We are now into the final three weeks of the 2024 NFL regular season. Let's look at six teams who are truly guaranteed to lose this week. There are a good bit of lopsided games on the NFL schedule this week, and it's an unfortunate scenario for certain teams. With how many bad teams there are in the NFL this season, it's no surprise that we have at least six teams who have no shot at winning this week.
The playoff race is also heating up for many of these teams who are on the good side of these battles. Let's roll out our weekly 'guaranteed to lose' content. And for these six teams, they don't even have to think about the possibility of winning the game...
The Atlanta Falcons made some headlines earlier this week when they announced that Kirk Cousins would be headed to the bench in favor of Michael Penix Jr, and this feels like the right move. As efficient as Cousins has been over his career, it's just not been there in 2024. And well, there may not be a better spot for a QB to make their first start than at home against the 2-12 New York Giants.
It may not be smooth for Penix, but the Falcons have a ton of high-end weapons and is going to be in a comfortable environment in his first NFL start in Week 16. This could be a low-scoring game, but the Falcons are going to win this thing.
The New York Jets did beat the Jacksonville Jaguars and showed some fight on offense, but it was the Jaguars. They're now hosting the Los Angeles Rams, who are 7-2 over their last nine games and are now in first place in the NFC West.
The LA Rams defensive front is going to brutalize Aaron Rodgers, and Rodgers' mobility is just not what it used to be. I would expect this to be a pretty convincing Rams win. These two teams are just in totally different spots at the moment. I do not think the Rams are up upset alert.
The Carolina Panthers have shown some grit in recent weeks, and the Arizona Cardinals are not great, but they're a good team and still in the mix for the NFC West division title. The Cardinals had a brutal three-game losing streak but did bounce back in Week 15 versus the New England Patriots. The Panthers might end up being a frisky team in 2025, and the current 2024 Cardinals could be what the Panthers turn into in 2025, but for now, I do not see a path for Carolina to win this game.
The New England Patriots are a bad team, but they were supposed to be a bad team this year. They hit the reset button with a rookie QB and have horrific talent on offense outside of Drake Maye and a couple of other players. The Buffalo Bills are the best team in the NFL and are a Super Bowl contender, and with this game being at home for Buffalo, it could get out of hand quickly.
Yeah, I mean, do I need to say more here? Again, this will not be a game where the Bills are on upset alert. The talent is just too drastically different between these two teams. Buffalo wins by at least 14 points.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers could be the hottest team in football, and they get to travel to Jerry World and play the Dallas Cowboys, who have seen their season go off the rails a bit. Baker Mayfield is playing the best football of his career and gets to beat up on a bad team. The Bucs have also taken over the NFC South division and could win it again in 2024.
And perhaps most impressively, the Bucs went into SoFi and blew out the Los Angeles Chargers, so perhaps their defense is also turning a corner here. I would not want to face Baker Mayfield in the postseason, and I think for the Bucs, this is just another "ho-hum" game they'll cruise to a victory in.
The New Orleans Saints will not have Derek Carr in this game and are going into Green Bay to play the Packers. Yeah, I just have no idea how the Saints could even pull off the most likely of upsets. The Packers are 10-4 on the season and still firmly in the mix in the NFC North, especially with the Detroit Lions having so many injuries.
Whoever ends up playing QB for the Saints in this game is going to get their teeth knocked out. There may be no harder place to play than Lambeau Field in December, period.