20. Indianapolis Colts (4-6)
Alright man, can we end the Joe Flacco experiment? The Indianapolis Colts made a shocking move to bench second-year QB Anthony Richardson after just 10 NFL starts. Joe Flacco is their backup, and he’s not played well recently. You have to wonder if Flacco could actually play himself out of the starting job. I mean, the Colts are clearly far from a playoff team, so what is the use in continuing to throw Flacco out there?
The team needs to immediately insert Anthony Richardson back into the lineup to see if he can take some strides in his development over their last seven games. To be fair, though, if head coach Shane Steichen, who is an insanely smart offensive mind made the decision to bench Richardson, I am not sure the second-year QB from Florida is good enough to develop into a franchise QB at the NFL level.
That’s simply what it may come down to.
19. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4-6)
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are falling apart. The offense is banged up and the defense can’t stop anything. The San Francisco 49ers did need every single second to kick a game-winning field goal to beat the Bucs in Week 10, but it’s not been pretty for Tampa Bay in recent weeks. The team still may have their franchise QB in Baker Mayfield, who they extended last offseason, but the team is clearly in need of more defensive help and perhaps some wide receivers to eventually replace Chris Godwin and Mike Evans,
The Buccaneers are falling into that irrelevant middle tier where they aren’t good enough to make the playoffs but also are not bad enough to be among the worst teams in the NFL and land a top pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. We’ll see if Mayfield can carry this team down the stretch, but it’s not likely he can.