NFL: Power Rankings at the quarter-mark of the 2018 NFL season

30. San Francisco 49ers (1-3)

Man, losing Jimmy G sucks. There’s just no other way to put it. I didn’t think the personnel on either side of the ball was ready to compete with the Rams or for a Wildcard spot for that matter, but I believe in this organization. It’s no coincidence that the 49ers almost beat the Chargers with C.J. Beathard at quarterback – Kyle Shanahan is a special play-caller.

And they have a young defense that has a ton of talent. However, while I think they can compete with plenty of teams, not having their franchise quarterback will keep them from winning many games. So instead of sulking in the loss of playoff hopes, let’s look at the positives – Shanahan and John Lynch are here for the long run and we already started to see some of the fruits of their labor, Matt Breida is third in the league in rushing despite missing last week’s game, DeForest Buckner looks like a monster and while the injuries to Garoppolo and Jerrick McKinnon don’t seem to have any upside right now, another full year of learning the system could pay off big-time for them in 2019.

31. Buffalo Bills (1-3)

Dominating that game at Minnesota must have given the Bills a ton of hope after being blown out by halftime the first two weeks of the season, so not even putting up a single point at Green Bay must have hurt even more.

Buffalo’s defense frustrated the Packers, which you heard in Aaron Rodgers’ postgame comments, but Josh Allen showed that he’s still pretty far away from being ready. Things like pocket presence and awareness of when to live for another down, which I praised in his preseason tape, seemed to completely go away again.

However, like I said with the 49ers – I believe in this combination of head coach and general manager. Sean McDermott is very good at understanding the tendency of opponents and dropping defenders into areas that they like to attack.

He may need some help offensively going forward to get their ground game and young signal-caller going, but he has all those guys playing hard and they lack severe talent on the perimeter. Brandon Beane has already impressed me by how he has handled trades and moved around the draft board. They won’t slip into the playoffs again, but a high pick for an offensive lineman or wide receiver should be more beneficial in the long run anyway.