Being an idiot is fun, hear me out. This isn’t just self-loathing, though I do plenty of that. I genuinely mean it when I say that being an idiot is fun. I learn all sorts of new lessons all the time or at least try to. I remember thinking that I had it figured out last year. I was 23, living in my own place, and had a solid M-F workflow. I thought that was what it was all about, showcasing that you are independent and can support yourself. I remember telling my friends, and I promise that this is real, “I think I’m ready to try to get serious about trying to find a wife.”

Ugh. Literally so cringe. I didn’t know shit about life and still don’t. I went from that feeling of foolish confidence to being broke, laid off, and moving back in with my parents all within a span of a few weeks.

 It’s funny how quick circumstances can change. Just because things are going good right now, it does not guarantee that it will stay that way.  The inverse is also true, bad times don’t last. Flash forward through unemployment (literally as I was drunk during a decent amount of that time), I landed myself a good job, started saving up to move out, and decided to start this sports blog. I have it all planned out on how the next 3 years are going to go for me while I work on this blog and live in various apartments while doing so. Then I started writing and realized pretty quickly that I am not as good at it as I thought I was. This should have been obvious; the last time that I consistently wrote anything was taking covid college classes (side note: remember how insane we all became?). Yet I was still surprised that the writing muscle wasn’t there. Back to my plan, I told myself that I was going to write weekly about the NFL and the NBA starting in September, since I was moving into my new apartment with my roommates that weekend. New apartment, new beginning, and new purpose. I was going to finally drop smoking weed, get in good shape, and start managing my time wisely. I was finally going to go all-in and be my truest self.

Flash forward to now, and I have not been putting out a weekly article on the NBA and NFL. I’m still just as fat, if not fatter, than when I moved in. I am smoking less, but still smoke weed. I had even gotten drunk a couple of times, something I had told myself I was done with. My mental health was falling into the gutter, beating myself up for any time that I did not live up to the man I needed to be for my plans to work. This is not to say that I wasn’t trying though. I would be disciplined and follow the plans I had to myself for a few days but then would let one bad day turn into a bad week. If I ate out 1 day when I said I wouldn’t’ I would have a whole week of eating bad. If I had a moment of weakness and smoked or drank, it would turn into a week of getting fucked up. If I started to write an article and didn’t think it was good, I would stop working on it for a few days. Anytime that I felt even a little bit bad about myself, things would crumble. As I mentioned earlier though, this is not about self-loathing. I say all this to say that I have learned a few lessons that I would like to share. I have learned that you are going to have bad stretches, and you are going to have good stretches in life, but that things can change quickly. Because of this, you need to try your best to move the same during those stretches, as long as you are confident in the process you got going, long term it will lead to success, even if there are some bumpy roads on the way. For these NFL teams, they may have had some outlier results due to bad luck, such as field goal misses, bogus penalties, or dumb turnovers. They may not be where they want to be because of this (I’m looking at you, Cincinnati Bengals, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Los Angeles Rams), but they still have the culture in place to turn things around, assuming they get better luck in the 2nd half of the year. The NFL season has many ups and downs, but at least 1 of these teams will more than likely make the playoffs still. This is because they have winning habits, so ultimately the luck should start to swing their way soon. 

The other lesson that I have learned recently is that you got to meet life halfway. There are going to be times where I fall short of my expectations. I have disappointed myself plenty of times in my life and will continue to do so as I get older. The key to these times not defining me is if I am willing to try my best and live with the results. Instead of hating these times and giving up for a little bit, I need to move on quickly and go back to working hard. I need to choose to forgive myself for my failures and just keep trying to do good. You meet life halfway by continuously putting in effort, even if you don’t see the results when you want to. For example, I actually wrote the following NFL halfway checkpoint in an attempt to post it last Sunday, you know, halfway through the NFL season. I started writing it on election night and continued working on it throughout the week, but was not satisfied with how it turned out. I just didn’t have as much to say as I thought I did and knew it would be a weak post. I couldn’t bring myself to post it, instead quitting and choosing to go buy a vape and eat fast food to cope with my shortcomings as a writer, the thing I enjoy and want to do more of. Eventually though, the food was digested and the vape ran empty. At that point, I didn’t feel any better than I did that Sunday morning when I chose to go fuck off. It was then that I realized that I still needed to post that piece, regardless of how I felt about the quality of it. I needed to put in the effort and realize that while that post wasn’t going to be perfect, it was still me trying to write, still me sticking to a routine, and still me applying myself to something I enjoyed doing. I needed to meet life halfway and get that post out, even if it was coming out a week too late. With that being said, please enjoy the slightly over halfway checkpoint on the NFL.

Revisiting Bold Predictions

Before the season, I made a bold prediction for each NFL team. Being that they were bold predictions, most of these turned out to be wrong. As the person writing this article, I am choosing to ignore all of those bad predictions that I got wrong and only focus on the 2 that appear like they might be right. After all, Copernicus is all knowing and you are probably not going to go back and read for the wrong ones anyways. The first one that I predicted that looks like it will become true is that Trey McBride will lead the Cardinals in catches despite them drafting Marvin Harrison Jr. at pick 4. Everybody was talking about MHJ like he was already a sure thing, saying he would be a top 10 wide receiver in year 1. I always thought that those predictions were the actual bold ones, as the NFL is way different than college and rarely does a rookie come out the gate and be that dominant at receiver. Meanwhile, I watched Trey Mcbride and Kyler develop chemistry the year prior once Kyler came back from his injury. McBride was a true stud, and I viewed him as a top 5 TE heading into the year. To me, it was so obvious that McBride was going to be the man this year. The other bold prediction I had that looks pretty good was that Jamar Chase would win the wide receiver triple crown. Right now, he currently leads all wide receivers in catches, yards, and touchdowns. Him and Burrow are by far the best current wide receiver-quarterback duo in the league, so I just thought that if we got a healthy season out of both of them, that Chase would be the best wide receiver in the league. Jefferson is amazing, CeeDee Lamb is still a stud, and Tyreek Hill still looks like the fastest man alive. But Chase just has this ability to take over and dominate a game in the way that the other receives just can’t. Look at Chase against the Ravens on Thursday Night Football. He put up great quarterback numbers as a wide receiver, something that you just don’t see those other guys do. He can turn a short pass into a long touchdown but can also catch a deep sideline ball and have enough balance and athleticism to turn it into an even bigger play. He honestly reminds me a lot of when Antonio Brown had his dominant run in Pittsburgh, just able to do everything asked of him and do it exceptionally. While 2/32 isn’t an outstanding hit rate, you miss 100% of the bold predictions you don’t make.

Teams I Owe an Apology to

Buffalo Bills

I really thought the Bills were taking a gap year from contending this season. They lost both of their starting wide receivers and multiple defensive starters from last year’s team. They didn’t do too much to fill in those spots either, instead choosing to rely on rookie contract players to step up and outperform their salaries. So far, they have been cursing on this strategy so far. While most people know him from almost dying on the field, Damar Hamlin has quietly been playing some outstanding football this year, all while making less than a million this season. Khalil Shakir, Keon Coleman, and Mack Hollins have played well enough at receiver. Both sides of the line have outperformed expectations. All of these things are true, right. But most importantly, Josh Allen is the best quarterback in football and can carry just about any roster to a 10-win season it appears. He is having the best season of his career in my opinion and has Buffalo looking like a real threat yet again to come out of the AFC.

Denver Broncos

I got to admit, I thought Denver would be one of the worst teams in the league this season. Bo Nix seemed like a joke of a pick, and Sean Payton appeared to have his head up his ass. And honestly, I still believe both of these things. But to their credit, this team has 5 wins when I predicted they would only get 4 all year. The thing that I got wrong about this team was just how dominant this defense would be. I know the Chargers allow the lowest PPG in the NFL, but to me, this Denver defense has been the best so far this year. I’d like to specifically highlight Zach Allen, who is an absolute monster on the defensive line. For such a big guy, he is an incredible athlete who can single handedly destroy an opponent’s gameplan. On offense, this team doesn’t look great, but they are playing just well enough to win football games. I still think long term that Bo Nix won’t work out, but he has had flashes this year where has played impressively for a rookie, even if he is 24. I don’t think this will continue but much longer, but I have to give credit to this team for playing competitive football to this point.

Minnesota Vikings

This is another one where like the Broncos, I still feel like I am right on how I viewed this team overall. I thought coming into the season that Darnold would play poorly. While he was great in their 5-0 start, he has struggled mightily these past 4 games and playing more like the Darnold we all know and loathe. I also thought their defense would be too volatile due to the amount of blitzing they do. While this defense looked great the first 5 weeks, they have had a few bad games lately in something I could see becoming a longer trend. Still, that 5-0 start happened, so I have to recognize the first half of the season as a whole, not just how they have looked lately. 

Pittsburgh Steelers

Every year before the season, I tell myself that this is the year that the Steelers finally fall off. They keep coming into the season with a very grim situation but continue to win football games. Credit on the field needs to go to these players. The defense stays being a top 5 defense in the league, with depth for days at pass rusher that wreaks havoc on opposing offensive lines.  On offense, whether it has been Fields or Wilson, this team has consistently moved the ball just enough to win. Najee looks completely rejuvenated and has this team controlling leads late in the games. Ultimately though, the one constant throughout all of these over performing Pittsburgh teams is Tomlin. He is a top 5 coach of the 21st century and will ultimately go into the hall of fame when he one day chooses to retire. What he has been able to do year after year is impressive and shows that he has established a culture of winning habits in that locker room. Tomlin, they will never make me hate you.

Washington Commanders

This one I am truly stunned by. This team did what they could to add veterans this offseason, but I still thought they ultimately lacked blue chip players and would fail to compete. I even had them winning 6 games, which was an improvement on the year prior. But this, this has been really hard to comprehend. For starters, Daniels has played like a top 10 quarterback so far this season, which shocks me. The version of Daniels we got out the gate was the best-case scenario that I was hoping he could end the season at. Robinson and Ekeler are even better than expected out of the backfield, probably due to Daniels read options and Kingsberry’s ability to establish a dominant run game. The defense struggled out the gate but has really found their groove as of late. Bobby Wagner and Frankie Luvu have been all over the field, tackling anything in sight and making huge plays. This fanbase truly deserves a winner and I’m very happy that this is happening for them, even if I think Commanders is the dumbest team name of all time.

Teams I Can’t Believe I Bought the Hype For

Chicago Bears

I feel foolish now looking back, all the signs were there. First, Matt Eberflus has a terrible record as head coach for this team. While they did show improvement towards the end of last season, this was still a coach that got the Bears the 1st pick at one point. Second, Shane Waldren was such a bad offensive coordinator in Seattle, that Jaxon Smith-Njigba had to check during an interview if they were live when he was asked about him. The interview confirmed they were, so Jaxon smiled awkwardly and said he was a nice guy. When all a guy can say about your ability to draw up plays and run an offense is that you were nice to him, that should have been the biggest sign that this offense was going to stink. Finally, I think Caleb was rawer than I had realized. He still needs to work on doing the little things right, as his inability to complete short passes or move within the pocket has prevented this offense from moving the football with any sort of consistency. I think long term the Bears will be better once they get a new coaching staff for next season, but my take that the Bears would be a playoff team this year? You can go ahead and kiss that one goodbye.

Dallas Cowboys

Everybody was picking this team to regress to missing the playoffs before the season, and I just couldn’t understand why. Yes, they got blown out in their home stadium by the Packers in the playoffs and yes, they lost Tony Pollard in free agency and yes, they lost their defensive coordinator, but this was still a team with a great offensive line, a great quarterback-wide receiver duo, and a super talented defense. Oh, and they were going to bring in an even better running back to replace Pollard. Flash forward to now, where the running back room consists of a washed Ezekiel Elliot, a little guy in Deuce Vaughn and an NPC in Rico Dowdle. The defense, which looked dominant just last season, has looked awful this season in all aspects. Dak is now injured, and even when he was playing, struggled to not turnover the ball. I thought the preseason talk was just typical Cowboys hate, but it turns out that this team actually stinks and needs to do whatever it takes to revamp for next season, as Dak isn’t getting any younger and they just signed him to a massive extension.

Indianapolis Colts

THIS IS OUR COLTS, THIS IS OUR TEAM, WE BLEEEEEED BLUE! This team certainly has been bleeding blue so far this season, and somebody needs to take them out back to put them out of their misery. Their record isn’t awful, but there just seems to be so much dysfunction within the organization. You have an owner who is super demanding and not realistic with his expectations, a shock jock former player who shits on Colts players constantly, and a young quarterback who has been the most inaccurate passer in the entire NFL. Add all of these things together, throw in a dash of insecurity, and you get the Colts benching Richardson for a 39-year-old Joe Flacco, who then immediately played like shit the next 2 weeks because, well, he is a 39-year-old Joe Flacco. Richardson is set to start again, but you have to wonder how confident he is now. When he was picked, everybody talked about how raw he was and how he might need 2-3 years to get to the player you want him to be. Yet the Colts put win now pressure on him this year, despite the fact that he has started less than 20 games at quarterback since high school. The Colts are an absolute mess and got me worrying for Richardson, who I think in the right setting could become the next Josh Allen, that is how talented he is. Unfortunately, Indianapolis is not looking like the right setting.

New York Jets

Sometimes you go all in, and you win big. Other times, you are the New York Jets. They decided to really go for it this season, bringing in Mike Williams, Tyron Smith, Morgan Moses, and rookie Olu Fashanu. They struggled out the gate and went even more all in, trading for Davante Adams and firing Robert Saleh just 5 games into the season. They did all of this in the hopes that 40-year-old Aaron Rodgers would be happy and playing dominant football, neither of which has been the case so far. The Jets are fighting with the Colts for the biggest trainwreck in the league, and I will be very interested to see how they attack this next offseason. Will they try to go all in for the 3rd straight year, or will they hit the reset button and completely rebuild yet again?

San Francisco 49ers

The super bowl loser hangover is damn near undefeated at this point. I thought this team has such a great culture in place that the typical things that affect super bowl losers the following season would not affect this team. Flash forward to now, where Aiyuk is out of the year, McCaffery just came back last week, and Deebo Samuel is getting into arguments with the kicker and long snapper. This has been the absolute year from hell from this team, and yet there is still time for this team to write the ship and make the playoffs. Of all the teams I bought into the hype for I just listed, this is the one that I still believe that there is a path to them meeting my expectations. If they don’t though, I really hope they just chalk it up to having bad luck and running it back next year, as this team has a top 5 roster in the entire NFL despite their current record.

NFL Awards at the Halfway Point

MVP: Josh Allen

This is a toss-up between Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen for me, but I’m choosing Allen because I think he has done more with less. Lamar has the support of Derrick Henry, a top 5 running back, Zay Flowers, a true stud at wide receiver, and a TE duo in Likely and Andrews that allows them to play with physicality or finesse depending on what the defense is looking like. Josh Allen has been doing this with the island of misfit toys while improving his ability to not turnover the football. Lamar is fantastic, but it looks like it is finally Josh Allen’s turn to be viewed as the best quarterback in the league, even over Mahomes.

OROY: Jayden Daniels

This one is so obvious, as he has wildly outperformed expectations this year. The thing I have been most impressed with is that he makes smart decisions and does not put the football in harm’s way. The long touchdown passes are fun to watch, but his ability to know when to throw the ball away or even take a sack has been incredible for a rookie QB, much like how C.J. Stroud did last year.

DROY: Byron Murphy II (Seattle, not Minnesota)

Seattle’s defense as a whole has still struggled, but this dude has been one of the lone bright spots they have had. He is super physical up front and while his stats won’t blow your mind, ask any Seahawks fan about his impact on the game. Seattle found themselves a building block in Murphy.

OPOY: Jamar Chase

Just flat out the most electric offensive player in football right now. Nobody can slow this guy down and if the Bengals do eventually make the playoffs, this guy will be the biggest reason. I really hope he ends up winning the wide receiver triple crown, as it will forever cement how truly dominant this guy is for generations to come.

DPOY: Dexter Lawrence

I know what you may be thinking, the Giants stink. Let me correct you there, the Giants offense stinks. These are the things that happen when Daniel Jones is your QB. This defense however has been one of the best in the NF and Dexter Lawrence is the single biggest reason why. There is no other defensive player in the NFL who has had a bigger week to week impact than Dexter Lawrence, this dude can do it all. He isn’t exactly a household name, but for my money he has been the best defensive player in the league this season.

COY: Dan Quinn

How can it not be Dan Quinn? This Commanders team was supposed to seriously stink it up this year, but he has them looking like a legit playoff team that is capable of winning a game or 2 once they get to the postseason. He revamped this defense to great results as of late, results that should improve once they get Marshon Lattimore to play. The offense has looked great, and this staff has done a great job of putting Daniels into positions where he doesn’t have to do too much to help this team win games. They run the ball very well on early downs, which puts them in great positions to throw the ball on 2nd and 3rd without needing Daniels to make some crazy plays. All the credit to Dan Quinn for what he has done this year.

CPOY: Joe Burrow

It’s funny because in all honesty, this is the year that Damar Hamlin should win, but people have lost interest in that storyline. They will instead look to Joe Burrow, who finished last year injured but has looked like his usual self to begin this season. I think this one is kind of dumb personally because he is a number 1 overall pick who obviously was going to come back and play well, but hey, I don’t get to vote on these things, only get to make predictions from my article nobody gives a shit about.