We come to the penultimate episode of our NFL History series. Today we are in 2022. The war between Russia and Ukraine, which actually began in 2014, is finally escalating. The Russians invaded Ukraine and the war between the two sides rages to this day. In Italy, Giorgia Meloni, a woman, surprisingly, makes it to the top of the government; she leads a right-wing alliance that also benefits from the political left’s failure to also set up an alliance. The world also loses two famous personalities, Michael Gorbachev dies on August 30th and a few days later, on September 8th, Queen Elizabeth dies. The former Pope Benedict also dies on New Year’s Eve.
But of course football was also played. The Washington Football Team, formerly called the Redskins, is now officially called the Washington Commanders.
Tom Brady announces his retirement, but then changes his mind and returns to the field. The draft will take place April 28-30 at Caesars Forum in Las Vegas. First, the Jacksonville Jaguars get to choose a player and choose DE Travon Walker. Not a bad choice, he has 20 sacks in the NFL to date. Nevertheless, Aiden Hutchinson would probably have been the better choice at number two. No quarterback is drafted until number 20, then Kenny Pickett goes to Pittsburgh. However, he will not be able to assert himself in Pittsburgh. The second quarterback in the draft is not drafted until the third round, Desmond Ridder goes to Atlanta and fails there too. But there is a happy ending for the quarterbacks at the very end. A certain Brock Purdy is selected last at position 262 and becomes a star in San Francisco.
In the AFC East, the New York Jets can only win seven games. Although there is a strong series at the beginning with 5 wins out of 6 games, after that it becomes less and less and the last six games are all lost. New England narrowly misses the playoffs, winning 8 games. The Patriots simply can’t get any consistency into the season, once there is a small series with three wins, nothing more. Miami barely made it into the playoffs with nine wins. Things are looking really good for a long time, after week 12 we are 8-3. But then five defeats in a row followed, but on the last day of the game they saved themselves with a win over the Jets. Buffalo wins 13 games and loses three times. And if you’ve been paying attention, you know that it’s not 17 games at all. That’s because something bad happens in the road game in Cincinnati in Week 17. Relatively early in the game, safety Damar Hamlin tackles Bengals WR Tee Higgins. And then he stands up again and then falls over. He has a cardiac arrest. He has to be revived, but fortunately he recovers from this terrible story. The game is of course canceled and, due to the tight schedule, it is decided that the game will not be rescheduled.
The AFC North is relatively close. Cleveland can win seven games, but that’s only enough for fourth place. Things aren’t looking particularly good, especially at the start of the season; in the meantime there’s a series of six defeats out of seven games. Pittsburgh won nine games but didn’t make the playoffs. They also had a negative series with six defeats out of seven games at the beginning of the season, but were then able to recover more and more and win the last four games, which allowed Mike Tomlin to further extend his series without a losing season.
The Ravens can win ten games. The Maryland team only lost twice in a row in their last two games. Cincinnati gets 12 wins. After losing the first two games, you win 12 of the remaining 14.
The AFC South is pretty weak. Houston can only win three times and there is also one draw. By the way, the victory on the last day of the game in Indianapolis prevents Houston from getting the number 1 pick. Indianapolis can only win four games. The last seven are all lost and negative history is made in Week 15 against Minnesota. The Colts lead 33-0 and ended up losing 36-39. Never before and never since has a team squandered such a high lead. Tennessee has had everything under control for a long time and seems to be dominating the division. At the moment there are five wins in a row, but the last seven games are all lost, but they could still have made it on the last day of the game with a win in Jacksonville, but this game was also lost. Jaguars are the exact opposite example – they get off to a bad start, but then win the last five games and win the division.
The AFC West is once again pretty monotonous. Denver is having a bad year with only five wins, the Broncos had strengthened themselves with Russell Wilson before the season and believed that they finally had a top team again, but it didn’t work out that way at all. The offensive performances in particular were really bad on the last day of the game against the Chargers, they managed over 30 points for the first time. The Raiders won six times. Once there was a short series with three wins in a row, otherwise it was another weak year. The Chargers made it into the playoffs with ten wins. There were never more than two defeats in a row and even a small series of four wins in a row. The Chiefs easily won the division with 14 wins. Twice they had a series of five wins in a row.
The NFC East was pretty good for a change. Washington was the only team to miss the playoffs with eight wins. And they could have done it too, had it not been for the end of quite a series of defeats.
The Giants finally made it into the playoffs again and were able to win nine games and draw one. And then the Giants made the biggest mistake in their history in the offseason and extended Daniel Jones for far too expensive a contract. Only once were two games lost in a row. The Cowboys made it into the playoffs with twelve wins. There were never two defeats in a row. Philadelphia won 14 games. Only once, relative to the end, were there two defeats in a row.
The NFC North wasn’t particularly exciting. Chicago was only able to win three times but in the end had the first overall, which was passed on to Carolina. The Chicago Bears have lost all of their last ten games. Green Bay had an up-and-down season and ended up winning eight games. They could have made the playoffs clear with a win on the last day of the game against Detroit. Before that, they had fought back with a series of four wins, but there was one against the Lions Defeat. It would be Aaron Rodgers’ last game for Green Bay. Detroit won 9 times. At the beginning it looked like a typical Detroit Lions season, losing six of the first seven games, but then things got better and a city fell in love with Dan Campbell. But it wasn’t enough for the playoffs. Minnesota got 13 wins, but that sounds a lot better than it actually was because the Vikings won 12 of those 14 games by one score. And some of the victories they had were strange, I already mentioned the thing against Indianapolis, the victory over Buffalo was also strange. They were behind, the last attack failed, but they were so close to the end zone that Josh… Allen was pushed into the end zone during Buffalo’s attack, dropped the ball there and scored a touchdown for the Vikings.
The NFC South was crap. Sorry, but there’s no other way to say it. Atlanta won seven games, but that wasn’t enough for the playoffs. This was due to a four-game losing streak between Weeks 12 and 16. New Orleans was only able to win more than one game in a row once; they had a total of seven wins, which wasn’t enough. And Carolina also had seven wins, but of course that wasn’t enough either. Although Carolina was close, a win on the penultimate day of the game in Tampa Bay would have brought the playoffs. And since Carolina actually seemed to get stronger toward the end, some believed the Panthers were on the right track.
Tampa Bay played Tom Brady’s final season and it was a terribly bad season. There were never more than two wins in a row, the team was simply no longer strong enough, but the win over Carolina in Week 17 at least won the division and thus qualified for the playoffs.
The NFC West once again saw a weak Arizona Cardinals, the team only won four games and never won two games in a row. Things didn’t look good for the defending champions from Los Angeles either, the Rams only won five times. The team from California was the worst defending champion of all time. Seattle made it into the playoffs with nine wins and things weren’t looking that good before the season. They had sent Russell Wilson to Denver and only got Geno Smith in return. But he really turned it up and had a really strong season. With two wins on the last two game days, Seattle reached the playoffs. San Francisco was able to win 13 games, but always had a problem. Initially, Trey Lance was supposed to play, and everyone thought highly of him, but he got injured pretty quickly. He was now replaced by Jimmy Garoppolo, whom the 49ers really wanted to get rid of in the offseason but couldn’t find a taker. But he also got injured. Everyone thought the 49ers’ season was a mess, but then along came Brock Purdy. And all of America wondered, Brock who? Purdy was the discovery of the season. He led San Francisco to the playoffs.
