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The NFL is poised to hit the midseason mark and we have a pretty good idea of how most of the league is shaping up. We have brutal battles in the NFC West and NFC North, with other divisions more or less shaking themselves out — then there’s the NFC South, where no one seems to want to win.
Here are our rankings for Week 8, and then we’ll discuss the biggest risers and fallers since our previous rankings.
| Team | Rank | Previously | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Francisco 49ers | 1 | 3 | +2 |
| Buffalo Bills | 2 | 4 | +2 |
| Kansas City Chiefs | 3 | 2 | -2 |
| Chicago Bears | 4 | 7 | +3 |
| Seattle Seahawks | 5 | 1 | -4 |
| Jacksonville Jaguars | 6 | 8 | +2 |
| Minnesota Vikings | 7 | 9 | +2 |
| Detroit Lions | 8 | 15 | +7 |
| Denver Broncos | 9 | 10 | +1 |
| Los Angeles Rams | 10 | 6 | -4 |
| Pittsburgh Steelers | 11 | 18 | +7 |
| Green Bay Packers | 12 | 22 | +10 |
| New York Giants | 13 | 14 | +1 |
| Carolina Panthers | 14 | 11 | -3 |
| New England Patriots | 15 | 19 | +4 |
| Houston Texans | 16 | 27 | +11 |
| Cincinnati Bengals | 17 | 16 | -1 |
| Cleveland Browns | 18 | 25 | +7 |
| Baltimore Ravens | 19 | 5 | -14 |
| Las Vegas Raiders | 20 | 17 | -3 |
| Tampa Bay Buccaneers | 21 | 30 | +9 |
| Dallas Cowboys | 22 | 12 | -10 |
| Washington Commanders | 23 | 23 | |
| New York Jets | 24 | 29 | +5 |
| Philadelphia Eagles | 25 | 13 | -12 |
| Atlanta Falcons | 26 | 21 | -5 |
| New Orleans Saints | 27 | 24 | -3 |
| Arizona Cardinals | 28 | 28 | |
| Indianapolis Colts | 29 | 20 | -9 |
| Miami Dolphins | 30 | 31 | +1 |
| Los Angeles Chargers | 31 | 26 | -5 |
| Tennessee Titans | 32 | 32 |
Biggest increase: Houston Texans (+11)
The Texans look like a much, much better team after their horrific 0-4 start to start the year. Sure, they only have wins against the Titans and Jaguars, but the loss to Jacksonville showed that this team has a high water mark they can reach.
Losing to the Giants hurt their playoff chances in a significant way. Houston will need a lot of help to find its way to the postseason, especially with a defense that has struggled. However, the team can hang their hat on the fact that CJ Stroud is back on track and looking like the franchise quarterback he showed in his first season.
The saving grace for the Texans is that there is no real reason why the defense should be struggling, and if they can get back on track the team could be really good if the offense continues to perform. Houston has gone from legitimately looking like one of the worst teams in the league, to a mediocre organization — with the potential to screw things up.
Biggest drop: Baltimore Ravens (-14)
Baltimore is in a bad, bad way. Losers of three in a row, that slide didn’t have much to do with the team’s quarterback position for the rest of the season. We’ve seen what this team looks like without Lamar Jackson, now they’re without Jackson AND Tyler Huntley.
All the team can do is tread water at this point and wait until the season is over. They’ll probably eek out a few more wins, because there’s still a lot of talent on this team — but we have a defense that doesn’t impact much enough to allow the team to lean heavily on Derrick Henry and still compete. It’s a bad break for the Ravens to wait for 2027.