Sky Sports' Neil Reynolds has the final word on 2023 as he picks out some of his biggest NFL storylines from over the past year; watch the remainder of the 2023 season, including every playoff game, on the road to Super Bowl LVIII live on Sky Sports.
Tuesday 26 December 2023 12:39, UK
2023 has been filled with memorable and significant moments in the world of American football. So much so that Tom Brady's second retirement - which came on a grey Florida beach day exactly one year after his first - doesn't even make this list.
The NFL train doesn't even slow down to wave goodbye to the GOAT - it keeps on moving and it keeps on serving up great drama and headlines.
Here are my most significant stories from 2023...
Patrick Mahomes hurt his ankle badly in the first half of Kansas City's Divisional Playoff win over the Jacksonville Jaguars, but battled through the remainder of that contest before winning an AFC Championship Game showdown with Cincinnati's Joe Burrow. Then it was time to face the fiercest pass rush in the NFL as the Chiefs met the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl 57.
Late in the first half, Mahomes re-injured his ankle and went into half-time looking gloomy while on the wrong end of a 24-14 scoreline, but the two-time NFL MVP defied logic to battle back in the second half. Kansas City were excellent after the break and the game was tied at 35-35 late in the fourth quarter. Mahomes then ripped off a legacy-defining 26-yard run on one leg, setting up Harrison Butker for the winning field goal.
In lifting the Vince Lombardi Trophy for the second time, Mahomes showed us that his will to win is as prominent as his obvious physical skills.
April saw the biggest event of the offseason take place in Kansas City: the 2023 NFL Draft. There was expected to be a dramatic and an impactful run on quarterbacks at the top of the annual selection process - and that certainly proved to be the case. The Carolina Panthers mortgaged their immediate future to get up to the No 1 pick, where they had a choice to make… Bryce Young out of Alabama or Ohio State's C.J. Stroud.
They chose Young and despite the days leading up to the Draft being filled with negative chatter, the Texans raced to the podium and took Stroud. We are only just coming to the end of year one but it certainly looks like the Panthers made a mistake that could haunt them for the next decade and a half. Young has really struggled on a poor team while Stroud has been excellent and instantly transformed Houston into a playoff contender.
It was over before it even had a chance to begin. Aaron Rodgers' move from the Green Bay Packers to the New York Jets was one of the biggest stories of the offseason. And given that the Jets had a Super Bowl-calibre defense already in place and young offensive stars like Garrett Wilson and Breece Hall, it was a move that energised an entire fan base in the Big Apple and was supposed to lead to great things. After just four plays, Rodgers was on a cart being driven off the field at MetLife Stadium. His and the Jets' season was over.
The quarterback struggles have been real in New York with Rodgers on the sideline, with this whole team having been forced to accept that 2023 is a write off. Head coach Robert Saleh and general manager Joe Douglas look like they will survive to enjoy the Rodgers-laced fruits of their labour in 2024. The hope is that things will be a great deal better for a team that has now missed the playoffs in 13 straight years - the longest postseason drought for any club in any major American sports league.
There was much excitement in the UK in October as the NFL played three more regular season games on our shores. And that sense of passion and joy spread beyond London on an historic Friday night in Loughborough as the NFL Academy - led by new head coach Steve Hagen - recorded a victory over American high school opposition for the first time with a 31-14 win over the prestigious IMG Academy. Four days later, the 62 student athletes from 13 different countries around the world played at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and recorded a 35-0 blanking of leading New York high school Erasmus Hall.
Those were the latest success stories to come out of the high school program which opened in September 2019. In October, British offensive lineman Daniel Akinkunmi, who received more than 35 scholarship offers to play in the US, committed to the University of Oklahoma. Prior to that headline-making move, 18-year-old Nigerian Emmanuel Okoye committed to the University of Tennessee after being discovered by two-time Super Bowl champion Osi Umenyiora.
Earlier this month we also saw Timi Oke (Northwestern), Henry Lyles (Glenville State), Lopez Sanusi (Boise State), Elia Jeffry Ofosu (Glenville State), Benjamin Kienz (Kennesaw State), Luke Yau Gayle (Buffalo) and Pape Abdoulaye Sy (Boston College) officially sign with US colleges.
I had the chance to sit down for a good conversation with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell ahead of the Chiefs' clash with the Miami Dolphins in Frankfurt in November. It was a revealing and illuminating chat in which he confirmed something he had shared with me a month earlier in London… that the NFL would be playing in a new market in 2024. We now know that market to be Sao Paulo in Brazil. He stressed the importance of international growth to the league and said it would be one of the most significant things in NFL history.
He also told me that he would like to see a rapid and significant expansion of regular season games played around the world. So, it came as no surprise to learn, in December, that the NFL will play at least eight regular season games per year - more realistically nine given Jacksonville's own deal with Wembley Stadium - from 2025.
These are truly historic times to be working in and following the NFL as the league becomes truly global. The NFL is about to become a travelling roadshow of sorts with countries lining up to host games including the UK, Germany, Mexico, Brazil, Spain, France, Ireland and even further afield to Australia. There are no limits.
This is not a positive but, sadly, it has been a part of the 2023 story. There have been some significant quarterback blows with Joe Burrow (Cincinnati Bengals), Kirk Cousins (Minnesota Vikings), Anthony Richardson (Indianapolis Colts), Justin Herbert (Los Angeles Chargers), Deshaun Watson (Cleveland Browns), Daniel Jones (New York Giants), Jimmy Garoppolo (Las Vegas Raiders) and the aforementioned Rodgers suffering season-ending injuries.
Those are some of the biggest names in the sport and have led to NFL audiences watching late-season games that were pitting Jake Browning (Bengals) against Nick Mullens (Vikings) or Joe Flacco (Browns) against Case Keenum (Texans). Of course, we want to see the starters and the best players on the field at all times, and that injury list is why the NFL makes no apologies for protecting the league's star passers.
But when Burrow went down, it did provide a nice moment for Browning to take centre stage and saw him energise the Bengals. It was the same with Josh Dobbs in Minnesota, for a while, and has certainly been the case for 38-year-old Joe Flacco, who spent much of this season on the sofa but is now looking to lead Cleveland into the playoffs.
This will never change and will remain a feature of this and every other NFL season. The action on the field is as unpredictable as ever and no team is safe. Even the dominant-looking San Francisco 49ers suffered a three-game slide in mid-season. And it's not just on the field where the NFL continues to serve up entertaining and weird surprises. Thanksgiving Weekend served as a perfect example.
On the Thursday night, we were serenaded by 77-year-old music sensation Dolly Parton, who was wearing a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader outfit at half-time! Three days later, the half-time act in Denver was sheep racing with kids as the youngsters held on for dear life! You literally couldn't make it up when it comes to the NFL. Who knows what 2024 will serve up? You can be sure it will be another year filled with incredible plays and unexpected storylines.
Until then, Happy New Year!
Stream the NFL and more with a NOW Sports Month Membership - just £21 a month for six months.
