Week 3 NFL Power Rankings: Where the Saints Stand, and Saints On SI Composite Rankings

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With their come-from-behind victory over what some were expecting to challenge for a Super Bowl spot this past weekend in Baltimore, the New Orleans Saints are feeling the love from across the media landscape.

Here are individual rankings given by various media. The Saints On SI composite rankings follow.

Sports Illustrated: 14th

SI's Conor Orr has the Saints jumping 6-spots, giving high fives for the Saints, calling them "the toughest team I've watched on film this year." He compared them to "Kevin Costner-movie style gritty" heaping praise on Devaughn Vele and Chris Olave, and pondered what the New Orleans O will look like once Jordyn Tyson is back.

CBS: 18th

Pete Prisco moved the Saints up 5-spots in his rankings, as he was impressed by the road comeback and praised Tyler Shough.

ESPN: 19th

While decrying slow starts by Saints quarterback Tyler Shough, the network's writers, in particular Katherine Terrell, talked specifically about his QBR (quarterback rating) in the fourth quarter as particularly impressive, as Shough is at 97.7 on their scale.

The Athletic: 15th

Another big jump for New Orleans from writers Josh Kendall and Chad Graff, making the move from 21-to-15 for them this week. They also mention what things would be like with Tyson back and talked good things about rookie receiver Bryce Lance, who has 4-catches for 50-yards in his two games.

Pro Football Talk: 15th

PFT's Mike Florio has the Saints doing the same six team jump as The Athletic from last week's #21. His one sentence info on each team has him saying, "The Saints are the best team no one is paying attention to." Until now, of course

NFL.com: 14th

The second biggest jump on the sites was Nick Shook moving the Saints up seven notches after Week 1. He was the only one we saw that bragged on the Saints defense (like we did) and gave credit to Shough "showcasing his clutch gene."

Fox Sports: 15th

Ralph Vacchiano opens his review of the 4-team jump by the Saints with "OK, I'm a believer." His look back at pushing the Lions to overtime and beating the Ravens, both on the road, had him tell his readers, "That's enough to declare them legitimate." He even went on to brag on the 2nd year signal caller: "I believe QB Tyler Shough is legit, too." Warning: Vacchiano likes to do his countdown as as count up, from #32 at the top of his article.

Yahoo: #15

This was the biggest jump in the rankings we found. Frank Schwab pointed out the obvious, that "The Saints are a 2-point conversion away from being 2-0 with road wins..." That had him move the Saints up eight notches. Another warning: Schwab likes to start his article with #32, also.

Saints On SI Composite Rankings

The composite score for each team averages each of the site's numbers

1-T Buffalo
1-T Seattle
3 - San Francisco
4 - Kansas City
5 - Cincinnati
6 - L.A. Rams
7-T Denver
7-T Philadelphia
9 - Baltimore
10 - Jacksonville
11 - Minnesota
12-T Chicago
12-T New England
14 - Detroit
15 - New Orleans
16 - Houston
17 - Dallas
18 - Green Bay
19-T Carolina
19-T New York Giants
21 - Las Vegas
22 - Indianapolis
23 - Pittsburgh
24 - Tampa Bay
25 - L.A. Chargers
26 - Cleveland
27 - New York Jets
28 - Arizona
29 - Washington
30 - Tennessee
31 - Atlanta
32 - Miami

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