Ranking the Top 5 Worst NFL Offenses

Justin looks at the five worst NFL offenses of the 2023 season and ranks them based on the fantasy football upside that the respective teams have.

There have been some bad offensive performances in the NFL this season. There are 12 teams averaging under 20 points per game and 10 averaging under 300 total yards per game. There are a lot of ways to figure out who the worst offenses are, but for the purposes of this article, we're going with fantasy points. This is a fantasy website, after all. In order of fewest fantasy points per game to most, those teams are the Bengals, Giants, Jets, and Steelers, and then the Titans and Falcons are tied at 58.3 fantasy points per game.

That's six teams. Let's just go ahead and eliminate the Bengals from this conversation. Yes, they've been the worst offense in the league, but with a healthy Joe Burrow, they have significantly more upside than the other five teams. It's boring to talk about the Bengals in a piece like this.

Now, here's the potentially confusing part. This ranking is on how much upside I see out of these offenses going forward. The team ranked fifth has the least upside. The team ranked first has the most. Inside each section, I'll highlight the player with the most fantasy upside.

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5. Pittsburgh Steelers

Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett was knocked out of Sunday's loss to the Texans with a knee injury, but the team got some good news, as it appears Pickett could be back as soon as Week 5. But regardless of who's taking snaps, this offense just isn't very good. Pickett's best game this season saw him throwing for 235 yards and two touchdowns. The Steelers are 28th in QB fantasy points, 23rd in RB fantasy points, 25th in WR fantasy points, and 22nd in TE fantasy points.

There are teams on this list with worse quarterbacks than the Steelers. I'd rather have Pickett than Desmond Ridder or Zach Wilson. But those other teams have some redeeming qualities elsewhere. There's not really a top-tier fantasy asset on this Steelers team.

Najee Harris has looked a little better lately than he did earlier in the season, but he's had almost no involvement in the passing game. Jaylen Warren is more involved in the passing game but averages just 4.9 yards per touch. Diontae Johnson has a hamstring injury and is currently on IR.

The closest thing to upside comes with George Pickens, who had four catches for 127 yards and a score against Cleveland and four for 75 yards against Vegas. He also has two games where he was fairly invisible, but he has big play potential.

Most Upside: George Pickens

4. Atlanta Falcons

The Falcons have an elite running back in Bijan Robinson and that's reflected in the fact that Atlanta is seventh in the NFL in running back fantasy points per game. He has a pair of 100-yard games and has room to improve, as he's found the end zone just once this season. But Robinson's biggest problem is that the rest of his offense stinks. Sure, guys like Kyle Pitts and Drake London are talented, but that doesn't really matter when they can't get the ball.

Desmond Ridder has been bad. Because of that, the Falcons rank 30th in QB fantasy points and 32nd in WR fantasy points. While they're ranked seventh in TE fantasy points, that's pretty much all because of Jonnu Smith's London game, when he had six catches for 95 yards.

As long as Ridder's firing off-target passes at the team's two best pass-catchers, this offense isn't going places. Robinson's talent and workload make him an RB1 and arguably the best fantasy asset in this entire article, but as a whole, this offense just ain't it.

Most Upside: Bijan Robinson

3. Tennessee Titans

Derrick Henry got off to a slow start, but he looked much more like Derrick Henry in Week 4, rushing 22 times for 122 yards and a touchdown in a win over the Bengals. He's still averaging just 3.9 yards per carry, a career-low, but this game pushed him closer to where he usually is. Outside of Henry though, this offense doesn't have a ton of appeal. It ranks 31st in QB fantasy points, 24th in WR fantasy points, and 25th in TE fantasy points.

DeAndre Hopkins is theoretically a strong fantasy player based on his career, but that hasn't been the case this season. He was targeted 13 times in Week 1 but hasn't seen more than seven targets in a game since. He's been consistent, with between 40 and 65 yards in every game, but he appears to have a pretty low ceiling this year.

Ryan Tannehill threw more interceptions in Week 1 than he's thrown touchdowns all season. Let's just move on.

Most Upside: Derrick Henry

2. New York Giants

Next up are the New York Giants, who aren't lower than this largely because we at least have hope that their quarterback can be good. Daniel Jones seemed to take a big step forward last year. He only threw 15 touchdowns, but he had the lowest interception rate in the league and completed 67.2% of his passes, a career-high. He also added 708 rushing yards and seven touchdowns on the ground.

Jones has really struggled this season, failing to find the end zone in three of the four games so far. He's also been picked off at least once every game. But I believe in a Jones bounceback more than I believe in the other QBs on this list. If he had better receiving weapons, I might have the Giants in first place.

As it stands, though, his top wide receivers are Parris Campbell and Darius Slayton. Darren Waller is a low-end TE1 play, so there's that, but the receiving weapons just aren't where they ideally need to be.

But the Giants do have Saquon Barkley. He's missed the last two games with an ankle sprain, but he's still a fairly electric player when healthy. In his last game before the injury, he found the end zone twice. There's the makings of a solid offense here—it just hasn't happened yet.

Most Upside: Saquon Barkley

1. New York Jets

The Jets don't have a great quarterback situation with Aaron Rodgers injured, but maybe Week 4 showed a path for Zach Wilson to provide passable production for the team. He was 28-for-39 for 245 yards and two touchdowns in the close loss to the Chiefs.

Of course, it was his first game all season with over 200 passing yards, so it might not mean much. But the Jets have some really good weapons surrounding Wilson, so there's a chance for some more solid games.

If we knew Wilson could throw for 245-ish yards per game consistently, I'd be a little more confident in saying that Garrett Wilson had the most upside on this offense. Wilson was targeted 14 times this week, catching nine passes for 60 yards. He's only gone over 50 yards in half the games this season. I slightly prefer running back Breece Hall, especially with the team saying he's no longer on a snap count.

Before he was injured last year, Hall had 66 or more yards and a touchdown in four consecutive games, all with Wilson under center. He's shown he isn't limited by the team's QB play and now that he's expected to get a full workload, I'm excited to see what he can do.

The Jets are the first team on this list with two players who have high fantasy upside.

Most Upside: Breece Hall

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