As many of you are likely well aware, the 1984 science fiction classic The Terminator features an imposing Arnold Schwarzenegger going back in time as a malevolent killing robot. His mission? To assassinate Sarah Connor, the mother of John Connor, a.k.a. the eventual savior of the human race, who wins mankind a gut-churning, bloody future war between people and machines.

At the risk of spoilers for a 40-year-old movie, Schwarzenegger’s “Terminator” is a calculated, relentless demon in cybernetic form. It stops at nothing to hunt Sarah down. It is beyond intimidating. It ultimately fails its goal through mere cosmic happenstance (it gets crushed in a hydraulic press).

I’ve long thought this, but after his recent scorching-hot play, the closest thing I’ve ever seen to the Terminator in the NFL is Josh Allen. He is inevitable. He is unbelievably persistent. And after successfully hunting down the juggernaut Detroit Lions in their own building, the likely NFL MVP looks like he’s at the peak of his powers. I mean, the guy had Dan Campbell, the NFL's most confident coach, positively spooked with an extremely early onside kick.

Allen’s next mission?

Destroying Patrick Mahomes’ Kansas City Chiefs before they try to complete a successful Super Bowl three-peat. I know there’s an air of black magic concerning the Chiefs’ winning ways this year. I know they’ve always beaten Allen’s Bills in the playoffs. But if there’s anyone tailor-made to prevent the NFL’s Big Red Machine from achieving football nirvana, it’s the 6-foot-5, 237-pound cyborg playing quarterback for Western New York’s pride and joy football team. Allen has proven he's above all potential concerns in this rivalry.

Quite frankly, if I'm the Chiefs or really any other NFL heavyweight, Allen is the concern.

Something tells me this specific Terminator’s story will end very differently than the one that traveled in time to mid-1980s Los Angeles. Because the moment you underestimate him is the moment he finally achieves his mission.

Allen’s dominance while leading a Super Bowl-worthy Bills team is a big focus of For The Win’s NFL Power Rankings in Week 16. Let’s see where Buffalo and the rest of the NFL stands as we get closer and closer to the 2025 playoffs.

32. New York Giants

Last week's rank: 32

The Baltimore Ravens were awarded one of the largest pregame spreads in modern NFL history at 16.5 points. They covered it because, between Tommy DeVito and Tim Boyle and an incompetent front office, the Giants are a Ponzi scheme masquerading as a pro football team. -- Robert Zeglinski

31. Las Vegas Raiders

Last week's rank: 30

Despite playing abjectly terrible football, the Raiders were still two too-close Hail Marys away from beating the Atlanta Falcons Monday night. Ultimately a loss pushed them closer to their goal of a top three draft pick and, mercifully, marked Las Vegas's last primetime game of 2024. -- Christian D'Andrea

30. Jacksonville Jaguars

Last week's rank: 31

Brian Thomas Jr. is in the top 10 in both receiving yards (956) and touchdowns (8). He is a legitimate bright spot for the future in the dank, dark basement closet known as the Jaguars organization. -- RZ

29. New England Patriots

Last week's rank: 26

Christian Gonzalez is a lockdown corner. Drake Maye can sling it when the Patriots let him. These are the tentpoles for 2025, and it's not a bad place to start. New England needs so, so much help, though. -- CD

28. Tennessee Titans

Last week's rank: 29

Titans quarterbacks (Will Levis and Mason Rudolph) threw an interception on 10 percent of their combined pass attempts on Sunday. Do you know how hard it is to be that bad? Oh, well, at least the good people of Nashville have the mental image of big man T'Vondre Sweat using a vicious stiff arm with the ball in his hands. Hopefully, that will sate everyone until next September. -- RZ

27. Cleveland Browns

Last week's rank: 27

Switching from Deshaun Watson to Jameis Winston to Dorian Thompson-Robinson is like going from eating slop to gruel to a steady diet of rocks. The Browns fully deserve this misery, having sold out and given $230 fully guaranteed for a player who'd faced more than 20 accusations of sexual misconduct dating to his time as a Houston Texan. -- CD

26. New York Jets

Last week's rank: 28

Aaron Rodgers has four touchdown passes and over 600 yards passing in his last two games. Yes, that came at the hands of the untrustworthy Miami Dolphins and Jaguars, but still! It's really funny watching him play his best football for Gang Green after it's been eliminated from the playoffs. -- RZ

25. Indianapolis Colts

Last week's rank: 21

Anthony Richardson has exactly one game this season in which he's thrown at least five passes and completed more than half of them. On the plus side, his 14.1 yards per completion leads the NFL, but ... still. -- CD

24. Carolina Panthers

Last week's rank: 24

Bryce Young's recent upward trajectory was due to come back to Earth. Sunday's blowout loss at the hands of the Cowboys, where Young committed four turnovers, was a snap back to reality. There might be a good quarterback in there somewhere, but Young still needs a lot of work and a lot more help. The job starts now for head coach Dave Canales. -- RZ

23. Chicago Bears

Last week's rank: 23

Yeah, that pretty much sums it up, thank you Caleb. -- CD

22. Dallas Cowboys

Last week's rank: 25

The Cowboys made Bryce Young look like his v1.0 self again, which is promising, if not terribly impressive. -- CD

21. New Orleans Saints

Last week's rank: 22

The Saints enjoyed some home cooking with a generous clock stoppage in the closing moments on Sunday. That allowed them to get within one of the Washington Commanders with no time on the clock. They then wasted this gift by calling the stupidest play in football on a two-point conversion attempt. Of course it was incomplete. A note to offensive coordinators: DON'T DIVIDE THE FIELD IN HALF WITH THE GAME ON THE LINE. GAH. -- RZ

20. Atlanta Falcons

Last week's rank: 20

Kirk Cousins's lack of mobility has extended to the "cannot execute a handoff on a read option" phase. On Monday night, the Falcons trusted him with only 17 pass attempts. Atlanta still has postseason hopes, but there's growing evidence Michael Penix would, at the very least, not be significantly worse than the high priced veteran the team signed last offseason. -- CD

19. Miami Dolphins

Last week's rank: 17

Tua Tagovailoa can no longer default to Tyreek Hill, and it threatens to derail all his recent progress. The Texans baited him into bad throws in a four-turnover performance, giving Houston the leverage to escape with a 20-12 win that dropped Miami's playoff odds down to single digits. The Dolphins have put up just 29 points in their last two road games. Another egg-laying will effectively crush any wild card hopes that remain. -- CD

18. San Francisco 49ers

Last week's rank: 18

Don't let De'Vondre Campbell quitting on his team gloss over the most important story here. This season was a failure for the 49ers. Full stop. From the very start, as Christian McCaffrey nursed a sore Achilles, it seemed like San Francisco just couldn't catch a break. The 49ers won't wave the white towel outright, but it's time to start thinking about how they regroup for 2025. -- RZ

17. Arizona Cardinals

Last week's rank: 16

You don't get style points for beating the Patriots, but you do get a win that affirms your fading playoff hopes. The Athletic only gives Arizona an 11 percent chance of making the postseason, but with Geno Smith nursing a knee injury and the Rams' struggles with consistency, things may be better than they appear. -- CD

16. Cincinnati Bengals

Last week's rank: 19

The Bengals have won two in a row and still have an outside shot at the AFC postseason. So, why is Joe Burrow so mad? Between a middling defense, an offense that continues to have the worst lapses in focus at the worst possible times, and some very long odds of sneaking into the playoff picture, it's tough to pin one problem down. It's been that kind of season in Cincinnati. -- RZ

15. Los Angeles Chargers

Last week's rank: 11

The Chargers hosted the Buccaneers in Week 15 and were smacked firmly in the mouth. Los Angeles gave up 30 straight points as Justin Herbert was soundly outdueled by Baker Mayfield. Is this the result of Herbert's tweaked ankle, or the beginning of a regression for a team that's punched above its weight class all season? -- CD

14. Houston Texans

Last week's rank: 15

Sunday afternoon was a national introduction to the prowess of potential All-Pro Derek Stingley Jr. The young star cornerback held Tyreek Hill -- one of football's premier deep threats -- to just two catches for 36 yards while also nabbing two interceptions. He basically ran Hill's routes for him on both picks. I'm unsure I've ever seen that before with Hill, who is used to simply running past defenders. Just not Stingley. -- RZ

13. Seattle Seahawks

Last week's rank: 9

There were concerns about whether the Seahawks were bottom-feeding on NFL pretenders during their recent four-game winning streak. They alleviated none of them at the hands of a humbling loss to the Packers. Now, the Seahawks' playoff hopes might be on their deathbed. At the very least, watching Sam Howell make nothing out of something behind Seattle's offensive line should make everyone much more appreciative of Geno Smith's wizardry. -- RZ

12. Washington Commanders

Last week's rank: 13

Washington speedran the Kliff Kingsbury experience in Week 15. Jayden Daniels started hot, leading touchdown marches on two of the Commanders' first three drives. That was the end of the touchdowns, as the Saints rallied (with a little help from a faulty clock) to come within a terrible two-point conversion play of an upset win. Daniels remains a special player, but with limited weapons, his playbook is going to have to evolve with him for any playoff success this winter. -- CD

11. Denver Broncos

Last week's rank: 10

Bo Nix is regressing a bit, but Denver keeps winning. On Sunday, that meant overcoming three interceptions on a day when the Broncos' offense averaged 3.2 yards per play. They still managed to beat the Colts by 18 points because this defense is a real problem. -- CD

10. Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Last week's rank: 14

Baker Mayfield is completing nearly 70 percent of his passes, has over 800 passing yards, and has thrown for eight touchdowns in the last three weeks. His virtuoso performance cutting up a no-resistance Chargers defense felt like a coup de grace. Led by their franchise quarterback, the Buccaneers are now firmly in the driver's seat for their fourth straight NFC South title. -- RZ

9. Los Angeles Rams

Last week's rank: 12

It wasn't pretty on a rainy Thursday night, but Sean McVay proved he can grind out a win with an old-school playbook -- in this case, spamming handoffs to Kyren Williams to beat the 49ers. Williams ran for 100-plus yards on 29 carries, Puka Nacua took care of the rest, and Cooper Kupp ended a bunch of folks' fantasy football seasons. -- CD

8. Green Bay Packers

Last week's rank: 8

Led by a dominant defense starting to flex its muscles at the right time, the Packers ventured into Seattle and pantsed the Seahawks. It was to the point that seemingly every random Jordan Love lob into the middle of the field became a deep Green Bay completion. The Packers are now 10-4, and with the Lions' injuries in the account, they might be the wild card playoff team no one wants to face in the NFC. -- RZ

7. Pittsburgh Steelers

Last week's rank: 5

The Steelers needed a perfect game from their offense if they were going to win in Philadelphia for the first time since the AFL/NFL merger. That didn't happen. Between Russell Wilson sacks at the most inopportune times and a Najee Harris fumble deep in Eagles territory when the game's outcome was still in the balance, the Steelers kept getting in their own way. Fortunately, T.J. Watt's ankle injury doesn't appear to be too serious, and Pittsburgh remains a prime Super Bowl hopeful. It's probably just gonna have to do it the hard way after likely losing out on a chance at the AFC's top seed. -- RZ

6. Baltimore Ravens

Last week's rank: 7

Lamar Jackson threw five touchdown passes on Sunday. He had just four incompletions. And thanks to Pittsburgh's loss, an AFC North title is back in sight for a Baltimore team no one should be writing off at this juncture. -- RZ

5. Minnesota Vikings

Last week's rank: 6

Sam Darnold looked vulnerable against the Bears on Monday night. Granted, this didn't matter because he was playing the Bears, but it's the sword of Damocles that will linger above Minnesota's head this winter. If Darnold regresses to his old self, even just for two quarters, can the Vikings survive? -- CD

4. Kansas City Chiefs

Last week's rank: 3

Kansas City finally made things easy, albeit against a Browns team that would really prefer their final three games to be running clock affairs. Harrison Butker's return to the lineup seemed a bit premature as he struggled with his kicks. That's a minor development but given how close the Chiefs' games have been, losing out on three points could spell out the end of the franchise's three-peat dream. -- CD

3. Philadelphia Eagles

Last week's rank: 4

After drama swirled about their relationship, Jalen Hurts and A.J. Brown turned around and took the elite Steelers' defense to task in every moment that counted. This was the kind of passing effort that can actually win Philadelphia a championship. By the way, the Eagles are now virtually tied for the NFC's No. 1 seed. A first-round bye for arguably the conference's most talented roster (more importantly, the healthiest) would be a godsend. -- RZ

2. Detroit Lions

Last week's rank: 1

The dam may have finally broken. Injuries to Alim McNeill and Carlton Davis mean Detroit could be heading to the postseason without seven of their 11 opening-night starters on defense. Dan Campbell and coordinator Aaron Glenn have been able to thrive despite these concerns, but the fact remains this team has given up 79 total points over the last two weeks. A trip to the franchise's first Super Bowl rests on Jared Goff's shoulder. -- CD

1. Buffalo Bills

Last week's rank: 2

Josh Allen has over 1,400 yards from scrimmage and 15 touchdowns in the last four weeks. The Bills, by virtue of an injured secondary, haven't been able to stop anyone. It hasn't mattered at all. The guy wearing the No. 17 jersey is in a terrifying trance, which is letting the Bills get breathing room and get healthy. The Chiefs -- and anyone else who dares stand in Allen's way -- better watch out. -- RZ

This article originally appeared on For The Win: NFL Power Rankings Week 16: Josh Allen is the Terminator sent back in time to destroy Patrick Mahomes’ Chiefs