 12, Denver Broncos; 13, Arizona Cardinals; 14, San Francisco 49ers; 15, Los Angeles Rams; 16, Seattle Seahawks

17, Atlanta Falcons; 18, Tampa Bay Buccaneers; 19, Miami Dolphins; 20, Cincinnati Bengals; 21, New Orleans Saints; 22, Chicago Bears; 23, Indianapolis Colts; 24, Dallas Cowboys

25, New York Jets; 26, Carolina Panthers; 27, Cleveland Browns; 28, Las Vegas Raiders; 29, Tennessee Titans; 30, New England Patriots; 31, Jacksonville Jaguars; 32, New York Giants.

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.