After going 5-12 in 2022, the Rams were one of the surprise teams in 2023, going 10-7 to reach the playoffs, where they lost by one point at Detroit in the Wild Card.
After missing the playoffs for a 13th straight season last year, the Jets will be hoping the return of a healthy Aaron Rodgers can end the NFL’s longest active playoff drought.
The 2023 season saw the Detroit Lions win their division for the first time in 30 years (when their division was known as the NFC Central), and win a playoff game for the first time in just as long.
Since winning Super Bowl LV in the 2020 season, the Buccaneers have won three straight NFC South division titles and upset the Eagles in the Wild Card last year.
2023 was another lackluster season for the Chicago Bears, finishing at the bottom of the NFC North with a 7-10 record (a disappointment, but, it should be noted, improvement on 2022’s bottom of the barrel 3-14 showing).
In the first season under head coach Shane Steichen last year, the Colts finished 9-8 but missed out on a berth in the playoffs with their Week 18 loss at home against the Texans.
The Bengals entered last season with Super Bowl aspirations, but QB Joe Burrow was limited to just 10 game due to injury as Cincinnati went 9-8 and missed the playoffs for the first time since Burrow’s rookie season in 2020.
Last season, the Jaguars were 8-3 and looked primed to win a second straight AFC South division title before losing five of their final six games to finish at 9-8 and miss the playoffs altogether.
In the first season of the Jordan Love era in Green Bay, the Packers were something of a Cinderella story in the postseason, entering as the No. 7 seed and defeating the No. 2 Dallas Cowboys in the Wild Card round.
The Falcons fired head coach Arthur Smith in January after three years in charge, with Atlanta going 7-10 and missing the playoffs in all three of those seasons.
The Vikings of 2024 will look notably different than that of 2023 following the departure of long-time QB Kirk Cousins, who signed a four-year deal with the Falcons in March.
After going 6-11 and missing the playoffs for a second straight year last season, the Titans fired head coach Mike Vrabel as a new era in Tennessee gets underway.
