NFL Power Rankings 2016: Week 5 Standings, Team Stats and Season Review

As surprising as it might seem, we're now roughly a quarter of the way through the 2016 NFL season. While some things have gone as expected, there have been plenty of surprises popping up around the league.

It's not too shocking to see the defending champion Denver Broncos sitting at 4-0, but few could have expected the Philadelphia Eagles to also be undefeated heading into Week 5.

The Cleveland Browns remain the league's only winless team—as many might have expected—but teams like the Arizona Cardinals, Carolina Panthers, New York Jets and Indianapolis Colts are also near the bottom, sitting at 1-3.

We're going to take a look at how each of the 32 teams stacks up. We'll examine the current standings, look at some key statistics and provide our Week 5 power rankings. We'll also take a look at some key storylines to come from the first month of the season.

Standings

Rank	Team	Record	Div. Record	Points For	Points Against
AFC East
AFC North
AFC South
AFC West
NFC East
NFC North
NFC South
NFC West
1	New England Patriots	3-1	1-1	81	61
2	Buffalo Bills	2-2	1-1	87	68
3	New York Jets	1-3	1-0	79	105
4	Miami Dolphins	1-3	0-1	71	89
1	Pittsburgh Steelers	3-1	1-0	108	80
2	Baltimore Ravens	3-1	1-0	84	72
3	Cincinnati Bengals	2-2	0-1	78	82
4	Cleveland Browns	0-4	0-1	74	115
1	Houston Texans	3-1	1-0	69	73
2	Jacksonville Jaguars	1-3	1-0	84	111
3	Tennessee Titans	1-3	0-1	62	84
4	Indianapolis Colts	1-3	0-1	108	125
1	Denver Broncos	4-0	0-0	111	64
2	Oakland Raiders	3-1	0-0	108	106
3	Kansas City Chiefs	2-2	1-0	83	92
4	San Diego Chargers	1-3	0-1	121	108
1	Philadelphia Eagles	3-0	0-0	92	27
2	Dallas Cowboys	3-1	1-1	101	77
3	Washington Redskins	2-2	1-1	99	112
4	New York Giants	2-2	1-1	73	85
1	Minnesota Vikings	4-0	1-0	88	50
2	Green Bay Packers	2-1	1-1	75	67
3	Chicago Bears	1-3	1-0	62	97
4	Detroit Lions	1-3	0-2	95	102
1	Atlanta Falcons	3-1	2-1	152	124
2	Tampa Bay Buccaneers	1-3	1-0	77	128
3	Carolina Panthers	1-3	0-1	109	118
4	New Orleans Saints	1-3	0-1	114	130
1	Los Angeles Rams	3-1	2-1	63	76
2	Seattle Seahawks	3-1	1-1	79	54
3	San Francisco 49ers	1-3	1-1	90	107
4	Arizona Cardinals	1-3	0-1	92	80

Power Rankings

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

Notable Storylines and Stats

Brady-Less Patriots Go 3-1

Jim Rogash/Getty Images

If you had told New England Patriots fans their team could go 3-1 during quarterback Tom Brady's suspension, most would have happily taken that start to the season. The way the four-game stretch ended, however, has placed a bad taste in the collective mouths of Patriots nation.

New England was forced to start banged-up rookie quarterback Jacoby Brissett in the Week 4 game against the Buffalo Bills. The end result was the team's first-ever shutout loss at Gillette Stadium.

"We just didn't have a very good day today," Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said after the loss, per Eric Wilbur of Boston.com. "I think we're a better team than we showed today. But we just didn't do anything well enough today."

The important thing, though, is the Patriots did enough things well to get to 3-1. They did it without Brady for all four games, without backup Jimmy Garoppolo for two games and with only brief sightings of star tight end Rob Gronkowski.

Notable Stat: 135.5

During Brady's absence, the Patriots have largely been a run-oriented team. They have averaged 135.5 yards per game on the ground, third most in the NFL. The team has leaned heavily on LeGarrette Blount, who has 352 yards and four touchdowns on 88 carries.

New England's offensive strategy will probably change once Brady returns, but it's worth noting the Patriots can be a running team when they need to be.

New Quarterbacks? No Problem

Three teams—the Denver Broncos, Minnesota Vikings and Philadelphia Eagles—remain undefeated after four weeks. What's interesting is all three teams feature a different starting quarterback than they had in 2015.

Denver moved on from Brock Osweiler and the retired Peyton Manning, and it turned to Trevor Siemian. The second-year man has played respectably—he's rated 18th overall among all quarterbacks by Pro Football Focus—and has been a nice complement to Denver's running game and stifling defense.

Siemian left Sunday's game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with a shoulder injury and was replaced by rookie Paxton Lynch. As Troy Renck of ABC Denver 7 points out, though, he is likely to remain the team's starter:

The Vikings lost quarterback Teddy Bridgewater to a torn ACL just before the start of the season. The team acquired Sam Bradford from the Eagles, and the former first overall draft pick has been thriving in Minnesota. Pro Football Focus rates him fifth overall among quarterbacks.

With Bradford gone, the Eagles turned to rookie Carson Wentz, and the team hasn't looked back.

Wentz is rated third overall among quarterbacks by Pro Football Focus, and the Eagles are coming off their bye week at 3-0.

Notable Stat: 9.0

Wentz rightfully deserves his fair share of credit for Philadelphia's hot start. However, it's the Eagles defense that has allowed the rookie and the team to shine. Philadelphia has allowed an NFL-low 9.0 points per game through three contests.

Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz has his unit playing like a contender, and it shouldn't be surprising to see him targeted in next offseason's head-coaching searches.

Super Bowl Hangover for the Panthers

The Carolina Panthers were the NFC's hottest team in 2015, boasting the league's No.1 scoring offense (31.2 points per game) and a defense that was rated fourth overall by Pro Football Focus.

Unfortunately, Carolina hasn't looked anything like the same team in 2016. Losing guys like cornerback Josh Norman in the offseason hurt the team, as did opening with a brutal schedule. Carolina's three losses have come against the Broncos, Vikings and Atlanta Falcons. Those three teams sport an 11-1 combined record through Week 4.

Still, there's no getting around the fact the Panthers are 1-3 and haven't been playing particularly well. Quarterback Cam Newton has struggled—his passer rating of 80.4 is nearly 20 points lower than the 99.4 rating he posted in 2015—and he suffered a concussion during Carolina's latest loss.

There is still time for the Panthers to turn their season around, of course, but they need to make some changes quickly. The team needs to do a better job of protecting Newton, he needs to do a better job of protecting himself, and someone needs to figure out a way to tighten up the defense.

Otherwise, the Panthers are going to have a difficult time returning to the postseason.

Notable Stat: 29.5

Last season, the Panthers defense allowed an average of just 19.2 points per game, the sixth-lowest total in the NFL. This year, the defense is allowing a whopping 29.5 points per game, the fifth-highest total in the NFL.

This means that right now, that respected Carolina defense is giving up more than 10 points per game more than it did during the team's run to the Super Bowl. This makes it even harder for the team to overcome the issues it is having on offense.