NFL Power Rankings Week 10: Vegas, Baby!

Week 9 was a weekend full of offense. Quarterbacks averaged a 101.7 passer rating (excluding the Jets/Patriots game), 67.5% completion rate, 52 TDs, 17 INTs and 7.8 yards per attempt! However, the important thing is wins and losses. We have a new team in the top-10!

As will happen every Tuesday throughout the season, nine of our contributors — Zach Lyons, Mike Herndon, Justin Melo, Jimmy Morris, Robert Greenlaw, Wes Wisley, Austin Nelson, Josh Hong, and Justin Graver — have submitted their power rankings, 1 to 32. Below is the aggregate results of those rankings.

Biggest Risers: It definitely wasn’t sexy, but the Atlanta Falcons moved up five spots and they hold the title for the biggest riser.

Biggest Fallers: The San Francisco 49ers could not overcome their injuries and diseases and fell down eight spots. They’re the biggest losers– I mean fallers.

Here’s where we landed with our rankings as we head into Week 10 of the regular season…

To see the full list of everyone’s individual rankings click here.

Justin G: So, despite a bit of a shaky start, it seems the Saints are in fact good. After falling all the way to 11 in our consensus rankings back in Week 4 (when I wrote about not giving up on this team), the Saints are back in the top four, with one ranker putting them as high as two overall.

With Sunday night’s dominant win over Tampa Bay, the Saints are firmly in the driver’s seat in the division and appear to be the class of the NFC once again. They will be a tough out in the playoffs… until they lose in wildly unpredictable fashion, because that’s just what the Saints do.

Jimmy: The Titans got back on track on Sunday against the Bears. They were able to get off the field on 3rd down for the first time this season. Now we just have to wait and see if the defense is actually better or if that was just a product of playing Nick Foles and the Bears.

It will not take long for us to figure that out. The Titans face the Colts, Ravens and Colts in the next three games. Those offenses are much better than the one they saw on Sunday. Improved third down defense in those games will give us confidence some of the problems have been fixed.

If the Titans can get two of the next three, it will put them in a great position to accomplish their first goal of winning the AFC South.

Wes: The Ravens are in an interesting spot after reaching the halfway point of their season. They currently stand with an overall record of 6-2 — 2-1 in their division behind the undefeated Steelers — and are one of three teams who have yet to taste defeat on the road. 

This team is hard to predict based off inconsistent play from the offense, specifically Lamar Jackson and the passing game. At times they look fantastic, while other times looking confused and shorthanded. The run game is solid between Jackson and J. K. Dobbins, but losing All World Tackle Ronnie Stanley for the year could play a huge factor in how far they can go this season.

Leaning on a defense that leads the league with the fewest points allowed, if Jackson and the offense can get back to their impressive, MVP-style play from a season ago, they will be a tough team to beat.

Austin: Buffalo is a bit inconsistent, but the Bills will be a tough out for any team. On Sunday, they played their best game of the season, putting up 44 points on what some people called the “best” team in the league in the Seahawks. Josh Allen threw for 415 yards and four touchdowns, but the defense made big plays, too. Their running game hasn’t been so hot, but if they can find a more balanced offense, the Bills can be dangerous come playoff time.

Buffalo has not won the AFC East since 1995. I was one years old then. With the Dolphins surprisingly lurking behind them, the Bills better keep their foot on the gas.

Zach: VEGAS, BABY! This team is sitting at 5-3 and second place in the AFC West. If the playoffs started tomorrow they would be the 6th seed. How crazy is that?

Head coach Jon Gruden has somehow found his groove as a coach in his comeback tour with the Raiders after looking like an overpaid buffoon the majority of this round.

If you paid attention to the Raiders last year towards the end, you could tell they were building something special. I had Derek Carr as a fantasy quarterback, so I saw this and pounded the table for him and this team throughout the offseason in my group chats.

However, I was routinely told that Carr sucks and Marcus Mariota would start by Week 3. Well, that didn’t happen ya losers. Carr is playing some of his best ball since 2016.

The real secret to this team is this defense that is just swarming and suffocating opposing offenses in a way that hasn’t happened in over a decade.

Josh: Despite another fantastic performance from Kyler Murray, the Cardinals lost against the Dolphins to drop to 5-3 on the season. Kyler continues to show tremendous development as a legitimate top ten quarterback in the league. He is currently on pace to throw for 4,260 yards and 32 passing touchdowns with an additional 1085 rushing yards and 16 rushing touchdowns. Those are MVP-type numbers.

However, Kliff Kingsbury continues to have some questionable coaching calls that is preventing the team from maximizing its potential. On paper, the Cardinals are a playoff team, but Kingsbury needs to put his team in better positions to win games when they matter most.

Zach: Call me crazy… you’re crazy… but I really enjoy watching this Miami Dolphins team play. I do not care who is back there behind center, this is just a fun team who loves to play football and wants to smack someone in the mouth while doing it.

Brian Flores has done a tremendous job since taking over as the head coach last year. Remember when people thought he was tanking? Nope, he was just building his culture by demolishing the old one. Psst, it’s working.

I have watched a lot more Dolphins football than I ever have, and my dad used to be a Dolphins fan before we moved to Tennessee. The game versus the Cardinals on Sunday was just a really fun and exciting game, and it wasn’t as close as the score indicates if it weren’t for DeAndre Hopkins garnering a lot of bogus OPI calls, as he is one to do.

I could write an entire article about this team and I am getting long-winded, but this team is legit, and they’re sitting at 5-3.

Mike: It’s not really the Niners fault that they’re bad. They’ve had one of the worst Seasons From Hell in recent memory. Here is the current list of players on IR:

• Jimmy Garappolo
• George Kittle
• Nick Bosa
• Ezekiel Ansah
• Dee Ford
• Ben Garland
• Jalen Hurd
• Raheem Mostert
• Mark Nzeocha
• Richard Sherman
• Solomon Thomas
• Chris Thompson
• Jeff Wilson

Now they’ve got COVID issues too, placing Trent Williams, Brandon Aiyuk, Deebo Samuel, and Kendrick Bourne on the reserve/COVID list last week. So, for those scoring at home, that’s QB1, RB1, WR1, WR2, WR3, TE1, LT1, DE1, DE2, DE3, and CB1 among the players missing last week. The COVID guys are expected to come back, but many of the IR players are not, which makes it hard to see the Niners winning too many more games in 2020.

Robert: Stud rookie quarterback? Check. Good receivers? Check. Decent running backs? Check. Playmakers on defense? Check. The Chargers seem to have it all, until you realize they are the Chargers, which of course means they are cursed. Anthony Lynn has not been able to undo the curse, which means the longer they keep him employed, the longer the curse will go one. Go hire Ted Lasso, hire a shaman, anyone who is a curse reverser. Only then will the Chargers be good. Until then, they will suffer one-score loss after one-score loss.

Justin Melo: The Denver Broncos are a bad football team. They entered the 2020 season with a lot of hype and it’s easy to understand why. Drew Lock showed a lot of promise as a rookie. They drafted Jerry Jeudy and several other pass catching weapons in the 2020 draft. They added Jurrell Casey via trade.

Fast forward to Sunday, they fall 34-27 to the Atlanta Falcons in Week 9. The Falcons did their best to hand the game to the Broncos in the fourth quarter, as they’ve been known to do, but it didn’t happen. The loss brought Denver’s record to a disappointing 3-5.

Where did it all go wrong? First of all, injuries have hit this team hard. Lock has missed several weeks. Von Miller was lost for the entire season before it even started. Casey also suffered an early season injury that tanked his 2020. Talk about bad luck.

There’s plenty of reason to believe that the future is still bright here, but this is shaping up to be a lost season.

Who is too high? Who is too low? Drop a comment down below!

Have your own power rankings? Click here to goto the forum and put yours up!

Author: Zach LyonsWith over 17 years experience of losing Fantasy Football games, Zach has been a Titans fan since moving to Nashville in 2002. A die-hard Alabama fan, but he doesn't let that cloud his judgement of the Elite Players they have put in the NFL. Players like Derrick Henry, Julio Jones, and AJ McCarron. You've heard him on Football & Other F Words giving his Unfiltered Opinions as facts and that won't change. He's always 100% right even if he has to revise earlier statements. Lawyered.