Tag Archives: NFL Offseason

NFL Draft

Top 10 cornerbacks of the 2024 NFL Draft:

Closing out week two of our positional draft rankings, we talked about the wide receivers on Wednesday, so now it’s time to discuss the guys who are going to cover them in the pros. Personally, I didn’t make the distinction between inside and outside corners, but I did always mention which role and scheme each player would be able to fit (best) into – whether that’s boundary, field-side corner, nickelback or if I believe they can fill multiple spots.

These last couple of weeks have been pretty stressful for me based on the sheer volume of names I had to go through for wide receivers and corners. In this class particularly, I was a good 30 players in and still found guys with draftable grades. There may not quite be a blue-chip prospect among this group, such as Devon Witherspoon or Derek Stingley Jr./Sauce Gardner in recent years, but I think five guys should go in the first round and since I have another tie at number ten, the rest of my top 11 are all worthy of going in the second.

Let’s get into this deep crop:


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NFL Draft

Top 10 wide receivers of the 2024 NFL Draft:

We’re kicking off week two of our positional draft rankings. After discussing the top ten running backs and linebackers already, we’re advancing to wide receivers. I’m explaining my reasoning for how I have these names stacked up based on in-depth tape analysis, while using advanced metrics and to some degree testing numbers to aid my arguments.

Similarly to most years recently, we have a massive influx of pass-catching talent due to how much more aerial-centric football has become at the youth levels already. Yet, unlike some other drafts we’ve gone through, this group includes some true blue-chip talent. I have two guys with true top-five grades, another name that’ll probably end up in my top ten on the big board and potentially up to like 20 receivers inside my top-100. So I may have to come back in my annual “my guys” episode to discuss some of these lower-ranked names, since there’s still a lot to like about them.

Now let’s get into the list however:


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NFL Draft

Top 10 linebackers of the 2024 NFL Draft:

After starting our positional draft rankings series with the running backs a couple of days ago, we look at the guys lining up across from them in the linebackers. Once again, I’ll be going through my top ten along with a couple of names that just missed the cut, discussing individual skill-sets, bringing up relevant measurables and statistics, potential scheme fits and how I personally value them as prospects.

Similarly to the running backs, this group lacks real top-end talent, most likely with no linebacker going in the first round, but it’s a fairly deep class with a good ten names who could be long-term starters in the NFL along with some guys who present intriguing skill-sets to be developed and/or fit in a specific role. Since it’s a relevant topic right off the bat here, let me remind you that I don’t have any access to medical reports or personal backgrounds beyond what’s freely available (which the NCAA doesn’t make a whole lot public). So my evaluations are all based on what the tape tells me, without being able to fully judge ancillary factors.

This is what my list looks like:

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NFL Draft

Top 10 running backs of the 2024 NFL Draft:

It’s that time of the year! We’re just over six weeks away from the start of the 2024 NFL draft and I will spend that time presenting my top-ten prospects at every single position with in-depth evaluations, alternating between offense and defense with counterparts so to speak. I will talk about individual skill-sets, bring up relevant measurables and statistics, potential scheme fits and about where I personally value those names.

We’re kicking things off – as always – with the running backs (meaning linebackers will follow on Friday). This class lacks big names at the top, but it’s a very deep class, where we could see a run start once the first name comes off the board around the top-50 and we probably see over 20 guys get the call overall.

Let’s get straight into the list:

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College Football, NFL Draft

Biggest risers and fallers from the 2024 NFL combine

The 2024 NFL scouting combine is in the books and I’m here to tell you helped or hurt their draft stock working out in front of decision-makers across the league.

While you have to be cautious about what to do with that new information and what those testing numbers mean, they give us a reason to compare how things match up with the tape and if a couple of prospects are closely graded, this can be the decisive factor for how they ultimately stack up.

I present to you one name at each position that is currently on the rise and fall each:

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NFL Free Agency

One free agent each NFL team should target for 2024:

We’ve arrived at the NFL offseason and while the new league year doesn’t official start until March 13th, the franchise/transition tag period was opened on Tuesday and we can already speculate on where pending free agents could end up.

So I took on the exercise of going through all 32 NFL teams listed by effective cap space, talk about some overarching decisions ahead of them and matched each with one player about to hit the open market!

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College Football, NFL Draft

Biggest standouts from the 2024 college all-star events:

The 2023/24 NFL season has come to a close, but we immediately transition into draft season, as all 32 teams have their eyes set on which young talent they want to bring in as their quest to Super Bowl 59 starts.

Some key events of the calendar have already taken place, when many of the top prospects tried to impress scouts and decision-makers across the league across multiple college all-star events. I did watch the Hula and Tropical Bowl games, but for the purposes of this article, we’ll be focusing on the Shrine and Senior Bowl. For the participants there, I already had done some background work and could contextualize what I saw across three days of practice plus the actual games.

I’ll discuss the ten players on offense and defense each, who impressed me the most and should be moving up draft boards thanks to their performances – I actually ended up going with ten each for both events. At the end, I listed several other players who helped themselves during the early stages of the process.

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NFL Draft, Storylines around the NFL

A look ahead to the top half of the 2024 NFL Draft:

We’ve arrived at the week of Thanksgiving and since I’m in a generous, giving mood, I decided to give something to look forward to for fanbases of the teams that aren’t currently projected to be factors in the playoff picture. And while this includes a couple of teams from the NFC South, that could ultimately still host a playoff game due to the division they’re in, and two .500 teams from the AFC, I think when you look at the list of teams, they all still lack certain elements, which the best way to acquire those is with high draft picks.

I will start by quickly listing the current draft order – if the season ended today – then share my general bird’s-eye view of the upcoming class, before we work our way through each team, shortly discussing their overall state and how they may already look ahead to February through April with their scouting staffs to some degree.

The cut-off for the teams discussed here is pick 16, which makes sense considering the next teams up would be the Bengals and Bills before we get to the current playoff seeds – Cincinnati may have a couple of uncomfortable decisions to make in free agency but were on pace to be one of the most dangerous groups in the AFC, while Buffalo is still very much in the thick of things with the way they looked this past Sunday and being just half a game back from the number seven seed.


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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 Top 100

Halil’s NFL Top 100 Players of 2023:

It’s that time of the year again! After going through the extensive exercise of ranking the top 20+ players at every single position in the NFL today, I combined those to create a list of the 100 best in the game heading into this upcoming season, regardless of position.

The player’s list is one of my favorite things to watch every year, but the process is inherently flawed, since the voters only fill in their top-20 names and are tempted to prop up their teammates or even list themselves. Some of the guys near the bottom shouldn’t be on anybody’s top-20 ballot if they’re being objective.

What’s important to understand is that I’m trying to isolate the individual players, rather than judging their value to their respective teams or how good they may be in a specific role. So not while I bring up general statistics, but also give you background on studying the game’s best and try to draw a bow between both those worlds with some advanced metrics, in order to add context.

Before we get to the actual list, here are a few players who I considered ineligible due to missing time with injury in the past or expected to not be available for a certain amount of games in 2023 – Kyler Murray, Matthew Stafford, Alvin Kamara, Calvin Ridley, Darren Waller, Harold Landry, J.C. Jackson and Micah Hyde.

Let’s dive in now:

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