10 NFL players under the heaviest pressure in the 2024 season

The NFL is naturally a league with a lot of pressure. Simply based on how contracts are structured, with fewer guarantees than the NBA and MLB, for instance, it's strongly a "what you have done for me lately" league.

But in some cases, there's undoubtedly more pressure. For these 10 players, the 2024 NFL season can be a defining moment.

Aaron Rodgers

No one in the league has more pressure in 2024 than Aaron Rodgers. The New York Jets quarterback built everything like he wanted last year in New York, but an injury four plays in ended his first season out of Green Bay.

The rest of 2023 was a disaster for the Jets with a combination of Zach Wilson, Tim Boyle, and Trevor Siemian. Now Rodgers is back, but the buy-in for some of his options are not as widely supported — like the decision to keep offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett .

The Jets also structured Rodgers' contract in a way to maximize his window, which will have a strong impact after he retires. All those components apply more pressure over the quarterback, who will be 41 by December. If the Jets are not successful in 2024, it will become harder and harder for the team to justify everything they have done for Rodgers since acquiring him from the Packers last year.

Caleb Williams

It might feel unfair to put a rookie in here, and it's certainly not a definitive season for Williams and the Chicago Bears. However, there's natural pressure in Chicago by how much the fans wanted Justin Fields to succeed.

There is a feel that Fields didn't receive the deserved infrastructure to be a good quarterback, and now Williams is getting it with one of the best wide receiver trios in the league — DJ Moore, Keenan Allen, and Rome Odunze —, plus a solid offensive line. It won't be a simple task to lead the Bears to the playoffs in a balanced NFC North, but that would probably bring more changes to the franchise.

Tee Higgins

Higgins will play the 2024 season without a long-term deal from the Cincinnati Bengals, and a second franchise tag in 2025 is possible, but doesn't seem like the most likely scenario. With Joe Burrow injury, and Higgins himself missing five games last year, the receiver finished the season with only 656 yards in 2023, his worst year in the NFL.

Rebounding from that would be important to hit the market with a higher value — or maybe even justifying a long-term extension with the Bengals, precluding a new franchise tag debacle in the next offseason.

Quentin Johnston

There's a sense that Johnston's rookie season was a complete failure, but that wasn't necessarily true. He was particularly effective, but even as a tertiary weapon was still able to finished the season with 431 yards and two touchdowns. Now, his role should be bigger.

The Chargers traded Keenan Allen to the Chicago Bears and released Mike Williams, who ended up signing with the New York Jets. It's the perfect storm to Quentin Johnston to become a high-level receiver if he will ever be one. Things have not trended really well, since Josh Palmer and rookie Ladd McConkey are slated to have more impactful seasons, but Johnston still has time to change that narrative.

Daniel Jones

At this point, it seems like it's just a matter of time before the New York Giants get out of the deal they gave Jones last offseason. It was a four-year, $160 million extension, but it always felt like a two plus two. And the first season couldn't have gone worse. The quarterback was awful when available and then tore his ACL.

Now he's coming back from the injury and might be available for week 1. But, without Saquon Barkley and with a questionable supporting cast, he will have to rebound significantly to justify keeping his job beyond 2024. If he plays as poorly as he did in 2023, not only his current contract will be in jeopardy, but his career as an NFL starting quarterback.

Cam Jurgens

Jurgens was drafted in 2022 to eventually replace Jason Kelce as the Philadelphia Eagles long-term center. There was a pathway for him to get there, with a rookie season as a backup and a second season as the starting right guard. Now, Kelce is finally retired, and the time has come for Jurgens to be what the Eagles expect from him.

It's never easy to replace a Hall of Famer, and Jurgens has had an up and down career so far. In 2022, in limited snaps at center, he was a solid pass blocker, but underwhelming run blocker. Last year, he developed as a run blocker, but the pass block ended up being the biggest issue.

TJ Watt

The Pittsburgh Steelers had a plan at quarterback, getting Kenny Pickett in the first round two years ago. That plan went wrong, though, and now the quarterback room is a combination of a declining Russell Wilson and another failed young passer in Justin Fields. You can't realistically project much out of the offense.

So the defense will have to carry the team once again. The pressure applies over its best players, and TJ Watt is the best of them. He has been wildly productive throughout his entire career, but particularly over the last four seasons. And for the Steelers to be competitive in a tough AFC North division, he will have to do it once again.

Dak Prescott

It's extremely rare for top 10 quarterbacks to really hit the market. Prescott made the Second-Team All-Pro last year, and he has a clear path to make it to free agency if he wants to, since he has a no-tag clause with the Dallas Cowboys. If Jerry Jones isn't willing to give up everything Prescott demands, he can simply move forward and choose his next destination.

That's why the 2024 season is so important for Dak . In 2023, his partnership with Mike McCarthy went pretty well and generated a career season for the quarterback. If he keeps the same level of play, he will probably become the first player in NFL history to reach the $60 million yearly average mark.

Rashan Gary

Gary has had a unique career path. Even though the Packers drafted him in the first round in 2019, he wasn't a preferred starter until his fourth season, when the team moved on from Za'Darius Smith. Gary has had positive efficiency numbers generating pressure, but he is yet to have a double digit sacks season.

Now, the expectation in Green Bay is that Gary will be even more impactful and productive under Jeff Hafley's system , which presumably will allow him to chase quarterbacks and wreak havoc in the backfield. The Packers have had a sequence of underwhelming defensive results of the last decade, and a different outcome in 2024 goes through Gary's individual performance.

Bryce Young

The first overall pick has a nightmare rookie season for the Carolina Panthers. He averaged 3.68 adjusted net yards (a stat that accounts for sack yardage and weighs touchdowns and interceptions), the lowest number in the NFL since Josh Rosen's rookie season for the Arizona Cardinals in 2018. The sub-4 company is awful: 2011 Blaine Gabbert, 2014 Blake Bortles, 2017 Brett Hundley, 2017 DeShone Kizer, 2020 Carson Wentz, 2021 Zach Wilson. The only exception to turn it around was 2016 Jared Goff, probably a best-case scenario for Young at this point.

Just like Goff, Young will also have a new offensive-minded head coach now — even though it's hard to project an improvement like the Los Angeles Rams had going from Jeff Fisher to Sean McVay. With Diontae Johnson as the new big weapon and the new staff, the expectation is that Young can start developing — and if he doesn't, it will be even harder to project a successful NFL career.

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