A new NFL season is officially upon us, with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Dallas Cowboys opening the action Thursday night.
Can Tom Brady and the Bucs run it back? Will Josh Allen win the MVP race? How will things play out in Green Bay? We’ve got storylines aplenty, and an extra week to watch them all play out, with the NFL introducing its 17-game schedule.
As we do each year, we’ve rounded up our picks and predictions for the season ahead. This year, our panel includes writers Donnovan Bennett, Mike Johnston, and Emily Sadler, editors Craig Battle and David Morassutti, and analyst Andy McNamara. Let’s dig in.
TEAM PICKS: DIVISION CHAMPIONS AND WILD CARD CLUBS
PREDICTING 2021’S BIGGEST WINNERS: TOP PLAYERS + SUPER BOWL PICKS
Craig Battle, Editor
League MVP: Josh Allen, QB, Bills
Rookie to watch: Najee Harris, RB, Steelers
Player poised for big season with new team: Matthew Stafford, QB, Rams
Harris has a major Day 1 role in an offence that needs to run the ball a ton to be effective. Feels like a recipe for overwhelming statistical support for a Rookie of the Year case.
Battle’s Super Bowl LVI prediction: Packers over Bills
Donnovan Bennett, staff writer
League MVP: Patrick Mahomes, QB, Chiefs
Rookie to watch: Najee Harris, RB, Steelers
Player poised for big season with new team: Matthew Stafford, QB, Rams
Mahomes is healthy, he’s got a revamped offensive line, a new signature shoe and an extra game to break every regular season passing record that exists.
Bennett’s Super Bowl LVI prediction: Chiefs over Rams
Mike Johnston, Staff Writer
League MVP: Kyler Murray, QB, Cardinals
Rookie to watch: Mac Jones, QB, Patriots
Player poised for big season with new team: Orlando Brown Jr., OT, Chiefs
Jones is in a great situation going from playing for Nick Saban at Alabama to Bill Belichick in New England. He played well enough in the pre-season that the Pats cut Cam Newton, which says a lot.
Johnston’s Super Bowl LVI prediction: Browns over Buccaneers
Andy McNamara, Analyst
League MVP: Josh Allen, QB, Bills
Rookie to watch: Greg Newsome II, CB, Browns
Player poised for big season with new team: Jonnu Smith, TE, Patriots
Entering Year Four with a fat new contract, all Allen has done is improve every season. Passing yards, completion percentage, touchdowns all keep rising, and I believe he hits his peak in 2021 on a Buffalo team with championship aspirations.
McNamara’s Super Bowl LVI prediction: Buccaneers over Bills
David Morassutti, Associate Editor
League MVP: Patrick Mahomes, QB, Chiefs
Rookie to watch: Najee Harris, RB, Steelers
Player poised for big season with new team: Matthew Stafford, QB, Rams
Stafford and Rams coach Sean McVay are a match made in heaven. The former Lions quarterback has his sights set on a Super Bowl run in L.A.
Morassutti’s Super Bowl LVI prediction: Rams over Chiefs
Emily Sadler, Staff Writer
League MVP: Baker Mayfield, QB, Browns
Rookie to watch: Mac Jones, QB, Patriots
Player poised for big season with new team: John Johnson III, S, Browns
Bringing in Johnson on a smart contract gives Cleveland a vocal leader for their revamped secondary, which is filled with young talent and looks poised to make some noise.
Sadler’s Super Bowl LVI prediction: Chiefs over Packers
SIX STORYLINES WE THINK WILL SHAPE THE SEASON
Battle: Ramifications of the new 17-game-season format
The first and most obvious question here is how an extra game of all-out, high-leverage football action will affect injuries. It’s already a grueling season, but now contending teams have one more gauntlet to run in their quest to get to the post-season as unscathed as possible. If a major name on a major team goes down specifically in Game 17? All hell could break loose.
On top of that, there’s also the potential effect on season-long milestone stats — will we see enough 1,000-yard rushers and receivers that the stat will lose all meaning? Or, conversely, will it be kind of cool to see a handful of 5,000-yard passers?
Finally, one of the most interesting things to watch about the new schedule is the additional game itself. On top of the 16-game schedule teams would have had, each club will play a team from the opposite conference with the same divisional placement. So, in other words, bad teams from 2020 will play other bad teams from 2020. (Also, in the first year of the new plan, all of these games will be hosted by AFC teams.) So what does that mean, and who stands to benefit? Well, it’s undoubtedly a good thing for, say, the 49ers, who dealt with injuries on the way to a 6-10 record last season, and therefore will get to play the Bengals in their “bonus” game on Dec. 12, whereas their division mates get the Browns, Steelers and Ravens.
Bennett: QB battles aplenty
Look around the league: every division in football, except for the AFC North, has at least one QB battle. A big reason why is the infusion of rookie talent. First overall pick Trevor Lawrence and Zach Wilson (second) are expected to be franchise saviours in Jacksonville and New York, respectively. Justin Fields (Bears), Trey Lance (49ers), and Mac Jones (Patriots) have already won over their fan bases and the media. Plus, former top picks Jared Goff and Jameis Winston are in new places fighting for their careers as QB1s. Jimmy Garoppolo is fighting to get back to Super Bowl form, while Cam Newton is now fighting to get back into the league. Carson Wentz and Andy Dalton are looking to prove that redheaded QBs aren’t cursed. Oh, and Aaron Rodgers is going to be a free agent next season. There has never been a time where there has been both so much elite QB depth and so many QB battles going at the same time. Who is under centre and who should be under centre will be the proverbial conversation during fantasy drafts, radio talk shows and broadcasts throughout the year.
Johnston: Is this the year Bills Mafia finally gets rewarded?
The Buffalo Bills have perhaps the most passionate fan base, pound-for-pound, in all of pro sports. There’s not a folding table in upstate New York safe from being destroyed at a moment’s notice by a Zubaz pant-wearing Bills fan hopped up on wing sauce and tailgate tallboys – especially when the team fields a quality roster, which they do yet again in 2021.
MVP contender Josh Allen has been on an upward trajectory since being drafted seventh overall in 2018, and the team advanced to the AFC Championship one season ago but fell short. The Bills are favoured to win the AFC East again and are behind only the Chiefs and defending champion Bucs in the Super Bowl odds ahead of Week 1. After so much heartbreak and disappointment over the years – four straight Super Bowl losses to kick off the 1990s, the Music City Miracle etc. – this year’s team seems like the city’s best chance at a championship in nearly three decades.
McNamara: How the 2021 campaign unfolds for the New England Patriots
There is so much to track: Can rookie QB Mac Jones begin to prove he’s the long-term heir to Tom Brady’s throne? Was releasing Cam Newton a smart move, considering the lack of viable backup behind Jones? Do whispers about Bill Belichick’s future start to bubble up if the Pats miss the playoffs for a second straight year? And will stocking up on two pricey tight ends in free agency (Hunter Henry and Jonnu Smith) pay off and make up for a wide receiver group void of star power?
In a big-picture sense, I’m interested in how New England measures up against an ever-improving AFC East. The Bills are king of the hill while the Dolphins continue to build around sophomore QB Tua Tagovailoa, and then there are the Jets who couple an impressive-looking rookie head coach with second overall pick Zach Wilson under centre.
I believe that Jones’ skillset, tailor-made for the Patriots’ offence, will be enough to keep the franchise in the conversation for second place in the division, but ultimately predict a third-place finish just behind Miami and outside the playoff picture.
Morassutti: Who will be the next Chase Claypool?
What the B.C.-born receiver was able to do as a rookie with the Steelers in 2020 was a nice treat for Canadian NFL fans, and sets the stage for another Canadian NFLer to follow his lead. Two names to keep an eye are defensive back Jevon Holland and running back Chuba Hubbard. Holland, the first Canadian off the board in the 2021 draft (taken 36th overall), has been asked to play at multiple positions with the Miami Dolphins and isn’t shy about making plays — as shown when he intercepted Andy Dalton during a joint practice session. As for Hubbard, he was able to claim the Panthers’ backup job behind Christian McCaffrey after being drafted in the fourth round and showed during pre-season action why he was the top NCAA running back in 2019.
“I think we stopped him”
Chuba Hubbard had other plans
— PFF College (@PFF_College) August 15, 2021
Sadler: Aaron Rodgers’ last dance at Lambeau
With a revamped contract that essentially sets the stage for player and team to part ways, it’s Super Bowl or bust for the Packers and their franchise face. The rocky relationship between the Packers and their reigning MVP dominated much of the NFL off-season, and all signs suggest this is a story that’s only going to get more dramatic. Part of what made this saga so intriguing over the summer was that Rodgers himself kept quiet (save for a cryptic tweet or two), and let the speculation brew. I predict more of the same over the next 17 weeks’ worth of games, letting his play do the talking while we all analyze every facial expression and off-hand post-game comment. Can he take Green Bay to the promised land and go out on top?
