5 Super Bowl pretenders who didn't do enough in NFL free agency

While the NFL does a better job than pretty much any other league out there of selling hope to its franchises' fanbases, in reality, only about eight teams a year can realistically win the Super Bowl. It usually presents itself in the middle third of the season, but we are still so far away from that being in our lives. All we can do is assess what each team did in the offseason and ask if it made them better.

Truth be told, some teams are not even going to sniff the playoffs. We all know who they are, and members of those fanbases who think they will are completely delusional. It is kind of sad, but that is just part of being a fan. However, there is another group of fans that don't get that they don't get it. Bless their hearts. These fans think their teams are winning the Super Bowl but are only pretenders.

At times, the product on the field may masquerade as a champion, but it is merely fools good. Could any of these teams listed below end up winning the Super Bowl this year? Oh, absolutely, but nothing they have done up to this point in the earliest waves of NFL free agency suggest to me that they will. We still have the NFL Draft, training camp, all spring and summer, and a whole season to stew over.

Right now, here are five teams who didn't do enough to in free agency to be a Super Bowl contender.

5. Tampa Bay Buccaneers should still be good, but didn't elevate ceiling

This one is hard because I still kind of like their team. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have won the NFC South each of the last three years. The year prior to winning the division for the first time in a generation, they won the freaking Super Bowl. While retaining key pieces like Baker Mayfield, Mike Evans and Antoine Winfield Jr. were certainly great decisions, this team did not elevate its ceiling.

At this moment, you may still have to give the Buccaneers the edge to win the division, but the Atlanta Falcons did have an offseason for the ages. The Dirty Birds will be much better in 2024. While the Carolina Panthers are still very much rebuilding, the New Orleans Saints never go away quietly. Truth be told, the Falcons may have closed the gap on Tampa Bay, who has been losing ground recently.

When the best move you make outside of retaining your own guys is signing safety Jordan Whitehead away from the New York Jets, you didn't really get better, now did you? Cutting ties with Shaq Barrett could come back to haunt them. Losing Ryan Jensen to retirement was not ideal either. I still feel Tampa Bay is a playoff team, but they aren't a lock to win the NFC South by any means either.

This is still probably a top-half team in the NFC yet again, but it is not getting to the NFC title bout.

4. Buffalo Bills saw their Super Bowl window close, but don't realize it yet

You know what? I'm kind of done with this era of Buffalo Bills football. Their Super Bowl window has closed, but Bills Mafia is in complete denial about it. Their big free agency signing was spending way too much money on Curtis Samuel over from Washington. The other one was bringing back Mitch Trubisky to back up Josh Allen. All the while, losing Gabe Davis to Jacksonville is going to really sting.

While the Bills did come on down the stretch after a very chaotic start and middle to last season, it was all for nothing. The Kansas City Chiefs came to town, took their lunch money, pulled their underwear over their head and stuffed them into a locker. Buffalo is still probably going to make the playoffs, probably win the AFC East again. However, if you are not getting better, you're getting worse.

The only team in the AFC more frustrating than Buffalo right now has to be the Pittsburgh Steelers. The biggest difference between Buffalo and Pittsburgh is not passing around Trubisky, but the Bills' ceiling is winning one playoff game, where the Steelers is just getting to one. Even then, I think there is a chance the Steelers got better, simply by kicking brat extraordinaire Kenny Pickett to the curb.

Buffalo could be a top-eight team in football, but I like Jacksonville's ceiling over theirs in the AFC.

3. Indianapolis Colts decided to run mid back again to not win AFC South

You're doing great, sweetie! We have arrived at a bunch of mid in the middle of the country. Not since I began writing sports articles professionally have the Indianapolis Colts won their division. Everybody else in the AFC South has hosted a home playoff game multiple times. Even though they brought in the most elite backup ever in the ageless Joe Flacco, Chris Ballard his been all about running it back.

As Ryan Reynolds said during his cameo as a doctor in Harold and Kumar go to White Castle, "But why?" From Grover Stewart, to Kenny Moore, to Rigoberto Sanchez, Ballard handed out cash to his players like Oprah Winfrey does new cars. Well, the only problem with that is these are used cars masquerading as new automobiles. Those new car air fresheners will wear off in about a fortnight.

Overall, I just have a hard time getting behind what the Colts did this offseason. Houston had a great free agency after a great first year under DeMeco Ryans. C.J. Stroud is the real deal. Jacksonville looks to bounce back after a down second half. Even Tennessee has made some noise in free agency with its big moves. All the while, the Colts seem to be more interested in relocating yet another whale.

While it wouldn't shock me if the Colts made the playoffs, they aren't winning a playoff game in 2024.

2. Los Angeles Rams will suffer after losing Aaron Donald to retirement

It is hard to make of what the Los Angeles Rams are and could be heading into this season. They bounced back to some degree last year after suffering the worst Super Bowl hangover by a team who won it during the 2022 NFL season. While they still have Sean McVay and Matthew Stafford, Raheem Morris, Zac Robinson and Jimmy Lake all work in Atlanta. Furthermore, Aaron Donald has just retired.

He may not have been at his apex with the Rams the last year or so, but he is one of the game's all-time greats. More importantly, the Rams did not do enough in free agency to counterbalance losing a dynamic presence like that in the middle of your defense. While they paid big money to three players in free agency in Jonah Jackson, Darious Williams and Colby Parkinson, it doesn't move the needle.

Truth be told, the Rams are somewhere in the fifth to seventh-best team range in the NFC. They are not on the same level as Detroit or San Francisco, maybe not even on Dallas or Philadelphia's level. While teams like Arizona, Atlanta, Chicago and Washington could be markedly better, the Rams did not do enough to keep pace with the upper crust of the NFC. They have a ceiling of a top-eight team.

If all goes well, the Rams could play in the NFC title bout, but they will not be going to New Orleans.

1. Dallas Cowboys didn't even try, as this is not a serious football team

As the late, great P.T. Barnum once said, "A sucker is born every minute." He lived in a time before football was a thing, but surely, he would have sold some snake oil to Dallas Cowboys fans on the reg. Admittedly, I bought the snake oil last year, as the Cowboys were my pick to win the NFC. Well, they haven't been to a Super Bowl since I was in kindergarten, and I am closer to 35 than I am to 34 now...

To say the Cowboys did absolutely nothing in free agency would not be far off. Their biggest signing was giving Eric Kendricks a one-year deal worth $3 million to play some inside linebacker for them. They also let Tony Pollard walk to the Tennessee Titans in his free agency, saw Tyron Smith leave for the New York Jets and Leighton Vander Esch then call it a career after only six seasons in the league.

I have to be honest, for as long as Jerry Jones is the owner, this is not a serious football team. It is a cash-making, glorified hype machine pretending to be an elite NFL franchise. Oh, they make bank, but at the end of the day all of that cash went into this Barnum's wallet. I wish it would be different for great Cowboys like Dak Prescott, but he better hope the NFL Draft actually makes this team better.

The greatest disappointment in last year's playoffs were the greatest disappointment in free agency.