The Great Swami Says...

Here we are. Week 8 is in the books. Week 9 marks the midway point of the 2011-2012 NFL season. The point of the season where teams start prepping for their playoff runs. There are no more excuses for poor performances anymore. The "Lockout Hangover" is long over, playbooks should be engraved in players minds, chemistry should be good enough and only continue to grow. After watching the games up until this point and writing all these articles about the weeks of football I'm going to be that bold asshole and make my predictions far too early. 

I'll start with who I see as playoff teams.

AFC

North: Pittsburgh Steelers

South: Houston Texans (FINALLY!!)

East: Buffalo Bills 

West: Oakland Raiders (Bengals)

Wild Card: Baltimore Ravens

Bubble Teams: New England Patriots, Cincinnati Bengals, 

NFC

North: Green Bay Packers

South: New Orleans Saints

East: New York Giants

West: San Francisco 49ers

Wild Card: Detroit Lions

Bubble Teams: Philadelphia Eagles, Dallas Cowboys

Conference Champs

AFC: Baltimore Ravens

NFC: Green Bay Packers

Super Bowl Champions

Baltimore Ravens

And now for my individual performers.

Rookie of the Year

Cam Newton - Carolina Panthers

Stats thus far in the season

147/287 for 2,393 yards, 60.6% completion percentage, 11 TD, 9 INT, 87.1 QBR

63 Rushing Attempts for 319 yards, 7 TD

League MVP

Aaron Rodgers - Green Bay Packers

Stats thus far in the season

171/239 for 2,372 yards, 71.5% completion percentage, 20 TD, 3 INT

29 Rushing Attempts for 75 yards, 2 TD

Offensive Player of the Year

Aaron Rodgers - Green Bay Packers

Defensive Player of the Year

Jarius Byrd - Buffalo Bills

Stats thus far in the season

50 Tackles (39 Solo), 1 Sack, 4 Passes Defended, 1 INT, 1 Forced Fumble, 1 Fumble Recovered

Comeback Player of the Year

Steve Smith - Carolina Panthers

Stats thus far in the season

46 catches for 918 yards,  20.0 yards per catch, 4 TD

Dud of the Year

Chris Johnson - Tennessee Titans

Stats thus far in the season

107 attempts for 302 yards, 2.8 yards per carry, 1 TD

27 receptions for 160 yards, 0 TD

Well let's see how this all pans out. Do you agree/disagree? Comment below or message me on Twitter @iedlund and share your thoughts with the community. Come at me bro.