NFC East: Dallas Cowboys | New York Giants | Philadelphia Eagles | Washington Commanders
NFC North: Chicago Bears | Detroit Lions | Green Bay Packers | Minnesota Vikings
NFC South: Atlanta Falcons | Carolina Panthers | New Orleans Saints | Tampa Bay Buccaneers
NFC West: Arizona Cardinals | Los Angeles Rams | San Francisco 49ers | Seattle Seahawks
AFC East: Buffalo Bills | Miami Dolphins | New England Patriots | New York Jets
AFC North: Baltimore Ravens | Cincinnati Bengals | Cleveland Browns | Pittsburgh Steelers
AFC South: Houston Texans | Indianapolis Colts | Jacksonville Jaguars | Tennessee Titans
AFC West: Denver Broncos | Kansas City Chiefs | Las Vegas Raiders | Los Angeles Chargers
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Last season, the San Francisco 49ers were the most injured team in the NFL. They fell apart, going 6-11. That’s normal for a team with an inordinate amount of injuries.
It also highlights how good head coach Kyle Shanahan has been to start this season.
The 49ers are 3-0 with roughly the same level of ridiculously bad injury luck. They’re probably the most injured team in the NFL yet again. Here’s a list of the top-end players who have missed games or been affected by injuries: Brock Purdy, George Kittle, Jauan Jennings, Brandon Aiyuk, Trent Williams, Nick Bosa.
That’s a Pro Bowl team.
San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan has led his team to first place in the NFC West through three weeks. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)
(Sean Gardner via Getty Images)
The job doesn’t get easier with Bosa being done for the rest of the season with a torn ACL. That’s a massive loss. But having Shanahan gives the 49ers hope of overcoming it.
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Since the end of last season, the 49ers are without 10 players who are making $10 million or more per season from other teams, including free agency and the Deebo Samuel trade. The 49ers’ depth was already thin after that rough offseason. They have been without some fantastic players, and yet they’re 3-0 with two huge divisional wins. They have beaten the Cardinals and Seahawks, who have not lost to a team other than the 49ers. It has been an impressive start.
NFL Coach of the Year is a strange award with odd criteria for voters, but if this continues then Shanahan should be considered a favorite for it. Shanahan has been one of the best coaches in the NFL for a while, albeit burdened by some high-profile blown leads in huge games, and this month has been some of his best work. Without Shanahan, the 49ers might already be in trouble this season. Instead, they’re one of only six undefeated teams left in the NFL. If Shanahan can keep the hot start going without Bosa, he’ll start to get his justified credit for the job he has done this season.
Here are the NFL power rankings as we enter Week 4 of the NFL season:
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Through the first two weeks, there was some second-guessing over whether the Saints deserved the No. 32 spot. They had been competitive. Then Sunday happened and yes, the Saints deserve to be ranked last.
The Dolphins had a shot at an upset. Two crucial fourth-quarter mistakes, a roughing the punter penalty and Tua Tagovailoa’s interception, derailed it. The effort at least gives Miami hope that there are some wins ahead.
The Titans are a mess. The delay of game penalty on a field goal attempt that led to a 62-yard miss, two weeks after Brian Callahan didn’t challenge a catch because he didn’t know the rule, is mounting evidence that Tennessee is wasting Cam Ward’s rookie season, like Caleb Williams last year.
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Brian Daboll said the Giants are evaluating everything when asked about the quarterback situation. Russell Wilson hasn’t given the team a chance to compete in two of its three games. If Wilson’s one good game precludes a Week 4 change to Jaxson Dart, that’s a mistake.
The idea that a healthy Justin Fields could get benched for Tyrod Taylor is odd. It’s not like Taylor was great on Sunday. But an 0-3 start will sometimes lead to suboptimal decisions, and there has to be some sense of pressure to get a win. Quickly.
The Browns’ defense is going to keep them in most games. And in some of those games they’ll catch enough breaks to pull an upset. Cleveland completely shut down Green Bay on Sunday. No team will want to face the Browns, due to that defense.
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Russell Wilson has played eight bad quarters this season, and against the Cowboys he looked like Dan Marino in 1984. Caleb Williams had the best game of his pro career against Dallas on Sunday. The Cowboys’ defense, without Micah Parsons, might be way worse than anyone could have feared.
I’m not convinced the Panthers are suddenly good on defense, but it was excellent Sunday in shutting out the Falcons. It was so good, the Panthers had just 224 yards of offense and won by 30 points.
Remove one 50-yard touchdown from the fantastic Nico Collins and the Texans did not score a touchdown with only 221 yards against a suspect Jaguars defense. It’s just three games in, but the preseason AFC South favorite’s season seems like it’s unfixable.
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It’s not like Mike Vrabel and the staff didn’t know Rhamondre Stevenson was a fumbler. And his two fumbles cost them a chance to beat the Steelers. The Patriots outplayed Pittsburgh but had nothing to show for it. It will be interesting to see the trust level in Stevenson going forward.
Any Bengals fan holding out hope that Jake Browning could keep the ship afloat might be ready to dive overboard after Sunday. That was awful. It won’t be a string of 48-10 losses without Joe Burrow, but this is clearly not a playoff contender anymore either.
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Ashton Jeanty has spent most of his NFL career so far getting hit in the backfield. The Raiders offensive line isn’t good, but there should be some schematic ways to help Jeanty. Maybe getting him more than six pass targets in three games might help unlock some of his playmaking.
Why would Raheem Morris yank Michael Penix Jr. for Kirk Cousins? It just opened up questions about Penix, and couldn’t have been great for his confidence. Penix played poorly against the Panthers, without question. Benching him served no purpose at all.
Caleb Williams looked great, as did the playmakers around him. There should be some hesitancy, considering it came against a terrible Cowboys defense, but it was clearly a step in the right direction.
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The Cardinals will regret blowing that game. They had the ball and a lead with less than three minutes to go against a 49ers defense without Nick Bosa, then just had to stop a 49ers offense without Brock Purdy and others. If they miss the playoffs, failing in that situation might be a big reason.
There’s obvious Aaron Rodgers fatigue, but he’s laying the foundation for a pretty cool story. He has led two fourth-quarter comeback wins. He’s playing better at his age than any quarterback not named Tom Brady. This has been nowhere near “Joe Namath with the Rams” level for Rodgers in Pittsburgh.
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It wasn’t the most impressive performance, but the Jaguars pulled out a win against an offensively inept Texans team. Trevor Lawrence doesn’t look much better, Travis Hunter’s usage is strange, Brian Thomas Jr. is a shell of his rookie self, and despite all that the Jaguars are doing OK at 2-1.
Losing with no time on the clock to the 3-0 Colts and 3-0 Chargers, both on the road, isn’t the worst thing. But they’re now two games (and the tiebreaker) behind the Chargers in the division. They face the Bengals next, which helps, but they have already put themselves behind by not closing out games.
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The Seahawks might be good. They weren’t good in the opener and blew a winnable game to the 49ers, but look like a buzzsaw since then. Beating the 2025 Saints isn’t a grand accomplishment, but this might be a very good team everyone is sleeping on early in the season.
The Vikings aren’t going anywhere. They need to figure out how to get good, consistent quarterback play, but the defense is still top notch. That showed against the Bengals. This is still a playoff-level roster, especially when it gets healthy.
Bobby Wagner had 11 tackles and two sacks on Sunday. He’s 35 years old. The 10-time Pro Bowler is a Pro Football Hall of Fame lock, especially considering that he seems to have plenty of good football ahead of him. He’s one of the great players of this era.
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Jonathan Taylor is a very early favorite for NFL Offensive Player of the Year. No skill position player has been better. Daniel Jones gets the attention for the Colts’ hot start, but it’s Taylor with 338 rushing yards and three touchdowns through three games, as well as seven catches for 93 yards and another score.
The Chiefs got a necessary win but it wasn’t impressive. The offense is still surprisingly dull. There’s no run game. Presumably things will get better for the Kansas City Chiefs when Xavier Worthy and Rashee Rice are back, but it’s getting tougher to blindly trust that.
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If there’s anything that can derail the 49ers, it’s Nick Bosa’s torn ACL. The 49ers were already playing a lot of young players, but Bosa and Fred Warner were steadying forces. The defense won’t be the same without Bosa.
Point differential is telling, and the Buccaneers being at +6 after three weeks isn’t impressive. But there is context. There were two road games and the Bucs are dealing with multiple injuries. Going 3-0, with a two-game lead in the division, is pretty good no matter how it has happened.
The Ravens have lost to two teams in the top five of these rankings. They’ll be fine. But the defense is a concern. They allowed 41 and 38 points in their losses. They came against elite offenses, but it’s still something that needs to be fixed fast.
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For two and a half quarters on Sunday, the Rams looked like one of the best teams in football. They dominated the Eagles. Losing that 26-7 lead obviously stings, but on the positive side the Rams showed how high their ceiling is. They’re good. They just need to learn from blowing it against the Eagles.
The Lions have 90 points in their last two games. Remember after one week when everyone thought their offense was going to be much worse? Not with this talent. The Lions are still a Super Bowl contender.
With less than four minutes left, the Packers led 10-0 at Cleveland. In the last four minutes they gave up 13 points and lost. It doesn’t mean they’re a bad team, or won’t be in the No. 1 spot again, but that’s a really bad loss after a great start to the season.
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Justin Herbert should be the early MVP favorite. No offense to Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson, but Herbert has been incredible so far. His game-tying touchdown pass to Keenan Allen was unbelievable. It’s early but Herbert is clearly in the top tier of NFL quarterbacks.
Maybe the Eagles figured something out during their comeback, especially on offense after an absolutely miserable first half. Go figure: Getting AJ Brown involved is smart. But just because they won, the horrendous first two-plus quarters shouldn’t be totally ignored. It wasn’t pretty on either side.
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The NFL season is long, and being rather flat at home on a Thursday night against a desperate division rival like the Dolphins will happen. It’ll be hard for the Bills to get up this week too, considering they’re facing an entirely overmatched Saints team at home.
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