close
close
You are Here
Which teams could stumble at the start of the 2024 season?
vefms

Which teams could stumble at the start of the 2024 season?

play

As another NFL regular season gets underway, unbridled optimism is once again at its peak across the league. But on Tuesday morning, 16 teams will have to deal with the aftermath of a loss, leaving their fans wondering if the opening defeat was a simple setback or a reason to recalibrate expectations.

Of course, a shaky start doesn’t have to be a cause for panic. Many contending teams have started their seasons on the wrong foot in recent years, including the two-time defending champion Kansas City Chiefs, who were upset by the Detroit Lions in last season’s opener, and the Buffalo Bills, who fell behind to the New York Jets in overtime. But while early struggles aren’t necessarily a death knell for a season, they inevitably put a team in a bind that can be difficult to get out of.

With that in mind, we asked USA TODAY Sports’ NFL staff: Which NFL team is at risk of stumbling early? Their responses (two writers had the same question) are below.

Buffalo Bills

The Buffalo Bills. And not just because they might still be smarting from being eliminated from the playoffs on their home turf by the Kansas City Chiefs. The schedule-maker was not friendly to Josh Allen and Co., as Buffalo plays on the road in four of its first six games, and all four matchups are against legitimate contenders like Miami, Baltimore, Houston and the Aaron Rodgers-led New York Jets. And the Week 3 home game against Jacksonville is hardly a gift. The Bills will be tested as hard as any team in the league in the first few weeks. If they survive that challenge, they will cement themselves as the team to beat again in a very competitive AFC East. But an early nosedive could wreak havoc on their plans (yet) to finally get over the hump and emerge as a Super Bowl team … as coach Sean McDermott has promised. Hey, it’s way too early for a must-win game, but with what’s coming up in the next few weeks, the Bills might not want to miss the opener against Kyler Murray and the Arizona Cardinals.

—Jarrett Bell

The Bills will open against a rebuilding Arizona team. Buffalo should crush the Cardinals in Week 1. Josh Allen has a 20-6 career record against NFC opponents. But then the Bills enter an intimidating five-game AFC stretch with four road matchups: at Miami, the Jaguars, Ravens, Texans and Jets. The Bills are likely to be the underdogs in all four road games. I predict Buffalo will enter Week 7 with a losing record. It doesn’t help that Buffalo went through an extreme restructuring during the offseason on both sides of the football, losing established starters like wide receiver Stefon Diggs, center Mitch Morse and safeties Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde. The start of the season is going to be a transition period for the Bills, and they very well could stumble along the way.

—Tyler Dragon

San Francisco 49ers

Good luck finding a team with more talent than the reigning NFC champion San Francisco 49ers. But will everything go in the same direction from the start? The first-team offense looked pretty disjointed during their preseason appearances, with benched receiver Brandon Aiyuk wearing unapproved street clothes and benched left tackle Trent Williams nowhere to be found. Both are back on the team now with the financial remedies they had been seeking. But they are trying to re-acclimate after more than a month of missing practice reps. Elsewhere, safety Talanoa Hufanga, linebacker Dre Greenlaw, guard Jon Feliciano and cornerback Ambry Thomas are all in various stages of injury rehab. The Niners, who have failed to reach the NFC Championship Game just once in the past five seasons, should ultimately be fine… but don’t be surprised if they’re not firing on all cylinders until October.

Green Bay Packers

The Packers are the most attractive Super Bowl option in the NFC, and at the end of the postseason, they’ll play for the right to represent the conference in New Orleans. From the start, though, the Packers will be following a playbook the Cheeseheads have become all too familiar with over the years. Green Bay lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers on the road in Week 8 last season and fell to 2-5. Then quarterback Jordan Love played at an MVP level for the second half of the season. The Packers took over as the No. 7 seed and eliminated the Dallas Cowboys on the road in the wild-card round before coming within a play or two of doing the same to the San Francisco 49ers. The Packers’ schedule is manageable to start, but the Indianapolis Colts come to Lambeau Field in Week 2 after the first international game against the Eagles in Brazil. But the late-season wins will be worth any early-season disappointment the green and gold may suffer.

—Chris Bumbaca

Los Angeles Rams

Sean McVay’s team got off to a 3-6 start to the season before winning six of its final seven games to clinch a wild-card berth. But that group didn’t have high expectations in what was supposed to be a transitional year for the franchise. This year, there’s every reason to believe the Rams have the right lineup to get back to the postseason.

Still, there are several factors that could signal more trouble early in the season. The offensive line doesn’t appear to be quite settled, with starting left tackle Alaric Jackson serving a two-game suspension, right tackle Rob Havenstein hampered by an ankle injury and Steve Avila and Jonah Jackson swapping spots at left guard and center. A new defensive coordinator, Chris Shula, takes over Raheem Morris’s old unit, and he’ll be tasked with holding together weak groups in the secondary and at inside linebacker. And then there’s that small matter of moving forward without three-time Defensive Player of the Year Aaron Donald and his singular force in the pass rush.

Those issues can be ironed out over the course of the season, but it might be asking too much for Matthew Stafford to overcome them in Week 1. The Detroit Lions (Week 1) and San Francisco 49ers (Week 3) have both the offensive firepower and tenacity to take the Rams out of their game, while the Arizona Cardinals loom as a surprise threat between those two matchups. Don’t be surprised if Los Angeles doesn’t find its best form until the first month or so.

—Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz

Share
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Linkedin

Related Posts