The picture of the 2024 version of the NFL is starting to take shape.
We’ve kind of completed the first quarter of the NFL schedule. With that, the story of the 2024 season is starting to take shape, and we’re starting to get an idea of who everybody is. The Carolina Panthers are still not a good football team, but they at least fit within the standards of the rest of the league. In fact, there are several teams that are in significantly worse disarray. What a time to be alive as a Panthers fan. Where we’re happy that we’re not the worst.
NFC South
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Bucs looked like they might have reverted to the version of themselves that people expected in Week 3 when they lost to badly at home to a Broncos team that’s supposed to be really bad. So far that looks like an anomaly. They trounced the Eagles this past Sunday, and Baker Mayfield sits second in the league with eight touchdown passes through four games. They’re currently the favorites in the NFC South.
New Orleans Saints/Atlanta Falcons
Lumping them together because they just played each other. The Saints no longer look like the best team in the league like they did after the first two weeks. They’ve lost back to back games and the offense has been rather sluggish. The Falcons reverted to the version of themselves where they don’t use Bijan Robinson or Kyle Pitts (who might just be bad). Still, they pulled out a win with a career long field goal from Younghoe Koo despite doing everything in their power to not make it a makeable field goal.
Rest of the NFL
Caleb Williams/Jayden Daniels has been a Bryce Young/CJ Stroud situation (so far)
There’s still a lot of time for this to change, and Williams has already shown more than Bryce has, but as it stands right now, the number two overall pick is vastly outperforming the number one overall pick for the second straight season. Williams has ranked around the bottom of the league in efficiency all season while Daniels has been shredding defenses, especially in the last couple of weeks. The latter is currently completing 82% of his pass attempts and is leading a Commanders offense that’s surprisingly one of the best in the NFL.
The Raiders are open to trading Davante Adams
The Raiders were a dumpster fire last year, and it led to the early dismissal of head coach Josh McDaniels. Antonio Pierce galvanized the group last season as interim head coach last season and earned himself the full time gig. He’s seen the team start to implode again in the early weeks of his first season officially in charge. Now the team is reportedly open to trading their best offensive player for a second round pick.
Speaking of dysfunctional franchises—the Jets are Jetsing again
Everything went wrong for the Jets last season in what was supposed to be a competitive season with Aaron Rodgers at quarterback. He’s been healthy so far, but a loss to the Broncos has some tension starting to show through. Head coach Robert Saleh seemingly took a dig at Rodgers’ cadence causing penalty issues while Rodgers dismissed the claim and said perhaps they should focus on holding the other players accountable. Typical Jets stuff and typical Aaron Rodgers stuff.
Doug Pederson is on a fast track to be the first coach fired this season
Jaguars owner Shahid Khan set the bar high by calling this roster the best one the Jaguars have had under his watch. They’ve responded with an 0-4 start that hasn’t looked particularly competitive; two of their losses are to teams with one win. Pederson used his postgame press conference after the loss to make sure he specified that the offensive coordinator was the one calling plays and then threw players under the bus for not executing the game plan. Jordan Schulz, speaking on the Sharp Football Podcast, reported that the former Super Bowl winning head coach has completely lost the locker room.