Football fans, we’ve made it! The start of the 2025 NFL regular season is here, and with a new season comes renewed optimism for the majority of fan bases around the league. Although one person can’t script the entire season before it happens, many of us try our best to forecast what we believe will happen. I am not different.
The best thing about the NFL is that even when your favorite team is struggling, there are always plenty of storylines around the league that make each week worth watching. With an 18-week regular season ready to kick off this week, let’s dive into 25 bold predictions for the 2025 season.
1. The Buffalo Bills will win the AFC… And the Super Bowl.
I’m starting this thing off with a bang… Or maybe I just refused to bury the lede? I’m not sure which one it is, but either way, yes, you read that right: The Bills will finally overcome their post-season woes against the Kansas City Chiefs and deliver a Super Bowl to Buffalo.
2. If Matthew Stafford’s back can hold up, the Los Angeles Rams will win the NFC.
Before the start of training camp, I felt much more confident about projecting the Rams as the NFC winners. Stafford will be good to go for Week 1, but relying on a 37-year-old quarterback with back issues can be a difficult task. Either way, I’m going to stick to my guns here and say that the Rams will be back in the Super Bowl this season.
3. The race for the No. 1 pick will be between three teams… And no, it will not be for Arch Manning.
Surveying the field, there are multiple contenders for the worst team in football (aka the No. 1 overall pick). Of those teams, I’ve got the New Orleans Saints, Cleveland Browns, and New York Giants as the three teams who will fight it out for the rights to make the first selection of the 2026 NFL Draft. Oh, and it won’t be Manning walking on stage to hug Roger Goodell. He’ll be back in Texas for his second full season of starting for the Longhorns.
4. Mike McDaniel will be the first head coach to be fired in-season this year.
Call me a skeptic, but I don’t see how things don’t fully implode in Miami this year. General manager Chris Grier has made some questionable decisions over the last few years, including choosing to pay aging veterans over retaining his own talent. Tyreek Hill still isn’t happy, and Tua is another concussion away from Zach Wilson playing the rest of the season. Plus, that secondary is a mess. As someone who has seen multiple locker rooms in Chicago implode, this has the makings of an early disaster in Miami.
5. Anthony Richardson will regain the starting quarterback role in Indianapolis by mid-October.
There’s no denying that Richardson has been one of the worst quarterbacks in the league since being drafted No. 4 overall in 2022. That said, there’s no way that anyone can convince me that Daniel Jones, out of all people, is going to be the guy to stave off a Top 5 pick for more than six games, much less an entire year. Any time a head coach comes out and says they are committed to a starting quarterback for the whole year, it never ends well. This won’t either. Get your resume ready, Chris Ballard.
6. Of the 12 playoff teams from 2024, only two will not return in 2025.
Over the last six years, an average of six new playoff teams have emerged each year. It can always be challenging to project such turnover, but that’s what makes the league’s parity such a decisive factor in the NFL. This year, those numbers will plummet. Call it a byproduct of a weak free agent market, or a lack of creativity on my part. Either way, that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.
7. Jaxson Dart will become the starting quarterback for the Giants by November. Possibly with an interim head coach leading the team.
Above, I predicted that the Giants would once again finish among the bottom three teams. Sure, they have a great defense, but I’m not buying what they are doing on offense. Russell Wilson is what he is at this point. There’s a reason the Pittsburgh Steelers lived through another Aaron Rodgers soap opera to “upgrade” their quarterback room. After an impressive preseason from Dart, it won’t take long for the noise to grow too loud if they aren’t winning. Don’t be surprised if that’s done without Brian Daboll in the building.
8. Six head coaches will lose their jobs in 2025, with one surprise name headlining the group.
Admittedly, I’m probably a little over my skis with this prediction, but what’s a list of bold predictions without a few truly bold predictions? Similar to the NFL’s new playoff team trend, the league has averaged around six new openings per season. So, the sheer number isn’t the surprise here. There are plenty of “top candidates” to don this list, but I’ll give you one name that I think could be there without a big season: Kyle Shanahan. The partnership of Shanahan and general manager John Lynch is likely to come to an end without a playoff berth, but if things get bad enough, don’t be surprised if the 49ers completely hit the reset button.
9. The most improved team in the league will be… The Chicago Bears.
Yes, I write about the Bears. Yes, this could be seen as homerism, but I don’t care. The Bears have had plenty of coaches of the year in the past, and there will be plenty of eyes on Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams. Although I don’t have the Bears projected to make the playoffs, I do have them registering their first winning season since 2018. The NFC North is tough, and their schedule isn’t easy, but this should be a team that is viewed as a riser heading into next offseason, and Johnson will be a big reason why.
10. The team with the No. 1 overall pick in April will be… The New Orleans Saints.
A few predictions back, I laid out my bottom three teams for the 2025 regular season. For as much as I wanted to pick the Cleveland Browns as the worst team in the league, it’s hard to ignore how bad most of the Saints roster is. Admittedly, I’m also not a believer in the Kellen Moore hire. Thus, I anoint the Saints as the holder of the top pick in next April’s draft.
11. Rookie running back Ashton Jeanty will lead the league in rushing.
Will this happen? I don’t know. Is it a real possibility? Absolutely. I firmly believe that Pete Carroll will have the Raiders rounding into form sooner or later, and a significant part of that will depend on their ability to establish a strong run game. I’m still not a big believer in the offensive line, but I respect Geno Smith’s ability as a passer too much to dismiss the idea that they’ll be balanced enough to keep Jeanty from facing too many loaded boxes. I still think the Raiders will regret not taking an offensive lineman instead of Jeanty, but here we are.
12. The Detroit Lions offense won’t finish in the Top 10.
I’m not discounting the overall talent that the Lions have all over their offensive depth chart, but I refuse to believe that John Morton is going to step in and take over where Johnson left off seamlessly. There’s a reason Johnson was the top head coaching candidate for the last three years and why Morton hasn’t been an NFL coordinator in close to a decade. Couple that with some key changes on the offensive line, and there’s going to be some regression here. There’s too much variance not to.
13. There will be just one rookie pass catcher to eclipse 1,000 yards receiving in Year 1.
I’ll be the first to say, I wasn’t overly impressed with the top-end of this receiving class, and unless you’re Brock Bowers, the chances of being a rookie tight end with 1,000-plus yards are slim to none. My money is on one of Tet McMillan or Matthew Golden being the player to do it.
14. Nico Collins will lead the NFL in receiving yards.
Although there’s plenty of hype surrounding players like Ja’Marr Chase and rightfully so, Collins is a player who was well on his way to outpacing everyone before going down with an injury last year. Over the first four games of the season, Collins had 489 yards on 30 receptions, which averaged out to 2,078 yards over the course of a 17-game season. With a healthier season and an offense that should get back on track, my money is on Collins to take the crown this year.
15. The Philadelphia Eagles will snap a 21-year trend: Repeating as NFC East winners.
With the Giants far more likely to fire a head coach mid-season than win the division, and the dumpster fire going on in Dallas, the NFC East feels like a two-team race. The Washington Commanders were a pleasant surprise last year, making plenty of noise in the playoffs. However, they have the league’s oldest roster and have historically performed well in unfavorable situations. Counting on that to happen again in 2025 is a risky move. Plus, why bet against last year’s Super Bowl winner?
16. Caleb Williams will become the first 4,000-yard passer in Bears’ franchise history.
Some believed it could happen last year, but as we saw, retaining Matt Eberflus as head coach, hiring Shane Waldron to call plays, and trading for an over-the-hill, slow receiver in Keenan Allen was not conducive to a productive offense. Oh, not to mention a porous offensive line. With one of the NFL’s best offensive minds calling plays, a completely rebuilt interior offensive line, and more skill position talent than Bears fans have ever seen in Chicago, it feels like now or never for that long-standing record to go out the window. The table is set, it’s all on Williams now.
17. Following a year of fatigue, Lamar Jackson will once again be the MVP.
I said it at the time (and many disagreed with me), but Jackson should have been the MVP last season. I know that it’s hard to win in back-to-back years, and Josh Allen was deserving (in a sense), but I’m expecting Jackson to reclaim the award once again in 2025. Baltimore was fortunate to retain offensive coordinator Todd Monken for another year, which was a significant boost to the potential of this offense.
18. The Year Of The Passer: There will be 13 quarterbacks to throw for over 4,000 yards.
2024 was a down year for NFL passing games overall. There were just six 4000-yard passers last year, which was the lowest since 2010, when just five quarterbacks eclipsed that mark. Like most NFL trends, the tide is due to turn soon, and with all the promising quarterback talent in the league, 2025 will be that season.
19. 2025 will be the final year for three veteran quarterbacks.
With so many young quarterbacks coming into the league and taking over starting jobs, the era of older quarterbacks is slowly ending. That means players like Aaron Rodgers (42 in December), Joe Flacco (40), and Stafford (37 with a bad back) are on borrowed time. Rodgers has already said this will likely be his last year, and after the season Flacco is about to endure in Cleveland, it’s easy to see him finally hanging it up. The truly “bold” prediction here is Stafford, but it’s hard to imagine he’ll play much longer if his back issue lingers, especially if the Rams win the Super Bowl.
20. The top regression candidate for 2025 is… The Washington Commanders.
I’m still projecting them to make the playoffs, but if there was one team I could see taking a big step back in 2025, it has to be the Commanders. Last year was miraculous on multiple levels, but history shows that they are due for some regression. The bigger question is: how much? They’ll have the oldest roster in the league, and it’s hard to imagine them replicating the same fourth-down success. Not to mention Jayden Daniels. He’s an outstanding quarterback, but would it surprise anyone if he followed a similar trend to C.J. Stroud and took a step back in Year 2?
21. The Kansas City Chiefs will miss the AFC Championship game… Finally.
Count me out as someone who is already writing the Chiefs’ demise in the AFC West. Now, don’t get me wrong, it should be a strong division, but until proven otherwise, Kansas City will be considered the cream of the crop. That said, history shows that teams can only get to the Championship game so many times in a row. At some point, there’s got to be a slip-up, and this will be the year where they’ll miss on the top seed in the AFC and lose in the divisional round to the Bills.
22. Five rookie quarterbacks will make starts this year, with two coming from one team.
This wasn’t a highly regarded class by any means, but as usual, there’s always going to be a quarterback crisis. Because of that, it feels like we’ll see plenty of rookies make at least one start this year, even if it’s just Cam Ward who will be on the field for Week 1. In the end, Ward, Jaxson Dart, Tyler Shough, Dillon Gabriel, and Shadeur Sanders will all make starts in 2025. We’ll see if anyone (outside of Ward) can establish themselves with a bigger role in 2026.
23. Travis Hunter won’t win a “Rookie of the Year” award but will be regarded as the best of his class in Year 1.
It’s been a long time since we’ve seen a two-way player at the NFL level. The fact that Hunter is even attempting is will be extremely fascinating to watch. In time, I do not doubt that he’ll be able to carve out a specific role on both sides of the ball and become elite at one position (or both), but in Year 1, fans should temper expectations. Being above average at both positions would be more than fine, but it’s unlikely to win any awards unless he’s a standout on one side of the ball.
24. Joe Brady will be next year’s coaching cycle’s hottest candidate.
Call it a product of winning the Super Bowl, but I consider Brady’s rise much more about teams being convinced after seeing him do it for another year. Every year, we see the top offensive minds in football emerge as the hottest candidates. If Monken were 10-15 years younger, he would have had a job last year. With Johnson off the market and no real college candidates expected to make the jump, it’s Brady’s turn to be the apple of the league’s eye.
25. My predictions for division winners, the playoffs, the Super Bowl, and regular season awards:
AFC Playoff Picture – NFC Playoff Picture:
1. Buffalo Bills – Philadelphia Eagles
2. Baltimore Ravens – Los Angeles Rams
3. Kansas City Chiefs – Tampa Bay Buccaneers
4. Houston Texans – Green Bay Packers
5. Denver Broncos – Washington Commanders
6. Cincinnati Bengals – Detroit Lions
7. Los Angeles Chargers – Arizona Cardinals
Championship Games:
AFC: Bills over Ravens
NFC: Rams over Eagles
Super Bowl Winner: Buffalo Bills
Regular Season Awards:
Most Valuable Player: QB Lamar Jackson
Offensive Player of the Year: WR Nico Collins
Defensive Player of the Year: DE Jared Verse
Offensive Rookie of the Year: RB Ashton Jeanty
Defensive Rookie of the Year: DE Abdul Carter
Comeback Player of the Year: DE Aidan Hutchinson
Coach of the Year: Ben Johnson
