NFL Power Rankings, Week 13: Biggest risers and fallers after Week 12

30. Las Vegas Raiders (2-9)

Oh boy, I mean, there are almost no words for how pathetically bad the Las Vegas Raiders are.  This team has now lost seven games in a row since starting out 2-2 and showing some life early on in the 2024 NFL Season. The Raiders were able to take advantage of the sloppy play early on from the Denver Broncos in the first half of this game.

The Raiders pulled off a successful fake punt and also got a long kick return as well.  However, the second half turn out to be a totally different story, and the Broncos ended up pulling away in the end.  Starting QB Gardner Minshew II left late in the game with what looked like a very painful shoulder injury, and I am no doctor, but a broken collarbone is kind of what it seemed like.

The Raiders are among the worst teams in football and do not do anything well besides lose if we are being honest, and it becomes harder for me to envision that Antonio Pierce is this team’s head coach heading into the 2025 NFL Season.

29. New England Patriots (3-9)

The New England Patriots are a bad football team, but they may have a franchise quarterback in Drake Maye.  The main thing we have to keep in mind here with the Patriots is that this team is in year one of a true and full rebuild, so this roster is missing a ton of talent on both sides of the ball.

You really can’t expect Drake Maye to do more than he is currently doing, so I would not put too much into their results this season.  Maye has shown a lot that makes you think this kid could develop into a high-end franchise QB.  Coming into the NFL, Maye drew some comparisons to Justin Herbert.

The Patriots are bad, but they are supposed to be bad, if that makes sense.