Accidents are a truth of life within the NFL. They occur each week, at each place, and impression each crew, good and dangerous.

The Detroit Lions have handled their share already this season, as No. 1 broad receiver Kenny Golladay has missed two video games with a hamstring damage and fellow starters Justin Coleman, Desmond Trufant, Joe Dahl, Hal Vaitai and Nick Williams all sat out final week’s loss to the Inexperienced Bay Packers.

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Golladay’s pending return ought to give the Lions a big increase on offense as their deep passing sport has been largely non-existent the final two weeks. The remainder of these starters ought to be again on the sector sooner or later within the coming weeks, too.

For different groups bitten by the damage bug, the information isn’t nearly as good.

Week 2 within the NFL was notable for not simply the quantity of accidents suffered, however the significance of the participant misplaced to damage as properly.

Saquon Barkley, Nick Bosa, Solomon Thomas and Bruce Irvin all suffered season-ending knee accidents, and Christian McCaffrey, Jimmy Garoppolo, Raheem Mostert, Drew Lock, Anthony Barr and Davante Adams are more likely to miss time with accidents that knocked them out of video games on a bloody Sunday.

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These accidents had a big impression on this week’s energy rankings, the place the 49ers have been one of many week’s huge losers, falling six spots to No. 13 regardless of beating the hapless Jets (who nonetheless carry up the underside of the rankings) for his or her first win.

A yr after reaching the Tremendous Bowl, the 49ers now need to survive the NFL’s hardest division — fellow NFC West groups the Seahawks, Cardinals and Rams are a mixed 6-Zero and rank within the high 9 of this ballot — with out two of their greatest cross rushers (Bosa and Thomas), plus their quarterback (Garoppolo) and greatest working again (Mostert) for an undetermined period of time.

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As deep as they’re, and as manageable because the upcoming schedule is — they get the Barkley-less Giants this week — that’s a troublesome row for any crew to hoe.

As for the week’s different huge losers, the Minnesota Vikings and Philadelphia Eagles, they each are battling accidents, certain, however I merely overrated them to start out the season. The Vikings could be the least spectacular crew within the NFL by two weeks, whereas the Eagles have the worst level differential within the NFC.

Detroit Lions’ Adrian Peterson leaves the sector following the 42-21 loss to the Inexperienced Bay Packers at Lambeau Subject on Sept. 20, 2020 in Inexperienced Bay, Wis.

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I lumped the Lions, who dropped one other three spots in these rankings, in the identical tier because the Vikings, Eagles and Falcons. None of these groups is Jets-bad, however they’ve all been perplexingly terrible for stretches of this season and received’t win persistently till they clear no matter psychological hurdles are of their means.

As for the week’s huge winners? The Steelers haven’t overwhelmed anybody of notice, however they cracked the highest 15 by advantage of a menacing protection and a 2-Zero report, and look out for the Raiders, who had an enormous win over the Saints on Monday night time and have the working sport to be an element late within the yr.

My full NFL energy rankings this week

1. Chiefs (2-0)

2. Ravens (2-0)

3. Seahawks (2-0)

4. Titans (2-0)

5. Packers (2-0

6. Saints (1-1)

7. Payments (2-0)

8. Cardinals (2-0)

9. Rams (2-0)

10. Patriots (1-1)

11. Buccaneers (1-1)

12. Raiders (2-0)

13. 49ers (1-1)

14. Bears (2-0)

15. Steelers (2-0)

16. Cowboys (1-1)

17. Chargers (1-1)

18. Colts (1-1)

19. Browns (1-1)

20. Texans (0-2)

21. Washington (1-1)

22. Jaguars (1-1)

23. Eagles (0-2)

24. Vikings (0-2)

25. Lions (0-2)

26. Falcons (0-2)

27. Dolphins (0-2)

28. Bengals (0-2)

29. Broncos (0-2)

30. Giants (0-2)

31. Panthers (0-2)

32. Jets (0-2)

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Comply with him on Twitter @davebirkett. The Free Press has began a new digital subscription mannequin. This is how one can achieve entry to our most unique Lions content material.

This text initially appeared on Detroit Free Press: NFL energy rankings: Detroit Lions all the way down to No. 25, Seahawks greatest in NFC