NFL Offseason

Key position battles across 2024 NFL training camps:

With all veterans across the NFL arriving at their team facilities for training camp, it’s time to look at the most interesting and/or meaningful competitions for starting jobs. I want to describe what role needs to be filled – some more distinctly defined than others – with a quick summary of why the spot is up for grabs, present the candidates with some statistics to back up their case, discuss some schematic nuances and who I consider as favorites based on what those coaching staffs are looking for as well.

I settled on six position battles on each side of the ball, without repeating positions. Some of the them may be more critical, as we’ll get to in a second – while others may be more niche roles or at least could look as much, as these battles play out. At the very end, I added one more position group for all 32 teams, where there’s some competition to keep your eye on, listed by alphabet.

Let’s dive in:

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NFL Offseason, Storylines around the NFL

One burning question for each NFC team ahead of the 2024 season

Following my month-long divisional draft & roster review series, I’m back with a little two-piece project, where instead of diving into a bunch of individual players, I looked at each team as a whole and asked myself “what is the one burning question I have for them as I think about the 2024 NFL season?”

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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 games

My top 30 games on the 2024 NFL schedule:

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NFL Rookies

NFL All-Rookie team 2023/24:

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:


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Uncategorized

Under-the-radar NFL stars through three weeks:

Every NFL fan is aware of the Dolphins offense putting up historic numbers, how dominant the 49ers have looked on both sides of the ball and the main storylines.

I wanted to shine a light on the top performers across the league, who aren’t talked about enough, but have stood out in a major way through the first three weeks.

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Storylines around the NFL

Most pivotal situations of the 2023 NFL season:

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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NFL Draft

NFC West 2023 draft & roster review

The last week of our divisional draft and roster analyses has arrived and we’re finishing up with the NFC and AFC West!

This particular group of four teams is pretty interesting, since two of them could be competing for the conference when it’s all said and done, while the others I would label as two clearly rebuilding franchises.

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NFL Draft, NFL Offseason

NFC West Draft & Roster Review 2022

Kicking off our final week of divisional draft breakdowns, we finish up with the NFC & AFC West!

As always we run through every single pick, talk about their fit on the roster, analyze each class as a whole and then rank them against each other inside the division.

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Game Previews, Super Bowl

Super Bowl LVI preview:

I think it’s fair to say that this isn’t the matchup we expected coming into the season. When sportsbooks initially released their Super Bowl lines, only two teams – the Lions and Texans – had longer odds of winning the Lombardi trophy than the Bengals and you would have yielded a 100-to-one payout or better, had you put money on them. And as of the middle of December, sitting there at 7-6, they were on the outside of the playoffs looking in, among a crowded field of contenders in the AFC. The Rams on the other hand were on the fringe of the top-five in terms of championship odds, but there were some serious doubts about them as well at points, entering December at 7-4 and having a few wins late in the year, which were far from convincing. Yet, these two groups are now set to meet in the big game, knocking off last year’s champs in either conference along the way.

There are a bunch of storylines to follow, such as former Rams assistant and now Bengals head coach Zac Taylor trying to beat his former boss in Sean McVay, Andrew Whitworth facing a Cincinnati team that he was a part of for 11 years and now has a chance to reach the ultimate goal against in his final time on the field possibly at 40 years old, a re-merging superstar in Odell Beckham Jr. meeting the team he suffered a torn ACL against that ended last season for him, two former number one overall picks at quarterbacks trying to outduel each other and even the battle of kickers, with a highly confident rookie and a first-time Pro Bowler, who’s had some issues lately.

Let’s break everything down from a schematic perspective on both sides of the ball, certain matchups to pay attention to and how they may affect the outcome, along with identifying one X-factor on offense and defense for each squad and then coming to a conclusion with a final score prediction.

 

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