I'm not sure what's less surprising about NFL.com's first regular-season set of 2012 NFL Power Rankings: That the Green Bay Packers lead, or that the St. Louis Rams are lurking near the very bottom of the chart. You're welcome to come to your own conclusion, but if it changes your mind, keep in mind that the Rams actually avoided the bottom of the list, sneaking past the Minnesota Vikings, Miami Dolphins, and Cleveland Browns to finish at No. 29.

Ahead of Week 1 these aren't exactly the most useful rankings ever devised by man—in fact, I'm not sure how useful power rankings ever are—but if they function, at least in part, as a referendum on the turnaround strategy each team at the bottom has chosen to employ, this serves as at least a minor endorsement of Jeff Fisher, Les Snead and company.

Though, seriously? The Arizona Cardinals are No. 27? The NFL.com power-rankers-that-be must be a little higher on John Skelton than I am, or else a lot lower on Sam Bradford's ability to be a replacement-level quarterback.