NFL Power Rankings (Week 8)
With a bunch of the top teams on byes this week, there wasn’t much movement at the top. No reason to shake things up in the top tier with the Rams, Bills, Cardinals, Buccaneers, and Packers.
A little movement happened in this next tier, with the Titans impressive showing moving them up into the same tier as the Cowboys, Chargers, and Ravens. As of now, these are the only 9 teams that I can see truly competing for the Super Bowl.
The playoff caliber teams keep shuffling from week to week. The Bengals had the biggest jump this week as they have now had back to back blowouts with the most recent coming against a true contender, on the road no less. They are showing that they’re not a fluke. The Raiders are showing that they’re rallying around the whole Gruden situation and should be considered a legitimate playoff contending team. The Browns and Chiefs have fallen out of Super Bowl contention in my eyes and now will be lucky to hang onto a playoff spot.
Don’t look now, but the Colts are making a push to be relevant. It wouldn’t shock me to continue to see them rise. The Patriots and Saints also continue to stick around and win some games, despite me not thinking either of them are very good. Then you have the Steelers, Vikings, Seahawks and 49ers who round out the tier. None of these teams deserve much praise, but they all will likely be in the Wild Card hunt for the duration of the season, in large part due to a shortage of quality teams in the league this season.
The Broncos and Panthers have officially confirmed what everyone thought of them after their hot starts: neither of them are any good. The Falcons have actually begun to look competent and may make a push for relevancy if they can steal a few more wins. The NFC East is well represented in this next tier with the Football Team, Giants and Eagles all looking like a total disaster for much of the season, although credit the Giants for getting a nice win this week. They may be the one team who I could see making a rise out of that group. And once again the Bears showed us how incapable they are of playing offense.
The Dolphins have now had back to back weeks losing on last second field goals to awful teams. If those games went the other way, they would somehow be relevant. The Lions put up a great effort as they emptied the kitchen sink this week against a far superior team, only to lose by two scores. This team is better than 0–7, but your record is your record. The Texans, Jets and Jaguars are all just depressing to watch.
