NFL 2022 Predictions - John Crowe
Thursday, September 08, 2022
The 2022 NFL season will be a bookend, beginning and ending with a game between the same two teams, the Rams and the Bills.
Bang! How’s that for a bold prediction.
Welcome back and let’s kick off the football season in grand style. Game one will see the defending Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams right back at home at SoFi Stadium, where they won that championship in February over the Bengals. It’s a game with the Bills that we could’ve seen in Super Bowl LVI had Buffalo not blown a last-second lead to the Chiefs in the Divisional Round. It’s because of that loss that I think the Bills will go full scorched-Earth mode and dominate the AFC each and every week in a mission to prove to the rest of the league just how good they are. I thought Josh Allen would be the NFL MVP last season, it appears as though I might have been a year earlier on that pick. The NFC may be down this year, so a repeat by the Rams, who’ve added wide receiver Allen Robinson to its offense while losing Von Miller to the Bills, shouldn’t be out of the question.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTSo, yes, I’ve let my Super Bowl LVII pick for Glendale, Arizona, on February 12th out of the bag already. Mark it down: Bills vs. Rams as LA tries to become the first repeat champs since the Patriots in 2003-04. But let’s not stop there. Before we go forward, let’s take a look back for a minute to see what we got right and what we were way off on.
Right:
Buccaneers would not repeat as champions
Patriots returned to relevance – made the playoffs
QB busts in Indy, Philly, and Detroit – all three missed playoffs
Sadness for Steelers - limped to first round playoff rout to KC and Big Ben retired
Wrong:
QB bust in LA – Matthew Stafford and Rams won the Super Bowl
Jameis Winston would be top 5 QB – tore his ACL
Saquon Barkley would rush for 2,000 yards – ankle injury limited him to under 600 yards
Josh Allen NFL MVP – Aaron Rodgers won it for second straight season
Now, back to 2022.
Worst to first team will be…
Over the past five seasons, six teams have gone from worst to first. Since 2002, 27 teams have accomplished that feat with the Cincinnati Bengals pulling it off last season, coming one drive short of winning a Super Bowl title. Who will it be this season? Our candidates are the Jets, Lions, Seahawks, Broncos, Giants, Ravens, Panthers and Jaguars.
The Broncos and Jaguars are the sexy picks from the media, with new head coaches and Russell Wilson taking over in Denver. But for my money, it’s the Baltimore Ravens. They were primed and ready for a playoff run before losing six straight to end the season as quarterback Lamar Jackson led a long injury list, playing in just one game down the stretch. Jackson’s back healthy and playing for his future and a new contract as he enters the final year of his deal without any assurances from Baltimore going forward. J.K. Dobbins and Marcus Peters are back from season-ending knee injuries. Plus take a look at the schedule. They start out with four straight games against the AFC East, a division that’s down again in 2022, along with matchups with the Giants, Panthers, Jaguars and Falcons.
That’s a road map built for 10 wins and an AFC North first-place finish when you consider the Steelers are rebuilding at QB, the Browns are without Deshaun Watson for 11 games due to his personal conduct suspension and the Bengals are coming off a Super Bowl loss, which sometimes means a step back if historic precedence rears its ugly head for Cincinnati.
The Patriots will be lucky to get to .500.
I’ll put the over/under at 7.5 wins for the folks in Foxboro. With chaos at the coaching level – no coordinators on either side of the ball and a “process” being used to call plays into second-year quarterback Mac Jones, it could be quite the frustrating campaign for those looking for the Pats to improve after 2021’s collapse down the stretch culminating in a blowout playoff loss in Buffalo. New England has a rough beginning with road games at Miami and Pittsburgh before hosting Baltimore and going right back out to play at Green Bay to complete the first four. Their schedule softens a bit, but the end of the season is brutal starting with a Thanksgiving Night matchup in Minnesota, followed by prime-time games vs. Buffalo, at Arizona and at Las Vegas. If that wasn’t hard enough, the final three come at home against the Bengals and Dolphins before shuffling off to Buffalo in week 18. Yikes!
Tom Brady and the Buccaneers will be under .500 after their first four games.
Brady’s retirement (officially 39 days) and then subsequent 11-day absence from training camp, and missing two preseason games, won’t be the full reason for the slow start. Injuries and losses on the offensive line with Ryan Jensen (knee injury), Ali Marpet (retired) and Alex Cappa (free agency) all gone will have more to do with why they don’t beat the Cowboys, Saints, Packers and Chiefs. I can see them going 1-3 before righting the pirate ship and moving ahead to a certain playoff spot in the NFC. As Brady himself said last month, “I’m 45 years old man. There’s a lot of #*&! going on “
The Vikings, not the Packers, will win the NFC North.
It’s Kirk Cousins time. Armed with Justin Jefferson, arguably a top 3 wide receiver now, and a new offensive-minded head coach in Kevin O’Connell, over from the Rams, Cousins will be free from former head coach Mike Zimmer’s clutches and thrive. With the Packers being WR-deprived now that Davante Adams has left for Las Vegas to play with former college teammate Derek Carr, Green Bay could take a step back just enough to allow Minnesota to slide by them. We’ll find out week one as the Packers travel to Minneapolis.
The Chargers will win the loaded AFC West.
Just like the Vikings, it’s put-up time for the Chargers. Head coach Brandon Staley needs to limit his reckless fourth down calls and let his talented team step up. The offense is loaded, led by QB Justin Herbert in his third season, Austin Ekeler in the backfield along with Keenan Allen and Mike Williams on the outside. The defense has added depth too with former Patriots JC Jackson and Kyle Van Noy. The Chiefs will be right there as they replace Tyreke Hill with rookie Sky Moore. The aforementioned Raiders have Josh McDaniels in his first season leading Carr and Adams offensively. The struggle for them will be on the offensive line and secondary. Finally, the Broncos could be a playoff team and still come in last with Russell Wilson moving over from Seattle and getting help from second-year running back Javonte Williams. The question with Denver is can the offense ride as well as its defense?
The Cardinals will go under .500 and fire Kliff Kingsbury.
The disappointment in the desert will continue as the Cardinals bring up the rear in the NFC West. Since they just signed QB Kyler Murray to a five-year, $230 million contract extension, they’ll have to go with the fire-the-head-coach route. Kingsbury is just 24-24 in three seasons in Arizona, concluding last season with a first-round playoff loss to the Rams after the team raced out to a 7-0 start, losing seven of its last 11 games. Let’s not forget that the Cards will be without star WR DeAndre Hopkins for the first six games after being suspended for testing positive for a banned PED substance.
Week 1 Games to Watch:
Bills at Rams (Thursday 8:20 pm NBC) – Game one. Welcome back NFL!
49ers at Bears (Sunday 1 pm FOX) – Trey Lance vs. Justin Fields
Patriots at Miami (Sunday 1 pm CBS
Raiders at Chargers (Sunday 4:25 pm CBS) – AFC West will be a battle all season long
Buccaneers at Cowboys (Sunday 8:20 pm NBC) – TB12 year 23 against America’s Team
Broncos at Seahawks (Monday 8:15 pm ESPN) – Russell Wilson returns home in first game with Broncos
