Author Archives: hallachhalil

Storylines around the NFL

Misery index seven weeks into the 2024 NFL season:

Unlike most weeks where one topic jumps out to me for a video or article I want to write or even there’s a point in the season where it makes sense to do power rankings or mid-season awards, there were several ways I considered going here. However, as I looked a broader view at the NFL landscape, my one grand thought I came away with is the state of affairs for the teams at the bottom of the standings and their gap to the rest of the league. In large part because I currently don’t see a path where those franchise massively turn things around and I don’t want to ignore them until draft season rolls around.

With some teams having already had a bye week, I didn’t want the cut-off to be two wins, but rather I chose to go with the nine squads at least three games below .500 – meaning 2-5 or worse. That also made sense considering the two teams that criteria excludes are the 2-4 Rams and Dolphins, whose campaigns have been heavily affected by injuries and still have some hope to turn things around.

To illustrate that rift between the franchises in question and those in legitimate position to compete for playoff spots ultimately, here’s a number to consider – and I understand of course that it has to exist for this make sense mathematically – but the nine teams I’m about to discuss have an average point differential of -53.1 for the year, meaning the median outcome for them every week is pretty much losing by just over a touchdown. I did not go back to recent years to really dive into how this stacks up, but it feels like quite an extreme line of demarcation – and that calculation includes the Saints’ clearly unsustainable start, where they led the league with a +62 point differential through the first two weeks.

So this isn’t meant to be a way for me to trash the bottom-third of the league, but rather trying take a step back and reflect on how we got here, by going through these teams. And maybe give an outlook for the near future, as we think about how things could be course-corrected.

We’ll go by record first and then alphabetical order:


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NFL Film Breakdowns

Pick 6: Best defensive plays of NFL week 6 (2024)

After focusing on the top quarterback plays last week, I decided to flip things around and highlight some of my favorite defensive moments from this past week!

We’ll go through the play-calls on both sides, discussing the rules/assignments for the individual pieces and how they ended up working in concert to win those downs as a unit!

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NFL Film Breakdowns

Top 5 throws of NFL week 5 (2024):

Coming off an incredible week of football, with several great quarterback performances and individual plays, I wanted to break down what I deemed the best or at least my favorite throws/QB plays of week 5!

I’ll break down the schematics on offense and defense, how quarterbacks deciphered through those situations and how we ended up with these incredible throws.

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NFL Power Rankings, Power Rankings

Power Rankings after the first quarter of the 2024 NFL season:

We’re a month into the NFL season and as always for me, this is the first time to take the temperature of the league, stacking up all 32 teams against one another. Records are obviously the biggest indicator, but especially with how the early season has played out, I think there’s quite a significant discrepancy between the quality of team and the first number next to their name in several cases.

Whenever I post any list like this, I like to remind people that these are power “rankings” rather than standings – anybody can simply look those up themselves and I did add records next to each squad. However, you will see groups with slightly worse records placed above others, who may have benefitted from a weaker schedule so far or just weren’t as impressive to me in the way they were able to emerge victorious. The same is true for one side outranking another, who they might’ve lost to already, since this is intended to be a placement based on how many sides everybody should be favored against at this moment, rather than one specific matchup.

Let’s get to it:


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College Football, College Football Rankings

Top five college players at each position a month into the 2024 season:

We’re four weeks into this collegiate season and it’s time for me to give my annual check-in on who the best players in the nation are currently. My rankings are largely based on the film work I did partially during this prior draft cycle for returning names and studying up during the summer, but also catching up on them in the early stages here. Obviously, I haven’t watched every single FBS game, but a large portion of those, I went through a bunch of the advanced numbers and tried to at least evaluate each of these (and other) guys in one more matchup so far.

Just to clarify, these rankings are concerning the top five players at each position for the college level – so how well they’re performing at right now and how I’d pick them in a team selection-like setting, somewhat detached from their surrounding pieces, as I’m trying to judge them individually. There’s a lot of overlap to how I’d stack the names up projecting forward to next year’s draft already (at least for the guys who are eligible), but I wanted to make that distinction here.

Let’s get into it:

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NFL Film Breakdowns, What makes him so good

Breaking down Geno Smith’s aerial attack on New England:

While there have been several highly impressive individual and team performances through two weeks of the 2024 NFL season, in terms of how he was asked to execute, nobody might’ve played a better single game than Seahawks QB Geno Smith at New England this past Sunday afternoon – and it’s not being discussed nearly enough!

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NFL games, NFL Weekly Recap

Three takeaways from each week one NFL game (2024):

Week one of the 2024 NFL season is in the books and before we even kicked off on Sunday, there was a lot going on, with last-minute contracts being finalized, star players getting handcuffed and more. For now, we‘ll focus on what we saw across the actual matchups however.

You‘re going to hear a bunch of overreactions based on what we saw in these opening games and especially with so many star players not taking part in preseason at all, there‘s a good chance many of them look very different the next time they step on the field. Nevertheless, there‘s a lot to take away for now, as we get our first look at new schemes, rookies, regrouped units, etc.

I‘m going to outline three takeaways for all 16 games based on watching the broadcasts and/or tape afterwards. So obviously these are rather subjective in terms of on what stood out to me, but I’ll try to encapsulate what matters most for individual players and teams here.

Let’s dive in:


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NFL Predictions

Predicting the entire 2024 NFL season:

We’re less than a week away from the NFL season being kicked off with an AFC Championship game rematch, where this time around it’s the Ravens travelling to Kansas City, as the Chiefs begin their quest to becoming first team to ever win three titles in a row.

So it’s time for me to once again put all of my predictions out there in the ether – all the major awards, playoff seedings and who I have facing each other in Super Bowl LIX. I will outline my top three finalists for MVP, Defensive Player of the Year and such, along with a few honorable mentions at the end. To determine the playoff picture, I went through all 272 individual matchups, taking into account important circumstances, such as rest (dis)advantages, how games fit within those schedule and of course personnel clashes.

I have added the full Excel file with every single team’s weekly result and final record at the very bottom, if you’re interested!


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Storylines around the NFL

Most pivotal figures heading into the 2024 NFL season:

With the NFL season just around the corner, instead of bringing up storylines and figures about dominating conversations on TV already, I wanted to discuss a few names that maybe we don’t fully understand who they are or how big a factor they may be in a new role/place, but have the potential to define the landscape of the league.

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Fantasy Football

Fantasy diamonds for 2024:

We’re just three weeks away from kicking off the 2024 NFL season and many of you are currently preparing for your fantasy drafts. So here’s my annual video on players you should be targeting, specifically in later rounds and deeper leagues!

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