2024 NFL Season: Grades for teams coming off their Week 12 bye
Week 13 is already four games old. It’s been a good start for the home teams. The Lions, Cowboys, and Packers all prevailed on their own turf, and the Chiefs (who clinched a playoff berth) survived the Raiders at Arrowhead Stadium on Black Friday.
There are still 12 games left this week, because no teams were on the bye. That wasn’t the case in Week 12, when a half-dozen clubs got some time off. How have those teams fared so far in 2024?
Grades for the 6 teams off in Week 12
Atlanta Falcons (6-5)
Raheem Morris’s team sits atop the NFC South, and is looking for its first division title since their Super Bowl LI campaign of 2016. In fact, the Falcons haven’t posted a winning season since reaching the playoffs in ‘17. Signing veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins has thrown 17 TD passes in 11 outings. He has certainly been a positive for an aerial attack that came up with only 14 scoring tosses a year ago.
Second-year running back Bijan Robinson leads the club in yards from scrimmage (1,142) and total TDs (7), and tight end Kyle Pitts is having a solid season. The defense has been inconsistent, and a pass rush that has produced only 10 sacks. Atlanta has lost two straight games, and the Buccaneers are right on their tail.
Grade: C+
Buffalo Bills (9-2)
The reigning division champions can clinch the AFC East on Sunday night at home with a win over the reeling San Francisco 49ers. That’s because the rival Dolphins fell at Green Bay on Thanksgiving. It’s inevitable for Sean McDermott’s club, the only team in the division with a winning record. This is a roster with a lot of new faces from a year ago.
The biggest constant has been quarterback Josh Allen, who has cut way back on the turnovers. Buffalo’s defense has given up its share of yards, but Buffalo has amassed 21 takeaways, and McDermott’s team owns the league’s best turnover differential (plus-14). The team got off to a 3-0 start, lost to the Ravens and Texans on the road, and this dangerous club has reeled off six straight wins.
Grade: A
Cincinnati Bengals (4-7)
This statistic may sum up one of the league’s biggest disappointments this season to date. Entering Sunday’s slate, and including Green Bay’s 30-17 win over Miami on Thanksgiving evening, teams that had managed to score at least 30 points in a game an impressive 83 times. The clubs reaching that mark owned a gaudy 77-6 win-loss record. Three of those six losses belong to Zac Taylor’s Bengals, two of those to the rival Ravens.
Quarterback Joe Burrow is having an incredible season. He’s thrown for 27 scores, and turned over the ball only five times. The defense was a major issue in 2023, and hasn’t looked much better this season. Cincinnati has been outscored a combined 108-73 in the fourth quarter and overtime.
Grade: C-
Jacksonville Jaguars (2-9)
It’s one of the more mystifying stretches in the league. Go back the last year and a half to head coach Doug Pederson’s debut with the franchise in 2022. The Jaguars dropped eight of their first 12 games, strung together five straight wins to capture the AFC South, and even won a playoff game by rallying from a 27-0 deficit to knock of the Chargers.
Pederson’s team opened 2023 with an 8-3 record. Since then, the Jaguars are a combined 3-14, and entered Week 13 tied for the worst record in the league. Quarterback Trevor Lawrence has been less-than-sensational, but rookie wideout Brian Thomas Jr. has been very impressive. It’s hard to win games with a defense that has given up lots of yards and 37 offensive TDs.
Grade: F
New Orleans Saints (4-7)
The team’s season to date has resembled a poor po’ boy. The bread is a pair of wins to start the season, as well as victories over the Falcons and Browns entering the off-week (under interim head coach Darren Rizzi). However, there’s nothing tasty about a seven-game losing streak in between.
Still, the erratic play of the first-place Falcons, and the recent slump by the Buccaneers has enabled the Saints to hang around in terms of an NFC South title (although a 2-3 record divisional record doesn’t help). The team is three games under .500, but still owns a positive scoring differential thanks to that impressive offensive start. However, only the Jaguars are allowing more total yards per game Is the team capable of a strong finish.
Grade: C-
New York Jets (3-8)
It was probably foolish to think that this franchise, which entered the season with the longest-active playoff drought in the league, were only a quarterback and a few free-agent additions away from ending that futility. All told, 40-year-old Aaron Rodgers has looked his age too many times this season, and the Jets’ offensive line continues to be an issue.
To date, it’s added up to three wins, and the departure of the head coach (Robert Saleh) and general manager (Joe Douglas). Even a midseason trade for talented wide receiver Davante Adams hasn’t made a difference. The Jets’ heralded defense has been inconsistent at best, and only two teams in the league are averaging fewer yards per game on the ground. D for Disaster.