After seven long months, the NFL is back.

The season kicks off Thursday night with the Philadelphia Eagles hosting the Dallas Cowboys, a nice appetizer for the Ravens’ prime-time showdown Sunday. They’ll face the Buffalo Bills in Orchard Park, New York, a much-anticipated rematch of last season’s divisional-round matchup.

Here, in alphabetical order, are Banner staff members’ predictions for the playoffs, league Most Valuable Player and the Ravens’ season.

Kyle Goon, columnist: 12-5, Super Bowl champions

I know. It never lines up this way. It’s never completely chalk. Weird, unexpected things happen. But, given how tightly the Ravens have constructed their roster, I see few glaring weaknesses: a little uncertainty at linebacker, so-so guards and a rookie kicker. The strengths are much more robust, as we saw from the best offense in football last year, and a defense that has restocked with the necessary talent. I’m a believer that this is the roster that will get it done. Frankly, to make the most of the Lamar Jackson era, this team needs to finish its business. It only gets harder after this season.

Giana Han, reporter: 13-4, Super Bowl champions

I’m being cautiously optimistic, partly because this is a strong roster and partly because I can’t help but wonder: If not this year, when? The Ravens have far fewer obvious weaknesses in their starting lineup than they did heading into last year. 2024 still turned out to be a solid season, but some of the Ravens’ struggles came from unexpected places (the secondary), while my concerns about the offensive line didn’t come to fruition. With Zach Orr in his second season, the defense should get off to a smoother start. The biggest obstacles for this talented team could be chemistry and depth. With such a star-studded lineup, the drop-off to the backups is stark in places. Lamar Jackson has carried this team through a lot, though, and it’s only a matter of time before he drags the Ravens all the way to a Super Bowl title.

Chris Korman, editor: 12-5, Super Bowl champions

As the editor of our sports section, I look at the lack of dissenting opinions in this article and ... well, chat, I do not feel great. Perhaps we’re a little too in lockstep over what to expect. However, as a keen observer of sports for as long as I can remember, I will offer one piece of hard-earned wisdom: Good teams with competent coaches tend to win games, and if they fail to do so because of fluky mistakes, they eventually overcome those things. (Truly deep thinking, I know.) Which is to say, there is no curse haunting the Ravens. They do not lack fortitude or leadership. They are not plagued by a lack of “big-time” players who know how to perform in the “clutch.” They need to win the right games, in order, and they are built to do so.

Paul Mancano, ‘Banner Ravens Podcast’ host: 13-4, Super Bowl champions

Try as I might, I can’t find another team in the NFL that boasts the Ravens’ blend of star power and depth. Including Patrick Ricard, the offense can start a lineup that’s combined for 27 Pro Bowl nods. The defense is equally talented, now helmed by a more experienced Zach Orr. On special teams, Tyler Loop is a question mark, but Justin Tucker was a liability for much of last season. Am I being a homer? Perhaps. But that’s never hurt me in the past.

Jonas Shaffer, reporter: 14-3, AFC champions

This is Year 8 for Lamar Jackson in Baltimore. The Ravens have won four AFC North titles since he took over as starting quarterback. It’s about time they hang a banner for something else. “I look at Baltimore’s team,” NBC analyst Cris Collinsworth told me last week, “and what I’m most surprised about is that they haven’t won a championship in the last few years.” I think this is the year they break through. Just not all the way. The Ravens will cruise through the regular season, three-peat as division champions, get to the Super Bowl — and lose. Maybe that’s just the Stockholm syndrome talking; it’s hard to imagine a world where we’ve been freed from the shackles of “Why the Ravens will never get it done in the playoffs” sports talk segments. An AFC championship sure would help, though.

Childs Walker, contributor: 13-4, Super Bowl champions

The Ravens’ last Super Bowl win was the culmination of a five-year cycle of development and disappointment for a core of great players. We’ve reached a similar juncture with this version of the team, which was clearly good enough to win it all in 2023 and 2024, only to come up small in mistake-filled playoff losses. The 2025 Ravens don’t have an obvious weakness, with the league’s most explosive offense balanced by a defense that found itself down the stretch last season and features All-Pro talent at every level. One thing the Ravens can’t count on is another year of sublime health, but they’re so stocked with stars at most positions that only a significant injury to Lamar Jackson would devastate their chances. With Jackson in his prime, it’s not as if any window is closing, but the current roster is about to get prohibitively expensive, so this might be the most talented team the two-time MVP ever pilots. The Ravens will have to avoid the January mishaps that have doomed them against the Chiefs and Bills, and it would be foolish to call that a 100% proposition. But they’re as primed as a contender can be. Why not 2025?

Brandon Weigel, editor: 12-5, Super Bowl champions

Grok, take agent Fox Mulder’s “I Want to Believe” poster from “The X-Files” and put Lamar Jackson’s face over the UFO. This has to be the year, right? The Orioles’ woebegone season has tilted the Baltimore sports world so far off its axis that the Ravens, a team that’s been done in by January hiccups and self-owns, will finally get out of their own way to deliver the franchise’s third Lombardi Trophy. Bill Belichick, a tremendous pro football coach and a maybe not-so-great college one, diagnosed it last November. “The games they’ve lost, I think they — I don’t want to say gave away," he said. “But they lost ’em more than somebody else won ’em.” That was true when the Chiefs and Taylor Swift came to town for the 2023 AFC championship game and Jackson had two turnovers and Zay Flowers had the ball punched out just before the goal line on a would-be touchdown. It was true last season against the Bills in the divisional round, when Jackson dragged the team back into the game after a sluggish start, only for Mark Andrews to drop the would-be game-tying 2-point try. This year will be different. At least that’s what I want to believe.