And finally we get around to the AFC North, and home of LAMAR JACKSON. Can the RAVENS draft enough talent to help get this team over the Play-Off hump and into the Super Bowl with a scrambling QB like JACKSON? That is starting to become a question already. Will JOE BURROW be back and at full health in… Read More »
Welcome to Mr. RODGERS neighborhood. The reigning NFL MVP is still looking for that elusive second Super Bowl ring. None of his division opponents have done much to close the gap, at least for the time being. They all won some, lost some in the VFA ring, while the Pack sat things out because of looming Salary Cap… Read More »
This is the division which contains the most woeful team in the NFL from last season. That would be the JAGUARS, which means this division will add the consensus best overall player in this Draft in TREVOR LAWRENCE/QB, once the Draft gets underway. With football sage URBAN MEYER now at the helm, this team has a solid chance… Read More »
The Champion BUCS reside here. And they intend to repeat that title as you might have noticed with their re-signing splurge. But nevertheless, the remainder of the division is determined to put up a fight. And those teams all have major holes to fill in quality personnel. With SAM DARNOLD now in Carolina, don’t look for the Panthers… Read More »
We move along to the “other” team greatly affected by the TOM BRADY move to Tampa, which of course would be the PATRIOTS. For the first time in forever they were not the AFC East champs, and the top dog for the division was the 13-Win BILLS from upstate New York. Right now, the BILLS have the top… Read More »
One of, if not the, “dud” divisions in the league for the 2020 NFL season. It looked for all the world like no one would ever step up to claim the Division Title and a trip to the Play-Offs. The team with no real name finally captured the dubious distinction of prevailing with a sub-.500, 7-9 record. Changes… Read More »
So now let’s flip the coin to the AFC West, and within this division we have cash buyers, so to speak. This group of 4 holds a cumulative total of 34 Picks in this year’s Draft. No big dippers here, so to speak, but everyone has been judicious in their handling of Draft Picks, and now comes the… Read More »
Especially this year, I am labeling this the Wimpy Division. No, not like the the Wimpy Kid literary craze. Wimpy, as in that rotund guy from the old Popeye Cartoons, whose philosophy in life was stated in one simple sentence, “I will gladly pay you next Tuesday for a hamburger today”. This has become the division that uses… Read More »
It is that time of year. Actually, it was gonna be last week already, but the Free Agency period was so hectic from the start that I hit the brakes. Doesn’t make sense to do Team Mocks when you don’t have a fairly clear picture of the team depth charts. It’s still a bit of a gamble, but… Read More »
So my friends, what are you thinking about from a football standpoint right now, as our Pandemic world slowly turns? As I admit to a bit of withdrawal without an NFL Combine at the end of February, I toss around the lack of information most of us will be without as we try to dig deeper into the… Read More »
My calendar doesn’t always align perfectly with the NFL’s. Now that Star Game action has concluded, as well as the Super Bowl crowning a 2020 season Champion in Tampa, it signals to me that we are heading into the next NFL year. That’s about 3 weeks from now to the NFL. As such, it really is the season… Read More »
Every year the Senior Bowl concludes its week with an actual football game. And the teams play the game to win. Many say the practices are everything in Star game venues. I say if that is so, then they are doing something wrong. The game is the culmination of a weeklong exercise of personal interviews with NFL personnel… Read More »
QB #10 MAC JONES ALABAMA RB #7 MICHAEL CARTER UNC FB #42 BEN MASON MICHIGAN WR #84 FRANK DARBY ARIZONA STATE WR #85 JOSH PALMER TENNESSEE WR #3 AMARI RODGERS CLEMSON TE #80 HUNTER LONG… Read More »
It’s the final day of practices in Mobile, and it appears to be none too soon. The list of players attending, but not participating in pads, has grown to noticeable numbers this Thursday morning at the National practice session. It has hit the WR group especially hard. Here, but without pads, are TYLAN WALLACE, SAGE SURRATT, and D’WAYNE… Read More »
I couldn’t even see downtown Mobile out my hotel window Wednesday morning at 7:30 AM when I woke up. That’s some pretty dense fog, considering I was looking out a 17th floor window to a downtown less than 5 miles away. Oh well, it was lifted to another gray, cloudy day by the time I headed for practice… Read More »
After a mad dash from a restaurant on the causeway to the USA campus football stadium at the western end of town, we were happily treated to two full practice sessions sans rain until the last 15 minutes of the later session. The opener featured the NATIONAL Team under the guidance of BRIAN FLORES and his Dolphins coaching… Read More »
I want to put a different spin on this report. Weather made for an exciting, active day today in Mobile. It started last night when practices were announced as moving to the USA Indoor practice facility which meant no room for the media corps. Then the annual weigh-in was held this A.M., but the media could not attend… Read More »
The NFL is heading for the Super Bowl, which like everything else in this Pandemic World of Covid-19, will seem a bit subdued and strange as Covid Protocols are set in place. But once they kick the game off, it should be similar, on the field of play, to what we have grown accustomed to. I live only… Read More »
It was not my intention to load up with 50 Rookies on my team. But with a few injuries (i.e. JOE BURROW), an overload of talent at some positions, and the NFL using multiple sets of personnel groupings, listing just 25 guys is impractical. So on this team, I give you 38 players. PPG OFFENSE QB Justin… Read More »
It was a strange weekend on the College Football landscape with an unusual hodgepodge of make-up games and Conference Championships. Some of the games were shootouts til the final possession (SEC), others were pure butt kicking (ACC). DABO SWINNEY made a BIG stink about Ohio State not deserving a spot in the Final Four, but despite only playing… Read More »
Like several other football writers, I was thinking that the 2020 season would be a hall pass of sorts for coaches, just like the NCAA tried to do with players. But apparently that concept was erroneous in its conception. The coaching carousel is in full gear, and for most teams, the season isn’t quite over yet. While Texas… Read More »
The most notable thing that caught my eye this week came Monday after the College Football weekend was wrapped up. That was the announcement from Sports Illustrated of it’s Sports Person(s) of the Year for 2020, clearly the year of Covid-19, to people with a reasonably functioning brain. And lo and behold, whose face should appear to my… Read More »
The biggest item that caught my eye Sunday morning was all the press coverage of the Denver Broncos Covid-19 plight in their QB Room. After multiple appeals and requests to the League to at least move the game to Monday or Tuesday so that unaffected QBs could suit up, the answers from the League Office had all been… Read More »
We are now starting to see some showdown games, as it were, that should separate the fly poop from the pepper. Unbeatens Indiana and Ohio State had a terrific showdown game which contained a large number of 2021 Draft prospects, and proved that IU Head Coach Tom Allen and his staff know what they are doing up there… Read More »
The Covid-19 Pandemic is really taking big bites out of the 2020 College Football season, as we approach the end of 2020. My schedule sheet for last weekend showed 14 college games cancelled or postponed. 4 of those lost games came from the SEC alone. Thankfully, we were still left with a goodly number of contests, featuring some… Read More »
