Throughout this NFL season, there have been unexpected events that no one could have anticipated. The San Francisco 49ers sunk to the bottom of their division after making the Super Bowl last season. The 49ers had big expectations for this season. But instead of stepping up and being in Super Bowl contention, they sunk to the bottom of their division.
Another huge surprise this NFL season is when the New York Giants cut Daniel Jones. They signed him to a 4-year $160 million dollar contract with $92 million of it guaranteed. After another lackluster season, the Giants cut Daniel Jones in week 12. He was with the team for six seasons and has a huge cap hit, yet instead of holding on to him, they waived him.
The New York Jets were excited coming into this season with a finally healthy Aaron Rodgers and a top 5 defense last season. With big expectations, the Jets have played poorly, and Aaron Rodgers is looking like he should hang up his cleats. The Jets’ defense took a huge step back from where they were last season, with some of their young players developing more. The Jets’ offense is looking even more pitiful than they did with Zach Wilson starting. After a 6-11 season last year, the Jets ended this season at 5-12 and didn’t make the playoffs.
The Washington Commanders are looking good for the first time since 2005 with rookie breakout Jayden Daniels at the helm. Jayden Daniels has played incredibly well this season, and was named the Offensive Rookie of the Year. The Pittsburgh Steelers signed both Russell Wilson and Justin Fields this off-season who were both lackluster in the past few seasons.
Regarding the Steelers, they have significantly improved, and they’re looking like one of the best teams in the NFL. The Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley was 100 yards shy of breaking the single-season rushing record. This is his first season with the Philadelphia Eagles and he is the ninth person in NFL history to rush for 2,000 yards in a single season. He averaged 125.3 rushing yards per game, which is the fourteenth-best rank all time for running backs. He is the first person to average 120+ yards per game since Derrick Henry did it in 2020. Saquon Barkley has the eight most rushing yards ever in a single season as well as having the eight most rushing yards in a single game ever.
The Detroit Lions had the second most offensive yards of any team this season and the most points on offense of any team this season. In addition, the Detroit Lions had the best odds of winning the Super Bowl based on the odds of every major sports book. If they were to even make it to the Super Bowl this season, it would be their first Super Bowl appearance in franchise history.
According to a friend of mine, Michael Mirsky, the emergence of the NFC North as the best division is most surprising. Even though the Lions were expected to be good by him, Mirsky “did not envision the Packers and Vikings having shot strong years, and the Packers did make a lot of moves in the off season, obviously bringing Xavier McKinney and Josh Jacobs. But still, I thought they kind of were living off hype from beating the Cowboys in the playoffs last year.”
Based on this, we can see that most of the teams in the NFC north played better than expected. Mirsky went on to say, “I mean the Vikings, you lose. JJ McCarthy, I didn’t have much faith in San Donald,” explaining how after losing your starting QB the Vikings are still a top 10 team in the NFL. He said he “had very low expectations for those guys, and Jayden Daniels, Bo Nix, Drake Maye have all put together great rookie campaigns,” noting that some of the rookie quarterbacks are really surprising. A surprise of this season for Mirsky was “Zach Baun from Philadelphia. I think he’s been the most impressive.”
Baun is a defensive player who has racked up a total of 134 tackles this season which is more than the rest of his career combined. Before he came to Philadelphia this season, he was on the Saints for four seasons, which were all below average. He has improved the most of any NFL player since last year.
According to another friend of mine, Harry Tidgewell, “while Saquon is having a record-breaking season, his rise isn’t that surprising because he was great while on the New York Giants, who have an weak offensive line and then he decides to Philadelphia, which has one of the best offensive lines. He was on pace to beat Eric Dickerson’s single season rushing record, but he was benched in week 18. Another surprise is that the Steelers are having a great season. They started with Justin Fields who had a few subpar seasons in Chicago and then started this season strongly. After that, they started Russell Wilson who had a few bad seasons in Denver, and since he arrived in Pittsburgh, he has stepped up and helped the Steelers be one of the best teams this season.”
Then, the Cincinnati Bengals had one of the most disappointing seasons. Although they were a great team the past few years, they now have more losses than wins, and making the playoffs seems an unlikely event. You wouldn’t expect them to do this poorly because Joe Burrow leads the NFL in passing yards and passing touchdowns.
Also, Ja’Marr Chase leads the NFL in receptions, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns. The Lions success is additionally surprising since they have had 39 players who have missed at least one game this season due to injury. The Vikings success has been really surprising because of how subpar Sam Darnold’s career was up to this point. He has more touchdowns this year than the past four years combined, and he passed for more than 1,000 yards more than he has ever done in his career. He also set a new career high for completion percentage.
Another shock this season is CJ Stroud taking a huge step back from his rookie season. Stroud has around 400 fewer passing yards and three fewer passing touchdowns. He has seven more interceptions than last year. He averages 64.7 yards gained per game, which is less than last year. He has taken a step back in almost every category. The New York Jets’ defense also took a huge step back from last year in both yards and points allowed. They allowed nearly 50 more points and over 300 more yards than last year.
Now I will give an overview of the NFL awards. For the NFL MVP Josh Allen won it. Saquon Barkley won Offensive Player of the Year, while Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett went back to back. For Offensive Rookie of the Year, it went to Jayden Daniels, with Bo Nix as a close second; for Defensive Rookie of the Year, Jared Verse won it. For comeback player of the year, that went to Sam Darnold, due to his many weaker seasons before this one. This season has been very unexpected, and I hope that there are this many surprises every NFL season.
Throughout this NFL season, there have been unexpected events that no one could have anticipated.