2024 NFL Team Rankings (Including Buffalo Bills)

Teams:

• San Francisco 49ers
• Buffalo Bills
• Cincinnati Bengals
• Detroit Lions
• Houston Texans
• Philadelphia Eagles
• The Los Angeles Rams
• Green Bay Packers

Eight teams are in the Super Bowl bubble, nine including the Chiefs, who more or less form a larger bubble that engulfs this smaller bubble.

The 49ers and Bengals both seem intent on getting back into the game, knowing this will be their last game with their current group of stars. For San Francisco, Brandon Aiyuk or Deebo Samuel likely won’t be around in 2025. The Bengals share that sentiment with Tee Higgins hitting free agency in 2025. It’s now or never for these two powerhouses.

The Bills have Josh Allen. I could stop there and not ask any more questions, but there are plenty of other things Buffalo has to get people excited about. Their defense is loaded with stars, especially with the linebacker duo of Matt Milano and Terrel Bernard. Plus, this new receiver room is better than last season’s, at least on paper. Will one player replace what Stefon Diggs brought to Buffalo? No, but they’ll make up for that loss in total. The obvious question about Buffalo is can they finally find the rock that can thwart their Goliath in Kansas City?

Detroit once again retained Ben Johnson and improved defensively while losing almost no core. The Fighting Dan Campbells will live to bite another kneecap after their devastating loss in the NFC Championship Game.

The Rams will be without Aaron Donald, but they had a number of defenders who took a step forward in what was supposed to be the modern version of the no-name defense. Kobie Turner reigns supreme and had a fantastic rookie season. They also added college teammates Braden Fiske and Jared Verse to the defense. Ernest Jones is also a terrific off-ball defender, and the additions of Kam Curl, Darious Williams, and Tre’Davious White to their secondary will only make them better. And of course, the man with a memory clearer than the lakes at Nelson National Park (Google it), Sean McVay, runs the offense. The Rams will be in the thick of things in the NFC.

I hesitated to put the Eagles here because of their monumental collapse at the end of the 2023-24 season. The whole Nick Sirriani thing is not my cup of coffee, and it clearly hurt a lot of Eagles fans who saw their team piss on them in the final round of the season. Additionally, Kellen Moore and Vic Fangio both failed to live up to expectations in their last few stops, so their shine has faded a bit as well. With their roster, though, they have a very high ceiling, so I put them in this category with great hesitation.

Houston and Green Bay both have rising superstars at center and a formidable supporting cast around them. While the Texans’ receiving corps features more big names, the Packers have four real guys who play their respective roles to make the Packers’ passing attack work. They both reached the divisional round a season ago, and it wouldn’t shock me if one of them plays in Super Bowl LIX.