5 stories to watch for the return of the NFL

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We almost tend to forget it because of the busy sporting schedule, but the NFL will be back next week. It starts on September 10 with a Texans-Chiefs game and on the 13th we will have our first full day of games.

It’s more of a fluke than anything else, but the NFL will have a timing perfect at the sporting level. She will play mostly during the offseason of the NBA and the NHL while the MLB will give her the field quite quickly. This is not to mention university football where not all schools will play.

In short, it will therefore be a season to follow closely and to help your preparation, I have raised the five stories that I will follow closely during this season.

Who can join Jackson and Mahomes?

Last year, Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson once again proved their exceptional talent. They have truly established themselves as the present and future of the NFL in their position. On the other hand, as we know, in sport, it rarely remains so clear for several seasons. This is all the more the case in this situation since there is a lot of promising young talent in the quarterback position.

So I can’t wait to see which young quarterback will take the big step forward in their development to get closer to Jackson and Mahomes (because overtaking them seems next to impossible).

Baker Mayfield in Cleveland is definitely a candidate. The former first choice of the draft finally seems to have a framework conducive to his hatching, which everyone predicted last year. It’s certainly not the talent that is lacking and in its third season, one shouldn’t be surprised if he did step into the conversation.

Kyler Murray, in his sophomore year in the NFL, will also be a popular choice, with a style that may resemble Lamar Jackson. In Kliff Kingsbury, he also has the coach to change his game plan and benefit from his strengths. He’s a popular surprise contender for the MVP title, which would be huge at this point in his career, but it shows just how much potential he has.

Josh Allen and Drew Lock probably don’t have the talent of the other two, but they’ve been surrounded so well over the past few months that they could very well explode. It would still be a nice surprise because they are not usually part of this conversation.

As for the first pick of the last draft, Joe Burrow, he will certainly have his chance to squeeze through the best in the NFL, but it isn’t likely to be this year. That’s too much to ask of a rookie quarterback, who doesn’t yet have the best infrastructure around him. We can talk about it to Sam Darnold …

Who will have the advantage? Attack or defense?

The NFL has not escaped COVID-19 protocols, which means there was no preseason game and practices have been changed. This different preparation will certainly have an impact on the start of the season in the NFL. The question to be asked, however, will be whether it is the attack or the defense that will benefit.

The case of the attack is quite easy to do. The coaches have had the entire offseason to change their playbook, which means many defenses don’t have what it takes to prepare for what lies ahead at the start of the season. There are therefore a few units that could be caught off guard, particularly in the first week of activities.

On the other hand, it is not that simple. The units most affected by the lack of match and reduced practices are the offensive lines. It’s very difficult to recreate what they’re doing in practice, which sometimes leads to a lack of synchronism. This is problematic for attacks since lines are the basis of any attack. If the shift is not protected, the options are much more limited.

It might be obvious from week one, but whoever can correctly guess this advantage has a way to make some money.

Home advantage

The home court advantage has historically been worth three or four points in the NFL. Much of this advantage is created by the crowd that will shout to interfere with the synchronism of the opposing attack. However, with COVID-19, and the rules that differ in the United States depending on the state, this advantage could disappear or at least, diminish.

The big winners of this exercise could be the Denver Broncos, whose home court advantage does not depend on fans, but rather on altitude. If everyone loses their home court advantage except the Broncos, that’s quite an advantage for them.

Some would say the Chargers are used to playing in empty stadiums so that gives them an advantage as well, but it’s more of a disadvantage that they are losing for this season.

The Patriots and the Buccaneers

We cannot escape from it. When the greatest quarterback in NFL history leaves the best coach, it’s going to become a story. Unfortunately for Bill Belichick, COVID-19 played tricks on him since several elements of his exceptional defense decided to skip their turn. That’s why I put them so low in my power ranking. On the other hand, if there is a coach who can overcome this obstacle, it is Belichick.

As for Tom Brady, I’m not really afraid of his adaptation to Tampa Bay, where he has a ton of offensive tools. My question comes more with his age and his development as a quarterback. Over the past few seasons, he hasn’t really been the quarterback that has dominated this league for over a decade. Age is undefeated and we’ll have to see if Brady can still find a way to avoid it.

Philip Rivers Colts

If we can ask questions about Tom Brady at the age of 43, we can also ask about Philip Rivers, who is 38 and who has not always played in the best conditions. Like Brady, Rivers changed teams at the end of his career and he finds himself in a very favorable situation.

His relationship with Frank Reich should ease the transition, but it’s still quite a change at this point in his career, especially as the Colts want to win quickly in a suddenly higher division than before with the Texans and Titans. . It won’t get as much attention as Brady in Tampa Bay, but it’s still a very similar and just as interesting situation.