5 Reasons Why The 2025 NFL Season Was Epic, And 5 Why It Completely Sucked
This article was originally published on Total Pro Sports.
The 2025 NFL season felt different. It has marked a new era.
There were historic performances, records shattered.
Franchises on the rise, dynasties crumbling down.
It was a rollercoaster across the board… The kind of season where one week you’re watching greatness, and the next week you’re watching a disaster unfold in real time. And no one could ever predict what was coming next.
So today we’re going to take an honest look at the highs and the lows. Because that’s exactly what this season calls for.
Without further ado, let’s dive in on five reasons the 2025 NFL season was EPIC… and 5 why it completely sucked!
Time to get into it.
What are the reasons that made this NFL season epic, and why did it also sucked?
EPIC: Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Sam Darnold Turn Seattle Into a Juggernaut
Alright… let’s start with something fun.
Remember when the Seahawks let Geno Smith walk, and everyone wondered if Sam Darnold could actually do it again? Well… he did. Marking his second of back-to-back 14-win seasons.
The only quarterback since Tom Brady to pull that off… And Darnold did it with his second different team in two years!
Let’s key in on his time in Seattle, though, where he teamed up with JSN to create one of the most exciting young duos in some time.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba had already established himself as a solid NFL receiver, but with Darnold tossing him the pigskin, he took it to another level and finished with 1,793 receiving yards.
The 8th-most in a single season in NFL history, shattering DK Metcalf’s franchise record of 1,303 yards like it was nothing. Unanimous First Team All-Pro in just his second full season on the field.
And here’s what makes it even more impressive… the Seahawks weren’t one of those “air it out” high volume passing offenses… In fact, they were close to the bottom across the NFL in terms of attempts.
Every single receiver ahead of JSN on the all-time list played in an offense that threw the ball significantly more… He did more with less.
What a year in Seattle… with a 14 and 3 record and entering the playoffs as the NFC’s top seed, it is safe to say that Darnold proved that the Vikings were crazy for letting him walk.
Hard to believe that coming into the year, there were people who actually thought the Raiders got the better half of the deal trading for Geno Smith instead of signing Darnold… Which, spoiler alert… didn’t go well.
SUCKED: The Raiders’ Pete Carroll and Geno Smith Disaster
Speaking of which…
Pete Carroll came out of retirement at 74 years old. The Raiders traded a third-round pick and gave Geno Smith a $75 million extension. And for some reason, people around the league just sort of nod along like this experiment was a good idea.
And in spite of all that hype, they won three games.
Things were somehow worse for Geno Smith than Carroll, too! The veteran led the NFL with 17 interceptions and got sacked 55 times… tied for the most in the league.
This made it next to impossible for the Raiders to run the ball, cutting into the value that they were supposed to get out of their first-round draft pick, running back Ashton Jeanty.
Meanwhile, Sam Darnold – the guy Tom Brady allegedly didn’t want – went 14 and 3 with the NFC’s best record.
Needless to say, Carroll got fired after one season, which, at 74 years old, is kind of a sad scene to imagine.
Smith was another casualty of this brutal story. He removed Raiders references from his social media the day Carroll got canned… so yeah, that relationship is over too.
The whole thing was a disaster from start to finish. Sometimes you swing big and miss. The Raiders managed to do something worse than that!
EPIC: Bryce Young’s Redemption Arc
Now this… this is the kind of story that makes you love football.
Bryce Young got benched in 2024. The first overall pick. The guy the Panthers traded up for. He was 6 and 22 as a starter and everyone – everyone – called him a bust.
Then 2025 happened, and the narrative around the undersized quarterback is finally starting to change.
Young threw for 3,011 yards. 23 touchdowns, which marks career highs across the board.
Not to mention, he broke Cam Newton’s franchise record with a 448-yard game against the Falcons.
And here are the two metrics that matter most… 12 game-winning drives in the fourth quarter or overtime since entering the league. The most in the NFL. Plus, the Panthers made the playoffs for the first time in eight years, albeit at 8 and 9, but they did it with the quarterback everyone gave up on.
A bust turned into a franchise cornerstone seemingly in the blink of an eye.
The Panthers already said they’re picking up his fifth-year option. Bryce Young isn’t going anywhere after what he did this season…
SUCKED: The ACL Epidemic
The 2025 NFL season will be remembered for a lot of things, but perhaps most notably, it’ll be remembered for the sheer number of star players who went down with torn ACLs.
On a list of huge names, there is no bigger than Patrick Mahomes, who went down in Week 15 against the Chargers with an ACL and LCL injury. What makes the story even worse is the fact that their season was on life support at that point anyway… And now his availability for 2025 is going to be put into question.
Mahomes was far from the only star, though…
Micah Parsons. Same week. Non-contact injury against the Broncos. Done.
Nick Bosa is back in Week 3. His second career ACL tear.
Not to mention Tyreek Hill’s knee dislocation, which included multiple torn ligaments. Truly, one of the more gruesome injuries we’ve seen in years.
Malik Nabers. Michael Penix Jr. Marshon Lattimore. The list kept growing.
It wasn’t one team. It wasn’t one position. And it was everywhere. Week 15 alone took out Mahomes and Parsons. Two of the best players in the NFL. Gone in the same weekend.
And it fundamentally changed the playoff picture in ways we couldn’t have predicted. Teams that were contenders became afterthoughts overnight. Careers got put on hold. The 2025 season became a brutal reminder of just how fragile all of this is.
EPIC: Myles Garrett Breaks the Sack Record
The Browns went 5- 12, and with all the issues that they had under center, truth be told, it was ugly. But Myles Garrett? Myles Garrett was something else entirely.
The All-Pro defensive end set a new high-water mark with 23 sacks, finally passing Michael Strahan, who set it at 22.5 in 2001, and T.J. Watt, who tied it in 2021.
The record-breaking sack came in Week 18 against the Bengals. Joe Burrow. Get-off time of 0.23 seconds… the fastest of Garrett’s entire season. The man was locked in.
He also passed Reggie White for the most sacks ever by a player under 30. Five sacks in a single game against the Patriots in Week 9. His fifth career First Team All-Pro selection.
On a team going nowhere, Garrett put together one of the greatest individual defensive seasons in NFL history… Against offenses that shifted into 1st gear and stopped throwing in the second half of so many games.
It just didn’t matter. Garrett showed up every single week and terrorized whoever was in front of him.
That’s what greatness looks like when it refuses to be dragged down by circumstances.
SUCKED: Officiating Chaos Reaches a Breaking Point
Look… we complain about refs every year. But 2025 took it to a different level.
The men in stripes were so bad this year that three officials got suspended midseason. We are talking nationally televised blunders… missed calls, and botched clock management that changed outcomes.
Something has to change. Everyone knows it. With each week, we see more players getting fined for speaking out, and coaches aplenty are biting their tongues in pressers.
Meanwhile, the fans are losing their minds on social media after every primetime game.
And yet… nothing changes. Same problems. Same excuses. And the same outcome. The NFL makes billions and can’t figure out how to get the calls right.
EPIC: The Patriots’ Historic Turnaround Under Vrabel
From 4 and 13 to 14 and 3… That’s a 10-win improvement, which ties the NFL record for the best single-season turnaround in league history.
Ever since Mike Vrabel took over this offseason, the Patriot way is BACK! As indicated by them representing the AFC’s second seed with their first division title since the Brady-Belichick era.
Think about it… The Patriots were a punchline last year. This year, they were hosting playoff games. Vrabel brought the culture back. The winning mentality. The expectation of excellence.
Under his leadership, they won 13 of their final 14 games, and perhaps more important than any single-season statistics, Drake Maye emerged as a legitimate MVP candidate and looks like every bit the franchise quarterback they were hoping he’d be.
New England is back. And it happened way faster than anyone thought possible. Though it might make the Pats haters out there sick, there is no denying that the NFL is more entertaining when the Patriots are good!
SUCKED: A Down Year for the AFC’s Best Quarterbacks
For years, the AFC ran through three guys. Patrick Mahomes. Lamar Jackson. Joe Burrow. You couldn’t win the conference without going through at least one of them.
In 2025? All three had nightmare seasons.
Mahomes went 6 and 8 before tearing his ACL. And over the final two games leading up to his injury and the Chiefs missing the playoffs for the first time in his career, he played some of the worst football we’ve seen from the future Hall of Famer.
In Baltimore, it was a similar story. Lamar Jackson started 1 and 5. Missed three games with a hamstring injury.
The team managed to rattle off five straight wins to make a failed push at the playoffs, but they did so in spite of the former MVP, who completed less than 60 percent of his passes.
Lamar was a shell of himself, and it got so bad that the Ravens fired John Harbaugh after 18 years.
It wasn’t pretty in Cinci either… Burrow needed surgery for turf toe and missed nine games.
For the first time in years, the AFC playoffs won’t have all three. Think about that. Mahomes. Lamar. Burrow. All home for January.
The bright side, of course, is that it opened up an opportunity for the rest of the AFC, guys like Drake Maye and Josh Allen stepped into the spotlight and have a chance to make their name.
The guard is changing. Whether it’s permanent or temporary… We’ll see. But 2025 was a rough year for the guys who were supposed to own this conference.
EPIC: Philip Rivers’ Unbelievable Comeback at 44
This one is just… wild.
Philip Rivers retired in January 2021. He became a high school football coach in Alabama. He’s a grandfather now. Literally. A grandfather.
Then the Colts lost Daniel Jones to a torn Achilles. Then Riley Leonard went down with a knee injury, and Anthony Richardson had mysteriously been on the IR for some time. Indianapolis was low on options, so Shane Steichen opened his contacts and called his buddy for a favor.
Yep, they called Philip Rivers at 44 years old and after 1,800 days away from the NFL.
And he said yes with an eye on inspiring the boys he coached… If that isn’t perfect Philip Rivers, I don’t know what is.
Unfortunately, he went 0 and 3… so let’s not pretend he saved the franchise. But he ran the offense well despite the lack of arm strength and looked like he belonged.
He’s one of only four quarterbacks in NFL history to start a game at 44 or older in a season. Tom Brady. Vinny Testaverde. Warren Moon. Steve DeBerg. And now Philip Rivers.
What a storyline! A grandfather coming out of retirement to start meaningful NFL games… Going toe-to-toe with guys half his age.
That’s the kind of story you can’t make up. And honestly? It’s the kind of story that reminds you why you love this sport.
SUCKED: The Shedeur Sanders Circus
And finally… look, I’ll keep this one brief. Because honestly? We’re all tired of talking about it.
Shedeur Sanders was all the hype going into the draft; he was projected to go in the top 10… maybe even top 5, but fell to the fifth round, where the Browns took him 144.
Part of the issue was attitude concerns. Teams said he came across as entitled in interviews.
Plus, realistically speaking a lot of those projections were based off manufactured hype because of who his father was and all the clicks content about Shedeur generated.
To put it in perspective, the Browns had already drafted Dillon Gabriel in the third round. They took Sanders 40 picks later. That is the very definition of a flyer! Yet, we still spent countless hours talking about him ad nauseam.
All for one win in five starts and more interceptions than touchdowns.
The coverage was endless.
But at the end of the day? He’s a fifth-round pick who went 1 and 4 as a rookie. That’s not a story. That’s just… a late-round pick who struggled this NFL season. It happens every year. We just don’t usually spend six months talking about it.
The circus was exhausting; thankfully, it’s time to move on.
