
1. Las Vegas- the Raiders will enter the 2022 season with their third head coach in 11 months following John Gruden’s resignation in October of last year, Josh McDaniels now takes the reigns and carries with him an impressive track record as an offensive coordinator in New England but just a meager 11-17 career coaching record after being fired midway thru his second season with the Broncos in 2010, bringing in WR Davante Adams from Green Bay is a major addition for Derek Carr and the offense, however, the offensive line sill has questions marks especially with first round pick Alex Leatherwood who struggled mightily last season, with the addition of Russell Wilson in Denver the AFC West is clearly the strongest division in the NFL and the first 5 games on the schedule include road trips to Los Angeles (Chargers), Tennessee, and Kansas City
2. Tampa Bay- new HC Todd Bowles may be a popular pick amongst players in the locker room but carries only a 26-41 career record and the Jets seemed to regress during his 4 years there, QB Tom Brady put together another terrific season throwing for 5,316 yards along with 43 TD’s, but he is another year older (turned 45 in August) and will be without both WR Antonio Brown and TE Rob Gronkowski who combined for over 1,300 receiving yards and 10 TD’s last year, Chris Godwin, who emerged as Brady’s top target last year, is also recovering from a torn ACL and could miss Week 1, the schedule is brutally difficult with Dallas, Green Bay, and Kansas City in the first 4 weeks as well as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Cincinnati, and Arizona on the back end
3. Arizona- the Cardinals started 2021 7-0 with wins over the Titans, Rams, and 49ers however limped to the finish line losing 5 out of their last 6 including a 34-11 blowout loss at Los Angeles in the Wild Card Round, the defense, which looked so impressive early in the season, surrendered 30 points or more in 4 out of those final 6 games, to add insult to injury the unit lost all-time sack leader OLB Chandler Jones to Las Vegas in the offseason, offensively the receiving corps added Marquise “Hollywood” Brown from Baltimore but will be without DeAndre Hopkins for the first 6 games of the season after violating the league’s PED policy, the schedule features 3 matchups against playoff teams from 2021 (Chiefs, Rams, Raiders) right out of the gate
4. Tennessee- the Titans lost their top receiver A.J. Brown, who had back to back 1,000 yard receiving seasons in 2019 and 2020, to Philadelphia in a stunning draft day move, the QB position is unsettle with incumbent Ryan Tannehill competing with rookie Malik Willis, confidence in Tannehill amongst fans is waning after throwing 3 INT’s in the 19-16 Divisional Round loss to the Bengals, Willis, on the other hand, has all the physical skills but needs more time to develop consistency as a pocket passer which he lacked last season at Liberty, the secondary struggled last season giving up 245.2 yards per game and need 2021 first round pick Caleb Farley to return to health after dealing with a slew of injuries a year ago, the schedule features road games against Buffalo, Kansas City, and Green Bay
5. Philadelphia- after starting 3-6 the Eagles limped into the Playoffs at 9-8 due largely to a soft back end of the schedule, in fact, only 1 of the team’s 9 wins last year (New Orleans) was against a team with a winning record, Jalen Hurts made strides as a passer throwing for 3,114 yards and 16 TD’s and will now have star receiver A.J. Brown to throw to, however his arm strength and ability to make the deep throws still remains a question, the defense finished 10th in the league in yards allowed but made hey against weaker opponents while struggling against the league’s elite QB’s, outside of K Jake Elliot special teams was atrocious last year and must be addressed by HC Nick Sirianni
Best Bet- Las Vegas UNDER total wins
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