Week 9 is upon us and, as crazy as this may sound, that means we are halfway through the 2022 NFL regular season. With the second half on the horizon, we'll now take a step back and look over what we saw through the first nine weeks and try to come up with some bold predictions for what may happen in the weeks to come. It's important to remember that these are bold predictions, so
Javy Guerra Jersey we're going out on a limb for some of these, but will make the case for why they are plausible.Coming into the year, and had mixed results. We feel good about our predictions that Philadelphia will be the No. 1 seed in the NFC as well as silencing his doubters, but we'd certainly like a mulligan predicting that was going to win MVP.Below, you'll find an unlikely champion, a surprise team rolling deep into the playoffs in the AFC and a young quarterback emerging as a true franchise centerpiece.Out of the many surprising things to come out of the first half of the 2022 season, the Seattle Seahawks' 5-3 record that has them in first place in the NFC West may be the most shocking of them all. That, in large part, is thanks to the superb play by Geno Smith. He has not only kept his offense afloat in the aftermath of the Ru sell Wilson trade, but it's become better in comparison to the final years of Wilson's tenure in Seattle. Smith leads the with a completion percentage of 73% and is third in the league with a 107.2 pa ser rating entering Week 9. Those numbers are impre sive on their own, but they vault into the eye-popping category when you consider how Smith has been operating in the offense. He's not dinking and dunking his way down the field with high-percentage throws; he's attempting difficult pa ses and thriving. Smith is top three in pa ser rating on throws 15-plus yards down the field, throws outside the numbers and on pa ses when he's pre sured. SEA QB #7 CMP%72.7YDs1924TD13INT3YD/Att7.73 This run also doesn't feel like a fluke either just by the naked eye. And if Smith keeps this up, he'll have the Seahawks in a position to win the division and get at least some votes for MVP, which is hilarious considering his predece sor's inability to catch a single vote during his tenure. With the trade deadline in the rearview mirror, the
Trea Turner Jersey last big transaction still remaining is where Odell Beckham Jr. will ultimately end up. After suffering a torn ACL in the Super Bowl last year, it was going to take the veteran wideout some time to recover, so mid-November and December were circled as po sible times for him to latch on with a new team. When he does put pen to paper on a contract, it'll be with the Dallas Cowboys.Throughout the year, the and have been the two favorites to land Beckham, but we'll go out on a limb to say the opportunity to put a star on the side of his helmet will be enticing for him. The Cowboys have also already shown us that they are in the market for a wide receiver as theyto acquire at the deadline, but ultimately couldn't get the money to work.To keep pace with Philadelphia and the rest of the playoff hopefuls, Jerry Jones will add Beckham to give Dallas' offense a boost in a similar fashion the wideout gave the Rams in the second half of last
Sean Doolittle Jersey year.George Pickens is currently 30/1 to win Offensive Rookie of the Year, so you could make a case for this to be the boldest prediction of the bunch. With traded to Chicago at the deadline, that opens up an additional 6.25 targets per game for any pa s-catcher in Pittsburgh's offense to take. We'll predict that Pickens will be the main beneficiary of Claypool's absence and a sert himself as arguably the best young receiver in his rookie cla s. Pickens has already shown a solid rapport with fellow rookie . Since Pickett became the starter in Week 5, Pickens has averaged 5.8 targets per game, and even that number is skewed a bit, thanks to a three-target game in Week 8 against Philadelphia (Claypool had six targets that week). PIT WR #14 TAR43REC26REC YDs338REC TD1FL0 Not only will Pickens see an uptick in targets, but five of the Steelers' remaining nine opponents are currently ranked outside the top 15 in DVOA against the pa s, meaning that he'll also have some favorable matchups on the horizon to coincide with more looks from his QB.Justin Fields has already started to emerge over the last few weeks and it does seem like the Chicago coaching staff has finally unlocked something with their 2021 first-rounder. Fields is utilizing his legs more effectively, thanks to the offense calling more designed runs. Now that he has that key piece to
Matt Wieters Jersey his game humming, the next step for Fields is to refine his pa sing ability. The Bears believe that's po sible by adding more pieces around him, as evidenced by the club trading for Chase Claypool at the deadline, giving Fields another elite athlete to work with. Starting with that last-second lo s to the in Week 5, Fields has a 97.6 pa ser rating over the last month and has been completing 64.1% of his pa ses.With more weapons at his disposal and the offensive play-callers crafting things around his skill set, Fields looks to be on the verge of going on a run that will put him at the forefront of the conversation of being the best quarterback from his draft cla s. It also helps that Fields will only be on the road three more times this season as six of Chicago's final nine games are at Soldier Field.Despite still sitting as the betting favorite to win the NFC South, the have already been buried by some, which makes this prediction worthy of being bold in my eyes. So far, Tampa Bay hasn't given you much belief that it'll reach the postseason. Entering Week 9, the Bucs are two games under .500, rank 25th in the NFL in points per game and sit dead-last in rushing yards per game and yards per carry. It hasn't been pretty. All that said, we've come to learn that it's never wise to count out Tom Brady. Throughout the first half of the year, Brady had to balance football with marital i sues. With the former couple , you would think that a heavy weight has been lifted for all parties involved. Does that mean Brady is immediately going to start playing better? Who knows? But it can't hurt, right?It's also worth pointing out that the Buccaneers' wide receiver room was banged up through the first half and are now healthy. If Brady and the offense can get back to where they were a year ago and couple it with a defense that is still a top-five unit in the NFL, Tampa Bay will go on a run that has them in the playoffs when the dust settles on the regular season.While there is some optimism with the Bucs, the same can't be said for the defending Super Bowl champs, who we predict will go from first to worst and finish last in the NFC West. At 3-4, they already sit in third in the division looking up to both the Seahawks and . Meanwhile,
Joe Blanton Jersey they enter Week 9 as an underdog, while the -- the only team below them in the
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