Our new 2021 NFL Power Rankings for Week 6 have the Buffalo Bills taking the AFC throne while the Dallas Cowboys continue to surge up.
When it comes to the NFL, you never know what you’re going to get. Week 5 was a testament to that and the name of the game was that kickers suddenly forgot how to put the ball through the uprights. Whether it was the Packers and Bengals and a war of attrition in overtime or the Chargers trying to tie up a game and many other instances.
So after a crazy week with Monday Night Football between the Colts and Ravens still to be played, we’re trying to make sense of it all with our 2021 NFL Power Rankings.
As you’d expect, though, the bottom five teams in the NFL Power Rankings haven’t moved from their spots.
New 2021 NFL Power Rankings After Week 5
Coming off of the long week of Urban Meyer-centric storylines, there weren’t high hopes for the Jaguars and that bore out. Shouts to James Robinson for running like a man with something to prove and Trevor Lawrence continues to flash talent. However, Jacksonville just looks soulless right now. Their good players can’t overcome the overall lack of talent on the roster and it keeps showing week-in and week-out.
Because they’re one of two winless teams remaining in the NFL, we can’t put the Lions above this spot. But if we’re talking about how teams have looked it’s hard not to think that Detroit deserves a bit more respect than they’re getting.
Dan Campbell was moved to tears after losing to the Vikings in Week 5 on a heartbreaking last-second field goal but that shows just how invested this team is. They play hard and fight for 60 minutes. The wins are going to come, maybe not in bunches, but enough to move them out of the bottom-tier in these NFL Power Rankings.
Davis Mills played the best game of his early career with the Houston Texans on Sunday. In a matchup many people tabbed him to struggle with against the Patriots, the rookie threw for 312 yards and three touchdowns. Unfortunately, the offense stalled after taking a 22-9 lead and allowed New England to come back.
Things are going to continue to be rough for the Texans in most weeks but there are some faint glimmers of hope when you see this type of play from a young quarterback who might be trying to come into his own.
It seemed like the same depressing Jets games we’ve been seeing all year early on as New York went into halftime down 20-3. And while Zach Wilson wasn’t perfect, credit to him and the offense for fighting tooth and nail to come back, even getting it as close as 20-17 in the mid-fourth quarter. They lost yet again, so there won’t be anyone over the moon but there are some improvements that should be appreciated happening with Gang Green.
The New York Giants weren’t exactly a good football team to begin with but things got worse in a 44-20 drubbing against the rival Cowboys.
First, Saquon Barkley took a bad step onto a Dallas defender’s foot and injured his ankle. Then, Daniel Jones took a hit to the head that forced him out. Kenny Golladay left the game as well and, as rookie Kadarius Toney stepped up, he was ejected at the end of the game for throwing a punch. This was a team that couldn’t afford injuries and now they’re piling up quickly.
Things look ugly in Miami right now and I’m not even sure that having to turn to Jacoby Brissett instead of Tua Tagovailoa is the issue.
When you watch the Dolphins, the offense just looks haphazard. They aren’t using the talent at their disposal to their advantage and seemingly have no grand design for what’s happening. On top of that, the defense just isn’t the dominant force it has been in recent years. When you take all of that into account against a team like the Bucs, 45-17 losses are going to be commonplace.
We finally got to see the Kyle Pitts breakout game — at least you did if you woke up early enough for NFL in London on Sunday. The rookie tight end was a monster as he led the team across the board in receiving with Calvin Ridley out.
That bright spot was almost overshadowed by the fact that the Falcons almost blew another lead, this time against the struggling Jets. Credit to Atlanta for hanging on and securing their second win of the season but they still have given few reasons to believe in them long term.
Philadelphia picked up a big road win against the Panthers on Sunday thanks to a late Jalen Hurts touchdown but I’m still having a hard time believing they’re any better than their 2-3 record. The defense benefitted from bad Darnold decisions and the offense continued to look extremely limited in their current state.
With matchups coming against more potential contenders next week and beyond, we’ll see the true colors of the Eagles, which say they are a middling to bad NFL team in the 2021 season.
One of the wildest revelations over the first five weeks of the season has been that the Washington Football Team offense, even with Ryan Fitzpatrick sidelined and Taylor Heinicke starting at quarterback, is not the problem. This vaunted defense has been downright bad for much of the year and that showed against the Saints. They were carved up in the secondary and the pressure just wasn’t there. If that’s going to be the case, the offense isn’t at a level where Washington is going to be winning a lot in the 2021 season.
I was fully prepared to have the Vikings move up in the rankings quite a bit after Week 5 as they looked dominant early on against the Lions. Yet, they couldn’t find the end zone as often as they probably should have and, even worse, their late-game decision-making and gameplan was awful.
Minnesota needed a 37-second drive into field goal range and for Greg Joseph to hit the game-winner as time expired to pick up this win. But this team just feels like it has too much talent to be as mediocre as they often are on the field.
We’re knocking the Broncos way, way down in the rankings because this team is starting to look fraudulent. They started the year 3-0 against some of the worst teams in the NFL but, since the level of competition has even modestly improved, they’ve reeled off two straight losses.
Against a Pittsburgh offense that had been hapless recently, the Denver defense had no answers and allowed 27 points. On top of that, Teddy Bridgewater and the offense looked limited to a degree that’s hard to overcome against even decent teams. That’s not a good sign for things to come.
Play on Monday Night Football vs. Ravens – The fact that the Colts won last week doesn’t really make me feel much better about them. Indianapolis hasn’t looked all that inspiring with Carson Wentz leading the offense and the defense is banged up (as is the O-line, one of the team’s biggest strengths). We’ll see how they contend with the Ravens but my gut tells me it’s not going to go that well for them.
As tough as it may be for San Francisco 49ers fans to hear it, I think we saw why Jimmy Garoppolo is the starting quarterback when he’s healthy.
Trey Lance has immense talent and we saw some of that against the Cardinals. But it also seems as if the game is moving extremely fast for the rookie in his first taste of real NFL action and that limits the offense to a degree. The Niners defense is 100 percent for real but Lance is going to have to make a big leap while Jimmy G is out for the wheels not to fall off.
In no way am I getting sucked into the Pittsburgh Steelers being good, but credit is due to Ben Roethlisberger for looking like an actual NFL quarterback on Sunday in the 27-19 win over the Broncos. He made throws down the field and was aggressive, which clearly helped, while the defense was largely suffocating. This team is going to struggle against good competition but they can still win games against mediocre or bad teams based on their defense and offensive skill talent.
Early on, it appeared that disaster was about to strike for the Patriots. They trailed 22-9 to the Texans early in the third quarter. But credit to the New England defense and the Mac Jones-led offense for pulling themselves up and ultimately securing the win thanks to a fourth-quarter touchdown pass to Hunter Henry and a game-winning field goal in the final minute.
The Patriots are far from great and that’s obvious with each game they play but they do enough things well to win these types of games and compete in most weeks.
It might be time to recalibrate what we think we know about the Bengals. This team is now 3-2 on the season after losing in overtime to the Packers (in a game where no one could make a field goal) but they are competitive every time they take the field. Joe Burrow looks like the goods, even if he still makes some rough mistakes from time to time, and the defense is playing far better than anyone could’ve expected coming into the season.
The Panthers are reeling a bit after a weird 21-18 loss to the Eagles on the heels of losing their first game last week in Dallas. Carolina doesn’t look as fraudulent as the Broncos after their own 3-0 start but Sam Darnold’s warts showed up against Philadelphia, shockingly so. But this defense is legit and just had lapses at the wrong time. I expect a bounce-back sometime soon from the Panthers, especially with Christian McCaffrey nearing a return to action after missing the last two weeks.
Honestly, you could make a legitimate case for the Kansas City Chiefs being even lower than this. Patrick Mahomes and the offense have been good but not great and the turnovers are a real issue. More importantly, though, this defense is legitimately terrible — like one of the worst in the NFL levels of bad. For a team that has made a living of making it to Super Bowls, the Chiefs are just 2-3 on the season and they have to find some answers quickly.
We’re keeping the Seattle Seahawks at No. 14 in our NFL Power Rankings for now because a loss to the Rams in a game that was closer than the 26-17 final score might indicate isn’t anything to knock them for.
Having said that, we could see this team drop precipitously moving forward with Russell Wilson injuring his finger and being out for at least a month and possibly two. Geno Smith played well in relief but Wilson has put this team on his back so many times that it’s hard to have full faith in Seattle without him.
It was easy to be dubious that the Raiders’ hot start wasn’t going to last and we’ve started to see that. They looked outmatched against the Chargers in primetime and were dominated physically by the Bears on Sunday.
Derek Carr was under duress often against the Bears, speaking to the glaring offensive line problems with Las Vegas. The defense is still playing well, which is a good sign, but the Raiders have to find a way to contend with their issues up front on offense if they want to stay in the playoff picture and avoid dropping further in these rankings.
Despite Matt Nagy’s best efforts to look smart with Justin Fields, the head coach is continuing to look like the wrong man for the job — and that’s being said after a win.
Chicago now has two straight wins since Nagy gave the play-calling to Bill Lazor and the offense has looked better, even if Filed has been relatively pedestrian. On top of that, the defense is looking resurgent and dominant right now as they caused a good Raiders offense a ton of problems in the 20-9 win that moves the Bears to 3-2 on the season.
As you’d hope, the Titans went on the road to Duval County and put a hurting on the rival Jaguars. Derrick Henry had 130 yards rushing — as he often does against the Jags — and three touchdowns on the day to continue a dominant run. The defense also made some big plays, including a scoop-and-score early on.
Tennessee has been hit hard with early injuries but has survived to go 3-2 to start the year. That bodes well for this team moving forward as they could be a legitimate sleeper moving forward.
I have no idea what to make of the New Orleans Saints.
The defense is good, but definitely not great. Jameis Winston is still the same player he’s always been, capable of big plays that wow you and equally wowing foolish decisions. And Alvin Kamara just hasn’t been the volume-king superstar we have seen him be. They’re winning again, so we won’t knock them too much but this is a team that is going to wildly move throughout the NFL Power Rankings throughout the season.
It feels like the Browns always have this type of game in them as they lost 47-42 to the Chargers on Sunday. The defense had been so dominant over the past two weeks but then couldn’t buy a stop in Week 5, especially late in the game.
But it speaks to how good Cleveland is that Baker Mayfield, who had a nice bounce-back game, Nick Chubb and this offense were able to keep up until the very end. This team needs to shore things up late in games on both sides of the ball and the quarterback still has things to clean up but this team isn’t going anywhere as one of the league’s best.
If you want to know how dangerous the Chargers are, Justin Herbert truthfully didn’t play his best game by the eye test and LA still put up 47 points as the second-year quarterback totaled five touchdowns on the day in a win. This team has so many weapons to make plays on offense and that makes them a threat every week. Fans should still want to see this defense play a bit more consistently but the overall ceiling for the Chargers keeps getting raised.
Some people are going to look at the Packers winning by a field goal in overtime against the Bengals and think it’s a bad sign for Green Bay. But this team went on the road against a sneaky good team without four of their best players and still picked up a victory, one that would’ve been decided earlier if Mason Crosby could put it between the uprights in regulation at all.
Aaron Rodgers is playing at an MVP level yet again after his Week 1 debacle and the Packers aren’t going anywhere in the NFC.
It’s time we start talking about the Dallas Cowboys as legitimate Super Bowl contenders or, at the very least, the best team in the NFC. This offense is humming in all facets with the resurgence of Ezekiel Elliott combined with Dak Prescott and the host of wide receiver talent. But the big boom has been a defense that has played well above expectations and has been highly opportunistic, Trevon Diggs at the forefront of that after he got his sixth interception of the year in the 44-20 win that moves the ‘Boys to 4-1 on the season.
On the heels of their loss to the Cardinals in Week 4, it was a big moment for the Los Angeles Rams as they had a short week to go north to face the Seahawks in another tough NFC West game.
It was a statement from Matthew Stafford and Co., though. Sure, they benefitted from Russell Wilson getting injured but Geno Smith played well. It was the Rams offense that remained relentless and was able to push them to secure a bounce-back win that assures fans they are still an NFC contender.
Tom Brady is 44 years old — older than many coaches and coordinators throughout the league — and leads the NFL in passing yards after five games. That’s unreal but it speaks to how good this team actually is.
Tampa Bay isn’t perfect and, when they face a good offense, their secondary that has been hit with a ton of injuries can get exposed. With that said, their own offense is absolutely lethal and will keep them in just about any game they’re a part of.
Play on Monday Night Football vs. Colts – Lamar Jackson and the Ravens look like they’re seriously cooking. We know that the rushing attack is always going to be dangerous but the passing game seems as if it’s taking the next step. On top of that, this is a Baltimore defense you can continue to bank on. We should see more dominant play against the Colts in primetime.
Through five games, the Buffalo Bills lead the NFL in scoring offense and scoring defense. That seems like it might be a recipe for success.
For the past few years, the Chiefs have been a thorn in Buffalo’s side but they exorcised some demons on Sunday Night Football with a rain-soaked shellacking of Kansas City in Arrowhead Stadium. Josh Allen has found his form and the defense is playing at an extremely high level. This is a team that should be thinking about Super Bowl dreams right now.
I’m not going to knock the Cardinals out of the top spot after they staved off a strong challenge from the division-rival 49ers on Sunday. However, they did show that they aren’t bulletproof as Kyler Murray and an offense that had been so prolific was held to just 17 points.
However, that’s also what could make Arizona viable contenders. They don’t have to score 30+ points to win — they can rely on a much-improved defense to hold the line and win in a dogfight. That’s a huge plus for this team as they move forward as the league’s only unbeaten squad.