The NFL has finished Week 4 of operations, and just like any other week, there are plenty of storylines to go through.

In the 'good old days' of a 16-game season (so the 2020 season and before), this used to be seen as the 'quarter way' point of the year, with teams able to break their games into blocks of four and assess where they are after each one. 

Now with the season consisting of 17 games, the maths is slightly off, but there are a lot of people who still use Week 4 as the first crucial cutoff point, time to assess what has gone right and what to keep doing, what's gone wrong and what to improve on.

Whilst the teams consider their ups and downs when it comes to their teams, we need to take a look at what the ups and downs look like when it comes to the league as a whole, and what this week’s results have done to the power rankings. 

Who has moved up, who has moved down from last week? Well there have been quite a few changes as you might expect, including one that might come as a bit of a surprise to you considering how they did on the weekend.

Enough talk, let’s dive into it:

10 - San Francisco 49ers (Not Ranked last week)

Just a brilliant all-around performance to keep the defending Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams at bay on Monday night, with the offense adding some incredible firepower to show that they are not to be messed with.

On the subject of offense, Jimmy Garoppolo proved that whilst he is far from the best quarterback in the game, he is perfect for the team’s offense and makes you wonder whether or not they should have just gone with him from the start, and then think about where they might be if they did. 

9 - Los Angeles Chargers (No Change from last week)

There might have been some skepticism about them in recent weeks, especially after the injury concern to Justin Herbert and whether or not it would hurt them long-term if he wasn’t able to perform at 100% moving forward, but with their victory over the Houston Texans, they showed what they are capable of.

Now when you add in Austin Ekeler into the mix coming back to prominence in the offense, they’ve just added a crucial part to the game that will keep opposing teams on their toes, potentially leaving them vulnerable if they commit too hard one way or the other when combined with their great passing attack. 

8 - Dallas Cowboys (Not Ranked)

The biggest compliment that you can pay the Dallas Cowboys right now is that they might have a quarterback competition when Dak Prescott comes back into the fold, such is how well they have been playing under Cooper Rush, who has been playing mistake-free football which has allowed the defense to work without a lot of pressure on their shoulders.

Keep this up, and the Cowboys can seriously be a threat to the rest of the NFC in the playoffs. You just have to hope that the situation at quarterback doesn’t derail any good momentum that the team has, so good luck to Mike McCarthy as it’s a quandary that can’t be easy to solve.

7 - Tampa Bay Buccaneers (No Change)

This was a result that you can pretty much put in the ‘humbling’ category for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, as they suffered their second loss in the space of two weeks, only this one wasn’t as close as their previous one as they lost 41-31 to the Kansas City Chiefs.

They put up a good fight, but just came up against a much better team, and that’s why you can’t really punish them by moving them down the power rankings, as it wasn’t exactly a ‘bad’ loss, but there were certainly things that they need to look at and fix moving forward. 

6 - Minnesota Vikings (Not Ranked)

Perhaps this comes across as, well not quite ‘recency bias’ but ‘live bias’ as we were able to see them in person this week, but the Minnesota Vikings just come across as a team that are incredibly well-rounded, well-coached and know-how to execute perfectly with the weapons that they have on both sides of the ball.

A little more consistency on both sides will certainly help them, but they are sneaky good and could well be challenging for the NFC North crown and maybe even go deep into the playoffs. 

5 - Baltimore Ravens (+1 from last week)

This is the surprise that I was talking about. Yes, I have moved the Baltimore Ravens up even though they lost, but that’s kind of the reason that power rankings aren’t simply a look at the standings and following their win percentage. The fact that they were able to go toe-to-toe with one of the best teams in the league in the Buffalo Bills and were essentially one play away from winning it with the 4th down decision, shows that they can compete with anyone on their day.

So don’t sleep on them just because of their record, this is still an incredibly powerful offense and a defense that is getting better and better and will continue to cause problems. 

4 - Green Bay Packers (-1)

The other example of ‘a win doesn’t mean you won’t go down the rankings’ comes in the form of the Green Bay Packers, and it really comes down to one simple reason.

The New England Patriots are not the same team that we have been used to for the past twenty or so years, so squeaking by them isn’t a show of strength as it would be in years past. Squeaking past the Bucs as they did last week, is the sign of a good team, but this one, whilst still a win and there aren’t any major concerns coming out of it, just doesn’t stack up with what they’re capable of and that’s why they have to go down a place as they are replaced by…

3 - Philadelphia Eagles (+1)

The league’s only undefeated team, and so they were always going to rank high on this list. Another team that is strong in all aspects of the game that it’s really hard to single out any one player that has got them this far. It really is a team thing with them.

And the fact they were able to do it in such horrendous conditions is also a plus on their side, because if they can do it then, you can only imagine what they will be capable of when the weather turns bad later in the season.

2 - Buffalo Bills (-1)

As we mentioned in our roundup piece, this was an impressive win as it showed that they can ‘win ugly’ rather than relying on rolling teams over as they did in the early weeks of the season, and that’s really a true mark of what a champion should look like, especially when it comes to making the big plays at the right time, as they did with the critical 4th down interception. 

But whilst it was a good win, it wasn’t the best win of the weekend, which is why top spot goes to…

1 - Kansas City Chiefs (+1) 

Putting up 41 points on a defense that some think is the best in the league is a statement in and of itself, and that is why they take the top spot on our list this week. We knew that the defense was probably going to struggle against a Buccaneers team led by Brady as they slowly get their house in order, but they did just enough to keep them out of harm's way. 

And when you have Mahomes on the other side of the ball, that’s really all you can ask them to do as he will take care of the rest, as he did magestically on Sunday night.