NFL Power Rankings From #21 – 11 For Week 13 2018

So let’s continue the power rankings from #21 to #11 with five weeks of regular season to go.

Bakermania took over Cleveland, and the young quarterback Baker Mayfield has the poise of someone who can lead a team to victories.

The rest of the Browns team – never dysfunctional even when they were losing – followed Mayfield’s lead and now they are not that far removed from their first .500 season in a while.

Browns are better than their record indicates, and they have the 8th rushing attack while the passing attack is picking up. Defense is a bit of an issue at the moment but Browns are tough.

That’s what you get when you’re stubborn and are relying on Blake Bortles to lead one of the best teams in NFL right now. This is indeed one of the best – if not the best – team in NFL, minus the quarterback who’s holding them back and making them lose and lose and lose.

Not even running back Leonard Fournette can help the Jaguars. But, in rare games, when things go right for Bortles, Jaguars can still beat any team in this league.

The Titans are overrated because of their win against the Patriots, but are one poor football team that will get bullied by any serious team. That’s what happened to them against the Texans last week, and you can’t expect much from a team with 30th passing offense.

Defense is good but not if they are constantly on the field. Titans allowed 34 points to Texans and 38 points to Colts the week before. Their defense might be gone.

Broncos aren’t bad at all, and they’re starting to gel together in a winning team. They are somewhat limited because of having Case Keenum at quarterback, but he’s good enough to lead this team to victory when everything else is going right.

And with this defense, and with Phillip Lindsay who’s leading the league with a 5.8 yards per rush average, things tend to go right. The Broncos won’t see the playoffs, sadly.

The Packers are an awful football team but are led by one of the best quarterbacks in history. Aaron Rodgers can singlehandedly hide all the deficiencies on this team, but can do that almost exclusively on their home stadium.

Packers are the worst away team in the league, and not even Rodgers can help this hapless team when they’re visiting anyone. Packers have regressed since last season and there’s no way they’ll see playoffs this year.

We don’t yet know if the Chargers are really good or not, and we don’t know if Philip Rivers is really good or not. They’re one of the most balanced teams when it comes to offense and defense, and are in top 10 in all categories, but so far haven’t been able to beat any top team. They will play Steelers, Chiefs and Ravens until the end of the season.

The Redskins competitiveness is hanging by a thread after the injury to quarterback Alex Smith, and is now pretty much depending on veteran running back Adrian Peterson. If Peterson stops doing wonders and regresses to an average performance, the whole team will implode and will plummet down to the bottom of this list. 32-year-old quarterback Colt McCoy will have to lead this team until the end of the season, and this is a player Jay Gruden coached to fit the mold of his offense perfectly. Redskins could be good, or they could implode. It depends on McCoy, Peterson and Gruden – in that order. The loss to Cowboys last week hurts, but the schedule is kind.

The Panthers are better than last season, but notoriously unreliable due to Cam Newton having on and off days. And it won’t get better anytime soon – expect the Panthers to be able to both beat anyone and lose to anyone until the end of season, and the two games in which they will either prove themselves or not are the two games against the Saints.

Probably the most overrated team in football right now, the Texans are usually much higher on power rankings lists than they are on ours. Prodigy quarterback Deshaun Watson is not himself this season, and while Texans have an excellent record they aren’t really dominant against anyone. They usually win by a narrow margin against teams that are forced to run, and usually lose to those who can pass. Everything is going right for Texans so far though.

The Cowboys are held back by the limitations of their quarterback Dak Prescott, so the key players is Ezekiel Elliott. If he performs, then that opens the field for Prescott and the Cowboys can win. Intensity in defense and offense was never a problem, it’s the skill that can be a problem, and if Elliott is stopped then Prescott can’t win the game on his own. But on a good day, this can be one of the tougher teams to beat in football.

Everyone wants to see Andrew Luck in good form after a long time on the sidelines, so the Colts are a feel good story. Perhaps they’re a bit overrated because of that, and are yet unproven in big games against tough opponents, and they won’t have such a test in the regular season as they won’t be facing any teams stronger than Cowboys and Texans until the end. We’ll see what they’re made of in playoffs, not before.