Buffalo came into the 2025 season as Super Bowl favorites. After ten weeks, they sit at 6-3 with the league’s reigning MVP and some big wins on their resume, but they’ve also shown a major weakness when it comes to defending the run. I want to break down some of their structural issues, personnel deficiencies and how opponents have challenged them so far.
With the 2025 NFL trade deadline coming up next Tuesday (Nov. 4) at 4pm ET, here are the ten moves I’d like to see happen!
(This is simply a copy of my social media post, rather than my typical full-fledged article)
This is more of a long-term investment for Kevin O’Connell, potentially having two more years of contractual control. They can still give JJ McCarthy his opportunity, but could get Richardson onto the field late and give themselves options.
There’s no need for Tennessee to limit touches for Tyjae Spears, off the high-ankle sprain. Meanwhile, Isiah Pacheco just got banged up and the Chiefs haven’t found much consistency on the ground. Pollard is scheme-versatile and adds some juice.
New Orleans has been openly shopping their WRs. Steelers QB Aaron Rodgers is throwing the ball 3.1 yards short of the sticks on average, relying heavily on yards after the catch. Olave could provide some air underneath as a vertical threat.
Tampa Bay has lost Mike Evans for the season, along with having other WRs in and out of the lineup. Adding Njoku’s explosiveness from the TE spot could diversify their passing attack. Cleveland can continue to lean more into rookie Harold Fannin Jr.
The Raiders OL has been a mess. With JPJ having started to settle in at guard, this would offer Houston options to either plug him in there or replace center Jake Andrews. We just saw what C.J. Stroud is capable of with a solid pocket.
Cincy handed Hendrickson a one-year extension in the offseason, but now not competing for a title, it’s best for both sides to move on, and the Niners badly need pass-rush help. They could also be in the market for Jets LB Quincy Williams.
Dean took a massive step forward last season and has looked solid in his return from injury. Yet, Philly can’t afford to take rookie Jihaad Campbell off the field. Meanwhile, LB is a major weakness for Indy (no one with a PFF grade higher than 58.0).
Although NY’s defense has been best on defined dropbacks, putting KT on the field with Burns & Carter, they should try to get returns on the former top 10 pick, in the final year of his rookie deal. Baltimore is tied for 31st in sacks (9).
NY traded for Jarvis Brownlee Jr. in Carter’s absence, who’s become a key contributor for them, limiting the veteran to 6 defensive snaps in his return. Chicago recently placed starting nickel Kyler Gordon on IR and Carter would be a great fit.
Buffalo could use help at DT with Ed Oliver’s injury, but their biggest issue has been angles + missed tackles by their safeties – Thompson is right at his career average of just a 7%. Dadrion Taylor-Demerson is ready to step in for Arizona.
Saints QB Spencer Rattler ➡️ Browns
Panthers RB Chuba Hubbard ➡️ Vikings
Jaguars WR Brian Thomas Jr. ➡️ Patriots
Titans IDL Jeffery Simmons ➡️ Cowboys
Jets LB Quincy Williams ➡️ 49ers
Vikings CB Isaiah Rodgers ➡️ Eagles
We’re four weeks into the NFL season, and as always, this is the point at which I first try to reflect on what we’ve seen and actually try to put all 32 teams in order. Please bear in mind that these are power *rankings* rather than standings. So you may see one team be listed above another with a (slightly) better record or even one they’ve already lost to head-to-head at some point – the objective is to weigh them against the rest of the league at large, and how many opponents I’d favor them over.
This is meant to be a snapshot of how I view each of these teams as of right now, taking injuries into account, although as objective as one tries to be when putting these together, there may be some projection of certain areas improving or declining with time. I will use a variety of statistics and advanced metrics to support my arguments, but they’re all grounded in having watched all 64 games so far on the broadcast and/or All-22 – yes, even some of the atrocious AFC South matchups in the early going.
Overall, I wouldn’t say there’s one dominant group in the league right now, and there are a bunch of teams in the middle of course, where I expect plenty of movement over the next three plus months still, while the bottom-eight teams feel pretty distant to the rest of the competition.
Let’s get into the list:
We’re one week down for the 2025 NFL season and as always, there was a lot going. Before we even had one snap from scrimmage, we had a star defender ejected for spitting at an opponent in the kickoff game, then a great AFC West quarterback battle in Sao Paulo, a Sunday slate filled with revenge stories, an early game of the year contender on Sunday night and another big-time comeback to close things out on Monday.
Understandably, there’ll be a lot of overreactions from what happened in these opening games, and while we saw more established players participating in preseason, there was still some rust to shake off, and defenses setting the tone in several matchups. Nonetheless, there‘s a lot to take away for now, as we get our first look at new schemes, rookies, units, etc.
I‘m going to outline three takeaways for all 16 games based on watching the broadcasts and/or tape afterwards. Therefore, these will obviously be 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 break it all down!
The following conversation goes against what the NFL’s shield is trying to sell the public at the start of every single season – the idea of all 32 teams having a chance to hoist the Lombardi Trophy at the end of it. As much as I love how they strive for parity, conceiving anything but achieving the ultimate goal as a failure would always leave all but one fan base dissatisfied. Generally, I sway away from asking questions like the one in the title, but due to several factors, I thought laying out which factors we should pay attention to and what constitutes a “successful campaign” was particularly interesting this year.
I’m fully aware that this by no means is an innovative concept, but looking back at this past season, I thought the gap between “the rich and the poor” was as large as ever once we got to around Thanksgiving. So I do believe it’s important to offer a frame of context for how we should probably view what these franchises are about to put onto the field once we kick things off. For some teams, simply measuring it by where the journey ends for them in 2025 is fair, yet for others, showing growth in certain areas may be even more crucial for their future outlook.
We’ll go through them all by division here!
Closing out the first half of our divisional draft and roster review series with the Bills, Dolphins, Patriots and Jets. We’ll once again break down every single player they selected in the draft, their projected role on their new team and the overall construction of those rosters throughout this offseason!
On last night’s episode of the Draft Professor, Jim, Bill, E.J. and I broke down different draft options for the four Conference Championship participants from this past season – the Washington Commanders, Buffalo Bills, Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles.
We’re coming off an exciting, dramatic even if at times chaotic Divisional Round weekend. However, one of the overarching themes watching these four games for me was how the losing teams shot themselves in the foot and cost themselves chances to come out on top of those matchups.
So rather than highlighting positives and breaking down great plays of the winners primarily – as we usually do – let me be THAT guy for a day and just vent about some of the decisions and moments that proved costly for the other side!
The NFL playoff bracket is set and I took on the exercise of previewing/predicting every single matchup, leading up to Super Bowl LIX! I’ll share a few thoughts on each side and how I came to all my decisions!
We’ve reached the final week of the NFL season and the calendar year 2025. So, with the playoff participants at least largely established, while I’m generally not a big believer in them personally, I took the opportunity to come up with resolutions for each of the six teams who have already clinched a spot on either side of the bracket.
Since the Denver Broncos, Miami Dolphins and Cincinnati Bengals are still fighting for the final Wildcard berth in the AFC and the Atlanta Falcons could still take away the NFC South crown from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the task for them is to just take care of business (and hope for some help). Therefore, I didn’t give them their own paragraph.
For this exercise, I largely focused on personnel usage, schematic details and attitude in how teams should approach future matchups. Let’s dig in:
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