Year In Review: 2022 NFL Teams
Image credit to Michael Owens/Getty Images, John McDonnell/The Washington Post, and The Athletic
The Year In Review series comes to a close as we look back to see how teams as a whole performed in the 2022 season. If you missed any other part of this series, you can get caught up below:
So did expectations for these teams exceed, get met, or fall short? Here’s a quick rundown on 9 teams, and what they accomplished (or failed to accomplish) from this past season, and what the direction for each appears to be as we continue to navigate the NFL Offseason…
The Good…
A number of teams exceeded expectations in 2022, but two in the NFC were the poster children for doing so. The New York Giants surprised many with their quick turnaround under Brian Daboll in his first year as the head coach after coming in from the Buffalo Bills’ offensive staff. Daboll took home the Coach of the Year award, and rightfully so, after getting the most out of QB Daniel Jones. Jones had a career year when it mattered most, turning his performance into a 4-year extension to keep a Giant for a few more years. Having superstar RB Saquon Barkley healthy for the whole season also played a big part of Big Blue’s surprise season. You can sense what it meant for Barkley during the Giants’ playoff win over the 3-seed Minnesota Vikings, which turned into an “upset” many saw coming. Barkley received the franchise tag, and Daboll and GM Joe Schoen will look to build off their success and make this type of season the norm in the East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Joining the Giants in making a great run this year were the Seattle Seahawks. The NFC West didn’t turn into the division we expected it to be, with the Los Angeles Rams and Arizona Cardinals both finishing among the worst teams in the NFL. Seattle took advantage of that, coming in as the NFC’s 7th seed. Their rewards ended their, as their seeding paired them up with division rival San Francisco. That game didn’t end the way Comeback Player of the Year Geno Smith wanted, but he’ll get to stick around the pacific northwest for a few years to continue Seattle’s bid to remain relevant in an as-of-now lackluster NFC.
Over in the AFC, the Jacksonville Jaguars got hot at the right time, simultaneously catching the Tennessee Titans on a downslide to capture the AFC South division crown in the final week of the regular season. What happened next was a historic playoff comeback win over the Los Angeles Chargers. A good showing against the top seeded and eventual Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs in the Divisional Round followed. Things got even brighter in sunny Duval County when WR Calvin Ridley was reinstated by the NFL, adding another receiving option for budding superstar Trevor Lawrence going into year 3. Jacksonville’s 2022 was filled with highs and lows, so Doug Pederson’s group will look to take advantage of a weak division, defend their division title, and make it a highpoint throughout 2023.
The Bad…
Mentioned in the Seattle excerpt, the Arizona Cardinals were among the bottom of the barrel of the NFL in 2022. It was a season that seemed like ‘Zona couldn’t get all their star players on the field at the same time. DeAndre Hopkins missed the first six games to a suspension. Injuries to Marquise Brown and Kyler Murray resulted in only two games being played with all three together (they lost both). For offensive minded coach Kliff Kingsbury, it was a disappointing offensive season for the Cardinals. The team has plenty of holes, especially on the defensive side of the ball. New head coach Jonathan Gannon will hope to get his new defensive unit to speed, and selecting a star pass rushing prospect with their 3rd overall pick in the draft, which was very much earned, will go a long way. Hopkins has also been in the middle of trade rumors with a weak WR free agency class, and a not so deep draft class at the position. He could be flipped for additional draft capital or players that can act as building blocks for the Cardinals.
Could a team that made the playoffs be marked as a team that performed bad? They sure can! The Tampa Bay Buccaneers got into the postseason as the NFC South champs, albeit with a losing record at 8-9. Tom Brady’s final season was marred by a couple “Misses”: miscommunication and mis-execution. There was room to make a joke about Gisele become Ms. Bündchen again, but we’ll move on here. Brady’s offense, while littered with talent, never really got rolling. Tampa is now up against the cap, have a hole at the game’s most important position, and might be projected to finish last in a weak NFC South as their counterparts are making splash moves early this offseason. It’s been a while since I felt a division champion feel this flimsy.
Jumping again to the AFC, I’ve been very vocal on how I feel about the Las Vegas Raiders. They were touted this time last year as a great threat to Kansas City’s hold on the AFC West. That clearly didn’t quite workout. The big time additions of WR Davante Adams and pass rusher Chandler Jones were supposed to elevate the Raiders to the next level following a wild card appearance in 2021. Instead, the team took a major step back under Josh McDaniels’ inaugural year as their head coach, even benching long time face of the franchise Derek Carr in the final two games of the season when their playoff hopes were very slim, but very alive. That move was a precursor to Carr being released, and being replaced by former McDaniels student Jimmy Garoppolo from their time together in New England. The Raiders still field a relatively abysmal defense, and I predict they’ll be picking in the draft as high next year as they are this year. I didn’t buy the hype last year, and I don’t see any reason why there should be hype for 2023.
The Meh…
The Bucs won the NFC South last year, but the Carolina Panthers somehow felt like the best team in that division. They got a lot better after moving on from Matt Rhule and handing the keys to interim coach Steve Wilks. Carolina then took another jump after dealing superstar running back Christian McCaffrey to the San Francisco 49ers. I still don’t know how that makes sense, but sometimes the truth doesn’t have to make sense. Carolina’s run game found its stride with D’Onta Foreman and Chuba Hubbard. They also have a defense littered with young talent, and hiring Frank Reich as their next head coach should help get the offense on track a bit. They have a solid offensive line, but outside of that, the Panthers need to reload more than rebuild. They included WR DJ Moore as part of a massive trade package to secure the first overall pick in the draft from the Chicago Bears, so the presumed QB they’ll take at the top of the draft will have a light receiver room. Depending on what other moves the Panthers make between this article being written and the start of the season, they may be the heavy favorites to take this division in 2023 after narrowly losing it to Brady and the Bucs by a single game.
From Ron Rivera’s former team to his current team, the Washington Commanders were the only NFC East team to not make the playoffs in 2022. That being said, they still finished with a middle of the road 8-8-1 record, not being eliminated from the wild card race until after their Week 17 loss to Cleveland. Like Indianapolis the year prior, Washington learned the hard way what the Carson Wentz Experience entails. They’ve already moved on from him, seemingly turning the keys over to 2022 5th round pick Sam Howell, who I was a big fan of throughout the pre-draft process. The Commanders won this division in Rivera’s first season as head coach back in 2020, and will look to get back to that level next year. They have a few signature wins to build off of this year to help do that. The Commanders were the team to officially put an end the Philly’s undefeated season. Star WR Terry McLaurin made some big plays in exciting wins in the closing minutes in back to back weeks over the Green Bay Packers and the Indianapolis Colts. Finally, the Commanders dominated the Dallas Cowboys in Week 18, a game Dallas was very much trying to win as they were still in the race for the NFC’s top seed. Washington and Rivera will look to get back atop the NFC East, the toughest division in football right now.
Lastly, let’s mention the Baltimore Ravens. They secured the AFC’s 6th seed, earning back to back matchups with the division rival Cincinnati Bengals to close out the regular season and open up the playoffs. The Bengals took both games, and Lamar Jackson was the big storyline for Baltimore. The belief is had Lamar been playing in that playoff game, the Ravens would have advanced rather than the Bengals. Instead, Lamar and the Ravens are currently in a deadlock regarding Lamar’s contract. Baltimore placed the Non-exclusive Franchise Tag on Jackson, allowing him to communicate with other teams once the new league year kicks off on Wednesday, March 15th at 4pm Eastern. Lamar Jackson has missed the last several games in each of the previous two seasons, showing where Baltimore stands without the former unanimous NFL MVP’s services. Baltimore has already shed some defensive stalwarts in Calais Campbell and Chuck Clark as well. Pass catchers not named Mark Andrews remains a huge question mark to solve, so Baltimore is still sitting in the same awkward place they’ve been in the AFC North since 2020.