On the opposite finish of the spectrum from hopeful (and hopeless) 0-2 NFL groups is the apparent. The league’s cream of the crop. The undefeated groups which have begun 2024 on a glowing notice.
After all, not each 2-0 begin is constructed the identical.
Simply since you started the season undefeated doesn’t imply your report will maintain up all year long. On a micro degree, it’s a two-game profitable streak that occurs to come back in September and ratchet up the vibes after the lengthy offseason. It’s very easy to assume this success will final endlessly when an NFL season is lengthy, arduous, and crammed with sudden hurdles.
Let’s take a look at all of the undefeated groups within the NFL and rank them by which of them will maintain and which of them usually tend to fade over time. My standards are rooted in quarterback play, general roster expertise, the schedule, and the precedent every group has established in recent times.
9. Minnesota Vikings
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Yeah, they beat the San Francisco 49ers, however I’m unsure how the Vikings will maintain their early-season success. High quality teaching — and Minnesota has a whole lot of it between Kevin O’Connell and Brian Flores — can solely take you up to now when your quarterback is a journeyman like Sam Darnold.
Ultimately, the Vikings shall be requested to win a shootout or three as a result of Flores’ defensive scheme already covers up many warts. I don’t assume Darnold will hold tempo. I additionally nonetheless imagine Minnesota is firmly behind the Detroit Lions and Inexperienced Bay Packers within the NFC North when everyone seems to be wholesome. That ought to bear itself out in the long term.
8. Pittsburgh Steelers
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I solely stopped myself from placing the Steelers final as a result of I belief Mike Tomlin a lot. Of each energetic coach within the NFL, nobody offers their group the next flooring than the long run Corridor of Famer. With that stated, the way in which these Steelers win — particularly by hoping Justin Fields makes just a few huge performs and doesn’t kill your possibilities in any other case — is just not a gentle profitable recipe for 2024.
If this have been 20 years in the past, I’d love the technique of maintaining video games shut sufficient to hope T.J. Watt makes a play that steals it. It’s not a foul concept. Heck, even at present, that plan nonetheless works typically. However the Steelers are in a gauntlet of an AFC with a humiliation of riches at quarterback all around the convention. They don’t have the firepower to match. Pittsburgh received’t crater, however it ought to come again to Earth ultimately.
7. New Orleans Saints
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Alvin Kamara is working by defenses prefer it’s 2018, and the Saints have curtailed Derek Carr’s worst impulses. Hurrah! Nevertheless, even when dashing offenses are again in fashion, New Orleans will ultimately must open the salvos. I query how a lot it has in inventory.
Carr has thrown 39 whole passes in two video games to start out 2024. There’ll come an outing the place he’ll probably must throw that many in a single sport. How will the Saints’ offense look then? I can’t think about it’ll be any much less disappointing than his uninspiring 2023, even when I believe conditions like it will come up so hardly ever.
6. Seattle Seahawks
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Mike Macdonald was the very best coach for a dynamite secondary that already featured Devon Witherspoon and Tariq Woolen. A lot in order that Seattle has a top-six protection within the NFL by two weeks. Issue within the return of an uber-efficient Geno Smith, and I like what the Seahawks are cooking up.
I solely harbor any reservations with the Seahawks due to their standing within the NFC West. The 49ers stay a juggernaut, and the Arizona Cardinals — revitalized by a seemingly Professional Bowl-caliber Kyler Murray — is likely to be a sleeping large. It’ll be a tall process to play this properly all through a complete season whenever you’re in a race with two probably nice groups.
5. Los Angeles Chargers
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A Jim Harbaugh group wouldn’t be a Jim Harbaugh group if it couldn’t run the ball. And by golly, Harbaugh’s Chargers are dedicated to pounding the rock. By means of two video games, L.A. has the NFL’s second-best dashing offense, successfully taking strain off of Justin Herbert and his restricted receiving corps. A part of that success stems from the addition of rookie Joe Alt to the Chargers’ offensive line.
After shutting down Maxx Crosby and Jadeveon Clowney in successive weeks, Alt is already piecing collectively an All-Professional-caliber marketing campaign.
The loopy factor concerning the Chargers’ absurd offensive stability is that I believe it could possibly final. Their matchup with the Steelers on Sunday is the final battle with a very elite protection on paper for a minimum of a month. If groups hold letting them take the air out of the ball, Harbaugh shall be content material to grind everybody right into a high-quality paste.
4. Houston Texans
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This shall be an unpopular evaluation, however I’m not bought on the darling Texans but. Sure, C.J. Stroud is particular. He’s most likely already a top-five quarterback supported by a fantastic coach in DeMeco Ryans and one of many NFL’s higher rosters from prime to backside. But it surely appears obvious that this Houston group nonetheless has to shine some issues up across the edges.
For instance, the Texans’ offense has been middling so far. It’s simply sixteenth in FTN’s DVOA and is just eleventh in anticipated factors added (EPA) per play, per RBDSM.com. Stroud’s distinctive means is masking a whole lot of points for a group attempting to stay as much as Tremendous Bowl expectations. After all, the Texans received’t play a protection just like the elite Chicago Bears each week. In order that helps. Additionally they reside within the putrid AFC South, so they need to cruise to the division title.
However their bona fides don’t practically really feel as sturdy to me because the groups above them on this checklist. Full cease.
3. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
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You’re damned proper that I believe the Buccaneers are legit. It is a group that ought to have NFC championship expectations, not solely profitable a single Wild Card spherical. It’s laborious to not love what Todd Bowles and Co. have manifested in Tampa Bay.
Baker Mayfield is the (extraordinarily) early 2024 NFL MVP. Mike Evans and Chris Godwin are enjoying just like the NFL’s prime receiving duo. Bowles’ protection, which nonetheless has loads of holdovers from the Tremendous Bowl 55 championship group, is doing sufficient to hem in highly effective offenses with stout offensive strains just like the Detroit Lions.
The Buccaneers may not have the basic, high-end expertise you’d count on of an undefeated group. However they’re assuredly in for the lengthy haul and are going nowhere.
2. Buffalo Payments
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The Payments have outscored their opponents — two strong Cardinals and Dolphins squads — by a wholesome 65-38 margin. On the similar time, Josh Allen has simply 371 passing yards on solely 42 makes an attempt. Hoo child. Are these the two-way demon Payments we all know and love? I … assume so.
After falling brief within the playoffs over the previous few years, the dialog across the Payments has been about how they ask Allen to do a lot. Sure, he’s exceptional. Sure, he’s a Terminator. Sure, he’s the second-best quarterback within the sport. However you possibly can’t have your quarterback doing completely all the things to have an opportunity to win. That’s not how the NFL works.
It’s nonetheless early, however it seems the Payments have realized their lesson. They’re leaning extra on budding star working again James Cook dinner. They’re letting a receiving corps by committee do its factor. Even with out Matt Milano, the Payments’ protection has been formidable, exhibiting why Sean McDermott stays one of many higher defensive minds within the sport.
The Payments I’ve seen up to now are greater than worthy of profitable Tremendous Bowl 59. That’s particularly as a result of they haven’t needed to unleash their greatest participant in a convincing win but.
1. Kansas Metropolis Chiefs
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The Chiefs might have one wholesome receiver. Their protection could possibly be in tatters, surrendering each attainable huge play each week. And I’d nonetheless decide Patrick Mahomes and Co. to win the Tremendous Bowl. On the subject of adversity, the Chiefs’ resolve is unmatched. It’s uncanny and inevitable.
I’ll solely write this Kansas Metropolis group off, I’ll solely say they’ll’t be trusted, when/in the event that they’re formally eradicated. The Large Crimson Machine often finds a means, people.
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