NFL power rankings Week 5: Who's at bottom as Jets join 0-4 squads Monday night
- - NFL power rankings Week 5: Who's at bottom as Jets join 0-4 squads Monday night
Nate Davis, USA TODAY September 30, 2025 at 7:41 AM
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NFL power rankings entering Week 5 of the 2025 season (previous rank in parentheses):
1. Philadelphia Eagles (1): They've won 20 of 21 games − one loss over the past calendar year, when QB Jalen Hurts was concussed at Washington, incidentally. Just wait until they add second-half passing yards, more Tush Push variations and maybe even get more out of RB Saquon Barkley, whose 3.1 yards per carry are nearly half his 2024 rate (5.8).
2. Buffalo Bills (2): Come Sunday night for the conclusion of their three-game homestand − the AFC leaders won't play again in Western New York until November. Stay for the debut of their "Cold Front" uniforms, Nike's specially devised "Rivalries" alternates for Buffalo.
3. Los Angeles Rams (4): QB Matthew Stafford's back seems just fine. Sunday's game-winning 88-yard TD pass was the longest of his 17-year career − surpassing his 79-yard connections with Calvin "Megatron" Johnson and Van Jefferson in previous seasons.
4. Green Bay Packers (5): Squandering fourth-quarter leads in consecutive weeks is hardly an optimal way to enter the bye week for a team that should be 4-0. What coach Matt LaFleur and Co. really need to work on is their two-minute drill and the sense of urgency that would seem inherent to overtime. Still, given the way injuries are piling up here, the week off might be arriving at just the right time.
5. Detroit Lions (6): Going back to his injury-aborted 2024 season, DE Aidan Hutchinson has 11½ sacks in his past nine games. He had 11½ over 17 games during the 2023 season.
6. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (9): Sure, they just suffered their first loss − though they almost clawed all the way back to knock off the champion Eagles. Again. Ironically, it was the Bucs' first game of the 2025 season with All-Pro LT Tristan Wirfs and WR Chris Godwin in the lineup, their returns seemingly portending even better days ahead for the NFC South leaders.
7. Los Angeles Chargers (3): If Sunday was indicative of how things could go without starting OTs Joe Alt and Rashawn Slater, then QB Justin Herbert and Co. could be in some significant trouble.
8. Kansas City Chiefs (10): Rumors of a dynastic demise were greatly exaggerated, the defending AFC champs already restored to seventh place in the conference with their 0-2 start quickly receding.
9. Seattle Seahawks (12): Mike Macdonald is the fifth coach in league history to win at least nine of his first 10 games on the road. Just imagine if the 'Hawks can also reclaim their once insurmountable home-field advantage at Lumen Field, where they're 4-7 under Macdonald.
10. Pittsburgh Steelers (14): When your offense has gained the fourth-fewest yards and your defense has surrendered the fourth most, you've got to feel pretty good about a 3-1 start − especially in light of the issues facing Pittsburgh's AFC North foes.
11. Indianapolis Colts (11): Four punts Sunday and their first three turnovers of the 2025 season? Yet if it seems like the wheels came off this Cinderella carriage simultaneously, don't forget that Indy is quite likely two poor plays from WR Adonai Mitchell away from being 4-0.
12. Denver Broncos (18): When you're able to outgain an opponent − even a crippled one like Cincinnati − by 353 yards, it speaks to the dominant potential of a Denver squad that lost its previous two games on walk-off field goals.
13. Washington Commanders (8): No NFC team is running the ball more effectively (154.8 yards per game), yet no one in this extensive backfield committee has even 200 individually yet on the season. And just wait until QB Jayden Daniels returns ... whenever that might be.
14. Jacksonville Jaguars (17): Their 13 takeaways − including at least three in every game − are already four more than they had all of last season. The Jags are the sixth team since 2000 to record multiple interceptions in each of a season's first four games.
15. San Francisco 49ers (13): Among this team's mounting issues is its heavy (and worrisome?) reliance on RB Christian McCaffrey, who leads the league with 100 touches but is averaging what would be a career-low 5.3 per (discounting his abbreviated campaigns).
16. Baltimore Ravens (7): They don't leave Baltimore again until Oct. 30, their bye coming in Week 7. Is it sufficient time to get this battered roster − namely QB Lamar Jackson and his bum hamstring − healthy in time to dig out of what could very well become a deeper sinkhole?
17. Minnesota Vikings (15): Europe, where the Vikes remain following their loss in Dublin, is nice ... but probably less so if you're trying to rehabilitate so many injured linemen.
18. Chicago Bears (19): WR Rome Odunze has at least one TD in every game. The last Chicago player to open a season by finding the end zone in each of the first four games? Walter Payton ... in 1986.
19. Arizona Cardinals (16): Kyler Murray is now 8-22 in divisional games, the worst record among starting quarterbacks since realignment in 2002.
20. Dallas Cowboys (28): As magnificent a kicker as Brandon Aubrey is, one aspect of his game that should make him even more appreciated is his ability to dump kickoffs so accurately throughout the landing zone in the NFL's new "Dynamic Kickoff" era.
21. Houston Texans (21): They've allowed 16 fewer points than any other team, their losses coming to squads with an aggregate 9-3 record. Don't bury Houston yet.
22. New England Patriots (25): Marcus' Jones team-record 167 punt return yards Sunday included an 87-yard TD and a 61-yarder when, per Next Gen Stats, his route took him nearly twice as far.
Marcus Jones covered 111.91 yards of total distance on this 61-yard punt return, per @NextGenStats 😳Watch live out-of-market games on #NFLPlusBlackout restrictions may applypic.twitter.com/DmMMrvDJft
— NFL+ (@NFLPlus) September 28, 2025
23. Cincinnati Bengals (20): They posted a field goal to start Monday night's game in Denver ... then never crossed midfield again. Cincy needs to take a serious look at its offense, i.e. QB2 Jake Browning, while assessing its direction ahead of any potential comeback by injured Joe Burrow.
24. Carolina Panthers (22): Good luck making heads or tails of an NFC South outfit that wins a shutout by 30 points one week and loses by 29 the next.
25. Atlanta Falcons (23): Good luck making heads or tails of an NFC South outfit that gets blanked by 30 points one week and scores 34 in victory the next.
26. New York Giants (30): One way to protect QB Jaxson Dart as he gets his professional bearings? Keep him off the field for lengthy stretches ... by allowing a league-high 96 first downs.
27. Las Vegas Raiders (24): RB Ashton Jeanty became the first Silver and Black rookie since Bo Jackson in 1987 to post a TD run and catch in the same game. Now it's safe to say Jeanty has officially arrived.
28. Cleveland Browns (26): You have to admire the Browns for not simply giving up on a season that's quickly getting away from them. Despite that, they acquired veteran LT Cam Robinson on Monday, good news for QB Joe Flacco ... or whomever replaces him.
29. Miami Dolphins (29): They finally broke into the win column Monday night, but it won't be easy to find it again without injured WR Tyreek Hill.
30. New York Jets (27): No cigars here, but three of their four losses are by one score. But bad teams find ways to lose, and the NYJ didn't have to look hard Monday with three turnovers and 13 penalties.
31. New Orleans Saints (32): Not gonna be much to write home about for this team in 2025. But give them credit for putting up a tough fight in Buffalo on Sunday. And a tip of the cap to longtime DE Cameron Jordan, whose 229 starts here are a new franchise record. He's also a class act.
32. Tennessee Titans (31): Not only are they winless, their margin of defeat has grown wider by the week. Rookie QB Cam Ward summed up this squad succinctly after Sunday's whitewashing in Houston.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NFL power rankings Week 5: Are Jets last as they fall to 0-4 Monday?
Source: “AOL Sports”
