1) Peyton Manning rides off into the sunset ... and creates QB chaos

The 2015-16 season ended back in February with Peyton Manning kissing Papa John as the Denver Broncos defeated the Carolina Panthers in the first modern Super Bowl without Roman numerals. When Manning soon confirmed the inevitable and announced his retirement, the Broncos were faced with handing a championship team to Brock Osweiler, Trevor Siemian or a free agent QB from a class that featured names such as Sanchise and Fitzmagic. The Texans swooped in and signed Osweiler for big money (and undoubtedly now regret it). Siemian started strong, but has faded along with Denver’s playoff chances. And Ryan Fitzpatrick stayed with the Jets where, among other football sins, he put up a six-interception game and lost his job. Manning hasn’t put on a uniform in almost a year, yet he has impacted the 2016 season as much as anyone.

2) Zeke + Dak - Romo

The Cowboys were rumored to be Super Bowl contenders every year since Tony Romo took over the Dallas quarterback job way back when a Texan was in the White House. Yet for reasons ranging from botched field goal holds to injuries and no-catch calls to simply not being as good as advertised, the Romo-era Cowboys never got over the hump.

Rookie tandem Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott restored the Cowboys to prominence in 2016. Photograph: Larry W. Smith/EPA

Now the proverbial hump is the mound of dirt where Romo’s Cowboys career is buried. After the longtime starter got hurt again in the preseason, fourth-round pick Dak Prescott took over and teamed with fellow rookie Ezekiel Elliott to take the Cowboys to the top of the NFC. Romo may finally appear in a Super Bowl this season, but it will just be as the most famous Cowboys cheerleader.

3) Colin Kaepernick’s protest

Never before have the actions of a backup quarterback created such national uproar. Kaepernick sat for the national anthem in the preseason, later changing it to a kneel, to protest oppression of people of color in the United States. Other players throughout the league soon followed his lead. Kaepernick’s actions and words, falling in the final months of a highly partisan presidential campaign, created the official response of 2016: yelling and ALL CAPS from all sides. Lost in all of that outrage (and all the 49ers losses), was that Kaepernick was solid on the field after regaining his starting job – meaning he’s earned the opportunity to make whatever political statements he wants to again in 2017.

4) The NFL’s ratings dip

The talk of the early part of the 2016 season – at least the talk when people wore themselves out from arguing about Kaepernick – was the decline in the league’s TV ratings. Some on the right claimed Kaepernick had turned Middle America away from the league. Donald Trump (and league executives) said the election coverage cut into the league’s market share. Others blamed it on cord cutting and an on-field product that was fairly awful through September and October. The true cause was never exactly determined ... and it probably never will be, because NFL ratings are back up to their regular heights. The NFL is still king, at least until President Trump declares himself King.

5) The rise of the Raiders

It’s not quite the Cubs winning the World Series as a sign of the end times, but the Raiders making the playoffs hadn’t happened since 2002, a difficult feat to pull of in a league in which nearly 40% of the teams make the postseason every year. Oakland showed promise a year ago and continued that progression in 2016 behind Derek Carr and Khalil Mack. The franchise cornerstones are both only 25, meaning the Raiders are set to be contenders for a long time – just like Oakland’s Golden State Warriors. Best of all, it’s impossible for a football team to blow a 3-1 lead.

6) The further falls of the Jaguars and Browns

Like the Raiders, the Jaguars were a popular preseason pick as a breakthrough candidate in the AFC. Whoops. The young and supposedly talented team was undisciplined on both sides of the ball and, unlike Carr in Oakland, Blake Bortles made nothing resembling progress. It ultimately cost Gus Bradley his job. But at least the Jaguars can say they didn’t bottom out like the Browns. Cleveland was no one’s pick to break out in the AFC, but ... going winless until Christmas Eve?

7) The Eagles go all-in on Carson Wentz

After ending the Chip Kelly experiment a year ago, the Eagles decided to re-mortgage their future by trading with Cleveland for the No2 pick in the draft to take North Dakota State product Carson Wentz. A month into this season, the decision looked great. Since then? A lot of regression.

Carson Wentz, Philadelphia’s would-be savior at quarterback, plummeted back to earth after a scintillating start to his rookie season. Photograph: Eric Hartline/USA Today Sports

While Wentz’s play has to have many Eagles fans worried, it’s hard to get a fair read on a guy who is surrounded by the mostly talent-free roster that Kelly left behind. If Wentz does ultimately turn out to be a bust, Cleveland trading out of the No2 spot will go down as their only win of 2016.

8) Tom Brady’s suspension

Roger Goodell finally won his two-year battle against ball deflation when a federal appeals court upheld Tom Brady’s four-game suspension back in April. Except Brady returned to a 3-1 team, instantly made them better, had one of his finest statistical seasons, ran away with the AFC East again, locked up a 1st Round bye in the playoffs and is the odds-on favorite to win league MVP. It’s a definite possibility that the commissioner will hand the Lombardi Trophy to Brady and the Patriots in February. Even when Goodell wins, he is a complete and total loser.

9) The wasted year of the Panthers and Cardinals

Denver taking a step back this season wasn’t hard to foresee due to losses on the defensive side of the ball and having to hand the offense over to former Northwestern quarterback Trevor Siemian. But Carolina and Arizona were expected to be just as strong in 2016 and solid picks to meet again in the NFC title game. Neither will even make the playoffs. While Arizona’s window may now be closed with a struggling Carson Palmer reaching advanced NFL age while Larry Fitzgerald contemplates retirement, the Panthers could be more competitive next season. Well, assuming the NFL stops letting everyone hit Cam Newton in the head.

10) The Rams ruin their LA homecoming

The country’s second-largest city became an NFL market again for the first time since 1994 as the St Louis Rams went back West. But the 80-year-old franchise performed more like an expansion team. Head coach Jeff Fisher promised no “7-9 bullshit” on HBO’s Hard Knocks only to do then go and do much worse than that. No1 overall pick Jared Goff didn’t get to play until the season was all but lost, and then looked very lost on the field. Todd Gurley said the team had a “middle school” offense, an affront to the many fine middle school teams across our land. And then Fisher finally got fired days after his latest contract extension was announced to the press. If the Rams were a typical Los Angeles production, they would have been cancelled after three weeks.