NFL Power Rankings: Final rankings before 2024 regular season

30. Minnesota Vikings

The Minnesota Vikings have had one of the worst offseasons out of any team in the entire NFL. It hasn’t been all bad, of course, but at least when we’re looking ahead at the 2024 season, things could certainly be a lot better for Kevin O’Connell and company.

The Vikings lost rookie quarterback JJ McCarthy to a season-ending knee injury, which is more detrimental than disappointing. You want to see McCarthy play at some point in his rookie year, and that’s not going to happen now. The Vikings will be the Sam Darnold show all year, and obviously the best-case scenario there is for them to see something like what we saw from Baker Mayfield in Tampa Bay.

I wouldn’t be shocked if the Vikings have a rough year this year and rejuvenate excitement over the direction of the franchise next offseason with McCarthy coming back healthy.

29. New York Giants

I struggled not to put the Giants even lower on this list than they are. I really just don’t have any faith in Daniel Jones becoming the type of player the Giants seem to think he’s capable of being.

Jones’s showing in the preseason was brutal, and the Giants have a rough backup situation with Drew Lock. These two quarterbacks came into the NFL in the same rookie class back in 2019, and both guys have combined for about 800 total turnovers between the two of them.

All kidding aside, the Giants are a strange team to try and project this year because if Jones can limit the mistakes, they probably have a good enough roster to win 7 or 8 games. But if the Giants aren’t able to close the deal in one-score games, I see them winning 4 or 5 at most.