George Wrighster Picks NFL’s NFC Conference Division Winners

Tom Brady goat

The NFC is home to the greatest QB of all time, and the back-to-back MVP- will either of them make a run to the Super Bowl this year? There are my picks to win each division in 2022 (Playoff teams in bold)

NFC WEST

Prediction:

  • Los Angeles Rams
  • San Francisco 49ers
  • Arizona Cardinals
  • Seattle Seahawks

This division has the defending Super Bowl Champion, and most of the players on that team, outside of Odell Beckham Jr and Von Miller, return. The Rams are a lock to win the division.

Next up is the San Francisco 49ers, and not only do I have them making the playoffs, I’m going to go against the grain and say it’s *because* of the way Trey Lance leads this team, not in spite of it. With Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk by his side, Lance is going to score a lot of points.

I trust Kyler Murray to lead the Arizona Cardinals to the playoffs. I do not trust Kliff Kingsbury to lead the Arizona Cardinals anywhere outside of a decent Scottsdale cocktail party. The Cardinals did not upgrade the roster anywhere during the offseason. Every unit is either the same as last year, or slightly worse. That’s not going to get it done.

It doesn’t make sense to me that Pete Carroll would think of his Seahawks as being in rebuild mode, which means he actually believes in Geno Smith. I like Geno, and I’m rooting for him to have a redemption story, but I don’t think it’s going to happen in Seattle.

This is one of the tougher divisions in football, but it’s definitely less tough for the one team that has Aaron Donald.

NFC South

Prediction:

  • Tampa Bay Buccaneers
  • New Orleans Saints
  • Atlanta Falcons
  • Carolina Panthers

Tampa Bay is going to win the division in a tightly contested race with the Saints. I’m predicting that injuries take a toll on the Buccaneers, but the marriage of Tom Brady and Todd Bowles, and the retention of Byron Leftwich, is going to be enough to take the division. 

I’m seeing a big year for Jameis Winston. People forget that in his last full year as a starter, he led the NFL in passing yards. With improved eyesight, footwork, and decision making, he’s ready to FINALLY take that next step to Pro Bowl caliber. And another bold prediction for this Saints offense- Chris Olave is going to be the rookie of the year. 

Speaking of former first round quarterbacks having a career resurgence, Marcus Mariota is in Atlanta, and I believe he’s going to leave no question that he deserves to start in this league. I know they’re young, and I know it’s a full rebuild, but I believe the Falcons will be competitive.

The Panthers on the other hand… is David Tepper even trying out there?

It’s an interesting division with Baker Mayfield, Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota all trying to show that their QB legacies didn’t end on the Heisman stage, while a 45-year-old with nothing left to prove chases an eighth Super Bowl Trophy to put in a case without a Heisman trophy.

NFC North

Prediction:

  • Green Bay Packers
  • Detroit Lions
  • Minnesota Vikings
  • Chicago Bears

This is an interesting division. Maybe the most interesting one-playoff team division in the NFL.

And that playoff team? The Packers, of course. Green Bay’s front office just keeps stripping the Packers offense down to bare bones year after year in a bizarre grudge match with their own starting QB, and all Aaron Rodgers does is get better and better. 

Coming in second, I have the Detroit Lions putting together a 7-10 season where all 10 of the teams that beat them come away worse for wear. I’m a believer in Dan Campbell and his staff, and while I don’t think this is the year they make the Zac Taylor Bengals leap to the Super Bowl, they might just bludgeon their way to being relevant in the NFC North.

Third, I have Minnesota. If they want to win, they need a change under center. They have damn near everything else, but I can’t in good conscience ride with Kirk Cousins. Can you?

Last up, the Chicago Bears. The only team in the NFL that might trade receiving corps with the Green Bay Packers. This just isn’t a competitive roster, and you’d have to be crazy to blame Justin Fields for how this upcoming season is going to turn out. They just better hope they don’t ruin him.

Another year of watching one of the best QBs of all time bully his division without the tools to contend for a second Super Bowl.

NFC EAST

Prediction:

  • Philadelphia Eagles
  • Dallas Cowboys
  • Washington Commanders
  • New York Giants

I like the Eagles. Jalen Hurts doesn’t have to do much to make this offense run, and that’s good for him, because Shane Steichen doesn’t call much of an offense. This team’s success is going to be driven by talent and depth, and when you take a 9-win team and add Haason Reddick, Chauncey Gardner-Johnson and AJ Brown, that ain’t bad. Now if the running back by committee could share some of those touchdowns with Miles Sanders, maybe we could make some fantasy owners happy.

In second place, and squeaking into that 7th playoff seed, I have the Dallas Cowboys. I’m not sure I can say they got better this offseason, but as long as you have Dak Prescott, you have a chance. Dak was 7 points away from going 13-3 as a starter last year, and if he had 30 extra seconds, might have staged a playoff comeback against the 49ers. If the Cowboys offensive line keeps Prescott upright, they’ll be in every game. 

The Commanders and Giants are interchangeable at the bottom of the division, but I think the Commanders might start out hot enough with Carson Wentz to give them some cushion to not surrender the #3 spot to the Giants late in the season. The Giants are far too dependent on Saquon Barkley’s health for relevance in the division. 

Being at the bottom of this division might not be the worst idea. Can you imagine Alabama’s Bryce Young in a Brian Daboll offense?

George Wrighster is a former Pac-12 and long-time NFL tight end. As a television/radio host, opinionist, and analyst, who is UNAFRAID to speak the truth. Contrary to industry norms he uses, facts, stats, and common sense to win an argument. He has covered college football, basketball, NFL, NBA, MLB since 2014. Through years of playing college football, covering bowl games, coaching changes, and scandals, he has a great pulse for the conference and national perspective.

Forget Suspending Aaron Donald, The NFL Needs to End Joint Practices Before Someone Gets Hurt

We need to talk about the NFL trend of joint practices.


If you’ve ever been to an NFL practice, and I’ve participated in hundreds and hundreds, you know what they’re about. 
Competition and physicality. 


And if you’re in the preseason, you can throw ‘desperation’ in as a descriptor as well.


And what happens when you’re desperately, physically competing?


Fights. 


Maybe the NFL moved in the direction of joint practices because the preseason has been cut from four games down to three, but it’s not like the number of practices increase when you add a second team to the mix. If anything, you’ve actually drastically reduced the number of reps you get to see as a coach and GM because while your offense is on the field running plays against another team’s defense, your defense is standing around watching. 


Couple that with having to make extended travel plans for an expanded roster, and it just seems like joint practices are more of a headache than a benefit.


Earlier this week, a debate broke out about whether the NFL’s best player, Aaron Donald, should be suspended for removing the helmets from two Bengals players and swinging them at everyone in sight. 


In my opinion, the Rams front office should suspend themselves for having the galaxy-brained idea to put their most valuable player, a notorious hothead, in a competition space where he’s going up against the players he just beat in the Super Bowl, leading into a preseason game where you’re definitely not going to risk an injury by giving him extended snaps. 


Training camp fights are part of the NFL, just like dropping the gloves is part of hockey. If Cam Newton is willing to risk it all to beat Josh Norman’s ass when they’re on the same team, do you really think that players aren’t going to go after guys that they don’t have to see in the locker room after practice?


A couple weeks ago, several New England Patriots were booted from practice after a brawl with the Carolina Panthers. Did the players learn their lesson? Hell no. The very next day, not only did the Patriots and Panthers brawl again, the fight went into the crowd.


Did anyone catch the third episode of Hard Knocks with the Detroit Lions? If you did, you probably agree that running back Jamaal Williams was doing everything in his power to kick off an all-out brawl between the Lions and Colts- and did that added emotion do anything to help Williams? No, he was out there over-emotional and dropping passes.
When a fight happens in training camp, that’s never the business of the NFL. That’s up to the team to handle, internally. But when you involve another team, and all of the sudden someone is swinging helmets, or falling into spectators, you’re inviting the NFL administration into a space it doesn’t belong. 


Nobody wants to see their favorite players suspended because the team owners and staff, the same people that preach the idea of going into literal battle to players on the fringe of the roster who are desperate to change their lives for the better, decide to treat the joint practice like a literal battle. 


Get rid of the joint practices, or the next time we talk about this, it could be because Roger Goodell had to step in and protect your players and franchise by getting rid of them for you.


Let that sink in.