NFL Week 6 power rankings: Commanders, Packers and Texans rise as 49ers, Jets, Bucs drop

The New England Patriots are the worst team in the NFL. It would also be negligence of the organization to throw Drake Maye into the starting lineup. Jacoby Brissett took 9 QB hits and 2 sacks on Sunday, not even accounting for all the times he was under pressure. Rookie quarterbacks, especially someone who had a high pressure-to-sack rate in college, aren’t equipped to handle this situation. It’s obviously the fault of the Patriots’ organization but the end result is the same, Maye shouldn’t play right now.

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Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski announcing after the game that Deshaun Watson will remain the starting quarterback is just the sunk-cost fallacy coming to fruition. This is the same organization that didn’t re-sign Joe Flacco because they feared it would hurt Watson’s confidence. That’s the level of decision-making that leaves you committing to a quarterback who hasn’t led this offense to 20 points in a game this season. Unfortunately for Browns fans, it will only get worse.

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In a matchup of two of the worst NFL teams right now, the Miami Dolphins were less bad. The scoreboard was in Miami’s favor, but this Dolphins’ offense still posted an abysmal 18.2% third-down conversion rate with 2 turnovers. Miami took advantage of an awful Patriots team, but until Tua Taogvailoa comes back, this team feels destined for losses to the Indianapolis Colts (Oct. 20), Arizona Cardinals (Oct. 27) and Buffalo Bills (Nov. 3). If that happens, that’s a 2-6 record and the season is basically over at that point.

The Carolina Panthers aren’t historically awful anymore offensively, but they are anchored down by the worst defense in the NFL. When you have a bottom-10 offense and the league’s worst defense, you’re going to finish at the bottom of the NFL standings. At the very least for Panther Nation, this team is more watchable than it was with Bryce Young.

It’s quarterback controversy time for the Tennessee Titans. The team avoided it temporarily thanks to the Week 5 bye, but Will Levis (shoulder) should be healthy enough to be medically cleared in Week 6. For now, Titans head coach Brian Callahan is standing by Levis as the starter when healthy. However, considering the Titans’ quality defense and above-average run game, the better option for 2024 might be Mason Rudolph as a game manager who protects the football. Then again, Tennessee might prefer to play Levis to improve its chances at a better quarterback in the 2025 NFL Draft.

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The Jacksonville Jaguars won a game and Trevor Lawrence had his best game of the season. There are long-term positives to take away from this win, most notably the emergence of running back Tank Bigsby (129 scrimmage yards, 2 TDs) and Brian Thomas Jr (122 yards, 1 TD). Unfortunately, injuries have decimated this Jaguars defense and Lawrence won’t get to face many defenses as bad as the one the Indianapolis Colts field. Still, this is at least a step forward.

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Gardner Minshew gives defenses chances at takeaways, that’s who he has always been. We’re still not sure why the Las Vegas Raiders gambled on him this offseason, he’s a low-ceiling quarterback and the play-calling and offensive line in Las Vegas only highlights his issues. The Raiders still have 2 wins this season, but a lot had to go right in both those games and they still narrowly escaped with wins.

Joe Burrow said it best, he needs to play perfectly for the Cincinnati Bengals to win. On Sunday afternoon, he posted 5 touchdowns with 392 passing yards and averaged 10.1 yards per attempt, leading this Bengals offense to 38 points. He made one mistake, a late-fourth-quarter interception, and that ultimately cost Cincinnati because Zac Taylor is a bad coach and this front office failed to fill out the defense after losing great talents in recent years. This was supposed to be the Bengals’ all-in year before Tee Higgins and Trey Hendrickson likely depart in 2025, they are 1-4.

With Anthony Richardson under center – a 54.2 QB rating and a 49.3% completion rate – the Indianapolis Colts offense had a 32% third-down conversion rate. With Joe Flacco in, the Colts are converting more than 40 percent of their third-down attempts and are scoring at a much higher rate. All of this is to say, that maybe sitting Richardson for a while isn’t a bad thing. Flacco will certainly regress, as he did last season in Cleveland, but he’s the Colts’ best option currently.

Good luck predicting the Los Angeles Rams’ performance on any given week. Los Angeles got blown out by Arizona in Week 2 and couldn’t get anything going against the Chicago Bears last week. Yet, even through a myriad of injuries, they’ve beaten the San Francisco 49ers, taken the Detroit Lions to overtime and nearly overcame a two-score deficit in the fourth quarter against the Green Bay Packers. While 1-4 is 1-4, it’s important to keep in mind this Rams roster will get healthier very soon.

A day after a wild college football Saturday of upsets, the New York Giants stunned the 3-1 Seattle Seahawks at home. What makes this performance even more remarkable is the fact that New York totaled over 400 yards without Malik Nabers. It’s been a wild NFL season and Week 5 was no different, but this was one of the most shocking results and all credit goes to the G-Men.

Injured or not, it’s evident after five games that even the Pro Bowl version of Aaron Rodgers is gone. With that said, he isn’t the New York Jets’ biggest problem. Breece Hall and Braelon Allen managed just 36 rushing yards in Week 5, averaging 2.6 yards per carry. It now puts New York bottom-five in the NFL in rush ypg and yards per carry. Meanwhile, there doesn’t seem to be much chemistry between Rodgers and this Jets’ receiving corps. Trading for Davante Adams won’t solve the run game, but at 2-3, it feels like a desperation move New York might make for Rodgers. Desperation ain’t cheap, either.

It looked over for the Arizona Cardinals after the first half, then, this team rallied just as the Rams did against the San Francisco 49ers. Jonathan Gannon’s defense deserves a heaping ton of credit for shutting out Kyle Shanahan’s offense in the second half. It’s been an unconventional path to 2-3 for the Cardinals, but they are here. Arizona isn’t a playoff team, but it has got a lot of fight.

Updated after Sunday Night Football

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We’re putting stock in Caleb Williams’ career-best performance because he’s fared much worse against defenses that are nearly just as bad as the Panthers’ unit. Williams is slowly starting to turn the corner, contributing to a pair of consecutive home wins with 3 touchdowns and over 460 passing yards with a 110-plus QB rating over that span. It might be baby steps, in comparison to everyone’s expectations for Williams entering the season, but progress is progress.

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This is Pat Surtain’s team. He almost single-handedly won the game in Week 5, nabbing a 100-yard pick-six to tie it in the second quarter then grabbing a second interception to drop the dagger into the Raiders. This is a defense-driven team and as long as Bo Nix protects the football, that recipe can work against some of the bottom-tier NFL teams. What determines if the Broncos make it into the next tier is how they perform in the next 10 days against the Los Angeles Chargers and New Orleans Saints.

This is the best opportunity the New Orleans Saints are going to have at a signature win over the Kansas City Chiefs. Getting Demario Davis back is huge, especially with the Chiefs offense so short-handed on Monday Night Football. Ultimately, this will come down to whether or not Derek Carr can make good decisions when pressured and how play-caller Klint Kubiak fares in a chess match against Steve Spagnuolo.

No team, other than the Philadelphia Eagles, needed the Week 5 bye more than the Los Angeles Chargers. It bought Justin Herbert (high-ankle sprain) time to heal and left the door open to the Chargers’ offensive line getting tackles Joe Alt (knee) and Rashawn Slater (pectoral) back. Both linemen will be desperately needed in Week 6 against a Denver Broncos defense that is way better than people realize. While it’s early, the Denver game feels like a must-win for the Chargers.

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Something just isn’t right with the San Francisco 49ers and injuries can’t be the only excuse. This looked a bit like the vintage 49ers early, taking a 23-10 halftime lead. It’s not like Arizona’s defense is great either, but the 49ers once again had a fourth-quarter collapse against an NFC West foe. We are keeping in mind that the 49ers were just 5-3 entering their Week 9 bye last season, but this year’s team looks much worse even in its best moments.

The Seattle Seahawks looked like a team that poured everything into the Monday Night Football game against the Detroit Lions and then had nothing left for Week 5. Seattle’s offensive line was abysmal, which neutralized the run game and left Geno Smith spending most of Sunday on his back. Just as concerning, Seattle’s defense allowing Daniel Jones and Tyrone Tracy Jr to look like Pro Bowl starters. This should be a burn-the-tape game that it takes days to recover from, but the Seahawks now have to prepare for the San Francisco 49ers on Thursday Night Football.

This was just one of those performances where it was evident the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense missed All-Pro safety Antoine Winfield Jr. and standout defensive tackle Calijah Kancey. Baker Mayfield – 3 touchdowns and 137.5 QB rating – did more than enough and the Buccaneers’ ground game (160 yards and 6.2 yards per carry) finally woke up. Some self-inflicted wounds proved costly, but the main thing right now for Tampa Bay is just getting back Winfield Jr. and Kancey ASAP.

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Updated after Sunday Night Football

There’s the Kirk Cousins the Atlanta Falcons believed they were paying for. After an up-and-down start to his Falcons’ career, Cousins put Atlanta on his back in a big Thursday Night Football win over the Buccaneers to kick off Week 5. Cousins put on an aerial show – 509 passing yards and 4 touchdowns – including the game-winning touchdown in OT. We certainly wouldn’t call the Falcons a great team, but they are good and that’s enough to potentially win the NFC South.

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The beauty with Jayden Daniels under center is that even when he’s not as sharp as a passer – 14-for-25 with 1-1 TD-INT on Sunday – he can still make an explosive play through the air and give you great production on the ground. Daniels is playing well and thanks to run-game coordinator Anthony Lynn, the Washington Commanders run game is really coming together. We wouldn’t bet on the Commanders to beat the Baltimore Ravens next week, but it should be a great game.

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What matters most for the Philadelphia Eagles coming out of the bye is getting back a healthy A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, and Lane Johnson. It’s evident that Jalen Hurts looks worse this year than he did in 2023, but it’s also critical to recognize the absence of essential parts of this Eagles’ offense. We expect a rebound from Philadelphia in Week 6 against the Cleveland Browns. However, moving forward, there are concerns with the Eagles defense. For now, Philly is just a good team that can be very good but the Eagles are far from an elite ceiling.

Following a 3-0 start to the season, Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen highlighted the benefit of playing with wide receivers who don’t care about stats. Since that quote, Allen has completed just 25-of-59 attempts for a 42.4% completion rate, 311 passing yards and is averaging 5.27 yards per attempt (ESPN). All of this is to say, there’s a reason the Houston Texans traded for Stefon Diggs and why so many wide receivers went in Round 1 of the 2024 NFL Draft. Allen played like an MVP-caliber quarterback early in the season and he can do it again, but the Bills front office must get him help.

It wasn’t a flawless performance for the Green Bay Packers offense, with Jordan Love throwing an interception, but the win is all that matters. Not only did Green Bay leave California with a victory, it also saw Jayden Reed firmly establish himself as the No. 1 receiver and Tucker Kraft proved he is “the guy” at tight end. Green Bay should be able t handle its business at home in Week 6 against the Cardinals, which would set up a must-see Texans vs Packers game in Week 7.

It wouldn’t be an AFC North game without chaos. A week after the Baltimore Ravens defense put on a clinic against Josh Allen, it resembled more of a JV squad against the Bengals’ offense. Fortunately for Baltimore, two-time NFL MVP Lamar Jackson came through with 4 touchdowns and over 400 total yards of offense. That’s a three-game winning streak for Baltimore and while that defense is a concern, this team is finding paths to victories.

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With Nico Collins on the field, the Houston Texans broke out to an early 17-3 lead. As soon as he departed with a hamstring injury, the Texans offense was outscored 17-6 by the Bills. Fortunately, Houston’s defense stepped up in a big way in Week 5 – Allen went 9-for-30 with 126 net passing yards – with that and the clutch leg of Ka’imi Fairbairn saving the day. That’s what good teams do, but the Texans need Collins to be great.

The Detroit Lions passed their first big test of the season with a Monday Night Football victory over the Seattle Seahawks before the Week 5 bye. Now, a well-rested team heads into a Lions schedule that includes matchups against the Dallas Cowboys, Minnesota Vikings, Green Bay Packers and Houston Texans in the next five weeks. If Detroit comes out of that with three wins, this deserves to be called the best team in the NFL. For now, we wait.

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We certainly know better than to doubt Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid. With that said, the Chiefs offense looks even worse than it did last season and the injuries to Isiah Pacheco, Rashee Rice and Marquise Brown are long-term. If Kansas City wants to reclaim its status as the king of the NFL and not put so much on the Chiefs’ defense, with Mahomes’ decision-making off this year, Brett Veach needs to go out and get a No. 1 receiver. Might we suggest Amari Cooper?

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The Minnesota Vikings are a perfect 5-0 heading into the bye and headed back from London. That’s what is most important for Minnesota right now. However, the Aaron Jones injury (hip) is the big question coming out of this game. Minnesota’s offense looked lifeless without its Pro Bowl running back, a bit reminiscent of what happened last season with a non-existent run game Kevin O’Connell was forced to abandon. Jones missing time would be a massive blow for the Vikings offense.

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