By: Brady Akins

Here we are, folks. The month of July. Notorious for being the single worst part of the NFL season. Far away enough from the previous season to where the 2020 campaign feels like a distant memory, but not close enough to the upcoming year to legitimately anticipate a new slate of games.

That levels football fans with about one option and one option only– mock drafts. Or, at least, projecting players that could find their way into future mock drafts once the college football season begins. 

College football will have a strong group of pass-catchers headlining their team’s explosive offenses in the 2021 season. They’re built to fill a highlight reel, stuff the stat sheets, bring home awards and eventually make the transition to the next level– NFL football.

But who are the biggest names of the big? Who, among the others, is set to become a household name in 2021 and set themselves up for a Day One selection in the 2022 NFL Draft? 

Here are a few possible receivers that you could be hearing about in a few month’s time.

Chris Olave, Ohio State

Headlining our list of potential 2021 stars is Ohio State’s Chris Olave, a three-year contributor to the Buckeyes offense coming off of a career season, despite playing just seven games in 2020.

After playing a full 14 game schedule the year prior, one that ended with a respectable 849 yards and 12 touchdown grabs, Olave emerged as one of college football’s strongest receiving threats in his junior season. 

In just half the games he played in 2019, Olave hit a career-high in receptions with 50, turning that into 729 yards and seven touchdowns. With an average of a touchdown per game and 14.6 yards per catch, somehow a career-low, the Buckeyes receiver proved to be a big-play threat.

Olave’s dominance came in large part to two defining characteristics, blazing speed and stick hands. Per PFF, Olave has only four career drops on 115 catchable targets. Add that to his 6’1” frame and 4.40-second 40-yard dash speed, and the senior superstar has the chance to be the best pass catcher at the college level and a star in the pros.

Drake London, USC

Behind every exceptional college quarterback prospect is a cast of equally exceptional pass-catchers. Joe Burrow had Justin Jefferson and Ja’Marr Chase. Trevor Lawrence had Tee Higgins and a certain someone that we’ll see later on this list. And Kedon Slovis, the USC up-and-comer has Drake London, who looks tailor-made for the big stage.

London had just about every reason to not have an impressive 2020 season, between a six-game season, a delayed start to the year, and absolutely no home-field advantage that has become quintessential to the Trojans’ football experience. But London ignored those excuses to produce a monster campaign in a condensed season.

The USC star finished as an All PAC-12 second-team selection with 502 yards on 33 catches in five regular-season wins and a near-win in the conference championship. Add that to a freshman season the year before that saw London bring in another 567 yards on 39 catches, and the picture of why NFL franchises are buying into the USC star becomes clear.

Beyond the numbers, London has shown all of the physical tools needed to thrive in the NFL. He stands tall at 6’5”, has the right size at 210 pounds, and possesses enough raw athleticism to earn a role on the USC Trojans basketball team.

With a full slate of games scheduled for the upcoming college football season, London can add to his resume in a big way, and boost a draft stock that might already have him locked in as a Day One pick. 

John Metchie III, Alabama

Hailing from a school that has produced elite NFL talents like Julio Jones and Amari Cooper, as well as up-and-coming pass-catching stars like Jerry Jeudy and Henry Ruggs, Alabama’s John Metchie III has the chance to be the next big thing coming from the Crimson Tide’s offense.

Taken without context, Metchie’s 2020 stat line as a sophomore shows that he has the making to become a star. 55 catches, 916 yards and six touchdowns in just his first season getting regular playing time is impressive enough. However, the Alabama receiver’s stats with context are even better.

Don’t forget what the Crimson Tide had in 2020. Jaylen Waddle, the sixth overall selection in the 2021 NFL Draft. Devonta Smith, the 10th overall pick and the first wide receiver to win the Heisman Trophy since Desmond Howard in 1991. Najee Harris, another first-round selection the 2020 Doak Walker award winner and a volume monster in his own right. Metchie had to compete with all of them for shine in the offense. And still produced at a high level.

Now with all of those players gone, Metchie will be the elder statesman on the Alabama pass-catcher depth chart. He’s quick, explosive, and has the chance to prove he can play at an elite level in 2021.

Justyn Ross, Clemson

Remember Justyn Ross? The Clemson Tigers’ former freshman phenom who looked set to take a firm hold of the title for best receiver in college football after just one spectacular 2019 season?

Well, put that name back in your mind. Because Ross is poised to be a star once again, one that can thrive through the college ranks and onto the NFL level. 

2018 saw Ross put together one of the most exciting highlight reels in recent college history, with 1,000 receiving yards on just 46 catches as a freshman. Despite a slight step back in 2019, Ross still shone, with 66 catches, 885 yards, and eight touchdown grabs.

Injuries forced Ross to miss the entirety of the 2020 college football season, but he is still the same person that set the game on fire two seasons ago. He is still the same 6’4” 21-year-old with lightning speed and sticky hands that can be a matchup nightmare for just about any defensive back. 

Give him time to recover from those injuries and watch him go to work. With a full offseason of practice and a chip on his shoulder, Ross could return to form to light up college football once again.

Garrett Wilson, Ohio State

Chris Olave isn’t the only name to know from the Ohio State Buckeyes offense. Garrett Wilson, the Buckeyes’ junior, stands as a star in his own right, and is much more than an afterthought. 

Wilson was a strong player at Ohio State from the moment he arrived, finishing his freshman season in 2019 with five touchdowns on 30 catches and never looking back. Wilson was even stronger in 2020, despite playing in only eight games.

With over 700 receiving yards on 43 catches, Wilson has proven to be a valuable asset in the Buckeyes’ offense, despite competing for touches with his counterpart in Olave. With another year of experience to his name, and a full schedule of games to play in 2021, Wilson could once again take a major step forward and improve his draft stock.

One Last Name To Know: Reggie Roberson, SMU

The list of big-name receivers heading into the 2021-22 college football season is crowded with pass-catchers at even bigger name schools. Four of the five players went to work on teams that participated in the College Football Playoff, while the other, USC’s Drake London, was a star on a 5-1 team that came within seven points of finishing undefeated and winning the PAC-12.

So let’s mix it up a bit, and give a sample of due respect to a smaller name at a smaller school that could break out heading into the upcoming season; SMU’s Reggie Roberson Jr.

Roberson was possibly on the cusp of becoming a household player in the middle of 2020, when he began the season with 22 catches, 474 yards and five touchdowns through just four games. With 118.5 receiving yards per game, the SMU star was on pace to finish sixth among FBS pass catchers in that category.

Unfortunately for the senior and the Mustangs offense, Roberson went down with a season-ending injury in the middle of his fourth and final game in 2020. But the senior will be back for 2021, and looking to pick up where he left off.

Roberson will be looking to pick up where he left off going into next season. The senior was a big play waiting to happen in 2020, averaging a staggering 21.5 yards per catch through his shortened season, and turning nearly 25% of his catches into touchdowns. 

Expect to hear Roberson’s name come draft season.

The post Top 5 WR CFB prospects heading into 2021: Who is the top WR? appeared first on Pro Football Mania.

The Kansas City Chiefs, the champions of 2019’s Super Bowl 54 and the back-to-back champions of the AFC, are not stupid.

Perhaps you don’t need anyone to tell you that, but regardless, it bears repeating. The Kansas City Chiefs, a model of consistency for years in the NFL and more recently the model for championship-level success, are not stupid.

Rather, the Kansas City Chiefs are well built, from top to bottom. Andy Reid has never been the kind of coach who attempts to fit square pegs into round holes. You will never see Reid attempting to force an outdated style of offense into the modern NFL simply because it’s how things used to be done. Rather, Reid adapts. His offenses change as the personnel changes. Because of this, Kansas City thrives.

Similarly, Brett Veach has never been the type of general manager who sat on his hands when an opportunity presents itself. He was in the front office when the team traded an arm and a leg to trade up 17 spots and draft Patrick Mahomes when they had the chance. He was the man in charge when they offered Mahomes a historically high-value contract, and he’s been in lock-step with Reid since day one, building a roster that has recognized its championship window and capitalized on it. 

One more time, for those in the back of the room, the Kansas City Chiefs are not stupid.

And so, it comes as no surprise that the smart, well-coached, well ran Chiefs have had an offseason for the ages. It’s no surprise that a coach as sharp as Reid and a general manager as aggressive as Veach were able to identify their roster’s most glaring weakness, address it in a variety of ways over the span of months, and transform that weakness into a strength.

That weakness of course being the offensive line. 

It doesn’t take a football mastermind to figure that out. You don’t need hours of film study to identify the holes in the Chiefs’ near-perfect roster.  One look at one game, Super Bowl 55, will show you all you needed to know. One glance at the stat sheet, one that shows that Patrick Mahomes was pressured on nearly half of his total dropbacks, lets even the most casual of NFL observers know that this line was a problem.

But not anymore.

Patrick Mahomes is an All-Pro, and possibly the best player in the league at his position. Tyreek Hill is an All-Pro, and possibly the best player in the league at his position. Travis Kelce is an All-Pro, and, well, you get the idea.

And that’s just on offense. Look toward the opposite side of the ball and you’ll see more of the same. Players like Chris Jones and Tyrann Mathieu are established NFL superstars, while players like L’Jarius Sneed and Willie Gay are fast approaching that level. 

All of this star power is what drove the Chiefs to a 14-2 regular-season record, the best in the NFL. It’s the star power that propelled Kansas City to win yet another AFC Championship with relative ease, despite that nagging issue on the line.

But all the star power in the world couldn’t mask that weakness when the chips were down. Super Bowl 55 was a blowout, and not in the favor Kansas City had come to expect with their recent playoff success. 

But Kansas City’s offseason overhaul happened. Their efforts to address the offensive line weren’t a patchwork job, but rather a top to bottom remodeling. Combine the superstars from the 2020 Kansas City Chiefs with the solidity of the 2021 Chiefs offensive line, and what you have is a perfect storm brewing in Kansas City.

This team was one game away from back-to-back NFL titles. Now, they’ve fixed their only issue. And they’re coming for the throne. Not just for another Super Bowl, but for the honor of the greatest football team in decades.

Who Were the Kansas City Chiefs in 2020?

A wrecking ball. A nearly unstoppable force. Perfect? No. Well, actually, they were pretty close to perfect. At least as perfect as you could expect.

Football is the ultimate team game, one where all 11 offensive starters, all 11 defensive starters, all the backups, all the coaches and coordinators and just about every member of the franchise in the stadium on game day needs to be constantly on their game. One position group, one player, or any deficiency whatsoever can be the difference between winning and losing.

And the Chiefs weren’t just better than any team in the AFC, or better than every team in the regular season, but they were among the best in just about every conceivable metric.

Despite having a quarterback who earned a reputation as a gunslinger in college, one who threw 29 interceptions through 32 college games, the Chiefs finished top five in the NFL in total turnovers, and were top ten in turnover differential.

Despite having a rushing attack that ranked toward the middle of the pack, the Kansas City offense as a whole flourished, finished ranked sixth in points per game and first yards per game. No other team in the league averaged more than 400 yards per game. The Chiefs broke that mark with room to spare, averaging over 415 in 2020.

Somehow, the individual stats are even more impressive.

Mahomes in 2020 was, once again, among the league’s best quarterbacks in just about every aspect you could ask for from a burgeoning Hall of Fame player. Not only was he first in wins, but Mahomes finished second in passing yards, second in quarterback rating, third in passer rating, fourth in total passing touchdowns and first in interception percentage. And after rewriting the standard for quarterback greatness in 2018, winning MVP honors in just his first year as a starter, this 2020 season was considered a relatively down year for Mahomes.

Of course, the quarterback had help, namely in the form of Kelce and Hill, two pass-catchers who have proven to be elite in their own right. Kelce, a tight end, finished second overall in 2020 for receiving yards with 1,416. The next highest tight end, Darren Waller of the Raiders, ended the season with 1,196 yards, despite playing one more game than Kelce. In fact, Kelce’s season marked the first time that a tight end has ever had more than 1,400 receiving yards in one year.

Hill had an impressive season himself, albeit in the shadow of Kelce’s historic 15-game stretch. On 87 catches, only the 17th most in the league in 2020, Hill ended the year with 1,276 receiving yards, the eighth-best in the league. Hill outdid himself in his ability to reach the endzone too, ending the year with 15 receiving touchdowns, the most behind only Davante Adams.

The offense is the bread and butter of the Kansas City Chiefs’ well-oiled operation, but it’s far from the only standout part. The Kansas City defense also finished as a top ten unit in points allowed per game, as well as quarterback rating allowed and turnover percentage.

The defense will never be mistaken as the strength of the Kansas City roster during the Reid era, but it’s far from a weakness. With an offense as star-studded as the one the Chiefs wield, the defense can afford to allow some touchdowns,  but they don’t even do that. Finishing top ten in both scoring offense and defense, Kansas City ended up second in point differential following the regular season.

And remember, all of this statistical dominance and offensive spectacle came before the moves made to address the offensive line. Kansas City retained all of their key contributors from the team that made the Super Bowl in 2020, the team that played so brilliantly for so long. The one thing holding them back from immortality, that pesky offensive line. 

Heading into 2021, the Chiefs made it their mission to make sure that one issue was addressed.

Fixing The Offensive Line

The Chiefs’ depth chart for Week 1 listed these five men as starters on the offensive line. From left tackle to right, the list went Eric Fisher, Kelechi Osemele, Austin Reiter, Andrew Wylie and Mitchell Schwartz.

Only Wylie remains on the Chiefs roster of those original five. Replacing them, a series of trade assets, free agent signings, and even draft picks looking to prove themselves. After the remodel, the Kansas City line has the chance to ascend from the group that gave away a Super Bowl, to a group that can help carry a team to a Super Bowl.

Fisher is gone. Stepping into his place at left tackle, the much younger Orlando Brown, a player who has made two Pro Bowls in his first three seasons. Brown fell all the way to the middle of the third round in the 2018 NFL Draft, and the Baltimore Ravens took him and made him a star. After trading a collection of draft picks to Baltimore, that star power is now coming to Kansas City.

Osemele is gone. Likely to replace him is Kyle Long, one of Kansas City’s free-agent acquisitions. Long is an NFL veteran, but a plug-and-play talent with three Pro Bowls to his name. After not playing for the entirety of the 2020 season, Long is back, and looking to prove himself. 

Reiter is gone, but a rookie steps in to potentially take his place as a starter. Creed Humphrey, Kansas City’s second-round pick in 2021, comes from the Oklahoma Sooners after a decorated college career. Humphrey finished as a freshman All-American in 2018, a Second-Team All-American in 2019, and a Third-Team All-American in 2020. He was the Big-12 co-offensive lineman of the year in 2019, and the sole winner in 2020. All this to say, the big guy can play. And he could be just the right player to put the Chiefs’ offensive line back on track.

Wylie isn’t gone, but he might be gone from the opening week starting spot. Joe Thuney comes in from New England as another free agent guard signings. Thuney has played five seasons in the NFL, has never missed a start, and was a part of two Super Bowl-winning Patriots teams. 2016 and 2018, New England’s two championship seasons with Thuney, the guard started on an offensive line that finished top five in sacks allowed.

The depth behind these new potential starters might be even more solid than the starters themselves. Lucas Niang will be a second-year tackle for the Chiefs and is a player with a decorated college resume that rivals Humphrey’s. Laurent Duvernay-Tardif rejoins Kansas City as a more than capable guard, one who sat out the 2020 season, but actually started for the Chiefs in their 2019 Super Bowl victory. And Austin Blythe, another Chiefs free agent signing, could even be Kansas City’s starting center himself, coming off the Rams roster where he started all 16 games at the position for Los Angeles.

The influx of talent on the Kansas City roster is concentrated nearly entirely on the offensive line, and in a way that covers all their bases. If the team needs youth and high ceilings, they have that in Brown, Humphrey and Niang. If they need seasoned veterans to come in and be solid, above-average players, Long, Thuney and Blythe will be there.

The Kansas City Chiefs were a couple of offensive line offseason acquisitions away from building an NFL superweapon. A Death Star of an offense, ran by Sith Lord Patrick Mahomes and all the toys he could need to wreck shop on a regular basis.

What Kansas City did instead of making a couple of moves was go all the way in. The Chiefs have completely remodeled their biggest weakness, and it could spell trouble for the rest of the league. 

The Ascension of Kansas City

As a reminder, the Kansas City Chiefs are not stupid. They are not a stubborn team that simply seeks to run it back. 

The Chiefs got close, and how could they not? Their control over the rest of the NFL shows up on the stat sheets. Kansas City players constantly found their names on the top of the stat sheets, some of them even made history, and it all came together to form a complete group that coasted to 14 wins. 

And rather than chalking up their Super Bowl defeat to bad luck, rather than sitting on their hands and opening the dice roll better for them next year, Kansas City took action. The Chiefs identified their weakness after that Super Bowl loss, and moved Heaven and Earth to fix it. The near-perfect team, with Hall of Famers lining the roster like it’s a Madden Dynasty, just got a whole lot better at roster spot that needed the most attention.

All of a sudden, that near-perfect team from 2020 is looking about as close to perfect as you can get for 2021. 

The post How the Chiefs learned from their Super Bowl mistakes this offseason: evolution of the OL appeared first on Pro Football Mania.

By: Brady Akins

Back in April of 2021, the NFL franchise currently known as the Washington Football Team took a major step towards rebranding, sending out surveys to season-ticket holders on what to do about the team’s name. Or, in this case, lack thereof. 

The result? A list of 37 potential names for Washington. Some of them are solid. Most of them are”¦ well, if you don’t already know, you’re about to find out.

But being the kind-hearted philanthropist that I am, I decided to help out the Washington franchise by ranking all of their candidate names to help them narrow down the list and weed out some of the weaker suggestions. 

Without further fanfare, let’s take a look.

Aces

Why the Aces?

No, seriously, like why the Washington Aces?

The name doesn’t evoke a sense of fear or dread or authority in the way a traditional mascot would. It isn’t iconic or representative of a Washington D.C.-based landmark or feature, at least not to my knowledge. 

So again”¦ why? What are we doing here? The only conceivable benefit to this particular name change would be Washington fans finding themselves at the top of lists where the mascot is ranked in alphabetical order. That, and the name isn’t horrifyingly offensive.

(Also, the name is already taken)

Rating: 2/10

Ambassadors 

The name ”˜Ambassadors’ solves the issue of practicality and sensibility that the Aces name presented”¦ I guess.

What better way to represent the nation’s capital than naming its very own football team after an ambassador– a diplomat in a political capacity. If nothing else, the name makes sense.

The main issue with the Ambassadors is marketability. Of the 31 other NFL teams, 27 have mascot names that are either one or two syllables. Ambassadors has four. Somehow, the name ”˜Ambassadors’ would come across as less snappy and less catchy than the name ”˜Football Team.’

The only current NFL team to match the Ambassadors in syllable length is the 49ers– a team name often shortened to the ”˜Niners’ to the extent that San Francisco’s official team shop sells merchandise using the shorthand name. 

Washington could try shortening their lengthy name to ”˜Bassadors’ or something similar, but nothing in that vein quite rolls off the tongue. 

Rating: 5/10

Anchors

Close your eyes and picture Washington D.C. for a moment– now open them.

If you’re still reading, you clearly didn’t follow instructions. How would you know to open your eyes if you had closed them when I told you to?

But regardless, for my rule-breakers out there, what do you picture when thinking of Washington? Likely the White House, Washington Monument, wheel and spoke patterned roads, and a plethora of other human-built landmarks.

Probably not many of you jumped to bodies of water large enough to require an anchor. 

The saving grace of this name is in the power associated with it. Anchors equals boats, which equals sailors, which oftentimes are associated with big, strong men with eyepatches and parrots and gold doubloons lining their pockets. Or, at least the first part of that is true.

The name is tough, but not much else about it makes sense.

Rating: 3/10

Archers

Now we’re getting somewhere.

This is a name that, perhaps surprisingly based on the previous potential names, checks all the boxes for a quality mascot. A short and sweet name associated with combat that maybe even loosely relates to the country’s battle for independence? Archers is as close to a winner as we’ve seen so far from the list.

There are, however, a couple of nitpicks. Archers being a bit more finesse fighters than the ”˜down and dirty’ image you would typically prescribe to a football team, and the name coming across a bit like a generic high school mascot from the Road to Glory mode in NCAA 14.

But time could be kind to this mascot. Out of the previous four names, it’s a clear front-runner.

Rating: 8/10

Armada

This name has most of the positives outlined in the ”˜Archers’ name, being short and aggressive the way all good mascots are. But this one comes with a few more downsides.

The biggest one being– how many people actually know what an ”˜Armada’ is? I would be willing to bet that most people know that it’s military-based, but do they know that it’s defined as a “fleet of warships?” Are we really going to make NFL fans Google the definition of their team name before opening kickoff? 

This also brings us back to the big issue with the “Anchors” name. There is water in the Washington D.C. area, but how many of us associate it with water. The Dolphins and Buccaneers can get away with it as Florida-based teams. Washington cannot. 

Rating: 6/10

Aviators

I have a fun exercise for you.

I know, I know, reading is a chore as is, but let me illustrate to you the biggest issue with this name through the power of demonstration.

Go to your search engine of choice and look up the term ”˜Aviators.’ What did you get? Sunglasses.

Yes, yes, I am aware that an Aviator is also a non-sunglasses-related word, but it’s the sunglasses that own the association. When you’re a football franchise, you likely want the first thing people think of when they mention your name to be your team.

Point being, the name is taken. 

Rating: 1/10

Beacons

This is a name that, for better and worse, leans heavily into the symbolism behind Washington D.C. 

Playing under the name ”˜Washington Beacons,’  the franchise would be paying homage to its American ties by representing the original idea of the country as a beacon of prosperity for everyone. 

That’s the point, anyway. Beyond its symbolism, the name is a bit bland, and there are likely more creative and exciting ways to illustrate that same idea of pride.

Not the best name. But as we’ve seen, far from the worst.

Rating: 6/10

Belters

What the hell is a Belter?

Rating: 1/10

Brigade

Similar to Archers and Armada before it, the Washington Brigade has direct ties to the military– making it an assertive option for a team name.

But Brigade shines as a name in a way those previous two falter. Archers is more associated with combat in general than specifically military combat, and Armada is tied directly to sea combat rather than land fighting. Brigade takes those missteps and turns them into positives.

Representative of the team’s location, aggressive in nature, unique and snappy. As a name– Brigade is a winner. Relatively speaking, at least.

Rating: 10/10

Capital City Football Club

This one works”¦ I guess. 

Capital City Football Club includes a nice homage to the significance of Washington D.C. but beyond that there isn’t much being offered here. 

It’s simple. Has a little charm. But overall feels bland in comparison to some of the other candidates.

Rating: 6/10

Commanders

A large portion of the list is made up of names based in combat. The Commanders is another, and it lands somewhere in the middle of the others in terms of quality.

It does check all the key boxes, even if it is a touch on the longer side. The biggest falt in this name is that a Commander feels like an individualistic title. Pluralize it if you want, but there’s a distinct lack of team cohesion here. Without a group of soldiers to command, a commander simply commands commands to other commanders too busy commanding commands to take in the other commander’s commands. 

Or something like that.

Rating: 7/10

Defenders

This team name is a lot like the Commanders. Makes sense, rolls off the tongue, all that good stuff we’re looking for here. It just has one distinct problem.

A mascot based on the root word “defense” would imply no offense. Which, at least in the current state of the roster, does make sense for the Washington Football Team. But I’m sure the marketing intention isn’t to label the team as one who only plays defense.

Imagine the team has just one bad offensive showing. The jokes write themselves. 

“Just 10 points, huh? Guess they’re called the Defenders for a reason.”  

“Defenders really living up to their namesake in playing absolutely no offense.” 

“They don’t call them the Offenders, folks.”

It would be a bloodbath. On the surface, this name works. But it cannot be allowed.

Rating: 3/10

Demon Cats

Demon Cats sounds like the name of a fake high school in Friday Night Lights. I think. I’ve never actually seen the show.

What I’m trying to say is that the name is bad.

Rating: 1/10

First City Football Club

I have, just, so many questions.

What does “First City” mean in this context? I’m no history major, but I can say with a fair degree of certainty that Washington D.C. is not the first American city. So what gives?

Why “Football Club?” Are we trying to class up the sport of American football by associating it with European football? 

Did you guys think that the alliterative ”˜FCFC’ was cool? Be honest. I won’t judge. 

What is the logo going to be? Are we going with just the letters ”˜FC’ on a helmet? And if that is the plan, will the ”˜FC’ represent ”˜First City’ or ”˜Football Club?’

So much confusion for such a terrible name.

Rating: 1/10

Football Team

Washington just spent an entire season being made fun of for playing 16 regular-season games of football with a placeholder name. They won the NFC East branding themselves as the ”˜Football Team’ because they couldn’t think of a new non-offensive name in time for kickoff.

But, they did almost beat the Buccaneers in the playoffs. So maybe it’s good luck.

Rating: 5/10 

Griffins

You can’t go wrong with Greek mythology– especially when the mythological creature in question has the features of an eagle, the symbol of American patriotism, and a lion, the symbol of ferocity in the animal kingdom.

This name runs the risk of being a bit too abstract of a creature for the mainstream. That said, the branding possibilities are endless. It’s a name that people would learn to love.

Rating: 9/10

Guardians 

”˜Guardians’ presents the same cost/benefit conundrum as ”˜Defenders.’

Guardians has ties to the military, making it a powerful name.

However, “I guess they can guard the endzone but not attack it.”

Guardians makes sense as a name given the team’s geographical location.

However, “Boy the Guardians sure could use some guardians on the offensive line with all these sacks.”

This name gets a rating bump over Defenders for the simple reason that many of the potential quips are comedic reaches. But it is something to consider.

Rating: 5/10

Icons

The Washington Football Team hasn’t had a 10-win season since 2012 and hasn’t won a playoff game since 2005. The name ”˜Icons’ seems a bit ambitious.

That said, dress for the job you want, not the job you have. The silver lining of this name is that it gives the team something to aspire towards. But there isn’t much else going for this one.

What’s the mascot going to be? Are you gonna slap a silhouette of the Washington Monument on people’s helmets and a JPG of Mount Rushmore on the 50-yard line and call it a day? 

Rating: 2/10

Majors

In cinema, sometimes you have a movie that has absolutely nothing wrong with it”¦ but also does absolutely nothing particularly well. Completely inoffensive as a product. Something you’ll forget about the literal second it’s no longer in your immediate view.

That’s what the Majors is as a name. As I sit here pondering my rating (Spoiler: leaning towards a 4 or a 5 here but we’ll see), I keep trying to think of reasons to justify giving it a low score– but I can’t. But I can’t think of one reason why it works either. It’s just so”¦ boring. Like the plain yogurt of football team names, if that makes any sense.

Rating: 5/10

Monarchs 

American patriotism seems to be the prevailing theme throughout these proposed name changes. Which, given that Washington plays in the nation’s capital, makes sense.

So then why, why, would the D.C.-based football team tie themselves to the monarchy. Somebody, please help me understand.

Rating: 3/10

Pilots

This one works well enough. 

Not necessarily a ”˜showstopping winner,’ nor a name that will go down as iconic or even particularly exciting. But it gets the job done. 

It’s snappy, catchy, easy to brand, and won’t leave anybody laughing at the team’s expense or groaning in displeasure. 

Which, given the last name of the Washington Football Team, is a step in the correct direction.

Rating: 7/10

Presidents

The prime example of a name making perfect sense, but still somehow managing to be awful.

I get it, Washington, I do. Presidents. Like the people who live and work in D.C. But don’t we think that maybe this one is just a touch too on the nose? And when you take the field on Sundays, do you really want your opponents associating you with William Howard Taft or Martin Van Buren over literally anything else?

Rating: 2/10

Razorbacks

I’m not entirely sure what a ”˜Razorback’ is.

But I do know that it’s taken.

Rating: 4/10

Redhogs

Bonus points will be awarded for each of the proposed names that manage to work the word “red” in somewhere. A nice homage to the franchise’s origins without being, you know, horrible.

That said, I’m not so sure that ”˜Redhogs’ is the route to take. Not that it’s entirely bad as much as it’s not entirely good. Kind of a middle-of-the-road ”˜couldn’t think of anything else’ type option. This one has the air of a low-budget high school team name than the iconic gravitas of an NFL team. Lacks the history of a name like the 49ers or the authority of the Titans.

Plus, I’m not even so sure that a redhog is a real animal!

Rating: 6/10

Redtails

The Redtails have been floated out as a possible name change since before the team even decided to play under the name ”˜Football Team,’ and for good reason too. This one, and I do not say this lightly, is an absolute banger.

This name serves as a historical nod to the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of primarily Black pilots in the United States Air Force who served in World War II. Making it fierce, geographically relevant, and just super cool. 

And it has the word ”˜red’ without being lazily thrown in! A borderline perfect name.

Rating: 10/10

Redwolves

Yet another name that has been thrown around as a possibility since early in the rebranding process, and yet another name that actually kind of slaps.

The possibilities to play ”˜Hungry Like The Wolf’ by Duran Duran are endless. The branding opportunities are unlimited. A nice, fun, spunky name suggestion.

The only downside is that I’m not sure that a redwolf is a real animal either!

And also that this name is already taken.

Rating: 8/10

Renegades

This one has some appeal. It’s tough in an ”˜80s teen drama ”˜too cool for school’ character type of way.

It can (very loosely) be tied to the Founding Fathers, who, in a historical sense, could be considered renegades. 

There are elements of a solid team name in here, for sure. But, when compared to the better names on this list, this one doesn’t quite hold up.

Rating: 7/10

Riders

It’s okay. 

Rating: 6/10

Rising

A miracle. On a list of potential names that includes ”˜Demon Cats, Icons, FCFC and Presidents,’ the Washington Rising somehow manages to upstage them all in terms of pure horribleness. 

Unlike those other previously mentioned terrible suggestions– I have no clue whatsoever what this name is attempting to accomplish. At least to my knowledge, it’s not a reference to anything, it’s not iconic or emblematic of some Washington D.C. area feature. It’s just”¦ kind of a random verb?

At least this name starts with an R so the team can use old throwback helmets?

Rating: 1/10

Royals:

Guys.

GUYS.

After all of the attempts to associate your franchise with American patriotism, why on earth do you keep dipping back into the well of outdated forms of authority? The Monarchs fails as a name because the area where the team plays stands as a symbol for the country’s effort to break away from the monarchy. 

Similarly, they play in an area that represents a form of government that should never and will never be based on royalty with kings and queens.

Also, this name is taken.

Rating: 3/10

Rubies 

The thing that bothers me the most about this name, aside from its general terribleness, is how it feels so lazy.

A team name that starts with an R and would be difficult to come up with a logo for”¦ hey, good thing the franchise already has generic helmets and uniforms with nothing but an R on them!

And what do you know, those same helmets and uniforms are also red! Like a ruby! 

Looks like they won’t have to put any effort into a rebrand. How lucky.

Rating: 1/10

Swifts

The number of people I could envision making Taylor Swift jokes every time this team is mentioned is astronomical. That said, Taylor Swift is a delight. 

That’s the one and only thing keeping this name from earning the lowest possible score.

Rating: 2/10

Warriors

About as generic as you can get– but there’s a reason for that.

Just because something is cliched doesn’t mean it’s bad. In fact, the reason things become a cliche in the first place is because they’re overused. And things become overused because they work. That’s the circle of life. 

This one is a little bit overplayed, a little bit lazy, but it’s a nice solid name. 

Even though it is already taken. 

Rating: 7/10

Wayfarers

Me: What on earth is a ”˜Wayfarer?’

Me: *Googles Wayfarer*

Me: Oh! Another team name associated with sunglasses over anything else! Neat.

I do like the alliteration here though.

Rating: 3/10

Wild Hogs

Another potential name with some association to pigs? What’s with that? What are we doing here? 

Is it like a ”˜pigskin’ joke? 

Regardless, I’m not sure that ”˜animal that rolls around in its own filth’ is quite the direction that should be taken when trying to create a fierce new image.

Rating: 4/10

Washington D.C. Football Club

Alright Washington, if your hearts are really set on doing the ”˜Football Club’ thing, this is probably the way to do it.

Not trying to get cute with the name, not trying to be fun with the alliteration. Just a solid ”˜hey, here’s where we are and here’s what we are’ and call it a day.

Although I’m not sure that not just going with a traditional mascot is the way to go.

Rating: 7/10

32FC

No.

Rating: 1/10

The post 37 potential brand names for the Washington Football Team appeared first on Pro Football Mania.

By: Brady Akins

April 29, 2021. The first round of the most recent iteration of the NFL Draft, and the night that the San Francisco 49ers made the franchise-altering decision to select Trey Lance, the 21-year-old quarterback out of North Dakota State, third overall.

This, when just four seasons prior, the 49ers made what was seen at the time as another high-stakes quarterback acquisition, when San Francisco managed to lure the perceived heir apparent to the impossible throne of Tom Brady in Jimmy Garoppolo to the Bay Area. 

And in the four seasons that followed, the 49ers have received a mixed bag from the quarterback they gave up a second-round pick to add to the roster. From being a wealth of untapped potential with an unbeaten record in 2017 to an injury-prone player with a limited skillset under center in 2020 and everywhere in between.

Even with an NFC Championship victory and a near Super Bowl victory under the belt of Jimmy G, one franchise-altering decision has led to another. And with OTA’s now well underway league-wide, Garoppolo has come face-to-face with the man set to become the future of the San Francisco offense in Lance. 

It’s a football tale as old as football time. One young, unproven but talented hotshot quarterback steps into the fray to take over for an established starter. When that switch happens, however, always varies. It took three years for the reigning league MVP Aaron Rodgers to get the starting nod in Green Bay over Brett Favre, one year for another MVP Patrick Mahomes to take over for Alex Smith in Kansas City, and just a handful of games for yet another MVP in Lamar Jackson to take over in Baltimore for Joe Flacco. But it always happens. The new guy will always get a shot, one way or another.

So the question of Garoppolo’s future in San Francisco is settled. Sooner or later, he will be out and Lance will be in. And that, folks, is the ecosystem of the NFL. 

But just because Garoppolo’s long-term fate was sealed with that April 29 decision to draft Lance, nothing has been determined for the immediate present of the 49er’s quarterback job. Rather, Garoppolo has entered a battle to be San Francisco’s Week One starter for the 49ers. A battle of two contenders, where each party has a compelling case.

But between Lance and Garoppolo, who deserves it more?

Who is Jimmy Garoppolo?

No longer is Garoppolo the exciting unknown quantity he once was. He’s not the undefeated starter on pace to be the next Tom Brady anymore. His weaknesses have been documented and used against him, as have his strengths.

The 49ers, along with the rest of the football world, know exactly what they’re getting when Jimmy Garoppolo takes the field, for better and for worse. They’re getting a guy who is accurate, can deliver the ball well and quickly in short to intermediate areas on the field. They’re also getting a guy who has struggled in the past with injuries, has shown a penchant for turning the ball over, and is limited as an athlete.

If you need to win a game, you can count on Garoppolo, just don’t expect it to be pretty. Through seven years in the league, Garoppolo has started in 32 games– all but two of which have come in a 49ers uniform. In that time, he’s gone 24-8.

It’s difficult to argue with a win rate that high. In fact, among active quarterbacks with 10 or more starts, Garoppolo ranks fourth overall in winning percentage– behind three former MVPs in Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, and Lamar Jackson. 

But the knock against Garoppolo as a player that has seen great success in his time under center, is that, more often than you would hope from a franchise quarterback,  his teams have succeeded in spite of his play rather than because of it. 

Take the 2019 season for example, far and away Garoppolo’s most successful year– by more than a few metrics as well. Not only did he experience career highs in touchdowns, passing yards and completion percentage, but he did so while being able to stay on the field, starting all 16 games for the first time in his career. 2019 still remains as the only time Garoppolo has started more than six games in a season.

With that ability to stay healthy came team success. The 49ers won the NFC for the first time since 2012, won 13 games for the first time since 1997, and all was well in the world. Sure, maybe their quarterback finished with one of the 10 highest interception percentages despite finishing 19th in pass attempts, but it didn’t really matter. San Francisco had the coaching to elevate the weaknesses on the depth chart, and the defensive talent to compensate for whatever deficiencies Garoppolo was bringing to the table.

But team success at that level could have been an anomaly. San Francisco, despite not having a big-name talent at running back, finished with the second-most volume heavy rushing attack in 2019, and the eighth-most efficient, all while having a defense that was top ten in points allowed, yards allowed, takeaways and sacks.

With a smothering defense and role players performing above expectation, everything in San Francisco was perfect. What came of it, however, was a step short of the ultimate goal of a Super Bowl victory. Arguably, the one element missing from their potential storybook season was elite quarterback play.

Not that Garoppolo played poorly in 2019– he didn’t. As he’s been his whole career, Garoppolo proved to be an accurate passer, but a poor decision-maker. A winner, but more of a game manager in the passing game– which was on full display in the team’s NFC Championship victory, one where Garoppolo threw just eight passes in a 37-20 win. 

But he’s still a player that, with the right circumstances, can get a team right on the doorstep of the promised land. The 49ers have lost some talent on defense since that 2019 run, including defensive coordinator Robert Salah in this past offseason. But recent additions on the opposite side of the ball, ones like wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk, give San Francisco’s offensive coaching staff more weapons to play with.

Last season was a down year, but one plagued by injuries to key players. With those contributors returning, San Francisco could have the talent to be one of the league’s better teams. If that is the case, they might not need a high-risk, high-reward quarterback more than one who can quietly get the job done.

Who is Trey Lance

If Jimmy Garoppolo is the living, breathing definition of a known quantity– Trey Lance is the exact opposite. If Jimmy Garoppolo is high floor/low ceiling, Trey Lance is a rollercoaster. If Jimmy Garoppolo is the breakfast food equivalent to plain yogurt, Trey Lance is somewhere in the range of the special at a greasy spoon diner that you’ve never heard of but your friend swears by.

Point being– we know Jimmy G. He’s solid. Decent. Able to win and look solid when he does it, but that’s about it. Lance is, well, we don’t really know. He could very well be the best parts of Lamar Jackson with his immense scrambling ability and Tom Brady with his high football IQ and ability to keep the ball safe. Or, he could be a bust. A lot of raw talent but without the ability to put it all together.

And let’s not get it twisted– Trey Lance is talented. One look at the stat sheet from his final full season of college football will tell you as much. 28 passing touchdowns, 67% completion percentage, and zero, ZERO, interceptions. And that’s just through the air. Lance added another 14 touchdowns on the ground, putting up 1,100 rushing yards on 169 attempts.

But even with the immaculate stat sheets– Lance comes with a laundry list of concerns as a player. One of which being, that year of insane production in college was his only year of production in college. In 2018, Lance attempted just one pass in the role of backup. In 2019, he blew up. In 2020– his team played just one game, in what boiled down to essentially a showcase for his NFL potential, and it didn’t go so well.

The one and only interception of Lance’s college career came in North Dakota State’s one 2020 game against Central Arkansas. Granted, Lance made up for the missed opportunity with some truly special production on the ground with 166 yards and a pair of rushing touchdowns, but against an FCS opponent that isn’t necessarily on the level that Lance will face in the NFL, he struggled mightily as a passer, even beyond the interception.

On 30 passing attempts, Lance completed just 15 for just 149 yards. Lance did enough in 2019 to show that he at least has the potential to be an accurate passer. The sample size is small, however, and Lance did little to put any concerns about his ability to throw the football accurately to rest.

But the player that Lance could be in the NFL is enough to justify drafting him in the first round, even as high as third overall. Particularly when you have a coach on the sidelines in Kyle Shanahan who has made a living on finding the ways to make the most out of his players.

In 2016, one year before Shanahan’s promotion to head coach of the 49ers, he served the role of offensive coordinator in Atlanta, where he helped Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan win league MVP and hit career highs in, well, everything. His 38 touchdown passes were a career-high, his 4,944 yards were a career-high, his seven interceptions were a career-low, and the list went on. Completion percentage, yards per attempt, passer rating and quarterback rating, all as high as they’ve ever been under the watchful eye of Shanahan.

Similarly, Shanahan has helped his cast of running backs reach new heights in San Francisco. Raheem Mostert was an NFL journeyman before joining the 49ers, with quick stops in Cleveland, Miami, Baltimore and Chicago that all resulted in not a single carry. With San Francisco, Mostert has blossomed to produce three seasons of efficient carrying, without a season below five yards per carry.

Shanahan might be able to work his magic once more with Lance. But concerns still remain. Lance is an inexperienced player from an FCS school. A perfect 2019 season? Sure. All the potential in the world? No question. Lance has the tools to be one of the all-time greats. But can he do it in year one?

Lance vs Garoppolo: The Final Verdict

The one and only time that Jimmy Garoppolo started 16 games in a season– he won 13 of them. 

Yes, he had the help of a transcendent defense. Yes, looking at his numbers in a box score isn’t as exciting as it would be for a player like Aaron Rodgers. And, yes, in the future, Trey Lance can and likely will be a better player than Garoppolo.

But Lance doesn’t need to be that player immediately.  Garoppolo isn’t going to make highlights like a rookie Lance would, but he can be exactly what the 49ers need in the short term. A player who can distribute the ball with ease to talented pass catchers like Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk and George Kittle. A player who can run Shanahan’s offense well enough to win, with years of familiarity with the scheme.

Most of all, he can be a smart guiding hand for the 49ers quarterback of the future. A veteran to show Lance the ropes, the same way that Alex Smith taught Mahomes before him. The future lives with Trey Lance, but the present of the 49ers franchise can still be Jimmy Garoppolo.

The post Trey Lance vs Jimmy Garoppolo: Who will win the 49ers QB job? appeared first on Pro Football Mania.

By: Brady Akins

Dec. 6, 2020. A day in football history that would serve as a death knell for more than one fate.

In a Week 13 meeting between the playoff longshot Las Vegas Raiders and the Super-Ultra-Omega playoff longshot New York Jets, the teams sitting at 6-5 and 0-11, respectively, fans of morbid and cruel sports-related comedy were granted a treat.

With 13 seconds left, the Jets, professional football’s living punchline for the 2020 season, were on the verge of something spectacular– their first win of the year. The Raiders faced a 3rd down and 10 from midfield with no timeouts and a notoriously risk-averse quarterback in Derek Carr, only a miracle could keep New York from coming out on top.

And then”¦ the Jets switched into full-overblown Jets mode.

In a ”˜must close our eyes and heave the ball towards the endzone’ type situation for Las Vegas, New York’s defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, a three-decade veteran of the NFL, did what he loves to do– risk it all with an all-out blitz. Rushing eight defenders and dropping just three in pass protection, Carr didn’t need much time at all to find a wide-open Henry Ruggs streaking down the sideline for an easy touchdown as time ticked down. 

In just one play, the New York Jets cemented their legacy as the comedy blockbuster of the season, Head Coach Adam Gase ensured himself a spot on the unemployment line following the season, and Williams, well, he was fired one day later. 

The contrast from situation to play call might be what rang the final bell for Williams, but expecting him not to call a blitz in any situation is like expecting a three-week-old puppy not to pee on the carpet. Williams, who has bounced back and forth between being a defensive coordinator and a head coach in the league since 1997, has developed a reputation for sending pressure more often than not. New York, despite ranking towards the bottom of the NFL in successful quarterback pressures in 2020, actually finished sixth in most blitzes per quarterback dropback.

So, no, anticipating a wild blitz on that game-clinching third down for the Raiders might not be the craziest thing in the known universe. What is a little bit nuts, however, is how now more than ever, NFL teams seem to be freezing out defensive play-callers in the old school mold of Williams, trending toward the side using their aggressive tactics sparingly.

The Last Of A Dying Breed

Williams stands as the most recent example of a defensive coach who loves to gamble getting the boot, less than 24 hours after his biggest defensive misfire as well. However, he isn’t the only one.

Wade Phillips, a 37-year defensive coach of legend who spent his last three seasons with the Los Angeles Rams, was fired in 2019 after three consecutive seasons of the Rams finishing within the top 10 in yards allowed per game. 

Phillips came into the Rams job with a pass-rush happy tendency during his first season in 2017, often bringing the house on early-drive situations, blitzing on 37% of first down passing plays and 44% on second down throws, both top-five marks in the league. 2018, the following season, Phillips reigned in the pressure more than the 2017 standard, blitzing at the league’s 19th lowest rate at 21.1%– when the Rams would finish second in both points and yards allowed per game. In 2019, Phillips’ lowest ranking season as the Rams’ coordinator, Los Angeles dialed up the pressure once more to 28%.

Of course, correlation does not equate to causation. But Phillips’ firing, just one season removed from a year where he finished with the league’s second-best scoring defense, says a lot. When the blitz rate got higher, the Rams’ defensive production lowered as Los Angeles’ got to a breaking point with their defensive coordinator of legend.

Similarly, many of the defenses from 2019 who were among the blitz-heaviest in the league, seemed to have learned some kind of a lesson in 2020. The New England Patriots, for example, ended 2019 with the sixth highest-volume blitz rate in the NFL. In 2020, they plummeted down to 23rd. Same for the Cleveland Browns, who went from fifth in blitz rate all the way to 29th in just a one-year span. 

Those Who Do Blitz

Of course, blitz-happy teams in the league still exist. A few cases of Phillips and Williams-type firings does not negate the trigger-happy defensive style of the Ravens’ Wink Martindale, whose defenses have ranked at the top of the league in blitz rate each of the past three seasons.

Martindale is not alone, either. Todd Bowles, the Buccaneers defensive coordinator, has found success in Tampa Bay with a blitz-heavy approach. Same for Brian Flores in Miami. In fact, three teams in the NFL last year finished with a blitz rate over 40%, with, of course, Baltimore leading the way at 44.1%.

But the same way that Bowles and Flores’ success in the league does not mean that aggressive coordinators are extinct, a few aggressive teams does not mean that the general league isn’t trending away from risking it all with heavy pass-rushes.

In fact, most of the teams who do blitz early and often are only able to do so because of their on-field personnel, and less because of their coaching style. Martindale’s Ravens team has Calais Campbell, an All-Pro defensive end and one of the best players at the position, to help facilitate the high level of aggression. The Steelers, who were third in blitz rate in 2020, did so with the help of TJ Watt and Bud Dupree on the EDGE. And in the case of Bowles’ Buccaneers, a team with three All-Pros and four Pro Bowlers on the defensive front seven, well, it would be a crime not to blitz as much as they do.

But for the blitz-happy teams without the overwhelming personnel talent, it usually ends poorly. The Jets are one example, but the Houston Texans also finished the 2020 season ranked in the top ten in blitz rate, but finished 26th in rate of quarterback pressures, 27th in points allowed per game, and 29th in yards allowed per play.

The San Francisco 49ers are another similar case. Top 10 in blitz rate, middle of the pack in pressure rate. For as much talent as that 49ers’ roster had the start of the season, by years end with an overwhelming amount of injuries, their pass-rush struggled.

In the world of aggressive defenses. Talent, overwhelming, undeniable talent, still has a chance to win out. However, it might be more and more difficult in the football landscape to artificially manufacture a successful blitz without the help of dominant players to facilitate it. And those who try, might no longer have a place in the NFL.

The post Are the days of ultra aggressive defenses coming to an end? appeared first on Pro Football Mania.

By: Brady Atkins

NFL offensive coordinators, the creative, innovative, truly talented NFL offensive coordinators– are about as rare a commodity as you’ll find in professional sports. 

The art of offense is a challenging task to master, and those who don’t more often than not suffer the consequences for it. Only one of the NFL’s eventual Super Bowl champions since the 2008 season has brought home the Lombardi with a scoring offense ranked below the top ten– the 2015 Denver Broncos, who thrived on the power of an elite defense that ranked first in yards allowed that season.

The new meta around the league boils down simply to this; a good offense makes for a great team. Which might be why, year after year, the NFL sees teams racing to hire up-and-coming offensive coordinators like travelers flooding the streets of California for precious metals during the Gold Rush.

Like a college basketball superstar, one-and-done offensive play-callers are becoming less of an exception and more of an expectation as the years progress. Rams’ Head Coach Sean McVay arguably set the trend, being promoted to his current role after just three seasons as the offensive coordinator for the Washington Football Team, but many more have followed in his path. Kyle Shanahan became the 49ers’ Head Coach after two seasons as the Falcons’ play-caller, Packers’ Head Coach Matt LaFleur was given the Packers’ Head Coaching job after just one year as a play-caller, and Zac Taylor, the Bengals’ current Head Coach, skipped the offensive coordinating at his previous stop altogether, being hired from the Rams after serving as their one-season quarterback’s coach.

This, along with myriad other factors, could be the reason why NFL offenses have struggled through the years to maintain their offensive dominance. Among the league’s top ten scoring offenses in 2020, only six were ranked in the top ten the year before. Pushing back one more year, the list once again shrinks from six to three.

In just five seasons’ time, only one team in the NFL is left standing as a consistent top-ten scoring offense. No other franchise but the New Orleans Saints have been able to be among the ten best scoring teams over a five-year stretch. But their streak of brilliance dates back further than just 2016.

Eighth in 2015, ninth in 2014, tenth in 2014, the beat marches on and on all the way to the 2010 season, when the Saints finished just shy of another top-ten year at 11th– four total points behind the tenth place offense.

This isn’t a fluke. The New Orleans stretch of offensive mastery and consistency, one that outpaces the Andy Reid Chiefs and the Sean McVay Rams by multiple seasons, has been among the league’s best for over a decade because of the talent on the field, and in contrast to the league’s shortage of talented offensive coordinators, the talent on the sideline, as well.

His name isn’t quick to come up on the list of best offensive coordinators in the NFL. He’s not often mentioned in the same breath as Buffalo’s Brian Daboll or Carolina’s Joe Brady– but Pete Carmichael, the New Orleans Saints offensive coordinator, has overseen unrivaled, established success from the time his 12-year run for the NFC South powerhouse began.

Carmichael is something of a rarity– the coordinator of an elite offense who hasn’t yet got shot at a head coaching job. He is, it might be safe to say, the NFL’s unknown offensive genius.

Extremely efficient and incredibly explosive 

At age 49, going on 50 by the early weeks of the 2021 season, Carmichael will be far too old to be called a prodigy, at least in the same way that McVay and Brady are talked about. But the New Orleans offense has been steamrolling defenses from the moment Carmichael arrived– beyond the level of those aforementioned prodigies.

In the same way that Carmichael’s Saints’ have been a regularly dominant scoring force– they have been unrivaled in their ability to move the ball as well. Through the 12-year sample size of Carmichael’s coordinating career, New Orleans has ranked first overall in yards per game four times– exactly as many times as they’ve missed out on ranking in the top five. Only once in that 12-year span has New Orleans missed out on the top ten entirely. 

Between the scoring and ball movement, the New Orleans Saints haven’t had a below league- average offense in well over a decade. Even well-established offensive powerhouses, teams like the Andy Reid Chiefs and the Lafluer/Rodgers Packers have had dips in production. In Reid’s coaching tenure in Kansas City, he has overseen offenses that have ranked as low as 27th in points per game and 28th in yards per game, doing so with a sample size four years smaller than Carmichael’s Saints.

For the Packers, the pinnacle of a dominant force in 2020, the script was a bit different in 2019, hitting around league average marks in scoring and ball movement. In comparison, the Saints’ plateaus in both categories are minuscule, with their lowest ranking in points per game since 2009 being 11th.

That road to consistency hasn’t looked the same each season, either. Rather, New Orleans has trotted out the decade’s best offense that seems to evolve as the years progress. The staples of the early Carmichael offenses were a bit ahead of their time, with a pass-heavy approach from 2010 to 2016 that led to the Saints finishing top five in the NFL in pass attempts seven times, with five of those seasons seeing New Orleans place among the five best teams in yards per pass attempt.

And while the success in the passing game has never entirely disappeared from the Saints’ offensive attack, the reliance on it has shifted into a more balanced approach. With the rest of the NFL now adopting strategies to those of the early New Orleans offenses, with an emphasis placed on the passing game, the Saints have been running with much more frequency since 2018– and doing it well, too.

The Saints, the NFL’s fifth-most volume heavy rushing attack in 2020, had the production to back it up. Finishing sixth in the league in rushing yards, tenth in yards per carry and first in rushing touchdowns, ahead of true run-first teams like the Titans and Ravens.

Though the way they got there has shifted over time, beginning on the shoulders of the legendary, recently retired quarterback Drew Brees, and eventually moving to the legs of a legend in the making running back in Alvin Kamara, the New Orleans Saints offense under Carmichael has been time in and time again, among the NFL’s best.

And while Carmichael has had the benefit of a future Hall-of-Famer under center for the duration of his coordinating tenure, as well as league record-holders at key skill positions, the way he has continued to bring out the best in his key contributors, and has managed to thrive without them, has been possibly the greatest success of Carmichael’s tenure.

Life is a Brees

For as long as Drew Brees had been a starting NFL quarterback, Carmichael had been by his side.

Brees first got his shot to start in the league in 2002 with the San Diego Chargers. That same year, Carmichael had made the move from Washington to help Brees and the Chargers offense as an offensive assistant– a title he held for four years before both he, and Brees, made the move to New Orleans.

For Carmichael, that move also came with a promotion from offensive assistant to quarterbacks coach. With the Chargers, Brees had played at the level of a quality starter– but took an immediate leap in his first year with the Saints, with Carmichael now more involved in the quarterback’s development than ever. 

That year went down as Brees’ only as a First-Team All-Pro, with the quarterback leading the Saints to a 10-6 record while finishing as the league’s leader in passing yards. Carmichael and Brees would continue to have success in that relationship, but the quarterback would make yet another leap forward in 2009– when Carmichael earned his promotion to offensive coordinator.

Not only did 2009 come with a Saints Super Bowl win, but it also produced a career year for Brees, one that netted him a Pro Bowl invite after leading the league in completion percentage, touchdown throws, passer rating and quarterback rating. 

From a promising young starter to an All-Pro in his prime to a Super Bowl-winning, Hall of Fame-bound quarterback, Carmichael’s promotions through the years have seemed to gone hand in hand with Brees’ growth as a player. But having one of the greatest to ever play quarterback running the offense– things are often made easier. So what is Carmichael’s success rate without the Canton-bound signal-caller?

It’s pretty good, actually.

In recent seasons, as Brees continued to age out of his prime and into a more fragile physical form, injuries kept him confined to the sidelines for stretches of 2019 and 2020. But if you were only looking at wins and losses, you wouldn’t know the difference. Needing five starts from Teddy Bridgewater in 2019, and four from Taysom Hill the following year, New Orleans combined for eight wins to just one loss.

But the truly impressive thing about those wins was that, more often than not, the Saints were winning in part because of their offense– rather than in spite of it. Without Brees under center, Carmichael’s Saints adapted and evolved to fit the needs of their limited backup quarterbacks. 

For Hill in 2020, that evolution involved a high volume of quarterback runs, carrying for 209 yards on 39 carries in those four starts for a 5.36 yard per carry average. The passing game opened up for Hill in his run as starter as well, however. Having only attempted 13 passes in his NFL career prior to 2020 and completing less than 50% of them, Hill completed nearly 72% of his 114 passing attempts, also adding four touchdowns through the air in addition to the four he earned on the ground.

It was a similar narrative for Bridgewater in 2019. A player with a career completion percentage below 65% and a touchdown to interception ratio of 29 to 23 prior to his stretch of starts in 2019, Bridgewater morphed into a viable starter capable of carrying New Orleans to a 5-0 record. His 67.9% completion percentage was a career-best at the time, while his touchdown percentage of 4.6%, his interception percentage of 1.0%, and his passer rating of 99.1 still stand as all-time highs for the quarterback.

All of this from Teddy Bridgewater, a former first-round pick who had not started a meaningful game since the 2015 season.

That’s the true beauty of the Saints’ offense. It can take Hall of Fame quarterbacks like Drew Brees and make them all-time greats. It can take players lost in the weeds like Bridgewater and Hill and turn them into reliable, exciting starters. 

It can take a player like Michael Thomas and give him an NFL record for most catches in a season. It can take a player like Alvin Kamara and put him in the history books with a six-touchdown rushing performance. 

It can do whatever it needs to, with whatever pieces they have at hand, to be elite on a regular basis.

Second Fiddle

Of course, there is a piece to this that has gone unmentioned.

Sean Payton— the New Orleans Saints’ Head Coach, and their primary offensive play-caller.

Payton, a Coach of the Year winner in 2006, cannot be neglected from the discussion. He has been, after all, the main overseer of the New Orleans offense since the time Carmichael arrived. 

But two truths can exist at the same time. Is Sean Payton an excellent head coach? Yes. Is Pete Carmichael an excellent offensive coordinator, one worthy of just as much praise as Payton? 100% yes.

The duties of an offensive coordinator on an NFL team stretch far beyond that of calling plays on game day. Responsible for coaching up players, helping set up the game flow and general schemes of the offense, Carmichael has had plenty on his plate with the Saints– even without the added burden of calling plays. And he’s excelled at all of it. Teams do not get the level of sustained success that New Orleans has reached without the help of an entire staff.

And not for nothing, but Carmichael actually has called plays a few times in his past with the Saints. In the 2016 season, Carmichael was actually handed the responsibility of calling plays for the majority of the year. And while the team struggled as a whole to a 7-9 finish, the Carmichael offense was holding up their end of the bargain.

Payton reclaimed play-calling duties in Week 12, but under 11 weeks of Carmichael, New Orleans lit up the scoreboard and moved the ball at will. Twice in those 11 weeks, the Saints managed to score over 40 points– adding three more games in the 30s, while only two times did they finish with fewer than 350 total yards. The Saints would go on to finish that season ranked second in points per game with 29.3.

Carmichael has yet to see an entire season’s worth of reps as a play-caller, but in the time he has had behind the wheel, he helped the Saints thrive. This coming before the arrival of Alvin Kamara, and before the ascension of Michael Thomas, who was a rookie at the time.

Pete Carmichael has been at this game for a while. He’s seen losing seasons and Super Bowl wins in his 12-year coordinator career. But not once has he seen a bad New Orleans offense, or even a below-average one. 

All Carmichael has done in his career is lurk in the shadows, secretly operating the league’s most consistent threat over the last decade.

The post Who is Pete Carmichael? Inside the NFL’s secret genius appeared first on Pro Football Mania.

By: Brady Atkins

Decades can feel like eternities in the context of professional sports– but it was not long ago when the Miami Heat defeated the Durant/Westbrook/Harden Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Finals, Johnny Manziel became a Heisman Trophy winner, and the Seattle Seahawks cobbled together what just might be the greatest draft class in NFL History.

The 2012 NFL Draft, unbeknownst to anyone at the time, would hold the missing pieces for a Seattle Seahawks franchise that was about to become a powerhouse, building off of the success they had established in years past, once Pete Carroll became the Seahawks’ head coach.

Carroll’s first season as Seattle’s guiding hand was 2010, one where two first-round picks within the top 15 would prove to turn to gold over the years, with the pro bowl tackle Russell Okung being selected sixth overall, and the three-time All-Pro safety Earl Thomas falling to 14th for the Seahawks.

Along with Okung and Thomas, the Seahawks brought another Pro Bowler in Golden Tate, the second-round wide receiver, and yet another Pro Bowler in Kam Chancellor, the fifth-round safety. Joining that star-studded 2010 class would be a group in 2011 including James Carpenter, a 10-year starting guard in the league, and the Day Three selections of longtime Seahawk KJ Wright in the fourth round, and the three-time All-Pro Richard Sherman in the fifth.

But for as many stars and starters were selected in Carroll’s first two draft classes, they would prove to be just the foundation for a 2012 group that took the Seahawks from being a tough out to a top-tier Super Bowl contender. Bruce Irvin, the team’s first-round pick and nine-year NFL starter, was just the cherry on top of a remarkable class loaded round to round with diamonds in the rough. 

Finding Bobby Wagner, a six-time All-Pro player at middle linebacker, all the way in the middle of the second round, would go down as the win of the century for most teams– as would finding JR Sweezy, a reliable starting guard, at the tail end of the seventh round. But it would be Seattle’s third-round selection, the undersized, inexperienced quarterback out of Wisconsin, that would be the biggest difference-maker. Russell Wilson, fresh off a season with early-year MVP buzz and one of seven career Pro Bowl appearances, is what proved to take Seattle over the top.

Since going 7-9 twice in his first two NFL seasons, Carroll’s Seahawks have not experienced a season below .500 since 2011. On route to their decade of success, Seattle hasn’t overachieved, but coasted on the success of those star-studded draft classes, hauling in a group of players that have combined for 12 All-Pro teams and 34 Pro Bowls over the course of their careers. 

It’s the gems where Seattle has typically shined as well, of those 12 All-Pro teams, none of the appearances came from either of the Seahawks’ three first-round picks. And of their 34 combined Pro Bowls, just two were from those first-round selections. Through the early 2010s, Seattle had built a Super Bowl-caliber roster on the starting-caliber play of their early-round picks, and the surprise star power of their late-round selections. And through that success, with an elite roster assembled on rookie contracts, the Seahawks thrived to the tune of two NFC Championships and one dominant Super Bowl victory in Carroll’s first five seasons with the franchise.

All was well in Seattle, even after their 2014 Super Bowl loss. Because even while the team fell just short of their ultimate goal, a track record of established draft dominance through the Carroll tenure shows that this Seahawks franchise isn’t one set to rebuild, but reload via talented defensive stars and reliable offensive talent overlooked by the other 31 teams nowhere near as reliable as the Seahawks.

That was the idea, anyway.

The Beginning of the End

Of course, not everything always goes according to plan. Patterns eventually break, and empires eventually collapse– even one as consistently beautiful as what the Seahawks had done in their drafts through the early Carroll years. 

The selections of Okung, Tate, and Wilson on the offensive side of the ball are success stories, but the success found on defense, where All-Pro talent found past the first round is few and far between, Seattle thrived for three consecutive years. Among active NFL players, only 26 have been voted as first-team All-Pros three or more times. The Seahawks drafted three of them, more than any other team but the Patriots, who also drafted three. However, among those 26 with three or more All-Pro appearances– only 10 are defensive players. Seattle has drafted 30% of the league’s active three-time All-Pro defenders. 

But even with the Seahawks’ established success, even with all the playoff appearances and 10-win seasons, the franchise has stagnated in recent seasons. Always being good enough to make noise in the postseason, but never good enough to make it past the divisional round of the playoffs. That NFC Championship they won in 2014 was the last time Seattle made it as far as the NFL semifinals.

The question of how the Seahawks fell into the pit of frustrating “almost eliteness” is an easy one. Their draft classes, for as established a pedigree as they once had, have fallen off. Not every year can be a 2012 filled with Wilson’s and Wagner’s, or even a 2011 filled with Wright’s and Sherman’s. But a franchise that used to pluck talent out of thin air suddenly”¦ stopped.

In fact, that 2012 class might have been the last truly great draft the Seahawks have had since Carroll took over. Following that draft, the Seahawks hauled in a 2013 class where only two of their 11 selected players are still in the league, Spencer Ware and Luke Wilson. Ware, a two-time Super Bowl-winning running back, hasn’t seen the field since 2019, and spent last season on the Bears’ practice squad, while Wilson, a tight end, hasn’t had a season with more than 20 catches since 2014. 

The following season served as a step in the right direction, but failed in bringing certifiable star power into the league. Paul Richardson, Justin Britt, Cassius Marsh and Kevin Pierre-Louis remain as the only members of a nine-person draft class to still be in the league. Between them, a combined zero Pro Bowl appearances, while three of the four haven’t played a snap for Seattle since 2017. 

Even with a bounce-back 2015 class, one that included Frank Clark, Tyler Lockett, Mark Glowinski, and Tye Smith as standout selections after the first round, the Seahawks struggled to turn that success into momentum– turning in a 10 person 2016 draft class with just one player, the fifth-round running back Alex Collins, still standing as active Seahawks roster members.

2016 would prove to set the trend for Seattle. Some singles, the very occasional home run, and a lot of strikeouts. After a combined 34 Pro Bowl’s from their draft classes in 2010, 2011 and 2012, every subsequent Seahawks’ draft has made up a combined six Pro Bowl appearances, with no Pro Bowl players coming from the 2013, 2014 and 2016 draft classes. The only player from that group to make more than one, Frank Clark, made them both with a different team.

And it’s not that the Seahawks are simply failing in the late rounds, an area they once dominated. They’re falling short in the early rounds as well. Not even falling short of selecting solid starters, but falling short of selecting starters at all.

Jordyn Brooks, the Seahawks’ first-round pick from 2020, played for the team on just 32% of his team’s defensive snaps– fewer than all but four first-round rookies. To take it further, Seattle hasn’t had a first-round pick log a single season while on the field for half of their unit’s snaps since Germain Ifedi in 2016, who spent only the duration of his rookie contract with the Seahawks.

Issues on draft day have been plaguing the Seattle Seahawks for nearly a decade, after once standing as the pinnacle for draft excellence. After three all-time great draft classes, one after the other, the Seahawks have been forced to rely on those past successes with few instances of an influx of talent. That’s how the Seahawks got here.

But the matter of why the Seahawks got here is a little more complicated.

You ever wonder why we’re here?

In more than a few ways, the Seattle Seahawks are the model of consistency. 

With the seventh-longest tenured general manager in John Schneider and the fifth-longest tenured head coach in Pete Carroll, the Seattle front office has had the same two heads running the ship for over a decade.

Even the Seahawks quarterback situation has been the model of consistency. With Russell Wilson entering what will be his 10th season with Seattle in 2021, only three active quarterbacks have spent more time with their current NFL teams, and one of them, Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers, might not be long for that list.

From the front office to the sidelines to the field, not many franchises have stayed as stable as the Seattle Seahawks– for better and worse. But while the three poster boys of the Seahawks’ operation have been the same since 2012, the faces behind the scenes have changed roles and left the team altogether. 

Scott Fitterer, the Carolina Panthers current general manager, spent two decades with the Seahawks organization– overseeing their 2010 draft class in his final year as Seattle’s area scout, and being a key part of the 2011 and 2012 drafts as the Director of College Scouting. Fitterer wasn’t long for that role, however, and was promoted to Seattle’s Co-Director of Player Personnel following the 2014 season– a job that has less to do with scouting college players, and more to do with managing active NFL guys.

Fitterer, a man worthy enough of a general manager position, was moved out of a draft-focused role just around the time the Seattle draft classes began to slip– but he’s not the only one.

John Idzik, who joined the Seattle Seahawks in 2007– is himself, no longer with the franchise. After serving the role of Vice President of Football Administration for the 2010, 2011, and 2012 classes– Idzik himself earned a promotion to the role of General Manager for the New York Jets.

Scot McCloughan became a member of the Seahawks in 2010 as the team’s Senior Personnel Executive, leaving in 2012 after being a key member of the ”˜Golden Three’ draft classes and being promoted, like Fitterer and Idzik, to General Manager of a different NFL franchise.

The general manager careers of both Idzik and McCloughan were short-lived, but regardless, both men, as well as Fitterer, served key scouting roles in the early 2010s, earned promotions for the team success built off of those early draft classes, and left the organization or moved to different roles as the draft dark ages began. 

Football is, to put it mildly, hard. Those who are good at it, those who know what they’re doing, aren’t long for smaller roles. Any ounce of talent or resume shine that stands above the crowd will attract suitors away from your old role, and into a new one with a new franchise. It happened for the Seattle Seahawks– the curse of their unsustainable success.

What now?

Not all hope is lost for the Seattle Seahawks draft room, of course. In fact, Seattle has struck late-round gold a few times in recent seasons, selecting cornerback Shaquill Griffin in the third round in 2017, and selecting running back Chris Carson four rounds later the same year. And of course, at the absolute end of the 2019 draft, after the selection of wide receivers like Andy Isabella, Mecole Hardman, and JJ Arcega-Whiteside before him– Seattle took DK Metcalf 64th overall– who has already proven to be a star in the league in just two seasons.

But where those gems used to be a frequent occurrence for the Seahawks, they’re now few and far between. And in 2021, Seattle entered the draft in a decidedly un-Seattle fashion; with just three draft picks. 

From 2010 to 2020, the Seahawks employed the ”˜cast a wide net and hope the best’ approach to the NFL Draft, with just two of their 11 classes in that span featuring fewer than nine selections, and never fewer than eight.

In 2021, Seattle drafted just three players, the fewest selections for any team since the 2009 New York Jets. The Seahawks didn’t make a pick until the second round.

Perhaps this is a sign of the times. The Seahawks came into the NFL Draft with little ammo due in large part to an aggressive trade to secure Jamal Adams, the former Jets’ star safety. Rather than drafting All-Pro defensive talent, maybe Seattle’s new plan is to bring in established talent and use their high-end draft picks as currency.

And maybe that’s for the best. With as much trouble as the Seahawks have had drafting relative to their older classes, maybe Seattle truly needs to rely on well-documented stars rather than taking shots in the NFL Draft.

Maybe that will lead to another Super Bowl run, and another boost to their run of consistent success. Maybe this is the start of a new era for the steady Seahawks. 

Maybe this is the end of the Seattle Seahawks draft empire. But even if it is, for everything they established through that shining 2012 class, this will not be the end of the Seattle Seahawks NFL relevance. 

The post The rise and fall of the Seattle Seahawks draft empire appeared first on Pro Football Mania.

By: Brady Atkins

January 8, 2018. The day when the legend of Devonta Smith was born, hurtling through the universe on a ball of fire and spectacularly crashing through the roof of the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in a moment that would send ripples through the football landscape.

A second and 26 overtime prayer turned national championship highlight would create legacies. On one play, a deep-ball dime caught in stride at the goal line, the Alabama Crimson Tide were able to topple their newest challenger to their never-ending dynasty, the Georgia Bulldogs, and in comeback fashion no less. They were able to reassert themselves as the unquestioned rulers of college football.

In doing so, a freshman Tua Tagovailoa worked his way into the hearts of Crimson Tide fans across the state of Alabama, and into the minds of NFL scouts across the country, going from Jalen Hurts’ promising young backup to a championship-winning star quarterback in a moments notice. For Hurts, this game would redefine his legacy as well, getting benched in favor of Tagovailoa in 2018, only to rewrite the script by transferring to the Oklahoma Sooners in 2019, leading to a second-place finish for the Heisman trophy, as well as a second-round selection in the 2020 NFL Draft.

But for all the legacy-altering ramifications set in motion from just one play, perhaps none were greater than what happened for Devonta Smith, the man who ended up catching that game-winning pass. If you didn’t notice the scrawny Crimson Tide backup in his eight-catch freshman season before that play, you certainly did now. And Smith would spend the next three years of his college career making sure you remembered.

Just a few season’s time would see that scrawny Alabama backup turn into the scrawny Alabama superstar, one that used the momentum of his freshman moment in the spotlight to turn into college football’s best player. Smith’s senior season in 2020 ended with a Heisman trophy after a Herculean effort with the Crimson Tide. His 23 touchdown catches were an FBS high, his 117 receptions were an FBS high by more than 30, and his 1,856 receiving yards were an FBS high by more than 600. He was a runaway for college football’s most prestigious individual award, and became the first wide receiver to be named a Heisman winner since 1991.

Nearly three decades separate Smith’s accomplishment from his last counterpart, Michigan’s Desmond Howard. He got there through unparalleled production from an unrivaled skillset. And yet, Smith wasn’t the first player taken in the 2021 NFL Draft. He wasn’t the first pass-catcher off the board, nor the first receiver. Smith wasn’t even the first receiver taken from his own college team. That honor goes to Jaylen Waddle, picked sixth by the Miami Dolphins to Smith’s 10th overall selection by the Philadelphia Eagles.

College production isn’t necessarily a determiner of success in the NFL– but skillset has never been the question regarding Smith. Four years of college tape shows just how explosive he is off the line of scrimmage, how polished a route runner he is, how he combines the best elements of a burner who can take the top off a defense and a possession receiver that can catch every pass in his area. Smith’s talent is not why three pass catchers went before him. If skill were the only factor, Smith’s resume would be untouchable. 

Rather, it was size that kept Smith from going to any of the nine teams picking before he was selected. Devonta Smith weighed in at 166 lbs. at the Medical Combine, well below the 203 lbs. average weight of the NFL receiver. As Smith was examined further under the unbelievably-scrutinizing lens of the NFL Draft, questions of his durability at the pro level began to form. Some NFL teams began to wonder whether or not Smith’s talent was worth rolling the dice on with concerns about his durability beginning to control the narrative.

Some NFL teams need to stop overthinking Devonta Smith.

What Devonta Smith does well

When the Eagles traded up to draft Devonta Smith, they brought a man who does it all to Philadelphia to fill a desperate team need. After their previous four draft classes saw the franchise select a total of five wide receivers, two of which were picked in the first two rounds of their respective classes, the Eagles are hoping that Smith provides better luck than that group of five that has combined for a total of just 88 catches and 1,274 yards for the franchise.

For comparison, Justin Jefferson, who was selected one pick after the Eagles drafted a first-round receiver in 2020, finished his rookie season with 88 catches and 1,400 yards of his own. But with Devonta Smith, the Eagles won’t be adding just another developmental player with one defining trait. Rather, drafting Smith will give Philadelphia a receiver who used a variety of elite skills to dominate college football in 2020.

Coming into the 2021 NFL Draft, Smith was leaving behind a legacy with the Alabama Crimson tide unrivaled by anyone before him. His 235 career receptions, 3,965 receiving yards, and 46 touchdowns were all good enough for first place on the all-time Alabama leaderboards, a school that saw receiving talents like Jerry Jeudy, Henry Ruggs, Amari Cooper, and Julio Jones all take the field before him. 

What led to Smith catapulting above the NFL first-round picks before him was a playing style that emulates the best traits from each of those players. What defined Jerry Jeudy and Amari Cooper coming out of college was their elite route-running ability, which Smith has shown plenty of through his four college years.

It’s not the highlight-reel cuts or ankle-breaking moves that make Smith such a nightmare to stick with in coverage, but rather, it’s the general mastery of the craft that the receiver possesses, showing it in the subtlety of his movement and the ease of his release off the line of scrimmage. Time after time, and particularly as a senior, Smith showed an ability to beat defenders with quick-moving feet, an immediate release into the route, and the subtle art of eye contact, staring his defenders down rather than turning his head where the route was going to progress, not cluing them in on where he was going next.

Henry Ruggs’ unmistakable trait in college was his track-star speed. At the 2020 NFL Combine, Ruggs ran a 4.27 second 40-yard dash, the fastest time of anyone that year, tied for the sixth-fastest time in the history of the event. And, no, Smith does not have 4.2 speed. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t play faster than just about anyone on the field.

When Smith wasn’t beating cornerbacks with his refined route-running talent, he could be found blowing directly past them with straight-line speed. The quickness of Smith shows in how the Crimson Tide featured him on offense as well. In the 2020 National Championship against Ohio State, five of Smith’s 12 first-half catches came on screen passes behind the line of scrimmage. Three of those five were for first downs, two of which were gains over 10 yards, while the other two resulted in goal line touchdowns.

It was a similar story in the College Football Playoff game before the match against Ohio State. Two of Smith’s seven Rose Bowl catches against Notre Dame were caught behind the line and turned into gains over 20 yards, one of which went for a touchdown. 

Of course, with three Alabama offensive linemen being taken in the 2021 NFL Draft, the Crimson Tide made a habit of impeccable blocking– but Smith’s dominance on quick catch-and-run passes was more than simply Alex Leatherwood and Deonte Brown mowing defenders down. This was the Alabama offense recognizing that Smith, with a head of steam and the ball in his hands, is a big play waiting to happen.

Cooper and Jeudy were route-running specialists, Ruggs was a speed guy, but the book Julio Jones in college was that he was a guy that did just about everything well. You could say the same for Devonta Smith as well.

Smith is a speedy guy with the hands of an elite possession receiver. Time and time again with the Alabama offense, Smith could be seen making acrobatic, contested catches, with two hands or one, being a safety valve to the level where you would be hard-pressed to find a drop on his film.

Smith is an elite college route runner with the sideline awareness to match. What made those acrobatic catches even more special is that oftentimes they came at the boundary of the field. In 2020 especially, Smith displayed an ability to track down the ball, reel it in through contact and coverage, and get a foot (sometimes even two) down in bounds. 

Smith is everything you could daydream about in a receiver prospect. His raw traits are among the best in the class, but his understanding of the game and refined style of play is what sets him apart. There is, however, one thing about Smith that draws red flags.

Size, Durability, and the Randomness of Injury

Devonta Smith is tiny. 

It’s a positive when you can come in as a prospect with just one defined weakness, but when that weakness is in your ability to stay on the field, it could mean that all the talent you possess in other aspects of the game are wasted in the medical tent.

So when Smith came in below 170 lbs, it became a talking point, and a concern for some NFL franchises. For as undeniably gifted as Smith is, football is an unforgivably brutal sport. Can Smith’s physical build allow him to stay on the field for the Eagles?

Well, yeah. 

Injury concerns are real, but they haven’t been present in Smith’s career up to this point. In fact, in four seasons with the Crimson Tide, Smith had missed just two games with an injury— and hasn’t missed a game since 2018.

The NFL is a more physical league than college, where only the biggest, fastest, and strongest are selected to play, but Smith has been playing against future NFL defenders since he first got to Alabama. Against South Carolina, Smith was forced to line up against Jaycee Horn, who was selected two picks before Smith in 2021. 

He’s faced Noah Igbinoghene from Auburn, Tyson Campbell from Georgia, Shaun Wade from Ohio State, all of whom now play on NFL rosters. He’s spent his entire college career in the SEC, a conference that has produced 21 first-round defensive draft picks over the last four seasons. And nearly every time one of those players hit Smith, he popped right back up, ready for the next down.

Being a bigger receiver does not make you immune to injuries. Michael Thomas, Julio Jones, and Davante Adams, three stars all over the average weight of 203 lbs. for NFL receivers, all missed multiple games in 2020 due to injury, while receivers below the weight line like Brandin Cooks and Emmanuel Sanders played healthy in the 2020 season.

Of course, both Sanders and Cooks have a prior history of injury. But the issues suffered by Jones and Thomas illustrate an important point– that the injury bug can come for anyone, regardless of size. In fact, it struck Devonta Smith’s teammate and the sixth overall pick in 2021, Jaylen Waddle, who missed eight games on the year due to a high ankle sprain and fracture.

Staying away from a player as talented as Smith because of an injury history can be risky. Staying away from him for an injury history that doesn’t exist, in a sport where injuries strike random players at random times to begin with, well, that’s just football negligence. 

The Safest Pick in the Draft

Devonta Smith is seen as a gamble. A high-risk, high-reward player that can either be the best player on the field or the best player watching in street clothes from the sideline. At least, that’s the perception.

But maybe Devonta Smith shouldn’t be viewed as a gamble at all. Maybe the most talented player in college football, a reigning national champion, a record-breaker, a Heisman-winner, shouldn’t be viewed as the Draft’s biggest gamble, but rather, the Draft’s safest pick.

He has the raw talent to fit into an NFL roster from Day One, and be the best player immediately on a depleted Eagles’ wide receiver depth chart. He has the refined skill and football knowledge to build on that talent as well. Devonta Smith has everything he needs to blossom into one of the best young receivers in the game, all in a slender body that hasn’t sustained a serious midseason injury in over two seasons.

Maybe one day we’ll stop overthinking talent when we see it. Maybe one day we’ll stop overthinking Devonta Smith.

The post STOP the hate for Heisman winner DeVonta Smith appeared first on Pro Football Mania.

By: Brady Atkins

Year after year, the NFL Draft comes and blesses fans, players, and teams across the country alike. And year after year, as time passes and the dust settles, the NFL Draft reminds us all of one thing.

Nobody involved in the draft process knows anything about anything.

The league has seen safe, uber-talented college athletes fizzle out in a matter of seasons, fail to reach their potential, or miss out on playing entirely. In some cases, even the first-round guys meet this unfortunate fate.

But for every David Carr and Jamarcus Russell, teams manage to hit on players like Russell Wilson and Dak Prescott— two players taken after the first round who have proven to be stars in the league.

The list isn’t limited to those two, either. In fact, the NFL is littered with diamonds in the rough who slipped through the cracks of the first round to outshine their counterparts taken within the first 32 picks.

And as is the case every year, the 2021 NFL Draft will be no exception. Some first-round players will fail to meet expectations, while others taken after them will shine in the league for years to come.

Here are three players taken after the first round that could be those late-round gems.

Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, LB, Browns

Jeremiah Owusu-Koramah, the Notre Dame product and recent addition to the Cleveland Browns linebacker corps, was taken 52nd overall in the 2021 NFL Draft– the back half of the second round. If all goes well, he could prove to be the strongest defensive player to come out of the class in just a few short years.

College production wasn’t the reason Owusu-Koramoah fell all the way to the 52nd pick. In both his junior and senior seasons, Owusu-Koramoah was a deadly, do-it-all defensive weapon for the Fighting Irish. Not only were his 80 tackles in 2019 a team-high, but the linebacker also hit team-highs in both tackles for loss and sacks, with 13.5 and 5.5, respectively. 

A field general savvy enough to contain offensive players in the open field, and an explosive threat quick enough to disrupt the backfield, Owusu-Koramoah would only add to his accolades in 2020, winning the Butkus Award for college football’s best linebacker, while also ending the season as a unanimous All-American selection.

Owusu-Koramoah’s resume is difficult to argue against, but college production isn’t always a one-to-one translation to NFL production. Athletic traits are necessary as well. Those, however, aren’t why the Notre Dame star fell, either.

Even while sitting out of the 40-yard dash and bench press at Notre Dame’s Pro Day, Owusu-Koramoah delivered a spectacular athletic showing, registering a 6.81-second three-cone time to prove his agility, while also recording a 10’4” broad jump to remind scouts of his explosiveness. That broad jump score would have been good for fifth among linebackers participating in the 2020 NFL Combine, while the three-cone time would have been the top of the class.

Neither talent nor production held Owusu-Koramoah back. Rather, the player who might be the draft’s most polished defensive prospect slipped down through to the second round in part due to health concerns, specifically, heart issues. Issues which recently, Owusu-Koramoah has completely dismissed. 

If Owusu-Koramoah truly is as healthy as he claims, he could be an instant starter on a Cleveland Browns defense that, all of a sudden, is starting to look like a strong unit. Myles Garrett finally has a capable running mate in Jadaveon Clowney. Star cornerback Denzel Ward got some help at his position group with Cleveland’s signing of Troy Hill from the Rams, along with the Browns’ first-round draft selection of Greg Newsome out of Northwestern.

With stars across the position groups, Owusu-Koramoah has the talent to be the last piece in rebuilding the Cleveland Browns defense. And with the talent around him, the linebacker could be able to shine immediately. 

Michael Carter, RB, Jets

In the 2021 NFL Draft, the New York Jets selected Michael Carter. No, not that Michael Carter, New York’s fifth-round cornerback selection. I’m talking about Michael Carter, New York’s fourth-round running back selection.

For as potentially confusing as that might be in the moment, the running back Michael Carter has the talent to sneak into being a household name, and is now in the situation to hit that potential in his rookie year.

Carter, through four years in college with the North Carolina Tar Heels, has put together a resume of the explosive, versatile production that the Jets offense desperately craves. Despite having a deep cast of running backs that included Le’Veon Bell and Frank Gore, the New York rushing attack sputtered in 2020 to the seventh-lowest yards per carry figure at 4.1, while tying for dead last in team rushing touchdowns with just nine.

New York struggled to reach the endzone on the ground, and had equal trouble finding any efficiency in the running game. Michael Carter could solve both of those issues from Day One.

Carter was a big play waiting to happen in 2020, averaging 8.0 yards per carry with the Tar Heels, and being the only player in college football to have that efficiency with more than 10 games played. His 1,245 total rushing yards were fourth at the FBS level in 2020 as well, ahead of names like Travis Etienne, Trey Sermon, and Javonte Williams– all of whom were drafted before Carter.

But Carter’s true strength lays in his ability to do any and everything for a football team. The running back ended three of his four college seasons with over 20 receptions, including a 25 catch season in 2020 that resulted in him adding two touchdowns as a receiver on top of the nine he managed on the ground. Carter even showed his value on special teams as well, returning 29 kickoffs over his college career for a 22.4-yard average.

For a New York team breaking in a rookie in Zach Wilson who they hope will be the face of the franchise for the next decade, bringing in some exciting weapons could be key in developing Wilson to those lofty expectations. Finding a weapon like Carter in the fourth round, an explosive running back with pass-catching skill and special teams value, could prove to be a steal.

Deonte Brown, Guard, Panthers

The Carolina Panthers drafted a First-Team All-SEC player from the reigning national champions to fill a glaring team need, and they got him in the sixth round.

Deonte Brown, the guard from the Alabama Crimson Tide, might have been a late Day Three pick, but he might have gone to the perfect situation to be an immediate impact player on a weak Panthers offensive line. With his experience in college, Brown might be NFL-ready enough to even be a starter in his rookie season.

The absolutely massive, Blastoise-esque guard on the perennial college football powerhouse managed to see the field as a starter by his sophomore season, and has only grown as a player with that experience. Crafting a decent offensive line is a five-man job, but Brown was a part of an Alabama blocking unit that allowed just 19 sacks in 13 games in 2020. The Crimson Tide might have been even stronger as a run-blocking unit, creating lanes that allowed Alabama to hit 5.0 yards per carry as a team.

Deonte Brown has played for a long time, and has done it on the highest level college football has to offer. Heading to a Carolina team with uncertainty at some spots on the line, and older veterans at others, Brown has the chance to be an important piece of the Panthers offensive line– and the talent to stick around in the league for years.

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The NFL Draft is a beautiful thing, and the first round is the pinnacle of it all.

32 college athletes have received the opportunity of their dreams as Round One selections in the 2021 NFL Draft, while teams across the football landscape look to fill the holes on their depth charts and load their rosters with talent for the next decade. 

But while nobody leaves draft night a worse team than they were when they entered, there are always a few teams that will look back at the event as a missed opportunity. As some players picked later blossom, earlier picks are left floundering, leaving the teams that drafted them to wonder where they went wrong.

The Draft is a notorious crapshoot, with near-impossible odds on predicting exactly who will succeed and who will be the next Mitch Trubisky. But as each team took their turn on the clock, five walked away without players that could have been instant stars, or even future franchise alterers. 

These are the five picks from the first round that should have happened, but didn’t.

Justin Fields to the Denver Broncos

Maybe Patrick Surtain II is the best cornerback in the class. Maybe he’s the best defender in the class, and a player at a position that, after losing AJ Bouye, the Denver Broncos could use some help at.

Surtain could be the next coming of Champ Bailey, but the Broncos’ franchise isn’t going anywhere of relevance until they finally, finally, figure out what to do at quarterback. And picking ninth overall in 2021, Denver had a potential solution fall into their laps. Justin Fields, the Ohio State star, as available for the taking.

Denver will now, more likely than not, roll into the 2021 season with Drew Lock under center, a player who threw for 15 interceptions last season, tied for the most in the league. Lock did that with just 16 passing touchdowns and a league-worst 57.3% completion percentage. 

Maybe the return of Courtland Sutton will boost Lock’s numbers. And maybe another year as the full-time starter is what he needs to maximize his potential. But trusting Lock fully after a dreadful 2020 season will be a gamble that could sink the future of the Broncos franchise.

Penei Sewell to the Cincinnati Bengals 

Y’all wanna know something insane?

Joe Burrow was sacked the ninth most times in 2020. Joe Burrow played in just 10 games in 2020. 

LSU’s Ja’Marr Chase will join Cincinnati’s potentially potent offense made up of playmakers like Tee Higgins, Tyler Boyd, and Joe Mixon. But here’s the issue. In order for all those nice pieces to come together, Burrow, the man calling the shots on the field, needs to be able to stand upright in order to get the ball to those playmakers.

The Bengals had their chance to draft Oregon tackle Penei Sewell, this year’s top offensive line prospect, and someone that could potentially help keep Burrow standing tall in the pocket for the next decade. 

But when Burrow returns to the field in 2021, after damaging his PCL and tearing his ACL and MCL, he will do so with some fun players to throw to, but without the help of 2021’s most promising offensive line prospect.

Rashod Bateman to the Washington Football Team

The Washington Football Team was one of the most surprising stories of the 2020 season, making the playoffs with a 7-9 record, and came within eight points of beating the eventual Super Bowl champions in the first round of the playoffs. To pull all that off, the Football Team leaned heavily on the power of their defense.

While Washington’s scoring defense finished fourth in the league last season, their scoring offense placed towards the bottom at 25th. While Washington allowed the second-fewest passing yards and passing touchdowns in 2020, behind only the Rams, their passing offense was 25th in yards, and 28th in total passing touchdowns.

One player wouldn’t fix how broken the Football Team’s offense was last season– but they could have tried. Even with the big three receivers off the board, Minnesota’s Rashod Bateman showed the potential in college to give Washington a Day One WR1 in their offense, and add a reliable target for their new quarterback, Ryan Fitzpatrick.

But with Washington selecting Jamin Davis, the linebacker out of Kentucky, the Football Team is going all-in on what barely got them to the postseason in 2020.

Jaelan Phillips to the Las Vegas Raiders

The Raiders once had a guy named Khalil Mack on their roster, a three-time All-Pro for his undeniable skill as a pass-rusher. 

The Raiders traded him 2018, and ever since that day, they’ve been scrambling desperately to replace his production. 2020 was a new low for the Raiders, managing just 21 sacks through 16 games, the fourth-fewest in the league.

But the search for help at the pass rush continues in Las Vegas, with the Raiders taking Alabama tackle Alex Leatherwood 17th overall. Leatherwood fills a need on the offense, but he’s a prospect that was seen by many as a Day Two player, and someone at an offensive tackle position with plenty of depth in the 2021 class.

Phillips also would have filled a team need, and was considered the top player in a shallow group of pass rushers in 2021.

Maybe they’ll find their answer to the Khalil Mack void next year.

Gregory Rousseau to the Pittsburgh Steelers

Najee Harris could very well be a star in the league. From Le’Veon Bell to Chase Claypool to Antonio Brown, recent Steelers history has shown us that the franchise is more than capable of turning surprising skill players into gold.

And it’s true, the rushing attack in Pittsburgh was”¦ lacking, to say the least, in 2020. The Steelers’ 1,351 rushing yards were the lowest in the NFL. Same for their 3.6 yards per carry. But while Pittsburgh could use some help at the position, a fair bit of their lack of production on the ground was by design.

The Steelers finished first in the NFL in passing attempts in 2020, and dead last in rushing attempts. While many of Pittsburgh’s attempts through the air came in the form of quick, short, high percentage passing attempts that essentially served to replace the running game.

All the while, one of the key contributors on Pittsburgh’s top-tier defense, Bud Dupree, parted ways with the team in free agency. Miami’s Gregory Rousseau presented the chance for the Steelers’ to draft a high-upside replacement to run alongside TJ Watt.

And Harris could be the best running back of the bunch, but recent history has shown that stars at the position can be found in the later rounds of the draft. Derrick Henry, Dalvin Cook, and Jonathan Taylor, the league’s three leaders in rushing yards in 2020, were all second-round selections from their respective drafts. Fourth in yards was Aaron Jones, a fifth-round pick, while James Robinson, an undrafted free agent, rounded out the top five in rushing yards last season.

Value at the position can be found on Day Two, even on Day Three. It’s much harder to say the same about pass rushers.

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