Pete Prisco’s Week 7 power rankings: Rams fall eight places to 18th, Texans climb eight and the Bengals jump to sixth

Pete Prisco’s Week 7 power rankings drop the Los Angeles Rams eight places to 18th and lift the Houston Texans eight to 15th, while the San Francisco 49ers, Kansas City Chiefs and Minnesota Vikings hold the top three spots.

Prisco posted his list early Tuesday, after the 49ers beat the Washington Commanders 23-17 on Monday night to move to 6-0. “They made it interesting against the Commanders, but they still found a way,” he wrote of San Francisco, which now faces a long trip to Atlanta on a short week.

Prisco’s full Week 7 order

Rank	Team	Record	Last week	Change
1	San Francisco 49ers	6-0	1	No change
2	Kansas City Chiefs	5-0	2	No change
3	Minnesota Vikings	5-0	3	No change
4	Buffalo Bills	5-1	5	+1
5	Denver Broncos	4-2	8	+3
6	Cincinnati Bengals	3-2	9	+3
7	Seattle Seahawks	3-3	7	No change
8	Jacksonville Jaguars	4-2	4	-4
9	New England Patriots	4-2	11	+2
10	Baltimore Ravens	4-2	6	-4
11	Detroit Lions	3-2	12	+1
12	Green Bay Packers	4-2	14	+2
13	Chicago Bears	4-2	15	+2
14	Carolina Panthers	3-2	20	+6
15	Houston Texans	2-4	23	+8
16	Cleveland Browns	4-2	19	+3
17	Pittsburgh Steelers	4-2	13	-4
18	Los Angeles Rams	2-4	10	-8
19	Dallas Cowboys	2-4	17	-2
20	New York Giants	3-2-1	16	-4
21	Philadelphia Eagles	2-4	21	No change
22	Las Vegas Raiders	3-3	18	-4
23	Atlanta Falcons	2-4	22	-1
24	Indianapolis Colts	2-4	24	No change
25	New York Jets	2-4	25	No change
26	New Orleans Saints	2-4	26	No change
27	Arizona Cardinals	2-4	27	No change
28	Washington Commanders	1-4-1	28	No change
29	Tampa Bay Buccaneers	1-5	29	No change
30	Tennessee Titans	1-5	31	+1
31	Los Angeles Chargers	0-6	30	-1
32	Miami Dolphins	0-5	32	No change

Records include Monday night’s game. “Last week” is worked out from the change Prisco marked beside each team.

“The Dream Team has turned into a nightmare”

Prisco’s lead essay is about the Rams, the team he calls the preseason “lock” to win the Super Bowl and which now sits last in the NFC West at 2-4. He lists what they had going in: reigning MVP Matthew Stafford running a high-octane offense, Myles Garrett added on the edge, Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Watson added at corner, and Sean McVay on the sideline.

Instead, a shootout loss to the Buffalo Bills was followed by an 18-16 home defeat to the Arizona Cardinals on a last-second field goal, with the Rams favored by double digits. Prisco notes they are 17th in scoring offense and 21st in scoring defense, are tied for 26th in sacks with eight while Garrett has missed everything but the opener with a knee injury, and will be without Davante Adams for 6-10 weeks because of a hamstring injury. “The Rams are a mess,” he wrote.

He sees the next four games, at the Raiders, home against the Chargers, at Washington and at Arizona, as the ones that decide the season. The Rams “need to go at least 3-1 in this part of the schedule or they can kiss the division goodbye,” he wrote.

Houston and Carolina make the biggest climbs

The Texans’ eight-place jump follows their win over the Jacksonville Jaguars in London. Prisco called it “a big-time victory” and said C.J. Stroud “is really playing at a high level, but the defense has to pick it up.” The Jaguars fall four spots to eighth, and Prisco wants them to rush the passer better and “make a move to get somebody at the trade deadline.”

This duo 🥹 pic.twitter.com/5hCJwqDAUS

— Houston Texans (@HoustonTexans) October 18, 2026

The Carolina Panthers rise six places to 14th, and Prisco is taking the quarterback seriously: “Bryce Young for MVP? It’s legitimate. He’s playing his best football right now.” At 3-2, Carolina leads the NFC South.

The Denver Broncos and Cincinnati Bengals each gain three places, to fifth and sixth. Denver beat Seattle, but Prisco says the offense is “woeful right now” and that Bo Nix “is not playing well – and that’s being kind.” The Bengals come off their bye with a division game at Baltimore, and he credits a defense that has been better than expected. The Cleveland Browns also climb three, to 16th. “Can you believe they are in first place in the AFC North after six games? Amazing,” he wrote, pointing to a defense that ranks in the top 10 in scoring.

Where Prisco parts with other boards

Prisco is the toughest on the Rams of the Week 7 lists we have tracked: Mike Johrendt has them 16th, and the panel of Brent Sobleski, Gary Davenport, Maurice Moton and Kris Knox has them 17th. He is also cooler on Cleveland, at 16th against 11th for Johrendt and 13th for the panel.

He goes the other way with Seattle, holding the 3-3 Seahawks at seventh, where Johrendt has them 14th and the panel ninth, even while warning that Sam Darnold “is turning the ball over way too much” with the Chiefs coming to town. And his Bengals at sixth sit well above Johrendt’s 13th and the panel’s 14th.

Further down, the New York Giants slip four places to 20th, and Prisco says “it should be J.J. McCarthy time” after McCarthy came on for Jameis Winston against the Saints. The Philadelphia Eagles stay 21st without Jalen Hurts in a season he says “has turned into a disaster,” and he writes that “the heat is on Dan Quinn” with Washington 28th, that the seat under Todd Bowles is “getting really hot” with Tampa Bay 29th, and that the Indianapolis Colts’ loss to the Titans “could be a damning blow to this regime.”

The bottom of the board

The Miami Dolphins stay 32nd after their bye, and the 0-6 Los Angeles Chargers slip to 31st. “One more stop and they will be in the bottom spot. Who saw that coming?” Prisco wrote. The Tennessee Titans move up one to 30th after beating the Colts for their first win.

What comes next

Week 7 opens Thursday with the New England Patriots, up two to ninth after Drake Maye’s three-week surge, at the Chicago Bears, 13th. Later in the week the Rams visit the Raiders, the Chiefs go to Seattle, the Packers play at Detroit, the Bengals visit Baltimore, the Cowboys go to Philadelphia and the Jets play Miami, while the 49ers make the trip to Atlanta.