NFL Power Rankings Week 10: Cream rises to the top

Every week, we write these power rankings and ask ourselves, have there ever been these many awful teams in the NFL? The league this year feels full of badly run organizations with terrible rosters on one end, a fair few mediocre teams, and then a handful of elite, title-contending teams at the top, one of whom we have become incredibly familiar with in recent years …

We said after the Raiders beat the Ravens, it always felt like one of those strange, early-season games that doesn't really tell you anything about either side. That's proven to be true as the Ravens look among the best teams in football and the Raiders fired a bunch of coaches and sit a joint-worst 2-7 on the year.

There is more optimism in New England as Drake Maye clearly has the talent to compete in the NFL, he just needs a whole lot of upgrades around him. This is a badly constructed roster that may take another year or two to turn around.

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Dennis Allen's tenure came to an end after the Saints lost for the seventh time in a row on Sunday. Per SaintsWire, the team is currently -$64 million in 2025 cap space, making this one of the least desirable jobs in sports.

Jameis Winston never fails to entertain. It's often bad, sometimes humorously so, but it's hard to look away from. The Browns have handled their quarterback situation terribly, and it is biting them where the sun don't shine now. Given who they signed, we struggle to have too much sympathy.

The Panthers won a game with Bryce Young at QB for the first time this year, and that deserves some (muted) applause. Young was barely playing at a replacement level during the game and was still able to get the win, which probably tells you more about the Saints than anything…

It was better from the Giants as they pushed the Commanders until late in the game, even if it never felt like they had a chance to win. Brian Daboll's time in charge must be coming to an end soon, he simply isn't performing at a high enough level to keep his job.

The Jags had a few things break their way on Sunday and could have beaten the Eagles in Philly, which could have been a huge turning point in their season. Taking a step back, however, you realize they were dominated in pretty much every phase all game, and it should never have been that close. Another team whose head coach will surely be sent packing soon.

Injury to insult for the Cowboys, who expect Dak Prescott to miss multiple weeks with a hamstring injury, per NBC Sports. They are also waiting on the results of an MRI scan on star receiver CeeDee Lamb, meaning this team could be down their two best offensive players. They're 3-6 and their season may be over already.

The Titans scraped the win against the Pats which is sometimes all you need to do, however, as Nate Davis writes for USA Today, it, “Looks like second-year QB Will Levis might return just in time … to face the Chargers' unforgiving defense on the road,” which is probably more detrimental than anything.

The Dolphins look like a competent team again with Tua back under center. While we don’t think he is among the top QBs in football, he has shown that he is more than capable of leading an explosive offense when healthy. Still, at 2-6, the playoffs look a long way off for Mike McDaniels’ team.

So, 39-year-old Joe Flacco probably isn’t the long-term answer. That’s not a huge surprise to anyone who’s been paying attention, but it is worrying for the Colts, who may have to turn back to second-year player Anthony Richardson at some point, even if it’s just to give him reps.

We had high hopes for the Seahawks heading into the year, now after five losses in six games, we may have to accept we got that wrong. It’s not that this is a bad team - the defense is improving, and Geno Smith makes some great plays, they’re just not a good team yet, either.

It always felt a year too early to be expecting the Broncos to be anywhere near contending, and Sunday proved that to be the case as they were crushed by the Ravens for four quarters. Bo Nix looks feisty and is fun to watch, there are still a lot of inaccurate passes which worry us, however.

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The Jets’ win on Thursday Night Football against Houston could prove to be the catalyst for a big turnaround. We need to see it to believe it, which is why the Jets are still 19 in our rankings. There is a chance this offense becomes a real force in the back-half of the season, and that could make them a scary proposition.

Caleb Williams didn’t have his best game against the Cardinals on Sunday, which is to be expected of a rookie quarterback. We think the Bears need a coaching overhaul, as there’s simply too much talent for this team not to be winning more games.

This may be an emotional decision to have the Bucs as low as 17, but why did they not go for two at the end of the game? Surely everyone knows what’s going to happen if you let Patrick Mahomes have the ball last?

The wins keep coming for Jim Harbaugh on his return to the NFL. Justin Herbert is executing the offense with his usual precision, and this running game is eating teams alive at the time.

We have a feeling the Bengals could be about to go on one of their patented runs and make the playoffs despite an awful start to the season. If we’re wrong, we’ll find out soon enough, as they face the Ravens on TNF in just a couple of days.

As Frank Schwab writes for Yahoo Sports, “Head coach Jonathan Gannon has done a very good job with the Cardinals' defense. That side is making big strides with few blue-chip players.” The Cardinals lead the NFC West, which is weird to write.

The Rams seem destined for a late-season surge as their star receiver return from the injury report and Matthew Stafford makes throws no one else in the NFL even attempts. Sean McVay is an unbelievable football coach.

We’ve kept the Niners ahead of the Rams and Cardinals for now, as we still believe they are a more talented team. They are also only 4-4 and have road trips to Tampa, Green Bay, and Buffalo on their schedule in the next four weeks.

The Falcons had a lot of pre-season buzz after the acquisition of Kirk Cousins to go along with their myriad offensive weapons. Now, they are showing us why as they stack up wins. Bizarrely, they are 3-3 at home and 3-0 on the road, so maybe the number one seed wouldn’t be beneficial even if they got it.

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The loss to the Jets was ugly, with the offense looking a shadow of its former self without Stefon Diggs and Nico Collins in the lineup. Collins’ return will do a lot to fix these issues, if they don’t, this could be a ‘what if?’ season for the Texans.

Frank Schwab expressed our worries around the Vikings well for Yahoo Sports here, “Sam Darnold can’t get into a turnover slump. He had three bad ones against the Colts. That’s been his issue through his career, and seeing him revert to that version of himself was troubling.” If he can stop the turnovers, this is a tough team to beat.

We were very strongly against the Steelers moving to Russell Wilson as the starter over Justin Fields, and we were wrong on the evidence presented to us so far. Now, we need to see Wilson put it together over the rest of the season. If he does, the Steelers are going to be a tough team to beat in January.

Jordan Love leads the league (tied with Geno Smith) with 10 interceptions on the season, including one of the worst you’ll see in Sunday’s loss to the Lions. We still believe he can be an elite QB, but he needs to stop the turnovers.

The Eagles’ offense looked transformed on Sunday with motions and shifts and Jalen Hurts playing at a high level. There is still an air of uncertainty around this team even when they keep winning games.

The Commanders did what they had to do against the Giants and got the win. Jayden Daniels is playing at an incredibly high level and has surely locked up OROY. Washington takes on Pittsburgh and Philly in their next two games, which will be a real litmus test for this team.

Another comfortable win for the Ravens and Lamar Jackson. What can we write about this team that we haven’t already? They’re well coached, loaded with talent, and may have the best player in football on their team.

For us to have the Ravens at 4 should tell you what we think of the teams ahead of them. The Bills just get it done, with Josh Allen throwing passes to basically everyone wearing a Bills uniform. It wasn’t their best defensive performance, but it was enough in the end.

There are a lot of power rankings that have the Lions as the top team in the NFL, and we can understand why. For us, they are a notch below Kansas City just because we've seen the Chiefs win on the biggest stage time and time again, which is not something we've seen from Detroit… yet.

The only undefeated team in the NFL, the Chiefs are, once again, looking the most likely team to win the Super Bowl. They aren't the most exciting team to watch these days, but they grind teams down and then Mahomes hits you with the knockout blow.

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