The Miscellany News

The summer is officially coming to a close, and despite the declining media coverage of Taylor Swift throughout the last year, the National Football League (NFL) still plans to begin play for a new season. This past offseason has been a turbulent one, with some big-name players like quarterback Kirk Cousins and wide receiver Stefon Diggs finding new teams while wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk spent his summer being a prima donna and vowing to leave the San Francisco 49ers before penning a new contract with them a month later. Overall, the 2024-25 season is poised to be a great one with more teams than usual having a legitimate shot to make a playoff push, and if last year showed us anything, it is that perceptions of a team can be flipped upside down in just a week. In anticipation of this season, I have gone through every matchup and compiled my predictions for the end of season league standings, playoff picture, Super Bowl winner and Award recipients.

Starting with the American Football Conference’s Eastern Division (AFC East), things are looking very different this year than in the past. With an old, but still capable, Aaron Rodgers returning to quarterback (QB) for the New York Jets behind a newly shored up offensive line, the Jets enter the season as the division front runner with a slightly strengthened defense just ahead of the Miami Dolphins. I am sorry to say this to all of you wonderfully loyal Buffalo Bills fans, but the window has closed on their Super Bowl chances. Josh Allen is an outstanding quarterback, but with a significantly weaker defense and the loss of Stefon Diggs to the Houston Texans, I cannot envision the Bills taking another trip to the playoffs without a spectacular season from Josh Allen. There is good news for New England Patriots fans though since they will be rewarded with a high draft pick and the potential to get the University of Colorado’s superstar wide receiver Travis Hunter if they do not have their affairs in order, which they most certainly will not.

In recent years, the AFC North—consisting of the Cincinnati Bengals, Baltimore Ravens, Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns—has existed as a unique division in the NFL’s lengthy history, with each of its four teams maintaining strong rosters and benefiting from good coaching, meaning they all are very capable of making the playoffs. This year looks to be no different. The Bengals and Ravens are likely to top the division with top-tier quarterbacks and capable defenses, but I find it hard to count out the Pittsburgh Steelers. They are coming off of a playoff berth last year and got nothing in the offseason but roster upgrades in every needed position. They signed Pro Bowl linebacker Patrick Queen this offseason and got rid of the dismal QB Kenny Pickett, so it is incredibly likely that future Hall of Fame head coach Mike Tomlin will be able to get into the playoffs once again. Finally the Browns, who also have some great talent but will struggle to win more than 50 percent of their games because of their difficult schedule and mediocre quarterback with a mega-contract. 

With the reigning back-to-back Super Bowl winning Kansas City Chiefs, the AFC West is appearing as lopsided as ever. The Chiefs undeniably have the best QB in the NFL with Patrick Mahomes, and with their high roster retention, they will dominate the division. The Las Vegas Raiders and Los Angeles Chargers are both lined up to have mediocre seasons once again, with the former likely having more success than the latter because of higher talent players like pass rusher Maxx Crosby and wide receiver Davante Adams. The Chargers did find a new head coach this year in Jim Harbaugh—whose University of Michigan tenure is marred by a cheating scandal—but with the loss of a couple key offensive pieces, it is unlikely that they will be any better than last year. There is not much to say about the Denver Broncos since they are in the middle of a rebuild and are going to find wins sparsely throughout the year. 

Ending off the AFC, the southern division finds itself in a similar situation to the western. The young and upcoming quarterback C.J. Stroud and the rest of the Texans’ stacked offense will catapult them to the forefront of the division and the AFC at large, while the Indianapolis Colts and Jacksonville Jaguars are both around the league average in effectively every metric and will be in a tough battle for second with a very small chance at a Wild Card playoff spot. Finally, the Tennessee Titans received nothing in the offseason but losses, aside from the Steelers’ three-week legend Mason Rudolph to be their backup quarterback. It will be tough for them to win more than six games, despite their starting QB Will Levis’ steady development.

Starting off the National Football Conference (NFC), the NFC East division is unique because it is entirely devoid of mediocrity. The Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles are both star-studded teams, with the former having a very solid overall roster and the latter losing star center Jason Kelce to retirement but gaining running back Saquon Barkley. The Cowboys are likely to top the division and then get throttled in the divisional round of the playoffs—par for the course for that franchise—while the Eagles have slightly better chances in the playoffs but could very well be held back by quarterback Jalen Hurts’ accuracy issues when the pressure is high. However, no mediocrity does not mean every team is good. The Washington Commanders and New York Giants will undoubtedly sit at the bottom of this division and conference standings. The Commanders have little to smile about roster-wise besides rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels who could give them a chance to shine in a few years, but not quite yet.

In the coldest division in football, the NFC North, it will be the Detroit Lions who find the most success, having perfectly executed the rebuild under the leadership of head coach Dan Campbell. The Green Bay Packers were initially faced with similar odds in the offseason to the Lions, but after an MCL sprain that could sideline QB Jordan Love for over a month in their week one game against the Eagles in São Paolo, they will likely have to fight tooth and nail for a chance at a playoff berth. The Chicago Bears are opening this season in a situation many believe to be the end of a successful franchise rebuild, bringing in several quality weapons for last year’s number one draft pick Caleb Williams to throw to. It is unlikely that their time has come quite yet though with head coach Matt Eberflus being one of the worst in the league—Bears fans have been begging for him to be fired for several years. Finally comes the Vikings who, despite having some great receiving targets, have to survive the quagmire of Sam Darnold’s quarterback play.

The NFC West holds the league’s most complete roster in the San Francisco 49ers who, faced with the prospect of salary-cap hell in a few years due to them having to extend several stars on small contracts, will likely remain atop the conference in the meantime. The Los Angeles Rams are also in good position to make the playoffs having found young diamonds in the rough: running back Kyren Williams and receiver Puka Nacua. Things are not as positive for the Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals with Seattle having slowly lost their life these last few years and Arizona having never found it in the first place.

The final division we have to look through is the NFC South where things are looking up. The Atlanta Falcons fixed several of the major problems that haunted them last year, slapping QB Kirk Cousins on their biggest hole (if you watched this play team with Desmond Ridder last year, I’m really sorry), so their playoff chances are high. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have some larger issues to solve, but I expect quarterback Baker Mayfield to pull a rabbit out of his hat and squeak the team into the playoffs in the same late-season glorious fashion as last year. In the other half of the division, the New Orleans Saints are sitting right below the line of mediocrity without a ton to look forward to while Carolina Panthers fans are just better off just giving up on professional sports altogether (the Charlotte Hornets are not much better).