Week 11 was another action-packed slate of football. With the playoff picture shaking out, we’re starting to see the NFL’s elites rise above.
As the holidays draw closer, certain teams are starting to taste the excitement of the postseason. Although it seems weird to say that with seven weeks left in the 2024 NFL regular season, there are quite a few runaway teams with two months left this year. The NFL’s elites have been established, but there will be plenty of close races to monitor down the stretch. With the No. 1 spot solidified for another week, what changed behind the Lions is where this list truly starts. Welcome to Week 12’s NFL Power Rankings.
1. Detroit Lions (9-1) Previous Week: 1
Not only did the Lions keep on rolling against Jacksonville, but they might have put the final nail in the coffin for the Jaguars’ head coach. Right now, there’s not a team in the league better than Detroit, and it’s hard to find a real hole with this group.
2. Buffalo Bills (8-2) Previous Week: 3
A statement regular season game for the Bills against Kansas City? Check. Now, the next step in this team’s progression is getting past the Chiefs when it comes to playoff time. Quarterback Josh Allen is playing outstanding football right now.
3. Kansas City Chiefs (9-1) Previous Week: 2
The Chiefs’ string of incredible luck finally ended on Sunday. Don’t get me wrong, this is a good team but they’ll need to take the next step before January rolls around. They look like a good team but have done nothing to separate themselves from the rest of the AFC.
4. Philadelphia Eagles (8-2) Previous Week: 4
A few weeks ago, I asked if the Eagles were back. Now, it seems clear that they are. After a convincing win against the upstart Commanders, they are in the driver’s seat for the NFC East title and the No. 2 seed in the conference. The reworked coaching staff has done wonders in Philadelphia.
Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images
5. Pittsburgh Steelers (8-2) Previous Week: 6
Mike Tomlin continues to surprise me. He came into this season with a quarterback competition, which rarely leads to a successful offense. Yet, his team is now (7-2) and they’ve got a nice-looking offense to go with the league’s best defense. They’ve smothered two of the best offenses in back-to-back games. This team is for real.
6. Minnesota Vikings (8-2) Previous Week: 7
Speaking of another team that is for real, Minnesota is proving that they aren’t fading away. After a (6-0) start, they dropped two in a row. Quarterback Sam Darnold has come back down to earth, yet they are still winning games. I’m not convinced they’ll get far in the playoffs but this has been an impressive season, considering this was more of a re-tool year than anything.
7. Baltimore Ravens (7-3) Previous Week: 5
The Ravens are a hard team to figure out. On paper, they should be one of the league’s best teams. Yet, they are inconsistent on any given week. They ran into a buzzsaw Steelers defense, but I still have concerns about their defense. We’ll see how things progress over the next seven weeks, but it still feels like something has yet to click fully in Baltimore.
8. Los Angeles Chargers (7-3) Previous Week: 9
It might be about time to re-evaluate the term “Chargering.” Sure, they almost blew a 21-point lead, but in the end, they didn’t. It’s hard not to love what Jim Harbaugh has done in Los Angeles. This appeared to be a rebuilding year by all accounts, yet they are firmly in position for a playoff spot, and Justin Herbert continues to look better and better. Combine that with an outstanding defense, and this is a team that no one in the AFC will want to see in the playoffs.
9. Green Bay Packers (7-3) Previous Week: 8
For the better part of 60 minutes, it felt like the Packers’ dominance over the Bears was at a crossroads. Then, reality struck, and the football Gods decided that the running joke that had become that rivalry needed to continue. The Packers seem to be missing something, but it’s hard to tell what. They are in a great position for a playoff spot, but the NFC is stacked.
Photo by Norm Hall/Getty Images
10. Arizona Cardinals (6-4) Previous Week: 11
After a late-season bye week, the Cardinals are sitting pretty in the NFC West. All three teams behind them are sitting at (5-5), but it doesn’t appear that the 49ers are going to figure things out. The division is there for the taking, and with a strong finish, they can turn in one of the more improbable turnarounds in one year.
11. Houston Texans (7-4) Previous Week: 12
Speaking of something missing, the Texans continue to play well below their expectations coming into the season. This is a very talented team, but the offense has not looked the same. A lot of that is C.J. Stroud turning the ball over and not staying protected but something just doesn’t pass the eye test so far. The Colts are hanging around if Houston stumbles down the stretch.
12. Washington Commanders (7-4) Previous Week: 10
With a much-needed bye week still two games away, Washington should enjoy a mini-bye after their Week 11 Thursday night loss to the Eagles. The Commanders are stumbling a bit, and rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels is coming down to earth after an incredible start. The good news is that their next three games are very winnable, and with any luck, they’ll have a playoff spot locked up before their final three games of the season.
13. Denver Broncos (6-5) Previous Week: 15
Hats off to Sean Payton. He has his team looking like a playoff contender. After back-to-back losses, they came back in a big way, blowing out the Atlanta Falcons in Denver. Bo Nix continues to make strides, and the defense is top-notch. They are another surprising team so far in 2024.
14. Atlanta Falcons (6-5) Previous Week: 13
I still have no idea what to make of this Falcons team. They hired a defensive-minded head coach in Raheem Morris but their defense is giving up a touch under 25 points per game and trending in the wrong direction. They’ve got enough winnable games on the schedule to get into the playoffs, but Falcons fans have seen this story before. They’re going to need a strong finish.
Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images
15. San Francisco 49ers (5-5) Previous Week: 14
Things are just not clicking in San Francisco. Every time it feels like they are about to find themselves, it falls apart late in the game. Injuries have killed them, but it feels like there’s something more to the story. Sometimes it’s just not your year, and that’s what it feels like here. With all of that being said, they are a game back of the division lead in the NFC West but Arizona does have a game in hand with their head-to-head matchup.
16. Los Angeles Rams (5-5) Previous Week: 17
The Rams just keep on finding a way to stick around. Quarterback Matthew Stafford isn’t slowing down, and there’s plenty of young talent on the defense. Realistically, their best path to the playoffs is through the division, which means they’ll need to pull away in a tightly contested division. We’ll see what Sean McVay has in store down the stretch.
17. Seattle Seahawks (5-5) Previous Week: 18
Of all the “big wins” in Week 11, Mike MacDonald’s squad might have had the most impactful. With Arizona on a bye week, they were able to close the gap while handing the 49ers another loss. Geno Smith was outstanding late in Sunday’s game. That win kept their season alive but they’ve still got some things to figure out if they plan on winning the division.
18. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4-6) Previous Week: 16
Hopefully, for Tampa Bay’s sake, they were able to get healthy and figure some things out during the bye week. With two losses already in the bank to the division-leading Falcons, the Bucs are going to have to make up three games on the Falcons over the final seven weeks of the season. That’s a tall task, especially with New Orleans playing much better as of late.
19. Indianapolis Colts (5-6) Previous Week: 20
After two weeks of the Joe Flacco experience, quarterback Anthony Richardson was back under center in Week 11. Flacco provided no upside, so the move made sense. Then again, it doesn’t look great when you bench your second-year quarterback for two weeks and immediately flip back to him. The Colts are hanging around but it’ll be dependent on what type of playing they get from their quarterback down the stretch. Houston is beatable.
Photo by Megan Briggs/Getty Images
20. Miami Dolphins (4-6) Previous Week: 22
It’s hard to fully count out the Dolphins, even if they are a game and a half out of the Wild Card picture with seven games remaining. Tua is back to playing good football and the defense has put a pair of good performances together. It’ll be an uphill climb but they aren’t out of this thing quite yet.
21. Cincinnati Bengals (4-7) Previous Week: 19
The frustrating stretch of Bengals football continued on Sunday night. Despite being down 21 points, they clawed back and had multiple chances to put the game away. Yet, they couldn’t and their season appears to be over. There’s plenty of talent on their roster, but the defense has failed them far too much this year. All of this despite Joe Burrow having a career year.
22. Chicago Bears (4-6) Previous Week: 21
For Bears fans, it might feel like a nightmare. For the rest of the NFL, it just seems like a bad comedy. Chicago continues to lose games in ways only NFL scriptwriters could dream of. First, it was the Hail Mary loss in Washington. On Sunday, it was a blocked field goal with time expiring. The good news is that rookie quarterback Caleb Williams looked to be back on track after an offensive coordinator switch last Monday.
23. New Orleans Saints (4-7) Previous Week: 27
Don’t look now, but the Saints are back to being hot. Well… Kind of. They aren’t blowing teams out, but they have won two in a row. This is still a team with an uninspiring ceiling, but they might make the NFC South a little more interesting down the stretch, even if it’s not the projected easy win that they appeared to be a few weeks ago.
24. New England Patriots (3-8) Previous Week: 25
No. 3 overall pick Drake Maye continues to look pretty dang good. The Patriots hung in tough but couldn’t pull out the win. Even so, it appears that the Patriots are heading in the right direction. Considering the expectations going into the season, fans should count that as a big win. Maybe Jarod Mayo was right to call his team out, after all…
Photo by Chris Coduto/Getty Images
25. New York Jets (3-8) Previous Week: 23
Anything that can go wrong for the Jets has gone wrong. Davante Adams hasn’t made the impact many had expected. Aaron Rodgers continues to look like he’s over the hill. More surprisingly, their defense is not nearly the same elite unit as we’ve seen over the past few years. There’s a whole lot wrong with this team and it’s clearly not getting figured out in 2024. Better luck next year, I suppose.
26. Dallas Cowboys (3-7) Previous Week: 24
With quarterback Dak Prescott gone for the year, any hope of salvaging the season went out the window. The defense continues to struggle, but the offense doesn’t have much teeth without their franchise quarterback. Barring a surprise, it appears that Dallas is headed for a head coaching change in 2025.
27. Carolina Panthers (3-7) Previous Week: 26
Most of the time, a late-season bye week comes at the “right” time for teams. In Carolina, I’d bet they’d rather keep playing. Quarterback Bryce Young looks to have figured something out, and this team is playing with some juice. We’ll see what they can carry over from their two-game winning streak, especially with a tough seven-game stretch coming to close out the season.
28. Tennessee Titans (2-8) Previous Week: 29
It feels like the Titans are a better team than their record says, but here we are… They aren’t going to be an easy out for most teams but their ceiling is severely limited without a better option at quarterback. The upcoming offseason will be critical to general manager Ran Carthon’s tenure in Tennessee.
29. Cleveland Browns (2-8) Previous Week: 28
Jameis Winston gave Cleveland one good game and then it’s been back to the same disappointment since. The Browns have far more questions than answers. Especially with their defense not playing to the same level. I’m not sure what the fixes are but this group needs a shakeup.
Photo by Megan Briggs/Getty Images
30. Las Vegas Raiders (2-8) Previous Week 31
Watching the Raiders is one of the more uninspiring choices an NFL fan could make. I’m not sure what they do to get this thing turned around but it’s hard to imagine head coach Antonio Pierce is a part of the solution. On the plus side, Brock Bowers is the truth.
31. Jacksonville Jaguars (2-9) Previous Week: 30
How does Doug Pederson still have a job? There were plenty of rumors of Pederson losing his job with a loss. They were blown out and yet, he’s still hanging around. Things have really gone downhill in Jacksonville. It appears that a full-on house cleaning is coming. Maybe even the No. 1 overall pick in next April’s draft.
32. New York Giants (2-8) Previous Week: 32
Daniel Jones is out, and Tommy Devito… is in? Let’s be honest: the Giants need a quarterback. The only way to secure one is to tank and tank hard. There are a whole lot of two and three-win teams hanging around, which means every loss counts a little more. Good luck to Jones, but that was one of the dumbest contract extensions over the last 10 years.