Storylines For the 2024-2025 NFL Season
- Arjun Peroor
- Aug 10, 2024
- 5 min read
The 2024 NFL season kicks off in less than 4 weeks. Just like every other season, there will be a lot of intriguing storylines to follow. Let's get straight to it!!
Storyline 1: The Return of Big-Name QBs
The 2023 NFL season saw many Quarterbacks go down with season-ending injuries. Aaron Rodgers tore his Achilles 4 plays into the season. Kirk Cousins tore his Achilles in week 8 when the Vikings started to string together a few wins after a slow start to the season. Joe Burrow injured his throwing wrist in week 11 when the team was fighting for playoff positioning. Deshaun Watson hurt his shoulder in week 10 and was out for the season. Daniel Jones tore his ACL in week 9 vs the Raiders. Injuries are part of the game but last year it felt so impactful because big-name quarterbacks were taken out for large chunks of the season. As a result, guys like Josh Dobbs Tommy Devito, Jake Browning, and especially Joe Flacco got to steal the show for a bit and it was a lot of fun watching their Cinderella run. As fun, as it is seeing underdogs have big moments, I would love to see the big-name QBs again.
I believe one of the names listed above will win Comeback Player of the Year. Here's what I believe each player has to do to get the award:
Aaron Rodgers: A solid statistical season that helps lead the Jets to their first playoff birth since 2010 or put up god-like numbers but reach short of the postseason.
Deshaun Watson: Must show improvement in play from the last 2 years and have a very good statistical season coupled with leading the team with 11+ wins
Kirk Cousins: Good statistical season and must win the division since it isn't very strong
Joe Burrow: Must put up good statistical numbers and win 11+ games. Very similar to Deshaun's situation.
Daniel Jones must have the best statistical season of his career and lead the Giants to a postseason birth.
I think Burrow and Watson have the biggest hills to climb for this ward just because I think they are younger and people expect them to bounce back and their injuries are less severe compared to the others. Kirk is in the middle ground because his team is talented and is playing a weak division so to beat out the others he will need some team success as well. Rodgers and Jones have the best chance of getting it mainly due to age, in Rodgers's case, and expectations, in Jones's case as many expect Jones to be benched for Drew Lock midway through the season. We'll keep a close on these QBs.
Storyline 2: The Young Bucks
Now that we talked about some of the veteran QBs and their return. I want to look at the younger QBs. Most notably CJ Stroud, Jordan Love, and Anthony Richardson. CJ Stroud, as we all know, had a tremendous rookie season and as a result, won the Offensive Rookie of the Year award. The Texans added Stefon Diggs and now people are expecting big things from the second-year QB. The only question I have is how will Stroud perform with the weight of expectations. Last year, no one expected the Texans to do much but this year Stroud has been looked at as a potential MVP candidate and many pundits believe they pose the biggest threat to the Chiefs in the AFC. So how will Stroud deal with the weight of expectations?
Jordan Love's 2023 season was a bit different. It started turbulent as he started the season with 14 TDs and 10 Ints in the first 9 games of the season and finished the back half of the season on fire with 18 TDs to just one interception. This is very similar to how Trevor Lawrence's 2022 season went. In the first half, he was mediocre and the team's record was very poor and finished the back half of the season on fire and finished 9-8. The Packers finished 9-8 also and both teams made the postseason. The Jags won the wildcard and lost the divisional round. The Packers won the wildcard game and lost the divisional round. I bring up Lawrence because people were very excited about him for the 2023 season because of the way he finished the 2022 season but his performance dropped in 2023 as he had 21 TDs and 14 Int. People have the same level of excitement for Love in 2024 because he finished so strong in 2023. Will Jordan Love have another good season or will he take a step back like Trevor did?
Anthony Richardson is a player who could win Comeback Player of the Year also because he missed the rest of the regular season after injuring his throwing shoulder in week 5. One evident thing was he took a lot of unnecessary hits since he was so dynamic as a runner. He is going to have to slide more and preserve his body so he can be more available for the team or else he could have a Cam Newton-type career. Can he play a brand of football that can keep himself on the field?
Storyline 3: Russ vs Payton
As a Broncos fan, this is the one that intrigues me the most. Some people feel that Sean Payton from the beginning did not like Russ and didn't put him in the best position to succeed while others believed Russ wasn't capable of running Sean Payton's offense efficiently and was limiting the offense at times. This season will help settle this. It is important for Sean Payton that Bo Nix shows flashes of being a franchise QB because if Nix struggles and Russ looks good in Pittsburgh under Mike Tomlin, people will look at coaching as the major reason why the Broncos had a poor 2023 season. However, if Nix looks good and Russ struggles, people will look at Payton in a different light and praise him for getting as much as he could from Russ last year, and people will start looking at Russ differently as he will have had a bad career outside of Seattle and without Pete Carroll. If they both succeed, great! If they both suck, what the heck. But I would love to see one side do better than the other just for the drama.
Storyline 4: 3-Peat
This one I am not excited about but I am intrigued a bit about. Any time there is a chance that history can be made, it will always be a storyline. The Chiefs have the chance to become the first-ever team to win 3 Super Bowls in a row. I think they have a great chance to pull it off. The reason: Patrick Mahomes. He somehow made it work with a receiving core that had no big names and struggled with drops all of last year. Now they added Hollywood Brown and Xavier Worthy so the core is going to get better no matter what. The defense was arguably the best last year and there's no reason to believe they are going to be outside the top 5 this year. I believe Mahomes will have an MVP year and remind the league that he can still light all the fields on fire because not only of his new weapons but also some extra motivation. Chris Broussard, Nick Wright, and Kevin Wildes, co-hosts of the show First Things First aired on FS1 all made a great point talking about how Mahomes being ranked 4th on the top 100 list and Raiders players mocking his voice with a Kermit the Frog puppet will just add more fuel to the fire. Will we witness history? I will hate it if we do but history is history.
I can't wait for this season. It's gonna be a good one!!
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