1. Andy Phillips, Utah – Chicago Bears I love nearly everything about Andy Phillips’ game. He falls off a little more to the right than is ideal, but it is a relatively minor balance issue compared to what many undrafted prospects show coming out of college. He was 4-for-4 in his career from 50+ yards,…
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…
Now things really get interesting. We’re moving into the Day Three type of players, quarterbacks who for one reason or another will probably wait a little bit longer to hear their name called. But there are some talented players in this class who are Day Three QBs, including some in this tier below who are…
Over the last 10-12 years, the value and role of the running back position has changed drastically at all levels of football, but particularly in the NFL. With the increased focus on the passing game coupled with the durability issues at the position, offenses have become less reliant on running backs as a whole. Teams…
Now that we have moved through the Big Four of this draft class, it is time to take a look at the signal callers in my second tier of this year’s prospects. Of the four players in this group, two have received early round buzz, while the other two are staying somewhat under the radar.…
(Click to enlarge table) Click here for a full explanation of the methodology and categories used in the chart above. “The Headliners” The headliner of this class is Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey, who I would be comfortably take in the early teens in round 1. The specialness of McCaffrey comes from a presence on the…
The ability of a quarterback to use their feet, peripheral vision, and awareness of pressure to navigate the pocket to find or create throwing lanes is what is referred to as pocket mobility. If the quarterback feels pressure off the edge, he could climb the pocket to avoid the outside pressure. As the pocket may…
Self-evaluation is a critical component of the scouting process. History informs us that we will miss on players from time to time, and no evaluators are perfect. Looking back at our previous evaluations of players and identifying the how and why of our errors is a process that is humbling, but helpful to our own…
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 Super Bowl upon us and the football season finish line right in front of our eyes, what better time than now to reflect on past big games and how their participants compare to this year’s combatants: the Atlanta Falcons and the New England Patriots. In my previous article looking at recent conference championship…
If you’re watching the game from home, how can you tell when a blitz or defensive line stunt is coming? This article shows blitz and stunt indicators as well as how offenses react to them. Blitzing and defensive line stunts are all about timing as well as spacing. One spacing indicator of defensive line stunts…
Past performance does not guarantee future results. It’s also extremely tough to compare NFL teams across seasons because each season is its own story. But in order to lend another layer of context to this weekend’s games, I took a look at each conference championship team since 2002 (the 32-team era) and compared them by…
Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Ben Roethlisberger, and Matt Ryan are one of the best collections of quarterbacks to ever play in the Conference Championship round of the NFL playoffs. There is no doubt. You have arguably the best signal-caller of all-time at the helm of the most successful franchise of the last 15 years, one…
In 2015 the New York Giants were eighth in yards-per-game with 372.0 and sixth in points-per-game with 26.2 with Ben McAdoo as their offensive coordinator. However, after finishing 6-10 for the second consecutive season, ownership decided that it was best for the team to part ways with long-time head coach Tom Coughlin. With their offense…
A screen play usually includes three offensive linemen pass blocking for a couple of seconds before releasing to block downfield for a receiver or running back. The objective of the screen is to get a convoy of mean, moving mass in front of the ball carrier. When called at the right time and executed correctly,…