The NFL analytics community has known for a while that deep passing is more efficient than short passing. Dan Pizzuta wrote recently that “just under 18% of passes have traveled over 15 yards past the line of scrimmage and those attempts have made up for 133% of the league-wide passing EPA [Expected Points Added].” In…
After a truly mesmerizing display on Monday Night Football, the offensive juggernauts in Los Angeles and Kansas City are on a bye this week. If you haven’t had a chance to look at the highlights, I suggest you get on that immediately. Within these highlights, you’ll see where the NFL, and by proxy fantasy football,…
After taking a sabbatical to cover the Brownsian fall of Hue Jackson, it’s back to fantasy football in Week 10. Last week saw a plethora of fantasy story-lines from Julio Jones’ first touchdown, to the potential emergence of total wildcard Nick Mullens, to the long awaited re-emergence of Duke Johnson. This week I’ll be looking…
Week 8 takes us to the halfway point in the fantasy football season. Thus far the Rams, Steelers, and Chiefs have been the most fertile grounds for fantasy points. While the Bills, Cardinals, and 49ers have proven themselves too volatile to trust. I do not fault these 3 teams, as injuries and rookie errors have…
Week 7 in the fantasy football season finds Green Bay, Pittsburgh, Oakland, and Seattle all on their bye weeks. Bad news for Rodgers and Roethlesberger owners, perhaps good news for Derek Carr and Amari Cooper owners. At least they’ll be spared the aggravation. Raiders jokes aside, it’s not just Rodgers and Roethlesberger; James Conner, Antonio Brown,…
Week 5 was another strange week in the NFL. Graham Gano kicked a game winning 63 yard field goal, Greg Joseph kicked the ugliest game winning field goal in recent memory, and one of the NFL’s best kickers, Mason Crosby, missed 5 kicks against the Lions. The Jets running game rose from the ashes, the…
Ryan Fitzpatrick will return, at least for now, to his slumber under the surface. Four of the five rookie quarterbacks taken in 2018 NFL Draft have assumed starting responsibilities for their respective teams. Julian Edelman and Mark Ingram are set to return from their suspensions. The Tennessee Titans beat the defending Super Bowl Champions despite…
This past weekend someone asked me why fantasy football is so difficult. I told her, quite frankly, it is so hard because the NFL is almost impossible to predict. Right on cue the Bills beat the Vikings and the Lions beat the Patriots with their first 100 yard rushing performance in 5 years. This, of…
Before I start writing and you start reading, let us try to take a moment to process the featured image above. Specifically: is this the greatest thing ever to happen or a sign the excesses of Western Civilization have finally gotten completely out of control? I wonder . . . Okay, so now that we…
Week 1 has come and passed, now we move on to Week 2. Or at least you, the reader, can move on to Week 2. I admittedly still need a bit of time to process the Browns and their tie against Pittsburgh. This is not the place to vent about the lack of jet sweeps…
The opening game of the NFL season saw the Atlanta Falcons travel to take on the Super Bowl champions Philadelphia Eagles. One highlight from the game was the play which everyone dubbed “Philly Special 2.0,” but was it really that same play used in the Super Bowl? Let’s start by actually looking at the “Philly…
Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Jordan Hicks played in his first game since coming back from a ruptured right Achilles suffered in the 2017 season when he played on Thursday night against the Atlanta Falcons. He ruptured his left Achilles in 2014 while playing at Texas and it is said when one goes the other will follow suit…
The Zen philosopher Basho once wrote . . . Ha! I’m just kidding. Unlike my last article, I won’t be funneling my analysis through Ancient Philosophy. Hence the Caddyshack reference. No, no, instead I’d like to take some time and share a few storylines in Week One that should have a significant impact on the…
“Evolution is the fundamental idea in all of life science – in all of biology” – Bill Nye And especially in the game of football. Yet unlike nature, where changes can be gradual and take life cycles, evolution in football must be swift, must be effective, and preferably must be trailblazing lest ye be left…
Perhaps one of the bigger stories of the whole offseason is that former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant remains unsigned at time of writing. But fear not, I see a bright future still in the NFL for Dez, if he wants to embrace it. Now before I delve into this piece, I’m just going…
As legendary college offensive line coach Joe Moore often told his players, there’s no greater feeling than being able to move a man from Point A to Point B against his will. No block represents this more than a base block. The drive (base) block is a foundational pillar of offensive line play. A successful…