NFL kickoff: 40 things to know about the season, including Philly’s own Abdul Carter debuting with the Giants

Take an unconventional stroll around the NFL with some facts, figures and other frivolity as the Eagles try to become the first NFC team to defend its Super Bowl title since the Cowboys of the 1990s.

Speaking of Dallas, its best player the last few years — pass rusher Micah Parsons — is no longer its best player. The Cowboys shipped him to Green Bay last week after a summer of contractual discontent. On the other side of the ball, the Cowboys need to get their running game cranking. Did we mention the running game? The new New York Jets coach has something quizzical/idiotic to say about that. And a tip of the cap to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver who is muscling in on the G.O.A.T. Heady stuff.

Here are 40 things to know about the upcoming season, including a quick pick on who’ll win the Super Bowl:

1. Abdul Carter grew up in North Philly, went to La Salle College High School, and was the No. 3 overall pick by the rival New York Giants. Carter is favored to win Defensive Rookie of the Year, and, if early observations come true, he’ll be a problem for the Eagles for the next decade. He’d be the first Giants player to win Defensive Rookie of the Year since Lawrence Taylor in 1981.

2. Giants linebacker Bobby Okereke told Newsday that Carter is like “a young buck, a young horse. He doesn’t necessarily know what is going on, but he’s going to run into it at a million miles an hour.” Taylor’s teammates used to say the same thing about him.

3. The Eagles play the Giants twice in three weeks. They’re at New York for a Thursday night game on Oct. 9 and then back here on Oct. 26 for a 1 p.m. kickoff.

4. Most sacks in a career against Eagles quarterbacks: Taylor 25, Michael Strahan 21½, Leonard Marshall 19.

5. Top odds, per FanDuel, to win the Super Bowl, which this year will be in Santa Clara, Calif. — home of the San Francisco 49ers: Baltimore (+700), Eagles and Buffalo (+750), Kansas City (+800), Detroit (+1200). Nobody asked, but the pick here is the Ravens to beat the Eagles.

6. Kevin Patullo is the fifth coach to run the Eagles offense in the six seasons Jalen Hurts has been a pro. Here’s where the previous four are today:

7. Steichen and the Colts are going with former Giants first-round pick Daniel Jones as their starting QB. Jones beat out Anthony Richardson, whom the Colts selected fourth overall in 2023. That’s not good for Richardson.

8. Moore is getting his first crack as a head coach with New Orleans, which took Louisville QB Tyler Shough in the second round. Shough, however, could not beat out second-year pro Spencer Rattler for the starting job. Shough and Rattler share the same birthday. Shough (pronounced SHUCK) will be 26 on Sept. 28. Rattler will be 25.

9. BTW, Jalen Hurts just turned 27.

10. The Eagles do not play the Colts or the Saints.

11. Best guess for most improved team: the Las Vegas Raiders. Best guess for most disappointing team: the Los Angeles Rams.

12. Detroit has improved its win total each of the last three years from 3-13-1 to 9-8 to 12-5 to 15-2. The Lions’ over/under for this season is 10.5, per BetMGM.

13. Lions DE Aidan Hutchinson (+270) is favored to win Comeback Player of the Year ahead of Cowboys QB Dak Prescott (+300) and 49ers RB Christian McCaffrey (+300). Detroit visits the Linc in Week 11 for a Sunday night game. The Eagles play Dallas in Weeks 1 and 12. They do not play San Francisco.

14. Eagles RB AJ Dillon was 200-1 to win Comeback Player of the Year at BetMGM. But he was 400-1 at FanDuel. Not saying it will happen, just showing the importance of shopping around for odds when wagering on such things.

15. Javonte Williams, who averaged less than 4 yards per carry over the last two seasons with Denver, enters 2025 with the Cowboys. Williams was more dangerous as a receiver with 99 receptions in 2023-24. He also was his high school’s valedictorian.

16. Dallas was 27th in rushing last year and dead last in rushing touchdowns with a measly six. Can’t fire the guy making the personnel decisions when he owns the club, right?

17. The Raiders, who went 4-13 last year, brought in Pete Carroll as head coach, traded for quarterback Geno Smith, drafted dynamic running back Ashton Jeanty, and hired Chip Kelly to run the offense. Five of their first six draft picks were offensive players. We’ll see firsthand if the Raiders are improved as predicted above when they visit the Linc in Week 15.

18. Jeanty spent the freshman year of his high school career playing in Naples, Italy. His father, Henry, is a retired Navy chief petty officer.

19. The Chiefs, trying to win the AFC West for the 10th consecutive season, have a rugged first half of the schedule which includes a trip to Brazil to play the Los Angeles Chargers on Friday and a visit to Buffalo. They’ll have home games against the Eagles, Ravens, Lions, and Commanders. They come back after their bye with a visit to Denver, one of the division rivals nipping at their heels.

20. The Chargers will be the first NFL team to play games — preseason or regular season — on five continents. After the game against the Chiefs in South America, the only continents the Chargers are missing are Africa and Antarctica. Africa could be doable someday. We could see the NFL Players Association pitching a fit if Antarctica gets brought up, however.

21. With Joey Bosa now in Buffalo, linebacker Denzel Perryman is the last Chargers player who played in San Diego. The Chargers host the Eagles in Week 14 (Dec. 8) for the first time since the 2017 season, when they moved from San Diego to LA. That game was played at a 27,000-seat soccer stadium. The Chargers have since moved to 70,000-seat SoFi Stadium.

22. It will be interesting to see how the Jacksonville Jaguars use Travis Hunter, the Heisman Trophy winner who is looking to become the first true two-way player since Chuck Bednarik. Wouldn’t you just have loved to have seen snap counts for Concrete Charlie?

23, Hunter, who was listed as a starting wide receiver and a backup cornerback on an earlier depth chart, was 10-1 to win Offensive Rookie of the Year and 14-1 to win Defensive Rookie of the Year. He was 80-1 to win both.

24. The less he plays on defense, the better it figures to be for our man Jarrian Jones. Jones is a second-year corner for the Jaguars who is best known around here as the guy Saquon Barkley jumped over backward last year. Jones and Hunter were listed on a recent depth chart as backup CBs.

25. Tampa Bay’s Mike Evans is going for his 12th consecutive season with 1,000 receiving yards. which would break the record he shares with Jerry Rice. With help from Stathead.com, here’s a comparison between Rice and Evans, who turned 32 on Aug. 21, at the same moments of their careers:

26. The coolest thing about Evans is that he’s been the Bucs’ nominee for the Walter Payton Award four times, which shows he’s a solid guy. He’ll face the Eagles in Week 4. Evans has five touchdowns in seven games against the Eagles, including his only 100-yard game against the Birds in the 2021 playoffs. Tampa Bay is 6-1 in those games.

» READ MORE: These five games will say a lot about where this Eagles season goes — starting Week 1 against Dallas

27. The New England Patriots were 4-13 last year with six losses by less than a touchdown. They sacked Jerod Mayo, hired Mike Vrabel, and are feeling like they can double their win total or even challenge for a playoff spot. New England’s first four draft picks were on offense, clearly to help second-year QB Drake Maye.

28. A few notable tweaks to the rules.

29. Former Temple coach Al Golden is now the defensive coordinator for the Cincinnati Bengals, who missed the playoffs last year mostly because that unit too often was Swiss cheese. Golden coached the Owls from 2006 to 2010 and more recently, had been running Notre Dame’s defense the last three years.

30. Buffalo has been eliminated by Kansas City four of the last five playoff years. In those games, the Bills gave up 32, 27, 42, and 38 points.

31. This is the Bills’ final season at the venue originally known as Rich Stadium (1973 to 1997) and then Ralph Wilson Stadium (1998 to 2015), New Era Field (2016 to 2019), Bills Stadium (2020), and Highmark Stadium (2021 to 2025). The Eagles played the second game ever at that stadium, a 27-26 loss in 1973 when O.J. Simpson ran for 171 yards. This year, they will play the second-to-last game there, in Week 17 on Dec. 28. The Jets, who were Buffalo’s first home opponent in 1973, will be the final regular-season opponents this year in Week 18.

32. Buffalo was 10-0 at home last season.

33. Minnesota is a fascinating team. If the Vikings’ decision to go with second-year QB J.J. McCarthy is successful, they’ll push Detroit in the NFC North. McCarthy missed his entire rookie season, except for one preseason game, with a knee injury. He was 27-1 in college at Michigan.

34. Lamar Jackson at 4-1, and Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, and Patrick Mahomes (around 6-1) sit at the top of the MVP odds list. Hurts is 20-1.

35. Jackson is the only player among them to win multiple MVPs but no titles. Can’t blame him for last season’s playoff loss, though. Mark Andrews has to make that catch.

36. Rookie Tyler Loop, a sixth-round pick, takes over as the Ravens kicker following the release of Justin Tucker following sexual assault allegations. Tucker is the most accurate kicker of all time, though his 73.3% success rate on field goals last season easily was a career low.

37. Had to chuckle at new Jets coach Aaron Glenn’s objection that the NFL is a passing league, using the 2024 Eagles as his example. “Who says this is a passing league?” Glenn asked incredulously. “The team that won the Super Bowl, what were they in passing? 29th? What were they in running? First.” Yeah, the Eagles also had the best offensive line in the league, the best running back in the league, a quarterback who ran for 630 yards (and 14 touchdowns), and plenty of stars on the outside to make teams respect the pass.

38. The Jets were last in the league in rushing attempts in 2024 at 21.4 per game. The Eagles, at 36.7, were first. The Jets also were 5-12. Hard to run when you’re constantly trailing.

39. Colts linebacker Zaire Franklin, another La Salle High alumnus, recently opened a Rita’s Water Ice franchise in the Indianapolis suburb of McCordsville. A seventh-round pick in 2018, Franklin has led the Colts in tackles the last three seasons and last year was selected to the Pro Bowl for the first time.

40. “I’ve learned a lot of lessons in leadership throughout my time in the NFL. This is no different,” Franklin, 29, told Indy’s WRTV. “You’re trying to create a culture, you’re trying to create a team and that comes with set principles [and] set values.”