LA Chargers: AFC power rankings after blowout loss to Baltimore Ravens
By Jason Reed
AFC power rankings, No. 9-6:
9. Pittsburgh Steelers (Last week: 9)
The Pittsburgh Steelers are riding a two-game winning streak against the fraudulent Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks piloted by Geno Smith. It was not a pretty win for the Steelers on Monday Night Football and a loss to Geno Smith would have really hurt the team in these rankings.
In reality, this is probably the ceiling of the Steelers as long as Big Ben is the quarterback. It is hard to ever see them getting into the conversation for being in the upper-half of the league while it is definitely conceivable to see them falling down this list in the future.
8. Las Vegas Raiders (Last week: 8)
The Las Vegas Raiders won their first game without Jon Gruden and did it in deciding fashion. The battle of the two 3-0 AFC West teams who were not as good as their record indicated went to the Raiders, which was a predictable outcome.
Derek Carr has really seemed to take ownership of this team and his guys seem to be rallying around him. It will be interesting to see how this plays out the rest of the season for Vegas but they should get another W in Week 7 with a home game against the Philadelphia Eagles.
7. Cincinnati Bengals (Last week: 7)
The Cincinnati Bengals went into Detroit and did what an up-incoming team should do: blow them out. The Bengals are an interesting team as they have been bad for so long but they have a great young franchise quarterback in Joe Burrow and an offense that can really move the ball.
The defense still is not great and it will be interesting to see how the offense holds up as the year goes along as Burrow continues to take shots. The backend of their schedule is definitely tougher than the beginning and if they want to be a playoff team they are going to have to earn it.
6. Cleveland Browns (Last week: 5)
At full strength, the Cleveland Browns deserve to be in the top five of this list, certainly ahead of the fifth-ranked team. However, the Browns are injured and we have to rank the current status of the league with what is happening.
The Browns weren't just beaten by the Arizona Cardinals, they were manhandled. That is two tough losses in a row for Cleveland, who has not looked as good as everyone predicted they would be before the season.
Next up, the top 5 teams in the AFC: