NFL tier rankings for all 32 teams: From ‘draft preparations’ and ‘the fringe’ to ‘inner circle’
Written by CBS SPORTS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED on October 22, 2025
We’re now more than a third of the way through the NFL‘s 2025 season, which means we have a ton of information about what these teams are and where they might be going. We’re obviously going to get a lot more the rest of the way, and things could change pretty drastically in just a few weeks, but there is plenty to glean from.
That allows us to make some educated guesses about which teams are good and bad, contenders versus pretenders and preparing for the draft or thinking about the Super Bowl. As such, we’re putting all 32 NFL teams into tiers based on where they stand after seven weeks.
We’re putting the league into four buckets: the inner and outer circles of contenders, fringe playoff teams and draft preparations. Those tiers are below with the teams in them listed alphabetically.
Tier 4: Draft preparations
Some of these teams are better than others, but they all have records of 2-5 or worse — especially in the NFC with 12 of 16 having records of .500 or better. If you’re 2-5, your season is probably not going anywhere.
This applies to the Cardinals and Giants, who seem like they might be a tier above the rest of this group but have records that put them in the same category. They’d need to rip seven or nine wins the rest of the way just to make a run at the playoffs, and that’s probably not happening.
Others like the Dolphins, Saints and Titans only have one win seven weeks into the season while the Jets are winless. They’re all, pretty clearly, done for and playing out the string.
Tier 3: The fringe
- Bears, Bengals, Broncos, Chargers, Commanders, Cowboys, Falcons, Jaguars, Panthers, Ravens, Steelers, Texans, Vikings
This 13-team bucket is the largest tier by far, comprising almost half the league. It’s full of OK teams with some major flaws that likely prevent them from being true contenders. They’re not quite getting ready for the draft just yet but also shouldn’t be selling playoff tickets and definitely shouldn’t be making hotel reservations in the Bay Area for Super Bowl LX.
The Bears have won four in a row and their run game suddenly looks quite dangerous, but Chicago’s defense has been suspect for much of the season. The Bengals are quarterbacked by Joe Flacco and their defense is highly flammable.
The Broncos have a great defense, but it just got torn apart by the Giants, and the Bo Nix-led offense has been extremely inconsistent. The Chargers’ injury issues are threatening to tank yet another season.
The Commanders are 3-4 while Jayden Daniels deals with an injury for the second time this year and their upcoming schedule is daunting. Dallas might have the league’s best offense and worst defense.
The Falcons can run the ball and have a defense that is playing great, but the passing attack comes and goes, which just doesn’t work in the modern NFL. The Jags look like they were entirely too dependent on those early season turnovers that they kept forcing.
The Panthers have beaten up on a soft defensive schedule with a trio of one-score wins that don’t look indicative of the rest of their season. The Ravens are 1-5 and only here because of all their injuries and the fact that the AFC North is just not good.
If the Steelers hadn’t lost to the Bengals this past week, they might be in the tier above this. But they get the Packers, Colts and Chargers in their next three games and — one way or another — things could look much different for them soon.
The Texans lost three one-score games to start the year and then blew out two bad teams before losing against the Seahawks on Monday night. Who knows what to do with them. The Vikings have one of the league’s most creative defenses, but it’s hard to trust their offense given the quarterback situation.
Tier 2: The outer circle
- 49ers, Buccaneers, Colts, Eagles, Packers, Patriots, Seahawks
These teams are probably top contenders, but there is maybe just one thing that holds us back from placing them among the elite.
For the 49ers, it’s the injuries. How long can they keep doing what they’re doing without their top guys? They’ll get healthier on offense but Nick Bosa and Fred Warner aren’t coming back. Defensive coordinator Robert Saleh has made it work so far, but can that continue?
The Bucs are everybody’s favorite team to watch early in the season, but we saw on Monday night how things can look different when they don’t stage their weekly miracle comeback. Four of their five wins have come by a combined 10 points, and four all of them saw the game-winning points scored in the final minute. That’s highly unsustainable.
The Colts look like world-beaters. Their offense is a machine. And I still cannot bring myself to trust a Daniel Jones-led offense just yet. Am I waiting too long? Maybe. But I feel comfortable waiting more than seven games.
Everything has looked difficult for the Eagles this year, especially on offense, where the run game has just not looked the same as it did last season. They also can’t really rush the passer. They’re in this tier because they have the talent and record, but they haven’t looked the part for much of the season.
The Packers appear to have the highest ceiling of any team in this tier and perhaps the entire league, but they haven’t hit it since Week 2. When are we going to see that team again?
Drake Maye is a breakout superstar, and the Patriots are rolling. Only one of their five wins is against a team worth writing home about (more on that in a second), though, and I’d really like to see what their defense looks like against another offense worth its salt before moving them into the inner circle.
The Seahawks can reach an extremely high level on both sides of the ball — especially when they’re healthy in the secondary. All of their wins are against pretenders, though, and they’ve lost the two times when they’ve played teams in this tier. I want to see what it looks like for them if and when they get down in a game and need to stage a comeback, too.
Tier 1: The inner circle
Have the Bills looked like world-beaters this year? Not exactly. But armed with Josh Allen and always in the mix for the AFC title, they have to think that the only way their season could be considered a major success is if they finally break through and make — and even win — the title game.
The Chiefs are rounding into form, winning four of their past five games and looking as explosive offensively as we’ve seen them in years. Their defense has also stepped it up lately in a way that it hadn’t early in the season. That unit is coming off its best performance of the season. We also know that the Chiefs are annually in the conference title game and have gone to three consecutive Super Bowls.
The Lions still have one of the best rosters in the NFL. They should get healthier over the course of the season and that should help their defense get back into fighting shape. Their offense is explosive as any in the league, and it can be ruthlessly efficient when set up in the right game script. They didn’t get their chance last year thanks to injuries, but they have to be thinking big again.
The Rams could easily be 6-1 right now were it not for a blocked kick against the Eagles. Even without Puka Nacua, their offense just put up five touchdowns over in London. Their defense still has some question marks (namely at outside corner) but is a strong enough unit to make a run with Matthew Stafford nearing the end of his career.
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