NFL power rankings Week 7: Buffalo Bills a near-universal No. 1

The Buffalo Bills were already at the top of the NFL’s power rankings last week. With another clutch road victory under their belts, this one a 24-20 comeback win over the Kansas City Chiefs, their place in the polls is more consistent.

Buffalo is now a near-universal No. 1 squad, and while some polls previously had them trailing the Chiefs, a victory over Kansas City has made it so there’s only one team ahead of the Bills, if there are any at all. That makes for an easy roundup, because Buffalo is either at the top—or one spot behind the Philadelphia Eagles—through six games.

We start with Dan Hanzus at NFL Network, who has the Bills ranked No. 1 in his poll this week. He wrote that Kansas City failed to impact quarterback Josh Allen with the blitz, and he is mostly correct in that assessment. At first, defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo was able to knock Allen off rhythm, but as the game progressed and the Bills adjusted, Allen found his stride. Allen’s touchdown passes to wideouts Gabe Davis and Stefon Diggs were blitz-beaters, and Hanzus has the Bills ranked first thanks to their “revenge win” over the Chiefs.

Next is Pro Football Talk and Mike Florio, who ranks the Bills No. 2 heading into their bye week. As is his style, Florio provides a short writeup for each team, and for the Bills, he acknowledges that this is the second straight year they’ve beaten the Chiefs in Arrowhead. “This year,” he writes, “[The Bills] really need their regular-season win in K.C. to result in a rematch in Buffalo.”

The rankers at ESPN have the Bills at No. 1 this week, and Alaina Getzenberg was charged with writing about preseason predictions for the club. She wrote that the Bills have proven that they might be the best team in the league, even with the sky-high expectations they faced entering the season. While the prompt for the week seemed to be to discuss what predictions the crew made in the preseason that isn’t correct to date, Getzenberg instead focused on just how talented this Buffalo team is.

Pete Prisco at CBS Sports has Buffalo at No. 2 this week. He acknowledged just how big this week’s win was for playoff seeding, as Buffalo now sits atop the AFC standings with victories over each of the other three divisional leaders within their conference. Prisco notes that edge rusher Von Miller was “the closer” in the game, and it’s exactly why they gave him the contract they did this offseason.

Conor Orr at Sports Illustrated has Buffalo ranked No. 1 this week. He called Buffalo’s win over the Chiefs this week a “thorough, masterful performance” that left no doubt as to which team is the best in the NFL right now. Orr calls Kansas City Buffalo’s only true rival, suggesting that it would take “some kind of strange-weather game or an injury could always bring this team back to Earth a bit.”

Continuing his trend for the last few weeks, Pro Football Network’s Dalton Miller has Buffalo in the “elite” tier of teams. He hasn’t been doing a traditional, by-the-numbers power ranking. He compared Allen to a hack in a Madden video game, suggesting that the create-a-player quarterbacks would be what happens with a 6’5”, 245-pound quarterback like Allen. Orr was clearly impressed with Buffalo’s victory, though he wasn’t ready to crown Allen as the league’s best at his position.

Vinnie Iyer at Sporting News has the Bills ranked No. 2 heading into their bye this week. He noted that Buffalo made some mistakes on offense against Kansas City—a fumble in the red zone on an option pitch and a dropped touchdown on 4th & Goal—but he also wrote that Buffalo’s defense was able to seal the deal against an excellent Chiefs squad. He wrote that “an active secondary” and Von Miller made the difference.

Nate Davis at USA Today also has the Bills at No. 1, and this week, he’s far more complimentary of the team than he normally is. Davis begins with a rhetorical question, asking if there’s anyone who would pick against Buffalo in a game played on a neutral field. Right now, it seems pretty clear that the answer to that would be no, the Bills would be favored pretty much any time and anywhere they’d play. Davis mentions some rumblings that reinforcements could be on the way in the form of wideout Odell Beckham Jr. or running back Christian McCaffrey, too.

Finally, Frank Schwab at Yahoo! Sports has Buffalo in the top spot, as well. He notes that, with last week’s win, it leaves Buffalo with “no excuses” not to be the top seed in the conference. While he correctly writes that this same situation unfolded last year, he writes that the Bills should be able to finish the job this time around. They are the AFC’s only one-loss team, and they have wins over every current divisional leader.