With 32 NFL teams there are bound to be teams in different stages of competing. The Kansas City Chiefs for example are 5-0 and are coming off of back to back Super Bowl titles – and are without a doubt in win now mode. But others like the Carolina Panthers are 1-4 and have had a bad start to the year and for Carolina specifically – it was always going to be an uphill battle in 2024 – but you would have liked to have seen more from them through the first five games. And in theory they they definitely need to rebuild and could certainly apply for today’s video – but we opted to go with 4 other NFL teams that need to rebuild. These teams have some ups and downs to start the year and one of these teams in particular had insanely high highs just in the first 5 weeks alone. But the NFL season is a marathon and not a sprint, and I would be very surprised if any of these teams make the playoffs due to a multitude of reasons and in today’s video we’re going to breakdown why they need to commit to a full rebuild. And there is a lot to dive into in today’s video and without further ado – let’s begin
And we are starting today’s video with the Las Vegas Raiders. The Raiders entered the 2024 season in an interesting situation as they were coming off of a good end to the 2023 season. They finished the year with an 8-9 record and were just 3-5 under head coach Josh McDaniels before he was fired after a 26-14 loss in Detroit. The Raiders proceeded to go 5-4 in the remaining 9 games with Antonio Pierce as their head coach and the Raiders looked like a completely different football team. The difference between the Raiders in the first half of the 2023 season and the second half of the 2023 season was noticeable. And they chose to keep Antonio Pierce as the teams head coach which was a decision I agreed with. Players bought in and the big thing to remember with the Raiders is – outside of a few positions – this is a pretty solid team.
Now the Davante Adams situation and the way this played out was unfortunate and there were a lot of rumblings last season in terms of him possibly getting traded – but my biggest concern with the Raiders entering the 2024 season was the quarterback position. Entering the year with Gardner Minshew and Aidan O’Connell as the two best options was certainly a choice and through the first 5 games – they’ve thrown for 5 touchdowns to 6 interceptions. And the Raiders have a turnover margin of -7 through the first 5 games which as you can imagine is near the bottom of the league – and it’s actually tied for dead last with the Titans who have had their fair share of turnovers too. The thing with the Raiders is I still like a lot of players on this roster and I think they can be good foundational pieces for the next few years.I just think they should trim the fat and acknowledge that a rebuild is what they need rather than try and enter the year with either Gardner or AOC at quarterback and go from there. I mean if you are in a race and you have lamborghinis’ and Ferraris in a race and you need to compete with those types of cars – like Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen – why are you entering the race with a chevy impala. And no disrespect to the impala’s either – they’re just not Ferrari’s or Lamborghini’s and entering the year with this quarterback room was always shouting to the rest of the NFL that we are at maximum a wild card exit team. And that was even in the best case scenario and I don’t think they’re going to get there. Not even close.
They need to commit to a rebuild and one of the problems for not just the Raiders – but for any team that needs a quarterback entering the 2025 season – is – the 2025 draft is not quarterback rich. And that’s going to present a challenge for the Raiders because then the question will be – do you go after somebody like Sam Darnold who has shown flashes in the 2024 season that nobody thought he could – or do you reach on a quarterback and just hope he works out? I think reaching on a quarterback would be a horrible decision, but the point is – they need a quarterback, and they’ll also need a running back and a few receivers as well. I like Jacob Meyers and Tre Tucker and I really like Tre Tucker – but even Raiders fans don’t think they’re going to carry a receiving room. I don’t think the Chargers are a serious threat in the AFC, but knowing Kansas City is where they are – and attacking the trenches the way the Chargers did this offseason – and by bringing in high floor players – is what I would love for the Raiders to do next offseason. And I especially loved their first two picks this year in Brock Bowers and Jackson Powers Johnson and thought those two were great picks at the time.
The New York Giants are in an interesting situation and contrary to a couple of teams in today’s video – I would consider this more of a re tool rather than a true rebuild. And when we did the Giants team preview before the year – I was higher on Daniel Jones than a lot of people. The big thing with Daniel was – can we get 2022 Daniel Jones and not 2023 Daniel Jones pre injury because the player we saw last year was bad. And he’s been much better in 2024 outside of one game – which was against one of the best defenses in the league in the Minnesota Vikings. In the 4 games since then – Daniel has thrown for over 950 yards and 6 touchdowns to just 1 interception and would be on pace for over 4,000 passing yards, 26 passing touchdowns, and just 4 interceptions over the course of a 17 game season.
There were a lot of trying times in 2023 – and perhaps no game exemplified that better than the Seahawks game on Monday night. The Giants lost by 21 points at home and the quarterback they controversially gave a $160 million dollar contract to played terrible, and even threw a 100 yard pick 6 to then rookie Devon Witherspoon. Not surprisingly once their quarterback went down the Giants didn’t have a lot of success and there was a point where they were starting undrafted rookie Tommy DeVito. It was a very long year for this team, but I really think they’ve been playing better and it’s due in some part to Daniel Jones. The game against Washington was tough because they lost due in large part to not having a kicker be able to kick extra points to keep them in the game. And I know Daniel threw the one bad two point conversion within that game – but he’s been fine in 2024.
The offensive line hasn’t been great as a whole and the Giants are bottom 5 in both rushing touchdowns as a team and yards per carry as a team. The re tool with the Giants revolves around the offensive line because whether the running back is Saquon Barkley or Devin Singletary – or even Tyrone Tracy – they’re not going to be able to maximize what they can do. Now with Daniel Jones playing better to start the year – if this keeps up there’s going to be some very interesting questions. Do they roll with Daniel Jones for another year or does Brian Daboll and Joe Schoen take a chance at a quarterback in the draft – knowing their jobs at that point would be tied to that quarterbacks success? And I think this is why the Giants are in one of the most interesting situations of any team in football. They have a head coach who has shown at times to be a good offensive mind and a guy who can very easily lead an NFL team for the next few years -but they’ve been up and down at the quarterback position. It was widely known the Giants were interested in Jayden Daniels and unfortunately Washington wouldn’t budge and they couldn’t get up from pick 6 to pick 2 to select him.
Malik Nabers isn’t a bad consolation prize by any means, but the Giants plan this offseason has to be to get better in the trenches, and I think the jury is out on whether or not they’re going to take a quarterback. If I had to guess, I think they would take a quarterback simply because I don’t think Daboll and Schoen would want to go down with Daniel Jones leading the ship without ever taking a swing at a quarterback of their own. And I could easily get behind that train of thought because they would also try to improve the offensive line and have one of the best receivers in the league to throw the ball to in Malik Nabers too. The one big question that I go back to even when Daniel Jones is playing well like he is now – is – do the Giants have enough to seriously compete when it matters with DJ as their quarterback. And the answer is no. I think the Giants ceiling is 7 wins – maybe 8 – and they probably be be looking for their quarterback of the future next April.
I truly think the Cleveland Browns are in the worst situation in all of football and it’s more than just Deshaun Watson. We’ll get to Deshaun in a second as that’s an entirely different thing in itself,but they have a lot of problems on the offense. I was never the biggest fan of the trio of Amari Cooper, Jerry Jeudy, and Elijah Moore to begin with and they haven’t been set up for success in the early parts of the 2024 season – but even when they have had opportunities – they’ve dropped a lot of passes – and especially Amari – and collectively they are not a good trio. There was a tweet from Mike Clay of ESPN that said 45% of passes directed at Amari Cooper have qualified as “off target” this season. And there hasn’t been an off target rate that high for a player with 40+ targets since at least prior to 2011.
As if the receiving trio consisting of those 3 players isn’t enough of a hinderance to the team – the quarterback play has also been awful and we see it every single Sunday. But there’s an even bigger problem for Cleveland – and I guess you could say pun intended – and it’s that they’re going to have replace a lot of the offensive line – and soon.Replacing any good starter along the offense line is always tough because the reality is good offensive line rarely become available. Sure you may get a 30+ year old veteran hit free agency that’s been in the league for 8 years and has thousands of snaps on his body and hope that he can become the player he was at 25 or 26 years old – but drafting a good offensive lineman and having them be a plug and play guy for a decade is invaluable. And Cleveland had that with Joel Bitonio who turned 33 years old the day prior to this video being released and Joel has logged over 10,000 career snaps and it’s starting to show.
Wyatt Teller will be 30 in November and has one year left on his contract after this year and I wouldn’t be surprised if Cleveland moves him at the trade deadline – in an attempt to get draft capital on a player that won’t be around for the next 3 to 4 years. Jack Conklin is also 30 and has played in 10 games or more just once in the past 3 years and cannot be relied on to be their long term starter. Unfortunately Cleveland has had a lot injuries along the offensive line to start the year and they’ve had 9 different lineman play in the first 5 games – with 4 of them allowing double digit pressures. They also don’t have to technically replace Left Tackle Jedrick Wills but he is an average player and he is not a great franchise changing left tackle by any means. So there’s a real possibility Cleveland has 3 new offensive lineman in 2025 – with one of the returners being an average player.
The receiving room isn’t good enough and more than half of the offensive line is going to have be replaced within two years at most. And this all has nothing to do with Deshaun Watson – who is an entirely different problem. I’m not going to go too much into this because I would imagine we all feel the same way – but what you may not know is Cleveland has pushed a lot of his money down the road and he is still owed a lot. For reference – his cap hit in 2025 is scheduled to be $72.9 million and this is per over the cap. They still owe Deshaun a total of $172 million dollars and the only thing Cleveland can really hope for at this point is for any case to come up that would allow them to get out of this contract. Because if they can’t – then they’re going to pay Deshaun roughly a quarter of their salary cap in each of the next two seasons. Because the contract was fully guaranteed – all they can do is push the money down the road. When you factor in the contract with an awful quarterback who nobody would trade for by the way, an aging offensive line, and a receiving room that’s not good – while wasting the prime of a great defense – I think this is the worst situation in all of football.
The New Orleans Saints are the 4th team that needs to rebuild. The video portion of the Saints is below. I hope you enjoy!
