Thursday 6 September 2018 17:54, UK
The 2017 NFL season saw a number of star names ruled out due to injury, but most are set to make a triumphant return in time for the 2018 campaign!
We have picked out seven such returning superstars you can watch out for once the season gets underway...
Click on the video above to watch our magnificent seven in action, with a highlight reel of some of their biggest, most sensational plays over the years, and read on below for more...
We look set to be treated to some more spectacular, one-handed endzone grabs from Beckham Jr in 2018 and less of his dancing - as impressive as it may be - as he returns to action for the first time following the fractured ankle that kept him out from Week Five last year.
In spite of his limited playing time, OBJ has just bagged himself a new five-year, $95m (£73.5m) contract with the Giants, making him the highest-paid player at the position. Not a bad way to head into Week One.
The deal is owed to the way Beckham has dazzled when fit and firing, tying with his former LSU team-mate, and now Cleveland Brown, Jarvis Landry for most catches through the first three years of an NFL career (288). OBJ is also second only to Falcons receiver Julio Jones in NFL history in receiving yards per game (94.1).
A three-time Defensive Player of the Year, but the NFL and its fans, particularly those of the Texans, have been denied Watt's destructive play off the line of scrimmage for all but eight games of the past two seasons since he last won the award in 2015.
Two bouts of back surgery curtailed his 2016 campaign, while he broke his leg in Week Five last year. But, the big man still managed to have a big impact - huge, in fact - off the field, raising upwards of $40m towards the Hurricane Harvey relief efforts that had devastated the Houston area and was named Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year.
Watt is back ready for Week One of the 2018 season, hoping to help turn a promising looking Texans team - also welcoming star, second-year quarterback Deshaun Watson back to the fold following injury - into a contender. However, there are concerns over whether he can truly recapture his 20.5-sack season form from 2012 and 2014 following such a spell on the sidelines - and those concerns could well be legitimate, as Watt didn't have any through his five starts last year.
Like Watson for the Texans, Wentz's season was ended with an ACL tear to his knee, though his came during a Week 14 tussle with the Los Angeles Rams, rather than the one Watson sustained during practice that prematurely ended his dazzling rookie season (19 TD passes through his first seven games, an NFL record).
Wentz was putting together a mightily impressive sophomore season of his own for Philadelphia, setting an Eagles-franchise record of 33 touchdown passes through 13 games. Then, desperately looking to add to that tally with a first rushing score and see his team retake the lead against the Rams, Wentz's season was ended with a dangerous dive into the endzone unprotected.
Incredibly, an immobile Wentz came back out to throw a TD as his rushing score, after all that, was chalked off due to a penalty, but it was left to back-up Nick Foles to sensationally guide Philadelphia to the Super Bowl promised land and a first championship for the franchise.
A week before their season opener against Atlanta, the Eagles are still non-committal over when Wentz will return but, with Foles struggling to rediscover his Super Bowl touch in preseason, it will be No 11's team again, eventually.
Gordon is another guy not guaranteed to suit up on opening weekend but who will be a welcome addition to an exciting looking Browns roster - set to team up at receiver with Landry, following his trade from the Miami Dolphins, and with No 1 overall draft pick Baker Mayfield throwing the football.
Gordon missed the 2015 and 2016 seasons due to violating the league's substance abuse policy and tweaked his hamstring during conditioning work through preseason, leaving Cleveland head coach Hue Jackson to state "he's not starting, regardless if he's 100 per cent" for the game against divisional rivals the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, September 9.
But, Gordon has more than proven his worth for the Browns when he does see the field, with him hauling in a league-leading 1,646 yards over 14 games of the 2013 season, while that year he also became the first receiver in NFL history to tally back-to-back 200-yard games, with a 237-yard effort against the Steelers and 261 against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Luck is back! Out for the entirety of last season, having undergone surgery on his right throwing shoulder; is it really any wonder playing behind such a porous Indianapolis offensive line finally took its toll on the much-heralded QB, sacked as he was a staggering 41 times during 2016. Ouch!
It has been a long, drawn out journey since, with a brief hope of a return for the QB last year rightly extinguished as the Colts went down in their opening two games and ultimately won only four over the course of a lost campaign.
The signs since have been encouraging, particularly through his first three games of preseason action, with Luck completing 20 of 32 passes for 204 yards, returning one touchdown and one interception. The numbers may not immediately leap out at you, but he has demonstrated a gradual improvement, showing up new pretender Jimmy Garoppolo in his latest outing against the San Francisco 49ers, completing 80 per cent of his passes to Jimmy G's 47.4 and tossing a perfectly thrown TD to new tight end Eric Ebron.
Rodgers has technically already made his return to NFL action, suiting up for the Week 15 game against the Carolina Panthers last year, hoping to rally his Packers to the playoffs with three wins to end the season. However, a rusty Rodgers completed only 57.8 per cent of his passes, throwing three TDs but also being picked off three times too as Green Bay went down 31-24. Wisely, he was allowed to sit for the final two weeks of the season and continue his recovery.
Rodgers had missed the seven games prior, out with a broken collarbone sustained in the Week Six loss to the Minnesota Vikings which prompted some beef between the Packers QB and linebacker Anthony Barr, who Rodgers claimed gave him the middle finger after the near season-ending hit outside the pocket. "I looked over at him as I walked off the field. The cameras caught me saying something to him, but what they missed was him [giving the] finger, 'suck it' sign," Rodgers claimed on the Conan O'Brien show. Mark your card then for the Week Two rematch between the two.
Back healthy, Rodgers is arguably the best quarterback in the NFL. I know, I know New England Patriots fans, Tom Brady indeed has five Super Bowl rings to Rodgers' one, but the Green Bay QB is the better pure thrower of the football. The best example of this is Rodgers' uncanny ability for Hail Mary touchdowns, completing a hat-trick of them over just a 13-month span, starting in Week 13 of the 2015 season against the Detroit Lions, swiftly followed up by a Divisional Round play-off effort against the Arizona Cardinals that same season before waiting till Wild Card weekend of the 2016 campaign to dazzle once again, this time the Giants the unlucky party.
Johnson is back for the Cardinals, having sat out all but 11 rushing attempts and six receptions of last season, injuring his wrist in the season opener against the Lions. Johnson was coming into the season off the back of a sensational second year in the league, rushing for 1,239 yards and 16 touchdowns, with a further 879 and four scores receiving.
Prior to his season-ending blow, Johnson had set himself the target of becoming only the third player in NFL history behind Roger Craig and Marshall Faulk to register a 1,000-yard year in both rushing and receiving. Rain check to 2018, perhaps?
It certainly won't be for the want of opportunities, with Arizona set to lean heavily on their star man in the backfield, especially given the retirement of their veteran quarterback Carson Palmer in the offseason and the uncertainty over new QBs, injury-prone Sam Bradford and rookie first-round pick Josh Rosen.
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