NFL Power Rankings Week 6: 49ers Take No. 1, Patriots Surge, Raiders Slide

The Titans fall to the bottom after losing 26-3 at home to Houston. That is the kind of result that removes any remaining benefit of the doubt.
Tennessee’s defense has kept a few games respectable this season. The offense is now bad enough that respectable losses are not even guaranteed.

Miami moves up one spot because it showed more fight than Tennessee. The Dolphins lost 31-24 to Cincinnati, but at least the offense produced something.
That is a low bar. It is still better than what some teams below them are offering.

The Chargers are still competitive. They are also still winless.
A 23-17 loss to Denver is another game that was within reach and still ended the same way. Los Angeles may not be the worst team in football, but 0-5 leaves very little room for sympathy.

Arizona’s slide continues after a 45-21 loss to Detroit. The Cardinals have had moments this season, but the weekly defensive issues are becoming too much to ignore.
This is starting to look less like a team that is close and more like a team that opponents can eventually pull away from.

New Orleans lost 23-13 to Minnesota and has now dropped three straight. The Saints can stay competitive, but they are not finishing games.
That matters. At 1-4, “not embarrassing” is no longer enough.

Washington avoided a loss, but a 27-27 tie with the Giants does not create much momentum. The Commanders have been competitive in flashes, but the record remains a problem.
The earlier Seattle win still gives them one of the strangest résumés in the league. The rest of the season has not matched it.

Houston finally got a win, and it was convincing. Beating Tennessee 26-3 does not erase the 0-4 start, but it does suggest the Texans are not completely lost.
The defense has quietly kept them from being one of the league’s worst teams by profile. Now they need the offense to make the first win matter.

Indianapolis had a chance to build off its London win and instead lost 34-22 to Pittsburgh. That keeps the Colts in the lower middle of the league.
There are still signs of progress compared to the opening weeks. There just are not enough consistent results yet.

The Jets deserve credit for beating Cleveland 17-12. It was not pretty, but that is exactly the kind of game New York has to win if it wants to stay relevant.
The defense gives the Jets a chance. The offense still makes every week feel like a grind.

Dallas keeps finding new ways to make the season more complicated. Losing at home to a winless Tampa Bay team is the kind of result that wipes out a lot of patience.
The Cowboys can score and still have talent. The problem is that their floor keeps showing up at the worst possible times.

Finally, Tampa Bay has a win. The Buccaneers beat Dallas 24-16 on Thursday night and showed some life after a rough opening month.
At 1-4, they still have a lot of work to do. But beating the Cowboys on the road is enough to get them out of the basement tier.

This is the harshest drop of the week. Chicago had real momentum after beating Philadelphia and the Jets, then got handled 31-7 by Green Bay.
The Bears are still 3-2, so this is not a disaster. But the offense cannot disappear like that in division games and expect to stay near the top ten.

Cleveland’s 3-1 start earned respect. Losing 17-12 to the Jets gave a lot of it back.
The defense keeps the Browns relevant, but the offense is still a weekly ceiling-limiter. You can be 3-2 and still feel like a hard team to trust.

Carolina was idle, so the Panthers stay mostly where they were. The wins over Atlanta and Detroit still matter, especially with both teams remaining competitive around them.
The Panthers are one of the harder teams to place because they have played fewer games and produced wildly different versions of themselves. For now, they hold.

The Eagles have now lost three straight after falling 19-17 to Jacksonville. At some point, “the roster is too talented” stops being an argument and starts becoming the problem.
Philadelphia is not buried. But the Eagles are officially in prove-it mode.

Atlanta lost 30-23 in overtime to Baltimore, so this is not a collapse. It is more of a correction after the Falcons’ two-week surge.
The offense still looks far more functional than it did early in the season. But at 2-3, Atlanta does not get to live near the top ten off encouraging losses.

The Rams lost, but there is no shame in pushing Buffalo to overtime. Los Angeles is 2-3, yet it still feels more dangerous than the record suggests.
That said, moral victories have an expiration date. The Rams need to turn these competitive games into wins soon.

Cincinnati stopped the slide with a 31-24 win over Miami. It was not perfect, and beating the Dolphins does not solve everything, but the Bengals needed a win badly.
The offense still gives them a higher ceiling than most teams in this tier. The next step is proving this was more than just a get-right game.

The Raiders were not dropped for losing. They were dropped for how they lost.
A 45-17 defeat in New England is the kind of result that forces a reset. Las Vegas still has wins in the bank and played Kansas City tough, but the top-five discussion is over for now.

Detroit needed a clean response, and a 45-21 win over Arizona qualifies. The Lions’ offense looked like itself again, and that matters after the defensive issues that showed up against Carolina.
This team still has problems on one side of the ball. It also has enough offense to overwhelm opponents when the rhythm is right.

The Giants tied Washington 27-27, which is not exactly the kind of result that launches a team up the board. Still, New York is 3-1-1 and has banked enough early-season credibility to stay in this range. The quarterback situation remains unusual, and the ceiling still feels hard to define. But the Giants are no longer a fluke story.

Pittsburgh gets the biggest rise of the week. After falling hard last week, the Steelers bounced back with a 34-22 win over Indianapolis.
This team is going to be frustrating. It is also 3-2 with enough physicality to beat teams in the middle of the league. That combination gets them back near the top third.

That was the Packers team people expected to see more often. Green Bay beat Chicago 31-7 and turned one of the week’s more interesting matchups into a runaway.
The Packers are still inconsistent, but this was a major correction. When they look right, they look like a team that can be a problem in the NFC.

Denver’s 23-17 win over the Chargers was not flashy, but it was necessary. The Broncos are 3-2, and their losses are not bad enough to erase the quality wins already on the board.
This still feels like a team searching for offensive rhythm. But Denver is winning enough to stay in the top ten.

Seattle drops, but not dramatically. Losing 32-29 to the 49ers is not the same thing as being exposed. The concern is that the Seahawks have now lost two of their last three after opening the season as the defending champion measuring stick. They are still very good. They are no longer protected from movement.

The Patriots have completely changed their season in two weeks. Beating Buffalo was the attention-grabber, but crushing Las Vegas 45-17 was the confirmation. Drake Maye and the offense looked explosive, and New England suddenly has a real argument as one of the AFC’s most dangerous teams. The Jacksonville loss still exists, but it feels a lot farther away now.

Baltimore needed overtime, but winning 30-23 in Atlanta still counts. The Ravens are now 4-1 and continue to find ways to survive games that look more chaotic than they probably need to be.
The ceiling remains high. The weekly stress level remains included.

Jacksonville’s rise continues. After beating New England and Cincinnati, the Jaguars added a 19-17 win over Philadelphia in London.
That is no longer a cute early-season run. That is three straight wins over teams with real expectations. The Jaguars belong in the top five conversation.

Buffalo needed a response after losing to New England, and it got one on Monday night. Beating the Rams 37-34 in overtime does not erase every defensive concern, but it keeps the Bills firmly in the top tier. Josh Allen and the offense are still capable of winning any game on the schedule. The question is whether Buffalo can make things a little less dramatic against good opponents.

Minnesota keeps winning, even if the wins rarely feel comfortable. The Vikings beat New Orleans 23-13 and remain one of the league’s three unbeaten teams. At some point, style complaints have limits. The Vikings are 5-0, they defend well, and they keep making opponents play their kind of game.

The Chiefs only drop because San Francisco earned the move. Kansas City remains unbeaten, remains the AFC standard and still has the cleanest quarterback-and-coaching argument in the league. The bye week does not hurt them. It just opened the door for a 5-0 team to jump them.

The 49ers take over the top spot after going into Seattle and winning a 32-29 divisional game. Kansas City did nothing wrong during the bye, but San Francisco added the best win of the week to an already unbeaten résumé. This is not just about being 5-0. The 49ers have handled different styles of games, won away from home and now own a major NFC West statement win. That is enough to move them to No. 1.