NFL 2025 bold predictions: Jaxson Dart’s rise, Kevin Stefanski’s fall and Super Bowl surprises

The NFL is again. 

Week 1 kicks off Thursday night time with the reigning Tremendous Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles internet hosting the Dallas Cowboys (8:20 ET, NBC).

To mark the event, listed below are 10 daring predictions for the 2025 season.

1.
New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart will begin earlier than the midway level of the season | Giants head coach Brian Daboll and normal supervisor Joe Schoen may not survive one other dismal season, which helps clarify why the fourth-year head coach elected to begin veteran Russell Wilson in Week 1.

Nonetheless, that plan will backfire due to a frightening early schedule — six of the primary eight opponents made the playoffs final season — prompting a quarterback change earlier than the calendar hits November. The Giants have the toughest schedule within the league (.574 profitable share).

2. Kevin Stefanski would be the  first head coach fired | Talking of tough begins, the Cleveland Browns open the season with six consecutive video games towards groups that completed 2024 with a profitable file, beginning with back-to-back divisional video games towards the Cincinnati Bengals and Baltimore Ravens.

Cleveland additionally will play the Inexperienced Bay Packers, Detroit Lions, Minnesota Vikings and division rival Pittsburgh Steelers in the course of the span. It is unlikely the Browns will likely be favored in any of these video games. Barring an upset, they might be gazing an 0-6 file in mid-October, making a change at head coach justifiable. Jim Schwartz, Browns defensive coordinator and a former NFL head coach, can be a logical option to take over in an interim position.

3. Miami Dolphins will commerce broad receiver Tyreek Hill | The mercurial wideout lastly will get his want. After requesting a commerce on the finish of the final season (which he later retracted), the Dolphins will half with Hill as a part of a large commerce deadline sell-off, sending him to a playoff hopeful. (The commerce deadline is Nov. 5.)

A crew captain the previous two seasons, Hill was handed over by the Dolphins for that honor this season. “We had been centered on giving the keys to captaincy to guys that had earned it every day,” head coach Mike McDaniel said, per ESPN.

4. The Houston Texans will lead NFL in go protection | Final 12 months’s No. 6-ranked go protection will ascend to the highest of the league rankings.

The promising secondary, which incorporates 2024 first-team All-Professional Derek Stingley Jr. and proficient second-year defensive backs Kamari Lassiter and Calen Bullock, will profit from dealing with the AFC South, which incorporates Indianapolis Colts quarterback Daniel Jones (or Anthony Richardson), Tennessee Titans rookie No. 1 general decide Cam Ward and up-and-down Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawerence. That is six video games towards both QBs trending down or a rookie. 

The unit will feast towards its division opponents and anybody else who dares to enter its fly zone.

5. New Orleans Saints will get the No. 1 general decide | Expectations could not be decrease for the Saints in head coach Kellen Moore’s first season. With arguably the league’s worst quarterback state of affairs, New Orleans will wrestle all season, leaving it with the highest decide within the 2026 NFL Draft. Starter Spencer Rattler accomplished solely 57 % of his passes final season.

6. Las Vegas Raiders will make the playoffs | Pete Carroll, employed this offseason, has 4 dropping seasons and 12 playoff appearances in 18 years as an NFL head coach. 

Las Vegas might be one of many league’s greatest surprises, rising from the loaded AFC West with a wild-card berth. Las Vegas improved at quarterback, buying and selling for Geno Smith. TE Brock Bowers is coming off a 1,194-yard rookie season, whereas operating again Ashton Jeanty is the preseason Related Press Offensive Rookie of the 12 months favourite. And based mostly on how terrible Boise State appeared in its first recreation since Jeanty’s departure, he could be much more useful than many imagine.

7. Arizona Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon wins Coach of the 12 months | A late 2024 collapse overshadowed the spectacular strides the Cardinals made in 12 months 2 underneath Gannon. Arizona improved its win complete by 4 video games, ending 8-9 and with a plus-21 level differential.

Arizona has a positive early schedule (at New Orleans, vs. Carolina), which ought to assist it climate accidents to its line of defense, together with 2025 first-round decide Walter Nolen (calf) and 2023 second-rounder BJ Ojulari, who nonetheless recovering from a torn ACL suffered final season. Not like final season, the Cardinals might get stronger because the season goes alongside and their well being improves, making Gannon’s job within the desert tougher to disregard.

8. Season awards: Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow named MVP, Minnesota Vikings broad receiver Justin Jefferson OPOY, Inexperienced Bay Packers edge Micah Parsons DPOY | The Bengals will not squander one other season of Burrow’s prime, reaching the playoffs and giving their star quarterback (43 TD passes final season) an ironclad MVP resume. His former LSU teammate, Justin Jefferson (10 TD catches in 2024), will likely be named Offensive Participant of the 12 months after one other big season, whereas Parsons (double-digit sacks in all 4 seasons) will battle via his again harm to shortly reward the Packers for his landmark contract together with his first Defensive Participant of the 12 months award.

9. Taylor Swift headlines Tremendous Bowl LX halftime present | May “The Lifetime of a Showgirl” embody a headlining spot at this season’s Tremendous Bowl?

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