1 negative prediction for all 32 NFL teams in 2024, including the Cowboys, Eagles, Packers and Jets (original) (raw)
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It’s almost time for the 2024 NFL season with millions of fans and hundreds of players setting high expectations for the season ahead. While plenty of NFL teams will have something to celebrate this season, only one can win the Super Bowl. Here we’re predicting one negative thing that will happen to each NFL team this season.
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Even for the team that hoists the Lombardi Trophy, something bad will happen along the way. Whether it’s a young player not developing or playoff heartbreak, a letdown is inevitable. With that in mind, let’s dive into our list of predictions for each club.
Arizona Cardinals: Jonah Williams proves to be a free-agent bust
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We never really understood the Arizona Cardinals’ interest in Jonah Williams. When he played left tackle for the Cincinnati Bengals in 2022, he led his position in sacks allowed (13). Cincinnati moved him to right tackle, despite his objection, and he allowed 8 sacks this past season. Williams just looks like a below-average starter and we feel pretty confident Arizona will regret signing him two that two-year, $30 million contract.
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Atlanta Falcons: Raheem Morris is forced to replace Jimmy Lake as play-caller
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Raheem Morris certainly earned a second chance to be a head coach and you’ll be challenged to find anyone working with NFL teams who won’t rave about his leadership and defensive mind. With that said, the hiring of Jimmy Lake as the Atlanta Falcons defensive coordinator always felt underwhelming. Lake worked with Morris last season as part of the Los Angeles Rams staff. Prior to that, his last stint in the NFL came as a defensive backs coach in 2011. Lake’s defenses with the Washington Huskies and concerns about how his scheme will transition to the modern NFL lead us to believe Morris will have to take over the defense by November. At that point, he’ll need to find a new defensive coordinator next offseason.
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Baltimore Ravens: Offensive line is the team’s downfall
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There aren’t many NFL teams with more questions along the offensive line than the Baltimore Ravens. Tyler Linderbaum is as good as they come at center, but Baltimore might be starting two rookies (guard Andrew Vorhees and tackle Roger Rosengarten) this season. At left tackle, Ronnie Stanley is a shell of the player he used to be with injuries turning him from an All-Pro into a below-average starter. Things aren’t any better at right guard. There are just too many question marks with this Ravens offensive line and it will prove to be the team’s downfall in the playoffs.
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Buffalo Bills: Keon Coleman disappoints as a rookie
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Bills Mafia and NFL fans love Keon Coleman for all the right reasons. He seems to he an outstanding teammate to be around and his personality is infectious for anyone who comes around it. However, the Bills offense is also planning to deploy Coleman in a role he isn’t the best fit for right now. He’s also not exactly the level of athlete you’d want from a No. 1 receiver. While we do think Coleman has Pro Bowl potential down the line, we’re predicting 2024 is a difficult one for him. He’ll still finish among the Bills receiving leaders, but fans won’t see the production or consistency of highlights that they are currently expecting from the rookie. Just be patient.
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Carolina Panthers: Panthers have the worst defense in football
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Carolina Panthers defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero is stuck in an awful situation. Whatever avenues the Panthers had to improve their roster this offseason, they primarily used it all on the offense. There’s no more Brian Burns and cornerback Jaycee Horn, while talented, his a massive durability risk. The lack of talent at every level of this defense, outside of blue-chip talents like Derrick Brown, could make this one of the worst defenses we’ve seen in the last few years. That also means Bryce Young will have plenty of chances to throw the football this season.
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Chicago Bears: D’Andre Swift only lasts one season in Chicago
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The first move in NFL free agency was the Chicago Bears signing D’Andre Swift. He landed a three-year, $24 million contract from the Chicago Bears, a significant investment in a running back. While Swift rushed for over 1,000 yards last season, he benefitted immensely from running behind the Philadelphia Eagles offensive line. Prior to that, he never handled more than 151 carries in a season. We’re betting on regression from Swift, ultimately causing the Bears to move on from him next year.
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Cincinnati Bengals: Lou Anarumo’s defense implodes even further
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Just a few years ago, Cincinnati Bengals defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo was coveted for NFL head-coaching interviews. He’s now coming off a disastrous season with the Bengals defense and it’s hard to see things improving. While Cincinnati’s secondary is exciting, the defensive line is a major concern. The Bengals run defense might be one of the worst in football this year and if Trey Hendrickson regresses or gets hurt, this pass rush might be just as bad.
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Cleveland Browns: Deshaun Watson never regains his form
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The Cleveland Browns made Deshaun Watson the first QB in NFL history to receive a fully guaranteed contract worth $200-plus million. Then, the Browns front office cut ties with Joe Flacco this offseason because they feared fans calling for a quarterback competition. We’re years removed from seeing the Pro Bowl version of Watson and there’s really no logical reason to think he’ll turn things around. It’s also worth noting that reports from Browns training camp suggest it’s Jameis Winston, not Watson, who is the leader of this team. All of this screams a marriage headed for disaster. It will also be one that proves costly to get out of in 2025 for Cleveland.
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Dallas Cowboys: Dak Prescott, Will McClay leaves the team after this season
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Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys front office bungled the Dak Prescott contract situation. He now gets to hit NFL free agency in 2025 with Dallas unable to franchise tag him. Once he’s on the open market, multiple NFL teams will line up offering $62-plus million per season. Much like Kirk Cousins, the overwhelming attention Prescott receives from teams this offseason will remind him of how poorly Dallas handled contract talks. So, this will be Prescott’s last season as the Cowboys quarterback. Making things even worse, tope executive Will McClay will take a GM job before the 2025 NFL Draft.
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Denver Broncos: Bo Nix never looks like a franchise quarterback
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If you’re drafting a 24-year-old quarterback with the NCAA record for most starts (61) with a top-12 pick, they need to be good right away. Bo Nix will be the Denver Broncos starting quarterback in 2024, playing within the structure of Sean Payton’s offense. However, it’s going to be an uninspiring performance. Nix is physically limited in terms of his arm strength and playmaking, with his accuracy only standing out on short throws. He isn’t the next Drew Brees or anything close to it, Andy Dalton might be the better NFL comparison. However long this Nix experience lasts in Denver, the Broncos will never get anything more than average quarterback play.
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Detroit Lions: Jameson Williams fails to become No. 2 receiver
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The hope in Michigan is that former first-round pick Jameson Williams finally puts it all together with a breakout season. We liked Williams’ talent entering the league, but we’re also two seasons into his NFL career and he has 395 receiving yards in 18 games. We’ve seen how explosive the Lions passing game can be, Ben Johnson maximizes his players and Jared Goff is an MVP-caliber quarterback playing indoors. It’s just never come together for Williams. Unfortunately for Detroit, we don’t see that changing in 2024 and it will force the Lions front office to pursue a trade for a No. 2 wide receiver in November.
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Green Bay Packers: Josh Jacobs can’t stay healthy
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The Green Bay Packers are no stranger to playing without their Pro Bowl running back. It proved to be a recurring trend with Aaron Jones and, unfortunately for Packer Nation, we see it happening again in 2024. Injuries limited Jacobs to 13 games in 2023 and he only finished with 872 rushing yards in 2021 after appearing in just 15 games. While Green Bay will try and be careful wit Jacobs’ workload, he’s already accumulated 1,502 touches in his career. We’re predicting he’ll miss 3 games this season.
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Houston Texans: C.J. Stroud only gets one more season with OC Bobby Slowik
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Houston Texans offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik came from the Shanahan system, so he knows how to orchestrate the perfect offense for a quarterback. It helped lead to C.J. Stroud’s historic success as a rookie and it’s part of the reason why Stroud will be an NFL MVP finalist in 2024. Unfortunately for Houston, all that success means Slowik is taking head-coaching interviews in January and he lands his first coaching gig shortly after.
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Indianapolis Colts: Anthony Richardson falls way short of expectations
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The NFL MVP buzz around Anthony Richardson has been around for weeks with some even believing the Indianapolis Colts can be a Super Bowl contender with the second-year quarterback. However, as much as we love Richardson’s pure talent and his poise under pressure, accuracy remains a work in progress. He’s been up-and-down in training camp, further suggesting the breakout year might be a little further away. The Colts can win a Super Bowl with Richardson eventually, just not this year. In fact, we’d bet against them making the playoffs.
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Jacksonville Jaguars: Doug Pederson is fired, Trent Baalke sticks around
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The Jacksonville Jaguars specifically hired Doug Pederson to help Trevor Lawrence, undoing the damage done by Urban Meyer. Unfortunately, the same decision that cost Pederson his job with the Philadelphia Eagles might be his undoing in Florida. Jaguars offensive coordinator Press Taylor has twice proven he’s not a good play-caller. Each time, Pederson has kept going back to him. We believe it will be the undoing of the Jaguars in 2024, resulting in Pederson being fired on Black Monday. To make matters even worse, Trent Baalke will talk his way into sticking around.
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Kansas City Chiefs: Pass defense takes a significant step back without L’Jarius Sneed
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NFL teams tight against the salary cap must make difficult decisions, which explains the L’Jarius Sneed trade for the Kansas City Chiefs. For as much confidence as we have in cornerback Trent McDuffie and defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, though, regression needs to be the expectation for the Chiefs defense. McDuffie excels in the slot, meaning Kansas City doesn’t really have the No. 1 corner to shadow top wide receivers. Losing that forces a defensive coordinator to make changes, which will make the Chiefs more vulnerable. Fortunately for Kansas City, improvement offensively should make up the difference for its defense regressing.
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Las Vegas Raiders: Gardner Minshew and Aidan O’Connell are disasters
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This prediction could’ve been made early in the offseason. Among NFL teams in desperate need of a quarterback, no one handled it worse than the Las Vegas Raiders. They overpaid Gardner Minshew in NFL free agency and have watched in the past few months as he’s failed to create any separation from Aidan O’Connell in the quarterback competition. As for O’Connell, he’s been just as bad and the physical tools are worse. Fans will look back on the 2024 season as a talented, playoff-caliber roster wasted by a front office that failed to adequately address its biggest weakness.
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Los Angeles Chargers: Justin Herbert isn’t stay healthy
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The plantar fascia injury remains our concern for Justin Herbert. By all accounts, he is going to play in Week 1, but the history of this injury suggests it will linger well into the regular season. While Herbert isn’t an elite athlete, he relies on his functional athleticism to navigate pressure and footwork is critical to his mechanics. This lingering foot issue could prove to be an issue deep into the regular season, meaning we don’t get to see the best version of Herbert this year.
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Los Angeles Rams: Aaron Donald’s retirement neutralizes a Super Bowl contender
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The Los Angeles Rams would be our pick to win the NFC if Aaron Donald returned for the 2024 season. There’s only one thing missing in Los Angeles, an All-Pro talent who can create interior pressure and make life easier for everyone around him. Donald would free up Jared Verse, Braden Fiske and Kobie Turner to create havoc in backfields while making coverage easier for the Rams’ defensive backs. Instead, we’ll watch one of the best NFL offenses in Los Angeles fall short of its ceiling as a team because its future Hall of Famer retired early.
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Miami Dolphins: Tua Tagovailoa, Dolphins’ OL collapse in January
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Tua Tagovailoa got paid, but only his on-field performance will silence critics. After all, the Miami Dolphins quarterback has a 1-3 career record with a 58.6% completion rate and a 65.0 QB rating in January. Not all of that falls on him, as an injury-plagued Dolphins offensive line has consistently had holes. Unfortunately for Miami, there’s just no reason to believe things get better considering Robert Hunt is gone, Terron Armstead nearly retired and there are concerns at other spots. All of it means that come January, Tagovailoa and the Dolphins’ offense will disappear again in the playoffs.
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Minnesota Vikings: Sam Darnold proves to be a fringe starter
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This is it for Sam Darnold. Failing with the New York Jets was blamed on the team that drafted him. Underwhelming results with the Carolina Panthers were again blamed on the team. There are no excuses now. McCarthy has the best wide receiver in the NFL, a top 5 play-caller in Kevin O’Connell and a great supporting cast around them. It’s not going to matter. Darnold might be better than his career (78.3), but the TD-INT ratio will be close and he will make just as many mistakes as he will big plays for the Vikings offense.
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New England Patriots: Patriots’ offense impedes Drake Maye’s development
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The New England Patriots had a choice in the 2024 NFL Draft; take quarterback Drake May or trade down and build a supporting cast to help the quarterback of the future. New England chose the franchise-caliber talent and we do believe that Maye will have long-term success with the Patriots. However, a bottom-10 offensive line and arguably the worst receiving corps in the NFL will hinder his development. It’ll be to a lesser degree, but similar to what happened to Bryce Young in 2023.
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New Orleans Saints: Derek Carr gets benched
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Playing behind arguably the worst offensive line in football is a recipe for disaster for quarterback Derek Carr. He’s not especially adept at navigating pressure and his effectiveness plummets with bodies around him. However, the Saints are financially committed to him for another year. By December, with the Saints’ playoff odds close to zero, New Orleans will pull the plug on Carr as its starting quarterback to see what it has in Spencer Rattler.
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New York Giants: Daniel Jones gets hurt, Giants clean house
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The worst-case scenario for the New York Giants would be a season-ending injury for Daniel Jones that results in him failing a physical, letting his injury guarantees kick in. That’s not what we’re saying will happen, but the state of the Giants offensive line does make an injury feel inevitable. Fortunately for New York, it will just be a short-term absence. However, when the Giants win just 5 games this year, ownership cleans house on the NFL’s Black Monday.
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New York Jets: Jets implode in January
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The Haason Reddick situation is a reminder that something will always go wrong for the New York Jets. That’s what makes the team’s reliance on so many injury-prone players so risky. However, we do think Aaron Rodgers, Mike Williams and even Tyron Smith will stay relatively healthy into December. Unfortunately for New York, that’s when things start to unravel. A few key injuries paired with Father Time really catching up to Rodgers and Smith, leads to a first-round playoff exit for New York.
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Philadelphia Eagles: Nick Sirianni is fired
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It’s frankly remarkable that Nick Sirianni survived last season, especially in light of everything that’s come out. What we have here is a head coach whose lone acts as the architect of the Eagles’ offense were disastrous. When Philadelphia’s offense is good, his hands are largely off it. He also doesn’t seem to have the full support of the franchise quarterback nor did he keep the Eagles locker room together during last season’s second-half collapse. When this team falters and it can’t dig out of it, the front office will realize change is necessary. Consider this Sirianni’s “lame duck” season as Eagles coach.
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Pittsburgh Steelers: Justin Fields, Russell Wilson both disappoint
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As the saying goes, if you have two quarterbacks you don’t have one. Russell Wilson lost the battle to Father Time, with the physical skills (athleticism and arm strength) that once made him an NFL star now gone. Meanwhile, Justin Fields’ bad habits can’t be fixed at this point, which means putting a QB who holds onto the ball too long in Arthur Smith’s offense. It’s unfortunate the Steelers couldn’t get their quarterback situation right, because every other part of this roster looks like a team that should win double-digit games.
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San Francisco 49ers: Injuries derail the 49ers’ season
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The San Francisco 49ers are one of the most physical teams in the league but that comes at a cost. It’s often resulted in 49ers’ stars missing multiple games due to injury, but that wasn’t as much of an issue in 2023. While Brock Purdy, Christian McCaffrey, Brandon Aiyuk and George Kittle each played at least 16 games this past season, we’re not seeing a repetition of that. Instead, McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel and Trent Williams will all miss multiple games this season and have to play through injury down the stretch. It will be the undoing of arguably the most talented team in the NFL.
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Seattle Seahawks: Offensive line remains a problem
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The Seattle Seahawks couldn’t have one of the best offenses in the NFC last season entirely because their offensive line wouldn’t allow it. Geno Smith is criminally underrated as a passer and in new offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb’s system, the receiver trio of DK Metcalf, Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Tyler Lockett will be outstanding. In terms of skill players and play-calling, this can be one of the best NFL offenses in 2024. Unfortunately, we just feel like the interior offensive line and inconsistency from right tackle Abraham Lucas will prevent that from happening. Fans will still enjoy Grubb’s offense, there will just be plenty of “What if” moments because of the O-line.
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Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Baker Mayfield takes a step back
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Regression can come in many forms. In the case of Baker Mayfield, it will be his production scaling down a bit from last season. With Dave Canales, the Buccaneers quarterback posted a 94.6 QB rating with a career-high 64.3 percent completion rate, a 28-10 TD-INT ratio and a 4.9 percent touchdown rate. In 2024, we see the numbers regressing back towards an 89 QB rating with a completion rate under 64 percent and around a 24-18 TD-INT line. It still makes him an effective starting quarterback, just not as good as the player Tampa Bay enjoyed last season.
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Tennessee Titans: Right side of OL spoils a promising year
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The Tennessee Titans, at the very least, will be intriguing in 2024. In an offseason where most expected a rebuild, Tennessee added Lloyd Cushenberry, Tyler Boyd, Calvin Ridley, Tony Pollard, L’Jarius Sneed, Quandre Diggs and Jamal Adams. There’s enough talent to like defensively, especially under first-year defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson. Tennessee also put a quality cast of offensive weapons around Will Levis and the left side of the offensive light should be a strength by mid-October. What gives us pause is the right side of that line, a vulnerability that defenses should have little trouble exploiting this season. It will be the reason why the Titans miss the NFL playoffs.
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Washington Commanders: Dan Quinn proves why he was a consolation hire
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It’s been well-documented at this point that Dan Quinn wasn’t the Washington Commanders’ first choice. There’s also reason to believe he wouldn’t be a head coach in 2024 if Washington didn’t settle for him. Quinn is certainly the type of leader you want leading a locker room during a transition, but that might be it. He won’t have anything close to the defensive talent he excelled using with the Dallas Cowboys, meaning there’s a high probability Washington’s defense is one of the worst in the NFL. By the end of the 2024 season, Commanders fans will be elated for the future with Jayden Daniels but wishing their franchise quarterback got an offensive-minded head coach.
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