The 2019-20 NFL season is steadily getting closer to kicking off. This week most teams are starting Organized Team Activities (OTAs) and the following week will see most teams hold short minicamps.

There has been a fair amount of player movement in the offseason and with rosters still a few months away from being finalized we can only guess what teams will look like on opening weekend in September.

With what we know now, here’s a look at five teams that could be among the cream of the crop in the upcoming season. There are teams that are coming off stellar seasons, teams that disappointed in the playoffs, teams that are on the rise, and teams that have yet to live up to expectations featured below.

As the New England Patriots proved last year, it’s not about how a team starts, but how they finish that matters most. The five teams on this list can either have boom or bust stretches. Look over the list and let us know what you think about these teams heading into the 2019-20 season.

Los Angeles Chargers

Dec 3, 2017; Carson, CA, USA; The Los Angeles Chargers defense poses for a picture after free safety Adrian Phillips (31) intercepted a pass during the fourth quarter against the Cleveland Browns at StubHub Center. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

The Los Angeles Chargers started off last season as the butt of the jokes in the NFL world. It was their first season in Los Angeles and not only were they playing in a soccer stadium but without a cemented fan base in their new location, most of their home games were infiltrated by fans of the team they were playing that week.Attendance issues aside, the Chargers were one of the best teams in the NFL a season ago. Under the coaching of Anthony Lynn the Chargers stepped out of the shadow of Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs as they made a run to the AFC West title, but ultimately fell short.

Chargers fans got to see another solid year from Philip Rivers (4,308 yards, 32 touchdowns, 12 interceptions, 68.3 completion percentage) and saw the beginnings of a potentially dominant defense come together.

Los Angeles has done well in surrounding Rivers with more playmakers as he gets longer in the tooth. In the backfield, the Chargers have Melvin Gordon who is coming off of a career year that saw him total 14 touchdowns and his yards per carry number finally jump above 4.0 (5.1 YPC in 2018-19).

On the perimeter, Rivers has his trusted ally in Keenan Allen and those two have developed a chemistry that allows them to exploit nearly any type of defense. Mike Williams made good on his promise that helped get him drafted seventh overall in 2017. In their Divisional Round loss to the New England Patriots, Williams was targeted a career-high 11 times.

Lastly, the team hopes that Hunter Henry—who returned from an ACL injury for the Chargers final game of the year—can get a full healthy offseason under his belt and become a mismatch for opponents’ linebackers and safeties going forward.

Defensively this team made its biggest leap. Bookended by edge rushers Melvin Ingram III (11 sacks) and Joey Bosa (7 sacks) Los Angeles had two players in the top 40 of total sacks in the 2018-19 season; and Bosa only played in nine games.

With the modern game becoming more of a pass-first league, the Chargers have invested in their secondary heavily too. Last year’s first round pick, Derwin James made an immediate impact as a rookie. James fluidity allowed him to line up anywhere on the field. In the Chargers playoff win over the Baltimore Ravens it was James who helped keep Lamar Jackson under wraps. James’ 105 tackles led the team. His partner at safety was no slouch either as Adrian Phillips ranked third with 94 tackles.

At corner, the trio of Casey Hayward, Trevor Williams, and Desmond King II did their part to take advantage of the work the line did upfront. Hayward was only targeted 63 times by opposing quarterbacks in 2018. King’s three interceptions tied with James for the team-high and Williams remained solid as a replacement for Jason Verrett.

Chicago Bears

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Another team that turned heads over the course of the regular season last year was the Chicago Bears. Bolstered by the preseason acquisition of Khalil Mack, the Bears were a real threat week-by-week. The highlight of the season came when they held the vaunted Los Angeles Rams offense to only six points in Week 14.

Their opening round upset loss to the Philadelphia Eagles was one of the more shocking outcomes of the 2019 playoffs. The Bears were one of teams many thought would hold the Lombardi trophy at the end of last season.

The addition of Mack made Chicago’s defense one of the stingiest in the entire league. We saw Mack’s rise to stardom in Oakland, but with the Bears he became a superstar in front of the world’s eyes. Mack, naturally wreaked havoc off the edge, however his presence made it easier for the other pieces of the Bears defense to be impactful in their areas.

Chicago’s defensive linemen Akiem Hicks, Eddie Goldman, and Roy Robertson-Harris saw a lot more one-in-one opportunities as offensive lines focused on Mack’s presence. On the opposite edge, Leonard Floyd started to come into his own as well. Rookie middle linebacker Roquan Smith acclimated himself well to the NFL and that front seven is one of the best in the entire league.

On offense, new head coach Matt Nagy came over from Kansas City and revitalized that entire side of the ball for the Bears. Nagy brought innovative formations and concepts to Chicago and helped Mitchell Trubisky’s second year in the NFL go a lot smoother than his first.

The Bears signed Allen Robinson, Trey Burton, and Taylor Gabriel as free agents and drafted Anthony Miller of Memphis to reconstruct their passing corps and running back Tarik Cohen was a much bigger part of the team’s aerial attack under Nagy.

Modernizing the offense and putting Trubisky in positions to succeed (play action, bootlegs) helped the Bears offense improve from 30th in yards per game to 21st in Nagy’s first year on the sidelines. With a full year under their belt, the Bears could vaunt into the top half of the league’s offenses for the 2019-20 season.

Chicago brought in Cordarrelle Patterson in free agency and drafted Riley Ridley out of Georgia in the fourth round of the 2019 NFL Draft to give Nagy even more tools to play with this year. If everything comes together, this team has the pieces to make a real run at Super Bowl LIV.

Cleveland Browns

Myles Garrett, Jarvis Landry, Odell Beckham Jr. and Baker Mayfield pose with Beckham’s new Browns jersey during a press conference in Berea on Monday. (Doug Lesmerises, cleveland.com)

Next up is the team that won the offseason, the Cleveland Browns. First, Browns employees, players, and fans are all coming off the high of winning seven games a year ago. Led by rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield and interim (now head) coach Freddie Kitchens, the Browns almost snuck into the postseason through the backdoor.

Instead of resting on their laurels, the Browns attacked this offseason viciously. The headliner acquisition was wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. Cleveland was able to pry him away from a rebuilding New York Giants team for the low price of their 2019 first round pick (17th overall), a 2019 third round pick (96th overall), and safety Jabrill Peppers.

Cleveland now has the following players to surround Mayfield on offense: Beckham Jr., Jarvis Landry, David Njoku, Duke Johnson Jr., Nick Chubb, and Kareem Hunt (suspended for the first 8 games of the season). That’s a lot of Pro Bowl level talent to surround the second-year signal caller with.

With a full offseason to rework the offense and ingratiate a talent like Beckham, Cleveland could be one of the more unstoppable units next year.

In the shadow of Hue Jackson’s disappointing tenure, the Browns have built one of the most talented defenses in the entire NFL. Cleveland has developed in-house All-Pro level talent at each level of their defense: defensive end Myles Garrett, defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi, linebackers Christian Kirksey and Joe Schobert, and defensive back Denzel Ward.

On top of that, they added Sheldon Richardson, Olivier Vernon, Morgan Burnett, and Greedy Williams this offseason too.

In his first year as a head coach, Kitchens will not only have the pressure to produce wins on his shoulders, but he will have to make sure that all this talent they brought in this summer is able to coalesce into a team.

Dallas Cowboys

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Over the course of the last decade, the Dallas Cowboys have fallen short of the America’s team moniker they earned during their run of dominance from the 1970s through the 1990s.

Since winning the Super Bowl in 1996, the Cowboys have won a total of four playoff games counting their wild card victory over the Seattle Seahawks from last season.

Tired of not meeting expectations, Jerry Jones has managed to collect a triumvirate of offensive players that are the best at their positions since Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, and Michael Irvin rocked the star on their helmets. Dak Prescott, Ezekiel Elliott, and Amari Cooper form the new age quarterback-running back-wide received collection for Jones.

Prescott and Elliott were both drafted in 2016 (Elliott with the fourth overall pick and Prescott in the fourth round) and have become the faces of the franchise in short time. Cooper was acquired at the trade deadline for, what was considered controversial at the time, Dallas’ 2019 first round pick. Cooper lived up to the hype of his return on expectations following the deal and Dallas is now tasked with trying to get all three new long-term deals so they can remain together for the foreseeable future.

Dallas has also managed to build one of the better offensive line units in the NFL as well. In the last couple years the depth has taken a slight hit due to injuries and deflections, but the Cowboys can still put a five-man group on the field that is among the league’s best.

On the other side of the ball, the Cowboys have built an underrated unit. They were able to keep stud defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence when the sides agreed to a five-year, $105 million contract after Dallas placed the franchise tag on him to open free agency.

Then there’s their pair of youthful linebackers in Jaylon Smith and Leighton Vander Esch. Smith was primed to be one of the best players in the entire 2016 draft class until he suffered tears in his ACL and LCL during Notre Dame’s bowl game.

However, Smith has attacked his recovery like a ball carrier in the open field and he looks in-line to becoming the player many saw during his junior year with the Fighting Irish. Vander Esch was drafted as a potential replacement for Sean Lee, yet an injury to Lee sped up Vander Esch’s timeline. He answered the call and put together a very impressive rookie season.

The Cowboys have had some of the shine scrubbed off their franchise in the last two decades, but they now look more like those fabled teams of the past than they have in any season post-Y2K.

San Francisco 49ers

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This team feels like it’s been on the poised to breakout list for each of the past two years. Teaming up offensive mastermind Kyle Shanahan with beloved former Tom Brady backup Jimmy Garoppolo quickly made this team a media darling.  

In their first year together promise was shown on both sides—the team went 6-1 in Garoppolo’s seven starts—and the 49ers believed in Garoppolo enough to award him what was then the richest contract in NFL history (five years, $137.5 million). Yet, year two wasn’t as rewarding for the franchise. Garoppolo was lost for the season after tearing his ACL in a Week 3 game against the Kansas City Chiefs.

At just 26 years old Garoppolo is young enough to bounce back from this and keep progressing towards the quarterback San Francisco thought it stole away from the New England Patriots.

Last season also saw the 49ers lose their big free agent signing, Jerick McKinnon, to a torn ACL in the preseason.

In the aftermath of those two devastating injuries, the 49ers only mustered four victories. However, the year wasn’t a complete lost season. The team unearthed quarterback Nick Mullens and running back Matt Breida as valuable backups; and tight end George Kittle is among the tight ends trying to take the now retired Rob Gronkowski’s title of best in the NFL.

After bringing in former Shanahan-coached running back Tevin Coleman in free agency, the team now has a stable of running backs that are all proven contributors and can all make plays in the run and passing game.

If the injury bug is finally gone from the Bay Area, the 49ers have a collection of talent that should get them into the postseason.

The determining factor will likely be their defense. With the second overall pick they brought in Nick Bosa to team with fellow first round selections Solomon Thomas, DeForest Buckner, and Arik Armstead in hopes of fortifying a dormant pass rush. Trading for Dee Ford was another move done to spruce up that attack. San Francisco also went out and got linebacker Kwon Alexander from Tampa Bay.

The 49ers set an NFL record last season for the fewest turnovers created (seven) in a season. The NFL’s Next Gen Stats list Ford as the player responsibilities for creating the most turnovers in the 2018-19 season. In 46 games, Alexander caused 14 total turnovers—eight fumbles (forced or recovered) and six interceptions. If those two can help the Niners defense get the ball back to their offense more than this team could go from afterthought to contender in just one year.