Things to keep an eye on this season
Been asleep for the past seven months, and woke up for the return of NFL football? You’ve missed a lot, but we’ve got you covered.
Welcome to the 98th season of NFL football, where there are five first-time head coaches, five teams playing for the future, five rookie quarterbacks with a decent chance to start this season, and, you’re probably sick of hearing, a head coach and quarterback in New England who now sport five Super Bowl championship rings apiece.
The latter team opens defence of its 2016 title at home Thursday night against the Kansas City Chiefs. The other 30 NFL clubs open their seasons Sunday or Monday.
The five first-time head coaches are Sean McDermott (Buffalo), Sean McVay (Los Angeles Rams), Vance Joseph (Denver), Kyle Shanahan (San Francisco) and Anthony Lynn (Los Angeles Chargers). Three of them — McDermott, McVay and Shanahan — commandeer teams rebuilding big-time for the future, along with the New York Jets and Cleveland Browns.
A sixth new head coach, Doug Marrone with Jacksonville, has two seasons under his belt with Buffalo in 2013-14.
That DeShone outshone Deshaun this preseason was one of the surprises of August. That is, that Cleveland’s DeShone Kizer was the only rookie QB coming out of training camp to be named his team’s Week 1 starter, while Deshaun Watson opens the season on the bench, as Tom Savage’s backup.
No one would be surprised if Watson and three other rookie passers — Chicago’s Mitchell Trubisky, San Francisco’s C.J. Beathard and Buffalo’s Nathan Peterman — eventually joined Kizer as a starter at some point in 2017.
Of the other top drafted passers, Patrick Mahomes is being slowgroomed to replace Alex Smith down the road, while Davis Webb on the New York Giants and Joshua Dobbs on Pittsburgh will sit for the foreseeable future behind future Hall of Famers.
Enough with the fives. The following info is doubly informative.
Here are a few things you need to know to get ready for some football in 2017:
Super contenders: Let’s get straight to it. Are any teams in their respective conferences better on paper than last year’s Super Bowl participants — the New England Patriots in the AFC, and the Atlanta Falcons in the NFC? Nope.
In the AFC the Oakland Raiders seem sure to field one of the league’s most high-powered offensive attacks, maybe the best, but that team’s defence still cannot stop a turtle.
In the NFC the Green Bay Packers appear to have too shaky a defence and offensive line (again), and the Seattle Seahawks an even worse offensive line (again), to hang for long with the young, fast, ferocious and improved Falcons in a game that matters.
To start the season, then, a Super Bowl rematch seems likeliest.
Early can’t-miss games: There’s no point going beyond October, because some teams predicted to be good will suck, and vice versa. Five of the most compelling early-season games:
• Week 1, Sunday night, Giants at Cowboys. Whether Zeke Elliott can play or not, ya wanna watch to see what happens.
• Week 2, Sunday night, Packers at Falcons. Rematch of NFC title game. Big test for Packers’ patchwork offensive line.
• Week 4, Thursday night, Bears at Packers. Will Chicago rookie QB Mitchell Trubisky have unseated Mike Glennon by then? If not, Glennon better not stink in prime time.
Franchise relocations: Last year Los Angeles regained the Rams after a 21-year absence. This year Los Angeles regained the Chargers after a 56-year residency in San Diego.
Through 2019 the Chargers are playing their home games at the StubHub Center, on the campus of California State University Dominguez Hills, nearly 200 km up the coast from San Diego and 30 km down the coast from LA, in Carson. It’s a laughably small stadium (30,000 capacity), not even half the size of the smallest NFL venues.
Starting in 2020 the Chargers, as a tenant, will join Stan Kroenke’s Rams at the $2.6-billion glam palace currently under construction, known as Los Angeles Stadium at Hollywood Park.
The Oakland Raiders, meantime, are moving to Las Vegas — eventually. The Raiders will play the next two seasons at their long-time home, Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. It’s unknown where the Raiders will play in 2019, the year before moving into a new $1.7-billion stadium in Vegas. Will Oakland fans still support them if the Raiders unravel? Good question.
New playoff teams: Hey, there’s hope for fans of any downtrodden team. If only a morsel. Since the NFL adopted the 12-team playoff format in 1990, at least four teams every year have reached the postseason that missed out the year before.
The 2016 qualifiers: in the AFC, New England, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Houston, Oakland and Miami; in the NFC, Dallas, Atlanta, Green Bay, Seattle, New York Giants and Detroit.
I’m guessing the minimum fourout, four-in streak ends this year. I’ll probably be wrong, but I can see only three of last year’s playoff teams not making it back. These three: Kansas City, Miami and Detroit. For what it’s worth, I guessed three of four such teams correctly last year: Cincinnati, Washington and Minnesota.
Achievable milestones: the NFL, the Patriots in 2017 can tie NFL records for most Super Bowl wins (six) and most consecutive playoffs appearances (nine), and set the new mark for most consecutive seasons with a .500-orbetter record since 1970 (17).
If the Pats should win Super Bowl LII, Bill Belichick would join record-holders Curly Lambeau and George Halas as the only head coaches to win six NFL championships.
Tom Brady (New England’s other possessor of five Super Bowl rings) needs just four wins to set a new NFL regular-season record for a starting quarterback, with 187.
Critics long have derided Eli Manning’s career numbers, but whether he’s Hall of Fame worthy or not, with 1,786 yards the New York Giants passer can become the seventh QB in league history with 50,000 career yards. And with 30 TD passes he’d become only the sixth with 350.
A slew of passing records are within reach of Drew Brees, including this: With 465 completions the New Orleans Saints QB would top Brett Favre’s career record of 6,300.
Kicker Adam Vinatieri needs 36 made field goals to pass Morten Anderson for the most in NFL history, with 566.
Vinatieri’s Indianapolis Colts teammate Frank Gore needs another 1,000-yard rushing season to join Curtis Martin, Barry Sanders, Walter Payton and Emmitt Smith as the only NFLers ever with 10 such seasons.
Sophomore slumps?: His pending six-game suspension aside, how does Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott perform, in however many games he’s permitted to play?
Ditto for the NFL’s surprise rookie of the year in 2016, Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott. There’s little room for either Cowboys phenom to improve on his shattering debut season. Especially after Dallas lost two of five offensive-line starters. The Cowboys won 13 games last year. Hard to repeat, across the board.