Or think any of the other voters are the same way? So late in the week, I assembled 36 voters. Ten are former players, now in the media or in private life, and the others mostly are media members. They are listed below. I vote for the AP awards, and so I did not vote in these. The vote:. Joe Burrow, QB, Cincinnati, 2 votes.
Brady had one of the best years of his career at 44, leading the NFL with 5, passing yards and 43 touchdowns. Burrow came back from a major knee injury last November to drive woebegone Cincinnati to a division title and a sweep of AFC North powers Baltimore and Pittsburgh. In his last two games, wins over Baltimore and Kansas City, he threw for an astounding yards. Everyone else picked Rodgers. After a lousy season-opener against the Saints, Rodgers threw 37 touchdowns and two interceptions.
He had one of the most remarkable seasons a quarterback ever had, and voter after voter saw it. But nothing is great other than Aaron and Davante Adams. And he is doing it as efficiently as we have ever seen anyone do it. His ability to be a gunslinger while also taking care of the ball better than anyone in history is astounding. When the NFL announced in December that teams could apply for marketing rights in foreign countries, 18 teams were awarded the rights to market their brands in eight countries, beginning Jan.
I am hearing the NFL may schedule some games with those teams in their new marketing countries soon, as early as next season. One possibility on the table: Tampa Bay could play one of its nine home games this fall in Germany. The Bucs, Carolina, Kansas City and New England all were awarded rights in Germany, a huge and relatively untapped market for individual teams. But Tampa has the sexiest home schedule in football in , with the Bucs hosting the Rams, Seattle, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Green Bay and Kansas City, and assuming Brady returns for a 23rd season at age 45, the attraction of the Bucs versus any of those six or even a division foe would be tremendous for the first NFL regular-season game ever on German soil.
I would also watch Dallas and Pittsburgh as possible participants in games in Mexico in the next year or two. With the game schedule, NFC teams will have nine home games in even-numbered years going forward, AFC with nine in the odd years. Finally, look for three games in London next year, one in Germany either Munich, Frankfurt or Dusseldorf and one in Mexico, assuming the Covid scourge has calmed by then in all places.
The league ideally would like no fewer than five of the regular-season games played outside the U. I sincerely hope Daniel Snyder comes to his senses in and sells the franchise.
Or, rather, Mister Snyder. Some grist for that mill: WFT won the NFC East last year albeit with a record , made the playoffs and played respectfully in an exciting wild-card home loss to eventual Super Bowl champ Tampa Bay last year, and entered this year picked by some to contend for the division title again.
The Jacksonville Jaguars, on the other hand, have lost 75 percent of their games over the past decade, went last year, hired a new coach and quarterback last offseason, and watched the promise of yet another expensive rebuild go down the toilet with the unceremonious firing of savior coach Urban Meyer. Entering Week 18, savior QB Trevor Lawrence was the lowest-rated passer, among qualifiers, in the league. The Jags are in the last two years, 9 wins fewer than WFT. And yet:. Only one team in the NFL played to less than 75 percent capacity this year, Washington, which sold Those at the last two games, versus Dallas and Philadelphia, are certain more than half the crowd at each game rooted for the visitors.
This is the team, and the ownership, that the league office has spent so much time defending in the wake of the sex-harassment scandal that shook the franchise in Best non-division games, nine months out, of the regular season, now that the regular-season standings are final:.
Kansas City at Tampa Bay. Pretty cool the way the schedule has worked out. This will be sixth meeting between Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes assuming Brady returns for his age season.
Dallas at Tennessee. Physical football at its finest. Hope Henry, Elliott and Pollard are all healthy. New England at Green Bay. This could be the last time there, at least on the sidelines, for the coach who turns 70 in April. Rams at L.
The other venue-sharers in town, the Lakers and Clippers, have a bit of a rivalry. Green Bay at Tampa Bay. If Aaron Rodgers returns to the Pack, this could be the game the networks fight for the most in the spring. Buffalo at Kansas City. So many great rivalry games on the horizon in , such as Allen-Mahomes IV.
Kings of the Draft. Five teams have five picks in the first three rounds: Philadelphia, the Jets, the Giants, Detroit and Denver. The richest, with three first-rounders, is Philadelphia, which owns the Miami and Indy first-rounders as well as its own. So the Eagles have the 15th and 16th picks from the Dolphins and Colts, and their own, somewhere in the twenties, which will be finalized when the Eagles finish in the playoffs.
The Jets fourth and 10th overall and Giants fifth and seventh overall benefited from bad seasons by trade partners Seattle and Chicago, respectively.
Un-Kings of the Draft. As of this morning, the Rams have zero picks in the top The first-round pick went to Detroit in the Jared Goff deal, and the second- and third-rounders generously went to Denver in the October trade for Von Miller. Team in the best position.
With the forecast of a poor top of the draft and wealthy middle, the Ravens might be in the best position of any team. What else is new, right?
Tentatively, the Baltimore picks will fall around 78, , , , , and , with the chance that the th a compensatory pick for New England signing Matthew Judon could become a late-third-rounder, per Over The Cap. Because of the vague mysteries of the compensatory-pick system, the pick could become a third if Judon makes first-team all-pro. So I say the Ravens are scheduled to have seven picks in that pick span.
In each of the last four drafts, the Ravens, in rounds three through five, have had six picks. Ben Roethlisberger, quarterback, Pittsburgh. In overtime, after a Baltimore punt, Roethlisberger needed to get the Steelers into field-goal position for the reliable Chris Boswell.
Steelers win, Big Ben will have one more shot at the playoffs, and it has to feel so sweet. Rashad Penny, running back, Seattle. Once consigned to the first-round-bust bin, Penny has re-made his career late in this Seahawk season. Trevor Lawrence, quarterback, Jacksonville. Biggest win of his young career, knocking the Colts out of the playoffs Sunday, and also the biggest throw of his young career to clinch it.
Lawrence leapt to corral it and immediately was under pressure by two Colts rushers. He sprinted right and threw to the back of the end zone. Marvin Jones Jr. Beautiful recovery, great throw. The Jacksonville Jaguars lead ! That made it with 18 minutes left, and the game was out of reach.
Going 23 of 32 for yards with two touchdowns and no picks is an excellent way to enter the offseason for a player who struggled a lot as a rookie. Jerick McKinnon , running back, Kansas City. On Saturday in Denver, he produced only 50 rushing-receiving yards, but they came at vital times for a KC team running out of weaponry at Denver. With a four-point lead and desperate to bleed the clock inside of five minutes left, Mahomes went to McKinnon four straight times, causing Denver to burn its last two timeouts and contributing to Mahomes kneeling for the last three snaps of the game.
McKinnon could be a valuable piece in the playoffs for a beat-up skill group in Kansas City. Maxx Crosby , edge rusher, Las Vegas. He had two sacks of Justin Herbert, six pressure or QB hits, six tackles and three passes defensed. Arik Armstead , defensive lineman, San Francisco.
After securing 1. And in that overtime, the Niners went on a drive to start it, kicking a field goal to win this vital game, Armstead added seven tackles, two behind the line. Watt , pass rusher, Pittsburgh. It gave Watt Strahan played all 16 games in the season he set the mark. Cam Lewis , cornerback, Buffalo. How sweet must it have been for Lewis, who played college ball a few miles away for the Buffalo Bulls, to smother a punt in the AFC East-clinching game for the Buffalo Bills?
Lewis broke through the line to smother a Jets punt in the first quarter, and it was recovered by his teammate Jaquan Johnson at the New York Kyle Shanahan, head coach, San Francisco. Juggling quarterbacks for nine months. Knowing the risk of trading three prime picks for a green North Dakota State quarterback would all fall on his shoulders if Trey Lance failed. Starting , knowing his job was shaky if he finished out of the playoffs for a fourth year out of five running the Niners.
Having must wins in Week 10 and Week 18 against the division champ Rams and winning both. Gutting out a crazy win at Cincinnati against the suddenly great Joe Burrow. Finish in the toughest division in football, living to fight another day in the NFC playoffs.
Carson Wentz, quarterback, Indianapolis. The Colts traded the farm and made a big-money investment in Wentz in the offseason to capture win-and-in games against bad teams like Jacksonville. Now, after a horrendous and embarrassing performance against the Jags, Wentz will be questioned for the next eight months. Is he good enough to lead a team deep into the playoffs?
The worst for him came in the third quarter in Jacksonville. Down with to go, Wentz was strip-sacked, leading to a Jags field goal; Jacksonville, Wentz was 0-for-3 on the next series, and on the next one, his first pass was underthrown and picked by linebacker Damien Wilson. Soon it was Jags, and this one was out of reach. In his biggest game as a Colt, Wentz came up so small. And needing one win in the last two weeks to get the Colts to the playoffs, he lost to the Raiders at home and the Jags on the road.
No wonder the Colts were so crestfallen after this game. Wentz came to Indianapolis to solve the quarterback problem. Jags won, , knocking Wentz and Indy out of the playoffs. Evans was a limited participant in practice on Wednesday because of a hamstring injury, but Has the Mara family started to figure it out?
Chris Simms joins Brother from Another to discuss the dysfunctional New York Giants and whether he believes the Mara family is part of the problem. Johnathan Hankins only Raiders player questionable for Saturday. The Raiders have a relatively clean injury report as they get ready to play the Bengals to open the Wild Card round on Saturday. New England has listed 13 players as questionable to The receiver was previously thought to be out for the rest of the season after suffering a The Bengals are healthy heading into their wild-card playoff game against the Raiders.
Only three players have designations for Saturday. Defensive tackle Josh Tupou knee is doubtful. Tupou played Texans fire HC Culley after one season. Champ Kelly interviewing for Bears G. The Bears have added an in-house name to the list of candidates for their General Manager opening. By all appearances, David Culley was hired to be fired. Why did the Texans fire David Culley after one year? The better question is why did they ever hire him? It appears that Culley was hired to be fired.
Given that the franchise was in shambles upon the Glazer: Harbaugh 'preparing' for NFL opportunity. Kremer: Pressure is on McCarthy to win in playoffs. Andrea Kremer joins the Dan Patrick Show to discuss how much pressure Mike McCarthy is ahead of the playoffs, if Trey Lance can contribute for the San Francisco 49ers, the worst weather she's reported in, Wild Card preview: 49ers vs.
A second Colts assistant coach is on the list of candidates for the Panthers offensive coordinator position.
Albert Breer of SI. Joe Montana documentary has landed on Peacock. Streaming on Peacock is a documentary that looks back Giants complete interview with Cardinals executive Quentin Harris. That is the game that made Reid realize he needed a difference maker at qb. Your welcome chiefs. Maybe the Chiefs could get spooked into falling to the Steelers if the game was in Pittsburgh. But this game is in KC, the Chiefs are a lot better than the Steelers, and Roethlisberger is really not good enough to make the difference his team would need to achieve an upset.
Anything is possible, but the Steelers winning is very improbable. I love my Steelers but they are a very flawed team. They honestly have no business in the playoffs. The argument will rage on. Mahomes was on the sideline in KC in a regular season game watching Alex Smith throw dinkers against the Steelers with receivers wide open.
In Mahomes third game as a starter he threw for six TDs against the Steelers. As a Ravens fan I actually would not mind seeing Ben and the Steelers somehow pull this out, but the football fan in me looks objectively at this game and concludes — no way.
KC 31 Steelers Steelers pull the upset. See below for additional information on how to watch the game. The Seahawks fell to the LA Rams at home last Thursday night where starting QB Russell Wilson sustained two injuries to his right middle finger : an extensor tendon rupture mallet finger and a comminuted fracture-dislocation of the proximal interphalangeal joint.
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