sara.ziegler (Sara Ziegler, sports editor): There’s only one week left in the NFL’s regular season, but so much is still up for grabs. Week 16 clarified a few things: The Chiefs nailed down the AFC’s first-round bye, the Buccaneers ended their postseason drought, and the Jaguars claimed the first pick in next year’s draft. But […]
If NFL analytics is a set of festive Russian nesting dolls, the final pea-sized matryoshka is defense. We’re actually pretty good at understanding offensive skill position players at this point. When a quarterback change is made on a team, our models and the betting markets move in response. No Patrick Mahomes? “That’s bad for Kansas […]
sara.ziegler (Sara Ziegler, sports editor): What a weekend in the NFL. Week 15 gave us an epic Saints-Chiefs matchup that could just be a Super Bowl preview, an entertaining tilt between former Oklahoma Sooners Jalen Hurts and Kyler Murray, and an AFC East title won by the Buffalo Bills for the first time since 1995. […]
Garrison Smith wasn’t expecting an athletic scholarship when he became a placekicker. As soon as he started booting a football, the Ohio high school senior realized he had a knack for it. A soccer transplant, Smith wanted to continue his athletic career in football but had already accepted that he wouldn’t be receiving a full […]
Last year’s Miami Dolphins didn’t just have the worst scoring defense in the NFL, they had one of the worst scoring defenses of the past 20 seasons. So it’s no wonder that until cornerback Xavien Howard snagged the Dolphins’ third interception of Patrick Mahomes on Sunday — and the attention of the football-watching world in […]