Every NFL team is undefeated and with just a couple of weeks before training camps get underway around the league, expectations are reaching their highest point for even the franchises with the most dismal of hopes this coming season. Training camp is a time for every fan base to be optimistic. You just never know what’s going to happen in a given season, as evidenced last year by a number of teams, including a couple of huge surprises like the Seattle Seahawks and Minnesota Vikings.
But which teams are poised to be huge disappointments to their fans in 2023? Despite perhaps playing above expectations last year, teams do not always progress in a linear fashion year over year. Some teams that took major steps forward last season could take big steps back in 2023.
Which five NFL teams are most obviously poised to disappoint in 2023?
5 NFL teams poised to disappoint fans in 2023
5. New York Giants (last year: 9-7-1)
Over the course of the last year, I think you could consider me one of the biggest New York Giants “haters” out there. I’m just not a believer. And last year, the Giants proved me wrong, so it’s certainly possible that it could happen again.
The primary reason why I believe the New York Giants are poised to disappoint in 2023 is that I just don’t buy any sort of sustainability with the way Daniel Jones plays. He cut down the turnovers pretty remarkably in 2022, which was impressive. Jones went from throwing 22 interceptions in his first two seasons along with 29 fumbles to having just 12 interceptions and 13 fumbles the last two years.
That included a career-best 1.1 interception percentage in 2022. Even after getting a big new contract in 2023, I just don’t buy Daniel Jones as being able to push this Giants team over the top. I can’t help but wonder if what we saw in 2022 was about the ceiling for how well this team can do as long as Jones is the QB.
Again, I could be wrong, but I think the Giants are poised to disappoint fans in 2023.
4. Las Vegas Raiders (last year: 6-11)
After all the moves the Las Vegas Raiders made in 2022, after hiring Josh McDaniels, after landing the league’s best wide receiver in Davante Adams, fans in Raider Nation understandably expected more out of this team.
The Raiders were simply not good in 2022. They might have been a bit better than their record indicated with some tough one-score losses among their 6-11 overall record, but at the end of the day, any glimpses the Raiders showed last year of being better than their record might not matter at all in 2023.
The Raiders dumped Derek Carr this offseason, representing their most significant change at the quarterback position in the last decade. Carr’s departure wasn’t overly surprising, but the Raiders might have been banking on Tom Brady playing at least one more year, and Josh McDaniels may have been forced to pivot to Plan B.
Unfortunately for the Raiders, “Plan B” was Jimmy Garoppolo, and as of right now, Garoppolo’s availability this season could be in question.
Not only is Garoppolo’s Week 1 status in question, but so is the status of All-Pro running back Josh Jacobs. Jacobs was slapped with the franchise tag this offseason, and there might be just as good of a chance right now of the Raiders trading Jacobs as there is of him playing for them Week 1.
If things start to go South for this Raiders team, I think they could get really bad. This is not a team that’s built to weather any sort of storm and because of that, I think fans could be let down in a big way this season.
3. Seattle Seahawks (last year: 9-8)
One of the biggest surprises in the entire NFL last season was undoubtedly the Seattle Seahawks. Although the Seahawks didn’t win the NFC East, they made it to the playoffs and won twice as many games as most people were projecting for this team.
After the trade of Russell Wilson to the Denver Broncos, people thought the Seahawks were packing it in for a year and set to reload the roster in 2022-23 with a new quarterback potentially coming high in one of those two NFL Draft classes.
Well, the Seahawks didn’t draft any quarterbacks with their high selections. They stuck with Geno Smith and Drew Lock last year and let those two guys compete for the starting position throughout the preseason. It was Smith who emerged from that competition victorious, and obviously, one of the NFL’s best stories of last season was born.
Smith not only won the starting QB job in Seattle, but he ended up winning the NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year Award.
Despite Geno’s resurgence last year, I think the Seahawks are one of the top five teams poised to disappoint fans in 2023. Again, progression is not always linear in the NFL. The Seahawks overachieved last year but will they do it again this coming season? Can Geno Smith repeat what we saw a year ago? Can he even come close?
I’m not buying it just yet. The Seahawks started off really hot last year winning six of their first nine games before losing six of their final nine including the postseason. The three wins the Seahawks notched in the second half of last season came against the hapless Rams (two wins) and New York Jets.
I just don’t see the Seahawks returning to the form we saw from them in the first two months of last season, at least not consistently.
2. Minnesota Vikings (last year: 13-4)
The 2022 season was kind of a magical ride for the Minnesota Vikings.
Although it didn’t end well (a home playoff loss to the New York Giants), the Vikings were one of the league’s most drastically improved teams in 2022. Kevin O’Connell took over a roster that had undoubtedly been underachieving under Mike Zimmer in recent years, and O’Connell was able to come in and push all the right buttons offensively for this team.
The Vikings went from being the 14th-ranked offense in 2021 to being the 8th-ranked scoring offense in 2022, and they won an astounding 11 games that were decided by one score among their 13 regular season wins in total. As a matter of fact, the Vikings were 11-0 last year in one-score games.
And that is precisely the reason I think they could be in line to disappoint fans significantly this coming season.
Winning one-score games certainly requires you to be a good NFL team, but it also requires the ball to bounce your way at least a time or two. Think back to last year’s Vikings season in which they were able to pull off some borderline miraculous comebacks against teams like the Commanders, Bills, Colts, and others.
I’m not banking on the Vikings being that effective again in one-score games, and even the slightest change in record could put this team on the outside looking in of the NFC playoff race. Although their record indicates the Vikings were one of the NFL’s best teams last season, I think it was a bit more of a mirage and they could take a step back in 2023.
1. New York Jets (last year: 7-10)
The Jets finished in last place during the 2022 NFL season, so how could they possibly disappoint fans in 2023, right?
Well, it might be easier than you would think.
The Jets are the talk of the NFL in the 2023 offseason after pulling off a trade for one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history. The Jets acquired Aaron Rodgers in a blockbuster deal with the Green Bay Packers, putting a target on their back for every team in the NFL.
The Jets took a big leap forward as a team last year with the development of their stellar rookie class led by cornerback Sauce Gardner, wide receiver Garrett Wilson, and running back Breece Hall. Hall was injured against the Broncos last year, otherwise he might have won Offensive Rookie of the Year over his teammate Wilson.
Regardless of the accolades of that young class, the Jets were stellar last year defensively. They simply were horrendous when it came to the QB position. Zach Wilson’s failure to develop led to the trade to acquire Rodgers, and even with the four-time MVP under center, it’s hard to imagine the Jets living up to the expectations fans are putting forth this season.
Jets fandom is expecting 2012-13 Denver Broncos under Peyton Manning-level dominance but is Rodgers even that guy anymore?
It’s understandable that Rodgers might have been a little distracted last season knowing his time with the Packers was running low, but he also just didn’t look like the same guy out there. Is he going to be able to get back to playing at an MVP level this season? Expectations for the Jets are going to be that the defense maintains a top-five level of play and that Rodgers returns to MVP form.
I think fans are setting up to be disappointed.