Week 7 NFL Power Rankings: Titans, Steelers & Seahawks stand alone
By Will Lomas
16. Minnesota Vikings (-5)
This is so frustrating for me, but obviously even more frustrating for Vikings fans. They can’t hold a solid spot in these power rankings because they can’t consistently show that they are a solid team and not just a collection of stars.
I believe that Justin Jefferson is a true star in the making and I compared him to the Tennessee Titans A.J. Brown before the 2020 NFL Draft, but without Dalvin Cook this offense can’t do enough to make life easy on Kirk Cousins.
Now, that isn’t the offense’s fault. In fact, it is pretty clearly on Cousins the majority of the time, but he is what he is and the team knew that going into his megadeal. Still, I think this team is very difficult to defend and Jefferson is on pace for a record-setting year so it is hard not to be a little optimistic despite the terrible record.
15. Denver Broncos (+2)
Winning against the Patriots is always a beautiful thing, but that was probably one of the ugliest versions of it that I have ever seen.
Drew Lock ended up with a whopping 42% completion percentage and the team as a whole had 37 rushes for less than 4 yards per carry. That sort of offense isn’t going to win many games in the NFL.
Luckily the defense and special teams had a huge day and they kept putting the Patriots in uncomfortable situations. Maybe on a normal workweek, there would have been no problem, but with the distractions they had, the Broncos had just enough in the tank for a huge win and a small jump in the power rankings.