There’s a lot going on in the NFL right now and it can be difficult to figure out what to watch for the rest of the season. There has been a lot of sloppy play this year and that has led to complaints, but this sport is too good for anyone to really turn away from.
Now that the season is halfway through, here’s a quick guide to some facets of the league worth following until the playoffs and some things viewers can ignore.
Interesting: which coaches are fired next and which candidates show up
The Jets and Saints got a head start in the coach-layoff cycle, and it appears more teams may join them before the end of the season. The Bears and Matt Eberflus seem destined to part ways sooner or later, leaving a spot open for a new coach to coach one of the most talented young quarterbacks in the league. The same goes for Jacksonville and Doug Pederson. There are still a few spots available, which is a good time to briefly explain who is potentially eligible for these jobs.
Ben Johnson, offensive coordinator, Lions: Duh.
Aaron Glenn, defensive coordinator, Lions: The Lions defense is having a strong year and is a big reason why Detroit is the Super Bowl favorite in the NFC.
Todd Monken, OC, Ravens: Monken could coach back-to-back MVP seasons for Lamar Jackson in Baltimore. He’s had a tough road to get to this moment, but it appears he has a shot at actually becoming a head coach in the league after this season.
Anthony Weaver, DC, Dolphins: Weaver took the job in hopes of being hired as a head coach down the road and has largely gotten the Dolphins defense to play good football.
Jesse Minter, DC, Chargers: This one is less likely since this is his first year on the job, but if Texans OC Bobby Slowik got interviews last year, Minter will get interviews this year.
Brian Flores, DC, Vikings: It’s hard to gauge how much impact his lawsuit against the league will have on his job prospects, but he’s certainly earned a few interviews based on the Vikings’ performance this year.
Not interesting: whatever is going on with the Giants
At least put Drew Lock in the game. They certainly owe that to the football-watching public for the number of island games they get.
Interesting: Chargers upcoming offense schedule
Los Angeles is off to a great start in the Jim Harbaugh era, sitting at 6-3 and strengthening their grip on a potential playoff spot while the rest of the AFC flounders. Justin Herbert has been a guiding hand for an offense that is still finding its feet, but the Chargers’ defense has been truly exceptional early this season.
The Chargers rank first or second in a slew of defensive metrics, including points per drive, expected points added per play and the percentage of red zone drives that end in a touchdown. Even with these numbers they’ve earned, they haven’t experienced the worst fouls yet – but that’s about to change.
To be fair to the Chargers, they have played the Chiefs and Cardinals this season and held each to under two points per drive. They can only play who is in front of them, but they are more than up to the challenge in terms of their output on defense. Their next five games will go a long way in showing whether they are actually capable of winning some games in January.
The Chargers have the Bengals, Ravens, Falcons, Chiefs and Buccaneers in order for their next five games. That’s downright five of the best offenses in the league and a higher caliber team than they’ve enjoyed for the most part early in the season. This will be a good benchmark for them as the second half of this season gets underway.
If the defense is as real as it seems and they can bully a few of their next five opponents, the scope of the Chargers’ rebuild will change dramatically. Having a quarterback like Herbert with an elite defense will win a lot of games, even if the overall offensive structure is still emerging. Harbaugh’s return to the NFL was one of the biggest stories in all of football this offseason, and this stretch will define it.
Uninteresting: Just about everything coming out of the Cowboys organization
The Cowboys’ season is over, but the general obsession with them will never end. Dak Prescott may have season-ending surgery on a torn hamstring and the team just fell to 3-6 with very little hope of winning more than a few games this season. They are objectively one of the worst teams in the league right now, but when Jerry Jones speaks, the world listens.
There’s not much to say about this team’s performance on the field, so a big talking point for the Cowboys this weekend surrounded the blinding sunlight pouring through the giant window of AT&T Stadium. The fact that sunlight and curtains were more interesting than football says everything about where the Cowboys are now.
Luckily, they only have four standalone games left over the next eight weeks.
To wait. What?
Let’s hope Trey Lance can provide a spark, which seems unlikely based on his brief performance against the Eagles.
Interesting: Baltimore and Pittsburgh have yet to play each other this season
Simple. This is one of the best rivalries in football and these games have a huge amount at stake when it comes to playoff seeding. The Steelers are currently in first place in the AFC North, but they will have to defend that spot twice against the Ravens before the season is over.
The first meeting is Sunday at 1:00 PM ET in Pittsburgh, and the second is on Saturday, December 21 at 4:30 PM ET in Baltimore. Lamar Jackson against this Steelers defense will be must-see television.
Not interesting: the AFC East
Buffalo might as well print the t-shirts and hats that say: 2024 AFC East Champions: This Race is Over. And it’s been over for a while.
Buffalo has a five-game lead in the division and, excluding a win over the Dolphins on Monday night, has as many wins (eight) as the rest of the division combined. There is some intrigue as to whether Miami can be competent enough to compete for a playoff spot now that they are healthy. Other than that, there’s not much here besides seeing Patriots rookie quarterback Drake Maye progress, which is going well so far.
Interesting: the sheer number of bad teams right now
There have been complaints about the quality of play in the NFL this year, and some of it might even be justified. A quick trip through the NFL rankings shows that there is a tons of bad teams this year. There are a handful of bottom dwellers every year, but this one has more bad teams than usual.
There are currently eleven teams with three or fewer wins in the league and six teams with just two wins. Last year there were eight teams with three or fewer wins and only four of those teams had one or two wins. The lines are drawn in a way that is clearer than in most years.
This isn’t particularly interesting right now, but it will actually create a compelling race for picks in the 2025 NFL Draft. The entire top 11 of the current draft order is separated by one win, while a slew of tiebreakers currently sort out the order. The Panthers, who just got their third win of the season this weekend, are currently on the verge of a pick 10th. Some of this is due to teams like the Dolphins and Saints suffering serious injuries early in the season, but there are just a lot of bad football teams out there right now. It is what it is.
Another interesting part is that there isn’t much hype surrounding the upcoming 2025 draft, especially at quarterback (and a lot of teams need quarterbacks right now). Players like Travis Hunter and Will Johnson seem like good choices, but the top of the draft isn’t flooded with QB talent like this year’s class. Finding franchise talent can be harder than usual, which isn’t good for the way the current landscape is being shaped.
There are so many teams with low win totals that even the Jets at 3-7 are just two games out of an AFC wild card spot and own the 10th seed. It’s getting tougher by the week as the losses pile up, but there’s enough leeway that some teams can turn their fortunes around and compete for a playoff spot despite their dismal start. That’s also worth looking at.
Not interesting: Mac Jones and the Jaguars
The Jaguars have been a bit of a national story since Trevor Lawrence was drafted in 2021, but everything has gone wrong and their current infrastructure will be gone after this season. The chances of Mac Jones starting at quarterback for the rest of the season are not zero. No. Just, no.
