Week 6 Claims Adjustments: Rams are Frauds, Bears are Legit.

Welcome to the Walkthrough Claims Department, where we strive to provide you with an elite customer service experience each week during the NFL season.

Our job is to analyze the validity of claims made by NFL teams, then honor the accurate claims. For example, the San Francisco 49ers claim to be Super Bowl shortlisters. That claim is valid: the 49ers are 5-0, undefeated in the NFC West, led the NFL in DVOA through Week 5 and have a payroll full of All-Pros, so they are Super Bowl shortlisters. But they play on Monday night, so let’s set them aside for today. (Press “2” if you wish to speak to the 49ers Medical Claims Department; the current wait time is six days.)

Over a dozen teams offered new evidence toward their claims to be Shortlisters, Playoff Noisemakers or Sneaky Relevant in Week 6. Let’s collate the evidence we gathered from Sunday’s games (and the Thursday nighter), analyze it, and update each team’s claim status. 

Atlanta Falcons (2-4)

Claim: Playoff Noisemaker

Supporting Evidence: Bijan Robinson and Drake London. A no-name defensive front that entered Week 6 second in the NFL in pressures, per Sports Info Solutions.

Contrary Evidence: The entire last decade. A quarterback who is as fragile as the priceless Ming vase in an Inspector Clouseau movie. 

Week 6 Update: The Bears demonstrated what happens when the Falcons are forced to play from behind all afternoon and cannot dictate terms with Bijan and their play-action-to-London game.

The Falcons went 3-of-12 on third downs and 0-of-3 on fourth downs, with Michael Penix reverting to Michael Panics mode and taking sacks or making shaky throws in high-leverage situations. Rookie kick returner Zachariah Branch added a pair of fumbles to help the Bears cruise out to a 31-7 fourth-quarter lead.

The Falcons kept things semi-interesting with a pair of late touchdown drives sandwiched around a fumble by third-string Bears running back Roschon Johnson. But nigh-meaningless fourth quarter touchdowns have been a staple of the Falcons’ formula for mediocrity for many years. Heck, those touchdowns are just about the only reason anyone still cares about Kyle Pitts. 

Claim Status: Sure, the Falcons could win the NFC South. So could Ole Miss. But Penix only looks like a functional quarterback when Bijan provides him with a lead and a steady diet of second-and-3 situations. 

The 2026 Falcons would be poised to break the heart of every single Falcons fan if the 2019-2025 Falcons had not left them with nothing else to break. Claim Rejected.

Note: Kendal Daniels, one of the pleasant early-season surprises on the Falcons defense, was carted off the field with what appeared to be a serious neck injury.

Baltimore Ravens (4-2)

Claim Status: Super Bowl Shortlister

Supporting Evidence: Lamar Jackson. Derrick Henry. An early-season knack for late-game miracles, as opposed to their longstanding knack for late-game disasters. 

Contrary Evidence: Jackson missed another week with his mysterious quantum ankle injury. Top opposing wide receivers can gain 100 yards on the Ravens secondary before warmups. Mark Andrews is aging the way we thought Travis Kelce would age. 

Sunday Update: The Ravens took a 10-0 lead and then forgot about Derrick Henry, just as they did in Week 2 against the Saints. They also forgot about change-up running back Justice Hill. I assumed Hill was injured after some first-quarter touches, but nah: the Ravens just decided to preserve their lead by letting Snoop Huntley air it out to Zay Flowers and guys like Ja’Kobi Lane and Josh Cuevas (who at least scored their lone touchdown).

After five straight punts and a missed field goal, the Ravens finally remembered their Hall of Fame running back early in the fourth quarter while nursing a 10-3 lead. Henry promptly fumbled at his own 33-yard line, setting up a game-tying Browns touchdown. The Ravens offense then kept giving the ball back to the Browns until their secondary finally buckled, allowing an easy 33-yard reception over the middle by Jerry Jeudy. A Browns field goal at the end of regulation handed the Ravens a 13-10 loss. 

Claim Status: Oh, you thought Jesse Minter “changed the Ravens culture?” Silly, silly. The Cowboys and Falcons just out-stupided the Ravens in high-leverage situations in Weeks 3 and 5. This loss and the Week 2 Saints loss illustrate how determined the Ravens are to play down to their opponents.

The Ravens are 4-2. Jackson will be back eventually, though we will spend each Tuesday-through-Friday deploying teams of CIA codebreakers to determine his health status based on Minter quotes and Shefty/Rapsheet riddles. But the Ravens keep telling us that they plan to abandon common sense on offense and let wide receivers run wild on their defense when they face a quality opponent in a must-win game. We should listen to them. Their claim is Rejected.

Carolina Panthers (3-2)

Claim: Playoff Noisemaker

Supporting Evidence: Tet McMillan and Chuba Hubbard. Bryce Young’s escape from the Quarterback Narrative Event Horizon and into the realm of respectability. Adorable pluckiness, like a pug growling at Rottweilers from a windowsill.

Contrary Evidence: Both starting cornerbacks are on IR. Also, the Panthers are as reliable as a tabloid horoscope: they play up to their best opponents but down to their worst. 

Sunday Update: The Panthers performed their best Jaguars impersonation against the injury-ravaged Eagles, committing 13 penalties for 149 yards. They were also ultra-conservative in the first half, punting on fourth-and-1 from their own 42-yard line in the first quarter. 

The Panthers’ dump-and-chase tactics proved prudent, however. Tanner McKee and the Eagles offense (Gosh, just typing that phrase makes me want to walk into a patch of poison ivy in my cargo shorts) kept giving the ball back, field position kept tipping in the Panthers’ favor, and Young did just enough, with the help of Hubbard and glam-rock tight end Tommy Tremble, to grind out a 25-14 win.

Claim Status: Panthers wins over three NFC middleweights (Falcons, Lions, Eagles) so far in 2026, coupled with their 2025 gift for upsets, are enough to Approve the team’s claim as Playoff Noisemakers. 

The Panthers defense is playing spirited football without Jaycee Horn and Mike Jackson. Young is part pesky pint-sized scrambler, part 36-year old game manager: Watch him hard-count the Eagles defense offsides on fourth-and-1 near the goal line for evidence of the latter. McMillan is great, while Jalen Coker’s return (six catches on Sunday) gives Young another reliable intermediate target.  

The Panthers will be the team that no one-dimensional contender (Vikings), too-big-for-its-britches superteam (Rams) or case study for the New England Journal of Medicine (49ers) wants to cope with in the playoffs. 

Chicago Bears (4-2)

Claim: Super Bowl Shortlister

Supporting Evidence: Outstanding running game. Went 2-1 with backup quarterbacks. Now have Caleb Williams back.

Contrary Evidence: Defense, which got humiliated by the Packers in Week 5, relies on the offense to control the clock and limit possessions for them.

Week 6 Update: With Williams back, the Bears were able to go 9-of-17 on third-down conversions, mounting an early 14-0 lead thanks to a nifty third-and-11 hook-and-lateral and a strike from Williams to Rome Odunze on third-and-17 to extend touchdown drives.

The Bears then took advantage of some Falcons fumbles on special teams to climb out to a 31-7 lead early in the fourth quarter. That was enough of a lead to protect the Bears from their own defense in a 31-23 win that wasn’t really that close. (Roschon Johnson, who fumbled to let the Falcons back in the game, slid inbounds to run out the clock instead of scoring an easy end-of-game touchdown.)

Claim Status: The Bears defense remains a problem. Kyler Gordon notched three sacks on Sunday, but Gordon is a defensive back who kept blitzing off the edge. The Bears will struggle to generate pressure against opponents who have more than one downfield receiving target and are not playing from two scores behind all afternoon.

Still, Williams’ return allows the Bears offense to control the line of scrimmage for most of the game and generate first downs with splash plays when they don’t. Clashes with the Patriots and Seahawks in the next two weeks will tell us more. But for now, the Bears’ claim to be contenders is Approved. 

Cleveland Browns (Ugh, 4-2)

Claim: Sneaky Relevance

Supporting Evidence: Stingy defense. Exciting young playmakers like KC Concepcion, Denzel Boston and Harold Fannin. Narrow wins against competitive opponents.

Contrary Evidence: Every positive thing said about their quarterback sounds like a campaign ad airing during Wheel of Fortune which was paid for by the Coalition to Reelect Senator Palpatine. Also, their wins were really narrow. 

Week 6 Update: The Browns offense stumbled around haplessly for three-and-a-half quarters while their defense and the Ravens’ absurd “Let Snoop Cook” gameplan kept them in the game. Finally, a Derrick Henry fumble gave the Browns the football at the Ravens 35-yard line, leading to a short touchdown drive. Deshaun Watson then needed exactly one 33-yard pass to Jerry Jeudy to set up an Andre Szmyt field goal and a 13-10 victory. 

Claim Status: Watching the Browns is like watching a straight-to-video Steven Seagal movie from the early 2000s. It’s obvious that the main character is no longer a viable action star and is sometimes barely going through the motions. But the film is carefully edited to make him the hero. The villains act like idiots. Henchmen fly backwards if a fist brushes their cheek. Implausible plot points pile up until the detestable has-been only needs to kickbox one or two jabronis through candy-glass windows to save the day and ride off into the sunset. Then you feel angry and gross for having watched.