Tag Archives: American Football

NFL Power Rankings, Power Rankings

Power rankings heading into the final month of the 2024 NFL season:

At this point, 14 weeks of NFL action are in the books and we’re entering the home stretch. With 17 games, there’s no perfect solution mathematically, but all teams have now had their bye weeks and have four more contests remaining before the playoff picture is finalized.

Seven teams have already been eliminated while four have clinched playoff berths – and even division titles on the AFC side of things. That means five more sports are still up for grabs on either half of the bracket, although realistically, there is a pretty wide gap between the franchises who simply have to take care of business on their end compared to ten times “in the hunt” officially but sat below .500.

As always, these are power *rankings* rather than standings, meaning teams with worse records may be listed above others with slightly better results so far or who they’ve lost to directly. The purpose of this exercise is to project how many of the other 31 franchises each side would beat head-to-head right now and not weigh likelihood of securing a certain seed in the postseason or compare to results from months ago.

Let’s dig in:

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NFL Film Breakdowns

How the Cardinals have become NFL bullies

Following two 4-13 seasons and another slow start this year, the Arizona Cardinals have now won four straight games and sit atop the NFC West by half a game, with a manageable schedule the rest of the way. I’ll break down what they do schematically on offense and defense, along with how a bunch of their young players have stepped up!

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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 Draft

NFC West Draft & Roster Review 2024

We’ve arrived at the final week of our divisional draft & roster review series, with the NFC West – which includes the reigning conference champions, the team with the largest draft class across the league, a franchise that finally picked in the first round again after an eight-year break and one of my favorite classes overall.

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NFL Draft, NFL Offseason

AFC South Draft & Roster Review 2024

We complete our trip down South by looking at the AFC side of things with the Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, Jacksonville Jaguars and Tennessee Titans – discussing all the players these teams drafted, the state of their rosters and how the new pieces fit in!

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NFL Draft, NFL Offseason

NFC East Draft & Roster Review 2024

Entering week two of our divisional draft & roster review series, we take a deep dive into the NFC East.

Once again, I will deliver short scouting reports on each individual player selected by these team, what the roster currently looks like and their fit within it, before finishing up with my general thoughts on what these teams did. At the end of the video, I rank the four draft classes against one another.



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NFL Draft, NFL Offseason

AFC North Draft & Roster Review 2024

After kicking off our divisional draft and roster review series with the NFC North earlier in the week, we’re switching conferences and look at the Ravens, Bengals, Browns and Steelers!

I’ll quickly break down each of their new players and relate them to what the rest of the roster and their role within it could look like!

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NFL Draft, Uncategorized

Top 10 interior defensive linemen of the 2024 NFL Draft:

Finishing up our first month of positional draft rankings, we close the chapter on trench warriors with the interior D-line. This group includes all players on the defensive side of the ball lining up anywhere from a zero- to a four-/five-technique depending on your labelling, although it’s rare to find such a clearly defined alignment roles these days. Just for clarification on how I will reference them:

0 = head-up on the center, 1 or shade = shoulder of the center, 2i = inside shoulder of the guard, 2 = head-up on the guard, 3 = outside shoulder of the guard, 4i = inside shoulder of the tackle, 4/5 = head-up on the tackle

This is a group that includes two incredible prospects worthy of top-20 selections and between five and seven other names that should go on day two. You can find useful players after that, but there is certainly a drop-off and you’re looking at role players or unrefined projects.

Let’s get into the list now:


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NFL Draft

Top 10 interior offensive linemen of the 2024 NFL Draft:

Week two of the big men portion as part of this positional draft rankings series is here and we start on offense yet again! This group includes guards and centers, where I’ll specify which of the three interior spots I believe guys can plug into at the next level, as well as potentially kick out to tackle in a pinch for a few of them, and also explain which offensive systems they’d optimally fit with.

This group is not as strong at the top specifically as the offensive tackle class, but I think we have at least two names worthy of going in the first round and the other nine (including one name who just missed the cut) all deserve to go on day two. After that, the rest of the group understandably has some flaws but also intriguing features, such as athleticism, raw strength or other to build upon. Let me quickly mention that this analysis is purely based on film evaluation, since there’s a medical situation to pay attention to with numbers three and six.

We’ll dive into the list now:



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NFL Draft

Top 10 offensive tackles of the 2024 NFL Draft:

We talked about a lot flash with a tremendous wide receiver class last week and then while not as stacked with top-end talent, an incredibly deep cornerback group. Now, let’s transition to the trenches and start with the guys asked to block, so the quarterback can even get the ball out in the first place.

Although I don’t want to hype up all these positions, this is a strong stretch we’ve arrived at, because I would argue while we can discuss the order the two groups we just talked about plus offensive tackle are the top three classes overall. I have six names with legit first-round grades, about ten more who should go day two and then there are some very interesting developmental to take on shot rounds four through seven.

Three players who played tackle in college but will be part of my interior O-line rankings next week – Duke’s Graham Barton, Kansas’ Dominick Puni and TCU’s Brandon Coleman.

Here’s the list and I think we start off with a slight surprise for many people:


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