Tag Archives: 2021 NFL Season

NFL

One X-factor for each team in the NFL playoffs:

January 13, 2022 hallachhalil Leave a comment

The longest regular season in NFL history is in the books and we saw one of the craziest finishes to it that I can remember, climaxing in the Sunday Night thriller, in which the Chargers and Raiders could have both made the cut with a tie in overtime, but Las Vegas decided to kick a game-winning field goal with time running out, to send their division rivals home. Now the postseason is set and we already have some great matchups in the first round already, while overall this thing might be as wide-open as we’ve seen in a long time.

So as we enter this 14-team tournament, I want to talk everybody squad here a little bit and instead of describing their strengths and weaknesses, like I usually do in weekly previews, I thought it would be fun to bring one X-factor to the table for each of them. So these are not marquee players – outside of maybe one of them, because of a reason I will explain at that point – or even starters in some cases, but rather guys, who I believe could make an impact in a certain role or matchup.

Here are the names I came up with:

Continue reading One X-factor for each team in the NFL playoffs: →

Here are the names I came up with:

Continue reading One X-factor for each team in the NFL playoffs: →

NFL

NFL Power Rankings heading into the fourth quarter of the 2021 season:

December 8, 2021 hallachhalil Leave a comment

There are five weeks left in the NFL season and with the last four teams wrapping up bye weeks, this is as close to the three-quarter mark as we’ll get to. Therefore, it was time for me to go through all the numbers, watch some more film and rank all 32 teams against each other heading into the final stretch.

I think there’s a fairly clear top-five, which you could order a few different ways and a couple of teams with the potential to join that group. And similarly, there’s a group at the bottom, which consists of about the same amount of teams, that have practically – and one even technically – eliminated themselves from playoff contention – and their play also reflects that. The middle group is really what’s hard to figure out, because some of those teams look like contenders one week and then let us down the very next.

Still, this is the list I came up with in the end, not just purely ranking the teams based on record, but also taking recent form into account and where they should come in, as I evaluate them at this very moment. Let’s dive into it:

Continue reading NFL Power Rankings heading into the fourth quarter of the 2021 season: →

NFL

Mid-season NFL awards for 2021/22:

November 10, 2021 hallachhalil Leave a comment

We have now officially reached the mid-way point of this NFL season, with 136 of 272 games in the books. There’s been plenty of surprises, when it comes to certain players and teams, some groups have been buried by injuries, while others have risen above those, usual suspects have faced adversity, while a few new teams are trying to prove themselves as contenders. We’ve had several great primetime games and shootouts between exciting teams, and then of course week nine kind of flipped everything on its head, when we had two double-digit underdogs pull off upsets and there were quite a few other head-scratching results.

So now, as I like to do every year, I think is a good time to reflect a little bit and talk about who I think would win all the major NFL awards, if the season ended today. Once again, just like I did when I put together my season predictions before we kicked things off, I will list and discuss my top three candidates for each category, to go with mentioning two or three other players, that deserve consideration. This is not a prediction of what I believe this will look like at the end of the year, but rather my personal opinion, based on numbers and all the tape I watched.

Let’s get into it:

Continue reading Mid-season NFL awards for 2021/22: →

Let’s get into it:

Continue reading Mid-season NFL awards for 2021/22: →

NFL

Predicting the entire 2021 NFL season:

September 2, 2021 hallachhalil Leave a comment

We are exactly a week away from the NFL kickoff game between the Cowboys and Buccaneers. So as I do every year, I predicted the three top candidates for every major award, like MVP, Defensive Player of the Year and so on. To go along with that (since I’m a football psycho), I went through the whole schedule and decided on the winner of every single game, considering bye weeks, travel schedule and of course how the teams match up against each other. The result is a list of the seven playoff teams in each conference, a prediction of every postseason round and ultimately who I have winning the Super Bowl.

My Excel sheet, where I filled out the entire schedule is at the very end, if you want to check it out or see where I have your team finishing at, if they’re not listed among the playoff squads.

Here’s how I have the season shaking out:

Continue reading Predicting the entire 2021 NFL season: →

Fantasy Football

Fantasy diamonds for 2021:

August 31, 2021 hallachhalil Leave a comment

We’re back once again with my fantasy diamonds piece, where I try to give you some names I think are undervalued based on current ADPs (average draft positions) across the three major platforms – NFL.com, ESPN & Yahoo.

I realized this wasn’t posted here until now, so R.I.P. J.K. Dobbins …

NFL

NFL Power Rankings ahead of the 2021 NFL season:

August 19, 2021 hallachhalil Leave a comment

Just three weeks away from the season-opener between the Cowboys and Buccaneers, I once again ranked all 32 NFL teams and split them into six different tiers, from Super Bowl contenders to – how I liked to call it – tanking teams. Putting this list together, I considered talent on the roster, how all the pieces fit together, the level of coaching and I project these teams to develop until the new year.

Of course, these will change over the course of the season, as injuries become a bigger factor, players improve/regress and teams get into a certain rhythm. Therefore I’ll come back to it, at the latest, mid-way through the 2021 season and move these groups up or down the board accordingly.

Here’s my list:

Continue reading NFL Power Rankings ahead of the 2021 NFL season: →

NFL

Second- and third-year NFL players ready to break out in 2021 – Defense edition:

July 22, 2021 hallachhalil Leave a comment

Once again, we have reached a part of the offseason, where there’s not many transactions or otherwise important moves to analyze around the NFL. So I took the time to put on the tape of players from the 2019 and ’20 drafts and identify which of them are bound to break out this upcoming season.

To avoid subjective interpretation of which players are or are not eligible for making this list anymore, I already stated that they can’t have made a Pro Bowl / All-Pro team so far or are just generally considered one of the top players at their position already, like a Quinnen Williams or Darnell Savage for example. To go along with that, players that have reached double-digit sacks or tackles for loss, or led his team in another major category, are excluded. Oh, and the players that made my list already last year, won’t repeat doing so.

Defensive Rookie of the Year candidates like Antoine Winfield and Jeremy Chinn did not qualify, Derrick Brown may not be in position to rack up big numbers, but he was already dominant for stretches in the middle of that Panthers defense this past season and Cardinals linebacker Isaiah Simmons was too obvious for me, since he was my number two overall prospect a year ago and should be in much better position to make plays, in a more defined role.

Just like the offensive edition, two of the first three players mentioned here were selected in the middle of the first round, but the other six names all went on day two or later.

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NFL

My ten favorite games on the 2021 NFL schedule:

May 27, 2021 hallachhalil Leave a comment

While I’ve been focusing on my draft recap videos these last couple of weeks, I just wanted to quickly look at the recently released schedule here and talk about the games I have already circled on my calendar (metaphorically). I picked out my ten favorite contests throughout the season and then listed another 25 chronologically, that I already know I’ll be watching, because of some of the storylines, certain matchups or their meaning as it pertains to the playoffs. We got 18 games on slate this year for the first time, so there were even more great games to choose from.

Here’s my personal list:

10. Jacksonville Jaguars at Cincinnati Bengals (Week 4 – TNF)

It’s the battle of the number picks from this and last year, but really also a test to see which of these talented young teams is on the fringe of emerging. I’m not saying either one of them will be in the hunt for a playoff spot, even though the AFC South could easily have like a 9-8 team win it, but they both have some underrated rosters, that are starting to take shape, they both have highly promising signal-callers and under-the-radar play-makers on both sides of the ball. The defenses are a bit questionable at this point, but there’s some talent, that we’ve already seen impress at times. And the coaching staffs are very interesting to me as well, since Urban Meyer and company will be the new thing in the NFL, while Zac Taylor’s group are in kind of a prove-it year, but looking at those schedules, either team could easily be 1-3 after this game and have some criticism coming their way.

9. San Francisco 49ers at Los Angeles Rams (Week 18 – 4:25 pm)

So the NFC West is going to be interesting once again. This has been a division, that outside of the Cardinals had all three teams with two-year runs as champs this past decade, with Arizona having one season where they made a run at the conference in-between, while we’ve had three different winners in each of the last three years. It always seems hard to predict, who will emerge, but I believe if Trey Lance can acclimate quickly enough, the NFC West will be a blood bath, and these are the two teams that it will really come down to for me. Looking at the history between Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay, the Niners coach has had the upper-hand so far, especially getting the sweep this past season, despite their injury-riddled campaign. For these two squads to battle it out in the season-finale with the division on the line potentially – and in that case, probably getting flexed to Sunday Night – could create the setting for another classic like 49ers-Seahawks in 2019.

8. Seattle Seahawks at Washington Football Team (Week 12 – MNF)

I think this is a really underrated game, because Washington isn’t a big-name team at this point, but I think they should be the favorites to win the NFC East and when you look at that roster, there’s really nothing missing. Ryan Fitzpatrick may have his ups and downs, but he can get as hot as any passer in the league pretty much to match Russell Wilson, who will be facing one of the most talented defensive lines in the league. The Seahawks are going to be an interesting team as well, even though I just talked about how I think the 49ers and Rams could be battling for the NFC West title in week 18, because of the tension between the organization and their franchise QB and the fact that they will need some of their young players to step up, if they want to keep pace in that division. When these two teams squared off last season, Dwayne Haskins had the Football Team at the brink of the red-zone, with a chance to take the lead late. So this could come down to the wire.

7. Green Bay Packers at San Francisco 49ers (Week 3 – SNF)

Just like Seattle with Russell Wilson, the relationship between the Packers and their MVP quarterback will be one to monitor, but assuming we get at least one more year, this could be a highly-contested matchup. Aaron Rodgers and Green Bay got their chance for revenge last season, after the 49ers handed them two really bad losses in 2019 and kept them from going to the Super Bowl, but it must not have felt totally right, going up against Nick Mullens and a injury-decimated roster overall. San Francisco might have a rookie quarterback starting for them, but no excuses this time around. The bludgeoning run game and the ferocious defensive front that gave Green Bay trouble are still there. The thing to watch will be DeMeco Ryans stepping in for now-Jets head coach Robert Saleh as defensive coordinator and how well he will fare playing against Rodgers on the other end, coming off another all-time great season.

6. Kansas City Chiefs at Baltimore Ravens (Week 2 – SNF)

This was the game that I had at number one a year ago, after everybody was waiting for these two teams to match up against each in the AFC Championship game, but the Titans had different plans. When we did get to watch this proclaimed “preview”, it was a rather underwhelming affair, as Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reid and Eric Bienemy tore apart Baltimore’s blitz-heavy defense. It was a week three Monday Night edition back then and this year we get it even a week earlier on Sunday. So while I’d prefer to see both teams in mid-season form, this could definitely be a tone-setter. We get the 2018 and ‘19 MVPs, who front-runners again this season to earn those honors, and as Lamar Jackson said himself the Chiefs have been their kryptonite so far. The Orlando Brown trade gives us an interesting angle, but I will really be watching how much both Ravens coordinators have learned from their prior approaches.

5. Buffalo Bills at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Week 14 – 4:25 pm)

Brady just can’t give up the AFC East and while the trip back to Foxborough will be the biggest event on the slate, going up against the new standard for quarterback play in that division and giving Josh Allen a chance to still beat the Patriots legend should be highly entertaining. Plus, these are two of the final four teams from last season and it could easily be a Super Bowl preview I believe. Allen and that group of receivers will be looking to spread the field and neutralize Tampa Bay’s ferocious pass-rush, while the Bucs will test Buffalo’s defensive interior, which finished dead-middle in terms of rushing yards allowed, but was helped out by their offense forcing the opposition to get into catch-up mode, as they surrendered 140 yards in nine different games altogether, with Ronald Jones, Leonard Fournette and others. The fact that this game is in warm Florida rather than Western New York in December is a big factor, but I think the biggest key will be the development of those young linebackers for the Bills.

4. Cleveland Browns at Baltimore Ravens (Week 12 – SNF)

So of course, when you get these divisional matchups, you always have two options to choose from. For the most part, you want to choose the later one, since more will be on the line, especially with the Browns being notorious for being slow starters at this point, but we don’t see these division foes square off against each other until week twelve, and I’m going with the Sunday Night battle in Baltimore, rather than a 1 pm kickoff two weeks later. Just this past season, we started with a 38-6 blowout in Baltimore, while the week 14 version of this matchup was the best game all of last season, according to most people. We saw 89 combined points, a lot of back-and-forth and a heroic “comeback” by Lamar Jackson from the locker room/pooper. I’ll be looking forward to what Lamar can do with improved weapons around him, against a Browns team, that heavily invested into their defense this offseason.

3. Buffalo Bills at Kansas City Chiefs (Week 5 – SNF)

Alright, let’s get an obvious here off the board. With the New Orleans actually winning the NFC South last season, we don’t get the rematch between the Buccaneers and Packers, but we do get to watch the AFC Championship game rematch. While the 14-point difference in that contest would suggest a fairly competitive game, after the Bills quickly went up 9-0, it never felt like the Chiefs lost control again, with an offensive gameplan that was built around protecting Patrick Mahomes’ injured foot with a quick-rhythm passing attack and KC’s secondary was punking Buffalo’s receiver with a ton of press-coverage. Their week six Monday afternoon matchup actually was closer, but was kind of an odd game, as both quarterbacks struggled with ball-handling and accuracy in the rain, while Clyde Edwards-Helaire led the way for a 245-yard rushing day by the Chiefs. This upcoming season, we will get both teams, right as they are hitting their groove, and the Bills will want to prove they are still contenders for the conference, as they head back to Arrowhead.

2. Tampa Bay Buccaneers at New England Patriots (Week 4 – SNF)

There’s not much of an explanation needed here. We have Tom Brady going home and facing the team, which he played two decades for and won six Super Bowls with. People will probably make way too much about determining, who was most responsible for the Patriots’ dynasty, based on just one game. However, this will be fascinating watch between Brady coming off winning a ring his first year at his location, where he’s now tossing Lombardi trophies rather than doing the “New England way”, and the best football coach in NFL history, trying to build up a new winning organization, and this being the first time they really made a splash in free agency. The chess-match between these two GOATs will be poetry for fans of the game. This will also be Gronk’s return to Foxborough and it could be a major prove-it matchup for Cam Newton, with a first-round signal-caller ready in line.

1. Green Bay Packers at Kansas City Chiefs (Week 9 – 4:25 pm)

This all comes down to one thing – hopefully, we will finally see this matchup between Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes. We were robbed of that experience in consecutive years now, as the Packers lost in NFC Championship game, with the Chiefs sort of awaiting them, and when we were supposed to see these guys square up in the regular season a couple of years ago, as Mahomes wasn’t able to play host, missing one of two games with that seemingly-dislocated knee cap. And I don’t always want to make it about the quarterbacks, but when we get the best signal-caller of the last decade going up against who I believe will be top guy for the 2020’s, we have to make them the focal point here. Rodgers beat up Mahomes for MVP last year, while the latter one was able to get to his second Super Bowl already, which has eluded Rodgers since he won his lone ring in 2010. Unless the situation in Green Bay can’t be resolved – even though that would probably mean we get to see this QB duel twice with Denver – we get these two teams exactly in the middle of the season, and if the football gods are very generous, we’ll see them again in L.A. mid-February.