NFL Week 7 Power Rankings: Green Bay Packers tumble out of the top five, New York Jets on the rise

• The top five: Buffalo Bills, Kansas City Chiefs, Philadelphia Eagles, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Los Angeles Rams.

• Biggest Riser: New York Jets (10 places)

• Biggest Fallers: Green Bay Packers and Cleveland Browns (4 places)

• The Browns on the back foot: The Browns have lost the most WAR to injuries so far, with their offensive line suffering the most.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Week 6 was dominated by the underdogs, proving once again that any team can win on any given day. Check out our Week 7 power rankings below to see if anything has changed since last week.

NFL Week 7 Power Rankings

Biggest Riser: New York Jets

The New York Jets jump 10 spots after a commanding victory against the Green Bay Packers in Week 6. They excelled in all phases of the game, with solid performances from the run game, defensive line, coverage unit and special teams.

Robert Saleh's team of young players is beginning to break out and is highlighted by rookies Breece Hall and Sauce Gardner — who currently have the highest odds to win Offensive and Defensive Rookie of the Year, respectively. Hall is currently top-10 in the NFL in yards after contact per rush attempt (3.53), while Gardner's seven pass breakups lead the NFL.

If QB Zach Wilson can take the next step, this team looks to be dangerous down the stretch.

Biggest Faller: Green Bay Packers & Cleveland Browns

The Packers and Browns move down four spots each after losses to the Jets and Patriots, respectively. The Packers are inching toward panic mode: Aaron Rodgers is missing throws, the offensive line is regressing and the young receivers have yet to fully acclimate to the league. The Packers are 3-3 and will face a top-10 opponent every other week for the rest of the season, so will they be able to get it together against tough competition?

Browns edge defender Myles Garrett has been the best-performing player in the NFL by average grade, but the Browns offense cannot pick up the slack and is struggling to get into a rhythm. The Patriots defense gave the Browns a number of opportunities and even made the most coverage mistakes in the league this week, but the Cleveland offense still couldn’t capitalize.

Effect of Injuries (WAR)

Notable Week 6 injuries: Commanders QB Carson Wentz, Bills OT Spencer Brown, Rams OT Joseph Noteboom and Cardinals WR Marquise Brown.

With the Commanders already struggling, losing Wentz may exacerbate their flaws.

The Browns on the back foot: The Browns have lost the most WAR to injuries so far, with their offensive line suffering the most.

Myles Garrett generated the third-most WAR on the team last year (0.574). His absence toward the end of his team's Week 6 game was evident, as the Browns' defense ultimately allowed the second-most expected points added (EPA) per play of their season (0.127) and ranked 18th in team defense grade for the week.

Strength of Schedule

Note: teams that did not play a game this week had no change in their Elo but are still included in the graphic.

Are the jets rising? Unsurprisingly, the Jets and Giants had the biggest changes in their Elo ratings this week. The Jets earned their highest PFF rushing grade this season (70.8), 10th in the league. However, QB Zach Wilson earned his worst PFF grade (35.5) since he was drafted last year.

Not a great game for the Giants defense: Despite their success against the Ravens, the Giants earned a 53.8 team defense grade in Week 6, good for 26th in the league. They also gave up 0.09 EPA per play, their worst single-game mark of the season.

Fourth-Down Decision-Making

The Lions continue to be on top in terms of going for it on fourth down.

Back in the right direction: The Browns were a big change from last week, as they converted 60% of their fourth downs against the Patriots. We’ll keep an eye on this when the Browns play the Ravens in Week 7 — the Ravens defense has allowed 0.293 EPA per play on fourth downs this season, seventh-most in the league.

Efficient football winning games: Although the Giants have continued to win games, they have not often gone for it on fourth down. Their offense is simply playing efficient football. It’s not flashy, but they slowly chip away yards and hold opponents enough to win games.

Desperate measures: In the Packers’ loss to the Jets, they converted 25% of their fourth downs. They started to play aggressively after the Jets took the lead, and they went for it on fourth down at a higher rate than they did over the first five weeks.

Broncos punting away: The Broncos have lost the most win probability by a large margin. They punted the ball away seven times in their Monday night loss to the Chargers.

No luck for the Bengals: The Bengals have the league's second-worst grade on fourth downs.

Efficiency

Seahawks bounce back: After holding the Cardinals to just three offensive points, the Seahawks defense jumps up in terms of EPA allowed per play. Their defense, especially the secondary, played horribly over the first five weeks, so the future looks a little more promising after a bounce-back game.

The League’s Best Players

The top-graded players in the NFL include those you would expect — MVP front-runners Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes.

And then there are the Defensive Player of the Year favorites: Aaron Donald, Micah Parsons, Maxx Crosby and Nick Bosa. The top teams in our rankings rely on many of these players to perform and contribute to their success. There is no doubt that the Chiefs and Bills would not be the same without Mahomes and Allen.