September 17, 2024
Week 2 of the NFL season is in the books, and there was carnage at the top of the NFC, with the 49ers, Lions, Eagles, and Cowboys all losing their games. We have our first obituary of the season, the Carolina Panthers.
We probably should have just killed off the Panthers last week, but didn't because the feeling was that the NFC South stunk. However, with the Saints and Buccaneers both playing well to start the season, we can go ahead and off this team after just two weeks.
The Panthers have been outscored 73-13 so far in 2024, and fans are already wearing bags on their head.
That's an underrated tradition, in my opinion.
The Panthers' trade for the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 Draft and their subsequent selection of Bryce Young might eventually go down as one of the worst moves in NFL history. Here's what the Panthers gave up to get Young:
The Bears have turned those picks into QB Caleb Williams, RT Darnell Wright, CB Tyrique Stevenson (modest trade up from 61 to get him), P Tory Taylor, and, as noted already, Moore. And they still have a high pick leftover from that trade.
But the bigger mistake was drafting Young instead of C.J. Stroud, who had one of the best rookie seasons in NFL history in 2023, and has the Texans out to a 2-0 start in 2024. Young, meanwhile, doesn't have much help, but he is completing just 55.4% of his passes, and has thrown 0 TDs vs. 3 INTs, and has a QB rating of 44.1. He's now being benched in favor of Andy Dalton, a decision that head coach Dave Canales said he made, but, uhhhhh...
Dave Canales declines to say what role David Tepper had in the Bryce Young decision. pic.twitter.com/NR92UujGe4
— Joe Person (@josephperson) September 16, 2024
Mike Florio of PFT reported during the season last year that owner David Tepper wanted Young, and the rest of the organization essentially fell in line so as not to suffer repercussions.
It’s believed in some league circles that the Panthers drafted Bryce Young because Tepper wanted him, and that the people who work for him are saying they did, too, because they know what’s good for them.
Tepper has become something of a joke, after appearing to throw a drink at a fan last season.
The Panthers now have the worst record in the NFL since 2018, when Tepper bought the team.
The Panthers are officially the worst team in the NFL since David Tepper purchased the franchise in 2018.
— Bryan Ives (@awaytoworthy) September 15, 2024
The Panthers are 31-70 (.307) since Tepper took over.
The loss today coupled with a Jets win makes that the worst record in the NFL over that span.
They're probably going to be bad for as long as he owns the team.
15) Giants (0-2): Daniel Jones played a decent game and the Giants scored three touchdowns while the Commanders scored none. And yet, they still managed to lose to the only team they ever beat.
Last week: 15
14) Commanders (1-1): The Commanders got their first win of 2024, but wins and losses this season don't matter as much as whether or not Jayden Daniels is developing as a quarterback in his rookie season. So far, so good. Daniels' running ability is obvious, but he is also going through his progressions and finding the open receiver.
Last week: 14
13) Falcons (1-1): Credit the Falcons for making some plays, but this team is 0-2 if Saquon Barkley could reach out a make one of the easiest catches of his career. A road win over a projected playoff team is nice, but they have no pass rush and they're not going to be able to protect Kirk Cousins against any teams that have any sort of pass rush.
Last week: 13
12) Bears (1-1): Caleb Williams wasn't very impressive during the Bears' Week 1 win over the Titans. In Week 2 against the Texans, he threw two INTs and was sacked 7 times. In 2023 we saw the No. 2 overall pick (C.J. Stroud) outperform the No. 1 overall pick (Bryce Young). We might see the same in 2024, with Daniels doing more with less than Williams.
Last week: 10
11) Rams (0-2): With Puka Nacua on IR and Cooper Kupp now out for "an extended period of time," per Sean McVay, the Rams' remaining receivers are Demarcus Robinson, Tutu Atwell, Tyler Johnson, and Jordan Whittington.
This team has like 10 contributing players on IR already.
Matthew Stafford right now... 🤢.
Last week: 6
10) Cardinals (1-1): I wouldn't want Kyler Murray as my franchise quarterback, but he will have some games where he just balls out, like he did Week 2. 17 of 21 for 266 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INT, and 5 rushes for 59 yards.
I kinda like this Cardinals offense. They have a power rushing attack with James Conner, combined with a quarterback in Murray who opposing defensive linemen have to chase around all day. I could see this team wearing down defenses in the second halves of games this season.
And then of course there's Marvin Harrison Jr., who had a very quiet Week 1 but in Week 2 announced that, yeah, he's pretty good:
MARVIN HARRISON JR.'S FIRST NFL TOUCHDOWN HAS ARRIVED pic.twitter.com/EFquDWaM8V
— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) September 15, 2024
Last week: 12
9) Packers (1-1): The Packers are now 1-0 when their center throws up on the football pre-snap:
Josh Myers with the sneaky pre-snap puke 💀 pic.twitter.com/0rsUMmFE08
— CheeseheadTV 🧀 (@cheeseheadtv) September 15, 2024
Last week: 8
8) Seahawks (2-0): The Seahawks are 2-0, but they have also been in tight games against a couple of bad teams in the Broncos and Patriots. They've gotten to face Bo Nix and Jacoby Brissett so far, and in Week 3 they get Skylar Thompson.
Last week: 7
7) Cowboys (1-1): It feels like the Cowboys have an early-season game every year where they get taken to the woodshed.
• 2024: 44-19 loss to the Saints
• 2023: 42-10 loss to the 49ers
• 2022: 19-3 loss to the Buccaneers
• 2021: 30-16 loss to the Broncos (down 30-0 in that game)
They won the next week after the above games in 2023, 2022, and 2021. Will that trend continue? They have a tough home matchup against a desperate 0-2 Ravens team Week 3.
Last week: 4
6) Eagles (1-1): Yuck:
#Eagles defense through 2 games:
— Matthew Betz (@TheFantasyPT) September 17, 2024
- T32nd in yards per play
- 29th in EPA per play
- 27th in sack rate
- 23rd in QB pressures
A Philly EDGE rusher hasn't recorded a sack in six games going back to last year
Last week: 3
MORE: 10 awards from Eagles-Falcons
5) Vikings (2-0): The NFL's QB rating leaders through two games:
That list looks like if you wrote all the starting quarterbacks' names on pieces of paper and picked them out of a hat.
The Vikings had an easy opponent in the Giants Week 1, but that was never a contest, and they beat the 49ers in a non-flukey way Week 2. They have two legitimately good wins to begin the season, and are one of the early surprise teams. They'll immediately have another big test at home Week 3 against the Texans.
Last week: 11
4) Lions (1-1): The Lions remain an up-and-coming team that people should rightfully be excited about, but that's all they really are right now. They are not among the NFL's elite just yet. In my opinion, a team like the Texans is closer to doing special things as a young, frisky team than the Lions.
Last week: 2
3) Buccaneers (2-0): We don't think of Baker Mayfield as a running quarterback, and his rushing numbers aren't anything impressive, but he does have that in his toolbox.
Two phenomenal runs by Baker Mayfield to steal back a lead for the Buccaneers.
— Josh Hill (@jdavhill) September 15, 2024
THE BAKERY IS OPEN!! pic.twitter.com/63KlencJBd
Last week: 6
2) Saints (2-0): The MVP of the league after the first two weeks of the season is Derek Carr. The Offensive Player of the Year is probably Alvin Kamara. Anyone call that?
Last week: 10
1) 49ers (1-1): When offensive or defensive schemes are successful, other teams around the NFL steal those concepts while also trying to figure out how to stop them. During the offseason, we had pointed out that Vic Fangio's scheme may be a victim of that phenomenon, as a half dozen teams ran versions of his scheme in 2023, and none of them were particularly good.
At some point that's going to happen to the offenses run by coaches under the Kyle Shanahan tree, which includes teams like the Niners (Shanahan, duh), Rams (Sean McVay), Packers (Matt LaFleur), and Dolphins (Mike McDaniel). All four of those teams have legitimately great talent in their offenses, and that quartet is averaging 19.3 points per game so far this season.
I'm not moving the Niners out of the No. 1 spot just yet, though, with games upcoming against the injury-devastated Rams, Patriots, and Cardinals. If they drop one of those, we'll move them out.
Last week: 1
MORE: The pivotal plays from the Eagles' Week 2 loss to the Falcons
Follow Jimmy & PhillyVoice on Twitter: @JimmyKempski | thePhillyVoice
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports
Add Jimmy's RSS feed to your feed reader
