The New York Giants are off to their best start through five games since 2009, with running back Saquon Barkley having a major comeback season and putting the offense on his back.
Having had the chance to watch this generational talent in London this past Sunday, I decided to break down the biggest plays of his season so far and showcase how he looks healthy and better than ever.
Patrick Mahomes was one of the most polarizing and fascinating draft prospects I can remember in years at the quarterback position. He put up mind-boggling numbers at Texas Tech, including a senior year with over 5000 yards and 41 touchdowns through the air. At his pro day, Mahomes threw the ball 80 yards and he showed off his tremendous arm talent throughout his collegiate career, when he was tossing deep bombs on a weekly basis. However, he came from an Air Raid offensive system, which have produced dozens of signal-callers who have put up crazy stats in college but never were able to come close to that kind of success in the pros. Therefore the Chiefs received some criticism for trading up all the way to the tenth overall pick for their quarterback in 2016, with Alex Smith still on the roster. Less than two years removed from that, Mahomes now has set a new NFL record for most passing touchdowns in his team’s first two games with ten of those and has his offense scoring 40 points per game. I want to recap why I had him graded as a second-round pick and how he has proven me and so many other analysts wrong in such phenomenal fashion.
With the NFL season all wrapped and the draft as well as free agency still some time away from this point, I wanted to take a look at the newest quarterback, who got paid. Jimmy Garoppolo was traded to San Francisco for a second-round pick in the middle of the 2017 season and completely turned the franchise around, helping a 1-10 team win their next five games. That resulted in the front office making him the highest-paid player in NFL history, by giving him a five-year, 137.5 million dollar contract. After just seven career starts, it is fair to question if he is worth all that money. Therefore, I watched every snap of his time with the 49ers to offer an analysis on the young QB. I looked at his two games with New England as well, but decided to leave those out for now, since I’m judging him based on the system he will be a part of going forward, with Kyle Shahan signing a six-year contract himself, just a year ago. Let’s dive into the tape:
After talking about why I think Marshal Yanda is the best guard in the today’s league, I want to take a look at the biggest weapon of the number one scoring offense of last season and analyze him. Ever since entering the league as the sixth overall pick in the 2011 NFL Draft, Jones has worked his way into consideration as one of the best receivers in the NFL and right now I would put him above anybody else. Here’s why:
A couple of years ago, I started analyzing the game’s top players at their respective positions and explaining what makes them that good. With the major parts of the offseason in the books I decided to go back to that format and look at another premiere player. This article is about the Ravens’ offensive guard Marshal Yanda and why I think he is the number one option at his spot and one of the best overall players in the league. Let’s get to it.
(Usually I add clips to emphasize my points for the respective players, but that’s not as easy with offensive linemen. Therefore, I recommend to just put a Ravens game on and watch number 73 go to work.)
A lot of qualities young players show early on won’t be the same five years from now, while others might not even have come up properly yet and the player is just scratching his surface. I want to use this article to point out the one quality for the rookies from last year heading into the 2017 season, that will help them make a living in the NFL. These are traits that give them a very good shot at being able to perform at a high level for a long time. I’m not going to put Ezekiel Elliott’s name up because he is widely considered one of the premiere running backs in the game already and was talked about all year. Neither will you see the Bear’s Jordan Howard or Michael Thomas, because they were number three in rushing and number nine in receiving yards respectively. And one more name you won’t find is Tyreek Hill, since he was on the highlight reel almost every week.
I listed those ten second-year players according to the spot they were drafted in.
Le’Veon Bell racked up 2215 yards from scrimmage this year which ranks him second among all players only behind DeMarco Murray from the Cowboys. He also was a big reason the Steelers won their division this year for the first time since 2010. To me he is the best overall-running back in the league at this point. The following should tell you why he’s so good.
Watt was the Defensive Player of the Year a couple of years ago, has led the Houston Texans to their first two playoff appearances in franchise history and has put up unbelievable stats over the first four years of his career.
Now I want to explain to you why he should win the award for Defensive Player of the Year this season.
I decided to start a series of ‘What makes him so good’ to break down the best players in the game today and what makes them so special. I am going to analyze a couple of their traits and what the factors are I am measuring their performances by.
First up is Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers:
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