Every single week, the NFL provides drama you simply cannot find anywhere else in professional sports. Even in the midst of multiple teams making bids to represent their respective league in the World Series, the NFL is just unparalleled craziness.
Okay, maybe there’s nothing quite like Shohei Ohtani in the NFL right now, but what we saw in Week 7 around the league was yet another crazy example of how anything can happen any week in this league.
The Bengals upended the Steelers. The Broncos won one of the craziest games you’ll ever see against the New York Giants. The Chiefs are back…? We’re coming at you with a fresh set of NFL Power Rankings after Week 7, and basing these rankings on every team’s whole body of work so far, how well each team is passing the “eye test”, and a number of other factors at this point (projection going forward, head-to-head wins, consistency). Buckle in, because we’ve got some serious movement in our Week 8 NFL Power Rankings.
Week 8 NFL Power Rankings: Steelers tumbling; Chiefs skyrocketing
32. New York Jets
At this stage, I don’t think it’s even arguable that the New York Jets are the worst team in the NFL by a long shot. They gave it everything they had last week against the Broncos in London, but now that they are back stateside this week, they’ve clearly regressed.
During the Jets’ loss to the Panthers on Sunday, they finally gave Tyrod Taylor the shot we’ve all been waiting for. The problem is, the results really weren’t all that different, but you can’t blame them for trying, right?
The Jets being sellers at the NFL trade deadline now feels like a foregone conclusion. How quickly they move on from some of their players will be interesting to watch, because the writing is on the wall and it feels like teams are ready to deal now. That’s going to be the most interesting thing to watch with this team at this stage. How far away is the 2026 NFL Draft, again?
31. Miami Dolphins
If you’re reading this and Mike McDaniel is still the head coach of the Miami Dolphins, he’s undoubtedly on borrowed time. The Dolphins had a last-gasp sort of game against the Chargers last week, but it felt like all the wind was out of their sails when they took on the Browns in Cleveland.
I mean, this game was an absolute mess, and for the Dolphins, likely the last straw.
What we’ve seen from this franchise over the past couple of years is difficult to pin all on Mike McDaniel, because injuries played a factor in this team missing its window, but it’s probably become very clear to the people in charge of this team that wholesale changes are needed.
Frankly, at this point, I can’t say I would be shocked if we saw Zach Wilson out there starting for the Dolphins in the near future. We saw Quinn Ewers out there on Sunday, and it feels like the winds of change are blowing in South Beach.