A lot of the top teams have lost talent:
Roosters: Cronk and Latrell
Storm: Chambers, Croft, Scott, Stimson
Raiders: BJ, Sezer
Bunnies: Burgess (yes they gained Latrell but they are massive light on forwards now)
Manly: Fainu
Sharks: Gallen
Losing these players have made all these teams weaker. You could argue Sharks have like for like replacement with Jack Williams but Gallen leaving leaves a leadership void. Panthers and Broncos have lost players but I'd argue they look better this year with coaches having settled in and identified their best 17.
Then a lot of struggling teams this year have gotten stronger:
Tigers: AD, BJ, Luciano
Cowboys: Holmes
Bulldogs: Thompson, Stimson, DWZ from mid-season
Eels (always struggling in my eyes): Matterson, RCG
Then you've got Dragons, Knights, Warriors, Titans....all going nowhere. Knights and Dragons have the talent but I just don't see them getting their shit together
I think 2020 will be a very interesting year in which we will see the beginning of a major power shift on the ladder. The top teams will still be up there but we will start to see struggling teams pushing regular top 8 teams out of the way. To summarize:
Teams that will finish higher than they did last year (not in any order):
Tigers
Cowboys
Bulldogs
Panthers
Broncos
Teams that will go backwards (some further than others):
Storm
Raiders
Bunnies
Sharks
Eels (because its Eels)
Teams that will stay roughly where they are:
Roosters
Manly
Dragons
Knights
Titans
Warriors
For the reason I think we will end up in Top 8