2021 NFL Power Rankings, Week 4: Rams claim top spot, Steelers and Bears plummet

The Los Angeles Rams take the No. 1 spot in new 2021 NFL Power Rankings after upending the Buccaneers while the proud Steelers and Bears are plummeting. 

Week 3 of the 2021 NFL season brought with it plenty of anticipation. Fans were excited to see how the top teams in our 2021 NFL Power Rankings last week, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Los Angeles Rams, face one another. Moreover, we were looking forward to the debut of Justin Fields, a huge Chiefs-Chargers matchup in the AFC West, and much more.

From record-breaking field goals to multiple games coming down to one final possession, NFL Week 3 delivered on the excitement we had for Sunday’s action. Now, it’s time to see how that affects the way the league stacks up to one another.

Who’s rising and who’s falling in our 2021 NFL Power Rankings coming out of Week 3 and entering Week 4? Let’s find out, starting with a new team at the bottom of the hierarchy.

New 2021 NFL Power Rankings entering Week 4

Not that the New York Jets were far off to begin with but Robert Saleh’s club now drops to the bottom spot in our 2021 NFL Power Rankings. But really, there isn’t an argument remaining at this point for them to possibly be any higher than this.

On Sunday, the Jets went on the road to Denver and got flat-out embarrassed by the Broncos. There wasn’t a single phase of the game in which New York looked competent. Zach Wilson’s struggles continued as he went only 19-of-35 for 160 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions. And the offensive line continued to not do him any favors as they surrendered five sacks.

But beyond that, the ground game managed only 3.3 yards per carry, the defense had exactly zero answers to anything the home team wanted to do and, all told, the Jets looked as if they would be more comfortable playing against college teams than quality NFL teams.

There is a case to be made that injuries have adversely affected Gang Green this season but, even still, a season that was supposed to be optimistic has decisively not been that so far.

You could make the argument that the Jacksonville Jaguars showed more life in Week 3 than they had in the first two weeks of the season, which was a bit of a shock considering they were playing the unbeaten Cardinals. But at the end of the day, they still lost 31-19.

There were some wild moments against Arizona, none crazier than Jamal Agnew taking a missed 68-yard field goal 109 yards for a kick-six score at the end of the first half to give the Jaguars a 13-7 lead.

In fact, Jacksonville was up 19-10 late in the third quarter. As bad teams tend to do, though, they had no answers and made critical mistakes down the stretch to allow 21 unanswered points.

Trevor Lawrence flashed once again but he certainly played like a rookie on a team that’s not doing him any favors, throwing two interceptions (one returned for a touchdown by Byron Murphy) and faltering late in the game when the Jags could’ve pulled off the upset.

I remain extremely dubious that Urban Meyer is cut out for coaching in the NFL and this game didn’t do anything to convince me otherwise. Jacksonville should be thankful the Jets exist so they are no longer at the bottom of the power rankings.

Just going down the box score without looking at the final tally, you’d have to think that the New York Giants emerged victorious at home over the Atlanta Falcons as both teams entered this game with a winless record.

Joe Judge’s team had more first downs, more total yards, a better yards per play average, the same number of turnovers (1), and even saw running back Saquon Barkley find the end zone for a rushing score for the first time since 2019. That all seems like things broke the Giants’ way.

But they didn’t. New York dropped to 0-3 with a 17-14 loss as Younghoe Koo kicked a game-winner as time expired.

All told, most of this game was incredibly ugly because, as it turns out, it was two bad teams in a war of attrition. However, it often seems that the G-Men find themselves in these situations and then can’t convert. After scoring a touchdown and two-point conversion early in the fourth quarter, they allowed the Falcons to go on an almost-nine-minute drive and tie the game up.

New York’s offense then shot themselves in the foot with a sack-fumble that killed a drive, thus setting up Atlanta’s game-winning drive in 1:50. Until the Giants show that they won’t botch close games, it’s going to be hard to buy into the positive things that are there with Daniel Jones and more.

Davis Mills gained more notoriety for possibly having a Guinness World Record for the longest neck (at least for an NFL player) in Week 3 than the rookie did for his first start at quarterback with the Houston Texans. That pretty much sums up what you need to know about this team.

You could make the argument that the Panthers, a team that kept getting hit with injuries, didn’t play remotely their best game on Thursday Night Football and Carolina still never felt out of control. Mills wasn’t a trainwreck by any stretch but he did nothing to elevate an offense that simply lacks a lot of talent right now.

On that note, you have to feel bad for wide receiver Brandin Cooks at this point. He’s out on an island with this team and has been playing exceptionally well, accounting for 112 of the team’s 168 receiving yards in Week 3. But he has no help and it’s tough to watch a player of his talent suffer like that.

It’s going to be a long road ahead back to success for the Texans and, unfortunately, that road likely extends past the 2021 season.

When the Detroit Lions kicked a go-ahead field goal with just over one minute left in regulation and then forced the Ravens into a fourth-and-19 situation, they had to think that their first win was in the books. They probably still felt that way when Justin Tucker lined up for a 66-yard field goal.

But such is life for a Lions fan. Tucker’s NFL record try hit the cross bar and bounced into the net for the three points Baltimore needed to win. Now, Detroit drops to 0-3 on the season. There have been definite signs for optimism though.

While D’Andre Swift and Jamaal Williams both averaged under 4.0 yards per carry, they are versatile weapons who have been effective. Moreover, Jared Goff has played well to this point and the defense, though lacking in speed, depth and talent, plays their hearts out for 60 minutes.

This won’t be a year drenched in success for the Lions. However, head coach Dan Campbell has his team playing with belief and they aren’t going to be an easy win for any of the other 31 teams in the league this year.

Full disclosure, I’m not going to knock the Colts too much in these 2021 NFL Power Rankings for losing to the rival Titans. Yes, this team is 0-3 on the year and they have some serious trouble ahead with the way things have looked. But the number of hardships they’re being dealt is getting a bit ridiculous.

Indy was already in a tough spot coming into this game as quarterback Carson Wentz was unsure to play until late on Saturday after suffering two sprained ankles in Week 2. That showed as he was clearly less mobile than normal. It was also exacerbated by the fact that more injuries piled up for the Colts.

Superstar offensive guard Quenton Nelson left this game, leaving an offensive line already short-handed with Braden Smith out in dire straits. Moreover, the team also saw rookie first-round pick Kwity Paye leave this game as well, putting the defensive line in need of pressure-creators off the edge.

While I wasn’t particularly high on the Colts when they were at full strength, the fact that they are so banged up in areas they can’t afford to be only makes the situation that much worse. They get matchups against the Dolphins and Texans and their backup quarterbacks in two of their next three games, so maybe that will help spark some momentum for a team that needs something positive to happen.

Fans were ecstatic — even if it only came about due to an injury — to see the first start of rookie quarterback Justin Fields with the Chicago Bears. That anticipation was quickly met with existential dread as the first-round pick the franchise traded up for was baptized by fire against the Browns.

Fields was sacked an astonishing nine times on the day as the Bears much-maligned offensive line hung him out to dry in the eventual 26-6 loss to Cleveland. The quarterback wasn’t alone as the rushing attack had nothing going as well and, if not for a strong early defensive performance of their own, this game would’ve really gotten out of hand.

While it was a less than stellar debut for the rookie, who finished 6-of-20 for 68 yards, the blame falls back on Matt Nagy yet again. The head coach is supposed to be an offensive guru but he failed to call hardly any rollouts or boots to utilize Fields’ athleticism and skill set and to try and mitigate the O-line getting beat to a pulp.

At this point, it would be a stunner if Nagy makes it through the remainder of the 2021 season. His decisions both on macro and micro levels continue to make absolutely no sense and put his team at a detriment.

After getting blown out twice, the Atlanta Falcons gave first-year head coach the first victory of his career on Sunday as they went on the road and clawed out the win.

It wasn’t necessarily pretty for the Falcons as they continued to struggle in the rushing game — or at least find some consistency with it — and as veteran quarterback Matt Ryan has still not found ways to get Calvin Ridley and Kyle Pitts in line to utilize their explosive playmaking, evidenced by the fact that Cordarrell Patterson led the team in receiving with 82 yards.

Yet, when the Giants took a 14-7 lead in the fourth quarter, Ryan and Atlanta’s offense were methodical in driving down the field and tying up the game with a one-yard pass to Lee Smith. The defense then came up with a play when they needed it most as Dante Fowler sacked Daniel Jones to force New York to punt. That made way for a two-minute drill that culminated in a game-winning Younghoe Koo kick.

Atlanta clearly has more potential than they’ve shown so far this season, even if they aren’t a playoff team. There are going to be plenty more losses to come but the hope would be that this builds some momentum to see a bit more fight from the Falcons.

Is it possible that the Taylor Heinicke magic is starting to wear off for the Washington Football Team? It sure seems like it with the beating the Bills delivered on Sunday in Buffalo — or, rather, Orchard Park.

Sure, the backup quarterback whose legend was growing coming into this matchup made some plays, throwing two touchdowns and putting his body on the line once again to rush for another. But the negative plays, including two turnovers, were super costly. However, it also plays into the real issue with Washington.

Many people were expecting Chase Young, Da’Ron Payne and the Washington defense to be one of the best units in the league. They’ve decisively not been that and the Bills put that on full display as Josh Allen picked them apart with easy, which is even more telling given that Buffalo had not been clicking offensively wholly prior to this game.

Until the Football Team gets their defense figured out and especially while Heinicke is still starting, this team could fall dangerously behind in the NFC East race.

When T.J. Watt was ruled out for Week 3 due to injury, I was wondering if we would see the true identity of the Pittsburgh Steelers come out to play, particularly on offense. And I believe that we did in a 24-10 loss to the Bengals in which the black and gold were thoroughly dominated for much of the day.

There’s no doubt that Pittsburgh’s success this season will come on defense, but their salary cap situation has rendered them super thin on that side of the ball. So with Watt and Alex Highsmith missing this game, the Steelers couldn’t muster any pressure on Joe Burrow and he and Joe Mixon took advantage of that.

More importantly, though, Ben Roethlisberger looks completely toast at this point. Sure, he threw for 318 yards, but he was also throwing over 50 times as he tried to play catch-up and couldn’t do anything down the field, giving Najee Harris an aburd 19 targets out of the backfield. The offensive line only makes things worse as a bad unit is now starting to get banged up as well.

Point blank, if the Steelers aren’t dominating defensively, they don’t have the offense to win many games. And it’s not out of line to say that Mike Tomlin’s streak of never finishing below .500 might be in legitimate jeopardy this season.

Underdogs at home against the Seahawks, the Minnesota Vikings didn’t just pick up their first win of the 2021 season on Sunday but they did so in pretty convincing fashion, which was admittedly surprising for a team coming off such a heart-wrenching loss a week ago with the missed last-second field goal.

Kirk Cousins took advantage of the fact that the Seattle defensive front was largely unable to generate pressure as he threw for 323 yards and three touchdowns while taking one sack. And it should be said that Alexander Mattison stepped up beautifully with Dalvin Cook missing the Week 3 contest as he rushed for 112 yards in addition to racking up six catches for 59 receiving yards.

While the Vikings made the plays to get the win, it should be said that this win might have a lot to do with Seattle and what their outlook for the rest of the year is. There were mismatches that were exploited by the Seahawks against Minnesota’s defense but they seemed to lose the plot when it mattered.

All told, Minnesota clearly has talent but their holes are equally apparent. It’s hard to see them making the playoffs in an increasingly loaded NFC but they will rack up some impressive wins along the way as well.

(Play on Monday Night Football vs. Cowboys) – We haven’t seen the Eagles in Week 3 because they play in primetime, visiting the rival Dallas Cowboys for the home opener in JerryWorld. And that’s tough because, through two games, it’s hard to know what to make of Philadelphia.

In Week 1, they took it to the Falcons in every sense. Jalen Hurts looked on the verge of a true breakout season in full control of the starting job and everything seemed to be working for them. But then the matchup against the 49ers last week saw them start hot and then all but completely stall for the rest of the game as they lost a rock fight with San Francisco.

Hurts is clearly dangerous and talented but the offense has been a bit befuddling to this point. There is no semblance of a run game outside of the quarterback using his legs and the receiving corps has largely been asked to either catch deep shots or they aren’t making plays. That’s a tough way to forge a path to success, especially with holes on defense in the secondary.

Now, with Brandon Brooks and Brandon Graham out for some time, the Eagles are without key components in the trenches on both sides of the ball. They still have a lot to show us and the game against the Cowboys should be quite enlightening.

Though we’re still talking about a small sample size three weeks into the season, it’s starting to look like there might be some real growing pains for Mac Jones in his first season with the New England Patriots and in the NFL. And the Saints picking him off three times in a 28-13 loss for Bill Belichick’s club was perfect evidence of that.

Jones is an extremely smart and accurate young quarterback; that’s undeniable. But there are problems with his game that can be exacerbated jumping from college to the NFL. He lacks mobility, meaning that pressure can force him to make bad throws or decisions. On top of that, his arm strength is lacking in comparison to his peers, which further increases the degree of difficulty for him to find success.

I remain fully confident that, in a long-term view, that Jones can develop and the Patriots can put the pieces around him for the team to have a successful offense with him at quarterback. But against teams that aren’t the Jets or that don’t have a good defense this season, the Pats are going to be outmatched.

The Saints didn’t even play all that well offensively and still toruched the Patriots on Sunday. That says all you need to know about the outlook in New England.

When it was announced that Tua Tagovailoa would be out for at least three weeks after being placed on IR with a rib injury, it seemed as if hope was lost for the Miami Dolphins for the immediate future, even with veteran Jacoby Brissett set to take over as the backup.

And to be sure, Brissett was largely uninspiring in Week 3 against the Raiders. He was a bit too conservative until late in the game when he was forced to push the ball downfield a bit more and that hindered the offense at times. But a strong Dolphins defensive performance and a clutch run and two-point conversion from Brissett forced overtime against a good Las Vegas team.

Now, Miami was definitely playing with fire for much of the game. They jumped out to a 14-0 lead after an 85-yard pick-six from Elandon Roberts and then a big run from Malcolm Brown. After that, though, the Raiders scored 25 unanswered points to ultimately force the Dolphins to come back and force the extra period, where the Dolphins matched field goals to start but couldn’t stave off the final game-winning field goal drive.

Still, with the deck stacked against them, Brian Flores’ team showed a ton of heart and pushed a 3-0 team to the brink. That says a lot about the make-up of Miami and gives hope that they can weather the storm with Tua on the sidelines.

Given the struggles of the Bengals offensive line, it does feel safe to say that the team was fortunate to catch the Steelers in Week 3 when their AFC North rivals were playing without T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith. That undoubtedly made things much easier for Cincinnati but, at the end of the day, the team is off to a 2-1 start to the year.

It was an impressive offensive performance for the Bengals, even if the box score didn’t get lit up. Joe Burrow was efficient going 14-of-18 for 172 yards with three scores, two to rookie Ja’Marr Chase and his since-departed drop issues, though he did throw a pick. Joe Mixon also kept up his strong start to the year with 90 yards on 18 carries.

But the unsung hero of this game was the Bengals defense. Not only did linebacker Logan Wilson get two interceptions on the day but he led the team in tackles. Meanwhile, the front four got after Roethlisberger throughout the day and made the statuesque veteran look troubled quite often. That’s a positive Cincinnati can build on.

I’m still not sure the Bengals will end up being a playoff team or even above .500. But they clearly have the building blocks for something with this franchise and it’ll be exciting to keep watching them put the pieces together.

There are plenty of shiny and effective toys on the Seahawks and we saw a good bit of them in Week 3 against the Vikings. Russell Wilson threw for 298 yards, D.K. Metcalf had a 100-yard day along with a score, Chris Carson averaged 6.7 yards per carry and also scored, and Jamal Adams led the team in tackles.

Yet, Seattle lost 30-17 to a Vikings team that entered the week at 0-2. And that should worry people.

First and foremost, Seattle’s defense is not good. THeir secondary is fine but is going to struggle when they have to match up with players players like who the Vikings can throw at them with Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen. More importantly, they just don’t have the guys up front that are going to consistently be able to generate a pass rush, which puts more pressure on the secondary bodies to be perfect or get burned.

What’s more shocking, though, is that this offense appears to be almost listless. They’ll explode for big plays but then change the game plan on a dime, even if what they were dong was working. That allowed the Titans to come back and beat them in Week 2 and kept them from coming back in Minnesota. Until that gets figured out, the Seahawks are in serious danger of dropping games they frankly shouldn’t.

If you somehow were able to get odds on the Kansas City Chiefs coming out of Week 3 in last place in the AFC West prior to the start of the year, then you’re probably counting your boatloads of cash at this point.

Kansas City dropped their second sight game on Sunday as they fell 30-24 at Arrowhead to the Chargers. And really, the Chiefs have no one to blame but themselves for this loss. Not only did their defense not have any answers for Keenan Allen, Mike Williams and Austin Ekeler in the passing game but there were so many self-inflicted wounds for the defending AFC champs.

Patrick Mahomes was far from perfect in this game as he threw two picks but his teammates also hurt him a bit with Clyde Edwards-Helaire (who played well outside of his turnover) and Tyreek Hill each lost a fumble. Even with how potent this Chiefs offense is, that’s tough to survive, especially against a good team like the Bolts.

Frankly, things have looked a bit sloppy for the Chiefs to start the season. There’s no reason to believe they won’t sort it out because, well, that’s what we’ve come to expect from them. But until that time, we have to dock them heavily in these 2021 NFL Power Rankings.

Coming off of a hard loss to the Cowboys and going right to Arrowhead Stadium seemed like a tough spot for the Los Angeles Chargers but this team showed that they deserve all of the credit they were getting coming into the season with a gutty and opportunistic  performance against the rival Chiefs to ultimately pick up a crucial 30-24 win to move to 2-1 on the year.

Justin Herbert continued to look phenomenal as he picked apart a susceptible Kansas City defense. He fed Mike Williams, including on the eventual game-winning touchdown pass which was Williams’ second of the game, but also utilized Austin Ekeler out of the backfield and found Keenan Allen for some key throws.

What was both intriguing and encouraging, though, was the defensive performance. Head coach Brandon Staley is trying to reshape this unit in terms of how we play and, even if the Chiefs helped them do that a bit, that showed on Sunday with great pressure creation up front and some playmakers stepping up and changing possession for the Chargers.

Things don’t get easier for the Chargers as they draw the Raiders, Browns and Ravens in their next three outings. But this was a big win to right the ship and keep the season afloat before that tough stretch.

(Play on Monday Night Football vs. Eagles) – The Dallas Cowboys move up one spot in our 2021 NFL Power Rankings even though they’ve yet to paly in Week 3 largely because they need to be kept ahead of the Chargers considering that they beat LA a week ago.

We know how good this offense can be and we saw evidence of that against the Buccaneers as Dak Prescott nearly outdueled Tom Brady in the NFL Kickoff game. It’s also a pleasant surprise to see Tony Pollard get the usage he did against the Chargers as the backup running back adds another explosive element to that side of the ball.

However, what is driving a lot of optimism in Dallas is the defensive performance thus far. Even without arguably their best player on that side of the ball in DeMarcus Lawrence, the Cowboys held the Chargers to just 17 points. This group is playing hard and smart and executing a plan. They won’t be a brick wall on a down-to-down basis but they have enough talent in place, even if it’s not experienced talent, to make splash plays in key moments to swing the game.

If we can continue to see that from the defense, we know the offense is going to deliver game-in and game-out. And that could be the path to not only the playoffs and winning the NFC East but perhaps a postseason run from this team.

Last week, the Tennessee TItans had to claw back to pick up a thrilling win over the Seahawks in overtime. This week, Mike Vrabel’s team had to overcome more obstacles, most notably an early injury to star wide receiver A.J. Brown that kept him sidelined for the rest of the game, to beat a downtrodden division rival.

But credit to the Titans for weathering the storm yet again. Ryan Tannehill was throwing to guys like Nick Westbrook-Ikhine and Chester Rogers and still managed to toss three touchdowns on the day, though there were two interceptions mixed in as well.

That being said, there are reasons for real optimism with Tennessee moving forward. Derrick Henry is back to his old ways of just wrecking defenses as he had another 100-yard rushing day but the Titans defense is also showing up, especially on the back end with the likes of Kristian Fulton really playing well.

With matchups against the Jets and Jaguars looming over the next two weeks, we could very easily be looking at a 4-1 Titans team in the near future.

The New Orleans Saints came into Sunday’s matchup in Foxborough against the Patriots seemingly with the goal of making a rookie quarterback’s life pretty miserable. They undoubtedly succeeded in that with a suffocating defensive performance that ultimately led to a 28-13 victory that moves the Saints to 2-1 to start the 2021 season.

While New Orleans only levied two sacks on Mac Jones, they put him under constant pressure in this game, as shown by the fact that they put 11 QB hits on the first-year player. That led to an ineffective Patriots offense and, more importantly, three interceptions thrown by Jones on the day to set up Jameis Winston and the offense.

Any trepidation about the Saints offense with their new starting signal-caller remains warranted. He threw two touchdowns with no interceptions in Week 3, which is positive, but also went just 13-of-21 for 128 yards. He continues to be an enigma but, thankfully, Alvin Kamara remains a big-time weapon that is hard to stop given his versatility.

When the Saints defense plays like they did, though, they’re going to be in a lot of games. And the hope would certainly be that Winston continues to find his footing as the year goes on to make this a more complete and dangerous threat in the NFC.

You can’t leave Aaron Rodgers with any amount of time on the clock if you’re Kyle Shanahan. The San Francisco 49ers deserve a ton of credit for trading blows with the Packers in the second half on Sunday Night Football but the fact of the matter is that the head coach made a game-management error late that led to Rodgers driving down for the game-winning field goal.

The 49ers played well enough to win in Week 3 against a good Packers team that has left their season-opener woes behind them quite swiftly. But they gave one of the most clutch quarterbacks in NFL history 37 seconds to complete a drive to get into field goal range and he delivered.

Jimmy Garoppolo, outside of an ugly late sack-fumble, played extremely well against Green Bay, despite not getting the best protection on the night and not having much of a reliable run game, shockingly enough. That’s still unlikely to quiet the calls for Trey Lance, though. But the biggest surprise was that the Niners defense barely had any answers for the Packers offense.

This isn’t a game for San Francisco to hang their heads after, even if it was a loss. This team can still do some serious damage in the NFC and nothing we saw outside of clock management suggested otherwise on Sunday night.

Aaron Rodgers most definitely isn’t quitting on the Green Bay Packers, at least not during this season. There were jokes fired off at will after Week 1 but the reigning NFL MVP has answered the call for two weeks in a row with exceptionally strong performances that now have his team sitting comfortably at 2-1 on the year.

The future Hall-of-Fame quarterback and the Green Bay offense basically had their way with the 49ers in the 30-28 victory. You would’ve liked to see them convert a few fourth-quarter drives that resulted in field goals into six points instead so that late heroics from Rodgers driving down the field in 30 seconds to set up Mason Crosby’s game-winner aren’t necessary. But still, this offense remains the goods.

What was promising more than anything for the Packers, however, was the performance of a defense that was raising questions. The front seven got good pressure on the 49ers offense and a run defense that had been quite leaky to start the year really shut down one of the best-designed rushing schemes in the league.

With the rest of the NFC North not doing much to inspire a ton of confidence through the first three weeks, the Packers look firmly in control of the division. The big question is if they have what it takes to elevate to the next level and possibly compete for a Super Bowl.

In the simplest terms, the Denver Broncos did exactly what a good team should do. Vic Fangio’s club was one of seven remaining undefeated teams in the NFL heading into Week 3 and they welcomed a winless and hapless Jets team to Mile High for their first home game of the season. And they dominated New York.

While Teddy Bridgewater continued to play well despite losing another wide receiver to injury with K.J. Hamler leaving this game. The quarterback complete 19-of-25 passes for 235 yards, though he didn’t throw a touchdown pass, but also remained interception-free for the 2021 season.

This was a defensive showcase for the Broncos as they took advantage of a bad offense, registering five sacks, nine QB hits, picking Zach Wilson off twice and limiting the Jets to just 162 yards of total offense on the day.

But now we’ll start to learn just how good Denver is. As noted by Ryan O’Halloran of The Denver Post, the Broncos’ schedule increases substantially in difficulty as their opening three games against the Giants, Jaguars and Broncos now leads them to play the Ravens, Steelers, Raiders and Browns over the next four weeks.

As expected, the Carolina Panthers went on the road for Thursday Night Football to Houston and pretty easily took care of business. Sam Darnold continues to look rejuvenated now that he’s free of the curse of Adam Gase as he threw for 304 yards with no turnovers.

However, the star for Matt Rhule’s team continues to be the defense. Brian Burns and Haason Reddick are arguably the best edge rushing duo in the NFL that no one seems to be talking about while the secondary has played well and Shaq Thompson looks like a superstar at linebacker.

Sadly, the story coming off their 3-0 start now is the injuries they suffered against the Texans as star running back Christian McCaffrey left with a hamstring injury that will sideline him for multiple weeks while rookie cornerback Jaycee Horn broke multiple bones in his foot and will miss a substantial amount of time.

Carolina obviously weathered those injuries against the Texans but, as the level of competition is set to ramp up in the coming weeks, it’ll be interesting to see how the Panthers deal with those losses.

Odell Beckham Jr. returned to the field for the Browns for the first time in just shy of a year after recovering from a torn ACL and he led the team with 77 receiving yards on the day. And somehow, that wasn’t remotely the biggest story for the sharp-dressed Browns as they won handily at home over the Bears, 26-6.

Cleveland’s defense and defensive end Myles Garrett were the story of the victory for this franchise, which now sits at 2-1 on the year. Garrett alone had 4.5 sacks and six QB hits on the day but the team as a whole registered 9.5 sacks and completely stonewalled anything Chicago wanted to do, holding them to under 70 total yards of offense on the day.

Kareem Hunt had is biggest game of the year with 81 rushing yards, 74 receiving yards and a touchdown for the affair. Baker Mayfield also continued to play well with a 246-yard, one-touchdown performance with no turnovers, even with the offensive line banged up and allowing quite a bit of pressure.

This roster continues to look extremely dangerous, especially if they can get healthy and the defense can continue to find its stride as they surely did on Sunday.

They may still be the defending Super Bowl champions, but the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are no longer residing in the top spot for these 2021 NFL Power Rankings.

While the 34-24 final tally for Sunday’s matchup against the Rams may not look all that bad, especially with the game being played in Los Angeles, the game wasn’t that close. Even with Tom Brady throwing for over 400 yards, the Buccaneers didn’t have enough answers and were unable to convert on several key drives before adding a meaningless touchdown with under two minutes to play.

Brady and the offense can improve on the ground and with their red-zone offense. With that said, the big issue was actually the vaunted defense that helped guide them to the Lombardi Trophy last year. Matthew Stafford had his way with the Bucs and consistently found chunk plays to a variety of weapons. Injuries in the secondary could be a real problem for Tampa.

There’s certainly no reason to panic just yet for the Buccaneers. This wasn’t a loss to a team they should’ve won by 20 against — the Rams are a serious contender in the NFC. With that said, this does show that Tampa Bay is not infallible by any stretch of the imagination and that they have some issues to shore up if they’re going to repeat as champions.

Hey, there’s the Josh Allen we saw last year. I was wondering where he’d gone.

It felt as if not enough people were discussing the fact that the Bills quarterback, who the franchise just paid handsomely coming into the year with a new extension, had not been the MVP candidate we saw in 2020 for the first two games of the year. Against Washington, though, the switch flipped.

Allen was unstoppable on Sunday as he went 32-of-43 for 358 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions to go with another score using his legs. And it wasn’t just the stats, he was in full control, spreading the ball around to Cole Beasley, Emmanuel Sanders, Stefon Diggs and everyone throughout the day.

If that wasn’t enough, Zack Moss gave the Bills some life to salt away a big 43-21 win with ease on the ground and the defense completely stifled Washington for much of the day outside of a handful of explosive plays.

Despite some worrisome performances from Allen early on, the Bills are still 2-1 and now it appears their quarterback has found his form again. If that’s the case, we could see Buffalo really take off from here on out.

On a team that has Lamar Jackson, Marquise “Hollywood” Brown, and a load of defensive playmakers, go figure that their all-world kicker, Justin Tucker, emerges from NFL Week 3 as one of the biggest storylines of the week. Of course, all of the attention is well-deserved.

After Jackson converted a fourth-and-19 and then continued the drive to about midfield, that lined up a last-second 66-yard field goal attempt for Tucker to get the win for the Ravens and also set the NFL record by two yards. He drilled it right down the middle and it had just enough leg to hit the metal and then propel forward for the winning three points.

Jackson wasn’t at his best in this game as the Lions gave Baltimore more problems than most people would’ve imagined coming into the game. The quarterback completed just 16-of-31 passes and, though he had 58 yards rushing, never really got loose with his legs.

But the mark of a good team is pulling out wins when you don’t necessarily have everything working and, in a letdown spot after beating the Chiefs last week, the Ravens pulled through and got a big win to move to 2-0 on the year.

Outside of tossing an interception, Kyler Murray did nothing to dispel the notion that he’s one of the league’s most exciting young players. He threw for 316 yards with only six incompletions on 34 attempts and, while he didn’t throw for a touchdown in this game, he did rush for one. And now Arizona is undefeated at 3-0.

The Cardinals defense has been one of the bigger surprises of the year to this point and they came up with more big plays in beating Jacksonville on Sunday. Most notably, cornerback Byron Murphy Jr. picked off Trevor Lawrence in the second half and took it to the house. He also notched the other pick Arizona grabbed on the day.

But for as good as the Cardinals have looked in spurts, it feels as if they are consistently on thin ice. They trailed 19-10 to an abysmal Jaguars team, needed a missed field goal as time expired to beat the Vikings last week and head coach Kliff Kingsbury keeps making baffling decisions, such as the 68-yard field goal attempt that the Jags returned for a score.

They deserve respect but are also a prime candidate to slip way down the power rankings at any given moment.

Entering the week as one of only seven unbeaten teams, the Las Vegas Raiders always felt like they were in a tricky spot. Their history under this tenure of Jon Gruden suggested that this could be one of those games that they should win and would take an inexplicable loss. And after falling into a 14-0 hole, that seemed like it might be what was transpiring.

But if you needed any indication that this was a different iteration of the Raiders and that this team is legit, the way they fought back from that and grinded out a hard-fought overtime win with a clutch drive in the final minutes is what you’re looking for.

Derek Carr remains playing at an extremely high level to start the 2021 season as he went for over 300 yards again with two touchdowns and one interception. While the defense wasn’t as good as it has been, the Dolphins also clearly tried to negate that with quick, short throws throughout the game. Moreover, the team got a big boost from Peyton Barber stepping up with 111 rushing yards and a score with Josh Jacobs out of the lineup.

At a certain point, we’re going to have to accept that what the Raiders are doing isn’t flukey. A 3-0 start and winning in the ways they have is something they deserve credit for. Now we’ll see if they keep it going as they go on the road to face the Chargers next week.

Especially after making things dicey against the Colts last week in a game that shouldn’t have been as close as it was, the Los Angeles Rams had a lot to proe on Sunday as they welcomed the Bucs to SoFi Stadium. Suffice it to say they proved all we needed to see in the 34-24 win that was more dominant than even the score would indicate.

When people talked about the possibility of what Matthew Stafford would add to the Sean McVay offense in LA, this is the type of stuff they were talking about. Against a Tampa defense that was integral to winning the Super Bowl last year, the veteran quarterback picked them apart. He found every modicum of open space and attacked it, whether it was underneath to Cooper Kupp or finding DeSean Jackson deep.

On top of that, the Rams defense, thankfully, isn’t missing Brandon Staley too much. Sure, they are still running a lot of what they did with the now-Chargers head coach but the personnel is adapting and making plays as they came up with key stops throughout this game to keep the Buccaneers from truly ever being a threat to win the game in the second half.

Those who were optimistic about what Stafford would mean to the Rams projected that this team could be in line to make it to the Super Bowl out of the NFC. With a win like this, there have been no signs to think otherwise to this point in the 2021 season.