Way-too-early look at top 5 Heisman Trophy candidates for 2022

The 2021 Heisman Trophy winner has been named with Bryce Young taking home the crown, but who are the early candidates for 2022?

Bryce Young took home some serious hardware on Saturday night as the Alabama quarterback won the 2021 Heisman Trophy over Aidan Hutchinson, CJ Stroud, and Kenny Pickett.

An interesting tidbit about this year’s Heisman finalists is the fact that two of them will be back next year. That’s not usually the case, but that just shows how young the elite talent in college football is. Pickett and Hutchinson will be in the NFL next year while Stroud and the reigning Heisman winner Young will be back.

Now that the 2021 Heisman Trophy has been awarded, it’s time to look at who could contend for the coveted award in 2022.

Here are the way-too-early top-five contenders.

TreVeyon Henderson is going to be a name to watch to start the 2022 season because of his breakout as a freshman with the Buckeyes in 2021.

Ohio State was expected to rely on Master Teague in the backfield, but it was impossible for Ryan Day to keep Henderson off the field. He dominated against Tulsa in the third game of the year and earned a permanent spot in the backfield. He rushed for 277 yards and three touchdowns in that game and his production increased from there.

Henderson finished the season with 1,172 yards and 15 touchdowns on 7.0 yards per carry and he still has a Rose Bowl appearance against Utah to add to that total.

My guess is that he’s going to begin the 2022 season as one of the top contenders on all the betting sites and he might be a good value selection. He’s incredibly talented and with Kenneth Walker III likely gone to the NFL after this season, he should be considered the Big Ten’s best back, and overall playamker, for 2022.