NFL Power Rankings after Week 11: A Wild Week

Another week of NFL football is in the books. For the most part, the NFL has settled into a familiar pattern of good teams beating bad and mediocre teams fighting over scraps.  Still, NFL Sundays are never short of excitement, and week 11 was no different.

Sorry, Panthers fans, it is starting to feel like a pile-on at this point. The NFL is a brutal league where one mistake can set a franchise back half a decade, will we be looking at the Bryce Young pick as doing exactly that for the Panthers?

The Pats have stunk up the league all year. Mac Jones is not a franchise quarterback and Bill Belichick, despite all his coaching qualities, is not a good general manager. Time for change in New England.

Kyler Murray is back and looking like he never left, unfortunately, there is just a severe lack of talent almost everywhere else on this team. Possibly the most intriguing team to follow in the offseason.

Ultimately, losing against the Lions despite a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter does more for the Bears’ future than winning it. Bad coaching, a weirdly constructed roster and questions at QB, the Bears could turn it around within a year or two, but they need to be bold.

Stop the presses, Tommy Devito is heading the Hall of Fame! We were harsh in our appraisal of the Giants' third-stringer after last week, this week we may be looking at the next great Giants QB! Jokes aside, Devito balled out and deserves some sincere praise.

Sam Howell’s future is difficult to predict. Some weeks he looks like a legit starter, and others he looks a long way short of the proverbial Dalton-Line. Washington traded away some key players at the deadline giving them some extra draft capital to make some moves if needed, maybe for a QB?

The Titans were blown out by their AFC South rivals, the Jaguars. Only some fun trickeration late in the game got them points on the board, giving monster defensive tackle Jurrell Casey an unlikely receiving TD.

The Rams are who we thought they were, a mostly mediocre team with a few studs. Unfortunately, one of their studs, Cooper Kupp, could be missing for a while with an ankle injury, making them far less competitive. Still, their win against Seattle could be impactful in the playoff seedings.

It feels like anyone with a platform spends a good portion of every week in the NFL season defending Justin Herbert. This was another week where it’s hard to do anything other than that, he is playing at such a high level and getting let down by his teammates and coaches alike.

Could ‘Gross Negligence of an NFL Quarterback Room’ be made a federal crime? If it was, the Jets would be sent away for a decade. Going into the season with an aging Aaron Rodgers, Zach Wilson(!), and Tim Doyle (!!!) as his backups is awful mismanagement and deserves ridicule. Sorry, Jets fans, this was looking like your year and you’ve been let down.

The Falcons have gone back to Desmond Ridder for the remainder of the season, which is probably the right thing to do. Ridder isn’t good, but he’s young and given his play, there’s room for improvement. Atlanta is still only one game back in a terrible NFC South.

Brock Purdy had four incompletions and three TDs against what was supposed to be the strong point of the Bucs. Despite mostly decent play by Baker Mayfield across the season, this is a team going nowhere in its current iteration.

Jordan Love’s rollercoaster season continues. The talent is there, even is he hasn’t played to his full potential with any consistency yet. We loved the Jayden Reed pick at the time, and he’s looking like a true weapon moving forward.

Tyreek Hill went for 146 yards and Aiden O’Connell threw three picks, despite that, they only lost by seven points to a very good Dolphins team. This team is playing as tough as anyone and will be in the playoff hunt for the rest of the season.

2023 is not the Bengals’ year. A brutal injury to Joe Burrow sees them fall out of any realistic Super Bowl contention. TNF is not popular with players, and this AFC North matchup showed why as both teams lost key players for the season.

A well-coached team at the beginning of a new cycle. This year was all about getting Anthony Richardson settled into the NFL and testing Shane Steichen’s mettle as a head coach. Richardson’s injury could’ve been a big blow, but the Colts have remained competitive all year.

The Josh Dobbs fairytale couldn’t continue forever in Minnesota. It came to a potentially juddering halt against the Broncos as the terrible nicknamed ‘Passtronaut’ gave away two tough turnovers (one was a blatantly illegal hit causing a fumble in his defense.) Let’s see how the Vikings respond next week.

The Saints aren’t good, but they aren’t bad either and will prove tough competition for almost any opponent. They are currently sitting at .500 atop the NFC South, which sums up where that division is at.

Broncos country, let’s ride! We’re jumping on the Broncos bandwagon and will simply refuse to jump off until it inevitably crashes and burns in inexplicable circumstances. Suddenly, the Broncos are just two games back in the division and hold the head-to-head tie-breaker against the Chiefs...

We’ve not been as high on the Seahawks as some this year, and this week’s loss showed why. Geno Smith’s rise to a legit starting QB is impressive but probably unsustainable. No one will want to face them come playoff time given some of their talented pieces, but talent-wise they don’t quite match up.

Despite how well the Steelers have competed this year, winning consistently in the NFL with this bad of an offense is almost impossible.

A nice bounce-back win for the Bills who, despite more losses than they would like, have a shot at making the playoffs. Their schedule doesn’t get any easier with big games against the Eagles, Chiefs, and Cowboys next up.

Another game, another win for the Texans. Many in the media had some optimism about this team, but no one expected this. Tank Dell is a stud at WR and his connection with fellow rookie C.J. Stroud is seriously impressive.

The Browns' defense is still one of the elite units in the league, but logic suggests that isn’t enough to win it all in the NFL these days. Dorian Thompson-Robinson doesn’t look comfortable on an NFL field at this point and it doesn’t seem like there are too many options beyond him.

The Jags sit atop the AFC South and are only one game back in the conference. Whilst they may not be as talented as some other teams in contention for the number one seed, but they are well-coached and were able to get Calvin Ridley going in the passing game again.

Jalen Ramsey’s two interceptions were out of this world great and essentially won the Dolphins the game. We still don’t quite trust this team against the elite teams in the league, but the improvements on offense are very encouraging.

This was very nearly a gut-check game for the Lions following Jared Goff’s three picks. This is a very good team, there is just a lingering feeling that they won’t match up well against the other elite teams in the NFC.

Mahomes had a couple of misses and his receivers dropped a ton of catches. Travis Kelce doesn’t look like his old self anymore and these offensive tackles are not good. Ultimately, drops cost the Chiefs on MNF but that is how they have constructed their roster, the loss to the Eagles showed how difficult it will be to beat the best teams in the league with this receiving corps.

The Cowboys are playing great football and still find themselves two games back in the NFC East. Ultimately a comfortable win against the Panthers doesn’t change too much, but good teams beat up on bad teams and that’s exactly what they did on Sunday.

We were very critical of Brock Purdy during the Niners’ three-game losing streak, so it’s only fair to give him his flowers when he plays well. He went 21/25 for 333 yards and three scores, if he can keep up that level of consistency, stopping this team is going to be almost impossible.

For now, we are leaving the Ravens near the very top of our rankings as we wait to see how big an impact the Mark Andrews impact has on this passing attack. The Ravens have a one-game lead in the AFC and the inside track to the number-one seed and the all-important home-field advantage.

Has this team played well with any consistency this year? Probably not, yet they sit 9-1 with the best record in the league following their Super Bowl rematch with the Chiefs. For most of the game it felt like they were getting handedly beaten, yet they left Arrowhead Stadium with a victory which is so far the story of their season. The Eagles are the team to beat.