Best of the Best, 2022 NFL Season
Who are the six best teams from last year? What can we learn from them?
Welcome to the Best of the Best. This is a series of short blog posts and companion videos where we study and share what the exceptional players and teams have in common from a data-driven perspective. We use a wealth of information, including some basic metrics and some more sophisticated metrics, always looking for those common threads among the game’s very best.
In this installment, our subject is NFL teams in the 2022 season.
What’s this all about?
There are a number of very clear ways in which the Best of the Best NFL teams demonstrated a significant edge last season. We are going to show you what those are and tell you where your favorite team landed in each category. But here in the introduction, we have to first explain the process, so just stay with us while we get through that. It won’t be too painful, we promise!
In any performance arena, whether it be sports, business, or basically anywhere that statistics are kept, there will always be standout performers - the ones who rise up above everyone else.
The idea behind this series is really quite simple. We want to know:
Who are the Best of the Best -- the cream of the crop? In this case, which NFL teams were above all the others last season, undeniably?
What do they have in common?
That’s it. Once we know what the best ones do, we then have a pretty solid roadmap for what all teams need to do in order to be great.
So, let’s get into it!
Who are the Best of the Best?
For some questions there are many ways to answer. Such is the case for this question: “who were the best NFL teams in the 2022-23 season?”
We wanted to be as objective as possible in answering this. Ultimately, there were two methods that made sense.
The first method was to simply use Point Differential. Points Scored - Points Allowed = Point Differential. In a full season, the teams with the better Point Differential will have proven that they have the capability of scoring points and preventing points at a high level.
The second method was to look at how other smart analysts rank teams. Power Rankings are not hard to find. Google “NFL power rankings” and you’ll see what we mean. So, we took our favorite 10 ranking systems and did some analysis on them. There were six teams that made the top 10 in all ten systems.
Both methods ended up with the same result, so we felt confident that these six teams are the least arguable Best of the Best for the 2022 NFL season. Without further ado, here they are (please note that we’re using bullet points rather than numbers because it’s not about 1-6 in this case. It’s about these six teams as a group compared to all other teams).
So, there’s the answer to the first question (who are they?) and now we can get to the good stuff -- exploring what they have in common. We’ll do that by slicing and dicing over 800 different stats and splits. These are aspects of the game that go right to the heart of who wins and who loses. Everything from rushing efficiency to how often they blitz on 3rd down, to turnover ratio, and more. If you can dream up an interesting angle, chances are we’ve taken a look.
Introduction complete! The only other note is that this whole exercise is literally an open book (purposefully). There is no set number of chapters. There’s not even a final chapter in mind at this point. We’ve identified a lot of interesting stuff that we can’t wait to share - one post, and one video at a time. But the research continues, too. As of now, you can expect a post and video each week for the next 8 weeks at least. But, don’t be surprised if that grows.
Next time we’ll get to dive in and find out the Best of the Best common trait #1 (you’ll have to wait for that). Tune into our Youtube, Twitter, and Substack channels to find out! And, be sure to visit our website for fans, fantasy players, and sports bettors: MyInsideEdge.com