NFL Power Rankings: Predicting every team's worst-case scenario in 2024

16. Atlanta Falcons: 6 or 7 wins; Kirk Cousins signing is a flop and Michael Penix Jr. struggles

I think it’s pretty obvious what the worst-case scenario is for the Atlanta Falcons, right?

Kirk Cousins is a complete flop of a free agent signing (or gets hurt again). Michael Penix Jr. looks bad when given his opportunity. The Falcons go from competing to at least win a bad division under Arthur Smith to falling even further behind with Raheem Morris and his staff.

That would about do it, right?

The Falcons absolutely need to take a huge leap forward this year. That seems to be the general consensus expectation for this team, but seeing any of the above actually happening this year would be a disaster for this franchise.

15. Cleveland Browns: 6 or 7 wins, Deshaun Watson misses 8+ games

The Cleveland Browns have simply not gotten the most out of their investment in Deshaun Watson. Since he was acquired in one of the biggest blockbuster trades in league history, the Browns have given him $230 million in fully guaranteed cash and have only gotten 11 games and change out of him.

It’s awful.

The reason the Browns aren’t in the news for all the wrong reasons is thanks to their elite defense and the fact that they were somehow able to win 11 games last year despite cycling through a hundred different quarterbacks. Joe Flacco to the rescue.

The biggest failure for the Browns this year would be Deshaun Watson missing another 8-plus games and the Browns missing the playoffs, regressing considerably from last year’s 11 wins. Even if you think they overachieved last year, losing 8 or 9 games this season would be a horrendous regression for Cleveland. Losing more than that and not having Watson? Yikes.