LAS VEGAS -- The New England Patriots are still the No. 1 team in the NFL Vegas Rankings heading into the playoffs, and are also a 7-5 Super Bowl favorite at the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook.
The Patriots were the best bet in the league during the regular season, finishing 13-3 ATS after beating the Miami Dolphins 35-14 as 9.5-point road favorites, clinching the top seed in the AFC in the process.
The NFL Vegas Rankings are compiled using the average of the power ratings from ESPN Chalk handicappers Erin Rynning and yours truly, Dave Tuley, along with ESPN's Football Power Index. They're intended to compare the relative strength of teams if they were to meet on a neutral field and what the point spread should be for those matchups. We've also added the FPI and Massey-Peabody rankings to our chart for comparative purposes and to show other viewpoints; while there are differences up and down the rankings, we all continue to have the Patriots ranked highest.
Our panel has the Atlanta Falcons at No. 2 even though the Dallas Cowboys are the No. 1 seed in the NFC, though it's by just 1.5 points and the Cowboys would still be favored if they were to meet in Dallas for the NFC Championship Game.
We're only listing the 12 remaining teams in the NFL Vegas Rankings below. The FPI and M-P rankings columns list the 12 in order but also show where they rank the teams in the entire league: the Houston Texans, the Dolphins and the Detroit Lions (three teams that are 100-1 to win the Super Bowl) are all outside the top 20 in the FPI and M-P rankings.
Here's a look at the teams making the biggest moves up and down the NFL Vegas Rankings, followed by a glance at this weekend's wild-card round matchups: