NFL 2024 preview hub: All the pieces you want forward of kickoff

The 2024 NFL season is sort of right here. We have cleared the previous couple of hurdles on the calendar, together with coaching camps, preseason and roster cutdowns. The Kansas City Chiefs‘ pursuit of their unprecedented third straight Tremendous Bowl title begins in opposition to the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday, Sept. 5 at 8:20 p.m. ET on NBC.

Yahoo Sports activities helps you gear up for the autumn. Let’s dive in.

The place can I watch Yahoo Sports activities’ 2024 NFL season preview?

You may watch the complete present, hosted by Yahoo Sports activities‘ Caroline Fenton and that includes Yahoo consultants Nate Tice and Charles McDonald and DraftKings’ Mike Golic Jr., proper right here.

What’s new this NFL season?

Glad you requested. Frank Schwab takes you thru the data it is advisable know.

Star players in new spots

It takes some time to get used to a star participant in a brand new uniform.

New York Giants followers (and, based on “Hard Knocks,” Giants co-owner John Mara) may really feel a bit ailing seeing Saquon Barkley in Philadelphia Eagles inexperienced this season. There are a couple of different acquainted stars who will look unusual on a brand new workforce this season.

Listed below are among the greatest names who switched groups this offseason.

New head coaches and the ideas they bring

1 / 4 of NFL groups can have a brand new head coach on the sideline this season.

It is lower than that when you do not depend Antonio Pierce, who took over the Las Vegas Raiders‘ head teaching job on an interim foundation final season after Josh McDaniels was fired. Pierce went 5-4 and was employed for the job on a everlasting foundation in January.

With or with out Pierce, the turnover speaks to the rising impatience of NFL workforce homeowners. The brand new coaches all ought to know that if they do not win within the first couple seasons, their seat will be plenty hot.

This is a have a look at all eight new head coaches for the 2024 NFL season, and what will likely be new for every of these groups.

Scheduling and broadcasting changes including Tom Brady

In 2023, the NFL accounted for 93 of the 100 most-watched shows on television. Merely, we won’t get sufficient of NFL video games on our screens.

The NFL makes annual tweaks to the schedule with its broadcasting companions in thoughts. Listed below are crucial modifications to the schedule and to broadcasts this NFL season.

What’s up with the new kickoff rules?

One stat sums up how the method to the brand new kickoff guidelines modified. Within the first week of preseason, 82% of kickoffs had been returned. That dropped to 74% within the second week and all the best way right down to 57% within the third week, via Greg Auman of Fox Sports. A change of 25% from the primary week to the third is telling.

Coming for the Kingdom

The Kansas Metropolis Chiefs try to do one thing no workforce has ever achieved: win three straight Tremendous Bowls.

The remainder of the NFL is making an attempt to cease them.

Listed below are the important thing components of the Chiefs’ success, which can once more play a task of their quest — and will present clues to how different groups can unseat the kings of the NFL.

How Chiefs DC Steve Spagnuolo has the NFL — and the Shanahan tree — flummoxed

The Kansas City Chiefs‘ offense was inconsistent final 12 months. Positive, they won the Super Bowl and completed within the top-10 in all of the underlying metrics and Patrick Mahomes was nonetheless Patrick Mahomes. But it surely was not a reliably environment friendly unit week-in and week-out in 2023.

What was dependable, and what helped carry the load for the Chiefs’ Tremendous Bowl run, was the protection led by coordinator and longtime coach Steve Spagnuolo. Spagnuolo’s defenses throughout his Kansas City tenure have been the afterthought of the general Chiefs hierarchy.

Spagnuolo, because of his expertise of calling performs in opposition to dozens of offenses, additionally has points to his protection which are excellent for the present NFL panorama. As he has specific solutions for offenses that come from the present in vogue tree within the NFL: the Shanahan tree.

How past 3-peat bids failed because of age, bad luck and one case of a meddlesome owner

“An NFL season is a marathon,” Tom Brady told Yahoo Sports. “And to have so many issues go proper over the course of a protracted season by way of accidents, balls bouncing the correct approach, hitting groups on the proper time, getting the correct playoff place — and you then make it to the playoffs and also you’ve obtained to have the identical factor occur. You’ve obtained to get the correct breaks. You’ve obtained to hit the workforce on the proper time.”

“It’s exhausting sufficient to win one Tremendous Bowl,” Brady stated. “It’s actually exhausting to win two. To win three in a row? There’s a motive why nobody has ever achieved it.”

There are many completely different causes no one has achieved it. All it is advisable do is take a stroll by means of historical past and pop the hood of the eight earlier failed makes an attempt. So we did that.

Why the Chiefs better hope Travis Kelce continues defying NFL history

Age and historical past are working in opposition to Travis Kelce. Then once more, they’ve been working against him for a couple seasons and also you would not discover.

Kelce is already an anomaly at his age. There have been a couple of productive tight ends at age 33, fewer at age 34 and it will get actually skinny as soon as the bar slides to age 35. Kelce turns 35 in October, and based mostly on the historical past of NFL tight ends he is purported to be retired or a non-factor by now.

However there have been only a few good 33- and 34-year-old tight ends, so perhaps it isn’t honest to guess in opposition to Kelce being an outlier at age 35 as properly. Kelce practically reached 1,000 yards final season and was essential within the Kansas City Chiefs‘ Tremendous Bowl run. Both approach, because the Chiefs chase an unprecedented third Tremendous Bowl championship in a row, Kelce’s age is likely one of the greatest questions they need to surprise about.

Examine again every weekday by means of Thursday, Sept. 5 for extra entries.

Names to know

7 coaches on the hot seat

Dallas Cowboys proprietor Jerry Jones has someway picked up a popularity of biking by means of head coaches on a whim. The alternative is true.

Jones is excruciatingly affected person along with his coaches. Since Jason Garrett took over after Wade Phillips’ midseason firing in 2010, Garrett and Mike McCarthy have been Dallas’ solely two head coaches. Inevitably, the Cowboys flame out within the playoffs and everybody assumes Jones will hearth his coach, however he is fired a coach solely as soon as in 14 years.

That does not imply McCarthy has a job for all times. Sooner or later he wants extra success within the playoffs or Jones will make a change. Does that imply he is one of many seven coaches on the recent seat coming into the NFL season? This is our checklist.

10 potential breakout candidates

Not each NFL participant may be C.J. Stroud or Puka Nacua.

These two had been unbelievable instantly as rookies and have become prompt stars. It takes different gamers extra time. Generally accidents set them again. Others simply want the possibility to play earlier than they shine.

We see veteran breakouts each season within the NFL, and listed here are 10 gamers in an ideal spot to interrupt out this NFL season, together with a pair of Detroit Lions and a 2023 draft class quarterback.

10 make-or-break seasons

Final season, Jordan Love had a pivotal season in his profession. Even midway by means of, we did not know which path it was headed.

Love struggled early in his first season because the Green Bay Packers‘ beginning quarterback, then caught hearth late. He went from a query mark in early November to a tie for the highest-paid quarterback in NFL historical past this summer time. His four-year, $220 million deal is an effective lesson for all of the gamers whose careers are at a crossroads this season.

Listed below are 10 high-profile gamers dealing with make-or-break seasons, headlined by Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson and Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith.

Examine again by means of Thursday, Sept. 5 for extra names to know.

Quarterback questions

QB Room: 16 questions for NFC starters

Dallas Cowboys: Is that this the Dak Prescott finale in Dallas?

With the CeeDee Lamb extension within the books, Prescott’s extension would be the cloud hanging over the franchise till there’s some type of decision. Cowboys possession has stated publicly there is no such thing as a ticking deadline on the deal however it’s extremely unlikely that Prescott will attain an settlement as soon as the season begins.

With the extension decks now away from the Lamb talks, Dallas can now focus solely on Prescott till Week 1 kickoff on Sept. 8. Whereas I don’t assume it’s an ideal signal {that a} Prescott deal didn’t get achieved whereas the workforce was in Oxnard for coaching camp, I do assume the order of affairs had been designed to get Lamb’s extension achieved first. So technically, a Prescott deal continues to be on the anticipated schedule.

For these looking for optimism past the Lamb deal getting achieved, followers can even take coronary heart in Trey Lance having showcased within the preseason that he’s nowhere close to being a beginning NFL quarterback. That five-interception exhibition finale ought to be a not-so-gentle reminder to possession of what it may very well be like going again right into a quarterback-needy abyss.

One different thought that ought to be suggestive that an extension is coming within the subsequent 10 days: There isn’t a clear Plan B on the place for Dallas within the occasion Prescott leaves in free company. Any promising state of affairs goes to price property and cash, and nonetheless have a major ingredient of threat (see Denver’s commerce for Russell Wilson in 2022). The plain transfer with the least quantity of threat continues to be signing Prescott to an extension. Identical to it has been for the previous 12 months.

Read Charles Robinson on every NFC team’s QB situation.

Examine again Tuesday, Sept. 3 for the AFC.

Copycat scheme stuff we’ll see this season

There aren’t too many outright new concepts in soccer. Very like the previous adage about there solely being seven plots, there are solely so some ways to attract a line on a whiteboard. There are undoubtedly completely different colours and angles with which you’ll draw these traces, although.

I wished to share a couple of ideas that I anticipate to see extra of this season and past. Whether or not from faculty, final season, or one thing that has began to proliferate this preseason.

Learn Nate Tice’s debut weekly column, and verify again Thursday, Sept. 5 for the subsequent installment forward of kickoff.

4 Verts

4 most important players of the NFL season

Another week, just some extra sleeps. The Ravens and Chiefs will likely be kicking off the brand new NFL season in a matter of days and the race towards New Orleans for Tremendous Bowl LIX will likely be on.

As we enter the calm earlier than the storm, let’s check out 4 gamers who will likely be among the many most essential gamers within the NFL and the way their presence can form the league’s panorama. The group consists of to big-name QBs in new conditions, an anchor within the trenches of what may very well be an explosive offense, and a low-key star making a giant shift within the champions’ protection.

Examine again Wednesday, Sept. 4 for the 4 storylines Charles McDonald is most trying ahead to.

Learn how to watch the 2024 NFL season

Full guide to watching the NFL season

This is a breakdown of the platforms we advocate testing forward of the 2024 NFL season, in order that come recreation time, tuning into your favourite workforce’s video games will likely be as straightforward as merely turning on the TV.

And this is a helpful glimpse on the Week 1 broadcast schedule:

Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024

Friday, Sept. 6, 2024

Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024

Monday, Sept. 9, 2024

Yahoo Sports activities NFL podcasts

We have revamped our NFL podcast lineup, with new reveals, new groupings and a brand new schedule. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you pay attention.

Tuesdays with Nate Tice and Matt Harmon

Thursdays with Nate Tice and Charles McDonald

McCoy & Van Noy

Tuesdays with Gerald McCoy and Kyle Van Noy

Inside Coverage

Sunday nights with Jason Fitz and Frank Schwab

Wednesdays with Jason Fitz and Jori Epstein

Fridays with Jason Fitz and Charles Robinson