NFL Power Rankings Week 9: AFC, NFC Standings and Pre-MNF Predictions

Nine weeks into the NFL season, and it's clearer than ever we have an established hierarchy atop the sport.

There are six teams—the Cincinnati Bengals, Denver Broncos, Arizona Cardinals, Green Bay Packers, Carolina Panthers and New England Patriots—who deserve to be considered legitimate Super Bowl contenders. There are an additional two—Atlanta and Minnesota—that have played well enough from a record perspective that they deserve mention, but are probably too flawed to make a deep run. And then there is the Seattle Seahawks, hanging somewhere in the ether as the world tries figuring them out.

As for everyone else, it's a mix of mediocrity and putridity. Heading into next week, there will be no more than 11 teams above .500. Thirteen teams have either three or four wins. Very few teams know whether they're true buyers or sellers before Tuesday's trade deadline simply because there are only a handful of squads truly out of playoff contention.

In a nutshell: The top of the NFL is easy. So is the bottom. It's figuring out the murky middle that will come to define the remainder of the season. With that in mind, here's a complete breakdown of where the league stands heading into Monday night.

Week 9 NFL Power Rankings 

Rising: Oakland Raiders (4-3)

Rank	Team	W-L
1	New England Patriots	7-0
2	Denver Broncos	7-0
3	Cincinnati Bengals	7-0
4	Green Bay Packers	6-1
5	Carolina Panthers	6-0
6	Arizona Cardinals	6-2
7	Atlanta Falcons	6-2
8	Minnesota Vikings	5-2
9	Seattle Seahawks	4-4
10	St. Louis Rams	4-3
11	Pittsburgh Steelers	4-4
12	Oakland Raiders	4-3
13	New Orleans Saints	4-4
14	New York Giants	4-4
15	New York Jets	4-3
16	Philadelphia Eagles	3-4
17	Miami Dolphins	3-4
18	Indianapolis Colts	3-4
19	Buffalo Bills	3-4
20	Washington	3-4
21	Kansas City Chiefs	3-5
22	Baltimore Ravens	2-6
23	Dallas Cowboys	2-5
24	Houston Texans	3-5
25	Tampa Bay Buccaneers	3-4
26	San Diego Chargers	2-6
27	Jacksonville Jaguars	2-5
28	Cleveland Browns	2-6
29	Chicago Bears	2-5
30	San Francisco 49ers	2-6
31	Detroit Lions	1-7
32	Tennessee Titans	1-6

The Raiders have beaten the Baltimore Ravens, San Diego Chargers, Cleveland Browns and New York Jets. Not exactly a murderer's row of opponents. They're a combined 10-21 on the season, with four of those wins coming from a deeply flawed New York team that lost its starting quarterback early Sunday. With games against the Pittsburgh Steelers and Vikings coming over the next two weeks, it's very possible Oakland is back in the 20s with a pair of bad losses.

That said, for now, the Raiders aren't terrible! And that's...progress, I suppose. Derek Carr is well on his way to proving his doubters (*raises hand*) wrong, putting up Pro Bowl-worthy numbers in his second season. Carr has taken his turnover-averse tendencies from his first season and added some actual effectiveness, throwing for 1,793 yards and 15 touchdowns against three interceptions while posting a solid 7.83 yards per attempt.

And it's not just Carr. Latavius Murray is quietly on his way to a 1,000-yard season, Amari Cooper has been worth every bit of the hype during his rookie campaign and Michael Crabtree has even been rejuvenated in his move across the Bay. None of the Carr-Murray-Cooper trio is older than 25, and even Crabtree is only 28.

The defense has gotten five interceptions from 39-year-old Charles Woodson and a breakout season from Malcolm Smith, who might wind up doubling his career tackle total in his first season in Oakland. This is far from a perfect roster. The secondary has become weirdly dependent on big plays from Woodson, and former first-round pick D.J. Hayden has been a mess.

Still, there's the foundation to a yearly AFC playoff contender here on offense.

Falling: Miami Dolphins (3-4)

Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports

So much for Dan Campbell fixing all that ails the Dolphins. After two impressive wins to start the interim coach's tenure, Miami laid an egg in Thursday's 36-7 loss to the New England Patriots. 

It wasn't that the Dolphins lost to New England. Everyone expected that. It was the total lack of preparation on both sides of the ball that's going to push Miami out of the playoff picture.

The Patriots flawlessly employed a game plan that looked like all their others in 2015. Hit Rob Gronkowski in the seam, give Dion Lewis the ball out of the backfield and look for Julian Edelman on third down. When that doesn't work, hand it off to LeGarrette Blount and watch him churn out the yards.

Miami stopped none of it. Gronkowski, Edelman and Lewis each had a receiving touchdown and Blount posted 70-plus yards for the fourth time in five games. 

On offense, the Dolphins posted garbage-time numbers through the air, but couldn't mount any real progress when it counted. Ryan Tannehill threw two interceptions and fumbled once (it was recovered by Miami) during his 300-yard day. Lamar Miller's lone salvation in a 15-yard evening on the ground was scoring the Dolphins' only touchdown.

As Campbell told Alain Poupart of the Dolphins' official website:

"

It’s all about going back to work. I don’t think, I know. The mood of these players, and I could tell last night, we could tell just looking at them that the attitude was right. You could tell that it burned at them and they didn’t feel good about it and they knew they didn’t play well. And they’re far better than what was put out there, what was put on tape last night.

"

We'll figure out whether the Campbell-led Dolphins have any fight remaining over the next two weeks. Going on the road to Buffalo and Philadelphia are difficult but winnable games. The Bills and Eagles are part of the NFL's murky middle, the exact types of teams Miami needs to beat to make a second-half playoff push.

Top: New England Patriots (7-0)

David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports

On the opposite side of the spectrum are the Patriots, whose undefeated run does not have an end date in sight. Tom Brady is playing perhaps the best football of his career, their offense is healthy and firing on all cylinders and even the defense has held up solidly despite a number of offseason departures. The only real problem has been a propensity for uncharacteristic penalties.

Coach Bill Belichick explained, per Mike Reiss of ESPN.com:

"

The penalties are definitely a problem, and last night a lot of them hit on the offensive side of the ball, so we put ourselves in a lot of long yardage situations. Several of the penalties were really concentration lapses, just things we didn’t do well enough and had a violation. We’ve got to do a better job being more consistent on that.

"

Keep in mind that New England still ranks above the league average in penalties this season, so "problem" is really a relative word. Run defense may be more of an issue come January, but the Pats throttled Miller and Jets running back Chris Ivory in consecutive weeks. While neither are world-beaters from a talent standpoint, it's an improvement from their early-season woes.

The Patriots play Washington, the New York Giants and Bills over their next three games. It would be a mild shock if they weren't 11-0 heading into Week 12's showdown with the Broncos. 

Bottom: Tennessee Titans (1-6)

Not much can be said here that wasn't put in this space last week. The Titans have organizational issues when it comes to talent and coaching, and those are made worse by the fact that franchise quarterback Marcus Mariota remains on the shelf. Ken Whisenhunt is among the NFL's coaches most likely to get fired after the season, but Belichick would struggle to compete with this roster.

The cupboard is bare minus a few promising parts. This is going to keep getting uglier before it gets better.

Follow Tyler Conway (@tylerconway22) on Twitter.