NFL Power Rankings, Week 8: Biggest risers and fallers after Week 7

Which teams are rising and falling after Week 7?

NFL Power Rankings
NFL Power Rankings | Stacy Revere/GettyImages
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It was an exciting weekend of action as NFL fans were treated to a Super Bowl rematch in Week 7, a number of close games around the league including every team in the NFC North being in nail-biters, and we may have gotten a little bit of clarity regarding the top of the 2025 NFL Draft order.

The latest NFL Power Rankings for Week 8 of the 2024 season will take a look at some of the biggest risers and fallers around the league, including the San Francisco 49ers dropping after a home loss to the Chiefs and the NFC North making up 40 percent of the top 10 teams in the NFL right now.

The Chiefs are the NFL’s lone unbeaten team after Week 7. We’ve got two top-10 teams facing off on Monday Night Football and potentially shaking up next week’s NFL Power Rankings as well.

Where do all of the NFL teams stand after a fun slate of action in Week 7?

NFL Power Rankings, Week 8: Broncos rising, Cowboys/Raiders plummeting

32. Carolina Panthers

I think when you look at the Carolina Panthers and just how down bad they are right now, it’s really all over this organization. The Panthers don’t just have one of the worst records in the league right now. They didn’t just have a bad loss against the Washington Commanders on Sunday. It’s the long-term outlook for this Panthers team that really makes their situation look so much more dismal than others.

The Panthers benched Bryce Young earlier this year, and while there may have been some merit to that, at what point do they decide to go back to Young and live with the results? Have they really admitted defeat to this degree on Young? Are we going to see this Panthers team selling off their parts at the trade deadline? We’ve only got a couple more weeks to find out, but things appear to be on the way to getting worse for the Panthers before they get any better.

31. New England Patriots

There is no doubt that the New England Patriots opened up the season with one of the most shocking victories out of any team in Week 1 of the 2024 season. Always expect wild things to happen in Week 1…

With that being said, we’ve seen over the last six weeks exactly why it was so shocking that the Patriots won in the first week of the season against the Cincinnati Bengals, because they’ve now dropped six straight games as a team.

Thankfully, we are seeing the Patriots move on to rookie quarterback Drake Maye, who is out there taking his lumps and getting his feet wet. Maye had another pair of touchdown passes in defeat for the Patriots in Week 7 as they traveled to face off the Jacksonville Jaguars over in London. There may be better days ahead for the Patriots, but they might not be anytime soon.