Return to site

Ranking the Best NFL Teams after 5 Weeks

Week 5 in the NFL season has been completed, and even though there have been several postponed games that have yet to be played, for the most part the season has felt fairly normal and all teams have played either 4 or 5 games. With a few unbeaten games and several others with just one loss, the picture of the elite teams is starting to shape up. Here is my ranking of the top 5 teams at this point in the season.

1) Kansas City Chiefs (4-1) Even though they have lost a game, the Chiefs still appear to be the best team in the league. When you have possibly the best player to ever play football, Patrick Mahomes, you feel like you should win every game or come back from any deficit, and this year he has been great so far. The defense had been really solid until last week's loss to the Raiders, in which the defense gave up 40 points. I believe that was just a bad game and not a sign of a true weakness, so it doesn't affect my ranking of the Chiefs

2) Baltimore Ravens (4-1) The Ravens get the second spot due to their loss to the Chiefs in Week 3. This, however, is a team that looks dominant on both offense and defense most week and is blowing out teams for the most part. They run the ball at will and wear down teams consistently, and sometimes appear unstoppable. That offense, coupled with a mean defense, should take them far again this year, and the AAFC likely goes through Baltimore or Kansas City

3) Seattle Seahawks (5-0) The Seattle offense, led by Russell Wilson, has looked largely unstoppable and the Seahawks are consistently scoring 30+ points per game. The defense has looked suspect at times, and the Seahawks haven't played the most difficult schedule thus far, but if Wilson, the leading MVP candidate, keeps playing out of his mind, they're my favorites to win the NFC

4) Tennessee Titans (4-0) The Titans, after getting over their COVID outbreak, came out firing and looked like an elite team versus the Bills last week. If they can continue to run the ball with Derrick Henry and control massive amounts of clock, it puts them in a great position to win. The defense is better than average, and the offense is coverting opportunities in the red zone into touchdowns. That's a winning formula, and this team looks to be as good as the team that made the AFC Championship game last year

5) Pittsburgh Steelers (4-0) Of the two remaining undefeated teams not yet mentioned (the Packers and the Steelers), the Steelers have the stronger defense thus I am ranking them higher at this point. The defense can be downright nasty at times, but even when they aren't, Big Ben appears to be his usual self and is finding talented receivers all over the field for big plays. In the playoffs, no one wants to play an aggressive defense coupled with a competent offense.