Week 7 NFL Powerless Rankings: The Chiefs keep falling, the Jets are real bad

We’re about halfway through the 2021 NFL season, and at this point, we can pretty much separate the serious contenders from the pretenders.

We’ll save the contenders for another day, but that’s not what this is about.

Now it’s time to check out the worst of the worst from Week 7. Welcome to the NFL Powerless Rankings.

The Chiefs might just be the biggest disappointment this season, based on the level of expectation coming into the year. In February, Tampa Bay released the Blueprint like Jay-Z, resulting in an ether-like attack on the Chiefs from around the league that they’ve yet to recover from.

Kansas City only lost two games last season, but already has four this season. Sunday, the Chiefs suffered their worst loss since Patrick Mahomes became the teams’ starting QB. The Chiefs are among the Powerless for the first time since they didn’t put up much of a fight against the Titans, falling 27-3.

Adding injury to insult, Mahomes left this game in the fourth quarter after being kneed in the head by a Tennessee defensive linemen. As bad as this Chiefs’ defense has been, you can usually count on the offense to make it a game. The Chiefs are slowly playing themselves out of the race in the AFC West with performances like this.

Leading into the season, some experts had the Dolphins competing for a playoff spot, and now they’re 1-6 after losing to the Falcons, 30-28 on Sunday. That season-opening victory over New England feels like it happened eons ago, as Miami has lost six in a row since then.

Between the rumors of a potential Deshaun Watson trade involving Tua Tagovailoa resurfacing and the lack of help around him, it’s a wonder he’s played as well as he has in spurts. If the Dolphins continue to play this badly, there will likely be significant changes in the offseason, if not sooner.

Although the Lions are still leading the race for the number one pick in the 2022 NFL draft, I felt I’d reward the heart this team showed against the Rams in Los Angeles. Detroit still doesn’t have a win (0-7), but the Rams should have blown them out and did not.

I don’t know if they were trying to win this game for Jared Goff, or they’re just tired of losing in general, but this game was closer than its 28-19 final score might indicate. The Lions played like an NFL team in Week 7.

The Texans fell to 1-6 on Sunday and scored five points in the game. They got a safety in the first quarter and a field goal in the second. Houston managed to accumulate 160 yards of total offense in the game. That’s it.

This franchise is dealing with so many things on and off the field right now; I’m shocked they even have one win this season. No one expected Houston to beat Arizona, but they were barely sleepwalking through this one.

The Jets allowed the Patriots to score 54 points this time around, and New England has scored 79 points overall in two meetings with the Jets this season. The Patriots aren’t exactly known as an offensive juggernaut, but the Jets are just that pathetic.

Zach Wilson left this game in the second quarter with a knee injury and did not return. Their win over the Titans a few weeks back might be the last one this team sees for a while, so enjoy it, Jets fans.