Dolphin Ratings - National Football League

Explanation: Each team is listed with its record, overall score differential, and its ratings. Brief explanations of the ratings follow.

Schedule The number in this column is the effective opponent strength of a team. In other words, they would be expected to have the same record had they played all games against an opponent of this predictive rating at a neutral site. Because this calculation depends on the strength of the team in question, it is not possible to rank schedules using these values.
Expected Losses For college teams, this number is the number of losses an average ranked (top 15 hockey; otherwise top 25) team would be expected to have against the team's schedule. For pro teams, this is the number of losses an average team would be expected to have against the team's schedule. Unlike the schedule ranking, this value can be used to rank schedules.
Standard Ranks teams in an order such that a team is "probably better" than all teams ranked lower than it. This calculation uses margin of victory only for computing a team's opponents strengths; the team's rating itself is computed using only wins, losses, and ties relative to its schedule
Median Likelihood Determines the likely ratings for each team, based on its wins, losses, and ties relative to its schedule. This generally produces the same or similar ratings as the standard ranking.
Predictive Both schedule strength and rating vs. schedule strength are determined considering both the wins and losses and the score differentials. This rating contains none of the biases in the standard rating, but does weight recent games slightly more than past games since those are a better indication of the team's current strength. This rating is the best of the first three for seeing how good teams are, and thus is the best for predicting future results.
Improved RPI Rating The improved RPI formula is similar to the standard RPI, except that the schedule strength is carried out to infinite depth instead of ending with opponents' opponents, thus allows for a better comparison of isolated groups of teams than is given by the standard RPI calculation. It is similar to the simple rating, except that all games are given equal weight.
Scoring. This value indicates how many points a team would be expected to score if it played an identical team.
Offense. This combines the predictive and scoring ratings to measure how many points a team scores. The number is the predictive rating of an opponent against whom the team would be expected to score the league average number of points. This does not necessarily rate a team's offensive abilities, as a fast pace in basketball or big-play defense in football can make a team score more points.
Defense. This combines the predictive and scoring ratings to measure how many points a team allows. The number is the predictive rating of an opponent against whom the team would be expected to allow the league average number of points. The same caveat in the predictive-offense rating applies here.

In order to increase early-season stability, the three main rankings, the improved RPI, and the college pseudopoll include priors based on the previous season final predictive ratings and occasionally incorporating preseason predictions of various major publications. The other rankings for college sports do not include priors, and thus can be wildly unstable early in the year. A team whose rankings are affected by this prior is noted with a P following its rankings.

Full Ranking

                                         STANDARD   MED LIKELY  PREDICTIVE  IMPRVD RPI    SCORING     OFFENSE     DEFENSE 
TEAM       W L T  PF  PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
VIKINGS    6 1 0 140  93  0.182  3.656    1  0.218    1  0.220    4  0.135    1 0.6267   32  0.759   31 -0.472    1  0.742
BILLS      6 1 0 233 181  0.003  3.253    2  0.189    2  0.186    7  0.107    4 0.6024    1  1.682    1  0.704   30 -0.490
BEARS      6 2 0 214 160  0.184  4.313    3  0.186    4  0.184    3  0.143    5 0.5936   10  1.404    7  0.318   19 -0.032
49ERS      6 1 0 197 139 -0.053  3.044    4  0.178    5  0.173   10  0.094    3 0.6040   12  1.374    9  0.226   20 -0.037
BRONCOS    6 2 0 172 165  0.136  4.332    5  0.173    3  0.186   13  0.055    2 0.6048   19  1.211   15 -0.033   11  0.143
STEELERS   6 2 0 180 144  0.041  3.928    6  0.147    6  0.156    9  0.094    7 0.5882   30  1.067   25 -0.174    4  0.362
JAGUARS    6 2 0 229 121  0.081  3.669    7  0.139    7  0.146    1  0.253    9 0.5746   21  1.184   10  0.131    2  0.375
LIONS      5 2 0 203 180  0.090  3.601    8  0.125    9  0.133   11  0.082    6 0.5908    6  1.528    4  0.439   24 -0.275
PATRIOTS   5 3 0 184 162  0.296  4.707    9  0.125    8  0.135    5  0.120    8 0.5747   25  1.154   16 -0.041    6  0.281
BENGALS    5 2 0 206 158  0.116  3.508   10  0.121   10  0.128    6  0.108   12 0.5428    5  1.556    3  0.508   25 -0.291
TEAM       W L T  PF  PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
PACKERS    5 3 0 171 164  0.209  4.533   11  0.114   11  0.121    8  0.097   11 0.5586   26  1.128   23 -0.096    5  0.290
CHIEFS     5 2 0 167 131 -0.064  3.128   12  0.096   13  0.099   14  0.040   10 0.5649   23  1.174   22 -0.095    9  0.176
BROWNS     5 3 0 139 173  0.033  4.251   13  0.094   12  0.099   25 -0.077   13 0.5415   28  1.090   28 -0.317   10  0.162
GIANTS     4 2 1 163 161 -0.334  2.614   14  0.020   14  0.012   24 -0.075   20 0.4726   16  1.223   24 -0.148   18 -0.003
SEAHAWKS   4 4 0 185 159  0.056  3.957   15  0.011   15  0.006   12  0.081   14 0.5203   20  1.195   14 -0.028    8  0.190
RAIDERS    4 4 0 221 230 -0.055  3.813   16 -0.001   16 -0.007   19 -0.030   17 0.4917    2  1.648    2  0.513   32 -0.574
PANTHERS   3 4 0 178 193  0.086  3.709   17 -0.012   17 -0.019   17 -0.001   15 0.4988    4  1.568    6  0.416   29 -0.419
RAMS       4 4 0 194 168 -0.134  3.436   18 -0.024   18 -0.035   15  0.034   16 0.4980   17  1.214   18 -0.051   12  0.118
BUCCANEERS 3 5 0 178 151  0.178  4.351   19 -0.035   20 -0.043    2  0.149   19 0.4873   27  1.109   19 -0.067    3  0.366
FALCONS    3 5 0 171 189  0.125  4.477   20 -0.052   19 -0.040   18 -0.029   18 0.4906   15  1.241   20 -0.078   16  0.020
TEAM       W L T  PF  PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
RAVENS     4 5 0 189 236 -0.118  4.355   21 -0.056   21 -0.046   29 -0.159   22 0.4675   18  1.211   27 -0.246   22 -0.071
CARDINALS  3 5 0 175 238 -0.056  4.061   22 -0.077   22 -0.069   28 -0.131   21 0.4719    8  1.463   11  0.129   28 -0.392
SAINTS     2 5 0 162 194 -0.029  3.521   23 -0.116   23 -0.112   22 -0.069   23 0.4610    7  1.488    8  0.227   27 -0.364
COWBOYS    3 5 0 219 213 -0.207  3.337   24 -0.122   25 -0.121   21 -0.045   26 0.4164    3  1.598    5  0.420   31 -0.509
TEXANS     2 5 0 165 170 -0.032  3.379   25 -0.123   24 -0.113   16  0.006   29 0.4032   14  1.242   17 -0.041   14  0.053
COMMANDERS 2 4 1 159 182 -0.273  2.881   26 -0.134   26 -0.128   26 -0.086   28 0.4078   11  1.397   13  0.078   23 -0.250
DOLPHINS   1 6 0 117 181  0.214  4.311   27 -0.147   27 -0.136   23 -0.075   24 0.4308   24  1.162   26 -0.225   13  0.076
JETS       2 6 0 170 188 -0.019  3.975   28 -0.161   28 -0.151   20 -0.038   25 0.4306   13  1.244   21 -0.084   17  0.007
COLTS      2 6 0 161 222 -0.071  4.112   29 -0.164   29 -0.154   27 -0.126   27 0.4140    9  1.437   12  0.097   26 -0.349
EAGLES     2 6 0 137 202 -0.186  3.777   30 -0.176   30 -0.169   32 -0.191   30 0.3806   29  1.089   30 -0.432   15  0.051
TEAM       W L T  PF  PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
CHARGERS   0 7 0  99 175 -0.045  3.759   31 -0.258   31 -0.258   30 -0.178   31 0.3715   31  0.940   32 -0.593    7  0.236
TITANS     1 7 0 144 199 -0.331  3.231   32 -0.278   32 -0.283   31 -0.188   32 0.3314   22  1.176   29 -0.321   21 -0.055

AFC WEST
                                         STANDARD   MED LIKELY  PREDICTIVE  IMPRVD RPI    SCORING     OFFENSE     DEFENSE 
TEAM       W L T  PF  PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
BRONCOS    6 2 0 172 165  0.136  4.332    5  0.173    3  0.186   13  0.055    2 0.6048   19  1.211   15 -0.033   11  0.143
CHIEFS     5 2 0 167 131 -0.064  3.128   12  0.096   13  0.099   14  0.040   10 0.5649   23  1.174   22 -0.095    9  0.176
RAIDERS    4 4 0 221 230 -0.055  3.813   16 -0.001   16 -0.007   19 -0.030   17 0.4917    2  1.648    2  0.513   32 -0.574
CHARGERS   0 7 0  99 175 -0.045  3.759   31 -0.258   31 -0.258   30 -0.178   31 0.3715   31  0.940   32 -0.593    7  0.236

AFC SOUTH
                                         STANDARD   MED LIKELY  PREDICTIVE  IMPRVD RPI    SCORING     OFFENSE     DEFENSE 
TEAM       W L T  PF  PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
JAGUARS    6 2 0 229 121  0.081  3.669    7  0.139    7  0.146    1  0.253    9 0.5746   21  1.184   10  0.131    2  0.375
TEXANS     2 5 0 165 170 -0.032  3.379   25 -0.123   24 -0.113   16  0.006   29 0.4032   14  1.242   17 -0.041   14  0.053
COLTS      2 6 0 161 222 -0.071  4.112   29 -0.164   29 -0.154   27 -0.126   27 0.4140    9  1.437   12  0.097   26 -0.349
TITANS     1 7 0 144 199 -0.331  3.231   32 -0.278   32 -0.283   31 -0.188   32 0.3314   22  1.176   29 -0.321   21 -0.055

AFC NORTH
                                         STANDARD   MED LIKELY  PREDICTIVE  IMPRVD RPI    SCORING     OFFENSE     DEFENSE 
TEAM       W L T  PF  PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
STEELERS   6 2 0 180 144  0.041  3.928    6  0.147    6  0.156    9  0.094    7 0.5882   30  1.067   25 -0.174    4  0.362
BENGALS    5 2 0 206 158  0.116  3.508   10  0.121   10  0.128    6  0.108   12 0.5428    5  1.556    3  0.508   25 -0.291
BROWNS     5 3 0 139 173  0.033  4.251   13  0.094   12  0.099   25 -0.077   13 0.5415   28  1.090   28 -0.317   10  0.162
RAVENS     4 5 0 189 236 -0.118  4.355   21 -0.056   21 -0.046   29 -0.159   22 0.4675   18  1.211   27 -0.246   22 -0.071

AFC EAST
                                         STANDARD   MED LIKELY  PREDICTIVE  IMPRVD RPI    SCORING     OFFENSE     DEFENSE 
TEAM       W L T  PF  PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
BILLS      6 1 0 233 181  0.003  3.253    2  0.189    2  0.186    7  0.107    4 0.6024    1  1.682    1  0.704   30 -0.490
PATRIOTS   5 3 0 184 162  0.296  4.707    9  0.125    8  0.135    5  0.120    8 0.5747   25  1.154   16 -0.041    6  0.281
DOLPHINS   1 6 0 117 181  0.214  4.311   27 -0.147   27 -0.136   23 -0.075   24 0.4308   24  1.162   26 -0.225   13  0.076
JETS       2 6 0 170 188 -0.019  3.975   28 -0.161   28 -0.151   20 -0.038   25 0.4306   13  1.244   21 -0.084   17  0.007

NFC WEST
                                         STANDARD   MED LIKELY  PREDICTIVE  IMPRVD RPI    SCORING     OFFENSE     DEFENSE 
TEAM       W L T  PF  PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
49ERS      6 1 0 197 139 -0.053  3.044    4  0.178    5  0.173   10  0.094    3 0.6040   12  1.374    9  0.226   20 -0.037
SEAHAWKS   4 4 0 185 159  0.056  3.957   15  0.011   15  0.006   12  0.081   14 0.5203   20  1.195   14 -0.028    8  0.190
RAMS       4 4 0 194 168 -0.134  3.436   18 -0.024   18 -0.035   15  0.034   16 0.4980   17  1.214   18 -0.051   12  0.118
CARDINALS  3 5 0 175 238 -0.056  4.061   22 -0.077   22 -0.069   28 -0.131   21 0.4719    8  1.463   11  0.129   28 -0.392

NFC SOUTH
                                         STANDARD   MED LIKELY  PREDICTIVE  IMPRVD RPI    SCORING     OFFENSE     DEFENSE 
TEAM       W L T  PF  PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
PANTHERS   3 4 0 178 193  0.086  3.709   17 -0.012   17 -0.019   17 -0.001   15 0.4988    4  1.568    6  0.416   29 -0.419
BUCCANEERS 3 5 0 178 151  0.178  4.351   19 -0.035   20 -0.043    2  0.149   19 0.4873   27  1.109   19 -0.067    3  0.366
FALCONS    3 5 0 171 189  0.125  4.477   20 -0.052   19 -0.040   18 -0.029   18 0.4906   15  1.241   20 -0.078   16  0.020
SAINTS     2 5 0 162 194 -0.029  3.521   23 -0.116   23 -0.112   22 -0.069   23 0.4610    7  1.488    8  0.227   27 -0.364

NFC NORTH
                                         STANDARD   MED LIKELY  PREDICTIVE  IMPRVD RPI    SCORING     OFFENSE     DEFENSE 
TEAM       W L T  PF  PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
VIKINGS    6 1 0 140  93  0.182  3.656    1  0.218    1  0.220    4  0.135    1 0.6267   32  0.759   31 -0.472    1  0.742
BEARS      6 2 0 214 160  0.184  4.313    3  0.186    4  0.184    3  0.143    5 0.5936   10  1.404    7  0.318   19 -0.032
LIONS      5 2 0 203 180  0.090  3.601    8  0.125    9  0.133   11  0.082    6 0.5908    6  1.528    4  0.439   24 -0.275
PACKERS    5 3 0 171 164  0.209  4.533   11  0.114   11  0.121    8  0.097   11 0.5586   26  1.128   23 -0.096    5  0.290

NFC EAST
                                         STANDARD   MED LIKELY  PREDICTIVE  IMPRVD RPI    SCORING     OFFENSE     DEFENSE 
TEAM       W L T  PF  PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
GIANTS     4 2 1 163 161 -0.334  2.614   14  0.020   14  0.012   24 -0.075   20 0.4726   16  1.223   24 -0.148   18 -0.003
COWBOYS    3 5 0 219 213 -0.207  3.337   24 -0.122   25 -0.121   21 -0.045   26 0.4164    3  1.598    5  0.420   31 -0.509
COMMANDERS 2 4 1 159 182 -0.273  2.881   26 -0.134   26 -0.128   26 -0.086   28 0.4078   11  1.397   13  0.078   23 -0.250
EAGLES     2 6 0 137 202 -0.186  3.777   30 -0.176   30 -0.169   32 -0.191   30 0.3806   29  1.089   30 -0.432   15  0.051

DIVISION    W  L  T   PCT  RNK RATING
NFC NORTH  22  8  0 0.733    1  0.436
NFC WEST   17 14  0 0.548    2  0.100
AFC EAST   14 16  0 0.467    3  0.092
NFC SOUTH  11 19  0 0.367    4  0.023
AFC NORTH  20 12  0 0.625    5  0.014
AFC WEST   15 15  0 0.500    6 -0.107
AFC SOUTH  11 20  0 0.355    7 -0.118
NFC EAST   11 17  2 0.400    8 -0.420

Home field advantage amounts to:
     0.107 points in main ratings (0.109 for semineutral)
     0.016 points in improved RPI (0.015 for semineutral)
Average of 6.20 points per score

Predict score:








Team Strength vs. Time Plot:






posted: Fri Nov  6 05:30:14 2026
games through: Thu Nov  5 2026

Back to Dolphin rankings main page.