NFL Power Rankings: Week 15 Edition

Week 14 of the 2020 NFL season is in the books and now it’s time for everyone’s favorite meaningful exercise: NFL Power Rankings! Let’s take a look at how all 32 teams stack up. Don’t forget to hear me talking about the league’s landscape on my national podcast: The ODDcast!

BLG’S NFL WEEK 15 POWER RANKINGS

1 - Kansas City Chiefs (Last Week: 1) - The Chiefs now have a 93.9% chance of getting the No. 1 seed and thus a first-round bye. Pretty good position to be in as they seek to repeat.

2 - Buffalo Bills (LW: 5) - Circle the wagons! Huge win by the Bills, who are now in position to potentially overtake Pittsburgh as the No. 2 seed in the AFC playoff picture. Beating KC in the playoffs will obviously be tough but the Bills are a legitimate Super Bowl contender.

3 - Green Bay Packers (LW: 4) - Aaron Rodgers’ 119.7 passer rating is 7.4 higher than the next closest quarterback, Patrick Mahomes. MVP.

4 - New Orleans Saints (LW: 2) - Really bad loss for the Saints because they may have lost their shot at the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoff picture. And they needed that more than any other team due to Drew Brees’ injury situation.

5 - Pittsburgh Steelers (LW: 3) - It’s not that the Stillers are frauds. It’s that the current version of themselves is not the same one from earlier this year. Defensive injuries have taken a toll and there’s concern about Ben Roethlisberger. Not ready to write them off just yet, though.

6 - Los Angeles Rams (LW: 6) - Jared Goff doesn’t inspire the most confidence but the Rams’ dominant defense gives them a shot at making another run to the NFC Championship Game.

7 - Seattle Seahawks (LW: 9) - Blowout win over NYJ may have been a much-needed “get right” game for Seattle.

8 - Cleveland Browns (LW: 7) - The Brownies shouldn’t be hanging their heads after putting forth a great effort in the NFL’s game of the year. Cleveland looks like they belong. This loss cost them their shot at winning the AFC North, though.

9 - Tennessee Titans (LW: 10) - Derrick Henry is somehow having an even better season than he did last year. 215 rushing yards in Week 14! He’s a monster.

10 - Indianapolis Colts (LW: 11) - The Colts will make the playoffs. It’s matter of doing it as a wild card team or the winner of the AFC South.

11 - Miami Dolphins (LW: 8) - They ultimately fought hard against the reigning Super Bowl champs but it just wasn’t enough. Miami is in danger of falling out of the playoff picture with Baltimore surging.

12 - Tampa Bay Buccaneers (LW: 13) - Tom Brady had his best game in some time coming out of the bye. The Bucs are in great shape to make a wild card spot after being Minny.

13 - Washington Football Team (LW: 16) - Four straight wins for the Football Team has Washington in solid standing to win the NFC East. Their defense might be good enough to help them win a playoff game.

14 - Baltimore Ravens (LW: 17) - In a game of runs, Lamar Jackson crapped all over the Browns. Sorry. Seriously, though, really big win for Baltimore that boosted their playoff odds by 29.4% to 83.9%. The Ravens might be getting hot at the right time.

15 - Arizona Cardinals (LW: 20) - A career game from Temple’s own Haason Reddick (five sacks!) helped the Cardinals win to be the No. 7 seed in the NFC playoff picture. Getting Kyler Murray some postseason experience could be valuable even if the team isn’t a real threat to win it all this year.

16 - New England Patriots (LW: 12) - The Pats will not win the AFC East for the first time since 2008. They’ll need to find a quarterback upgrade to have a chance at winning it in 2021. Does Bill Belichick come calling about Carson Wentz?

17 - Minnesota Vikings (LW: 14) - Kind of hurts when your kicker goes 0/4 on all of their kick attempts (three field goals, one extra point). Time for the Vikings to call up Sarah Fuller. Or I guess draft her?

18 - New York Giants (LW: 15) - Daniel Jones clearly wasn’t ready to play through his hamstring injury. The Giants need to let him heal and stick with Colt McCoy in the meantime.

19 - Chicago Bears (LW: 25) - In a vacuum, the Bears don’t deserve to move up this much but it’s just how the flow of this week’s rankings worked. Chicago can’t allow themselves to be fooled by Mitchell Trubisky as a quarterback solution even if he gets them into the playoffs.

20 - Los Vegas Raiders (LW: 19) - The Raiders’ playoff odds are down to 15.5%. They certainly don’t deserve to make the postseason with how they’ve played recently. Their defense has been a mess so it’s no wonder they fired Paul Guenther. 37.5 points per game allowed in their last four.

21 - Denver Broncos (LW: 26) - Drew Lock having the best game of his career shouldn’t stop the Broncos from looking for a quarterback upgrade. But maybe it’s too early to write him off entirely.

22 - Carolina Panthers (LW: 18) - The Panthers rank fourth to last in defensive spending. They need some more talent on that side of the ball. Especially in the secondary, where Rasul Douglas isn’t looking like a long-term answer after getting roasted multiple times on Sunday.

23 - San Francisco 49ers (LW: 21) - Nick Mullens ain’t it. The 49ers might be switching back to C.J. Beathard, not that it really matters much at this point.

24 - Los Angeles Chargers (LW: 28) - Anthony Lynn is a disaster. Justin Herbert deserves a better head coach.

25 - Atlanta Falcons (LW: 23) - Matt Ryan has eight touchdown passes to eight interceptions in his last seven games. He’s down to 26th in passer rating this year. The Falcons would take a $44.4 million dead cap hit by trading him so they might be stuck with the 35-year-old for at least one more season.

26 - Philadelphia Eagles (LW: 30) - Is Jalen Hurts a franchise quarterback? There’s a long way to go before that question can be answered. But he sure looked better than Carson Wentz in the Eagles’ upset win over New Orleans. The rookie quarterback mostly avoided negative plays and used his legs to move the ball on one of the league’s best defenses. Birds still alive in the NFC East!

27 - Dallas Cowboys (LW: 27) - The Cowboys beat up on an awful Cincy team but didn’t drop in the 2021 NFL Draft order. Good result for Dallas.

28 - Detroit Lions (LW: 24) - Well, the Lions were able to cover. But their loss to Green Bay ends their outside chance at making the playoffs. And now Matthew Stafford might miss some time.

29 - Houston Texans (LW: 22) - Lol, you give up 36 points to a Bears team that was looking dead in the water? You allow Mitchell Trubisky to have his highest passer rating since November 2019? That’s one embarrassing defensive performance.

30 - Cincinnati Bengals (LW: 29) - The Bengals just don’t stand a chance with Brandon Allen. I’d also look to move on from Zac Taylor after this year. He’ll likely be 4-27-1 by the end of this season.

31 - Jacksonville Jaguars (LW: 31) - The Jags, who haven’t won since Week 1, are turning back to Gardner Minshew.

32 - New York Jets (LW: 32) - Remaining schedule: at LAR, vs. CLE, at NE. Just three more losses and Trevor Lawrence is all theirs.