Top 5 NFL Athletes Playing For Their Careers in 2024

The NFL is a cut-throat business. One day you are on top of the world getting more money than you can imagine. The next day, you’re looking for a starting job to keep your career alive. The worst part: it’s actually gotten tougher.

Do you remember players that remained on their teams for five plus years not so long ago, despite underwhelming success? Carson Palmer, Andy Dalton, Jeff Garcia, Chad Pennington, Trent Green, the list can go on and on.

All of these players were solid at their position and remained a starter with their team for at least five years in the 2000s. However, would any of them get five years now? With more talent and higher turnaround than ever in the NFL, expectations continue to rise. Here are five NFL players, considered veterans at this point in their careers, who will be fighting for their jobs next season.

Russell Wilson

Wilson garnered a one-year deal with the Steelers in March

After a decade-long career in Seattle, taking the Seahawks to two Super Bowl appearances and one championship, Russell Wilson needed a change. In 2022, Wilson signed a mega five-year deal with the Denver Broncos in a move that on paper would revitalize the quarterback’s career and skyrocket the Broncos toward contending in the AFC.

However, everything with this deal went about as bad as possible, including: a fired head coach, two seasons missing the playoffs, and a very messy ending. However, things do not look so bad for Wilson as he was able to keep all the money from his contract and get a fresh start with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2024.

So how badly does Wilson need a comeback? Wilson will be competing for the starting quarterback job with another quarterback who is looking for a fresh start in Justin Fields, who was traded from the Chicago Bears this offseason.

Although much of what happened to Wilson was not his fault (at least in his second season with Sean Payton), his career has taken a dive and winning the starting job and putting out good tape could really help his chances of staying around in the league for a few more years.

The good for Wilson: he gets to keep all the money from his contract with Denver, he is playing for a historically well-run organization, and he enters a more winnable division (albeit still very tough).

The bad for Wilson: he is not guaranteed the starting job, only has a one-year contract, and the Steelers have been seemingly stuck in no man’s land for the last couple of years.

Daniel Jones

While Jones did receive a solid four-year contract, he only has one more year of guaranteed money

Many questions have been asked about Daniel Jones since he was drafted by the New York Giants at sixth overall in 2019. However, he seemed to answer many of those questions with an absolutely stellar 2022 season.

Jones took a Giants team projected by many to finish near the bottom of their division in 2022 to a Wild Card spot and a win over the 13-4 Minnesota Vikings in the playoffs. Then Jones got paid, and the 2023 season happened when Jones reverted to what he had always been as a Giant, not good enough.

There have been legitimate excuses for Jones during his time in New York, such as, not having a great supporting cast and a carousel of coaching changes that would make any quarterback’s life difficult. Unfortunately, Jones has also been injured consistently and missed most of the 2023 NFL season immediately after signing his contract.

Because Jones does not have any guaranteed money past this coming NFL season, the Giants could cut him fairly easily if they chose to for 2025 and beyond. If Jones stays healthy all year and puts up 2022-esque numbers, he can avoid that scenario, but that is a big if.

Geno Smith

Smith has two years left on his contract and the Seahawks had it restructured this past offseason

There have been rumors of the Seattle Seahawks acquiring a new quarterback after their current starter Geno Smith had a slight down year last season. In addition, with a new regime, Geno will have to essentially restart his good will since Pete Carroll was the coach who took him on and gave him a shot in the first place.

Geno will certainly be more motivated if the Seahawks do draft his replacement. However, Geno may already have enough motivation to try to impress a new coach and continue his career as an underdog.

Josh Jacobs

Jacobs signed a four-year deal with the Green Bay Packers with a guaranteed signing bonus

Josh Jacobs four-year, $48 million contract with the Green Bay Packers looks great on paper, however, the only guaranteed money he has from that contract is his $12.5 million signing bonus.

The Packers will essentially have an option of whether they want to cut Jacobs every offseason. Jacobs also is moving from a dysfunctional Las Vegas Raiders regime to a Packers team that was a couple of plays away from a conference championship appearance last season and has a young and promising team.

The 2024 season will be a big one for Jacobs to see if he can transition to a team with higher expectations.

Saquon Barkley

Barkley signed a three-year contract with the Eagles this offseason, moving to another team in the NFC East

Six-year running back Saqoun Barkley is still widely considered one of the most talented players in the NFL and was able to get a nice contract with the Philadelphia Eagles, with two out of three years guaranteed.

There is a reason Barkley is at the bottom of the list, as his career is not nearly as under threat as the others. Barkley is on this list more so because of his position and circumstances, as the Eagles are in win-now mode with much higher expectations than Barkley has had in his career, even when he was in New York.

If Barkley has a good injury free season this year, it could propel him through the rest of his career into a position considered to have less value in the modern NFL.

All statistics courtesy of Pro Football Reference unless stated otherwise.

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