2024 NFL Season: What We Got Right & Wrong From The Preseason

The 2024 NFL Season was full of surprises, both good & bad. We’ll be breaking down 3 surprises that we were wrong about & 3 that we didn’t see as a surprise, but many others saw as one. 

3 Surprises We Were Wrong About:

Washington Commanders

One of the biggest surprises of the NFL season has been the emergence of the Washington Commanders. We had the Commanders being one of the bottom 3 teams in the NFL and destined for another failure of a season. Instead, the Commanders are in the playoffs and Jayden Daniels has emerged from the shadows as the savior of Washington. We haven’t seen a player in Washington be a fan favorite like this at any position since Clinton Portis or Santana Moss. 

Derrick Henry 

We loved the move of Derrick Henry to Baltimore, we thought he would be the perfect complement for quarterback Lamar Jackson. It would take some pressure off Lamar to not have to do it all, but we also didn’t think Derrick Henry was going to perform like his old self. Not only did we see King Henry play well, he finished the regular season 2nd in rushing yards and had his 2nd best season of his career at age of 31. 

Travis Etienne

There was nobody higher on Travis Etienne and Jacksonville this past offseason than us. We predicted the Jaguars would win the division and be a dark horse contender, but that quickly faded after just a couple weeks into the season. Etienne lost his starting job to Tank Bigsby and went from having a 1,000 yard season to failing to break 600 yards and only finding the end zone twice all season. We had Etienne ranked over other backs like Kyren Williams, Saquon Barkley, and Derrick Henry, and we couldn’t have been more wrong on this one. 

3 Things We Were Right About:

Josh Allen

Many people assumed without Stefon Diggs & Gabe Davis that Josh Allen and the Bills offense were going to take a hit. Allen did the exact opposite of that as the Bills locked up the #2 seed in the AFC & Josh Allen may finally get his first MVP. 

Brock Bowers

We disagreed with the Raiders picking Bowers with already having Mayer, but we knew wherever he landed, he would instantly emerge as a top 5 tight end in the league and he finished the year as the #1 tight end. Bowers is going to be a generational player and the Raiders can build the offense around him. 

New York Jets

The Jets were predicted to be one of the biggest growth teams with Aaron Rodgers fully healthy, the acquisition of additional players around Rodgers, and it all fell flat. We didn’t expect the Jets to succeed with an aging Rodgers and poor management. The Jets were doomed from the start and have now hurt themselves for the next few years.