Super Bowl rematch, tush-push tussle among top 10 revenge games for 2025

Eric Williams

NFL Reporter

Half a century ago, James Brown had a hit with “The Payback” in which he sang, “I need some get-back.” Well, in the 2025 season, several NFL teams will be looking for their own “get-back.” While those teams have all summer to stew about it, let’s take a look at the top 10 revenge games for the upcoming season.

Because, as the Godfather of Soul sang, “Payback is a thing you gotta see.”

Seattle has moved on from one of the most dynamic pass-catchers in team history, trading DK Metcalf to the Pittsburgh Steelers in March. A second-round selection in the 2019 draft, Metcalf finished his tenure in Seattle ranked No. 6 in franchise history in receiving yards (6,324) and fifth in touchdowns (48).

Metcalf was replaced in Seattle by Cooper Kupp, who has his own beef to settle when the Seahawks face the Rams in Week 11 and Week 16. Los Angeles unceremoniously released the former Super Bowl MVP and signed Davante Adams. For the Steelers, Metcalf replaces mercurial deep threat George Pickens, who was shipped to the Dallas Cowboys.

Quarterback Dak Prescott went down with a season-ending hamstring injury in Week 9 last year and did not get an opportunity to play the Eagles. The Cowboys lost their two games against the eventual Super Bowl champions by a combined score of 75-13.

Now healthy, Prescott intends to keep Philadelphia from becoming the first team to repeat as NFC East champs since the Eagles won the division in four consecutive seasons from 2001 to 2004. Prescott can lean on the fact that he’s 9-4 against Philadelphia during his time in Dallas. As the QB said after seeing the Eagles win the Super Bowl in February: “It’s our turn, and it’s on us.”

Last season, Kyle Shanahan’s 49ers were swept by Sean McVay’s Rams for the first time since 2018. And while Shanahan still leads the all-time series against his close friend and former coaching colleague (10-7 including postseason), it’s fair to say that if the 49ers want to get back to the Super Bowl, that path leads through the reigning NFC West division champs in Los Angeles.

Detroit finished with the best record in the NFC last season and was one of the favorites to reach the Super Bowl. Then the Lions got embarrassed at home by Washington in the divisional round.

They get a chance to exact some revenge on the road this season. But with offensive coordinator Ben Johnson and defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn both leaving for head coaching jobs, Dan Campbell will have his hands full replicating his team’s 2024 success, let alone slowing down dynamic Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels.

A two-point conversion could have sent last year’s AFC divisional-round matchup into overtime, but Ravens tight end Mark Andrews dropped the pass. As a result, two-time NFL MVP Lamar Jackson and the Ravens once again fell short of fulfilling Super Bowl expectations.

Ravens TE Mark Andrews’ drop on a two-point conversion with under two minutes remaining secured Buffalo’s 27-25 win in the divisional round of the 2024 playoffs. (Photo by Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images)

To add insult to injury, even though Jackson had better overall numbers last season, it was Bills QB Josh Allen who won the league MVP award. And while Jackson owns a 3-1 record over Allen during the regular season, the Buffalo star has won when the games matter most, with a 2-0 edge in the playoffs. This year’s game provides another opportunity for two of the best quarterbacks in the game to battle for AFC supremacy.

Chicago’s 2024 season took a disastrous turn in Week 8 when Washington executed a successful Hail Mary that led to an improbable 18-15 win for the Commanders. It was the beginning of a 10-game losing streak for the Bears, during which the team fired head coach Matt Eberflus.

In that Hail Mary game, Daniels outplayed No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams down the stretch. Now, Williams gets his chance to show his progress under new head coach Ben Johnson, one of the league’s best offensive minds. On the other sideline will be Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury, who reportedly interviewed for Chicago’s top job and who coached Williams in college at USC.

Patrick Mahomes gets an opportunity to redeem himself after one of the worst performances of his career in Kansas City’s embarrassing Super Bowl loss to the Eagles. In the 40-22 defeat, the two-time NFL MVP and his teammates fell woefully short of their three-peat goal.

The humbling loss led to wholesale changes to an offensive line that allowed Mahomes to be sacked six times in the Super Bowl. This early-season barometer against Philadelphia will provide an indication if free-agent left tackle Jaylon Moore can hold up as Mahomes’ blindside protector.

Due to an injured calf, Russell Wilson didn’t get an opportunity to play the Broncos in Denver last season. But the author of “Broncos Country, Let’s Ride” should get a chance to face his former team this season — if he hasn’t been replaced by rookie QB Jaxson Dart by this point of the season.

Wilson’s two years in Denver fell well short of the immense expectations placed on him after the team engineered a blockbuster trade for his services. In his second season, Wilson was benched by Sean Payton and later released, with the Broncos paying “Mr. Unlimited” $39 million to play for Pittsburgh. In Week 7 at Denver, the 36-year-old QB could get his opportunity to show he can still make some Russell Wilson magic happen.

Another quarterback trying to defeat Father Time is Aaron Rogers, who turns 42 in December. If Rogers indeed signs with the Steelers as expected, he’ll face the team that unceremoniously released him this offseason. The Jets flew Rodgers across the country for a dismissal meeting that reportedly lasted all of 20 minutes.

New York then signed QB Justin Fields, who gets to face the team that replaced him with Wilson last season after six games. The athletic Fields has potential, but he must prove he can be accurate enough from the pocket to lead the Jets back to the postseason.

In Week 8, the Steelers host the Packers, which could give Rodgers his first shot at the team with which he spent his first 18 NFL seasons. If for no other reason than the potential of two of the best revenge games of 2025, Rodgers needs to sign with Pittsburgh.

Green Bay hosts Philadelphia in a matchup of two 2024 playoff teams. But it’s much more than that: The Packers are the team that proposed the ban on the tush push, a proposal that was narrowly defeated in an NFL owners’ vote in May.

In this grudge match, head coach Nick Sirianni and the Eagles will surely use the nearly unstoppable short yardage play led by quarterback Jalen Hurts as often as possible.

Eric D. Williams has reported on the NFL for more than a decade, covering the Los Angeles Rams for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Chargers for ESPN and the Seattle Seahawks for the Tacoma News Tribune. Follow him on X at @eric_d_williams.

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