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Welcome to the week 14 Official NFL Power Rankings! With circus catches and beatdowns alongside great games, there was plenty to discuss even before a MNF Scorigami that might already be airing on ESPN classic. 32/32 Reporting

#		Team	Δ	Record	Comment
1.		Chiefs	--	12-1	The Dolphins gave the Chiefs all they could handle in the first quarter of Sunday's game, but the Chiefs once again proved that when they are focused, they are the most dangerous team in the NFL. Travis Kelce, the NFL's leading receiver currently, had another monster game showing why he's a future hall of famer. However, after having five 10+ point wins in the first eight weeks of the season, the Chiefs last five wins have all been won by one score. Will this trend ultimately matter come playoff time? It's hard to argue with results, as the Chiefs 12-1 record is the best record through 13 games in franchise history. The ultimate barometer for the Chiefs is this week as they travel to play the Saints, hopefully with Drew Brees. Many questions will be answered in this clash of two top five teams.
2.		Packers	+2	10-3	There always seems to be one Lions-Packer game a year that ends up being some kind of adventure. Rodgers and Adams were as good as ever but the Lions kept on lingering throughout the game. Mason "Silver Fox" Crosby nailed an insurance 58 yard field goal with 3:30 to play and made a touchdown-saving tackle on the immediate kickoff. Aside from Crosby, the special teams really leave a lot to be desired, especially after the hands team almost allowed a onside kick recovery (c'mon y'all I don't need Bostic flashbacks). Packers officially won the division game and are now the projected 1 seed, which is pretty neat ngl. Onto a Saturday game I guess?
3.		Bills	+2	10-3	For a team that was searching desperately in 2019 for a signature win, the 2020 Bills have found them everywhere they turn. This team has had one of the toughest schedules in the league, but except for a couple games they've shown up every time they've had to. This is the second-best team in the conference. The Bills bandwagons are circling now. Josh Allen's extending his baseball glove-sized hand. He says "get in nerds, we're goin' to the Super Bowl."
4.		Saints	-1	10-3	This loss = Hurts. Dennis Allen seemingly had no answers for the rookie QB and then Miles Sanders piled on as well. "All the things we didn't want to allow happen, happened in that game." This was Sean Payton's post-game assessment and it's fair. Taysom Hill had an acceptable statline but it hides how sloppy he looked on the field. The defense struggled with its assignment to contain Hurts and keep him from getting outside the pocket - a worrying sign considering the next QB on the schedule.
5.		Steelers	-3	11-2	The Steelers schedule has been insane. 6 days between NYG and DEN. 14 days between HOU and PHI. 10 days between JAX and BAL. But with that BAL game, the Steelers played them, WFT and BUF in 12 days. 3 games in 12 days. The team is out of LBs and OL. This has been a challenging season for everyone, but this is unprecedented. The Steelers have 8 days until CIN, then 6 days until IND. 10 out of 16 games played with an irregular schedule? You can argue the drops are kicking their ass, but this schedule has been brutal. No wonder they've lost 2 straight.
6.		Rams	--	9-4	Imagine only scoring 3 points in a game.
7.		Colts	+1	9-4	Kenny Moore is a player underrated by national media but massively valuable to the Colts. GM Chris Ballard made re-signing him a priority after his breakout 2018 season. Moore has been a reliable performer throughout his tenure as a Colt and added an exclamation point with his insane one-handed interception on Sunday.
8.		Titans	+1	9-4	Derrick Henry had his second 200+ yard 2 TD game against the Jaguars on Sunday. The performance made Henry the 7th player to rush for 1,500+ yards and 14+ TDs through 13 games.
9.		Seahawks	+1	9-4	Nothing cures suicidal thoughts losing like playing the Jets, baby. Sunday was never much of a game, as it was all Seahawks all day. Russell Wilson threw for 4 touchdowns, Jamal Adams broke the single season sack record for defensive backs, and Geno Smith got to play a full quarter against the team that drafted him. What a way to get over a bad loss to the Giants. Up next the Seahawks will take on their final NFC East opponent of the season; Football Team.
10.		Ravens	+2	8-5	This ranker is a brown man, writing about how Lamar Jackson lost 20 pounds dropping some brown, dropping a TD to Brown, to go ahead against the Browns. They go for two. So in response, K-hunt ties the game, 42-42. In response, the Llama sets up the GOAT to nail a 54-yarder, 16th game winner of his career! To say nothing else of the game -- 9 total fucking rushing touchdowns, tying a record held since two defunct teams played each other before anyone on reddit was born... and Jackson runs for a MNF QB record 124 yards -- but still gets all the clutch plays done with his arm, with this middling group of receivers. The even greater news amidst all this is that the schedule doesn't look so bad in the closing stretch, and inspired play like this past Monday from the offense will ease the burden of the Ravens' gradually depleting secondary. Best wishes to Trace McSorely who made an extremely commendable effort to set them up for Lamar's return.
11.		Browns	-4	9-4	Did you bet the over? The Browns and Ravens combined for 89 points in an absolute rollercoaster of a game. While they did not win, the Browns have shown they are contenders. With two games to go a real shot at the playoffs is on the table. The Browns will face the Giants in another prime time game.
12.		Buccaneers	-1	8-5	The Buccaneers pulled off a 26-14 win over the Vikings, bringing their playoff chances to 94%. Vikes kicker Dan Bailey channeled his inner Gary Anderson to win the Bucs' game ball on an 0/3 kicking performance with an additional missed XP. Rookie Antoine Winfield Jr. played a disruptive game against his dad's former team and is looking like he has the potential to be one of the league's next great safeties. With only interim coaches to close out the remaining three games of the season, the Bucs should have smooth sailing into the Wild Card round.
13.		Dolphins	--	8-5	There are no consolation prizes in the NFL, but a single score loss to the best team in the league while the backup waterboy is lining up in the slot is about as close to a one as you'll ever get. While he was able to pull off the win, even Patrick Mahomes couldn't keep this ball-hawking defense from getting a hold of the ball, often. And at some point, if people don't start talking about Xavien Howard in the DPOY conversation, he's just going to go intercept the damned award himself. Hopefully, the long, long list of injured Dolphins get well soon.
14.		Cardinals	+1	7-6	A monster day from Haason Reddick and the defense finally put the Cardinals back on the winning track. Breaking a franchise record with 5 sacks was one thing, but getting all the turnovers was huge. Hopefully the offense feeds off of it and has a good week in preparing for a big game with Philly that has huge playoff implications. It will take a complete team effort to beat Philly with Jalen Hurts starting fresh of a win against the Saints.
15.		Raiders	-1	7-6	The Raiders looked really bad against the Colts, just like they have for the better part of the last 6 weeks. Luckily Gruden finally made the call to fire Pauly G, something fans have been calling for for the past 2 seasons. Only time will tell if it's too little, too late. Every game from here on out is a must win if the Raiders want to make the playoffs.
16.		Washington FT	+3	6-7	Washington is finding ways to win instead of finding ways to lose. The offense was not able to score a TD so the defense went ahead and spotted them 14 points. Chase Young notches his first TD and continues to prove his worth as the 2nd overall pick as a game wrecker.
17.		Vikings	--	6-7	Dalvin Cook became the first back to rush for over 100 yards against the Bucs in over 20 games, but the Vikings were unable to convert long drives into points as Dan Bailey went 0/4 on field goals and extra points. Couple that with some questionable officiating, the Vikings' banged up front seven generating zero pressure on Tom Brady and plenty of self-inflicted wounds and it all adds up to a real tough loss that knocks the Vikings down from wild card favorites to playoff long shots.
18.		Bears	+5	6-7	The Bears finally snapped their six-game losing streak by rolling over the Texans without much difficulty. Trubisky attempted one throw longer than 20 yards.
19.		Patriots	-3	6-7	Los Angeles, is a land of contrasts - In a span of four days the Patriots' hopes for a postseason were revived and then unceremoniously squashed. Run Defense, Offensive Line, Cam and the Receivers, There just are too many holes to cover up with week to week coaching, this team needs some reworking over the offseason. The Pats end the season with the division as always, lets hope to fuck someone’s season or seeding up. And also the Jets.
20.		49ers	-2	5-8	The 49ers defense did their job, holding the Washington offense to a total of 9 points, but the offense had two takeaways brought back for touchdowns and could not recover. The team looks to right the ship this week against the Cowboys.
21.		Broncos	+5	5-8	Drew Lock put up the third-highest passer rating in team history — behind a couple guys you may know. In the battle of 4-8's, the Broncos somehow managed to not blow a sizeable fourth-quarter lead and emerge victorious. Winning the game but losing The Hunt for a Better Draft Pick. Will the team remain in purgatory? Stay tuned.
22.		Giants	-2	5-8	It’s a real joy to watch the rest of the teams in the up-for-grabs NFC East secure wins, with one being against a top-5 team, all while watching your team play so poorly they start setting franchise records. At least we can say the hype was fun while it lasted, right?
23.		Falcons	-1	4-9	Outplayed by a team whose most impressive win is a tossup between the Bengals, Jaguars, and Jets? Check. Outcoached by special teams ace Anthony Lynn? Check. Ten point lead blown, two interceptions with under five minutes left, double check. Good thing age is just a number for the 32nd youngest team in the league.
24.		Panthers	-3	4-9	I'm not sure where the Panthers go from here. Coach Rhule has said that he isn't going to do the team and fans a disservice by beginning to evaluate players, which means that we're going to see more of Teddy Bridgewater (who is 0-7 in one score games this season) crumble at the end of the game. Playing at Lambeau in primetime in December is one of the hardest things a team can do, and it's not going to be an easy test for the Panthers, who so far have shown that they can't win close games, nor can they defend the pass (23rd in passing defense). It's going to be tough sledding, but hopefully Jeremy Chinn can continue his torrid pace and run his way into DROY.
25.		Eagles	+3	4-8-1	Jalen Hurts delivered the spark the Eagles needed to upset the Saints and spread 'quarterback controversy' all over the city of brotherly love. While the season remains a disappointment, the dual running threat of Hurts and Sanders could be interesting to watch going forward, and the NFC Least remains wide-open with 2 divisional games left on the 2020 menu.
26.		Lions	-1	5-8	Even with a loss, Interim HC Darrell Bevell showed that his Lions are here to compete. This game was never out of hands, and the Lions kept it close the entire time. There are still plenty of woes on Defense, but the Offense continued to ball out as expected. With two TD's coming from the run game (Swift and Kerryon), there is already something to look forward to next year. Lately the team has been able to trust the run on short yardage and redzone carries and it has helped the team with consistency in the red zone. Unfortunately, Aaron Rodgers is a QB that can carve up a weak secondary... so that didn't go great. There's around a 1% chance of the Lions getting a playoff spot, not unheard of, but it'll be tough if Stafford's injury progresses and we lose him for the season. #DefendTheDen
27.		Chargers	--	4-9	First of all, props to Falcons Twitter for this gem before the game, and it played out exactly as expected. Both teams did their best to try giving it away at the end, but the Chargers ended up on the winning side this time around. The Chargers had their hiccups again but there were improvements across the board; Justin Herbert's 81.8% completion percentage is his highest of the season, the defense came away with 3 INTs, and special teams probably had their best day. The Chargers get a short week before a Thursday Night tilt in Las Vegas.
28.		Texans	-4	4-9	The Texans are lucky that Paxton is the Texas AG, otherwise they would have had the biggest blowout loss in the state this past week.
29.		Cowboys	--	4-9	The Red Rifle won his revenge game, the defense forced multiple turnovers, and the Bengals were held to 3.4 yards per carry. All that, and the Cowboys still come out of the week with a top 5 draft pick. Honestly, Sunday couldn't have gone better. Now, the only question is whether this was the team turning the corner and the beginning of a strong finish to the season, or this was just a perfect moment of the Cowboys finding a shittier team with serious injuries issues and just doing what should happen in that scenario.
30.		Bengals	--	2-10-1	Giovani Bernard hadn't fumbled since 2013 before his 1st quarter fumble on Sunday. So what does he get for his troubles? A spot on the bench thanks to Zac Taylor. Giovani was one of the only veterans who spoke out in behalf of Taylor and the current coaches when multiple articles were released with "sources" saying that Taylor had lost the locker room last month. You have to question the benching for multiple reasons as the directionless Bengals continue to flounder to blowout losses. Just another reason why this should be Zac Taylor's last season as head coach in Cincinnati.
31.		Jaguars	--	1-12	This one felt more as expected. Perhaps it was in former GM Dave Caldwell's plans— no, wait, hear me out. Adjusting tinfoil hat; Based on the moves taken this offseason to seemingly dump talent from the Jaguars in attempt to amass more draft picks, perhaps the former front office of the Jaguars were banking on this season not being played, due to pandemic reasons. Sure, this may sound farfetched, but I'd like to hear a more reasonable explanation for fielding such a disaster as this team, this season.
32.		Jets	--	0-13	The Jets have now scored on 7 consecutive opening drives, the longest streak in the NFL. After climbing to an early 3-0 lead, I watched Peter Sawkins make an excellent cranachan custard slice on The Great British Bake Off.

Hello fellow Broncos fans! Last night I was seeing a thread that talked about giving Drew Lock one more year, with comparisons to Josh Allen and Aaron Rodgers. First off, I am going to shoot down the Aaron Rodgers comparison right away. Rodgers only sat for three years because he was behind a Hall of Fame QB in Brett Favre, which the team moved on from to get the ball to Rodgers. Favre still had a couple of good years with the Vikings, but I digress. We have heard for about three months now that Drew Lock could be the next Josh Allen. So far, I have only seen the first 16 games if their career in that comparison, and that is where it stops. Today, watching other teams in the playoffs for the fifth year in the row, I have decided to do an in-depth comparison of the two QBs. I am by no means a sportswriter, but I have loved the Broncos as long as I can remember in my life. So what will be covered in this? I will start by looking at the two players’ college careers to their teams they were on for their first 16 games. Let’s get into it. Let’s start at college.

Josh Allen’s College Career
Year	Games	Completion %	Pass Yards	Pass TDs	Ints	Rush Yards	Rush TDs
2016	14	56.0	3203	28	15	523	7
2017	11	56.3	1812	16	6	204	5

Offensive Players from Wyoming During and One Year After Josh Allen Was Drafted in the NFL
Player Name	Position	Drafted by/Round/Pick/Year
Chase Roullier	Center	Washington/6th/15th/2017
Brian Hill	Running Back	Atlanta/5th/12th/2017
Tanner Gentry	WR	Chicago/Undrafted FA/2017
Jacob Hollister	TE	New England/Undrafted FA/2017
No Offensive Players in the NFL from 2018 other than Josh Allen
Tyree Mayfield	TE	San Fran/Undrafted FA/2019
Nico Evans	RB	Philadelphia/Undrafted FA/2019
Austin Fort	TE	DenveUndrafted FA/2019

Drew Lock’s College Career
Year	Games	Completion %	Pass Yards	Pass TDs	Ints	Rush Yards	Rush TDs
2015	12	49.0	1332	4	8	28	1
2016	12	54.6	3399	23	10	123	1
2017	13	57.8	3964	44	13	111	1
2018	13	62.9	3498	28	8	175	6

Offensive Players from Missouri During and One Year After Drew Lock Was Drafted in the NFL
Player Name	Position	Drafted by/Round/Pick/Year
Evan Boehm	C	Arizona/4th/30th/2016
Connor McGovern	G	Denve5th/5th/2016
Russell Hansbrough	RB	Tampa/Undrafted FA/2016
Leonard Wester	T	Tampa/Undrafted FA/2016
Sean Culkin	TE	Chargers/Undrafted FA/2017
J’Mon Moore	WR	Green Bay/4th/33rd/2018
Jason Reese	TE	Tampa/Undrafted FA/2018
Tyler Howell	T	Giants/Undrafted FA/2018
Emanuel Hall	WR	Chicago/Undrafted FA/2019
Damarea Crockett	RB	Houston/Undrafted FA/2019
Albert Okwuegbunam	TE	Denve4th/12th/2020
Yasir Durant	T	Kansas City/Undrafted FA/2020
Trystan Colon-Castillo	C	Baltimore/Undrafted FA/2020
Tre’Vour Wallace-Simms	G	Jacksonville/Undrafted FA/2020

So now that we have all the numbers in place, let’s begin the discussion on the two. There are a couple of glaring things. Josh Allen only has two years of playing college football. He did play briefly in 2015, but it was a total of 4 passes, so I have chosen to ignore it. Lock was used sparingly his first season but had over 1000 yards passing so I have chosen to include it. There are also differences in the offenses between the two QBs. On account of the poor weather in the Mountain West, the Wyoming Cowboys ran a more typical pro style offense, one that has a reliance on the running game, short passes, and play action. There were definitely times Allen chucked it deep, but he only threw for 643 times in his two years starting at Wyoming. Drew Lock threw the ball 1553 times in college, following the spread offense that is pretty common in the SEC. Their career completion percentage in college is separated by 0.7 in favor of Lock. There is another stark difference between the two, Josh Allen did far more with his legs. Allen had 727 yards rushing in two years with 12 rushing TDs to boot. Lock has 437 yards rushing in four years with 9 rushing TDs. Fun fact both had a TD reception in college.
I included the draft picks and undrafted college free agents from the teams that Josh Allen and Drew Lock were a part of in college to see the NFL talent that each player lost each year and the players that each of the QBs played a role in developing. Mizzou has more players in that category during Lock’s stint, but he also played in 4 seasons vs. 2 from Allen.
Let’s look at pre-draft profiles and mock drafts for the two QBs.
Josh Allen’s NFL.com First Look from Daniel Jeremiah in 2017:
Strengths: Physical tools, Joe Flacco’s frame/arm strength and more athletic than Carson Wentz. Has a quick explosive release. Excellent throws on the move, can make the free rusher miss and a nice blend of speed and power on designed QB runs.
Weaknesses: Needs to be more efficient and display more touch. Aggressive by nature, but forces balls too often and needs to take advantage of easy completions underneath. Needs to work on setting his feet, will sometimes bail on a clean pocket.
Drew Lock’s NFL.com First Look from Daniel Jeremiah in 2018:
Strengths: He’s big, athletic, and possesses plenty of arm strength. Does a nice job getting the ball out quickly. He can easily drive the ball to the numbers. When he is pressured, he flashes good pocket awareness and has the desired athleticism to mix in some speed option and zone read on occasion.
Weaknesses: He does predetermine some throws at times, and that leads to turnovers. He needs to improve his field vision and he also has inconsistencies on the deep ball. The area that needs to improve the most is the talent around him, there are several drops in each game that was studied. Josh Allen Mock Draft Positioning:
CBS Sports’ Chris Trapasso: 5th Overall
Bleacher Report’s Matt Miller: 11th Overall
NBC Sports: 6th Overall
Mike Mayock: 6th Overall
The Ringer’s: 11th Overall
Actual Draft Position: 7th Overall
Drew Lock Mock Draft Positioning:
CBS Sports’ Ryan Wilson: 11th Overall
Bleacher Report’s Matt Miller: 10th Overall
NBC Sports: 13th Overall
Chad Rueter’s (Mike Mayock went to the raiders this year): 2nd Overall
The Ringer’s: 6th Overall
Actual Draft Position: 42nd Overall
I have included the Mock Drafts for a sole reason of talking about expectations. I have seen a couple of times on this sub that we should not have the same expectations for Lock as we did for Allen because Lock was not a first round pick. I pulled almost identical mock drafts from Allen’s draft class that had him pretty much pegged at his draft position. They had Lock in a very similar place in the draft. While Lock was ultimately drafted in the 2nd, the Broncos got a guy who was projected to be a 1st round talent in the 2nd round.
Josh Allen’s Scouting Report from Bleacher Report following the Draft:
Strengths: Arm strength ranks among the best scouts have ever seen. Can easily hit deep comebacks, can stretch the field to lengths most quarterbacks cannot. Can thread the ball into tight windows. Can run over and around defenders. Can make throws without having to reset his feet and still throw it to it with power while rolling out. Has played in a pro-style offense
Negatives: Allen’s film shows poor decisions and errant passes. Subpar completion percentage can be attributed to poor decisions, passes thrown too hard, drops, and plain misses. When Allen misses, he misses big. Footwork needs to be refined so that he’s stepping into throws and aligning it with lower body. Leaves a clean pocket too often.
Drew Lock’s Scouting Report from Bleacher Report following the Draft:
Strengths: Three year starter with big arm strength and downfield gunslinger mentality. Best deep ball thrower with excellent power to launch the ball vertically and the touch to lead the receiver to daylight. More accurate deep than short. Excellent downfield anticipation. Mizzou offense demanded him to read the entire field post snap. Offers good pocket mobility with enough athleticism to pick up yardage as a runner. Doesn’t drop his eyes to the pass rush. Dropped passes highly affected his completion percentage and production.
Weaknesses: Only topped a 60 percent completion rate once in college and struggles to throw on target, often leaving balls high or wide. Will wow you and then leave you frustrated in within the span of two throws. Inconsistent mechanics. Production dropped following his offensive coordinator leaving. Concerns that his breakout season was scheme rather than talent. Loves to make throws on the run but loses mechanics doing so. Needs dedicated time to improving footwork, but you’ll have to get him to buy in to those changes.
First 16 Starts in the Pros:

Josh Allen Vs. Drew Lock First 16 Career Games (Per Pro Football Reference)
QB	Completion %	Pass Yards	Pass TDs	Ints	Rush Yards	Rush TDs	Sacks
Allen	56.62	3122	15	19	763	11	38
Lock	58.96	3614	21	18	225	3	22

2018 Bills Skill Position Starters
Name	Position	Where are they now?
LeSean McCoy	RB1	4th Running Back for Tampa, Injured
Chris Ivory	RB2	Out of the League
Kelvin Benjamin	WR1	Out of the League
Zay Jones	WR2	4th WR for the Raiders by receptions and yards
Jeremy Kerley	WR3	Out of the League
Charles Clay	TE1	Out of the League
Jason Croom	TE2	Played in 4 games for the Eagles this season, 1 reception for a touchdown and that is all.
Logan Thomas	TE3	Starting TE for Washington, has developed well

2020 Broncos Skill Position Starters
Name	Position	Where are they now?
Melvin Gordon III	RB1	Finished 10th in Rushing Yards and 11th in Rushing TDs
Phillip Lindsay	RB2	502 rush yards in 11 games with one TD. This is coming off of back to back 1000 yard rushing seasons
Jerry Juedy	WR1	Finished 32nd in the league in receiving yards, had three TDs, would have done much better had he not been plagued by drops
Tim Patrick	WR2	Tim Patrick finished 48th in the league in receiving yards with 6 TDs, was an undrafted rookie prior to finding a decent role here.
K.J. Hamler	WR3	Hamler showed flashes throughout the season, but plagued by drops and hamstring injuries
Noah Fant	TE1	Finished 6th in TEs in Reception Yards and 22nd in TDs
Nick Vannett	TE2	Primarily a blocking tight end, has made a couple of big plays.
Troy Fumagalli	TE3	He survived a whole season injury free, that is something right?

Time to look at the stats here. Josh Allen had nearly double the sacks in his first 16 starts. That is a combination of poor offensive line play and him holding on to the ball too long. Lock has far better skill position players, see the tables above. I have selected the years in question because this is where most of each players’ 16 games have occurred with. Allen has a huge benefit of using his legs, something that has not happened with Lock yet. There are flashes for Lock, but Allen’s feet make him a threat in the air and on the ground, something we have failed to see from Lock. Allen has more total touchdowns by two and 46 more total yards. He did do it with a much weaker supporting cast.
To wrap it up, I want to go through and say that the point of this is just to show that the situations for Lock and Allen are different. They have similar stats but are ultimately different QBs. I am all for looking at another QB depending on the situation, but I am also all for letting Lock have one more year. I just want you all to have the information to make the comparison or to help you make your decision on Lock. Thank you for your time and Go Broncos.

Hello fellow Flock members, I hope everyone had a good holiday! Was glad to start the new year with a W. Let’s take a look at what I saw against the Bunguls (admittedly not the best competition to judge off of)
The O:
QB - Jackson has really gotten back to form the last few weeks, that’s plain to see. His passing game has improved so much, especially his deep ball. The throw to Hollywood look catchable from the angle we got at first, but the second angle didn’t, so I don’t know if it was the throw or Brown. The pass to Boykin was money, as was the second score to Brown. The TD Brown went to the ground to catch was, in all honestly, thrown a little low but Brown made the play. Lamar is planting his feet in the pocket, and doing a much better job with the touch he puts on his passes. Of course, his legs are the threat they’ve always been. Why has Lamar all of a sudden got back to MVP form? A number of factors I’m sure. He looks more confident, we’re calling plays that play to his strengths as a passer, and he is playing his ball. Next challenge for Lamar is winning the elusive playoff game.
WR - I was worried that without Snead we’d be missing our chain mover, but everyone stepped up in his absence. I very happy to see the ball spread around more so that teams can’t completely key in on Andrews. Hollywood (I think he gets his name back guys) balled out, both his TD catches required insane concentration. I still wish he would use his hands more at the point of catching the ball, he always wants to look it into his body. Boykin has come on the last couple weeks (Dez coaching him up?), his TS grab was as smooth as it could be. The others in this group did their jobs when called upon, and blocked exceptionally well.
TE - Andrews and Tomlinson both blocked well in the run game. I don’t believe Tomlinson was targeted. Andrews made some contested catches and continues to show why he’s a top 3 TE in the league. It’s clear, however, that he is the only receiving TE we trust right now. This could become an issue if we start to rely on him too much, we’ve seen how disruptive teams locking him down can be to our offense. I still look for us to add to this position when (hopefully not till late February) the off-season comes.
RB/FB - Not much negative to say here, I mean 404 yards rushing says it all. Gus is a priority resign in the off-season for me, he is big, consistently falls forward, and just a great team player. Outside of Bmore he doesn’t get the credibility he deserves as a back. JK is going to be a star, nothing more to it. Great vision to find a lane, and his cuts are icy. One negative would probably be Ingram, sadly he just doesn’t have it anymore, I liked seeing him get some carries in a well in hand game sure, but he should go back to healthy scratch status next week. Sorry Mark, you’re still my favorite hype man. Ricard is just a mauler in run blocking, I took some time to watch some of his plays last night after the game, he may be one of our most unsung (outside of Bmore) players.
OLine - Flock we may have our Oline combo worked out. I say may because of the competition we’ve seen, so I don’t want to say anything definitive. Powers should be our starting RG going forward (again, my bad Powers, you shut me right up). He is a monster on his initial push, quick when pulled, and holds up pretty well in pass protection. His foot work in pass protection is the only thing I’ve seen that he really needs to work on, he lets defenders turn him often when takes away his base. Zeus Jr. has likely played his way out of Bmore, which makes me sad. Skura did okay at center, but I was just hoping for clean snaps in the end. I think TCC replaced him, and did well. It’ll be nice to have Mekari back. They allowed no sacks. Overall this unit has gelled well, we’ll see how they do when the quality of completion is considerably stiffer.
Overall Offense: We did what I would expect and rolled a terrible team. Lamar and the passing game are getting hot at the perfect time. The run game is a monster that is built for January football. Let’s hope this isn’t because of playing bad teams, I don’t think it is (for example: the Giants have a nasty Dline and we still ran all over them).
The D:
S - Clark made an athletic interception in garbage time, played well in coverage but the Bunguls didn’t test the safeties to often it seemed. Joker excels as a “thumping” safety but has a long way to go in coverage. This worries me for the playoffs, as our corners like to gamble for turnovers.
CB - We have to all-pro corners, and they looked the part yesterday. When they were tested with passes 10+ yards they held up well. Mullen was a non-factor by games ends. Peters has a beautiful pick in the red zone, and the sense to go out in the end zone for the touch back. Marlo is a LB/CB/S hybrid freak. However, they have been struggling before this game so I admit I’m a little concerned how they’ll do when Brown/Davis are being targeted my Tanny Boy. Here’s hoping this game was a confidence booster to get them fired up.
LB/OLB - Again, a grain of salt here because the Bunguls are not a good team, but the Lbs looked stout. They were better with tackling (something they have to be exceptional with next week), and we’re surprisingly good in coverage. Board played really well, he has is goof ups, but he has a lot of potential. It’s hard for a LB to cover a RB on a deep route, and use the sideline because the rules are so in favor of the offense. Good play on his part. Queen is a fast, hard hitting future star. Can’t wait to see his coverage skills improve. A note on that though, he does so much better in man than zone (as does most our team). However, they didn’t manage a single sack the whole game. Plenty of pressure, but not a single sack. That just won’t do in the playoffs.
D-line - The dline “won” the battle in the trenches yesterday. Aside from one large run, and a handful of mid gainers they were stout against the run. They frequently got pressure, but as with the backers, couldn’t register a sack. This aspect of the defense worries me for the playoffs, if Tanny (or any other QB we may see) isn’t worried about being sacked we could be in for a long day. Yannick coming back should help, they keyed on Judon most the game.
Overall Defense: the defense played great yesterday, don’t get me wrong, but it is the part of our game that worries me the most. We have such an opportunistic defense that it sometimes (more often than not) hurts us. I’d like to see them take fewer chances to go for the turnover and play more technically sound. That’s just my opinion though.
ST - I don’t think it’s necessary to break this down by position. Our ST played great as usual. Seeing Koch’s consecutive game streak end because of Covid sucked.
Coaching:
Harbs - Harbs did a great job in keeping the team locked in, this was a game we’ve all seen screw us in the past so it was good to see the team make few mental mistakes. Harbs is truly a top 5 coach in this game, anyone who thinks different can catch me outside the bank. These conspiracies that he is the “root” of our problem are reaches.
Roman - ahh, hell here we go. The most polarizing issue in Ravens ball today. So do we get rid of Roman comes season end? Likely not. He has called the games recently with minimal mistakes. The difference is we’re executing better. He has made some changes (see my last post) and they have really helped us out. The fact is (and I’m still out on it myself) that he isn’t leaving unless he takes another gig. One note here: I was curious about his passing concepts so I went back and watched some previous game footage (admittedly a small sample size) and noticed something. He always designs his crossers so all the players end up on one side of the field, usually that’s stupid, but it also opens the opposite side of the field for Lamar to take off. Just a note.
Wink - Wink is Wink, really all there is. We will live and die by his aggressive style. He excels at scheming to get pressure, but that leaves us open to screens, quick passes, and roll outs. He relies on the secondary and non-blitzing players to hold up in coverage. Again, we live and die by this. The defense is relentless but that doesn’t matter much if you’re getting torched. I’m not digging at Wink or the D (we’ll be lucky if he doesn’t leave for another gig) just pouting out a potential issue come playoffs. When it works, it’s a thing of beauty, when it doesn’t it’s a train wreck.
Titans Preview: We’ve made the playoffs, something not all of us thought would happen in the last couple weeks. This team took care of what it had to. Two things can be true: 1. We’ve played bad competition 2. We’ve played excellent ball. Looking at the Titans it can feel daunting. We’re still shocked from the playoffs last year, and the OT defeat earlier this year didn’t help. I’ll be honest though, I prefer to play a team we lost to then a team we beat. Beating a team twice in the NFL isn’t an easy feat. However, not I, anyone of you or the team is taking this game lightly. There is no doubt that DH is the biggest threat for the Titans. In our most recent game we actually played him fairly well (till the 4th/OT) but how long can you expect a team to stay energized tackling him play after play. Getting Williams and Campbell back should only bolster this effort. However, he isn’t the only problem. Given time Tanny will pick us apart with Brown and Davis. This is what concerns me, that we will sell out to stop DH and suffer the consequences. The pass rush has to hit home next week, we have to put them in clear passing situations to win. Offensively I’m not overly concerned to be honest. I think we can move the ball against that defense with our run game. My only concern is if the team turns the ball over. I’m not saying we have to play perfect but turnovers (as in any game) could be what kills us. I have all confidence in our squad, but make no bones about it, this is a tall order. I believe we’re up to the challenge. We are the mother fucking Baltimore Ravens, we play physical, in your face football, win or lose you will always feel playing the Ravens!
As always fuck the Steelers. Sorry for typos. Look forward to discussing. Let’s goooooo.

Happy December, NFL! Usually I do these posts Wednesday morning because all the games will have been played and we can start figuring out who will win the next week. But due to COVID, and the NFL's incompetence, we have a couple teams who haven't played yet. As such, I ask that you allow some wiggle room in your predictions to accommodate the one off game we're waiting on. Last week, I went a pretty good 12-4, bringing me to 114-63. How did everyone else do? We have two teams in the final byes. We also have five divisional games. Let's get to it!

Winner		Loser	Comments
Saints	over	Falcons	The Saints thrashed the Falcons two weeks ago in Taysom's first start. This will be trickier on the road after the Falcons stopped the run well against the Raiders and Ryan will provide more offensive resistance. The problem is, the Saints' passing game and defense will continue to come through when needed and has too much at stake with the #1 seed to let up against their archrivals.
Bears	over	Lions	The Lions fired Patricia, and the Bears might also soon be done with Nagy. There should be some motivation of the players to play harder on both sides with their respective fading seasons at stake. Crazy things tend to happen when both teams are mediocre.
Titans	over	Browns	The Browns and Titans both want to run the ball well to control the clock and set up favorable play-action passing opportunities for Baker and Tannehill. This becomes more of a grinding battle between Chubb and Henry with a few big pass plays to the talented receivers against weak secondaries. Trust Henry and Tannehill a little more at home.
Dolphins	over	Bengals	The Bengals played over their heads last week and also got a special teams TD against the Giants. Whether it's more of Fitzpatrick or Tua, there will be a limited burden on Miami's QBs. Look for the Dolphins to grind this out with whoever's running the ball with a few pass plays to score enough.
Vikings	over	Jaguars	The Vikings had two fluky fumbles go for TDs from the Panthers, making the game much closer than it should have been. The Jaguars simply cannot stop the Vikings' playmakers for Cousins, led by Cook and Jefferson. The Vikings' D will contain any looming threat of a Glennon comeback.
Raiders	over	Jets	The Raiders will try this again after falling flat against the Falcons. The Jets also can contain their running game, but look for Carr to get refocused in spreading the ball around downfield with fewer mistakes. The Jets continue to show less life with Gase and Darnold, so it's hard to expect them to get off the mat with Gruden pushing his team to play a lot better.
Colts	over	Texans	The Colts are becoming a hard team to predict each week. They took enough defensive hits last week to roll over against the Titans. This week, they should go back to establishing the run well against a weak Texans front to ease the pressure on Rivers. Their secondary and linebackers can contain Watson's deep passing and scrambling just enough to avoid the upset.
Cardinals	over	Rams	The Rams' D is rolling. The Cardinals' offense slowed down with Murray's bad shoulder. But I can trust Murray to rebound at home over Goff and his boom-or-bust nature to be better on the road. L.A. will try to use Donald and Ramsey to rattle Murray and shut down Hopkins. The Cardinals get it done with reliable running and short passing game.
Seahawks	over	Giants	The Seahawks will likely face McCoy instead of Jones. That gives their defense and running game a chance to take care of business at home, where they have yet to lose this season. Willson will play off the run well as usual with shots downfield away from Bradberry. The Giants will see the run contained and won't have enough firepower to keep up.
Packers	over	Eagles	The Eagles are coming off a short week as they try to salvage a second straight NFC East title. Their success in the running game and throwing to their backs will keep them hanging around, but eventually Rodgers will easily outduel Wentz to ensure the Packers get a win at Lambeau Field.
Patriots	over	Chargers	The Patriots travel cross country to try and breathe life into their playoff hopes. Look for them to grind the game out with Cam and their traditional running game and lean more on their defensive playcalling for Herbert.
Chiefs	over	Broncos	The Broncos hope to have a QB in Week 13, but it doesn't really matter when the best QB in the league, is playing on the other side. Lock will be eager to get back in there in his home state, but he'll be taking major lumps against an aggressive pass rush playing with a big lead.
Steelers	over	Washington	The Steelers are coming off a short week having played Wedsnesday. Washington has had a long week to recover since Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, Washington's offense doesn't match up well against the Steelers' run-stopping and pass-rushing defense up front. Big Ben will be very comfortable getting the ball out and spreading it around, while Smith won't have that kind of time.
Bills	over	49ers	San Fran is finally playing some good football, sweeping the Rams and showing they are not out of the fight. They'll get after Allen after stifling the run, but the bills QB will make just enough plays to pull off a road win on the west coast.
Ravens	over	Cowboys	The Cowboys will have a long layoff from Thanksgiving playing this game four days later than expected. The Ravens will hope to have enough healthy bodies to resemble their best self. It's hard to think Harbaugh will get out-coached by the mess McCarthy is operating in Dallas. Baltimore will lean much on its running game and defense here.

Byes: Buccaneers, Panthers
Those are my predictions, let's hear yours. Keep it civil and fun. Best of luck!
Update: 10-5 on to Week 14.
Playoff Picture with my picks.

The order is based on Tankathon with no trades.
1.) NY Jets- Trevor Lawrence-QB
It really doesn’t matter who is picking here T Law goes 1st. This guy is the best QB prospect since Andrew Luck and has been playing against the top tier competition since he was a freshman. Also, those golden locks are more marketable than Luck’s thick beard ever was so he should do well in NY
2.) Jacksonville Jaguars-Justin Fields-QB
Minshew Mania is finally subsiding and as Duval County comes out of their haze of jean shorts and 80s inspired mustaches they see Fields ready to take the reins. Fields is coming out of the very QB friendly offense in Ohio State where he was given ample opportunity to show off his arm, decision making, and athleticism. Fields will have to have to adjust to a pro offense but his football IQ and progression ability seems higher than the last few QBs out of Columbus so he should be fine.
3.) Washington Football Team-Penei Sewell-OT
The Washington Football Team has a lot of holes to fill on offense including QB, LT, and WR. With top prospects on the board at each position they opt for the generational talent in the trenches and keep moving. Kyle Smith loves going BPA in the trenches, see WFTs DL for proof, and will have his mouth watering to grab the heir to Trent Williams’ throne. Also, I think Rivera has faith in his QB room at the moment to hold the reins for a year or two while a developmental guy is brought in in rounds 2/3. Sewell is a “cant miss” prospect and should anchor that LT position for 5-10 years and could develop further as he is just 20 years old.
4.) Dallas Cowboys-Patrick Surtain II-CB
At this point I think Dallas would be looking to trade out with a team that has fallen in love with Parsons, Chase, or Rousseau to get more picks and retool that entire defense. But, in the “No Trade” universe Jerry stands pat and takes the best player on the board at a position of need in Surtain. Surtain is a true shutdown corner in the making with NFL lineage, his biggest weakness is tackling but if your Corner is doing a ton of that there are other issues to deal with.
5.) LA Chargers- Gregory Rousseau-EDGE
The Chargers came into the draft hoping that Sewell would fall to them and if he didn’t then they would likely trade out. But, we’re in the no trade universe so the Chargers look at their big board and decide to pick the best pass rusher available in Rousseau. The Miami product opted out of the 2020 season but there is good tape on him from the year prior and an athleticism that is hard to pass up. Also, Rousseau replaces Melvin Ingram for a much cheaper price than the UFA would ask for.
6.) Miami Dolphins via HOU- Micah Parsons-LB
Brian Flores would be sprinting to the podium to make this pick himself if Parsons is still on the board. Miami has a hole in the middle of their 3-4 and Parsons could be the dynamic playmaker to take the defense to a new level. The Penn State product is a fantastic athlete with good if not great instinct at the position. Additionally Parsons can be moved all around the defense with the ability to play at Edge rusher as well.
7.) Cincinnati Bengals-Ja’Marr Chase-WR
The Bengals have needs across the offensive line but cannot pass up the opportunity to reunite Joey B with his favorite target at the next level and get an elite talent in the process. Chase has the ability and Size to be a true number 1 at the next level and should pair nicely with Tee Higgins as the replacement for AJ Green.
8.) NY Giants- Kwity Paye-EDGE/DL
Credit given where credit is due, Joe Judge has transformed the defense in New York. But his fantastic defense is missing one key component, a strong pass rusher on the edge. Enter Kwity Paye who can set the edge with a solid combination of size and speed but also kick inside with his 277 Lb frame. Paye is a slight reach at the number 8 pick but it is hard to find Edge rushers with his potential if the Giants had waited until their second pick to grab one.
9.) Carolina Panthers-Kyle Pitts-TE
A moment of silence for the LBs that will face the Panthers this year. Pitts represents a matchup nightmare on most teams, with the Panthers though it goes to another level. Pitts takes some of the focus off of CMC while making it near impossible to be doubled because of the shifty running back, meaning he creates better matchups for one of the best weapons in the league. Pitts is an athlete who runs a wide receiver route tree at 6’5” 240 with soft hands and a willingness to block not much else you could want at his position.
10.) Atlanta Falcons-Caleb Farley-CB
Atlanta is stuck between a rebuild and a win now mentality because of Matt Ryan. The franchise QB has 3 years left on his contract and no easy out, cutting Ryan this year would incur $85 million in dead cap. So, because of that the Falcons fill a hole at Corner with Farley who should start from day one. Farley is a former WR who is presses well and plays the ball outstandingly, the only concerns might be zone concepts at the next level.
11.) Denver Broncos- Dylan Moses-LB
Although Broncos fans may want to see Drew Lock’s replacement picked here, John Elway keeps the faith and gives his guy another year. Instead he turns to the defense who is sorely lacking a leader in the middle of the field and picks Dylan Moses. Moses is the MLB in Alabama and should fit in to a similar role at the next level with a solid frame and good playmaking ability, his only weakness is that he is caught sometimes trying too hard rather than taking what the offense gives him.
12.) San Francisco 49rs-Zach Wilson-QB
The Niners are ready to move on from Jimmy G, and have a team friendly cut available. Also, Shanahan is known for having a QB friendly offense so it should be easier for a rookie QB to grasp and hit the ground running in San Fran. Wilson is the best combination of Pro Ready and Talent left on the board, despite running a spread offense in college, Wilson is seen on tape going through progressions and looking off Safeties already and has a cannon for an arm. The issues with Wilson come in his mechanics as he doesn’t set his feet as often as he should but this is coachable.
13.) Detroit Lions- DeVonta Smith-WR
The Lions have their top 3 WRs going into free agency this offseason and it is unlikely they retain all three. Also, The Lions still have Matt Stafford for one more year at least before a team friendly cut is available. To maximize the year Stafford has left along with setting the table for the next Franchise QB the Lions get a weapon with elite potential and shift the focus to defense for the next few rounds.
14.) Minnesota Vikings-Wyatt Davis-IOL
The Vikings would really love to move on from Kirk Cousins, in this “No Trade” world they can’t without cutting him which would incur 50 million in dead cap over two years. So like the Falcons their hand is forced to fill a need, fortunately for the Vikings, their biggest need is IOL and they get their pick of the top IOL prospects in this draft. Davis is an outstanding guard with few weaknesses and NFL bloodlines, he should start right away.
15.) New England Patriots-Jaylen Waddle-WR
For most other franchises with the Patriots pick/needs I would have mocked a QB here but this franchise is in the unique position of having a GOAT Head Coach/GM who is trying to win one more ring before retirement. Because of this I see the Pats picking a weapon who can help them immediately while grabbing a veteran like Jimmy G or sticking with Cam. Waddle represents the potential number 1 they have been missing since an aging Randy Moss walked into the practice facility. The WR has speed that would make Lightning McQueen jealous and sure hands. Waddles only issue is that he needs to expand the route tree.
16.) Chicago Bears- Alex Leatherwood-OL
The Bears are a strangely built team, on one hand they don’t have a QB of the future so they are primed for a rebuild. On the other hand they have lots of money and veteran talent tied up in the next year. This makes me think they are gunning for a playoff run this next year and if that doesn’t work out then clean house. Meaning, they pass on a QB that they need going forward and grab Leatherwood who should play immediately at LT should they move on from Leno or at one of the guard positions if they don’t.
17.) Cleveland Browns- Carlos Basham Jr.-EDGE
The Browns has a good offense that should compete in the AFC North going forward, their defense on the other hand could use some tuning up. Given the QBs in the division the easiest way to upgrade your defense is to grab someone who specializes in the pass rush. Basham Jr has all the skills right now to be a productive pass rusher while also being versatile enough to play the 5 tech in running situations. Basham’s only shortcoming as a prospect is that his athleticism doesn’t impress and may limit the potential he has as a top level pass rusher.
18.) Tennessee Titans- Joseph Ossai-EDGE
Tennessee tried to paper over their pass rush problems through the offseason with the pickup of Vic Beasley which did not work out. There is clearly a hole in the Edge/OLB role of that 3-4 which Ossai could really grow into. Ossai is a very raw prospect with lots of potential and positional flexibility, projections show him as a WLB or pure EDGE rusher. A 3-4 OLB would be a perfect mix of the two roles and should allow the athletic prospect to flourish
19.) Philadelphia Eagles-Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah-LB
Due to the absolute suck fest that is the NFC East this year, the Eagles earn a playoff birth that they are promptly defeated during and their reward is a much crappier draft pick than their team warrants. Luckily for them a top prospect is still available at a position of need. Owusu-Koramoah would slot in the WLB position from day one and should be an upgrade on everyone on the roster while providing a necessary amount of athleticism in a division which includes Barkley, Elliot, and Gibson
20.) Arizona Cardinals- Pat Freiermuth-TE
Kyler Murray looks good enough early on that he may not need a security blanket like most QBs his age but the Cards give him one anyways. Similar to the situation that Kyle Pitts walked into, Freiermuth is going into an absolutely stacked receiver group in Arizona and will operate in the middle to ensure single coverage to Nuk, Fitz, and Kirk. Freiermuth is more of a traditional TE, think Gronk style of play, but should still create matchups to take advantage of due to his sheer Size, Speed, and Physicality.
21.) NY Jets via SEA- Rashod Bateman-WR
The Jets are a team that has lots of needs and should probably go with BPA through the first few rounds. Although there are some good corners on the board, the prospect of giving their new Franchise QB a favorite target is tantalizing. Ultimately they pick Bateman as a receiver opposite Crowder and Mims. Bateman should step right in as a red zone threat while catching contested balls and having some sneaky YAC ability. The only drawback to his game is that he plays like a traditional possession receiver while lacking the size to pull it off at times
22.) Miami Dolphins- Rondale Moore-WR
The Dolphins get a WR to pair with DeVante Parker and make Tua’s life just a bit easier in Miami. Moore is coming out of Perdue with some impressive tape under his belt albeit while being a touch undersized at 5’9” 175. Moore will slip right into the slot and can be a threat after the catch on slants and bubble routes or a deep threat on the seam route.
23.) Indianapolis Colts-Mac Jones-QB
Honestly this pick heavily is impacted by Philip Rivers’ potential retirement. If Rivers decided to come back after this year I could see the Colts taking a shot on Trey Lance essentially redshirting him and letting him learn from Old Man Rivers. However, I bet that Rivers will retire and in this case leading the Colts to the playoffs in the process. The Colts will still need a QB but is going to need someone who can start reliably on day one, of the three major QB prospects left Mac Jones is the most pro ready prospect and has faced a high level of competition while taking over for Tua last year and this year facing the whole of the SEC. Lastly, I don’t see the Colts trading for a QB/Signing one because they got recently burnt on Jacoby Brissett.
24.) Baltimore Ravens- Creed Humphrey-IOL
The Ravens have a fantastic defense with the only hole being at the FS position after the Earl Thomas incident(s) and the Ngakoue trade. I see Ngakoue staying in Baltimore if the money can be figured out so the holes that need to be addressed are the FS and on Offense. At this pick, the isn’t a lot of value at the Safety and WR positions so in the “No Trade” universe the Ravens solidify the interior offensive line with the best IOL on the board at the moment. Humphrey was a consistent starter at a top level program in Oklahoma, called plays at Center and should have the football IQ and athleticism to move to G if necessary at the next level
25.) Jaguars via LAR-Samuel Cosmi
The Jaguars have their QB of the future and get some insurance protection in the same round with Cosmi. Cosmi has lots of starting experience at a top tier college program and still has room to grow at only 21. Could add some weight to his frame but as is he is extremely athletic and has the capability of a mauling tackle who can hold down his position.
26.) Las Vegas Raiders- Marvin Wilson-DT
The Raiders need help all along the DL and could take one of the Edge rushers that are left but ultimately the one of the top DTs is still on the board in Wilson. Gruden has good starters with Hankins and Collins but they are both UFAs and have little depth behind them currently. Wilson gives the organization flexibility at either technique if either of the starters go down injured or aren’t signed and has lots of potential if he can develop a secondary rushing move.
27.) Tampa Bay Buccaneers- Christian Darrisaw-OT
At this point the name of the game is protect the old GOAT. Darrisaw has been starting games in a top five conference since 2016 and has been impressive every step of the way. Darrisaw has a nice frame and could put a few Lbs on as he transitions to the next level but needs to keep control of his footwork while doing so.
28.) Buffalo Bills- Shaun Wade-CB
The Bills need someone who can hold down the spot opposite of Tre’Davious White for the long term so they wait through the draft and Wade falls into their lap. In many mocks Wade is off the board earlier than this and for good reason. Wade played at Ohio State who is lauded for their DB development with several first rounders under their belt. Wade specifically has the ability to play both inside and outside while being an aggressive cover man.
29.) Green Bay Packers-Terrace Marshall Jr.-WR
The Packers are in a weird spot coming into this draft, while they are still successful the Pack have an aging Aaron Rodgers to keep happy but also drafted Jordan Love last year around this spot. Honestly if Green Bay decided to fill holes on Defense with this pick Aaron Rodgers could try to skip town. To keep the Hall of Famer happy the Packers finally get him a first round weapon in Marshall who has been climbing up boards lately while showing out for LSU. Marshall is a hulking possession receiver who rarely drops a pass while being athletic enough to create separation. Rodgers and Devonte Adams will be thrilled to have another high ceiling skill guy in the locker room
30.) Kansas City Chiefs-Trey Smith-IOL
With question marks surrounding the return of Austin Reiter from Free Agency and Kelechi Osemele from returning to the medical field during COVID the Chiefs take a safe pick in grabbing Trey Smith to insure the protection of their Star assets. Smith should slot right in to the starting lineup should one or both of them not return and the offense wouldn’t skip a beat.
31.) New Orleans Saints- Jevon Holland-S
With Trey Lance on the board Sean Payton passes?!? Yes, this is due mostly to two factors: Cap Crunch & Coaching Context. From a Cap Crunch perspective, the Saints currently have over $275 Million in expected expenditures under the cap and will need to fill holes in the secondary as there are 6 UFAs including their starting SS. Also, financially the Saints are invested heavily in the QB position with $36 Million headed Brees’ way and $16 Mil headed to Taysom Hill. Secondly, from a coaching perspective I am unsure if Sean Payton is enthusiastic about starting over again with a rookie. For evidence I point to the multiple high profile backups like Bridgewater and Winston. I think Payton much prefers experience in the league especially with a team built for a Super Bowl run. I think Lance would not meet the expectations of the shoes he would need to fill right away for the money being spent in other positions. Holland, would come in likely start at SS and fill in at slot CB when necessary and patch up the back end for a team poised to win a Championship.
32.) Pittsburg Steelers-Travis Etienne-RB
The Steelers are in a bit of a Cap Crunch next year, they have $200 million in current expenditures and only $6 million in cap to carry over from year to year with projected cap space potentially not growing due to COVID. Some of their UFAs include Juju Smith-Schuster, James Conner, Alejandro Villanueva, & Bud Dupree to name a few. In this situation the Steelers decide to let the RB go and get his replacement in the draft. Etienne will come in day one as the starter and bring a shocking combination of speed and size to the running back position that should bring more explosiveness to the Steelers Offense.
Round 2
33.) NY Jets- Quincy Roche-EDGE
The Jets only have one edge rusher for their 3-4 defense under contract for 2021. Given that edge rushers are typically going for top dollar in free agency I suspect they fill the need here for a starter with Roche. The Miami product is probably best suited for the 3-4 edge role as he is a touch undersized for the 5 tech that a 4-3 DE needs to play on occasion. Roche has really good hips and athletic potential, will need to put on some weight and learn how to cover in the next level.
34.) Jacksonville Jaguars- Christian Barmore-DT
The Jaguars need a space eater in the middle of their defense and Barmore is a 6’5” tackle with great technique to hold up blockers and bring double teams on. This is a good matach and the Jags get value here, although Barmore does have a relative rawness to him due to a lack of snaps at Alabama
35.) Dallas Cowboys- Hamsah Nasirildeen-S
The Cowboys need help at both safety positions and move to get Nasirildeen. The Florida State prospect projects to an in the box safety who plays fast and physical in the run and can hold his own in the pass. Nasirildeen slipped due to an ACL injury he sustained in the past along with some questions about his ball skills
36.) LA Chargers- Liam Eichenberg-OT
The Chargers finally get their QB some protection in the second with Eichenberg. Eichenberg should slot right into the LT spot and has very few issues besides fixing his footwork.
37.) Miami via HOU- Jayson Oweh-EDGE
Miami has a need at 3-4 edge rusher which they select Oweh to fill. Oweh has gobs of potential and athleticism but is very raw. Oweh was third string all of last year and has shown in 2020 to be weak against the run. If Oweh can refine his tech and be placed in a system centered around pass rush he can be great.
38.) Washington Football Team- Trey Lance-QB
REMINDER THIS IS A NO TRADE DRAFT, TREY LANCE WILL CERTAINLY BE GONE BEFORE THE END OF THE FIRST ROUND IN A DRAFT WITH TRADES. With that out of the way, Lance falls to the WFT in the second and all of the sudden Washington has a Franchise QB and LT in the same draft. Of course there are the caveats that make other teams pass on him: his arm is huge but so is the bust potential. Trey Lance could be the next Josh Allen IF he is able to get his footwork under control, learn to hang in the pocket, learn NFL progressions, and stop staring down receivers. But WFT has Kyle Allen or Alex Smith to start the season with and could redshirt Lance until they are out of playoff contention. They are under little to no pressure to “win now” like the Bears, Saints, and Colts are and thus the risk is mitigated exponentially especially with picking Lance in the 2nd
39.) Cincinnati Bengals-Dillon Radunz-OT
How weird is it that the NDSU guys go back to back in this draft? Despite the obvious questionable competition in college Radunz did dominate in pass pro with NFL caliber size and technique. However, he lacks the punch/first step necessary in the run game with consistency and has an issue with getting out of his stance at times. Bengals care about the pass pro more at the moment so they grab him.
40.) Carolina Panthers- Jaycee Horn-CB
The Panthers Defense is much more formidable unit than they were than just one short year ago but they still need some talent in the secondary. Jaycee Horn should be able to fix this while bringing length and SEC experience. He could see some issues with fluidity or double moves but coaching should fix this at the next level.
41.) NY Giants- Rashawn Slater-OL
The Giants selected two tackles last year in an effort to keep Danny Dimes from being strip sacked last year but it hasn’t quite fixed the issue so far. To bring in some more young help, they take Rashawn Slater. Slater has played RT in the Big Ten for years and is well regarded for his Pass Pro and has the frame that could kick in to OG. The positional flexibility that he brings makes up for some stiffness in his stance for the Giants and they take him.
42.) Denver Broncos-Trevon Moehrig-S
The Broncos continue to help their defense by adding Moehrig to their back end in replacement of Justin Simmons. Moehrig is the best FS available in the draft and excels in the single high coverage where he can play center field and take the deepest man over the middle. Although Moehrig does have a tackling issue, it shouldn’t be a huge issue as the single high safety shouldn’t be making tackles
43.) Atlanta Falcons-Tyson Campbell-CB
Falcons decide to double dip at corner because the cupboard is bare right now. They take one half of the Georgia duo that is turning heads at the moment and go for Tyson Campbell. Campbell is a bit longer and can put more size on his frame with fewer weaknesses. Campbell needs to produce a bit more in the next level but his perceived lack of stats could be due to QBs throwing away from him in college.
44.) San Francisco 49rs-Eric Stokes-CB
The Niners are in a similar situation with their CBs as Atlanta except a bit worse as there are none under contract for next year. They take the other half of the Georgia duo, Eric Stokes. Stokes has a similar experience and coverage qualities as Campbell but has iffy ball playing skills and is an inch shorter and a step slower.
45.) Jacksonville via MIN-Asante Samuel Jr.-CB
Jacksonville sees CBs go back to back and decide to grab one to replace DJ Hayden. Asante Samuel is a fantastic off the ball cover man and has NFL lineage that should provide him some guidance going forward. Samuel Jr is undersized and will likely struggle in press but if he winds up in the slot or playing in a zone scheme he should do well.
46.) New England Patriots- Brevin Jordan-TE
New England loves their TEs and pick up another athletic guy to fill the position with Jordan. Jordan is a natural athlete who likes to get down and dirty in the trenches when asked. The route tree is very much in question for Jordan and will likely have to be developed.
47.) Detroit Lions- Jay Tufele-DT
The Lions run a hybrid defense similar to the Patriots due to Matt Patricia, in those successful hybrid defenses there is usually DTs that can shade in the 1 and 3 techs. Jay Tufele can be that DT for the Lions having filled a similar role at USC. Tufele has a problem with consistency from rep to rep which does worry me but with proper coaching it could be stomped out.
48.) Chicago Bears-Kyle Trask-QB
The Bears filled their biggest need on the OL and still had a highly rated QB fall into their laps in the 2nd round. Without many other glaring needs on their roster to fill they take Trask with the thought that he sits behind Foles through the rest of his contract. Trask is very raw as a prospect and just got his first taste of starting at the QB position ever while at Florida. If he can develop behind the starter he could turn into a good but not great QB.
49.) Tennessee Titans-Derion Kendrick-CB
Kendrick is new to playing CB, he’s only been playing there for two years, but is incredibly gifted. His ball skills are top tier and man coverage is sticky but he will have to learn proper technique for coverage on double moves and get better at zone coverage to develop into a game changer at the next level.
50.) Cleveland Browns-Nick Bolton-LB
Bolton is a thumping old school LB who blitzes well and plays downhill getting to the ball. The Browns could fit him in at WLB or MLB and he could start throughout the season and will energize the side. The largest drawback to Bolton’s game is that he lacks fluidity, once he is headed to a gap or engages a lineman he gets stuck in it.
51.) Philadelphia Eagles-Chris Olave-WR
Olave is a fluid route runner who is able to run a nearly full tree right off the bat. His athleticism isn’t terrifying any defenses but Olave is a crafty WR who should get going right away. The Eagles can place him into the slot and let him take advantage of the space created by Alshon Jeffery and Jalen Reagor
52.) Seattle Seahawks-Paulson Adebo-CB
The Seahawks use their first draft pick of the 2021 draft to upgrade their secondary by taking the west coast CB Adebo. Adebo is a prototypical outside corner and has the length that Pete Caroll loves combined with solid cover technique and pressing ability. Although he can get lost in zone or washed out in the middle of the field
53.) Miami Dolphins-Najee Harris-RB
During this selection, Miami moves on from Matt Breida and fills a need at RB. Harris will be in the same backfield as Tua once again and will have to prove that he can continue to be a productive runner without the gaps that an Alabama offensive line is capable of creating
54.) Indianapolis Colts-Amon-Ra St. Brown-WR
The Colts got their QB in the first so they give him someone to throw to in the second. Brown is 6’1” with good size and speed, although the route running is question this combination of Size, Speed, and Separation is hard to ignore.
55.) Baltimore Ravens-Patrick Jones II-EDGE
Without a ton of WR names that jump off the board at the moment, Baltimore decides to stash some talent at edge rusher with Patrick Jones II. Jones has moments where he looks like an athletic sack artist and others where he looks pedestrian. If Baltimore can coach him up to come up with secondary pass rushing moves and winning more contested match ups he could be a good pickup.
56.) Arizona Cardinals- Israel Mukuamu-CB
The board does not fall well for the Cards as there was a surge of CBs taken in the second rounds and they end up reaching for one of their bigger needs with Mukuamu. However, they do get an athletic 6’4” SEC starter for their troubles.
57.) Las Vegas Raiders-Chazz Surratt-LB
Chazz Surratt is even a perfect LB name and has the attitude to fit, Surratt is seen flying around the field on tape. Surratt converted from QB in college and is new to the position so he’ll bring to the field and different football perspective on defense as well which is unique. Although the downside to Surratt’s game is over pursuit and over running the play, if the D coordinator can teach the guy some control he can be really productive.
58.) LA Rams-Jalen Mayfield-OT
The Rams were one pick away from Surratt who would’ve fit fantastically into their system but instead come away with a tackle to protect Jared Goff and take over for Whitworth. Initially Mayfield will likely kick inside to guard but after a year or two of experience in the NFL should be able to protect on the edge, this transition is perfect as he struggled in college on the edge so it would mitigate one of his largest weakness at the moment.
59.) Buffalo Bills-Josh Myers-IOL
Josh Myers played C for the offensive lines which protected Justin Fields cleanly and helped JK Dobbins break out. For a Center he is mobile but doesn’t exhibit extraordinary finishing ability or football IQ. However, he should fight for a starting spot due to his pulling ability next to Mitch Morse in Buffalo
60.) Tampa Bay Buccaneers- Jordan Davis-NT
Jordan Davis is the typical 2 gap huge nose tackle that modern defenses undervalue but sit at the heart of a good 3-4. Davis has the size and ability to command double teams while stuffing the run. However, he can be inconsistent and has film that shows him as easy to move, coaches will likely hammer on the basics of leverage to correct. Also his move provides depth for Vita Vea and cover for Suh leaving
61.) Green Bay Packers-Jaylen Twyman-DT
Now that Rodgers is happy the Pack can get to work on retooling the defense starting with Twyman. Twyman is a 3 tech which specializes in solid pass rushing and could be perfect for the move to DE in a 3-4. Although Twyman has issues in the run game, mainly being washed out at times, he would be taking less double teams and working against a guards outside shoulder.
62.) Kansas City Chiefs-Kadarius Toney-WR
Andy Reid and co. get another wideout who plays more like a weapon and will likely utilize him in an incredibly fluid way. Also, Toney could take the pressure off of Tyreek Hill in the return game as well.
63.) New Orleans Saints-Aidan Hutchinson-Edge
A 4-3 DE with good tape and average athleticism, could provide good depth at the 5 technique behind Cam Jordan and Marcus Davenport.
64.) Pittsburgh Steelers-Daniel Faalele-OL
An absolutely MASSIVE OL measuring in at 6’8” and 400 pounds, Faalele can move that weight well enough to play tackle but likely projects better to guard. If he can prove that he can play the edge with good technique then he could be an athletic freak and a steal but if he has to kick inside he should be able to manhandle DTs.

The Denver Broncos will look to snap their two-game losing streak to start the season against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday at Empower Field at Mile High (2:25 p.m. MDT kickoff). The Broncos will be hosting approximately 5,700 fans as the team opens the stadium’s doors to Broncos Country for the first time this season.
Game Previews

• Buccaneers vs. Broncos Preview: All eyes on the quarterback position | Broncos Weekend - Video
  
• Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Denver Broncos | Week 3 NFL Game Preview - Video
  
• Team Stats Comparison - Article
  
• Mile High Roundtable: Broncos vs Bucs | Week 3 | Predictions and Picks - Article
  
• Broncos vs. Buccaneers Week 3 picks, odds: Point spread, total, player props and betting trends - Article
  
• Broncos vs. Buccaneers score predictions: Everyone counting out Denver in Week 3 - Article
  
• Can Broncos maintain exclusive status against Tom Brady? | Ready for Kickoff - Video
  

TV/Radio - TV Broadcast Map

• FOX: Adam Amin, Mark Schlereth and Lindsay Czarniak
  
• Local Radio (KOA - 850 AM/94.1 FM and The Fox - 103.5 FM): Dave Logan, Rick Lewis and Susie Wargin
  

Game Notes

• Line: TB -5.5 · O/U: 42.5
  
• Weather: Partly Sunny, 57°F at kickoff
  
• The Broncos have won four consecutive games against Tampa Bay (2004-present) and own a 7-2 (.778) all-time regular-season record against the Buccaneers.
  
• Denver owns a 9-8 all-time overall record and 6-7 regular-season record against Tom Brady. Denver is the only NFL team with an overall winning record against Brady.
  
• Broncos own a 7-4 overall record at home against Brady, and has defeated his team three times in the AFC playoffs, including twice in AFC Championship Games (2013, ‘15).
  
• Jeff Driskel is expected to make his first start with the Broncos on Sunday. In relief of the injured Drew Lock in Week 2, Driskel nearly completed a Broncos comeback, connecting on 18-of-34 passes (52.9%) for 256 yards with two touchdowns and one interception (84.9 rtg.)
  
• Driskel joined John McCormick (1966) as the only two QBs in Broncos history to throw for at least 250 yards and multiple touchdowns in a game they didn’t start.
  
• Noah Fant, who has a touchdown in each of the team’s first two games, ranks fifth in the NFL among tight ends with 138 receiving yards through two weeks.
  
• Fant needs one TD reception to match Demaryius Thomas (6) for the second-most TD catches in team history through his first 19 games. Also needs one receiving TD to be the first Broncos TE to record at least one receiving TD in three consecutive games since Julius Thomas.
  
• Jerry Jeudy has made eight catches for 118 yards (14.8 avg.) through his first two games. His 118 yards rank third in the NFL among first-year pass catchers.
  
• The Broncos have played in 11 one-score games, tied for the seventh-most such games played in the NFL since the start of 2019. In games decided by 8 points or less, including both of the team’s losses to Tennessee and Pittsburgh this season, Denver is 4-7 (.364).
  
• Melvin Gordon has tallied 148 rushing yards on 34 attempts this season, 124 more than the Broncos' next-leading rusher (Phillip Lindsay, 24). Gordon also has five receptions and has accounted for 41.9 percent of the Broncos' touches this season, fifth highest in the NFL.
  
• Melvin Gordon needs one scrimmage touchdown (rush or rec.) to become the fifth active running back with 50 combined scores.
  
• The Broncos 2020 rookie class has combined to play 601 total snaps—the second most in the NFL—through Week 2.
  

Team News/Injury Report - Final Injury Report

• Broncos sign QB Blake Bortles, make two other roster moves - Article
  
• Injury Report: Phillip Lindsay returns to practice, doubtful to play in #TBvsDEN - Article
  
• Broncos promote QB Brett Rypien, DL DeShawn Williams to active roster - Article
  
• Injury Report: Mark Barron, DeMarcus Walker could be activated off IR later this season - Article
  
• Injury Report: Courtland Sutton to miss remainder of 2020 season, Drew Lock out multiple weeks - Article
  
• Broncos place Courtland Sutton, Dre'Mont Jones on injured reserve - Article
  
• A guide to attending a game at Empower Field at Mile High under COVID-19 precautions - Article
  
• A closer look at Empower Field at Mile High’s COVID protocols - Video
  
• 'I just have to do better': HC Vic Fangio pledges to improve commitment to wearing face covering on sideline - Article
  

Last Meeting

• The Broncos and Buccaneers last met on October 2, 2016 at Raymond James Stadium - Box Score
  
• Paxton Lynch made his NFL debut sooner than expected Sunday, stepping in for injured starter Trevor Siemian to help the Broncos remain unbeaten with a 27-7 victory over the Buccaneers - Recap
  
• 2016 Broncos vs. Buccaneers Game Highlights
  

Notable Team Connections

• Buccaneers OLB Shaquil Barrett spent his first four NFL seasons with the Broncos (2015-18), appeared in 64 career games and was a member of Denver’s Super Bowl 50 team.

Please check back throughout the week as I’ll update the news/injury report daily.

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Now that we are close to a lot of people’s fantasy drafts, I wanted to hand out some names that I frequently end up with when I do mocks, just because I have them higher in my rankings. So these are players, who present value based on their ADP (average draft position), all as an average between the three biggest platforms for fantasy football – NFL.com, ESPN and Yahoo. That’s as of August 20th, with the first two having a full-PPR scoring system and the last one being set to .5PPR. They also all have a standard lineup of 1 QB, 2 RBs, 2 WRs, 1 FLEX, 1 TE, 1 DEF and 1 K. I had to wait until now, so that the draft data is representative of what people actually think of these players, especially with so many mocks having the majority of users set as auto-picks and distort the results.
So I will talk about what I like about these players heading into 2020, maybe a couple of concerns and talk a little bit about what I look at them as, compared to the where people are selecting them in their mock drafts. I listed three guys for every position that fills one spot in your standard lineup (QB, TE, DEF) and five for running back and wide receiver respectively. Oh, and I’m not doing kickers here – just pick one from the high-scoring team and that you know has a proven track record of converting on his opportunities.
Here are some of my favorite value picks:
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Quarterbacks:

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Tom Brady
ADP – 79.57 (QB9)
This seems weird to put a name here that is discussed as probably the greatest of all time and who hasn’t been on my radar as a fantasy option for a long time (especially since I usually pick my QBs very late), but I think there has never as much value with Tom Brady as this upcoming season. TB12 was QB12 last season with a broken-down Julian Edelman, who led the league in dropped passes, to go with a former first-round bust in Philip Dorsett, an undrafted rookie in Jakobi Meyers and a Mohamed Sanu, who looked like one of the worst in-season acquisitions of 2019, as the three next-most productive receivers, combining for less than 1000 yards. To go along with that he had what looks like a bad first-round choice in N’Keal Harry and the league’s least productive tight-end room. Now he is in Tampa Bay, where they have the premiere receiving duo in the game with Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, a three-headed monster at tight-end, some interesting backs and pretty much a push as far as the O-line goes, while playing for a coach that is much more interesting in pushing the ball downfield. While having to learn a new system after two decades of being in New England and knowing every little intricacy about it will be a challenge no matter how long you’ve been around the league, just the sheer improvement in weapons and the increased chances to go down the field make me believe he will finisher multiple spots higher than he did in 2019. Brady has gone up quite a bit these last few weeks, but at the end of the eighth round, I think he is still a value pick. I personally have him about a round higher than that and when I do mocks, where I have my two starting RB and WR spots, my flex and one of each on the bench secured, this is a guy I end up with on quite a few occasions – even though this usually is the earliest I think about picking a QB, if nobody just falls right into my lap.
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Daniel Jones
ADP – 139.50 (QB20)
A name that already was controversial at the time of the actual draft and seems to be a little controversial in this discussion as a fantasy option as well is Daniel Jones. While there are some concerns, that I will get to in a second, let me give you some numbers. In terms of average points per start (12), only ten quarterbacks put up better numbers than Jones did last season. His 18.98 points in those starts were better than what Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady or Kyler Murray were able to put together. He had three different games with 4+ touchdowns and no picks (Lions, Jets, Washington) and you can’t overlook his effectiveness as a runner. Jones missed out by five carries to reach that 50-mark, but among the ones who did, he would have finished behind only Lamar Jackson with 6.2 yards per rushing attempt. He put up all those numbers despite having a banged up Saquon Barkley, Evan Engram being out for most of the time and getting sacked 38 times on 459 attempts. Now, he was highly inconsistent as a rookie, with those three games of 28+ fantasy points and not reaching 15 in any of the other contests, and his ten fumbles lost not only limited his opportunity to add to the scoring, but also directly lowered his total in the end. With that being said, I still think the offensive line will be better than it was a year ago and Jones’ top five options in the passing game will be healthy at the same time, at least for the start of 2020, which was never the case in year one for him. There are some guys like Darius Slayton, who I expect to break out in his second season, and while new offensive coordinator Jason Garrett will build on the run game, he could also involve his QB more in that area, similar to what they did in Dallas with Dak Prescott for the last few years.
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Drew Lock
ADP – 146.43 (QB23)
Before I talk about any of these numbers – the sample size for Drew Lock as a rookie was pretty small. He started the last five games of 2019 and averaged 13.6 points a week, with three games right around that number and two outliers – a 24-point affair at Houston, when he threw 3 TDs in the first half alone in an upset victory, and a 6.6-point blunder in a snowstorm at Kansas City. That is not necessarily something to get super-excited about and I don’t love some of the hype Lock has been receiving this offseason, but it doesn’t yet reflect in his fantasy ADP. The highest he is ranked on any of these platforms is 22nd (ESPN). While he did already have Courtland Sutton and Noah Fant as a rookie, the latter despite being the most productive rookie tight-end, heavily fluctuated with his weekly output, putting up 159 combined yards in two of those weeks and 19 combined in the other three. He will likely take another step, when you look at the history of the position. And now you replace DeSean Hamilton and Tim Patrick, who caught just 53 percent of the targets their way and averaged 6.2 yards per targets, with two stud rookies. Alabama’s Jerry Jeudy was my top-ranked receiver in the draft and create a dependable target due his highly advanced route-running and Penn State’s K.J. Hamler opens up the offense with his blazing speed, while being a nightmare to tackle in open space as part of RPOs for example. Even though Pat Shurmur didn’t last long as a head coach for the Giants, I still like what he can do for a young quarterback, in terms of forcing the opposition to defend the entire field and running more spread looks, which Lock is used to from college. Something Lock had issues with in year one is not accounting for roaming defenders, who didn’t have anybody in their area to cover, which will get better with having more people out on the route. And most importantly, I hope he gets encouraged to give his receivers chances down the field, which he was hesitant to at some point as a rookie.
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Others options I like:
Baker Mayfield (ADP 141.07; QB19)
Jared Goff (ADP 144.82; QB23)
Teddy Bridgewater (ADP 147.62; QB24)
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Running backs:

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Jonathan Taylor
ADP – 70.12 (RB24)
There seems to be a split between Jonathan Taylor believers, who watched him dominate college football and think he will take over this Colts backfield, and the ones who think he will be in a committee with Marlon Mack or even like scat-back Nyheim Hines to take on a larger role. Count me as a believer. If I told you there was this running back, who rushed for almost 6200 yards and 50 touchdowns in his three years in college, runs a 4.39 at 225 pounds and was selected in the second round by a team that doesn’t have a long-term answer at quarterback on the roster and could have used some of the edge rushers or corners that went off the board in that range, which role do you think he will have? Marlon Mack is a really solid back and I was actually higher on him than most people coming out of South Florida, but this kid from Wisconsin is special. Last season Mack rushed for 1091 yards in 14 games, yet all but 500 of them came before contact. He finished third in the league in terms of time behind the line of scrimmage at over three seconds and his 4.4 yards per carry, running behind what I believe is the best offensive line in all of football, isn’t overly impressive, plus he has missed at least two games in all three years in the league. There are two concerns for me when it comes to Taylor. First, he didn’t contribute much as a receiver in college, but as a junior he more than doubled his previous output, catching 26 passes for 252 yards and an additional five TDs, while catching the ball pretty natural at the combine as well. The much bigger one is fumbles, as Taylor put the ball on the ground 18 times throughout his time with the Badgers, while Mack didn’t do so once on 261 touches last season. Some of that may have to do with carrying he rock 926 times overall, but that is definitely something to monitor. If he can take care of the ball, even if he doesn’t stay on field on passing downs a whole lot (needs refinement as a protector). I believe he will absolutely be a finalist for Offensive Rookie of the Year, because he has explosiveness, power and big-play ability to make a lot of noise.
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David Montgomery
ADP – 71.64 (RB26)
I already talked about Montgomery as one of my breakout candidates for 2020 (LINK). So you can read up on what I like about his skill-set there, but now let’s look at the situation this guy is in. While the Bears doesn’t blow you away with stars all over the field, but they do have one of the most underappreciated receivers in the game in Allen Robinson and another young guy in Anthony Miller, who could be used as a fly sweep threat to bind defenders or as the target on RPOs who will benefit from aggressively flowing defenders in the box. It is a little concerning me that, despite losing Kyle Long, the only addition they made on the offensive line was Germain Ifedi, but they didn’t have Long for three quarters of 2019 either. I think having second-round pick Cole Kmet as your true Y tight-end will help get the Bears backs to the edges at a higher frequency and I think the Matt Nagy offense will be stress defenses more with different personnel sets this season. Most important, Chicago did not add a single running back outside of undrafted free agent Artavis Piece this offseason and I expect Montgomery to take away some of the opportunities Tarik Cohen got last season, who averaged a miniscule 4.7 yards per touch, despite having 79 receptions. So they may use Cohen more as a true slot receiver, but at 5’6”, 190 pounds soaking wet, he will not run as much in-between the tackles (3.3 yards per carry) and Montgomery obviously will get all the goal-line work as well. The second-year back was a missed-tackle machine at Iowa State and when Nagy did allow him to gain some momentum without a defender getting hands on him before he could even cross the line of scrimmage, this guy showed some signs. He can make those subtle adjustements and cuts to not allow defenders to square him up and has the size to break tackles. He is a that I end up with a lot in the middle rounds.
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Raheem Mostert
ADP – 77.58 (RB27)
Somebody I was concerned with a few weeks ago, when he asked for a trade and I thought even if he stayed wasn’t on good terms with San Francisco, is Mostert. Now that they have sweetened the pot for him a little bit and he seems to locked in, I think him going in the 8th to 10th round make no sense. Mostert is coming a playoff run, in which he rushed for 336 yards and five touchdowns over three games, but people seem to forget that he also averaged 5.6 yards per rush during the regular season – second-highest behind only Lamar Jackson among players with 100+ attempts – and scored a touchdown every 15th time he touched the ball. Maybe the craziest statistic for Mostert is that in the ten total games he received double-digit carries, only once did he average less than 4.8 yards per attempt. If you look at the offensive line, not only did they their two starting tackles a combined 86 percent of the offensive snaps and I think a healthy Trent Williams could actually be a significant upgrade over what I saw from Joe Staley last year, but they also get starting center Weston Richburg back, who went on IR after week 13. Kyle Shanahan’s offense still goes through the rushing attack, where he is the very best at creating issues for the defense and stacking plays together, and that will be even more apparent without Emmanuel Sanders gone and probably missing Deebo Samuel for a few games early on. The one concern for me is that the Shanahan’s have always had at least two-back systems and there are capable players on that roster, with old friend Tevin Coleman, Jerick McKinnon hopefully finally healthy after he got a big deal from San Fran two years ago and at least one more of the young guys. However, from week 12 on, when he gashed Baltimore’s number-five run defense for 146 yards, Mostert led the team in rush attempts and yards all but once and he has established himself as the top option in my opinion.
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J.K. Dobbins
ADP – 112.92 (RB38)
Another rookie that I think gets doubted because of the situation he is in is Dobbins, even though people look at it the wrong way. The Ravens just set a new all-time mark in rushing yards with 3296, which had stood for over 40 years, What people fear about grabbing anybody outside of the top two contributors is that they made up for 72.4 percent of their rushing production over the 15 games they played. However, not only do I believe that number to drop, but even then there were 218 carries left on the table for the rest of the squad. Quarterback Lamar Jackson actually led Baltimore with a QB-record 1206 yards on the ground and while he has shown that he is just a different breed in terms of not even allowing defenders to touch him in one-on-one situations and never showed any weakness getting up after a hit. I think it is very enthusiastic to believe he repeats those 176 carries. The top running back Mark Ingram also had an outstanding season, including 15 touchdowns, but he was on the field for only 45.6 percent of the snaps on offense and now on the wrong side of 30, it’s safe to assume he will give up some of that workload, especially considering there was no special talent on the roster to demand those chances. At the very worst, Dobbins should be able to replace what Gus Edwards did last season and that was worth over 700 rushing yards, averaging 5.3 yards a clip. But this kid was a 2000-yard workhorse at Ohio State last season and I had him as my number two back in the draft, thanks to his combination of explosiveness and strength, while having great ball-security fundamentals. He is a perfect fit in that zone-read heavy offense from shotgun, which he basically played in last season with the Buckeyes and another dual-threat QB. I would not be shocked if he emerges a few weeks into the season and ends up leading this team in rushing.
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Antonio Gibson
ADP – 141.61 (RB50)
If you are looking for a really deep sleeper, either if you are a zero-RB advocate or you just have your roster filled out already and just try to grab the player left on the board with the most upside, I think this is a name that has to be on your radar. Antonio Gibson primarily lined up at slot receiver for Memphis last season, but he was most effective taking handoffs and slicing through defenses that way. The explosion he has, the long-speed and that contact balance to bounce off hits are all on a different level to most backs in the league. Now, he has only really run two plays when in the backfield – power and stretch, mostly with another back on the opposite side of the QB in split sets – but he seems to have a natural feel for the position and he can do so much more for an offense. I believe Gibson will be a swiss-army knife for new offensive coordinator Scott Turner, who will move him around the formation, get him the ball on jet sweeps or as a decoy off those or create mismatches with slower defenders, as he comes out of the backfield. I was already pretty high on him, despite having an RB room that went five or six names deep at that point, because I believe he could be on the field for the majority of snaps anyway, thanks to his versatility, but now that Derrius Guice was let go due to some off-the-field stuff, the rookie is even more intriguing to me. When you look at who Washington is bringing back, their leading rushing from 2019 is a 35-year old Adrian Peterson and the next-closest guy is QB Dwayne Haskins with 101. And when you look at receiving yards, after the clear leader in Terry McLaurin, the next two names are RB Chris Thompson, who left in free agency, and Kelvin Harmon, who recently suffered a season-ending injury. So the offense is bound to improve and Gibson should have plenty of opportunities. That is golden for a running back around the 50s.
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Other options I like:
Cam Akers (ADP – 93.32; RB32)
Jordan Howard (ADP – 113.18; RB37)
Zack Moss (ADP – 131.88; RB47)
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Wide receivers:

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Calvin Ridley
ADP – 50.08 (WR17)
I’m pretty sure not a lot of people know Calvin Ridley was a top 15 fantasy wide receiver last season based on average points per game (15.2) in non-PPR leagues and top 18 in the two other formats as well. He averaged 9.3 yards per target and converted 47 of his 63 receptions into new first downs, despite his longest catch going for only 36 yards. He is more of a deep threat than that (especially of double-moves) and I would be shocked if he doesn’t have at least one 50-yarder this upcoming season, while also being an excellent red-zone receiver ever since coming into the league. Julio Jones is still the number one receiver on that team and I think the best as an actual player at the position in the world, but the Falcons want to take some pressure off him with Ridley. Atlanta’s top candidate for their WR3 role is Russell Gage, who had a fairly productive second season, but almost half of his yardage total came in the four games he started in place of Ridley. So he will not demand a target share in the same region as Mohamed Sanu, who the Falcons traded away mid-2019. While a lot of it is about Austin Hooper leaving town and I will talk about his replacement in the tight-end segment, this team has by far the highest amount of vacated targets from a year ago at 258. I would not pick guys like Cooper Kupp or Keenan Allen ahead of Ridley and while I have him right around that range among receivers, I have this guy about ten spots higher in my overall rankings, which a full round later in those stages of a draft presents excellent value. I thought the Falcons number two could make that Juju Smith-Schuster jump in his second season, but with injuries that might have just been postponed things by one year and we see less of a difference between him and Julio’s numbers in 2020. I think you can book Ridley for a 1000 yards and around double-digit TDs.
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Stefon Diggs
ADP – 65.81 (WR25)
This is one I don’t understand at all. Stefon Diggs “only” finished last season as the WR24 in full-PPR formats (18th in non-PPR), but he was within ten points of the guys that own the six spots above him, while missing one game. That was for a Vikings team that finished with the fourth-lowest pass play percentage (51.7%) and was in the bottom-six in terms of plays run per game (60.5). While Buffalo didn’t pass the ball at an immensely higher rate (about four percent more), they finished top ten in plays run, as they switched to a more up-tempo, 11 personnel attack – and that was without having a true number one and in the process not an ideal two. Diggs finished last season with the second-highest yards per target (12.0) and third in terms of percentage of his team’s air yardage, as the premiere deep threat in all of football. The one real concern here is that Josh Allen was one of the worst deep-ball thrower statistically last season, completing only 24.1 percent of his passes travelling 20+ yards through the air – dead-last according to Pro Football Focus- With that being said, a lot of that had to do with not having that guy, who can create separation vertically, with John Brown not showing that extra gear to gain a step on his defender and nobody else on the roster to average over eight yards per target with at least 15 grabs. Allen is still obviously not the most precise passer in the NFL and he has even more room to grow as a decision-maker at times, but having that guy who can streak downfield on go and post routes – especially in the mold Minnesota used him last season as that backside target on bootlegs – will open up the offense in a major way and Brian Daboll will encourage him to let it fly a few times each week to just let the defense know they need to account for it. I know I’m higher than pretty much anybody, but Diggs is my WR14 and a mid-fourth round pick for me.
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Terry McLaurin
ADP – 70.93 (WR26)
A second-year receiver I like a whole lot is this guy from Washington. McLaurin was phenomenal as a rookie. He went for 919 receiving yards and seven touchdowns, despite missing two games and being part of one of the very worst passing attacks in the entire league. His quarterback Dwayne Haskins had a really rough rookie campaign, completing only 58.3 percent of his passes for just over 150 yards per game and the same amount of touchdowns as interceptions (seven). So obviously a lot of this will come down to how much that guy can grow coming into his second season and how that will influence his top target, who he already had built up plenty of chemistry with at Ohio State before joining the same team in the pros. I personally had a top-20 grade on Haskins and think he will make a big jump now that he is in better shape and had a full offseason to watch tape and hopefully be able to work through progressions more quickly. He simply wasn’t ready when thrown out there last season and had a brutal welcome to the NFL. However, even if Ron Rivera decides to go a different route with who lines up under center at some point, the offense should be much more beneficial for the young star receiver. Last season, Washington finished 30th in neutral situation pass rate and 31st in pace, while the Panthers with Scott Turner calling shots were fourth and fifth in those respective categories. Now as the new offensive coordinator in the nation’s capital, I expect this offense to be much more wide open and McLaurin will be his new version of D.J. Moore in that attack, who went for almost 1200 yards in 15 games last year. Right now this kid is going anywhere from the sixth to the ninth round, depending on the platform you use, and I think he should be a fourth-rounder, simply because of the changes offensively and the fact he is their clear-cut number one option.
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Marvin Jones
ADP – 111.03 (WR39)
One of the most overlooked receivers this year to me is Marvin Jones. This guy is going between wide receiver 36 and 42 depending on the platform, despite having finished 15th in average fantasy points in PPR-formats last season. Now, he has missed ten combined games over the last two seasons, but in the three years prior he missed only one total game and the last time he played a full 16 contests (2017), he led the league with 18.0 yards per reception. Since coming to Detroit, Jones’ average receptions per game have gone up every single season and over these last three years, he has scored half a touchdown per week. Obviously Kenny Golladay is and will remain the top target in that offense and you would assume the chances for second-year tight-end T.J. Hockenson will increase, already because he was a top-ten pick alone, but Jones also caught passes from Jeff Driskel and David Blough over his final five games rather than the uber-talented Matthew Stafford, during which he averaged 18 yards less per week. While Detroit used their second-round pick on another running back in D’Andre Swift (Georgia) and the offense will be built on the rushing attack, number 11 will frequently be the target off deep play-action and the Lions really only have three relevant receivers on that roster. So at this point, Jones is going as a low WR4 at best and I personally look at him as a nice flex option. Grabbing him a round later than a guy like Julian Edelman and using that other pick for like a high-upside rookie back or maybe a QB/TE you like in that range makes a lot of sense to me. I really like him as a fallback option if you go RB-heavy early on and you only have two dependable receivers on your roster at that point.
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Diontae Johnson
ADP – 125.54 (WR43)
I had several candidates to choose from for this final wide receiver spot, but in the end I went with the guy I think could be the best of the bunch and will receive the biggest boost in quarterback play. Diontae Johnson quietly hauled in 59 passes for 680 yards and five touchdowns as a rookie. That was despite the ball being thrown by Mason Rudolph and Devlin Hodges, who combined for just 186.3 passing yards per game (31st in the league) and tying for an NFL-low 4.5 air yards per completion. This year the Steelers get Ben Roethlisberger back under center, who led the league with 5129 passing yards in 2018 and even at 70-80 percent of himself should be a major upgrade over the two guys, who are clearly on the lower end of backup material even. I recently talked about Johnson’s skill-set more in detail and said he was be breakout candidate(LINK!!), because I saw start-stop quickness to win as a route-runner, how slippery he is to put a hand on that punt return ability he displays with the ball in his hands, with the feel for where defenders are coming from. He already made some huge plays as a rookie, often times catching the ball a few yards short of the sticks on shallow crossers and finding a way to convert for his team. Pittsburgh does have Juju Smith-Schuster as the primary target and I believe he will bounce back in a major way, James Washington came onto the scene last season and they also brought in another receiving weapon in flex tight-end Eric Ebron to go with another second-rounder receiver. However, I think Johnson could easily be one of the more productive number two guys for his respective team and at the very least a nice matchup play for your flex spot. Even if he somehow ended up repeating his output from a year ago, he was still the WR39 in PPR formats. If you take that as a baseline and think what Big Ben could do for him, just putting the ball out in front on some double-moves, that could be a great pick in the double-digit rounds, especially considering he led all receivers in separation, according to Next Gen Stats.
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Other options I like:
Darius Slayton (ADP – 128.30; WR45)
Mecole Hardman (ADP – 130.83; WR45)
Jalen Reagor (ADP – 142.32; WR53)
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Tight-ends:

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Hayden Hurst
ADP – 124.06 (TE13)
If I could only choose to tell you about one player in this entire breakdown, this might be my guy. The Falcons just lost Austin Hooper to free agency, after he put up career-highs in targets (97), receptions (75), yards (787) and touchdowns (6). Because of that they spent a second-round pick to acquire what basically was the Ravens’ TE3. That alone tells you how much they wanted him, since they could have used that selection in the draft to address some other areas of need or grab another one in the draft, since only one was off the board at that point. Not saying he isn’t worth it, but that is rare compensation for a player who is third on a team’s depth chart and has barely cracked 500 receiving yards to go with three touchdowns through his first two years in the league. With that being said, Hurst is a former first-round pick and someone who Baltimore actually selected ahead of reigning league MVP Lamar Jackson. The speed, feel as a route-runner and physicality after the catch put the former South Carolina standout at the top of my tight-end board as well and I’m guessing that’s where the Falcons had him too, So based on pure talent, you can argue that he and Hooper are basically at the same level. What makes this guy so intriguing as a value pick for me is the offense he has landed in. Offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter is famous for heavily involving the TE as a volume pass-catcher on stick and hook routes underneath, but also allowing them to work down the seams, where Matt Ryan had a lot of confidence, putting the ball to the back-shoulder of Hooper, who could shield it with his body and come down with the catch. When you look at the target rate of these two guys, the difference is enormous, as Hooper averaged 7.5 looks per game compared to only 2.4 for Hurst in his second season, while the latter averaged almost a full yard more per target. I love this guy as a low-end TE1 as my 13th pick or so of the draft.
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Jonnu Smith
ADP – 147.77 (TE21)
While I know it isn’t overly exciting, purely based on receiving yards, finishing 18th at your own position would make me think you get drafted higher than 21rd, but that is the most simplistic and least interesting case for Jonnu Smith. Let me talk you through a couple of other things instead. Of just 45 targets over the 2019 regular season, Smith caught 35 of them for 439 yards and three touchdowns. That left him tied for ninth among all players in the league at 10.0 yards per target and his 8.3 yards after the catch on average was the second-highest number among tight-ends, behind only George Kittle, who is obviously in a different stratosphere. While Tennessee is trying to run it back with a strong offensive line and a battering ram in Derrick Henry behind it, to go with shots off play-action, the Titans last season were 30th in plays run and they had the third-lowest percentage of pass plays (51.2). Those numbers are likely to go up at least a little bit with a more capable passer in Ryan Tannehill being under center for a full season and opposing teams likely selling out to stop the run. So that should result in more opportunities for Smith, who despite seeing a low target share, finished seventh in yards per route run among TEs last season. If you combine his targets with the ones of Delanie Walker until he got hurt, who is now out of the picture for Tennessee, that lands him at 75, which – while I know it doesn’t quite work that way – would result in 732 yards and five TDs if you simply multiply it with the numbers he actually put up on 45 looks. This guy is close to undrafted in a lot of leagues and with the way he started being used down the stretch – streaking downfield more and even taking some handoffs for big gains as a true running back – that gives you a high-upside TE2. Please take him over a second defense or whatever you may think of at that point of your drafts.
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Jack Doyle
ADP – 148.51 (TE23)
This is a name that I seem to have a weird fantasy crush on, but when you really look into it, it makes some sense. Doyle may not blow you away statistically, never having reached the 700-yard mark or surpassed five touchdowns in his seven-year career, but he is a very good all-around player, who is on the field all the time. We all remember when Eric Ebron went off for 750 yards and 13 touchdowns in 2018, but a lot of that was thanks to Doyle going down with an injury, since he had been on the field for 81.7 percent of the snaps as long as he was healthy, When he put up career-highs the year prior, he logged over 90 percent of the snaps, and while he wasn’t as effective last season as a full-time starter, he did average over 10 yards per catch and converted two thirds of his catches into first downs. That was with Ebron on the roster and being more of a downfield target, while Doyle was responsible for the dirty-work in the run game and even as a pass-protector. Now, I know the Colts signed Trey Burton this offseason, but he had just 84 receiving yards and no TDs over the one half of 2019 he was available for and should be much less likely to steal targets from what I think is the clear TE1 in this offense still. While yards per target, yards per route run and all those statistics are great to predict what can happen, the one relevant fantasy factor before anything else is how much a player is on the field and I don’t see why Doyle wouldn’t be out there for 80 percent of their offensive plays again. Indianapolis was in 12 personnel 26 percent of the snaps last season (sixth-highest in the league), so even if Burton re-emerges to some degree, this should hold true. And with Philip Rivers coming in, who checked it down to his backs more than any other QB in the league last season, I could see some of that share to going to Doyle leaking out late or curling up over the middle.
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Other options I like:
Mike Gesicki (ADP – 137.23; TE15)
Blake Jarwin (ADP – 150.07; TE23)
Chris Herndon (ADP – 150.37; TE25)
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Defenses in the comments!
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If you enjoyed this content, I would really appreciate if you could visit the original piece - https://halilsrealfootballtalk.com/2020/08/26/fantasy-diamonds-for-2020/
You can also listen to my breakdown on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXmJv442hvg&lc=UgxNqkHDOD0Sd5qIGVp4AaABAg&feature=em-comments

Week 17 brings the final slate of regular-season games for the 2020 NFL season to ring in the new year. That's one more chance to dive into a complete group of picks and predictions against the spread before the playoffs. Last week was pretty good in getting back on track above .500 ATS with some solid results straight up, too. That should make us feel more confident about our latest fearless forecast. Without further ado and keeping in mind the final week is weird with teams resting and playing for different things, here's the final salvo of 16 selections:MORE: Week 17NFL power rankings| Picks straight up (Getty Images) https://images.daznservices.com/di/library/sporting_news/88/29/alex-smith-121220-ftr_1v2ofzji2rg381kx2fp50uy7lz.png?t=1480232998&w=500&quality=80
NFL picks against the spread for Week 17Sunday, 8:20p.m. ET, NBCThere's a good chance Alex Smith returns at quarterback to start over Taylor Heinicke, but Washington will likely be without Terry McLaurin. The Eagles came down to earth offensively with Jalen Hurts in Dallas and their defense fell apart, too. Philadelphia needs a strong all-around showing at home for the sake of coach Doug Pederson. Washington will keep playing hard defensively for Ron Rivera but the offensive shortcomings keep hurting it as Philly plays spoiler in prime time.Pick: Eagles win 23-20.Sunday, 1p.m. ET, FoxBefore Washington plays, the Cowboys and Giants will battle to see who would be in position to steal the NFC East should Washington actually lose. The Cowboys have finally found their offensive groove with Andy Dalton as the play-calling of Kellen Moore has been on fire the past two weeks. The defense is bending more without breaking again. The Giants' offense is in the tank regardless of quarterback play. In the most shocking development of the season, the Cowboys, through all their troubles without Dak Prescott and with Mike McCarthy, somehow get into the playoffs.Pick: Cowboys win 24-17 and cover the spread. (Getty Images) https://images.daznservices.com/di/library/sporting_news/5a/35/alvin-kamara-092620-getty-ftr_mqgf9mhnhxo71essq0cbbmnmo.jpg?t=-880704228&w=500&quality=80
Sunday, 4:25 p.m. ET, FoxThe Saints will be playing for the No. 1 seed, hoping the Packers stumble and Seahawks win at the same time to create a three-way tie. Their running game is rolling with Alvin Kamara and Latavius Murray. The Panthers remain weak in run defense. Teddy Bridgewater will see his weapons limited again without the help of Christian McCaffrey. New Orleans wants to march into the playoffs with some momentum, whether or not it has a bye.Pick: Saints win 34-17 and cover the spread.Sunday 4:25p.m. ET, CBSLet's jump on this early line while the quarterback questions exist. Jared Goff will be outfor the Rams with his broken thumb, with John Wolford starting. Meanwhile, Kyler Murray is expected to play with his leg injury with a wild-card spot on the line. The Rams also will be down young running backs Cam Akers and Darrell Henderson, so they can't bail out Wolford on the ground. Murray finds enough holes in the Rams' defense with his running and short-to-intermediate passing to make his first NFL playoffs.Pick: Cardinals win 20-17 and cover the spread. (Getty Images) https://images.daznservices.com/di/library/sporting_news/79/32/stefon-diggs-josh-allen-122820-ftr-getty_1alqupbf61zht1knywhzm3l4tt.jpg?t=-1396665298&w=500&quality=80
Sunday, 1p.m. ET,CBSThe Bills could choose to rest players coming off a short week knowing they can't get the No. 1 seed. But for a young playoff team yet to get a postseason winwith Josh Allen, it's important they keep playing with that mentality against the Dolphins, who will be fighting hard to join them in the playoffs. The Bills have really stepped up defensively and will continue to deliver for Sean McDermott. The Dolphins were fortunate to beat the Raiders and they won't have the same luck or Fitzmagic this week.Pick: Bills win 24-20and cover the spread.Sunday 1p.m. ET, CBSThe Ravens are back to "normal" with Lamar Jackson and the running game, with more pop in the passing game to boot. The Bengals worked hard to get their wins over the Steelers and Texans, but Baltimore is laser-focused on keeping a playoff berth after its division disappointment. The Ravens roost while the Bengals are tamed, thinking more about how they can help Joe Burrow in the 2021 draft.Pick:Ravens win 30-14 and cover the spread. (Getty Images) https://images.daznservices.com/di/library/sporting_news/f/57/nick-chubb-111520-getty-ftr_gd3guq14709l1ekqmoams6j6k.jpg?t=-841812907&w=500&quality=80
Sunday, 1 p.m. ET, CBSThe Steelers are hard to read in knowing what they'll do regardingchasing the No. 2 seed over the Bills. Theywill lean towardwanting to rest players, given how many veterans they have on their team and the considerable injury issues they have had over the course of the season. The Browns will welcome that, after their wide receiver COVID-19 outbreak proved to be very costly against the Jets.Pick: Browns win 22-17 but fail to cover the spread.Vikings (-6.5, 44.5 o/u)at LionsSunday, 1 p.m. ET, FoxThe Vikings' offense keeps doing its best to light up the scoreboard with Kirk Cousins and Dalvin Cook. The defense, because of inexperience and injuries, has hit new lows with Mike Zimmer. But that doesn't compare to how bad the Lions are defensively post firing Matt Patricia. The Vikings will move the ball at will with Cook, Adam Thielen and Justin Jefferson. The Lions cannot match that with D'Andre Swift and the rest of their skill players.Pick: Vikings win 34-27 and cover thespread. (Getty Images) https://images.daznservices.com/di/library/sporting_news/14/10/bill-belichick-110820-getty-ftr_1g0fh8wb7vakw169ox9hw1k8ly.jpg?t=-1437175523&w=500&quality=80
Jets at Patriots (-3.5, 43 o/u)Sunday, 1p.m. ET, CBSAdam Gase is doing his late-season sudden-winning thing again for the Jets with the massive victories over the Rams and Browns. Bill Belichick's Patriots have looked terrible since obliterating the Chargers. Those developments meet somewhere in the middle here. Belichick can't possiblylose to a lame-duck Gase, can he? Gase can't also outwit Belichick after getting the better of Sean McVay and coach of the year candidateKevin Stefanski, can he? Let's get logical here.Pick: Patriots win 17-14 but fail to cover the spread.Sunday, 1 p.m. ET, FoxThe Falcons blew a 17-0 lead against the Buccaneers just two weeks ago. The Buccaneers have rolled since the second half of that game, also destroying the Lions in Week 16. The Falcons fought hard to scare the Chiefs and it's good to see Matt Ryan playing better. But Tom Brady looks to be a passer possessed in relation and is loaded with more reliable weapons.Pick: Buccaneers win 31-20 and cover the spread. (Getty Images) https://images.daznservices.com/di/library/sporting_news/b8/fe/davante-adams-aaron-rodgers-122720-ftr-getty_jpkeagd2c4w51cwzmwz2vb7ki.jpg?t=-1482472266&w=500&quality=80
Sunday, 4:25p.m. ET, FoxThe Packers are watching Aaron Rodgers arguably play the best football of his Hall of Fame career with how easy he's made it look of late. The good news is that their running game and defense are becoming better support for him. The Bears have found their best offense, too, with Mitchell Trubisky, to rally back into playoff contention. Rodgers delivers with the top seed on the line while Trubisky makes one too many mistakes per usual.Pick: Packers win 28-24 but fail to cover the spread.Sunday, 4:25p.m. ET, CBSDerek Carr and Drew Lock are hard to trust from week to week. They can look like franchise QBs at times with their fearless and gritty passing and running. Other times, they force the playmaking that isn't there. The Broncos will focus on running all over the Raiders, but Carr has more trusty skill players around him. Jon Gruden saves some face with a narrow victory over Vic Fangio.Pick: Raiderswin 27-24 and cover the spread. (SN/Getty) https://images.daznservices.com/di/library/sporting_news/92/f4/jonathan-taylor-102220-getty-ftr_m9rm8hj9bsfj19n4iwhzaeg00.jpg?t=1365472293&w=500&quality=80
Jaguars at Colts (-14, 50 o/u)Sunday, 4:25p.m. ET, CBSThe Jaguars have locked up the No. 1 overall pick in the 2021 NFL draft. The Colts need a win and hope for some help to make the AFC playoffs after their second-half meltdown against the Steelers. The Colts will keep things simple here with a heavy dose of the running game and timely big plays from Philip Rivers to avenge a Week 1 loss. It's hard to believe Jacksonville hasn't won anything since but when you look at its horrible defense and inconsistent offense, then it's much easier to understand.Pick: Colts win 31-14 and cover the spread.Chargers (-3.5, 44 o/u) at ChiefsSunday, 4:25p.m. ET, FoxThe Chiefs are planning to rest key players, and that should include Patrick Mahomes. That's Andy Reid's style, not worried about issues with rust for the reigning Super Bowl champs. knowing getting almost two weeks off from action are more important to get everyone as healthy as possible. That said, the Chiefs are still talented enough to win this game against the Chargers, who may be a little shorthanded on both sides of the ball again and tend to lose close games they should win against better opponents in hostile environments.Pick: Chiefs win 20-17. (Getty Images) https://images.daznservices.com/di/library/sporting_news/99/3b/chris-carson-111820-getty-ftr_1u9hyudxgy1fs1cyl3zsy08j62.jpg?t=-584645939&w=500&quality=80
Seahawks (-4.5, 46.5 o/u) at 49ersSunday, 4:25p.m. ET, FoxThe Seahawks are putting it all together with their defense and their offense is slowly fighting through some recent issues for and around Russell Wilson. Getting back to an NFC West title was huge last week. The 49ers have more injuries piling on after their impressive performance against the Cardinals. The Seahawks will use this game as a tuneup and hope they get the breaks elsewhere to steal the No. 1 seed.Pick: Seahawks win 24-17and cover the spread.Titans (-7.5, 56 o/u) at TexansSunday, 4:25 p.m. ET, CBSThe Titans will rebound from getting ripped in Green Bay but it won't be easy with Deshaun Watson determined to play. The Texans' defense is terrible all-around (see the Vikings, Lions and Jaguars) and that will help Derrick Henry and Ryan Tannehill get back on track big-time. But Watson, David Johnson and Brandin Cooks will bring it again and the defense will respond to J.J. Watt's call to save some face.Pick: Titans win 27-20 but fail to cover the spread.Stats of the WeekWeek 16straight up: 10-6 Week 16 against the spread: 9-6Season straight up: 152-88Season against the spread: 125-108

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Now that we have passed the opt-out deadline and are only about three weeks away from the Chiefs and Texans kicking off the 2020 NFL season, I wanted to put together my pre-season power rankings and put all 32 teams in separate tiers, to give you an idea of where I see them at this point.
When putting together this list, I considered the talent on the roster, coaching staff and what will be a more important factor coming into this season than it has been in previous – the continuity as a franchise, since the COVID situation has limited the amount of preparation and ability to build chemistry as a team. That will be especially tough for new head coaches and inexperienced teams.
With that being said, this is how I would group them:
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Super Bowl contenders:

This group of four represents what I think are the four elite teams in the NFL. They all feature complete rosters, excellent coaching and continuity as a franchise. I think these are the franchises that will most likely square up against each other in the conference championship games on either side of the bracket.
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1. Kansas City Chiefs
We have heard this many times over the course of the offseason – the reigning Super Bowl champs bring back 20 of 22 starters (actually 19 now) on offense and defense combined. They have the best player in the league, the most dangerous receiving corp, above-average O-line play and a still improving defense, that just added some much-needed speed at the second level, which will allow DC Steve Spagnuolo to even more versatile. So at this point I can not have anybody unseat them. I think Clyde Edwards-Helaire (LSU) will be a star in that offense, they get a couple of guys back that missed their playoff run and there are plenty of young, developing players on that roster. What general manager Brett Veach has done this offseason in terms of securing Patrick Mahomes for the next decade and still opening up cap room to also sign their best defensive player in Chris Jones is amazing to me. My only two concerns for Kansas City at this point are a lack of depth in the secondary and the fact they will have to go on the road when they face the four best teams on their schedule – Baltimore, Buffalo, Tampa Bay and New Orleans, which has me favoring the second team on my list for the number one seed in the AFC and which this year means having one more game in the playoffs on their road to another Super Bowl for Andy Reid’s troops.
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2. Baltimore Ravens
Right behind the Chiefs, as the biggest competitor for the AFC is Baltimore. They were the best team in the regular season from this past year, but the Titans handed them only their third loss of the season in the Divisional Round at home. While they did lose what to me is a first-ballot Hall of Fame guard in Marshal Yanda, outside of that the Ravens to me have an even better roster. The reigning MVP Lamar Jackson is only entering his third season in the league, the Ravens just added a top prospect in J.K. Dobbins (Ohio State) to a backfield that set a league-record in rushing yards and some of these young receivers will continue to develop. On defense, they addressed the two areas that needed some help, when they brought in Calais Campbell to boost their pass-rush and two top-six linebackers on my board in the draft (Patrick Queen & Malik Harrison). They may not have as many superstar names as some other teams, but without a full offseason to prepare for it, that Greg Roman offense could be even tougher to stop if Marquise Brown becomes a more dependable deep threat (now fully healthy) and I love how multiple Wink Martindale is with his defense, combining the different pressure looks to go along with more versatile pieces up front and one of the elite secondaries in the game. You combine that with a rising young special teams coordinator in Chris Horton and a great motivator and in-game decision-maker in John Harbaugh – I just can’t find a lot of L’s on their schedule.
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3. San Francisco 49ers
Obviously the Super Bowl hangover will be brought up a lot of times with the loser of that contest, but unlike a lot of these teams coming off the big game – yet similar to the actual winners in the Chiefs – John Lynch did a great job re-tooling for the few losses they did have and didn’t overspend on some of their talented guys. Kyle Shanahan to me is the best offensive play-caller and game-designer in football, with a diverse rushing attack and the type of personnel to match it, while Jimmy G, despite some issues, is coming off his first 16-game season in his career. Defensively, they are losing what I thought was their best player in DeForest Buckner, but they did replace him with a top ten prospect in Javon Kinlaw (South Carolina) and Fred Warner is an emerging superstar. Their Seattle-based scheme under Robert Salah may not be very complex, but the Niners have a ferocious pass-rush, fast-flowing linebackers and a great safety tandem to be very sound in their execution. The Deebo Samuel injury is definitely a concern for me and if he doesn’t get back a few weeks into the season, I might drop San Fran a spot or two, plus I don’t love what they have at that second cornerback spot, but as for now I see the recipe that made me predict them winning the NFC West ahead of 2019 and what allowed them to be up double-digits in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl.
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4. New Orleans Saints
One of the themes this offseason for me has been how loaded this Saints roster is and that they just need to win this year. This is the final season with Drew Brees at the helm, they are already in a horrible place with the cap – before that even goes down in 2021 – and to be honest, a lot of their key contributors are getting pretty old now. While I have seen a significant drop-off in the arm-strength of Brees, other than that I don’t see any offense with this Sean Payton-led offense – the front-five is elite, Alvin Kamara should be back to 100 percent as a dynamic dual-threat back and they finally found a number two receiver in Emmanuel Sanders. When healthy, that defensive line is a dominant unit, I think third-round pick Zack Baun (Wisconsin) gives that linebacker group some versatility and they have a lot of experience in the secondary, including a guy I thought would be a future star on the outside in Marshon Lattimore. Before anything else, they need to take care of divisional-rival Tampa Bay – which is a very tough challenge already – but if they can do that, they are fairly in the hunt for the NFC’s top seed. There’s a lot of pressure on this group because of the cap situation, their all-time great QB having his “Last Dance” and brutal playoff losses in recent years, but they have all it takes to finally break through all the way.
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Playoff contenders:

This second tier consists of eight teams that to me have only or two holes on their roster, while their coaching gives them an advantage over the majority of teams in the league and they bring back most of their pieces from a year or at least improved in those areas. I expect all but one of these squads to make the playoffs in 2020, as long as they don’t suffer significant injuries along the way.
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5. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Number five in the entire league seems pretty high for a team that finished below .500 last season, but this is not just about Tom Brady coming in, but rather the roster Tampa Bay has built around him. To me Mike Evans and Chris Godwin are the top receiver duo in the league, the Bucs arguably have the best tight-end room in the league and the offensive line only got better with superhuman Tristan Wirfs (Iowa) playing one of those spots on the right side. I have talked about this a lot over the offseason, looking at the match between Bruce Arians’ vertical-based passing attack and what Brady is used to, in terms of spreading the field and getting the ball out of his hands quickly. My bet is they go to a bit of hybrid and figure things out. Maybe more importantly, I don’t think people realize what they have put together on defense. Last season the Bucs finished number one against the run, they forced the fifth-most turnovers (28) and tied for sixth with yards per play (5.1) in the league. Todd Bowles is excellent defensive mind, who now enters his second season with as much talent as he has had since his Arizona days. Jameis turned it over 35 times last year (12 more than any other player in the league), while Tom didn’t even crack double-digits once again, and he immediately improves their situational football awareness and overall execution. This is a very dangerous squad.
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6. Dallas Cowboys
When you talk about some of the most talented rosters in the league, the Dallas Cowboys come to mind right away – especially on the offensive side of the ball. Dak Prescott now has one of the premiere receiver trios with the selection of Ceedee Lamb (Oklahoma) in the draft, still probably a top-five offensive line and Zeke looking to re-establish himself as a top-tier back, after looking a step slow for most of last season. Defensively they are getting back Leighton Vander Esch, whose energy they desperately missed for stretches last season, and they have a very deep rotation at the defensive line (even though nobody knows what we’ll get from a couple of guys that were out of the league), while Mike Nolan will change things up a little more and get his guys into the face of opposing receivers. We have yet to see how much Mike McCarthy will want to have say in the offensive play-calling, but I like that they retained a young and creative OC in Kellen Moore, and as far as in-game control and CEO duties go, I certainly believe McCarthy is an upgrade. There are some questions with the secondary after the loss of Byron Jones and losing Travis Frederick to retirement hurts, but I think those are things that can be overcome. Something that I think should not be overlooked is the signing of former Rams kicker Greg Zuerlein and his special teams coordinator John Fassel, after converting only 75 percent of their field goal attempts last season (6th-lowest in the league) and missing a couple of crucial kicks.
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7. Philadelphia Eagles
Right behind the Cowboys, I have their division rivals from Philadelphia. I think the Eagles actually have a better quarterback, the best defensive player among the two teams in Fletcher Cox and a more experienced secondary. However, with Brandon Brooks out for the season and maybe the worst group of linebackers in the NFL, I could not put this group ahead of Dallas, even though they have come up victorious against them in the big games recently. Last year Carson Wentz carried a group of skill-position players from the practice squad and a banged-up O-line to a division title. This upcoming season he will go from already wasn’t an overly dynamic receiving crew to a group of track stars, most notably with first-round pick Jalen Reagor (TCU) and a hopefully healthy DeSean Jackson, plus Miles Sanders I think is ready to emerge as a star back for Philly. The defense did lose some long-time stalwarts like Malcolm Jenkins and Nigel Bradham, but I loved the addition of Javon Hargreave in the middle to free up the other guys to attack upfield and with Darius Slay as their new CB1, not only does that move everybody one spot lower on the depth chart, but it also finally makes more sense for Jim Schwartz to be as aggressive with those zero-blitzes, since he has the guys to cover. Those two newcomers also fit perfectly when matching up against Dallas, because of an improvement interior run defense and having a guy who can match up with Amari Cooper, after the other guys got toasted for the most part.
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8. Buffalo Bills
For the first time in about twenty years, a team not named the Patriots will enter a season as favorites in the AFC East – and it’s actually not that close for me. Buffalo made a switch last season offensively to more 11 personnel and quick-tempo with Brian Daboll moving to the booth. This offseason they finally got the big-armed Josh Allen a dependable deep threat in Stefon Diggs, who averaged 12.0 yards per target last season (second-highest in the league), which – similar to what I just talked about with the corners in Philadelphia – moves everybody else down one spot in the food chain. And I love what they do defensively, with Sean McDermott and Leslie Frazier’s game-plan specific zone pattern coverages, with a versatile secondary to execute those, to go with a deep D-line and two super-rangy linebackers. Even outside the Diggs trade, Buffalo has made some sneaky-good deals since losing that Wildcard game at Houston in such heart-breaking fashion. Whether that is Mario Addison as double-digit sack guy in four straight years, added depth on the O-line or a really solid draft class to complement what they already had. I don’t want to crown them at this point, but to me they are the favorites for the AFC’s number three seed as for right now, since I think the South doesn’t have that clear front-runner to win the majority of their divisional games.
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9. Seattle Seahawks
I would have probably had the Hawks as the final team of this group or right at the top of the next one a couple of weeks ago, but after acquiring Jamal Adams, I think they have re-established themselves as that second team in the NFC West, since I had them very close with Arizona originally, I did not love what they did in the first two days of the draft (somewhat of a trend with them), they lost their second-best defensive player at that point in Jadeveon Clowney, I’m not sure if they upgraded on the offensive line and we don’t even if know if Quinton Dunbar will be suspended at this point. With that being said, Seattle has finished above .500 every single year with Russell Wilson under center and while I’m not a fan of their conservative approach offensively, where they don’t allow Russ to throw the ball on first downs and push the tempo a little at times, they are one of the most effective rushing teams and they have two lethal weapons to catch those trademark rainbow balls from the Seahawks QB. Defensively there are still some questions about the edge rush and at second corner spot, but Pete Carroll at least has what he wants most in a team at those positions – competition – and you already saw them go to more two-high looks in coverage than we are used to, telling me they utilize Jamal’s versatile skill-set more than what that strong safety mostly does in that system.
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10. Green Bay Packers
The whole Aaron Rodgers-Jordan Love drama has been looming large over the offseason and that has brought us some interesting discussions, but let’s not allow this to take away from the fact Green Bay just had a first-round bye in the playoffs and made it to the NFC title game. While they were 8-1 in one-score games and should regress more towards the mean in terms of the success rate in those close games, the North is still wide open and they have a few things going for themselves – they have the best quarterback in the division, the best offensive line, the most versatile and effective pass rush and a lot of young talent in the secondary. The first-round selection of a future signal-caller aside, I wasn’t too fond of what they did in the draft. Even though I liked Cincinnati’s Josiah Deguara and can see what they want to do with him as H-back/move guy in this offense, I thought they did not get Aaron Rodgers help in the receiving corp, which has no proven commodity outside of Davante Adams. Their defense got absolutely steamrolled in two games against the eventual conference champion 49ers, but I hope to see Rashan Gary develop in his second season and I think Christian Kirksey was a very under-the-radar signing as a run-stopping linebacker. I think schematically with Matt LaFleur’s offense based on what they did under Sean McVay and Mike Pettine being very creative himself they are one of the better coaching staffs in the NFC, but I would like to see them open up the offense more for Rodgers and break tendencies more often with their coverage calls.
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11. Pittsburgh Steelers
Another very dangerous squad for me is the Steelers. I have talked many times about how bad the Steelers quarterback situations was last season, as both Mason Rudolph and Devlin Hodges finished near the bottom in air yards per attempt, percentage of throws beyond the marker and many others. We have only seen Big Ben throw in some short clips on the internet, but if he is just 70-80 percent of what he was in 2018, this team is bound for a playoff berth. There are some question marks with this group of skill-position players, but I expect Juju to bounce back in a major way with a capable QB and being healthy himself, I have already picked Diontae Johnson as a breakout candidate for this season and I like the diversity of this group of backs. Pittsburgh’s defense was already elite last year, finishing top five in both yards and points allowed, tied for first in yards per play (4.7), the most takeaways (38) and sacks (54). If former Raven Chris Wormley can replace Javon Hargreave as a two-down run-stopper at least and rookie Antoine Brooks Jr. (Maryland) can fill a very specific role as their second sub-package linebacker in place of Mark Barron, I think they will one of the scariest units in the NFL once again. So the best all-around defense for my money and an offense who I would say has top ten potential at the very least is a tough match-up. Maybe not quite battling with the Ravens for the North, but the top Wildcard spot for sure.
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12. Indianapolis Colts
If there is one team in the AFC that could go from finishing sub-.500 to making it all the way to the conference championship game, the Colts would be my pick. I thought Philip Rivers had a really rough 2019 campaign, in which his arm looked rather weak and his decision-making hurt the Chargers on multiple occasions, but he will play behind by far the best offensive line he has ever had and they will run the heck out of the ball. Indy already had a pretty good back in Marlon Mack, but Wisconsin superstar Jonathan Taylor, who they selected in the second round, will be one of the front-runners for Offensive Rookie of the Year if given the chances in combination with what I believe is the best front-five in the entire league, plus their other second-rounder Michael Pittman Jr. (USC) will be that Vincent Jackson/Mike Williams type target for Rivers. More importantly, with the trade for a top 50 player in the league in DeForest Buckner, this entire Colts D immediately takes a step forward, since he is a perfect fit as that 3-technique in their front and help them disrupt plays at a much higher rate, to go with range in zone coverage behind that, including the “Maniac” Darius Leonard chasing people down. I’m a big fan of Frank Reich and the coaching staff he is has put together, in terms of in-game decision-making, offensive gameplans and just the intensity his team plays him.
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Fringe playoff teams:

This middle tier is made up from all those teams who I expect to be at .500 or above, firmly in contention for a Wildcard spot at least. They can be some areas of concern, but overall they have the roster ready to compete with the big dogs and/or feature above-average coaching. With a couple of these there is a change at quarterback and head coach respectively, but they have enough around those to overcome that.
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13. Tennessee Titans
This definitely seems a little low for a team that is coming off an AFC Championship game appearance, but people seem to forget the Titans were 8-7 ahead of week 17 and if it wasn’t for the Steelers losing their final three games, this group wouldn’t have even been in position to lock down the six seed. Things were also made a lot easier by their division rival Texans, who sat most of their starters after beating Tennessee two weeks prior. So as impressive as their playoff run was, you have to think of what happened before that and put it into perspective a little. With one more playoff spot in each conference, their chances of making it to the tournament should be at least equally as good, but I believe the Colts are the favorites to win the South and for me the Steelers are the favorites for the fifth seed. With all that being said, there is plenty to like about this team still – they can pound you with the Derrick Henry and the run game, Ryan Tannehill at least gives them the threat of pulling the ball and going deep off play-action, they have some young weapons catching the ball and defensively they are very versatile in how they set up gameplans. I also like the mind-set Mike Vrabel installs in these guys and I was impressed with what OC Arthur Smith did in 2019. If there are two spots that could decide if this group is fighting for a division title or that final playoff berth, it will be their rookie right tackle Isaiah Wilson (Georgia) and recently signed edge rusher Vic Beasley.
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14. Cleveland Browns
While I don’t see them competing for the AFC North – just because of how loaded the Ravens are – the Browns are pretty clearly the most talented team that is considered to be third in their division. In terms of their group of starting skill-position players at least, they are near the top of the NFL, the O-line to me already just made my top ten ranking with room to move up, if healthy they are at least in the conversation for that with the D-line as well, with a Defensive Player of the Year candidate in Myles Garrett, and I like how they have assembled their secondary. Now, they have some unproven guys at the linebacker level and Cleveland’s potential is largely dependent on which Baker Mayfield we will get. With Kevin Stefanski coming and installing an offense that will be built on the zone run game and bootlegs off that, where his quarterback is put on the move, I could see much more efficient play and more comfort in that system. Something that really jumped out to me on tape was how many times Baker seemed to not be “on the same page” with his receivers, expecting routes to break off differently and unfortunate drops in certain situations. Even though the preparation for the season does look a lot different and QB & WRs haven’t been able to spend too much time together, I expect this to improve and more suitable roles for those pass-catchers overall. And if they are ahead in more games, that pass rush will be a problem.
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15. Arizona Cardinals
There are certainly still some issues here, but the Cardinals are probably the most exciting young team in all of the NFL. Kyler Murray was a one-man show last season and is due for a big jump, with DeAndre Hopkins being added to a receiving corp that severely lacked dependable weapons, to go with some other youngsters fully healthy, Kenyan Drake looked like a different player once he came over from Miami and the O-line should at least be marginally better. Defensively they transitioned a little up front, with big gap-pluggers on the line and Isaiah Simmons being that ultra-rangy player on the second level, who can run guys down on the edges, if those ball-carriers forced to bounce outside, plus they have maybe the most underappreciated edge rusher over the last four years in Chandler Jones. I don’t think they are very deep in the secondary, but Budda Baker is an absolute baller, Jalen Thompson emerged late last season and I already predicted Byron Murphy would have a breakout second season. With Kliff Kingsbury and Vance Joseph, Arizona has creative play-calling on both sides of the ball and they now have the personnel to execute at the needed level as well. Like I mentioned, I was ready to have the Cardinals at least go toe-to-toe with Seattle for a playoff spot, but the addition of Jamal Adams has shifted the balance again to some degree. And if you just go based off my rankings, two NFC Wildcard spots already go to teams from five to seven.
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16. Denver Broncos
A team that has been getting a lot of love this offseason is the Broncos. They have pretty much all the pieces that you usually see with those rising squads – a promising second-year quarterback with a lot of weapons surrounding him, a ferocious defensive front and having shown signs late last season. My belief in them has taken a bit of a dump unfortunately since I thought they did well to improve the offensive line, with Garrett Bolles on the left end being the only weak-spot, but now that Ja’Wuan James won’t be available at right tackle for the second straight year (injury last season and now opting out), their duo of OTs is a concern for me. Defensively you have to love what they have in the front seven, with Von Miller and now again Bradley Chubb coming off the edges, Jurrell Casey added to the interior to go with Shelby Harris and Alexander Johnson being an under-the-radar standout at linebacker. I’ve always been a big fan of Justin Simmons, but that second corner spot is still up in the air. I like Vic Fangio and that coaching staff they have put together in Denver, with Pat Shurmur providing a QB-friendly offense, the game’s best O-line coach in Mike Munchak and most of the people that have helped Fangio put out elite defenses at multiple stops before. So the Broncos are still the most dangerous opponent of the Chiefs in the AFC West, but now I’m not sure if they can add some drama over the fourth quarter of the season.
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17. Minnesota Vikings
At the same time, a team that has been a little overhyped to me this offseason is Minnesota. While I don’t love how the Packers have operated since February, what have the Vikings done to really improve? They traded away the best deep threat in the league last season in Stefon Diggs, stalwarts on the D-line in Everson Griffen and Linval Joseph are now gone, their entire group of corners has combined for less than 1500 career snaps and their offensive coordinator is now in Cleveland. I’m intrigued by the combination of Adam Thielen and Justin Jefferson, who could be pretty interchangeable in their roles and I like their 12 and 21 personnel groupings, but they lack depth at the receiver position. And the defense will be relying on several inexperienced pieces to step in. I mean their three starting corners from last year are off the team now. So I don’t really get how most people all of a sudden put them ahead of the Packers. With that being said, I like the offensive scheme and always thought Gary Kubiak was a huge factor in their success on the ground at least. On defense there are certainly question marks – especially in the secondary – but Minnesota could easily have a top five player at their respective position at all three levels, with Danielle Hunter, Eric Kendricks and Anthony Harris, plus they still have some promising young guys like Ifeadi Odenigbo, Mike Hughes and a deep rookie class. Their only true shade nose Michael Pierce opting out hurts though.
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18. New England Patriots
This offseason must have been a rollercoaster for Patriots fans. First, Tom Brady leaves and everybody goes crazy. Then people start getting onto the Jarrett Stidham hype train and talk about how good the rest of this team still is. Out of nowhere they sign Cam Newton for the veteran minimum basically and they are back in the conversation for the top teams in the AFC all of sudden. And now, they lead the league in players opting out of the season, with key defensive pieces like Dont’a Hightower and Patrick Chung, to go with a couple of role players on offense at least. So now they are right at the bottom of these fringe playoff teams for me, because purely based on the roster, they are not even in the top 20 league-wide, but they still have maybe the greatest defensive mind in NFL history in Bill Belichick and one of the best offensive play-callers right now in Josh McDaniels. Obviously a lot of this will come down to what version of Cam Newton we will get and even if he is and can stay totally healthy. Not only is New England the most adaptable team in terms of how they can adjust to personnel and how flexible they are with their game-plans, but Cam is a great fit in that offense, where he can spread the field and make decisions based on defenses adjusting. The one area that took the biggest bump – outside of quarterback I’m guessing – is the offensive line, because they lost a legendary position coach in Dante Scarnecchia and their probable starter at right tackle in Marcus Cannon. While the Pats do have some young players, who can replace part of the losses, they were already more in plan for the pieces that left before there was any virus outbreak.
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Around .500:

This broad group of seven teams represents all those franchises who will be dancing around .500 mark in the win-loss column. A couple of teams have the potential to win nine or ten games, while others could see those numbers on the wrong side of the column as well. There are obvious question marks in certain areas, even though they might feature top-tier players and/or coaches.
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19. Houston Texans
It’s kind of tough to put a team here that has won its division the last two years, but I think the Texans are pretty clearly number three in the South now. I love Deshaun Watson and I think he has fairly established himself as a top five quarterback in the NFL, but Bill O’Brien just took away an elite wide receiver in DeAndre Hopkins and replaced him with an injury-prone Brandin Cooks to go with another always banged up Will Fuller and a declining Randall Cobb, to go with a David Johnson in the backfield, who was unrecognizable last season. I think the O-line is improving, but outside of Laremy Tunsil maybe, they don’t have anybody other than Deshaun who is clearly above-average in their role. And defensively they finished in the bottom five in yards allowed and tied with Cincinnati (who picked first overall in the draft) for an NFL-high 6.1 yards allowed per play. Hopefully having J.J. Watt back for a full season should help, I like the selection of Ross Blacklock (TCU) on the inside and there are some talented young corners on this roster, who could be better much in 2020. I would not be surprised if they are that .500 team at heart and their quarterback carried them to a couple of wins that they weren’t supposed to get – which we have seen him do many times before – but it’s more likely to me that they are fighting for one of the two bottom Wildcard spots.
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20. Atlanta Falcons
Very rarely do you have a team that was among the worst over the first half of the season and among the best over the second half. The Falcons started out 2019 with a 1-7 record, but would go on to win six of the final eight games. Their defense was absolutely atrocious early on last season, with no pass-rush impacting the opposing quarterback and several miscues in coverage. With Raheem Morris taking over the defensive play-calling, they showed a lot of improvement already and there are signs that trend will continue. While there are some questions about the back-end and if they can get consistent production from their rush outside the top two guys, I think Dante Fowler is an upgrade over Vic Beasley, I like Marlon Davidson (Auburn) as a guy with inside-out flexibility on sub-packages and Keanu Neal is back healthy, as that Kam Chancellor-type, who can be that extra defender in the box in their system and punish receivers when catching the ball over the middle or in the flats. Offensively I believe this is still a team that can move the ball – they just have to start doing so earlier in games. While the top NFL receiver duo is in their own division with the guys in Tampa Bay, Julio Jones and Calvin Ridley could easily be that next one. They lost a very productive tight-end in Austin Hooper, but I believe Hayden Hurst can replace at least 80 percent of that production, and while we have no idea what we get from Todd Gurley and his knees at this point, last year the Falcons had one of the least effective per-touch backs in Devonta Freeman. Plus, the O-line should take a step forward with former first-round pick Chris Lindstrom returning from injury.
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21. Las Vegas Raiders
To me the Raiders are still in transition, not only moving to Las Vegas, but also in terms of roster construction and the culture Jon Gruden and Mike Mayock are trying to establish. Outside of Tyrell Williams, that entire group of receivers was overhauled, they have a lot of young pieces on the defensive line and the secondary, plus they will have at least two new starters on the second level of their defense. By far the biggest thing they have going for them is the offensive line and second-year back Josh Jacobs running behind it. When I did my top ten offensive lines in the NFL a couple of weeks ago, I had the Silver & Black at number five, and Jacobs was already a top 100 player in the league for me, with how physical and elusive a runner as he is. I could easily see the Raiders finish near the top in terms of ground production, and I also like the young guys they brought in around that, with Henry Ruggs III (Alabama) keeping the defense honest with his speed, Bryan Edwards (South Carolina) as a physical receiver, who will get hands after the catch, and Lynn Bowden Jr. (Kentucky) as that chess-piece potentially, that you can use in a multitude of way. My bigger question here is if Derek Carr is willing to push the ball down the field. Defensively I like the rotation they have on the interior D-line and the two linebackers they brought in via free agency, most notably Corey Littleton. There are still some questions about how snaps will be split between their corner group, but I’m excited to see a full season of Jonathan Abram hopefully. These guys have some attitude and an energetic head coach.
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22. Los Angeles Rams
Oh, how far we have come. Just one-and-a-half years ago the Rams were officially 20 spots higher basically, when they lost the Super Bowl to New England. Ahead of last season, I predicted them to miss the playoffs and while they made a bit of a run at it late, that’s what ended up happening. Now I see them as the fourth team in their own division – even though that says more about the competition they face rather than them. I still believe in Sean McVay and his ability to win on paper with play-design and game-planning, but Jared Goff has turned out to be an average quarterback, they don’t have a prime Todd Gurley setting the table anymore and the offensive line had some major issues, for large stretches of last season, especially in the run game. I was very high on Cam Akers, who they selected in the second round out of Florida State, but he will obviously be a rookie with shortened preparation, rather than an Offensive Player of the Year like Gurley was for them. Defensively, they have two elite players in Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey and I like some of the other guys in their roles, but overall the high-end talent beyond the two biggest names isn’t overly impressive. Leonard Floyd might be their top edge rusher and he has always been more of a Robin, they have no proven commodity as stand-up linebacker and I have yet to see if Brandon Staley can actually be an upgrade over Wade Phillips as their defensive coordinator.
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23. Detroit Lions
While I was going back and forth with putting the Lions third or fourth in the NFC North, I recently said they are among the top two teams that could go from worst to first in their division and I would not be surprised if they were in the hunt for a Wildcard spot in the last couple of weeks of the season. His second year in a system under Darrell Bevell – where he wasn’t just going in shotgun 40 times a game and asked to make magic happen – Matthew Stafford looked like an MVP candidate as long as he was healthy in 2019. That duo of Kerryon Johnson and my top-ranked running back in the draft D’Andre Swift (Georgia) could be one of the most dynamic ones in the league, the receiving corp is highly underrated and I like those rookies competing for the two guard spots. Defensively, they seem to finally look like what Matt Patricia wanted, when he came over from New England, in terms being versatile with their fronts and having guys who can take on receivers in man-coverage. With that being said, there is also a good chance that the Patricia experiment could go to shambles, if some of the veterans get turned off by his style of coaching without having established that winning culture, and this team has simply been dealing with too many injuries to key players. I don’t think there is much of a gap between the Lions and Vikings for example, but Detroit has not shown the stability of some other organizations.
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24. Chicago Bears
A franchise that I don’t really hear anybody talk about – unless it’s their quarterback competition – is that team from the Windy City. I understand that the Bears aren’t really sexy because they lack those superstars on offense that people will recognize, but I’m higher on some of the guys they do have on that side of the ball and on defense they could be much closer to 2018, when they led the league in points allowed and turnovers forced, rather than being just inside the top in most categories last season. A guy I already predicted to break out for Chicago this upcoming season with a bigger workload is running back David Montgomery, to go with Anthony Miller as a gadget player and developing young pass-catcher and one of the more underappreciated receivers out there in Allen Robinson. Defensively, I thought the biggest issue last season was Akiem Hicks missing double-digit games, as a table-setter with his ability to disrupt plays from the interior, and Leonard Floyd didn’t provide much on the opposite side of Khalil Mack, who they upgrade from with Robert Quinn, who just had his best season since the Rams were still in St. Louis. Now, I don’t love what they have at that second safety spot to complement Eddie Jackson, someone will have to fill that second corner spot – even though I’m a fan of second-round pick Jaylon Johnson (Utah) – and nose tackle Eddie Goldman opting out is a huge loss. If the quarterback position can just complement the rushing attack and the defense plays up to their potential, this group could be competing for second in the North, but Foles or Trubisky could still hold them back.
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The final tier is in the comments!!
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If you enjoyed this breakdown, I would really appreciate if you could visit the original piece - https://halilsrealfootballtalk.com/2020/08/18/ranking-all-32-nfl-teams-in-tiers-pre-season/
You can also listen to my analysis on the Youtube channel - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz7WE0epZw8