It's Super Bowl week and all the focus right now is rightfully on the Chiefs and Eagles. But it's never too early to start thinking about next season's NFL futures.
Every NFL team wants to be where Kansas City and Philadelphia are right now, but which 2025 teams might profile as next year's Chiefs or Eagles? Who already has the foundation in place to make a run next season?
What other teams could be next year's Lions or Bills — Super Bowl contenders all season before falling just short? Who might be the 2024 version of the Commanders or Vikings — surprise teams no one saw coming?
In this exact column last January, we identified and bet on the Eagles at +2200 to win the Super Bowl as 2024's Ravens — a ticket that's matured nicely into a +105 moneyline we're holding for Sunday. But who will be next year's Eagles?
Let's take a look and get an early edge on 2026 Super Bowl futures.
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Next Year's Commanders: Bears
It's not too hard to uncover Washington's magic formula. The Commanders drafted Jayden Daniels at No. 2 overall, and he immediately dragged the franchise out of the mud all the way to the NFC Championship.
But it wasn't just Daniels on his own.
Washington was always a candidate for a turnaround. The Commanders had oodles of cap room last offseason and used it to add veteran names up and down the roster, totally rebuilding a terrible offensive line and bumping the defense from awful to passable. Washington also brought in an entirely new coaching staff, with Dan Quinn adding aggression and OC Kliff Kingsbury opening up the offense for Daniels.
The obvious choice for next year's Commanders would be a team at the top of the draft set to take a quarterback — presumably the Titans, Browns, or Giants. But all three of those teams run back the same coaching staff, and this year's QB class isn't anywhere near as dynamic as a year ago.
How about the one player drafted before Daniels last year?
Caleb Williams had a mostly forgettable rookie season, but Chicago started 4-2 before allowing a Hail Mary to Daniels and Washington that Freaky Friday-ed both teams' seasons. The Bears only won one more game and finished 2-7 in one-score games. Flip those results and Chicago is 10-7, and might have been Washington this year.
Now add in the new coaching staff with this year's prize addition, Ben Johnson.
What can Johnson do to unlock his franchise QB? He'll have help from other outstanding offensive minds like Declan Doyle, J.T. Barrett, Press Taylor, and Antwaan Randle-El, now on staff with the Bears.
That could also mean a serious culture change in Chicago, a more aggressive team like the Lions and Commanders this season. The Bears also rank top seven in cap room and should be able to add to the offensive line and defense, and Chicago has an additional top-40 draft pick from Carolina, the highest draft pick already traded.
Could the Bears be next year's breakout young team? Chicago is +5000 to win it all at ESPN Bet — though the Bears could end up more interesting as a worst-to-first candidate.
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Next Year's Chargers: Patriots
Not many saw the Chargers coming this season.
Jim Harbaugh's arrival brought hope, but the roster was relatively barren of talent after several key departures and the offense badly lacked weapons.
But Harbaugh brought an old-school winning culture, unlocked something new in Justin Herbert, and rode his talented quarterback and a big defensive leap to win eight of his final 11 games against a soft schedule and get the Chargers comfortably to the playoffs.
The Raiders could be a candidate here with the arrival of Pete Carroll and a better-than-you-think defense. However, the AFC West is pretty brutal with those Chargers alongside the Chiefs and Broncos, and Las Vegas doesn't exactly have its Justin Herbert.
How about the Patriots?
Mike Vrabel finished over .500 each of his last four seasons in Tennessee, consistently raising the floor of a Titans team that was never the most talented. He inherits a defense that has a ton of talent, one that was among the league's best a year ago and entered the season in most analysts' top 10.
Vrabel also inherits talented second-year QB Drake Maye, who could be ready to take a huge step forward, especially if new OC Josh McDaniels can get things moving in the right direction.
New England has the most cap space in the league by a mile, offering plenty opportunity to add some blocking and weapons, and the Patriots play in a soft division where it might be reasonable to expect the Bills, Jets, and Dolphins to take a step back.
Vrabel and McDaniels could cap this team's ultimate ceiling, making a +12000 Super Bowl bet (FanDuel) a pipe dream, but could the Patriots be next year's Chargers?
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Next Year's Vikings: Seahawks
The Vikings started the season with a projected win total of 6.5 but instead went 14-3 and played for the top seed in the NFC on the final night of the regular season.
Minnesota's formula was simple: hyper-elite defense and a surprising bounce-back from a washed-out former Jets quarterback capable of leading a talented cadre of offensive weapons in a great system.
The Jets themselves could be candidates here if that elite defense bounces back, or perhaps the Steelers — who were already a poor man's version this season.
But I'm still on Seattle Island.
We rode Seattle Island all the way from worst to first a few years ago and cashed big on futures, then fell short this season backing Seattle all the way, only for the Seahawks to be the only double-digit-win team to miss the playoffs, heartbreakingly falling short on the fifth division tiebreaker.
Time to get it back.
I don't just think the Seahawks can be good next season, or a possible playoff contender — this team can be capital-G Great. Like 14-3 and 1-seed contender great.
The defense is already Super Bowl caliber. Mike Macdonald's unit was up-and-down early but found itself midseason and was as good as any non-Eagles defense in the league over the back half. Macdonald's defense, like Brian Flores' in Minnesota, is aggressive and attacking, especially dangerous playing on the front foot with a lead.
Could Seattle play with more leads next season? They will if new OC Klint Kubiak has anything to say about it. Kubiak's offense was all the rage when the Saints shockingly topped 40 points in back-to-back games to start the season before New Orleans' season went awry with injuries, but Kubiak's offense still impressed with surprisingly good metrics all season.
Seattle has plenty of weapons offensively in Kenneth Walker, Zach Charbonnet, DK Metcalf, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and Tyler Lockett, and the defense is loaded. The Seahawks also have an underrated former Jets washout QB in Geno Smith, capable of playing like a top 10 QB like Sam Darnold in the right system.
If Seattle can find some solutions on the offensive line, this team is capable of a serious run at the NFC 1-seed, a bye week, and two home games in front of the 12th Man away from a Super Bowl berth.
Let's make Seattle our first Super Bowl ticket of the season: +6500 at DraftKings.
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Next Year's Lions: Jaguars
For most of the season, it sure felt like we'd be prepping this week for a first-ever Lions Super Bowl.
Detroit was a juggernaut with a loaded coaching staff featuring Dan Campbell, offensive coordinator Ben Johnson and defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn — the latter two now head coaches. The Lions had an unstoppable offense that could run and pass plus a talented defense that surprised all season until injuries derailed them late.
It's easy to forget now, but the Lions were mostly an NFL punchline just a few weeks ago. They had an overlooked former No. 1 pick quarterback at the helm written off by most in Jared Goff, until Ben Johnson's creative play calling turned Goff into the leader of one of the league's best offenses.
It feels impossible right now, but could the Jaguars be the next Lions?
It has to start with new head coach Liam Coen.
Coen pulled all the strings for those surprising Bucs this season, featuring another forgotten No. 1 QB pick in Baker Mayfield. Coen helped Mayfield play like one of the league's best QBs, turned a moribund run game into one of the league's most creative, and helped the Bucs win the division and get to the playoffs.
Coen's next project is Trevor Lawrence, a former No. 1 pick himself. And like in Tampa, he's got some real talent around him, including star rookie WR Brian Thomas and RBs Travis Etienne and Tank Bigsby. There's a great offense waiting to break out in all that talent, especially in a soft division.
Could Jacksonville also find a leap defensively like Detroit? There's plenty of talent on that side of the ball, led by pass rushers Josh Hines-Allen and Travon Walker plus some breakout candidates in the secondary. New DC Anthony Campanile is mostly an unknown and has never called plays before, but the talent is there, and Jacksonville still gets to add a top-five talent in the draft too.
The Jaguars lost nine games by one score this season, two more than any other team.
It feels crazy to imagine the Jaguars as the Lions right now, but it would've been crazy to imagine the Lions a few years ago reaching these heights too. Jacksonville is +10000 to win it all at ESPN Bet.
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Next Year's Bills: Ravens
Will the Bills ever get over the hump?
Buffalo fell to 0-4 in the playoffs against Patrick Mahomes even after an MVP-caliber campaign from Josh Allen. In some other timeline where Mahomes never came to earth as a football-destroying alien, maybe Allen is on a GOAT path. But in this real world, he's stuck as something of a one-man offense leading a team we know will be there every year but one that always seems to fall short.
Doesn't that just feel like the Ravens?
We already know how great Lamar Jackson is. He's a two-time MVP that could well be a three-time MVP soon. He's not a one-man offense quite to the level that Josh Allen is, but his presence in Todd Monken's offense seems to all but ensure the Ravens will have one of the best offenses in the league season after season, especially with Derrick Henry by his side.
John Harbaugh has won the big one with Baltimore, but it's been a while. More recently, Harbaugh and the Ravens keep rolling up outstanding regular seasons with terrific defense and outstanding coaching, then fall short once again in the playoffs.
And like the Bills, what can you really do but just take a deep breath, run it back, and hope to finally get over the hump?
After all, if you're a couple of plays away from beating Mahomes, isn't that exactly where you want to be?
Baltimore is the third favorite at most books at +650. The Ravens will be in the mix, again, as always.
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Next Year's Eagles: 49ers
The Eagles were our big win in last year's column, and their winning formula came to fruition early.
After a forgettable 2-2 start, Philadelphia hit its bye week early and settled in with new coordinators on both sides of the ball. The defense exploded under Vic Fangio's tried-and-true formula, playing like the best unit in football from October forward. Kellen Moore's offense was up-and-down at times but found its identity with a devastating rushing attack led by the uber-talented Saquon Barkley.
The Eagles were a surprise — but should they have been?
This team started 10-1 a year ago before falling apart late, and they were coming off a Super Bowl berth the season before that. The talent was always there before everything went sideways, and a bounce-back season always made sense.
Enter the San Francisco 49ers.
Kyle Shanahan has been a head coach for eight seasons. He missed the playoffs in four of them — like this season — and led his team to the NFC Championship in each of the other four. Including the previous season when he was still the OC in Atlanta, Shanahan has led his team to at least the NFL's penultimate weekend in five of the last nine seasons. He is the closest thing the NFC has to Patrick Mahomes.
Since acquiring Christian McCaffrey, the healthy version of this Shanahan offense has been an absolute juggernaut. The problem this season wasn't that opponents finally found answers — it's that the offense was never healthy.
McCaffrey played four games all season. Brandon Aiyuk missed 10 games. Trent Williams missed seven. Brock Purdy, Deebo Samuel, and George Kittle all missed multiple games too. With a return to health, there's every reason to expect a top-five offense in San Francisco again next season — if not better — with McCaffrey as the 49ers' version of Saquon Barkley, opening everything up for the offense.
The Eagles had the best weapons in football this season, doing enough to keep the offense afloat even when Jalen Hurts wasn't playing his best. San Francisco, when healthy, has even better weapons to protect Brock Purdy — and Purdy took a step forward this year too.
There's another big reason to believe in next year's 49ers.
The defense took an even bigger step back than the offense in San Francisco and didn't have injuries to blame. DC Nick Sorenson just wasn't the man for the job after years of brain drain in San Francisco had seen many terrific coordinators hired away for bigger jobs elsewhere — much like in Philadelphia.
Now the defense returns to a familiar name in re-hired DC Robert Saleh. Saleh failed as a head coach, but he's been brilliant calling plays defensively. Outside of his first season with the Jets, Saleh's defense has ranked top five in the NFL in yards allowed in five consecutive seasons — even this one, before getting fired, upon which the Jets defense fell apart without Saleh in catastrophic fashion.
San Francisco had a season from hell and even then, the war-torn offense finished top 10 in DVOA with the defense ranked just outside. Even in a lost year, had the 49ers seen opposite results in their eight one-score games (2-6), they finish 10-7, win the division, and make the playoffs.
It's staring us right in the face. San Francisco will be right back in the mix with the top contenders next season once everyone is healthy. Kyle Shanahan and Robert Saleh will have this team hungry and ready.
The 49ers are the sixth favorite on the board but priced far too long at +2000 at BetRivers. San Francisco can be next year's Eagles, and the 49ers are the best Super Bowl bet on the board right now.
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Next Year's Chiefs: Chiefs
How in the world do you build next year's Chiefs?
Oh, it's super easy. All you need is a Hall of Fame coach, the greatest tight end of all time, routinely great defense and special teams and, oh yeah, that guy Patrick Mahomes.
Is that the Bills? They have the closest thing to Mahomes but no Kelce, no Steve Spagnuolo, no elite special teams or special teams edge.
Could it be the Bengals? Joe Burrow as the elite QB, a couple of elite WRs if Tee Higgins stays … but a tragically bad defense and a serious coaching deficit.
I really wanted to make the case for the Packers. Jordan Love at his best plays a bit like Mahomes, for better and for worse. Green Bay's defense was surprisingly good, Matt LaFleur is great, and the Packers have the core of a title team in there if everything breaks right for this young team.
But the Packers aren't going to go 15-2 or be a juggernaut from the start. They're not going to go 11-0 in one-score games despite relatively blah regular season metrics, only for that not to matter anyway because they had an extra gear hiding in there all along saved for playoff time.
Only the Chiefs have that gear, and only the Chiefs have Reid and Kelce and Spags and Mahomes.
There are no next Chiefs. It's just the Chiefs all over again, like it was last year and the year before.
Until someone comes and steals it away, it's a Chiefs world and we're all living in it. There's a reason these guys are the favorites.
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