“Every NFL team will enter the 2025 season with a clean slate — no wins, no losses,” he says in the story. “While those records will shift dramatically in the following weeks, each franchise has some hope of finding success until then.”
The reasons usually have to do with certain players who are expected to help their teams immensely. For the Lions, it’s all about Aidan Hutchinson, of course. Words really can’t do justice to the idea of Hutchinson finally being back with the Lions and ready to go in September.
“Before suffering a season-ending injury in Week 6 last season, Hutchinson was on his way to a historic performance,” Wasserman noted in the feature. “Through not even five full games, he led the NFL with 45 pressures, eight sacks, a 95.0 PFF pass-rush grade and an incredible 38.3% pass-rush win rate.”
He added, “Hutchinson’s injury was the primary reason the Lions saw a large decrease in pass-rush production down the stretch. If he returns to last year’s form, he changes the outlook of the entire defense.”
Look Out for These Guys
While the Lions are considered one of the stronger teams in the NFL, there are other teams that are currently flying under the radar that could come up and upset the major players.
In a separate June 12 feature for PFF, Wasserman names five teams that are underrated going into the new season.
“Football prognosticators spend the entire offseason searching for legitimate Super Bowl contenders, as well as those who could be dark horses to make noise in the postseason,” Wasserman notes in the piece. “In the process, some teams get overlooked, whether because of market size or an underestimation of their talent level and ability to win games.”
The teams that could surprise everyone are the Cincinnati Bengals, Dallas Cowboys, Indianapolis Colts, San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks.
In my opinion, all of those teams make sense, expect for the 49ers, because they’re always favored, it seems, going into a new season. You totally know what I mean.
