Which five NFL teams are setting their fans up to be let down in the 2022 season? We take a look through some of the top candidates.
There’s not much time left for NFL offseason hype when all teams are undefeated and optimism among fan bases is perhaps at an all-time high.
As the NFL offseason winds down and we get closer to the regular season, we’ve got to start looking at both sides of the coin for some of these teams.
Of course, fans should remain optimistic for as long as possible, but which teams are setting up for a letdown in 2022? Which fan bases should be ready to get back to the drawing board while other teams are advancing through the playoffs?
Let’s take a look at five NFL teams whose expectations — from fans, media, or otherwise — are way too high.
NFL team with way too high expectations no. 1: Cincinnati Bengals
Alright, let’s rip this bandage off.
The Cincinnati Bengals made it to the Super Bowl last season. They represented the AFC and they earned that trip to Los Angeles, running through a tough gauntlet not just in the playoffs but throughout the second half of the NFL’s regular season.
The Bengals have a great core in place starting with quarterback Joe Burrow and wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase, the two biggest stars on the team.
Unfortunately, the Bengals’ 2021 season felt more like lightning in a bottle than a true progression.
Although the Bengals made it to the Super Bowl, this is also a team that lost seven games and was at least a year or two ahead of schedule after picking in the top five for two consecutive years.
Yes, Joe Burrow can help accelerate the timeline. The Bengals should still be AFC North contenders.
I’m not suggesting this team will go from AFC Champions to irrelevant. What I am suggesting is that they may not be better than they were last season in terms of reaching the Super Bowl.
Should the Bengals be considered preseason title contenders? Sure. They’ve earned that based on what they did in the second half of last season. Don’t be surprised though if this team still loses five or six games in 2022 and doesn’t make it past the first couple rounds of the postseason.
Matching last year’s magical run is going to be insanely difficult.
NFL team with way too high expectations in 2022: San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers deserve a ton of respect.
Kyle Shanahan has done an outstanding job of getting this team into the NFL’s final four twice over the last three NFL seasons, and bringing the Kansas City Chiefs within an inch of their lives in the Super Bowl a couple of years ago.
He did that with Jimmy Garoppolo at the QB position, and as much respect as Jimmy G. also deserves for his part in helping the 49ers reach that point, the 49ers have done more with less than just about any team.
So why shouldn’t we expect them to do the same thing in 2022?
As talented as Trey Lance is, you’ll forgive me if I’m slightly skeptical that the 49ers are just going to instantly return to the NFL’s final four in 2022 with a quarterback that has barely played any meaningful football since — checks notes — 2019.
Lance played in one game in the pandemic-impacted 2020 “season”, essentially an exhibition contest as a pre-draft showcase.
He played in six games last year with two starts.
For those keeping track at home, that’s a total of seven games played between 2020 and 2021. Although we’ve seen success stories with guys like Philip Rivers and Aaron Rodgers who sat for a while, Lance has not played consistently for three calendar years.
For that reason, if the bar is set at reaching the NFL’s final four again, I’m picking the San Francisco 49ers to fall short of expectations in 2022, though I’m also eagerly anticipating every game this team plays with all of the talent on the roster and their excellent coaching.
NFL team with way too high expectations no. 3: Philadelphia Eagles
I’m so sorry to the Philadelphia Eagles faithful in advance.
Nobody is worse than the person who rains on a parade. The Eagles have had a great offseason, and the highlight is one of the biggest highway robberies of a trade I have witnessed.
The AJ Brown trade was sensational work by Howie Roseman, who seemingly caught a veteran GM in Jon Robinson sleeping at the wheel during the 2022 NFL Draft.
The Eagles have rebuilt the right way even when a rebuild was not exactly expected after this team won its first Super Bowl in franchise history.
They have seemingly found a gem at the QB position in former second-round pick Jalen Hurts. Hurts has weapons. The Eagles are tough on both the offensive and defensive lines.
The secondary has gotten some upgrades.
There’s a lot to like but there’s just something about this Eagles team that gives me pause.
They made the playoffs somewhat unexpectedly in 2021 and the NFC East has gotten tougher across the board in 2022.
The Cowboys may have lost a number of players but with another year of progression from Dak Prescott and continuity across the board on the coaching staff, I think that team is poised for a huge step forward.
The Eagles have certainly gotten better on paper but if fans are expecting a Super Bowl?
It’s probably going to be a bit of a letdown in 2022.
The Eagles don’t have the presence off the edge needed to make a deep playoff run, nor do they have depth in the secondary in case a single injury happens to a single starter.
Not only that, but Jalen Hurts is still a relative wild card at the QB position. We don’t know if he’s going to make the necessary progressions to propel the Eagles into playoff contenders.
NFL team with way too high expectations no. 4: Indianapolis Colts
I don’t know what it is. I can’t quite put my finger on it.
For whatever reason, I just disagree completely with all of the NFL pundits and experts who seem to be riding this Indianapolis Colts bandwagon in 2022.
Jonathan Taylor? Love what he brings to the table.
Matt Ryan? The man is a legend.
But in 2022?
Is Matt Ryan really the guy that’s going to take the Colts back to the Promised Land?
It’s hard to say the Colts’ offensive line got better in 2022.
Defensively?
That’s where some of the high expectations for this team come from, certainly. The question is, do they have enough firepower on offense to be better than they were a year ago?
The Colts have some of the NFL’s most underrated defensive players individually and they seem to play exceptionally well as a collective unit.
Will things be the same without Matt Eberflus?
On paper, the Colts don’t strike me as a Super Bowl contender. Then again, championships aren’t won on paper.
Perhaps the Colts will be much better on the field as a team than they look when you scan through the depth chart.
As of right now, I’m expecting another letdown season from the Colts. Maybe not as disappointing as last year when a 98 percent chance of the postseason fizzled before their eyes, but certainly not contending, even in the rather weak AFC South.
NFL team with way too high expectations no. 5: Los Angeles Chargers
The annual offseason Chargers hype.
There’s no tradition quite like it.
The media loves to hype up all of the Chargers’ offseason moves every single year. They love to paint Tom Telesco as a miracle-working GM who has assembled a roster fit for the football gods.
And certainly, the Chargers deserve credit for being super aggressive in 2022.
They signed cornerback JC Jackson in free agency, bringing one of the top ballhawks into the fold.
They traded for pass rusher Khalil Mack, who isn’t the Defensive MVP he once was, but still a very effective edge player.
They also have Justin Herbert, one of the top young quarterbacks in the NFL and potentially an MVP candidate this season.
There’s a lot going for the Chargers this year but there are a few areas of this team that give me pause over a championship projection, which we’ve seen from plenty of pundits in 2022.
First and foremost, what did the Chargers do to upgrade the right tackle position which caused Justin Herbert to leave Las Vegas with a completely green uniform in last year’s regular season finale?
What happens if the Chargers suffer any kind of injury at wide receiver? The depth is not there.
Can the key defensive pieces actually stay healthy in 2022?
I think the Chargers do deserve credit for putting together a starting lineup that looks good on paper, but the war on attrition is very real in the NFL, and the Chargers are not a deep team.
Not only that, but they still have some key weaknesses in the starting lineup even without considering some of the depth issues.
I think expectations are way too high for this team, especially in a loaded AFC West within a loaded AFC.