The NFL is again.
Week 1 kicks off Thursday night time with the reigning Tremendous Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles internet hosting the Dallas Cowboys (8:20 ET, NBC).
To mark the event, listed here are 10 daring predictions for the 2025 season.
1.
New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart will begin earlier than the midway level of the season | Giants head coach Brian Daboll and common supervisor Joe Schoen may not survive one other dismal season, which helps clarify why the fourth-year head coach elected to start out veteran Russell Wilson in Week 1.
Nevertheless, that plan will backfire because of a frightening early schedule — six of the primary eight opponents made the playoffs final season — prompting a quarterback change earlier than the calendar hits November. The Giants have the toughest schedule within the league (.574 profitable share).
2. Kevin Stefanski would be the first head coach fired | Talking of tough begins, the Cleveland Browns open the season with six consecutive video games towards groups that completed 2024 with a profitable report, beginning with back-to-back divisional video games towards the Cincinnati Bengals and Baltimore Ravens.
Cleveland additionally will play the Inexperienced Bay Packers, Detroit Lions, Minnesota Vikings and division rival Pittsburgh Steelers in the course of the span. It is unlikely the Browns might be favored in any of these video games. Barring an upset, they may very well be watching an 0-6 report in mid-October, making a change at head coach justifiable. Jim Schwartz, Browns defensive coordinator and a former NFL head coach, could be a logical option to take over in an interim function.
3. Miami Dolphins will commerce huge receiver Tyreek Hill | The mercurial wideout lastly will get his want. After requesting a commerce on the finish of the final season (which he later retracted), the Dolphins will half with Hill as a part of a large commerce deadline sell-off, sending him to a playoff hopeful. (The commerce deadline is Nov. 5.)
A workforce captain the previous two seasons, Hill was handed over by the Dolphins for that honor this season. “We had been targeted on giving the keys to captaincy to guys that had earned it each day,” head coach Mike McDaniel said, per ESPN.
4. The Houston Texans will lead NFL in go protection | Final yr’s No. 6-ranked go protection will ascend to the highest of the league rankings.
The promising secondary, which incorporates 2024 first-team All-Professional Derek Stingley Jr. and proficient second-year defensive backs Kamari Lassiter and Calen Bullock, will profit from going through the AFC South, which incorporates Indianapolis Colts quarterback Daniel Jones (or Anthony Richardson), Tennessee Titans rookie No. 1 total decide Cam Ward and up-and-down Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawerence. That is six video games towards both QBs trending down or a rookie.
The unit will feast towards its division opponents and anybody else who dares to enter its fly zone.
5. New Orleans Saints will get the No. 1 total decide | Expectations could not be decrease for the Saints in head coach Kellen Moore’s first season. With arguably the league’s worst quarterback scenario, New Orleans will wrestle all season, leaving it with the highest decide within the 2026 NFL Draft. Starter Spencer Rattler accomplished solely 57 % of his passes final season.
6. Las Vegas Raiders will make the playoffs | Pete Carroll, employed this offseason, has 4 shedding seasons and 12 playoff appearances in 18 years as an NFL head coach.
Las Vegas may very well be one of many league’s largest surprises, rising from the loaded AFC West with a wild-card berth. Las Vegas improved at quarterback, buying and selling for Geno Smith. TE Brock Bowers is coming off a 1,194-yard rookie season, whereas working again Ashton Jeanty is the preseason Related Press Offensive Rookie of the Yr favourite. And primarily based on how terrible Boise State regarded in its first sport since Jeanty’s departure, he is perhaps much more useful than many consider.
7. Arizona Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon wins Coach of the Yr | A late 2024 collapse overshadowed the spectacular strides the Cardinals made in Yr 2 below Gannon. Arizona improved its win whole by 4 video games, ending 8-9 and with a plus-21 level differential.
Arizona has a good early schedule (at New Orleans, vs. Carolina), which ought to assist it climate accidents to its defensive position, together with 2025 first-round decide Walter Nolen (calf) and 2023 second-rounder BJ Ojulari, who nonetheless recovering from a torn ACL suffered final season. In contrast to final season, the Cardinals may get stronger because the season goes alongside and their well being improves, making Gannon’s job within the desert tougher to disregard.
8. Season awards: Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow named MVP, Minnesota Vikings huge receiver Justin Jefferson OPOY, Inexperienced Bay Packers edge Micah Parsons DPOY | The Bengals will not squander one other season of Burrow’s prime, reaching the playoffs and giving their star quarterback (43 TD passes final season) an ironclad MVP resume. His former LSU teammate, Justin Jefferson (10 TD catches in 2024), might be named Offensive Participant of the Yr after one other big season, whereas Parsons (double-digit sacks in all 4 seasons) will battle by his again harm to rapidly reward the Packers for his landmark contract together with his first Defensive Participant of the Yr award.
9. Taylor Swift headlines Tremendous Bowl LX halftime present | May “The Lifetime of a Showgirl” embrace a headlining spot at this season’s Tremendous Bowl?
Comply with us for a second.
