The 2024-2025 NFL season is NOT going as expected. The Kansas City Chiefs were handed their first loss by the Buffalo Bills on Sunday, November 17th, yet still many think they are going to win their third straight super bowl. With AFC division leaders standing at 9-2 (Buffalo Bills), 8-2 (Pittsburgh Steelers), 7-4 (Houston Texans), and 9-1 (Kansas City Chiefs), no one expected this out of the AFC.
On the other side, the NFC, all the division leaders have surprised fans this season. With the Detroit Lions having the second best record in the league standing at 9-1, they have shown that they are the Chiefs of the NFC. Other division leaders include the 8-2 (Philadelphia Eagles), 6-5 (Atlanta Falcons), and the 6-4 (Arizona Cardinals). This really caught me off guard, given the past few years, after Matt Ryan left, the Falcons were in desperate need of a solid quarterback, so I was shocked during the off-season when Kirk Cousins left the Vikings to join them. As well as last season where the Arizona Cardinals lost their starting quarterback due to injury.
Many teams made big time additions during the off season that put them in such great positions. Signing free agents, making trades, and choosing good players in the draft were some ways teams made additions. One team is the Washington Commanders, who added their potential franchise quarterback, in Jayden Daniels, with the second pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. Aside from the winning teams, there are some teams that could use a lot of work, such as the Cincinnati Bengals. After making the Super Bowl just 3 years ago, they had a bad downfall by losing to the Chiefs in the AFC championship game, not making the playoffs in 2023, and losing their starting quarterback to an injury last season. Now turning over to the NFC, with high hopes, the Chicago Bears are at the bottom of their division with a 4-6 record. Many football fans expected more out of them because they traded away their 2021 first round draft pick (Justin Fields, QB) to the Pittsburgh Steelers, in order to make room for the number one draft prospect, Caleb Williams. Being a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers, I was excited when they traded for Justin Fields, because their previous quarterback wasn’t as good as Steelers fans had expected. Fans believe it was because of a former Offensive Coordinator, which I agree with, but it was also due to the poor performance of starting quarterback Kenny Pickett.
As Week 11 wrapped up after the Monday Nights game that included the Houston Texans and Dallas Cowboys, we are all ready for what next week will have in store.
