Chiefs’ quest, Kirk Cousins, Jim Harbaugh and more story lines to watch during the 2024 NFL season

Welcome to Season 105 of the National Football League. Bill Belichick is gone, but lurking, turn signal on, just waiting for a prime spot to open in 2025. Andy Reid is the active coaching G.O.A.T., so great that he’s going for the first Super Bowl three-peat and his fourth title in six years and still hasn’t hoisted NFL Coach of the Year as a Kansas City Chief. And don’t look now, but the Chicago Bears, also in their 105th season, just might have found in No. 1 overall draft pick Caleb Williams their first long-term franchise-worthy quarterback since Sid Luckman arrived 85 years ago.

Or not. We’ll see about that soon enough, Chicago.

It all starts Thursday night in Kansas City. Again. The Chiefs play the Baltimore Ravens and reigning NFL MVP Lamar Jackson in a rematch of last season’s AFC Championship game, won by Patrick Mahomes and his Chiefs 17-10 at Baltimore.

The action continues with a Friday night game. Yes, the NFL behemoth doesn’t want you to turn away long enough to watch high school football as it ventures to South America for the first time with the Packers playing the Eagles in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

All told, there will be 272 regular-season games, 12 more postseason games, one exciting new set of kickoff rules and countless controversies and heart-pounding finishes before we arrive in New Orleans on Feb. 13 for Super Bowl LIX.

Buckle up.

Why not? Reid, Mahomes, Travis Kelce and the 2023 Chiefs looked almost average while plodding through the regular season at 11-6. Yet a second straight NFL season ended with Mahomes and Co. staging a comeback win in the Super Bowl. Star corner L’Jarius Snead is gone, traded to Tennessee, from Steve Spagnuolo’s smothering defense. And Kelce turns 35 during the season. But the ruling NFL dynasty also handed Mahomes a couple of big-time receivers in Marquise “Hollywood” Brown, who has been ruled out because of injury for Week 1, and first-round draft pick Xavier Worthy. Only two times in the first 104 NFL seasons has a team won three straight championships. The Packers did it from 1929-31, before there were playoff games; and 1965-67, winning the 1965 NFL championship and then the first two Super Bowls.

Kyle Shanahan’s current five-year run looks so good that it’s starting to look really bad that his 49ers haven’t made it over the hump. They’ve won 54 games in five years. They’ve been to four conference championship games, winning two. They’ve nearly won two Super Bowls only to watch Mahomes stage second-half comebacks during the 2019 and 2023 seasons. The 49ers still have Brock Purdy still on his rookie deal. But that cap friendliness ends in a couple years. And while the NFC isn’t exactly loaded, the Eagles have teamed Saquon Barkley with Jalen Hurts in an effort to overcome last year’s bizarre late-season collapse and return to the Super Bowl, which they also lost to Mahomes two years ago. And, oh yeah, let’s not forget that the Detroit Lions were leading the 49ers in San Francisco by two touchdowns with 30 minutes left in last year’s NFC title game.

The NFL has eight new head coaches and 28 new coordinators. None bear watching more than Jim Harbaugh’s return to the NFL as Chargers coach after capping his nine-year run at Michigan with the Wolverines’ first national championship since 1997. Yes, Harbaugh is odd and tends to wear thin on people. But the man wins. Fast. In 2011, he took over a 49ers team that was 6-10 with eight straight non-winning seasons. Harbaugh went 13-3 and reached the conference title game in Year 1. Then he went to the Super Bowl, losing to brother John and the Ravens. Another trip to the NFC title game ensued before the 49ers and Harbaugh parted after an 8-8 season. In Year 1 without Harbaugh? The 49ers went 5-11. In L.A., Harbaugh inherits a young franchise quarterback (Justin Herbert) to pair with an old-school smash-mouth mentality that he enhanced by drafting tackle and Minnesota native Joe Alt fifth overall.

NFL teams drafted quarterbacks six times in the first 12 picks this year. Three of them — Williams in Chicago, Jayden Daniels (No. 2) in Washington, and Bo Nix (No. 12) in Denver — will start opening day. The Vikings’ J.J. McCarthy (No. 10) suffered a season-ending knee injury in the team’s preseason opener. The Patriots’ Drake Maye (No. 3) will sit for now behind Jacoby Brissett. And Michael Penix Jr. (a surprising No. 8) will sit in Atlanta for as long as former Viking Kirk Cousins can hold him off. Presumably, that will be at least a season or two considering the Falcons outbid the Vikings for the 36-year-old Cousins by a large margin, giving him a four-year, $180 million deal with $90 million of the $100 million in guaranteed money coming this year and next. Cousins played eight games last year and was Kirk-like in that he had impressive stats but was 4-4 before suffering a torn Achilles. Cousins is one of eight new faces at quarterback around the league. He’s healthy and capable of posting great numbers. But, per usual, the question is whether a 13-year veteran with one playoff victory can win consistently enough to justify his contract.

Speaking of quarterbacks with little playoff success trying to justify new mega deals, Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott and his 2-5 postseason record head toward Sunday’s opener without a contract beyond this season. Prescott has won three division titles and reached the playoffs five times in eight seasons but has never been beyond the divisional round. Coach Mike McCarthy is on the hottest seat in the league after being retained following a 48-32 home wild-card beatdown from the seventh-seeded Packers. Green Bay destroyed Dan Quinn’s vaunted defense, rushing for 143 yards and three touchdowns as Jordan Love was passing for three more and a 157.2 rating. Quinn left to become Washington’s head coach. In stepped former Vikings coach Mike Zimmer after two years out of the league. With McCarthy presumably on a short leash, one has to wonder if owner and long-time Zimmer friend Jerry Jones will hand the head coaching reins over to Zimmer if Dak and Da Cowboys start slowly. Like we said, Buckle Up!

A previous version of this story misstated the number of NFL regular-season games and misstated the timing of the NFL-AFL merger.