22. Dallas Cowboys (6-8)
The Dallas Cowboys are playing on Sunday Night Football at home this week against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and the Cowboys are also eliminated from playoff contention. It's been a year to forget for the Cowboys, who lost QB Dak Prescott weeks ago to a season-ending hamstring injury.
If you ask me, the Cowboys would benefit from blowing this entire operation up an starting fresh, and that could include trading guys like CeeDee Lamb an Micah Parsons. That may sound aggressive, but I believe it's needed for this team. The Cowboys also recently extended Dak Prescott on a contract worth $60 million per year, which reset the QB market.
Prescott is not a $60 million per year QB, but here we are. Dallas has so many issues and no clear way to fix them. They could use multiple starters along their offensive line, at the play-making positions, and even on defense. This could be a long process to become relevant against for Dallas.
21. San Francisco 49ers (6-9)
Ugh. I mean, what else do we have to say about the San Francisco 49ers here in the 2024 NFL Season? They are among the most injured teams in football and saw some of their best players go down with some serious injuries this year. Running back Christian McCaffrey was on the field for a cup of coffee, and Brandon Aiyuk tore his ACL weeks ago.
The 49ers lost in Miami to the Dolphins, and current Dolphins’ head coach Mike McDaniel did get hired from San Francisco a few years ago. The Niners need to not double-down on this current era; this team needs to hit the reset button, as this team’s Super Bowl window slammed shut in just one year.
They have to part with some of their more veteran players, clear some cap space, and build for the future. This era is over, and with this latest loss, they now have nine on the season and are 6-9 on the year. San Fran was already eliminated from playoff contention, so this game only really impacts their draft status in 2025.