25 in 2025: Game changers to watch in the NFL

Jackson is shaping the NFL in 2025 not only as a perennial MVP contender affecting the postseason field, but also because he repeatedly shatters preconceived notions in the talent evaluation world. Evaluators credit Jackson’s success as helping to convince the Philadelphia Eagles to trust Jalen Hurts and the Washington Commanders to trust Jayden Daniels.

Jackson’s message to the NFL: Great talent is scheme-agnostic.

“It’s made scouts much more open-minded,” one AFC talent evaluator said. Defenses must adjust to Jackson and limit off-schedule rushes knowing Jackson’s knack for manipulating speed and angles make him “like a joystick — you never know where he’s going to be,” Rams edge rusher Byron Young told Yahoo Sports.

“Lamar has eight eyes, I swear he does,” one GM said. “He knows where everyone is all the time. The fact that he can make guys miss from behind: It’s otherworldly.”

Talent evaluators will search for the next Jackson, knowing he does not exist but perhaps nor should some beliefs they long held. Jackson reminds teams the power of building around their players.

“Do you need guys that fit your scheme? Yeah,” Patriots VP player personnel Eliot Wolf told Yahoo Sports. “But for the great players, you’re going to have to be able to adjust.” — Jori Epstein

Expect Stretch to shape the NFL in 2025 with his influence on game management — on his own team’s strategies, the strategies of opponents looking to emulate his expertise and on the future of the game-management landscape.

Stretch began majoring in the NFL rulebook in 2018, when Tennessee lost all five of its officiating challenges. The five years that followed, as the Titans' operation grew: they won 14 of 21, or two-thirds, thanks to a concerted effort to crack the code of officiating.

Stretch’s game-management responsibilities begin with telling Vrabel the down, distance and hash each play of each game over the headset. They extend to strategizing all situational probabilities from timeouts to challenges and play selection, his influence felt most strongly in end-of-half and end-of-game situations. Vrabel can name Titans wins that directly benefited from Stretch’s counsel, including a 2023 victory over the Dolphins with a well-time 2-point conversion. Counterparts note Titans wins that Stretch helped seal with sly tactics to draw false starts on critical fourth-down and 2-point plays.

“Explaining some of this to the players, explaining to the coaches, helping me explain it to the coaches,” Vrabel told Yahoo Sports of his responsibilities. “Working with our analytics department and trying to maximize our possessions and when we're going to be in four-down territory and when we may do some of those things situationally.”

In a league of parity where most staff roles are streamlined, game management remains something of a Wild West. Teams vary dramatically in the resources they allocate to decision-making, but counterparts see Stretch not only as capable in theory but also executing in practice. He prepares his teams to meet the moment.

“Stretch is really good at finding loopholes in the rules and using strategies to bend the rules to their advantage,” a counterpart said. “He’s demonstrated the ability to get buy-in from the head coach to install and call these tactics at critical times.” — Jori Epstein

In the NFL pantheon, Brady holds arguably every important quarterback record in history, including passing yardage and passing touchdowns (both regular season and playoffs), regular-season and playoff wins, fourth-quarter comebacks, game-winning drives, Super Bowl appearances and wins, Super Bowl MVPs, on and on. Those achievements have drawn the deep admiration of NFL quarterbacks from past and current generations that will shape the league for years to come, including some of the greatest playing today, including Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow and others.

Now, Brady’s balance in his post-playing days promises to extend his league influence for the next decade and beyond. Inside the NFL’s VIP ropes, part of his influence will be as a 10 percent stakeholder in the Raiders (along with business partner Tom Wagner of Knighthood Capital). He'll have a more active role than most minority ownership stakes, with Brady making sporadic appearances at Raiders practices while weighing in on franchise decisions from behind the scenes. Aside from the Raiders, Brady also owns a minority stake in the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces and has an investment and public-facing advisory board role with Birmingham City of the English Football League.

And of course, his other significant role inside the league is his lead NFL analyst role at Fox Sports, which places him front and center of football audiences for the expanse of the 10-year, $375 million contract that began ticking before the 2024 season. That contract re-shaped broadcasting deals for a wide swath of individuals, including NFL analysts and coveted network “talent.” Several industry sources speculated that Brady’s contract will have ripple effects over the next decade, impacting other highly paid personalities outside of the NFL realm, such as ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, Pat McAfee and the relocating “Inside the NBA” quartet of Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson. —Charles Robinson

But as successful as Peyton and Eli have been in the football arena, their post-playing media empire and the budding future of their nephew — University of Texas quarterback Arch Manning — got members of the Manning family (or the entire Manning family) nominated for this list by several NFL coaches and executives, as well as one former high-ranking union executive. One of the league’s highest powered executives even went so far as to suggest the Manning family as a significant part of a future NFL ownership group, forecasting that Peyton’s co-founded Omaha Productions could be worth as much as $5 billion inside the next decade. Currently, Omaha Productions is valued at between $800 million and a billion dollars, on the strength of multiple proprietary properties, including Monday Night Football’s “Manningcast” as well as a multitude of popular streaming content partnered with Netflix, including the “Quarterback” and “Receiver” series and a handful of unannounced projects that are in the incubatory stages.

The Mannings also continue to operate the Manning Passing Academy, which has become an annual staple train stop for the best high school quarterbacks in the country — not to mention the very best college QBs, who often serve as counselors at the academy while taking private guidance from the Manning family. If that wasn’t enough, Peyton has also caught the eye of NFL franchise owners and ownership groups for advisory or executive roles, although he has instead continued to pour much of his time into business, entertainment and media interests. That continued shaping of multiple levels of football — along with the careers of Peyton, Eli and Archie — are enough to make the Mannings a royal family inside the league. Their on-field conquests don’t appear to be over, either, as Arch (the son of Peyton and Eli’s eldest brother, Cooper) is widely considered to be the top quarterback prospect in college football and a potential No. 1 overall pick in either the 2026 or 2027 NFL drafts.

That prompted an NFC executive to point out a possible chin-wagging reality: “Depending what happens with Arch, [the Mannings] could end up having a Manning that starts NFL games at quarterback every single decade from the 1970s to the 2030s. Maybe even the 2040s.” —Charles Robinson

Entering his fifth season as Lions GM, Holmes is shaping the NFL with a scouting approach that has drawn praise from scouting counterparts and identified talent succeeding individually and as a group.

Holmes follows in the footsteps of his former boss, Los Angeles Rams general manager Les Snead, blending new-age communication and an old-school emphasis on film and production over traits and testing. Holmes’ application of an increasingly impressive system to a collection of draft capital that includes first-rounders the Rams haven’t largely had is showing the league the approach’s upside.

No team has drafted more Pro Bowl players since Holmes took the job in 2021 than the Lions’ six (not including Kerby Joseph earning All-Pro honors when he wasn't named to the Pro Bowl). No team has won more games than the Lions’ 26 across the past two regular seasons.

Some of the Lions’ draft wins have been more straightforward, like drafting edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson second overall in 2022. But the Lions’ collection of Pro Bowlers also includes underlooked players like 2021 fourth-round receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown and 2023 second-round cornerback Brian Branch.

St. Brown’s 5-foot-11.5, 197-pound frame wasn’t coveted, his 4.61 40-yard dash contributing to an athleticism score that NFL’s Next Gen Stats ranked 39th among receivers in his class. Branch similarly planted seeds of doubt surrounding his ability to track his assignments, as 27 of his corner classmates outraced his 4.58-second 40-yard dash, per Pro Football Reference scouting combine data.

The Lions hit on both players by de-emphasizing height, weight and speed requirements in their draft process and placing an increased premium on players’ work ethic, competitiveness and toughness, coaches and players in the organization say. Instead, “they’re worried about what you can do on the football field,” St. Brown said.

“Take a mark and put it right through the height, weight, speed,” wide receivers coach and assistant head coach Scottie Montgomery told Yahoo Sports. “We want that but there are things that are more important.”

That focus may still sharpen after an offseason study the Lions conducted analyzing players’ performance against their pre-draft evaluation in the first four years of Holmes’ general manager reign. The study concluded that traits don’t represent the ceiling, as Holmes and Co. once thought.

“We actually flipped how we looked at that,” Holmes said, “The intangible qualities is the ceiling now. The competitiveness, the physical toughness — all that stuff that is the ceiling now.” —Jori Epstein

That recalibration landed Netflix chief content officer Bela Bajaria on this list, with some in the league suggesting she is a significant part of the driving ambition behind the streaming content monolith’s pursuit of an aggressive expansion into broadcasting NFL games.

As it stands, Netflix is in the middle of a contract to globally (and exclusively) broadcast NFL Christmas Day doubleheaders from 2024-2026. It’s a commitment that has produced eyebrow-raising — and among NFL team owners, Champagne cork-popping — results, with the 2024 Christmas broadcasts producing 30 million global streaming viewers.

In terms of streaming, that was a historically groundbreaking outcome for the league, showcasing the engagement and reach of Netflix as a new power player at the broadcasting rights table. And the NFL expects those numbers will be even bigger this December, when Netflix is slated to stream the Dallas Cowboys at the Washington Commanders, followed by the Detroit Lions at the Minnesota Vikings.

Enter Bajaria, a media executive with a weighty résumé, including career stops at CBS and Warner Brothers — then a highly successful tour at Universal Television that included a term as studio president. Bajara ultimately joined Netflix in 2016 as a vice president of content, eventually working her way to chief content officer in 2023. In that role, Bajaria quickly made her presence felt in live event programming, which included some one-off tentpole events and the NFL’s Christmas Day programming.

All of this is prologue to Bajara saying the quiet part of the “potential” Netflix aim out loud last February, when she told the podcast "Puck" that Netflix was indeed interested in pursuing NFL game packages in future years — and that those game packages included the Sunday afternoon slates that have been traditionally dominated by the major broadcast TV networks. While it’s possible some have passed off the remarks as dream casting, it’s clear the NFL has not.

Indeed, Bajaria is being taken very seriously across the league among executives as a conduit to a potentially landscape-changing entry of a streaming platform locking down the rights to a Sunday afternoon slate of games.

Stay tuned to those Christmas streaming numbers for Netflix in December. They may signal a larger portion of NFL games moving over to Netflix than anyone would have anticipated only a few years ago. —Charles Robinson

Roseman isn’t simply on this list because he’s a reigning Super Bowl champion. His influence on the NFL is wide-ranging, from how he uses the compensatory pick formula to maximize his acquisition of more-affordable labor in a salary cap era to his assessment of contract culture. Dallas Cowboys fans lament Jerry Jones not following in Roseman’s footsteps by extending players early. Roseman routinely saves salary cap space by doing so. His deals often work out, and he determines the best response when they don’t.

Multiple high-ranking NFL executives told Yahoo Sports they wish they could move on from a player the way Roseman moved on from quarterback Carson Wentz after spending a second-round draft pick on eventual Super Bowl MVP Jalen Hurts. (The Eagles ultimately netted first- and third-round picks for the QB they no longer wanted.) Counterparts speak of Roseman’s understanding of the intersection between personnel evaluation, salary cap management and analytics in strategizing the best decision for the Eagles in the short and long term. The 50-year-old has spent literally half his life working for the Eagles, and it shows.

Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid, formerly the Eagles’ head coach early in Roseman’s 25-year run with the team, influenced Roseman’s philosophies deeply. He attributes his emphasis on quarterback (starter and backup) and both lines of scrimmage in part to Reid’s guidance, the trench emphasis one of the top reasons the Eagles trumped Reid’s Chiefs for the latest title. Roseman has since also put a premium on acquiring Pro Bowl-caliber playmakers, from a 2022 trade for receiver A.J. Brown to the 2024 acquisition of running back Saquon Barkley amid a market inefficiency resulting from the devaluation of running backs. To say he sees the trends clearly understates how often Roseman’s moves instead dictate trends.

“You do see him trying to gain an edge,” Rams general manager Les Snead told Yahoo Sports. “You can feel and see them trying.” —Jori Epstein

Performance alone doesn’t land Flores on Yahoo’s 25 Game Changers list. His defensive philosophies, and ability to translate those philosophies to his players’ execution, are why he’s shaping the NFL. Flores embraces an aggressive play-calling and play-designing mindset that would delight plenty of teams. He leaves opposing play-callers “guessing a lot of the game,” one NFC offensive coordinator said, because he switches which pressures and coverages he implements from the same pre-snap looks. Film study often misled opponents.

Ambitious play-calls flop when players aren’t able to take their coaches’ theories and implement them in practice. Flores seems to will swagger and toughness into his players, opposing play-callers believing Minnesota’s defense has taken on Flores' fiery personality. And Flores leverages his personnel creatively, beginning with outside linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel and safety Harrison Smith.

“He’s got a type,” Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith told Yahoo Sports. “Those guys that are just kind of Swiss Army knives.”

Offenses must respond to the Vikings’ multiplicity and pressures, some teams intentionally playing faster in hopes of thwarting Flores’ chance to dial up his most punishing blitzes and disguises. Defenses will continue to see whether they’re talented and disciplined enough to pose the same threat.

Off the field, Flores may shape the NFL still further after a Manhattan court of appeals ruled Aug. 14 that Flores’ lawsuit alleging discrimination against Black coaches could move forward in trial rather than just the league arbitration process. Flores’ attorneys responded to the ruling, noting its significance in determining the NFL’s arbitration process is “fundamentally biased and unfair,” while an NFL spokesperson said “we respectfully disagree.”

Flores could shape the future of coaching searches and league arbitration. He’s already shaping the future of zero blitzes and quarterbacks seeing ghosts.

“His defenses,” Denver Broncos right tackle Mike McGlinchey told Yahoo Sports, “are always some of the hardest to prepare against.” —Jori Epstein

The NFL’s need for expanding its officiating pipeline has only grown in recent years as a stream of officiating employees have left to join network roles that are more lucrative or team roles that satiate their competitive drives.

Improved TV angles and technology are further heightening officiating scrutiny, with fans aware of and vocal about missed face masks or inconsistent roughing-the-passer calls (and don’t get us started on the Chiefs officiating conspiracies).

Players and coaches yearn for consistent and accurate officiating. Fans, cheering for their own teams and placing bets with expectations of game integrity, care for their club hopes and their pocketbooks.

NFL officiating needs a broader pipeline than men alone provide. Tapping into the other half of the population is increasingly necessary to develop and maintain that pipeline of officiating talent that will satisfy all constituents. Thomas began that trend. She and seven female colleagues will continue it this season as they shape the NFL in 2025 and beyond. —Jori Epstein

To his credit, O’Reilly had multiple nominations for this list from both C-suite levels of franchises and current and former NFL Players Association executives. One influential team president dubbed O’Reilly “the most impactful league employee not named Roger Goodell right now.” A few others offered up O’Reilly as Goodell’s eventual successor as the NFL’s commissioner in the coming years, noting his depth of experience that cuts across to the NBA — where O’Reilly spent six years in the association’s marketing department. He also spent three years grinding political strategy and development inside New York City’s bid to host the 2012 Olympics.

“He’s smart, well-versed in a lot of things and has a reputation for having the [league office] pile more on his plate and respond by making whatever he touches better,” a second team president said. —Charles Robinson

Part of the ceiling-shattering potential of Hunter lies in how he and the Jaguars will manage a multitude of hurdles. Among them: How to balance his practice and study time at two positions; how to load manage the toll the two-way effort takes on his body; how to utilize him within games to take advantage of mismatches or disrupt opposing game plans; and if highly successful, how to pay an NFL player who is playing two high-end starting-quality roles one one team. And that’s just on the NFL level.

Even now, personnel executives across the league are wondering if Hunter’s attempt to play two ways in the NFL will trickle down to the collegiate ranks and influence more players and coaches to embrace the idea. Already, there are some possible two-way players on watch in the wake of Hunter’s career at Colorado: Minnesota sophomore safety-wideout Koi Perich and Syracuse defensive back/wideout freshman Demetres Samuel Jr. More than likely, there will be other potential two-way efforts adding to that list. Especially if Hunter is successful in the NFL. —Charles Robinson

North will shape the 2025 season as his arrangement of international games, divisional matchups, short week turnarounds and prime-time games influence the relevance of players recovering from injuries and coaches adjusting to new squads.

North influences the league 1/17 more than he did a half-decade ago, before the NFL expanded its regular-season slate from 16 games to 17. And league sentiment points to momentum that within five years, North may be scheduling each team for 18 regular-season bouts.

Add in the increased international slate and the stakes only further heighten: North was responsible for scheduling 13 teams to play seven games overseas this year, and commissioner Roger Goodell hopes the league will soon stage 32 teams playing 16 games abroad each season.

As the next media rights deal nears and the league’s international push continues, don’t underestimate how North’s algorithms will impact the race to each year's Lombardi Trophy. —Jori Epstein

Aside from coaching, there’s virtually no high level corner of an NFL franchise he hasn’t navigated over the past two decades. A staple attendee of the league’s mountain-moving NFL executive committee meetings, his influence behind Rams owner Stan Kroenke had one high-ranking league source joke that Demoff has become “one of the league’s most important owners,” referencing a belief among some that Demoff is one of the league’s unicorn executives who is a trusted proxy of Kroenke. His résumé speaks to that, too, with Demoff having helped steward a messy relocation of the Rams to Los Angeles. The league office now counts that as a landslide success despite a record-setting $790 million settlement with St. Louis and accompanying partners, which came out of the pocket of Kroenke and the rest of the league’s franchise owners. Beyond that relocation, Demoff played a key role in hiring current head coach Sean McVay, modernizing the team’s operations, navigating key league aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic and California wildfires, and advancing DEI initiatives in the franchise before it was popular (and more recently, unpopular) across the league.

“There’s not a room that exists [in the NFL] that he can’t walk into it and help solve complex problems,” one league source said. Among Demoff’s admirers, that problem-solving ability is part of what gets his name dropped into league conversations about the potential successor to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. To that point, he’s the only executive in NFL history who has been tasked with simultaneously overseeing the operations of teams in five different professional leagues. That’s what his current role in Kroenke Sports & Entertainment accounts for, with Demoff manning the operational controls of the Rams, Denver Nuggets (NBA), Colorado Avalanche (NHL), Colorado Rapids (MLS) and Colorado Mammoth (National Lacrosse League). That work recently included an accomplishment that raised eyebrows across the NFL, with Demoff stepping in to untangle a longstanding local broadcasting rights dispute that had kept a large swath of Nuggets and Avalance games blacked out across some providers in the Denver market. Parts of the problem dragged on for more than five years of blackouts, prior to Demoff stepping forward in 2024 and helping resolve the issue inside of one year and restoring Nuggets and Avalanche games to the local broadcast market.

“That was impressive,” one high-ranking league source said of Demoff’s work. “That alone should earn him a permanent seat anytime [the NFL] is working on media deals.” —Charles Robinson

That gravity is driven by Rubin’s company, Fanatics, which has multiple exclusive agreements across the NFL landscape, including: League-wide licensing and merchandise agreements; a gaming division that has established the only sportsbook real estate inside an NFL stadium (with the Washington Commanders); and an array of collectibles and trading cards rights with the NFL Players Association. If you are purchasing something that is officially licensed by the NFL, or officially autographed, or licensed memorabilia or trading cards with NFL players on them, it’s a high likelihood Fanatics is part of the machine that made the purchase possible and is taking a piece of the financial transaction that came out of your wallet.

All of that has driven the valuation of Fanatics north of $30 billion and Rubin’s personal net worth estimations between $8 billion and $12 billion, making him a prominent name that surfaces occasionally when NFL teams go up for sale. However, Rubin’s only confirmed pursuit of an NFL team was tied to the Carolina Panthers in 2018. He ultimately chose to drive his time and energy into building his sports licensing empire.

Whether he becomes an NFL club owner or not, Rubin will continue to be valued as a connector, often hosting private seasonal or league-tentpole events that bring together power brokers from inside the NFL and a rainbow of other industries.

One of the most publicized of those get-togethers was Rubin’s annual “White Party,” a July 4 event from 2021 to 2024 where guests would wear all white attire and rub elbows with prestigious athletes, entertainers and business moguls at Rubin’s palatial Hampton’s estate. However, the party was canceled in 2025, under reports that Rubin wanted to distance the party’s theme from “White Party” annual events held by music icon Sean Combs, who spent much of the past year under public and legal scrutiny tied to multiple federal criminal charges. —Charles Robinson

Rapoport isn’t the only one showing head coaches, general managers and team owners the women who could help them chase Super Bowls. But it’s her brainchild that has attracted a recent participant list ranging from general managers like the Philadelphia Eagles’ Howie Roseman and Cleveland Browns’ Andrew Berry to head coaches including the New England Patriots’ Mike Vrabel and New York Giants’ Brian Daboll.

Rapoport has convinced power brokers that her work will help them win. In a climate where many diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives are under fire, Rapoport’s built a model strong enough to last and progress toward gender equity in NFL roles.

“Sam is an unbelievable human being and a visionary for this league and the things that she's done for women in our sport,” Daboll told Yahoo Sports. “She's kind of the ringleader of that. And we're a better place in the NFL because of her.” —Jori Epstein

Enter Manyweather, who provides predraft training, pro offseason training and his annual OL Masterminds Summit with Eagles right tackle Lane Johnson. The North Texas-based trainer and offensive line specialist is shaping the NFL because of the diversity of services he provides an underserved segment of NFL rosters — and because of the staggering volume of players he supports around the clock.

Manyweather is a popular person for linemen training for the draft, his client base including 2025 first-round picks Will Campbell (Patriots), Armand Membou (Jets) and Tyler Booker (Cowboys). Some linemen move to North Texas for six, 10 or 12 weeks of spring and summer to enroll in his program. Manyweather uses his strength training background to improve their core strength and balance, while using his line background to not just train their technique but also analyze their film.

Thanks in part to his 3 a.m. wake-ups, Manyweather watches every snap of every game his clients play. He’ll give each of them feedback on their tendencies and performance, while also providing defensive breakdowns to a group of about 15 players and five teams. The defensive breakdowns lean on his own film study and his conversations with linemen who have found success facing that defender previously.

“He grinds a ton of tape and so he’s really good at diagnosing individuals, how they play,” Slater told Yahoo Sports. “Everyone has different play styles. He’s good at just nudging you in the right direction if maybe he sees something that you could do better.” —Jori Epstein

Not often in a position to be instantaneously taken to task, franchise owners have come to feel immediate public repercussions upon the release of the NFLPA’s player-driven report cards over the past three years.

The invention of former union executives George Atallah and JC Tretter, the survey aimed to collect feedback from every NFL player on a wide swath of categories impacting their relationship with the team they were playing for — from “treatment of families” to “locker room” to “head coach” and (much to the chagrin of club owners) commentary on ownership and much more. Canvassing more than 75 percent of players, the survey was instantly a viral media hit upon debuting in 2023, exposing embarrassing NFL nooks (rats in the Jacksonville Jaguars' locker room in 2022) and crannies (owners getting an “F” from players) that would otherwise be hidden from view.

Since 2023, there have been no shortage of franchise ripples tied to the NFLPA survey in the headlines. In summation, they came in like this:

“Cardinals announce $100 million move in response to brutal NFLPA report card ”

“Denver Broncos: New facility should improve ‘F’ grade from NFLPA”

“Commanders reveal locker room upgrades in video after ‘F’ grade on NFLPA report card ”

“Jets owner Woody Johnson rips NFLPA survey as ‘totally bogus'"

Undoubtedly, the highest levels of NFL franchises, and also the league office, were taking notice over the past three years.

Now the question is whether the three-year run of the player survey will be a bright-but-fleeting flame in the union’s history. With the NFLPA rocked by scandal involving former executive director Lloyd Howell — who resigned his position in July after less than two years on the job — the report card's future is now in limbo. The braintrust behind the player survey is gone, with Atallah having left the NFLPA nearly six months before the union’s implosion under Howell, and Tretter having resigned in the midst of the NFLPA meltdown in July. New interim executive director David White was voted into office in early August, but nearly one month later there is no indication that another executive is stepping forward to keep the survey on the rails. Whether that happens or not, there’s no denying the biggest discovery of the survey moving forward: When unified into an aggregate voice, NFL players can touch team owners in a way that was previously possible through only a work stoppage. —Charles Robinson

One business-minded league executive focused that through a forward-looking vantage: “That [price growth] will fluctuate with economic cycles [in the United States], but if you want to keep driving it the next few decades at this kind of pace — and I think owners want that — your answer is broadening the investment pool. … Far off in the future, probably really far off, maybe it taps sovereign wealth funds. I think what’s more likely is in the near term of the next decade or so, why wouldn’t you want [Mexican telecommunications magnate] Carlos Slim and his family owning a stake in the Arizona Cardinals?"

“That kind of foreign investment could drive franchise values by billions and billions of dollars and also incentivize foreign billionaires to grow the NFL’s product in their own country, too. You’re tapping two major objectives at once — raising the value of NFL franchises through a competitive global market of bidders and also creating the motivation for these [foreign] billionaires to plant the NFL flag in their backyard and popularize the game.”

As it stands, such direct investment is still barred by the league. But in June, former Washington Commanders team president Jason Wright tipped the league’s road map to getting there while speaking at a media and sports symposium hosted by New York investment firm Gabelli Funds. In comments that raised up antennas inside and outside the league, Wright said he believed the NFL was close to opening to direct foreign investment to “expand the money pool” and that the league would first begin to backdoor the pipeline by doing marketing, sponsorship or naming rights partnerships with companies that were supported by foreign money or investors. That workaround, along with the NFL currently allowing private equity firms to own parts of teams (and parts of those private equity firms to be owned by foreign investment) are small signs of a much richer, global investment future of the league. —Charles Robinson

Daniels’ Offensive Rookie of the Year campaign and the Commanders’ first NFC championship berth in 33 years were proof positive that the project is working. But Daniels’ results are not the only reason he will influence the NFL in 2025 and beyond: The process that delivered those results is at least as interesting.

The Commanders teamed up with Daniels’ private quarterback coach, 3DQB’s Taylor Kelly, to streamline the quarterback’s routine and technique cues. They crafted a playbook that leaned heavily at first on Daniels’ comfort zone, from a clapping cadence to regular use of the Y-cross play-call featuring a tight end or slot receiver underneath. Washington wasn’t afraid to more than double the next closest team’s use of no-huddle. Because coaches weren’t trying to leverage what they preferred so much as what their quarterback did.

Teams will not find an exact replica of the quarterback who made the Commanders' engine hum. But the infrastructure around Daniels is influencing clubs developing rookie quarterbacks, from the Tennessee Titans with 2025 first overall draft pick Cam Ward to the Cleveland Browns, who selected Dillon Gabriel in the third round and Shedeur Sanders in the fifth.

Staff hires, extra walkthroughs and a calculated playbook progression contributed to Washington’s rapid turnaround. The Commanders modeled how to support and elevate a quarterback in a league where franchises often fail their most impactful player.

“As the season progressed, they continued to put more and more on his plate as he gained confidence and gained experience,” Browns general manager Andrew Berry said of the Commanders and Daniels. “That deliberate on-ramping, so to speak, of young quarterbacks has been successful.”

Coaches, players and front-office members expect Daniels to progress rather than regress in Year 2. He’s on their radar.

“I think he is the future face of the NFL when the Mahomes era is over,” one AFC talent evaluator said. “He could truly be a transcendent superstar.” —Jori Epstein

Since purchasing the Broncos for $4.65 billion from the Bowlen family in 2022, the Walton-Penner group has driven its shoulder into the franchise full force. Among the moves that have gotten Denver competitively on track: Making a head coaching change in the midst of Nathaniel Hackett’s first season in 2023 and then ultimately replacing him with Payton; green-lighting the dumping of quarterback Russell Wilson’s massive contract; earmarking (at least) $275 million into renovations of the Broncos’ stadium, headquarters and practice facility; and empowering his coaching staff and front office to run the team’s operations with limited ownership involvement in football decisions.

Penner’s empowerment of his “football people” to do their jobs largely unencumbered by ownership has drawn comparisons by some in the league to an organizational style once embraced by late Seattle Seahawks owner Paul Allen — who allowed head coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider to co-construct one of the NFC’s most successful franchises in the previous decade. Interestingly, a handful of Penner’s believers lauded his decision to hire Payton and then insist on melding him with the existing general manager George Paton. While it was a marriage some initially believed wasn’t likely to last more than one season, the tandem is now described inside the building as a dynamic coaching and personnel partnership that has helped quickly turn Denver into an AFC West favorite in 2025.

Beyond Penner’s steadying hand inside the organization, the level of trust he’s built with other club owners has drawn envy from many within the league. One NFC team president with a high level of involvement in NFL meetings told Yahoo Sports: “As some of the ownership dynamics change, I think [Penner] will end up being one of the people who can settle a room and help carve out a consensus. And that’s real [ownership] power in this league.”

In what might be a reflection of that, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell appointed Penner to a special five-person committee on ownership oversight in 2023, alongside the New England Patriots’ Robert Kraft, Kansas City Chiefs’ Clark Hunt, Atlanta Falcons’ Arthur Blank and Cleveland Browns’ Jimmy Haslam.

The group’s work has already yielded significant analysis in franchises' values and ownership costs, helping to anchor a massive change in ownership stakes by allowing private equity firms to take up to a 10 percent stake in teams. —Charles Robinson

Athletes First’s highest-grossing agent has represented 23 Pro Bowlers and 31 first-round picks, according to data the agency provided to Yahoo Sports. With 68 current clients, he routinely resets positional markets. Take earlier this year, when Mulugheta simultaneously represented each of the three highest-paid corners on the market. And when the Cleveland Browns traded for quarterback Deshaun Watson in 2022, Mulugheta became the first in NFL history to secure his client a mega-quarterback deal that was fully guaranteed.

Three years later, the NFL has faced collusion allegations in arbitration but no one has come within $80 million of Watson’s $230 million in full guarantees (Josh Allen’s $147 million is nearest). The Watson deal is neither the first nor the most recent time Mulugheta has distanced himself from his peers.

A year ago, Athletes First announced Mulugheta became the first NFL agent to negotiate more than $1 billion in player contracts — in a single year.

“Whether it’s guarantees or years or timing, it’s always something impressive that he pulls off,” said New York Jets safety Andre Cisco, a Mulugheta client. “Even though [we know] a guy’s going to get paid a lot, it’s like somehow he does something that’s like, ‘OK, that’s even more above and beyond than we would’ve thought.’”

Mulugheta is shaping the NFL with the record deals he continues to negotiate and the strategies he employs to secure them. His clients have long been unafraid to stand up to their clubs, Parsons’ early-August trade request — a first in recent Cowboys history — just one recent example.

The 42-year-old is shaping the NFL also with the way he connects his clients to each other rather than just himself. Rookies meet his veteran clients as immediate mentors before they’re drafted, and clients reconnect each July at his annual “Elite Week” where they socialize and train together. When clients join new teams, like Cisco, cornerback Brandon Stephens and quarterback Justin Fields recently did in each joining the Jets, they already have relationships. There is a network — or, as Mulugheta tells them, a family.

From Jordan Love and C.J. Stroud to Jalen Ramsey and Derwin James Jr., Mulugheta’s clients will shape the NFL on the field this season. Their agent, in how he handles Parsons’ extension and beyond, will shape the league. He already has. —Jori Epstein

In July, FanDuel Group hired Murray as senior vice president of public affairs and Nabavi as vice president of federal affairs. FanDuel framed the hires as key to “the development of a regulated gaming industry that protects customers and delivers meaningful tax revenue to states.”

Since the Supreme Court paved the way for the legalization of sports betting in 2018, 38 states plus Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico have legalized sports betting in some form. All but eight of those also allow online sports betting via phone, websites or both.

This income shapes the NFL directly and indirectly, deserving some credit for the salary cap ballooning to $279.2 million this season and deserving meaningful credit for the NFL’s decision to host the 2023 season's Super Bowl in Las Vegas. Sports gambling revenue will aid the construction of new stadiums, influence future media rights deals and attract fans less familiar to football. Companies like FanDuel execute strategies that increase the NFL’s bottomline.

Nabavi’s background gives him unusual insight that will help the league and FanDuel to collaborate. Prior to the July announcement, Nabavi spent eight years at the league office. His policy and legislative initiatives included the NFL’s approach to sports betting.

Murray’s expertise will guide the conversation surrounding sports betting, in which perception is often reality. She previously worked for both the Obama and Biden administrations on communications strategy. —Jori Epstein

The orthopedic surgeon has operated on more than 150 NFL players since 2023, and a host more of today’s biggest stars earlier in their careers. His operational precision, cutting-edge technologies and close supervision of rehabilitation has allowed many of the league’s biggest stars to return from what would have been career-ending injuries a generation and, at times, a decade ago. His unusual expertise with both upper and lower extremities is shaping players’ ability to return from injuries, and in turn, lead some of this season’s most daunting rosters.

Even he still marvels at their feats after more than 30 years in the business.

“Just watch Joe Burrow move around in the pocket now,” ElAttrache said by phone this week, “and I defy you to tell me which knee he had done.”

ElAttrache is shaping the NFL (and MLB) by researching and applying progressive medical techniques that enable professional athletes to return to play more quickly and surely. Take Rodgers, who was cleared to return to play just four months after his Achilles tear and fully symmetrical (able to use his repaired leg as well as his healthy leg) the spring after his September tear.

Perhaps Rodgers would have returned at some point after traditional procedures. But ElAttrache discovered a rotator-cuff repair methodology he was able to apply to Achilles tendons that expedited Rodgers’ recovery with a suspension bridge-like suture (stitching) that reduced the chance one point on a tendon would be overburdened with load. The division of labor allows athletes to rehabilitate more aggressively earlier to better maximize their short career windows as professional athletes.

ElAttrache is shaping the NFL long term by improving resources for players with shoulder, elbow, knee and Achilles injuries. He’s shaping the NFL this season by delivering not only the return of stars it risked losing but also multiple patients who were selected in the first round of this year’s draft, including Chicago Bears tight end Colston Loveland and Kansas City Chiefs offensive tackle Josh Simmons.

Will this season's Super Bowl winner feature an ElAttrache patient like last February? The breadth of his patients suggests yes.

And his amazement will continue, just as it did watching Barkley lead an Eagles playoff win last season with a knee that navigated a slick, snowy field. And just as it did when Barkley earlier last year delivered the highlight play of the season.

“When I saw Saquon run, evade a tackle by spinning and then jumping backwards, backwards hurdle launching off the knee that we reconstructed, I was blown away by what the human body can do in some guys,” ElAttrache said. —Jori Epstein

Under O’Connell’s coaching guidance, Stafford, Cousins and Darnold all mounted some of their best seasons, with the 2024 resurrection of Darnold’s career earning praise across the league and helping the Vikings coach capture 2024 AP NFL Coach of the Year honors.

Known to be a virtuoso as a connector with both players and coaches, O’Connell took over the Vikings and flipped the culture almost overnight in 2022, distancing the franchise from a previous regime that soured into toxicity under previous head coach Mike Zimmer.

O’Connell points to his own failed career as an NFL quarterback as a large part of the learning experience that has shaped his coaching style and culture. Selected in the third round by the New England Patriots out of San Diego State in 2008, O’Connell lasted one season before being released and having brief stops with the Detroit Lions, New York Jets (twice), Miami Dolphins and San Diego Chargers between 2009 and 2012.

“I don’t think I’d be here now if it wasn’t for what I experienced as a player,” O’Connell told Yahoo Sports. “That taught me what kind of head I would have wanted when I was going through [those struggles].”

We’ll take a closer look at O’Connell’s rise next week. —Charles Robinson

In their own ways, Goodell, Jones and Kraft have played varying roles in an era of unprecedented growth in league popularity, profitability, expansion, valuation — and a multitude of other aspects that have transformed the NFL into the United States’ most dominant entertainment platform. This despite the past two decades having been fraught with economic disasters, a pandemic, political shockwaves, social and racial headwinds, health and safety scandals, player conduct tribulations and entertainment and media landscapes that have shifted dramatically.

Of course, Goodell, Jones and Kraft collectively navigated that gauntlet. They were never alone at the table of the league’s dominant power brokers. And at times, the trio locked horns with each other over a variety of issues. But inside it all, there is a record of profound impact and success.

All of which reiterates the question: If that trio is on this generation’s Mount Rushmore of NFL stewards, who will be their successors and how could those individuals shape the future of the league? We’ll take a closer look at that this week. —Charles Robinson