You can always expect a lot of crazy things to happen in Week 1 of the NFL season, and we certainly had our share of big moments across the league as the regular season has finally arrived.
For the first time in 45 years, three teams erased 14-point deficits to win in Week 1. The NFL is a different breed of fun early in the season.
After evaluating moves teams made on paper all offseason as well as the glimpses we got during the preseason, we now have some real football to react to in our latest NFL Power Rankings. Which teams are on the rise after Week 1 of the 2024 season and which teams are going to be scrambling to get back onto the saddle?
We have a lot to unpack with reactions for every single team around the league.
2024 NFL Power Rankings: Cowboys skyrocketing after dominant Week 1
32. Carolina Panthers
The Carolina Panthers got off to about as horrible of a start as you could have possibly imagined in your worst nightmares if you’re a fan of this team. Obviously, everyone was eager to see what kind of improvements could be made by 2023 1st overall pick Bryce Young, who had a lot of struggles in his rookie year with Carolina.
A new coaching staff, led by head coach Dave Canales, is going to need a little more time than one week, it appears.
The Panthers went into New Orleans and it looked like the Saints had FCS Carolina on their schedule. It’s going to be back to the drawing board for the Panthers after a disastrous Week 1 performance that does not bode well for the remainder of the season.
31. New York Giants
The New York Giants were back to their old tricks in Week 1 of the 2024 season and they looked horrible doing it. The Giants were paying homage to their franchise’s history with their alternate uniforms, but they did nothing to make the franchise proud on the field.
After the G-Men had to watch Saquon Barkley score three touchdowns for their bitter rival Eagles, they came out flat at home against the Minnesota Vikings and got absolutely smoked. What’s worse? Daniel Jones was horrific. Jones completed 52.4 percent of his passes with a pair of interceptions and a QB rating of 44.3.
And it was as bad as it sounds.
This could end up being a long season for the Giants if Jones keeps playing like that.
30. Las Vegas Raiders
We said before the start of the 2024 season that the Las Vegas Raiders might have the worst quarterback situation in the entire NFL, and we might unfortunately be right about that.
Gardner Minshew didn’t have the worst game of the week out of every NFL quarterback in Week 1, by any stretch, but the longer-term prognosis for the Raiders is not great. This is a situation that will likely require “surgery” at the end of the year.
We saw the Raiders travel to Los Angeles to take on the Chargers in a divisional matchup to open up the season, and aside from a swing pass to Alexander Matison that went for six, it was tough sledding for the Raiders offensively against the Chargers. They turned the ball over three times and converted just five of 14 third-down opportunities in the game.
Defensively, the Raiders were dominated by the Chargers on the ground to the tune of 6.5 yards per carry.
29. Tennessee Titans
The Tennessee Titans made a boatload of massive additions to their roster in the 2024 offseason, landing the likes of cornerback L’Jarius Sneed, running back Tony Pollard, and wide receiver Calvin Ridley among others. Those additions are all just makeup on a pig if the Titans don’t have the right quarterback in place, and Will Levis looked rough against the Chicago Bears.
Levis actually made some nice plays in the first half against Chicago, but as the game progressed, the Bears’ defense started to rattle him and we saw his decision-making deteriorate at a rapid rate. Levis finished with just 127 yards passing and a pair of interceptions, including a game-sealing pick late in the fourth quarter when the Titans still had a chance to get back in the game.
Tennessee’s defense didn’t look too bad against Chicago and Caleb Williams, but if Levis can’t limit turnovers, this could be a long year for them.
28. Washington Commanders
Well, it wasn’t an easy assignment for the first game of the year for the Washington Commanders, having to travel to Tampa Bay to take on a Buccaneers team that is pretty much the polar opposite of Washington in terms of continuity year over year.
The Bucs looked like a well-oiled machine while the Commanders were obviously still working things out with rookie QB Jayden Daniels making his NFL debut. And Daniels looked solid overall, completing 17 of 24 pass attempts with 88 rushing yards and a pair of rushing touchdowns.
The Commanders simply couldn’t hang with the Buccaneers defensively, allowing four touchdown passes from Baker Mayfield and an ugly 37 points on the afternoon. It’s going to take time for Dan Quinn’s program to get going in Washington, but Daniels may have had the most encouraging overall performance of the rookie QBs that started this week, for whatever that’s worth.
27. Denver Broncos
There were a lot of folks who had written the Denver Broncos off before this season even started, and the Broncos were definitely a mixed bag in Week 1 on the road against Seattle.
The Seahawks were breaking in a new coaching staff while Sean Payton was breaking in a rookie quarterback, and the Seahawks’ defense under Mike Macdonald made Bo Nix look like a rookie quarterback. Nix wasn’t able to get anything going downfield and averaged a pretty disappointing 3.3 yards per attempt, struggling to get the offense going for most of the afternoon.
As rough as it was for Nix, the Broncos lost this game by just six points despite turning the ball over three times (two Nix interceptions and a fumble by Jaleel McLaughlin). The Broncos will head home for a Week 2 matchup against Russell Wilson (we assume) and the Steelers, where Nix isn’t going to have any easier of a time. Just ask Kirk Cousins.
26. Atlanta Falcons
The faithful fans of the Atlanta Falcons had to be excited about their new-look team for this Week 1 matchup against the Pittsburgh Steelers. The debut of Kirk Cousins, a couple of big-name new additions to the defensive side of the ball in Justin Simmons and Matthew Judon…
This had all the makings to be a special start to the year for the Falcons but they absolutely stunk up their own place against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
To be fair to Atlanta, there’s a lot of “new” going on right now and we didn’t see Kirk Cousins in the preseason as the team worked him back from his Achilles injury. Cousins has played enough football that it shouldn’t have mattered all that much, but there was more rust to be knocked off than expected.
Cousins threw a really bad interception (and actually threw two of them) against Pittsburgh as the Atlanta offense was only able to muster up 10 points. If we see more of this type of play from Cousins, the cries for Michael Penix Jr. are going to get loud.
25. New England Patriots
Well how about that? The upset of the week has got to go to the New England Patriots, right?
The Patriots, in the head coaching debut of Jerod Mayo, went into Cincinnati and got a win against Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals.
As you might have expected, the Patriots put the clamps on defensively and did just enough offensively to win the game with Jacoby Brissett starting at quarterback. And Brissett took some shots in this game, but the Patriots were able to bleed out the clock late and get a win against, a Bengals team that, frankly, looks distracted.
But this is about the Patriots. If New England is going to play spoiler throughout the course of this season, it’s likely going to look a lot like this. If this team can play strong defense and do enough offensively, that defense can help them keep a lead. The Bengals had just 224 total yards in this game against the Pats and the New England defense forced two turnovers.
24. Cleveland Browns
I’ve been saying it all offseason, but I’m not buying what Deshaun Watson is selling an ounce.
The Cleveland Browns have been operating as though Watson is going to make good on his end of the bargain in terms of that massive $230 million investment the franchise made in him back in 2022. Although the Broncos have been getting clowned for the Russell Wilson trade (understandably so), the Browns may have made the worse deal in 2022 trading a king’s ransom for Watson.
Watson had a pair of interceptions and took six sacks against the Dallas Cowboys, barely completing 50 percent of his passes. Even as good as the Cleveland defense is, that’s a lot to overcome.
The Deshaun Watson experiment/experience has reached the point that we saw a lot of people on Twitter/X talking about the financial cost of the Browns getting out of his contract. He’s been that bad. This was only Watson’s 13th game as a Brown and it was one of his worst. This team might need to turn to Jameis Winston at some point if Watson doesn’t turn it around quickly.
23. Arizona Cardinals
I’m definitely not ready to bury the Arizona Cardinals this season, not by any stretch. The Cardinals ended up dropping a tough, close game on the road against the Buffalo Bills in Week 1, but they started off looking really solid and I think there are plenty of things this team can build on going forward.
For starters, Kyler Murray looks like he’s going to be more like his pre-injury self this season, which is great news for Arizona fans. The Cardinals’ offense is so dynamic when he’s at full strength, and the good news for them is that he appears to be exactly that.
The Cardinals don’t always want Murray leading the team in rushing, but they want the ball in his hands and they want him out there making plays and playing confident. It was a rough debut for rookie receiver Marvin Harrison Jr., who only had one reception for four yards on three targets. This team will get better as the year goes along.
22. Green Bay Packers
The Green Bay Packers are now in the midst of an absolutely disastrous situation. They already had one of the shakiest backup quarterback situations in the league heading into the offseason, but they reshuffled the deck after the preseason by trading a late-round pick to the Titans for Malik Willis, the former third-round pick.
The presence of Malik Willis isn’t exactly inspiring a lot of confidence across the Green Bay Packers’ fandom right now because Jordan Love is down with a knee injury. It appears as though Love will be back this season, but how are the Packers going to be operating without him under center?
If Love hadn’t gotten hurt late in that game against the Eagles on Friday night, the Packers would be a lot higher on this list. As of right now, we are looking at the legitimate possibility of the Packers playing Malik Willis or Sean Clifford for the next handful of weeks.
They should have called Ryan Tannehill earlier this offseason or come up with a better solution because with either of those other quarterbacks on the field for extended time, the Packers could be in a lot of trouble.
Not to mention, the Jeff Hafley defense is still a work in progress as we saw the Philadelphia Eagles move the ball up and down the field at will in Week 1.
21. Jacksonville Jaguars
New year, same old Jaguars, eh?
The Jaguars – stop me if you’ve heard this before – couldn’t hold onto a lead here in Week 1 of the 2024 season.
Jacksonville was looking nice to start off the season, leading the Miami Dolphins on the road 14-0 halfway through the second quarter and 17-7 at halftime. Playing on the road with a 10-point lead, the Jacksonville offense just completely stalled in the second half. It was reminiscent of what we saw during the second half of the 2023 season for this team.
The Jaguars’ woes on third down offensively were crushing in this game as they were only able to convert 2-of-10 attempts on the money down. Trevor Lawrence was a disappointing 12-of-21 passing on the day. A lost fumble by Travis Etienne as he was about to score really proved to be a crushing blow for this Jaguars team in Week 1.
They are going to have to bounce back quickly as losing ground to the Houston Texans won’t be easily overcome as the year progresses.
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.
18. Chicago Bears
Although it was the debut of #1 overall pick Caleb Williams in Chicago this weekend, it was the Bears’ defense that overcame a bit of a slow start to absolutely dominate the Tennessee Titans and a seemingly hapless Will Levis in the second half of their game this weekend.
The Bears put the clamps on in the second half and their elite secondary made plays while the pass rush had some game-changing hits on Levis as well as pressure that caused one of the most ill-advised plays of the week. Levis tried to chuck the ball like a shortstop starting a double play from about 15 yards away from his receiver, and Bears defensive back Tyrique Stevenson took it back for six points.
The excitement over Caleb Williams is justifiable, but the Bears’ defense might be the reason to be hyped about this team right now.
17. Los Angeles Chargers
JK Dobbins was running like he was back at Ohio State in the Chargers’ Week 1 win over the Las Vegas Raiders.
Sorry Jim Harbaugh, but your first win after returning to the NFL storyline is going to have to take a back seat for the time being. The Chargers brought in former Ravens 2nd-round pick JK Dobbins this offseason and nobody thought much of it. The Chargers also added Gus Edwards to the mix and even after letting Austin Ekeler walk in free agency, the idea that Dobbins would play this well wasn’t on anyone’s radar, in all reality.
Dobbins ran for 135 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries and given all of the injuries he’s suffered in the NFL, that’s just great to see.
The Chargers didn’t need much out of Justin Herbert in this game against the Raiders and they didn’t really need it. They handled the Raiders 22-10 and didn’t trail for most of the second half. Even though the game was close for most of the four quarters, the Chargers won the turnover battle with zero giveaways compared to three for the Raiders.
16. Indianapolis Colts
Anthony Richardson is like the Kyle Schwarber of the NFL. He might not hit for the highest average, but dangit if his power isn’t downright impressive.
Richardson completed just nine passes against the Houston Texans, yet his team only lost by two points and he finished with 212 passing yards and two touchdowns. That’s 212 passing yards on just nine completions.
The man has an absolute rifle for a right arm, and it was on display in Week 1 for the Colts, a welcomed sight for that fan base after AR15 missed most of last year with an injury. The Colts dropped a home opener against a team many expect to contend with Kansas City in the AFC this year, but the future still looks bright for the Colts.
The margin for error in the NFL is razor-thin. These two teams were pretty evenly matched all afternoon on Sunday and yet the Colts had the lone turnover in the game – an interception by Anthony Richardson. The Texans didn’t score points off the turnover, but it wiped points off the board for the Colts as they were in the red zone, driving before the end of the first half.
The Colts will be a fun team in the AFC all year so long as Richardson remains on the field.
15. Seattle Seahawks
After a really ugly start on Sunday afternoon, the Seahawks started cooking in the second half against the Denver Broncos.
Specifically, running back Kenneth Walker gave his team a big jolt as the Denver Broncos basically couldn’t stop #9 in the third quarter of the Seahawks’ 26-20 win at home to kick off the season.
Seattle’s ugly start against Denver included an interception from Geno Smith on the second play of the game, followed by a pair of safeties for the Seattle offense. The Broncos led this game 13-9 at halftime but the Seahawks frazzled rookie QB Bo Nix enough to get the advantage in the second half and cling onto it.
Even though it wasn’t a perfect season-opener for Seattle, we saw Mike Macdonald’s defense do some great things against Sean Payton’s offense and we saw Ryan Grubb’s offense really get things going in the second half. The Seahawks have issues to sort out on the offensive line but 26 points and a win in today’s NFL is more than an acceptable result.
14. Minnesota Vikings
Well how about Sam Darnold?
The Minnesota Vikings got some extremely disappointing news in the preseason when rookie JJ McCarthy went down with a season-ending knee injury. At that point, it still sounded like the Vikings were planning on rolling with Sam Darnold at the start of the year anyway, and we’re seeing why this team decided to give Darnold a $10 million contract this offseason to come and help replace Kirk Cousins.
The Vikings went on the road in Week 1 against the New York Giants and coasted to a pretty easy win overall, and Darnold knew that he had a pretty easy job out there: Get the ball to Justin Jefferson.
And he did just that.
Jefferson looked like the best wide receiver in the game even though he caught just four passes for 59 yards. The real gem from Jefferson was a touchdown on 4th down on a quick slant from Darnold, just outstanding execution. You can’t help but be excited if you’re a Vikings fan with the way Darnold and the offense played in this one even though they were just 3-of-10 on third downs. It’s a good start.
13. Los Angeles Rams
There is hardly any shame in going to Detroit and catching a loss these days. Especially when they have to walk it off in overtime.
Matthew Stafford lost plenty of games in Detroit, and it happened again on Sunday night. The Rams still have a quality roster and I would be surprised if they weren’t in the mix as the season progresses. The one major loss for this team in the offseason still looms large, however – not having Aaron Donald in the middle of that defense is something that can’t be overstated.
The Rams were able to get to Jared Goff a few times in this game but the Lions just have too many playmakers and their new-look defense was outstanding in this one.
The Rams have something in pass rushers Jared Verse and Byron Young. They may not have Aaron Donald, but they’ve got some serious studs coming off the edge, playmakers on offense, and a coach/quarterback that have won a Super Bowl together. This team is going to stay relevant as the year progresses.
12. New Orleans Saints
I’ve got to hand it to the New Orleans Saints. This offseason, I was undoubtedly one of their biggest skeptics. I felt like this team was trending downward and that they just beat up on a lot of bad teams at the end of last season to get to 9-8 and pad the overall team stats.
Well, the Saints did start the year against arguably the worst team in the entire NFL, but there is absolutely no question that they started off strong. Derek Carr was nearly flawless in a 47-10 romp of the Carolina Panthers with three touchdowns and four incompletions. You love to see it.
Panthers quarterback Bryce Young is going to be seeing Saints defensive back Alontae Taylor in his nightmares for weeks after Taylor had a whopping three sacks in Week 1 and the Saints put forth a pretty dominant team effort. They held the Panthers to 1-of-10 on third downs and forced three turnovers.
That’ll do.
11. Miami Dolphins
The day couldn’t have started off weirder for the Miami Dolphins.
Fans were pulling up to the game and their tailgates when everyone started noticing superstar wide receiver being put in handcuffs while lying face-down on the ground.
We told you Week 1 in the NFL can get crazy, right?
Tyreek Hill predictably went out and had a really long touchdown catch and run, and the Dolphins were one of a few teams to erase a 14-point deficit in Week 1 of the 2024 season. Not only did Hill eat, but Jaylen Waddle got his as well and both receivers predictably topped 100 yards receiving against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Most importantly, we saw the Dolphins’ defense under Anthony Weaver really tighten up after the Jaguars broke the ice with a 14-0 lead early on. That Miami defense held the Jaguars to just 2-of-10 on third downs and three different players had sacks
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.
8. Houston Texans
The Houston Texans certainly came out and brought the fireworks to start the 2024 season, didn’t they?
It was an impressive opener from Houston, even though it wasn’t perfect on the whole. Reigning Rookie of the Year CJ Stroud seemingly picked up right from where he left off, throwing a pair of touchdowns to new receiver Stefon Diggs with no interceptions on 24-of-32 passing.
The Texans also got a huge game from new running back Joe Mixon, who was an absolute workhorse for them carrying the ball 30 times and catching another three passes. He finished the game with 159 rushing yards and a touchdown in this game, and the Texans truly look like they have a squad that can compete with the best of the best in the AFC.
But it’s still early, and Houston was susceptible to the deep ball against the Colts in this one. That secondary for Houston might still be more of a work in progress than initially thought and the pass rush is going to need to be more effective. Anthony Richardson was only hit/sacked twice in this game.
7. New York Jets
Jets play 49ers on Monday Night Football
The New York Jets have a really good roster. They have the potential to be one of the most fun teams to watch in the entire NFL this season.
I’m just going to put out this warning before the season one last time that Aaron Rodgers may not be as good as every Jets fan out there is hoping for. Yes, he could blow all of us away coming off the Achilles injury. Yes, Rodgers obviously has a history of playing MVP-caliber football for most of his NFL career.
But as I’ve warned all offseason, Rodgers did not look great in his final year in Green Bay back in 2022 and he’s a 40-year-old QB coming off of one of the worst injuries an NFL player can possibly suffer.
I’m not trying to rain on anyone’s parade, of course, I’m just trying to help temper expectations if things go poorly here. Rodgers and the Jets have one of the toughest tests of any team here in Week 1.
6. Philadelphia Eagles
The Philadelphia Eagles shook off some rust against the Green Bay Packers in a win down in Sao Paulo, Brazil, a rare Friday night game here at the beginning of the NFL season.
And under the Friday night lights, Jalen Hurts and the Eagles offense got humming against the Green Bay Packers, especially newcomer Saquon Barkley. Barkley was stolen away from the rival New York Giants in free agency, and had a whopping three touchdowns in his Philadelphia Eagles debut.
As exciting as the debut of Saquon Barkley was, the Eagles have some eerily similar stuff to overcome that we saw really plague them throughout the course of last season. First of all, Jalen Hurts threw a couple of bad interceptions in this game. Second, the Eagles were 4-of-14 on third downs.
Third, and maybe most importantly, the Eagles gave up 29 points to the Packers in this one. There were times it looked like the Packers could seemingly score at will. That Vic Fangio defense needs to start taking steps forward in a hurry for this Eagles team to be a viable threat in the NFC again this season.
5. Detroit Lions
Dan Campbell and the Detroit Lions opened the 2023 season with a win in prime time, and they do the exact same in 2024. This time, instead of doing it on the road in Kansas City, they did it in front of their home fans in one of the more dramatic games of the week.
The Lions allowed the Rams to come back from a big deficit and take the game to overtime, but David Montgomery was running like a man possessed in the overtime period and Detroit would not be denied a walk-off touchdown to win 26-20.
The Lions buckled a little bit in the second half, but the defense overall looked vastly improved from what we had seen last year. This team looks ready to compete in the NFC this season and there just aren’t many flaws on the roster as a whole.
Especially if we continue to see Jameson Williams step up as a big-time threat like he was against the Rams, racking up 121 receiving yards on just five receptions.
4. Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys got superstar wide receiver CeeDee Lamb locked into a big-money contract before the start of the season, and literally on Sunday morning, it was reported that Dak Prescott had agreed to a deal to be the first $60 million quarterback in NFL history.
As in, Prescott’s new contract – a four-year deal worth $240 million in total money, will reset the quarterback market at $60 million per season.
I took a lot of heat for putting the Cowboys super high in my post-pre-season NFL power rankings, but it looks like I may have been right after all. At least, as right as you can be after just one week.
Prescott picked up from where he left off at the end of last season and the Cowboys got off to a great start against one of the best defenses in the league – on the road – in the Cleveland Browns.
3. Baltimore Ravens
The Baltimore Ravens have to at least be a little frustrated with the way things went in their season opener against the Kansas City Chiefs, outside of just the fact that they were on the losing end.
It seemed like the NFL was making an example of Ronnie Stanley with a new rule about where the tackles are allowed to line up. There were three infractions called on just the first drive of the game for the Ravens, which still ended in a touchdown for the Ravens anyway.
But we saw that this Baltimore Ravens team is capable of being a force in the AFC and losing on the road against Kansas City is not a deplorable act, by any stretch of the imagination. Especially with how close the Ravens were.
Isaiah Likely emerged in this game as potentially the new go-to threat in the Ravens’ passing game, and you can see the weight loss from Lamar Jackson with how agile he was and just the overall bursts of speed. Jackson looks like he’s poised for another big year as the Ravens look to reset after a tough Week 1 loss.
2. San Francisco 49ers
49ers play Jets on Monday Night Football
As much as we’d love to put some other teams up in this slot after having already played games, we can’t move the 49ers down until proven otherwise.
This team was the class of the NFC last year, and there’s nothing that’s happened on paper this offseason to lead us to believe they’re going to be anything but great again in 2024.
The 49ers do have a really tough test in Week 1 against the New York Jets, especially given Jets head coach Robert Saleh’s familiarity with Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers as their former defensive coordinator.
The 49ers really have it all as a team. They have great coaching, a quarterback who executes the offense at a high level, elite playmakers, and top-tier players at every level of the defense. They are in a championship window right now and the clock is ticking, but the core should remain intact for the foreseeable future. They could have something really special brewing.
1. Kansas City Chiefs
We saw the reigning back-to-back Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs come out swinging at home this year against the Baltimore Ravens, unlike what we saw last year when the Chiefs looked a little out of sorts at home against the Detroit Lions in the opener.
The Chiefs immediately saw return on the investment to trade up and draft wide receiver Xavier Worthy in the 1st round of the 2024 NFL Draft as Worthy ran for their first touchdown of the season and caught another one later.
The Chiefs and Ravens are a pretty evenly-matched team on paper, and we saw that unfold on the field as the Ravens were really just a toe-length away from potentially tying the game late in the fourth quarter. But the Chiefs have long been a combination of good and lucky, obviously weighing heavily on the side of “good”.
After that home game against the Ravens, the Chiefs will have a matchup in Week 2 against a Bengals team that looked rough in Week 1. It’s just one game and one week, but this Chiefs team looks like you’ll be able to pencil them in for the NFL’s final four yet again this season.