14. Jacksonville Jaguars
The Jacksonville Jaguars jumped from having the 5th-worst record in the NFL last season to being AFC South champions, and you can't help but feel like they stifled their own progress a bit this offseason.
The Jaguars got major contributions last year from a couple of the team's prior first-round picks -- Travis Etienne and Devin Lloyd. They don't win the AFC South without those two guys on either side of the ball, so to see them walk in free agency with little resistance was discouraging.
Still, you can't help but feel like the infrastructure is in place for the Jags to once again contend for their division this season as opposed to just being another flash in the pan.
They've got a star at quarterback in Trevor Lawrence, whose dual-threat abilities were really unlocked last year under Liam Coen. Then you have arguably the best receiver room in the league, and an opportunistic defense that forced a lot of takeaways (31) and dominated against the run (1st in the NFL) last season.
The biggest "upgrade" the Jaguars are getting this year might come in the form of second-year player Travis Hunter, who was hurt most of his rookie season (missing 10 games) and is obviously one of their most valuable building blocks on either -- or both -- side(s) of the ball.
The losses of Etienne and Lloyd still loom extremely large for this team, and whether or not the defense can repeat the type of success in the takeaway department.
13. Chicago Bears
The Chicago Bears proved last season that they have a young, loaded offense with one of the smartest minds in the NFL (Ben Johnson) calling all the shots.
In just their first year under Johnson, after making Matt Eberflus the first head coach in the history of the franchise to be fired in-season, the Bears were the best team in the NFL in overall turnover differential (+22). As a matter of fact, they had fewer giveaways and more takeaways than any team in the league over the course of the season.
There are almost zero short-term or long-term questions for this team on the offensive side of the ball, but the defense is another story. The Bears were mostly in the bottom 10 of major statistical categories defensively last year apart from their ability to take the ball away, and they lost some of the biggest pieces of their secondary (Kevin Byard, CJ Gardner-Johnson, Jaquan Brisker, Nahshon Wright).
With so many moving parts defensively, and perhaps not doing enough (yet) to upgrade the pass rush, there's at least slight cause for concern that this team can duplicate or build on last year's success. But that offense...
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