The NFL has regular season has concluded and while the season in a lot of ways is just getting started – unfortunately more than half of the league’s season is over and it is on to 2025. Some teams like the Ravens, Eagles, and Lions were expected to go to the playoffs this year and I don’t think anybody would doubt any of these teams winning the Super Bowl. But not every team is the Ravens, Eagles, or Lions and not every player plays to the level of guys like Lamar Jackson, Saquon Barkley, or the league leader in total touchdowns – Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs. And no matter who the player or team is – everyone has expectations entering each and every NFL season and the 2024 season was no different. And not everyone is going to live up to those once said lofty expectations. And in today’s video we are going to breakdown 4 big players who disappointed this year. This isn’t a ranking of players per se – but more of a collection of players who did not live up to the expectations they had just 4 months ago. And there is a lot to breakdown in today’s video and with that preface out of the way – let’s begin
And we are starting today’s video with Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson. This doesn’t apply to just Anthony – as it applies to the entire Colts organization – but 2024 was a very disappointing season for Anthony and the Colts. Anthony is an easy player to discuss because of how high the expectations were entering the year. The 2023 Colts went 9-8 and finished 10th in points per game offensively. I know this probably seems like an eternity ago, but this was in year where the Colts leading rusher was Zack Moss who actually had more yards than Jonathan Taylor as JT missed several games. This was also in a year where Michael Pittman had over 100 receptions and had over 1,100 yards and rookie Josh Downs also had over 750 yards and the future looked promising. Very promising.
They were a couple of mistakes against the Texans in week 18 of the 2023 season from winning the AFC South with a rookie head coach and they were getting a top 5 draft pick back in 2024. And not just any top 5 draft pick. But a top 5 pick who was selected by a head coach who had previously worked with athletic quarterbacks and a guy who played a major role in having Jalen Hurts go from a player who threw just 16 touchdowns and 9 interceptions in his second year – to a guy who eventually had 35 total touchdowns in his 3rd year – and would go on to be a 2nd team all pro and finish second in the MVP race – only being Patrick Mahomes. But 2024 was extremely disappointing for Anthony Richardson due in some part to himself – and due in some part to the organization. The Colts went from finishing 10th in points per game in 2023 to 17th in 2024 and despite the limited sample size in 2023 – Anthony completed nearly 60% – and looked like a player who could be the guy in 2024. But 2024 was brutal. He only played in 11 games and was in contention for the record for the lowest completion percentage ever for a player over a certain amount of throws.
Obviously if you have a receiver throw a trick play and he goes 0/1 on the season – then that’s technically the worst completion percentage in NFL history – but the point is – AR was nearing Tim Tebow levels of completion percentage. Tebow completed just 46.5% of his passes in 2011 and Anthony Richardson completed just 47.7% of his passes in 2024. Michael Pittman also took a big step back as he had over 100 receptions for 1,100 yards in 2023 – only to regress to having a 69 catch 808 yard season in 2024. The Colts actually had 3 receivers with 800 yards in 2024 – but it was a very disappointing year all around. Richardson and second round pick Adonai Mitchell were seemingly never on the same page and Adonai Mitchell finished his rookie year with a catch percentage of just 41.8% – which is pretty disappointing because I thought he was open a reasonable amount on tape. I know Adonai had multiple drops throughout the 2024 season – but that was kind of the story of the 2024 Colts – a day late and a dollar short. There was also the part of the year where AR took himself out of the Texans game and I know some people don’t like Pat McAfee – but I thought what he said about this was incredibly accurate – and he said – that this does not happen in winning organizations.
There was also an article that came out from the Athletic recently – that Anthony Richardson was quoted as saying “the guys ask me to do certain things – and even if I didn’t feel like doing it – man, you gotta do it” and this was after being named the starter again. This is alarming because this isn’t something that should just be getting realized nearly two full seasons into his NFL career. And not after the season he had to that point. The expectations were high in 2024 for Anthony and the Colts – and unfortunately – they failed to live up to them. And I do think it’s fair to say – Anthony Richardson was one of the biggest disappointments of the 2024 season.
Next up is CJ Stroud of the Texans and one of my biggest fears for the 2024 Texans ultimately came true. Whenever there’s a team that’s on the rise and has a hot rookie quarterback that also wins a playoff game – conveniently in this case along with a rookie head coach in Demeco Ryans at the time and an offensive coordinator who looked good in 2023 in Bobby Slowik – expectations are going to be incredibly high entering the following year. And unless the said team makes it to a conference championship game, or they lose in a fashion like the Bills did to the Chiefs back in 2021 where they put up 35+ points as an offense and look spectacular in the process – there’s almost always a 0% chance the team lives up to the hype they had entering the season. And that’s exactly what happened with the Texans in 2024.
CJ finished the 2024 season with less touchdowns and more interceptions than he had in 2023 despite thawing more passes and at times – it was ugly. Now it’s obviously not fair to blame the entirety of the 2024 Texans struggles solely on CJ Stroud because the play calling also took a big step back in 2024 too. Obviously as fans we can see when players start to lose it physically and become a shell of a player they once were – whether it’s a quarterbacks arm strength deteriorating, or a running back’s agility not being what it once was – but play callers go through ups and downs too – and like players – they have peaks and valleys of their careers. There were several games in 2024 where the Texans had zero second half offensive touchdowns and there were also plenty of times where they would call draw plays only to gain two yards and to set themselves up for a second and long – or even better – third and long.
There was also a lot of failed screen plays and poor offensive line play too. CJ Stroud was sacked 52 times in 2024 compared to just 38 times in 2023 and that doesn’t accidentally happen by only throwing the ball 33 more times. It was a long year for everyone on the Texans and especially for Stroud. His yards per attempt were over a yard shorter from 2023 to 2024, and his average passing yards per game dropped by over 50 yards as he failed to throw for 4,000 yards in 2024. The Texans also had to adjust a bit to more 11 personnel with the 3 receivers in Nico Collins, Stefon Diggs, and Tank Dell compared to what they did in 2023 and I also think that played a part in why Stroud was sacked much more in his second season – versus his rookie season.
And this obviously has nothing to do with CJ as I am also lumping the Texans as a team into this – but it was disappointing for everyone that we didn’t get to see the true fire power of this offense unleashed outside of a couple of games. None of the 3 receivers in Nico Collins, Tank Dell, or Stefon Diggs played more than 14 games and I do think it’s disappointing we didn’t get to see what they could all do together over the course of a year. Obviously that’s nobodies fault and I do wish both – Tank Dell and Stefon Diggs the absolute best in recovery as they are each recovering from major knee injuries – and especially Tank. I think there is a chance this team beats the Chargers in the wild card round – albeit a small chance – but the good news for the Texans is they will enter the 2025 season with more reasonable expectations than what they had entering the 2024 season. And we will certainly discuss the Texans a lot more coming up – but one of the biggest lessons to learn from the 2024 season is – it’s a lot easier to go from bad to good as an NFL team – than it is to go from good to great. And I think the Texans over the past two years are a perfect example of that. But it was a very long 2024 season for CJ Stroud and the Texans organization.
Within the video below we discuss Will Levis and the Titans, Deshaun Watson and the Browns, and Kirk Cousins of the Atlanta Falcons. Also, Ran Carthon was fired during the making of this video and article and this a decision I completely disagree with. There will be a video on the Titans within the next few weeks discussing their situation and break down everything. I strongly, strongly disagree with the decision to fire Ran and wish him the best moving forward.
