10. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
We saw the Tampa Bay Buccaneers really exceed expectations from the national media last year, the first year post-Tom Brady, and we saw them continue to look like they can be a threat out of the NFC South with a big win over the Washington Commanders in Week 1.
Baker Mayfield has fit in seamlessly with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, go figure. Mayfield got sent to a stable organization with all of the elements that really help a quarterback, and he’s been thriving.
The Buccaneers are well-coached with Todd Bowles and his defense, and we saw them come out and shut down rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels in his NFL debut while the offense did its thing.
As we progress through the season, the Bucs need to make sure they continue to show progress as a whole offensively. It didn’t look like there was much of a dropoff at all with Dave Canales bolting this offseason and Liam Coen replacing him as the Bucs’ offensive coordinator. If that unit makes strides this season, the Bucs are going to be a fun team to watch in the NFC.
9. Buffalo Bills
It wasn’t an overly pretty start for the Buffalo Bills, but all is well that ends well, right?
Josh Allen got going as the game progressed and the Bills managed to get a win at home against the Arizona Cardinals, who definitely looked tougher than a lot of people expected.
Allen has a lot of pressure on him this season with so many changes made to the Bills’ roster in the offseason, but you wouldn’t be able to tell based on the way he played. Allen had five total incomplete passes in this game against Arizona and four total touchdowns.
That’s a ratio the Bills are going to be extremely pleased with.
It’s going to take some time for some of the new pieces on this Bills' defense to gel together. With that said, it’s going to continue to be the Josh Allen show for this Buffalo team. And he looks more than ready to embrace that.