12. New England Patriots (5-3)
The New England Patriots had a bit of a scare from Miami in Week 8, but the Patriots remembered that they are the better team and won. The Pats responded well after their primetime loss to Chicago and are now 5-3 on the season. The AFC East is still rather open, especially if Buffalo’s defense can’t get better.
The Patriots are what and who they are - they’re a QB-first team and need Drake Maye to play at a high level. The defense is stingy, but there are more teams that have good defenses than teams that have high-level QB play.
Maye needs to be that guy for the Patriots with the second half of the season here. If he can throw it back to the 2025 season, the Pats are going to become a very dangerous team. While this win was a bit uneasy, no team apologizes for winning.
11. Los Angeles Rams (4-4)
Here come the Los Angeles Rams. I really love that, once again, the Rams put a big emphasis on the run. Kyren Williams and Blake Corum combined for 27 carries in this one. Matthew Stafford had 25 passing attempts. This, folks, is the secret sauce for the Rams, especially with Davante Adams out for a while.
The Rams now even up their record and do genuinely seem to have something they can run with, as Puka Nacua still had 11 receptions for 80 yards, and Tutu Atwell had 52 receiving yards. Los Angeles rises in our power rankings, and it’s clear that they’re probably a game or two better than their record suggests.
This team should string together more wins, and if they’re sitting at 9-5 by the time the home stretch rolls around, I don’t think anyone should be surprised. The Rams will be just fine.
10. Kansas City Chiefs (5-2)
Now losers of two games in a row, the Kansas City Chiefs drop a bit in our NFL power rankings. You could argue that the Chiefs just got done playing their two toughest games of the season thus far - away at Seattle and away at Denver- and they lost both.
It’s just hard for this team to get something going on offense with the limited talent they have on that side of the ball, specifically at wide receiver. This isn’t a secret, though, and I bet the Chiefs come away with a wide receiver at the trade deadline, but that doesn’t mean the issue will get fixed.
Kansas City is still in a good spot overall, but two losses in a row like this are tough to swallow, as the Chiefs were able to move the ball, perhaps shockingly, at one of the toughest places to play in sports. However, the Chiefs could not escape the Broncos late-game magic, and if they simply had more better players, they likely would have held on.
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