NFL Power Rankings, Week 12: Biggest risers and fallers after Week 11
24. New Orleans Saints
Well, nobody accused the New Orleans Saints of being a bad team when the majority of their guys are healthy, right?
The Saints scored 91 points in the first two weeks of the season, blew their opponents out of the water, and looked like they were going to steamroll through the NFC South this season. Injuries obviously took their toll and the Saints really just fell off the map.
It’s probably too late for them this year, but in the NFC South? I mean, maybe not…
The Saints absolutely dog-walked the Cleveland Browns this weekend (see what I did there?) and they looked pretty good doing it. At 4-7, it’s not completely out of the realm of possibility that they could go on a little bit of a run in the second half of the season if they can stay healthy. They will head into their bye this coming weekend to get even healthier, and then they’ll play host to another team that’s really just fighting every week to make sure it stays in the race – the Los Angeles Rams.
The margin for error for the Rams for the remainder of this season is almost non-existent, but they can make it interesting if they win their next two or three.
23. Dallas Cowboys
Cowboys play the Texans on Monday Night Football
Frankly, we should probably have the Dallas Cowboys a lot lower than this. They are going to continually just drop down these rankings in all likelihood as Cooper Rush takes over for the injured Dak Prescott, and the Cowboys are left in shambles for the 2024 season.
Nobody is having fun in Dallas these days.
Jerry Jones finally relented and paid Dak Prescott all the money. He paid CeeDee Lamb all the money. The Micah Parsons contract is looming.
The Cowboys had done so much in the regular season the last few seasons that you figured they’d be able to compete again in the NFC East despite the strength at the top of that division, but even with both Prescott and Lamb in the lineup, the Cowboys never really showed us that they were going to be a truly viable threat in their division this year.
It’s going to be back to the drawing board in the 2025 offseason with Mike McCarthy’s contract running out. Who’s going to be leading this team from that vantage point? The Cowboys will absolutely be dominating the headlines once again in 2025, but they’re on the verge of irrelevant at this point.
And now that I've said that, the Cowboys will probably find a way to beat the Texans on Monday night.