There could be some very under-the-radar Super Bowl teams for the 2025 NFL Season. Let's talk about three of them here.
It might still be another year or two for these teams to establish themselves as contenders, but you just never know. A few teams may have made enough additions in the offseason to shock the NFL world and even emerge as contenders for the Super Bowl.
Even though the NFL playoffs are typically ending with the same group of teams, there could be some new faces that emerge in the 2025 season. Let's talk about them here.
3 dark-horse Super Bowl contenders for the 2025 NFL Season
New England Patriots
With a proven head coach and a Super Bowl-winning offensive coordinator in Josh McDaniels, the New England Patriots are at least gearing up to finish with a winning record. They made key investments along the offensive line and already had a pretty talented defense. Drake Maye would have to play like a borderline-MVP candidate in 2025, but the Pats really aren't missing much to make a deep playoff run.
San Francisco 49ers
With the San Francisco 49ers having the easiest schedule in the NFL and getting key players back from injury, they could stack enough wins in 2025 and perhaps compete for the NFC West title. To be fair to Kyle Shanahan, the 49ers are quite good and even elite when the team isn't dealing with brutal injuries.
But the injury bug has been around for the entirety of Shanahan's tenure. If they can put that aside in 2025, the Niners could gear up for an unexpected Super Bowl run.
Pittsburgh Steelers
This would require a lot to go right, but you have to figure that the defense is going to be among the better units in the NFL, and what if Aaron Rodgers plays... well?
Rodgers actually played quite good for a majority of the Jets 2024 season. Over the final 10 games of the regular season, Rodgers tossed 18 touchdowns against four interceptions for a 97 passer rating. He was on a 31-touchdown, seven-interception pace across an entire season, so it's not like he isn't serviceable at the very least.
But you figure that if the Steelers can show a bit more offensive stability around Rodgers than the Jets did, the four-time MVP could have a late-career peak and perhaps lead the Steelers on a deep playoff run in 2025.