NFL Power Rankings, Week 4: Chiefs, Packers look Super Bowl bound

Another week of glorious NFL action is in the books. Just like every week, some teams moved up and some moved down in this week’s power rankings.

As we begin to see tiers emerge, the power rankings are beginning to finally find some stability. That being said, there have been some major upswings and downward falls. While the Raiders hung in with the Bills, Josh Allen continued to shine. The Chargers had the lead on the Buccaneers until Tom Brady led the team on a vintage comeback that gave them the win. To round out the AFC West opponents, Denver beat out the Jets who look as bad as any team in recent memory.

The Chiefs, of course, took care of business against the Cam Newton-less Patriots. This leaves them all alone in a tier of their own. Baltimore and Buffalo look like they may be on a collision course for the 2nd seed in the AFC playoff picture. Is Cleveland emerging as a playoff contender? Here are our Week 4 Power Rankings:

The Chiefs won again after blowing the top off of the game in the 4th quarter. The Chiefs had a few hiccups throughout the game, but they showed off how incredibly explosive they are once again. Mecole Hardman, Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelce, Sammy Watkins, and Clyde Edwards-Helaire catching passes from Mahomes is unfair. Additionally, the Kansas City defense looks more capable over the last couple of weeks. Kansas City is alone on top of the heap.

The Packers have lit a fire in Aaron Rodgers‘ gut. By drafting a quarterback in the first round, they have essentially accelerated the passing offense. Rodgers looks as electric as ever and the Packers look very tough to beat. In fact, they may be in their own separate tier above the Seahawks and below the Chiefs.

For the first time in Pete Carroll’s tenure, he has unleashed Russell Wilson in the passing game. Wilson has looked like the frontrunner for MVP at this point as he seemingly throws 10 touchdowns a week to DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett. Although they seem like they can’t stop anyone, that offense is a spectacle.

Josh Allen has been a very pleasant surprise this season. Whether it is gunning the ball downfield or running with it, Allen has looked good. Although Buffalo has yet to live up to their defensive potential, the offense is improved. They should be in a footrace with the Ravens for the 2 seed in the playoffs.

The Ravens beat Washington as if they were playing against a team of second-stringers. Lamar Jackson is brilliant whenever he isn’t playing the Chiefs or Titans and the blitz heavy defense has been highly effective against everyone but Kansas City. The Ravens have won their games big and have had great production from their ground game. They will need more of that if they hope to hold on to the division.

Like the Titans, the Pittsburgh Steelers had an impromptu bye week due to COVID testing. They have looked solid to this point, especially on defense. If Ben Roethlisberger can get the most out of his weapons, the Steelers may push the Ravens for the top spot in the AFC North.

New Orleans is clawing their way back into relevance and seems just a step away from climbing the ranks on the NFC side of things. Alvin Kamara might be one of the top offensive players in the game. If Drew Brees can put it together for one more top 10 quarterback season, the Saints might be a scary team down the stretch.

Tom Brady may not be what he once was, but he has yet to truly fall off of a proverbial cliff. A comeback win against the Chargers looked like vintage Brady, but they still have not looked dominant at any point this season. If they can win some of their upcoming games, they may turn some heads. In the next two weeks they can prove that they can take care of business against teams that they should beat (Chicago) and a true contender (Green Bay). Brady and company have a lot to prove.

The Titans’ season seems to be in limbo at this point. With a bunch of positive COVID cases, it puts their teams’ success in jeopardy. Tennessee is very good at winning games in an ugly fashion and is more talented than most people give them credit for. How well they will play as they come out of this COVID catastrophe remains a mystery.

The Rams win games. They are not very exciting to watch, but they have one of the most underrated receiving corps in football. After being considered a Super Bowl contender, the Rams fell far last season. With some tight wins, they’re moving their way back into that conversation.

Indy won against the undefeated Bears this week and Philip Rivers did the unthinkable for Philip Rivers standards: He didn’t throw any debilitating interceptions that cost his team a victory. Rivers had a knack for making poor decisions late in the game when he played for the Chargers. The Colts are well-coached but don’t seem to have many offensive playmakers. That might be enough in the AFC South.

The Cardinals seem to be on the decline. After starting the season hot, they’ve crashed back at .500 with consecutive losses to the Lions and Panthers. DeAndre Hopkins and Kyler Murray are still fun to watch, but they do not look like they are going to be able to carry the team to victory by themselves. The Cardinals are young and should improve with time, but they shouldn’t lose games like this.

New England is without Cam Newton for a while as he is out with COVID-19. Despite this, the Pats put up a fight for the first three-quarters of the game against the Chiefs. They are well-coached and manage to stay in games no matter who they are matched up against. While they couldn’t hold on against the Chiefs, they had a lot of opportunities to take the lead and just made uncharacteristic mistakes. Bill Belichick will keep them competitive.

Cleveland hasn’t beaten a good team all season long. That being said, they are not losing games that they should win like they did last season. Additionally, they seem to understand that Baker Mayfield is not what gets the offense moving. It’s all about their ground game. Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt are a very good ground duo. With a win in Dallas, Cleveland showed that they aren’t as miserable as many projected them to be. If they could prevent other offenses from putting up so many yards, they may get even better.

The 49ers dropped another game. After losing to the Cardinals when they were fully healthy, they lost to the Eagles with Nick Mullens starting the game and C.J. Beathard finishing it. It was a pitiful showing for San Francisco, but when they are fully healthy they should look better. For right now, however, they need Jimmy Garoppolo back ASAP.

The Bears finally lost! Chicago was the obvious fraud team amongst the undefeated. Now they dropped a game against the Indianapolis Colts. Nick Foles is not a joke like Mitch Trubisky, but they are still far from a top tier team. They will have a chance to showcase their resiliency, but at this point, it is hard to see them moving up any time soon.

The Raiders are a weird team. Derek Carr is a talented quarterback. Jon Gruden is on an enormous contract for another 7 years. They come close to winning games but seem to continuously fall short. Although the Bills are a good football team, Las Vegas showed that they are incapable of playing with the big dogs. That being said, they could be decent eventually.

Carolina has shown some grit. It turns out that Robby Anderson is very good and the Jets were just ruining another talented player. Further, the team has now won back-to-back games despite the injury to Christian McCaffrey. Arizona was widely projected to defeat the Panthers, but Carolina played very well and won in commanding fashion. Carolina could have some upward mobility in weeks to come.

The Chargers are better than the record implies. They have not lost to a bad football team and they have serious talent on their team. Justin Herbert looks better than he was expected to at this point, and the defense has looked strong, especially on the front end. Los Angeles needs a few playmakers and, if they can find them, they may win some big games.

Detroit stays in games long enough to fool people into believing that they are a solid team. Matt Stafford and Kenny Golladay have a connection that is as good as any in football. However, Detroit has had a difficult schedule, and they are getting no help defensively.

The Dolphins are not good at this point and could be looking to Tua for a spark soon. That being said, they are far from the level of horrendous that they were at this point last season. Miami just needs a boost. It’s just hard to see where that will come from.

Joe Burrow will be a very good quarterback. If he was not running for his life, he would already be mentioned in those conversations. The Bengals got a win against the Jaguars this week and they show flashes of greatness. Unfortunately, those flashes are rare to see at this point. Burrow will only get better, which should be fun to watch.

Jacksonville looked like a more talented team at the season’s beginning. Now, they look to be sliding further and further down the ranks. Gardner Minshew has looked like a serviceable quarterback and the defense hasn’t been as bad as some expected to start the season. There is a lot to be desired and room to grow, but Jacksonville has been playing a bit above expectations.

Minnesota finally got a win! They also handed the Texans their final loss of the Bill O’Brien era. The Vikings have a long way to go to be a relevant football team, but they have taken the first step in getting there, which is to simply not be the worst.

The Eagles, by some miracle, find themselves on top of the NFC East this week. After knocking off Nick Mullens and the 49ers, they have exactly one win, which is all it takes to be the best in that division. Although the Eagles are moving in the right direction, they are still not a very good football team at this time.

The Texans have been moving in the wrong direction in the power rankings, but they may be starting to move in the right one as a football team. The team announced Monday that they were moving on from Bill O’Brien. O’Brien is far from the only reason for the team’s struggles thus far, but it is a start.

Dallas is terrible. They could not even begin to slow down the rushing attack for the Cleveland Browns. Despite Dak Prescott‘s 500-yard game, the Cowboys fell short yet again. The team’s problems are not all attached to their coaching staff The defense looks horrendous and they do not look like the team they were hyped up to be. Death, taxes, and the media over-hyping the Cowboys.

Washington has an interesting young squad. This will likely not be their year, but they could be a team to watch out for in two years. For now, they look like a bunch of young guys that don’t quite know what they are doing yet. Playing in the AFC East, they could still shock everyone and win the division.

Denver is a shell of the team they should be. At this rate, it will be a miracle if they have any starters who are healthy by year’s end. That being said, and speaking objectively, Denver showed that they are not a pushover team by beating the Jets on Thursday night. It will be a challenge for them to win more games, however, with such a large group of backups starting.

Dan Quinn has a job for now. If more reasonable people were running the franchise, he would have been fired on two separate occasions this season. The defense is horrendous and they have blown leads consistently. There is very little hope in Atlanta, but if the Falcons are looking for a coach next season, Eric Bienemy may be a nice fit.

The Giants have looked pitiful all season, but this week they looked less horrendous in their matchup with the Rams. Although the game ended in a brawl started by Jalen Ramsey and Golden Tate, the game was largely a snoozefest. Saquon Barkley was the team’s lifeline and now they look locked into another battle for the first overall pick.

Bill O’Brien lost his job before Adam Gase. It is what it is, but the Jets lost a game to the Broncos that had second-string players everywhere and started Brett Rypien at quarterback. New York is among the worst teams of recent memory and, if Gase continues to be the head coach, things will not change.