NFL power rankings after Week 4: Eagles soar to the top as Panthers spiral

#5 Baltimore Ravens (2-2)

Buffalo Bills v Baltimore Ravens

It may be surprising to some to see Baltimore this high up considering they actually lost at home to the group I have right below them, but there are solid reasons.

Not having the direct tie-breaker over the Bills and Dolphins could hurt them down the road for playoff seeding, but it doesn’t make me question the quality of the team, since they should have probably won both those contests.

Lamar Jackson wasn’t great in the second half versus Buffalo this past Sunday, but he’s been tremendous throwing the ball from the pocket, along with what he can add as a runner, pushing the offense to the fourth-highest yards per play (6.2) and No. 1 in DVOA (23.1%).

They could get an All-Pro level left tackle in Ronnie Stanley back any day now and J.K. Dobbins has already shown some juice in his return.

Three things that are worrying about Baltimore’s defense is they can’t create consistent pressure without blitzing (15.3% pressure rate overall), they’ve been a bad tackling team (28 missed being second-most to only the Texans) and their young guys have made some bad mental errors.

However, they’re tied with the Eagles for a league-high 10 takeaways. They’re also No. 1 in yards per punt and kick return respectively, and are tied with the Falcons for the second-fewest penalty yards (114).

#6 Miami Dolphins (3-1)

There's a case to be made for Miami moving up a couple of spots, because when Tua Tagovailoa suffered that scary concussion against the Bengals, they were only down by one point and might still be undefeated if he stayed healthy for the game.

First-year head coach Mike McDaniel has designed an offense that puts their two main playmakers – Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle – in position to create huge plays and made Tua look like an MVP candidate. He’s currently behind only Patrick Mahomes in EPA per play, while ranking behind only the Lions in yards per play (6.4) and the Ravens in DVOA (20.6%) as a unit.

Defensively, we’ve seen Lamar Jackson carve up their man-blitzes with hot routes and guys being able to create some separation off the line. However, when they faced Josh Allen, they ran a ton of cover-two and got to it in a myriad of different ways.

Right now, they actually only blitz quarterbacks at the eighth-highest rate (24.4%) compared to finishing second the two prior seasons, but they also only create pressure at the second-lowest rate (13.4%), as they’re focused on having largely space-eaters in the middle to stop the run.

Two things that are concerning about their offense – other than Tua’s health, which is a completely different discussion – their QB is pressured on 26.4% of dropbacks (fourth-highest rate) and they have yet to rush for more than 86 yards in a game.

#7 San Francisco 49ers (2-2)

Week one was definitely a shocker, seeing the Bears win 19-10 in that rainstorm. Then, second-year quarterback Trey Lance was lost for the year with a badly fractured ankle early on in the next game. They still beat up on the Seahawks that day and could have been 3-1 had Jimmy Garoppolo not stepped on the end-line for a safety in Denver.

Don’t get fooled by the final score this past Monday night – the Niners dominated thier matchup against the Rams, as they’ve done in the Shanahan-McVay era. San Francisco’s defense has been phenomenal so far, allowing the fewest points per game (11.5) and yards per play league-wide (3.8), while pressuring quarterbacks at the second-highest rate in correlation to their blitz rate (27.6% pressure on 9.2% of blitzes).

I was worried about their offense early, because those limitations from the QB position remain, which is why I had to smirk a little bit when I saw Jimmy just force those deep shots outside the numbers all of a sudden when he got inserted.

But what I saw against the Rams, with all the creativity in the run game, mixing in wind-back blocks and counter-like cutback action in the backfield, plus all the YAC opportunities Kyle creates (55.1% of receiving yards coming after the catch), I think they have the formula to be a major player in the NFC.

#8 Minnesota Vikings (3-1)

Minnesota Vikings v New Orleans Saints

The Vikings are one of the teams I’m not totally sure what to make of their offensive structure. In Week One, they made the Packers secondary point fingers and roll their eyes, because of the way they forced them to pass off routes, with receivers catching the ball with nobody else in the vicinity.

But then Kirk Cousins looked like he’d never seen a zero-blitz and threw the ball into no-man’s land the week after at Philly, where they only scored seven points. Justin Jefferson has been basically uncoverable, unless he’s facing true brackets, but they’ve been inconsistent running the ball, with zero carries of 20+ yards. They're also 28th and 26th respectively at converting third downs and red-zone opportunities.

Minnesota’s defense is clearly built to slow down aerial attacks and relied on those big bodies they added up front to control the line. They’ve forced at least one turnover in all four games so far, but it simply feels too easy for opponents to move the ball on them (bottom-eight in plays and yards per drive, first downs, yards per play).

Still, they're the only team in the league with fewer than 100 penalty yards (95) and they’re No. 1 when it comes to field position, with an average +6.9 yards, comparing starting points of drives between them and their opponents.