10 surprising NFL trends: Offense is down, Geno Smith is starring and the 49ers have a problem

10/14/2022

Founder and Editor-in-chief of Footballoutsiders.com
NFL analyst for ESPN Insider

We’re five weeks into the 2022 NFL season. That’s enough games for us to start looking at some trends, both around the league and with specific teams playing particularly good or bad. We can’t be sure these trends will stick in a month from now — since it is still early — but through a month of games, we’ve seen some things worth exploring.

I’ve combed through Football Outsiders and ESPN Stats & Information metrics, and here is what I’ve found. Offense is down, but for some unexpected veteran quarterbacks, offense is actually up. There has been a good amount of parity across the league in 2022, as well as lopsided teams with a good offense and a bad defense (or vice versa).

Let’s look through some interesting numbers here, from the best units (San Francisco’s defense) to the worst (Indianapolis’ offense).

Note: Numbers above do not include the Thursday night’s Commanders-Bears game.

1. Offense is down across the league — so far

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