Week 9 power rankings consensus: Bills edge the 49ers for No. 1 even with one sixth-place vote, Bears climb to third, Vikings fall to sixth and Chargers are last

The Buffalo Bills are No. 1 in our Week 9 power rankings consensus, by a hair over the San Francisco 49ers. Four of the five full lists put the 6-1 Bills first; the fifth, Nate Davis’ list, has them sixth and the 49ers first. The averages come out at 2.0 for Buffalo and 2.2 for San Francisco.

We averaged five full 1-to-32 rankings that were out by Tuesday afternoon, all written after the Chicago Bears beat the Seattle Seahawks 34-17 on Monday night: Pete Prisco’s, Ralph Vacchiano’s, Nick Shook’s, Mike Florio’s and Davis’. A staff panel and the two-writer panel of Josh Kendall and Chad Graff also published top tens that agree with the top two, with Buffalo first and San Francisco second, but we do not have their full lists, so they are not in the averages below.

Coach Brady is the first coach in franchise history to begin his coaching career 6-1. 👏#BillsMafia | #GoBills pic.twitter.com/5L4YejbHwk

— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) November 3, 2026

The Week 9 consensus order

Consensus	Team	Record	Average rank	Prisco	Vacchiano	Shook	Florio	Davis	Week 8 consensus
1	Buffalo Bills	6-1	2.0	1	1	1	1	6	2
2	San Francisco 49ers	6-1	2.2	2	3	2	3	1	3
3	Chicago Bears	6-2	3.6	4	4	3	5	2	5
T-4	Jacksonville Jaguars	5-2	4.0	3	7	4	2	4	6
T-4	Denver Broncos	6-2	4.0	5	2	6	4	3	7
6	Minnesota Vikings	6-1	7.0	6	6	9	6	8	1
7	Kansas City Chiefs	5-2	7.8	7	5	10	7	10	4
8	Detroit Lions	5-2	8.4	9	9	5	12	7	10
9	New England Patriots	5-3	9.4	11	10	11	10	5	11
10	Cincinnati Bengals	5-2	9.8	8	8	8	11	14	9
11	Seattle Seahawks	4-4	10.0	14	11	7	9	9	8
12	Pittsburgh Steelers	6-2	11.2	10	13	12	8	13	13
13	Green Bay Packers	5-3	13.0	12	15	13	14	11	T-14
14	Los Angeles Rams	4-4	14.0	13	12	18	15	12	16
15	Cleveland Browns	5-3	15.4	17	16	15	13	16	12
16	New York Giants	4-2-1	15.8	15	14	14	16	20	17
17	Tampa Bay Buccaneers	3-5	18.2	16	24	16	18	17	23
18	Las Vegas Raiders	4-4	18.6	24	17	20	17	15	20
19	Atlanta Falcons	3-5	19.4	19	22	17	21	18	18
20	Carolina Panthers	3-4	20.2	18	18	21	22	22	19
21	Baltimore Ravens	4-4	21.0	20	20	22	19	24	T-14
22	Arizona Cardinals	3-5	21.6	21	21	23	20	23	26
23	Houston Texans	2-5	22.0	23	19	19	23	26	22
24	Dallas Cowboys	3-5	24.0	22	23	24	26	25	21
25	Washington Commanders	2-4-1	24.6	27	25	26	24	21	27
26	New Orleans Saints	2-5	24.8	26	26	28	25	19	24
27	Tennessee Titans	1-7	28.4	31	29	25	28	29	31
28	Miami Dolphins	1-6	28.6	29	30	27	30	27	30
T-29	New York Jets	2-6	28.8	25	31	29	31	28	29
T-29	Philadelphia Eagles	2-6	28.8	28	27	32	27	30	25
31	Indianapolis Colts	2-6	29.8	30	28	31	29	31	28
32	Los Angeles Chargers	0-7	31.6	32	32	30	32	32	32

Records are through Week 8. The Week 8 column is the 10-list consensus in our Week 8 roundup, so it covers a different set of writers, and Green Bay and Baltimore were tied for 14th.

Bills first on four lists, sixth on one

Prisco, Vacchiano, Shook and Florio all start with Buffalo after the 36-10 win over the Baltimore Ravens. Shook wrote that the Bills’ defense, which held Baltimore to 144 yards, was “a massive improvement” but that it came against an offense playing a third-string, undrafted-rookie quarterback. Davis ranks Buffalo sixth for a different reason, that the defense has given up at least 30 points four times and the offense has failed to top 30 only twice.

San Francisco is first for Davis, second for Prisco and Shook and third for Vacchiano and Florio, so no list has the 49ers lower than third. Davis points to a November schedule that sends them on the road only once, and writes that DT DeForest Buckner is back in the building. Shook said the bye came at the “ideal time” after their first loss of the season.

Chicago takes the biggest step at the top

The Bears move from fifth in the Week 8 consensus to third, at 3.6, and their range is narrow: second for Davis, third for Shook, fourth for Prisco and Vacchiano and fifth for Florio. Shook jumped Chicago six spots to third and wrote that Jeffery Simmons “elevated the Bears’ front by multiple levels,” pressuring Sam Darnold and freeing Montez Sweat for one-on-one rushes. Davis kept them second and called the win “quite a statement” that Chicago might get its first title in four decades. Florio wrote that the Bears “are NOT who we thought they were” and are serious contenders to win it all. Our Bears-Seahawks recap has the game.

Jacksonville and Denver tie for fourth at 4.0. The Jaguars range from second (Florio) to seventh (Vacchiano) after the 42-7 win over the Indianapolis Colts, and the Broncos range from second (Vacchiano) to sixth (Shook) after beating the Kansas City Chiefs 28-24. Davis has the New England Patriots fifth, higher than anyone else, who have them 10th or 11th.

Minnesota falls from first to sixth

The Vikings were No. 1 in the Week 8 consensus and are sixth now at 7.0, after the 19-15 loss at Detroit ended their unbeaten start. Prisco, Vacchiano and Florio all have them sixth, Davis eighth and Shook ninth. Florio wrote that “a quarterback change may be needed,” and Davis wrote that the bigger question might be whether the Vikings have the right man at the position. The Lions, who won that game, are as high as fifth for Shook and as low as 12th for Florio.

Where the five lists split

Team	Record	Best rank	Worst rank	Gap
New Orleans Saints	2-5	19 (Davis)	28 (Shook)	9
Las Vegas Raiders	4-4	15 (Davis)	24 (Prisco)	9
Tampa Bay Buccaneers	3-5	16 (Prisco, Shook)	24 (Vacchiano)	8
Houston Texans	2-5	19 (Vacchiano, Shook)	26 (Davis)	7
Seattle Seahawks	4-4	7 (Shook)	14 (Prisco)	7
Detroit Lions	5-2	5 (Shook)	12 (Florio)	7

Davis is the outlier on the Saints, ranking them 19th while the other four have them 25th to 28th. The Raiders are 15th for Davis, who notes that Ashton Jeanty has rushed for fewer than 50 yards in more than half of his 25 starts, and 24th for Prisco; Shook, who moves them up five spots to 20th, said Kirk Cousins and Brock Bowers “delivered again” in the 38-33 win over the Jets. Tampa Bay is 16th for Prisco and Shook and 24th for Vacchiano after the 16-0 win over the Atlanta Falcons, in which the Buccaneers ran for more than 300 yards without completing a pass.

The Seahawks are the clearest case of a loss being priced differently. Shook has them seventh, Florio and Davis ninth, Vacchiano 11th and Prisco 14th. Their consensus rank is 11th, down from eighth. Our earlier look at the Prisco and Vacchiano lists has more on those two.

The bottom of the board

The Chargers are last at 31.6 and are 32nd on four of the five lists. At 0-7 they are the only winless team left, and Florio wrote that Jim Harbaugh’s refusal to change coordinators “could cost him his job.” Shook has them 30th, behind the 2-6 Colts at 31st and the 2-6 Eagles at 32nd.

Philadelphia is the other big mover down. The Eagles tie the Jets at 28.8 for 29th in the consensus, down from 25th, after the 27-10 loss at Washington dropped them to 2-6 with six straight losses. Shook wrote that they are “a shell of itself” and Davis noted that the team will wear Kelly Green throwbacks against the Giants on Sunday. Indianapolis is 31st at 29.8, and the Titans (1-7) and Dolphins (1-6) are 27th and 28th.