Last Updated on September 8, 2025 9:27 pm by admin
The NFL has returned, and it has done so with back-to-back games featuring both of the teams that contested last season’s Super Bowl. The Lincoln Financial Field opener set the tone, with the Philadelphia Eagles, led by their steel-nerved defense, edging past their rival Dallas Cowboys after a second-half war of attrition. Then, under the Brazilian lights of São Paulo, Justin Herbert orchestrated one of the season’s first shockers, powering the Chargers to an upset victory over their AFC West rival, the Kansas City Chiefs, with 318 throwing yards and three touchdowns in a sensational display.
Yet, beneath the highlight-reel chaos, some of the NFL’s oldest quarterbacks stare down what may be their final chase for glory. In a league freshly obsessed with the quick-twitch brilliance of youth, the spotlight swings to three titans of longevity, each facing their own gauntlet. So, can they get the job done and get their team over the line and into the playoffs? Let’s find out.
Aaron Rodgers – Pittsburgh Steelers
Aaron Rodgers enters the 2025 campaign not just as a four-time MVP or Super Bowl champion, but as a 41-year-old quarterback grasping at the last threads of footballing immortality. Brought to Pittsburgh after a disastrous two-year stint with the Jets on a single-year, $13.6 million deal, the numbers on his résumé are monumental: 62,952 passing yards, 503 touchdowns, and a reputation for surgical deep balls.
But the raw math only scratches the surface of his challenge. His Big Apple detour yielded disappointment: 3,897 yards, 28 touchdowns, 11 picks, and an offense that flattered to deceive in 2024, while the dressing room turned toxic with much of the blame placed at A-Rod’s feet.
But training camp reports detail a Rodgers reinvigorated by the cornerstone Steelers culture instilled by Mike Tomlin, the NFL’s longest-tenured head coach. The boss has famously never endured a losing season during his stint with the Black and Yellow, but even so, the NFL betting sites don’t fancy his side’s chances of reaching the playoffs next season. The latest NFL betting at Bovada odds currently price the Steelers as a +135 shot to reach the postseason, meaning that they consider it more likely that the Steel Curtain will miss out.
Rodgers’ path to success is as much about endurance and adaptation as arm talent. His preparation has been meticulous, even by his legendary standards—epidural injections for back pain, measured snap counts, and a laser-like focus on pre-snap reads. The four-time MVP no longer has the legs required to get him out of trouble, which he used to use every week when he was in his pomp in Green Bay. But even still, with time to spare courtesy of a rebuilt O-Line, Rodgers will have the tools required to get the job done.
The opening schedule favors an early run: a grudge match versus the Jets looms in Week 1, with a stretch of games against bottom-half pass defenses. If the rebuilt O-line holds, and Tomlin’s defense, led by TJ Watt and Jalen Ramsey, generates takeaways, the ingredients for a 10-plus win season are present. But here’s the riddle—can a legend’s body still cash the checks his mind loves to write?
Joe Flacco – Cleveland Browns
The NFL rarely does sentimentality, but even the coldest bettor had to pause at Joe Flacco’s Cleveland resurrection two seasons ago. Back in orange and brown at age 40, the former Super Bowl champion remains a paradox: the cannon-armed journeyman who, for five euphoric weeks, looked every bit the playoff magician of old back in 2023.
His reward for that Comeback Player of the Year-winning display? Another chance after a dismal year in Indianapolis, loaded with a $4 million contract, a wide-open depth chart, and the longest playoff odds in football.
Flacco assembled a fairytale the last time he was in Cleveland—1,616 yards at a 60.3% clip, five late-season wins, and a city reborn from quarterback purgatory. What kept the Browns afloat wasn’t just Flacco’s IQ, but his synergy with Kevin Stefanski’s scheme: take what the defense gives you, punish mistakes, avoid risk. The latter remains Flacco’s biggest challenge; his Colts cameo (7 picks in 6 games) is a cautionary tale. With veteran Amari Cooper and David Njoku as safety nets, Flacco has targets—but time and pass rushes won’t get any slower.
For all the offensive wrangling, it’s Cleveland’s defense that may swing their fate. Myles Garrett – the 2023 sack king – made headlines following his contract extension in the summer. Flacco’s secondary role—as mentor to rookies Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders—looms large, especially if a rocky September triggers a changing of the guard. Logic says the fairytale ends here… but in a sport built on improbable comebacks, dismissing Flacco is a mistake sportsbooks have paid for before.
Matthew Stafford – LA Rams
The Rams aren’t just built around Matthew Stafford—they are Stafford. His willingness to reconstruct his contract ($44 million this season) is a testament both to ambition and urgency. Now 37, the former Detroit Lion is chasing history on a surgically-repaired back, the legacy of his “immortality or bust” approach to playoff football. The 2024 campaign—3,762 yards, 20 touchdowns, and just 8 picks—reminded the league how dangerous Stafford can be when healthy. The organization now has to keep him that way.
What tips the scale for LA? For one, a receiving corps of rare pedigree. Puka Nacua exploded onto the scene with 1,486 yards as a rookie, while the trade for Davante Adams gives Stafford a rare double-headed monster on the boundaries. Camp reporters describe McVay’s offense as deceptive yet explosive, marrying Stafford’s preference for intermediate darts with Kyren Williams’ chain-moving ground game (1,000+ yards in 2024).
Still, Stafford’s health is a perpetual subtext—he’s undergone epidurals and cutting-edge Ammortal therapy in the offseason, with early reports showing a complete training camp workload. LA’s path is lined with manageable tests, but if young pass rushers Jared Verse and Braden Fiske turn pressure into turnovers, Stafford’s 11-6 ceiling is attainable—and a Super Bowl encore cannot be ruled out.