Only 50 days left between right now and the return of America's favorite sport: NFL football. According to Nielsen data, via Sportico, 93 of 2023's 100 most-watched televisions broadcasts were NFL games.
Week 1 of the 2024 season kicks off on Thursday, Sept. 5 with an AFC Championship game rematch between the team with last season's best regular season record and the NFL MVP -- quarterback Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens -- and the back-to-back Super Bowl champions and the Super Bowl MVP -- quarterback Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.
The great folks in the CBS Sports research department have put together pages upon pages of great notes and statistics to help get us ready for the upcoming season, so here is a look at 50 of the most intriguing notes from historical trends and stats that could come in use for fantasy or even gambling, if that's your thing. Enjoy!
1. The Kansas City Chiefs are only the fifth team all-time with three Super Bowl wins (2019, 2022, 2023) in a five-year span, joining the 1970's Steel Curtain Pittsburgh Steelers (1974, 1975, 1978, 1979), the 1990's dynasty Dallas Cowboys (1992, 1993, 1995), the early season Brady-Belichick New England Patriots (2001, 2003, 2004) and the later seasons of the Brady-Belichick Patriots (2014, 2016, 2018).
2. Kansas City is aiming to be the first team in NFL history to win three consecutive Super Bowls and join the Green Bay Packers (1929-1931 and 1965-1967) as the only squad to win three consecutive NFL titles.
3. Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is the fifth quarterback with three or more Super Bowl wins (Brady, Montana, Bradshaw and Aikman), the third with three or more Super Bowl MVPs (Brady and Montana and the first player with three championship MVPs in their first seven seasons in NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB history.
4. San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan's offenses average the most yards per play (5.9) and yards per pass attempt (8.1) among any head coach in the Super Bowl era, minimum 100 games as a head coach.
5. San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy led the NFL in yards per pass attempt with 9.6, the most in a single season ever, minimum 350 pass attempts. He also led the league in yards per attempt on throws of zero-plus, five-plus, 10-plus, 15-plus, 20-plus and 25-plus air yards last season.
6. Purdy and Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love joined Hall of Famer Kurt Warner (1999), Patrick Mahomes (2018) and Justin Herbert (2020) as the only quarterbacks with 30-plus passing touchdowns and 4,000-plus passing yards in their first season as a full-time starter in NFL history. Full time starter in this case is defined as starting at least 50% of their team's games.
7. The Packers became the youngest team to win a playoff game since the 1970 AFL/NFL merger (average age of 25 years and 214 days) when they upset the second-seeded Cowboys 48-32 in the NFC Wild Card round.
8. Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua set the NFL all-time rookie records for catches (105) and receiving yards (1,486) in 2023.
9. Rams running back Kyren Williams became the first player to finish in the league's top three in rushing yards (1,144, third-most in NFL) despite missing at least five games since Bull Karcis did so for the 1937 Pittsburgh Pirates. He led the NFL with 95.3 rushing yards per game in 2023, making him the third Rams players in the Super Bowl era to lead the NFL in rushing yards per game in a season. Williams joined Hall of Famers Marshall Faulk and Eric Dickerson.
10. The Bills are the first team in NFL history to lose a player with 100+ receptions (Stefon Diggs) and a player with 10+ sacks (Leonard Floyd) from the previous season in the same offseason. Their 48 wins are tied for the second-most in any four-season span without a Super Bowl trip, trailing only the 49 by the 2017-2020 New Orleans Saints.
11. Buffalo has led the NFL in scoring offense (28.6 PPG) and scoring defense (19.1 PPG allowed) in the 2020's, making them the first team since the 1990-1993 San Francisco 49ers to lead the NFL in those metrics across a four-year span. Those 49ers didn't make a Super Bowl in that four season stretch, but they did break through for their latest Vince Lombardi trophy in 1994.
12. The driving reason behind the Bills' high-level play the last four years is quarterback Josh Allen and his 173 passing plus rushing touchdowns, the most in a four-season span in NFL history, breaking the previous record of 167 set by future Hall of Famer Drew Brees from 2011-2014.
13. No team has a longer active playoff win drought than the Miami Dolphins, who last won a playoff game in the 2000 season. Miami is one of only three teams in the Super Bowl era, since 1966, with consecutive seasons averaging over six yards per play on offense and no playoff wins to show for it, joining the 2010-2011 San Diego Chargers and Philadelphia Eagles.
14. A big issue for Miami is their performance against playoff teams. They went 1-6 against teams that made the postseason in 2023 with the sole win being a two-point victory over the Dallas Cowboys in Week 16, a game they won on a field goal as time expired. The Dolphins, who wen 10-1 in all other games, registered a -110 point differential against playoff teams, the second-worst ever by a team to make the postseason along with the 1994 Chicago Bears (-112 point differential).
15. Miami wide receiver Tyreek Hill is the first player in NFL history with multiple seasons of 1,700 receiving yards, and he has done so in each of his first two years with the Dolphins in 2022 and 2023.
16. The New England Patriots hired former Bill Belichick assistant and linebacker Jerod Mayo as their new head coach, making him the 11th former Belichick assistant to become a full-time NFL head coach. The previous 10 combined to go 223-310-2 in the regular season, while totaling only 3 playoff wins (2 by Bill O Brien, 1 by Brian Daboll). Only O'Brien (52-48) and Al Groh (9-7) have a career record above .500.
17. The New York Jets missed the playoffs for the 13th season in a row in 2023, tied for the longest active streak among teams in the MLB, NBA, NHL and NFL. However, that could change if future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers is healthy in 2024. Without Rodgers, New York's 18 offensive touchdowns were the fewest by any team since the 2012 Kansas City Chiefs.
18. The Jets defense allowed the fewest yards/play (4.6) and the third-fewest total yards per game (292.3) in the NFL last season. Rodgers will hope to join Tom Brady in becoming the second 40-year-old quarterback ever to throw 30 or more touchdowns in a season, something Brady did three times.
19. If he returns to that level, Rodgers will become the fifth quarterback ever to have 500 career passing touchdowns, something he is 25 passing touchdowns away from accomplishing, sitting at 475.
20. Speaking of defense, the Baltimore Ravens became the first team all time to lead and/or co-lead the NFL in scoring defense (16.5 PPG), sacks (60) and takeaways (31, tied with the New York Giants) all in the same season. However, their squad will look to come close to maintaining that production without defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald, who is now the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks.
21. The 2023 Ravens were also historic in that they had a +178 point differential against teams with winning records last season, the best in NFL history. They became only the second team in NFL history to lead in the final two minutes in each of their first 17 games since the 2007 New England Patriots squad that went 16-0 in the regular season.
22. Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson is the youngest quarterback in NFL history at the age of his second league MVP at 27. He became only the third quarterback since the 1970 AFL/NFL merger to win league MVP without a 1,000-yard rusher or 1,000-yard receiver, joining Hall of Famer Brett Favre in 1996 and Hall of Famer John Elway in 1987.
23. Baltimore's 2023 squad became the only team in NFL history to have the MVP at quarterback and the No. 1 scoring defense but not reach the title game. They were also the only team in NFL history to have the MVP at quarterback, the No. 1 rushing offense and the No. 1 scoring defense
24. Jackson is the only quarterback ever to have five seasons with at least 750 rushing yards, something he has done every year as the Ravens' starting QB. However, he may not have to carry the load on offense as a rusher anymore after Baltimore signed Pro Bowl running back Derrick Henry in free agency, who is only the 10th player all-time to rank top two in the NFL in rushing yards in at least four seasons, something he did in 2023 when he finished second (1,167 rushing yards) behind only 2023 NFL Offensive Player of the Year Christian McCaffrey (1,459).
25. No player has more rushing yards (8,268) or rushing touchdowns (80) since 2018 than Henry did under former Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel.
26. No team since the AFL and NFL merged in 1970 reached the playoffs without their Week 1 starting quarterback, running back, left tackle and right tackle... until the Cleveland Browns did so last season. How did they do this? With the league's best total defense (270.2 total yards per game allowed, the fewest since the 2014 Legion of Boom Seattle Seahawks and their 267.1 total YPG allowed.
27. The Browns 2023 NFL Defensive Player of the Year edge rusher Myles Garrett, the first player in franchise history to win the award, has 88.5 sacks in 100 career games, the third-most in a player's first 100 games since individual sacks have been tracked (since 1982), trailing only Hall of Famer Reggie White (105.) and AFC North rival T.J. Watt (91.5).
28. T.J.Watt became the only player in NFL history to lead the league in sacks in three different seasons after a league-leading 19.0 in 2023. Pittsburgh is 1-11 without Watt since drafting him in 2017.
29. Speaking of the Steelers, they became the first team in NFL history to acquire two quarterbacks in the same offseason that were each coming off of seasons with 20 or more total touchdowns in former Denver Bronco Russell Wilson and former Chicago Bear Justin Fields.
30. Pittsburgh was the first team in NFL history to finish with a winning record but also negative point differential in three consecutive seasons. They were outscored by 55 points in 2021 (finished 9-7-1), outscored by 38 points in 2022 (finished 9-8) and outscored by 20 points in 2023 (finished 10-7).
31. The Steelers can tie the Dallas Cowboys with a record 21 consecutive seasons without a losing record, something Tom Landry's Cowboys accomplished from from the 1965 to 1985 seasons. Seventeen of Pittsburgh's 20 such seasons during the streak have come under current head coach Mike Tomlin, which is the third-longest streak ever for a head coach.
32. The Houston Texans are the first team in NFL history to add a player coming off a season with 100-plus catches (Stefon Diggs), 1,000-plus rushing yards (Joe Mixon) and 10-plus sacks (Danielle Hunter & Denico Autry) in the same offseason.
33. Houston went all in on surrounding 2023 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year quarterback C.J. Stroud and 2023 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year Will Anderson Jr., the fourth pair of teammates to win both Offensive and Defensive rookie of the year in the same season with this talent.
34. Stroud played like an NFL MVP as a rookie, leading the NFL in touchdown-to-interception ratio (23-5) and passing yards per game (273.9). That production put him in a club with 2007 NFL MVP quarterback Tom Brady and 1989 NFL MVP quarterback Joe Montana as the only three players in the last 50 seasons, minimum 10 starts, to lead the league outright in both such metrics.
35. Stroud's AFC South rival and Indianapolis Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson might have pushed him for NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year honors had he stayed healthy. Prior to suffering a season-ending shoulder injury in Week 5, Richardson became one of four players in NFL history with three-plus passing touchdowns and three-plus rushing touchdowns in their first four career games, joining Daunte Culpepper (2000), Cam Newton (2011) and Robert Griffin III (2012).
36. Tennessee Titans quarterback Will Levis is many things, but he's certainly not lacking in confidence. His four passing touchdowns in Week 8 were tied for the most in NFL debut ever, but he then ended up throwing only four touchdowns the rest of the season (eight starts. His 10.3 air yards per pass attempt were the most in the NFL, showing a comfort in going deep, but he didn't connect often as his 58.4% completion percentage was the worst in the entire league.
37. The Las Vegas Raiders led the NFL in scoring defense (16.0 points per game) when new full-time head coach Antonio Pierce took over as the interim in place of Josh McDaniels from Weeks 9-18.
38. Raiders Pro Bowl edge rusher Maxx Crosby is one of only two players with 12-plus sacks (14.5 in 2023) and 80-plus tackles (90 in 2023) in consecutive seasons since Hall of Famer DeMarcus Ware did so from 2007-2008. Crosby also led the NFL with 24 tackles for loss in 2023.
39. The Denver Broncos have missed the postseason for eight consecutive seasons since winning Super Bowl 50 in 2015, the longest postseason drought all-time after a Super Bowl victory.
40. The Dallas Cowboys are the first team in NFL history to have three consecutive 12-win seasons and no conference championship appearances in such a span. Their 36 wins since 2021 are the most ever in a three-year stretch without a conference championship game appearance.
41. Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott became the first quarterback in Cowboys history to lead the NFL outright in passing touchdowns, and he is only the second quarterback ever to lead the NFL in passing touchdowns a year after throwing the most interceptions, joining Bob Waterfield who did the same thing from the 1945 to 1946 seasons.
42. Prescott is the only players with 200-plus passing touchdowns (202) and 25-plus rushing touchdowns (28) in any eight-year stretch in NFL history, and Prescott's run of doing so spans across the first eight years of his NFL career.
43. Cowboys edge rusher Micah Parsons and Hall of Famer Reggie White are the only players with at least 13 sacks in each of their first three seasons
44. The Philadelphia Eagles became the second team ever to finish with seven or more losses, including playoffs, (11-7) after a 10-1 start, joining the 1986 New York Jets.
45. New Eagles running back Saquon Barkley has 23 runs of 30 or more yards in his career, which is the second-most in the NFL since 2018 behind only Derrick Henry's 24. Barkley's 23 is more than all Eagles players since 2018 (20)
46. The Detroit Lions became the second team in NFL history to have four players total 10 or more touchdowns from scrimmage, joining the 2013 AFC champion Denver Broncos. Detroit's four in 2023 were running back David Montgomery (13), running back Jahmyr Gibbs (11), wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown (10) and tight end Sam LaPorta (10)
47. Both Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers and new Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins will be trying to bounce back from suffering torn Achilles injuries in 2023. Among four notable quarterback to suffer the injury -- Dan Marino in 1993 (age 32), Vinny Testaverde in 1999 (age 36), Jim Miller in 2000 (age 29) and Trent Dilfer in 2022 (age 30) -- only Marino threw at least 10 more touchdowns than interceptions through the completion of his career post-Achilles injury despite all four of them starting at least 19 more games.
48. The Carolina Panthers, who had the NFL's worst record in 2023 at 2-15, became the first team in NFL history to not lead in the fourth quarter in an entire season (both wins ocurred as time expired)
49. Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans can tie Hall of Famer Jerry Rice for the longest streak of 1,000-yard receiving seasons ever (11) with another 1,000-yard campaign in 2024. Evans' already owns the record for the longest such streak to start an NFL career.
50. Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson, whose career receiving yards per game average of 98.3 is the best in NFL history, became the third player all-time with 1,000 receiving yards in a season when playing 10 or fewer games, joining Jim Benton of the Rams (1945) and Wes Chandler of the Chargers (1982).
