NFL Players Who Won't Live Up to the Hype in 2023
There are several players carrying the weight of great expectations into the 2023 NFL season who aren't likely to reach that high bar.
Whether they came over in a marquee trade, were a blockbuster free-agent signing or a lofty draft selection, a few talents stand out from the crowd due to their high potential to disappoint.
While the reasons for this may vary—age, injury history, recent production trends and current system were all considered—these five players, listed in alphabetical order, will struggle to live up to the hype in 2023.
Odell Beckham Jr., WR, Baltimore Ravens
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Odell Beckham Jr. was the most high-profile of the Baltimore Ravens' offseason signings, but it'll be tough for the veteran wideout to live up to lofty expectations as the newest member of the team's receiving corps.
The 30-year-old has been out of football since the first half of Super Bowl LVI. While he scored the opening touchdown in that contest for the Los Angeles Rams, the dynamic receiver exited in the second quarter with a knee injury.
Beckham went on to miss all of last season while recovering from an ACL tear—the second of his career—that he claimed was suffered before the "back half" of the 2021 campaign.
While NFL Network's Ian Rapoport told The Pat McAfee Show that Beckham's latest knee procedure went "really well and probably will extend his career," he missed all of last season. He's now preparing to make a comeback in an age-31 season. That would be a tall task for any NFL player, especially one who relies so much on his speed and athleticism to be a difference-maker.
Although OBJ caught 52 passes for 621 yards and seven scores in 12 appearances including the playoffs for the Rams, that could be remembered as an outlier for a player who posted just 23 catches for 319 yards and three scores for Cleveland over the first seven games of 2022.
Beckham hasn't been a consistent factor since his tenure with the New York Giants—which ended a half-decade ago—and there's a strong chance he'll show signs of significant regression when he finally suits up again for the Ravens.
Will Levis, QB, Tennessee Titans
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The Tennessee Titans have found themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place.
With Ryan Tannehill declining noticeably last year, the team desperately needed a young franchise quarterback to develop as a replacement.
However, Tennessee fared well enough to stay in contention for much of the 2022 campaign—but still failed to reach the playoffs just a year after posting the best record in the AFC—and was unable to acquire a blue-chip prospect in the 2023 draft.
Left with a set of limited options to address the quarterback position this offseason, the Titans opted to select Will Levis at No. 33 overall.
Despite rumors that Levis could go as high as No. 1 overall this year, they passed on the opportunity to select him on Day 1 along with the rest of the NFL. They decided to not let him slip past them in the second round, though, and traded up to secure the physically gifted but unproven and mechanically flawed prospect.
While the Kentucky product stands an impressive 6'3", 232 pounds and possesses great athleticism, he was inconsistent at best during his two-year stint as the Wildcats starter in 2021-2022. He completed 65.7 percent of his passes for 5,876 yards and 43 touchdowns in that span, but he threw 23 interceptions and coughed up four fumbles as well.
Levis struggled mightily against top-flight competition, as he went over the 250-yard passing mark just once in 16 tries versus SEC foes. Half of his interceptions came when Kentucky was leading or tied last year, a concerning trend for a quarterback who will likely be tasked with winning NFL games as early as the 2023 season.
Unfortunately for Tennessee, it simply doesn't have a better path to take right now. Tannehill appeared washed up when he was healthy enough to be on the field last year, while 2022 third-round pick Malik Willis looked lost in his limited opportunities.
Levis will get his chance to prove he's the right man to run the offense, but his questionable pre-snap processing abilities, inability to anticipate the blitz and poor accuracy make it difficult to have faith.
D.J. Moore, WR, Chicago Bears
3 of 5
The Chicago Bears received a king's ransom from the Carolina Panthers in exchange for the No. 1 overall pick this year. On top of a slew of Day 1 and 2 draft picks, the team also returned a star at the receiver position in D.J. Moore.
While the 26-year-old immediately upgraded the Bears' receiving corps, he may not be as impactful for this club as he was for the Panthers.
Moore is gearing up for his sixth season in the NFL following an elite stretch as Carolina's top wideout. Since entering the league as a first-round pick in 2018, he has racked up 5,201 yards and 21 touchdowns on 364 receptions.
The Maryland product managed to thrive despite a revolving door of middling quarterbacks filtering through the Panthers organization, including posting three consecutive seasons with 1,157 yards or more between 2019 and 2021.
While Moore is a capable No. 1 receiver, he's coming off his worst statistical season since his rookie year. While he did post a career-high seven scores in 2022, he caught just 63 passes for 888 yards while playing in an offense that leaned heavily on the run under interim head coach Steve Wilks. His ceiling is likely even lower this year, given he'll be working in an offense that has both a loaded backfield and mobile quarterback.
No team ran on a higher percentage of its offensive plays last year than the Bears and their 56.19 percent rushing percentage. The Panthers were the fifth-most run heavy team in football, but they still threw passes on slightly more than half of their offensive snaps.
Chicago beefed up its backfield ahead of the upcoming season, signing veteran D'Onta Foreman—Moore's teammate with the Panthers last year—and drafting rookie Roschon Johnson to complement incumbent playmaker Khalil Herbert, personnel choices that indicate plenty more rushing plays are on the horizon.
With Justin Fields leading the league in quarterback carries last year and a strong candidate to continue that trend in 2023, there just won't be much in terms of volume here for Moore to feast on.
Even if Fields improves markedly as a passer and throws on a significantly higher percentage of plays, Moore will still have to compete with several other quality receivers such as Darnell Mooney and Chase Claypool for targets.
Moore may be a solid addition to this offense, but he won't come close to reaching a Pro Bowl level of production.
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Aaron Rodgers, QB, New York Jets
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Expectations for Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets are sky-high right now.
While the quarterback won back-to-back NFL MVP awards in 2020-21, his production fell off significantly last season. It will be a challenge for him to right the ship at this point of his career and thrive with a new organization.
After leading the Packers to a 26-6 record while completing nearly 70 percent of his passes for 8,414 yards and 85 touchdowns with a mere nine interceptions during his MVP stretch, Rodgers came down to Earth in 2022. He completed less than 65 percent of his throws for 3,695 yards and 26 touchdowns against 12 interceptions.
Rodgers turns 40 in December and is playing with an entirely new set of personnel, factors that make it unlikely he'll return to peak form with Gang Green.
There may be some familiarity from his Green Bay days with Nathaniel Hackett—the Packers' offensive coordinator during Rodgers' MVP seasons—calling the shots on the sidelines and former teammates like Allen Lazard suiting up for the Jets, but it will take time for him to get in sync with his stable of running backs, the offensive line and top wideouts like Mecole Hardman and Garrett Wilson.
It doesn't help that the Jets must find significant playoff success to justify this trade. That isn't something Rodgers has brought his teams in some time. While Green Bay reached the NFC Championship Game in both the 2019 and 2020 seasons, the veteran hasn't been to a Super Bowl since his lone ring in 2010.
After flaming out in the divisional round in 2021 and failing to even get into the 14-team playoff field last year, it will be a tall task for Rodgers to bring this inexperienced New York side—one that hasn't sniffed the conference title game since 2010 or a Super Bowl since winning it in 1968—a Lombardi Trophy before his retirement.
Za'Darius Smith, Edge, Cleveland Browns
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The Cleveland Browns have one of the game's best edge-defenders in Myles Garrett, but the team recorded the fifth-fewest sacks in football last year despite the perennial Pro Bowler's pass-rushing prowess.
That inability to get after the quarterback consistently was one of the most glaring flaws in Cleveland's defense, a weakness the team is hoping Za'Darius Smith will rectify in 2023.
The Browns only gave up a pair of fifth-round draft selections to get back the 30-year-old plus sixth- and seventh-round picks. It was a surprisingly cheap cost for a player who made the most recent of his three Pro Bowl nods last season.
The cash-strapped Vikings were likely willing to move on from the eight-year veteran not only to offload his hefty contract—which the Browns essentially restructured into a one-year, $10.5 million deal—but also to avoid a high potential for regression.
Smith emerged as one of the better edge-rushers in football during a two-year stint with the Green Bay Packers, recording 25 sacks between 2019-2020. He was shut down just one game into the 2021 campaign with a back injury, though, before returning to form with a 10-sack season with Minnesota in 2022.
While there didn't seem to be many lingering ill-effects from the back ailment last year, almost all of his production came in the first half of the season.
Despite seeing consistent usage throughout the campaign, the Kentucky product fell off hard over the last seven games. He recorded just a half-sack in that span and extrapolating his stats in from that stretch to a full 17-game season would result in a pedestrian 36 tackles—including two for a loss—and 17 quarterback hits.
It's a far cry from the 29 tackles (14 for a loss), 17 quarterback hits and 9.5 sacks he racked up between Weeks 1 and 9.
While Smith will have plenty of support playing in a defense with Garrett and other top-end talents such as Anthony Walker Jr., Denzel Ward and Greg Newsome II, he likely won't star for this organization.
If his play at the end of 2022 is any indication of what is to come, Smith's best days are behind him.
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