10 worst NFL teams entering training camp, including the Los Angeles Chargers

The Carolina Panthers needed to completely rebuild again this offseason. Bryce Young, the No. 1 overall pick in 2023 who Carolina overpaid to land, is the only true building block left standing. Fortunately, the Panthers’ quarterback does have more help offensively this time around with play-caller Dave Canales, an improved offensive line and the additions of Diontae Johnson and Xavier Legette. Unfortunately, this still projects to be a bottom-10 offense and paired with arguably the worst defense in football, the Panthers will be one of the worst NFL teams in 2024.

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We’ll start with the good news for the New England Patriots and there’s a lot. Jerod Mayo will make sure this defense maintains its excellence, which should translate to another top-10 unit this season. There’s even more excitement surrounding quarterback Drake Maye, who legitimately boasts MVP-caliber physical traits that just need to be molded. Those will be the bright spots for New England in 2024 and there will be plenty of fun moments. However, the lack of a supporting cast around Maye and early starter Jacoby Brissett will be the anchor dragging this offense down. At least the Patriots’ future is very bright.

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We’re still a bit perplexed as to why Sean Payton took this job with the Denver Broncos. He spent the 2023 season saddled with Sean Payton, a quarterback he clearly wanted nothing to do with from the beginning. Now, the Broncos roster is rather barren after a series of salary-cap casualties just so the team could bite the financial bullet of cutting Russell Wilson. Payton now heads into his second season in Denver with a rookie quarterback who has limited physical tools operating an offense with mediocre weapons around him.

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While we believe the Arizona Cardinals will be one of the worst NFL teams in 2024, there is also confidence this will be an entertaining club. Kyler Murray showed flashes of his MVP-like ceiling late in the 2023 NFL season and now he has a potential All-Pro talent in Marvin Harrison Jr. Murray in Drew Petzing’s offense – an NFL head coach candidate in 2025 – paired with MHJ, James Conner, Trey McBride, Michael Wilson and Trey Benson is a recipe for a lot of highlights. Plus, with Arizona’s defense still being bad, Murray and Co. will have to put a lot of points on the board.

We admittedly weren’t the biggest fans of the Washington Commanders offseason moves. Dan Quinn was the backup plan at head coach and while he does have a history of success, that came with a lot of talent on the rosters. Washington doesn’t have anything close to that quality of a roster, especially defensively. Meanwhile, Jayden Daniels is now thrust into a situation where he’ll have to start behind arguably the worst offensive line in the NFL. For a quarterback whose decision-making under pressure has come into question and whose durability is an even bigger concern, the circumstances in Washington don’t inspire confidence.

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Thankfully for Daniel Jones, the New York Giants dedicated much of their offseason to improving the talent around him. Jones, now healthy, should have a better offensive line and receiving corps to elevate his game in 2024. With that said, Jones’ ceiling isn’t very high and the best-case scenario would still see the Giants offense being league-average this fall. We do love the Giants’ front seven and expect it to create havoc at times, but New York’s secondary will be what prevents this defense from reaching its true potential.

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A quarterback room of Aidan O’Connell and Gardner Minshew is a main ingredient to being one of the worst NFL teams. We do like the Las Vegas Raiders coaching staff and this defense will be even better than a lot of people are expecting. However, O’Connell looked like he was destined to be a career backup last season and Minshew’s success was largely driven by having an elite play-caller supporting him. We do expect the Raiders defense to keep games close, but both O’Connell and Minshew will let this team down repeatedly in games, especially in clutch situations.

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It’s another year of the New Orleans Saints kicking catastrophic salary-cap issues further down the road. Of course, each time the Saints do this, their roster gets thinner. New Orleans now has the worst offensive line in the NFL and quarterback Derek Carr is one of the league’s worst quarterbacks under pressure. A below-average offense partnered up with a fringe top-15 defense out of New Orleans will put the Saints on a course to be one of the worst NFL teams this fall.

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Listing the Seattle Seahawks among the worst NFL teams this fall says a lot more about the improvements made around the league. We love first-year head coach Mike Macdonald and are confident he can eventually turn a young Seahawks defense into a top-flight unit. Dramatic change takes a lot more than one season though. We’re much more confident in the Seahawks offense. Unfortunately for Seattle, a tough schedule and some issues on the offensive line will work in combination with an inexperienced defense to finish well short of a winning record.

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The Los Angeles Chargers roster just isn’t good enough for Jim Harbaugh to win in 2024. Quentin Johnston, a 2023 first-round pick, seemingly can’t even climb to third on the Chargers depth chart. Los Angeles also has major questions defensively and the Chargers receiving corps is arguably the worst in the NFL. We consider this an evaluation year for Harbaugh with the Chargers struggling in 2024 and then erupting next year.

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