Lounging Pass: NFL 2024: Week 7 Power Rankings & The Rest

Tier I - The "Is it 2025 yet?" Duo

32.) Carolina Panthers = 1-5 (103-203)

31.) New England Patriots = 1-5 (83-143)

Not to beat around the bush, but sometimes it's clear that you have to start looking at next year. For the Patriots, they've started that process by ripping the band-aid off and goign with Drake Maye. Just have to hope it isn't a David Carr situation given how bad that OL is. For the Panthers, they've almost done the reverse in essentially ripping the band-aid off as it relates to admitting Bryce Young is a mistake. At least for them they have their #1 pick this year, which very well may be #1 in the draft again.

Tier II - The "Schadenfreude at its Finest" Uno

30.) Cleveland Browns = 1-5 (95-141)

It's just so hilarious how bad the Watson situation is in every way. Of course, screw him all the way to hell. I hope they don't bench him because that ownership group should reap every single awful moment that they sowed, and Watson should doubly so get humiliated weekly. If anything, my only hope is they trade some of the good players away. I don't fault the Myles Garrett's and the like for this disaster.

Tier III - The "Just Bad Football" Quadro

29.) Las Vegas Raiders = 2-4 (109-163)

28.) Jacksonville Jaguars = 1-5 (113-178)

27.) Miami Dolphins = 2-3 (60-113)

26.) New York Giants = 2-4 (96-121)

As we'll get to in a bit, I actually think the upper end of the league is quite strong this year, but the converse is there's a good set of bad teams. The Raiders changed QBs but that hasn't changed their offensive outlook at all. Can they just go and trade Devante Adams please!? For the Jags, it's jsut a top to bottom disaster. I guess there is always a chance Trevor Lawrence starts to play better, which is the one thing keeping me from having them even lower. Similarly, I guess Tua could come back at some point? It is amazing though how awful that offense looks without Tua though. I do wonder if there is a view that the crazy offense has to some degree been very much foudn out. For the Giants - the defense remains quite good but to no one's surprise Daniel Jones cannot lead a fully functional offense. I like a lot of what the Giants have built outside of the QB, but that is irrelevant if they don't cut the cord.

Tier IV - The "Better Luck Next Year" Duo

25.) Los Angeles Rams = 1-4 (94-139)
24.) Tennessee Titans = 1-4 (96-110)

Both these teams are probably better than one-win through five games. The Rams are definitely better if they didn't have a cascade of injuries reminiscent of say the 2020 49ers. Technically I guess that 49ers team lost their QB as well, but Stafford is hanging in there. For the Titans, it's been depressing to see how far Will Levis has fallen this year compared to the sprightly QB who could throw a gorgeous deep ball last year. Given it's year one in a new regime, I'll cut them some slack that this is very much not a finished product.

Tier V - The "Depressingly Poor" Duo

23.) Dallas Cowboys = 3-3 (126-168)

22.) New York Jets = 2-4 (113-108)

The Cowboys are truly bad right now. Yes, their defense has been fairly decimated by injuries. But still they should not be giving up 40+ in two of their three home games so far. The offense is also a shell of itself, and this is all after their big extensions to Lamb and Prescott. I think we're super close to this being a situation where they missed their chance in 2022 and are playing out the string. My ranking of the Jets isn't really impacted all that much by the Devante Adams trade because the Jets main problems to me aren't materially solved there - their OL stinks and the defense is already showing some holes post Saleh. Maybe it was one game, but the run defense was pathetic. That is a bad combination here.

Tier VI - The "Middling Middlers" Quinto

21.) Arizona Cardinals = 2-4 (133-163)

20.) Indianapolis Colts = 3-3 (139-139)
19.) Denver Broncos = 3-3 (112-96)

18.) New Orleans Saints = 2-4 (157-147)

17.) Seattle Seahawks = 3-3 (146-150)

The soft underbelly is a monster at the moment with these five. The Cardinals are still exciting, and I believe in Kyler again but that defense needs a lot more in the DL to make them passable. The Colts are doing basically what they did last year - playing awful football but somehow stringing together a few wins. The Broncos defense will keep them in games, but Nix's lack of progress should call into question a bit Sean Payton's QB development skills in teh 2020s. For the Saints, they have to hope Derek Carr gets back soon, and more than that the defense can start tackling again. The underlying stats will still be good, but that was a very, very troubling game. The Seahawks run defense has to get better or they'll never head above .500. With teh 49ers slow start that division is there for the taking, but the defense that started out well has really started to sag the last few games.

Tier VII - The "Upside Potential" Duo

16.) Philadelphia Eagles = 3-2 (106-112)
15.) Cincinnati Bengals = 2-4 (157-152)

The Eagles seem like a mess, what happens when you end 1-6 the year prior and have things like the head coach jawing at home fans. But they're getting the calvary back - Hurts looks good. If not for the freak block FG that was a calm, cool win. They haven't solved a lot of their issues coming into the year, but remain talented enough to sneak a wild card (or the division if Washington cools off...). The Bengals would be a lot easier to get behind if they didn't fool around and lose to what has revealed itself to be an awful New England team. Their schedule remains easy, and the upside is still there. It will be interesting to see if they can build anything off their first decent defensive performance to date.

Tier VIII - The "Better than Middling Better than Middlers" Quadro

14.) Atlanta Falcons = 4-2 (149-135)
13.) Pittsburgh Steelers = 4-2 (124-86)

12.) Chicago Bears = 4-2 (148-101)
11.) Washington Commanders = 4-2 (178-145)

The biggest development to me of the Falcons in recent games has been the rediscovery of Kyle Pitts. Now, let's see it against teams not named the Panthers and such, but there's some life there. For the Steelers, I could write the same thing but replace the name "Kyle Pitts" with "Najee Harris", and similarly so the Raiders taking the place of the Panthers in the sense of "prove it against a real team". For the Bears and Commanders, it's all about the rookies. Caleb Williams has feasted against bad defenses these last few weeks - but in reality so has Jayden Daniels for his best games (Bengals, Cardinals). Both are clearly good enough that it is almost assured they won't be busts, but I think there's a chance both come back towards the mean QB performacne for the remainder of the season. Not that this should be seen as anything other than a positive first season for both.

Tier IX - The "They Might Be Great" Duo

10.) Los Angeles Chargers = 3-2 (91-66)

9.) Tampa Bay Buccaneers = 4-2 (178-141)

I don't think either of these two are great yet, but have some underlying strengths if they can remain healthy. Particularly, the Chargers defense has played great so far. Granted, against some truly awful offenses, but their starters should be good if they can stay healthy. A big if to be sure. The Buccaneers similarly have such frontline talent if they remain all on the field. The offense is playing like it did at the peak of the Brady years. The defense needs more teeth but some of that is the style they employ under Todd Bowles, especially needing more blitzing to generate consistent pressure.

Tier X - The "They Are Great" Quadro

8.) Green Bay Packers = 4-2 (162-121)

7.) Houston Texans = 5-1 (143-135)
6.) San Francisco 49ers = 3-3 (162-130)
5.) Buffalo Bills = 4-2 (165-126)

I don't know what it really says, but my Top-8 teams have seven of the eight teams that played in the divisional round last year, and the other 5-0 team. I'm sure we'll get more variance as we go, but so far these four have all done well. The Packers finally gave Love some protection and it looked all better. The defense has also started getting more pressure. For the Texans, it's a good sign that there are some weaknesses to point to (protection, some accuracy issues) and the team is still 5-1 and clear in that division. For the 49ers, that was a get-right game, while they await even more reinforcements. Purdy is playing great, and I count at lease one of their losses (primarily the Cardinals one) to flukes. For teh Bills, that was a heartening game in the sense they lose that in recent years, with teh hail mary, the bad penalty calls. The heartening part is while they're dealing with some injuries, those aren't long term. More than that though, Amari Cooper is a great fit for what they need on offense for Allen.

Tier XI - The "Revenge Tour" Duo

4.) Baltimore Ravens = 3-2 (177-149)

3.) Detroit Lions = 4-1 (151-91)

Twelve years ago, the Super Bowl was between teh two teams that lost the prior year's Conference Title Games in heartbreaking fashion. One of those two was even the Ravens. Not to say that's definitely happening here, but we're on our way in a sense. The Ravens really blew that Raiders game, otherwise their record would better match their actual level so far. Jackson looks great, Henry looks great, and the defense is starting to get more dynamic. For the Lions, I'm really hoping they trade for some edge help, be it Myles Garrett (the Cooper trade at least indicates they may be open for business) or Maxx Crosby, or someone else. That offense is humming, but Hutchinson was such a key element of them being a super bowl caliber defense.

Tier XII - The "Resting Up for the Long Haul" Duo

2.) Minnesota Vikings = 5-0 (139-76)

1.) Kansas City Chiefs = 5-0 (118-85)

Boring week in a sense where the two remaining 5-0 teams were both on a bye. Both have nice tests coming up, with teh Vikings hosting the Lions and the Chiefs taking a trip to San Francisco. So far, nothing much to report here.

Looking Ahead to Next Week's Games

Byes: Chicago Bears (4-2), Dallas Cowboys (3-3)

15.) New England Patriots (1-5) @ Jacksonville Jaguars (1-5) (9:30am - NFLN)

14.) Carolina Panthers (1-5) @ Washington Commanders (4-2) (4:05 - CBS)

13.) Cincinnati Bengals (2-4) @ Cleveland Browns (1-5) (1:00 - CBS)

12.) Las Vegas Raiders (2-4) @ Los Angeles Rams (1-4) (4:05 - CBS)

I call it "Look far away" Sunday, as

11.) New York Jets (X-X) @ Pittsburgh Steelers (4-2) (SNF - NBC)
10.) Tennessee Titans (1-4) @ Buffalo Bills (X-X) (1:00 - CBS)

9.) Denver Broncos (3-3) @ New Orleans Saints (2-4) (TNF - Amazon)

8.) Los Angeles Chargers (3-2) @ Arizona Cardinals (2-4) (MNF 2.0 - ESPN)

I call it "There's better things to do on a October weekend" Thursday, Sunday and Monday, as

7.) Philadelphia Eagles (3-2) @ New York Giants (2-4) (1:00 - FOX)