I am usually quite cynical when it comes to the NFL eclipsing non-football related events on the calendar but am thankful this year that our presidential election falls on both the trade deadline and after a pretty consequential week of football. This is not because I want to ignore the presidential election. This isn’t a cynical take on the candidates. I have nothing to offer in that regard and I’m sure there’s plenty of places you can go to find it. 

Forgive the platitude, but I like having a structure that keeps us all on the same plane of existence even when it feels like we’re miles apart. This feels like a surface level thing to say but not until you’ve traversed the part of life where you go from saying it because it’s a nice thing to say to feeling the exact opposite and shutting people of a different belief out of your life, to coming full circle and just trying to grab at the common ground because having more people in your corner is better than having fewer. I know I have a luxury in being able to say this and for some people their political and social lives are irreparable. Because of what I do for a living—a job I’m incredibly grateful for—it keeps me in a kind of eternal social middle ground where anyone and everyone I speak to wants to talk about football. It’s not a “stick to sports” deal for me, though. It’s a “let’s connect over how disappointing the Cowboys are before we have the tough conversations” kind of deal.  

So, take care of one another in the coming days and weeks. Each other is all we got. Join me in seeing exactly how far we can force the Cowboys down the list. 

Last week’s ranking: No. 1
Last week’s result: beat Green Bay, 24–14
This week: at Houston

Full thoughts on the Lions here. My TL;DR point: this team has now survived almost everything. They have recovered from a Goff-ian dip in the middle of a game; they have recovered from season-altering injury; they have recovered from the crippling weight of hype and now they have recovered from their second-best defensive player getting tossed out of a game because the NFL likes to look like a good babysitter when the parents are watching. They have won in myriad ways. They know who they are from a deeply personal place and aren’t afraid to be those people. It’s quite fun to see it all happening. 

Last week’s ranking: No. 7
Last week’s result: beat Denver, 41–10
This week: vs. Cincinnati 

I wrote about Derrick Henry here and the fact that he’ll cash in on many of his incentives before Baltimore hits the December portion of its schedule. Pretty cool and—admission time—makes my take on his initial free agent signing feel dangerously off. An editor and I were having a discussion about positing Henry as a down-QB year MVP candidate when, in reality, one of the main reasons we couldn’t make that argument in 2024 was because of Lamar Jackson. Since Week 3, Jackson has been the NFL’s most efficient QB. He adds more on a down-by-down basis than any other QB in the sport. 

But let’s not just talk about the skill positions here. Baltimore’s offensive line recovered from a disastrous performance the week prior against Cleveland and allowed just one QB hit and sack against a very good Broncos defense. 

Last week’s ranking: No. 2
Last week’s result: beat Tampa Bay, 30–24
This week: vs. Denver

Alright. Alright. Breathe. We’ve reached the part of the season where I want to have a legitimate conversation about situational strength of schedule. There are some teams that have played the equivalent of three Rose Bowls already and the Chiefs not only have a horrid conference schedule outside of the Chargers but, after a narrow win over Baltimore in Week 1, have barely beaten a wildly inconsistent Bengals team at home, a wildly inconsistent—and still early-season rusty—Falcons team, a Saints team that just lost to the godforsaken Panthers and the 49ers before their stars came back. 

I know I’m going to get some pushback and I suppose this is Kansas City’s burden, but I have to start considering style points, especially after a Buccaneers game that should have ended a handful of times before the Chiefs got the ball in overtime. I don’t think we have the ability to argue that any quarterback is better than Patrick Mahomes or any coach is better than Andy Reid. What we can argue is that Baltimore is a completely different team than the one that lost to Kansas City in Week 1 by a toenail. 

Last week’s ranking: No. 3
Last week’s result: beat Miami, 30–27
This week: at Indianapolis 

So this will be a little more arm-chair psychologist than you’re probably looking for. But when we talk about power, one aspect of that is belief. And, when your maligned kicker drills a 61-yard game winner into 9 mph winds at a notorious kicker hellscape in Buffalo, you really start to feel a total confidence in every part of the roster. 

The same goes for a battered Buffalo defensive backfield that saw some players step up. Kaiir Elam, another maligned player on this roster, had his shoulder popped back in. He gutted it out with a pretty difficult game plan to execute against a healthy Dolphins receiving corps that asked the Bills defensive backs to chase down Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle and be very physical with them at the line of scrimmage. 

Last week’s ranking: No. 4
Last week’s result: beat New York Giants, 27–22
This week: vs. Pittsburgh

The first big test for Commanders GM Adam Peters has arrived. We’ve approached the trade deadline and his head coach, Dan Quinn, has succeeded in creating immaculate vibes. The question now becomes how do you try and enhance them, if at all? The Commanders obviously need stuff—they need starters in their secondary, depth in their receiving corps, help at the offensive line. But will they compromise the long-term plan for an accelerated start that no one saw coming? 

Last week’s ranking: No. 6
Last week’s result: beat Indianapolis, 21–13
This week: at Jacksonville

I am still blown away that, at the end of this game, Mike Tirico queued up Cris Collinsworth to say with absolute certainty that Sam Darnold will not be the quarterback of this team in 2025. Obviously, that’s why you draft J.J. McCarthy, but that revelation went largely unnoticed amid a Sunday Night Football victory. Sam Darnold is good! We don’t know how McCarthy is healing! We don’t know, really, anything about him at all. Why is this team so hell-bent on hitting the rookie contract advantage when success is already here at this moment? 

Last week’s ranking: No. 5
Last week’s result: lost to Detroit, 24–14
This week: bye

I thought this game was an excellent yard marker for the Packers. Here is where they are, and across the field is where they have to go. The difference is how they catch big passes in critical moments, or how they respond to another team’s own brand of machismo—like, not shoving your finger in someone’s face mask right in front of an official. The Lions are a team of now and the Packers, a team of very soon, learned something vital in a rain soaked loss Sunday. 

Last week’s ranking: No. 8
Last week’s result: bye
This week: at Washington

Coming off their bye, the Steelers now have two straight no-ticket-cheaper-than-$200 games against the Commanders and Ravens. I’m a believer but am dying to see in action how this Pittsburgh defense can suppress two of the best offenses in the NFL right now and, arguably, the two best quarterbacks in the NFL at the moment as well. 

Last week’s ranking: No. 10
Last week’s result: vs. Jacksonville
This week: at Dallas

The Nick Sirianni-coaster remains a ride worth enjoying. Seeing both Doug Pederson and Sirianni on the field together Sunday, both feeling the same vitriol from their fan base despite inverse records, was a true Philadelphia oil painting in real life. The city’s own boulevard of broken dreams. Here’s to unparalleled success for the Eagles this year, and a head coach and fan base that drive one another crazy being tied together for all eternity. 

Last week’s ranking: No. 9
Last week’s result: bye
This week: at Tampa Bay

We shipped the Giants and Panthers to Germany this coming weekend for a truly horrid international game. In return, the Germans sent us back Christian McCaffrey. Talk about a trade deficit! HEYOOOOOO. 

Last week’s ranking: No. 13
Last week’s result: beat Cleveland, 27–10
This week: vs. Tennessee 

Tarheeb Still is another name that we didn’t know and now we know. The Chargers’ secondary was heavily dependent on rookie 2024 fifth-round draft picks and was the second best defense in the NFL on Sunday against a Browns offense that, the week prior, torched the Ravens. This is the difference between what kind of players Harbaugh and Joe Hortiz were able to bring in that the previous regime struggled to identify. 

Last week’s ranking: No. 11
Last week’s result: lost to New York Jets, 21–13
This week: vs. Detroit

The Texans follow up a loss to the Jets with a game against the Lions. And while Detroit will have its hiccup weeks and could very well simply not show up for this game, we’re looking at a Texans team that could face some real attrition after the fairytale end of their all-world rookie season in 2023. 

Last week’s ranking: No. 15
Last week’s result: beat Seattle, 26–20
This week: vs. Miami

Over the last two weeks, the Rams have assembled a top-10 offense in terms of EPA per play and a top-two defense in terms of EPA per play allowed. While this young defense coming together behind rookie Jared Verse is a big part of this story, the fact that Matthew Stafford was clinical even after Puka Nacua tried to throw a knockout punch on the field says all it needs to say about the Rams’ prospects for a late-season run. 

Last week’s ranking: No. 17
Last week’s result: beat Chicago, 29–9
This week: vs. New York Jets

This was another really strong week for the Cardinals’ offensive line. Quietly, we could argue that the Cardinals have top-25 players at every position. Kyler Murray has been sacked as many times in nine games (nine) as Spencer Rattler was in three starts with the New Orleans Saints. On Sunday against the Bears, that meant paving the way for a rush-heavy and checkdown-heavy game plan against a Chicago team that took some of the vertical components of Arizona’s passing game away early. 

Last week’s ranking: No. 20
Last week’s result: beat Las Vegas, 41–24
This week: at Baltimore

As Joe Burrow tries to obviously set a standard for this team that is not being set elsewhere, I find it interesting that a receiver who went AWOL from the club—and possibly found himself at a casino—is getting to play on Thursday Night Football against the division-rival Ravens. Between this and Tyrique Stevenson—not to sound like a boomer—the bar for actual, learn-from-your-mistakes punishment seems incredibly low in the NFL right now. 

Last week’s ranking: No. 12
Last week’s result: beat Dallas, 27–21
This week: at New Orleans

Over the last three weeks, Atlanta has had the 14th-best defense in the NFL. I found it interesting that Dak Prescott was one of the most conservative QBs in the NFL against them on Sunday. Like, Joe Flacco against the Vikings, Derek Carr in a spiral against the Saints-level conservative. Could we be seeing the respect arriving for this unit before the accolades that come via statistics?

Last week’s ranking: No. 14
Last week’s result: lost to Kansas City, 30–24
This week: vs. San Francisco

Todd Bowles getting roasted for not going for two because of the analytics ignores the fact that Kansas City’s situational defense is excellent. They excel at defending mid-range plays, especially ones that are going to challenge a defense sideline to sideline. Plus, two-point conversion success percentages are way down this year, as we’ll get into a few teams from now. That has to be taken into account. 

Last week’s ranking: No. 19
Last week’s result: lost to Los Angeles Rams, 26–20
This week: bye

The challenge now for Mike Macdonald becomes less schematic than it does emotional. The Seahawks have regressed to that frustrating, middling point that we remember so fondly under the Pete Carroll era. Their games are still maddening and beautiful and thrilling, but Macdonald was brought in with the chops to scheme around the mess and the humility to pull a team out of the decline. Can he do it? 

Last week’s ranking: No. 18
Last week’s result: lost to Arizona, 29–9
This week: vs. New England 

I think it’s time to remove ourselves from the heat of the Matt Eberflus situation and realize that there’s some momentum around the feeling among the fan base that he’s not the answer in Chicago. And when a market gets a tailwind for an idea like that, fans start to view choices that yield a negative result as incorrect choices. For example, Eberflus blitzed Kyler Murray before the half—the exact thing that the fans, in hindsight, wanted Eberflus to do against Jayden Daniels on the Hail Mary drive—and it yielded a 50-plus yard rushing touchdown. It’s up to Eberflus’s bosses at this point to determine whether this is one in a line of many incorrect decisions, or if it’s convenient for us to label these decisions as wrong in the moment.  

Last week’s ranking: No. 16
Last week’s result: lost to Minnesota, 21–13
This week: vs. Buffalo 

I got a lot of “see?!” replies on Sunday when the Colts lost to the Minnesota Vikings based on my take that, yeah, it’s sensible that Shane Steichen benched Anthony Richardson for many reasons. And that contingent of the “he needs to play” crowd grew louder when, I wonder, if they watched the game at all. Do we know what that defense would have done to a quarterback who came into the game with a passing EPA of minus-30 and the fourth-highest sack rate in the NFL? There’s a point when reps lose their purpose. This was a graduate level defense. 

Last week’s ranking: No. 26
Last week’s result: beat Houston, 21–13
This week: at Arizona

I’m aware the Jets lost to the Broncos (located one spot below) but in the case of the power rankings, we’re talking about the ceiling on a kind of immediate, eight-week long stretch of time. I am on record as saying I think this Jets team still has a run in them, and after a Thursday night win over Houston and a 10-day break, I’m ready to give them some space and confidence to play it out. The Arizona game is basically a playoff matchup. I could see the Jets gutting one out and I could see them getting completely boat raced. 

Last week’s ranking: No. 21
Last week’s result: lost to Baltimore, 41–10
This week: at Kansas City

It’s surprising how much this team has accidentally patterned itself after their in-state collegiate neighbors, the Colorado Buffaloes. The head coach does some serious chest pounding after the big wins over tomato cans and gets walloped when most of the ranked opponents come to town. They’ll be bowl eligible (or, in Denver’s case, borderline playoff eligible) but I remain dubious about the realization of some grand plan.   

Last week’s ranking: No. 24
Last week’s result: lost to Buffalo, 30–27
This week: at Los Angeles Rams

Getting swept by Buffalo effectively ends most sensible avenues toward a playoff berth for Miami, though it doesn’t seem fair. When finally healthy, the Dolphins were one silly, and, given Jordan Poyer’s history in Buffalo, understandable in the heat of the moment penalty, away from getting this game into overtime and possibly upending the best team in the division and one of the top teams in the conference. Miami’s matchup against the Rams next Monday loses some of its luster as it would be the first of many miracles Miami would need to remain relevant through winter months in which they typically struggle. 

Last week’s ranking: No. 22
Last week’s result: lost to Atlanta, 27–21
This week: vs. Philadelphia 

Cooper Rush is 5–1 as a starter in Dallas, which, to me, points to how well Mike McCarthy has handled the bulk of his time with the Cowboys. Which, to me, points to why he probably should have gone into this season with a contract extension. Which, to me, points to why he should have been given at least enough security so that he could hire a better defensive coordinator than Mike Zimmer. Anyway, as we wrote Monday, teams wind up in perilous situations largely of their own doing. Rush and McCarthy will get to ride out into the sunset together.  

Last week’s ranking: No. 23
Last week’s result: lost to Philadelphia, 28–23
This week: vs. Minnesota

The rushing statistics for Jacksonville against Philadelphia were inexcusable. The Travis Etienne experience should hopefully, mutually, end at the trade deadline as both sides clearly need a fresh start. 

Last week’s ranking: No. 25
Last week’s result: lost to Washington, 27–22
This week: at Carolina

So, the Giants are now 0-for-6 on two-point conversions this year. And, league-wide, two-point conversion attempts are down roughly 20% from the year prior. While there were certainly some outlier moments, like the team’s egregious swinging gate attempt against PIttsburgh, I understand what is likely behind Brian Daboll’s explanation (which is that the Giants are heavily analytics based in their approach). This team needs to find some semblance of confidence. They need to get the narrative weight of the season off their shoulders. 

Last week’s ranking: No. 27
Last week’s result: lost to Los Angeles Chargers, 27–10
This week: bye

As the Browns bottom out yet again and we start hearing people debate the merits of trading Myles Garrett—which wouldn’t happen—I think about some of the truly incredible players who saw a majority of their careers pass by amid some seriously wild, book-worthy ridiculousness in Cleveland. Garrett, unlike Joe Thomas, at least got to experience the playoffs. But I would argue that he’s digested as much ineptitude. Playing one’s entire career in, like, Pittsburgh or Baltimore or Buffalo or Kansas City or New England starts to look like an incredible gift in hindsight. 

Last week’s ranking: No. 31
Last week’s result: beat New England, 20–17
This week: at Los Angeles Chargers 

The Titans are a mess and are largely a team without an identity. That doesn’t change the fact that I’ve grown to admire Brian Callahan for his brutal honesty throughout this season. Whether it was his response to Will Levis’s early season turnover theatrics or, more recently, a thorough exposing of the league in their inconsistencies with illegal formation penalties. Then, we had Callahan nearly being moved to tears after the team beat New England in a game that almost no one else in the world cared about. I can see a scenario where the team rallies around a person like this.  

Last week’s ranking: No. 30
Last week’s result: lost to Tennessee, 20–17
This week: at Chicago

Sometimes, I find the NextGenStats-ification of our football society is ruining some of the discourse by robbing the game of its inherent beauty and making it more quantifiable. However, seeing Drake Maye basically buy himself the same amount of time on a game-ending pass from inside the 10-yard line as Jayden Daniels did on a Hail Mary was the perfect marriage of technology and moment. 

Last week’s ranking: No. 32
Last week’s result: beat New Orleans, 23–22
This week: vs. New York Giants

Bryce Young had never been able to kneel out a football game before until Sunday against New Orleans. And, at least via my watching of the game, he was robbed of a long touchdown pass to David Moore that would have really padded this stat line and made it look impressive. But on the sideline, I saw someone finally at peace in the moment. Someone who was high-fiving all of his players as they went through the tunnel. Laughing with Andy Dalton. Let’s reset the evaluatory period and go from here. I’m optimistic. 

Last week’s ranking: No. 29
Last week’s result: lost to Cincinnati, 41–24
This week: bye

I have a lot of curiosity around and sympathy for the interim-turned-full-time head coach, which is why I often try and measure my criticism. But Antonio Pierce is almost certainly assuring that another interim doesn’t get a job like this for a long time. Thrice benching his quarterback. Firing his offensive staff halfway through a season. Calling out his players. Failing to do the one thing—establish some kind of identity—that he managed to do post-Josh McDaniels. My only curiosity is what direction new minority owner Tom Brady goes from here as a player who has only known stability.  

Last week’s ranking: No. 28
Last week’s result: lost to Carolina, 23–22
This week: vs. Atlanta

Band-Aids don’t fix bullet holes, and firing Dennis Allen is not going to change the fact that the Saints have been one of the most egregiously mismanaged franchises since 2010. Over the last 14 years, this complete disregard for the salary cap or a healthy roster build has led to seven playoff appearances and one trip to the conference title game since Super Bowl XLIV.