Key points to look out for in the second half of the NFL season
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
The National Football League (NFL) season has officially reached its halfway point. The season's first nine weeks have been full of eventful games, including upsets and high-scoring affairs. At the halfway point of the NFL season, looking at what has already happened is always good to anticipate what comes next. Here’s a deeper dive into potential Super Bowl contenders and award winners from week nine onward.
The most coveted regular season award is the NFL Most Valuable Player (MVP) award. If you listen to any NFL analyst or NFL fan in general, almost everyone is certain that Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson is the consensus favorite to win the award. Although he is certainly in the conversation, he’s not the only top contender to take home the MVP.
Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen has a strong case to be regarded as Lamar Jackson’s equal in the MVP running. Josh Allen and the Bills currently have a better record than the Ravens; however, that is really all Josh Allen has about Lamar Jackson. Lamar beats out Allen in all passing statistics and rushing statistics, aside from just touchdowns. The two have the same number of interceptions thrown, and Jackson and the Ravens have the head-to-head season lead over the Bills— their win back in week four. Still, Josh Allen plays on a weaker offense, thus making him more valuable to his team; the Bills star quarterback can look to have a very strong second half to steal what would be Jackson’s third MVP trophy.
Lamar Jackson is not the only Baltimore Ravens running for a major regular season award. Baltimore Ravens running back Derrick Henry is the clear-cut favorite to win the Offensive Player of the Year award. Derrick Henry is having a vintage season in his first year with Baltimore, averaging 116.9 yards per game on the ground. That 116.9 yards per game average would put him on pace for 1,987 rushing yards for the season if he played all 17 games. What is super interesting about this hypothetical is that if Derrick Henry could up his average just a little bit, he would get to a pace of 2,000 rushing yards; this would crown him as the first player in NFL history to rush for 2,000 yards in multiple seasons when he is already one of only eight players who have reached this feat even once. This occurred when he rushed for 2,027 yards in the 2020 season.
Moving on to Super Bowl contenders, the Detroit Lions are easily the top contender in the National Football Conference (NFC). Detroit not only has the best record in the NFC at 6-1, but they also had, arguably, the hardest schedule in all the NFL in the season’s first half. The Lions have beaten four teams with a .500 record or better, and one of those wins even ended the Minnesota Vikings’ perfect 6-0 game score. They also ended the winning record of the Dallas Cowboys and Seattle Seahawks in absolute shutdown games. With this, it’s safe to say the Lions are the most convincing team in the NFC, and possibly even the most convincing in all of the NFL, for a place in the Super Bowl.
The only team with a shot at challenging the Detroit Lions for the most convincing title is the American Football Conference (AFC) leader: the Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs are looking to become the first team in NFL history to win three Super Bowls in a row. When this article was written, the Chiefs were currently undefeated at 7-0, and it didn’t look like any team had a good chance of stopping them. The Chiefs will go on the road to play the Buffalo Bills in week 11 and will also go on the road to play the Pittsburgh Steelers on Christmas Day. Other than that, however, the Chiefs will likely be convincing favorites in their remaining games. The Chiefs have a legitimate shot at going 17-0— barring any major setbacks. Even if the Chiefs eventually lose, they will likely still be the favorites to come out of the AFC.
The back half of the NFL season is always exciting. Some teams, like the Buffalo Bills last year, will go on impressive playoff pushes; others, like the Philadelphia Eagles last year, will go from favorites to pretenders. It will be interesting to see which teams fill these key roles in the 2024 season.