NFL Power Rankings, Week 4: Biggest risers and fallers after Week 3

28. Las Vegas Raiders

You really can’t discount what the Raiders were able to do last weekend against the Baltimore Ravens, but apparently it was lightning in a bottle as the Raiders came home in Week 3 to face off against the Carolina Panthers…and got whooped. 

The Raiders let Andy Dalton throw all over them on their home field, and many of the issues we had anticipated for the Raiders this season reared their ugly heads in this loss to the Panthers. The Raiders simply don’t seem to have the personnel in the defensive backfield to sustain even with a star pass rusher like Maxx Crosby coming off the edge.

Offensively, Gardner Minshew seems to be able to be effective when the Raiders’ defense can allow him to be opportunistic, but playing in a come-from-behind situation against the Panthers and Ejiro Evero’s defense was a pretty telling overall performance.

27. Carolina Panthers

The first week of the Andy Dalton “era” under head coach Dave Canales went pretty exceptionally well, I would say. The Panthers’ offense was out there humming against the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 3, and Dalton was playing much better than I think really anyone expected.

And he wasn’t just out there throwing quick passes with receivers doing the rest of the work. Dalton was spreading the ball to different levels of the field and fitting the ball into some tight windows. It was a vintage performance from Dalton, who was once one of the better quarterbacks in the league, and the Dave Canales offense was humming nicely.

It’s bad news for Bryce Young, who can hopefully still benefit from the time spent on the sideline and learning off the field. But this is not a good situation for the Panthers long term. Maybe they can get some nice production from Dalton the rest of the way this season and reset at QB in the 2024 offseason. But this was an encouraging week.