FOOTBALL NFL ARTICLES

For the first time since 2009, the Seattle Seahawks may win fewer than seven games in a season. This franchise has never finished worse than 7-10 under Pete Carroll, but the Seahawks mashed the reset button this offseason by trading franchise quarterback Russell Wilson to the Denver Broncos. Seattle received quite a haul for Wilson, getting back Drew Lock, Noah Fant, Shelby Har... 

It’s now July, and the San Francisco 49ers have yet to make a permanent decision on their quarterback. Jimmy Garoppolo is listed as the starter, but he has been rumored to be on the trading block for several months now. Meanwhile, Trey Lance is still incredibly raw and will need time to grow, but the 49ers took him with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. All Sa... 

The defending Super Bowl champions aren’t getting the full respect they deserve after last year’s triumph. The Los Angeles Rams have the third-best odds to win the NFC after Tampa Bay and Green Bay even though they are bringing back virtually all of their stars from last year’s Lombardi Trophy winning lineup. Future Hall of Fame defenders Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey are back to pace the defense, while Matt Stafford still has NFL Offensive Player of the Year Cooper Kupp to target in the passing game. They also have one of the game’s best young head coaches in Sean McVay, so this team should contend once more in 2022. ... 

Kliff Kingsbury is in a weird position. Although the Arizona Cardinals have improved by multiple wins in each of his first three seasons at the helm, he is on something of a hotseat entering the 2022 season. The Cardinals won three games the year before he was hired, and they went 5-10-1 in 2019, 8-8 in 2020, and 11-6 in 2021, so you would think his job is safe for the forese... 

Sean Payton has stepped away from the New Orleans Saints as the most successful coach in the history of the franchise. Payton went 152-89 during his 16 seasons in charge of New Orleans, as Payton and Drew Brees helped make the Saints a perennial contender. The coach was responsible for 9 of New Orleans’ 10 postseason wins, and he is one of two coaches in Saints’ history to finish with a record over .500. Dennis Allen has awfully large shoes to fill in the Big Easy, but the good news is that the cupboard isn’t bare. ... 

David Tepper bought the Carolina Panthers in 2018. Tepper promised that he would do his best to bring a Super Bowl to Charlotte, and he made a huge splash when he hired Matt Rhule from Baylor and signed Rhule to a seven-year contract worth $62 million in January 2020. Unfortunately, it looks like Rhule might not be cut out for the job as Carolina has now won just five games i... 

When Tom Brady announced his retirement shortly before the Super Bowl in February, it looked like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ window had closed. Brady made the Buccaneers immediate contenders, as the franchise won the Super Bowl in his first season after a 12-year postseason drought. Tampa Bay was even better in the regular season last year before falling to the Los Angel... 

The oddsmakers have the Atlanta Falcons pegged to be the worst team in the NFC. Atlanta traded away long-time starting quarterback Matt Ryan this offseason as the franchise looks to rebuild, and the Falcons now have the worst quarterback situation in the NFL. Marcus Mariota, Feleipe Franks, and rookie Desmond Ridder are the three signal callers that will be vying for snaps in thi... 

Mike Zimmer was fired after eight years in charge of the Minnesota Vikings at the end of the 2021 season. Zimmer had a 72-56-1 record with the Vikes and never finished worse than 7-9, but this team only made the postseason three times under his watch. They hadn’t finished better than 10-6 in any of the past four seasons, so the front office made the move to part ways with Zim... 

No team has been as bad as the Detroit Lions over the last three decades. Detroit has claimed just one division title since 1991, and the Lions have made just eight playoff appearances over the last 30 years. They lost in the Wild Card Round for every one of those postseason trips, and they haven’t won a playoff game since Barry Sanders was in his third season in the league. Detroit ... 

Matt LaFleur has been one of the NFL’s best head coaches since replacing Mike McCarthy as the man on the sidelines for the Green Bay Packers. McCarthy posted losing records in his last two seasons with the franchise, but LaFleur has led the Packers to 13 wins in each of his first three years at the helm. Unfortunately, the Packers have disappointed in the playoffs though, and... 

The last three decades have not been great for the second-oldest franchise in the NFL. The Chicago Bears have made it to the postseason just seven times in the last 30 years, and they have a total of four playoff wins in that stretch. Chicago has not won a postseason game since 2010, and the Bears are unlikely to return to the playoffs in 2022 with a new head coach. Most analysts are... 

The Washington Commanders haven’t won a playoff game since 2005. The Daniel Snyder era has been dreadful for the franchise and fans alike, as the on-field and off-field problems have resulted in growing disgust from both the national media and the local populace. Snyder will have to testify before Congress after receiving a subpoena from the US House Oversight Committee... 

It’s been a bleak decade for the New York Giants. Big Blue beat New England in the Super Bowl ten years ago, but the Giants have only been to the playoffs once this that improbable win. The Giants have won six or less games for each of the last five seasons, and they are likely to finish under .500 once again in 2022. However, there is hope on the horizon. The Giants finally part... 

General manager Howie Roseman is making sure to give Jalen Hurts every chance to prove himself. Philadelphia drafted Alabama teammate Devonta Smith in the first round of last year’s draft to give him a top target, and the Eagles sent one of their first-round picks along with a fourth-round pick in this year’s draft to the Tennessee Titans for A.J. Brown on draft night. Hurts now has two elite receivers to target in the passing game, so the onus is on him to make this offense into one of the leag... 

It’s now been almost three decades since the last time the Dallas Cowboys made it to the NFC Championship Game. This franchise billed itself as ‘America’s Team’, but Dallas has been routinely overrated for over a quarter century at this point. The Cowboys had a strong season in 2021, finishing with a 12-5 record, but they were knocked off in the Wild Card Round by the San Francisco... 

There is a lot of buzz surrounding the Los Angeles Chargers this season. They have become the third-most popular pick to win the AFC behind Buffalo and Kansas City, as the pieces are in place for the Chargers to take the league by storm in 2022. Justin Herbert is entering his third year, and he appears to be ready to become one of the five best quarterbacks in the league,... 

Controversy overshadowed the Las Vegas Raiders’ second playoff appearance in two decades last year. Jon Gruden resigned after a 3-2 start after it came to light that he wrote a string of insensitive emails from 2011 to 2018 while he was working at ESPN. Rich Bisaccia took over as the interim coach and was able to right the ship and lead the team to a 10-7 record. The Raiders fe... 

Since Andy Reid took over the Kansas City Chiefs, they have been one of the best teams in the NFL. The Chiefs went 2-14 before Reid’s first season in 2013, but they have rebounded to win at least 10 games in eight of the last nine seasons. They have won the AFC West for six straight years, and they have been to the AFC Championship Game for four straight seasons. Kansas City has the second shortest odds to win the AFC behind Buffalo this season, and the Chiefs are always going to be a threat wit... 

At long last, the Denver Broncos have their quarterback. John Elway has been trying to land the Broncos their new franchise quarterback ever since Peyton Manning retired, and Denver finally has its man in Russell Wilson. After trying and failing with Paxton Lynch, Drew Lock, Joe Flacco, and about a half-dozen others, the Broncos finally have a bonafide winner under center now. This franchise hasn’t been able to make it to the playoffs since winning Super Bowl 50 over Carolina, but the Broncos ar... 

After less than one season at the helm, the Urban Meyer experiment came to a thankful end in Jacksonville. Meyer’s short tenure was an abject disaster on and off the field. He stirred up multiple controversies, and the franchise continued to spin its wheels instead of rebuilding for the future. The Jaguars hired former Philadelphia Eagles head coach Doug Pederson this o... 

The present might be bleak for the Houston Texans, but the future is bright. Houston is likely going to be one of the worst teams in the AFC once again in 2022. The Texans have finished with just four wins in back-to-back seasons as a result of Bill O’Brien’s disastrous run as general manager coupled with Deshaun Watson’s off-field issues. Fortunately, O’Brien and Watson are both g... 

The Tennessee Titans were the best team in the AFC during the regular season last year. Tennessee went 12-5 and earned the No. 1 seed in the playoffs. However, anyone could have told you that the Titans were far from a dominant team. Star running back Derrick Henry suffered a major injury that kept him out for over two months, and the team also benefited from having four games ... 

There is a lot of buzz surrounding the Indianapolis Colts at this point of the offseason. For the third straight year, they have added a veteran quarterback, and the general consensus is that this one will be a bigger success than either of the previous two signal callers. Indianapolis has mostly everything else in place to contend for a Super Bowl, so there has been some a... 

Mike Tomlin has yet to finish under .500 with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Tomlin has been on the sidelines for Pittsburgh since 2007, and the Steelers have consistently been one of the most competitive teams in the league under his watch. This is the dawn of a new era though as Ben Roethlisberger has hung up his cleats. For the first time in his tenure, there are major conce...