The San Francisco 49ers are No. 1 on all eight Week 7 power rankings we compared, the only team every list agrees on. After Monday night’s 23-17 win over the Washington Commanders made them the league’s first 6-0 team, they sit above the Kansas City Chiefs, who are second on seven of the eight lists.
We averaged eight full 1-to-32 rankings released Monday and Tuesday: Nick Shook’s, a panel of more than a dozen analysts with a note from each team’s beat reporter, Mike Florio’s, Nate Davis’, Pete Prisco’s, Joe Smith’s, Mike Johrendt’s and the four-analyst panel of Brent Sobleski, Gary Davenport, Maurice Moton and Kris Knox. The last two came out before Monday night’s game.
The Week 7 consensus order
| Consensus | Team | Record | Average rank | Best | Worst |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Francisco 49ers | 6-0 | 1.00 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | Kansas City Chiefs | 5-0 | 2.12 | 2 | 3 |
| 3 | Buffalo Bills | 5-1 | 3.88 | 2 | 9 |
| 4 | Minnesota Vikings | 5-0 | 4.00 | 3 | 6 |
| 5 | Jacksonville Jaguars | 4-2 | 5.75 | 4 | 8 |
| 6 | Denver Broncos | 4-2 | 6.62 | 5 | 10 |
| 7 | New England Patriots | 4-2 | 7.50 | 5 | 9 |
| 8 | Chicago Bears | 4-2 | 8.88 | 4 | 13 |
| 9 | Seattle Seahawks | 3-3 | 9.25 | 6 | 15 |
| 10 | Baltimore Ravens | 4-2 | 10.12 | 8 | 15 |
| 11 | Cincinnati Bengals | 3-2 | 12.25 | 6 | 19 |
| 12 | Green Bay Packers | 4-2 | 12.50 | 9 | 17 |
| 13 | Detroit Lions | 3-2 | 13.00 | 10 | 18 |
| 14 | Cleveland Browns | 4-2 | 13.38 | 7 | 19 |
| 15 | Carolina Panthers | 3-2 | 13.75 | 10 | 17 |
| 16 | Pittsburgh Steelers | 4-2 | 15.62 | 10 | 18 |
| 17 | Las Vegas Raiders | 3-3 | 17.12 | 12 | 22 |
| 18 | Los Angeles Rams | 2-4 | 17.88 | 13 | 24 |
| 19 | Houston Texans | 2-4 | 18.00 | 14 | 22 |
| 20 | New York Giants | 3-2-1 | 20.50 | 18 | 23 |
| 21 | Atlanta Falcons | 2-4 | 21.25 | 16 | 25 |
| 22 | New Orleans Saints | 2-4 | 22.50 | 20 | 26 |
| 23 | Dallas Cowboys | 2-4 | 22.62 | 19 | 26 |
| 24 | Philadelphia Eagles | 2-4 | 23.50 | 21 | 28 |
| 25 | Arizona Cardinals | 2-4 | 24.62 | 22 | 27 |
| 26 | New York Jets | 2-4 | 25.62 | 24 | 28 |
| 27 | Indianapolis Colts | 2-4 | 26.75 | 24 | 30 |
| 28 | Washington Commanders | 1-4-1 | 27.62 | 23 | 30 |
| 29 | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | 1-5 | 28.12 | 25 | 29 |
| 30 | Tennessee Titans | 1-5 | 29.25 | 26 | 30 |
| T-31 | Miami Dolphins | 0-5 | 31.50 | 31 | 32 |
| T-31 | Los Angeles Chargers | 0-6 | 31.50 | 31 | 32 |
Average of the eight lists; “Best” and “Worst” are the highest and lowest spot any one of them gave the team. The Dolphins and Chargers average exactly the same rank.
A clear top two, then the Bills and Vikings
Johrendt is the only one who does not have Kansas City second; he puts the 5-1 Buffalo Bills there and the Chiefs third. Buffalo averages 3.88 and the 5-0 Minnesota Vikings 4.00, but the Bills have the wider range. Davis drops them to ninth, writing that they have “won seven straight regular-season games when allowing at least 30 points” and adding: “Imagine if they played a lick of defense.” No one has the Vikings lower than sixth, even though they spent Sunday on a bye.
The Jacksonville Jaguars (4-8 range), Denver Broncos (5-10) and New England Patriots (5-9) round out a fairly settled top seven. Shook drops Denver to ninth after the Thursday win over Seattle, saying the defense keeps winning games “even when Bo Nix can’t take his own training wheels off.”
The Bears and Seahawks split the experts
The Chicago Bears, with Caleb Williams back from injury after a 31-23 win in Atlanta, range from fourth on Davis’ list to 13th on Prisco’s. Davis pointed to defensive back Kyler Gordon, who had three sacks and two forced fumbles in 17 snaps in his season debut. The Bears host the Patriots on Thursday night in a meeting of the consensus No. 7 and No. 8 teams.
The 3-3 Seattle Seahawks, beaten 17-14 in Denver, sit sixth on Davis’ list and on the beat-reporter panel’s, but 14th for Johrendt and 15th for Smith. Shook dropped them seven places to 10th: “Sam Darnold has a turnover problem, and the Seahawks rely too heavily on Jaxon Smith-Njigba.”
The widest gaps: Cincinnati and Cleveland
No team is harder to place than the Cincinnati Bengals, who were on a bye. Shook and Prisco both have them sixth; Davis has them 19th, noting they have “fallen into the AFC North basement” at 3-2 because every team in the division has a winning record. That 13-spot spread is the largest on the board.
The Cleveland Browns, in first place in the AFC North after a 13-10 win over Baltimore, are close behind with a 12-spot spread: seventh for Smith, 11th for Florio and Johrendt, but 19th on the beat-reporter panel. Their opponent, the Baltimore Ravens, still average 10th even after the loss with Tyler Huntley at quarterback. Shook kept them eighth, arguing “they’d likely beat the collection of teams behind them.”
Rams settle around 18th, Texans climb
The Los Angeles Rams, the preseason Super Bowl favorite, are now 2-4 after an 18-16 home loss to the Arizona Cardinals and land 18th on average. Davis is the kindest at 13th; Shook and Smith both have them 24th. Shook’s 12-place drop is the biggest single move by any of the eight, and he called the Rams “a mess that Sean McVay needs to start to clean up quickly.”
The Houston Texans went the other way after their 34-31 win over Jacksonville at Wembley. Shook moved them up 11 places to 14th, Prisco has them 15th, and they average 18.00, a fraction behind the Rams, for 19th. Johrendt is lowest on them at 22nd.
NFC East and the bottom
The New York Giants, at 3-2-1, are still the best-ranked NFC East team at 20th on average. The Dallas Cowboys (23rd), Philadelphia Eagles (24th) and Washington Commanders (28th) all sit in the bottom 10, although Shook moved Washington up five places to 23rd after its Monday night fight in Santa Clara. Florio went the opposite way, ranking the Commanders 30th and writing that “Dan Quinn’s time is up.”
The winless Miami Dolphins and Los Angeles Chargers share the bottom, each 31st or 32nd on every list. Just above them are the Tennessee Titans, who got their first win in Indianapolis, the 1-5 Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Commanders. The Indianapolis Colts, who fired general manager Chris Ballard on Monday, average 27th.
Week 7 tests
The consensus No. 1 visits the Atlanta Falcons (21st) on Sunday, the Chiefs go to Seattle, the Bengals play at Baltimore, the Packers (12th) visit the Lions (13th), the Rams play the Raiders in Las Vegas, and the Steelers face the Saints in Paris. For the individual lists, see our breakdowns of Prisco’s rankings, Johrendt’s and the four-analyst panel’s.
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