The 157-day 2024-25 NFL season is at an end. The Eagles have the Lombardi, the Titans have the No. 1 overall pick. I will take a look at how we got there, and how things are shaping up going forward for everyone from Lamar Jackson to Pete Carroll. Teams are listed by their 2025 draft order, minus trades.
32. Tennessee Titans
How do you get the No. 1 overall pick? By losing in Weeks 1 and 2 to the teams that would go on to get the No. 7 and 10 picks. The Titans notched three victories all year. None of them came after Thanksgiving. It was a " target="_blank"> dismal, dull affair, never reaching transcendent levels of badness, but rather a workaday flavor that was boring without being fascinating. Will Levis and Mason Rudolph were two of the worst quarterbacks in football. Neither was particularly close to the worst. The defense was bad. It wasn’t bottom five. It was more that the Titans just weren't good at anything. That suggests this could be a quicker turnaround than expected if they find the right quarterback — or that there is still much further to fall.
31. Cleveland Browns
Failures rarely get more spectacular. Year three of the Deshaun Watson demonstration — this was not an experiment — plumbed depths of horrid offensive football you rarely see with even the rawest of rookies, let alone one of the highest-paid players in the history of American sports. The Browns averaged 15.5 points during Watson’s seven starts, never once reaching 20. That is what the end of an interval of time — “era” is far too strong a word for the past three years — looks like. Well, at least on the field. Watson will keep haunting the Browns’ dreams off of it. The worst quarterback in football counts $72.9 million against the cap each of the next two seasons. So you can’t even really say the Browns are back at square one — they can’t afford the parking spot. This is a deep, dark end to the most cynical of quarterback ploys. Let it be a lesson the next time someone says QB is the only thing that matters for a football team.
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30. New York Giants
" target="_blank"> The Giants tried nothing and were all out of ideas. Running back the same tired Daniel Jones experiment — this time with 100 percent more surgically repaired knees — the G-Men won two games before their Week 11 bye and decided that was two too many. Jones was benched/cut in interest of the tank even though he did an exemplary job of losing himself. Tommy DeVito, Tim Boyle and Drew Lock finished the task by posting a .143 winning percentage following Jones’ release, but Lock blew the No. 1 pick when he blew away the Colts in Week 17. Lock’s 1.18 EPA per play in that one was the sixth best by any quarterback since 1999. Alrighty then. That’s maybe the most insane way a team has ever lost the top selection, but the Giants haven’t done normal for a long time now. That includes keeping both GM Joe Schoen and coach Brian Daboll for 2025. Malik Nabers provides hope. For what exactly, I’m not sure. Near-term watchability? Even a rookie QB is unlikely to be as bad as what the Giants trotted out in 2024. That’s about the only bar this team is clearing any time soon.
29. New England Patriots
Belichick without the Bill. That was the Patriots’ plan for 2024. If that sounds silly in theory, it was even more so in practice. After a highly Belichick-ian Week 1 upset of the Bengals that ended up costing Cincy its playoff spot, the Pats … won two more times when they wanted to, and one more time when they didn’t. “Don’t Call Me Bill” Belichick head coach Jerod Mayo’s parting gift was a Week 18 triumph over Buffalo’s B-team that cost New England the No. 1 overall pick. Before that, he kept No. 3 overall pick Drake Maye on the bench until Week 6, supposedly because his health couldn’t be risked behind an undermanned offensive line. When Maye finally played, the blocking didn’t matter much. Outside the pocket and on the run was where the rookie found his home. It was exciting, if also a little dangerous. It sometimes felt as if Maye was accumulating more concussion evaluations than touchdowns. That led to some strange late-season handling from Mayo, who was then fired after the Pats stated politely as possible they believed the rookie head coach was in over his head. It was about as clear of a mistake admission as you will ever get in the NFL. The solution? 2 Bill, 2 Belichick in 2025 with Mike Vrabel. Best of luck, Drake.
28. Jacksonville Jaguars
For all intents and purposes, Doug Pederson stopped being the Jaguars’ head coach on Sunday Nov. 17. That would be the day the Jags lost 52-6 to the Lions. It was one day after NFL Network reported Pederson could be fired that week. Typically when a report leaks you’re about to be fired and you then proceed to lose 52-6, you are fired. Only the Jags don’t do fired until it’s too late. Just ask Urban Meyer or Trent Baalke. So Pederson was allowed to sleepwalk through the final six weeks of the season, where his only “accomplishment” was beating the Titans twice and costing the Jags the No. 1 pick. They wouldn’t have used it on a quarterback after making Trevor Lawrence the highest-paid player in the league last summer, though they might have secretly wished they could. Lawrence managed only 11 passing scores in 10 starts and his rate stats fell dangerously close to his rookie-year marks under Urb. This means the Jags find themselves back where they always are: Waiting for cell service to return so the GPS app can tell them which way to go at the crossroads. It’s been “wrong answers only” for most of the 21st century.
27. Las Vegas Raiders
Sometimes there’s just no point in watching the movie. The end is too obvious, and the rest looks boring. That’s almost always the case when a team keeps an interim head coach. Antonio Pierce looked like he might buck the trend when the Raiders beat the Ravens in Week 2, but then … he got it trending. You knew Pierce was in trouble when he endured a five-game losing streak heading into the Raiders’ Week 10 bye. You knew it was over when he … endured a five-game losing streak coming out of the Raiders’ Week 10 bye. It’s fair to ask what anyone could have done with Gardner Minshew, Aidan O’Connell and Desmond Ridder at quarterback, but you don’t have to get too creative to hypothetically arrive at more than Pierce’s four victories. The Colts went 9-8 primarily with Minshew in 2023, for instance. Brock Bowers looks cool. Maxx Crosby is probably still good. Will that be enough for the once and future oldest head coach in the league, Pete Carroll? Pete has somehow managed to become underrated, but no one is going to move the needle in this lion’s den division without a quarterback, and there are several other teams better positioned to land this year’s best young signal callers.
26. New York Jets
What more is there to say? There’s a trail of wreckage where a football season was supposed to be. The worst-case scenario unfolded like a 10-point plan. The quarterback was the GM, and not a good one. The actual front office was powerless. The coach was fired at the first sign of trouble. Every harebrained rescue plan either blew up the garage or hospitalized grandma. There were no positives. Even Aaron Rodgers’ seemingly slam-dunk pursuit of his 500th career touchdown became imperiled when he refused to target anyone other than trade deadline drinking buddy Davante Adams. Everyone has been fired. Everyone else seems unlikely to be back. Of the few guaranteed to remain, one is an owner’s son named Brick. The times are always changing in America and football. Woody Johnson’s Jets are eternal.
25. Carolina Panthers
After two truly terrible Bryce Young starts to begin the season, it appeared the Josh Rosen die had been cast. Young was benched and left to ponder his mega bust status as Andy Dalton played out the string of another doomed year. But then Dalton did what every backup quarterback does: He got hurt. Young returned and … looked like a quarterback. Not necessarily a future franchise player, or even a top-20 option, but an actual NFL quarterback. That has shifted the Panthers conversation away from Young’s shortcomings to the Panthers’ other shortcomings: Basically everything else. This remains a moribund roster with a meddlesome owner. It’s going to take the strongest of coach/quarterback pairings to overcome that. Young and Dave Canales could still easily fail. They should probably be expected to fail. Now we at least know it’s not a fait accompli. If Dave Tepper can allow for just a few moments of roster-building peace, some light might actually shine into the tunnel.
24. New Orleans Saints
One thing went right: The Saints were an unstoppable offensive force in Weeks 1 and 2. And then one thing went wrong. At almost literally the first sign of trouble, the Saints abandoned all the bells and whistles that led to 91 combined points across their first two contests. No more play-action, throwing on first down, pre-snap motion, etc. They would go on to win three more games all year, in the process enduring a harrowing injury apocalypse that has brought about the long-simmering post-Sean Payton reckoning. Only everlasting GM Mickey Loomis seems to have left his reckoning boots at home. Although Payton holdover Dennis Allen was finally fired, Derek Carr’s calamity contract is almost impossible to move. Loomis is impossible to move. He has said he is not going anywhere. That probably means the Saints aren’t, either. Loomis and Payton were a beautiful pairing. Without the head coach, Loomis looks like an anchor, one burrowing ever deeper into the ocean floor with each new contract restructure. This model has failed, but the wreckage is apparently not yet complete enough for the Saints to move on from their longtime executive.
23. Chicago Bears
Caleb Williams learned the hard way: There are no timeouts from being a Bear, literally or figuratively. You are not just contending with normal quarterback problems, you are fighting the weight of Rex Grossman history. You are also dealing with more prosaic issues in addition to the existential, such as “will my coach simply call this timeout or get fired instead?” Matt Eberflus opted for the latter on Thanksgiving. It was a level of Bears catastrophe not even the most hardened Ditka-ite would have believed had they not seen it with their own eyes. If “Eberflus’ Folly” was a holiday comet, Williams’ sacks were a more common occurrence. Say like, every few minutes. The young man simply refused to get rid of the ball as he tried to make something, anything happen in a dysfunctional offense. The only good news there is that he proved his toughness in the process, absorbing 68 sacks and countless more hits without so much as a missed practice. This could still be a franchise player in the making. Unlike Eberflus, new coach Ben Johnson at least has the expertise to conduct the experiment.
22. San Francisco 49ers
The 49ers became the first Super Bowl runner-up to miss the playoffs the following season since … the 49ers in 2020. That won’t really come as a surprise to Kyle Shanahan connoisseurs — Shanny’s vibes can be bad even when he’s winning — but the issue this season was injury. Every team suffers them, but someone has to lead the league. The 49ers were near the top after finding themselves near the bottom in 2023. Sometimes it’s just that simple. Of course, injury never explains it all, especially when the quarterback misses “just” two games. The Niners allowed 400 points for the first time since 2018. Key players missed time, yes, but what was really missing was coaching leadership on the defensive side of the ball. The losses of Robert Saleh and DeMeco Ryans finally seemed to catch up with Shanahan, who followed up DC Steve Wilks’ 2024 firing with DC Nick Sorensen’s 2025 firing. Now Saleh is back as a stabilizing force. That, coupled with almost guaranteed improved health on the other side of the ball should make this another quick Shanny turnaround.
21. Dallas Cowboys
The Cowboys played the hits, and this is an organization where that has become a bad thing. Acrimonious extension talks with not one, but two franchise players? Check. More injuries for said franchise players? Check. Near instant embattlement for coach Mike McCarthy? You better believe check. The Cowboys’ sub-12 win campaign was their first since the last time Dak Prescott got hurt in 2020. That time it was a broken leg. This time, “just” a torn hamstring. McCarthy survived that first injury-ruined season but wasn’t so lucky this time around. The health issues coupled with a glaring lack of depth in several key position groups made Big D’s 7-10 finish something of a miracle after Prescott made his final appearance on Nov. 3. If Prescott’s healthy return provides hope for 2025, not much else does. This roster is more top-heavy than ever, while the sideline is now less inspiring than ever. Say what you will about McCarthy, he’s not literally Brian Schottenheimer. This could get a whole lot worse before it gets better.
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20. Miami Dolphins
How do you score 151 fewer points than the year prior? The quarterback misses six games and you go 2-4 in his absence. Although they weren’t exactly world-beating with Tua Tagovailoa in the lineup, the Dolphins almost certainly would have reached the playoffs had he made 17 starts. Of course, merely making the postseason isn’t supposed to be the ultimate goal. You need to do something once you get there. We are assuming the Dolphins would have issued a “nah bro, we’re good.” The championship ceiling — division, conference or otherwise — remains nowhere in sight in Miami. That was more evident than ever this season when the offense went full horizontal raid upon Tagovailoa’s return from his concussion. They are playing the 2012-15 Peyton Manning Broncos offense with one key difference: They don’t have 2012-15 Peyton Manning. They have Tua. Absent the creation of a bully ball defense and running game, this squad appears poised to remain stuck in neutral for 2025.
19. Indianapolis Colts
He’s a scary thought: The Colts didn’t answer any of their big questions in 2024. Here’s an even scarier one: They did. Because you could make a valid argument Indy has already seen all it needs to see of embattled franchise player Anthony Richardson. A 47.7 percent passer — that’s a number you just don’t see in 2025 — Richardson also lapped the field in negative advanced metrics. His -11.3 completion percentage above expectation was almost exactly double his next “closest competitor,” Cooper Rush. Richardson was bolder as a runner this season, one reason Indy managed to scratch out a 6-5 record in his starts. But the wins felt largely in spite of the young quarterback, while he left little confidence he could remain healthy amidst the hits one takes as a dual-threat signal caller. It leaves the Colts at yet another franchise turning point, though they’ve surprisingly left their Chris Ballard/Shane Steichen brain trust in place. Nothing is going to change unless Richardson dramatically changes. It can happen, but for every Josh Allen, there are 10 Mitch Trubiskys.
18. Atlanta Falcons
Oh dear. It’s almost poignant the Falcons thought this would work. Lighting the fuse of your own quarterback controversy is hardly unheard of in the NFL. Ask every team Carson Wentz ever played for. But in this fashion? $90 million guaranteed for the achilles-hobbled veteran at the same time you use a top-10 pick on a rookie? Either the Falcons don’t understand the economy, human nature, or both. This insane move still has its defenders. Kirk Cousins didn’t work out after all, and now the Falcons have his young(ish) replacement. But then why did you …. you know what, nevermind. In a league obsessed with efficiency and increasingly prone to groupthink, the Falcons actually did something outside the box. They ended up sitting on the box and breaking it in the process, but it’s the kind of gamble that might become more and more necessary if everyone keeps running the same three offenses from the same three coaching trees. The Falcons were innovators. We just didn’t know it yet.
17. Arizona Cardinals
The Cardinals matched their combined win total from the previous two seasons. They still finished under .500. Now there’s a stat for the Kyler Murray era. It’s been six years since Murray arrived on the scene in the desert. The Cardinals have won more than eight games one time. Murray seems unwilling or unable to make progress under center. Seriously, look at his stats from 2019. They’re extremely decent for a rookie. Then look at his stats from year six, 2024. They are … almost identical to those rookie-year marks. There’s not another level to this 27-year-old’s game, which leaves this franchise in a never-ending lurch. Murray isn’t bad enough to bench. He’s too resource-intensive to trade. He’s too average to truly win with. The only viable formula is making this roster “Eagles West,” and there are precisely zero data points from either the recent past or decades past to suggest such an outcome is possible under this ownership group.
16. Cincinnati Bengals
The 9-8 Bengals had seven losses to playoff teams, including both Super Bowl participants. But that isn’t what cost them. No, it was the more mundane that sealed their fate. It isn’t just that they lost to the Patriots. It’s that it happened in Week 1. It’s that it happened at home. They simply don’t make worse losses, and that is what had the Bengals in chase mode until the literal final week of the season. It's why it didn’t matter when they beat direct Wild Card competitors Denver and Pittsburgh in Weeks 17 and 18. When you do things like lose to Jacoby Brissett in the season opener, any luck you might make yourself goes out the window. Bizarrely, the issues that befell Cincy in that ill-fated opener aren’t what cost them against their more imposing opponents. That would be an almost complete lack of defense. The Bengals allowed an average of 36 points in their seven setbacks against postseason qualifiers. They couldn’t stop anyone who mattered. That’s why making the tournament wouldn’t have mattered, anyways. This is not a playoff squad right now. The draft and free agency loom larger for Cincinnati than just about any other franchise.
15. Seattle Seahawks
How do you miss the postseason at 10-7? When you beat two playoff teams all year and own none of the tiebreakers. It gets even less inspiring when you dig only slightly deeper. Seattle beat the Broncos 26-20 in Week 1 at home as Bo Nix made his NFL debut. You then have to flash forward 17 weeks for their next “playoff victory,” though this one isn’t what it seems at first blush. One reason Seattle was 10-7 instead of 9-8? They beat a Rams team starting Jimmy Garoppolo 30-25 in Week 18. Memories. That somehow wasn’t even the Seahawks’ “worst victory.” That would be the week prior, where they defeated the Bears … 6-3 on national television. Wins, yes, but ones that showed how far they still have to go as they move on from the Pete Carroll era. Things could get worse before they get better. 34-year-old Geno Smith predictably keeps regressing off his fluke 2022, while admittedly impressive new coach Mike Macdoanld is already on his second OC in as many years. Macdoanld’s organization on his own defensive side of the ball does provide hope for ascendance instead of reversion, but there’s just not a lot separating this group from the rest of the riff raff at the moment.
14. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
There was a lot going on here. The Bucs began the season 3-1 with victories over the NFC’s No. 1 seed and both championship game participants. Oh, and a home loss to Bo Nix in his third career start. “These things happen” was the story of the Bucs’ 2024. Stirring wins. Some really bad losses, including two to the Falcons and one to Cooper Rush with a playoff berth on the line. There was one of the best “small moments” of the season in Mike Evans’ literal last second achievement of his 11th straight 1,000-yard campaign, and one of the more unnecessary lows in Chris Godwin’s wretched garbage time injury. Baker Mayfield, who threw for 41 touchdowns and tied for the league lead with 18 turnovers, set the “anything can happen at any given moment” tone at the top. Somehow now one of the league’s most underrated players, Mayfield got a second straight offensive coordinator a head-coaching gig. Mayfield probably still doesn’t provide a championship ceiling, but he does the next best thing. If you don’t have a Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen, you better at least be entertaining. Few teams are more eminently watchable than Tampa right now.
13. Denver Broncos
Already 60 years old and one wasted season into his high-stakes, high-dollar Broncos contract, Sean Payton forced the issue. He needed a quarterback, and he was going to get one even if that meant landing the QB6 in the draft class. Drafting solely for need can be a quick road to ruin, but it turns out career-long winner Payton knew he was doing. Bo Nix put himself on the periphery of the OROY conversation as Caleb Williams faltered and Drake Maye more flashed than excelled. The Broncos made the playoffs, even if it was as the largely ceremonial No. 7 seed. That one went nowhere, with the Broncos getting stomped into oblivion 31-7 by the Bills. Despite the draft home run and playoff qualification, this was still a baby steps campaign. Throwing out their Week 18 exhibition against the Chiefs, the Broncos went 1-5 against playoff teams and 0-3 against primary division rivals Kansas City and Los Angeles. A ground game maestro, Payton’s rushing attack remained surprisingly limp. If the Broncos can level up on offense, the defense appears to be peaking. After 10 years in the post-Peyton wilderness, this is a team back on the come up.
12. Pittsburgh Steelers
Are the Steelers too good to be bad or too bad to be good? It was hard to tell in 2024. They did a lot of the things good teams do, but more of the things bad teams do. After two months of eking out victories against most of the league’s worst squads, the Steelers came out of their Week 9 bye with triumphs over the Commanders and Ravens. Maybe something is actually cooking here. Cue getting rough housed at the hands of Philadelphia, Baltimore and Kansas City, disabusing any notion this team was actually going somewhere. That was confirmed as the Steelers completed their Ravens trilogy in the Wild Card Round, falling behind 21-0 at halftime before making the final score a more respectable 28-14. Long in the tooth on defense and shockingly undynamic on offense, it’s astonishing this team ever sat at 10-3. Along the way, Russell Wilson and Justin Fields confirmed the old adage that if you have two quarterbacks, you really have zero. Mike Tomlin can go 9-8 in his sleep. At this point, that’s where Steelers fans find themselves. Wake them when you have something new to sell.
11. Los Angeles Chargers
Things went as expected. That was both good and bad. On the good front, new coach Jim Harbaugh immediately raised the baseline. The Bolts’ 11 wins were their most since 2018, and second most since 2009. Harbaugh simply plays winning football. On the bad front, it was still feeling very Chargers-y in the Wild Card Round. The Bolts were 2.5-point road favorites against the Texans. They lost 32-12, watching Justin Herbert throw more interceptions in that one game (four) than he did all season (three). With a chance to cut the Texans’ lead to 23-13 on a fourth quarter extra point, the Bolts instead got the largely automatic play blocked and returned for two Texans tallies. If this team isn’t cursed, it has a funny way of showing it. The regular season positives were plenty. The Chargers scored 56 more points than the year prior and allowed 97 fewer. Harbaugh can coach. Herbert can quarterback, even if he’s starting to feel a bit like fancy Joe Flacco. This, presumably, will be Harbaugh’s low point. There are still improvements that can be made to the running game and defense. You just have to wonder: Does anything actually matter when it’s the Chargers?
10. Green Bay Packers
It was just one of those years where nothing was normal. Ascendant second-year starter Jordan Love got injured in the closing seconds of the opening game — which was in Brazil for some reason — setting the tone for a turbulent campaign that saw him suffer three separate injuries. He missed two games and failed to finish three others. These were the circumstances under which coach Matt LaFleur decided to call one of the most conservative offenses in the league despite his exciting quarterback and theoretically deep receiver corps. The Packers’ 526 rushes were sixth most, and their -7 pass rate over expected was bottom five. So much for having faith in the QB. Of course, how could you blame him when Love was in the injury tent half the time? The approach also produced a lot of victories, save for when it mattered most. The Packers went 0-5 against the Eagles, Vikings and Lions during the regular season, getting roughed up by the Eagles in the playoffs for good measure. If the Pack were a year early in 2023, they never completely arrived in 2024. Here’s to improved health and confidence for 2025.
9. Minnesota Vikings
Kevin O’Connell’s teams accomplish things they’re not supposed to. In 2022, it was going 13-4 and making the playoffs with a negative point differential. In 2024, it was contending for the NFC’s No. 1 seed until the literal final game of the regular season before losing and having to settle for going on the road as a 14-3 wild card team … with Sam Darnold. It was there that the cost of overachievement became clear. A squad that kept winning one-score games with a replacement-level quarterback and mediocre secondary was probably overdue to get blown out, and it did. The more sturdily-constructed Rams showed the Vikings how far they still have to go. Frustrating, but also exciting. If this is a team that can go 13-4 and 14-3 when it’s not even at its best, what happens when it gets a real quarterback? As luck would have it, we get to find out as soon as 2025, when first-rounder J.J. McCarthy takes a bow. Maybe he’ll look like a first-year starter. Or maybe he will be the finishing touch that finally takes the Vikings from scrappy gamers to imposing heavyweights.
8. Houston Texans
The Texans scored more points than the year prior, allowed fewer, won the division and won a wild card game, all with a second-year quarterback. So why did their season feel like such a letdown? The tyranny of expectations, for one. The Texans overachieved with a rookie QB in 2023, ergo, the only possible 2024 trajectory was up. Unfair, of course, but hardly surprising. But if the Texans can’t control outside opinion, they can control the product they put on the field, and there were many unexpected frustrations. No issue was more glaring than the offense’s collapse under pressure. C.J. Stroud’s protection fell off a cliff, and he responded with a skyrocketing pressure to sack ratio and far fewer chunk gains. Stroud wasn’t served well by his supporting cast, and he responded in a manner that exacerbated the problem instead of soothing it. So it goes with a young player. The question now becomes, how much of this is temporary? Stroud has won at least one playoff game each of his first two seasons. That could make him the next Ben Roethlisberger — or next Mark Sanchez. Looking to shake things up, the Texans fired OC Bobby Slowik. With expectations now reset for 2025, hopefully the same is true of the Texans’ protection and offensive approach.
7. Los Angeles Rams
For as gifted as Sean McVay indisputably is, we had never seen him have to coach a football team without Aaron Donald. Far removed from the explosive offenses of his first two years in L.A., how would McVay fare without one of the greatest defensive players of all time? A division title and wild card upset of the Vikings. That doesn’t tell the whole story, of course. “Stuck” on 10 wins, the Rams scored fewer points than the year prior and allowed more. This was business as post-Super Bowl LVI usual for a franchise that has only one playoff win in three years since its title. But man, if this is the baseline, you know more Lombardis are eventually coming. It could nevertheless be time for another retool. Matthew Stafford and Cooper Kupp are aging out. Kyren Williams, for all his competence, is no Todd Gurley. McVay’s scoring offense has finished 20th or worse three of the past five years. He needs to shake things up. Eight years in, we know enough to know McVay knows this. Even if roster realities prevent big changes for 2025, McVay has a replenished defense and skill player superstar in Puka Nacua. Anything is possible as long as McVay is on the sideline.
6. Baltimore Ravens
The Ravens averaged the second most yards per play of all time. They lost in the Divisional Round. Par for the course for the most snakebitten of elite franchises. Seemingly every year the Ravens set some new efficiency record before failing to make noise in the playoffs. Is it bad luck? Cursed coaching? Walking the planet earth at the same time as Patrick Mahomes? It’s a little bit of all three, which is why it still feels premature to say this squad will never win the big one. Lamar Jackson just had his best overall postseason — not to mention best ever regular season — while Derrick Henry took the offense to new heights. The defense had a down year before stabilizing late. Despite a tendency for strong process to be greeted by poor results, coach John Harbaugh is still a net positive. It just wasn’t the Ravens’ year. Maybe it never will be. It’s still been a hell of a decade.
5. Detroit Lions
No one scored more points or had a better point differential. No one had a bigger regular season victory. With the NFC’s top seed and bye on the line in Week 18, the Lions demolished the Vikings 31-9. There was just one little problem heading into the final chapter of a storybook campaign: Almost everyone was hurt on defense. Although Lions fans will understandably bemoan their five Divisional Round turnovers, the bigger problem was the defensive desperation that put too much pressure on the offense and created the environment for giveaways. The Commanders took zero sacks and punted one time. They converted 3-of-4 fourth downs. That is what ended the Lions’ season. It was heartbreaking if easy to see coming. The Lions never fully recovered from their defensive I.R. deluge. They were just usually able to outscore it. That works until it doesn’t, and the go-for-broke Commanders represented something of a perfect storm reckoning. The insult to injury came after that heartbreaker, with both OC Ben Johnson and DC Aaron Glenn departing for head-coaching jobs. The Lions will be underestimated in 2025. That’s a position from which Dan Campbell and Jared Goff have continued to defy the odds.
4. Washington Commanders
We don’t always know. We thought Caleb Williams was a more readymade rookie than Jayden Daniels. We believed Dan Quinn was a nice guy but misguided retread head-coaching hire. We knew Kliff Kingsbury was a dud of a play-calling choice. “We” is doing a lot of work here, of course. Not everyone thought that, chief amongst them rookie Commanders GM Adam Peters. The new boss found himself at a typical Washington crossroads. Atypically, he chose the right path. Daniels was the most sensational rookie in recent memory, and Quinn was a happy warrior head coach who learned all the right lessons from his overly conservative Falcons tenure. Kingsbury was liberated from the burden of having to be the leader. It created an alchemy that led to the Commanders’ most victories since 1991, as well as their first NFC Championship Game appearance in 33 years. None of it would have been possible without the other. Daniels’ preternatural calm allowed Kingsbury to open up the playbook, which in turn permitted Quinn to discover his inner Dan Campbell. The resulting contradiction — controlled aggression — sprung multiple playoff upsets. Maybe this was the peak. It’s hard to make the final four in a league with 32 teams. More tantalizing is the idea that it’s just the beginning for a long-suffering franchise that has officially been delivered from Daniel Snyder.
3. Buffalo Bills
It’s pretty rare that a season can be boiled down to one question. Can you beat the Chiefs? For the Bills the 2024 answer was “sometimes, but not when it matters.” Impressive against their intractable foe during the regular season, the Bills again turned invisible when the lights were brightest in the AFC Championship Game. Buffalo’s latest Kansas City failure was made all the more painful by the Chiefs’ unmasking at the hands of the Eagles in the Super Bowl. Just what are they doing over there in Buffalo and Baltimore, and why does it always take an NFC pass-rushing Goliath to slay a team that’s frankly been David-ing for several years now? The Bills don’t know, and they don’t seem to want to know. They’re running it back yet again with Sean McDermott, who seems no closer to winning at Arrowhead Stadium in the playoffs than he is to walking on Mars. He at least has his latest Chiefs-killing blueprint courtesy of the Eagles: Build out the trenches, especially along the interior. The problem is, by the time McDermott puts his latest Chiefs plan into motion, Andy Reid is always on to the next one. It’s the Bills who should have been on to the next one if they were serious about ever solving their unsolvable AFC conundrum.
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2. Kansas City Chiefs
It was a nightmare that had apparently gone national. The Chiefs would not, could not stop getting away with it. No running game. No left tackle. No receiver corps. No matter. Someone would miss a field goal or drop a snap and the Chiefs would be back on their merry 15-2 way. If fans were sick of it, the rest of the league was overawed by it. At no point did the Bills appear to believe they could win what was actually a quite-winnable AFC championship contest. Their Chiefs familiarity had bred fear instead of contempt. Enter someone from outside the Kansas City ecosystem. It had been nearly two years to the day the Eagles nearly beat the Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII. Instead of being broken by that defeat, they were forged by it. Philly did what Buffalo and Baltimore could not: Lay the Chiefs’ issues bare. No more Patrick Mahomes papering over the most basic of roster defects. Having the best player on planet earth is apparently still enough in and of itself to get you to the big game, but he can longer win it on his own. Rebuilding the supporting cast is not easy when you have the No. 31 or 32 pick year after year. But then again, everything is easier when you have Mahomes. As the Eagles reminded, it’s just not automatic.
1. Philadelphia Eagles
Fine. If none of you guys are going to do it, we will. For three years, the NFL has been unable to answer a basic question: How do you beat the Chiefs? The Eagles came up with a solution: By simply doing it. It was a long road to get there. After a heartbreaking loss in Super Bowl LVII, the Eagles started 2023 10-1 before a late-season collapse that ended up with a non-competitive wild card showing against the Bucs. With many already inclined to doubt Nick Sirianni and Jalen Hurts, the questions came fast and furious: Should Sirianni be fired? Can you actually win a Super Bowl with Hurts? GM Howie Roseman ignored the noise. He then ignored recent precedent by lavishing money on a running back. Saquon Barkley buried all the Eagles’ offensive question marks under an avalanche of long touchdowns. Any time the old chatter resurfaced, Saquon made a house call. But Barkley had a rare off night in the Super Bowl. It was another newcomer who saved the day: DC Vic Fangio. It was a perfect offseason plan coming to fruition. The Eagles enhanced their ground-game strength and threw resources at their defensive weaknesses. It highlighted the fact that the existing core wasn’t just great, but championship-worthy. The rest of the league was beginning to wonder if “championship worthy” even mattered with Patrick Mahomes out there. At least in Philly, anything is possible when you have Roseman building the roster.
