Aaron Rodgers is "not worried" about the Green Bay Packers' slump after they were consigned to a 23-21 defeat by the Washington Commanders.

The Packers suffered a third consecutive defeat on Sunday and are 3-4 after the loss at FedEx Field.

Quarterback Rodgers was defiant after Green Bay fell short in the capital and believes they can stop the rot when they face the Buffalo Bills next weekend.

Asked if making the playoffs still seemed possible, he replied: "You're god damn right it does.

"I'm not worried about this squad. In fact, this might be the best thing for us. This week, nobody is going to give us a chance, going to Buffalo on Sunday Night Football, with a chance to get exposed. Shoot, this might be the best thing for us."

Packers head coach Matt LaFleur is backing his team to arrest their slide.

"I don't think anybody thought we'd be in this spot that we're in right now," said LaFleur. "We're going to find out what we're made of in terms of just how we attack Monday, how we attack Tuesday, Wednesday and every day in practice.

"I do believe that we've got the right kind of guys that will continue to battle."

LaFleur says it is not only down to Rodgers to step up and get Green Bay back on track.

He said: "I think it takes everybody. It takes everybody around him. You've got to have the protection in front of you to be able to hold up.

"You've got to have the guys making plays, too. I feel like we had a ton of drops. We had a lot of penalties that put us back behind the sticks."

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers' dismal season plumbed new depths as they remarkably lost 21-3 to the Carolina Panthers on Sunday.

Tom Brady's Bucs had slipped to 3-3 with last week's unexpected defeat to the Pittsburgh Steelers, and the team now have a losing record for the first time since the legendary quarterback lost his 2020 debut. Only in 2002, when he missed the playoffs, had Brady previously had a losing record at the end of Week 7.

This reverse was perhaps even more surprising than the Steelers upset, as P.J. Walker, Carolina's third-choice QB, led a Panthers team who had traded away star running back Christian McCaffrey this week.

Following that trade with the San Francisco 49ers, Steve Wilks, the interim head coach since Matt Rhule's October 10 firing, insisted: "There's no such thing as tanking when it comes to myself and the guys in that locker room."

The Panthers backed up that statement by dominating Brady and the Bucs, who were held to three points or fewer for the third time in their three seasons together. A Brady offense had three points or fewer only twice in his entire New England Patriots career.

The Bucs were scoreless through three quarters, in which time Carolina scored two touchdowns – Walker with a 20-yard completion to DJ Moore, before Chuba Hubbard, with just six carries through six weeks alongside McCaffrey, ran in from 17 yards.

Ryan Succop's field goal at the start of the fourth quarter was not to set the stage for a dramatic turnaround, as Walker's 29-yard pass to Tommy Tremble completed the job.

Rodgers also loses once more

Brady's fellow veteran Aaron Rodgers also dropped to 3-4 as the Green Bay Packers lost for the third week running, beaten 23-21 by the Washington Commanders.

The Packers have suffered three straight defeats for the first time since 2018, with Rodgers unable to rally late on after a first half in which he had only 47 passing yards – his second-lowest career mark after 15 or more attempts before halftime.

Dak back but defense dominates

Dak Prescott returned from injury as the Dallas Cowboys beat the Detroit Lions 24-6, although the victory owed more to running back Ezekiel Elliott and the team's defense than their QB. Prescott threw for 207 yards and a TD, as Elliott ran in for a pair of scores while Jared Goff was sacked five times and picked off twice.

Joe Burrow, the Cincinnati Bengals' QB, was far more influential as he threw for 481 yards and three TDs in a 35-17 win against the Atlanta Falcons. That yardage ranks third in a regular season Bengals game all-time, although the 525-yard record already belongs to Burrow (v Ravens, 2021).

The Tennessee Titans' Derrick Henry enjoyed a record-setting performance in victory over AFC South rivals the Indianapolis Colts, rushing for 128 yards. He has 1287 career rushing yards versus the Colts, the most of any Titan against any one team.

The Washington Commanders placed starting quarterback Carson Wentz on injured reserve Saturday, ensuring he will miss at least four games as he recovers from a broken finger on his throwing hand.  

Wentz suffered the injury during Washington's 12-7 win over the Chicago Bears on October 13 and underwent surgery to repair the broken finger earlier this week.  

The 29-year-old will be eligible to return from IR on November 20, but his prognosis after surgery indicated he could miss up to six weeks.  

The Commanders (2-4) will start Taylor Heinicke under center on Sunday against the Green Bay Packers, with rookie fifth-round draft pick Sam Howell serving as his back-up.  

In his first year with Washington, Wentz opened the season by throwing seven touchdowns in the first two games but has followed with three touchdowns and three interceptions over his past four games.  

Heinicke started 15 games for Washington last season, throwing for 3,419 yards and 20 touchdowns with 15 interceptions.  

With the Commanders sitting in last place of a competitive NFC East, some fans are already clamouring to see Howell as the starter.

Not every NFL week is going to be filled with great games. The law of averages says there will be some clunkers.

But it only takes one game to spice up a Sunday, and Week 7 has such a contest in the form of a Super Bowl rematch.

The Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LIV three seasons ago, the Niners failing to finish the job in Miami having led 20-10 with seven minutes remaining.

San Francisco's first chance for a measure of revenge comes on Sunday, when the 49ers host the Chiefs in a game SmartRatings sees as the best of the week.

SmartRatings is a Stats Perform AI-based platform that provides excitement ratings for sporting events, teams and players. The excitement scale, ranging from 0-100, is powered by complex algorithms that are predicated upon six primary variables: pace, parity, novelty, momentum, context and social buzz.

The weight of each variable is dynamic and adapts as a season progresses. The excitement scale translates to the following general sub-ranges: 0-39 (Dull Game), 40-64 (OK Game), 65-84 (Good Game), 85-100 (Great Game).

Here, we take a look at Chiefs-49ers clash in the Bay Area and two other games viewed as the most exciting of Week 7 and the key matchups that could decide them.

Green Bay Packers @ Washington Commanders

SmartRating: 54

Win Probability: Packers 74.2%

Key Matchup: Allen Lazard vs. Washington cornerbacks

Randall Cobb's injury means Aaron Rodgers has even fewer receivers he can trust, so Lazard can expect plenty of targets to come his way as the Packers look to end a two-game losing run.

The numbers suggest Lazard will be able to find joy against a vulnerable Washington secondary.

Lazard has won his matchup with a defender, which Stats Perform labels as a 'burn', on 21 of his 32 targets. His burn rate of 65.6 per cent is above the league average of 60.6 for receivers with a minimum of 20 targets.

He has produced a big play on 12 of those targets, good for a big play rate of 37.2 that is 10th among wideouts (min. 20 targets).

Washington's starting corners, Benjamin St. Juste and Kendall Fuller, have allowed 12.27 and 13.15 burn yards per target respectively -- the average for corners with at least 20 targets is 10.05.

Both have given up a big play on over 30 per cent of their targets -- St. Juste (31.3%), Fuller (36%) -- at a position where the average is 25.5. In other words, Rodgers and Lazard should theoretically be able to thrive against both starting corners. If they do, the Packers' passing game might finally get on track and boost Green Bay's hopes of a deep playoff push many anticipated before their underwhelming start.

Indianapolis Colts @ Tennessee Titans

SmartRating: 60

Win Probability: Colts 54.4%

Key Matchup: Jeffery Simmons vs. Quenton Nelson

The AFC South is turning into a dogfight, with the 3-2 Titans leading the 3-2-1 Colts by half a game going into this divisional clash.

For the Colts to make sure the tie with the Houston Texans that separates them and the Titans does not prove costly down the stretch, they need to knock off Tennessee.

Doing that will involve stopping Jeffery Simmons, who has been a force on the interior of the Tennessee defense.

Simmons has beaten a pass protector on 18 of his 23 pressures this season. Only four interior defensive linemen have defeated a blocker on a pressure more often.

However, the Colts have a left guard in Quenton Nelson who has once again been one of the NFL's elite at his position in 2022.

Nelson has allowed a pressure on just 3.1 per cent of his pass protection snaps, giving him the sixth-best pressure rate among guards with at least 100 snaps this season.

The Colts will at least need to slow down Simmons for their passing game to prosper as it did against the Jacksonville Jaguars, and the heavyweight battle between two former first-round picks in the heart of the trenches could well decide who takes command of the division.

Kansas City Chiefs @ San Francisco 49ers

SmartRating: 71

Win Probability: Chiefs 50.7

Key Matchup: Fred Warner vs. Chiefs offense

A Super Bowl rematch between two teams coming off losses was made spicier with the news of San Francisco's blockbuster trade for running back Christian McCaffrey on Thursday.

But McCaffrey is unlikely to have much of an impact if he does play on Sunday given the limited time he has had to absorb the 49er playbook.

More key to the 49ers' hopes of at least partially avenging their Super Bowl collapse is the performance of a player who intercepted Mahomes in that game, Fred Warner.

The 2020 first-team All-Pro is the organisational heartbeat of the 49er defense, the man who plays a pivotal role in ensuring DeMeco Ryans' group is ultra-disciplined and consistently in the right position to make plays.

That discipline fell down in Week 6 defeat to the Atlanta Falcons, in which an extremely banged-up defense struggled to handle the Falcons' array of motions and zone-read runs involving quarterback Marcus Mariota.

San Francisco will get back a host of players from injury this weekend and the defense must do a better job of handling motion against an offense that heavily relies on it and will have to be alert to Mahomes' running threat, which for defenses is a frustrating complement to the wondrous things he can do throwing the ball.

Still, with no Tyreek Hill, the Chiefs' avenues to explosive plays are not as plentiful as they once were, and the 49ers will likely approach Kansas City in a similar way to the Buffalo Bills defense last week, leaning on two-high safety zone coverages in an attempt to force Mahomes to attack underneath.

Warner has allowed receivers to get open in zone coverage on just 10.87 per cent of his zone plays, his zone open rate the best in the NFL among linebackers. With his acumen in that area of the game and the athleticism he possesses to run downfield with Mahomes' primary target Travis Kelce, a bounce-back effort from Warner will be crucial to San Francisco's hopes of overturning odds that are slightly in Kansas City's favour.

Washington Commanders starting quarterback Carson Wentz has undergone surgery after fracturing the ring finger on his throwing hand.

Wentz, who led his team to an uninspiring 12-7 win on Sunday against the Chicago Bears to take a 2-4 record into Week 7, has been disappointing since arriving in Washington in the offseason.

In that contest, he suffered the injury when his hand was hit hard during the follow-through of a throw in the second quarter, clearly causing him discomfort, although he never left the game.

Only two quarterbacks – Matthew Stafford and Matt Ryan – have thrown more interceptions than Wentz's six this season, and he is tied with Chicago Bears second-year starter Justin Fields as the most sacked quarterback in the league (23 times).

The report from ESPN states the Commanders are unsure about how much time Wentz will have to miss, although they have a capable backup in Taylor Heinicke, as well as rookie Sam Howell who impressed in preseason.

Heinicke started 16 games last season for a 7-9 record, throwing 20 touchdowns and 15 interceptions while also showing his mobility with a 95-yard rushing game against the Green Bay Packers.

The Commanders sit at least two wins behind the three other teams in the NFC East, but can move one step closer to a .500 record with a home win against the Packers this Sunday.

Ron Rivera angrily hit out as suggestions he was not an enthused as Washington Commanders owner Daniel Snyder by the signing of quarterback Carson Wentz.

In the wake of Thursday's 12-7 win over the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field, coach Rivera was in fiery form at his post-game press conference, eventually calling a halt to proceedings himself.

ESPN this week quoted an unnamed source as saying that the signing of Wentz in a March trade from the Indianapolis Colts was "100 per cent a Dan move".

Wentz came into the Bears game carrying a bicep injury, managing only 12 of 22 passes for 99 yards with no TDs.

However, Rivera wanted to make it clear that his own role in the signing of Wentz was integral to the trade going ahead.

"Everybody keeps wanting to say, I didn’t want anything to do with Carson," Rivera said.

"Well bull****. I'm the f****** guy that pulled out the sheets of paper, that looked at the analytics, that watched the tape when we were in Indianapolis.

"That's what p***** me off, because the young man doesn't deserve to have that all the time. I'm sorry, I'm done."

The expletive-laden torrent from Rivera followed an assessment of how the team's 1-4 start had been wearing on his players.

Finally getting a second win, after losing four straight games, came as a relief to Rivera, prompting him to unload.

Brian Robinson Jr scored the decisive touchdown, two months after being shot in the knee and glute in an attempted carjacking on August 28.

"Honestly it's been hard. It really has. You lose four games in a row and everybody wants to get on you," Rivera said.

"They've played their a**es off. They've played their a**es off for everybody. They come out, they show up, and they work hard, they don't complain.

"They hear all this stuff and they've got to deal with that. I respect them for that because they're resilient."

The Washington Commanders snapped their four-game skid in a dour 12-7 win over the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field with Brian Robinson Jr scoring the decisive touchdown two months after being shot.

Commanders running back Robinson finished with one TD from 17 carries for 60 yards in his career-first start and second game back since being shot in the knee and glute in an attempted carjacking on August 28.

The Bears almost snatched victory with their final drive when QB Justin Fields' fourth-down pass for Darnell Mooney was completed but juggled just short of the goalline. In the previous play, Dante Pettis had dropped a Fields' throw under pressure from Darrick Forrest, although no pass interference was called.

Robinson provided the highlight in a game where no touchdowns were scored in the first half, with Joey Slye's field goal late in the second quarter snapping the scoreless deadlock.

The Bears, who fell to their third straight defeat and a 2-4 record, had taken the lead in the third quarter when Fields found Pettis in the corner. Fields completed 14 of 27 attempts for 190 yards, with one TD pass and one interception, and had 88 running yards on 12 carries.

After Slye added a 28-yard chip-shot field goal, Chicago were undone when rookie Velus Jones Jr fumbled a punt, handing the Commanders position which Robinson capitalized on in two drives.

Slye missed the chance to move the lead to eight points when he missed a 48-yard field-goal attempt inside the final two minutes, but the Bears could not capitalise.

Commanders quarterback Carson Wentz came into the game carrying a bicep injury, managing only 12 of 22 passes for 99 yards with no TDs.

Carson Wentz will start for the Washington Commanders in their clash against the Chicago Bears despite not being 100 per cent fit due to a bicep injury.

The 1-4 Commanders were unsure whether Wentz would be available for Thursday's contest due to the short turnaround after Sunday's loss to the Tennessee Titans, when he sustained the injury.

However, he threw the ball well in practice, albeit in a walkthrough session, and will lead the offense from the start against the Bears, NFL Network's Tom Pelissero reports.

The Commanders will hope that Wentz can get through the matchup against the Bears unscathed and then heal up with extra rest before their Week 7 clash at home to the Green Bay Packers, with a 10-day gap between the games.

Wentz's availability is a boost for a Commanders team already without significant members of their offense, with receiver Jahan Dotson and tight end Logan Thomas set to miss Thursday's game.

The Commanders sit bottom of the fiercely contested NFC East, where all their division rivals currently rank 4-1 or better, with the Philadelphia Eagles leading the way as the only undefeated side left across the NFL (5-0).

Brian Robinson Jr. made his NFL bow on Sunday, as the Washington Commanders rookie played his first game just six weeks after he was shot twice.

The running back survived an attempted robbery in the capital on August 28 and has not played since, but was activated from the non-football injury list ahead of this weekend's game with the Tennessee Titans.

Brought on to a hero's welcome at FedExField, the third-round pick was unable to prevent another loss, which leaves the Commanders' record at 1-4 after a 21-17 defeat.

But Robinson nevertheless notched solid numbers for the NFC East outfit, posting 22 yards from nine carries with an average 2.4 gain.

The 23-year-old will hope his performance earns him further game-time over the coming weeks, with Washington set to travel to the Chicago Bears on Thursday night.

The Washington Commanders are set to hand rookie running back Brian Robinson Jr. his first reps against the Tennessee Titans, completing a remarkable recovery.

The third-rounder was shot twice in an attempted robbery in Washington, D.C. on August 28, where he was fortunate as the bullets passed clean through his lower body.

Robinson has undergone his first week in training after being activated from the team's non-football injury list and will immediately be elevated into the team, Ian Rapoport states.

The rookie will play back-up to starter Antonio Gibson and the plan is for Robinson to receive about 20 snaps in the Week 5 contest.

Offensive coordinator Scott Turner has been impressed by Robinson's displays and said the team is excited for him to take to the field.

"He looked great at practice. He's not going to come in and just carry the ball 30 times," Turner told reporters.

"It's his first time ever playing in the NFL too. He's a rookie, so there's going to be a period of kind of getting him going. But I think we're all excited.

"He's going to give us some juice and that physical presence and just a good all-around back."

The Commanders hold a 1-3 record in 2022 and stand as the only side in the NFC East without a winning record.

Week 4 of the NFL season promises plenty of excitement following a blistering start to the 2022 season.

The season has so far been defined by close finishes. Through three weeks, there have been 18 games decided by three points or fewer this season, the most such games through the first three weeks of a season in NFL history. 

A packed crowd at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium will hope to see another tight game as the NFL returns to London with the New Orleans Saints and the Minnesota Vikings facing off.

The Washington Commanders travel to face the Dallas Cowboys in a fierce rivalry and the Philadelphia Eagles will look to extend their winning streak against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

With plenty more on the agenda, Stats Perform has used its data to preview this week's games.

Minnesota Vikings (1-2) @ New Orleans Saints (1-2)

A high-scoring affair should be on the cards in London, as the Vikings and Saints have put up 700 points (53.8 per game) over their last 13 regular season matchups dating back to 1995 – more than any other game with at least a dozen meetings.

The Vikings are in very capable hands with Kirk Cousins, who has a career passer rating of 126.7 against the Saints in the regular season, the highest by any QB against a single opponent in the Super Bowl era (minimum 125 attempts).

However, they face a Saints defense that has held opponents to fewer than 250 passing yards and one touchdown pass for nine straight games, a franchise record, while the only team in the last 10 years to enjoy a longer streak was the New England Patriots in 2019.

Chris Olave boasts 268 receiving yards in his first three career games but is yet to score a touchdown, a record which stands as the most since Charlie Wade's 315 yards without a TD in his first three games for the Chicago Bears in 1974.

Washington Commanders (1-2) @ Dallas Cowboys (2-1)

The Cowboys host the Commanders having won both matchups last season, including a 56-14 triumph in Week 14 that stands as the highest margin of victory for either team in the all-time series.

With six sacks in the Week 2 victory against the Cincinnati Bengals and five sacks last weekend against the New York Giants, the Cowboys have recorded five or more sacks in consecutive games for the first time since a four-game streak in November/December 2008.

That will be of particular concern to Carson Wentz, who was sacked a career-high nine times in the Commanders' home loss to the Eagles last week – the most of any QB for the franchise since John Beck was sacked 10 times by the Buffalo Bills in 2011.

Fourth-quarter offense has been a highlight for Washington, though, totalling 455 scrimmage yards (342 passing, 113 rushing) and standing third in the NFL for the most fourth-quarter yards in 2022 behind the Saints (541) and the Indianapolis Colts (456).

Jacksonville Jaguars (2-1) @ Philadelphia Eagles (3-0)

The only 3-0 side to play on Sunday, the Eagles have held the Jaguars to under 20 points in the last four matchups between the two sides stretching back to 2006, tied for the second-longest active such run for Philadelphia behind the six-game streak against the Jets.

In the past two weeks, the Eagles have kept their opponents to under 10 points (8 vs Washington, 7 vs Minnesota) and are the only NFL team this season to achieve the feat in consecutive games, while Philadelphia last went three in a row in that regard in 1980.

The Jaguars are 2-1 at the start of the season for the first time since 2018 and have scored 84 points, the third-most by the team in the opening three games of the season in franchise history (98 in 1997 and 89 in 2017).

Both teams rank in the top five in the NFL for total first downs this season, with the Eagles (73) third and the Jaguars (70) fifth.

Elsewhere…

The Los Angeles Chargers travel to face the Houston Texans having being held to just 26 yards on the ground against the Jaguars last week and have 177 rushing yards in the NFL this season, the fewest in three games in team history.

A total of 572 rushing yards this season places the Cleveland Browns as the NFL's best on the ground this season and they visit the Atlanta Falcons having amassed their highest total through their first three games of a campaign since 1963.

The Seattle Seahawks tackle the Lions boasting seven wins in the last eight matchups against Detroit dating back to 2003, the third-best record by an NFC team against a conference opponent over the past 20 seasons.

The Titans have won each of the last three games against the Colts, including a 34-31 win in overtime last season. A victory this weekend would make this Tennessee's outright longest winning streak against Indianapolis (also three straight wins between 1988 and 1992).

Washington Commanders running back Brian Robinson is back on the practice field under three weeks after he was shot in a reported attempted armed robbery.

The 23-year-old took to Instagram to confirm he was completing drills over a fortnight on from suffering two gunshot wounds to the glute and leg on August 28.

"Brian Robinson continues to make progress in his recovery from multiple gunshot wounds," read a team statement. "He was on a stationary bike Wednesday.

"On Thursday he was doing agility drills. [He] still has a long way to go, but his progress is certainly incredible."

Robinson was a third round pick for the Commanders, and had been tipped for a significant role this season after an impressive preseason.

He was placed on the team's non-football injury list ahead of the start of the new campaign, meaning he could return as soon as the fifth game if deemed fit.

Carson Wentz was as inconsistent as ever in his Washington Commanders debut, but he has the support of head coach Ron Rivera.

Wentz, who was traded to Washington from the Indianapolis Colts this offseason, made his first Commanders start in Sunday's 28-22 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The quarterback was typically unpredictable in his play as he threw four touchdown passes and two interceptions.

However, the second of two TD passes for rookie Jahan Dotson put Wentz's new team in a position to win and showed why he has the trust of Rivera.

"I'll take antacids," Rivera said. "We're going to ride with him, we'll go with the good, we'll go with the bad.

"We did a lot of research on him, and we felt comfortable and confident that this is a guy we need around here, a guy that has some courage."

Wentz added: "I've played a lot of football, I've seen the ups and the downs.

"I know from the past trying to do too much in those situations can come back to haunt you. I believed in them and guys made plays when it mattered."

The idea of "any given Sunday" is what makes the NFL so compelling.

Any one team can beat another, and that means at this stage of the season, with the first snap still to be taken, every team can have Super Bowl aspirations.

Sort of.

The Cincinnati Bengals, for example, may have been slightly surprising contenders in 2021, but there remain some teams whose title hopes are so remote as to be non-existent.

For some, this is because they have missed their shot at glory in recent years; for others, the plan is to challenge in seasons to come.

So, this leads us to draw up a preseason tier system, ranking all 32 teams by their Super Bowl windows with the help of Stats Perform AI predictions...

Nowhere near

This is unlikely to be a season to remember for the teams grouped in this category, for a variety of reasons.

The Houston Texans won the AFC South in 2018 and 2019, but the Deshaun Watson saga and two down years have them looking at a rebuild, with the data forecasting just 4.8 wins this year. That at least ranks them ahead of the Atlanta Falcons (3.6 projected wins) and the New York Giants (4.2), while the Texans did gain draft assets in the Watson trade.

The Chicago Bears are the fourth and final team projected to earn fewer than six wins (4.9), with second-year quarterback Justin Fields receiving little help on offense and playing behind an offensive line ranked 31st in pass protection.

Meanwhile, the Washington Commanders rank 31st in terms of skill players – better only than the Falcons – with faith in Carson Wentz long since having diminished. In Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold, the Carolina Panthers have two high-draft-pick QBs unlikely to trouble the postseason. The New York Jets are in a similar boat, even if Zach Wilson is still young.

The Detroit Lions might argue they do not deserve to keep such company after a 3-3 finish to last season, but nobody could seriously argue they are title contenders.

Entering contention

If that first group was a mixed bag, so too is the second.

Anyone who has paid any attention to the New England Patriots' preseason would suggest they are very fortunate to be given any hope of success in the near future, but they finished with 10 wins in 2021 – even if that number is projected to shrink to 7.7. Despite a trade for Tyreek Hill, that still ranks the Patriots comfortably ahead of the Miami Dolphins (7.0), although the losing team in their Week 1 meeting will face a long slog of a season.

At the other end of the spectrum, the Philadelphia Eagles are forecast to have 11.9 wins – the second-most in the NFL – after a very strong offseason. But Jalen Hurts, for now, is unproven in the postseason, so Philly fans may have to stay patient.

The San Francisco 49ers are even younger at QB after promoting Trey Lance to a starting role, which explains why the prediction model looks so unfavourably on a team many consider contenders right now. Just 7.1 projected wins speaks to the potentially low floor Lance brings.

NFC West rivals the Arizona Cardinals have to be considered among this group of future hopefuls, with Kyler Murray hugely talented and now committed long term but frustratingly inconsistent, while the Jacksonville Jaguars will hope Trevor Lawrence can follow in the footsteps of the Bengals' Joe Burrow – the number one pick the year before him.

The Los Angeles Chargers, with 9.8 projected wins, have Justin Herbert to lead their charge, while the Cleveland Browns might have been contenders already if not for Watson's suspension, which is enough to limit them to a still strong 9.3-win forecast.

In their prime

The Chargers may have Herbert, but they also have three division rivals who intend to win and intend to win now. Indeed, all four AFC West teams rank in the top half of the league in terms of projected wins, with the Chargers second – behind the Kansas City Chiefs (11.5) and just ahead of the Denver Broncos (9.7) and the Las Vegas Raiders (9.2).

The Chiefs lead the AFC in this regard, although their playoff win over the Buffalo Bills last season came down to a coin flip, and the two are set to be similarly tough to separate this year. Buffalo are down for 11.1 wins.

The two teams coming off a Super Bowl run are of course prominent among the contenders, even if the model has far greater optimism for a Los Angeles Rams repeat than for another Bengals charge. The Rams are backed for a league-leading 12.4 wins and given a 15.3 per cent shot at defending their title, while the Bengals are actually projected to dip below .500 with 8.2 wins.

The Bengals' route to the Super Bowl will be complicated not just by the AFC West and the Bills but also by any return to form for the fit-again Lamar Jackson's Baltimore Ravens, who are counted among nine teams on course for 10 or more wins (10.4).

Also in that group are NFC pair the Dallas Cowboys (11.0) and the Minnesota Vikings (10.9), who may not even be the best teams in their divisions but might be nearing a point when they must seriously challenge or start again, which brings us to...

Last chance saloon

As long as Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers are the QBs for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Green Bay Packers, those teams are in with a chance. The question is how long that will remain the case.

Brady is 45, briefly retired this offseason and then missed a chunk of the preseason. Rodgers is 38, has repeatedly been linked with a move away from Green Bay and lost top target Davante Adams ahead of the new season. Still, the Buccaneers rank eighth for projected wins (10.7), with the Packers up in third (11.5).

They are not the only ageing teams in the NFL, however.

The Indianapolis Colts hope they have upgraded in moving from Wentz to Matt Ryan, yet the former MVP is now 37 and last played in the postseason in 2017 – when Wentz's Eagles took the title.

Tennessee Titans QB Ryan Tannehill is a little younger at 34, but of greater concern would be Derrick Henry's durability after the injury that limited to eight games last regular season. The Titans need to make the most of any seasons they have left of the superstar running back going at full tilt.

Missed their chance

Russell Wilson, Ben Roethlisberger and Drew Brees won Super Bowls with the Seattle Seahawks, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New Orleans Saints respectively, but with all three having now moved on, it is difficult to see those teams plotting a path to the title.

For the Seahawks and the Steelers, this will be their first year without their stalwart QBs, even if things had already gone stale in 2021. Wilson dipped below the .500 mark for a season for the first time in his career, while Pittsburgh were attempting to stay competitive in spite of Roethlisberger rather than because of him.

Still, with both gone – Wilson to Denver and Roethlisberger to retirement – there is a void under center that has not been suitably filled. Seattle also rank 32nd in pass protection, likely leaving Geno Smith hopelessly exposed.

The Saints have had another 12 months to come to terms with Brees' exit, albeit they spent it juggling Jameis Winston, Trevor Siemian and Taysom Hill at QB. Winston's season-ending injury doomed the Saints' hopes of contention last year, and New Orleans' outlook for 9.5 wins with the entertaining but erratic former number one pick is at least far more positive than that of the Seahawks (6.2) or the Steelers (7.0).

Regardless, each of these three teams have provided an example in how not to do succession planning. They all could have won additional honours with their departed veterans and now face long waits for further title tilts.

The Washington Commanders' Brian Robinson Jr. has a positive mindset and is in good spirits after undergoing surgery for gunshot wounds suffered during an attempted arm robbery over the weekend. 

The rookie running back posted on his Instagram story that, "Surgery went well! Thanks for the prayers! God is Great!"

Commanders coach Ron Rivera told reporters that doctors described Robinson’s surgery as a success and he is on the road to recovery, though, it is too early to make any timetable for a return to the football field. 

"I can't get into specifics of it other than to say he's doing well. I had an opportunity to visit with him last night, which was really a relief and kind of cool because he was in a really good place," Rivera said on Monday.

"The doctors were very positive with him and he was very positive as well. He's very fortunate, it's a very unfortunate situation. He's doing well, it's just gonna be a matter of time before he’s back out here. There is no timeline, but, as I said, everything's been very positive."

Washington D.C. police reported the shooting during an attempted robbery or carjacking and the Commanders posted a statement on Twitter on Sunday confirming the 23-year-old Robinson was receiving treatment in a hospital for non-life-threatening injuries. 

A third-round pick in this year's draft, Robinson was expected to take over the starting running back job after impressing the coaching staff during training camp and preseason games. 

In two exhibition games, Robinson had rushed for 57 yards and one touchdown on 14 carries while incumbent Antonio Gibson had rushed for just five yards on six attempts. 

The Commanders, who went 7-10 to finish in third place in the NFC East in 2021, open this season against the visiting Jacksonville Jaguars on September 11.