26. New Orleans Saints (5-12)
The New Orleans Saints gave the Tampa Bay Buccaneers some fits in Week 18, but the Bucs did end up pulling away. You do have to hand it to the Saints to some degree - they have dealt with a brutal amount of injuries this year and have still remained mostly competitive in their games this year. However, this coming offseason is going to be very telling.
They fired former head coach Dennis Allen a while back, and much of the current mess they are in is due to current GM Mickey Loomis, who has been running the show for a while now. If you ask me, Loomis needs to go and this Saints team needs a full-blown reset from the top, down. They aren't in a super great position in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft, so they aren't going to come away with a top QB prospect or anything.
One of the more interesting and irrelevant teams in the NFL is the New Orleans Saints.
25. Carolina Panthers (5-12)
I don't want to overreact, but is Bryce Young... good?
Many have said this, but him being benched seems to have helped him quite a bit. The Carolina Panthers absolutely have to feel confident going into 2025 about him being their starter. And what's cool about this is the Panthers have something substantive to latch onto this coming offseason. It should be all about bringing in more weapons for Young and improving that pass rush.
And with how weak the NFC South appears to be, the Panthers can be a sneaky bet in 2025 to win the division outright. Now yes, this does hinge on Bryce Young being able to take another step, but he's playing with a lot of confidence, and I am not sure he had that at all last year or before his benching in 2024.
The dysfunction in Carolina seems to be settling down a bit, and a new and bright future could be on the way.