Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott (4) reacts after throwing the game-winning touchdown pass to wide receiver Dez Bryant in the second half against the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, Nov. 20, 2016 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The Cowboys won 27-17. (Brad Loper/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/TNS)
NFLBy Ty Schalter on

The 2016 NFL season is 11 weeks into its schedule, and at this point, what fans really want to know is who’s better than who? The playoff picture is becoming clearer, as a handful of teams are emerging as true contenders. Yet a few other teams still look questionable. How do they stack up against the competition? Could they be Super Bowl teams or are they merely playoff hopefuls? Which teams are getting hot and which are sliding fast?

Take the analysis, previews, breakdowns and smack talk, and it boils down to a simple hierarchy: If any two given teams played, who would win? That’s what power rankings are all about, and that’s how the 32 NFL teams are slotted here each week.

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32. Cleveland Browns
Oh dear, Cleveland. I’m afraid this could be a thing. The New York Giants are not going to be a pushover, either, I’m afraid.

31. Jacksonville Jaguars
They put up a valiant fight in Detroit, but a 2-8 team is a 2-8 team—and almost not-losing to the Lions is a far less impressive non-accomplishment than some of the next few teams on this list just not-managed.

30. New York Jets
The Jets had a bye this week, but head coach Todd Bowles announced they’re going back to Ryan Fitzpatrick for absolutely no reason? Just about everybody but backup Bryce Petty probably wishes they could just skip to the end of the season right now.

29. Chicago Bears
The Bears made Eli Manning and company work for their 22-16 win. I gladly gave them a little bump over the Jets for their effort. But with Jay Cutler lost for the season due to a torn labrum, the outlook from here on in is grim.

28. San Francisco 49ers
The 49ers battled the New England Patriots valiantly into the fourth quarter, but you can’t raise a “13-10 Fourth Quarter Deficit Against the Pats” banner, and for all the improvement on both sides of the ball over the past few weeks, the 49ers still can’t climb much higher than here on this list.

27. Cincinnati Bengals
What went so horribly wrong this team? After 11 weeks of not-quite-good-enough performances, the Bengals have lost wideout A.J. Green for the season. Now they’re just plain old not good enough.

26. Green Bay Packers
The Sunday Night Football disaster against Washington marked the end of any idea that these Packers are going to be able to flip a switch and be the Packers we all knew. Unless Aaron Rodgers throws 60 touchdowns in the last six games, this team is toast.

25. Los Angeles Rams
Somehow, after holding their last four opponents to a combined 50 points, Rams fans are mad at the defense for letting down rookie quarterback Jared Goff. After going 17-of-31 for 134 yards and no points, though, it doesn’t seem like the defense is the problem — and it doesn’t seem like Goff is going to fix what’s actually wrong, at least not this season.

24. Indianapolis Colts
Full credit to the Colts for upending the Tennessee Titans, when their season was on the line. For all the buzz the Titans had picked up over recent weeks, the Colts are now a half-game up on them, and just one game behind the division-leading Texans. Of course, all this mostly serves to prove none of the teams in this division are particularly strong.

23. Arizona Cardinals
Woof. The Cardinals’ game against the Minnesota Vikings was bound to tell us a lot about both teams — and what it said about the Cardinals is that they’re not among the NFC’s best right now. Sadly, it seems like quarterback Carson Palmer isn’t the difference-maker he used to be, either.

22. Carolina Panthers
The Panthers get this spot on the strength of having beaten the Cardinals a few weeks back, but we’re in coin-flip territory here. All sorts of talented, underperforming teams are crowded in with the talent-starved, overperforming teams…

21. Houston Texans
… and here’s one of them! The Texans might have played their best game of the year against the Oakland Raiders, but they — and the officials — were still too much for Brock Osweiler and company. At 6-4, they’re still on top of the AFC South, but haven’t been consistent enough on offense for a game or two cushion over their rivals to hold.

20. Baltimore Ravens
After wins over the Steelers and Browns, the Ravens held their own against the Dallas Cowboys. This defense hasn’t given up on the division, or the playoffs — and if quarterback Joe Flacco and company can just score a few more points, they can pull it off.

19. Pittsburgh Steelers
As they are in the standings, I’m placing the Steelers just above the Ravens in these Power Rankings. They’ve been a little lower and a lot, lot higher — but their win over the Browns snapped a four-game losing streak, and they haven’t had an ounce of consistency, on offense or defense, all season long.

18. Tennessee Titans
The Colts loss was a hefty bump in their road to the glorious realization of all Mike Mularkey’s exotic-smashmouth dreams. But they’ve still been playing better over the last few games than any of their divisional rivals, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all to see them end up on top.

17. New Orleans Saints
The Saints missed a huge opportunity when they failed to finish their comeback against the Panthers. Now they’re 4-6 and in the NFC South basement. They can still boast one of the league’s best offenses, but unless they can pile up more Ws quickly, it’ll all be for naught.

16. San Diego Chargers
They’ve been one of the most dangerous teams in the league over the course of the season, and I still believe they could beat any team on any given Sunday. But we’re past the point where they are what their record says they are, and they’re 4-6 and in the basement of their division.

15. Minnesota Vikings
Beating the Cardinals was a strong statement: a statement that a four-game losing streak wouldn’t become a five-game losing streak. We’ll find out quickly — as in, Thursday — if they have what it takes to beat fellow contenders on the road to the playoffs.

14. Miami Dolphins
Since they started 1-4, the Dolphins are 5-0. It hasn’t always been pretty, or against tough competition, but head coach Adam Gase has done remarkable work. Can they keep this winning streak going long enough for it to matter?

13. Kansas City Chiefs
The instant everyone realizes the Chiefs have actually won a lot of games this year, they lose one. With Justin Houston back, they’ll be a very tough out down the stretch — but with the offense struggling to crack 20 points, they won’t have much margin for error.

12. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Don’t look now, but the Bucs have won four of their last six games, with the fifth being an overtime loss to the Raiders. They also upset the Kansas City Chiefs and at 5-5, are just one game behind the division-leading Atlanta Falcons.

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11. Buffalo Bills
After getting out a win over the Bengals, the Bills host the flailing Jaguars. Assuming they take care of business, they’ll be well primed for the honor of finishing second to the Patriots in the AFC East… and maybe a Wild Card berth.

10. Detroit Lions
The Lions keep finding ways to win, mustering six wins out of their NFL-record 10 games all decided by eight points or less. But the theoretically high-powered offense stalled almost completely against Jacksonville, and they’ll have to do far better just four days later against Minnesota.

9. New York Giants
As I’ve written elsewhere, the Giants are terrible at everything but winning. Eli Manning keeps throwing picks, they can’t run the ball at all and practically none of their wins have been impressive. But the defensive line keeps generating pressure, the secondary keeps capitalizing on forced mistakes and they keep putting up Ws. But the schedule gets brutal from here on out, and who knows how long they’ll be able to hang to this spot.

8. Philadelphia Eagles
The Eagles are a really good team, certainly one of the 10 best in the NFL. The only problem is, they’re stuck at .500 and in last place in their division. Despite having games left against everyone they’re chasing, the Eagles have almost no hope of cashing in on what’s been an outstanding first season for head coach Doug Pederson.

7. Washington
We like that. We like him now. Kirk Cousins had a primetime game against a premier opponent, and played one of the games of his life. Washington now stands at 6-3-1, 6-1-1 over the last eight games, and seem to be getting stronger each week. That’s good, because their stretch run is brutal.

6. Denver Broncos
Now’s when the we start finding out about all these NFC West teams. Denver faces Kansas City this week, again before the end of the season and Oakland in Week 17. If they want to keep pace with the other two, let alone climb this list, the Broncos’ struggling offense will need to do better against Houston and the Chiefs.

5. Oakland Raiders
With a little help from the refs, the Raiders escaped Mexico City with their eighth win on the season, and a step up on the NFL’s most competitive division.

4. Atlanta Falcons
With a bye week after a tough loss, it’s easy to forget the Falcons are in the middle of one of the best seasons in the NFL. But they are! They still boast the league’s No. 1 scoring offense — but it’ll be tested against the Cardinals, Chiefs and Rams over their next three games.

3. New England Patriots
The 30-17 final score of their game against the 49ers flattered the Pats, who struggled mightily to score against the league’s worst scoring defense. Credit them for gutting out a road win when it counts, but the Pats haven’t looked quite as invincible as they did a month ago.

2. Seattle Seahawks
After sandwiching big wins over the Bills and Eagles between their conquest of the Patriots, the Seahawks look like the hottest team in the NFL. A healthy Russell Wilson is going to do plenty of damage against the rest of the league from here on in…

1. Dallas Cowboys
… but the Cowboys have done more than enough to hold onto the top spot. If it weren’t for a one-point win by the New York Giants way back in Week 1, we’d be talking about the Cowboys’ run at perfection. As it is, we should start talking about what’s sure to be an amazing Seahawks/Cowboys NFC Championship Game.

About Ty Schalter

Ty Schalter is thrilled to be part of The Comeback. A member of the Pro Football Writers of America, Ty also works as an NFL columnist for Bleacher Report and VICE Sports, and regular host for Sirius XM’s Bleacher Report Radio. In another life, he was an IT cubicle drone with a pretentious Detroit Lions blog.

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