It has been easy to get lost in the sports calendar this past month with professional sports finally coming back. Playoff hockey and basketball games are on every night, Major League Baseball is back, and the PGA Tour is in full swing.
But look what else snuck up on us: Football season is here.
The Chiefs and Texans kick off the 2020 season Thursday night, and the rest of the league gets going next Sunday. You’re not alone if you’re not quite mentally prepared for football weekends — with no preseason games and a truncated training camp, the NFL season didn’t have the usual build-up and hype.
This column has spent much of the last few months writing about the NFL’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now let’s get ready for the action on the field by previewing the top story lines entering the 2020 season:
▪ Can the Chiefs run it back? Coming off their first Super Bowl victory in 50 years, the Chiefs did their best to keep the team together for another run. Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reid, and Chris Jones got big contract extensions, and 18 of the 22 starters from the Super Bowl are back, including Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce. The only losses were both guards, a linebacker, and a running back, and the Chiefs arguably upgraded at running back by taking Clyde Edwards-Helaire with their first-round pick.
The Chiefs enter the season as the overwhelming Super Bowl favorites, but history is not on their side. Only eight teams have repeated as Super Bowl champions, and no team has done it since the 2004 Patriots.
▪ Is Lamar Jackson the future of the NFL or a one-year wonder? The reigning MVP revolutionized the NFL last year, setting records for a dual-threat quarterback with 1,206 rushing yards, 3,127 passing yards, and 43 total touchdowns. Jackson, only 22 years old last year, also led the Ravens to a 14-2 record and the No. 1 seed.
But the NFL has seen one-hit wonders before — Jackson’s backup, Robert Griffin III, is a great example. The Ravens also flamed out in the playoffs, losing at home to Tennessee with Jackson unable to lead a comeback. So Jackson still has plenty to answer: Can he be a dynamic threat now that teams have had all offseason to study and prepare for him? Can a team with a running quarterback win in the playoffs? And, most importantly, can Jackson make it through another season without suffering an injury?
▪ Big Ben’s big return: The Steelers went 8-8 and missed the playoffs last year, as Ben Roethlisberger missed the last 14 games with an elbow injury. The Steelers are certainly excited to have him back, with owner Art Rooney recently saying, “His arm strength looks to be as good as it’s ever been.”
Of course, the Steelers badly need Big Ben to be his old self — they don’t have a succession plan in place, so they’re all-in on Roethlisberger getting them back to the playoffs for the first time since 2017. But he is 38, has never been in great shape, and now is coming off a major injury to his throwing elbow.
▪ Familiar faces in new places: Several quarterbacks played a game of musical chairs. You, of course, know that Tom Brady is in Tampa Bay and Cam Newton is in New England. Philip Rivers brings his active starting streak of 224 games from Los Angeles to Indianapolis as the Colts’ new quarterback. Teddy Bridgewater gets his big chance in Carolina, four years after suffering a devastating knee injury in Minnesota. And several familiar names are serving as backups: Andy Dalton in Dallas, Marcus Mariota in Las Vegas, and Joe Flacco with the Jets.
It’s not often that quarterbacks change teams and have immediate success (ask the Vikings and Kirk Cousins). Those who did: Joe Montana with the Chiefs in 1993, Chad Pennington with the Dolphins in 2008, Brett Favre with the Vikings in 2009, and Peyton Manning with the Broncos in 2012.
A few stars were among the position players switching teams: RB Todd Gurley (Atlanta), WR DeAndre Hopkins (Arizona), WR Stefon Diggs (Buffalo), WR Brandin Cooks (Houston), WR Emmanuel Sanders (New Orleans), TE Rob Gronkowski (Tampa Bay), TE Jason Witten (Las Vegas), TE Greg Olsen (Seattle), TE Jimmy Graham (Chicago), DE Yannick Ngakoue (Minnesota), DE Dante Fowler (Atlanta), CB Chris Harris (LA Chargers), CB Logan Ryan (NY Giants), and S Jamal Adams (Seattle).
As for the coaches, Mike McCarthy is now in Dallas and Ron Rivera is in Washington, and there are three new faces: Carolina’s Matt Rhule, the Giants’ Joe Judge, and Cleveland’s Kevin Stefanski. Five rookie head coaches have led their teams to the playoffs in the last three years.
▪ Hot seat: The pressure is on Aaron Rodgers to keep playing at a high level and fend off the Jordan Love era from starting next year. Matt Ryan, 35, has missed the playoffs the last two years and hasn’t come close to regaining his 2016 MVP form. Dak Prescott didn’t get a long-term deal from the Cowboys, and still has a lot to prove as he plays for a new contract. Jimmy Garoppolo created a lot of doubters with his fourth-quarter performance in the Super Bowl. Derek Carr has Mariota breathing down his neck, and the same with Mitchell Trubisky and Nick Foles. And it’s a major prove-it year for three more youngsters: Baker Mayfield, Josh Allen, and Sam Darnold.
As for coaches, Adam Gase, Doug Marrone, Anthony Lynn, Matt Nagy, Matt Patricia, and Dan Quinn will be squarely on the hot seat if their teams don’t come strong out of the gate.
▪ How long until the rookies play? No. 1 pick Joe Burrow will start for the Bengals, becoming the 23rd rookie QB since 2008 to start in Week 1. Otherwise, the Dolphins’ Tua Tagovailoa will start the season behind Ryan Fitzpatrick in Miami, the Chargers’ Justin Herbert will sit behind Tyrod Taylor, and Love will back up Rodgers. Love likely won’t play this year, but it feels like only a matter of time before we see Tua and Herbert.
▪ Expanded playoffs, no international games, and new stadiums with no fans: The NFL changed its playoff format for the first time in 30 years, adding a seventh team to each conference via a third wild card. While it will now be easier to make the postseason, the format could be heavily skewed in favor of the No. 1 seeds, which will be the only teams to get a first-round bye, plus home-field advantage.
The NFL also was forced to cancel all five of its international games (four in London and one in Mexico City) because of the pandemic. And two sparkling new stadiums will open this year, but not to the public. The Raiders already have stated that the $1.9 billion Allegiant Stadium, nicknamed “The Death Star” by owner Mark Davis, won’t allow fans through the gates all season. The Rams and Chargers haven’t made similar determinations about the $5-plus-billion SoFi Stadium, but there won’t be fans for the first few games.
ODDS AND ENDS
Race initiatives take lead role
A few more nuggets on the 2020 season:
▪ The NFL’s social justice initiatives will be highly visible this year. Already underway is the league-wide NFL Votes initiative, a comprehensive TV and social media campaign that focuses on voter registration and education. This past week, the league announced that all team facilities will be closed on Nov. 3 to ensure that everyone can vote. Each stadium will have the phrases “End racism” and “It takes all of us” painted on the end zones. The song “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” known as the Black national anthem, will be played before every game. And the players and teams will continue to work on issues such as police and education reform, and more.
“The NFL stands with the Black community,” commissioner Roger Goodell said. “We will redouble our efforts to be catalysts for the urgent and sustainable change that our society and communities so desperately need.”
▪ The Patriots will be logging plenty of frequent flier miles. With the AFC West and NFC West on the schedule, the Patriots will travel 24,560 miles this year, fourth-most in the NFL behind the Seahawks (28,878), 49ers (25,485), and Chargers (25,387). But the Patriots’ mileage total probably doesn’t take into account that they will likely stay in Los Angeles between consecutive road games against the Chargers and Rams, saving themselves about 6,000 miles.
Last year, the Patriots had the NFL’s fifth-fewest travel miles at just 11,960.
▪ Statistical oddities: The Packers have won five straight season openers, while the Bears and Colts have lost six in a row. And the NFL hasn’t had a 99-yard touchdown pass since Eli Manning to Victor Cruz on Christmas Eve in 2011 (against the Jets, of course).
▪ The NFL media relations department has the rookie head coaches fill out a personality form, where we learn that Joe Judge’s favorite food is “pepperoni pizza” and Ron Rivera’s favorite food is “everything.” The coaches were also asked which current player would make a great head coach. Judge, the former Patriots special teams coach, chose Devin McCourty. Rivera chose Luke Kuechly and Kevin Stefanski chose Teddy Bridgewater.
ETC.
Sounds like . . .an NFL game?
The NFL might not have many fans in the stands this year, but a Patriots game is still going to sound very much like a Patriots game. The league circulated a memo Thursday, detailing the policies for artificial crowd noise, and the goal was on maintaining authenticity and ensuring an equal playing field.
Thanks to NFL Films catching ambient noise at stadiums for several years, the NFL was able to curate specific audio for 28 stadiums (not Las Vegas or LA) that will be used on TV broadcasts and inside the stadium. So you will hear a typical crowd buzz during play, and for Patriots games you’ll still hear Minutemen fire their rifles after a touchdown, and for Jets games you’ll hear fans screaming “J-E-T-S.”
Teams will be able to add “accents” to the crowd noise for sacks, turnovers, etc., and will still be able to play music and blow foghorns. This audio, which helps mask some of the conversations taking place on the field, must be played in games with no fans, and for now will also be played in games that have some fans.
However, the noise levels will be closely monitored. The maximum level for music is 75 decibels, and for the in-stadium audio it’s 70 decibels. The baseline in-stadium audio has to be constant, and can’t get higher or lower based on the game situation. And the NFL says it won’t allow teams to pull any chicanery (we’re looking at you, Falcons and Colts).
Each game will have an employee from the league’s football operations department on hand. This person will take decibel readings from the sideline, and afterward will make a report of the decibel readings throughout the game. The Wednesday after a home game, teams will be required to provide a recording of the video board feed and the stadium PA to the league office for review of any violations. And any violations of the policies could result in club fines, personal fines and suspensions, and/or losing a draft pick, even for first offenses.
Jaguars’ breakdown nearly complete
The Jaguars had a 10-point lead over the Patriots in the fourth quarter of the 2018 AFC Championship game. Just 2½ years later the team is dismantled.
The 2017 Jaguars had one of the best defenses of the last 20 years, but only two starters remain — linebacker Myles Jack and nose tackle Abry Jones. Cornerback Jalen Ramsey and pass rusher Dante Fowler were traded to the Rams, defensive tackle Calais Campbell was traded to the Ravens, cornerback A.J. Bouye was not re-signed, and pass rusher Yannick Ngakoue was traded to the Vikings. Quarterback Blake Bortles was also not re-signed after 2018, and this past week the Jaguars released running back Leonard Fournette, the fourth overall pick in 2017. The Jaguars released Fournette even though they may end up owing him $4.2 million (the Jaguars and Fournette will battle it out in a grievance over whether the team had the right to void his guarantees).
The Jaguars weren’t going to be able to pay all of those players once they hit free agency, and it’s not a terrible decision to start over from scratch this year instead of throwing bad money after bad. What’s remarkable about the tear-down, though, is that GM Dave Caldwell and coach Doug Marrone get to oversee it. General managers and head coaches usually don’t get to rebuild a team after failing the first time.
Extra points
The NFL finalized its 71-page COVID-19 protocols on Saturday, most notably settling on a cadence for game-day testing. All personnel will continue to undergo daily testing during the regular season, except on game days — which reduces the chances of a false positive knocking a player out of a game. For a 1 p.m. Sunday game, the final COVID-19 test will be taken by 8:30 a.m. on Saturday. And for all kickoffs 4 p.m. or later, the deadline is 10 a.m. the day before the game. If a player tests positive the day before and believes it is a false reading, he has until two hours before kickoff the next day to subsequently test negative and get cleared to play. To combat the lack of testing on Sunday, players won’t be allowed in team facilities on Monday, though they will be required to take a test … A little surprised that Washington didn’t hold onto running back Adrian Peterson, as he was only costing them $2.5 million, a relatively low amount for someone who can provide locker room leadership. But I understand why the team would move on from a 35-year-old, between-the-tackles runner with little receiving skills and no use on special teams. Peterson ranks fifth all time in rushing yards (14,216), or 1,053 yards short of Barry Sanders for fourth … The Patriots were likely glad to see Stephen Gostkowski sign on with the Titans this past week — an obvious move all offseason, given the Titans’ kicking woes last year and Gostkowski’s ties to coach Mike Vrabel and GM Jon Robinson. The Patriots owe Gostkowski $2 million guaranteed this year, but their obligation will be reduced by however much Gostkowski makes from the Titans. Given how Vrabel likes to needle the Patriots, I wouldn’t be shocked if Gostkowski signed for the minimum $1.05 million, so the Patriots would still be responsible for $950,000 … The inside of the Chiefs’ Super Bowl ring features the number of points the team trailed by in each playoff game — 24 points to the Texans, 10 points to the Titans, and 10 to the 49ers.
Ben Volin can be reached at ben.volin@globe.com.