The new National Football League season is just around the corner, with the first game kicking off in Kansas City this Thursday, followed swiftly (pun entirely intended) by the first-ever NFL game in South America, when the Green Bay Packers take on the Philadelphia Eagles in São Paulo.

All 32 teams have now had a couple of weeks to get healthy, holdouts are gradually being tied to new contracts and the latest crop of rookies are already beginning to emerge as starters. With the Chiefs chasing that elusive ‘three-peat’ and 31 other franchises aiming to stop them (whether those ambitions are realistic or not), the anticipation is palpable.

It’s not often that the opening fixture of a new season could have implications for how the campaign endgame plays out, but that could be the case at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium as Kickoff Weekend gets underway with the Chiefs taking on old foes Baltimore in a rematch of the 2023 AFC Championship Game, where Kansas City defeated the Ravens, 17-10, on the road to advance to Super Bowl LVIII. The 2023 Chiefs became only the ninth team to repeat as Super Bowl champions in the league’s 104-year history and can become the first to win three consecutive Lombardi trophies if they go all the way this year. KC could also become the fourth team to advance to three consecutive Super Bowls, joining New England (2016-18), Buffalo (1990-93) and Miami (1971-73).

With Patrick Mahomes helming Andy Reid’s more-than-capable team, and fan favourites such as Travis Kelce, Isiah Pacheco and Nick Bolton still on the roster, further success cannot be discounted. Trying to stop them, however, will be a Ravens team led by Lamar Jackson and complete with one of the best defensive units in the entire NFL, with Roquan Smith, Kyle Hamilton and 2023 breakout Nnamdi Madubike all keen to make an early dent in the Chiefs aspirations.

The last NFL team to win three consecutive championships was the Green Bay Packers, who won the NFL Championship in 1965 and Super Bowls I and II in 1966-67. It is perhaps fitting therefore that one of the league’s most storied franchises features in the first overseas game of the season, as the NFL breaks new ground in Brazil. The game, against an Eagles team keen to atone for last year’s implosion, is also the first the league has played on the Friday night of opening weekend since the St. Louis Cardinals faced the Los Angeles Rams on September 18th, 1970. If crowds at the other kind of football in Brazil are anything to go by, the atmosphere at Corinthians Arena should be electric — and then some!

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The ‘new’ theme continues this weekend as rookies drafted back in April get set to make their first competitive starts, not least under center in Chicago and Washington, with the top two selections, Caleb Williams and Jayden Daniels, set to lead their teams into Week 1 action. In Denver, too, there will be a fresh face taking snaps from the off, with Bo Nix having earned head coach Sean Payton’s trust after being snagged with pick number 12. The new boys face Tennessee, Tampa Bay and Seattle respectively, as the 2024 season looks set to join just three others since 1970 in which at least three rookie quarterbacks started Week 1.

Since 1967, 18 quarterbacks have been selected with the first pick in the NFL Draft and gone on to start the opening game of the season, including each of the last four: Bryce Young (Panthers), Trevor Lawrence (Jaguars), Joe Burrow (Bengals) and Kyler Murray (Cardinals). Williams will join Kyle Orton as the only rookie QB to start for the Bears in Week 1 of the common-draft era, while Daniels joins Robert Griffin III as the only newbie to start Week 1 under center for Washington since 1967. The pair will join seven others as quarterbacks selected first and second overall to both start on the opening weekend.

Elsewhere, the man Nix replaces at the Broncos, Russell Wilson, has got the nod to start Week 1 for his new team as Pittsburgh face Atlanta, who will have free agent signing Kirk Cousins leading their offense. Oh, and a certain Aaron Rodgers returns for a second attempt at quarterbacking the New York Jets.

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Aside from the two matchups already laid out, the biggest games of the week also feature teams that made the playoffs last season, as the Sunday slate pitches the Cleveland Browns against the Dallas Cowboys in primetime and a rematch between the Detroit Lions and Los Angeles Rams on Sunday Night Football, before Rodgers rounds out Week 1 against the San Francisco 49ers on Monday.

Last season, Cleveland owned the AFC’s best home winning percentage, going 8-1 while allowing the fewest points, total yards and passing yards per game amongst all teams. Dallas, meanwhile, led the NFL with 29.9 points per game in 2023, setting up a mouthwatering contest.

Meanwhile, the Lions defeated the Rams, 24-23, in the 2023 Wild Card round to earn their first postseason win since 1991. In the contest, the Rams’ Matthew Stafford and the Lions’ Jared Goff became the first pair of quarterbacks to start in the same game against a team they previously played for, while rookie standout Puka Nacua registered 181 receiving yards for the Rams, the most by a first year player in a playoff game in NFL history.

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Even the most downtrodden franchise will go into the weekend believing it has a chance of glory this year — and with very good reason. For the past 34 seasons, at least four teams have qualified for the playoffs that were not in the postseason the year before and, in 20 of the past 21, at least two have won their division having missed the postseason the year before. Even more encouragingly for erstwhile cellar dwellers, 19 of the past 21 campaigns have seen at least one team going ‘worst to first’ and winning its division the season after finishing in last place.

Most recently, the Houston Texans completed the turnaround last season — and then went on to win a playoff game, becoming only the fourth team in NFL history to do so with a rookie head coach and starting quarterback. DeMeco Ryans and C.J. Stroud will now be looking to build on that success, if only to satisfy the hype suggesting the Texans could be Super Bowl contenders this term!

Finally, continuing our theme, teams will have to get to grips with several new rules for 2024, not least the ‘dynamic kickoff’, based on innovations first seen in spring leagues and designed to improve player safety. On a similar thread, concerns regarding player health and safety has led to the approval of a personal foul penalty (loss of 15 yards and an automatic first down) to eliminate the potentially dangerous hip-drop tackle.

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