Welcome again, NFL.
The common season kicks off Thursday evening, with the defending Super Bowl champion Rams taking up the Bills.
The AFC is loaded with contending groups. The weekly fireworks generated from the AFC West groups alone will preserve the curiosity ratcheted up.
Closer to house, will the Patriots be capable to return to the playoffs and enhance on final season? Will Mac Jones make a Year 2 leap with out Josh McDaniels?
As for the NFC, there’s loads of intrigue in that convention, too, particularly with a 45-year-old Tom Brady nonetheless throwing landing passes.
So who guidelines the roost with Week 1 on faucet?
1. Bills: They have the quarterback. They have the expertise on the roster. It’s now or by no means for the Bills. Super Bowl or bust, child.
2. Bucs: There’s turmoil in and round Tom Brady. Or, to cite the person himself, “there’s a lot of bleep going on.” Forty-five or not, isn’t that normally when he’s at his finest?
3. Rams: They misplaced some key gamers from their championship crew, however nonetheless have loads of expertise leftover. As lengthy as Matthew Stafford’s arm doesn’t fall off, they’ll be high-quality.
4. Chiefs: Is it attainable their offense will probably be higher with out Tyreek Hill? On the floor, that’s laborious to consider, nevertheless it’ll be fascinating to look at three new guys (Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Juju Smith-Schuster and Skyy Moore) attempt to choose up the slack.
5. Bengals: Sure, there’s a Super Bowl hangover to think about. But the Bengals will nonetheless be among the many AFC’s elite. Joe Burrow and the offense are too good, particularly with an improved offensive line.
6. Packers: Their protection is healthier. Can’t say the identical about an offense that misplaced Davante Adams.
7. Chargers: They mounted all of their downside areas on each side of the ball. The Bolts are poised to reside as much as the hype.
8. Ravens: Hard to consider they gained’t rebound after lacking the playoffs for the primary time within the Lamar Jackson period.
9. Broncos: Remember what occurred the final time that they had a reliable quarterback? It’s laborious not to attract a parallel between touchdown Peyton Manning in 2012, and now Russell Wilson a decade later.
10. Eagles: They’ve reached contender standing virtually within the blink of an eye fixed. It stays to be seen if Jalen Hurts can ship.
11. Raiders: To set himself up for achievement, Josh McDaniels joined a crew with a hands-off proprietor who’s keen to supply him no matter he wants. The solely disadvantage is having to face the Chiefs, Chargers and Broncos two instances every. The AFC West is a killer.
12. Cowboys: Dak Prescott will preserve them afloat. But losses on each side of the ball take them out of the highest perch within the NFC East.
13. Colts: For Matt Ryan, touchdown in Indy with Frank Reich definitely beats what’s occurring together with his former crew in Atlanta. Now we’ll see if Ryan can get the Colts again into the postseason.
14. 49ers: What’s the over/underneath on what number of video games earlier than Jimmy Garoppolo takes over for Trey Lance at quarterback?
15. Titans: Will having Malik Willis nipping at his heels spur Ryan Tannehill onto larger heights? Stay tuned.
16. Cardinals: Guess we’ll see what Kyler Murray can do when he really research the playbook.
17. Saints: Can a Dennis Allen-Jameis Winston coach/quarterback combo presumably be anyplace pretty much as good as Sean Payton-Drew Brees? Doubt it.
18. Patriots: Usually, there’s a technique behind Bill Belichick’s insanity. It’s simply laborious to fathom what that is perhaps with Matt Patricia and Joe Judge now main Mac Jones.
19. Dolphins: Will their super-charged offense reside as much as all of the hype with Tyreek Hill added to the combination? That is dependent upon Tua Tagovailoa.
20. Steelers: It’s odd saying the Men of Steel have improved at quarterback with out Ben Roethlisberger, however Mitchell Trubisky and Kenny Pickett are each upgrades over final season’s getting older model of Big Ben.
21. Vikings: They have a brand new basic supervisor. And a brand new head coach. Will these adjustments be sufficient to get the Vikings over the hump? Can Kevin O’Connell get extra out of Kirk Cousins?
22. Giants: All eyes in New York are on quarterback whisperer Brian Daboll to see if he can salvage Daniel Jones. Not to say the remainder of the G-Men’s roster.
23. Browns: Kevin Stefanski has his work reduce out for him, coping with all of the Deshaun Watson turmoil, and having to depend on Jacoby Brissett by the primary 10 video games, and maybe extra.
24. Commanders: Is Carson Wentz, a quarterback Frank Reich bailed on after only a 12 months, actually an improve over Taylor Heinicke?
25. Panthers: How many extra wins does Baker Mayfield give them? Certainly greater than the 5 that they had final 12 months. But not way more.
26. Jaguars: Expect Trevor Lawrence to look extra like Trevor Lawrence with Doug Pederson now calling the pictures as an alternative of Urban Meyer.
27. Jets: They’ve constructed a pleasant crew round Zach Wilson. It stays to be seen if Wilson can do one thing with it.
28. Lions: The arrow is pointing up for the Hard Knocks darlings, who may even have slightly one thing behind their roar this season.
29. Bears: Justin Fields nonetheless has no cross safety. And his receiving corps is ranked among the many worst within the league. Tough state of affairs to make a Year 2 leap.
30. Seahawks: Russell Wilson was changed by Drew Lock. Or is it Geno Smith? No matter. Teams with unhealthy quarterbacks don’t win.
31. Texans: Davis Mills is the principle man underneath middle. But is he actually the quarterback of the long run?
32. Falcons: They must be grateful they misplaced the DeShaun Watson bidding conflict. But they’re clearly in rebuild, reboot, begin over mode with Marcus Mariota now the stopgap at quarterback.
Source: www.bostonherald.com