For much of the 2024 season, we’ve focused on the Chiefs‘ ever-expanding win streak. That finally ended in Week 11, and since then, Kansas City has gone back to eking out victories against teams good and bad. Now we focus on the Lions, Bills and Eagles, who have each compiled impressive winning streaks of their own. But if you can’t win for losing, as the old saying goes, can you lose for winning?
In this week’s roundtable, FOX Sports’ NFL experts tackle that topic and several others, including whether Russell Wilson‘s resurgence makes the Steelers a true title contender, whether the 49ers‘ championship window has closed, if another QB from the Class of 2023 can challenge C.J. Stroud, and if it’s time for the Falcons to give rookie QB Michael Penix Jr. a shot under center.
Let’s get started.
The Lions, Bills and Eagles have won a combined 25 straight games. Is there any danger of them peaking too early?
I don’t think “peaking too early” is usually much of a factor in the NFL. It can look that way if teams start to slump at the end of the season — as the Eagles infamously did last year — but that usually just means they were flawed teams. I think it’s hard to find flaws with any of these three teams right now.
There are really only two things that I think could derail any of them. One is injuries, which obviously they can’t control. The other is if they pull back the reins late in the season and really lose their momentum — like if they clinch early and rest their starters for a few games. But it’s hard to see that happening. The Bills are likely to be motivated to play hard right until the end as they hope to get what could be a really significant home-field advantage in a potential AFC Championship Game against the Chiefs. And the Lions and Eagles could be in a battle to the end, too, for the top seed in the NFC.
As those fights go on, as long as they stay healthy, none of those teams is likely to suddenly get worse. The players and coaches on those teams are too good, and they all have too much postseason experience to let something like that happen. — Ralph Vacchiano
The top seed has more of an advantage than ever in the expanded playoff format. Only one team gets a playoff bye, after all. So it’s great to peak during the regular season if it means you finish with the No. 1 seed. I do think the Chiefs are saving their tricks for the postseason, while I wonder if Lions OC Ben Johnson is emptying out his playbook before the games really matter. Coach Andy Reid even suggested he might start tapering Chris Jones’ workload later in the season, and I wonder if the Chiefs eased Travis Kelce into the season (which was why he started so slowly). So I don’t think it matters if you excel at the beginning of the season. What matters is getting everything organized for a deep playoff run. From what I can tell, the Bills and Eagles are still ascending. The Lions are so dang good that I don’t know how they can get much better. But they’re all sitting in really good positions. — Henry McKenna
I don’t know if I’d call it “peaking too early,” but for as good as the Lions and the Eagles have looked to this point in the season, they aren’t firmly in control of the conference nor where they’ll end up come playoff time. Neither team is in danger of missing the postseason, but the No. 1 seed is up for grabs. Detroit can clinch a playoff berth with a win on Thursday against the Packers, but that game is far from a gimme. If the Lions don’t win, their chances of finishing with the No. 1 seed, and therefore a first-round bye and home-field advantage, go down drastically. The Eagles can sneak in there pretty easily. The Lions are also decimated by injuries right now and it’s causing them to lose steam. So despite the fact that they’ve looked unstoppable as recently as a couple of weeks ago, that peak hasn’t provided a large margin for error. It’s splitting hairs, but the injury bug biting during the bulk of their NFC North schedule (the toughest division in football) is inconvenient at best.
The Bills, on the other hand, I don’t even know if they’ve peaked. They just got linebacker Matt Milano back on defense last week, and Josh Allen is playing some of the best ball of his career. This run is absolutely sustainable down the stretch. Not to mention, the AFC is all but locked up anyway and the margin for error is much bigger, even if the No. 1 seed still hangs in the balance with the Chiefs. — Carmen Vitali
Looking at the QB Class of 2023, Bryce Young, Anthony Richardson and Will Levis are making incremental progress while C.J. Stroud is struggling. Which QB will ultimately be the class of the class and why?
I think C.J. Stroud has taken a small step back from an amazing rookie season in Houston, but he’s still the class of this class. Young and Richardson have been inconsistent enough to be benched as high draft picks, and the fact that Levis hasn’t says more about his backups than his play. Stroud has 15 touchdowns against nine interceptions this season, modest compared to last year’s rare 23/5 ratio, but the other three QBs have 25 TDs and 24 INTs. Just ordinary.
I was really high on the Texans entering the season — I picked them to go to the Super Bowl — and losing Stefon Diggs is significant, but they’ve regressed in other areas. It’s possible that the body of work for someone like Richardson is still too small to write off his upside, and Young has shown flashes in the past month, but if you were asked to build a team around one of these four, it’s still Stroud in a heartbeat. — Greg Auman
I don’t think anything has changed: Stroud was and is QB1 from last year’s draft class.
Look, it’s clear that he’s taken a step back this year when you look solely at what’s within his control — his numbers are pacing worse across the board than when he was a rookie) — but the problems around him have exacerbated his inconsistency. I also think what’s lost in the Stroud dialogue is that this just may be a sophomore slump, which is not uncommon. He could take a massive step forward in 2025.
Even if the rest of his career proves that his rookie season leans more on the side of an outlier, I think he’s shown a level of competence that will keep him above the rest of the 2023 QB class. Anthony Richardson hasn’t been a consistent passer at any level, so if he becomes one in the NFL, it won’t be until years down the road. Will Levis doesn’t seem to have enough natural pocket presence. And Bryce Young has improved significantly in recent weeks, but until he proves he can play at a high level over a long period of time, I’m hesitant to fully buy in. — Ben Arthur
I still think Anthony Richardson has the most upside. I can’t say — with a straight face — that I know he’ll someday be QB1 of this class. But we’re all witnessing what Josh Allen has become: the single most dominant weapon in football. (Now, that may change back to Patrick Mahomes in the playoffs, but right now, it’s absolutely true.) Richardson still reminds me of a young Allen, running to win games where he can and throwing the ball with just enough efficiency to keep his team alive. But Richardson is definitely more raw than Allen was, even as a rookie. There’s so much we don’t know about Richardson. But given his physical tools, he has everything he needs to become something similar to Allen.
So, yes, C.J. Stroud is QB1 right now, and he’ll probably be QB1 in this class for quite some time. But with Stroud struggling, Bryce Young throwing the ball well and Richardson winning games in unique ways, that QB1 mantle is growing fraught. And I’m not discounting the possibility that somebody else comes and takes it from Stroud. — Henry McKenna
With Kirk Cousins struggling and the Falcons’ playoff chances dwindling, should Atlanta give rookie QB Michael Penix Jr. a shot or stick with the veteran?
I think you stick with Cousins. If you draft Penix with the intention of having him sit and learn to start his career and give Cousins $100 million guaranteed with what you believe is a win-now roster, why pivot at the first sign of adversity? Plans can change, but I think benching Cousins after 12 games is a bit premature for a team that is still leading the NFC South (albeit barely). Give Cousins a chance to play through his struggles.
The Falcons have the Vikings up next. Minnesota is a tough opponent, but playing against his former team could be the kind of jolt Cousins needs. Then the Falcons have the struggling Raiders and Giants. There’s a path to the discourse around Cousins changing dramatically in the next few weeks. — Ben Arthur
As long as he’s healthy, Cousins should be the guy for the rest of the year. As Ben stated, the Falcons spent big money to bring Cousins in because they rightly believed the roster was ready to compete for a postseason berth. Even though Cousins has struggled the past few games, he’s a veteran who has battled through bad stretches in the past. He still gives Atlanta the best chance to win — at least for this season. Cousins should have extra motivation this week facing the Vikings, his former team. It’s probably better for Penix to have the offseason to continue to progress through offensive coordinator Zac Robinson’s scheme and compete for a starting job in 2025. — Eric D. Williams
As the injured-riddled 49ers’ playoff hopes dwindle, has the window on their Super Bowl title hopes closed?
You’d have to be wildly optimistic to say the window hasn’t closed. They’ve had the success they’ve had in the past three years with Brock Purdy as the best quarterback bargain in the NFL, counting almost nothing against the salary cap. They’ve paid handsomely to surround him with elite talent, but that talent has been injury-prone. Trent Williams is 36. George Kittle is 31. Christian McCaffrey is 28, but as Indiana Jones said, it’s not the years, it’s the mileage. The NFC West is tougher and deeper than most expected, and the 49ers find themselves at the bottom of it, with an unforgiving remaining schedule after they host the Bears this week. As long as they don’t trade Kyle Shanahan, they’ll be competitive, but this group of players probably peaked with two Super Bowl losses, disappointing by this franchise’s lofty standards. — Greg Auman
I think the window has closed for this version of San Francisco’s aging roster, but that doesn’t mean Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers can’t quickly build another contender in the near future. Sean McVay and the Rams retooled an aging roster that went 5-12 a year after winning the Super Bowl and became a team that could compete for the postseason. For the 49ers, it starts with finding the right price to retain Brock Purdy as the franchise quarterback. After that, San Francisco will have to decide whether to move on from talented players on the backside of their careers like Deebo Samuel, George Kittle, Trent Williams and Fred Warner. The 49ers need to get younger quickly, coach the new players up and keep one or two experienced guys around as foundational pieces, led by Purdy. — Eric D. Williams
Who is at fault for the 49ers’ disappointing season?
The 49ers should not do what the Eagles did when they got rid of Andy Reid. It all worked out OK, but it very much could not have if they hadn’t won that Super Bowl with Doug Pederson and Nick Foles (which somehow grows even more random by the year). My point is, San Francisco should not get rid of coach Kyle Shanahan — or GM John Lynch. But yes, I think the 49ers are going to finish out this year poorly, and they might need another year to get the train back on the tracks. We’ve seen teams do a teardown/renovation over the course of a single offseason. The Bills just pulled it off when they got rid of a gang of starters, including Stefon Diggs. But they relied upon Josh Allen to be Superman, and we’ve seen that Brock Purdy isn’t ready for that. This is going to take time. The Niners need to trust their current leadership to get them through the rough patch ahead. — Henry McKenna
[READ MORE: Amid a disastrous season, has the 49ers’ championship window closed?]
With Russell Wilson igniting the offense, do the Steelers now have the complementary game to compete for the title this season?
There is no doubt that the Pittsburgh Steelers have to be taken seriously as a contender if Russell Wilson plays well. Everything else a team needs to compete for a championship are things the Steelers do well. They play excellent defense (No. 6 in the NFL). They stop the run (giving up only 90.5 yards per game). They run the ball well (133.1 yards per game). And while they don’t have a dominant pass rush, they do have a dominant pass rusher in T.J. Watt (9½ sacks).
Add in the fact that Mike Tomlin might be the best coach in the NFL and really, quarterback play was probably the missing piece to their championship puzzle. If their offense, and their passing game in particular, really is ignited by Wilson, then they are one of the most well-rounded teams in the league.
It’s not going to be easy in the AFC. Wilson will need to play at an elite level to run a gauntlet that could include games against the Ravens (Lamar Jackson), Bills (Josh Allen), and/or the Chiefs (Patrick Mahomes). But if Wilson plays like the Wilson of old, you can’t count the Steelers out. — Ralph Vacchiano
If Wilson can continue to balance playing clean football with making explosive plays in the passing game, the Steelers have a chance to make a deep postseason run. But it’s more about Pittsburgh’s defense than the offense. The Steelers have one of the most dangerous defenses in the league, one that can even put points on the board. Mike Tomlin, along with the direction of OC Arthur Smith, has done a nice job of creating an offense that complements the defense. The Steelers are averaging 29 points a game with Wilson under center. Add that explosive offense to a stingy defense and Pittsburgh should be dangerous in the postseason. — Eric D. Williams
The following writers contributed to this story: Ben Arthur (@benyarthur); Greg Auman (@gregauman); Henry McKenna (@McKennAnalysis); Ralph Vacchiano (@RalphVacchiano); Carmen Vitali (@CarmieV); Eric D. Williams (@eric_d_williams).
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