5 NFL teams who won’t be as good as you think in 2020
By John Buhler
Every offseason, NFL teams convince themselves they’re going to be awesome and reach the Super Bowl. Here are five teams who won’t be as good as you think.
With the first wave of NFL free agency in the books and the 2020 NFL Draft less than a month away, most fanbases have to feel pretty good about where their teams stack up in the league’s hierarchy. However, winning in free agency is one thing and winning on the field of play is a totally different animal.
Admittedly, this will be the weirdest offseason in the history of the NFL. All 32 franchises will need to make the necessary adjustments so they can be ready for when the regular season does get under way. For some, continuity will be key for them to get off to hot starts at the beginning of the season. For others, getting to work will be enough to jumpstart a cultural turnaround.
Though there will be familiar faces at the top and the same usual suspects at the bottom, every year we do end up seeing teams rise and fall in the NFL pantheon. As the old saying goes, for someone to be better, somebody has to be worse. And if you’re not getting better, then you must be getting worse.
What we’re going to do right now is look at five teams who won’t be as good as everybody thinks they will be this fall. It doesn’t mean they can’t contend for playoff spots or see slight improvement on what they did a year ago. It is more about pumping the breaks for a second and accepting these five teams are only setting you up to let you down next winter. So here we go.
Pick Analysis. NFC. player. Scouting Report. East. Dallas Cowboys. 5. 123
No organization has garnered more undeserved attention in the last 25 years than the Dallas Cowboys. It’s been a quarter of a century since America’s Team last played in a Super Bowl. This is the marquee franchise in football, playing in primetime the maximum amount of regular-season games annually and calling a state with no income tax home. Why are they not better?
The reason is because it’s all about Jerry Jones, and as long as that’s the case, the Cowboys won’t win big anytime soon. It’s sad, but it’s true. There will be four Monday or Tuesday mornings next fall where the perpetual primetime disappointment from the Cowboys will occur and it will dominate the sports news cycle.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Please, I’m begging you.
Besides being who they are, the reasons the Cowboys won’t be as good as advertised next year are multi-faceted. Travis Frederick retired, which isn’t great for starting quarterback Dak Prescott, who will play on the franchise tag. He’ll attempt to throw passes to the most overpaid wide receiver in football in Amari Cooper, who’s getting top-dollar to be the 12th best at his position.
No, Dallas won’t win the NFC East next year. The Philadelphia Eagles are better than them anyway. While head coach Mike McCarthy is an upgrade over Jason Garrett, you can say the same thing about Ron Rivera with the Washington Redskins over Jay Gruden. If Joe Judge hits in New York, then the bottom of the NFC East won’t be as terrible. That won’t be good for America’s Team.