NFL Week 18 Power Rankings

This is it. We are going into the final week of the 2023 NFL regular season. It’s been a weirder season than others in recent memory, and this week will be just the latest example. We will have 20 teams in playoff contention entering week 18, which ties 2006 for the most teams still alive entering the final week of the regular season. Get ready for the fireworks with my NFL Week 18 Power Rankings!

• One week after blowing out the 49ers, Baltimore embarrassed the Miami Dolphins. Both those games were supposed to be compelling match-ups between “elite” teams; they weren’t even remotely competitive. The Ravens have now won six straight games, and Lamar Jackson has locked up the MVP in the process. He was lights out versus Miami, and has carried this offense this season, even after the loss of Pro Bowl tight end Mark Andrews. At this time last year, many were wondering if the Ravens should just move on from Jackson and let another team give him a big contract. I wonder how those people feel today…

• I don’t want to get too into it here, but the Detroit Lions were robbed. Dan Campbell and Ben Johnson had the sand to make a push for a top two seed in the NFC, and take a victory from the Cowboys on the road by going for a two point conversion after scoring with under 30 seconds left in regulation. Then something happened that we are seeing way too often these days – the referees effed up (again) with an incorrect/terrible call costing Detroit the lead and the win. After the ridiculous mistake by the official, Detroit should’ve just kicked it and went for the win in overtime. Campbell made an emotional decision and it backfired, but it should have never gotten to that point. It was such a bad call by the referee, that the NFL will not be using that group of refs in the postseason. This was apparently just one of many mistakes this referee crew has made over the course of this season, and it is just another example that the league MUST do something about the refereeing.

• Buffalo top five?! Yes, Buffalo is in the top five of my NFL Week 18 Power Rankings. “…but Joe Flacco and the Browns!” I will still take Buffalo because they have a better quarterback who is more than capable of carrying his team to victory. Is having the better QB everything? No, but we haven’t seen many backup quarterbacks winning many Super Bowls the past 20 years (take a bow, Ben Roethlisberger and Nick Foles). No disrespect to Joe Flacco, and I know Josh Allen isn’t putting up the gaudy passing numbers many expected, but Allen is one of the best quarterbacks in the league and has proven he can carry this team to tough wins. I said weeks ago on the weekly NFL Betting Show that I was still in on the Bills, and they now sit on the doorstep of a division title.

• Matt Stafford seems healthy, the weapons on offense are elite, Aaron Donald still holds it down up front on defense, and McVay is a Super Bowl winning coach. Those are the reasons the Rams sit above teams like Houston, Green Bay, Indy, and Jacksonville. I don’t necessarily see the Rams as an actual top 10 team in a normal year, or a legit contender, but I do believe they’re better right now than these other teams I mentioned. I trust Stafford/Donald/McVay more than I do any other coach/player combo behind them.