NFL teams have started to report to training camps, meaning the countdown to the start of the regular season in September has begun in earnest. As the real games get closer, a notable rule change could grab the spotlight.
Team owners ratified one of the most consequential rule changes in NFL history this offseason when they approved a “hybrid” kickoff format. It is designed to make the kickoff relevant again while simultaneously making the play safer.
Players, coaches and fans face a major adjustment. The new alignment, with 21 players lined up on one half of the field and only the kicker on the other side to start the play, could be jarring at first. The would-be tacklers on the kicking team and blockers on the receiving team, beginning only five yards apart, cannot move until the ball reaches a returner or touches the ground. From there, the proceedings are intended to resemble a play from scrimmage.
The hopes are that the return rate will increase dramatically and big plays will be plentiful. Coaches can get creative with their returns and coverages. Some teams might even have a non-kicker take the kickoff, aiming to get another capable tackler on the field. Teams began working on the play during the spring, but now that work intensifies.
Here are other storylines that will be in focus before the season kicks off:
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Rodgers’s return
Aaron Rodgers’s 2023 season lasted just four plays before the four-time MVP suffered a torn Achilles’ tendon in his left leg in his debut with the New York Jets. The Jets’ inability to remain in playoff contention kept them from having to make a decision on whether to allow Rodgers to play late in the season after he sped through his recovery to get back on the practice field.
Now he returns to prepare for a new season. He must demonstrate that he still can be an upper-tier quarterback in a season in which he turns 41. The Jets, after making offseason moves to fortify their offensive line and bolster their wide receiver corps, must show they can put a team around Rodgers worthy of contender status.
The drama undoubtedly will continue following an offseason in which Rodgers was mentioned as a running mate for independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., then missed the Jets’ mandatory minicamp while reportedly on a trip to Egypt.
It might be spectacular. Or it might be spectacularly disappointing. Either way, it should be captivating.
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Rookie quarterbacks
All NFL drafts are about the quarterbacks, to some extent. This year’s was about the quarterbacks more than ever: A record-tying six were chosen in the opening round, all within the first 12 selections.
The Chicago Bears already have named No. 1 pick Caleb Williams their starter. They gave him a reasonable chance for rookie-season success by taking wide receiver Rome Odunze with the No. 9 choice after adding wideout Keenan Allen and tailback D’Andre Swift to an offense that already included wide receiver DJ Moore and tight end Cole Kmet.
The Washington Commanders’ Jayden Daniels and the Denver Broncos’ Bo Nix also could be Week 1 starters. The timeline is less clear for Drake Maye with the New England Patriots and J.J. McCarthy with the Minnesota Vikings. Each of those teams added a potential temporary veteran starter, the Patriots with Jacoby Brissett and the Vikings with Sam Darnold. The Atlanta Falcons’ curious selection of Michael Penix Jr. at No. 8 leaves him backing up Kirk Cousins (more on that later).
The progress of each of the prized rookies during training camp will provide the first hint as to whether this class of quarterbacks will fulfill its outsize promise.
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Steelers’ quarterback battle
The Pittsburgh Steelers reached the AFC playoffs last season even while going through Kenny Pickett, Mitchell Trubisky and Mason Rudolph as starters at quarterback. They remade the position in the offseason by signing Russell Wilson as an inexpensive free agent and trading for Justin Fields as the Bears opted to let him go for next to nothing to clear the way for Williams.
It will make for an interesting camp. Wilson will be attempting to show he still can resemble the nine-time Pro Bowl pick he was with the Seattle Seahawks before two turbulent seasons with the Broncos. Fields will be trying to demonstrate the Bears gave up on him too soon. Coach Mike Tomlin must pick the starter, with Wilson widely considered the front-runner.
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The Cousins conundrum
Cousins left the Vikings to sign a four-year, $180 million contract in free agency with the Falcons. Rather than use the No. 8 pick to improve the roster around him, the team selected his eventual replacement. The NFL later stripped the Falcons of a fifth-round draft pick and fined them $250,000 after determining they violated tampering rules in their dealings with Cousins and two other players connected to their free agent signings in March.
It should make for an intriguing practice field dynamic in training camp and beyond.
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Patriots without Belichick
The Patriots parted ways in January with Bill Belichick after 24 seasons and six Super Bowl titles, then used a succession clause written into Jerod Mayo’s contract to move quickly to promote him from linebackers coach to head coach. A new era is underway in Foxborough, Mass., as the Patriots open their first training camp of the post-Belichick era and Mayo faces the decision about whether to start the season with Maye or Brissett as the starter at quarterback.
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Harbaugh’s NFL return
Jim Harbaugh returns to the NFL with the Los Angeles Chargers after coaching Michigan to the College Football Playoff championship during a turbulent season in which he served a pair of three-game suspensions and the NCAA investigated allegations of improper scouting and sign stealing.
Harbaugh coached the San Francisco 49ers to three appearances in the NFC championship game and a Super Bowl appearance in a four-year span from the 2011 to the 2014 seasons. He inherits a Chargers team with franchise quarterback Justin Herbert already in place. Much will be expected.
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Belichick the broadcaster (for now)
The Falcons interviewed Belichick twice but passed him over by hiring Raheem Morris as their coach. The Commanders spoke to Belichick but opted for Dan Quinn. No team other than the Falcons is known to have interviewed Belichick during a hiring cycle in which eight teams chose new coaches.
He will work in broadcasting for the time being but has not ruled out a return to coaching, and his availability could be alluring next offseason to the owner of any team that has championship aspirations.
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Ravens try to regroup
Quarterback Lamar Jackson won his second MVP award last season, and the Baltimore Ravens secured the AFC’s top playoff seed. But they lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in a mistake-filled performance in the AFC championship game in Baltimore, the second time in a five-year span that they failed to reach the Super Bowl despite being the conference’s No. 1 seed in an MVP season for Jackson.
The Ravens added tailback Derrick Henry during the offseason, hoping he has enough left to be a major asset as Jackson makes another attempt to reach his first career Super Bowl.
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Payton begins Year 2 in Denver
Sean Payton, the former Super Bowl-winning coach for the New Orleans Saints, returned to the NFL last season and went 8-9 with the Broncos. Payton benched Wilson in December in favor of Jarrett Stidham, who started the final two games. The NFL Players Association told the Broncos and the NFL’s management council in November that the team’s threat to bench Wilson if he did not agree to adjust his contract was illegal and violated the collective bargaining agreement.
The Broncos released Wilson, drafted Nix and traded for Zach Wilson in the offseason. Payton must settle the quarterback situation and attempt to get the Broncos headed in the proper direction.
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Chiefs begin three-peat quest
The Chiefs’ second straight Super Bowl title was followed by an offseason of tragedy, off-field misbehavior and turmoil. A shooting at the team’s post-Super Bowl celebration in Kansas City resulted in one person being killed and nearly two dozen others being injured. Wide receiver Rashee Rice was involved in a six-vehicle crash on a Dallas expressway and faces charges for his role in the incident.
Kicker Harrison Butker generated controversy with his remarks during a commencement address at Benedictine College in Kansas, leading the NFL to say it disagreed with the views he expressed. The Chiefs released defensive lineman Isaiah Buggs after he was arrested on a domestic violence-burglary charge, weeks after he turned himself in at the same Alabama jail on misdemeanor animal cruelty charges. Voters in Jackson County, Mo., rejected a sales tax measure that would have provided public funding to partially pay for renovations to Arrowhead Stadium.
Now the Chiefs will attempt to return the focus to on-field matters as they begin their bid to try to become the first team to win three straight Super Bowls.
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Hip-drop tackle
The NFL banned the hip-drop tackle, citing the high injury rate of the technique, over the objection of the NFLPA. The adjustment period for players begins during training camp, and preseason games will provide the first glimpse of how the officials will enforce the new prohibition.