Photo by Todd Rosenberg/Getty Images
Here are the biggest winners and losers from the 2024 NFL preseason.
With the start of the NFL regular season less than a week away, everything right now is about the vibes. Fanbases around the league are feeling confident or dejected based on what they’ve done this offseason, and while preseason is often a poor metric for regular season success, it can point out glaring deficiencies and impact how fans are feeling.
There’s no doubt who the NFL vibe-kings are right now: The Chicago Bears. Offseason promise gave way to some tangible on-field results for No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams, pushing excitement to the moon. Williams was far from perfect, finishing his two preseason outings with a combined 10-for-20, 170 yards passing, while rushing for 20 yards and a touchdown. More important than the numbers was confirmation that Williams’ improvisational playmaking skills and athleticism translated to the NFL.
One highlight went viral, as Williams avoided pressure, rolled out, threw across his body, and connected on a deep pass to fellow rookie Rome Odunze for one of the best highlights of preseason.
The hype might actually be too high in Chicago right now. There’s no doubt Williams is looking good, but the expectation now is that he’ll enter the league like C.J. Stroud and lead the Bears to the promised land immediately. There’s little doubt he was the correct pick at No. 1, but the flashes he showed in preseason are so profound that there are unreasonable expectations being placed on the rookie.
The NFC North is a brutal division, and it’s still likely that Chicago slots in at third place (at best) behind the Lions and Packers. That said, confidence is something that has been severely lacking for Bears fans — so I don’t blame anyone for falling in love with the hype over Caleb, just so long as there’s a measured reaction if he goes thought typical rookie quarterback struggles.
It’s not just Bears fans who are feeling it right now.
Winner: Denver Broncos
In the world of irrational vibes the Broncos are reigning supreme right now. To be fair, Bo Nix had looked really good in the Sean Payton offense and everything is meshing in Denver, but this is another case of preseason success leading to unimaginable hype.
Denver went 3-0 in preseason, leading to the belief from fans that this team is ready to compete right now. Nix won the starting job with a preseason performance that resulted in 23-for-30 passing, 205 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Nix is going to have success with Payton, but there have been ludicrous comparisons made to Drew Brees already. We can cool the jets on that one a little, but everything is still vanilla and at this point Nix hasn’t seen any true NFL defensive looks he’ll need to deal with.
Nix is the big story, but the woeful Denver defense has been the more impressive element of the team’s preseason. So far the unit looks good under Vance Joseph, and we’ll see if this can hold up.
Losers: Pittsburgh Steelers
Things are rotten in the ‘Burgh. Keep in mind this was a playoff team hoping that Russell Wilson would be the missing piece to push them over the edge and into a contender, but in preseason they looked anything but.
Wilson didn’t have terribly good command of the offense in his first outing, and didn’t make one dynamic play this preseason. The lack of receiving talent on the Steelers is glaring, and this is coupled with a banged-up offensive line that now had to deal with brutal pass rushers in the AFC North.
This is still a division anyone can win, but it feels like the Steelers are on the outside looking in when it comes to contention.
Winners: Seattle Seahawks
Moving on from Pete Carrol was always going to be a challenge, but thus far Mike McDonald and Co. are rolling. Offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb in particular is garnering attention for drawing up passing schemes that allowed both Geno Smith and Sam Howell to shine in preseason, showing that Seattle might be a team to watch in the NFC West this year.
This is punctuated with the stunning play of Kenny McIntosh at running back, who finished preseason with 17 carries for 145 yards and a touchdown. A 7th round pick in 2023, McIntosh showed game-breaking speed and could be a brilliant change-of-pace back behind Kenneth Walker III and Zach Charbonnet.
While the Seahawks still very much feel like a team trying to fit its pieces together, we saw enough from them that they could surprise in 2024.
Loser: New York Jets
The Jets are really leaving and breathing irrational confidence right now. Aaron Rodgers didn’t take a single snap in preseason, which wouldn’t be a concern except for the fact that he had a rough offseason of practices. Reports out of New York indicated that Rodgers hadn’t really gelled with his teammates, played worse than expected, and didn’t have great commander of the offense.
This was punctuated in joint practices with the hapless Panthers, where in one haunting session Rodgers threw two interceptions and fumbled the ball on a day Carolina managed to dominate the Jets on both sides of the ball.
It’s easy to write this all off as offseason pointlessness, but there’s no much right now that indicates the Jets are close to being the Super Bowl contenders they want to be with Rodgers at the helm.
