FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — With a 27-21 victory on Sunday, the Atlanta Falcons are 6-3 for the first time since the 2016 season. They have now won five of their last six games, establishing themselves as leaders in the NFC South and true competitors in the conference landscape.
They are not alone in that categorization, however. At this point in the season, the NFL has become stratified. However, instead of a large group forming in the middle, there is a big group of teams at the top, and the bottom. Through nine weeks, there are 11 teams with six or more wins. Conversely, there are nine teams that have two or fewer wins.
For comparison, the NFL had just six teams with at least six wins after Week 9 of the 2023 season. In 2022, there were only five teams with fewer than two wins through nine weeks. In fact, the last time there were 11 teams with at least six wins through Week 9 was the 1986 season.
So, now that we've established the 2024 season is unique in its top- and bottom-heavy structure, let's go ahead and dig into the details.
Here are my updated NFL power rankings after Week 9.