It’s official, the midpoint of the 2022 NFL season has never seen more drama built up during the first-half of the league’s play. From Seattle Washington to the Meadowlands in East Rutherford NJ, there are many highs to celebrate and many lows to pound your fist on the table.
The ones to really throw a party and take notice of are the surprising ones. Let’s take a look at the NFL Midseason: The Good, the Bad, and the Surprising.
The Good
Patrick Mahomes
Number 15 for the Kansas City Chiefs is still on a roll. The former Texas Tech signal caller is still one of the premier passers in our game today. Going into the season, there were questions about Mahomes whether he would be able to lead a new group of receivers without Tyreek Hill who is arguably the fastest player in the NFL.
The dual-threat quarterback is having another great season, throwing 21 touchdowns and only six interceptions. He has also passed for 2,605 yards and has a 66.2 completion percentage. Those are solid numbers for a guy who lost his speed threat last year and has new receivers other than Kelce.
Like every great quarterback, the native Texan met with his new receivers prior to the season and developed chemistry that has worked well this season for the Chiefs. Despite losing the speedy Hill to the Miami Dolphins, he still has number 87 in tight end Kelce and JuJu Smith-Shuster who is starting to come into form since being acquired from the Pittsburgh Steelers this past offseason.
Robert Saleh
The second-year head coach of the New York Jets and his process are already taking off to new heights. After a difficult first-year in which the roster consisted of mainly first and second year players, the Gang Green also had a ton of salary cap money to play with last offseason. Oh and he had two first round draft picks and the one at number 4 has turned out to be a stud rookie shutdown corner Sauce Gardner.
Along with Gardner, Quinnen Williams and their entire defensive unit, the defensive-minded Saleh took that unit from one of the worst in 2021, to one of the best in 2022.
I don’t remember the last time a Coach of the Year race was so tight
– Nick Sirianni
– Brian Daboll
– Robert Saleh
– Mike McDaniel
– Pete Carroll
– Mike Vrabel
– Kevin O’ConnellYou could argue for any of these names and I wouldn’t fight you on it
— Scott Barrett (@ScottBarrettDFB) November 7, 2022
Saleh, with a record of (6-3) is making a great case to be a coach of the year candidate along with Brian Daboll of the “G-men”. The man behind the bench currently is 10-13 in two seasons and he’s building the Jets the right way. J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets!
Micah Parsons
Who’s that number 11 out there for the Dallas Cowboys? No it’s not Drew Bledsoe and it’s clearly not Cole Beasley. It’s former Penn State linebacker Micah Parsons. Parsons has been so dominant in his first-two years in the league that he’s being compared to this era’s Lawrence Taylor.
Parsons is an explosive pass rusher off the edge and loves to tackle in the perimeter. Since being drafted by “Dem Boys” in 2021, the 23-year-old is playing like a 10-year veteran. The former Nittany Lion currently has 34-total tackles in eight games played.
Look for the second-year player to continue his super-stardom as he’s also a Cowboy’s fan favorite. Showing the national media what you’re made of is a wonderful thing. Especially trying to impress the Cowboy’s favorite media fan, “Stephen A. Smith”. Haha. How ’bout dem Cowboys?
The Bad
Russell Wilson
What if I told you that a superstar quarterback and a head coach who seemed inseparable during a potential Brady-Belichick type of run, didn’t last? That his dominance crumbled last season. And that a blockbuster trade would land him with a new franchise. That quarterback is Russell Wilson.
At 34 years old, Wilson enjoyed a nice 10-year run with the Seattle Seahawks that came to an unhappy ending after 2021. He was traded from Seattle to Mile High land and become the Denver Broncos new star quarterback. This was supposed to be the downfall of the Seahawks dynasty and the birth of a new one.
Wilson has been off to a disappointing start for the 3-5 Denver Broncos. He lost the first-game of the year to his former team now led by surprising quarterback Geno Smith. To make this even worse, his stats aren’t Russell Wilson-like.
He only has 6 touchdowns passes with 4 interceptions and has a dismal 58.8 completion percentage. The downward spiraling quarterback’s total-yards dropped greatly from 3,113 in 2021 to 1,694 presently.
Josh McDaniels
Let’s shift our focus for a moment to a coach who has been struggling this season and believe it or not, it’s a protégé of Bill Belichick. We’ve already seen Matt Patricia not do as well as he hoped when he led the Lions as head coach. Now let’s talk about one Josh McDaniels.
Coach McDaniels to me should not be doing this bad in year 1 with the Raiders. When they first hired him, it seemed like a perfect fit, as McDaniels was an offensive guru with the Patriots for so long with Brady under center.
The Raiders thought process was let’s hire a still young, but experienced head coach who has so much success with a system in New England that worked for 20-years. They have a quarterback in Derek Carr who isn’t Brady, but he’s functional enough for McDaniels to work with being an offensive minded guy.
So far, it has been troubling, as the Raiders are 2-6 and have blown three-games this year in which they have been up 17-0. Devontae Adams who is a pro-bowl receiver the team acquired is doing well, but is frustrated with the play calling particularly in the last game.
The former Patriot assistant also has struggled with game management, including a missed two-point conversion on Monday Night football at the Chiefs in which they lost by one point.
McDaniels better find a way to turn it around and make it work with Adams, or he could be on the chopping block after one-year. Hey, something has to give as it is the Raiders we’re talking about here.
Jonathan Taylor
Boy, what a difference a year makes as Colts (RB) Jonathan Taylor has performed underwhelmingly this season under two different quarterbacks. The prized fantasy running back led the league with 1,811 yards running, 332 carries, and 18 scores in 2021. But lately, he has been a laughing stock as the former Wisconsin Badger only has one touchdown in just six starts.
It’s one thing that the Colts have struggled with Matt Ryan as the teams veteran starting quarterback, but to not carry the team with Matty Ice, that’s comedy. Then Ryan gets hurts and they turn the tide to rookie Sam Ehlinger. Things get better right? Nope. In fact, Taylor still has had no running lanes to plow through and the Colts are ranked 29th in rushing.
Source: Frank Reich is fired.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) November 7, 2022
While Taylor can still turn it around, it looks like the Colts are packing it in by starting the Texas alum in Ehlinger the rest of the year. They already fired Frank Reich and replaced him with good ole’ Jeff Saturday who played for the Colts, but has no professional coaching experience. This ought to be a Jim Dandy.
The Surprising
Geno Smith
Geno Smith for NFL MVP this year? What? Awesome. Seattle’s new quarterback has been more than just an efficient game-manager. He’s looked like the franchise quarterback the Jets though they were getting when Smith was drafted in the second-round of the 2013 NFL draft. This guy has gone through a lot in his NFL career. From Jet’s bust, to Eli Manning’s backup with the Giants and now the replacement for disgruntled Denver Bronco and former star Russell Wilson.
How has Smith been able to do it. Well, even last year when Wilson was hurt the rest of the year, Geno was the backup, and already knew the offense sitting behind number 3. In his first start on Sunday, Oct. 17 in a primetime game vs the Steelers, he threw for 209 yards passing. Even though the Steelers won, Smith showed he was ready when his number was called.
This year, Smith has had a remarkable turnaround. He has thrown 15 touchdowns and only 4 interceptions and has a qbr of 107.2. There is still another half of football left, but Geno Smith is on pace to be nominated for NFL MVP.
Daniel Jones
How do you like him now Giants fans? Your pariah is now all of a sudden a patron saint. Giants quarterback Daniel Jones headed into this season with a ton of question marks? Everybody in the NFL circle was pondering whether this was Jones’ last chance to become the replacement for Eli Manning.
Every since being drafted by the G-men, Jones has struggled mightily and has gone through a carousel of head coaches who have not put him in the best position to win games for them. Could this be another Alex Smith situation but in NYC.
Then, a young offensive coordinator of the Buffalo Bills by the name of Brian Daboll left and was hired by the Giants as their new coach. Daboll’s recent achievements have been impressive, creating a winning-culture under Bills head coach Sean McDermott and calling plays for Josh Allen. The only question now is how could Daboll utilize Jones like he did with Josh Allen. Jones had previously shown to be a capable runner, but no where near the level of Allen.
So far, the number 6 overall pick in 2019 has thrown for 1,399 yards, with 6 touchdowns and only two interceptions. The two int’s are key because this shows that he has limited his costly picks and has taken better care of the football than previous years.
Jones has been spectacular so far for the Giants managing the offense and taking what defenses give to him. He finally has a head coach who believes in him and his skillsets in which the Duke alumn can win.
Deshaun Watson
Who would of thought it? After being suspended for the first 12 weeks after being accused in many lawsuits against him by massage therapists stating sexual harassment and misconduct, Deshaun Watson will again return to play ball.
On Dec 4th, in Houston he will be playing his first game in 700-days. He will be calling plays with a new team. The stadium however, will be very familiar to him as he played there for four-years prior, as the home-team’s quarterback.
The controversial quarterback will have a lot of people debating on his position in the league and on his character as a football player and person that week.
The Browns could still be in the AFC North race. That means they would have to win at least one contest before a brutal sled of games at Miami, at Buffalo, and then vs. Tampa Bay, should Watson return.
The question is will Watson shake off the dust when he comes back? Or will he sit and be a waste of a $230 million quarterback the Browns signed him to in the offseason?
One thing we do know is that on Dec 4th, 2022, there will be a Movie!
December 4th 2022 will be a MOVIE @deshaunwatson pic.twitter.com/20FNkOUrHo
— GOAT4️⃣ (@DWGOAT4) November 10, 2022
Now all we have to worry about is where OBJ will end up?
Any guesses? Please let me know.
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4 Comments
The ugly, was ARod in there?
Watson is going to hear it from Houston fans
For the bad you forgot Kyle Pitts.
Dan Jones sucks. Runor is that the Giants did not sign him for next year. Who in their right mind would hire this guy? Kurt Cousins is a star. Who knew?