Predicting the entire 2023 NFL season:
We’re less than a week away from the NFL regular season being kicked off in Kansas City and it’s time to put myself out there yet again, by predicting every single NFL award, the playoff picture and ultimately my pick for Super Bowl LVIII.
As always, I will list my top three candidates for MVP, Defensive Player of the Year and all the other awards, reveal my seven seeds in either conference and work my way through the eventual matchups, in order to get to the participants in the big game next February. Yet again I added the Excel sheet, where you can find my predictions for all 285 total games, at the bottom of this piece.
Once again, I attached the full regular season grid at the bottom, if you’re interested in how I ended up with the eventual playoff seedings or want to know where your team finished, if they didn’t make the cut.
This is what I think the 2023/24 season will look like:
Most pivotal situations of the 2023 NFL season:
Only two weeks away from the 2023 NFL season being kicked off, I decided highlight some situations across the league that are highly volatile and I’m most interested in how they work out. These can be players, team units or coaches heading into crucial years. Altogether I came up with eight questions I’m waiting to have answered.
Just two quick disclaimers:
– Obviously how Deshaun Watson might bounce big for the Browns will be key, but I wanted to focus on different topics, without any off-field implications
– And I had already recorded this before the 49ers lost Taco Charlton to IR
Fantasy diamonds for 2023:
Fantasy football is back and it’s time to help out everybody listening, by giving you a few names to target in your upcoming drafts!
Comparing my personal rankings to consensus boards, I’ll highlight the names who I believe present the most surplus value and therefore I’ll be targeting in my leagues.
Halil’s NFL Top 100 Players of 2023:
It’s that time of the year again! After going through the extensive exercise of ranking the top 20+ players at every single position in the NFL today, I combined those to create a list of the 100 best in the game heading into this upcoming season, regardless of position.
The player’s list is one of my favorite things to watch every year, but the process is inherently flawed, since the voters only fill in their top-20 names and are tempted to prop up their teammates or even list themselves. Some of the guys near the bottom shouldn’t be on anybody’s top-20 ballot if they’re being objective.
What’s important to understand is that I’m trying to isolate the individual players, rather than judging their value to their respective teams or how good they may be in a specific role. So not while I bring up general statistics, but also give you background on studying the game’s best and try to draw a bow between both those worlds with some advanced metrics, in order to add context.
Before we get to the actual list, here are a few players who I considered ineligible due to missing time with injury in the past or expected to not be available for a certain amount of games in 2023 – Kyler Murray, Matthew Stafford, Alvin Kamara, Calvin Ridley, Darren Waller, Harold Landry, J.C. Jackson and Micah Hyde.
Let’s dive in now:
The 10 most intriguing battles at 2023 NFL training camps:
Training camps are now in full swing for all 32 NFL teams and I once again went through the exercise of outlining the most interesting battles for starting positions and specific roles across the league!
Why football nerds will fall in love with the 2023 Falcons offense
With three straight top-10 draft picks spent on their versatile skill-position group, a bruising offensive line, a promising second-year quarterback & some of the most well-rounded play-calling, the Falcons offense is about to rise up in 2023!
Second- and third-year NFL players ready to break out in 2023 – Defense edition:
This is the second half of our series on the biggest breakout candidates across the NFL this upcoming season, where we focus on players heading into year two or three.
Once again, I’ll start by giving a quick introduction to each player with his collegiate background and time spent in the NFL so far, discuss the strengths of those players and some areas in which they flash certain skills, list a few things they should focusing on improving upon and then explain my reasoning for them establishing themselves as impact players this year
In order to bring some fresh names to the table, I didn’t include players who have already recorded double-digit sacks or tackles for loss, recorded three or more interceptions, earned a Pro Bowl or All-Pro nomination so far. Furthermore, I didn’t list a few other names that are largely already considered to be young stars, such as Jaelan Phillips or Jaycee Horn, and there will be no repeats from last year, which included names like Dayo Odeyingbo, Isaiah Simmons and Richie Grant.
We already started with the offensive guys last week and now we transition to eight more names over on the defensive side of the ball:
Second- and third-year NFL players ready to break out in 2023 – Offense edition:
After talking about the veteran NFL players changing places, extensively discussing the athletes entering the league via the draft and then pointing out the biggest needs for each team over a two-part series, I went back to watching a bunch of guys who have recently entered the fray and who I believe are bound to emerge as more household names in 2023. In particular, this exercise is aimed at find those breakout candidates about to enter their second or third season in the pros.
First, I will give a quick introduction to each player with college background and NFL experience up to this point, break down everybody’s strengths and flashes of what they could excel in soon, mention some areas of improvement and why I believe they are bound to take a leap forward this upcoming season.
In order to bring some fresh names to the table, I didn’t include players who have already recorded 1000 rushing or receiving yards, 4000 passing yards, scored double-digit touchdowns, earned a Pro Bowl or All-Pro nomination so far. Furthermore, I didn’t list somebody like Jets running back Breece Hall, who was on pace for those kind of benchmarks prior to getting injured or some other names that are largely already considered to be young stars.
We will start on offense and then switch over to the defensive side of the ball next week:
Halil's Real Footballtalk 