NFL power rankings: Chaos ensues, new No. 1 rises as Lions, Bills lose
Three weeks, three different teams landing in the No. 1 spot.
The Lions’ second loss dropped them well out of the top spot, but that’s partly circumstantial given clustered field.
Seek stability? Look at the cellar.
NFL power rankings entering Week 7 of the 2025 season (previous rank in parentheses):
1. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4): If the season ended today – it doesn’t – they’d have home-field advantage and the bye in the NFC playoff field. If the season ended today – it doesn’t – QB Baker Mayfield would very likely be the deserved league MVP. Mayfield and Co., who took their first game-ending kneeldowns of the season Sunday, have also consistently shown they can win in crunch time and without all of their top players. Still not convinced? Maybe you will be if the Bucs pass their next test – in prime time against a wounded Lions team in Motown.
3. Los Angeles Rams (8): WR Puka Nacua’s ankle sprain comes at an unideal time, the team parked in Baltimore before it continues east to London. Glass half full, the team’s bye week arrives following this weekend’s U.K. matchup with the Jags.
6. Denver Broncos (10): A week after knocking off an undefeated team, they nearly got knocked off by a winless one. Still, this defense may be the league’s single most dominant unit – its 90 sacks since the start of last season 28 more than any other team. With a league-high 30 in 2025, the Broncos are on pace to smash the 1984 Bears’ single-season record (72).
8. Philadelphia Eagles (3): A team with RB Saquon Barkley and QB Jalen Hurts in its backfield is on track to rush for nearly 400 yards fewer … than Barkley alone did in 2024? What? Is? Happening? Here?
10. Kansas City Chiefs (14): Talented, older teams six days removed from the banana peel against an upstart apparently respond with a crisp effort – four TDs, no penalties, no turnovers – against a fellow league power. And reinforcements are on the way now that WR Rashee Rice’s suspension has been served while LT Josh Simmons should return from his one-game absence.
11. Detroit Lions (1): This is an appropriate place to take a pause − and ask if it’s appropriate to drop a team from first overall to 11th merely because a dominant four-game winning streak was snapped? Maybe not? But 1) the Lions, after feasting on lesser competition, were unequivocally handled in their losses by the best teams they’ve faced so far (Packers, Chiefs) and 2) the apparent upper echelon of the league is so tightly packed, with 14 teams sporting a winning percentage of .667 or better (plus three more that are 3-2), that it’s tough to distinguish those currently clustered together – as next Monday’s matchup with the Bucs will likely attest. DB Brian Branch’s self-inflicted suspension hardly helps, either.
12. Pittsburgh Steelers (13): You’ve got to love Mike Tomlin going fully petty mode and atypically blistering an opponent − namely Cleveland’s trade of QB Joe Flacco to the Bengals, which costs Pittsburgh a Jake Browning matchup on a short week. Shouldn’t matter given the Steelers are right at home next to Cincy’s one river, where they’ve won 10 of their past 12.
13. New England Patriots (15): Mike Vrabel next takes his surging squad – off to at least 4-2 start for the first time since Tom Brady’s final year in Foxborough (2019) – to Nashville … where he won’t even get the satisfaction of beating the coach who was hired to replace him.
15. Washington Commanders (11): They doubled their season turnover total from three to six Monday night. QB Jayden Daniels kept them in their loss to Chicago ’til the end regardless but could really some of his weapons back.
16. San Francisco 49ers (7): We know, they’re still in first place with a sweep in the bag after going through the division once. But how is an already middling defense going to survive the losses of Nick Bosa and Fred Warner?
19. Carolina Panthers (23): In case you were wondering, RB1 Chuba Hubbard is in the first season of a four-year, $33.2 million extension – though it only has $4.5 million guaranteed after 2025. Hard to say what it means for revelatory replacement Rico Dowdle, who’s getting $2.8 million this year, but stands to reason Hubbard will at least be back in the mix soon.
20. Atlanta Falcons (24): Coach Raheem Morris keeps hammering away that RB Bijan Robinson ‘is the best player in football.’ After his career-best 238-yard night, which included an 81-yard TD bolt, beat the Bills, who’s to say Morris is wrong?
22. Dallas Cowboys (16): Owner Jerry Jones has (justifiably?) taken a lot of flak for trading DE Micah Parsons and deserves more for failing to make an attempt at retaining Dowdle, Dallas’ leading rusher in 2024. But give Jones credit for the acquisition of WR George Pickens, who has 19 catches for 359 yards and four TDs in the three games injured CeeDee Lamb has missed. Of course the next question is how Jones will handle Pickens, who’s scheduled to hit free agency in 2026, financially.