28. Las Vegas Raiders
The upgrade from Antonio Pierce to Pete Carroll cannot be overstated. The upgrade from Aidan O’Connell and Gardner Minshew to Geno Smith cannot be overstated. The upgrade from Alexander Mattison to Ashton Jeanty cannot be overstated. The Raiders will be improved offensively, there’s no doubt, but they might end up with the worst defense in the NFL this season.
27. Jacksonville Jaguars
I want to see the Jacksonville Jaguars climbing this list all throughout the 2025 season. This was a team I was buying stock into heavily back in 2022, and it’s been a shame to see the drop-off from the second half of the 2023 season up to now. With Travis Hunter in the fold, the ofense should at least be tough to stop on a weekly basis.
26. Atlanta Falcons
Even if you’re buying stock into the young Atlanta Falcons offense in the first year of the Michael Penix Jr. era, you’ve got to have a healthy level of skepticism for the defense once again. At least the Falcons made some draft investments there this year, but unless that young defense has about five different guys breaking out this year, the Falcons could be in for a tough year. They’ll need to be great situationally to avoid losing 10 or more games.
25. Carolina Panthers
It’s been great to see Bryce Young bouncing back after a rough rookie season and then getting benched for Andy Dalton last year. Young’s confidence clearly grew over the course of the 2024 season, and he’s now got some new weapons to work with. If the Panthers get a big year out of rookie Tetairoa McMillan as well as progression from Xavier Legette, they’ll be cooking with a little something. The defense has to take a huge leap for them to be relevant.