Ten daring NFL 2024 season predictions: Packers win NFC North, however Caleb Williams for MVP?

The 2024 NFL common season opens Thursday, and after one other intriguing offseason, we lastly will start to see how all the hirings, signings and draft choices will pan out.

However why wait? I’m peering into my crystal ball and delivering 10 daring predictions for the season. Strike up the debates. Inform me I’m loopy. However I see what I see!

Caleb Williams performs at an MVP degree

The Chicago Bears have not often sniffed relevance within the final decade, posting a profitable file simply as soon as. However they’re relying on the highest choose of this yr’s draft to finish their long-running quarterback carousel and remodel them into contenders.

Williams is up for the duty. He performed faculty soccer for USC whereas commanding tens of millions in NIL cash, so Williams isn’t blinded by the intense lights of the NFL. He seemingly has the business-like strategy, thirst for data and various talent set needed to achieve the league.

Final season, C.J. Stroud immediately made his presence felt in Houston and down the stretch of the season thrust himself into the MVP dialog by main the Houston Texans to the AFC South crown. Search for Williams to ignite a Bears workforce that boasts top-flight veterans and younger prospects at key positions. Chicago resides in a extremely aggressive NFC North, so a division crown could also be too daunting in 12 months 1. However Williams will show to be the actual deal.

Eagles rebound and contend for NFC supremacy

After a formidable 2022 marketing campaign and painful loss to the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs in Tremendous Bowl LVII, the Philadelphia Eagles by no means managed to recapture the magic in 2023. They opened the yr 10-1, however issues by no means felt fairly proper. Late within the season, Nick Sirianni’s squad collapsed. These shortcomings have lit a fireplace underneath the Eagles’ younger core gamers on each side of the ball.

The offseason hiring of Kellen Moore as offensive coordinator, plus the free-agent signing of former New York Giants rival Saquon Barkley, will assist quarterback Jalen Hurts and his unit rebound in spectacular trend. In the meantime, new defensive coordinator Vic Fangio ought to have the same affect on a unit anchored by gifted younger linemen Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter and rookie defensive backs Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean. The Birds will reclaim their perch atop the NFC East and return to Tremendous Bowl competition.

Davante Adams forces his manner out of Las Vegas on the deadline

The Las Vegas Raiders swung huge in March 2022 after they acquired Adams, the All-Professional huge receiver from the Inexperienced Bay Packers, for a first- and second-round choose after which gave him a five-year, $140 million contract. The transfer reunited Adams with former Fresno State teammate Derek Carr, however Carr fell out of favor with Raiders brass by the top of the identical season and is now with the New Orleans Saints.

Final season, Adams recorded 1,144 receiving yards and eight touchdowns (his lowest output in 4 years) whereas taking part in with Aidan O’Connell, a hobbled Jimmy Garoppolo and Brian Hoyer. The Raiders knew they wanted a solution at quarterback this offseason, however other than signing journeyman Gardner Minshew, stood pat.

Adams struggled to comprise his frustrations final season. He stated all the correct issues this summer season, however how lengthy will tranquility final? As he nears 32, Adams is aware of he’s losing his prime years as part of a rebuilding group. It’s solely a matter of time earlier than he asks out of Las Vegas. Will the Raiders oblige and ship him to a workforce he finds interesting? If issues rapidly go south, they only would possibly.

Packers leapfrog Lions in NFC North

Dan Campbell and firm gained the hearts of soccer followers final season by going from perennial basement dwellers to kneecap-biting, teeth-kicking NFC contenders. A 34-31 loss to the San Francisco 49ers within the NFC Championship Recreation value the Lions a visit to what would have been their first Tremendous Bowl. Expectations are excessive for this well-constructed workforce, however don’t crown Detroit the repeat NFC North champion simply but.

The Packers have been the most well liked workforce within the league throughout final season’s homestretch, and Jordan Love arrived as a bona fide franchise quarterback. Search for Inexperienced Bay to proceed its ascension this season. Love will garner MVP consideration as he and his gifted, younger targets proceed to flourish in Matt LaFleur’s offense. New working again Josh Jacobs brings a sorely missing workhorse component, and new defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley will infuse his unit with life. Not solely will the Packers overtake the Lions as division champions, they only would possibly discover themselves contending for a visit to New Orleans for Tremendous Bowl LIX.

Murray, the 2018 Heisman Trophy winner, entered the NFL with such promise however has endured all types of calamity within the final 5 years. He did garner Offensive Rookie of the 12 months honors and two Professional Bowl choices, however a subpar supporting forged, an ACL tear in 2022 and the firing of coach Kliff Kingsbury in January 2023 have prevented him from reaching his full potential.

Murray labored his manner again to play within the ultimate eight video games of final season and confirmed promise in new offensive coordinator Drew Petzing’s system. Now one other yr faraway from his ACL surgical procedure, a second season in Petzing’s offense and with rookie huge receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. by his aspect, search for Murray to reclaim his standing as one of many NFL’s most electrifying playmakers. The Cardinals, who additionally boast a gifted working again in James Conner and tight finish in Trey McBride, simply would possibly give opposing defenses complications this season as they attempt to return to relevance within the NFC West.

The 35-year-old Wilson opens the season as QB1 for the Steelers, and observers say he seems snug in Arthur Smith’s system, which depends closely on the run to arrange pictures downfield. Wilson might get off to a stable begin, however the query is how lengthy the effectiveness will final. And if the offense struggles to maintain tempo with different high-scoring groups, will Mike Tomlin really feel compelled to see if Fields (an electrifying runner and growing passer) can present a spark? Good cash says sure.

Don’t be shocked to see a midseason quarterback change for the Steelers. Then the query turns into whether or not Fields can maintain onto the job, or whether or not the Steelers want to deal with the quarterback place once more subsequent offseason.

Rookie quarterbacks Williams, Jayden Daniels, Drake Maye, Bo Nix and Michael Penix Jr. have generated a great deal of buzz, and rightfully so. However don’t overlook about Rattler, the fifth-round QB choose who has flown underneath the radar in New Orleans.

Derek Carr enters 12 months 2 because the Saints’ beginning quarterback, however he directed a mediocre assault in 2023. It stays to be seen if new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak will help the 33-year-old Carr regain his Professional Bowl kind. The Saints are in the midst of a rebuild, and by midseason, the intrigue surrounding Rattler may immediate a change at quarterback.

The previous Oklahoma-turned-South Carolina star performed properly within the preseason, demonstrating a capability to work by way of progressions, make fast choices and hold powerful within the pocket. The Saints can get out of Carr’s four-year, $150 million contract after this season, and if final yr’s offensive struggles proceed, New Orleans might wish to begin Rattler to see what it has in him.

Dak Prescott turns into the richest QB or walks

Jerry Jones has dragged his ft rewarding his most necessary gamers for his or her providers. He lastly took care of CeeDee Lamb final week, however his franchise quarterback, who final season led the NFL with 36 landing passes and 410 completions, stays with no contract past this season. Jones and Prescott’s camp may nonetheless work out an Eleventh-hour deal that will make him the highest-paid quarterback within the league. But when the season opens with Prescott nonetheless missing an extension, all bets are off.

The quarterback has stated and achieved all the proper issues regardless of usually getting used because the scapegoat for Mike McCarthy and the Cowboys’ shortcomings. Whereas Lamb opted to carry out till he bought a brand new deal, Prescott clocked in on time and has labored all through coaching camp and the preseason and he’s set to steer the Cowboys on one other quest for the Tremendous Bowl.

Search for Prescott to once more be among the many league’s passing leaders. The Cowboys will once more fall brief, however by way of no fault of the quarterback. After which search for Prescott, who per the phrases of his present deal can’t be franchise-tagged once more, to hit the open market. How becoming would it not be for Prescott to take his skills to someplace like Los Angeles and win a hoop with Sean McVay, or to New York to assist Brian Daboll eventually revive the New York Giants and torment Jones’ Cowboys twice a yr?

49ers undergo Tremendous Bowl hangover

There’s loads to love concerning the 49ers. John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan have rebuilt one of many league’s most storied franchises right into a first-class operation, so if any workforce can shake off the results of a heartbreaking additional time loss in Tremendous Bowl LVIII, it’s the 49ers, proper? Mistaken.

It’s not simply because their main huge receiver Brandon Aiyuk missed all of coaching camp in a contract dispute resolved simply final week, lacking an opportunity to additional hone his reference to Brock Purdy. The opposite challenge is that All-Professional left sort out Trent Williams has been a holdout all summer season as a result of he, too, desires a contract extension. Williams is a big piece of the 49ers’ success within the cross and run recreation. There’s an enormous drop-off from Williams to Jaylon Moore, who has made simply seven profession begins.

Then, to make issues worse, the 49ers is not going to have first-round rookie huge receiver Ricky Pearsall for a while. The Florida product missed the majority of preseason practices with a shoulder damage and on Saturday was shot within the chest throughout a theft try. Pearsall was launched from the hospital on Sunday. The 49ers are additionally nonetheless ready for defensive cornerstones Dre Greenlaw and Talanoa Hufanga to recuperate from accidents.

This has all the makings of a sluggish begin for the 49ers, and within the NFL, it will get late early.

Patrick Mahomes leads Chiefs to Tremendous Bowl historical past

It took us eternally to study to by no means guess towards Tom Brady, so let’s not make the identical mistake twice.

There’s no betting towards Mahomes right here. So long as Mahomes is in his prime, he at all times provides the Chiefs an opportunity to win all of it. It’s true that no workforce has gained three Tremendous Bowls in a row, however Mahomes is that good, and Andy Reid, Steve Spagnuolo and Brett Veach are simply pretty much as good at their jobs on the subject of equipping, supporting and constructing round their prized quarterback.

Final season’s title protection run felt laborious at instances for the Chiefs, however at crunch time, Mahomes and firm have been at their finest. This Kansas Metropolis workforce may very well show higher than final season’s squad. Mahomes has an improved forged of huge receivers, he nonetheless has Travis Kelce, and the run recreation appears destined for higher effectiveness. In the meantime, Chris Jones nonetheless anchors a protection that has steadily retooled and reloaded and now could be among the many finest within the league. The three different AFC West groups are in rebuilding levels, and whereas the Cincinnati Bengals and Baltimore Ravens may threaten the Chiefs’ quest, it’s simply too arduous to guess towards No. 15.

(High illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; pictures of Brock Purdy, Matt LaFleur and Jalen Hurts: Ric Tapia, Patrick McDermott and G Fiume / Getty Photos)