NFL Power Rankings Week 5: AFC, NFC Standings and Pre-MNF Predictions

The fourth week of the 2016 NFL season has almost wrapped up. After the New York Giants and the Minnesota Vikings do battle on Monday night, we’ll be ready to turn the page on the first month of 2016 and move ahead.

We’ve learned quite a bit about the league landscape over the past few weeks, and we learned an awful lot just this past weekend.

Week 4 has already seen two teams knocked from the ranks of the unbeaten, and the Vikings could become the third if they can’t hold serve at home on Monday night. We also saw the Pittsburgh Steelers rebound from an embarrassing Week 3 loss to dominate the Kansas City Chiefs, 43-14.

That win puts the Steelers right back into the thick of the race for an AFC playoff bye—and no, it’s not too early to be considering such things.

The Denver Broncos remain undefeated, of course, which means they stay atop our power rankings, even if a quarterback injury could muddle the team’s future.

Preliminary diagnosis for #Broncos QB Trevor Siemian is an AC joint sprain on his non-throwing shoulder, source said. More tests tomorrow

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) October 3, 2016

Where does the rest of the league stand?

Well, that’s what we’re here to examine today. We’ll be taking a look at all 32 teams and making our ranking based on what we’ve seen thus far in 2016 and what we predict will happen on Monday night. We’ll also take an in-depth look at some notable rankings.

    Notable Rankings

4. Pittsburgh Steelers

The Pittsburgh Steelers fell hard in Week 3, getting embarrassed by the upstart Philadelphia Eagles, 34-3. That obviously hurt the Steelers in the power rankings, and it left some wondering if the team was a legitimate contender or simply an offensive sideshow.

Well, the Steelers answered questions about their legitimacy by absolutely thrashing a quality Kansas City Chiefs team on Sunday night. Pittsburgh leapt out to a 22-0 first-quarter lead and then essentially coasted to a victory.

By coasted, we don’t mean the Steelers looked lackadaisical; they made it look easy.

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