St. Louis Rams Rank 16th In Preseason FanSided NFL Top 25 Poll

This season, FanSided, the parent company of Ramblin’ Fan, has decided to release a weekly Top 25 “Power Rankings” poll for the NFL. While most rankings are a compiled by a single writer, drawing up his personal hierarchy of the 32 squads on any given week, the FanSided Network has done things a bit differently.

Each week, the editor from each NFL team will submit their ballot of the Top 25 teams in the league. The actual rankings will be the combined points from each of those votes, creating an overall leaderboard of teams for each week. Through this process, no single team, division, or conference will have an unfair bias within the rankings, as each “team representative” will have an equal say in the final outcome.

Instead of doing the typical power rankings, listing all 32 teams, the FanSided Network has decided to mix it up, instead focusing on the Top 25 teams in the league. Much like Peter King’s “Fine Fifteen,” having a ranking that is not all-encompassing gives teams the opportunity to “break onto” the list, as opposed to merely moving up from the bottom. To be honest, there is typically very little to distinguish between the teams at the “bottom of the barrel” anyways, as most are losing on a fairly regular basis.

So, where are the Rams in the first preseason poll?

The St. Louis Rams are slotting tightly in the 16th spot, sandwiched between the Chicago Bears and the Pittsburgh Steelers… not a bad place to start the season. The NFC West had a fairly impressive showing overall, with the San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks both garnering “1st place votes” in the poll. Even the Arizona Cardinals made the list, barely making the cut in the final slot on the Top 25.

The only teams not to receive a single vote in the Top 25 were the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Oakland Raiders, which is understandable given the chaos ensuing within both organizations. That only leaves the Cleveland Browns, Philadelphia Eagles, Tennessee Titans, Buffalo Bills, and New York Jets in the “unranked” category.

Here is the full preseason Top 25:

Think the St. Louis Rams are ranked too high? … too low? Feel free to share your comments about the poll below!