Thomas Tuchel's loss is Graham Potter's gain.

A lot can change in football in 24 hours, and the old idiom has borne fruit again. On Wednesday, Tuchel was surprisingly sacked as Chelsea head coach. By Thursday, Potter had left Brighton and Hove Albion to replace him.

Potter emerged as the leading candidate from a strong list, including former Tottenham and Paris Saint-Germain boss Mauricio Pochettino.

Many have long considered Potter a candidate to coach one of the Premier League's elite sides, not least due to the attractive brand of football his sides employ.

Yet, there are many who think the Chelsea job is not necessarily the right fit for the Englishman.

Two of Stats Perform's experts, Pete Hanson and Josh Challies, have argued the toss of his appointment.

WHO KNOWS WHEN THIS OPPORTUNITY WILL COME AGAIN? IT'S A NO BRAINER FOR POTTER – PETE HANSON

Most pundits in England rage at the perceived lack of opportunities for British coaches at the so-called Premier League's "Big Six". A surprise opening has now arisen and all of a sudden we're told that Potter should steer well clear. To an extent, I understand the basis for that argument. Chelsea are not exactly known for patience and long-term planning when it comes to their head coaches, even a change in ownership has seemingly done little to alter that perception. But, from Potter's perspective, who knows when a chance like this could arise again? Moreover, Todd Boehly has shown in his first transfer window that he's not afraid to get the cheque book out. Potter will have a squad already brimming with talent, and the knowledge there are resources available to mould the team into his own look in the future. A high-potential coach, at a high-potential project. If it doesn't go to plan, surely it's better that he will live with the regret of never knowing? If it does go to plan, then the future possibilities for Potter are vast.

A LACK OF STRUCTURE MAY HURT POTTER AT STAMFORD BRIDGE – JOSH CHALLIES

It was less than 12 months ago that Brighton fans were booing their side during a goalless draw with Leeds United, a situation that is a far cry from what is currently being witnessed on the south coast after a stellar start to the season. The Seagulls remained patient with Potter and he duly delivered, a ninth-place finish last term being the highest in the club's history, and he has excelled while working in a well-oiled machine at the AMEX Stadium. The departures of previously key players Yves Bissouma and Marc Cucurella have scarcely been noticeable, with replacements quickly lined-up by the Brighton hierarchy. And it is a lack of that system that may prove to be Potter's downfall at Stamford Bridge. Roman Abramovich's sale also saw the departures of transfer guru Marina Granovskaia and technical director Petr Cech, with Chelsea not yet replacing those important cogs in the machine. Potter therefore could find himself with much more responsibility than just working with the players on the training pitch, and that may prove his undoing.

The NFC houses the reigning Super Bowl champions, but it enters the 2022 season viewed as the weaker of the two conferences.

Given the plethora of talented young quarterbacks residing in the AFC, the road to the Super Bowl appears to be an easier one in an NFC where the level of supply at the game's most important position is not quite as impressive.

But it would be wrong to suggest this is a conference lacking in depth, and there are several teams who could emerge as new and legitimate contenders to represent the NFC in Super Bowl LVII in Arizona.

Which teams are most likely to earn that honour? Stats Perform previews the NFC with the help of its AI season simulation and pre-season position rankings.

Favourites

No team in the league is seen as having a better chance to win the Super Bowl than the Rams, with Stats Perform AI giving the defending champions a 15.3 per cent chance of retaining the Lombardi Trophy despite the loss of Von Miller and the absence of Odell Beckham Jr, who remains a free agent following the torn ACL he suffered in the Super Bowl.

Even without Beckham, the Rams' skill position players are ranked fifth. On top of that, the Rams enter the season first in pass rush, third in pass defense and first in run defense. That's what having Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey on the same team will do for you.

Their most obvious competition comes from the team they beat in a Divisional Round thriller last season, though the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are projected to have just a 6.6 per cent chance to win the Super Bowl by stark comparison.

Despite the loss of center Ryan Jensen to injury and an offseason of change on the interior of the offensive line, the Buccaneers are still ranked sixth in pass protection. Tampa Bay's ability to justify that lofty position will go a long way to deciding whether Tom Brady - who had more passing plays of 25 yards or more than any other quarterback (42) in 2021 - can lead Tampa to a second title in three seasons.

Brady will have the benefit of a stacked wide receiver group, which is a luxury Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers do not enjoy as the four-time MVP launches another quest for a second Super Bowl ring.

Rodgers will be tasked with elevating a Davante Adams-less supporting cast to contention. However, though the trade of Adams to the Las Vegas Raiders dropped Green Bay's skill position players to 23rd, the Packers are still projected to win 11.5 games, the third-highest total in the NFL and a number tied in part to the continued improvements of a defense ranked third in pass rush and 10th in pass coverage that could give Rodgers the support he needs for a deep postseason run.

In the mix

The Philadelphia Eagles, Dallas Cowboys and Minnesota Vikings combined to win a grand total of zero playoff wins in the 2021 season.

Yet all three are projected to threaten double-digit wins in 2021.

Philadelphia, blown out in the Wild Card Round by the Buccaneers last season, have a win projection of 11.9, the second-highest in the NFL behind the Rams, illustrating the strength of the roster and the level of pressure on quarterback Jalen Hurts as he heads into a critical second season as the starter knowing the Eagles have the draft capital to move on from him should he fail to deliver.

The Eagles' NFC East rivals the Cowboys have a win projection of 11 even after an offseason in which they traded wide receiver Amari Cooper and lost edge rusher Randy Gregory in free agency. Dallas will also start the year without left tackle Tyron Smith after he suffered a knee injury that will keep him out until December.

Though the Cowboys head into the season ranked sixth in pass defense, much of their success in that area was tied to takeaways and an 11-interception season from Trevon Diggs that history says is unlikely to be repeated. This is a roster that lacks depth in several key areas and the onus will be on Dak Prescott to maintain the form that saw him finish 2021 fifth in quarterback Efficiency Versus Expected (EVE) - which measures performance in expected passing situations compared to the league average - for the Cowboys to live up to their projection.

Minnesota are also predicted to produce an 11-win season in their first under the guidance of new head coach Kevin O'Connell, who will have a top-seven quarterback by EVE last season in Kirk Cousins and a skill-position group that goes into the campaign ranked eighth to work with as the Vikings aim to keep pace with the Packers in the NFC North.

Will Lance live up to expectations?

The most pertinent question in the NFC surrounds the San Francisco 49ers, who are given just a 10.6 per cent chance of making the playoffs for the third time in four seasons despite possessing one of the better all-round rosters in the league and coming within minutes of beating the Rams in the NFC Championship Game back in January.

Doubt around the Niners' ability to contend again is based on the complete unknown that is Trey Lance, the third overall pick from 2021 with just two NFL starts to his name.

Lance takes over from his now backup Jimmy Garoppolo, who was 10th in QB EVE in 2021, and the move from Garoppolo's down to down efficiency to a quarterback who is, for all intents and purposes, coming off a redshirt year, is a significant factor behind the Niners' projection of 7.1 wins.

Yet Lance is a quarterback with the big-play upside as both a passer and a runner to take an offense that finished 2021 first in EVE to an even higher level, and he will be working with a group of skill-position players ranked as the league's sixth best.

Supported by a defense that, according to the rankings, boasts the second-best pass rush and a top-seven pass coverage unit, Lance is in a tremendous situation to vindicate his lofty draft status.

Should he do so, an ultra-talented team will likely dramatically outperform their projection. If he endures the kind of growing pains associated with rookie quarterbacks, the Niners may be tempted to revert back to Garoppolo. It is that range of outcomes that makes the 49ers the most interesting team in the NFC if not the NFL.

Time to believe in the Saints?

The final few days of build-up to the new season have brought some perhaps unexpected hype about the prospects of the New Orleans Saints.

Is it justified? Well, their projection seems to suggest they have a strong chance of making it to the dance, New Orleans going into the season tied with the Los Angeles Chargers tied for the 10th-best playoff odds in the league at 60 per cent.

It is not overly difficult to make a case for the Saints, who retain one of the premier defenses in the NFL. New Orleans' defense is ranked first against the pass and fifth against the run. The coordinator who has overseen that defense, Dennis Allen, is now the Saints head coach after Sean Payton stepped away.

On offense, Alvin Kamara is a dual threat on the ground and as a receiver from the running back position, while the Saints are hoping Michael Thomas can get back to his All-Pro best at wideout after playing just seven regular-season games in the last two years.

The problem is that much of the external belief in the Saints appears to be built on hope rather than evidence. They are hoping Thomas can return to his old self, that Chris Olave can quickly become a rookie sensation at receiver and that Jameis Winston's encouraging seven-game pre-injury stretch last season was not a mirage.

Simply put, the Saints need a lot to happen for them to truly contend as many seemingly expect them to, but the undoubted quality of their defense does at least give New Orleans a reasonably high floor.

New quarterbacks, new places, same old results

Baker Mayfield and Carson Wentz will each ply their trade in new locations following offseason trades.

Mayfield will look to rehabilitate his career with the Carolina Panthers while the Washington Commanders are the latest team to tell themselves they can succeed with Wentz.

Reality, however, begs to differ.

Even in what was a largely turnover-free 2021 season for the Indianapolis Colts, Wentz was still only 23rd among quarterbacks (min. 100 attempts in expected passing situations) in QB EVE.

It is no surprise, then, that the Commanders are projected to win 7.9 games, and spend another year mired in mediocrity, with Wentz unlikely to be helped by a skill-position group lacking proven playmakers outside of Terry McLaurin and ranked 31st in the league.

Mediocrity will also be the order of the season in Carolina, with the Panthers' reward for an offseason in which they traded draft capital for both Matt Corral and Mayfield a win projection of 6.8. Seven wins would represent an improvement for head coach Matt Rhule but is unlikely to be enough progress to prevent the Panthers from cleaning house come the end of the campaign.

Manchester United don't want to be in the Europa League, though they have become a little more familiar with UEFA's second-tier competition in recent years.

Nevertheless, this is the first time since the 2019-20 season that they've entered the Europa League in the group stage and there were positives to take from that campaign.

Those positives generally revolved around United being able to give young players the chance to impress.

Tahith Chong, Axel Tuanzebe, Angel Gomes, Brandon Williams, James Garner, Largie Ramazani, Ethan Galbraith, D'Mani Mellor, Dylan Levitt, Ethan Laird and Di'Shon Bernard all got opportunities to play in that group stage, with many of them making their debuts.

Granted, a scan of that list doesn't show many players who've gone on to become regulars at United – a few remain at the club but are either down the pecking order or unlikely to have long-term futures, while Garner recently joined Everton and Gomes and Ramazani are impressing elsewhere in Europe.

United allowed a lot of players to leave the club on permanent deals and loans in the most recent transfer window, so there is every reason to expect any youngsters given chances in the group may not be familiar faces.

Ahead of Thursday's group opener against Real Sociedad, Stats Perform takes a look at the young talents who might emerge for United over the next few months.

On the fringes

United fans will hope the Europa League final provides them with an opportunity to see Facundo Pellistri in action. The Uruguayan winger joined the club nearly two years ago but hasn't played a single minute of competitive action, and neither of his loan spells at Deportivo Alaves were particularly impressive.

He caught the eye in pre-season last year but was still shipped out – he made a couple of appearances this time around before suffering an injury, which also ended any plans for another loan spell.

But if there's any South American winger likely to stake his claim for more first-team minutes, it's Alejandro Garnacho. The 18-year-old has already played for the senior side, including once this term, and has been a regular among the substitutes for Erik ten Hag.

An explosive, direct winger, Garnacho appears to be one of the most talented players to come through at United in recent years.

Such statements had been reserved for Shola Shoretire until fairly recently. The gifted – albeit diminutive – forward became United's youngest ever player in European competition (17 years, 23 days) when appearing against Thursday's opposition in February 2021, so he still has time on his side, but he hasn't really kicked on since in terms of collecting first-team minutes.

Having said that, United reportedly shelved plans for him to go on loan just before the transfer window closed, with Ten Hag apparently keen to keep him around until January – perhaps an opportunity or two is around the corner?

Out to make a name

It's fair to say United have a lot of promising talent coming through at the moment. Among those yet to play for the senior side, Kobbie Mainoo looks the biggest prospect of them all.

Only 17, Mainoo is an elegant playmaker who possesses exceptional technical attributes – he ran the show as United's Under-21s beat Carlisle United's first-team 2-1 in the EFL Trophy last week and has been training with Ten Hag's main squad ahead of Thursday's match.

Mainoo's by no means the only midfielder exciting people at Old Trafford, though. Isak Hansen-Aaroen courted attention in pre-season when a pre-match photo showing his impressive tattoo collection went viral on social media – at the time he was 17, though there is no 18-plus restriction on body art in his native Norway.

Unbeknownst to many of those sharing the photo, Hansen-Aaroen is an extremely gifted and versatile player capable of featuring in midfield and attack. He's quick, a wonderful dribbler, creative and difficult to knock off the ball. He's clearly already got Ten Hag's attention as he featured briefly against Rayo Vallecano in pre-season – a competitive debut certainly isn't out of the question this season.

Former Manchester City youngster Charlie McNeill is another who has been training with the seniors this week. Something of a goal machine at youth level, the 18-year-old is a well-rounded striker who works hard and possesses strong associative attributes. Given Anthony Martial's continued absence, McNeill could be an understudy to Cristiano Ronaldo in Europe over the next few weeks.

Charlie Savage, son of former Wales international Robbie Savage, made his first-team debut under Ralf Rangnick last season – as did Zidane Iqbal. The two midfielders both have plenty of potential, with the former possessing some of the bite his dad was renowned for, and each will be hopeful of kicking on after a brief introduction to senior football in 2021-22.

With a new NFL season brings another chance to gain bragging rights over your friends in the world of fantasy football.

The 2022 campaign begins with a fascinating clash between the Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium, one which should have plenty of fantasy intrigue given the plethora of offensive playmakers on show.

While fantasy players around the globe will need to have their lineups set in time for kick-off in Inglewood, it is the Sunday slate Stats Perform is concerned with this week.

Here we have picked out four offensive players and a defense who should be in your line-up for the opening week, provided of course you had the good sense to draft them.

Quarterback: Jalen Hurts, Philadelphia Eagles @ Detroit Lions

One of the quarterbacks under the most pressure to perform in 2022 gets a soft landing to start the season.

Hurts didn't have to do much to help the Eagles to a 44-6 beating of the Lions last season, but the dual threat should be licking his lips at the prospect of facing a defense that last season allowed the fourth-most yards per game (379.8) in the NFL.

Only four teams allowed more rush yards per game (135.1) than the Lions in 2021 and, despite some impressive offseason additions, there is little to suggest Hurts should not be able to excel on the ground and through the air in the season opener.

Running Back: Dalvin Cook, Minnesota Vikings vs. Green Bay Packers

The Packers made steps to improve their run defense in the offseason, but slowing down Cook figures to be a difficult challenge.

Cook has eight touchdowns in his last five games against the Packers (seven rushing, one receiving), a run that has included two 150-yard performances on the ground.

Playing in Kevin O'Connell's offense, Cook should continue to receive a lot of the wide zone carries that suit his playing style, making him a candidate for another big game in what should be a compelling contest.

Wide Receiver: Michael Pittman, Indianapolis Colts @ Houston Texans

Pittman produced his first 1,000-yard season in his second year in the league in 2021 and will unquestionably be the top target for new quarterback Matt Ryan in this campaign.

That is a very favourable position for Pittman to be in against a Texans team that allowed the third-most yards per pass play (7.12) in the NFL in 2021. Look for Ryan and Pittman to combine consistently to exploit Houston's vulnerability defending the pass.

Tight End: Mark Andrews, Baltimore Ravens @ New York Jets

Andrews has cemented himself as one of the top tight ends in the NFL and an extremely popular selection in fantasy football.

This week, he is an absolute must start against a Jets defense that should be improved after a strong offseason but surrendered the third-most passing yards in the league in 2021.

No tight end in the NFL was targeted more often than Andrews (153) last season and he should expect to be the favoured weapon of Lamar Jackson as the Ravens plot a return to the playoffs. The route to the postseason starts against the Jets, and the combination of his role and the opponent should deliver a productive start to the season for Andrews.

Defense/Special Teams: San Francisco 49ers @ Chicago Bears

Week 1 can be strange, but the season opener at Soldier Field has all the hallmarks of a mismatch, one which San Francisco's defensive line should utterly dominate.

The 49ers' pass rush, led by Nick Bosa - who had 15.5 sacks last season - is ranked second in the NFL by Stats Perform AI, while the Bears' offensive line is ranked as the second-worst.

That is a recipe for a game in which the 49ers put Justin Fields under constant pressure and force a plethora of negative plays and turnovers en route to victory. Slide the Niners' defense into your line-up and profit.

The Buffalo Bills are a team who have come to be defined by the agony they have suffered.

Though they are responsible for one of the most dominant stretches of offensive football in NFL history in the late 1980s and early 1990s and have more recently re-emerged as one of the most exciting teams in the league, the Bills are still yet to experience the ultimate glory of lifting the Vince Lombardi Trophy. 

Buffalo finished in the top seven for yards and points every year between 1989 and 1993 as the Bills' K-Gun offense illustrated just how devastating a no-huddle attack could be. Yet Marv Levy's star-studded group is best remembered for losing four successive Super Bowls between 90 and 93.

And Bills fans would be forgiven for pessimistically thinking the Josh Allen era is doomed to end without a first Super Bowl win in franchise history.

Allen has silenced critics who doubted his ability to improve his accuracy to become one of the most dynamic quarterbacks in the modern NFL, and the Bills have been in the top five in offensive yards and points in each of the last two seasons.

However, those campaigns have both delivered heartbreaking playoff losses to the Kansas City Chiefs, the Bills on the wrong end of one of arguably the finest postseason game in NFL history, losing 42-36 having allowed the Chiefs to drive for a game-tying field goal in the final 13 seconds of regulation.

The Four Falls of Buffalo, as they were labelled in a 30 for 30 documentary about the Super Bowl losses, and '13 seconds' will forever live in franchise infamy.

But the Bills head into 2022 with a case for being the strongest team in the league. So, as they prepare to face the defending Super Bowl-champion Los Angeles Rams in Thursday's mouth-watering season opener, how can Allen and Co. soothe the wounds of those missed opportunities by finally getting over the hump this season?
 

Taking the pressure off Allen

It may be a perplexing statement to read given Allen is fifth in passing yards (8,951) and fourth in passing touchdowns (73) over the past two seasons, but the Bills could maximise the impact of having the luxury of a quarterback of his talents by taking some of the pressure off his shoulders.

Buffalo's front office appeared to realise that this offseason, selecting running back James Cook in the second round of the draft.

Cook's burst through the running lane and up to the second level makes him an ideal fit for an offense that has found success with outside zone run concepts.

The Bills called outside zone on 21.26 per cent of their run plays last year, above the NFL average of 19.1. They put up 4.51 yards per play on such runs, again better than the league-wide average of 4.32.

Cook is a home-run hitter who can weaponise the threat of such runs in a way Devin Singletary and Zack Moss cannot. The Bills had 60 runs of 10 yards or more in 2021, the seventh-most in the NFL, but 28 of them came from QB Allen (Singletary had 20 while Moss delivered only six).

Should Cook's 4.4 speed translate to the pros, the Bills would have a back with the skill set to allow them to increase their menu of wide zone runs and make the zone-read more of a weapon. Despite the threat of Allen as a runner, the Bills averaged just 3.67 yards per play on zone-reads last season.

The Bills turned to run game on only 34.7 per cent of offensive snaps in 2021 and, when they did, the ball frequently remained in the hands of Allen, who has carried the ball 422 times since entering the NFL in 2018, a number second only to that of Lamar Jackson (615) among quarterbacks. Last season accounted for 122 of thsoe, with Jackson (133) and Jalen Hurts (139) the two signal-callers to attempt more runs.

Cook's arrival can take some of the onus off Allen as a runner, while the former Georgia back will hope to give his QB a few more easy buttons in the passing game.

His average of 10.9 yards per reception in a college career that spanned from 2018 to 2021 was seventh in the Power 5 in that time and first in the SEC, while Cook also racked up 11 receptions of at least 10 yards in 2021, tied for 12th among Power 5 backs.

Playing in an offense that has seen Allen consistently push the ball downfield -- Derek Carr (72) and Russell Wilson (70) were the only two quarterbacks to attempt more passes of at least 21 air yards last year than Allen's 68 -- Cook should have substantial space in underneath areas to exploit as a receiver.

If Allen takes advantage of those high-percentage throws when they come available, it will decrease the pressure on him to make the highlight reel passes to which the NFL universe has become accustomed, yet potential improvements in his accuracy could also have a massive bearing on his and the Bills' success in 2022.
 

Allen's extra 1%

Across the Wild Card Round of the playoffs, in which the Bills did not punt and scored a touchdown on every drive against the New England Patriots, and his equally remarkable performance in the '13 seconds game', Allen completed 77.4 per cent of his passes for 637 yards, nine touchdowns and zero interceptions.

He averaged 10.27 yards per attempt and had a passer rating of 149.0 in an incredible finale to a campaign that makes talk of finding areas for improvement seem bizarre.

Yet the best athletes are always striving to find that extra one per cent and Allen looks to have indentified where his potentially lies.

"I think, myself especially, making sure I'm on time, making the right reads and giving our guys good enough balls to get some some more RAC [run after catch]," Allen said during the offseason.

"That's one thing I think, on offense, run after catch was wasn't very high last year, but again, that's me putting the ball where it needs to be and allow our guys to catch in a good position to make a run after the catch.

"So working on that, that's been been one of my biggest takeaways in this offseason and trying to work on just ball placement and allowing our receivers to do that."

Allen's assessment is backed up by the numbers. Among 31 qualifying quarterbacks, Allen was last in yards after catch per reception with an average of just 4.5 in a season where his well-thrown percentage dropped significantly.

In his breakout 2020 season, Allen produced an accurate, well-thrown ball on 80.5 per cent of his pass attempts, the seventh-best ratio among quarterbacks with at least 100 attempts. Last season, his well-thrown rate fell to 77.2, below the league average of 78.1 for signal-callers to reach three figures in attempts.

Though the difference in his YAC per reception was negligible -- Allen averaged 4.6 per completed pass in 2020 -- there is no doubt the Bills' offense would benefit from him rediscovering the accuracy of two seasons ago.

Emmanuel Sanders and Cole Beasley have departed, but Stefon Diggs and the emerging Gabriel Davis represent two top two pass-catching weapons for Allen, and he also has two new targets for 2022 who should each thrive if he can do a better job leading his receivers.

Veteran Jamison Crowder has averaged 4.6 yards after catch per reception since 2019, almost a full yard more than Diggs (3.7) and rookie fifth-round pick Khalil Shakir possesses the vision, fluidity and love of contact to excel with the ball in his hands.

Allen improving his anticipation will go a long way to helping the Bills meet the expectations they face in 2022, but he could still use a helping hand from a loaded defense that was not without its own imperfections last year.
 

A more prolific pass rush

The Billls' headline addition of the offseason was that of Von Miller, the veteran edge rusher who arrived after displaying the plentiful amount of fuel he still has in the tank during a sojourn with the Los Angeles Rams that ended with his second Super Bowl title.

Miller finished the season with a stunt-adjusted pass rush win rate of 43.4 per cent, which was the fifth-highest among edge rushers with at least 100 one on one matchups.

Between Week 15 of the regular season and the Rams' Super Bowl triumph, Miller racked up nine sacks. Only in the NFC Championship Game against the San Francisco 49ers did he fail to bring down the quarterback.

No surprise then, that Miller's acquisition sees the Bills pass rush enter the season fourth in Stats Perform's postional rankings.

Justifying that ranking is another matter, however.

The Bills did an excellent job of pressuring opposing quarterbacks last season, in which they were sixth in pass rush win rate. Yet there is clear room for improvement in converting those pressures into sacks. Buffalo registered 42 sacks in 2021, 39 of them for negative yardage - that latter number good enough for 12th in the NFL.

Buffalo will look for Miller to vastly improve the Bills' ability to turn pressures into negative plays, though the former Denver Bronco cannot do it alone. Gregory Rousseau, Carlos 'Boogie Basham' and A.J. Epenesa all had pressure rates below 17 per cent last season as the trio of edge rushers selected highly by the Bills over the course of the last two years struggled to justify their respective draft statuses. On the interior, Ed Oliver has never had more than five sacks since being picked in the top 10 in 2019.

It was in the Divisional Round where the Bills need for extra pass-rush help was encapsulated. Buffalo pressured Patrick Mahomes 23 times but registered just two sacks.

Any kind of disruption is production when it comes to the pass rush. Pressure often leads to critical mistakes, but the likes of Mahomes and his contemporaries have grown so adept at dealing with it - Mahomes threw just five interceptable passes on 194 attempts under duress last season - that is simply not enough to get into the backfield and expect bad results for the offense.

Simply put, the Bills must do a better job of ensuring their successful pass rushes pay dividends and consistently put opposing aerial attacks in disadvantageous situations

Success in doing so would improve the odds of an extremely talented secondary surviving cornerback Tre'Davious White's early-season absence and create more chances for an opportunistic defense to produce turnovers going up against offenses working from behind the chains.

The Bills' inconsistency in turning pressure into sacks, their need for more YAC and perhaps a less Allen-centric run game are all minor blemishes for arguably the most complete team in the NFL.

Yet small issues can quickly become significant problems in the spotlight of the postseason, and it would grealy behove the Bills to iron out the imperfections that could impact their hopes of finally ending their tortuous wait for a title.

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.

Even accounting for Chelsea's shoddy start to the Champions League, few would have expected Thomas Tuchel to be out of a job by Wednesday.

The Blues started their European campaign with a lacklustre 1-0 setback at Dinamo Zagreb, a result that follows an underwhelming trend to start the season.

With three wins, two losses and one draw from six games, the Blues sit sixth in the infant Premier League table.

Still, most would have expected Tuchel – who has won the Champions League and Club World Cup with Chelsea – to be afforded more time to bed in the likes of Raheem Sterling, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Wesley Fofana and Kalidou Koulibaly following a big-spending transfer window under the club's new owners led by Todd Boehly.

But, alas, he has not, and for the first time Chelsea are after a new boss under their new regime. We have taken a look at the most likely candidates to replace Tuchel at Stamford Bridge.

MAURICIO POCHETTINO

The last time Chelsea were looking for a successor for a sacked manager, they turned to a former Paris Saint-Germain boss in Tuchel to replace club legend Frank Lampard. Might history repeat itself here? Certainly Pochettino would be attainable after the Argentine departed the Parc des Princes in July despite winning the Ligue 1 title. Pochettino also brings extensive knowledge of the Premier League having managed Southampton before joining Tottenham in May 2014. Pochettino failed to deliver major silverware but did lead the club to the 2019 Champions League final and secured four straight top-four finishes.

GRAHAM POTTER

A name that has cropped up early in the bookmakers' odds is Brighton and Hove Albion boss Potter, a man who has earned plenty of admirers due to the attractive brand of football employed by his Seagulls side. Having coached Swedish side Ostersund for seven years, Potter joined Swansea City in 2018 and a year later made the move to the Amex Stadium. After finishing 15th and 16th in his first two top-flight seasons, Brighton placed ninth last term and Potter has long been tipped for bigger things, with his case boosted by a fantastic start to the 2022-23 season.

ZINEDINE ZIDANE

Another boss out of work, though reports suggest Zidane remains keen to take on the France job should Didier Deschamps leave after Qatar 2022. One of the greatest players of all time, Zidane has also enjoyed success in the dugout at Real Madrid. Over two spells as coach at the Santiago Bernabeu, Zidane won three Champions League titles (all in a row from 2016 to 2018), two LaLiga medals, and the Club World Cup twice among a plethora of honours. He also showed his ability to manage big egos at the Santiago Bernabeu, a trait that may appeal to Boehly.

BRENDAN RODGERS

A move that would probably represent an outside bet given Leicester City's shoddy start to the season that sees them winless after six matches and rooted to the bottom of the table, but there is context behind that – including the sale of Fofana to Chelsea. Rodgers previously managed Liverpool and went agonisingly close to winning the title in the 2013-14 season – eventually finishing runners-up to Manchester City. After an impressive spell with Celtic, Rodgers returned to English football with Leicester and defeated Chelsea in the 2020-21 FA Cup final. Moreover, Rodgers is a familiar face at Stamford Bridge having managed the club's reserve side from 2006-2008.

DIEGO SIMEONE

Simeone is an undoubted legend at Atletico Madrid, where he has managed to consistently compete against heavyweight rivals Real Madrid and Barcelona in LaLiga for over a decade. A two-time league winner, to go with medals in the Europa League, Copa del Rey and Supercopa a Espana, Simeone knows how to win trophies – even though two runs to the final of the Champions League both ended in defeat to Real Madrid. But having finished third and 15 points off the top last term, and started this season in patchy form (two wins, a draw and a defeat from four games), perhaps Simeone may finally be swayed by the prospect of pastures new.

Tottenham are gearing up for their first Champions League campaign in three seasons with momentum on their side and expectation levels high.

A large part of that is down to head coach Antonio Conte, who guided Spurs back into Europe's elite club competition in his first half-season in charge of the north London club.

Conte boasts a CV that is the envy of many managers around the world, the Italian having won eight major trophies during his coaching career, including five top-level league titles in two countries.

But Conte's domestic success has not transferred onto the European stage, having exited the Champions League in the group stage more times than he has advanced, despite managing some of the continent's elite clubs.

Ahead of Tottenham's Group D opener against Marseille on Wednesday, in which Conte will become the fourth coach to take charge of more than one English club in the competition, Stats Perform looks at the 53-year-old's underwhelming record.

JUST ONE KNOCKOUT WIN

Tottenham will be the fourth side Conte has taken charge of in the Champions League after Juventus, Chelsea and Inter. He has managed 36 games with those three heavyweight sides but won just 12 for a 33 per cent win rate.

To put that into some context, that compares to a 65 per cent win rate in the Premier League (over a much larger sample of games) and 68 per cent win rate in Serie A.

Breaking down that European record further, Conte won six of his 16 matches as Juve boss in the competition and just three each with Chelsea and Inter across eight and 12 matches respectively.

Those victories with Juve, Inter and Chelsea, if you were wondering, came against Celtic (twice), Qarabag (twice), Atletico Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Borussia Monchengladbach, Chelsea, Copenhagen, Nordsjaelland, Shakhtar Donetsk and Slavia Prague.

Conte's best run in UEFA's elite club tournament remains his first campaign when taking Juve to the quarter-finals in the 2012-13 season, where his title winners were well beaten by Bayern Munich over two legs.

Remarkably, that season's 5-0 aggregate win over Celtic in the last 16 remains Conte's only knockout-stage success in the Champions League.

That was one of only two occasions in five attempts a Conte side has made it beyond the first round, in fact, the other instance being in the 2017-18 season when Chelsea finished second to Roma in the group and were then eliminated by Barcelona in the last 16.

Conte was unable to guide Juve out of the group stage in 2013-14, failing to finish ahead of Galatasaray for second place behind Real Madrid, and also fell at the first hurdle in successive seasons with Inter.

EXCUSES, EXCUSES

But exactly why has one of the best coaches of his generation struggled so badly when it comes to balancing domestic and European football?

One suggestion is that, like a lot of Italian coaches, Conte prioritises league titles over continental cups, but the Spurs boss laughed that idea off at a news conference on Tuesday and pointed to the success of compatriot Carlo Ancelotti, the winner of more European Cups than any other coach.

"Success in Europe with a trophy is important for every manager," Conte added when probed on his underwhelming Champions League record. "You know very well that it is not simple, not easy to lift a trophy in Europe and especially the Champions League. 

"It is important to be there and you have more probability if you are the coach of a team who expects to win. Two years ago, with Inter, we lost the final of the Europa League against Sevilla. For sure, in my heart, in my mind, in my ambition, there is the will to have success in Europe."

Conte did indeed reach the final of the Europa League with Inter in the 2019-20 season, but even that can be considered a disappointment as a much-fancied Nerazzurri lost to Sevilla in the final and were only in the competition by virtue of their early Champions League elimination.

Another theory, put forward by Conte himself, is that his squads simply have not had the depth to cope with demanding runs across multiple competitions. 

"Some important mistakes have been made at the planning stage; we can't play both the Champions League and Serie A with such a small squad," Conte said two years ago on the back of Inter's second successive group-stage exit.

"I'm tired of saying the same things over and over again. Perhaps the [club directors] could come over here and say something. I hope that this will help them understand a few things."

SIXTH TIME LUCKY WITH SPURS?

Passing the buck to those higher up is very much out of the Conte playbook, a classic ploy usually used to help get his way when the transfer window approaches.

But on the back of a busy few months of transfer activity at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, in which the Italian has been backed heavily, that excuse will surely not cut it with Daniel Levy and Co.

While Tottenham are not realistically expected to challenge for the Champions League trophy this term, failing to advance from a favourable group that contains Marseille, Eintracht Frankfurt and Sporting CP would be yet another blight on Conte's CV.

However, Conte may already be laying the foundations to cover his back should Spurs miss out on a place in the last 16, with the ex-Chelsea boss hitting out at the congested fixture list this side of the World Cup.

"Honestly, to see this schedule about Tottenham is incredible, it's crazy because we played three games in six days against Nottingham Forest, West Ham and Fulham," he added on Tuesday.

"Now we are playing after four days, but we are starting to play again three important games against Marseille in the Champions League, [Manchester] City away and Sporting Lisbon away in six days. I think maybe this is my first time in my career to see a schedule like this.

"I think in this situation we are unlucky, but I think in the future, and also I spoke with the club, we have to pay great attention to speak also to the Premier League. One day more, one day less can change totally your life and you can drop points. This is no good for a team like Tottenham."

These are the same issues the likes of Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp and Thomas Tuchel have also raised, the difference being each of those have lifted the Champions League trophy aloft during their careers.

Now, as he embarks on his sixth season in the greatest club competition of them all, Conte must put talk of fixture congestion, a lack of squad depth or simply being unlucky with the draw to one side and prove that lessons have been learned from the past.

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia played just 10 times for Lokomotiv Moscow, and only one of those appearances was as a starter.

Yet, his father claimed in 2020 that then-Lokomotiv coach Yury Syomin cried actual tears when Kvaratskhelia said he would not be staying beyond the end of his initial loan agreement. The youngster also apparently broke down.

Seemingly the teenaged Kvaratskhelia made quite the impression on his coach, though curiously not enough to play on a regular basis. It's fair to say Kvaratskhelia's decision to move on and ultimately join fellow Russian Premier League side Rubin Kazan was a smart one.

"After that, I was glad my son was in Rubin, where they let him play football," Kvaratskhelia Sr added, and it was in Kazan where the talented winger began to consistently show the talents that Napoli will hope can help them get the better of the mighty Liverpool on Wednesday.

Kvaratskhelia will make his Champions League bow when the Reds come to Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, a commendable achievement given his rollercoaster of a 2022.

Turbulent times

A couple of weeks on from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, FIFA made it possible for foreign players and coaches in both countries to suspend their contracts.

Kvaratskhelia was eligible for such action, and while he did suspend his agreement, it seemed his initial plan was to eventually return to Rubin.

However, he and the club later announced a mutual termination after it emerged his family were subject to threats due to the original decision of not permanently leaving Russia.

He saw out the remainder of the 2021-22 season back home in Georgia with Dinamo Batumi – it was clearly a level below his usual standard as he scored eight goals in 11 league games, but it helped keep Kvaratskhelia sharp for his national team, netting three times from four Nations League outings in June.

Nevertheless, few would have considered those early months of the year to be ideal for a young talent hoping to make the step up to one of Europe's major leagues – that was where he had previously looked destined to end up.

Arsenal had been known admirers for a long time, sending scouts to watch him as early as September 2019. Several other English and Italian clubs were linked with him, but it was Napoli who ultimately took the punt.

The early signs suggest it is going to pay off for them rather handsomely.

Blossoming at Napoli

Replacing a club great is never a simple task, but if Kvaratskhelia continues at his current rate, Lorenzo Insigne will become a distant memory very quickly.

Insigne's move to Toronto in Major League Soccer came as something of a surprise when initially announced, and filling that void with a player who had most recently been playing in Georgia will have raised some eyebrows.

Additionally, bringing in Kvaratskhelia for Insigne was hardly like-for-like. The latter was all about dropping deep and essentially playing as a playmaker, with his 74.1 touches and 45.2 successful passes per 90 minutes both highs among Opta-classified forwards (minimum 1,000 minutes played) in Serie A last term.

Kvaratskhelia is far more direct and intent on getting in behind the defence, while his ability on the ball makes him a threat both as a carrier and dribbler – his nine carries with a take-on is bettered by only Rafael Leao (12) among wingers this term.

A predominantly right-footed winger who prefers to operate from the left, one might expect him to be a little one-dimensional, but he has already shown in Serie A how effective he can be chopping back on to his left foot, bamboozling the Monza defence with a feint before slotting home left-footed in last month's 4-0 win.

That was one of four goals already this season, none of which were penalties – that is a haul no player can better without adding in spot-kicks, and that form helped him win the first Player of the Month award of the campaign.

Of course, it remains early days in his Napoli career, but he has taken to Serie A with promising ease and has a style of play that will endear him to a set of supporters always ready to fall in love with talented attackers.

Hopefully Syomin's tears of disappointment will turn to pride when 'Kvaradona' makes his Champions League introduction on Wednesday.

It seemed on a frenzied January night in Kansas City as though the AFC title would be decided by the toss of a coin.

The Kansas City Chiefs were the beneficiaries, coming up the field one last time to beat the Buffalo Bills, but Patrick Mahomes and Co. were not to make the Super Bowl.

That the Chiefs were stunned by the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC Championship Game said a great deal for the strength in depth of the conference.

And that has been ratcheted up to another level over the course of the offseason, with Russell Wilson and Davante Adams among the notable names traded into the AFC.

The NFC may still have the defending Super Bowl champions, but there are no shortage of contenders here – including as many as four in one wild division out west.

The favourites

The Chiefs and the Bills would both have been hugely disheartened by the manner in which their seasons ended. Kansas City had the fortune that deserted Buffalo but were unable to make the most of their reprieve against the Bengals.

But that will merely make Mahomes and Josh Allen two of the more motivated superstars heading into the new season.

Mahomes is now without Tyreek Hill, yet the Chiefs' offensive line went from strength to strength as last season wore on, ranking third in pass protection win percentage by the year's end.

Meanwhile, Allen showed in that playoff blockbuster he can be every bit a match for Mahomes at his best. He threw nine touchdown passes across his two playoff games; no player had previously thrown more than seven while playing two games or fewer in a single postseason.

Allen will hope not to get the chance to better that record, this year targeting a run that goes far beyond the Divisional Round.

In the mix

The Bengals of course have to be considered after pushing the Los Angeles Rams all the way, while the Tennessee Titans actually matched the Chiefs for the best regular season record in the AFC despite Derrick Henry being limited to eight games, though the trade of receiver A.J. Brown to the Philadelphia Eagles may restrict their ceiling on offense and ability to compete this year.

Deshaun Watson's suspension will give the Cleveland Browns work to do just to make the playoffs, but they may well be a serious threat if they get there.

A conference packed with quarterback talent also includes former MVP Lamar Jackson, who is fit again and looking to set the Baltimore Ravens back on course after a difficult 2021 in which they finished bottom of the AFC North.

But if the Chiefs are the team to beat, perhaps one of their division rivals can cause an upset. Each of the Los Angeles Chargers, the Denver Broncos and the Las Vegas Raiders have reasons to be optimistic.

Four contenders in the wild, wild AFC West

The Chiefs have won the AFC West six years in a row, but there is no guarantee that will become seven. The scale of the challenge before Kansas City represents a big boost to their AFC rivals – and to the neutrals, licking their lips at a must-watch season-long tussle.

Justin Herbert has long looked like making the Chargers contenders, with just the 14th 5,000-yard passing season in league history helping his offense finish fourth in the league in yards per game (390.2) and fifth in total points scored (747) last season. Crucially, the Chargers have added defensive help in the form of Khalil Mack and J.C. Jackson now, too.

Yet their offseason work perhaps pales next to that of the Broncos and the Raiders.

Wilson left the Seattle Seahawks for Denver, who promptly handed him a huge contract, clearly feeling he and Nathaniel Hackett can be the QB-coach combo they have been missing to return them to the postseason.

Support for that belief comes from Wilson's performance in quarterback Efficiency Versus Expected (EVE), which measures a signal-caller's performance in expected passing situations against the league average. Despite playing only 14 games on a Seahawks team that finished in the NFC West cellar, Wilson was still 13th in EVE, just behind Tom Brady.

Meanwhile, Adams has reunited with former Fresno State team-mate Derek Carr on the Raiders, with Stats Perform's positional rankings subsequently considering Las Vegas to have the most talented skill players in the NFL.

The Chiefs will undoubtedly now be made to work for the division after years of dominance. 

Lamar out to right last year's wrongs

With half of the conference potentially in contention for a Super Bowl run, there is perhaps no true sleeper pick, but the Ravens will expect to go from worst to first in their division.

Much will depend on a return to form for dual-threat superstar Jackson.

Baltimore were firmly on course for the playoffs at the time of the ankle injury that kept Jackson out of the run-in in 2021, collapsing thereafter. However, it had already been by far the QB's worst season as a regular starter.

After 3,127 passing yards and 36 passing TDs and 1,206 rushing yards and seven rushing TDs in his MVP season of 2019, Jackson had regressed slightly in 2020 and struggled further last year both through the air and on the ground.

In 12 games, Jackson threw just 16 TDs to 13 interceptions, while his 767 rushing yards saw him finish second among QBs to Jalen Hurts – a category he had dominated in the previous two campaigns.

Everything the Ravens do when they are good goes through Jackson, so his performance level will make or break their season.

Can Tua turn his fortunes around?

With the wealth of talent at the top of the AFC, there must also be some dregs at the bottom. The Miami Dolphins might fear they belong instead to that category.

The Dolphins made their own big move this offseason, taking elite receiver Hill out of the AFC West to give Tua Tagovailoa little excuse in his third season.

Hill got open on 82.7 per cent of his targets last season, with those skills of separation sure to come in useful when attempting to link up with a passer in Tagovailoa who threw to an open target just 73.8 per cent of the time.

The Dolphins are not expecting Tagovailoa to be Mahomes, but they need him to be much better than he has been thus far for this project to work.

The time is almost upon us. When that first ball is kicked at the start of the Los Angeles Rams' opener against the Buffalo Bills on Thursday, we will be on our way to yet another enthralling season of NFL action.

And there are few better reasons to get excited at the beginning of a new campaign than the promise of a good old redemption story.

These tales may not necessarily revolve around someone who has suffered a fall from grace, though; in some cases, it might just be someone who has taken a smidge longer than expected to blossom.

So, before the thunder and lightning of a new NFL season, Stats Perform has taken a look at five men who could have a touch more motivation to show everything they have to offer in 2022.

Baker Mayfield – Carolina Panthers

Mayfield perhaps leaps out as the most obvious choice.

Big things were expected of the quarterback when he was the number one pick of the 2018 NFL Draft, charged with leading a flailing 0-16 Cleveland Browns.

There were moments of promise in his four years in Cleveland, throwing 27 touchdowns in 14 games in his first season, and in 2020 he played a big part in getting the Browns to the playoffs, unthinkable when he came through the door.

However, in 2021, Mayfield threw just 18 TD passes, the worst season of his career, as a Browns team who were starting to feel like they had outgrown him finished 8-9.

Of quarterbacks to have more than 300 passing attempts, only Sam Darnold (59.9), Trevor Lawrence (59.6) and Zach Wilson (55.6) had a lower pass completion percentage than his 60.5.

After a lot of uncertainty, he finally found a new home after being traded to the Panthers, who are in desperate need of a quality QB after the Darnold experiment failed last year.

It is a risk for both parties, and both need it to work, but you could also argue it could not get much worse for either.

Gabe Davis – Buffalo Bills

There had not been any immediately obvious signs that Davis was going to be a breakout star for the Bills for most of his first two seasons.

Seven TDs in his rookie year – and none in the playoffs from only four catches – were followed by just six in the 2021 regular season.

However, thanks to his explosive performance against the Kansas City Chiefs in last season's playoffs, plenty are excited about what could come from Davis and the much-fancied Bills in 2022.

His four TDs and 201 yards from eight receptions – for an average of 25.1 yards – were still not enough as the Chiefs ultimately won the AFC Divisional Round encounter in overtime, but Davis emerged as a potential new star.

By the end of the campaign, no player had recorded over 1,000 burn yards – yards in situations where a receiver 'wins' his matchup against a defender – from fewer receptions (45) than Davis.

But was this a one-off, or can Davis do it all over again? We will soon find out.

Trevor Lawrence – Jacksonville Jaguars

Lawrence could end up being a very similar story to Mayfield. He was also the number one pick for a team with little else going for it.

In his rookie year, Lawrence threw for 12 TDs, but his poor pass completion percentage was set out above.

He remained a busy man regardless, with only six QBs making more than his 602 pass attempts, but the Jaguars could only manage three wins, two more than in 2020.

Whether it was sloppy throwing or feeling the need to take risks with little assistance, Lawrence threw 26 pickable passes, with only four QBs who made over 300 pass attempts seeing a worse pickable pass percentage than his 4.59 per cent (Jimmy Garoppolo – 4.82, Taylor Heinicke – 5.04, Zach Wilson – 5.21, Davis Mills – 5.56).

There is undoubted talent there, hence the hype when he was picked up by Jacksonville in 2021, and it is surely just a case of Lawrence having more help and getting more experience. We will perhaps see this season.

Matthew Stafford – LA Rams

Yes, it's another quarterback, but with a twist. This one just won the Super Bowl, after all.

It may seem strange given the ring he has on his finger, but the situation with Stafford's elbow means he must prove himself all over again.

In terms of numbers, the Rams QB has now established himself among the elite. Stafford ranks in the top 12 all-time in completions (11th, 4,302), passing yards (12th, 49,995), passing yards per game (sixth, 274.7), touchdown passes (12th, 323) and game-winning drives (seventh, 42).

Crucially, he led the team to Super Bowl success last year, too.

But the Rams' hopes of a repeat are pinned on Stafford being fit enough to perform all year long, and there are some worrying noises around an elbow issue heading into the year.

Should Stafford shake off those concerns and combine with Cooper Kupp for another outstanding season – and perhaps another ring – nobody could possibly doubt his legacy.

Kliff Kingsbury – Arizona Cardinals

It is not just players who have something to prove, but coaches, too – and you could argue Kingsbury does more than most.

While undoubtedly a talented coach, Kingsbury is building a reputation as someone who comes up with effective plays to start a season but is less able to adjust to keep ahead of the competition once they figure it out.

After winning their first seven games, the Cardinals raced out to a sensational 10-2 start last season, well ahead of projected results, only to stumble to 11-6 after losing four of their last five in the regular season, before being humbled 34-11 by the Rams in their first postseason game.

The excellent start cannot be ignored, but neither can the fact that it made nine seasons in a row in which a team led by Kingsbury have had a worse second half of the season than the first.

Despite being without DeAndre Hopkins for the first six games due to suspension, Kingsbury has an exciting team in Arizona and it would be no surprise to see them start strongly again.

They just need to figure out a way to maintain it this time.

Istanbul awaits next June, and this week the journey starts as the group stage of the Champions League begins.

Of course, the ultimate goal is to reach the final and lift the trophy. Most will fail in that quest, but that's not to say those who don't win the competition are failures.

Every year we enjoy breakout seasons from individuals in the Champions League as they announce themselves on the biggest stage.

Whether those performances earn big-money moves or simply greater acclaim, you can expect there to be a few players you might not be very familiar with who go on to impress.

Ahead of the first round of games, Stats Perform has identified a few to keep an eye out for.

Tanguy Nianzou, centre-back, 20 – Sevilla

After coming through Paris Saint-Germain's academy and then spending a season at Bayern Munich, France youth international Nianzou joined Sevilla as the replacement for Jules Kounde in pre-season.

It's been a rocky start for the youngster. He's part of a defence that's looked extremely unconvincing, with their expected goals against (excluding penalties) of 7.5 the second-worst in LaLiga after four games, three of which Sevilla have lost.

On matchday one, Nianzou will come up against Erling Haaland and Manchester City. The defender is very highly rated, but this will be a massive test of his readiness for regular football at such a level.

Goncalo Ramos, forward, 21 – Benfica

If you believe transfer gossip, there were plenty of clubs ready to prise Ramos from Benfica in the transfer window, but ultimately he stayed put and will be considered Darwin Nunez's replacement this season.

A well-rounded striker, Ramos works hard, is up for a physical battle and is technically proficient. Last season, he scored seven Primeira Liga goals as back-up to Nunez, although his early form in that regard this term suggests work is needed.

His two strikes from 3.9 xG show he's getting into good situations but isn't yet proving clinical – albeit he did net four in Champions League qualifying.

Benfica are in a group with Juventus and PSG, so they'll hope Ramos finds a reliable streak to aid their outside chance of progression.

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, winger, 21 – Napoli

The first winner of Serie A's Player of the Month award of the new season – and in his very first month in the league – it's been some introduction from Kvaratskhelia.

He was playing back home in Georgia in the second half of last season after being able to suspend his contract at Rubin Kazan amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine. His deal was then terminated by Rubin after it emerged he was subject to death threats after leaving.

Kvaratskhelia had been linked with numerous big clubs but eventually landed at Napoli as Lorenzo Insigne's replacement. They may not be anything alike as players, but that's not stopped Kvaratskhelia having a major early impact with four goals in five Serie A games.

A tall winger who possesses great dribbling skills, he's a player primed to make a statement this season.

Lorenzo Lucca, striker, 21 – Ajax

He may only be 21, but Lucca's fledgling career has already been somewhat nomadic, finding himself registered as a senior player at six clubs – the latest being Ajax, whom he joined on loan with an option to buy from Serie B side Pisa.

Remarkably, the last of his six league goals for Pisa last season came in October, so it's clear the jury is still out and he has a lot to prove, but he has the attributes to be a threat for any team.

Standing at just over two metres tall, Lucca is a giant, yet he also possesses a surprising turn of pace and is technically very good. The Italy Under-21 international has only played 21 minutes with the first team this season, but he has three goals in two games for the second string.

It's unlikely he'll be a key figure for Ajax, but given his skillset he will be a viable option at times – let's just see if he can take his chances.

Matt O'Riley, midfielder, 21 – Celtic

Last season, O'Riley was playing in League One for MK Dons; on Tuesday, he'll likely line-up against Real Madrid. It's been quite a quick ascension for the gifted midfielder.

A product of Fulham's academy, O'Riley left the Cottagers stunned when he rejected a new contract in 2020. He spent six months training with Dons and then signed for them in January 2021 – that saw him exposed to first-team football and a year later he was at Celtic.

The London-born Denmark Under-21 international has enjoyed a wonderful start to the season, with his vision and ball-playing abilities marking him out as a real creative threat and earning links to Manchester United.

How he fares in the Champions League with the step up in quality could prove crucial with respect to his short-term future.

For Erik ten Hag, there was never any doubt. Just three days after arriving from Ajax, and with only two training sessions with his new team-mates under his belt, the Manchester United boss felt Antony was ready to be unleashed in Sunday's meeting with Arsenal.

"He knows the style we want to play and what we expect and demand," Ten Hag, who coached Antony at Ajax in the previous two campaigns, told Sky Sports ahead of United's 2-1 victory. "He can particularly be an offensive threat with his speed in one-on-ones."

The tricky winger this week became United's second-most expensive signing ever at £68million – behind only the £89m paid for Paul Pogba – and made an instant impact with his goalscoring display against a previously perfect Gunners side.

Antony's well-taken strike after 35 minutes at Old Trafford gave United the lead in a game they had otherwise been second best in, with Arsenal – and Gabriel Jesus in particular – looking very dangerous in an attacking sense either side of that opener.

One of the first players to congratulate Antony was fellow attacker Marcus Rashford, who himself netted on his debut for United and also his first appearance in the Premier League, against Arsenal of all sides in a 3-2 home win six-and-a-half years ago.

And while Antony made a big impression on his United bow, this victory belonged to Rashford. The England international assisted the opener and then scored two of his own goals after Bukayo Saka had deservedly levelled for Arsenal in the second period.

It meant Rashford both scored and assisted in a Premier League game for the first time since October 2020 – and at the perfect time, too, with some calling for the versatile forward to make way from the side.

Selecting both Rashford and Antony was a big call from Ten Hag against an Arsenal side that boasted five wins from five prior to Sunday's contest at Old Trafford, the Dutchman changing a winning formula after three victories on the spin with the same XI.

At 22 years and 192 days, Antony became the youngest Brazilian player to score on his Premier League debut, and the first player from the South American country to net on his first appearance for United.

The ninth Brazilian to put on the famous United strip, Antony not only found the net but also lit up Old Trafford with some trademark Samba skills, the highlight being some neat footwork to beat two Arsenal players when seemingly going nowhere and helping to create a big chance for Christian Eriksen.

He played just short of an hour before being replaced by Cristiano Ronaldo – out of United's starting line-up for a fourth game running – and departed with the most shots of any player (three), the highest xG (0.32) and having attempted the joint-most dribbles (seven).
 
It was an inspired call from Ten Hag, who three weeks on from his appointment being questioned by some high-profile names following defeats to Brighton and Hove Albion and Brentford, is now instead being hailed as a managerial magician.

Time will tell on that front, of course, but the signs in wins over Liverpool, Southampton, Leicester City and now Arsenal have been hugely encouraging. 

Despite a first loss since back-to-back defeats derailed their hopes of Champions League football in the final fortnight of last season, Arsenal remain top of the embryonic table and if not for some contentious calls may well have come away with another victory.

VAR was again at the centre of controversy as a Gabriel Martinelli goal was ruled out at 0-0 after referee Paul Tierney, having being instructed to check the pitchside monitor, adjudged Martin Odegaard had fouled Eriksen in the build-up.

But thanks to Antony and Rashford, this day belonged to United. For the first time in 17 months, they have won four league games in a row and finally have momentum on their side in what is shaping up to be a promising future under Ten Hag.

Having snuck into the playoffs last season, the Philadelphia Eagles were one of the NFL's surprise packages in 2021 but will have to shoulder larger expectations heading into 2022.

A 9-8 record from last year presents a solid platform to build upon as the Eagles seek to wrest the NFC East crown from the Dallas Cowboys.

Their heavy playoff defeat to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Wild Card Round illustrated how far the Eagles were from legitimate contention in 2021.

Philadelphia have made a series of significant moves to put themselves in position to challenge the elite.

Indeed, theirs is a roster that appears among the most complete in the NFL, piling the pressure on both quarterback Jalen Hurts and a well-rounded roster to make the strides that will be anticipated by Eagles fans in one of US sports' most demanding cities.

Can defensive additions pay dividends?

There is obvious room for improvement on Philadelphia's defense following their efforts of last year on that side of the ball.

The Eagles had opponents have a 10-play drive on 38 occasions, with only the Minnesota Vikings, Los Angeles Rams, Seattle Seahawks, Los Angeles Chargers and New York Giants having more, while the percentage of opponents converting on third down and short was the highest in the NFL at 74.2 per cent.

As well as struggling to get off the field on third down, the Eagles also had issues stopping significant plays on first down, with opponents passing for at least four yards 59.4 per cent of the time, again the highest rate in the NFL, while opposing offenses found the endzone on 45 of 74 drives on which Philadelphia allowed them inside the 30-yard line. Only the Las Vegas Raiders (61.2) allowed a touchdown on a higher percentage of such drives than the Eagles (60.8).

Philadelphia focused a lot of energy on improving performance in both of those areas.

The Eagles traded up in the first round of the draft for Georgia defensive tackle Jordan Davis, who at 6ft 6in and 341 pounds put on one of the most remarkable displays of athleticism the Scouting Combine has seen.

Davis will look to be an immediate force against the run and use his massive frame to make life easier for a talented group of pass rushers that now includes hometown hero Haason Reddick, whose 23.5 sacks over the last two seasons are the fifth-most in the NFL.

The addition of Reddick is a significant one to a defense that was eighth in pass rush win rate last year, and the Eagles have also done plenty to boost their chances of slowing down opposing aerial attacks.

By signing James Bradberry to pair with Darius Slay at starting cornerback, the Eagles now have the only two players in the NFL to register at least 15 interceptions and 80 or more pass breakups since 2016.

And their recent trade for C.J Gardner-Johnson gives the Eagles an ultra-versatile safety with the ability to play slot corner at a high level. Gardner-Johnson lost 33 of his 111 man coverage matchups last year, his open percentage allowed of 29.73 on the right side of the league average of 30.89 for corners.

The Eagles were a top-10 defense by yards per play allowed (5.20) in 2021 and their additions should theoretically help address the issues that prevented from faring even better.

However, defensive efficiency is famously volatile. Success is no guarantee despite the raft of impressive additions, and that is why the microscope will predominantly be focused on Hurts and the offense.

Will Philly love Hurts after 2022?

More consistency will be the order of the day for Hurts, despite the Eagles racking up 28.5 points per game between Weeks 8 and 18 as they went 7-3 over the last 10 regular-season games.

In 2021, Hurts' pass completion percentage stood at 64.1 from 449 attempts. Of quarterbacks to have more than 300 passing attempts, only Baker Mayfield (63.9), Trevor Lawrence (63.4) and Zach Wilson (58.4) had a lower figure.

Hurts' well-thrown percentage for 2021 was also below the league average of 78.1 for QBs with a minimum of 100 attempts, but that was in part a product of his aggressiveness. He averaged 9.3 air yards per attempt, fifth among signal-callers with at least 100 passes. Among quarterbacks to meet the 300-throw threshold, his average was only bettered by Russell Wilson (10) and Lamar Jackson (9.7).

The Eagles look to have assembled the talent around Hurts to deliver more stable production.

Philadelphia's marquee move of the offseason was to send a first-round pick to the Tennessee Titans for wide receiver A.J. Brown, who offers Hurts a physically imposing true number one option who excels in creating separation. His burn rate, which measures how often a receiver won his matchup with a defender on plays where he was targeted, of 64 per cent and his burn yards per route average of 4.0 yards was tied for the best among receivers with at least 100 targets (inc. playoffs).

But Hurts won't solely be able to rely on Brown. Though he displayed good chemistry with DeVonta Smith last year, Hurts needs his former Alabama team-mate to step up in terms of defeating coverage. Smith burnt his opponent on 55.7 per cent of his 115 targets. Of receivers to be targeted more than 100 times, only seven had a lower percentage.

Tight end Dallas Goedert was Hurts' most reliable passing game option last year, posting a 77.3 per cent burn rate from 88 targets that was the highest of any player in the position to be targeted on at least 80 occasions.

Yet Hurts was at his most dangerous on the ground in 2021, his 80 carries the most of any quarterback. Sixty of those came on scrambles – a tally only bettered by Patrick Mahomes – with Josh Allen (7.48) and Mahomes (6.27) the only signal-callers with at least 100 attempts and 50 scrambles to average more yards per carry on such runs.

His 29 explosive runs of 10 yards or more were the fourth-most in the NFL and nine more than Eagles running back Miles Sanders, who was second among running backs with at least 100 carries with a yards before contact average of 3.65. Sanders, despite failing to find the endzone in 2021, was also fourth in the league in yards per carry on runs that were disrupted by a defender, putting up 4.17 per attempt.

Playing behind an offensive line that ranked fifth in pass protection win rate and second in run block win rate last year, all the ingredients are there for Hurts to be centre stage in what could be one of the NFL's most dynamic and diverse offenses.

The Eagles will be aided by a schedule that sees them face only five teams that made the playoffs last season, but there are potential potholes on their path to contention in the NFC.

Backup tackle Andre Dillard has already suffered a fractured forearm in a blow to the depth on an O-Line featuring a veteran in Lane Johnson who has consistently dealt with injury issues.

While the Eagles acquired one of the league's more underrated coverage linebackers in Kyzir White, there remain doubts over the spine of the defense, particularly at the safety position.

On paper, the Eagles have almost everything required for a deep playoff run, but rarely are NFL seasons straightforward. A season of defensive regression or further injuries to the trenches could leave the onus firmly on Hurts to elevate those around him.

The overarching question in Philiadelphia is whether Hurts can be their franchise quarteback. Given how impressive the Eagles' roster is, it may take some adversity for the team to get a definitive answer.

Serena Williams' long and illustrious tennis career looks to have drawn to a close after the American lost to Ajla Tomljanovic at the US Open on Friday. 

Following a long piece in Vogue last month, Williams wrote of her plan to "move in a different direction" after "these next few weeks", suggesting the tournament at Flushing Meadows would be her last outing.

Thanks to her success and brilliance on the court, Williams has become synonymous with tennis and is regarded by many as the greatest the women's sport has ever seen.

At the age of 40, Williams has persisted with tennis far longer than most do, and that is testament to her quality and enduring desire for success.

Though Williams left a glimmer of a chance that she may yet play again, joking that she "always did love Australia", she may well have taken to the court for the last time. Here, Stats Perform takes a look at the key facts, stats and figures of her career; in other words, Serena's remarkable legacy.

Twenty-three… and done?

Of course, the headline fact for Williams' career is her grand slam titles count.

She has won 23, which is more than anyone else in the Open era.

But she still had one target left: matching Margaret Court. The Australian's 24 grand slam successes include nine won before the Open era began in 1968, though her overall total has been the benchmark ever since she claimed her final crown at the US Open in 1975.

Clearly, victory for Williams at Flushing Meadows would have been the perfect farewell, but it was not to be. Will that near-miss encourage her to take one more shot in Court's homeland next year?

The finals hurdle

Had Williams managed to reach the championship match in Queens, she would have equalled another record.

She headed into the US Open having played in 33 grand slam finals, one more than Martina Navratilova.

But Chris Evert (34) sits out in front, and that record is now set to remain hers for many, many years.

Top of the pile

It's been a while now since Williams was last the highest-ranked player in the world, but in a way that only further highlights how remarkable her career has been.

She's spent 319 weeks ranked as world number one, which is behind only Steffi Graf (377) and Navratilova (332).

While many might have expected Williams to have been top of the pile for even longer, it's worth remembering how she's spent time out due to injuries and pregnancy, with her general involvement in top-level tennis decreasing after 2014 when she played 16 tournaments – in 2016 that halved to eight, and during no year since has she played in more.

Additionally, some will also be surprised to learn she actually only finished the year as the top-ranked female player five times. Nevertheless, that's still third to only Graf (eight) and Navratilova (seven).

Go hard or go home

Such has been Williams' quality, she was always considered a threat regardless of the surface – she's won each grand slam at least three times.

But there's no denying she was at her most lethal on hard courts.

She has won 48 WTA Tour-level titles on hard courts, which is 11 more than anyone else (Graf) in the Open era.

Those 48 come from a grand total of 73 across all surfaces, leaving her ranked fifth behind Navratilova (167), Evert (157), Graf (107) and Court (92).

Surface to say…

Williams' comfort on hard courts goes even further than that.

She's won 541 matches on the surface, making her one of just two female players to surpass 500 victories on one specific ground type.

Navratilova (600 on carpet) is the only other player to achieve the feat, with Serena's sister Venus (498 on hard) the closest to the 23-time grand slam champion.

The grass is greener

Despite that unrivalled excellence, hard courts may not be the surface many feel to be most synonymous with Williams, however.

Wimbledon is the tournament that would appear to be her favourite.

She's reached the final at SW19 11 times. Only Navratilova can better that record for the most finals at one tournament – though it's worth saying she contested the WTA Finals and Chicago 14 times each, Eastbourne 13 times and 12 at Wimbledon.