For the first time this summer, all of the NFL’s teams will be strapped up for a weekend’s worth of preseason action. With few exceptions – for better or worse – most of the 32 squads have fully taken shape, though a few important positional battles and contract standoffs await resolution. Still, this is the time of year when most clubs project confidence and optimism that, if everything falls into place, they could wind up in the playoffs and maybe even vie for a Super Bowl berth.
Yet the cold truth for most of them is that some level of disappointment awaits – whether that’s a tough loss on Super Sunday or winding up with a top-five draft pick in 2026 (though that would be an optimal outcome in some quarters). Remember, this is a zero-sum game. Despite the good vibes emanating from most camps, there's no avoiding the reality of math − meaning for every 14-win team, there's a mirror image somewhere with 14 losses.
So how will it all shake out? With every roster basically finalized (and maybe optimized) for the season ahead, let's try to forecast the 2025 season with record projections for every outfit.
(A note on methodology: Using the most current information amid a few iterations of this exercise, I predict winners and losers for all 272 regular-season games to arrive at my projections. The outcomes allow me to apply tiebreakers, when needed, to determine and slot the 14-team playoff field – seedings in parentheses – before arriving at a champion. Warning, past performance is no guarantee of future returns.)
