Photo by Ric Tapia/Getty Images
The NFL’s 6 most confusing teams entering the regular season.
At this point we have a fairly good idea of who the excellent teams in the NFL will be, and who is still building for the future. However, in 2024 more than ever there’s a massive swath of teams that are utterly confusing. These are organizations who could win five games and it wouldn’t surprise us, or win 11 and we still wouldn’t be stunned. Part of this speaks to the parity of the NFL right now, and part is due to the fact that some teams have made such wild decisions in the last eight months that it’s made them almost impossible to parse.
The objective here isn’t to try and determine whether we think these teams are good or bad, but rather just admit that we have absolutely no clue what to expect out of them this season.
Los Angeles Chargers
There is no doubt the Chargers hired the right coach at the right time. Jim Harbaugh’s brand of hard-nosed, inside out football on both sides of the ball returns to the NFL at precisely the time teams are beginning to value guard play and defensive tackles above everything else.
Where this becomes so confounding is the amount of change the Chargers have gone through in a short period of time. One of Harbaugh’s first moves after arriving was to basically kick Keenan Allen and Mike Williams to the curb, the top two receivers on the team — then let Austin Ekeler leave with them.
This was a bizarre choice when you have one of the best quarterbacks in the league in Justin Herbert, who is now left with basically nobody to throw to. Seriously, his No. 1 receiver in 2024 is slated to be Joshua Palmer — and beyond that it’s a lot of unknowns.
Make no mistake: In the long run this Harbaugh thing really can work, but until then we’re left with a team that’s just plain confusing.
Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images
New York Jets
Do you know if the Jets will be any good? You’re lying, regardless of what you said.
The truth is that Aaron Rodgers is a great unknown at this point. A 40-year-old quarterback can fall off the cliff at a moment’s notice, and that’s assuming we’ve actually seen them play. Now Rodgers is returning from a season-ending injury, to a team we really don’t know a lot about other than potential — and it’s either going to be a mammoth success or an utter failure, without much room in between.
Rodgers has had a lot of latitude to call his shots on the offensive personnel around him, for better and worse. He’s hand-picked a lot of the guys on this roster, which has led to a pretty interesting mix of guys. On paper this teams looks pretty incredible, especially with the additions of Mike Williams at WR and Tyron Smith at LT, but we still don’t know whether this mixture of ingredients will taste good in the end.
Everything comes down to how well Rodgers can play. If we get Packers-level performance out of him then the Jets could be one of the best teams in the AFC. If he has taken a significant step back then .500 might be the best the Jets can hope for.
Either way they’re confusing as hell.
New Orleans Saints
A year ago many — myself included — looked at the New Orleans Saints and immediately crowned them as the winners of the NFC South. While the other three teams in the division faced some intriguing quarterback situations, such as Atlanta riding with Desmond Ridder, Tampa Bay picking Baker Mayfield, and Carolina turning to Bryce Young, New Orleans seemed in the most stable position at the game’s most important position, with the addition of Derek Carr.
So much for that.
Now Carr is back hoping to reclaim the promise of 2023. Thanks to a fairly favorable schedule, which includes some teams that are also confusing, such as the Los Angeles Chargers and the Las Vegas Raiders, the Saints could indeed live up to that promise.
But would we bet on that? Absolutely not. This is a roster that still poses many questions, mainly along the offensive line where injuries are an issue. Plus, after last year are any of us truly convinced that Carr is the answer at QB? Excitement around rookie mid-round pick Spencer Rattler might answer that question.
Then of course there is the annual “What are we doing with Taysom Hill, exactly” question.
This team just makes no sense.
Compels us, though.
Photo by Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Bucs were the surprising winners of the hilariously bad NFC South a year ago. A whole lot of credit goes to the miraculous offensive turnaround which saw Baker Mayfield become a 4,000-yard Pro Bowl passer, opening up Mike Evans and Chris Godwin to have bounce-back seasons.
However, the issue for 2024 is that we don’t know how this will operate without the braintrust being there. Offensive coordinator Dave Canales took the head coaching job in Carolina, and took WR coach Brad Idzik with him. In the wake of these departures the Bucs went for a young, dynamic coach in Liam Coen, most recently the offensive coordinator at Kentucky and before that he had experience with the Los Angeles Rams.
At this point everyone has anointed the Falcons as the champions of the division, but the Bucs still have a really solid roster without a lot of player turnover. It all comes down to how they can manage their coaching changes. That makes this a pretty confusing team to try and parse, with the possibility for success or failure both being on the horizon.
Dallas Cowboys
Water is wet. Taxes are due. The Cowboys are confusing.
It didn’t used to be this way, but over the span of the last two years Dallas has slowly slipped into being a total crapshoot of an organization. There seems to be no confidence in this team’s direction coming down from the top, and it shows in their decision making.
Is Dak Prescott the quarterback Jerry wants? Is CeeDee Lamb the No. 1 he desires? Heck, is Mike McCarthy even a coach he thinks he can win with? For these reasons it feels a lot like the Cowboys could either win the NFC East or be drafting in the Top 5.
The problem with a lack of confidence is that it can permeate everything inside an organization. Jerry’s anxieties could have poisoned the well, and that’s become we know whether Lamb will play a down of football this year.
Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images
Cincinnati Bengals
It’s make or break time for the Cincinnati Bengals. It feels like a lifetime ago they were in the Super Bowl, destined to cement themselves as one of the most promising young teams in the league.
Now in back-to-back seasons the Bengals have underperformed vs. expectations, Joe Burrow has gotten banged up, and now there’s contract drama with Ja’Marr Chase for the braintrust to deal with.
Are the 2024 Bengals still one of the class teams of the AFC, ready to push the Chiefs to determine who’s best — or are they destined to get lost in the shuffle of a brutal AFC North where any team could conceivably win? That questions largely comes down to Burrow, and whether he can rebound after his injuries to prove he’s still a Top 5 quarterback in the NFL.
There’s no possible outcome that would be surprising when it comes to Cincinnati, and that’s a shame considering the promise they showed a few short years ago.
