NFL

As a Pats fan, Mac

Kyle Dugger has already been pretty good, and has earned some reputation as a very good box safety, but I think this year he's going to really take off. We're a stupid number of bodies deep at hybrid safety now, and all but Mapu (who has reportedly been picking up a lot and looking really natural in the LB role, at least) have good experience in the defense now. While losing McCourty hurts (though his decline was also a concern before officially returning), it means that we can play a lot more games in the middle of the field. You don't know whether Dugger or Peppers is going to drop out, and you have enough options that you don't have to saddle Dugger with manning up on the tight end with regularity. You can let him run wild and play instinctually and make it really annoying to attack the middle of the field.

So much is riding on Desmond Ridder that I really hope he's the answer, or at least a good enough answer.

Outside of him, I feel like the Falcons' front office has done a good job of properly hedging bets.

For the Steelers I'd say Najee Harris.

Year 3- he needs to perform to start talking about contract extensions and getting real money next off-season. He's currently healthy (hopefully he stays that way as he got injured in campast year).

Most importantly, offensive line. The Steelers had the worst overall offensive line in the league his rookie year, near the bottom of the league in BOTH Pass Block and Run Block Win Rates. Last year they improved to roughly average. This year, they added Suemalo and a lot of their young guys are developing and getting familiar. Either Broderick Jones will start at LT or Moore will have improved enough to keep his job (at least to start the season).

Also decisions like bringing back Gentry, drafting Darnell Washington, and keeping Conner Heyward seems to indicate they are moving towards heavier packages on offense. Replacing Claypool with Allen Robinson is hopefully going to lead to better blocking at the point of attack. I think they really want to be a run-first team and try to take the pressure off of Pickett.

You can make arguments for almost the whole team. The whole offense is really young, mostly still on rookie deals outside of the offensive line and a couple of WR's.

Ideally Jordan Love becomes the third Hall of Fame quarterback in a row for the Packers!

As a Giants fan, I’m hoping for Evan Neal to make a big jump.

Ojabo being the answer on the edge would be huge. I’d also love to see last year’s corner draft picks make the jump as well. Marlon needs some help!

This is tough, I dont know if it will happen or not but for the jets I think I have to say Becton. If he's healthy and pops off our oline is going to be way better than people expect. If he doesn't... Well hopefully we don't end up on our 5th and 6th tackles again this year

I’m going for Skyy Moore. The Andy Reid offense is notoriously difficult for receivers to learn; the year two bump is a real possibility.

I'm a pats fan, so I really hope it's Mac Jones. I got him on two dynasty teams also.

Josh Allen. I think he can be even better.

Hoping Lewis Cine steps up for the Vikes' secondary this year after being out pretty much all last year. We might just have a semi-effective defensive scheme with Flores at the helm, but it's just as much about execution as it is about coaching, and Cine is pretty much all we've got out there in the secondary. Our 2nd year GM spent the whole offseason cleaning up the cap hell Spielman left for him and freeing up money to pay JJ, so we lost a lot of talent. The guys who are left are all gonna have to step up, but especially the defense.

Lions fan. I'm really hoping Aiden Hutchinson builds on his production from last year. He had a great rookie season, hoping he can be in the top tier of pass rushes in the league next season and continue to develop

Alec Pierce. Matt Ryan had a noodle arm and couldn't utilize his skillset. Expecting a ton of Richardson to Pierce bombs this year

Not so much expect but I’m still hopeful trey lance can get a shot. I love purdy too, but lance never got to play with CMC and I’d love to see what that looks like