NFL preseason storylines: are the Rams inevitable and will the Pats survive scandal?

Can the Seahawks run it forward?

Winning the Super Bowl back in February puts the Seattle Seahawks in line to become the 10th team, and the ninth franchise, to repeat as champions (the Pittsburgh Steelers went back-to-back twice in the 1970s). While a lot of Super Bowl winners experience massive drains of coaching and playing talent after clinching the title, these Seahawks are left in pretty good shape.

Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker III signed with the Kansas City Chiefs, and pass-rusher Boye Mafe is now with the Cincinnati Bengals, but the champs return 21 of their 22 starters from the Super Bowl team (Mafe wasn’t technically a starter).

Offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak was tabbed by the Las Vegas Raiders to become their new head coach. The Seahawks replaced Kubiak with former San Francisco 49ers run game coordinator & tight ends coach Brian Fleury, who has said that he’ll keep most of Kubiak’s passing concepts, with some different wrinkles in the run game. First-round pick Jadarian Price seems to have everything it takes to replace Walker. Price wasn’t the lead running back at Notre Dame only because third overall pick Jeramiyah Love was the star of the show, but Love recently told me that Price can do everything he can do … and in some cases, better.

The Seahawks have the right head coach to run it back in Mike Macdonald, because as he told me over the summer, it’s all about running it forward instead. That proactive mindset could make all the difference when navigating the NFC West – the NFL’s toughest division – on the way back to the biggest game.

Will the Rams‘ all-in approach pay off?

Seattle’s most formidable opponent last season wasn’t the New England Patriots team they beat in the Super Bowl; it was the Los Angeles Rams team they played three times, going 2-1 with a total score differential of 88-85 in Seattle’s favor. That included the Seahawks’ 31-27 NFC Championship game win, and everyone in the Seahawks’ building knew that it had been their toughest test.

What did that loss do to the Rams? It encouraged them to pony up for shorter-term success. Cornerback was the team’s biggest problem last season, so they traded for Trent McDuffie, and then signed Jaylen Watson, McDuffie’s Chiefs teammate, to solidify things. Then, they traded outstanding pass-rusher Jared Verse, a first-round pick, and additional draft compensation to the Cleveland Browns for Myles Garrett, one of the most productive pass rushers in history.

The 30-year-old Garrett is coming off a 2025 campaign in which he tied the NFL’s single-season sack record, and he did so with very little help. Now, Garrett joins a defensive line that was already great before he showed up, and may soon include the legendary Aaron Donald, who is considering ending his two-year retirement by the promise of playing with a fellow all-time demolition expert.

Snead and McVay have never had a problem going all-in like this before – they’ve done so in trades for Stafford and defensive back Jalen Ramsey in the past – and those moves helped the Rams win the Super Bowl at the end of the 2021 season. As long as the 38-year-old Stafford can stay healthy, and the Rams don’t need to rely on their shaky quarterback depth chart, pushing the chips in could pay off once again.

Every year, it seems that preseason prognosticators want to stick their chests out and declare that this is the Los Angeles Chargers‘ year. The Chargers are a flashy franchise with quarterback Justin Herbert and talent all along the roster, but it’s been a struggle to align Herbert with the kind of coaching and schematic wizardry that could bring everything out of his rare athletic gifts.

From Joe Lombardi to Kellen Moore to Greg Roman, the Chargers’ offensive coordinators seemed to be more interested in making sure Herbert was as mistake-proof as possible at the expense of explosive plays – which are the primary currency in the NFL today.

I spoke with Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh right after he got the job, and he spoke of the “awesome responsibility” of coaching someone as talented as Herbert. As a former NFL quarterback himself, Harbaugh knows of what he speaks.

Which is where new Chargers OC and former Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel comes in. Through his four seasons in Miami, McDaniel proved to be all about those explosive plays, and his schematic marriage with Herbert could pay rare dividends. It’s a boon for McDaniel as well, who was restricted in what he could do with the Dolphins, because Tua Tagovailoa was his primary quarterback, and Herbert is physically in a different universe.

So maybe this is the year that all those filled with hope for the Chargers actually have something to crow about.

Can Jim Leonhard take the Bills over the top (finally)?

As the Buffalo Bills‘ head coach from 2017-2025, Sean McDermott compiled a 98-50 regular-season record that was among the best in the NFL – only the Kansas City Chiefs had more regular-season wins in that timeframe, with 106. But the Chiefs also won a bunch of Super Bowls, something McDermott’s Bills never achieved. So, the Bills fired McDermott in large part because of his 8-8 postseason record, and replaced him with offensive coordinator Joe Brady.

But the big news in Buffalo, and the thing that could finally take Josh Allen‘s team over the top, is the hire of new defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard. The former Wisconsin defensive coordinator has long been regarded as one of the finest defensive minds at any level of football. If you go back and watch any of Leonhard’s Wisconsin defenses through the 2022 season, you’ll see a lot of the line stunts and coverage switches that have become de rigueur in the NFL today, and it’s why those in the know believe that Leonhard is ahead of the game schematically, and a future NFL head coach.

Like the Cowboys, the 2025 Bills were a bit under-coached – the talent didn’t match the results. Leonhard’s ascent could well mirror the Bills’ rise to Super Bowl team.

Can the Patriots stave off regression and internal drama?

The Patriots don’t just have to deal with the threat of regression after enjoying one of the league’s easiest schedules in 2025; they also have to contend with the scandal Mike Vrabel got caught up in this offseason. We are not here to cast aspersions on Vrabel’s dedication to his job; some things are more important. But if the 2026 Patriots get off to a slow start, and they fail to replicate last season’s secret sauce, things could snowball in a hurry.

The Patriots did do a lot in the offseason to improve – the additions of receivers AJ Brown and Romeo Doubs give quarterback (and 2025 NFL MVP candidate) Drake Maye better targets than he’s ever had before. But there are slippery slopes to navigate for the reigning AFC champs.

Can the Cowboys bring their defense up to par?

The 2025 Dallas Cowboys defense, “constructed” by defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus, allowed the sixth-most points any team has allowed in NFL history (511). But the team still had a 7-9-1 record, because the offense, led by quarterback Dak Prescott, was so good. Eberflus and his outmoded concepts are out now, replaced by former Philadelphia Eagles passing game coordinator & defensive backs coach Christian Parker. The 34-year-old Parker comes from the Vic Fangio school of defense, with the Eagles’ brilliant DC as the tone-setter for about half the NFL. You should see offshoots of that everywhere in Big D. From the defensive line to the secondary, these Cowboys have the talent to win on defense, and with that top-tier offense already in hand, they could be more competitive than they’ve been in recent years.

Now, it will be about using that personnel the right way. Those in the building are already raving about Parker’s knack for doing what he does.

“To be a great defensive coordinator, you have to have confidence and swagger, and that’s two things he has,” new defensive lineman Rashan Gary recently said of Parker. “And the players now have to back up his swagger and his confidence.”

The Cowboys had three straight 12-5 seasons from 2021-2023 under Mike McCarthy, and they won a grand total of one playoff game in that span. Now, head coach Brian Schottenheimer hopes that Parker’s addition can bring even more value to a franchise that has been far more valuable financially than in a competitive sense in recent years.

Can the Texans bring their offense up to par?

Texas’s other NFL team has no such issues on defense. The Houston Texans may have had the NFL’s most formidable defensive unit last season – they ranked second in FTN’s opponent-adjusted metrics behind only the Seahawks – and if you wanted to lobby for Houston as the league’s best overall, nobody would blink.

It was the offense, and specifically quarterback CJ Stroud, who struggled to keep up. Stroud was the NFL’s offensive rookie of the year in 2023, and it looked for all the world that he would be the league’s next great signal-caller. But a combination of offensive line issues, receiver injuries, and Stroud’s own issues in development, came home to roost. It didn’t show up as much in the regular season, as the Texans managed a 12-5 record and Stroud was generally good enough when healthy. But when the Texans faced the Patriots in the divisional round of the postseason, Stroud fell apart with a four-interception game that showed just how far he had fallen. Stroud’s two-game playoff performance was perhaps the worst in recent NFL history.

Now, the Texans have refurbished the offensive line with veterans Wyatt Teller and Braden Smith, and they selected Georgia Tech’s Keylan Rutledge in the first round of the draft. They signed former Chicago Bears and Detroit Lions running back David Montgomery, and they hope that speed receiver Tank Dell has fully recovered from the gruesome knee injury he suffered in December 2024.

If Stroud can elevate the offense to a better place, the Texans are as Super Bowl-compliant as anybody. If not? Questions will abound as to the future.

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