NFL Power Rankings Week 6: A Brand New Champ

We had a major shake up in Week 5 with some shifting in the NFL landscape. The Tennessee Titans won in convincing fashion, while powerhouses like the Chiefs fell to surprising risers in the Las Vegas Raiders.

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: The Cleveland Browns, Las Vegas Raiders, and Carolina Panthers all won, and every single one of these teams moved up five spots.

Biggest Fallers: The Indianapolis Colts are not legit, and the Cowboys are in a funk as they join the Bengals and 49ers as the biggest fallers in the NFL this week as they drop five spots.

Here’s where we landed with our rankings as we head into Week 6 of the regular season…

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

Zach: The Seattle Seahwawks are the most fun team to watch, in my opinion. I had people jump in the ole DMs to tell me: “Oh I thought the Seahawks were the best team in there NFL?” during the Vikings game.

Then the Seahawks do what they do and brought the hammer and won the game. The Seattle Seahawks have the NFL MVP favorite currently and one of the league’s most dominant WR duos. They’re a rightful 5-0 and they’re your current Power Rankings champs!

Robert: The Ravens have not played in a one score game this season. Their Week 1 win against the Browns looks good in retrospect, but their other wins? Against the hapless Texans, Bengals, and Football Team — who have a combined 3 wins between them.

After they were buried by the Chiefs, Lamar Jackson went out of his way to let the NFL know that there is a formula to beat them in his post-game press conference. Would you believe the Ravens sport the 9th-worst total yards per game on offense after being 2nd in that category a year ago? The schedule toughens up a little bit in the coming weeks, and Jackson will need to take the next step as a passer for this team to maintain its Super Bowl aspirations.

Justin Graver: The Titans have been called a lot of things in the past few weeks. From “pretenders” to “a soft 3-0” more than two weeks ago to more recent accusations of cheating and protocol violations related to their COVID-19 outbreak.

On Tuesday Night Football with the entire football nation watching, the Titans dismantled an undefeated team that many were picking as a darkhorse to win the AFC. It was a statement win for a team that has not received the respect they deserved after advancing to the AFC Championship last year.

Ryan Tannehill has not hit the regression so many expected, and the defense played their best game of the season without Jeffery Simmons, Adoree Jackson, or Kristian Fulton against the #4 offense in the NFL heading into Week 5. They’ll face a tough stretch ahead, especially with no bye week, but this team has proven they belong in the top-5 conversation through five weeks of 2020.

Justin Melo: There’s something different about this Saints team, and I mean that in a bad way. Wins are wins, but this team doesn’t look right to me. Not even a little bit.

They fell in a 14-0 hole to the Lions two weeks ago, and really should have lost on Monday night to the Chargers. Herbert did everything he could to put the Chargers in a position to win that game, and they would have done so had Michael Badgley not missed a 50-yard field goal at the end of regulation.

Drew Brees is a legend, but he’s 41-years-old and starting to look like it. It happens to the best of them, but Brees has had some real stinkers this season. This team only goes as far as he’ll carry them. Obviously they’ve missed Michael Thomas. It’ll be worth monitoring how much better Brees looks once Thomas returns next week.

Perhaps I’ll look like a fool shortly, but buyer’s beware when it comes to the hype with this Saints team. I just don’t believe in them right now.

Mike: I’m not sure I believe in Super Bowl hangovers, but there certainly seems to be something going on with this Niners team. After dominating the NFC in 2019, Kyle Shanahan’s crew has been decimated by injuries in 2020.

Nick Bosa, Solomon Thomas, Ezekiel Ansah, Dee Ford, Richard Sherman, Tevin Coleman, and Jordan Reed are all currently on IR. Jimmy Garappolo, Raheem Mostert, George Kittle, Brandon Aiyuk, and Deebo Samuel have all missed at least one game due to injury already. It’s ugly in the injury category.

However, that still doesn’t totally explain away a 43-17 beat down at the hands of Ryan Fitzpatrick and the Dolphins in San Francisco last week. Jimmy G was benched at halftime, and while Shanahan’s comments indicated that they were worried about Garappolo’s ability to protect himself on a gimpy ankle, I’m not totally sure I’m buying it.

At 2-3 and sitting in dead last in the NFC West, the Niners need to find some quick answers to jump back into the playoff race, much less making another run at a Super Bowl appearance.

Austin: Sunday was a complete disaster for the Cowboys. What happened to Dak Prescott is literally the worst thing about the game of football. Prescott was on pace to shatter the single season passing record, but after leaving the game in the third quarter, enter Andy Dalton.

The “Red Rifle” as some like to call him. Dallas’ season has been more than underwhelming mainly for their defense, but the offense may be in trouble now. Dalton is more than capable of winning this team games, but it’s going to look a LOT different without Dak. Luckily for Dallas, they play in the worst division in football.

Josh: It’s still too early to tell, but Justin Herbert might be the truth. Against the Saints, Herbert threw for 264 yards and 4 touchdowns. He continues to attack defenses with his rocket of an arm off play action deep down the field. He looks like the player that we only saw glimpses of at Oregon.

However, the Chargers keep finding ways to blow early leads. At one point, they led 20-3 against the Saints. This is a competitive team, but it just feels like they are a year away from actually making any playoff noise. For now, Herbert is doing his job. The rest of the team just needs to help the young quarterback finish games.

Wes: It’s pretty clear with the firing of Head Coach Dan Quinn, General Manager Thomas Dimitroff and Special Teams Coach Ben Kotwica that the Falcons are spiraling into the abyss with the bottom tier teams. Their next few opponents make for winnable games, but the 0-5 Falcons have shown they have no idea how to win this year. From epic collapses to questionable decisions by the coaching staff, it’s been nothing but inconsistent play from both sides of the ball, but especially the defense. 

They’ve now promoted Raheem Morris to the interim head coach job. We’ll see if the change can spark the team into some consistent play, but considering what we’ve seen so far, it’s hard to see this team winning very many games. 

With their schedule only getting more difficult during the last six or so weeks, there’s a good chance Atlanta ends up picking in the top 5 of the 2021 NFL Draft.

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

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

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.