50 things to know on road to Super Bowl 50,
The USA TODAY Sports NFL staff, in a salute to Super Bowl 50, offers up 50 things to watch this season:
1. MORE RECORDS FOR MANNING
Barring the first major in-season injury of his career, Peyton Manning will break Brett Favre’s all-time passing record this season. Manning needs 2,148 more passing yards to top Favre’s record of 71,838. We think it would be cool if it came in the Broncos’ eighth game — at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. He also needs eight wins to break Favre’s record for regularseason victories (186). Both on the same night?
2. WORLDWIDE WEB
The Bills-Jaguars game in London on Oct. 25 will be streamed on Yahoo as the NFL’s first-ever game essentially available only through the Internet, though the Jacksonville and Buffalo markets can watch the game on local CBS affiliates.
3. COMEBACK PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Think of the list of candidates: Chiefs safety Eric Berry, who spent his offseason beating cancer; Eagles quarterback Sam Bradford, traded from the Rams while recovering from his second torn anterior cruciate ligament; 49ers linebacker NaVorro Bowman, back after missing last season with a knee injury, and Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer, who could be the one missing piece the team needs to knock the Seahawks from the top spot in the NFC West.
4. NO. 1 VS. NO. 2
We get to see the Buccaneers’ Jameis Winston and the Titans’ Marcus Mariota face each other in Week 1. And we will all make snap judgments. But we will be comparing these two for the next 10 years or more.
5. KEEP AN EYE ON BRADY
Patriots quarterback Tom Brady sat in court twice in the past month and barely interacted with anyone while he was there. He stared straight ahead and just listened as his lawyers argued his case in the Deflategate controversy. Now Brady is eligible to play the entire season. But will the missed time and distractions he faced this offseason affect his performance?
6. PETERSON’S RETURN
After missing almost all of 2014 amid legal troubles, Vikings running back Adrian Peterson insists he’s serious about his goal of rushing for 2,500 yards, which would shatter Eric Dickerson’s 31-year-old single-season NFL record of 2,105. “Yeah, man. Instead of (2,200) or breaking the record, I feel like just shooting for that (2,500),” Peterson said. To get there, Peterson would need to average 156.25 yards for 16 games.
7. COWBOYS’ RUNNING GAME
It was a big gamble for Cowboys owner Jerry Jones to allow DeMarco Murray to leave in free agency as well as a major sign of faith in Dallas’ offensive line. But after a lackluster preseason from the committee looking to replace Murray, Jones and Co. might wind up regretting their decision to not draft a running back.
8. COACHING CAROUSEL
Which coach could be — surprisingly — on the hot seat this year? The most intriguing coaching situation is in Indianapolis after the Colts did not sign Chuck Pagano to an extension heading into the final year of his contract as talk persists of friction between him and general manager Ryan Grigson.
9. DOMESTIC VIOLENCE CONVERSATION
The NFL might be a year removed from the domestic violence scandals that rocked it early in the 2014 season, but the conversation isn’t over. Phase 2 of the league’s education program continued during the preseason.
10. AIR ARIANS?
Cardinals coach Bruce Arians and Palmer might not exactly be on the same page when it comes to the identity of their offense. While Arians spent much of the offseason preaching balance, Palmer has other ideas. “We don’t run it 40 times a game. That’s not what we do,” Palmer said.
11. PHILBIN BUILDING ‘TEAM’ IN MIAMI
The Dolphins were the team under the most scrutiny during the 2014 offseason in the aftermath of the locker room bullying scandal. But coach Joe Philbin is trying to make sure the changes the franchise made — and he made, specifically — weren’t a one-time deal. Hence the slogan “Stronger Together” and an emphasis this year on teambuilding exercises. “All our meeting rooms, on the door it’s ‘Respect’ and ‘Communication,’ and we try to run a simple program,” Philbin said.
12. KANSAS CITY DEFENSE
Chiefs outside linebacker Justin Houston came within a half-sack of tying the NFL’s single-season record last season, but he has a different goal in mind this year. “We want to be the best defense in the league, by far, in the NFL, with no question,” Houston said. He will welcome the returns of inside linebacker Derrick Johnson and defensive end Mike DeVito from injury, along with the inspiration provided by Berry’s return.
13. IS PERCEPTION REALITY IN SAN FRANCISCO?
Bowman knows the outside perception of the 49ers — and especially of his defense — is very doom-and-gloom. Yet he thinks the Niners aren’t in for the type of defensive drop-off so many are expecting. Bowman predicts that soon the rest of the NFL will become familiar with guys such as rookie pass rusher Eli Harold and former role player Corey Lemonier.
20. MURRAY’S WORKLOAD AND PRODUCTION
Will the NFL’s reigning rushing champion have a hangover? Murray begins his new chapter with the Eagles after logging 392 carries in 2014 for Dallas — most in a season since Larry Johnson ran the ball an NFLrecord 416 times in 2006. And those were just regular-season rushes. Including the playoffs, Murray had 436 carries. Including receptions (61, including postseason), that’s nearly 500 touches. Know this: Of the seven runners who carried at least 392 times in a season since 1984, Dickerson (404 carries, 1986) was the last one to rush for 1,000 yards the next season.
21. HAVE A 40
It came 26 years too late to help Brian Bosworth, but NFL linebackers are now authorized to wear jersey numbers between
40 and 49.
22. RAMS FOR REAL?
St. Louis coach Jeff Fisher said he’ll know his Rams are legitimate contenders for a playoff spot in the NFC West when both games against the Seahawks are competitive — and not just the ones played in St. Louis, where the Rams will host the Seahawks in Week 1. The Rams are 2-1 against Seattle at home over the past three seasons.
23. NO ‘L’ FOR NFL
This season’s golden Super Bowl will officially be noted as “Super Bowl 50” rather than “Super Bowl L” as the league takes a one-year hiatus from its traditional Roman numerals. The Browns and Bengals have combined for one playoff win since 1991. But at least the Buckeye State has Ohio State.
25. MONEY MATTERS FOR SEAHAWKS
No team has reached three consecutive Super Bowls since the Bills made their fourth in a row in January 1994, the season before the NFL instituted a salary cap. The Seahawks will try to end the drought with a topheavy payroll that features six players making at least $10 million a year, including three-time Pro Bowl tight end Jimmy Graham, who arrived in a trade with the Saints.
26. LIFE AFTER JORDY
Wide receiver Jordy Nelson’s season-ending knee injury means the Packers and reigning NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers must adjust on the fly. Name to remember: Davante Adams, a second-year pro from Fresno State who had a breakout performance in last season’s playoff win against the Cowboys.
27. KAEP’S TIME?
Scrutiny of 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s development intensified as the team slipped in 2014. But general manager Trent Baalke says Kaepernick is right on schedule, citing, among other things, his performance in playoff games in previous seasons. “Last year was a down year for all of us,” Baalke said early in training camp.
28. THE WINSTON SHOW
So far, so good in Tampa for No. 1 draft pick Winston — on and off the field. Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht raved during minicamp about the extra time the rookie was putting in with quarterbacks coach Mike Bajakian. And aside from getting photographed as bouncers denied him from entering a bar because he didn’t meet the dress code, Winston has kept a pleasantly low profile away from the facility, too.
29. 3-4 DEFENSE
The Bears, under new coordinator Vic Fangio, will be using this alignment as their base defense for the first time in the Super Bowl era.
30. NEXT STEP OR STEP BACK FOR BENGALS?
Nobody knows better than coach Marvin Lewis that the Bengals will be evaluated more on their ability to finally win a playoff game than just get to the postseason for a fifth consecutive year. They’ve made numerous changes to the program, including facilities upgrades and a revamped schedule inspired in part by Lewis’ visit with then-Oregon coach Chip Kelly a few years ago. “We’ve taken some more drastic steps,” Lewis said.
31. OFF TO L.A.?
Three teams — the Rams, Chargers and Raiders — will take the field unsure whether this is the final season for each in its respective home. All are candidates to move to Los Angeles as soon as 2016, with a decision expected by the Super Bowl. How much that impacts the teams on the field remains to be seen.
32. LUCK OF THE JAGUARS
From first-round pick Dante Fowler’s knee injury in the first drill of rookie minicamp to the hand surgery that will sideline free agent prize Julius Thomas for the first month of the season, Jacksonville’s run of bad breaks never seems to end. “Like I told Dante, it’s like Murphy’s Law: Whatever can go wrong will go wrong at the most inopportune time,” coach Gus Bradley said during minicamp. “But our belief is when Murphy does come, we don’t want to miss him. We want to look at it as this is an opportunity for us to demonstrate who we are.”
33. CUTLER’S LAST CHANCE?
New Bears general manager Ryan Pace didn’t have much choice but to keep quarterback Jay Cutler, who was due $15.5 million fully guaranteed this season. Would Chicago be willing to eat the $10 million Cutler is fully guaranteed in 2016 to get a fresh start next year? That depends on Cutler, 32, who’s on his fifth coordinator (Adam Gase) in seven seasons with the Bears and has yet to maximize his vast physical talents.
34. CARROLL’S COACHING TREE
Seahawks coach Pete Carroll has spawned a coaching tree, with his two most recent defensive coordinators holding head coaching jobs — Bradley is in his third season with the Jaguars and Dan Quinn is in his first year with the Falcons. Quinn’s challenge is to decide how much he wants to try to be like Carroll and how much he needs to be himself. “Just because you’re at a certain program, it doesn’t mean this is how we have to do every single thing,” Quinn said. “I’ve had so many cool guys I’ve had a chance to work with. In San Francisco, like Steve Mariucci, an awesome coach, I learned so much from him. I went to the Miami Dolphins, with Nick Saban, like you don’t think I brought stuff from him? Of course I did.”
35. VIRTUAL WORLD
The 49ers, Bucs, Cowboys, Cardinals and Vikings are among the teams integrating virtual-reality technology into training. Like the Jaguars using GPS units in practice in 2012, virtual reality could go from novelty to necessity in a few years as coaches try to enhance training, particularly for quarterbacks.
36. THOMAS’ CONSISTENCY
Beginning his ninth NFL season, Browns left tackle Joe Thomas has never missed a start (128). He’s the first offensive lineman in NFL history named to the Pro Bowl in each of his first eight seasons. Maybe most remarkably, Thomas has not missed a snap in his career, carrying a streak of 7,917 consecutive offensive snaps, the longest active streak in the NFL.
37. ELI-MCADOO, YEAR 2
Now that Giants quarterback Eli Manning is entering his second season in coordinator Ben McAdoo’s West Coast offense, look for the unit to build on an upand-down 2014. The Giants looked sluggish on offense in the preseason, but with wide receiver Victor Cruz returning to full health and the emergence of second-year star Odell Beckham Jr., the Giants could boast one of the top aerial threats in the entire league.
38. THE BELTWAY
Where to begin? Just watch it all. Something crazy is bound to happen to the Redskins. It could come from the owner’s box, the GM’s office, the Twitter account of the GM’s wife, the quarterback room or the coach’s office. You get the idea. But you only have two eyes, so keep one on Robert Griffin III to see if he ever gets to come off the bench and one on coach Jay Gruden, who had better be right about his quarterback choice or there could yet be another coaching change in Washington.
39. SUH’S IMPACT
There’s no doubt that adding the NFL’s best defensive tackle, Ndamukong Suh, to a formidable unit that includes bona fide stars in edge rusher Cameron Wake and cornerback Brent Grimes could give the Dolphins one of the NFL’s elite defenses. Yet it will be just as interesting to see what impact a new environment in Miami will have on Suh, who has a reputation as one of the NFL’s dirtiest players.
40. X-FACTOR WITH EXTRA POINTS
The new rule that has jazzed up the most boring play in football, turning an extra-point kick into the equivalent of a 33-yard field goal attempt, might not inspire a sudden rush on two-point conversion tries. Yet the elements could be a factor later in the season, when wind, rain and snow become part of the equation.
41. WILL A CHIEFS WIDEOUT SCORE A TD?
Here’s a reason to watch the Week 1 game between Houston and Kansas City: To see if the Chiefs’ streak of 16 consecutive regular-season games without a touchdown by a wide receiver will end. (The last one thrown by QB Alex Smith goes back even further, a 22-yarder to Dwayne Bowe in the first quarter against the Redskins on Dec. 8, 2013.)
42. THE GENO WATCH
What happens to Geno Smith once he’s fully cleared to return? Jets coach Todd Bowles tasked backup Ryan Fitzpatrick with keeping the offense afloat, but Bowles said Smith wasn’t necessarily guaranteed to get his starting job back.
43. CAN BUCS WIN CLOSE GAMES?
The Buccaneers might have finished tied for the worst record in the NFL last year at 2-14, but coach Lovie Smith thinks that record is misleading when it comes to how competitive Tampa Bay could be this year. The challenge is learning how to win close games (nine of their losses last year were by eight points or fewer). But even more important to fans might be learning how to win at home after the Bucs went 0-8 at Raymond James Stadium in 2014.
44. BILLS’ SURPRISE QB CHOICE
Tyrod Taylor’s appointment as Bills starting quarterback caught many off guard because he’s a bit of an unknown commodity in the NFL. The Bills will rely on their running game, but at some point they are going to need Taylor to make plays, likely with his arm, to win games.
45. BRADFORD TAKING HITS
Eagles quarterbacks coach Ryan Day said during training camp that Bradford, who has been susceptible to injuries in his first five seasons, could take a hit. In the preseason, Bradford quickly proved that after Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs delivered a controversial blow during a handoff out of the shotgun in the team’s second preseason game. But how many more like that can Bradford withstand?
46. ‘IT’S JACK’S DEFENSE’ IN OAKLAND
The Seahawks’ defensive principles continue to spread, with Quinn joining Bradley as former Seattle coordinators who are now head coaches. But don’t expect the same in Oakland, where Ken Norton Jr., a former Pro Bowl linebacker who coached that position for the past five years in Seattle, is the Raiders coordinator under Jack Del Rio. “It’s Jack’s defense,” the offensive coordinator for another team said.
47. INDY NEEDS TO RUN
Though Andrew Luck’s arm gave the Colts their best chance to win last season, the offense was far too one-dimensional, leading the league with 661 pass attempts. Look for Indianapolis to try to attain more balance with veteran Frank Gore giving the team much-needed consistency at running back — something it has lacked in the past. The Colts are a popular preseason pick to win it all, but they probably won’t get there if Luck has to throw the ball 40 times a game.
48. COWBOYS’ FIRST HALF
They are talking Super Bowl in Dallas, and we might find out early if the Cowboys can justify such hype. Dallas opens with two NFC East rivals, at home against the Giants and on the road vs. Philadelphia, followed by the Falcons, Saints and Patriots. In the first four games, the Cowboys will be without pass rusher Greg Hardy and middle linebacker Rolando McClain because of suspensions.
49. DEFLATEGATE REMATCH
There’s no way we’re done hearing about Deflategate — not with the Colts hosting the Patriots in a rematch of the AFC title game Oct. 18. Indianapolis, of course, was the team that turned New England and Brady in to the NFL to launch the investigation — and so much more — when it suspected the use of under-inflated footballs. But hoopla and retrospectives aside, the matchup in Week 6 could provide a clue as to whether the Colts are any closer to figuring out a formula for beating their archrival.
50. FAVRE’S BIG NIGHT
The Packers finally will honor former quarterback Brett Favre, retiring his No. 4 jersey when they host the Bears at Lambeau Field on Thanksgiving night. It’s fitting that Chicago will be the opponent for the occasion. The teams’ have the longest-running rivalry in the NFL, dating to 1921.