5 NFL Teams Who Appear to Be Murky Futures Bets in 2021

The following five NFL teams have displayed outstanding runs over the past decade. Since 2008, all but one of them have won a Super Bowl, multiple divisional titles, and made more playoff appearances than some of the league’s dormant franchises combined.

But if the 2020 NFL Season showed us anything, it’s the changing of the guard. And the five teams listed below may just become victims of such changes. Teams like the Cleveland Browns, Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins, Arizona Cardinals, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and other former dormants are rising.

Others, like the New England Patriots (not listed here) are falling. But the five teams you will find below all made the playoffs in 2020 and probably won you a few bucks if you placed a bet or two on them—except maybe the Baltimore Ravens.

Ready to discover the five teams? Keep reading.

1 – Baltimore Ravens

The Ravens showed vulnerability in 2020. And while they went on a fiery streak, they predictably got themselves booted from the playoffs by the rising Buffalo Bills.

The Baltimore Ravens, whose quarterback Lamar Jackson has routinely struggled against teams of equal talent, did nothing offensively against Buffalo. The Bills stopped the Ravens running game, and as a result, they stifled Jackson. He can’t move the ball through the air unless his running game opens his lanes.

The Bills, whose defense collapsed often in 2020 despite their 13-3 record, laid a blueprint on how to stop Jackson. In short, they borrowed much of it from the Kansas City Chiefs, whose 31^st-ranked rush defense stopped Jackson and the Ravens in their tracks earlier in the season.

Apart from Jackson’s spotty throwing mechanics, the offense also faces issues in the passing game. Besides Mark Andrews, the Ravens have a barren receiving unit. Hollywood Brown is their best receiver, but the 5’9” speed demon is best suited for the slot, not as a #1 receiver.

The Ravens have relied on their running game, including Jackson, to win them football games. But the old school approach to the game (fun to watch, by the way) is buried deep in the league’s past for a reason.

Relying solely on the run and throwing when necessary does not win you football games in the long run. Sooner than later, Jackson must work with a quarterbacks coach who can improve his passing mechanics before he flames out—not that the Ravens are a bad futures bet yet. But after their collapse in 2020, don’t disappoint yourself if you bet on this team and they give you little in return.

2 – New Orleans Saints

Oh, the conundrum the New Orleans Saints will find themselves in. Drew Brees has all but hinted he’s finished. His emotional press conference following the loss to Tom Brady and the Buccaneers further solidifies the feeling that after 20 seasons, the future Hall of Famer has sung his swan song.

And while Saints fans will probably sing a vigil of the popular Blackpink song entitled “Stay,” you may look for other options when Brees announces his retirement. It ain’t a good move to bet on Taysom Hill or Jameis Winston.

So, monitor the Saints and brace yourself for this team returning to “Aints” territory come 2021 if Brees calls it quits. And if you find fans in the stands come 2021, you can bet that Saints fans will keep covering their faces even if there’s no longer a face covering mandate in place.

Sure, the team still has talent. But apart from Brees, you’re looking at an aging roster overall. Even if Sean Payton stays to see a rebuild, don’t expect the Saints to be the futures bet they have been since Brees came to The Big Easy in 2006.

3 – Seattle Seahawks

The Seattle Seahawks were one of the NFL’s teams who showed us fools gold in 2020. They started off to a hot 5-0 start before they finished the season 7-5, counting their loss to the Los Angeles Rams in the playoffs.

Now, they’ve fired their offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer and the once-hot Hawks are now looking at offensive uncertainty.

Worse yet, they play in the NFL’s toughest division and you can bet the NFC West will remain so in 2021. The Arizona Cardinals are a few steps away from threatening the West. The San Francisco 49ers will be at full go come 2021. And the Rams should continue to build in this season’s success.

Are the Seahawks the odd team out? It’s murky, hence the title of this post.

If you bet on NFL futures, your best bet may be to stay away from the NFC West, given its competitiveness. And it’s arguably the only division in football in which all four teams are talented enough to take it.

Not that you shouldn’t bet on the Seahawks. But like the Ravens, if you bet on them, tread water carefully and don’t disappoint yourself if they don’t meet your expectations. This is still a good football team, but they’re facing a lot of competition.

The Cardinals are an upstart team, while the 49ers will bounce back from a poor 2020 season. Then, you have the Rams, the team that knocked out the Seahawks in the Wildcard Playoffs.

4 – Pittsburgh Steelers

The Pittsburgh Steelers have a few things going for them. They have a great defense who should not be at fault for allowing 48 points to the Cleveland Browns during the wild-card playoffs. It’s not their fault Ben Roethlisberger put them in such precarious situations and the Browns capitalized.

And yes, Ben can still be an elite quarterback in this league as he goes onto age 39. But even if Ben returns to Pittsburgh, and all signs point that he will return to Pittsburgh and not retire to Lauderdale, this team is still in trouble.

For one, they need to replace JuJu Smith-Schuster. The Antonio Brown-like receiver is headed to free agency and the Steelers are in a lose-lose situation. If they lose Smith-Schuster, they lose one of the league’s finest pass-catchers.

If they bring him back, they’re bringing back arguably one of the NFL’s biggest headaches. And after the Antonio Brown debacle, the Steelers may just let him move on.

That leaves Chase Claypool and Diontae Johnson. Claypool played well, but can he be a #1 receiver without Smith-Schuster? With a nickname like Mapletron, the NFL Universe has set the bar. Johnson is explosive, but he must learn how to catch.

But the main reason the Steelers are a murky futures bet rests with their lack of a running game. The Steelers marched out to an 11-0 start until opponents realized they didn’t need to worry about who ran the ball.

The running game was so ineffective it forced the Steelers to go one-dimensional and opponents figured it out, explaining their 1-5 finish after the best start in franchise history.

If the Steelers want to be the Steelers again, they must fix the running game and stop relying on Ben to work them out of deficits, especially at age 39.

5 – Tennessee Titans

The Tennessee Titans looked like another team ready to take the leap in 2020, but they fell back to reality fast. They barely scraped out an AFC South Championship against an Indianapolis Colts team with a lot of holes on offense.

Then, they let Lamar Jackson beat them in their own house—a quarterback whose number they had since his rookie season in 2018.  Worse yet, teams keyed on the Titans’ run-and-pass game plan. The defense broke down, and we all remembered why quarterback Ryan Tannehill is nothing more than a fringe starter in this league when the team couldn’t run the ball.

Long story short, the Titans are a murky futures bet because of the Indianapolis Colts’ presence and because of the fact that they play in the same division as the NFL’s most prominent dark horse to do some damage in 2021—the Jacksonville Jaguars.

While the Titans still look like the most talented team in the AFC South on paper, don’t be surprised if they find a one-way ticket to dormancy in 2021. The only thing that can keep this team out of the basement is Deshaun Watson’s likely departure from Houston.

I’ll never tell you who to bet on, but use cautious optimism at most if you bet on the Titans in 2021 with a well-coached Indianapolis Colts team and the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Conclusion

The five teams listed above are still popular futures bets heading into 2021. But opponents have exposed their weaknesses and none of them are surefire futures bets. Not that any NFL franchise is, but the teams you see above have ruled the NFL universe for at least a couple of seasons. Some have been among the league’s elite for over a decade.

But 2020 showed us a changing of the guard, and 2021 may solidify those changes. The above teams may still be wise futures bets, but the probability that they win you a profit in 2021 will diminish.

What are your thoughts on the five teams listed above? Do you like any of them for a futures bet in 2021? Let us know in the comments.