By Anthony Cardone
It’s amazing that we’re already going into Week 9 of the regular season for the NFL. We are halfway through football already. The NFL season always seems to fly by every year and so far it’s been an amazing season, with so many stories and great games through the first eight weeks. So where do we stand today?
Much talk has circled around who is the MVP or who will make it to the Super Bowl this year. To start with MVP, the man that continues to come up in this conversation is Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Leading them to a 7-1 record, the best in the AFC, he has broken the record for most passing touchdowns through the first eight games (26), with only six interceptions. In his first full year quarterbacking the Chiefs, he is definitely leading the MVP polls. Others include Todd Gurley, who leads the NFL in touchdowns with 14, Drew Brees and Khalil Mack, who has pretty much done everything on defense for the Bears by being a sack machine.
In terms of the teams to look at to go far, the two to really look out for to really are those 7-1 Chiefs and the Los Angeles Rams, who are the only remaining undefeated team in the league with an 8-0 record. Other teams that have shown that they could go far in the playoffs are the Patriots, Saints, Texans, Redskins Chargers and Panthers. Teams that are already probably out of the playoffs race include the Raiders, Giants, Cardinals and 49ers, who all have only won one or two games.
There were big in-season trades, like Amari Cooper going to the Cowboys, Carlos Hyde to Jacksonville and a couple of Giants defensive players in Eli Apple and Damon Harrison going to the Saints and Lions, respectively. There was the Browns getting their first win in over a year and a half. There was Drew Brees breaking the all-time passing record previously held by Peyton Manning. Plus the pair of young running backs: James Conner taking over for Le’Veon Bell and doing very well (plus having an inspirational story to boot) and the meteoric rise of rookie Saquon Barkley, who leads all rookies in rushing yards. And then, of course, the young quarterbacks like Sam Darnold, Baker Mayfield, Josh Rosen and Josh Allen have all shown that they are going to be here for a while on their respective teams.
It has been a wild season so far with so many great games, from overtime miracles and amazing comebacks with so many great catches and runs, but we are still only halfway there and we all know how crazy football can get; things can change in a split second in this league. This game can only get better as the season rolls along. Playoff races get tighter, more pressure builds and there will be bigger plays. So, one part of the book is closed, but we are on to the next chapter of the 2018-19 season.
