Three AFC playoff absentees likely to return in 2024
The NFL has long been a league of parity, arguably the sport’s biggest strength. This is evident in the playoffs, with there often being teams who make the playoffs one year and don’t the next and vice versa.
Nine of the 16 teams in each conference failed to make the playoffs in the 2023 season. In the AFC, these were the Cincinnati Bengals, Indianapolis Colts, Jacksonville Jaguars, Las Vegas Raiders, Los Angeles Chargers, New England Patriots, New York Jets and Tennessee Titans.
Here are three playoff absentees in the AFC that are the most likely to return to the postseason in the 2024 season.
Cincinnati Bengals
The most obvious one is the Cincinnati Bengals, who spent most of the 2023 season without star quarterback Joe Burrow. As the only active quarterback in the NFL to beat Patrick Mahomes in the postseason, a lot of people want Burrow back to his best as a result.
The Bengals still managed to finish the season with a 9-8 record despite Burrow’s injury. Just imagine what they could have done with Burrow as their signal caller.
Their one stumbling block is the division they are in. After all, they finished bottom of their division despite having nine wins, the same as the NFC South champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Green Bay Packers, who both won playoff games this season.
The Pittsburgh Steelers’ quarterback situation is far from clear, but the Cleveland Browns will have running back Nick Chubb back next season and the Ravens may have lost coordinators but they have the current reigning MVP in Lamar Jackson for a reason.
It is going to be hard for the Bengals to win the division, something they definitely have the players to do, but they certainly have enough to make the postseason as a Wildcard team.
Indianapolis Colts
Another team who had nine wins in 2023 was the Indianapolis Colts. If you asked their fanbase before the season started that their new quarterback Anthony Richardson would have his season cut short by injury and long-time back up Gardner Minshew would take over the reins, not many would have backed rookie head coach Shane Steichen to guide the team to guide the team to a 9-8 record.
Again, just like the Bengals, imagine what they could have done with their QB1 healthy.
Richardson showed signs he was the next great quarterback in Indy, with seven total touchdowns and just one interception. Durability is a concern right now, but this is just one injury set back.
With players such as Michael Pittman, Josh Downs, and Alec Pierce to throw to, they have an exciting young receiver room, along with Jonathan Taylor to hand the ball off to.
The Colts are arguably in the AFC’s easiest division, despite CJ Stroud and Trevor Lawrence both residing in it, but they will feel this will give them hope of clinching a division title and making it four different winners in four years in this division.
Los Angeles Chargers
Whilst the questions for the Bengals and Colts consist of what the team could do if they had their quarterback situation right, the Los Angeles Chargers were always seen as a great roster that was coached poorly. Now they have one of the most sought-after head coaches in Jim Harbaugh.
Harbaugh was seen as the top candidate for the past few years and a National Championship triumph for Michigan last month left a nice icing on the cake. He will hope he can translate this to the NFL.
It is not as if he is a newbie to the NFL head coaching world. He spent time as the San Francisco 49ers head coach and guided them to Super Bowl XLVII, ultimately coming up short against brother Jon and the Baltimore Ravens in a game named as both the Harbaugh Bowl and the Blackout Bowl.
Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert finally has an offensive minded head coach to work with. In a league that is becoming more and more offensive minded and with the sheer talent at the position in the AFC, it seemed unfair for someone of Herbert’s ability that he was stuck with the lacklustre Anthony Lynn and Brandon Staley.
There will be some offseason moves that will test Harbaugh right at the starting gate, with Keenan Allen and Mike Williams priorities in the salary cap. They do have a top five draft pick as a result of an awful final campaign for Staley. With the QB needy teams that could come before them, there is a chance that the Chargers could go out and get the top offensive weapon Marvin Harrison Jr at the five spot or go down the defensive route and get a stud.
The Broncos and Raiders quarterback situations are far from clear. Whilst the AFC West is likely to be out of reach with the Kansas City Chiefs eyeing up the NFL’s first ever three-peat, there is nothing stopping the Chargers making a spot in the playoffs.