The NFC was the San Francisco 49ers invitational last season, a conference that showed the 49ers supremacy over the course of the year. Of course, San Francisco was challenged by the Green Bay Packers in the NFC divisional round and the Detroit Lions in the NFC Championship game, setting the stage for a wide-open conference in 2024.
Is the 49ers’ window closing? Will this be their last shot to win a Super Bowl with this core? Are the Lions ready to make their first Super Bowl appearance ever? Can the Packers take the next step after a surprising 2023? What about the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys? Are the NFC East powerhouse teams still Super Bowl contenders?
Our CBS Sports NFL experts have provided their picks and predictions for the NFC ahead of the 2024 season.
Most overrated team
Cody Benjamin (Falcons): Can they win the NFC South? Absolutely. Will they? Probably. Yet they’ve been pretty widely crowned the favorites despite their 36-year-old quarterback coming off a major injury — a quarterback, we might add, who doesn’t exactly have the resume of a big-game juggernaut. This team should be good, but even in a weak division, it’s hard to call them a slam dunk.
John Breech (Saints): This feels like it could the final year for both Derek Carr and Dennis Allen in New Orleans.
Jordan Dajani (Bears): Vegas is expecting the Bears to have their first winning season since 2018 with a rookie quarterback and new offensive coordinator. Let’s chill out a bit here.
Bryan DeArdo (Cowboys): Full disclosure, I don’t think the Cowboys are that overrated. But given all the media attention they receive, it’s hard not to give them said title. They also did little this offseason to improve a defense that got torched by Green Bay in last year’s playoff upset.
Jared Dubin (Falcons): I’m not sure why I should have a ton of confidence in a team whose 36-year-old quarterback is coming off a torn Achilles. I ended up picking them to win the decrepit NFC South anyway, but that is way more about the other teams in the division than it is about them.
Josh Edwards (Packers): It is more difficult to identify an underrated team in the NFC than it is the AFC. In the NFC, it feels like there is a clear line of delineation in quality between the top of the conference and the bottom, but I will go with the Packers. It is a tough division, the offensive line is a bit of a mystery and Jeff Hafley’s defensive operation is new to the organization.
Jeff Kerr (Packers): Green Bay is going to be good in 2024, but is it a top-three team in the NFC? Not sure how the offensive line will play out and there are some legitimate concerns at linebacker. The Packers are still a playoff team and can make a deep playoff run, but let’s not crown them as kings of the conference just yet.
Garrett Podell (Eagles): This is a franchise that became just the second in NFL history to finish with at least seven losses, including the postseason, after a 10-1 start, joining the 1986 New York Jets. Six-time first-team All-Pro center Jason Kelce retired after 13 seasons with the Eagles (2011-2023), thus robbing Philly of his football IQ and future Hall of Fame play at one of the game’s most important offensive positions. The Eagles also have a new offensive coordinator in Kellen Moore following his one-year stint with the Los Angeles Chargers. It’s unclear if quarterback Jalen Hurts can operate in a similar way to that of Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, the passer whom Moore has had his greatest NFL success.
Defensively, Philadelphia is relying on rookies to patch up its leaky secondary. The defense should be better in 2024, but it’s unclear how much better it will be. For a team that is tied for the fifth-best odds to win the Super Bowl in the upcoming season (+1300 on Caesars Sportsbook), it has a lot of question marks.
Dan Schneier (Eagles): In the season’s final stretch, they lost to the lowly Giants and got demolished in the playoffs. While they replaced their offensive coordinator who was made a scape goat, Nick Sirriani remains. A declining running back doesn’t make up for the loss of Jason Kelce, and Jalen Hurts needs to prove he can defeat coordinators who will force him to break pocket to his right or left.
Tyler Sullivan (Bears): Understandably, there’s excitement in Chicago. It finally seems to have a franchise quarterback that will help bring the organization toward consistent contention. However, I don’t believe that’ll happen in Year 1. Do I think Caleb Williams will become one of the top five quarterbacks in the league sooner rather than later? Yes. But to ask a rookie — even someone as talented as Williams — to lift his team to the postseason out of the gate is a tall order. Still, there seems to be plenty of folks who are penciling the Bears in for him to do just that. I think that’s a touch premature.
Most underrated team
Cody Benjamin (Seahawks): Geno Smith may not be