Cards part ways with top personnel exec … Arizona VP of player personnel Quentin Harris is reportedly no longer with the team after a 20-year stint with the team that included fur as a safety just after the turn of the century. Harris then returned to the organization as a pro scout in 2008 and slowly worked his… Read More »
New CFP playoff format approved … The CFP management board has approved the new 5+7 playoff format that will begin next fall. Under the new model, the playoff field will include the 5 highest ranked conference champions along with the next 7 highest ranked teams. Under the new format, the four highest ranked teams will get first-round byes,… Read More »
Tag day in NFL … The new NFL football year doesn’t officially get under for another three weeks, but it really begins today which is the first day that teams can apply a franchise or transition tag to impending free agents. Franchised players are tagged either with an exclusive or non-exclusive designation. Most get the non-exclusive version which… Read More »
There’s a kind of hush all over the league … With the Super Bowl in the books it has been kind of quiet around the NFL the past week. However, don’t be confused by the apparent calm as there is a lot going on behind closed doors. In fact, most teams would have taken the week before the… Read More »
Path to the draft runs thru Indy … Every year we make that statement referring to the fact that the scouting combine in Indianapolis is an indisputably a key element of the pre-draft process. Last year, for example, 86% of the 259 players selected at the 2023 draft participated in some way at last February’s event in Indianapolis.… Read More »
Tua II heads list of top combine snubs … Every year one of the big questions surrounding the scouting combine is who didn’t get invited. Interesting this year, though, that it doesn’t appear if there are any real huge surprises in the players not invited to the combine. Among those who won’t be in Indianapolis at the end… Read More »
Lions sign Lions’ CFL DPOY … Detroit has signed B.C. Lions DE Mathieu Betts, the CFL’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2023, to a futures contract. Betts, who played collegiately for Canadian power Laval, had a breakout year last fall when he led the CFL with 18 sacks. He was originally signed as an undrafted rookie by… Read More »
Combine list announced … The NFL just released the list of 321 players that have been invited to this year’s scouting combine in Indianapolis which gets underway on February 26th. And the actual list is important because the players chosen are the ones that NFL teams want to see and historically combine participants have made up around 85%… Read More »
Super Bowl to decide final two picks … The 2023 season wraps up later this evening with the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs facing the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl in Las Vegas. And that means the final two picks in the 2024 draft – now less than 75 days away – selection order will be… Read More »
Pats tweak front office … It appears New England has settled on a front office structure, at least for the short term, following the departure of Bill Belichik last month. Eliot Wolf, the son of almost legendary long-time Packers GM Ron Wolf, who has been the Patriots director of scouting, will become the team’s de facto G.M., although… Read More »
Big Board updated … With all the new information, the GBN Big Board ranking the top 200+ prospects overall for the 2024 draft has been updated. And as we have noted previously, our board reflects less how we have the players rated ourselves, but as best as we can figure how NFL teams have them ranked on their… Read More »
Defensive positional rankings updated … The GBN defensive positional rankings have been updated (see the drop down menu above.) The biggest changes, and they are pretty significant, are at CB where there appears to have been almost a sea change with an almost entirely new top 3 at the position. In particular, Alabama’s Terrion Arnold appears to have… Read More »
Offensive positional notes … The updates to our positional rankings are now complete for the offence. See the drop-down menu above. A couple of notes along the way. Among the WRs, for example, the top three guys – Marvin Harrison, Rome Odunze and Malik Nabers – remain the same; in fact, it won’t be a total shock if… Read More »
To QB or not to QB continued; ranking updated … We are just in the process of updating our positional rankings starting with the QBs (and as usual the Big Board will be fully updated once the poistional rankings are done). Re the QBs it is still pretty clear that NFL teams have the top 3 guys –… Read More »
Last word on Senior Bowl prospects … Or at least our last word! Assessing how the various skill position players on offence and the back seven people on the other side of the ball is complicated by the fact that we don’t have access to the all-22 tape and what one sees on TV is limited. In particular,… Read More »
Senior Bowl game DL review … Not surprisingly, the defensive line also suffered from several opt outs for the actual Senior Bowl game in Mobile on Saturday as DEs Laiatu Latu of UCLA and Oregon’s Brandon Dorlus and DTs Michael Hall of Ohio State and Tyler Davis of Clemson chose not to play, while Missouri DE Darius Robinson,… Read More »
Senior Bowl game OL review … It was certainly disappointing that in addition to Washington QB Michael Penix a number of other top prospects opted to sit out Saturday’s actual Senior Bowl game in Mobile. And that number including several top offensive line candidates including OTs Taliese Fuaga of Oregon State, Oklahoma’s Tyler Guyton and Christian Jones of… Read More »
Senior Bowl wraps; its onto Indy for draft process … The post-season all-star game phase of the draft process came to an end this afternoon with the Orange team defeating the Gray team 16-7 in a rather lacklustre affair. In fact, we had been very much hoping to spend the afternoon analyzing the QB play, but Michael Penix,… Read More »
QB Penix to skip Senior Bowl game … In a late breaking development, Washington QB Michael Penix has reportedly opted not to play in today’s Senior Bowl game in Mobile which gets underway literally in minutes. It’s an interesting decision as Penix didn’t necessarily have a great week of practice and could have used a good game performance… Read More »
Irish QB has ankle surgery … New Notre Dame QB Riley Leonard has confirmed that he underwent surgery a couple of weeks ago on the ankle he injured back in September and that ultimately derailed his 2023 season. Leonard, who transferred to Notre Dame from Duke this off-season had a TightRope procedure done on the ankle that ironically… Read More »
Senior Bowl set to KO; DE Robinson named top player … The Senior Bowl game is set to get underway at 1 PM ET on the NFL Network. Here are the rosters for the National and American teams. Unfortunately, though, those rosters do not include the players’ numbers; however, those are available in PDF form here in several… Read More »
National team Senior Bowl practice wrap … You know its kind of a lighter practice when the offensive and defensive linemen are running routes, catching passes and working on their Heisman poses! Of course, that’s not all that happened in today’s afternoon practice at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, but like the morning session it was a whole… Read More »
National team Senior Bowl practice review … In no particular order, here are the players we thought really stood out at the Senior Bowl morning practices this week. CB Quinyon Mitchell, Toledo OT Taliese Fuaga, Oregon State WR Roman Wilson, Michigan DT Tyler Davis, Clemson C Jackson Powers- Johnson, Oregon C/G Dominick Puni, Kansas C/G Tanor Bortolini, Wisconsin… Read More »
Jackson, Isaac standout at morning Senior Bowl practice … This morning’s National team Senior Bowl practice was somewhat of a muted affair which wasn’t quite a walk-through but certainly lacked the intensity of the first two days in Mobile. However, a couple of guys did stand out this morning. Oregon CB Khyree Jackson, in particular, was the best… Read More »
Herd RB Ali out with tendon injury … One of the drawbacks of the all-star games is the potential for injury and it got Marshall RB Rasheen Ali who reportedly suffered a ruptured tendon during yesterday’s workout which will require surgery and sideline him for 4-6 months.
