The NFL’s 2024 sleeper stars: from Joe Buck and Troy Aikman to Joe Burrow

Khalil Mack, Los Angeles Chargers
Mack has been a superstar since he first stepped foot in the league. But the future Hall of Famer has been asked to reimagine his game this season at the age of 33. As pass-rushers wind down their careers, their reps are usually restricted. They become pass-rush specialists, put on the field on passing downs solely to crush opposing quarterbacks. Call it the Von Miller path.
Last season, Mack was more of a specialist. He finished the season with 17 sacks, but there were signs that a decline was on the way, that he would be pushed into a pass-rush-only role as the Chargers tried to squeeze the final drops out of his career. Instead, they have made Mack the bedrock of the league’s top defense.

Under Brandon Staley, who was fired towards the end of last season, the Chargers fielded a ropey defense that failed to slow the run. New defensive coordinator Jessie Minter has revamped the Chargers’ structure this season, building the top defense in the NFL by EPA per play without any significant additions in the offseason and turning the Chargers, on a dime, from a sieve against the run to the league’s stingiest unit.

Stopping the run takes everyone. This year, no defense has been as air-tight and well-coordinated as the Chargers. And Mack has been the cornerstone. Once the league’s pre-eminent pass-rusher, he has now become more of a run-down thumper. The Chargers have shuffled him tighter to the line of scrimmage, limiting some of his impact as an edge rusher on early downs to help tighten up the defense as a whole.

Mack has delivered. He has embraced the drudgery of bashing away inside, leading all edge defenders in run stops this year. And while tweaks to his alignments have restricted the number of opportunities he has to chase quarterbacks, he has still posted 31 total pressures and 4.5 sacks through nine weeks.Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, Monday Night Football
Two years ago, Disney paid $100m to acquire the Buck and Aikman from Fox. At the time, Monday Night Football was in a funk, with the network bouncing from one ill-considered booth to another. In the NFL broadcast standings, ESPN’s Monday offering had slipped from flagship production to a national embarrassment.

Buck and Aikman were hired to restore credibility and to ease concerns at the network that the league would move the Monday night package elsewhere – while preserving ESPN’s slot in the Super Bowl rotation. It’s been a home run.Buck has long been synonymous with his dry (OK, dull) tone. But now, 35 years into his career, he vibrates with excitement. Aikman, who had slipped down the pecking order as an in-game analyst after Tony Romo and Greg Olsen arrived on the scene, has rediscovered his fastball, quickly keying in on matchups and trends that will decide a game. Above all, they let the game do the talking, with just enough extracurricular fun to hold your attention through drab stretches.

With the pair at the peak of their powers, ESPN’s production has slotted into pole position in the broadcasting war. Romo’s caffeinated, underprepared energy on CBS can grate, no matter how much Jim Nantz tries to tamp things down. With Olsen relegated to Fox’s second team, the top analyst in the game has been moved out of primetime matchups, splitting up his partnership with the incomparable Kevin Burkhardt. As a rookie, Tom Brady is still, to be kind, finding his voice. Over at Amazon, Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit have all the chemistry of a pair of spouses tossed together by their other halves at a party. I promise you’ll like him. You have tons in common!Almost all announcers are replaceable – and the MNF crew has been fortunate to call some of the best and closest games this season. But the truly great announcing duos have a way of making any game feel big. Buck and Aikman have hit the mark this year.

The Commanders’ offensive line
The Commanders’ offense has shattered records this season. Much of the credit should go to Jayden Daniels and a savvy offensive scheme, but the team’s o-line has been a revelation. Entering the season, they looked like a bottom-five unit. Midway through the year, they’re closer to the top five. Center Tyler Biadasz and right guard Sam Cosmi have been the difference-makers, but the group makes its hay as a collective.

No offense in the league demands more from their line than Washington. They run the most idiosyncratic offense in the NFL to provide a system that tailors to Daniels’ strengths. It’s placed a heavy burden on the line, particularly in the run game, where they’re asked to pull and move to crush defensive fronts at the highest rate in the league.There are few tricks to help conceal the line in the passing game, either. Defenses across the league continue to find new, creative ways to frazzle offensive lines in pass protection. But the Commanders have hit on a group – even while rotating their left tackle! – that can pick up any wackadoo look. And if they do blow a protection, Daniels is athletic and intelligent enough to bail the group out.

Washington’s offense is electric. Daniels may be the key reason, but the New Hogs are close behind.

Brock Bowers, Las Vegas Raiders
Things have been bleak for the Raiders on offense this season. They’ve cycled through woeful quarterbacks and fired three key staff members this week. But one player has offered a glimmer of hope for the future: their rookie tight end, Bowers.

Typically, it takes three years before a tight end finds their footing in the league. Having to pick up the intricacies of the blocking mechanics in the run game and the nuances of the passing game is a lot to handle, particularly given the bifurcation between college and NFL systems. Early on, a tight end usually flashes their upside without the kind of down-to-down consistency that separates the good tight ends from the league’s best.

Not Bowers. His game has immediately transferred from college to the pros. He is already closing in on 600 receiving yards in nine games, at 10.2 yards per reception. As a pass catcher, no tight end has ever had a quicker start to their career.There is such profound, simple power in Bowers’ combination of height, speed and strength. He has run over and around defenders every week. In one-on-one matchups, he is running up the score against opposing linebackers and safeties. Defenses have tried to allocate extra resources to slow him down, but even some of the league’s top, man-coverage corners have struggled to keep pace. Then there’s the after-the-catch work, where Bowers’ dynamism shines. Nine weeks in, he is the only tight end in the league with more than 300 yards after the catch.

The Raiders roster is a mess. But in Bowers, they have something special.

The Chiefs’ interior offensive line
As KC’s offense has moved to a ground-and-pound approach, the focal point of the attack has tilted to their offensive line. Make no mistake, the Chiefs still go as Patrick Mahomes goes. But the shift from a down-the-field, vertical offense to one built on methodically moving the chains has increased the burden on the offensive line.It’s rare for any offensive line to feature two All-Pro caliber players. It’s rarer still to have those two players concentrated in one spot. The Chiefs have three – and they stand next to each other. Left guard Joe Thuney and center Creed Humphrey have been the best players at their positions in the league this season, while right guard Trey Smith is on track to be one of the highest-paid players at his position when his contract runs out in the offseason.The interior line is crushing opponents in the run game and putting up a brick wall in front of Mahomes in pass protection. As a trio, they’ve conceded a 2.7% pressure rate, by far the lowest rate of any interior in the league. Thuney has conceded only seven pressures all season and hasn’t allowed anyone in Mahomes’ zip code since week three. If not for Humphrey, who has coughed up just four pressures all year, Thuney would be running away with ‘best interior linemen’ honors.

The Chiefs’ line is still vulnerable at the two tackle spots. But the interior has allowed the team to move into its ball-control era, grinding out results to maintain their unbeaten start.

Joe Burrow, Cincinnati Bengals
Burrow, one of the biggest names in the NFL, obviously isn’t a sleeper star over his entire career. But the fact that he is playing the best all-around ball of his career this season has gone a little unnoticed because of the Bengals’ 4-5 start. After stumbling out of the gates against the Patriots in week one, Cincy’s offense has caught fire. If not for putrid defensive performances, the team would be neck-and-neck with the Ravens and Steelers at the top of the AFC North – and Burrow would be knocking on the MVP door.

Since week two, the Bengals offense ranks sixth in the NFL and continues to climb the standings. Individually, Burrow is now third in the RBDSM composite, the best individual measure of quarterback play, behind only Lamar Jackson and Jayden Daniels.As a passer, Burrow continues to evolve. The years of the Bengals’ passing game clubbing fools over the head is a thing of the past; the team’s explosive play rate has fallen away this year, and even those deep passing plays have been hard work, relying on Burrow to create off-schedule for Ja’Marr Chase to manufacture something out of nothing.

In its place, Burrow has become a model of efficiency. At this stage of his career, he has seen every defense; he knows where bodies will be, and when. That intuitive understanding has led to the lowest turnover-worthy play rate of his career and the quarterback kicking his addiction to chunk plays.

With a flaky defense, a nonexistent run game and a lack of easy answers in the passing game, the Bengals need Burrow to be perfect to remain competitive. So far, he’s held up his end of the deal.