Contracts for quarterbacks across the NFL was balooned over the last decade plus. Trevor Lawrence striking a five-year, 275-million-dollar contract recently became a big topic for discussion.
I want to break down if the player is worth that money based on his tape, if the Jaguars are currently setting him up for success with the infrastracture around him and if the deal actually could end up being advantageous for the franchise down the road!
Four years after Patrick Mahomes pedaled backwards and hit Tyreek Hill on “2-3 Jet Chip Wasp” to convert a third-and-15 and start their comeback over the 49ers, these two sides are set to face off again on the biggest stage. This time around, Kansas City is looking to cement itself as a dynasty, with their third championship in five years, while San Francisco is going for their sixth title in franchise history, but the first one in 29 years, after knocking on the door with four NFC championship game appearances in those last five seasons.
The Niners looked dominant throughout the regular season en route to the NFC’s number one seed, before having to battle until the end against the Packers and Lions, coming back from a 17-point deficit in that conference title game. Meanwhile, it wasn’t nearly as smooth a ride for the Chiefs, trying to defend their championship, finishing with an 11-6 record and having to go on the road in the playoffs for the first two teams in the Mahomes era.
Based on the current active rosters, the 49ers are slated to return nine players and the Chiefs seven who were also part of those Super Bowl 54 teams. Both Kyle Shanahan and Andy Reid return as head coaches, while Steve Spagnuolo on defense and Dave Toub on special teams for the Chiefs are the only two of six total coordinators still around. They also have the benefit of a quarterback starting his fourth Super Bowl in five years, but the Niners have their best signal-caller under Shanahan in the Bay Area.
I want to look at both sides of the ball, break down in detail how the offensive and defensive units function respectively, along with how I believe they’ll match up, before presenting a couple of X-factors for each group and ultimately giving you my prediction for the final score.
Let’s dive in:
Yet another Bills season just came to an end in gut-punching fashion. In four years straight now, they were eliminated after winning the AFC East and at least one playoff game – three times by these very Kansas City Chiefs.
We’ve seen slightly different versions of the team, but this year felt quite unique, because unlike prior iterations that would largely coast through the regular season, until they got their week 13 bye, it didn’t seem like this crew would even be part of the conversation down the stretch. They were coming off a heartbreaking loss to the Eagles, which dropped them to 6-and-6, in a year where we had as many teams battling for the final couple of AFC Wildcard spots as I can remember. Yet, despite off-field distractions and questions around their coaching staff, they went on win their final five regular season matchups and the division after all again, which after taking care of the Steelers in the Wildcard Round, set them up to finally host Patrick Mahomes and company in January for the first time in this rivalry. Yet, once again they couldn’t quite overcome their while whale.
I want to discuss the organization’s journey leading into 2023, the different stages of the season we just witnessed, how the fairytale ultimately came crashing down and then give a future outlook, as we consider where they may go from here.
The regular season has come to a close and after 17 games, it’s time to talk about what players were able to show in their first years as pros. Therefore, I put together my annual NFL All-Rookie team, consisting of a starting lineup on offense and defense, along with six “key backups”.
Just like the All-Pro teams this year, I decided to add a 12th spot to offense and defense, along with the classic four special-teamers. However, I took a little more freedom with that, since only two rookie fullbacks saw extended run (Cowboys’ Hunter Luepke and Saints’ Adam Prentice) and I thought there were more deserving players along the defensive front than an additional slot defender, since I already went with nickel personnel.
Let’s get into it:
While the 17-game schedule for each team has thrown off where exactly the mid-way point of the NFL season is, we are through nine of 18 total weeks and we’ve played exactly half of the 272 contests (136). So at this point, it’s time to summarize what has happened here a little bit and hand out all the major awards as if the season ended today.
I’ll once again break down the top three candidates through half of 2023, making my case for each of them, based on watching the tape and looking at the numbers, along with reflecting a little bit on what I predicted just before we kicked off the year. A quick note on that – I could have literally used the cover photo from back then.
Let’s get into it:
Now six weeks into the NFL season, I thought it was time to examine the quarterback landscape and rank all 32 starters (no backups included). In order to paint the picture better, I grouped them into tiers, which can include between two and six names. I’ll discuss each of these guys’ biggest strengths and weaknesses, add different statistics but then also add the needed context, based on watching the tape.
For this exercise, I’m trying to extrapolate the individual player from his respective team and envision a roster made up from perfectly average pieces, without the benefit of elite play-makers or -callers to take pressure off them. Of course, certain types of signal-callers can maximize what the system they’re in gives them, while others may not execute on as consistent a level, but can elevate what’s around them.
So the basis of this will always make it an imperfect problem to solve, but we’ll try to get as close as we can!
We’re one month into the NFL season and it’s time for our first power rankings over the year. While there are teams we feel more or less confident about in our opinions on them, generally I believe we have a good understanding for who the main contenders in both conferences are and which ten plus/minus two teams have a legit shot at lifting up that Lombardi trophy in February. At the same time, there may be about the same amount of groups I feel like don’t have real playoff aspirations. That’s why the middle of the pack may end up being so interesting, to see who still rises of falls.
As always, these are rankings, not standings. I did not want to simply list teams by record and then shuffle them around a bit, but rather actually evaluate how good these 32 franchises are right now. I will incorporate a lot of numbers to support my case, but also try to add the needed context to them, based on what I see on film. That means even if we have two teams with the same record and one of them beat the other head-to-head, that doesn’t automatically determine their order.
Let’s get into the list:
Every week of the NFL season there are a million things going on and it’s impossible to keep up with it all. So after watching the first full slate of games, I decided to outline three key storylines or takeaways for all 16 contests. These can be based around an individual player, coach, team unit or schematic nuance to track going forward.
Of course, week one can be liar and we shouldn’t overreact to anything we just watched, but based on where we stand right now, these are things that jumped to me across the league upon watching every game and trying to put them into context.
We’re less than a week away from the NFL regular season being kicked off in Kansas City and it’s time to put myself out there yet again, by predicting every single NFL award, the playoff picture and ultimately my pick for Super Bowl LVIII.
As always, I will list my top three candidates for MVP, Defensive Player of the Year and all the other awards, reveal my seven seeds in either conference and work my way through the eventual matchups, in order to get to the participants in the big game next February. Yet again I added the Excel sheet, where you can find my predictions for all 285 total games, at the bottom of this piece.
Once again, I attached the full regular season grid at the bottom, if you’re interested in how I ended up with the eventual playoff seedings or want to know where your team finished, if they didn’t make the cut.
This is what I think the 2023/24 season will look like:
Only two weeks away from the 2023 NFL season being kicked off, I decided highlight some situations across the league that are highly volatile and I’m most interested in how they work out. These can be players, team units or coaches heading into crucial years. Altogether I came up with eight questions I’m waiting to have answered.
Just two quick disclaimers:
– Obviously how Deshaun Watson might bounce big for the Browns will be key, but I wanted to focus on different topics, without any off-field implications
– And I had already recorded this before the 49ers lost Taco Charlton to IR
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