The 5 can’t-miss games of the 2018 NFL season

We’re still four-and-a-half months from the start of the 2018 NFL season, but Thursday’s schedule reveal gave football fans across the world a reason to be excited. Next fall’s 17-week slate began to trickle onto Twitter throughout the day, offering up some exciting matchups and, uh, whatever complimentary adjectives you can muster up for Colts-Jets or Giants-Bears.

Some games clearly stand above the rest when it comes to 2018. Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers will duel for just the second time in their respective Hall of Fame careers. Kyle Shanahan will bring his new quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo to meet his old quarterback Kirk Cousins when the 49ers open their season against the Vikings. The Rams and Chiefs will meet in a battle of division champions in Mexico City. There are even a couple of NFL London games that defy expectations and bring some of 2017’s best teams to Britain.

So what are the best games on the 2018 NFL schedule?

The regular-season debut of Kirk Cousins in purple comes against a team that went from pushover to intriguing on Oct. 30, 2017 when the 49ers acquired Jimmy Garoppolo in a trade with the Patriots.

Now, both teams have highly-paid, entrenched starters at quarterback and hopes for postseason success. Added to the already strong Minnesota defense was Sheldon Richardson. And added to the San Francisco secondary was Richard Sherman.

Garoppolo is still undefeated as a starter and if he can keep that streak going through the first week of the regular season, the 49ers hype train will reach full speed. But the Vikings are as tough as it’s going to get in 2018 and you better believe they’ll be aiming for a strong start to the Cousins era.

Great Britain, your years of hosting Jaguars’ games has finally paid off. Jacksonville’s second home will play host to the best NFL London matchup in the series’ history when the Jags face the defending Super Bowl champion Eagles at Wembley Stadium. It’ll be a battle of 2017 final four teams and the first time a reigning NFL champ has made the trip to England.

Even better, it will test a returning Carson Wentz’s mettle against one of the league’s most intimidating defenses. Jacksonville pushed all the way to the AFC title game last winter behind a smothering pass rush and an all-star secondary. Philadelphia won it all thanks to the league’s top-ranked scoring offense. London’s getting an irresistible force/immovable object situation that involves the team that’s been working the hardest to build a European fan base, and it’s gonna be awesome.

Brady has had legendary duels with future Hall of Famers like Peyton Manning and Ben Roethlisberger in the past, but he’s only faced Rodgers once — and lost. That was back in 2014, when Rodgers threw for 368 yards and a pair of touchdowns to outgun a Patriots’ team months away from winning Super Bowl 49.

Brady will get his chance for revenge midway through the season against a Green Bay team with a depleted secondary. The 2014 Packers held the Patriots to a relatively conservative 245 passing yards behind standouts like Casey Hayward, Morgan Burnett, and Micah Hyde. In 2018, they’ll be working to revamp the league’s 31st-ranked passing defense in time to shut down one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time.

Arguably the NFL’s best rivalry takes place in one of the most hectic environments in the NFL on Thanksgiving night. Both the Falcons and Saints were two of the NFC’s best in 2017, and are both expected to compete at a high level in 2018.

The Saints have another year under their belt, and assuming Drew Brees doesn’t take a step back, could be even better coming into this season. Michael Thomas is another year better, and Alvin Kamara will be looking to avoid a sophomore slump. Not to mention that defense has been fixed, much thanks to the likes of guys like Marshon Lattimore and Cam Jordan.

The Falcons are going to be trying to get back to their 2016 form, up until the third quarter of Super Bowl LI. Matt Ryan should be getting a contract extension this season, and if there were ever a time for him to deliver, this would be it. This game could define the season for either team, with it being their second matchup of the season, and leaving just five weeks to go afterward.

Make sure to eat your Thanksgiving dinner at a reasonable hour, get that nap in, and reheat some leftovers for this one. You won’t want to miss it.

The same two teams, the same field, the same week of the season, the same two quarterbacks (probably). Almost exactly a year after one of the most thrilling — and controversial — endings of 2017, the Patriots and Steelers will finally get their rematch. (We would have gotten the sequel in the AFC Championship, if it weren’t for those pesky Jags.)

Like most of the league, the Steelers have a Patriots problem. But it’s different for Pittsburgh, a storied franchise that is supposed to be the boogeyman, not the other way around. Since 2004, the Steelers are just 3-9 against Bill Belichick and Co. When Brady and Roethlisberger have both played, that record is 2-8. They are 0-2 against the Patriots in the playoffs in that time.

So last December, when the Steelers were leading late by eight points on their home field against the team that almost always has their number, it felt like maybe the tide was finally turning. Then Brady did what he almost always does and marched the Patriots down the field for two quick ruthless scores, cruelly stomping on so many black-and-yellow hearts.

But Big Ben still has a few tricks up his, as Terrell Suggs would say, “rat bastard” sleeve. With 28 seconds left and down three, he hit Jesse James for the go-ahead touchdown. Well, it would have been if the game had been played in 2018, when the new, supposedly simplified catch rule will take effect. Alas, the touchdown was overturned, Roethlisberger threw a pick two plays later, and the Steelers lost out on home-field advantage in the playoffs. But at least we got a new better catch rule out of it — and an entire year of buildup to get hype for the rematch.