The Miami Dolphins were in a tough situation last week. Franchise quarterback Ryan Tannehill partially tore his ACL, and recently decided to undergo surgery, ending his 2017 season. Despite having a capable backup like Matt Moore, the Dolphins decided to fill the need left by Tannehill’s injury externally, signing Jay Cutler out of retirement and…
The New England Patriots fascinate me. They have been the class of the NFL for a long time. Depending on your definition of a dynasty, you could state that New England’s has spanned the last two decades. Or they had one in the early 2000s and we’re presently living in the second iteration. Either way,…
Welcome to a new series here at Inside the Pylon called The Option Route. This one has a primary focus on the wide receiver position. The idea for this series stems from another great series you may be familiar with here at ITP, the Under the Microscope series from my ITP colleague Brandon Thorn who…
Every spring, NFL teams meet with prospects for the upcoming draft in the months leading up to the draft itself. There are many opportunities for players and teams to meet with one another, including all-star games, pro days, the NFL Scouting Combine, workouts, and private visits. Each type of meeting has different rules that govern…
NFL teams throughout the league have a quarterback problem, and they’ve had it for a while. It’s not difficult to figure out that there is a shortage of franchise quarterbacks in the NFL. That’s why teams pour a ton of money into trying to sign or draft their next franchise quarterback – sometimes simultaneously. The…
The 2017 New York Jets are essentially guaranteed to be one of the worst teams in the NFL. They recently released two of their better and more experienced players in linebacker David Harris and wide receiver Eric Decker. The former will save $6.5 million and the latter $5.75 million against the cap according to Over…
Each year during the NFL Draft, the league opens its doors to hundreds of young, aspiring athletes looking to continue their dream and make a name for themselves at the highest level of competition. What happens after the draft, however, is ultimately more important. Unfortunately for these players, their ability to actually bring those dreams…
The Cleveland Browns made the right decision staying with Myles Garrett and not taking Mitchell Trubisky. In the end, I believe the Trubisky hype was all media-driven and that the Browns were locked in the entire time, which is what I maintained throughout the process. Cleveland allowing teams to come up around them for Deshaun…
The first round of the NFL draft is in the books, and three quarterbacks heard their names called, all in the first dozen selections. This is in line with what some were expecting, given the number of teams picking in the top 12 that needed to address the quarterback position. However, the order in which…
Introduction The Cleveland Browns are a team whose quarterback situation looks poor: Cody Kessler and Kevin Hogan are firmly in the bottom tier of signal-callers league wide. It is not surprising to see various mock drafts forecasting Cleveland’s selection of a quarterback in the first round. The Browns themselves have leaked that Mitchell Trubisky could…
(Click to enlarge table) Click here for a full explanation of the methodology and categories used in the chart above. “The Big 4” My top rated quarterback, and the only one to receive a 1st round grade from me this year is Texas Tech’s Patrick Mahomes II. Mahomes is more than just an ultra gunslinger.…
We are 31 days away from the 2017 NFL Draft. Despite being so close, the final picture of what the first round looks like is still as muddied as it was a month ago, it’s just muddied in different ways now. We know Myles Garrett is going #1 and we know little else for certainty.…
“State of the Draft” is going to be a weekly column serving as a catch-all for anything NFL Draft. You can expect information on which prospects I’ve been watching, players I’m high or low on, players who I think might be under the radar, positing on draft philosophy, expanded thoughts on topics in the media…
Ladies and gentlemen, mock draft season is upon us. Back when I worked in an office, I loved getting to my desk each morning during draft time, firing up the web browser, and surfing the Internet for the countless options that the wise denizens of football predicted for each team. But now, as a writer…
With the caveat that the first day of practice at any event such as the Senior Bowl needs to be graded on a curve, I wanted to share some observations from the first day of practice for the six quarterbacks down here in Mobile. At the outset, when you remember that these are players throwing…
Shane Alexander’s notes from Weigh-ins and Day 1 of practice: Quarterbacks: Davis Webb came in as the de facto top quarterback of the South and neither Antonio Pipkin nor Josh Dobbs did anything to challenge him. The Browns’ system is completely different from what both Texas Tech and Cal ran, and we saw Davis struggle…