24. Washington Commanders (2-4-1)
Washington played on Sunday Night Football
You get the sense that the Washington Commanders could end up making a huge coaching move if they don’t beat the Eagles on Sunday Night Football. Ever since that breakout season in 2024, things have fallen off the rails for Washington, as they have won just six regular season games since the start of the 2025 season, and QB Jayden Daniels has struggled to stay healthy.
With that said, Washington getting within one game of the Super Bowl two years ago could mean that more success is on the horizon if the necessary change is made. A non-playoff team trending toward making major changes, Washington should be able to beat Philly on SNF this week.
Update: Washington beat Philadelphia on Sunday Night Football in a game they should have won, so I am not sure this really changes things big-picture wise. The Commanders are still an overall bad football team with way more questions than answers.
23. Atlanta Falcons (3-5)
I am not sure there are many words in the English language to describe what we saw in Week 8 with the Atlanta Falcons. To say the Falcons were dreadful on offense would be the understatement of the century. I guess Bijan Robinson had a fine day, but Michael Penix Jr. played, perhaps, the worst performance by a QB we have seen in quite some time.
And I guess with the weather, you can’t really blame him, but just one week after dethroning San Francisco and handing them their first loss, the Falcons fell flat on their face against Tampa Bay.
The already disastrous NFC South got a lot worse in Week 8. All of Atlanta, Tampa Bay, and Carolina have just three wins following Week 8. New Orleans has two wins. I guess because of the weather, you can kind of give a pass to the Falcons offense, but man, that was tough to watch.
The Falcons drop in our power rankings one week after proving, at least for that time, that they were a team worth taking seriously.
22. New Orleans Saints (2-5)
New Orleans was on the bye in Week 8
I was extremely high on the New Orleans Saints coming into the 2026 NFL Season, but they seem to be proving me wrong. The Saints defense just has not been nearly good enough, and we’re now not sure if Kellen Moore is the right guy to lead this team. Sitting at 2-5, though, the Saints are somehow still very much alive in the NFC South given how bad the rest of the division is.
But even if the Saints were to do what Carolina did last year and finish 8-9 but win the division, you’d still wonder if change needed to be made. If nothing else, the Saints appear to have their QB of the future in Tyler Shough, who has largely been very good this year.
Having the QB in place is much better than the alternative of having everything but the QB, so there is still hope for the Saints.
Add us as a preferred source on Google