Everyone loves a good rivalry. Even in a game as violent as football, it gives an added edge to the action. This upcoming 2016-17 NFL season should be especially fun, with so many new (and returning) rivalries set to deliver fireworks on the gridiron.
Here are 10 such rivalries that fans should definitely pay attention to throughout the season.
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The Rex Ryan-Bill Belichick rivalry hasn’t been all too competitive, what with the Pats being a dominant juggernaut and all. But this season, Sexy Rexy has a chance to finally put one over on Bill. The Bills are set to visit Foxboro in Week 4 – which means they get to face the Pats without Tom Brady, who’ll be sitting out the final game of his four-game suspension.
9. Brock Osweiler vs. Denver Broncos
Brock Osweiler was all set to take the wheels of a Denver Broncos team fresh off a Super Bowl win. Instead, he spurned that chance to go to the Houston Texans.
Osweiler, who was apparently peeved by last season’s benching in favor of Peyton Manning, as well as the Broncos’ hope that Manning reconsidered retirement, will now face his former team – and its all-world defense – later this season. Pay attention to that matchup because it could just be the start of a pretty fun new rivalry.
8. Julio Jones vs. Antonio Brown
Jones and Brown don’t have any real animosity toward one another. Instead, this is a friendly rivalry, with the title of best wide receiver in the league very much up for grabs. The two have topped the charts in receiving yards each of the past two years. This season, their battle to strengthen their claims as the top wideout around will be one of the most entertaining and closely-contested individual battles in the league.
7. Raiders vs. Chiefs
The Raiders-Chiefs rivalry is hardly new; it’s just been dormant for a few decades due to the prolonged span of irrelevance by one/both of those teams. But after the Chiefs’ Sean Smith opted to bolt Arrowhead for Oakland in free agency, the first shot of this renewed rivalry has now been fired.
And with both teams very much in contention for the AFC West this season – the Chiefs are +180 and the Raiders are +200 – rest assured that more shots are still to come in their two meetings this season.
6. Cowboys vs. Redskins
Don’t look now, but one of the NFL’s preeminent rivalries looks set to make a return to relevance.
After finally breaking free of the doomed RGIII era, the Washington Redskins took the NFC East crown from the injury-ravaged Cowboys behind breakout star Kirk Cousins. And they got better in the offseason, as they threw a huge contract at cornerback Josh Norman.
The Cowboys should be much healthier this season, and are currently the +180 favorites to take back the NFC East title next season. But the much-improved Redskins (+325) won’t surrender it to their long-time rivals without a fight.
5. Andrew Luck vs. Russell Wilson
Now that Peyton Manning has retired, it’s time to move on from Brady-Manning and into the next great quarterback rivalry. Andrew Luck vs. Russell Wilson looks like the one that can fill the void.
Sure, it hasn’t looked like much of a contest to date. Wilson has been the more accomplished player with two trips to the Super Bowl (and one win) compared to Luck’s marginal postseason success. He also checked off another box in the Tom Brady playbook by marrying pop star Ciara. (To Luck’s credit, he countered by becoming the NFL’s highest-paid player.)
But if Luck is finally healthy this season, there’s every reason the 2012 No. 1 overall pick can close the gap on his Super Bowl-winning, celebrity-marrying draft mate on the field, beginning this season. Incidentally, Luck’s Colts are +2,000 to claim the championship this season.
4. Cardinals vs. Seahawks/Panthers
The Arizona Cardinals are hardly the most confrontational team in the NFL, but they do have their share of rivals. In fact, their rivalries with the Seattle Seahawks and Carolina Panthers are two of the best rivalries around at the moment.
With San Francisco’s fall in the last few years, the Cards and Seahawks should continue their heated rivalry for the NFC West title this season. The Seahawks are currently big -135 favorites, while the Cards are right on their tails at +140.
Meanwhile, Arizona will be looking to finally get over its postseason hump, otherwise known as the Carolina Panthers, who have knocked out the Cards in the last two playoffs. The two are also slated to meet during the regular season on Halloween, which should be quite a treat for football fans.
3. Patriots vs. Seahawks
Finally, it’s back. The rivalry which sparked with Richard Sherman’s “U mad bro?” on Tom Brady in 2012, and escalated with the most incredible Super Bowl finish of all-time in 2015, is set to return this season. The New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks will meet for the first time since Malcolm Butler made himself a household name by grabbing that Super Bowl-clinching interception.
Thursday, November 14th. Mark it on your calendars. Now.
2. Odell Beckham Jr. vs. Josh Norman
Possibly the best thing that happened in free agency was Josh Norman signing with the Washington Redskins. Everyone knew what that meant: a minimum two meetings with his good friend Odell Beckham Jr., with whom he got very “well-acquainted” during last year’s fiery and incredibly physical showdown.
It’s not every day that one of the very best wide receivers and one of the best corners in the league have legitimate beef and play in the same division. (Don’t sleep on Norman’s run-ins with Dez Bryant, too.) We should all savor every snap of this full-blown rivalry while it lasts, beginning this year.
1. Steelers vs. Bengals
Many consider the Steelers-Ravens to be the top rivalry in the NFL, but it might not even be the top rivalry in the division anymore. That title, at least for this year, belongs to the Steelers-Bengals.
Their wild-card round matchup last season was rough. Like OBJ-vs-Norman-times-11-level rough. The Ryan Shazier hit on Giovani Bernard was cataclysmic, as was Vontaze Burfict’s on Antonio Brown. Keep an eye on Burfict, who will no doubt have a target on him after injuring Brown, Le’Veon Bell and Ben Roethlisberger last season.
On second thought, just keep an eye out for absolutely anything, because who knows what’s bound to happen when these two fierce rivals share a field again.
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