20. Cincinnati Bengals
With a contract situation looming for Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase, it just didn’t feel like this Bengals team was focused in Week 1. Not that Chase’s contract situation should or did cause the entire team to lose focus, but this Bengals team has had such good chemistry in the past and we just didn’t see that in their incredibly disappointing upset loss at the hands of the New England Patriots.
The Bengals only managed 224 total yards of offense in this game, they had a pair of turnovers, and just 13 first downs on their eight total drives.
I’m expecting the Bengals to obviously get better as the season goes along, so they’ll get the benefit of the doubt here for the time being, but it was an ugly season opener, and on their home field, no less.
19. Chris Boswell (Pittsburgh Steelers)
Chris Boswell did just about everything for the Pittsburgh Steelers in their road win over the Atlanta Falcons to begin the 2024 season. The year did not exactly start off as expected for the Steelers as Russell Wilson popped back up on the injury report this week with a calf injury, and we ended up seeing Justin Fields – not Wilson – make his starting debut for the Steelers.
And Fields had a rough go of it at times, but you can’t argue with the results for the Steelers, which were pretty much on par with what we’ve come to expect from this team. The Steelers playing good defense and winning low-scoring games is inevitable.
Back to Chris Boswell for a moment. The man made six field goals for the Steelers and wound up actually punting near the end of the game after an injury to Cameron Johnston. He and the defense carried the team to a road win.