NFL Power Rankings, Week 6: Falcons and Broncos fly up the board, while 49ers and Jets plummet

The bye week would have felt a lot different had the Vikings somehow coughed up Sunday's game in London after jumping out to a 17-0 lead. But as shaky as things got, all three phases contributed in a notable way to the 23-17 victory over the Jets, pushing the dream start of this campaign to 5-0. Sam Darnold struggled worse than he had all season, badly overthrowing an interception into traffic that opened the door for Aaron Rodgers and the Jets. The offense struggled with the loss of RB Aaron Jones to a hip injury, but Darnold made enough big throws late. Andrew Van Ginkel's pick-six opened the early floodgates and Stephon Gilmore's pick closed the door. But don't forget rookie Will Reichard's three big field goals in crummy weather, two of them from beyond 50 yards. It's OK to win ugly sometimes.

Kansas City grinded away against New Orleans for four quarters, struggling to put the game away, but never really leaving it in doubt, either. The Saints couldn't get their run game going, and it left their offense a little wrong-footed. It was a good night for the post-Rashee Rice offense in Kansas City, generally speaking, as the Chiefs racked up 460 yards, gained 28 first downs and controlled the clock for nearly 40 minutes. But it was also bad in that they went just 2-for-7 in the red zone, with New Orleans staying alive thanks to an end-zone pick off the hands of JuJu Smith-Schuster. It was a big night for JJSS (seven catches for 130 yards), but that drop would have left a sour taste had the game turned. Travis Kelce was the man on Monday, with a nice crackback block early, nine catches and a cool pitch to Samaje Perine late in the first half. But this shouldn't dissuade the Chiefs from looking to add another receiver -- preferably a red-zone weapon -- even if Davante Adams doesn't feel likely.

The Lions could be 4-0, having let the Bucs game slip through their fingers before this past week's bye. That said, this year so far has played out similarly to 2023, when they tripped up against Seattle early but mostly held serve until the Ravens walloped them. Detroit could face some tough moments in this upcoming stretch of four road games in five weeks -- all of them tough challenges, too. But the good news is that the offense seems to be rounding into form, even while surely having left several points on the field in the first four games. The defense? Get back to me on that one. I won't overlook the work the unit put in during Weeks 1 through 3, keeping the Lions in those games while the offense treaded water, but in Detroit's most recent tilt, Seattle's Geno Smith and Kenneth Walker III diced up Aaron Glenn's unit. There are enough reasons to feel encouraged about the Lions going on another run, but also just enough trap doors not to get too, too comfy.

Sunday's thrilling win came with a cost, as Nico Collins left the game following his 67-yard TD catch with a hamstring injury. It might not be a long-term ailment, but it did underscore how much the 25-year-old wideout means to this offense. After Collins left the game, C.J. Stroud threw a pick, lost a fumble on a strip-sack and averaged just 6.7 yards per attempt, even with Stefon Diggs stinging his former team with several big catches (five of 13 yards or more) following the injury. Houston's defense was unrelenting against Josh Allen, and the Texans won the game with better end-of-half execution than the Bills in the final minute of the second and fourth quarters. This is still a team to be reckoned with, but Houston has been outscored 67-40 in second halves and still needs to learn to finish a little stronger.

That's three straight wins after the 0-2 start, although two of them were far from easy. At Dallas in Week 3, the Ravens nearly coughed up a big lead. At Cincinnati on Sunday, they had to climb out of three double-digit deficits in the second half. But there were signs of “the old Ravens” in each contest, as the run game has flourished and Lamar Jackson has regained his killer instinct. You might kindly say that Baltimore's defense has been opportunistic, although there's clearly a lot that can be cleaned up there. Don't overlook Justin Tucker's big kicks on Sunday, though. He'd been a near liability early in the season, but came through with clutch kicks at crunch time, including a 56-yarder to tie it late in regulation that turned back the clock. Tucker had been 1-for-7 from 50-plus yards since the start of last season. If he's truly back, the Ravens' old formula remains hard to beat.

Through five weeks, the Commanders are nearly halfway to their 2023 season total of 329 points. They’ve already matched last year’s win total of four and have a chance to make a statement in a Week 6 showdown with the Ravens. Non-conference tilts normally don't weigh this much, but this is shaping up as the biggest Commanders game in years. A loss obviously won’t kill what has been a dream start to the season. But win this one, and who knows how high the ceiling is for this club? Jayden Daniels didn’t have his sharpest game on Sunday. He was a little off-target early, but he finished with 320 combined passing and rushing yards, shaking off the early red-zone pick to finish with a good performance overall. And how about Washington’s defense? This might not be a special unit right now, but that’s three solid performances in the past four games. 

The thrilling comeback notwithstanding, the Bills made their bed on Sunday with a slew of offensive miscues and third-down breakdowns on defense, ultimately resulting in a last-second loss at Houston. That they still made it a game showed an impressive level of grit, but that's now two straight Sundays in which the Bills staked a good team a three-score lead on the road, which is obviously not conducive to winning those types of games. Josh Allen can take some of the blame, as he responded poorly to pressure more than once. His receivers must accept a good deal of the responsibility for their dropped passes, and each of the starting offensive linemen allowed three or more pressures to the Texans, according to Next Gen Stats. If Buffalo can hold off the Jets in a big divisional bout this coming Monday night, Sean McDermott's team can still be in relatively good shape. But the 2024 season has quickly turned into a reprise of the pre-Thanksgiving 2023 struggles that made the Bills an exercise in frustration for most of last season.

Jordan Love's up-and-down first half against the Rams was a little worrisome, though the bigger issue was the Packers being outplayed on both lines of scrimmage. But they snapped out of their first-half funk with a great third quarter: Love and TE Tucker Kraft did the damage on offense, while S Xavier McKinney took care of business -- and took away the ball -- on defense. The surprise suspension of Romeo Doubs and the injury to Christian Watson left Green Bay's offense shorthanded, but the Packers moved the ball effectively enough in big-play spurts. Really, after the pick-six, Love played pretty well. Green Bay is still in decent shape overall and now gets back-to-back home games.

Last week's overtime loss in Atlanta hurt, considering Next Gen Stats gave the Buccaneers a 94 percent chance to win it in the final minutes of regulation. But there's no time to wallow, especially with continued concerns stemming from the team's awful health, particularly on defense. Getting back All-Pro S Antoine Winfield Jr. would be a great start, but the statuses of DT Calijah Kancey and S Jordan Whitehead are a little murky. Having RT Luke Goedeke return to action could give the offense a boost, although that really wasn't the biggest issue against the Falcons until late in the game. The NFC South remains an open race. The Bucs will be in it because of Baker Mayfield, Mike Evans, Chris Godwin and the emerging RB tandem of Rachaad White and Bucky Irving, even with the latter’s devastating fumble last Thursday. That duo looked great before the rookie coughed it up late.

We've received endless Russell Wilson calf updates and watched Justin Fields bump his head on the ceiling of what he can do as a starting quarterback a few times, so the QB question continues to hover over the whole operation after Sunday night's gutting home loss to the Cowboys. Will Pittsburgh make a change? I don't know, but I can't wait to see how Mike Tomlin handles the matter. Allowing Dallas' fourth-and-goal conversion was a tough way to lose, but the Steelers can look back at their missed opportunities as the real culprit. They forced three Cowboys stops in the red zone but couldn't convert a single one of those into points on the other end. Fields warmed up on two key second-half TD drives but was largely too ineffective against an injury-riddled Dallas defense. A toothless run game didn't help much, either. The Steelers are still in decent shape overall, but two straight got-away-from-them losses also sting quite a bit.

Even with the last-minute home loss to the Falcons, I think it would have been fair to say that the Eagles showed more good than bad through three games. Four games in? Not so much. Then again, the Week 4 Eagles were missing several key components, especially on offense, so it's hard to put too much stock into that one 33-16 defeat at Tampa. Yet there also has been a troubling trend of self-inflicted mistakes, especially sloppy penalties and maddening turnovers, holding Philadelphia back significantly. Throw in Saquon Barkley's drop against Atlanta, the squandered points in multiple games and the six sacks of Jalen Hurts against the Bucs, too. The stagnant pass rush falls under a different category, but it remains a big worry. The NFC East might not be out of reach, but the Cowboys suddenly are back in business and the Commanders don't appear to be going anywhere. There's plenty of work to be done.

That’s five one-possession outcomes in five weeks. Kirk Cousins had a career game Thursday night, and his pass catchers seemed to step up with big plays for him. Mistakes piled up, and that really should have cost Atlanta the game, but the Falcons don’t care about that. There’s a little mojo now, and they’re pretty darned seasoned in a playoff-like atmospheres with this spate of highly competitive games. The Falcons are 3-2 and atop the NFC South for now, but it feels clear that we should assume this division race -- like every Atlanta game -- will come down to the wire. The rematch with the Bucs in Week 8 and a tough slate of games loom before the bye in Week 12. If the Falcons clean up the self-inflicted wounds and find a pass rush, they’re dangerous. 

With the weather delay and all the mistakes the Cowboys made along the way, I figured there was no way the football gods would let Dallas win on Sunday night. But the Cowboys somehow found a way to complete their Sisyphean challenge on fourth down in Pittsburgh. They won’t win too many more games where they turn it over twice in the red zone, have a field goal blocked, lose a challenge and have potential takeaways slide through their grasp. But on the flip side, winning a game without Micah Parsons, Demarcus Lawrence and Brandin Cooks -- and then losing Marshawn Kneeland and Tyler Guyton midgame -- also deserved proper due. The end result is what matters most, and the Cowboys eked out a road win against a tough team in less-than-ideal conditions. It’s either a rallying point or mirage victory. Time will tell.

Pat Surtain II intercepted both Raiders quarterbacks on Sunday, running the first pick back 100 yards for a touchdown when the Broncos’ offense was still stuck in a rut. That tied the game at 10 apiece, and the Broncos found their groove soon after. Denver’s defense and special teams really set things up nicely with field position in the second half. There’s the potential for things to go awry with a banged-up offensive line heading into a big divisional game against the Chargers, but I wasn’t worried after seeing the Bo Nix-Sean Payton sideline discussion or hearing Payton’s Ferris Bueller quote after the game. First of all, it was funny. Secondly, this is how Payton shows love, I think. He knows that things have turned around to the point where this could be one of the more interesting Broncos seasons in years. If Nix responds, we’ll know he is the right guy for this team. It’s hard not to already think he's that guy, with the rookie boasting mostly solid play through five games.

Losing to the Lions in Detroit drew no shame. That’s a quality football team, and the Seahawks were shorthanded. But what unfolded in Week 5 was harder to explain -- and to swallow. The Giants were down two key skill-position players but still managed to rack up 420 yards and control the clock for more than 37 minutes, even while spotting the 'Hawks a touchdown on Rayshawn Jenkins’ 102-yard fumble return. Seattle's defense remains in rough shape with injuries, but the unit was healthier than it was one week prior. Tackling was a big issue on Sunday, and the coverage against a nondescript group of pass catchers was unacceptable. The problems weren’t all on defense, though. Geno Smith was sacked seven times, DK Metcalf lost a fumble for the second week in a row and Kenneth Walker III inexplicably had just four first-half touches after torching Detroit in Week 4. The 3-0 start suddenly feels like a distant memory with some tough games ahead, starting Thursday night against the 49ers. 

The Saints fielded a makeshift offensive line Monday against the Chiefs, and bad things ensued. The run game never got going. Kansas City's pass rush gave them trouble all night. Derek Carr actually hung tough after a bad early interception but ultimately left the game late with an oblique injury, and New Orleans' offense fell flat again with just 220 total yards. The second-quarter bomb to Rashid Shaheed kept the Saints in the game, but where was Chris Olave? He had one 4-yard catch on the fifth play of the game, and we didn't hear his name again until a brutal illegal-shift penalty in the third quarter that wiped out a first down in Chiefs territory and led to a punt. The Saints really need his field stretching. Meanwhile, the defense held up in the red zone and got the turnover it badly needed, but Dennis Allen's unit just couldn't get off the field most of the night. The sheen has worn off from the blistering start, and the next two at home are big. First up: a Bucs team with extra rest -- and motivation after coughing one up. Then Sean Payton comes back to town in Week 7 for Thursday Night Football. This next week-plus will tell us a lot about whether the Saints can turn this thing back around.

There’s only so much we can measure about Caleb Williams’ performance against the Panthers, because Carolina does not have one of the better defenses in the NFL. But it’s hard not to see the incremental progress from each of the past few games. The No. 1 overall pick looked far more poised -- and less openly frustrated -- on Sunday. After the opening three-and-out (and a near pick-six), Williams settled right in with four impressive touchdown drives in their next five tries. Once Williams hit on a few big plays, you could almost see his chest swell out there. That and a pressure-heavy, fast-closing defense put the clamps on the Panthers for three quarters. The Bears didn’t turn in a masterpiece, but it was a strong showing that has their arrow pointed back upward. 

After they scored a touchdown on a blocked field goal and Nick Bosa’s 30-yard interception return set up an end-of-half field goal, the 49ers looked to be in pretty good shape, up 23-10 at home. That’s when the whole operation fell apart. With kicker Jake Moody injured late in the first half, it changed the strategy significantly, but there’s little excuse for the offense coming up empty on four second-half drives and the defense allowing Arizona to score three times to steal a win. Now the Niners are facing a quick turnaround for Thursday at Seattle, with the season potentially slipping away early. We saw San Francisco struggle through a rough early patch last season and still end up in the Super Bowl, nearly winning it. The 49ers have been a remarkably strong team in November and December under Kyle Shanahan, so you can’t rule out a run. But with 0-2 and 0-3 marks in the division and conference, respectively, and a 2-3 record overall, the climb will be far steeper than it was a year ago.

Early bye weeks might earn groans from teams when the schedules are released, but this one seemed to fall at an opportune time for the Chargers, given all their injuries. Justin Herbert definitely needed the time off to rest his ankle. The offensive line missed both starting tackles in Week 4. The defense missed Joey Bosa. Even the special teams coverage units were down several contributors. Now the Chargers must go on the road for three of the next four games, with a tough matchup against the Saints tucked in the middle. Two straight losses after the 2-0 start isn’t likely how Jim Harbaugh imagined things going, but everything the Chargers want to accomplish remains ahead of them. This defense has far surpassed what last year’s unit did during any four-game stretch last season, and the Bolts should be a little more effective offensively with some better health.

Where do we begin? Aaron Rodgers took ownership for his poor moments in the London loss to Minnesota, and New York's defense had its hands completely full early on, but the narrative shifted dramatically on Tuesday morning when the Jets dropped a bombshell with the firing of head coach Robert Saleh. Defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich is now left to pick up the pieces of a 2-3 start as the interim coach, with little time to assess everyone's feelings about the current mess. There's a massive game on tap, with the teetering Bills coming to MetLife on Monday and both teams nearly desperate for a win. Can the Jets change their fortunes by getting in the Davante Adams trade mix? Or has that ship now sailed? There are a lot of plates spinning with this team -- and one crashed to the floor on Tuesday.

They were in Jacksonville, a place where the Colts haven’t won in a decade now, and they were without Anthony Richardson, Jonathan Taylor and Ryan Kelly, so this wasn’t the most shocking loss of all time, even against the formerly winless Jags. Nonetheless, it was frustrating to see Joe Flacco get Indy so close to pulling out a stunner, only to watch the defense unable to get enough key stops. The Colts couldn’t turn the momentum after intercepting Trevor Lawrence in the third quarter, and the special teams and defense just broke down too often after that. There was very little pressure on Lawrence all game, and the Jags QB was able to break out of a slump as a result. If the Colts can’t get a little healthier and improve their performance in the next two games against the Titans and Dolphins, they could be in trouble.

Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in. Back-to-back home losses dampened a decent start to the season, and the first half against the 49ers looked like a continuation of the recent slump. But the Cardinals found the magic elixir, scoring three times after halftime while blanking the 49ers in the final two quarters for a shocking win in a stadium they were blown out of two years in a row. The heavy lifting came late, but the Cards stopped the 49ers four times on possessions that ended at or inside Arizona’s 10-yard line, holding them to three field goals and forcing a fumble on those series. The offense needed some wild conversions, none crazier than the fourth-and-5 jump pass to Marvin Harrison Jr., but Kyler Murray got it done. Outplaying the reigning NFC champs down the stretch has me back in the semi-believer category. 

Throw those Daniel Jones jokes in the draft folder for now, because he's playing some good ball. Without Malik Nabers and Devin Singletary, Jones led a surprisingly effective offensive attack Sunday, overcoming some early mistakes to pull out one of the team's more memorable victories in a few years. Jones got help from a breakout effort by Tyrone Tracy (129 yards rushing) and a turn-back-the-clock performance from Darius Slayton, whose 122 receiving yards were his most in a game since he had 129 in Week 5 of the 2020 season. And we should not forget about the roles played by the defense (seven sacks) or special teams (three field goals and a blocked field-goal try for a touchdown). This young Giants team has shown plenty of room for growth in the early going, but the results have been far more encouraging since the opening-game loss to the Vikings. New York's 2-1 on the road and has three of the next four at home.

Joe Burrow is on pace for a 4,500-yard, 40-TD, seven-INT season, and the Bengals sit at 1-4 overall and 0-3 at home with seven road games left on the schedule. The offense has operated at a terrific level over the past three games, and all they have to show for it is a win over the Panthers. The team’s defensive adjustments haven’t made much of a difference, and it’s fair to wonder if they ever will this season. Three times the Bengals went up by 10 points on the Ravens in the second half on Sunday, and all three times they surrendered touchdown drives immediately afterward. Baltimore was 10-for-15 on third downs, including 5-for-6 in the fourth quarter and overtime. After halftime, Lamar Jackson was 17-of-25 passing for 235 yards and three TDs with 40 yards rushing. You can’t blame that on not having Mike Hilton. Lou Anarumo's defense let another one slip away while the season threatens to do the same thing.

Antonio Pierce said on Monday that he’s still evaluating the quarterback spot, and it feels like the Raiders are on the verge of shipping out their best wide receiver via trade. Throw in an 11-penalty game against the Broncos and a near total loss of focus after Gardner Minshew’s pick-six, and Sunday was a tough day at the office amid a rough few weeks, even with the win over Cleveland in Week 4. The Raiders had dominated the Broncos in recent years but were clearly outclassed after the first quarter this time around. The upset over the Ravens feels like it was a year ago at this point. Maybe with more practice reps, Aidan O’Connell can be more effective, but he looked like a guy needing to shake off the rust when he took Minshew’s place. 

It’s easy to forget how aggressive the Titans were in the offseason after their 1-3 start to this season, but even on the heels of losing campaigns in 2022 and '23, their record has to be viewed as a major disappointment. That they coughed up a win in Chicago in Week 1 and had plenty of chances to beat the Jets in Week 2 makes it all the more frustrating. At the center of the matter is the play of Will Levis, who left the Week 4 win with a shoulder injury and watched Mason Rudolph lead the team to victory. So far, Brian Callahan is tamping down any QB-controversy talk and sticking with Levis. Callahan has been unwavering, even if his sideline irritation is tough to ignore. After hosting Indianapolis in Week 6, the Titans face two tough road tests at Buffalo and Detroit. Does Levis need to play well against the Colts to keep his job? Everything feels up in the air after the early bye.

Sean McVay did some of the best coaching of his career last year after the bye, emerging from a 3-6 hole in spectacular fashion. The Rams won seven of their final eight regular-season games and nearly knocked off the darling Lions in a playoff thriller. That’s a version of the script the 2024 Rams are going to need to follow to regain relevance. They have more time to gain ground, but at 1-4, also more ground to make up. The big-play punch is missing from the offense with the injuries to Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua (not to mention multiple offensive line starters). Matthew Stafford is doing what he can, but even he seemed to be missing his usual edge against the Packers on Sunday. The pass rush was shockingly absent, and the tackling was pretty bad. Kupp’s return might be on the horizon, and the Rams won’t leave the West Coast until mid-November, but climbing back into the race, even with a jumbled NFC West, feels like a taller task than it did a year ago.

The good news is that the Dolphins found ways to generate some offense with their third-string quarterback in Sunday's win over New England, even if the passing game had plenty of dud plays and early penalties set them back. Despite De'Von Achane being ruled out in the first quarter, Miami found a way to run for 193 yards, largely thanks to rookie Jaylen Wright and veteran Raheem Mostert. Wright had his breakout game, rushing for 86 yards (+21 yards over expected, per Next Gen Stats), with most of his production coming after halftime. He had runs of 12, 17 and 16 yards and showed impressive physicality in the process. Miami's defense also did what it had to do after a slow start. That said, what is going on with the special teams? A blocked punt, a missed field-goal try plus a penalty prior to an aborted FG attempt all came in the first half. Against a better team, the Dolphins probably lose.

The Jaguars’ one-week stay in the basement is over after their first win of the season, and Trevor Lawrence’s first as a starting QB since Week 12 of last season. Nice little 25th birthday present. He was sharper than he’d been all season, working the ball around well and avoiding mistakes, outside one forced pass to Brian Thomas Jr. that was picked. Thomas is becoming the type of receiver a quarterback will take his chances with, again displaying his game-changing ability in the win. And it’s been fun to see Tank Bigsby work his way out of last year’s doghouse and into a primary role, running for two scores, including a thrilling 65-yarder that should have put the game away. The Jags sure did make it interesting late, but they hung on for a massive win for Lawrence and Doug Pederson especially.

On one side of the field Sunday, a dream season rolled on with another standout showing. On the other, the Browns' sideline, there were hung heads and thousand-yard stares. That's what happens when you score a season-low 13 points and allow a season-worst 34 to Washington, watching your $230 million quarterback sink deeper into the abyss. If you're Kevin Stefanski, what do you do about Deshaun Watson? There aren't a lot of quarterbacks who would thrive behind this offensive line right now, and backup Jameis Winston is not the most likely of franchise saviors, but the negative energy around this Cleveland team is palpable. The Browns are averaging a league-worst 3.8 yards per offensive play; next-worst is New England at 4.3. Watson isn't the only issue, but he's a big problem at the game's most important position. Take a look at the remaining schedule and ask yourself which opponents this version of the Browns should beat.

Though rookie Drake Maye did not take Jacoby Brissett's place Sunday in the maddening loss to the Dolphins, the signs seem to be pointing ever more strongly toward a quarterback change. The problem with such a move, of course, is the Patriots' offensive line. If they can't protect for Brissett, then how would going to the less-experienced Maye make a positive difference? You don't want to say the Patriots have shifted to playing-for-2025 mode, but that's what a QB change would imply. The defense held firm until the second half, when it allowed three scoring drives, including the 80-yarder to give up the lead. The Patriots are handicapped enough offensively that they can't afford committing 12 penalties, suffering clock-management issues and missing an easy field-goal try. Jabrill Peppers' arrest on assault charges further complicates the picture for this team. This is quickly becoming a trying first season as a head coach for Jerod Mayo.

Sunday's loss to the Bears marked the first time Andy Dalton really struggled this season (even if it wasn’t all on him), leading to postgame questions about whether Bryce Young might get another crack. Dave Canales wasn’t going there, even while praising Young’s work in mop-up duty late (and blowout or not, he did look decent). The Panthers had a few injuries up front, and Dalton was getting beaten up a bit. So was the Panthers’ defense, and that’s the real issue right now. The offense can’t afford to have an off game because the Panthers can’t stop anybody. There’s been a slew of injuries on defense, including losing Jadeveon Clowney on Sunday. The next two games are against the Falcons and Commanders, two scorching pass games. Uh-oh.