If you really love pro football, you might want to postpone the simulated trip to Mars or reschedule that South Seas vacation — places where it’s hard to get good reception — and stay at home this fall. 2007 is going to be the year a lot of key issues are settled. Foremost among them:

Who’s the man?

Will Peyton Manning or Tom Brady be remembered as the greatest quarterback of the early 21st century? Peyton finally shook off the can’t-win-the-big-game albatross, but for real football immortality, you’ve got to win at least two rings. If the Colts win again, it will be on offense: Nearly half the defensive squad from this year’s Super Bowl victory is gone. But then again, the Colts won on offense last year.

Tom Brady has three rings, and if he’s in sync with Randy Moss, the best receiver he’s ever had, he could be joining Bart Starr (five rings), Joe Montana (four), and Terry Bradshaw (four) in football Valhalla.

A Rush to judgment on Donovan? Is Young mature? Will Michael Vick’s legend dog Joey Harrington?

Keep this from Rush Limbaugh, but there are a lot of people in the press who do want to see a great black superstar quarterback, and why not? Witness the adulation accorded Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith as the first black Super Bowl coaches — imagine what it will be like if two black QBs faceoff February 3.

The most likely candidate this year is Donovan McNabb, who’s already been there once, but he turns 31 this November and missed nearly seven games last year due to injury. One more blindside hit, and his shot at greatness may be gone.

In the AFC, Tennessee’s Vince Young has the ability to be a great runner and passer. If the Titans’ O-line can cut down on those 25 sacks, Young could mature quickly and put the Titans in the playoffs.

Now holding the Falcons’ starting job, can Joey Harrington perform as well as Vick? He isn’t a fraction of the player Vick is, but it wouldn’t be much of a stretch for him to be as good a quarterback. With the Dolphins last year, Harrington had a 57.5% completion rate and a 5.76 yards per attempt, while Vick was 52.6% and 6.38. With an offensive line no longer required to hold its blocks for 30 seconds while Vick scrambles from side to side, it’s far from inconceivable that Harrington could help the Falcons improve on their 7–9 season last year.

Is Eli coming? Is Ben off his vicious cycle?

Manning the Younger will be entering his fourth season and has the potential to upstage big bro as the host of “Saturday Night Live.” But so far he’s 0–2 in the postseason with no touchdowns and four interceptions, and now he won’t have Tiki Barber on first and second downs.

In his first two seasons, Ben Roethlisberger was better than Joe Montana, Dan Marino, or John Elway in their first two. Then he decided that who he really wanted to be was Evel Knievel, and his third season hit the skids (for the first time in his young career he threw more interceptions than touchdowns). If Ben is off his bike and back on his game, he might be ready to challenge Peyton Manning as the AFC’s best passer.

Will the Saints be in a Bush league of their own?

In the euphoria over the Saints’ best season ever, it was overlooked that Reggie Bush wasn’t much of a factor, rushing for just 565 yards and failing to crack the list of the league’s top 50 rushers. But if Bush blossoms as a sophomore, the combination of a great runner and a great passer, Drew Brees, to spread opposing defenses could produce the NFL’s best offense.

Is there life after Tuna?

Or perhaps more to the point, will Tony Romo shake off one of the most disastrous ends to a playoff game in recent memory and play the way he did when he led the Cowboys to the postseason? Romo matured quickly under Bill Parcells, but there’s no evidence that new coach Wade Phillips is anywhere near Tuna’s equal as a strategist or motivator.

How near is Favre?

Brett Favre has a decent shot at setting new records in just about every major passing category this season — even if he stinks, as he has for the previous two years. Will Green Bay fans and the press continue to give this overrated egomaniac more attention than he deserves while he puts personal statistics ahead of the good of his team? Of course they will.

Is Gore vital?

Running backs almost never spearhead a team’s turnaround — it’s too easy for opposing defenses to key on them. But 24-year-old, 5-foot-9-inch phenom Frank Gore may be the exception. Gore was astonishing last season, setting a 49ers franchise record, rushing for 1,695 yards and leading the team in pass receptions with 61. Even more amazing, considering opposing defenses were always stacked against him, he averaged 5.4 yards per rush, higher than the two men who edged him out for the rushing crown, San Diego’s LaDainian Tomlinson (5.2) and Kansas City’s Larry Johnson (4.3). If third-year quarterback, Alex Smith (who took every snap for the team last year), continues to develop and can take some heat off him, Gore may obliterate NFL rushing records.

And, finally, willtheNFLachieve parity? Over the last 10 seasons, the NFL has essentially been half major league, the AFC, and half Triple-A, the NFC. The AFC has won eight of the last 10 Super Bowls, six of the last seven, and the last four in a row. It’s pretty much been a case of Denver, New England, Pittsburgh, and Indianapolis getting together in the postseason to decide who’s going to take it all. If you’re looking for a Cinderella team this year, how about anyone from the NFC?

Mr. Barra is the author of “The Last Coach: A Life of Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant.”