5 NFL teams we intensely overrated in the preseason

We are working our way through the first quarter of the 2024 NFL season as we speak. While we are starting to get a better sense of who is good, who is bad, and who is downright ugly, there is a chance that maybe, just maybe, we grossly overrated a handful of teams from the start. Some of these teams were painfully obvious, while others have come as a complete surprise. All of which have frustrated.

The good news about the NFL is it is a long season full of ups and downs. Coaches, players and teams are allowed to get better as the season progresses. The bad news is how teams start in the first quarter of the season is often indicative of how a campaign is going to go. Simply put, if you start slow, you often end up behind the eight ball. These handful of teams are certainly feeling that now.

So what I am going to do today is outline five teams I think have been massive disappointments through their first four games of the season. Some looked better today than others, while Sunday was a referendum on a season quickly getting away from them. All of these teams have an opportunity to get better as the year goes along, but we have to wonder if it is their year in 2024.

Let's start with a team who got its first victory of the season this weekend vs. NFC cannon fodder.

5. Cincinnati Bengals (1-3)

I did not want to put the Cincinnati Bengals on this list today, especially after their two-score win over the Carolina Panthers, now led by Andy Dalton. However, I cannot overlook the Bengals' rough 0-3 start. Admittedly, all of their losses were by one score, but this was a team I projected to win the AFC North. The Bengals missed the postseason a year ago. I just wonder if this team is as good as it was.

Had the Bengals not taken care of business vs. Carolina in Charlotte on Sunday, they would have been No. 1 with a bullet on this list. Truth be told, Carolina is not as bad as we thought the Panthers were when Bryce Young was their starting quarterback. They cannot pivot back to him, especially with how well Dalton has played over the last few weeks. As for Cincinnati, can they take a big leap?

I am sure this team will be battle-tested by the end of the season, but I have a hard time seeing them being the Kansas City Chiefs' most worth adversary in the AFC this year. While I could be proven wrong in a few months, this team might be lucky if it even makes the playoffs. The good news for them is the AFC North seems to be wide open. They have to take advantage during divisional play.

While it was good to see Joe Burrow and company finally get a win on Sunday, it shouldn't be No. 1.

4. New York Jets (2-2)

I may be biased, but I am never going to be the one to crown the New York Jets prematurely. This team is better on paper, but where are the wins? They lost at home to the Denver Broncos on Sunday, the other team that has not been to the postseason in roughly a decade out of the AFC. I know that Gang Green has Aaron Rodgers at quarterback, but his arrival on the team does nothing for me.

To be quite frank, I think they are massively undercoached. Is Robert Saleh good at what he does? He may have been a great defensive coordinator at San Francisco previously, but being an NFL head coach is a totally different animal. Again, this team does appear to be well-constructed on paper, but it just does not get the results it needs for me to think this is a serious playoff team in the deep AFC.

One thing the Jets do have going for them is the New England Patriots may be truly awful in-division. Factor in the Miami Dolphins being unsettled at quarterback, and this could give them a puncher's chance to catch the Buffalo Bills in the AFC East race. For now, the Jets are exactly who I thought they were: A 7-10 team masquerading as a 10-7 team. That little difference makes all the difference.

The Jets need to beat the Broncos on Sunday to build some momentum, and they totally blew it.

3. Philadelphia Eagles (2-2)

Something is off in Philadelphia, and it might be their football team. Ever since losing the Super Bowl to the Kansas City Chiefs two years ago, the Philadelphia Eagles have descended into a downward spiral. Yes, they were one of the best teams in football last year up to the halfway point, but coaching matters! They fell to 2-2 on the year after getting smoked by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 4.

Even more damning, the Eagles lost to the Atlanta Falcons in a manner often associated with how the Falcons blow games at the bitter end. In time, perhaps the hirings of Vic Fangio and Kellen Moore will make up the difference that Nick Sirianni desperately needs. From afar, there seems to be something at odds in the Eagles locker room. It is starting to get to a boiling point like it did with Carson Wentz.

Given how bad the NFC East is across the board, I would be foolish to cross the Eagles off as a serious playoff team. They have the most talent of anyone in the division. While New York is going nowhere, Washington is ascending and you can always count on the Cowboys to save their best football for the regular season and never during the postseason. What should we make of The Birds?

This might end up being a division winner, but Philadelphia is not looking like a Super Bowl team at all.

2. Jacksonville Jaguars (0-4)

I would argue that the Jacksonville Jaguars might be the most disappointing team in the NFL. At 0-4, they are looking more and more like a team that needs to draft Trevor Lawrence's replacement than they are a playoff contender in the AFC. Admittedly, they kept it close with the division rival Houston Texans on Sunday, but a loss is a loss is a loss. This thing is about to get toxic down in Duval yet again.

I am starting to wonder if Doug Pederson ends up being the first head coach fired this season. We know that eccentric billionaire owner Shahid Khan has a quick finger on these sort of things. For as much as I praised the hiring of Ryan Nielsen as their defensive coordinator, what does offensive coordinator Press Taylor do besides cost this team games? He is not his older brother even one bit!

Simply put, I had Jacksonville as a fringe playoff contender in the AFC at the start of the year. Now, I feel like they are destined to be picking inside of the top eight. For the amount of talent that Trent Baalke has assembled, why are the Jaguars so pedestrian on the field? It is clear that Lawrence is probably never going to take the step we all wanted him to as the No. 1 overall pick out of Clemson.

We will write books about the 2021 NFL quarterback draft class, and those books will be sad ones...

1. Los Angeles Rams (1-3)

It is time to hit the reset button, folks. No, this does not mean Sean McVay needs to be let go. However, I am starting to wonder if general manager Les Snead's f**k them picks draft strategy has come back to bite this team in the ass. Matthew Stafford is another year older. Aaron Donald has retired. Cooper Kupp is broken. Half of last year's staff now works for Raheem Morris in Atlanta.

The last thing a team needs to be in the ultra-competitive NFC West is directionless, and I feel we are getting that in spades with the 2024 Los Angeles Rams now at 1-3. I think they have to draft Stafford's replacement next spring. This could be a decent quarterback class, but you have to wonder if any of them are exactly the type of playmaker that McVay will be comfortable working with.

Overall, I just had a feeling last postseason when the Rams feel to the Detroit Lions head-to-head that it was a true passing of the torch in the NFC. Not to say from the best team to the next best one, but as a means of saying the Lions' Super Bowl window is firmly open now, whereas the Rams has been slammed shut. At this point, I am not even sure they are going to get to .500 and make the playoffs.

This organization used to be the gold standard for how to win big. Now it is a shell of what it once was.