NFL Week 15 Predictions: Projecting the Week's Most Explosive Offenses

The NFL is an offense-heavy league anymore, with games ending with total scores of 70 points or more on a weekly basis. Teams great and small have adopted a more dynamic approach to both their passing and running games, and more points and yards than ever have come from it.

Three quarterbacks are on pace to break Dan Marino's single-season passing yardage record, and their three teams are among the four I am featuring in this slideshow highlighting the most explosive offenses for Week 15.

New Orleans Saints (at Minnesota Vikings)

The New Orleans Saints has the NFL's top passing offense, based on yardage, and the No. 3 overall offense in the league through 14 weeks, and that's primarily thanks to quarterback Drew Brees.

One of three quarterbacks on pace to break Dan Marino's single-season passing record, Brees has been solely responsible for 4,368 of the team's 5,821 total offensive yards.

He's thrown 32 touchdowns to 11 interceptions, is averaging 336 yards per game and has just eclipsed the Green Bay Packers' Aaron Rodgers as the league's most accurate quarterback, completing 70.9 percent of his passes.

This week, he and his crew of reliable receivers face the Minnesota Vikings' 25th-ranked defense that is next-to-last when it come to defending the pass. That only means trouble for the Vikings but bodes well for Brees and the Saints' chances not just to notch another win, but to win by a large margin.

That's nothing new for the Saints this season, to be sure. It'll be another par-for-the-course day for the team, with Brees likely throwing for 350 or more yards and at least three touchdowns in the game.

Green Bay Packers (at Kansas City Chiefs)

While the New Orleans Saints have the most yardage of a passing offense this season, the Green Bay Packers have the highest scoring squad, with 50 touchdowns on the year, 39 of which coming via the arm of quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

Rodgers, also on pace to break Marino's passing record, has 4,125 yards in the air to his name this season and is averaging 317.3 yards per game.

With the dismal Chiefs defense, which ranks 21st against the pass, up next for the team, it should be more of the same aerial assault we've come to expect from the 13-0 defending Super Bowl champions.

Thanks to that high-scoring offense, the Packers are well on their way to a perfect season. Favorites to repeat their Super Bowl run of last year even before the regular season began, it's hard to imagine another squad putting up enough offense to even match, let alone beat, Green Bay at its own game.

New England Patriots (at Denver Broncos)

The third quarterback who may potentially break Dan Marino's record is the New England Patriots' Tom Brady, who is perennially one of the greatest quarterbacks in the league.

The Patriots passing offense is second in the league based on yardage and boasts the overall best offensive unit through 14 weeks.

Like the Saints and the Packers, the Patriots average few yards on the ground but what they do produce is always effective. And like those two teams, their high-powered passing game negates any need for the team to rely on the run even when managing a big lead.

Brady has completed 66.1 percent of his passes this year, for a total of 4,273 yards, 33 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.

He's throwing for an average of 328.7 yards per game, and while he's up against an ever-strengthening Denver Broncos defense this week, he shouldn't struggle to achieve close to that number, as his experience trumps the youth and speed of the Broncos defenders.

Brady is acutely aware of his defense's issues with stopping the pass—they're giving up just over 308 yards per game, making them the worst secondary in the league.

The only way to counteract this failure is to score more points than opposing offenses can manage themselves, and Brady is more than capable of meeting this challenge.

The Patriots have scored under 25 points just three times this season. Look for Brady and company to combine for nearly 500 yards in the air and on the ground in a decisive win over the Broncos this Sunday.

Detroit Lions (at Oakland Raiders)

Though the Detroit Lions aren't as explosive of an offense as they were in the first half of the season, this week's matchup against the Oakland Raiders' 18th-ranked defense should provide them with a good opportunity to return to that early-season form, especially considering that they're still fighting for a wild card playoff berth.

Again, the Lions continue the trend of high-powered passing offenses not needing to run the ball much to find success. They're averaging 275.5 passing yards per game to just slightly over 100 yards rushing per game thanks to the excellent year quarterback Matthew Stafford has been having.

Stafford has thrown for 3,754 yards, 29 touchdowns and 14 interceptions this season. He's been helped out by a cadre of fast receivers, most notably Calvin Johnson, whose 1,132 total yards makes him one of the top three receivers of the year.

The Raiders' struggles on offense have been echoed by their defense, which has given up a total of 80 points and 779 yards in their last two games. It's a perfect storm for the Lions offense to put up 400 yards on Sunday, leading them to a victory and one step closer to a postseason appearance.