Tag Archives: NFL

NFL award winners

Mid-2022 NFL season awards:

After the first quarter of the season, we put together a power ranking of all 32 NFL teams. So once again, it felt appropriate to revisit my predictions for all the major awards and give you my top three names for each of them, as we’ve finished up the first half of the year now. Some of those I still look in very much the same way, while the rookies and coaches particularly are quite different than I expected

With the NFL adding a 17th game last season and therefore an 18th week, now the mid-way point has moved to past week nine. That means some of the players listed here have already played in each of those weeks, while others have only had the chance to participate in eight contests. Due to that, I will use per-game stats more frequently than totals, in order to allow us to make easier comparisons between names.

Here’s who I’d give each award if the season ended today:


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Player Rankings

Ranking all 32 NFL quarterbacks post-week eight (2022):

The quarterback position is always the most-discussed and -scrutinized in football. Often times it’s hard for casual fans to decipher how good these players actually are and opinions are based on raw numbers and team success, rather than evaluating the QB’s play specifically. Now eight weeks into the season, I decided to rank the starters for all 32 teams and create tiers within the list, to signify how I look at them at this moment.

While statistics will play a large role in making the points for some of these guys, I tried to base my opinions on what the tape says first and foremost. For this exercise, I had to consider surrounding pieces (skill-position players and offensive line), advantages delivered by play-calling and what these quarterbacks are asked to execute. This isn’t supposed to be a ranking of how good these signal-callers are for their teams specifically, but rather I tried to extrapolate the individual players and go from number one to 32.

Here’s my list:

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NFL games, NFL Weekly Recap, Why did this happen?

The seven sins of NFL week seven:

With Halloween coming up and the seventh week of games in the books, the theme of “the seven (deadly) sins” came to mind for me and I decided to take a closer look at the most recent slate of games through that lense. That way I would seven terms to describe how certain teams hurt themselves by committing those errors.

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NFL games, NFL Weekly Recap

Analyzing the six biggest matchups from NFL week six:

Having already done a couple of big topics in video format, with the Bengals early-season struggles on offense and the Giants now 5-1 start, powered by Saquon Barkley, along with power rankings at the quarter-pole of the season, I thought this was the right time to kind of let readers into my world of tape study and really dive into the six biggest games from this past weekend. All teams involved in these matchups are now .500 or better, including some risers and what were labelled as championship contenders heading into the season, now at somewhat of a crossroads a month-and-a-half into the year.

Below, you can find my offense versus defense breakdowns when either team possessed the ball, along with some concluding general thoughts, from the following matchups: 49ers-Falcons, Vikings-Dolphins, Jets-Packers, Ravens-Giants, Bills-Chiefs and Cowboys-Eagles.

(Records listed are as of post-week six)


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Storylines around the NFL, What makes him so good

How Saquon Barkley has powered the Giants to a 4-1 start:

The New York Giants are off to their best start through five games since 2009, with running back Saquon Barkley having a major comeback season and putting the offense on his back.

Having had the chance to watch this generational talent in London this past Sunday, I decided to break down the biggest plays of his season so far and showcase how he looks healthy and better than ever.

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NFL Power Rankings

Power Rankings after the first quarter of the 2022 NFL season:

Similar to what I did last week, with the top five college players at each position a month into the season, I wanted to take a look at the landscape of the NFL, only from a team perspective, ranking them from number one all the way to 32. Due to the addition of a 17th game last year, the quarter-pole isn’t quite exact, but I think this a great time to give a resumé on what we’ve seen so far.

These are not “power ratings”, but rather rankings based on my film study, putting performances into context and using (advanced) statistics to support my case. Therefore you will see teams with worse records or even those who have lost to others in their direct matchups, be higher up than those other squads.

This is what I came up with:


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Uncategorized

What’s wrong with the 0-2 Bengals?

After breaking onto the scene and representing the AFC in Super Bowl LVI, the Cincinnati Bengals have struggled so far in 2022 and are still looking for their first win. I decided to dive into the tape, in order to analyze their issues in pass protections, how offensive tendencies have been holding them back and why they’ve only scored 27 combined points through two games.

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NFL Weekly Recap, Storylines around the NFL

Three takeaways from each NFL week one game (of 2022):

Week one of the 2022 season is in the books and there’s a lot to talk about. Once again, I wanted to come up with three statements/discussion points for all 16 games. However, I didn’t just write about the stuff I picked up whilst seeing some plays pop up, but rather due my excitement for the NFL being back, I committed myself to really digging into the tape and statistics of every contests. That’s why this is only coming out on the day week two is already about to start again, even if I wanted it to be published earlier.

Now, week one can be a giant liar and we have to take everything with a grain of salt in the grand scheme of things, but I feel pretty strongly about some of these takeaways and believe they can paint a good picture on the league’s current landscape. I’ll talk about individual players, position groups and teams as a whole, trying to understand what we saw in this first slate of games and what it means going forward.

Let’s dive into these games:


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NFL Predictions

Predicting the entire 2022 NFL season:

Less than a week away from the 2022 NFL season kickoff game between the Bills and Rams, it’s time for me to once again predict the entire year, going through every single award, presenting my playoff picture and projecting forward who will square off in Super Bowl LVII.

As far as the awards are concerned, I will go through my top three candidates for each honor, explaining why I believe they will receive votes, along with just listing a couple of honorable mentions at the end of each paragraph.

To determine playoff seeding, I actually had to go a step further and yet again predict all 272 games, work through tiebreakers to figure out how exactly these teams stack up and then put them in order, so I could ultimately pick my winners for each matchup, leading up the eventual NFC and AFC representatives in the big game at the end of the season in Arizona.

(I added the Excel sheet with ever single game picked at the very bottom, if you’re interested.)

Here’s how I believe things will shake out:


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NFL Power Rankings, Power Rankings

Pre-2022 NFL season power rankings:

We’ve nearly made it through the preseason and once again it’s time to put out my first power rankings of the year, before the Bills and Rams kick off the regular season.

To do so, not only did I rank all teams from numbers one to 32, but I also grouped them into six tiers. Each of those consists of four to six teams, other than what I labelled as the “second tier”, which is loaded with AFC teams in particular, who I believe all have the talent to make real noise this season.

As always, I know many people will hate how low their team is and sometimes the number in front of it may look worse than it actually is, which is why I’d like to consider the individual tiers, which is what I believe is more representative of how I look at the NFL landscape heading into 2022.

Let’s get into the list:


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