Make it Make Sense

Storylines ahead of the 2025 NFL season that have little to no merit

The Raiders vs The Seahawks

Coming out of the offseason into the 2025 season for some reason fans have assumed the Raiders have gotten significantly better while the Seahawks have made downgrades to their roster. I’ve seen multiple popular influencers in the football sphere make videos praising what the Raiders did, while dismissing what Seattle has done. We’ll start with the Raiders first and then the Seahawks.

The first indicator that the Raiders are on a hype train heading into 2025 is that Ashton Jeanty is going 12th overall in fantasy. It’s understandable to give him praise because of his otherworldly production, but the NFL isn’t the Mountain West Conference and the Raiders offensive line isn’t a particularly strong unit. There’s no world where Jeanty can justify his sky high ADP. Even though historically backs taken with high draft capital have significant production off the bat. It’s hard to ignore that he also has to go up against the Broncos and Chiefs twice. Two of the best defenses in football. Same goes for Geno Smith who has received so much praise since his move to Vegas that he has become overrated. Every Seahawks fan knows Geno has so much talent, but along with the good there’s bad. Sometimes very bad. He always seems to have plays where he doesn’t see the defense and throws a ball right to a corner. Especially when he was playing San Francisco in the NFC West. His mistakes piled up in crunch time behind his terrible offensive line. What’s the consensus expectation of him? What’s his ceiling? He’s led a mediocre Seattle team for years now. He’s an upgrade compared to what Vegas has had, but the Seahawks were in need of change.

That’s what the Seahawks did this offseason. Overhauled for change to the status quo. Unloading DK Metcalf and his $33 million contract was easily a net positive move. They also were the team that capitalized on Darnold’s discount. Last season on the Vikings he proved he can produce in a stout system, which is what the Seahawks are setting up with Clint Kubiak at the helm calling plays. Darnold isn’t being asked to replicate what he did last year. This will be a far more balanced offense than what Darnold was a part of in Minnesota. Signing Kupp came at a far cheaper price than Metcalf and it allows for JSN to assume the role of being the team’s go-to wideout. The team also picked up some late round speedsters to stretch the field for Darnold with Ricky White III and Tory Horton. It’s inexplicable why fans would think re-signing Geno would be a better move than signing Darnold. A 34 year old vet who never took Seattle anywhere is being praised while a 28 year old QB who just broke out in a prove it year signs to Seattle for LESS money. Darnold’s falloff came after his star offensive tackle went down. The pessimism around Sam is puzzling especially since the Seahawks added Grey Zabel to their offensive line. This offensive line unit should have far more success than they’ve had the last few seasons.

The Bears were Ben Johnson away from being a competitive football team

Despite what the NFL told you prior to his rookie season Caleb Williams was still incredibly raw when he got drafted. Sloppy footwork, poor mechanics, subpar read progression, a weak pocket presence, and the prevalence of heroball in his play were on full display his first year in the Windy City. It might take another two years until we finally see Caleb start to find a groove in the league. That’s okay as well, but for some in this day in age time is not permitted for young quarterbacks. So many times when watching a Bears football game in 2024 you’d see Williams hold onto the football for way too long and abandon the pocket when it wasn’t necessary. It created more sacks, stagnated drives, and resulted in an offense that punted the ball more than any other team in the league. It was a tough pill to swallow for a heralded prospect with comparisons to Patrick Mahomes. The thing is he should’ve never gotten that kind of hype. He can make awe inspiring plays, but he hasn’t shown he can operate within the confines of a system. At USC he played against some of the worst defenses in the NCAA and got annihilated when the Trojans went toe to toe with Notre Dame. Horrific turnovers, killed confidence, and a complete collapse for his team who thought they had postseason aspirations. He went and cried in his mother’s arms on the national stage.

For those who love to bring up Caleb’s stats being good for a rookie it’s an easily refutable claim. In his first season he put up half of his passing yard production against the worst pass defenses in the NFL. The Colts, Jaguars (in London), Vikings (at home), Lions (twice), and the Panthers (at home). In these six games he put up 1,800 passing yards averaging 304 yards a game through the air. The other eleven games. Gross. An astounding 156 yards passing a game. Just think about that. 156 yards passing a game. That’s the worst in the NFL by a wide margin. It’s a bit absurd that people don’t like to talk about just how historically bad the Bears offense was. Their defense was a special unit, yet the organization only could muster 5 wins. For the crowd of people who believe Caleb has been over hated I’ll concede to the coaching argument because Chicago’s staff was a joke, but Williams has brought a lot of scrutiny onto himself. He asked for ownership of the team before he set foot on the field.

The Cowboys can bounce back and find their way into playoffs with Pickens

There’s always a buzz around the Cowboys during the offseason no matter what because of their gravitational pull as America’s team. Whether it's Jerry Jones’ annual disputes with the media over how poorly he manages the franchise or contract disputes with his own players, he pulls in eye balls for sure. This year his big draw was poaching George Pickens off the Steelers with the hopes that his 32 year old franchise quarterback Dak Prescott could give Jones some ROI on his mega contract. The issue with just getting Pickens is that it’s equivalent to putting a small band aid on a gashing wound. It wouldn’t even be an overstatement to say the Cowboys are on the verge of a disastrous organizational implosion. It all starts with Dak Prescott.

Prescott is aging and as each year passes he gets further and further from Dallas’ aspirations to be a top contender. Last season when Prescott played before his ankle injury that required surgery he didn’t just play poorly. He was terrible. A 3-4 record, 11 TDs to 8 INTs, and the worst QBR in Dak’s career by a landslide. This is what I knew would happen when Dak went down. People would try to put him back into the equation for 2025. Here’s why expecting Dak to bounce back is an incredible stretch. He has missed 14 games over the last three seasons. Dallas has nobody on the entire roster who can make a marginal impact on the ground. That means the team is going to be even more one dimensional than they were with Rico Dowdle as their feature back. There’s so much weight on this team expectation wise that they are probably going to be crushed by. The management has failed at every facet. 

Jerry Jones has done so poorly this offseason as the organization’s GM that it could be in history books one day. He now has a coach who is an absolute wild card running the show, the team’s most impactful player fighting with him over an extension, and so many questions on both sides of the ball. The Cowboys’ offensive line NEEDS Tyler Booker to have an immediate impact. This is because Jerry Jones didn’t prepare enough to surround his core of skill position talent with the foundational pieces that make up an elite team. The offensive line and interior of their defensive line are areas that have been struggling to hold up. The amount of whiffs on the draft picks for their interior defensive line has become a serious problem. So much so that the Cowboys found some production with Osa Odighizuwa and gave him $20 million a year for the next four years. That’s a common theme across the board for the Cowboys defense. Their linebacking core is made up of young prayers and Kenneth Murray Jr. who is not enough of a player to be a defensive anchor. Then moving on to the secondary there’s Trevon Diggs who gives up crushing plays at any given moment since he sells out for turnovers and gets burnt. Daron Bland is a good player no doubt, but he’s coming off a season of playing 11 games now entering the last year of a $5.3 million contract. He’s looking for an early extension ahead of the 2025 season that he most likely won’t get although he is the cornerstone of Dallas’ defense. 

All of this chaos is caused by Jerry’s theatrics. His cheapness has cost him millions every single time. The whole situation with this defense right now is approaching impending doom because of Jones. Micah was willing to take a pay cut years ago. This is public knowledge. So now Jerry Jones is playing a game by waiting until week 1 to pay his best player. Stupidity. Lamb could’ve been paid before his career year. Prescott could’ve been paid earlier than his record setting (at the time) contract. If he truly believed he was good enough to lead the Cowboys to success. If you weren’t willing to pay Micah then why on earth would you wait this long to make that decision? A trade earlier in his contract would've gotten a staggering haul. No one has ever run a franchise into the ground by themselves quite like this. Jerry Jones is like when you were a kid and ran franchise mode on your favorite sports game. You got all your favorite players on good deals and then it’s time to pay them. "Wait, what's a salary cap?” That’s what I said when I was 7. Jerry Jones is 82.

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