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.
30. Cleveland Browns
Well, the Cleveland Browns’ 2024 season is now one of the biggest question marks in the entire league. And maybe just as much as any other team, especially now, the quarterback situation there in Cleveland is up for questioning going forward as well.
The Browns saw their starting quarterback, Deshaun Watson, carted off the field on Sunday against the Bengals with an apparent Achilles injury. After Watson went down, Dorian Thompson-Robinson replaced him and then he went down with an injury. And then we finally got to see Jameis Winston.
We’re going to potentially get to see more of Winston going forward, but at the expense of Watson in an unexpected way. Watson has dealt with injuries and off-field issues throughout the course of his NFL career but this could potentially be the final straw for him.
29. Tennessee Titans
Even coming off of a bye week, the Tennessee Titans didn’t have it in them to finish within 20 points. I mean, it was an absolute curb-stomping by the Buffalo Bills on Sunday.
The Tennessee Titans actually threw Mason Rudolph out there against the Bills on Sunday with Will Levis dealing with a bit of an injury, and this is yet another team with quarterback questions moving forward. And this is something we anticipated before the start of the season.
The Titans got a glimpse of Will Levis last year, but they wanted to get a clearer look at him this year. We’ll see how they approach that position for the remainder of the season but it bears monitoring as there have been rumors of potentially someone like DeAndre Hopkins getting traded at the deadline.
On Sunday, Tennessee failed to convert on its red zone opportunities, punching it in on just one of their three trips. That ended up being a massive difference in the game.
28. Las Vegas Raiders
The Las Vegas Raiders have galvanized for a couple of wins this season, including one of the most shocking individual wins of the season when they went into Baltimore and caught the Ravens sleeping for a week.
That will go down as one of the weirdest wins of the season, most likely.
Regardless, we find the universe sort of correcting itself here as it pertains to the Raiders, who have traded Davante Adams to the New York Jets and are now 2-5 after a loss to the Los Angeles Rams, who just looked so much better and so much more prepared coming off their bye week than the Raiders.
The Raiders have now lost three straight games and we are monitoring this team as potentially being in absolute free-fall mode as the season progresses. It seems extremely far-fetched, but with the way the Raiders are playing, you can’t help but think how long it will take them to hang up on teams who start calling about Maxx Crosby in a trade…
27. Miami Dolphins
The bad news for the Miami Dolphins: Tim Boye played football on Sunday afternoon and the results were rather predictable, even in a tight-scoring game.
The good news for the Miami Dolphins: Tua Tagovailoa is, in fact, coming back. And it’s possible he could be out there as early as Week 8. In fact, that may be the expectation at this point.
The Dolphins are one of the teams that has already had an early bye week, and frankly, it’s probably for the best that they ended up getting one of those because they are “only” 2-4 at this point with a chance to make a run as the season goes along if Tagovailoa can stay healthy.
This Miami team has so much talent on both sides of the ball, and there are obviously limitations to how much that talent can flourish without the team’s starting QB on the field. As concerned as we all are for Tagovailoa’s health, his presence will have this team immediately on the upswing.
26. New Orleans Saints
It wasn’t all that long ago that the New Orleans Saints were up near the top of these NFL Power Rankings because this team scored a whopping 91 points in the first two weeks of the season. Remember that? Remember when Klint Kubiak was on his way to becoming the next wunderkind head coach candidate?
Remember when things were going well for the New Orleans Saints?
Too bad, for their sake, that the season didn’t end after two weeks. The Saints have lost five straight games and they have looked absolutely horrible on top of getting injured just about everywhere on this roster. It was the Saints’ replacements against the Denver Broncos on Thursday night, and the results was entirely too predictable. The Saints were smacked around on their home field in Sean Payton’s return to New Orleans.
It’s not overly fair to say this team is bad, but they have been losing games with or without their starters in the lineup.
25. New York Giants
The New York Giants had a chance to make Saquon Barkley feel like he made the wrong choice this offseason, but they did anything but. In fact, the Giants really helped validate Barkley’s decision to leave for the division-rival Eagles in the 2024 offseason as Barkley ran all over them and the Giants dropped to 2-5 on the season.
The Giants were absolutely smacked around on their home field by the Eagles, and to be fair, the Eagles were coming off of a bye week and had a lot of time to prepare. They just simply got out-classed and the Giants are once again left in a spot that is super confusing in terms of their projection the rest of this season and beyond.
I just don’t think that the Giants have enough of a difference-maker in Daniel Jones to really keep this team competitive. I don’t think we’ll see them be big sellers at the NFL trade deadline, either, but the Giants should hover around this spot in the NFL Power Rankings every week barring a surprising and dramatic turnaround.
24. Jacksonville Jaguars
There are few teams in the NFL who needed another win as badly as the Jacksonville Jaguars did on Sunday. This team had the benefit of spending an extra week in London compared to their opponent – the Patriots – and they took advantage by putting 32 points on the board and maybe reigniting some hope for the remainder of this season.
The AFC South has seen some crazy second-half surges the last couple of seasons, so who’s to say that the Jaguars can’t get it done again here in 2024?
Jacksonville doesn’t have much room for error at this point, but getting a blowout win and putting up some nice numbers in the process was really important for them before they return stateside. If the Jaguars can’t figure out a way to really turn things around this season, we could see this team be in the head coach market to try and get all of these pieces they are so heavily invested in back on track.
23. Los Angeles Rams
I think we all expected to see the Los Angeles Rams look pretty good coming off of their bye week, right? Sean McVay knows how to prepare for an opponent, especially when you give him extra time.
And especially when that opponent is the Las Vegas Raiders in their current state.
As the Rams continue to get healthier and healthier – we hope – we should see this team continue to make some waves. After their win against the Raiders in Week 7, the Rams are still just 2-4, but they have a chance to get back to 4-4 by the first weekend in November.
They play on a short week this coming week on Thursday night against the Minnesota Vikings, which will feature Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell coaching against his old pal and boss Sean McVay.
Maybe I have a sickness here. I just can’t quit the Rams. I am buying what Sean McVay is selling.
22. Indianapolis Colts
The Indianapolis Colts are such an odd team, but they’ve now won their fourth game of the season. We have to talk about them as a legitimate playoff option in the AFC, but in order to have that discussion, we need to look at their upcoming schedule.
The Colts got a win against the Miami Dolphins this past weekend, who played Tim Boyle and basically just couldn’t outlast the Colts. Indy only managed to put up 16 points and didn’t exactly play lights out vs. Miami.
The next five games the Colts play are really going to give us an indication of what this team is made of. They play in Houston next, then they go to Minnesota. They follow that up with a home game against the Bills and a road game against the Jets, followed by a home game against the Lions.
I don’t know that there is another team with a more brutal five-game stretch upcoming. The Colts legitimately play four of the best teams in the NFL, and we’ll see how the Jets look with Davante Adams. Time for this Colts team to sink or swim.
21. Arizona Cardinals
Cardinals play Monday night vs. Los Angeles Chargers
We won’t get a chance to see the Arizona Cardinals play on Monday night before these NFL Power Rankings are published, but this is another one of those teams that I just can’t quit at this point.
The Cardinals are just 2-4 heading into that Monday night matchup against the Chargers, but when things really click for them and when Kyler Murray has the connection going with Marvin Harrison Jr., this team can be really explosive offensively.
Arizona is a home underdog on Monday (+1.5) against the Chargers and I think that’s probably pretty fair. They haven’t done anything consistently enough this season to be worthy of being home favorites against the 3-2 Chargers, but there have been signs that the Cardinals could be a factor as the season rolls along.
20. New York Jets
Things could not be much worse right now for the New York Jets. This team is an abject disaster. This team was clocking in in the top 10 if not the top five of most offseason NFL power rankings and roster rankings, and the Jets have been a severe disappointment in every possible way.
After a brutal loss on Sunday night to the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Jets are 2-5. They’ve traded for Davante Adams. They are clearly not even the 2nd-best team in the AFC East when Tua Tagovailoa is healthy and able to play.
The playoffs are already nearly out of reach. The Jets need to go on a run, but is that going to be able to happen? Well, before the bye week in late November, the Jets have matchups against the Patriots, Texans, Cardinals, and Colts. That makes it honestly a little more reasonable to think this team could actually get to 5-5 or even 6-5 in the next month.
It’s going to be a long grind, but the Jets truly have to take it one week at a time if they are going to break the longest playoff drought in the NFL.
19. Dallas Cowboys
Well, the Dallas Cowboys did not lose in Week 7 of the 2024 season…
We’ll be using that joke all year, folks.
The Cowboys had a bye week in Week 7, of course, but even after a week off, you have to wonder how much of a factor the Cowboys are really going to be this season with what we’ve seen so far. They are going to have to seriously turn things around, and do it fast, if they are going to even be relevant in their own division by the time Thanksgiving rolls around.
The Cowboys face this slate when they come back from the bye: @49ers, @Falcons, vs. Eagles, vs. Texans, @Commanders.
I mean, yikes. The Cowboys are 3-3 and they will be lucky to make it out of that gauntlet with a record above .500 this season. And at that point, who knows where teams like the Commanders (5-2) and Eagles (4-2) will end up being. Those divisional matchups will be massive.
18. Denver Broncos
After dropping a home game in Week 6 against the Los Angeles Chargers, the Denver Broncos bounced back quickly with a huge win against the New Orleans Saints on Thursday night. It was a triumphant return for Sean Payton to the city of New Orleans, where he became a Super Bowl-winning head coach.
The Denver Broncos clearly have one of the top defenses in the NFL and if their offense can figure things out on a consistent basis, this team could be a factor in the AFC. They are currently 4-3 with a home game against the Carolina Panthers on deck.
As bad as the Broncos have been the last handful of years, this team might have finally turned a corner and when Bo Nix plays mistake-free football, this team is undefeated (4-0 in games where Nix has no INTs).
We’ll see how Nix and Sean Payton’s offense – which may need a playmaker at the NFL trade deadline – continue to evolve as the year goes along.
17. Los Angeles Chargers
Plays Monday night against Cardinals
The Los Angeles Chargers came out of their bye week against the Denver Broncos and put together a pretty dominant offensive game plan, at least in the 1st half against Denver. The Chargers built an insurmountable lead against one of the league’s best defenses, utilizing a great mix of running the ball effectively and allowing Justin Herbert to cook on third downs to get to 3-2 on the season.
On Monday night, the Chargers will be 1.5-point favorites against the Arizona Cardinals and we’ll see if they can continue to keep pace, at least a little bit, with the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC West.
The Chargers have continually struggled with injuries, but this team is physical on both sides of the ball and I expect them to stay in the mix so long as Herbert is on the field and playing as well as we saw against Denver.
16. Atlanta Falcons
In a Sunday battle of the birds, it was the Atlanta Falcons who left with a bitter taste in their mouths as the Seattle Seahawks came into town and absolutely smacked them around.
The Falcons dropped a home game to the Seahawks to the tune of 34-14, and one key statistic really tells the story. The Falcons lost the turnover battle against the Seahawks 0-3, and that dropped them to 4-3 on the season.
One of those turnovers was a fumble recovered by the Seattle defense for a touchdown, and that turnover really turned out to be the turning point of the game. The Falcons were still within striking distance at just a 10-point deficit before that scoop and score by Seattle, and then Atlanta sealed its own fate with an interception on the very next possession.
We even got our first glimpse at 8th overall pick Michael Penix Jr.
As bad as this one stings, the Falcons need to wash the taste of this one out of their mouths quickly and get back on the saddle in Week 8 because they head to Tampa Bay for a massive NFC South matchup.
15. Seattle Seahawks
There are weeks that the Seattle Seahawks look awesome, and there are weeks where you wonder if they are going to be competing for a top-10 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. As always with a team like that, the truth is likely somewhere in between.
But what we can’t deny, for the moment, and for the purpose of weekly NFL Power Rankings, is that the Seahawks’ win against the Atlanta Falcons in Week 7 was very impressive. To go on the road against a quality opponent and win by 20 points deserves a round of applause, and the Seahawks took advantage of all of the Falcons’ mistakes.
Seattle scored a touchdown after Atlanta missed a field goal. They scooped up a fumble and returned it for six points. They got a field goal after a Kirk Cousins interception.
It was a huge day for Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker, who was celebrating his 24th birthday on Sunday. He celebrated with two touchdowns and a little under 100 yards from scrimmage.
14. Cincinnati Bengals
Yes, we’ve got the 3-4 Cincinnati Bengals up this high. You can say what you want but I think we all knew that the cream would eventually rise to the top here. The Bengals didn’t just got and beat the Detroit Lions or anything, but getting to 3-4 after a win against the Cleveland Browns was huge for this Cincinnati team.
Now, we do have to pump the brakes a little bit. The Bengals have beaten the Browns, the Giants, and the Panthers this season. They have lost to all of their really quality opponents (Commanders, Chiefs, Ravens) and they lost a clunker to the New England Patriots back in Week 1.
But as the year progresses, I’m really expecting this Bengals team to continue to get back on track and stay on track. The Bengals only needed 223 total yards of offense to beat the Browns in Week 7.
They’ve got matchups up next against the Eagles, Raiders, and Ravens. We’ll see if the Bengals can keep on climbing.
13. San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers aren’t going to continue to get the benefit of the doubt as the season progresses. Obviously, we’re basically putting an asterisk by the start of this season because of the absence of Christian McCaffrey as well as other players who have missed time this season.
Oh, and now Brandon Aiyuk is hurt again.
The 49ers just don’t look like they are the same class of team this year as compared to what we’ve gotten used to. Even with a poor record, we’ve had the 49ers (at least when I write these things up) ranked pretty high in our NFL power rankings. And a loss to the Chiefs is not deplorable, even with the 49ers playing at home, but the 49ers couldn’t take advantage of mistakes made by Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. They answered back the mistakes of the Chiefs with mistakes of their own.
The 49ers are just like the 2024 NFL version of the basketball players from the original Space Jam movie. It’s like someone’s stolen their football “superpowers”. They don’t look like one of the top teams in the NFC but I’m still somewhat optimistic they’ll stay in the mix.
12. Philadelphia Eagles
Perhaps the idea that the Philadelphia Eagles were dead in the water was a bit premature. Or they just played the New York Giants…
Or a little bit of both?
The Eagles are now 4-2, which is great news for them because all you need is a ticket to the dance at the end of the year. They are on track for that. But the key for this Eagles team going forward is going to be Jalen Hurts playing mistake-free football. Hurts only threw 14 passes in the Eagles’ dominating road win over the Giants, and Saquon Barkley did a lot of heavy lifting for the Philly offense.
You expect this team to play well coming off of a bye week, but are we going to see more of this from Jalen Hurts going forward? As in, less of him throwing the ball? Again, he only threw 14 passes in this game and completed just 10. For the first time in forever, Hurts didn’t have an interception or a fumble, and the final score reflects what the Eagles are capable of when they’re not giving the ball away.
11. Pittsburgh Steelers
The debut of Russell Wilson for the Pittsburgh Steelers could not have gone any better. Although things didn’t exactly start off great, the Steelers made the unpopular decision to start Wilson over Justin Fields, who had the Steelers at 4-2 and personally had 10 total TDs and only one interception.
It felt like a very foolish move to go with Russ against the Jets in a prime time situation, but Wilson passed all the tests with flying colors.
After a disastrous time in Denver, Wilson made the move to Pittsburgh in the offseason and there were many who felt like his calf injury from the start of training camp to last week was maybe a bit of a contrived story to help save face for Russ losing a step. But that obviously isn’t the case. Wilson made the throws, his receivers made the plays, and the Steelers did what they have pretty much always done.
They dominated on defense, they blocked kicks, they just really looked good out there. And Wilson will undoubtedly get another week after this. The Steelers are 5-2 and dangerous as ever.
10. Chicago Bears
It’s got to feel pretty great for Chicago Bears fans to see their team potentially as one of the 10 best teams in the NFL right now.
The progression of the defense late last season (and carried over into this season) coupled with the development of Caleb Williams and all of those weapons on the offensive side of the ball? It’s the vision of GM Ryan Poles really coming to fruition. The stars have aligned.
Thank goodness for that mulligan on passing on CJ Stroud last year, right?
The Bears are a good team. How they fare over the long haul of an NFL season with a rookie under center remains to be seen, but as the Bears spent this week on a bye, there’s really no reason to be pessimistic at this point. The Bears have a good-looking team and the only thing stopping them from being relevant in January is the quality of their division, which makes up 40 percent of the top 10 teams in the league right now.
9. Houston Texans
We can’t ding the Houston Texans too much for the road loss against the Green Bay Packers in Week 7. Obviously, this Texans team is good. Obviously, they are in the driver’s seat of the AFC South and there’s barely anybody in the rear-view.
Okay, the Colts are still in the rear-view for now, but the Texans clearly look like the class of that division.
Houston went into Green Bay and nearly pulled off a win, but a last-second field goal by Green Bay sent Houston home 5-2 and disappointed. Still, like I said, I don’t think you can ding them too much for this loss when it comes to weekly NFL Power Rankings.
It’s very clear that Houston has one of the best teams in the NFL with the type of quarterback who can be a difference-maker in January. Speaking of, I think we do need to have a conversation about CJ Stroud throwing for just 86 yards and taking four sacks. Houston managed just 197 yards of offense in this game and it still took a last-second field goal for Green Bay to get the win.
8. Minnesota Vikings
The Minnesota Vikings are unbeaten no more, but it took the Detroit Lions literally every second to pull off a win.
The Vikings had a bye week in Week 6, so they were able to prep for a home matchup against the Detroit Lions for a couple of weeks. And despite the Lions smacking them in the mouth early on, the Vikings fought back and looked pretty darn good, even in defeat.
But there are no moral victories.
The Vikings were at least able to get Jared Goff to throw a few incomplete passes, am I right? Goff only had three incompletions on the day, but Minnesota’s attacking defense did get Goff to fumble a couple of times, and they recovered a David Montgomery fumble for a touchdown. And that was the key play in the game that put the Vikings up late, but the Lions had the ball last in a game where the team that had the ball last was probably going to win.
The Vikings shouldn’t hang their heads after this one, and they don’t really have any time to do so. They play in the best division in football with a short week to face the Rams in Week 8. But the Vikings could be sitting pretty nicely with games against the Rams, Colts, Jaguars, and Titans upcoming.
7. Washington Commanders
Even with Jayden Daniels going down early in the game due to an injury (which apparently, he is okay), the Washington Commanders just wiped the floor with the Carolina Panthers.
They got it done every which way, too.
We saw a defensive touchdown for the Commanders, a pick-six for Dante Fowler Jr. (one of Dan Quinn’s long-time “guys”). We saw Marcus Mariota come in and actually operate the offense really well, both as a runner and a passer. Mariota proved why he’s kind of the ideal backup quarterback for Jayden Daniels out there in Washington and made some really good throws as the Commanders kept on rolling.
Who had the Commanders looking like the most complete team in the NFC East at this point in the season? There doesn’t appear to be any sort of “fluke” going on here whatsoever. This team is legit. Let’s see if they can keep it up as the year progresses and the stakes get higher.
6. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Buccaneers play Monday vs. Ravens
We obviously don’t know how the Buccaneers will fare in their highly-anticipated Week 7 matchup against the Baltimore Ravens at the time of this writing, but this Bucs team just dropped 51 points against the New Orleans Saints last week and they have looked like one of the most explosive offenses in the NFL all season long.
Baker Mayfield has continued to play exceptionally well, and as the Bucs continue to get healthy defensively, this team should continue to establish itself as one of the powerhouse teams in the NFC.
The issue facing the Bucs this week has nothing to do with what kind of quality team this is. It has everything to do with playing against the Baltimore Ravens, where all bets are off. The Ravens are an absolute buzz-saw, one of the most well-oiled machines in the NFL. You can’t speak doom and gloom over a season if you lose to the Ravens, but you can certainly hang your hat on a win against them. We’ll see what the Bucs do.
5. Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills have had their share of slip-ups already this season, but I think I’ve seen enough from this team to really buy them as a threat in the AFC come January. But to be a threat in January, the Bills have to get there. After their dominating win against the Tennessee Titans, let’s take a gander at the Bills’ upcoming opponents…
Their next three games are on the road against the Seahawks, at home against the Dolphins, and on the road against the Colts. After that, they face off against the Chiefs and 49ers at home. Needless to say, these next three games are going to be crucial for the Bills taking care of business and building themselves a little bit of a cushion in the AFC East. They are 5-2 after that win against the Titans, and they should be no worse than 7-3 after this next stretch of three games.
Josh Allen has plenty of weapons offensively despite the departure of Stefon Diggs this offseason, including apparently a dynamic two-headed monster at running back with James Cook and Ray Davis.
4. Green Bay Packers
What a win for the Green Bay Packers in Week 7…
The Packers were rocking their “Winter Warning” uniforms against the Houston Texans, and they continued to look like one of the best teams in the NFC.
And they may have solved one of their biggest issues with the addition of veteran kicker Brandon McManus, who was lights-out in his first game as a Packer. As a matter of fact, McManus got himself a little Lambeau leap at the end of the game when he hit the game-winning field goal to send the Packers to 5-2 on the season.
Green Bay held the Houston Texans to just 197 total yards of offense and CJ Stroud to just 86 passing yards. They got after Stroud to the tune of four sacks and seven quarterback hits while making a whopping 11 tackles behind the line of scrimmage.
The Packers have an MVP-caliber quarterback, tons of playmakers, and a defense that has continually stepped up this season. They could be the NFC’s representative in the Super Bowl just two years after trading Aaron Rodgers to the Jets…
3. Baltimore Ravens
Ravens play Monday night vs. Buccaneers
Regardless of what happens on Monday night against the Buccaneers, we know that the Baltimore Ravens are one of the best teams in the NFL and one of the league’s most well-oiled machines at this point.
After sputtering at the start of the season with a loss against the Chiefs and then an inexplicable loss to the Las Vegas Raiders, the Ravens have ripped off four straight wins and are doing it in impressive fashion.
To illustrate just how impressive it has been, the Ravens have put up over 450 yards of total offense in three of their last four games, and the only time they didn’t hit that 450-yard mark was a game in which they racked up 427 yards of offense.
Lamar Jackson is playing at an MVP level once again. Derrick Henry has been exactly what this Ravens team needed. Baltimore basically just wants to “simulate” to January at this point.
2. Detroit Lions
The Detroit Lions are just so much fun to watch. Jared Goff is barely throwing any incomplete passes. This team has weapons galore offensively. They can win in dominating blowout fashion or they can show resilience in back-and-forth games. The Lions have the clutch gene. They find different ways to win. Different guys step up in big ways for this team.
They are poised for a big run this season, but the absence of Aidan Hutchinson does loom large for them. I believe the Lions are the best team in the NFC right now, and a road victory over the Minnesota Vikings with the Vikings having had the bye week to prepare is not a small deal.
The Lions are tough. We will have to wait and find out how much the loss of Hutchinson affects their margin for error as the year progresses, but what else is there not to like about this team?
We’ll see if Lions GM Brad Holmes can pull off some type of trade for a pass rusher at this year’s deadline. It seems like there is always at least one impact rusher available each year at the deadline and we saw the Bears acquire one last year in Montez Sweat. What can the Lions pull off in 2024?
1. Kansas City Chiefs
Patrick Mahomes had multiple interceptions and threw his shoulder into a 49ers defender on a rushing touchdown as the Chiefs kind of blew out the 49ers in Week 7.
What kind of world is this?
The Chiefs just find so many different ways to win and they are the NFL’s lone unbeaten team after Week 7 action. They stand alone at the top right now and it’s just tough to see this team really facing too much adversity before the stakes are higher.
The Chiefs could very easily be 14-3 by season’s end – or better – and when it comes down to it, who is going to be able to put this team away when it matters and keep them from a three-peat?
The Chiefs came out last season a little bit flat. They lost a number of games and were even allowing teams like the Broncos to stick around (just one game out of first place) into the month of December. But this team has built in the biggest margin for error out of any team in the league. They are a force.