NFL Power Rankings Week Six – A Tertiary View

We’ve played about a third of the season and bless your heart if you can decipher what’s really going on in the NFL. The craziness that has transpired during this early stretch of the season has been enough to fill a full season.

If you blink once, you might miss the greatest play ever. If you blink twice, you might miss the biggest blunder ever. Paying attention is more imperative this season than in past seasons.

 

1.) San Francisco 49ers (5-0)
The 49ers have the can’t miss philosophy of scoring a ton of points while simultaneously stopping opponents from scoring. They rank third in both total points scored and total points allowed.

 

2.) Kansas City Chiefs (4-0)
Coming off of their bye week, the Chiefs will take on the winless Los Angeles Chargers, then road games against the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos.

 

3.) Minnesota Vikings (5-0)
The Vikings are allowing an average of 12.8 points per game. Their offense has struggled, but when you play defense like that, how many points do you really need to score?

 

4.) Buffalo Bills (4-1)
Buffalo’s scoring pace this season is as alarming to opponents as opponents’ scoring pace against Buffalo should be alarming to the Bills. At least Josh Allen won his first career overtime game, and that’s something.

 

5.) Jacksonville Jaguars (4-1)
The Jaguars rank second in the NFL allowing an average of 14.0 points per game. They’ve only allowed one team to reach the 20-point mark this season.

 

6. Baltimore Ravens (4-1)
Baltimore didn’t miss a beat with former MVP Lamar Jackson missing the game. Tyler Huntley had three touchdowns, one of which was a touchdown run to win the game.

 

7.) Detroit Lions (3-2)
Detroit ranks first in the NFL with 20.0 sacks this season, which the pass rush has been the best part of their defense. Their offense has scored 30 or more points in four out of their five games.

 

8.) Cincinnati Bengals (3-2)
Heres a funny statistic. The Bengals have played all three Florida teams this season and they have gone 2-1 against them. They’ve outscored the Florida teams by a combined 81-57 points and forced a total of seven turnovers.

 

9.) Seattle Seahawks (3-2)
The Seahawks have eight turnovers in their last three games combined and they’ve gone 1-2 in those games. Sam Darnold has thrown five interceptions in four games played this season.

 

10.) Chicago Bears (3-2)
The Bears committed five turnovers Sunday against the Green Bay Packers. The last time the Bears had five turnovers was November of 2023 against the New Orleans Saints. What’s interesting is Tyson Bagent was the starting quarterback in both of those games.

 

11.) Denver Broncos (3-2)
The ferocity shown on defense by the Broncos has not been matched by their offense. The defense sacked Justin Herbert five times and held him to 121 passing yards. Bo Nix could only put up 123 passing yards for Denver’s offense, which barely got the job done.

 

12.) New York Giants (3-1-1)
Are the Giants good, bad or lucky? Jameis Winston is the NFL’s version of the good, the bad and the ugly. The Giants got good Jameis on Sunday and with good Jameis comes great success.

 

13.) New England Patriots (3-2)
The Patriots have scored a combined 74 points during their two-game winning streak. They scored a total of 36 points their first three games combined.

 

14. Las Vegas Raiders (3-2)
The Raiders have allowed 75 points and 743 total yards during their two-game losing streak. They have turned the ball over in every game this season.

 

15.) Cleveland Browns (3-2)

Last week was the first time the Browns failed to score 20 or more points in a game since Week 1 of this season, which caused them to snap a three-game winning streak. Cleveland has played some sloppy games this season, totaling seven turnovers and 49 penalties for 327 yards.

 

16.) Pittsburgh Steelers (3-2)
The Steelers are 2-0 when they score 30 or more points this season. Aaron Rodgers has a career record of 81-9 when his team scores 30 or more points.

 

17. Green Bay Packers (3-2)
The Packers are riding a two-game winning streak, outscoring their opponents by a total of 48-21. Green Bay has forced seven turnovers during that stretch.

 

18.) Philadelphia Eagles (2-3)
What screams out at me when I look at the Eagles, a three-game losing streak? They’ve only scored 44 total points in three losses while they totaled 48 points in back-to-back wins to open the season.

 

19.) Los Angeles Rams (2-3)
All that craziness and deciphering crap I was talking about at the beginning of the article could be attributed solely to the Rams if I meant it to be. What could they possibly be missing other than a competent kicker?

 

20.) Carolina Panthers (2-2)
The Panthers will head to Philadelphia and then host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after that. Despite having a bye week already, Carolina still ranks fourth in total points scored.

 

21.) Houston Texans (1-4)
The Texans trading for Marvin Harrison Jr. could be a huge move for everyone involved. Houston has been desperate for another wide receiver and the familiarity with C.J. Stroud could help elevate Harrison’s career.

 

22.) Atlanta Falcons (2-3)
All of the momentum the Falcons have built over the last two weeks have all but fallen by the waist side. Michael Penix Jr. got hurt again and Tua Tagovailoa had to finish out the game against Baltimore. Of course his pinpoint accuracy was evident, even on the interception he threw right to the defender.

 

23.) Dallas Cowboys (2-3)
Dallas has chased a loss with a win all season and they haven’t had a streak of either. Their up and down record is very revealing about their actual play on the field. You can’t be sure which Cowboys team you’re gonna get each week.

 

24.) New York Jets (2-3)
The Jets have given up a total of 22 points in their two victories. They’ve allowed a total of 74 points in their three defeats.

 

25.) Indianapolis Colts (2-3)
The Colts are now 2-19 all time when they play the Steelers in Pittsburgh. The Colts have given up 30 or more points three times this season and they have lost all three of those games.

 

26.) Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1-4)
Bucky Irving’s 165 yards rushing yards on Sunday was the first time a Buccaneers running back ran for 150 yards or more since Irving himself did it in December 2024.

 

27.) New Orleans Saints (1-4)
The Saints are undefeated when they don’t turn the ball over. That obviously hasn’t happened a lot this season, but hey, why be negative all the time.

 

28.) Arizona Cardinals (1-4)
Was it me or did the Cardinals seemed to struggle in the passing game on Sunday? Michael Wilson and Trey McBride could only muster up a combined 96 yards on 13 catches. I wonder what they were missing?

 

29.) The Washington Commanders (1-3-1)
Should we make everybody on the commanders get a piece of paper and write “We will know how many timeouts we have at the end of the game.” 100 times?

 

30.) Tennessee Titans (0-5)
With the Titans’ struggles this year, could Cam Ward be replaced at some point? Well maybe that’s a far fetched notion for this season, but speculation could rise with a (so-called) quarterback-rich draft coming up.

 

31.) Los Angeles Chargers (0-5)
Who will receive the must blame for the Chargers winless start? The excuse of injured offensive lineman is one thing but offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel has not dialed up anything resembling his high powered offense in Miami.

 

32.) Miami Dolphins (0-5)
The Dolphins being devoid of veteran talent (or overall talent) is one thing but turning the ball over should be unacceptable. Quarterback Malik Willis had two interceptions early and lost a fumble in the fourth quarter in their loss against Cincinnati.