NFL Power Rankings after Week 13: A new leader emerges

Another week, another set of interesting results in the NFL that sets up a fascinating finish to the season. With the expanded playoffs giving only one team a bye, the number one seed is now incredibly valuable making the next five weeks of football more important than ever. Let’s see where every team is ranked…

The Panthers put up somewhat of a fight against the Bucs following the firing of Frank Reich, but they aren’t very good. Whoever is coaching this team next year needs to invest heavily in the offensive line and get Bryce Young a legit receiver.

The Pats lost 0-6 against the Chargers meaning they scored zero points (none, nada, zippo). A truly embarrassing season for New England. It just feels like the Pats need to lick their wounds, get some fresh faces in the building, and reset. It just feels harder for them after the two decades of dominance that preceded this malaise.

The Commanders were picked apart by the Dolphins who could run or pass at will. We said at the time trading away their two premier pass-rushers was a confusing move and as the season goes on it looks more and more inexplicable. Where does this team go next?

The Giants may have Tyrod Taylor returning for the last few games of the season, which doesn’t make any sense. It would be far better to let Tommy Devito play out the year and see if they have something worth investing in there. The best-case scenario is he plays well, and you lose out, getting a top-five draft pick in the process.

Of course, the Cardinals beat the Steelers. That somehow makes perfect sense in a season that continues to confound. It looks like Arizona has a stud in Trey McBride at TE and Kyler Murray is playing OK on his return from injury, so maybe a quarterback isn’t an immediate need in the offseason.

The Bears are at a critical juncture as a franchise, do they keep riding with Justin Fields or do they invest in a new quarterback? The next month or so of games have become very important all of a sudden.

The Titans somehow had two punts blocked against them on Sunday, truly a remarkable feat. Otherwise, they played a good game, eventually losing in OT to the Colts. There is a lot of work to do to turn this team around, and we still aren’t sure Will Levis is the guy to do that.

Pack it in for the season, this is not a team worth watching at this point. Defensively they remain exceptional, but as we know, that simply isn’t enough to win in the NFL. Tim Boyle and Trevor Siemian combined for zero TDs and a pick in their brutal 8-13 loss. Awful.

The Raiders have looked better since McDaniels’ firing, but they still haven’t looked good. They need a quarterback badly, as Aiden O’Connell doesn’t look like the guy to take this franchise forward.

The Bucs are 5-7 and only one game back in their division. There isn’t too much to add here, they are a mediocre team playing in a mediocre division, and like many others, they need to figure out who’s coaching and quarterbacking next year.

Justin Herbert played quite well against the Pats given the context of the game. A turnover could have easily been the difference, and he was able to avoid that. Honestly, we just can’t wait to see him with a competent coaching staff around him, this team could take off quickly if they make the right hires.

For a while, it looked like the Saints were going to get blown out by the Lions, but they were able to claw it back and make a close game of it. It was a fairly impressive performance in the end even if they weren’t able to pull off the comeback. Another team with lots of question marks going into the off-season.

OK, Jake Browning, that was a legitimately impressive performance against the Jags. The former Washington Husky went 32/37 for 354 yards and a score, and added another score with his legs. It’s probably too late for the Bengals to make a run at the play-offs, but Browning may have just made himself some big money.

The Falcons sit 6-6 and lead the NFC South, every week it feels like we write the same things about the NFC South, this team is not good but is set to make the play-offs etc, etc. Anyway, that is what’s going to happen even with Arthur Smith’s weird coaching style.

The Vikings are fairly well positioned to make a run for a wildcard spot in the NFC, but after their last performance, we are not sure how likely that will be. Ultimately, despite the Josh Dobbs band-aid, their season was over with the injury to Kirk Cousins, but at least they’ve tried something, which is more than can be said of other teams (looking at you NYJ).

The Colts are 7-5 with Gardner Minshew at quarterback (who is playing pretty decent football) and seem set up for the long term with Shane Steichen calling the shots. It’s tough to say who’s had a better first year as a HC, Steichen or Demeco Ryans.

Jordan Love was excellent on SNF against the Chiefs, tearing their defence apart all night. He looks athletic, decisive, and in control, with time he could emerge as a near-elite QB. The Packers are another team in the wildcard hunt and could prove tough come January.

This could be a little high for the Rams, but something about how they played on Sunday suggests they are about to go on a run. Would you want to be facing Matthew Stafford et al. in the play-offs? Probably not which is why they are ranked slightly higher than teams with similar records.

Is the dream over for the season? No, but the Broncos’ loss on Sunday makes the play-offs that little bit further away. Russell Wilson throwing three picks certainly doesn’t help matters.

Despite the loss, the Seahawks looked good against the Cowboys, at least on the offensive side of the ball. There are certainly some things to iron out as they probably should’ve won that game, but it’s certainly not all doom and gloom in Seattle.

It’s tough to be taken too seriously as a contender when you lose by multiple scores to the Cardinals. The Steelers did lose Kenny Pickett during their game on Sunday but given how impactful his play is, there really isn’t too much of a drop-off to Mitch Trubisky behind him.

The Bills didn’t play in week 13 and have risen a spot in the rankings… We’re not too sure either, especially when they are set to face the Chiefs, Cowboys, Chargers, and Dolphins before the end of the season. If they make the play-offs they will have played some lights-out football along the way.

The Browns just sneaked into the top 10 following a loss to the Rams. We will need to see if Joe Flacco can keep playing at a decent level before we make any drastic changes.

If Trevor Lawrence’s ankle is badly injured, the Jags’ season is all but over. Their loss on MNF to the Bengals exposed some flaws with this team that have at times been papered over by good QB play. This is very much another ‘wait and see’ ranking.

If Lawrence is injured, possibly the biggest winners are the Texans as their path to winning the AFC South just got a lot easier. Nico Collins went for 191 yards on Sunday which just shows how much production this team has been able to get out of guys who aren’t household names (yet). It’s incredible.

Seven feels too low for the Chiefs as they could very easily turn this around and win the Super Bowl, but something feels off. Despite all the metrics suggesting they are one of the best teams in football, they don’t feel convincing at the moment.

The Lions are one of three teams with a 9-3 record in the NFC and arguably have the easiest schedule of them all. Their matchup against the Cowboys in a few weeks could go a long way to deciding who gets home-field advantage or not.

The Ravens are one of the best teams in the NFL and have been all season. Their only competition for the number one seed now looks like the Miami Dolphins and whoever gets that will be a brutal matchup for anyone in the NFL.

The Dolphins are the real deal and seem to firing on all cylinders again after a slight mid-season dip in form. Defensively, they are improving week by week despite the loss of Jaelan Phillips and their offense continues to look mostly unstoppable.

The Eagles were blown out at home by the Niners which is not a good look for a team that was riding its luck a bit. Having said that, they are in the midst of one of the hardest stretches of games you could have in the current NFL, and it is tough to win them all. They are still 10-2 and in control of the number one seed at the moment. Dallas is coming next though…

We’ve been very high on this Dallas team all year, and they continue to show why. They didn’t play their best football against the Seahawks on Thursday, but were able to scrape through with a win, something they haven’t been able to do in recent times. Dak is playing like an MVP right now, which makes this team tough to stop.

The Niners were looking to avenge their loss in the NFC Championship game and were up for the fight against Philly on Sunday. After a slow start, they blew the Eagles away and now have a real chance to overtake them for the number one seed. This is a very difficult team to stop.