NFL Power Rankings Week 9

By James Watkins

1. Philadelphia Eagles (Last week’s ranking: 1): Any questions about this offense after their weak early schedule should be dismissed. The Eagles absolutely obliterated a Denver defense which, for all the issues currently haunting that team, is still one of the most experienced and talented in the league. Jay Ajayi made an immediate impact even after a short week of practice, giving the already spoiled Carson Wentz yet another weapon. Philly could go .500 the rest of the way and still win their division.
2. Pittsburgh Steelers (2): *Bye*
3. New England Patriots (3): *Bye*
4. Los Angeles Rams (5): If it weren’t for the Eagles, this squad could make a case for owning the most explosive offense in the league right now. Even if you somehow manage to slow Todd Gurley down (the Giants held him to 59 yards), Jared Goff can give the rock to plenty of other playmakers. Even more encouraging is the ease with which he can spread the ball to each of his options: Goff completed a pass to 8 different receivers on Sunday.
5. Dallas Cowboys (9): The Zeke saga just keeps on going, but so does the Cowboys’ winning streak. Even if Elliot is suspended for 6 games at some point this season, Dallas still has a great chance to make the playoffs because of two things. First, Dak Prescott is as cool and collected as any player in football, and the defensive line is truly elite. No team gets more quarterback pressure out of their front line, and winning trench battles usually means winning games late in the season.
6. Seattle Seahawks (4): Well, they shored up the offensive line with the addition of Duane Brown, but the running game is still anemic. There’s no question that this is an extremely talented team with an elite pass rush (6 sacks and a forced fumble), but unfortunately there are a lot of those at the top of the NFC. Way too early to ring an alarm, but it’s pretty clear LA isn’t going to just hand the division to the Seahawks, so they really can’t afford performances like this going down the stretch.
7. Minnesota Vikings (7): *Bye*
8. New Orleans Saints (11): The Saints retained their title as the hottest team in the league after clobbering the hapless Buccaneers at the Superdome on Sunday. Alvin Kamara’s rookie campaign has been nothing short of stellar, and he added 152 yards from scrimmage and two total touchdowns to his stat line this week. The Saints defense hasn’t given up more than 20 points in 3 weeks, and they’ve only allowed that much once during this six game win streak.
9. Kansas City Chiefs (6): So Alex Smith has regressed to the mean, Kareem Hunt hasn’t had a 100-yard game in a month, and the Chargers and Raiders are back from the dead. Oh yeah, and the run defense still isn’t up to snuff. I wish I had some good news about this team, but nothing’s going right at the moment.
10. Jacksonville Jaguars (10): They won two games in a row! They actually showed a bit of consistency for once! It’s very encouraging to see how well this defense is performing together. You can tell they’re playing with confidence and physicality when even A.J. Green is getting visibly frustrated. The offense is also proving to be multi-dimensional. Even with Leonard Fournette on the bench for violating a team rule, the Jags still put up 408 yards of total offense on the Bengals. The Titans better watch out.
11. The Gruden Hotline (15): Can’t stress enough just how important their victory over the Seahawks was. With Washington’s hopes of winning the NFC East getting fainter and fainter with each Eagles victory, the team had to scramble to keep their wild card hopes alive. So naturally, they go out and beat a team that they could be competing with for that final spot in Seattle. I know I pick on Kirk Cousins a lot, but he found a way to lead his team to victory in what had become a must-win situation. He’ll get nothing but praise from this author, at least for one week.
12. Detroit Lions (13): No question that this team earned a huge win against the Packers, and jumpstarted their wildcard candidacy in the process. However, there is cause for alarm when it comes to the red zone offense. Even with Ameer Abdullah receiving more carries inside the 20 yard line, the Lions are too often forced to settle for field goals in crucial scoring opportunities. This isn’t a team that’s going to beat you with its physicality, and that’s concerning for any team that hopes to compete in the postseason.
13. Carolina Panthers (14): Despite rushing for over 200 total yards against Atlanta, I’m skeptical of the Carolina run game. Cam Newton isn’t going to be their leading rusher every week, and Christian McCaffrey isn’t the long-term answer to replace Johnathan Stewart’s declining production. However, I’m not worried at all about the Panthers’ run defense: they gave up only 51 yards to the duo of Tevin Coleman and Devonta Freeman. They now rank 2^nd in rush yards allowed.
14. Buffalo Bills (8): You just couldn’t handle the pressure of last week’s ranking, could you, Buffalo? It’s becoming clear that this team isn’t built to play from behind or outgun anyone in a shootout. Once the Jets broke 30 points, Thursday night’s game was pretty much finished. The introduction of Kelvin Benjamin into the offensive game plan should make the Bills more explosive, but this will still be a run-first team moving forward. The defense can’t have off days in December, lest this team is on the outside looking in when it comes to the playoffs.
15. Tennessee Titans (16): Quiet wins are still wins, and quietly leading your division is still leading your division. I can’t punish a team for racking up wins of any quality, but this is definitely the most vulnerable division leader in the entire league. I mean, they were outgained by Baltimore. Baltimore. With the running game (the heart of this offense) seriously struggling, and the Jaguars breathing down their neck, only time will tell how long Tennessee can hold onto their brittle lead.
16. Oakland Raider (21): They’re still alive in the AFC playoff race, and they earned a win over one of their chief wildcard rivals in the Miami Dolphins. Marshawn Lynch seems reenergized after his one game suspension, scoring two touchdowns in the victory. The defense is 26^th in total yards allowed, which has to be a major concern with Tom Brady and the Patriots coming to town next week.
17. Atlanta Falcons (12): I can’t come up with a better way to describe this team than Julio Jones’ dropping a surefire touchdown that would have given Atlanta the lead against the Panthers. That’s what this entire season has been for the Falcons: one big dropped pass.
18. Chicago Bears (18): *Bye*
19. Houston Texans (19): You don’t have to know anything about football to see just how different Houston is on offense with Tom Savage under center. The rest of the team played well enough to give Savage one last goal-to-go situation to win the game in the dying seconds. Unsurprisingly, he couldn’t lead his team into the end zone. Maybe next year…
20. Los Angeles Chargers (20): *Bye*
21. New York Jets (26): I know this might sound crazy, but the Jets are smack in the middle of the wild-card race, which tells you just how top heavy the AFC has become this season. An 8-8 team could possibly sneak into the final spot this year, and the Jets have a lot of winnable games going down the stretch. I’m not calling anything right now, but keep your eye on this team. It’s never a good idea to ignore a scrappy underdog.
22. Green Bay Packers (22): It says a lot that week two of the Brett Hundley era looked an awful lot like week one, only without the encouraging rushing touchdowns. It might be time to pack that cheesehead away until 2018.
23. Baltimore Ravens (23): The offense almost broke 400 yards this week, which is nothing short of a miracle for one of the most inept units in the game today. However, this didn’t translate to a win over the aggressively beatable Tennessee Titans, which means the wildcard window for the Ravens is closing faster than you can say, “nevermore…”
24. Cincinnati Bengals (24): Even running Joe Mixon more often isn’t helping this team anymore. The frustration from this season’s performance has now seeped into even the most level-headed players on the roster (see A.J. Green’s uncharacteristic meltdown against Jacksonville’s Jalen Ramsey). Even in an extremely weak AFC, the Bengals don’t look like anything resembling a wild card contender right now.
25. Miami Dolphins (25): The offense is definitely moving in the right direction, but that better start translating into wins ASAP, because the AFC has a ton of middling teams that could compete for a wildcard spot. In fact, Miami now has to deal with two of those in their own division now that the Jets are in contention. The pass rush could definitely use some work: Miami only has 16 sacks on the season, tied for 4^th worst in the NFL.
26. Denver Broncos (17): It’s extremely hard to see this team winning with Brock Osweiler at QB, but the defense is still top of the line in most statistical categories. The playoffs are probably out of the question now with LA and Oakland looking better of late. This is a prime destination for someone like Kirk Cousins or Jacoby Brissett in the off-season.
27. Arizona Cardinals (29): Hey they might not have a quarterback, but they are somehow 4-4. That’s… something, I guess. (Don’t get your hopes up if you’re a Cards fans. Without a legitimate QB, you aren’t getting past Seattle or LA).
28. Indianapolis Colts (31): The only interesting thing about this team is watching how long it will take for Andrew Luck to finally get fed up with Jim Irsay saying stupid things about him and demand a trade. Jim, if you’re listening, Andrew Luck is one of the toughest quarterbacks in football, and you are damn fortunate to have him on your roster.
29. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (27): Mike Evans’ cheap shot on Marshon Lattimore was the first sign of emotion from this team in weeks (not condoning that kind of behavior, just making a point). That’s all I really have to say about this colossal disappointment of a football team.
30. New York Giants (28): In the words of Ben McAdoo, “uhhhhhh…”
31. San Francisco 49ers (31): How long until Garappolo is put in? What’s that, Kyle Shanahan? You’re not sure he’ll be ready to play this season because of how complex your system is? We might end up with two winless teams this season.
32. Cleveland Browns (32): *Bye*