The NFL is poised to reach the midpoint of the season and we have a good idea how most of the league is shaping up. We’ve got brutal battles in the NFC West and NFC North, with other divisions more or less shaking themselves out — then there’s the NFC South, where seemingly nobody wants to really win.
Here are our rankings for Week 8, and then we’ll go over the biggest risers and fallers since our previous rankings.
| Team | Rank | Previous | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Francisco 49ers | 1 | 3 | +2 |
| Buffalo Bills | 2 | 4 | +2 |
| Kansas City Chiefs | 3 | 2 | -2 |
| Chicago Bears | 4 | 7 | +3 |
| Seattle Seahawks | 5 | 1 | -4 |
| Jacksonville Jaguars | 6 | 8 | +2 |
| Minnesota Vikings | 7 | 9 | +2 |
| Detroit Lions | 8 | 15 | +7 |
| Denver Broncos | 9 | 10 | +1 |
| Los Angeles Rams | 10 | 6 | -4 |
| Pittsburgh Steelers | 11 | 18 | +7 |
| Green Bay Packers | 12 | 22 | +10 |
| New York Giants | 13 | 14 | +1 |
| Carolina Panthers | 14 | 11 | -3 |
| New England Patriots | 15 | 19 | +4 |
| Houston Texans | 16 | 27 | +11 |
| Cincinnati Bengals | 17 | 16 | -1 |
| Cleveland Browns | 18 | 25 | +7 |
| Baltimore Ravens | 19 | 5 | -14 |
| Las Vegas Raiders | 20 | 17 | -3 |
| Tampa Bay Buccaneers | 21 | 30 | +9 |
| Dallas Cowboys | 22 | 12 | -10 |
| Washington Commanders | 23 | 23 | |
| New York Jets | 24 | 29 | +5 |
| Philadelphia Eagles | 25 | 13 | -12 |
| Atlanta Falcons | 26 | 21 | -5 |
| New Orleans Saints | 27 | 24 | -3 |
| Arizona Cardinals | 28 | 28 | |
| Indianapolis Colts | 29 | 20 | -9 |
| Miami Dolphins | 30 | 31 | +1 |
| Los Angeles Chargers | 31 | 26 | -5 |
| Tennessee Titans | 32 | 32 |
Biggest rise: Houston Texans (+11)
The Texans look like a much, much better team following their horrific 0-4 start to kick off the year. Sure, they only have wins against the Titans and Jaguars, but beating Jacksonville showed that this team does have a high water mark they can reach.
Losing to the Giants hurt their playoff chances in a significant way. Houston is going to need a lot of help to find the way to the postseason, especially with the defense struggling as much as it is. However, the team can hang its hat on the fact that C.J. Stroud is back on track and looking like the franchise quarterback he showed over his first season.
The saving grace for the Texans is that there’s no real reason why the defense should be struggling, and if they can get back on track the team could be really good if the offense continues to perform. Houston went from legitimately looking like one of the worst teams in the league, to a middling organization — with the potential to ruse even further.
Biggest fall: Baltimore Ravens (-14)
Baltimore is in a bad, bad way. Losers of three in a row, that slide isn’t nearly as concerning as the team’s quarterback position for the remainder of the season. We saw what this team looked like without Lamar Jackson, now they’re without Jackson AND Tyler Huntley.
All the team can do is tread water at this point and wait for the season to end. They’ll probably eek out a few more wins, because there is still a lot of talent on this team — but we have a defense that isn’t quite impactful enough to enable to team to lean entirely on Derrick Henry and still compete. It’s just a bad break for the Ravens who will have to wait for 2027.
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