Power Rankings in Early May -- Ughh

In general, I love rankings and regularly get sucked into any top 5 QBs or RBs conversation, but power rankings are one of my many kryptonite. To make things even worse, power rankings in May really make my head hurt. So why you ask am I passing along useless yet equally painful information? Well probably for the same reason that these guys did the rankings, it’s early May and we’ve already covered the draft. We’ll get into training camp battles to keep an eye on and a projected 53 man roster soon but for now, I’ll just poke fun at the national media.

Peter King of Sports Illustrated starts the ball rolling with his power rankings and has the Cardinals under the header “They Could Win Ten or Six.” While I can’t argue with that logic, I can argue with some of the teams ranked above the Cardinals including the Jets (at 14) who are coming off a 4-12 season. I’d also wonder why each of these teams are ranked so high: Buffalo (13th), Carolina (10th), Minnesota (7th – did they draft a QB that I just missed). Anyways, I sure he made some picks just to cause a stir and get people complaining, mission accomplished.

21. Arizona. Paul Zimmerman wanted me to put the Cards higher. But I don't know who's playing quarterback, nor how good that quarterback will be. I don't know how much Edgerrin James has left coming off a 3.8-yards-per-carry season. I do know a defense that allowed a gaudy 399 points will be a little better because of the arrival of Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie at corner. But every year for the past three or four, some wise man in the media (I think it was me two years ago) says, "This is Arizona's year.'' And in the last four of those Arizona years, the Cards have gone 6-10, 5-11, 5-11 and 8-8.

If you ever want to read an article where it is painfully obvious that the writer didn’t want to write, this is it. Vinnie Iyer of Sporting News starts off by saying he doesn’t like doing power rankings four months before the season starts but this was his assignment so he basically makes a joke out of it. He goes on to explain each team's pick with some vague comic book reference (most of which I didn’t get). He’s got some teams ranked higher that I don’t understand as well like the Bears (19th), Bills (13th), and Vikings (12th) but oh well.

20. Cardinals. They have as many weapons on offense as Tony Stark, but they will need to sling some people around on defense to contend for a wild card.

The good news though, the two teams that I have the most problem with on these rankings (Minny & Buffalo) are both on the schedule this year. I guess we'll have to wait and see. Thoughts?