49ers face a not so awful upcoming slate while figuring out their QB position

Another week of NFL action has come to a close and Week 9 is officially a wrap. The Tennessee Titans beat the Dallas Cowboys on Monday Night Football thanks to a solid outing from Marcus Mariota, and a huge performance by the Titans’ defense. Dallas drops to two games back of Washington, while Tennessee improves to a game and a half back of Houston.

It’s time once again for NFL power rankings as we head into Week 10. I gave the San Francisco 49ers a one spot bump with their win over the Oakland Raiders, and the bottom seven of my power rankings now matches the 2019 NFL Draft order. That was actually entirely coincidental on my part.

The 49ers host the New York Giants this week before reaching their bye week. After the bye, the 49ers travel to Tampa and Seattle. Both are winnable games at this point, but we’ve reached an unpredictable point for the 49ers. Nick Mullens put on a show last Thursday, but still remains an unknown element to a certain extent. He might do well against the Giants, but that would not necessarily tell us a lot about where he is.

Of course, if Mullens regresses against a bad Giants defense with one regular season game of film, that might tell us something. But either way, if he remains in the lineup, he’s got quite a few games coming up where he might be able to impress. After the Bucs and Seahawks, the 49ers host Denver and Seattle.

They host Chicago and travel to the Rams after that, and both games could provide a stiff challenge. The Bears defense is other-worldly and they are likely to be competing for the division title or a wild card berth at that point. The Rams will likely already have won the NFC West, but with their loss to New Orleans, they’ll need every win they can get to have a shot at home field in the NFC playoffs. Both are big time challenges if Mullens has held onto the job at that point.

On to the power rankings!