Cover photo taken from Getty Images.
The longest NFL season of all time is in the books, and it was a joy to watch. From start to finish, this season brought all of the emotions out of football fans. Whether it was wild finishes, crazy storylines, or jaw-dropping performances, the 2021 campaign exceeded to the hype. I thought that I should revisit some of that craziness and give my thoughts on the best and worst of the season. Let’s start with the absolute best of the best.
Player of the Year:
WR Cooper Kupp
Honorable Mentions: QB Tom Brady, RB Jonathan Taylor
To put it plainly, Cooper Kupp had the greatest individual season I have ever seen. It’s that simple. The numbers and accolades don’t even make sense. They’d be impressive for a career, let alone a single season. Kupp became the fourth receiver in history to win the proverbial Triple Crown. His total stats (regular season + postseason) are straight out of a video game: 178 catches, 2,425 yards, and 22 TD. Kupp was a unanimous All-Pro selection in addition to winning Offensive Player of the Year. Oh yeah, and he caught 2 TDs in the Super Bowl, including the game-winner, to win Super Bowl MVP. The sheer statistics, the consistency, the reliability, and the pure greatness of Kupp this season was something I’ve never seen before. I have seen some great WR and even QB seasons, but nobody has ever achieved what Cooper Kupp did in 2021. And we might never see it ever again.
Team of the Year:
Cincinnati Bengals
Honorable Mentions: Los Angeles Rams, Green Bay Packers, San Francisco 49ers
They may not have gotten it done in the end, but the fact that they even got there is more than enough for me to crown the Bengals as the most impressive team of 2021. I picked Cincinnati to go 5-12 and finish last in the AFC North. Most fans and members of the media were in agreement that this team would not be good whatsoever. And they were less than 2 minutes away from winning the franchise’s first ever Super Bowl. They opened all of our eyes from Week 1 all the way until Super Bowl Sunday, and I think it’s safe to say that this team is here to stay. They put up crazy numbers all year long on offense and dispatched of everyone else in the division to win their first title in six years. They pulled off multiple road upsets in the postseason, beating the 1 seed Titans and silencing Arrowhead and Patrick Mahomes in the AFC Championship. Between the emergence of Joe Burrow as a superstar QB, WR Jamarr Chase’s historic rookie campaign, and the complete 180 of the defense, the Bengals proved that they were no longer the perennial underdogs. This team is built to contend, and I can’t wait to see what they do next season. Just get Burrow an offensive line. We’re all begging you.
Game of the Year:
Chiefs 42-36 Bills
, Divisional Round
Honorable Mentions: Chiefs 34-28 Chargers (Week 15), Raiders 30-27 Chargers (Week 18)
Duh. From before this game even went final, we were all in agreement that it wasn’t just one of the greatest playoff games ever, but perhaps the best NFL game of all time. This divisional showdown had all the hype in the world before it even started, seeing as though it was a rematch of the previous season’s AFC Championship Game and another chapter in the budding Chiefs-Bills and Patrick Mahomes-Josh Allen rivalry. From the jump, this game was a delight to watch, being a pure back-and-forth affair that we knew would come down to whoever had the ball last. In what became the ultimate “did they leave too much time” 4th quarter, Buffalo and Kansas City combined for 28 points, 25 of which came in the final 1:54. First, Allen hit WR Gabriel Davis for a 27-yard laser in the back of the endzone (on 4th and 13!) after he broke Chiefs DB Mike Hughes’ ankles to go up 29-26. KC retaliated when WR Tyreek Hill took a simple drag route and ran past everyone in the stadium for a 62-yard lightning strike to retake the lead at 33-29 with 62 seconds left. The Bills refused to say die, and with just 13 infamous seconds left on the clock, Allen found Davis for the fourth time in the game for a 19-yard touchdown to go up 36-33 and seemingly send Buffalo back to the AFC Championship Game. However, somehow that was too much time for the Chiefs. In just two plays, one throw to Hill and another to TE Travis Kelce, KC got down to the Buffalo 31. From there, K Harrison Butker nailed a field goal to send the game to overtime. The Chiefs won the toss, got the ball, and marched right down the field in a beautiful drive culminating in an 8-yard game-winning touchdown pass from Mahomes to Kelce. Mahomes finished with 378 yards and 3 TDs on 33-44 passing, while Allen had 329 and 4 touchdowns (all of which were caught by Davis, who totaled 8 catches for 201 yards) on 27-37 passing. It was absolutely incredible to watch, and considering the stakes and starpower, I don’t know if I’ll ever see a game as exhilarating as this one ever again. Oh, and if you complained about the overtime rules after this game, you need to grow up.
Story of the Year:
Tom Brady Finally Retires
Honorable Mentions: Rams going all-in, Packers collapse again
I remember getting the notification and refusing to believe what I read was true. Tom Brady has been in the NFL longer than I’ve been alive, and yet the thought of him no longer playing football refused to register in my mind. It’s still crazy to think about. After 22 glorious seasons, the GOAT called it a career after the Buccaneers’ 30-27 loss in the Divisional Round to the Rams. Many theorized it after Tampa’s early exit, but it was still a shock to us all. Brady obviously accomplished everything there is to accomplish in this league, and he left on his own terms. The loss stung for sure, but I think that winning 7 Super Bowls, 5 Super Bowl MVPs, 3 MVPs, and being the NFL’s all-time leader in QB wins, completions, touchdowns, and yards is a pretty solid consolation prize. He will always be the GOAT, and trying to imagine an NFL without him seems impossible. Is this how people felt when Michael Jordan retired? Any of the three times?
Most Disappointing Team:
Cleveland Browns
Honorable Mentions: Los Angeles Chargers, Washington Football Team, Miami Dolphins
Considering that I picked this team to go to the Super Bowl and they didn’t even make the playoffs, this was an easy choice. An 8-9 season filled with abhorrent offense, COVID problems, injuries, and a plethora of questions placed the Browns in perhaps a worse position than their usual purgatory: mediocrity. This team had real expectations for the first time in decades after the unforeseen success of 2020, and they simply collapsed. The running game was a bright spot as always, but QB Baker Mayfield held the offense back from the start of the season until the very end, posting a horrid 35.1 QBR. The defense had a rough start to the year, but they picked it up eventually, and perhaps they can carry Cleveland in 2022. It’s going to be more of a make-or-break season than this year was, and many eyes will be on the Browns next fall. In summary, I think WR Odell Beckham Jr. forcing his way out of Cleveland, where he was a non-factor, and going to the Rams to be a pivotal contributor en route to winning the Super Bowl is the perfect microcosm of the 2021 Browns.
Most Disappointing Player: 
RB Saquon Barkley
Honorable Mentions: QB Sam Darnold, QB Baker Mayfield, WR Kenny Golladay
Anyone who drafted Saquon Barkley in fantasy will tell you how much of a dud he was in 2021. It’s such a shame. We were all ready for Saquon to come back with a vengeance after tearing his ACL last year. It’s safe to say we learned to temper our expectations a bit. Once again, Barkley was plagued by injuries, missing four games and being a non-factor in almost every game that he did play in. He finished the year with just 593 yards (3.7 YPC) and 2 touchdowns on the ground. Saquon wasn’t even the best RB on the Giants, being outperformed by Devontae Booker. It was a rough year all-around in New York (which can be said about both teams), with both Barkley and Kenny Golladay being colossal duds for the Giants. I don’t think we’ll be seeing either of them drafted as early as they were this year in next season’s fantasy drafts.
Most Disappointing Story:
The Urban Meyer Experiment
Honorable Mentions: The Chargers being the Chargers, The Deshaun Watson fiasco
If you didn’t expect Urban Meyer to fail tremendously and hilariously in Jacksonville, were you even paying attention? I remember envisioning the Jaguars going up in flames from the moment I heard that he had been hired as head coach. Just thinking about his track record in college and how he forced his way out of so many programs is enough to make me laugh. And I’m an Ohio State fan. The idea of failure was further emphasized when Meyer brought in all of “his guys” to coach alongside him in Jacksonville, none of which were very good. Combine that with the well-known incompetence of the Jags’ front office, and we have a very loud ticking time bomb. The offseason was filled with wackiness, from the signing and releasing of Tim Tebow (as a TE nonetheless) to the trading of backup QB and fan favorite Gardner Minshew. The Jaguars were blown out in Week 1 by the Texans, who many people thought wouldn’t win a single game in 2021. After a Week 4 loss to the Bengals, Meyer was caught being danced on by a random woman at a local bar (which he owned!). Later in the season, reports came out of Meyer being fought by several coaches and his own rookie QB Trevor Lawrence. On December 16th, about 11 months too late, Urban Meyer was finally fired. We’ll see if Doug Pederson can pick up the pieces as the team’s HC in 2022. If he does, he might deserve a Nobel Prize.
And that’s a wrap on the 2021 NFL season. It was a blast from start to finish, and I already can’t wait for the fall. Next up is obviously the Draft, and I’ll have plenty of coverage of that. Be on the lookout for Mocks and perhaps some Commanders-related (still feels weird to say, doesn’t it?) content as well. See you then!
All stats and info taken from ESPN.
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