NFL Power Rankings, Week 6: Biggest risers and fallers after Week 5

24. Los Angeles Rams

It’s really tough to be hard on the Los Angeles Rams, even though we just have to judge teams based on what they are at this point. The Rams are 1-4 to start this season but they’ve been in some really close games against good teams and they are doing it without some of their best players on the field.

And when I say some of the best players on the field, I mean like legitimately, there are few NFL teams as snake-bitten in the injury department right now as the Los Angeles Rams. Jordan Whittington was this team’s leading receiver in Week 5.

This team is still obviously well-coached and they have pieces, but they have to stay healthy. I don’t know that we’re going to see Les Snead (GM of the Rams) decide to blow this thing up, by any means, but you can’t help but wonder if the Rams would put one eye on the future at some point this season and what that might end up looking like.

25. New York Giants

You have to give credit where it’s due, and I didn’t think the Giants had a single chance to go into Seattle and get themselves a win in Week 5. I was about as positive that the Giants were going to lose as anything this week, especially without Malik Nabers in the lineup.

Everything was going against them. But I’m going to hold my “L” from this week and give some kudos to the Giants in this one. The Giants got a huge performance from former Purdue/Iowa offensive weapon Tyrone Tracy, one of the exciting rookies from their stellar 2024 draft class. 

Daniel Jones played mistake-free football, and the Giants absolutely shut down Seattle’s stellar running back duo of Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet. Geno Smith was forced to throw the ball 40 times in this game, and New York continued to expose some of the defensive issues that have plagued the Seattle Seahawks in recent weeks.

So where do the Giants go from here? They’ve won two of their last three games and have a home game against a ticked off Bengals team looming.