After reaching Super Bowl LVI in the 2021 season and the AFC Championship Game in the 2022 season, the Bengals have now gone 9-8 and missed the playoffs in each of the past two years.
After winning 11 games and reaching the playoffs in 2023, the Browns collapsed in 2024, going 3-14 with Deshaun Watson, Jameis Winston, Dorian Thompson-Robinson and Bailey Zappe all starting games at quarterback.
A new era in New York is underway as the Jets have hired former Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn as the new head coach while moving on from QB Aaron Rodgers.
After going 5-12 in 2022, the Rams were one of the surprise teams in 2023, going 10-7 to reach the playoffs, where they lost by one point at Detroit in the Wild Card.
After missing the playoffs for a 13th straight season last year, the Jets will be hoping the return of a healthy Aaron Rodgers can end the NFL’s longest active playoff drought.
The 2023 season saw the Detroit Lions win their division for the first time in 30 years (when their division was known as the NFC Central), and win a playoff game for the first time in just as long.
Since winning Super Bowl LV in the 2020 season, the Buccaneers have won three straight NFC South division titles and upset the Eagles in the Wild Card last year.
2023 was another lackluster season for the Chicago Bears, finishing at the bottom of the NFC North with a 7-10 record (a disappointment, but, it should be noted, improvement on 2022’s bottom of the barrel 3-14 showing).
In the first season under head coach Shane Steichen last year, the Colts finished 9-8 but missed out on a berth in the playoffs with their Week 18 loss at home against the Texans.
The Bengals entered last season with Super Bowl aspirations, but QB Joe Burrow was limited to just 10 game due to injury as Cincinnati went 9-8 and missed the playoffs for the first time since Burrow’s rookie season in 2020.
