NFL players entering a make-or-break 2024 season: Multiple first-rounders, former All-Pro WR headline list

With how fast and widespread NFL the rosters are turned over every year, everyone is always in a make or break season. But there are some players more under the microscope than others, for a variety of reasons.

Let’s look at those in serious make-or-break scenarios by situation before the critical 2024 seasons begin.

Former Top Picks Are at Risk of Bankruptcy

The Bills have defeated the Chiefs at Arrowhead in three consecutive regular seasons, but we all know how Kansas City haunted Buffalo in the playoffs, ending the Bills’ season three separate times since the 2020 campaign.

Part of that haunting is the Chiefs’ decision to move forward in the 2022 draft ahead of Buffalo to select eventual All-Pro cornerback Trent McDuffie. The Bills finally selected Elam a few picks later, and the former Florida corner has been a wild rollercoaster ride without many impressive highs since he joined the team.

Concerned about injuries, general inconsistency in coverage and penalty-inducing grit, it has been a real challenge for Elam to stay on the field during his first two seasons in Buffalo, but he has made two picks as a rookie – one in the end zone on a pass thrown by Patrick Mahomes – and has two career playoff interceptions.

The Bills have hired a new cornerbacks coach – Jahmile Addae – which could signal a fresh start for Elam. With Tre’Davious White now living in Los Angeles, the Bills need Elam to finally play like a former first-round selection.

On paper, the Ravens desperately needed receiver help when Bateman was drafted in 2021. But that was when Baltimore wasn’t too interested in playing football under Greg Roman.

Add in a litany of injuries and you have an exquisite recipe for disappointment, which is exactly what Bateman went through in his three seasons with the Ravens. His career high in catches is 46, which came as a rookie. Same with his 515 yards. He tested as a slightly above average athlete and was a production machine at a young age in Minnesota.

Although it was believed that new offensive coordinator Todd Monken was hired to usher in a new, more progressive and happier philosophy in Baltimore, largely due to the Ravens’ many advantages in the second half of the season ago, Lamar Jackson only averaged one more attempts per contest compared to 2022. Still, his completion rate has increased, as has his average yards per attempt.

With 2023 first-round pick Zay Flowers and perennial stud tight end Mark Andrews now the top options in Baltimore, the typical first-round pick pressure has been taken off Bateman. But Baltimore needs to see more than 350-500 yards from him in year four, or his bust status will be cemented.

Veterans on their last legs

Lockett still gets the ball, as evidenced by his nearly 80 catches and 900 yards in 2023 with Geno Smith and the Seahawks in 2023. But he will turn 32 in September, which is about the age that even the big producers established in a The receiver’s position typically plummets, if it hasn’t already.

Lockett’s 894-yard season last year was his first campaign without a thousand yards since 2017 in Seattle. And he forced just two missed tackles on those 79 receptions, his lowest mark in the YAC category since 2019. Jaxon Smith-Njigba was likely drafted to eventually be a replacement for Lockett. The ultra-reliable wideout signed a revised two-year contract that technically keeps him in the Pacific Northwest through 2025, but his camp number is over $30 million in 2025, and he could be released after next season with $ 17 million in savings. After such a steady, productive, and at times ridiculously efficient tenure with the Seahawks, I hope Lockett can play well in what will likely be his final season in Seattle.

Poyer went from a seventh-round pick to a low-level free agent added by the Bills in 2017 to an All-Pro. Incredible development in what has become an illustrious career. He and Micah Hyde were the heart and soul of Buffalo’s four consecutive AFC East defenses from 2020-2023. Overall in Buffalo, Poyer threw 22 interceptions in seven seasons and eclipsed at least 90 tackles in six of those years.

Injuries followed him with the Bills, however, and seemed to finally catch up with him in 2023, when he didn’t have a pick in 16 games and had to transition to a role where he played closer to the line of scrimmage than he did. previously had in Buffalo.

That’s not to say Poyer looked totally washed up. He also made 100 tackles and defended four passes. He now joins a heavily rebuilt Miami defense – on a one-year contract – that will be asked to stop Josh Allen and Co.

Players who fell after playing very early and are now in a trying year

As a rookie, playing alongside Terry McLaurin, who is seemingly always on the verge of being widely accepted as a superstar, Dotson caught 35 passes for 523 yards with seven touchdowns on less than 55 percent of Washington’s offensive snaps. In his second season in the nation’s capital, Dotson played over 82% of the snaps and saw only a small increase in receptions (49), with fewer yards (508) and four scores.

Now any young receiver must exude confidence after 11 touchdowns in his first two NFL campaigns. But Dotson was clearly less efficient as an offensive weapon in his second season.

I guess the Commanders would automatically swap him out if he didn’t erupt in Year 3? But if he hovers around 45-50 hurdles with 500 yards and a few scores with Jayden Daniels throwing him the ball in what truly marks a new era in franchise history, then he’s unlikely to be in the team’s long-term plans. after the 2024 season.

Chinn finished second in Defensive Rookie of the Year voting in 2020 when Chase Young won the award. And damn, Young could have been included in this play too.

But I’m going to focus on Chinn because he’s another Commanders player who has produced at a high level in NFL and possesses the talent to be a key piece of Washington’s defensive unit for a long time. He could also be on this third team in three years if he doesn’t return to his early form in 2024.

Chinn, now 26, is playing on a one-year contract for less than $5 million this season, and it comes after a nightmare 2023 in which he appeared on 27.1% of Carolina’s defensive snaps without serious injuries that kept him off the field. Remember, Chinn is a serious specimen for the safety spot — 6-foot-3, 221 pounds with elite 4.45 speed and 41-inch vertical. He has the size and athleticism built into a laboratory to be a half safety and half linebacker when more is being asked of the safety position than ever before.

Their new coach, Dan Quinn, had a front-row seat to Kam Chancellor in Seattle, and Donovan Wilson and Markquese Bell became two hard-hitting, quality safeties in Dallas. chinn he must flourish under Quinn’s supervision.

Optional fifth-year players who could sign a big extension or play for a different team next year

What should we make of Horn through three NFL seasons? He didn’t even play 150 snaps in his first pro season before suffering an injury. Then, in a fairly healthy 2022, he threw three picks, threw seven other throws and didn’t allow a touchdown in his zone coverage.

But before he could really enjoy his second season, Horn injured his hamstring in Week 1 of 2023 and didn’t play again until Week 13 (!), which indicates just how bothersome this injury can be, especially for a player in skill position. . When he can stay on the field, Horn and his 6-1, 200-pound frame that comes with an uncanny explosiveness make him one of the most capable young man-to-man boundary corners in football.

It turns out that the former first-round pick hardly managed to stay on the field. With the Panthers hiring a new coaching staff ahead of the 2024 season, with no ties to Horn, he enters a vital season for his future in Carolina. Because tight corners are hard to come by, if Horn stays off the injury list and excels, there’s a chance he could sign an extension or get a lucrative new contract with the Panthers next March.

If he again doesn’t have a clean bill of health, there will be plenty of trade rumors before he enters the fifth-year option season in 2025.

Collins wasn’t properly deployed — based on his film and collegiate usage — until Jonathan Gannon took the reins in Arizona last season. Before that, Collins was almost strictly featured as a classic off-ball linebacker, weighing in at nearly 6-foot-4 and 260 pounds. As a rookie, he was sent after the quarterback just 16 times. In year 2, he only 127 times. This is a rugged, do-it-all linebacker who recorded pressure on 27 of his 117 pass rush opportunities in his final two seasons at Tulsa.

Gannon utilized Collins with his college film in mind – he was asked to rush the passer 272 times (more than double his previous NFL record) and rewarded the Cardinals with 30 pressures. But even the increase in production that came with a position change last year didn’t mean Collins became a star, someone destined to earn a mega-second contract with the team that drafted him.

Is an extension possible with the Cardinals? Absolutely. And he will likely have more pass rushing effectiveness in Gannon’s scheme in 2024. However, if Collins continues to be a mid-coverage linebacker and run-stopper without an out rushing specialty, he will be an excellent low-to-mid level player. Free agent added to another club in the 2025 offseason as the Cardinals declined to exercise his fifth-year option.