One of the beauties of the NFL is how quickly, fortunes can change around the league year-to-year.
We often see worst-to-first turnarounds and there are always some surprise teams making the playoffs. So, with the in mind, we are presenting four teams that we believe will make the playoffs in the 2025 after they missed the postseason in the 2024 season.
This can’t come as a surprise. In the Kyle Shanahan-John Lynch era, San Francisco has been a premier NFC team and constant playoff threat. Yes, 2024 was a disaster in the Bay Area. But we’re not too worried about it as it pertains to this season. It is not unusual for the loser of three previous Super Bowl to suffer a hangover in the next season and the 49ers’ hangover was a doozy as they failed to rebound from a heartbreaking overtime loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the previous Super Bowl. The 49ers stumbled to a 6-11 record last season in a season that was marred by off-field distractions and countless major injuries. Led by star running back Christian McCaffrey, the 49ers look healthy, refreshed and determined to return to form in 2025. Here’s betting Shanahan gets the best out of this roster that still has plenty of star power. At the least, we see San Francisco fitting into the postseason with a wild card berth.
The Bengals are somewhat an AFC version of the 49ers. They were bitterly disappointed not to make the playoffs a season ago and seem ready to make amends for that failure this upcoming season. Cincinnati endured a strange 2024 season. They opened the season slow (they were survivor-league killers by getting upset by New England in Week 1) as they started the season 0-3 and 4-8. They figured it out and won five straight games to finish the season at 9-8. No one would have wanted to face Cincinnati in the playoffs, but its awful start doomed them. Joe Burrow and company are primed to get it right this season even in a tough AFC. If the Bengals fail to make the playoffs for the third straight season, head coach Zac Taylor will likely be in big trouble.
Now, we’re getting a little more creative. The Panthers went 5-12 in 2024 and 2-15 the season before. So, it would be a tad naive to just assume Dave Canales’ crew is certainly going to take a major leap and be a certain playoff team. Yet, we think it’s possible. Carolina played better toward the end of last season and a big reason why was the play of y0ung quarterback Bryce Young. He finished his second season strong after getting another chance after his stunning early-season benching. Look at the Panthers group of wide receivers. It’s strong and Y0ung should continue to make strides in Year 3. Also, the NFC South is not strong. We can see the Panthers being one of the stories of the year this season and sneaking into the playoffs in 2025.
This is another team that would have to take a large step to make the playoffs. New England finished 4-13 in each of the past two seasons and it cost head coach Jerod Mayo his job after one season. The Patriots are now led by former New England standout linebacker Mike Vrabel, who was a top head-coaching prize this offseason. Vrabel had his choice of jobs and he choose a New England homecoming partly because of the y0ung roster, led by promising second-year quarterback Drake Maye. the Vrabel-Maye combo smacks of a fast turnaround. Plus, New England had a terrific offseason led by several key pickups in the free agency. Yes, the AFC is stacked and the Patriots will have a difficult time leapfrogging the Buffalo Bills in the AFC East. But they could fight for a wild-card berth.
