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Pepie. Holidays to you and yours, and welcome to our Christmas edition, our week sixteen edition of the NFL Power Ranking Show, presented to you by Energizer from our studios in Los Angeles. My name is andrews Aciliano, the man on the other side of the screen right here, the man who made these Power Rankings, the man who honestly eric at home. I feel that at this point you just go like, I don't know anymore, just like, can we get to the playoffs? Like, I mean, can we
just have these teams play meaningful games. I kind of feel like your frustration level must be at a holiday high.
Yeah, I've got like the first tier one and two, the second tier, I don't know, maybe twenty teams or something like that. It's hard to decide who's nonumber three, four and split all these teams up.
Very tricky time of the year.
And listen, I'm not trying to be the grinch here. What I'm saying is these last three weeks are going to be awesome. I can't wait to get to the postseason. But we have this point of the season. Now we're like, well, I think all of these teams are really good. They are only a couple of teams that are really great. So let's show you the rankings. Eric doing Yeoman's work here watching that Monday night game and maybe having to move a little bit of the furniture around the final room.
We have the Niners and the Ravens. You could scan the QR code on the screen to get this on NFL dot com. They are still one and two, and the Cowboys, despite just playing one of their worst games of the year in Buffalo against a good Bills team, don't move. I don't get that. The Dolphins are up one to four, the Eagles are down one to five, and then the Chiefs, the Lions at seven, and then
the Buffalo Bills rounding out the top eight. And what do you know, Eric, with the Niners still clearly at one and the Ravens dismantling the jab are Sunday night at two, on Christmas Night, we get our Super Bowl preview. It would have been better if it was New Orleans and the lights were going out of this was the Horror Bowl. But maybe maybe we see this game in Vegas.
Maybe we do. Yeah, this would be quite the preview.
I feel like a kid again, right, I mean, just waiting for this, and this is the contest that I think, will you know, kind of give us an idea of you know, the two heavyweights right now, which one's standing taller. And as you pointed out, we could see him in not too long in the super Bowl the way the season is gone. So I worry a little bit about San Francisco's run defense. They lose those t defensive tackles. You've got a team in the Ravens that can run
the ball. But on the flip side, they have another devastating injury at running back Keaton Mitchell last week. And don't overlooked this one. He has been a spark plug for them. It's more burden I think on the shoulders Lamar Jackson. But you know, even with some of these injuries, Andrew, I think we're looking at a Grade A match up here. This one's gonna be fantastic. The present under the tree we've all been waiting for.
You exactly, and this game is on Christmas night, as your belly is full and the presents are open, and you're at this point sleeping on the floor and the kids are playing with their new toys, and then you're you're mad at Gradma or for given a toy that makes noise, and then you're already thinking, how do I put this toy somehow in the trash canon? Have the kid not realize it? This is your Super Bowl preview. Keaton Mitchell is done for the season. The Ravens have
Melvin Gordon stepping up. Lamar Jackson played just an absolutely fantastic game on Sunday night. I have serious concerns about the Jaguars, but all kinds of high hopes for the Ravens, and as you mentioned, the two defensive tackle injuries or the Niners will loom huge. You have the Cowboys at three and the Dolphins at four, and coincidentally three and four. This is kind of like the CFP Final four bracket play each other this week in Miami. With the Cowboys, though, Eric,
how do you not move them down? I mean the game was over in five minutes in Buffalo and they did not show up, and they don't don't move this week?
Yeah, I guess I still have reservations a little bit about the Dolphins. Look, I mean, they put together a terrific game plan, beat two struggling quarterbacks and an offense and the Jets that hasn't done much all season. Kudos to them, right, We're still waiting for that big win, and they're gonna get their chance starting with this week's game against Dallas. But you know, just kind of stacking them toe to toe and head to head and trying to do the Pepsi challenge, if you will.
Between the two it's hard.
I think you could easily say Miami's three, but I've had my reservations about them their inability to you know, string games together and beat quality opponents. Dallas obviously a step back after a good run. So you want to flip around, be my guest. I guess I'm like the Eagles defense. I got caught sort of flat footed at the end of the night on Monday, but when the rankings were due and I said, ah, I kind of panicked a little.
So that's where we're at this week.
All right. And now we get the Cowboys and the Dolphins and see if the Cowboys can beat a good team on the road. Not like it's Buffalo. This game is in Miami, the sun will likely be shining in far different conditions, but they themselves admit it. Now they have a road problem. They have a beat good teams
away from the star problem. Yea, Dolphins were able to find a way to overcome the loss of Tyreek Hill Jalen Wattle as we see here step right in and even though they have those defensive injuries, you are still holding firm here with the Dolphins as your fourth best team.
Yeah, I didn't see the owner dancing the way he did there. Maybe I would have bumped the mop had I known that, But yeah, ownership battles, head to head battles aside. I mean, I do think Miami's in an interesting spot here. What's the status of Hill? Does he play can waddle step up the way he did Sunday? Obviously, But that run game too, I mean, that's really gonna be the biggest thing. I think the bill showed a blueprint or reminded people of a blueprint that works against Dallas.
Look in their four losses, they've been killed by the run. Nine rushing touchdowns, almost eight hundred yards on the ground. So that gives you a good indication of you want to slow down that pass rush. You run it right at them and Miami can do that. Now they've gotten the Devin Hn back and obviously most it's been a goal line guy this year in terrifica most of the season, so.
They have the horses up front.
I think if that offensive line can control Dallas's defensive line, we.
Need an owner dance off. There is an NFL plus NFL channel content idea. Let's get to the Eagles. We're doing Game Day final on Monday night and listening to Nick Sirianni explain why he changed defensive coordinators a week before Christmas, why the offense isn't moving them all the way it should. This is a team in crisis. This is a ten and four team that, yeah, I went through a really tough point in their schedule. But Eric, this does not look like a super Bowl team.
It doesn't.
I'm of the belief that this loss in and of itself wasn't that catastrophic and events. But if you obviously yeah, I mean, if you just look at the last three weeks and what it's done, I mean, they still hold their own fate, can still win.
Out and be in terrific shape.
So you know, they have some tiebreakers against Dallas and all that, But as you pointed out, like you're playing with a sick Jalen Hurts. That defense steps up for the first fifty eight minutes.
Matt Patricia was calling a pretty good game.
But they go to single high, they rotate to it to a one high look in in that third and ten situation after DK Metcalf had his big catch and Drew Locke took advantage of it.
I get the idea of a backup quarterback.
Maybe you're feeling good, but at that point, Darius Slay's already out. The secondary has been beat up. You know, that was a tough spot right there. So have their defensive issues been fixed?
I don't think so.
And good teams will exploit that secondary. That's a backup quarterback, remember, So obviously that's that's part of the problem right now.
And is it enough to derail them?
I don't know. I think they can still hang on and win this division, but long term, you're right, that's that's the big question.
If Eagles went out, they should and this is a strength of victory tiebreaker that's impossible to truly project, but they should win. In Yeah, the NFC East three games to go. We have the Chiefs at six and the Lions at seven here Eric at home the Lions, who jumped out to a twenty one to nothing lead. Then they took care of business in the night cap of the tripleheader Saturday evening.
Yeah, a little slow start there.
I had obviously a little bit of tension in the building given their struggles recently. You know that the two tough games against the Bears. One they pull out one, they didn't think. Everybody was a little nervous, but they explode in the second quarter and then these strange third quarter lulls that they have. I can't figure it out. You'd think, you know, a caffeine fueled halftime speech by Dad Campbell might get the guys breaking doors down, but that it didn't occur.
I don't know what it is.
All season, they're minus forty two in point differential, They're you know, plus ninety something in the other three quarters. But if they could figure that out, that's a big deal right there. Defensively made some strides I thought against the Denver but yeah.
That was a get right game for them, and they had to have it. I felt like, why did I not move them up?
You know, it's this sort of same thing with the Chiefs that I could have flipped them, but didn't. Ultimately feel like they've done enough.
Lions get the Vikings twice in the final three weeks. There is a very real scenario where they then have to play the Vikings in the wildcard round and would place them or play them three times in twenty one days, which is just bonkers. So the Lions don't move, the Bills move up too. Let's get to them because they are your team of the Week, presented by Truest. The reason Eric has an unlisted phone number and address is
that Bills fans are that fired up. Well, ten days ago people thought Sean vic Dedermott was going to get fired and this team is going to get blown up in the offseason. Now, Bills fans are angry at home that you only have them at number eight.
Andrew don't be coming in here with your perspective and all that stuff, right, your reasons and take I don't have any time for that, right I'm busy fending off these Bills fans who want me to put them right there between the I don't know, the Dolphins and the Cowboys. Maybe, look, the last three games have been important, even with the loss against the Eagles, they showed they can go toe to toe with some of the best teams. And Sunday that run game, I mean, Josh Allen was back in.
A rocking chair. Seven completions.
You tell me pregame that Josh Allen's gonna have fewer than ten completions and they're gonna win going away. I wouldn't wonder, Okay, how many defensive touchdowns did they score? No, it was just a ground game, So it was a terrific attack there. I moved them up two spots. Felt like that was a good balance between where they are as a team and what they've done in the past six losses. But Bill's fans care to disagree, and maybe they're right Andrew. They're just not even in the playoffs yet.
But if they get in, as I wrote this week, maybe they're a team that can just you know, go twenty twenty Tom Brady and come from a five seed, let's say, or somewhere below the top four, and race to a super Bowl.
They're that good.
Nobody wants to play the Buffalo Bills period, right well stop nobody, yep at all? And what a difference three weeks make? Are eight and six, but at the playoffs or to start today, they don't. They don't. The Bills would not be in right, and they are the nine seed, right, I'm looking at my standing. They are the nine seed in the AFC, behind the Houston Texans at eight. But nobody wants to play the Bills, including probably the Chargers
with their interim head coach. That game Saturday evening a peacocky. This is the NFL Power Ranking Show pres out of my Energizer. Coming up next, Where are the Browns after another part stopping finish over the team in Ed Holmes backyard. That's coming up next. Hey, we got a big game coming up on NFL Network on Christmas Eve on Sunday Night, The Holiday Classic, a Sunday Night special in primetime. The Patriots and the Broncos lighten up the night atm Eastern time,
NFL Network and NFL plus the String. This game with playoff implications certainly, and they must win. Here for the Broncos after they fall to seven and seven with the week fifteen loss in Detroit, the Power Ranking Show persad by Energizer continues with the Browns beating the Bears but somehow falling one at home you got splained in to do. The Jaguars look awful but fall only one. The Texans are up one or the big case cane of victory. The Bengals are twelve, followed by the Colts, the Broncos,
the Bucketeers, and the Rams of Los Angeles. But we begin with the Browns sitting here at number nine. You aren't impressed by Joe Flacco. You aren't impressed by this team, with the entire roster other than Miles Garrett on injured reserve, finding a way to win. You drop them in the Power rankings. Dude, That's why.
I did it right.
Everybody's banged up and they barely the Bears, Bears have actually been They win and they find ways to do it, and it's incredible. I keep saying to myself, Am I sure they're a top ten team? I've had to ask myself about the Browns seemingly every week, and given the way their defense plays, given the way they find ways to gain yards and in this case, come back from a seventeen to seven deficit against a team that's played good football lately, you got to give them some credit.
But I ask myself, are they better than the Bills. Are they more dangerous than the Bills? My number eighteen? In this case, the answer would be no. Could I see them beating the Lions at number seven?
Possibly?
But again it's sort of a where do they fit in the whole picture kind of thing that.
I feel great about dropping them now.
I mean, Flacco obviously had his struggles, but when you have a team that has that synergy and can pick them up, all right, it's the defense's turned to make a stop, and they just do that every single week. Can they stack up in this big game this weekend? And you know, we don't know what the Texans are going to look like this weekend, So another mystery ball game.
I think they could decide the fate of the playoffs.
Listen, I'm giving you unnecessary reef here clearly. Also, they have players other than Miles Garrett who are still healthy. Huge hundred yard day from both Amari Cooper and David Djoku both had touchdowns, both helped them get a win win number nine. As they head to Houston to play the Texans, who you have eleven, We're gonna get to them a little bit later. Let's focus on the team between the Browns and the Texans, and that would be
the Jaguars. Eric, you drop them only one and now Trevor Lawrence's concussion protocols, the AFC South kind of slips away and they go to Tampa. This felt like a performance Sunday that deserves a bigger drop.
Yeah. Had I think we known a little bit more about the status to C. J. Stroud when I wrote these and when I did this, I probably would have dropped them another spot. Texans barely win, and over time it was one of those things.
Where you said, but do I trust right now?
More you know?
And I would say I would still believe it or not trust the Trevor Lawrence led Jags that I do with the question mark led Texans, we maybe Stradd'll come back and be terrific, but right now the Jaguars still have a lot of soul searching to do, and then Lawrence is probably at the center of that. I mean, the two fumbles were critical. The lack of execution on
that end of the first half possession was awful. They left thirteen plus points on the field with the two missfield goals, and you can't do that against mediocre teams, much less to Baltimore Ravens. So yeah, it's an identity crisis for this Jaguars team. We've known about the defense for a while, but when the offense starts making those kind of game changing airs, I think all bets are off. Texans are right there, Colts are right there. They may
not even make the playoffs. This thing has gone completely off the rails, but they still have the possibility to pull this thing back in.
But they got to do it quickly. I mean, thinking about how bonkers that is. I'll say it right now when we do the show next week. I think the Colts are leading the AFC South. I think the Jaguars go to Tampa and I think they lose. And I think the Colts beat the Falcons the AFC South and the NFC South and this weird head to head in December as well, which is kind of contrary to how we do the schedule with all the divisional games. That's just my two cents again, the Texans that allowed him
in the Bengals at twelve. Let's do future champions now for Zeniby FanDuel I will take the l here on this one. I said the Bengals season was over when Joe Burrow got hurt and Jake Browning came in. Now, will the Bengals make the playoffs? FanDuel says plus two hundred. Right now they are the sixth seed in the AFC, and Eric, you have that up one to twelve.
Yeah, and all thanks to t Higgins with his performance there late. I mean, they fall in a hole and they found a way to come back with one of the Catches of the Year candidates.
Anyone hasn't seen it yet, go check it out immediately.
But yeah, I mean, depending on what Jamar Chase's status is right now, we hear he could be out multiple weeks, he could be ready for Sunday. You know, the answer probably lies somewhere between. Maybe he misses the game, maybe he plays and he's not his full strength. But this team, Jake Browning has been able to find ways to replicate about eighty five percent and then.
Of what Joe Burrow did. That's an achievement right there.
So you know, you think about that and the gutsiness that they've been able to show coming back multiple times throughout the season handling this adversity.
I give a lot of credit.
They also lose a big one in the DJ Reader going down this weekend too.
I mean that's you know, is that.
Another kind of player that they can afford to lose? I don't know.
So they're teetering.
I mean, they're right there on the cuss but I have my concerns.
I would too, but they keep finding way. Zach Taylor only said after Ian's report that Jamar Chase would be out potentially multiple weeks, that he is day to day. But that is standard Zach Taylor podium speak. The guy could be in the hospital and he would still say day to day. The Bengals get the Steelers coming up on Saturday, Colts thirteen, Broncos fourteen, and then the Bucketeers, who I mentioned, get the Jaguars. That game is in Tampa coming up this week. The Buccaneers are up three
after Baker Mayfil played. It comes to passer rating a perfect game against Joe Berries deepense at Lambeau insane right.
Two previous trips there, he hadn't had a very good time, a lot of turnovers to losses two different teams for that matter, Rams and Browns. But he comes back and
I think played his best game as a Buccaneer. I mean, he's he's laid it all out of the line this season, right, I mean, he's played with heart, you know, he's He's had some good moments for sure, kept the steam afloat during during that losing spell, but throwing the ball effectively as he did with two games prior going under fifty percent completions, turned that around twenty two of twenty eight
with a few drops too, So he was tremendous. You know, the late game execution the last couple of weeks has been great. They're sneaky. They won a few games in a row. Now might be the team to beat in the NFC South. Look, you know this team has fascinating me for a while, but they just didn't have the wins. They didn't have the resume to get to this point. But Hall of Fame wide receiver in Mike Evans Scott Wentz stepped up with a huge game where set White.
Now Baker's playing well, Just saying maybe it's a team to watch out for, even if they're going to be probably home underdogs if they do win that in the first round of the playoffs.
You mentioned Rashad White, he would have had one hundred yards if he didn't go down late in the game to keep the clock running. They have been running the football. They're the worst team the last two years, the worst in the NFL running the football. The last couple of weeks, they've picked it up in time for a playoff push. All right, they are fifteen. How about your team that is sixteen? The team making power moves presented my energizer.
They are the Rams of Los Angeles, who get a T and F game to kick off Week sixteen against the Saints the week before Thanksgiving at home. I checked my notes. You had the Rams at twenty seven. Ouch.
I think that was their bye week too.
I don't know what they did to upset me apparently, but thankfully Rams fans are very forgiving people from what I've experienced in the past, and they're willing to see that I've caught on to this team that look Sunday wasn't the prettiest thing.
They go up twenty nothing.
They let a backup quarterback make it a tight game, but Matthew Stafford playing well. They obviously have Kyen Williams running well, even if the two fumbles were really pretty costly in the first half Sunday, so you.
Know the weapons are there. Defensively, they're doing their best to hang on if.
They can avoid those those big penalties like we saw from Darien Kendrick on Sunday. They're a strange team, but they have the horses with Kup and Nakua and Stafford to put a scare into the teams. I think, so, you know, I've kind of split the middle a little bit. They're not quite in the playoffs. They're you know, at least power rankings wise, but they're looking better than they did a month ago.
Yeah, and they have a quarterback right now, Matthew Stafford is dealing. If they protect him, they get Rob Havenstein right and right tackle. This team is scary, and I'm gonna say that, yes, I do Robbly a paycheck at the preseason from the Rams full disclosure here, But no one circled this game as meaningful when the schedule came out. And now I get a TNF game with the seventh seed against the nine seed, but the Saints coming to town.
Love it to open up Week sixteen. Pretty good. Coming up on the NFL Power Ranking Show presented to you by Energizer. What do we do now with the Seahawks after Swaggy Drew brought them back. Monday Night coming up,
it's the NFL Power Ranking Show presented by Energizer. The Seahawks are up too after their big win on Monday Night, followed by the Vikings at eighteen, the Packers, the Steelers with Mason Rudolph down six, and then the Saints at twenty one, the Falcons, the Raiders, and the Chicago Bears. Eric at home does the numbers and he is here
to take your holiday grief. Eric. The Seahawks move up only two, despite the fact they stunned the Eagles, despite the fact that they are now the eight seed in the NFC with the tiebreaker against the Rams potentially, but they are the eighth seed.
Yeah, I got to finish ahead of the Rams, lost the season series to them. But they'll take what they got Monday Night, even if it was Drew Locke's possibly last appearance of the season. I mean, Geno Smith expected
to come back. But you know, Locke gets in there, takes a little while to get going and then has that memorable drive at the end there two third and tens, you know, one to DK and one to Jackson Smith the jig, but for the win, and you know, It just brought some life back to this team that had taken it on the chin a little bit. They lost a tough one in Dallas. You know, things haven't really gone their way since the week four by so, I mean, yeah, it was.
It was a huge win for them.
Kenneth Walker running big, and yeah, we'll see if they can get in. I mean again, I have my reservations about this team, but those three wide receivers, you know, and if they get the passing game going again and keep it hot with Gino back, I think they'll they'll have a chance.
They have a chance. And again the Rams tiebreaker is deadly. They got swept. However, the schedule does set up nicely at Tennessee home for Mason Rudolph or Kenny Pickett and then at Arizona to close it out. I'm telling you there is a chance for the Seattle Seahawks. I think a little bit less of a chance over for the Green Bay Packers. Just a bad weekend for them. They fall three. They are now number nineteen.
How they're going to fix these defensive issues was always about how bad the run defense was. Now you can add the secondary from really the fourth quarter against the Giants carried over into Sunday.
I mean, that was a tough look for them.
They got dissected, and so yeah, I mean, I think the backfield hasn't been healthy now.
Since really the beginning of the season.
Yes, you have some of these young weapons like Jayden Reid's stepping up and Jordan Love can still make plays, but if that defense isn't fixed, consider me very worried about this book.
Yeah, I am very worried about the Green Bay Packers when once again Matt Lafour has to do the no I'm not firing Joe Berry press conference on Monday. The rest of the power rankings from twenty five on down have the Titans, the Jets, the Chargers, and the Giants, Arizona's at twenty nine, the New England Patriots, the Washington Commanders. And you didn't give the Panthers any movement despite the fact that they won a game. Bah humbug.
That would be in putting the four win Commanders down below them, which, Shay, that would be quite the statement, and maybe it's true. But we'll see one more win and then I will get them out of that thirty second.
You are mean to the Panthers Eric Aedholmes Power Rankings at NFL dot com slash Power Rankings any day of the week. Eric Haffy Holidays. Merry Christmas to you and your family and everyone out there as well. We'll see you the day after Christmas, so long as the buddys.
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