(Reuters) – The NFL will begin life without Tom Brady when the 2023 season kicks off this week with Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs aiming to cement a dynasty and Aaron Rodgers hoping to turn the New York Jets into Super Bowl contenders.
With Mahomes at the helm of a show-stopping Chiefs offense that also features tight-end extraordinaire Travis Kelce, Kansas City are favoured to become only the ninth franchise to repeat as Super Bowl champions.
Should the Chiefs, who host the Detroit Lions on Thursday in the NFL season opener, go on to prevail in the Super Bowl being played in Las Vegas on Feb. 11 it will mark the team’s third Vince Lombardi Trophy in five seasons.
Four-time NFL MVP Rodgers, who was traded to New York after an 18-year run in Green Bay during which he led the Packers to a Super Bowl victory in 2011, will make his Jets debut on Monday in primetime against the division rival Buffalo Bills.
Brady, who had great success with the New England Patriots and then won a record seventh Super Bowl in his first year with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2021 before retiring in February, expects Rodgers to thrive in his new environment.
“He’ll be invigorated. Looks like he’s having a good time up to this year. I know he has been engaged in the offseason, which is always great, and really trying to connect with his teammates,” Brady told SiriusXM’s Let’s Go! podcast on Monday.
“So I’m excited to see what he does. They have a really good team. They have a really good offense. And, you know, Aaron’s been, when he’s got good receivers, man, it’s pretty dangerous… I think he’s gonna have a great year.”
Up first for Rodgers will be a Bills team led by quarterback Josh Allen and hoping to finally break through and make a Super Bowl run after winning the AFC East division in each of the last three seasons only to come up short in the playoffs.
Included in the Bills’ 53-man roster is safety Damar Hamlin, who during the preseason got his first taste of competitive action since he suffered a cardiac arrest during a January NFL game at the Cincinnati Bengals.
Hamlin, who was discharged from hospital nine days after his cardiac arrest and in April was cleared to resume all football activities, will start the season as a backup.
There will also be plenty of eyes on the Philadelphia Eagles, who fell short in last season’s Super Bowl but return this season with all of their core players, including dynamic quarterback Jalen Hurts.
The Denver Broncos, once among the NFL’s elite franchises, may have gone 5-12 last season to extend their playoff drought to seven years but they have since brought in head coach Sean Payton in hopes he can turn the team around.
Payton is no stranger to such a tall task after having helped rejuvenate the New Orleans Saints, leading them to nine postseason appearances, seven division titles and the team’s lone Super Bowl during the 2009 campaign.
This season will also see the NFL play five games in Europe, three in London and two in Frankfurt, Germany.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
