Daniel Jeremiah, a guest on the Rich Eisen Show on Monday, came prepared with his five breakout teams for 2024.
That is to say, which five teams who bottomed out last season will make a large improvement in 2024?
The NFL Network analyst gave his top five in this order: Bengals, Chargers, Bears, Commanders, and Cardinals.
What did Jeremiah and Eisen have to say about the Commanders?
Eisen: “Washington? I was talking about it again the other day when Chris (Brockman) had them 31st on his rankings. Jayden Daniels, I can’t wait to see what he looks like. But Terry McLaurin, Ekeler, Brian Robinson, Jahan Dotson, Kliff Kingsbury dialing it up. They have weapons there, man. They could really light it up, potentially.”
Jeremiah: “They’ve got some weapons there. Offensive line, they’ve got bodies to fill all of those holes. That’s my one, let’s wait and see. I do have some reservations there. Let’s see what that offensive line looks like. But the other side of it, Rich, this is not player-driven but more coach-driven; when was the last time you saw a Dan Quinn defense that didn’t punch above its weight? They’re going to be playing with their hair on fire, playing so hard, squeezing every drop of talent they can out of that group. I think he is going to get more out of that defense than people are expecting.”
Eisen shot back: “The last time I saw that out of a Dan Quinn defense, was the last game he coordinated for the Dallas Cowboys, to be very honest with you.”
Jeremiah simply laughed as if to say, “Ok, you got me with that one.”
I’m usually a big fan of Jeremiah’s work. However, in this case, upon first glance, NFL fans should notice that though the Bengals did finish last in the AFC North in 2023, their record was 9-8. Consequently, how are they going to have the largest breakout in 2024 unless they win 14 games to finish 14-3?
Also, the Bears were actually 7-10 in 2023, three games better than the 4-13 Commanders and Cardinals, while two games better than the 5-12 Chargers.
The discussion did not provide the qualifications for a top breakout team. Should a top breakout team win, say, five more games than they did in 2023?
If so, Jeremiah’s five teams’ records would be as follows: Bengals 14-3, Bears 12-5, Chargers 10-7, and Commanders and Cardinals both 9-8.
Unless one is willing to define what a breakout season is in terms of improved wins (+5, my example), then what are we even predicting?