Two nights from tonight, the 2025 NFL season will begin in earnest when the Philadelphia Eagles will raise a banner to commemorate their title from a year ago before taking on the Dallas Cowboys in an NFC East clash.
That means it is the perfect time to drop some predictions for the season ahead.
We brought together several members of the SB Nation staff and asked them to drop their predictions in various categories, from awards to division winners and more. The responses ran the gamut from your standard “chalk” selections to a few curveballs. Confidence in the Baltimore Ravens seems to be high, as well as in the Houston Texans, at least when it comes to winning the AFC South.
Let’s take a look at how the SB Nation staff feels the 2025 NFL season will unfold, before diving into some of the predictions that stood out to us most.
Category |
Mark Schofield |
Ricky O’Donnell |
James Dator |
Matt Warren |
Nick Simon |
Jared Mueller |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MVP | Jalen Hurts | Lamar Jackson | Patrick Mahomes | Joe Burrow | Lamar Jackson | Patrick Mahomes |
| OPOY | Ja’Marr Chase | Ja’Marr Chase | Ja’Marr Chase | Ja’Marr Chase | Saquon Barkley | Jaymyr Gibbs |
| DPOY | Aidan Hutchinson | Jared Verse | Myles Garrett | Will Anderson | Derek Stingley Jr. | Myles Garrett |
| OROY | Ashton Jeanty | Travis Hunter Jr. | Ashton Jeanty | Ashton Jeanty | Emeka Egbuka | Cam Ward |
| DROY | Travis Hunter Jr. | Travis Hunter Jr. | Abdul Carter | Abdul Carter | Abdul Carter | Abdul Carter |
| Comeback Player of the Year | Aidan Hutchinson | Aidan Hutchinson | Christian McCaffrey | Christian McCaffrey | Aidan Hutchinson | JJ McCarthy |
| Coach of the year | Dan Campbell | Ben Johnson | John Harbaugh | Ben Johnson | Mike Vrabel | Dan Quinn |
| Executive of the year | John Spytek | Brian Gutekunst | Adam Peters | Brandon Beane | Eric DeCosta | Ryan Poles |
| AFC North | Ravens | Ravens | Ravens | Bengals | Ravens | Ravens |
| AFC South | Texans | Texans | Texans | Texans | Texans | Texans |
| AFC West | Raiders | Chiefs | Chiefs | Broncos | Chiefs | Chiefs |
| AFC East | Bills | Bills | Bills | Bills | Bills | Bills |
| NFC North | Lions | Packers | Packers | Packers | Vikings | Packers |
| NFC South | Buccaneers | Buccaneers | Buccaneers | Falcons | Buccaneers | Buccaneers |
| NFC West | 49ers | Rams | 49ers | 49ers | Rams | Cardinals |
| NFC East | Eagles | Eagles | Eagles | Eagles | Eagles | Commanders |
| AFC champ | Ravens | Ravens | Ravens | Bills | Bills | Chiefs |
| NFC champ | Lions | Eagles | Packers | Eagles | Commanders | Packers |
| Super Bowl winner | Lions | Ravens | Ravens | Bills | Bills | Chiefs |
MVP is up in the air, but it’s going to be a QB
We don’t need to overthink this one. Every single year the NFL MVP award might as well be the “best quarterback award,” and nothing has changed this year. However, nobody can agree on who that might be. Lamar Jackson was picked twice, as was Patrick Mahomes. If either manage to win their 3rd MVP award, they will join a very short list of players to win three or more times, along with Peyton Manning, Jim Brown, Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers, Johnny Unitas, and Tom Brady.
Ja’Marr Chase picked for a big year
Several staff members pointed to Ja’Marr Chase as their pick for Offensive Player of the Year.
It makes sense. Why? As we saw with the Bengals in 2024 their best path to winning games might be via putting up points in bunches. If their defense struggles like last year — and with Trey Hendrickson’s contract situation still lingering that appears to be an option — Cincinnati’s path to victory lies on the offensive side of the ball.
Defensive Player of the Year is going to be a season-long battle
It’s a testament to how good defenses are around the NFL that we asked six of our staff members who would win DPOY, and got five different answers. The one constant is that the majority of the group felt a pass rusher would ultimately win the award.
We’ve seen in the past that it can be more difficult to quantify the impact of defensive backs when it comes to award voting, because their impact happens primarily away from the stat sheet. Oftentimes the fewer passes defended, and less tackles inherently means a DB is better, as a quarterback doesn’t even see a way to make a play against them. Only seven cornerbacks and five safeties have won the award since 1971 — but that includes Patrick Surtain II, who won in 2024.
Travis Hunter can win two Rookie of the Year awards
Travis Hunter is about to be the NFL’s first ever true two-way star at cornerback and wide receiver. The Jaguars traded up for him with the intention that he could be an impact player on both sides of the field. If the Rookie of the Year race is close, I think voters will give Hunter the tiebreaker for his double-duty work.
Hunter probably needs three or four interceptions with a pick-six in there to win Defensive Rookie of the Year. Offensive Rookie of the Year feels more difficult to win to me with Ashton Jeanty as his main competition. Jeanty will likely be a 1,000+ yard rusher with at least seven or eight touchdowns. If Hunter can put up similar numbers as a receiver, I think he wins it. Obviously, that’s a big if, in part because Brian Thomas Jr. is going to get most of Trevor Lawrence’s targets. Still, Liam Coen’s offense should be dynamic enough to feed Hunter touches, and the Jags have every incentive to make him look good after ponying up next year’s first-rounder for him. I’ll pick Hunter go win Offensive Rookie of the Year and Defensive Rookie of the Year.
Comeback player realistically comes down to Hutch and CMC
There is an outside chance we could see someone step up and light things on fire, but with Aidan Hutchinson and Christian McCaffrey you have two Bonafide superstars who missed the majority of last season due to injury. All they need to do is return to form, or just come close to it and it will be difficult for voters to overlook at the end of the season.
Can Ben Johnson turn the Bears around this quickly?
Two of our voters think so when it comes to the Coach of the Year award. There is ample evidence of voters loving a first-year head coach turning a franchise around. In fact, in the past 25 years a total of nine rookie head coaches have taken home the award — and some of the names might surprise you.
- Jim Haslett — New Orleans Saints (2000)
- Sean Payton — New Orleans Saints (2006)
- Mike Smith — Atlanta Falcons (2008)
- Jim Harbaugh — San Francisco 49ers (2011)
- Bruce Arians — Indianapolis Colts (2012)
- Sean McVay — Los Angeles Rams (2017)
- Matt Nagy — Chicago Bears (2018)
- Kevin Stefanski — Cleveland Browns (2020)
- Brian Daboll — New York Giants (2022)
Bears fans will definitely hope Johnson’s tenure ends better than Matt Nagy’s.
Executive of the Year is a battle of titans
No, not like the Tennessee Titans — that’s not happening. It’s more that in every case we have architects of playoff teams in the NFL except with Jon Spytek of the Raiders, and Ryan Poles of the Bears. Those would both be examples of a GM turning a team around after years of failure.
This award has a fairly suspect history. There’s no doubt guys like Brad Holmes have earned the award, but the list of past winners also includes true dumpster fires like Ryan Pace of the Bears, Reggie McKenzie of the Raiders, and Dave Gettleman of the Giants.
Our entire panel is split on who will take home the award in 2025, and it likely comes down to which team surprises us the most.
The AFC Champion was tapped to win Super Bowl LX in five of the six submissions. The Ravens were selected twice, the Bills were selected twice, and the Chiefs were also picked to bounce back after losing Super Bowl LIX.
Only one writer picked an NFC team, and the Detroit Lions at that.
