As we conclude the 2022 NFL season, I decided to reflect back with 5 final takeaways/reactions. Also, there is a prediction for every NFL team and an update on what fifth-down will be doing in the offseason. Enjoy!

The NFL has a New Rivalry:

The NFL has never been short of rivalries. But lately we have been a little limited on them. I’m not talking about division rivalries. Those will always exist. I am talking about two teams that don’t play twice a year but have a true rivalry. The criteria is simple. Two competitive teams that often play each other in competitive games including the playoffs and have a dislike for each other. Bonus points for when the fans of both teams dislike the team and fans of the other teams. I’m talking 49ers vs Giants in the late 80s early 90s. Cowboys vs 49ers of the 90s. Patriots vs Colts in the Brady vs Manning days. And so on and so forth. Now we have Chiefs vs Bengals. With the Chiefs victory, things are no longer one sided. Further, the Chiefs have championships and the Bengals don’t. These teams don’t particularly like each other and the fan bases hate the other team. This is good for the league in general and should be the game to kick off the 2023 season.

Expect Rule Changes in 2023:

Based upon popular opinion on social media, the rule most would like to see is the “let them play” rule when the Chiefs have the ball late in the game. This is a stupid thought process, thinking the refs shouldn’t call penalties late in the game. The latest complaint is the hold on Bradberry against JuJu. This was very controversial but mostly based upon the camera angles that Fox chose to show us. Mike Periera, Fox’s official analyst felt like it was an obvious hold because he had 12 camera shots and chose the one from the angle of the ref who threw the flag. For whatever reason, Fox never gave us this angle. But if you watch the inside the nfl mic’d up version you see the play very clearly. And it is very clearly a hold. So despite dumb fans request we will not get the “let them play” rule passed. However, the rule I think we will see changed is the rugby push the guy forward play the Eagles and other teams used throughout the season. Pretty much every team used this strategy at some point but the Eagles used it many times a game. They have the right guy to do it. I don’t care if it stays or goes but I expect it to go. The NFL doesn’t like things that are automatic. And this is pretty automatic as long as you are willing to stick your QB in the middle of the scrum. The other factor is this was illegal before. In 2006, they decided to change the rule and allow players to push other players forward. Over time, this has gotten more and more excessive to the point of what we see with the Eagles, where there is basically no way of stopping it. So expect to not see this at all next year. And expect the conspiracy theory people to say it is all a plot to help rig more championships for the Chiefs.

Last to First continues:

Almost every year, a team that finishes last wins their division the following year. In 2018 the Texans did it. In 2019 the 49ers did it. In 2020, Washington did it. In 2021, the Bengals did it and in 2022, the Jaguars did it. It might go back farther than that. That is the beauty of the NFL. You can turn around your franchise relatively quickly. This means that one of the following teams will win their division next year: Jets, Browns, Texans, Broncos, Commanders, Bears, Falcons, and Cardinals. See even when your team sucks, there is hope for next year.

If you are a free agent QB…run to the NFC:

Jalen Hurts proved he is the real deal in the Super Bowl. But beyond him there is a lot of question marks. With Brady retiring and Rodgers living in a dark room or whatever, there are a lot of unknowns. Is Geno Smith the second best QB in the NFC? Will the 49ers have a healthy QB to start the season? If I was Derek Carr or Aaron Rodgers or anyone else, sign me up for the NFC. In the AFC you are competing against Mahomes, Allen, Burrow and Lawrence who will all likely win their divisions. Then you add in Herbert, Lamar, Watson (if he can get back on track), and Tua (if he can stay on the field). You can go to the Jets or Raiders and try and compete with that. Or you can go to any of the 4 NFC South teams and win the division.

The Next Dynasty:

I agree with Patrick Mahomes that we are not a dynasty yet. But the key word is yet. Another championship within the next 2-3 years seals the deal. Back to back wins would definitely seal the deal. And we already have all the other things that come with dynasties. Franchise QB? Check. Historically great coach? check. Rabid and desperate fan base that has been waiting decades for a win? check. Other fan bases already hating your team? check. Conspiracy theories that you are cheating or things are rigged? check. We have it all. We don’t have the championships that the Patriots have but we have all the hate. So Chiefs fans, let’s embrace it. But lets try to be a little nicer to everyone then our east coast Patriot friends. After all, we are mid-westerners so lets at least pretend to be nice.

Predictions for every NFL Team:

AFC East:

Bills: The Bills win the east…again. And lose in the divisional round…again. But this time they do it without any of their players almost dying. So we will count this a victory.

Dolphins: Unfortunately, Tua gets yet another concussion derailing their season. But we finally get the answer that yes in fact Mike McDaniel’s is vaping on the sideline. Do you blame him?

Patriots: Bill O’Brien comes in as OC and improves the offense because he isn’t terrible at offense just terrible and running a team. Pats make the playoffs.

Jets: Surely they will have someone better than Zach Wilson play quarterback…right? Right?

AFC North:

Bengals: They win the division and are still real good and arrogant and annoying and I still hate them.

Ravens: The Ravens trade Lamar but still win 10 games.

Steelers: Tomlin goes yet another year without a losing record. Pickett improves and the Steelers improve with him.

Browns: Are still a disaster. Now they are just a more expensive disaster.

AFC South:

Jaguars: Beware the hair! Jags repeat as AFC South champs and make a run in the playoffs.

Titans: Titans go from being boring and good to just being boring.

Colts: Can’t possibly be worse than last year…right? right?

Texans: Texans show heart but still don’t have a good record and then they immediately fire their head coach for the 3rd year in a row.

AFC West:

Chiefs: They win the AFC West again and go to the AFC Championship game again. Not ready to say they win it all again but they have a great chance.

Chargers: They will be a media favorite to win the division and the whole thing. Then the season will start and they will win 10 games and lose in the first round of the playoffs.

Raiders: They trade for Aaron Rodgers giving up a ton of draft capital. Hey, Aaron said he wanted to go to a dark place and it doesn’t get darker than Vegas and the Raiders. He skips OTA’s but it doesn’t matter because all he does is throw to Davante Adams anyway. They finish with one more win than last year. Then Rodgers retires leaving the Raiders without a QB or draft picks. Raiders gonna raider.

Broncos: The Broncos under Sean Payton are no longer hot garbage. They are decent and even finally beat the Chiefs. Just kidding. They don’t beat the Chiefs but they are better.

NFC East:

Eagles: Spend most of the season complaining that they can no longer play Rugby. They still win the division.

Cowboys: Getting rid of their OC doesn’t help their offense because Dak is still their QB.

Giants: They resign Jones and Barkley. It doesn’t work out. Barkley gets hurt and Jones regresses back to old Jones form.

Commanders: EB shows up as OC and makes them more competitive on offense and Sam Howell is decent. They finish with a winning record.

NFC North:

Vikings: Brian Flores makes their defense better. Kirk Cousins is still the quarterback so they lose in the first round of the playoffs.

Packers: They trade Rodgers and immediately improve and make the playoffs and have a lot less distractions.

Lions: Dan Campbell is real excited and the team plays with a lot of passion. They finish 9-8 again and just miss the playoffs because they are the Lions.

Bears: They have lots of draft picks. It doesn’t matter. They are still terrible.

NFC South:

Bucs: Blaine Gabbert gets a chance to start and balls out. Just Kidding. They start Kyle Trask and are terrible.

Panthers: Frank Reich finds a way to win despite not having a great QB. He is used to it after coaching the Colts for several years. They win this crappy division.

Saints: Derek Carr joins the Saints…it helps a little. But not enough.

Falcons: The birds aren’t worse without Mariotta. They aren’t better either.

NFC West:

49ers: They start the year with Purdy and Lance competing for the starting job. But by week 3 they are both injured. Instead of signing other QBS that will ultimately just get injured, the 49ers decide to just run wild cat with McCaffrey and Deebo to get ready for the playoffs.

Seahawks: Seattle resigns both Geno and Drew Lock. Geno gets hurt and the Seahawks make the playoffs with Lock. Pointing out even further that the Broncos truly were a mess the last few years.

Rams: All their old players are healthy…for a little bit. They win more games than the past year but still have no depth so disappear the second half of the season.

Cardinals: John Gannon immediately regrets taking the job. It’s a dumpster fire year. After all, the Chiefs won more games in their stadium this season then they did.

Going forward, fifth-down will have two posts a week. We will have top 10 Tuesday. This will be a top 10 list of random sports things. For instance, next Tuesday you will get top 10 Mizzou losses of all time. Feel free to give suggestions for top 10 categories.

Secondly, Five for Friday will go on in a different form. Instead of 5 predictions it will be 5 reactions to the sports world the past week.

My main focus is always the NFL as that is what I follow most closely so look for special posts about free agency and the draft.

Thanks to everyone who has been reading and I hope you will continue to do so.