Our 2022 NFL Record Predictions

One of the greatest days of the year is when the NFL drops the league wide schedule. Everyone’s hopes skyrocket as they see who their team will be facing in the coming season. If you’re bigger fans like us, you look at when the byes are, who is playing in prime time the most, which team has the toughest/weakest schedule. We took it a step further and picked the winners of all 288 games. Our record predictions are below.

(We picked the Cleveland Browns matchups under the assumption Deshaun Watson was going to be suspended 6 games. It now looks like it will be more than that, so take that prediction with a grain of salt.)

NFC North

1. Green Bay Packers 11-6
2. Minnesota Vikings 10-7
3. Detroit Lions 5-12
4. Chicago Bears 3-14

• Unfortunately, Aaron Rodgers and the Packers will come out on top again. We wrote earlier on how Minnesota might steal this crown from them (and they very well could), but betting against Rodgers in the regular season is a tall order. 
• The Vikings will be much better. A healthy Cook, new offensive minded coach and one of the best receiver duos make this one of the most dangerous teams in the league. 
• Detroit could throw a wrench in other teams’ schedules. They play harder than most, but their QB holds back their success. 
• Chicago is a dumpster fire. Fields has no help on offense and the defense lost Khalil Mack and Akiem Hicks in the offseason. They are (or should be) in full blown rebuild mode. 

NFC South

1. Tampa Bay Buccaneers 14-3
2. New Orleans Saints 10-7
3. Carolina Panthers 5-12
4. Atlanta Falcons 1-16

• Tampa Bay is a top 5 team playing in arguably the worst division. They have the 7th easiest schedule. The only reason they might not win this many games is if Brady takes a play from the NBA and rests for an extra game. 
• New Orleans is another big question mark team. The defense is top 5 in the league, the weapons are solid. The only things we don’t have an answer to are how good will Winston be and how long will Kamara be suspended for. 
• Carolina will have a couple surprising games, but they’ll continue to fail at being relevant. Even if McCaffrey is healthy for a full year (and that’s a big if), they won’t be on anyone’s radar. 
• Atlanta = garbage. They’re tanking for #1 in the 2023 NFL Draft and everyone knows it.

NFC West

1. Los Angeles Rams 14-3
2. San Francisco 49ers 11-6
3. Arizona Cardinals 9-8
4. Seattle Seahawks 2-15

• Stafford, Kupp, Robinson, Jefferson, Donald, Wagner, Ramsey. Enough said about the Rams. 
• San Francisco is a lot more interesting. How good will Trey Lance be? No one knows. The speculation is anywhere from the next great young QB to the next bust. We think either he or Jimmy will lead this team to another double-digit season win performance. 
• Arizona is good, maybe even great, but their schedule is insane. They start the year with KC, LVR and LAR. Then have a brutal mid-season stretch of LAR, SF and LAC. The AFC West is not who their division needed to draw. 
• Seattle is another bottom feeder. We all saw Drew Lock play in Denver.

AFC East

1. Buffalo Bills 13-4
2. Miami Dolphins 9-8
3. New England Patriots 8-9
4. New York Jets 4-13

• Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills will be on a mission this year. 2022 is the last season before Allen’s contract bumps up to 40+ million a year. The time is now.
• Miami will go as Tua goes. He has the weapons at his disposal. The 1-2 punch of Hill and Waddle, combined with a good TE in Gesicki means Tua has no more excuses. He has to perform. 
• New England is still sputtering from Tom’s exit. Their past couple drafts have left everyone scratching their head. They have no real direction and it shows. 
• Wilson and the Jets will be better than last year, but unfortunately their record won’t show it. They could scratch out another win or two, but we would be shocked if they got to 7+.

AFC North

1. Cincinnati Bengals 11-6
2. Baltimore Ravens 11-6
3. Cleveland Browns 11-6
4. Pittsburgh Steelers 7-10

• The division of 11-6. Cincinnati will have Burrow and Chase buzzing again. They beefed up the offensive line to give Joe more protection, something he desperately needed all last year. 
• Lamar and the Ravens are going to have a big bounce back. They can’t possibly have the number of injuries they had last year. Jackson will get back into form and lead this team to 11 wins. 
• Cleveland is up in the air. Will Watson get a 4-game suspension? 6? 10? The whole season? No one knows. If it’s 6 (like we thought it would be when we picked the games), the Browns have a great shot at the division crown. 
• Pittsburgh will finally have a losing record under Mike Tomlin. The AFC is too good to let a Trubisky or Pickett led team get to more than 7 wins. 

AFC South

1. Tennessee Titans 11-6
2. Indianapolis Colts 8-9
3. Jacksonville Jaguars 3-14
4. Houston Texans 2-14

• Derrick Henry should be healthy in 2022, but the loss of Brown won’t go unnoticed. They need rookie wide receiver Treylon Burks to hit the ground running if they want to stay competitive in the AFC. 
• Matt Ryan left his longtime post in Atlanta to join Indianapolis this upcoming season. We don’t believe that will be enough to get them back to the playoffs though. Not enough weapons and Taylor won’t be able to have almost 2,200 all-purpose yards and 20 TDs again. 
• Jacksonville is trending in the right direction, but 2022 won’t be the year they get back to above .500 ball. They need to be looking toward 2023 and beyond. 
• Houston has the 5th hardest schedule this year. Tough to predict a Davis Mills led team to win too many games in that scenario. 

AFC West

1. Kansas City Chiefs 12-5
2. Denver Broncos 12-5
3. Los Angeles Chargers 11-6
4. Las Vegas Raiders 9-8

• Unarguably the best division in the NFL, maybe of all time. Mahomes and the Chiefs will have to find their footing without Tyreek Hill, but the additions of JuJu and MVS will help. The WR room won’t have as high of a ceiling, but the floor won’t be as low. 
• Denver made a lot of moves in the offseason, most notably the addition of Russell Wilson. He will take this team from 7-10 to 12-5. 
• The Chargers made a lot of big moves as well. Khalil Mack and Joey Bosa are a scary DL tandem. A healthy Derwin James Jr will have the secondary locked down. This could be the scariest, most complete team in 2022. 
• The Raiders might be the unluckiest team in the NFL. Right when things look to be on the up and up, everyone in their division goes nuclear with the offseason pickups. This might be the greatest team to ever finish fourth in their division.

There you have it, our 2022 season record predictions. We can’t wait until one of our predictions turns out to be off by 5-6 games and we’re posted on @OldTakesExposed.

(We get our strength of schedule numbers from Warren Sharp’s Sharp Football Analysis website. That article can be found here.)