Quarterback
Story Stream
The Art of the NFL Checkdown November 01, 2024
Patrick Mahomes threw 51 checkdowns over his first three seasons as an NFL starter. Over the next three, from 2021 through 2023, the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback attempted 122, per Pro Football Focus. So if it feels like watching Mahomes now isn’t ...
Why Has the NFL’s Explosive Passing Game Disappeared? September 30, 2024
I envy the NFL fans who consume the majority of their football via the NFL RedZone channel this season. Scott Hanson spoon-feeds the best of the league’s play-by-play action to fans this way, all while projecting one of my favorite misconceptions abo...
Why Are All the Quarterbacks Bad Now? September 17, 2024
So I have a stupidly simple theory on why quarterback play has glaringly declined in recent years. Patrick Mahomes, the league’s best quarterback, is an illustrative example. Few would dispute he’s still great, and at age 28, he’s theoretically squar...
Can Anyone Catch Lamar Jackson? September 10, 2024
There is an awestruck, almost mythical way that folks discuss Lamar Jackson. Teammates, coaches, and fans talk about the Baltimore Ravens’ incandescent 27-year-old quarterback like he’s the football version of Paul Bunyan, if Bunyan ran the 40-yard d...
Caleb Williams Is the Chicago Bears’ Necessity September 04, 2024
The stories originate from everywhere, from one shining sea to the other. Local SoCal legend, for example, says that there once was this USC quarterback who threw for so many touchdowns in one game—in one half!—that a cheerleading Trojan horse who ga...
The NFL Has a Different Kind of Gambling Problem Now April 30, 2024
The NFL’s universal truth is that winning the Super Bowl demands otherworldly quarterback play. In the old days of roughly five or 10 years ago, merely “very good” quarterbacking might have done the job. But now Patrick Mahomes exists. The best team ...
The 2024 NFL Quarterback Commitment Index February 23, 2024
Finding a quarterback in the NFL feels impossible for the same reason dating is so hard these days: NFL quarterbacks are men, and a lot of men are trash.Not all men, of course. The Chiefs have Patrick Mahomes. The Bills have Josh Allen. The Texans ju...
How the Chiefs Became the Last Great American Dynasty February 14, 2024
Did you really think that the Kansas City Chiefs were not going to win the Super Bowl? It’s true that they struggled offensively this season, and entered the playoffs as a wild card, forcing them to compete in an extra game while the San Francisco 49...
Patrick Mahomes Is My GOAT February 13, 2024
As Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes scrambled for the first down with 2:05 remaining in overtime in the Super Bowl on Sunday, it hit me like a thunderclap: Patrick Mahomes is the greatest quarterback of all time....
On Matthew Coller’s “Football Is a Numbers Game” February 05, 2024
IN THE FALL of 2022, some friends and I took the PATH train from Manhattan out to MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, to see the New York Jets host my beloved Buffalo Bills. The idea was that seeing it live would fill in some details that...
NFC is Way Better for Quarterbacks January 16, 2024
America’s foremost NFL writer checking in, with dumb epiphanies only an insider’s outsider can provide. Weather has taken center stage early in these playoffs, due to sub zero temperatures in the Kansas City game and conditions horrible enough to pos...
The Legacy of This Michigan Season Will Live On Forever January 10, 2024
This season was Michigan versus everybody, and everybody lost.On Monday, Michigan beat Washington 34-13 to win the program’s first national championship in 26 years. The score was close until midway through the fourth quarter, but the game never felt...
College Football's Death March January 09, 2024
As a kid, I remember thinking it was pathetic. Why did diehard sports fans stick with their teams through thick and thin, despite years of disappointment and grief? Those grizzled, grim-faced Cubs or Red Sox fans tugged at my heartstrings a bit, but ...
Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit Forged the Sweetest Bromance January 01, 2024
When Kirk Herbstreit auditioned for an ESPN show called College GameDay in 1996, the show had a limited track record, and Herbstreit had almost none. He had played quarterback for Ohio State, where he was good enough to start by his senior year in 19...
