Power Hour 2! Ranking All 32 Teams for 2026 with Brandon Perna

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0:18Welcome back to the Mina Kimes show featuring Lenny. Power Hour edition. I'm so excited for this week's Power Hour because I have a first time guest. We had talked before about making some Broncos content, and then the Broncos kind of fizzled out that season. But Brandon Perna, I'm very optimistic about them this season, which is part of the reason why I wanted you on to do this particular exercise, because Broncos finished very high last week, and you are a Broncos fan. You also cover the entire NFL on your YouTube channel. Tell us about it, and also, are you scared about all the Broncos' enthusiasm?

0:55I mean, a little. The last time I and I think Broncos fans were this high on the Broncos is when we acquired your very own Russell Wilson. And, you know, things didn't really work out there, although it was great for my business. But, yeah, I think like having this weird ending to their season where your quarterback breaks his ankle on a play that nobody even realized. and you're enjoying the high of defeating the Bills in the playoffs. And that joy lasts for 20 minutes. And when you hear the news, you have to like double and triple check to make sure you're not getting trolled by a fake Schefter account or something.

1:40I thought it was fake. You know. Yeah. Okay, good. All right. Channel that energy into this exercise. As always, we go team by team. We are ranking the entire NFL. I will give Brandon two choices for every slot. I was tempted to give you the Broncos for the first slot, but I just feel like the fans of the two teams that I gave to Ryan Clark last week would be in fear. Correctly, like that's just not right. So I am going to give you the same choice that I gave Ryan for one and two. the Super Bowl champs, the Seattle Seahawks, versus everybody's offseason darling, the Los Angeles Rams, who is the best team in the NFL?

2:25Yeah, that's a fun one. It's a little intimidating knowing you're a Seahawks fan and you might have some strong counters for this. But Miles Garrett going to the Rams seems a little bit like a cheat code, right? I missed it. Oh, no, I put it up the Rams. I assume you're picking the Rams. I mean, I think that's the hot pick, right? I'm getting out ahead of it. I don't know. Well, I don't know, unless you were pulling like a big fake out on me, like, but I'm going with the Seahawks. It sounds like you're going with the Rams, yeah. Well, I have the soft spot for the Seahawks because they went on to defeat the Patriots, which would have been cooler if they did that the first time around in the Super Bowl.

3:13but after you know watching the patriots take down the broncos even though we were we were riding with steady um i'm gonna say seahawks i'm gonna say seahawks because um they did not care i don't think they're going to care i like sam darnold i'm gonna root for the sam darnold experience moving forward i have a question for you what the one thing that confused me about their offseason you lose both kenneth walker and kobe bryant uh if they could have i thought they would have kept one of those players and walker with the injuries right i know their salary cap whatever but if you could have kept one of those players who are you keeping um between the two it would have been nice actually to keep kobe bryant who's the safety went to chicago just because i I think he's really underrated and I think it's easier to find.

4:06But the choices they made, they had tough choices, right? Every Super Bowl team, not only them, Rick Willen, Boye Malfay. The interesting thing was that they kept Rashid Shahid, who they actually paid and paid a decent amount of money. And he didn't, you know, he was kind of quiet after the trade, but that felt very deliberate and intentional on their part. And I'm interested in seeing how he's used this year. And look, I feel like you're picking the Super Bowl champs over the Rams. I mean, they did beat the Rams at the end twice. So it's not an unreasonable choice. It's just the Rams feel like such a super team.

4:42All right, let's do it right now. Rams, Broncos. Let's go. Who's the better team? Rams or Broncos? I'm going to. It's the Broncos. I'm going to. You put the Broncos over the Rams. I would make a case for the Broncos over every team in the league right now. Full transparency. but I like taking the Seahawks first just because I think the Rams are going to be popular for that and we're in the fun window where we still don't know if Aaron Donald's coming back so I can say well I didn't know Donald was actually going to unretire. Ah okay so you can yeah use that as a okay well okay so before we get to the Rams we'll talk about them in a second what is the case for the Broncos being better what is the case for the Broncos win the Super Bowl.

5:23I think their biggest X factor is Davis Webb actually getting to call plays for their offense. Really? I think that's a really tricky thing to like figure out if it's going to be better. If Sean Payton's actually going to let him call plays all season long. I think you can make a strong case that Davis Webb is going to be a head coach very soon. I think as a former quarterback, I think he's just going to tool the offense more in favor of Bo Nix. And I think he's going to do the one thing Sean Payton can't do, and that is remember to run the football. He's written it on his play sheet. He criticizes the offense for not being able to run the ball after they have 10 rushing attempts.

6:08So I think balance is the key. Interesting. um yeah the whole sean payton giving over play calling is like one of the kind of most interesting and strange plot lines of the season um and i think that it's because they were worried about davis wet getting hired right and you know he said he's your head coach but um yeah i mean i'm like i'm obviously super optimistic about the broncos i think jaylen wattle trade in particular was one of like the best moves in the entire offseason the defense is electric but the rams dude the rams are like a super team. I mean, okay. So for three, I'll go Rams versus bills.

6:49Okay. Is this where you're going to take the Rams? Yeah. I mean, I, I love Josh Allen. It's really hard for me to not pick Josh Allen, but yeah, I'll say the Rams are better than the bills. Okay. Well, let me ask you a question about the Rams because they have fallen to three. I think this will probably be the lowest we see them doing this. What is the weakness? Let's poke a hole. Because it's very easy to talk about all the things that are good about this team. The offense, Matthew Stafford, Sean McVay, Buka Nakua, the run game, Miles Garrett, trade for Trent McDuffie. Oh my God. Poke a hole.

7:23What could be their undoing? I think their weakness is they made a trade with the devil and that's the Chiefs. And I just have watched so many times where i thought the chiefs did the wrong thing and that it was it was gonna get them and i feel like getting rid of trip mcduffie was the the wrong thing to do um and i feel like every time i say that i'm wrong so i'm just going with superstition here well no but also history because the chiefs particularly when they've gotten rid of corners yeah they keep doing it have won and they win every it feels like like i remember like the last luxurious need we're like oh my god How are they going to survive with that?

8:02Like, it does feel like they have a good sense of when to do this. Yeah, they they let Tyree Kill go. And I'm like, all right. You can't replace his production. He's just too good. And I know Patrick Mahomes is great, too. Right. And that turned out to be just a brilliant move for them. So I would be cautious doing business with the Chiefs, just like, you know, when the Patriots were were in their their prime. and they would make moves and it just always felt like it worked out for them. I see what you're saying. Yeah. All right. I know. I think that's a very legitimate point about, I mean, they're taking two former Chiefs corners, right?

8:43McDuffie and Watson. Yeah, exactly. We will see if that works out. Okay. So we got Seahawks, Broncos, Rams. The Bills are still on the board. That was the choice. I'm going to put them up against the team that you just mentioned, the New England Patriots. This is higher than a lot of people have the Patriots. But I think some of the reason why people are low on the Patriots has to do with their schedule. And remember, we're taking schedule out of the equation here. We're just thinking about the team. They added A.J. Brown, your three Drake May. They came out on top of the Buffalo Bills last year in the division.

9:20So if you're going Bills versus Patriots, who would you pick for four? I'm going to go Bills just out of sheer optimism. I mean, I watched that Josh Allen golf swing video like a hundred times trying to figure out what that guy is doing, holding his butt. And I just think that that's a quarterback who's dialed in and willing to do whatever it takes to be perfect as an athlete. The Patriots, I mean, this offseason's been crazy. And I feel like it's got to affect them at some point. I think, you know, A.J. Brown, Romeo Dobbs, I like him coming over for New England. But we'll see. I think like we watched them struggle in the playoffs against really good defenses.

10:07And part of that was their offensive line getting exploited, I think, a little bit. The other part of that was seeing Drake May is still a young quarterback. and I mean is Mike is Mike Vrabel a better coach this year because of everything that happened and he's just going to be laser focused he's not going to be leaving that facility you know yeah so but to be fair I mean I don't know if Joe Brady is an upgrade for the Bills seems like McDermott was kind of scapegoated there I get sometimes you just need to make a change but I hope DJ Moore is what they want on offense but yeah i'll go bills i like buffalo new stadium too like yeah no buffalo i think a lot of people they might be the favorite to come out of the afc right over i haven't looked at the odds but we were talking about before we started taping how denver's odds were like kind of weirdly low uh a little bit confusing given how stacked the team is plus i think like ed oliver was hurt all year last he played those first three games and we were like dude ed oliver is playing like we thought he would when he got drafted and then he made it back for the broncos game i don't think he was still a hundred percent and they added my guy bradley chubb who i'll be rooting for um so you know doesn't that feel like a million years ago oh my god yeah crazy chubb and miller yeah i know they're so good uh okay maybe bravon miller's still out there we took chubb instead of josh allen so it's it's fitting josh allen gets chubb god was he six was that what we were at four where We got five, four or five.

11:43He was so early. That's right. Yeah. All right. Yeah. We had Paxton. What's he up to these days? Okay. The Patriots are still on the table. I'm going to put them up against another AFC team, the Baltimore Ravens. Patriots versus Ravens. Yeah, this is a fun one. I love Jesse Minter in Baltimore. I feel like watching the Chargers defense with him there, they were very frustrating. Extremely well coached, annoying to play. And that's kind of like the last two years, they've been let down by their defense a little bit. So I like what he brings. Trey Hendrickson coming in is interesting. It feels like any team who would have gotten Hendrickson a year or two ago, it would have been a huge get.

12:37but with the the the max crosby situation it felt like the consolation prize so i'm kind of hoping trey hendrickson has a big year uh for baltimore but uh i'm yeah i'm gonna go there i'm gonna go the ravens still i and i'm rooting for derrick henry to just continue to defy um father time and just everything we know about human biology and running backs i've stopped trying to call it with henry like in the past i'd be like this is you know the history of backs who carried the foot now i just don't do this is the last 1400 yard gear right i'm not gonna do it uh by the way before we were talking about um when you get told you look like people and you were saying you're what i like to call a universal donor which is someone who gets told they look like a lot of people you kind of look like jesse mentor have you gotten that one i just not as much as i would think uh all right ravens over pats which means the pats are going to go up against a team in the nfc the third team in the damn nfc west the san francisco 49ers uh the most stacked division in football but is it so stacked that the niners finish top six over the patriots are you going to take new england here oh so it's the niners or the patriots oh boy very different teams i mean And they're still by the substation, right?

13:55They're still by the substation. It looms. I really want to pick the 49ers over the Patriots, but I think I'll take New England here. And I'm starting to think that the 49ers have a John Lynch problem, and that's just really hard for me to say as someone who had him on the Broncos, who's been rooting for him. It just, let's just hope their draft was good for San Francisco. It's, yeah, with the Niners, it's like, we were talking about the NFL Live yesterday, and I was like, they got Mike Evans, and Ricky Pearsall should be healthy, and George Kittle's coming back from injury. As I was naming them all, I was like, everybody I've named is either over 30 or coming back from injury.

14:43So, like, on paper, they're awesome. Yeah. But, you know, laughs in substation. No, it's just like, you just worry. but they should i mean still good they were so far last year with like insane injuries um but they they lose robert sala right who i think got a lot of credit for coaching up their their injured defense and when you think about so many of their their playmakers they're guys who are coming off injury or who are getting older they bring back drake greenlaw who was here in denver and we were super excited to get it linebacker but he was injured for most of last year the last i think like since 2020 uh brock purdy and hufanga were the only pro bowlers john lynch drafted and hufanga's here in in denver as well and he was amazing last year so it's like every time you're right like you think about the guys coming back and then you're just like age injury those are two things at a lot of important positions even nick bosa like yeah right we assume he's going to be healthy and good but i don't know All right.

15:47The Niners are an option for you at seven, and I'm going to put them against the Houston Texans. Potentially the, well, this is a sore subject for Broncos fans, but best defense in football. Yeah. I mean, no, it's the Texans defense was really good. They were y 'all up there, but yeah, insane. They were fun to watch. If you put Brock Purdy on the Texans, I think they're the Superbowl favorites at this point. It's, it's a make or break year for for cj stroud in houston um the good news is like their defense really became elite last year in houston and elite defensive windows are so short because there's so many moving pieces you never know how long very well but they're they're still in their elite defense window in houston uh and that's i'll lean on that okay texans i think my um i saw my Ben Solak, who's on the show a lot, picked them to win the Super Bowl.

16:47Wow. That's fair. I mean, it's Stroud, but it's their run game too, right? Needs to be better, yeah. I'll be a huge David Montgomery fan. He's going to get more carries, hopefully. I don't know if he's a true number one guy to have there, but if they can run the ball as a middle-of-the-road team, I think that's almost enough. Just average, please. Okay, the Niners remain an option. And we're going to go AFC West here. Niners versus Chargers. Ooh. Because I have the Chargers at two behind Denver in my personal AFC West. Yeah, I'm going Chargers. Are you afraid in the division? No. Talk to me. No.

17:30Mike McDaniel? I love Mike McDaniel. I think, I wish he would have come back. I'm just tying everybody to Denver. Because he's from Denver. Denver uh he's a you know he's friends with Dan Soder and he I think McDaniel's got pretty strong comedy chops as well which is why I actually like him um but I think we get this fun sort of conclusion to the the the Tua Herbert debate because we have the the constant in Mike McDaniel and I don't know if people still argue about Tua and Herbert anymore it's now it's just like it feels like I think that war has ended they both get made fun of for not winning in the playoffs somehow but we're gonna see justin herbert play his best football at quarterback and i think mike mcdaniel's gonna do a great job calling an offense that's actually like fun and explosive for the chargers which we just have not really seen consistently for for quite some time so yeah i love that that addition but they lose jesse minter on defense so yeah there's your trade-off that's how I feel.

18:34Chargers offense, step forward. Chargers defense, potentially a step back. That's kind of where I've netted out as well, but I am excited about that offense. All right. Niners are still an option for you at nine. I'm going to put them up against the Philadelphia Eagles. Yeah, Eagles. I'm going Eagles still. Really? The Niners are falling. I know. Okay. Talk to me about the Eagles. Well, they got my guy Vic Fangio there still, right? Thought he was going to retire, but he's coming back for another year. Let's see. I think change at offensive coordinator is what Eagles fans are praying. Saves their offense.

19:18Who's their new coordinator? Mannion? Yeah, Mannion. Yeah, first time. Very dramatic change. I mean, I think this is the reason why the Eagles aren't higher for me is it's just so unknown. right like we just don't know i i mean i we know the defense is gonna be good vic fangio everybody's most people are coming back they've added some players reek willin from seattle i think they're gonna be awesome but i just i think this offense might take a second to really click yeah and i think um sean manion needs a ring doorbell if he's gonna coach in philly and i mean it to me it's like their offensive line if it's close to as good as we've gotten accustomed to i think the run game functions like it did just a year ago when Saquon was was running for 2000 yards losing AJ Brown it's like how big of an impact is that for the offense overall they draft what Makai Lemon so and I mean that's if Makai Lemon is not good in Philly having like the last name Lemon that's a tough fan base to to deal with everything you said like the thing with the coordinator too like Sean Mannion is either going to, they're going to be calling for him to be fired or he's going to be hired as coach, right?

20:35Like there's like no in between in Philadelphia. I just think that the defense is a stabilizing force enough where I'm comfortable with them in the top 10, even though I have questions. Okay. The Niners dropping, will their fall continue? They're like Chador Sanders in the draft room right now. I'm going to take them all the way to the fifth round of these power rankings. um we'll see because i'm gonna bring in a team from the nfc who made it surprisingly far last year chicago bears ben johnson niners bears who you got yeah i'm gonna go bears we just did a bears video trying to like downplay the uh the regression police if i can quote big cat um the regression police that's me i feel like i i'm attacked yeah i mean it's like i'm one of those nerds like turnovers winning close games yeah uh and broncos fans get it as well they won a ton of close games third year quarterback i just i think ben johnson's the the truth he's the real deal we saw it pretty quickly in chicago i don't think their defense is going to lead the league in turnovers again but i think overall their defense is just going to be it just has to be like average has to be maybe just a little bit above average a competent defense and ben johnson he'll dial up plays for caleb in the offense all right that's your top 10 i'm going to mention another team where i think the fan base right so the niners are falling out the top 10 this other team i think would probably think they should be in the top 10 the cincinnati bangles bangles versus niners just get another niners bangles super bowl and put them both there that would be actually kind of sick man um all right pick make a pick okay i'll i'll leave i'll leave the niners here okay i'll finally i'll leave them here levin's not that bad yeah let's keep it Moving.

22:42I'm going to go back to the NFC East, no North. And I'm going to bring in the Packers. I've had trouble picking Packers, Bears, and I'm saving the NFC North for one of my last pods because of the quarterback competition in Minnesota. But I think these two teams are very close. The Micah Parsons injury makes this tricky. Yes. But would you take the Bengals? or green bay for 12. um i'm gonna go the bangles right now and it's because of the injury to to parsons and uh tucker craft like when's he gonna be back from his acl he was such a key he should be early in the season but like he was on pace like himself for like a thousand yards a lot of touchdowns last year and then and he was you know this is my rare that was a guy i was really solid about on my fantasy teams.

23:41I was like, I am so right about him. I was so right about craft. Those seven weeks were magical. Yeah. So it's just the question mark for the Packers. And I think the Bengals, and I've been very critical of the Bengals because of the way that they've been run, but it feels like their defense was constructed by, I don't know, grownups this off season, nothing like flashy, but I like Brian cook going over there. I think boy, a mafia was a solid addition, especially paired next to, you know, Dexter Lawrence. So the thing that's really ruined them besides injuries to Joe Burrow, I think their defense will be good or at least respectable.

24:19I knew you were going to, the second you said good, your voice kind of went up at the end of that. I was like, he's going to walk that back. And then you did immediately. I was like, you went, I thought their defense would be good. Respectable. Yeah. It was close. I know. That was how it was a TV where you like say something and you're like, that was stronger than what I believe. like you said the grown-ups comment i think is very astute because it's like oh these are capable veteran players it's not like that but like mafe is good cook is good obviously dexter lawrence is is a very good player so i think average is a very realistic goal um okay the packers remain and i'm gonna put them against the dallas cowboys packers cowboys that's kind of the perfect pairing considering they tied each other last year.

25:04And we've got the Micah trade that happened. I don't know if I could show up and do another live stream with Tom Grossi if I pick the Cowboys over his Packers. So I'll go Green Bay because I think once they get healthy, they're going to be competitive. And that's not to knock the Cowboys. I kind of like what they've done. Sands just not having Micah Parsons. yeah give me the packer sir i also think the packers are a team that's gonna be better at the end of the year yeah you know the beginning we might be like oh i don't know this defense and then at the end i wouldn't be surprised if they look really good and that's when you want them to be good right yeah exactly right yeah i mean i i i'm still a packers optimist i just think it might take a second uh okay cowboys versus a team that i i think i'm higher on than many nationally the jacksonville jaguars oh yeah i'm going the jags i'm super high on jacksonville i think they played they played better than i think any opponent the broncos had all of last season when we faced jacksonville i like liam cohen and what he got out of you know trevor lawrence in the offense and uh my guy travis hunters over there and i think they're going to be using him appropriately at corner first and then letting him kind of work in at receiver.

26:27It was crazy to me that they didn't do that last year because if you watched him at CU, he was a better corner than he was a wide receiver and he was great at both and it was just him never coming off the field was one of the most insane things you would watch out of a player, at least I've seen. So just putting him over there, they lose Devin Lloyd, which is kind of huge for that defense, but I think they're a good team and well coached team all my DB friends are very excited about Travis Hunter like Ryan Clark when he was drafted was like he should like yeah and he was so frustrated and now we're and I think it's corner this secondaries could be kind of good so yeah I like I like the Jags okay Cowboys will they finish in the top half uh well this is spot 15 and let's do it Cowboy no I'm gonna do it cowboys chiefs were you say i was gonna do that i'm not gonna put the chiefs here i'm with the lions here cowboys lions oh man i we i just shot a lions video and i've like started to convince myself like i'm down on the lions and i've been defense dude a bit i know i mean what what's like what happened the significant news with the lions and their defense and their secondary our lads which i do way too much and you see like red names you know and like because they're And Junior's like, oh, God, it's a lot of red on that Our Lads chart.

27:49But the offense still slaps. That's all I looked at this morning, you know, was Our Lads, to remind myself of all the players I forgot changed teams this offseason. But, yeah, I mean, Kirby Joseph, questions about his knee moving forward. Brian Branch is coming off Achilles. Terry and Arnold is dealing with just robbery and kidnapping charges. Although the Texans worked them out, so who knows? I think the Lions are cursed. That's their problem. So if their defense can stay healthy, I would take them, but I'm not sold that they can. So we going Cowboys here? I don't like it, but yeah. All right.

28:34Well, now I'm going to bring the Chiefs. Lions, Chiefs for the end of the first half. Sure. I'll go Lions. and I'm going to be spiting the Chiefs to get them down as low as possible. Oh, glad you're just telling everyone. Okay, well, we'll save that for when you actually do rank them. Let's take a quick break, come back, and see who the Chiefs go up against for pick 17. Buster Olney here for La Quinta by Wyndham. When you're on the road this summer traveling for work, your routine can fall behind faster than a 3-0 count, especially if your hotel gym is non-existent. But at La Quinta by Wyndham, every location features a full-size, fully-equipped fitness center.

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30:32All right, we're back. We got the first half of the NFL ranked. 17 is next. The Chiefs are an option for you. I'm going to go Chiefs versus Bucs. Oh, the Buccaneers? That is a team I'm just so uncertain about. I mean, the whole NFC South is a little tricky because you could argue any team can win that division and any team could be at the bottom of that division. You picked probably one of the few teams I would put below the Chiefs. But Baker Mayfield, kind of in a contract year-ish, right? I feel like there's a weird detente or impasse that nobody knows what's going to happen there. I think Baker plays his best when nobody believes in him.

31:27So I'm going with the Buccaneers. I'm going with the world's favorite draft pick, Reuben Bain, to make all the difference in the world on that defense. All right. I think the defense would be good, so I'm with it. Yeah, I don't like picking NSE North games. And when the Bucs play the Chiefs in big moments, the Bucs have delivered. That's true. All right, you talked yourself into it. Can you talk yourself into the Vikings over the Chiefs? Oh, my God. You're testing. You're testing. Well, we're in this tier. Like, 17 through 24 is like the, like, this could go even way tier. And then we get into there's no, you know.

32:13Yeah. Oh, man. No, I'll put the Chiefs ahead of the Vikings. Honorable. An honorable man. Yeah. I love Kevin O 'Connell and I'm going to be rooting for, for Kyler Murray just as a short man. Myself, I pull for the short guys in the league and I need to believe a short man can play quarterback at an elite level every single week of a football season. And that's just kind of what Kyler needs to do there, right? Like be that insanely talented dude every single week. And then the Vikings will be, they'll be very competitive. But he also kind of doesn't have to be elite, don't you think? The Vikings, what was it, 8-9 or 9-8?

32:55Well, something like either 8-9 or 9-8 last year with 9. So, like, Kyler just kind of has to be above average, I think. You would think. It took a while for their defense to return to form, but I felt like their defense was really good the second half of the season. And, yeah, you've got Justin Jefferson to throw to. I just want to see Kyler run a little more. That'd be nice. That would be nice. But no, I want the short guy to be elite. Don't take that away from me. There's a few of them in the league. Is Bryce Young shorter than Kyler Murray, I feel like? I mean, nobody's ever seen them together, so we don't know.

33:35Well, I have taken pictures with both of them. Okay, let's... So I can put those photos side by side. Please. Just for me. A little bit of a comp. All right. there are some who say i tanked bryce young's draft stock okay uh 19 vikings are still an option let's go vikings versus