It wasn't pretty, but the San Francisco 49ers remain undefeated on the season with a 6-0 record through six weeks. They staved off a late Washington Commanders rally to win, keeping their stranglehold on the NFC West intact as well as their six-game win streak alive.
As such, the 49ers remain in the top spot among the power rankings from all eight outlets we pulled. Injuries have put a damper on the season so far, including the most recent one to Mike Evans, but it's hard to keep the 49ers out of the No. 1 spot when they are still winning games.
Here is the power ranking roundup heading into Week 7.
USA Today: 1
It wasn't pretty, but they held off Washington on Monday night to become the league's first 6-0 team. However with Mike Evans limping off before halftime
with an Achilles injury, will GM John Lynch have to delve into the wideout trade market?
ESPN: 1
The Niners haven't had many problems in terms of production, but they have had a significant amount of attrition at wideout. Ricky Pearsall (knee), De'Zhaun Stribling (ankle), Christian Kirk (calf) and Demarcus Robinson (ankle) were supposed to be four of the team's top five receivers and all landed on IR before Week 3. That doesn't account for Deebo Samuel Sr.'s multiweek hamstring injury or the various bumps and bruises Mike Evans played through before departing Monday night's game with Achilles tendonitis. The good news? Most of them are expected back this season, but the 49ers have had to scramble in the meantime. -- Nick Wagoner
FOX Sports: 1
The 49ers are held together at times by Band-Aids and gauze tape, but there’s no question they’re the best team in football a third of the way through the season. They need a rest, especially after WR Mike Evans reinjured his Achilles on Monday night, joining WR Deebo Samuel, WR Christian Kirk, edge rusher Nick Bosa and more on the sideline. But they’re so deep and so good, they can sleepwalk through wins — like they seemed to do at times in the second half Monday night when they nearly blew their game against the Commanders. Now they just have to get through Atlanta to hit their bye week undefeated and see if they can get some of their walking wounded back after that.
CBS Sports: 1
They made it interesting against the Commanders, but they still found a way. Now they face a long road trip to play the Falcons on a short week.
The Athletic: 1
The 30-year-old running back might end up being all the Niners have left after Mike Evans joined an absurdly long injury list on Monday night after suffering an Achilles injury. If McCaffrey stays healthy — and that feels like a huge if considering how things are going in San Francisco — he might be enough. He is fourth among running backs in fantasy scoring (20.3 ppg) after totaling 117 yards of offense and two touchdowns Monday night.
Yahoo Sports: 1
The Mike Evans injury is scary for the 49ers because they don't have much left at receiver. Deebo Samuel Sr. was out Monday night with a hamstring injury. De'Zhaun Stribling, Demarcus Robinson and Ricky Pearsall are on IR. Brock Purdy is playing very well but he needs something at receiver. The good news was that Evans' injury isn't considered serious and no more testing is needed, according to 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan. It's still not out of the question that Evans could miss a little time or that the injury could be an issue that lingers. And the offense without Evans didn't look great Monday.
The offense struggled in the second half with 67 net yards, 65 of which came on the first drive of the half. That's hard to believe from a Shanahan-coached team, but the 49ers were playing receivers who were nowhere near their plans when the season started. The 49ers' bad injury luck has been startling, and it could end up affecting what could be a special season.
Sports Illustrated: 1
A clinical dispensing of the Commanders keeps Kyle Shanahan’s 49ers atop the Power Rankings and Brock Purdy at the forefront of the MVP conversation. Aided by Dan Quinn, it also very well may have kept Raheem Morris in the running for assistant of the year, even if toppling Brian Flores feels like a tall order right now.
Bleacher Report: 1
The San Francisco 49ers lost wide receiver Mike Evans to an Achilles injury during Monday night's win over the Commanders. San Francisco also picked up far too many penalties while allowing Washington to make things dangerously close late. However, great teams find ways to win, and San Francisco has done just that six times this season.
At some point, injuries may take their toll on San Francisco, but we haven't seen it yet. The 49ers continue to look like the best team in football and a squad that could finally get Kyle Shanahan a Super Bowl ring in Year 10.
Shanahan keeps finding ways to adapt the offense to changing personnel—Kyle Juszczyk's return certainly helped—and Brock Purdy has played at an MVP level regardless of who has been in the lineup. Defensively, San Francisco has been superb under first-year coordinator Raheem Morris.
The 49ers have no glaring weaknesses, and while it would obviously help if they could stop losing key players almost weekly, they could have players like Nick Bosa and Christian Kirk back sooner rather than later.
This article originally appeared on Niners Wire: 49ers remain atop power rankings heading into Week 7
