The NFL season has arrived. Training camps will begin opening next week, and all 32 teams will be preparing for the 2023 season by July 25.
Every team enters the season with one compelling storyline and several subplots. Sportsnaut opted to look at the 10 most intriguing storylines in the AFC:
Will Aaron Rodgers be a Broadway hit?
Aaron Rodgers complained his way out of Green Bay after throwing 26 touchdown passes and 12 interceptions, the second-highest total of his career. Now, he’s left the NFL’s smallest market for its largest, but the Jets’ front office believes he can take the franchise to the Super Bowl for the first time since Joe Namath did it in 1968.
The mercurial Rodgers is prone to passive-aggressive behavior. He’ll probably enjoy sparring with the New York media, but the biggest question he must answer is whether he can still be an elite quarterback after throwing for fewer than 4,000 yards for the first time since 2015.
His career is nearly over — he won’t speculate on how much longer he’ll play — but you know he’d enjoy taking the Jets on a deep playoff run, something Brett Favre couldn’t do the one season he played for the Jets.
Super Bowl or bust for Josh Allen?
Buffalo has 47 wins and three AFC East championships in the past four years while relegating New England to afterthought status.
Is this the year the Bills get over the hump. Buffalo’s great teams in the ‘90s played in four straight Super Bowls. They didn’t win any, but at least they made it.
Josh Allen, for all his accolades and accomplishments, has yet to get his team to the Super Bowl. That’s the standard for an elite quarterback, and no one cares that the AFC has a litany of talented players in his position.
Buffalo has signed him to a deal worth more than a quarter of a billion dollars to do something Jim Kelly couldn’t: Win a Super Bowl.
Bill Belichick needs to win or else
Tom Brady won a Super Bowl without Bill Belichick. We’re still trying to determine whether Belichick can succeed similarly without Brady.
New England has finished with a losing record in two of the past three seasons, and no one would be surprised if the Patriots finished last in the AFC East.
Quarterback Mac Jones, a first-round pick two years ago, has not solidified the position, and the Patriot’s receivers are irrelevant.
If Belichick, one of the best defensive coaches ever, can’t improve the offense, then the six-time Super Bowl champion could be unemployed at the end of the season.
Teams fired Tom Landry and Don Shula. Don’t think Robert Kraft cannot fire Belichick if they miss the playoffs again.
Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City Chiefs playing for history
Great NFL franchises win back-to-back titles. That’s what the Chiefs are chasing this season, and that’s their motivation.
These days, Kansas City is playing for history. Another Super Bowl and Andy Reid will take his place among the greats of the greats. Pat Mahomes, already the best of his generation, is playing to be one of the best of all time. The same goes for Travis Kelce.
Is it enough for a team that must endure the monotony of the regular season — they’ve won at least 12 games each of the last five seasons — before the fun stuff starts in the playoffs?
Tua Tagovailoa’s health biggest X-factor for Miami Dolphins
A pair of concussions forced Tua Tagovailoa to miss five games in 2022 and contemplate retirement after the season.
When healthy, he was terrific, throwing 25 touchdowns and eight interceptions to an explosive group of receivers.
Miami’s season hinges on Tua’s health. He’s missed eight games in the last two seasons. Mike White, 2-5 with eight touchdowns and 12 interceptions as a starter with the Jets, has two 300-yard games and a 400-yard game on his resume. If Tua’s healthy, Miami will make a deep playoff run.
Baltimore Ravens placing big bet on Odell Beckham Jr.
Odell Beckham Jr. hasn’t been an elite receiver since 2016, when he caught a career-high 101 passes for 1,367 yards and 10 touchdowns.
He’s averaged 55 catches for 735 yards and five touchdowns since then. But the Ravens gave him a one-year deal worth $15 million because quarterback Lamar Jackson needed weapons.
Baltimore needs OBJ to be a difference-maker, even though he missed all last season recovering from a torn ACL. He turns 31 in November but seems older than that. It won’t take long to determine if OBJ can still be a dominant player. The Ravens are betting that he can.
For Joe Burrow, big money after Super Bowl title
The race is on for Cincinnati to win a title before Joe Burrow signs a big-money contract extension coming sooner rather than later.
Burrow is a star with 9,086 yards passing with 69 touchdowns and 26 interceptions in the past two years.
It becomes increasingly difficult to win after he signs his deal in the $250-million range because of his impact on the salary cap and signing players like receiver Tee Higgins once he does.
That said, Burrow already has a Super Bowl appearance and three wins over the Chiefs since 2021. The key is winning the division and enough games, so Cincinnati only has to beat Kansas City or Buffalo in the playoffs to reach the Super Bowl.
Sean Payton’s mission: Make Russell Wilson great again
Sean Payton is considered one of the NFL’s best offensive minds after winning a Super Bowl in New Orleans and helping quarterback Drew Brees amass all sorts of passing records.
Denver needs him to make Russell Wilson great again to compete for a playoff spot.
Wilson threw a career-low 16 touchdown passes, along with 11 interceptions. He’s just 10-19 as a starter the past two seasons. At 34, he’s still young enough to be championship-caliber quarterback.
He just needs Payton to fix him.
Where will Pittsburgh Steelers find scoring punch?
Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin’s team will always be competitive, considering he’s never had a losing record since he arrived in 2006.
With defensive end T.J. Watt, safety Minka Fitzpatrick and defensive tackle Cam Hayward, the defensive will keep the Steelers in games. But can the offense, which scored 30 points just once, do enough to help?
Najee Harris is not a difference-maker and Diontae Johnson had just 882 yards receiving and no touchdowns, despite 147 targets. The Steelers need someone besides receiver George Pickens to make plays.
Stabilizing effects in Jacksonville
Jacksonville, a year after dumping Coach Urban Meyer, is the AFC South’s most stable team.
Now, it’s a matter of how far the offense can take the Jags. Travis Etienne, one of the league’s underrated runners, averaged 5.1 per carry and gained 1,125 yards, Trevor Lawrence had 25 touchdowns and with eight interceptions, and three players had more than 700 yards receiving.
Jean-Jacques Taylor is an NFL Insider for Sportsnaut and the author of the upcoming book “Coach Prime“, with Deion Sanders. Follow him on Twitter.