The pro football season is about to begin its annual march to the Super Bowl, and it's never too early to break down some key numbers.  Las Vegas Sports Consultants, the company that dispenses odds to 90 percent of Nevada's casinos, has released its power rankings for the opening weekend of the season.

These rankings give you an insight on how the lines were set for the opening weekend, and what they will be in future matchups with some minor adjustments for quality of play, injuries, etc.  New England remains LVSC's top-rated team with a power ranking of 146.3, well ahead of a Kansas City team ranked 29th with a power ranking of 132.  The Patriots are hosting the Chiefs Sunday as a 16 1/2-point favorite according to these rankings.  The LVSC numbers indicate that New England is 14 points better than Kansas City, with another 2 1/2 points given for homefield advantage.  

New England squares off against AFC East rival New York in Week 2, and a preliminary look at the rankings indicate that the Patriots will enter that contest around a touchdown favorite.  The Patriots (146.3) face the Jets (137.7) rated 8.6 points higher, and factoring in homefield advantage of a couple points have this line around 6 1/2 to seven points.  However, poor play by either team in Week 1 or an injury to a key player will have the LVSC oddsmakers adjusting their lines accordingly.

Here's a closer look at LVSC's power rankings for Week 1.

LVSC NFL Power Rankings

Rank Team Rating Previous Rank 1 New England 146.3 1 2 Dallas 144.6 5 3 San Diego 144.2 7 4 Indianapolis 143.6 2 5 Jacksonville 143.3 4 6 N.Y. Giants 141.2 3 7 Pittsburgh 140.6 8 8 Minnesota 140.4 14 9 Philadelphia 139.8 10 10 Green Bay 139.7 6 11 New Orleans 139.3 21 12 Wwashington 139.2 11 13 Seattle 138.5 9 14 Tampa Bay 138.0 12 15 Cleveland 137.8 13 16 N.Y. Jets 137.7 21 17 Tennessee 137.4 15 18 Denver 136.7 19 18 Houston 136.7 16 20 Carolina 136.5 24 21 Cincinnati 136.2 18 22 Chicago 136.0 19 23 Buffalo 135.8 23 24 Arizona 135.2 17 25 St. Louis 134.8 27 26 Detroit 133.1 26 27 Oakland 132.5 28 28 Baltimore 132.1 25 29 Kansas City 132.0 29 30 San Francisco 131.3 30 31 Miami 131.2 32 32 Atlanta 127.3 31

Brad Young can be reached at byoung@vegasinsider.com