 (Image via Edwin Hooper/Seattle Seahawks)
By: Lucas Kochevar One of the better storylines from last season was the resurgence of Sam Darnold in Minnesota. The former 2nd overall pick found his way to Minnesota and when rookie J.J. McCarthy went down with an injury, Darnold was cemented as the starter. With that, he joined the likes of Baker Mayfield and Alex Smith as guys that left where they were originally drafted and thrived. Darnold fit in Kevin O’Connoll’s offense like a glove and earned a big payday in Seattle. Darnold now finds himself with an interesting career ahead of him in a place that has been fairly consistent for the better part of a decade. The best part of this fit in Seattle is that Darnold should run a similar offense with play caller Klint Kubiak. It’s also not the first time that Seattle has been the spot for a failed Jets quarterback as they parted ways with Geno Smith this past offseason. The infrastructure that Darnold is walking into should be a dream scenario for any quarterback. The Seahawks weapons on the outside include Jaxson Smith-Njigba, Cooper Kupp and Marquez Valdes-Scantling. JSN finally saw his breakout last season in his role. With his play, the Seahawks finally felt comfortable moving on from DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett. Along with the receiving weapons, he has Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet behind him as a lightning and thunder duo. The biggest concern for Sam and co. has to be the offensive line as they allowed 54 sacks, which tied for 30th in the league. If there’s anything Darnold needs, it’s protection. Unfortunately for him, he was exposed too many times at the end of last year after teams just blitzed him to death. He would look like a shell of himself too many times when he had to play from behind or saw pressure last season. If they can figure out the protection for him in Seattle, the Seahawks could be a sneaky team in the NFC.
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By: Lucas Kochevar There has been a ton of discussion around the SEC quarterback landscape because of Arch Manning, Paul Finebaum’s take on Manning and the Manning passing camp that showcased many young quarterbacks around the country. There is no doubt that Arch will lead the country in terms of headlines this season. It makes sense given the family’s status as football family royalty, but when you add in the Texas and SEC factor, it multiplies the buzz ten times. Manning is tabbed as the guy and is ranked number one on most lists. The conference is fascinating with new faces in big places. The returning starters to their respective schools include Garrett Nussmeier, LaNorris Sellers, DJ Lagway, Diego Paiva, Marcel Reed, Blake Shapen and Taylen Green. These guys are all the day one starters in the SEC that have also played at least last season in the conference. The next group would be new starters and guys who waited their turn. Manning would fall in this category as he sat behind Quinn Ewers. The other guys in that category are Gunner Stockton, Ty Simpson and Austin Simmons. These guys have seen limited action, but will have so much talent around them it’ll be hard for them to truly fail. Simmons is the interesting guy to follow here because he came in against UGA when Ole Miss was down 7-0 and led them right down the field with ease. New starters that transferred in include John Mateer, Joey Aguilar, Jackson Arnold, Beau Pribula and Zach Calzada. Mateer is a big time name to watch as he was lured away from Washington State after a very strong season. Oklahoma has committed to their offense this offseason and looks to jump into the playoff mix. Aguilar was a part of the Nico saga and he’s coming off a good season at App State. The last guy on that list I’m excited to see as a starter is Pribula. As the backup at Penn State he only played in a gadget role. In a big time starter role he could provide a cool dual threat dynamic for the Tigers. The SEC quarterback scene will be closely monitored because of Manning, but it’s truly a deep position in the conference.  (Image via Katie Dugan/Gamecock Central)
By: Lucas Kochevar The Chargers are familiar with Joey Bosa not coming off the edge, due to his injuries, but now he’s not going to be in the building at all. He was subsequently released by the Chargers and now plays in Buffalo. Their pass rush will take a stepback, but they still have vets in that room and renowned defensive coordinator Jesse Minter. The team was tied 5th in the NFL in total sacks with 46. The team is returning their top three sack leaders with Tuli Tuipulotu (8.5), Khalil Mack (6.0) and Bud Dupree (6.0). Tuipulotu is the obvious guy that needs to step up and become that guy off the edge and find his way into double digit sacks. His usage last year shows that they want him to be the guy attacking quarterbacks instead of him being just an edge setter. His tackles dipped, but he added four more sacks to his season total from his rookie year. The real guy that I think will be key to keeping the Chargers near the top of the league is rookie Kyle Kennard. The rookie from South Carolina is coming in after a strong senior season where he totaled 11.5 sacks over 12 games. He was a key member for the Gamecocks swarming defensive line as a force opposite of stud Dylan Stewart. Kennard could come in and contribute immediately for the Chargers if he’s given the right role. It’s not out of the question for a rookie to come in and make an impact as the team across the way in LA showed that with Jared Verse’s dominance. If he’s given the right role, it could be a steal for the Chargers in a division that they’ll need him in.  (Image via Brynn Anderson/AP Photo)
By: Lucas Kochevar It’s a truly bizarre question and requires a lot of context, but it feels like it has to be asked, has Patrick Mahomes regressed? The term regression often gets attributed to disappointment and guys that end up looking like a shell of themselves. People seemingly forget that regression truly means he just doesn’t look as good as he has. That is the statement attributed to Mahomes here. It doesn’t mean that Mahomes is the fourteenth best quarterback in the league. It means that Mahomes has gone from Superman on the field to a guy that plays it too safe. It makes sense that an offense that loses Tyreek Hill and has offensive coordinator turnover isn’t the same. The downtick in yards and touchdowns over the last three years is concerning. He dropped nearly 1,000 yards from 2022 to 2023 and his touchdowns dropped from 41 to 27. His 2023 and 2024 seasons are very similar as well. The receiver room has seen a lot of turnover over the years, but a big key to the numbers and offense slowing down is Travis Kelce slowing down. His age has been showing over the past couple of seasons and it’s a brutal truth Chiefs fans have to face. The silver lining is the Chiefs can look at two young guys that could boost the offense vertically in the way that Tyreek Hill did years ago. Rashee Rice went down with an injury last year, but was well on his way to a Pro Bowl caliber season. Xavier Worthy ended up finding the endzone more as the season went on and the biggest flash you can see to his potential is his touchdown catch in garbage time of the Super Bowl. The Chiefs can win games with Mahomes playing a slower brand of football. They just went 15-1 and lost in the Super Bowl to one of the best teams of all-time. Yet, there feels like an untapped potential the Chiefs aren’t hitting when they don’t maximize Mahomes’ arm and the talent we’ve all seen over the years. It’s like we’ve eaten the Filet Mignon and now we’re just settling for some skirt steak because in the end, it’s still steak.  (Image via Danny Wild/USA TODAY Sports)
By: Lucas Kochevar Thomas Castellanos is saying a lot to the media. The former Boston College quarterback is slotted in as the starter in Tallahassee and just hand-wrapped some bulletin board material to Alabama. He referenced the Crimson Tide by saying he was “excited to play them,” and he ended the sentence by saying “They don’t have Nick Saban to save them now.” A crazy thing to say for a quarterback who hasn’t had a cup of coffee yet as a member of the Seminoles. On top of that, Florida State was downright horrendous last year and could easily be on their way to losing 480-0 in that season opener. He painted an absolute target on their back, but does he have a point? The Crimson Tide had a bumpy ride under head coach Kalen DeBoer as they finished just outside the College Football Playoff with a record of 9-4. They were handed losses by Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Michigan, but beat the likes of Georgia and LSU. It was an odd year, that’s for sure. Surely, it can’t get any worse than losing to Vandy, right? It’ll be interesting to see how the season unfolds for Alabama because Jalen Milroe is gone. DeBoer and his staff will be figuring out the quarterback situation as the season goes, but for now it seems Ty Simpson will have the task of taking down Castellanos and the Seminoles. In the end, they're Alabama. It'll take decades and decades of horrors before the fans and boosters let Alabama sit in a spot where they need saving. Castellanos did not have a point, at all. Instead, Castellanos teed up the team with that quote. Obviously, Alabama doesn’t have Nick Saban, but I don’t think they need any “saving” from facing 2-win Florida State. Whatever point Castellanos wanted to make, it was a poor one and he could look very funny in Fall when they get crushed because DeBoer took it personally.  (Image via Highlights/Raiders.com)
By: Lucas Kochevar There might not be a more interesting division than the AFC West. The Chiefs are the obvious headliner, but you also have the likes Jim Harbaugh in LA and Sean Payton in Denver. Even with those two guys, the Raiders could easily steal all the shine, if they come out swinging this season. There’s multiple reasons with Pete Carroll becoming the head coach and Tom Brady being involved as an owner. What about the team on the field? They could be a ton of fun too. It’s a major work in progress, but they’ve overhauled the offense with Geno Smith in as QB and stud rookie Ashton Jeanty in the backfield. Even with those two big additions, their best offensive player is in the building. Brock Bowers took the league by storm last year. He put up numbers that easily put him in discussion as the best tight end in the league, as a rookie. Sometimes guys are easy to evaluate coming out of college and it just makes sense when they come in ready to go. Kyle Hamilton was one of those guys coming out of Notre Dame and his teammate, Roquan Smith out of UGA, was an easy evaluation. Bowers was the exact same type of guy and lived up to his high draft status. Now, Bowers has the challenge of replicating or going beyond his rookie production. That feat isn’t easy for most successful rookie tight ends. In recent history, Kyle Pitts and Sam LaPorta standout as two guys that fell into slumps in their sophomore campaigns. Pitts dropped from 1,026 yards his first year to 356 yards, while being banged up. LaPorta wasn’t as bad as he dropped from 889 yards to 726 yards, but anyone will tell you that he wasn’t as dominant as he was his rookie year. Bowers should be okay as his quarterback play will improve dramatically, as he goes from Gardner Minshew and Aidan O’Connell to Smith. He should also benefit from Jeanty coming into the fold. Although his touches could go down, the attention won’t be super focused on slowing down Bowers. He could have more vertical chances and do what does best, run after the catch.  (Image via Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press)
By: Lucas Kochevar The Rams did some shuffling this offseason with their receiver room and made a strong swing at one of the better receivers of the 2010s. Puka Nacua is the standout star for the Rams offense and his running mate, Cooper Kupp, was released. Kupp was a machine for the Rams when he won the triple crown and Super Bowl MVP back in 2021, but he’s slowed down over the past three seasons. He was still productive, but not close to that obscene production. The Rams and Kupp moved on and that’s where Adams comes in. The grass wasn’t greener in Las Vegas and New York after he left Green Bay in terms of winning games. Despite the lack of winning, Adams was still a stud and totaled over 1,000 yards every season after the Packers. It’s rare to see a receiver continue big time production after they hit the age of 30, but Adams hasn’t seen a big dip. That’s what the Rams are gambling on for the next two seasons. The Rams are betting on a real deal threat on the outside while Puka runs free all over the field. It’s similar to their Super Bowl year when they brought in Odell Beckham Jr. to be a touchdown threat throughout their run, including a big one in the big game. The Kupp-OBJ duo tortured opposing defenses for the back half of that year, but this is different. With all due respect, the Puka-Adams duo will be lethal if they can both stay healthy. The Rams finished the season 9-3 after a horrendous start. They were the hardest test for the Super Bowl Champion Eagles as a road team. The Rams could flame out if Stafford and Adams just break down, but they haven’t seen regression to the level that we’ve seen other greats in this game. Saying “If the Rams could get vintage performances…” doesn’t feel fair to these guys as they haven’t slowed down to that degree. They’re still productive guys chasing one last Super Bowl on the way out with a very good chance at it.  (Image via Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press)
By: Lucas Kochevar Nico Iamaleva has been off the radar ever since he left Knoxville, Tennessee and for good reason. He’s in Los Angeles now with the UCLA Bruins, a city that’s famously not a big college football town. Even USC, the more notable team in California, doesn’t have much of a presence in college football media right now. UCLA is still a big time school with their basketball program and conference prestige now that they’re in the Big 10. The Bruins have been like a roller coaster going up and down with their win totals the past couple of seasons. It feels like they’re due for some good and now they have a guy at QB that, at the very least, is known nationally. Nico went through a rocky offseason with all the hubbub with the NIL stuff, but now it has to be in the rearview mirror. Nico’s national spotlight was large in 2024 and the excitement for his 2025 campaign was building and then poof it’s gone. Whether he deserved it or not, who knows, but the buzz around Nico while he was at Tennessee was ‘potential best QB in the nation’ buzz. UCLA isn’t Tennessee, but there have been plenty of quarterbacks that have played at smaller football schools with buzz. It’s just interesting how quickly guys will forget about a quarterback transfer. Nico totaled 2,616 yards with 19 touchdowns and 5 interceptions last season. It’s a modest year in Josh Heupel’s easy bake oven offense, but it was his first year as the full-time starter also. Even looking past the numbers, the eye test will show you one of the most seamless throwing motions in the country. With a flick of the wrist, Nico zips it 60 yards and receivers are walking into the endzone. The skill set should translate to the Big 10 against the likes of Northwestern and Maryland. It’ll be up to Nico, head coach Deshaun Foster and OC Tino Sunseri to bring that out for the Bruins. The tough part is that they’ll also see the likes of Penn State, Ohio State and USC. Still, the flashes could be there and UCLA should be better. At the very least, there will be one reason to watch UCLA and Washington in November.  (Imaga via Ron Chenoy/USA TODAY Sports)
By: Lucas Kochevar There’s no doubt the Broncos overachieved last season with a 10-7 record and a rookie QB at the helm. The Broncos squeaked into the playoffs over the likes of Joe Burrow and Tua Tagovailoa. The Broncos played a more consistent brand of football compared to those two teams and it netted them some much needed playoff experience. Getting throttled by the Bills in the playoffs is a tough pill to swallow, but they’ll always have that 7-0 lead in the first quarter. What’s going to happen now? Bo Nix was a pleasant surprise to everyone, except Sean Payton. The production Nix showed is what Payton and Broncos fell in love with enough to take him the first round, even when many had him slotted in the second. Nix was everything you could hope for with 29 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. Being able to hold on to the ball as a rookie is something most struggle with, but Nix broke that norm. Still, was he too careful? Bo Nix averaged 6.7 yards per attempt, which ranked 29th out of 36 qualified quarterbacks. In comparison to Drew Brees’ last year, he averaged 7.5 yards per attempt. Brees’ arm was toast at that point. Seeing that number compared to Nix’s is notable because of Sean Payton being the common denominator play caller. Nix did enough to win games for the Broncos, but there should be a point where you aim for more than making the seventh seed. The yards per attempt number tells a small part of the story where he simply isn’t making numerous reads. This is where it gets into an interesting conversation of how a system can elevate a mid-level player to being pretty good or how a player could be capped by a reliance on two options: playing it safe or going for the big play. The encouraging news is that Nix’s best performances came in the second half of the season, outside of an outlier game against the Colts. Nix’s leash was clear in his rookie campaign, but with that season under his belt, he could get better than what he showed in 2024. It’ll be interesting to see if he regresses or grows into one of the better QBs of the next generation.  (Image vis AL.com media coverage/YouTube)
By: Lucas Kochevar This conference is the hardest one to find the next Indiana. It’s the SEC. There aren’t many teams that are as bad as Indiana was a few years ago, except for Mississippi State. Mississippi State was winless in the conference last season, but they aren’t going to magically climb to the top. The other teams towards the bottom are Kentucky and Oklahoma. The Wildcats aren’t close, but Oklahoma went to the NIL bank to improve their team dramatically. People are picking the Sooners as a dark horse playoff team. For that reason, I can’t pick them as the next Indiana. The Auburn Tigers are my choice for the next potential Indiana. Fans will take that as an insult, but I mean well. The Tigers are a very notable program, especially since they’ve seen national championships this quarter century, including the lone win with Cam Newton. Despite that title, the Tigers have been far from a consistent powerhouse. The last time Auburn won double digit games was 2017, when Gus Malzahn was still the head coach. The Tigers have been in a downturn and haven’t seen immediate improvement under head coach Hugh Freeze. Despite all this, there is reason for optimism for the Tigers with a new quarterback coming to town and a wide receiver duo that could be the best in the country. Auburn brought in two new quarterbacks in former five-star Jackson Arnold and former Stanford starter Ashton Daniels. One of those guys could step up and steady the ship for a team that needs leadership at quarterback. Arnold has a shaky track record, but with two big time receiving threats, he could right the ship for himself and Auburn. Cam Coleman is a big time target and really ended the season strong for the Tigers. As a freshman, he totaled over 500 yards and 8 touchdowns, including big games over Texas A&M and Alabama. On the other side, the Tigers bring in Eric Singleton Jr. from Georgia Tech. A steady target for Tech, he went over 700 yards each season he was at Tech and totaled 9 touchdowns. That firepower, along with a lot of returning offensive lineman, could elevate Auburn to the level they’ve been at in their successful years. A main concern would be the loss of running back Jarquez Hunter to the draft. The Tigers are also returning a ton of guys to the defensive side. They might not have a ton of experience, but returning guys that have stayed with the team for a season or more is rare in today’s college football world. The road to the playoff is always harder in the SEC, but that also plays into Auburn's hand as they’ll have big chances to make some noise against top teams. There’s a major pro and con with the Tigers schedule. The pro is they’re taking on a lot of the conference bottom teams. The con is they have to take on Georgia and Alabama, as they always do. They manage to play both at home, which definitely plays into their hand as Jordan-Haire is often cited as one of the hardest places to play in the SEC. The Tigers feel due for one of those magical seasons where all the bounces tend to go there way. The simple question that Tigers fans will ask the country is ‘why not?’ as they never seem to plan these magical runs. The way that Indiana fans felt for a lot of last year is a spot that the Tigers could find themselves in as they have suffered through some brutal teams the past couple of seasons. I’m never shocked when Auburn has some voodoo up their sleeve and I could see it this season. |
Lucas KochevarI love sports and I'm a local fan of the Falcons, Hawks, and Braves. You can find my quick thoughts and more on my twitter @lucaswkochevar |
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