V's Rabbit Hole

I read a Tweet yesterday that's been stuck in my head since: Joe Burrow is the same sort of quarterback as Ryan Tannehill and Tony Romo. This hit me in a weird way. Primarily because I couldn't shake that it's an observation that's true on its face – maybe even a little bit obvious. Ryan Tannehill is a quarterback I have watched and thought about a lot. I've seen every one of this throws with Miami – some of them five to ten times. I originally started writing about football several years ago to answer the question of why he wasn't considered among the top ten quarterbacks in the League. I am routinely surprised that he's still misunderstood – he and the Titans, now. I didn't watch enough Tony Romo to have drawn the comparison myself, but that's not really the point. It's definitely not what I want to talk about. I responded that if the comparison is right – because I thought and think it might be – then Burrow is the best possible version of...

  Okay, so I chose the wrong season to “figure out” the NFL. But I'm not the only person feeling this way. That should encourage me that this thing I'm doing has some value. For the past decade, I've listened to people talk about how the NFL is a superior product to other sports leagues because the regular season is engaging and matters. I'm not here to evaluate that statement – though I am willing to agree with its face. It hasn't really been true – the Patriots were in half of the Super Bowls in that span, and last year's Buccaneers were lucky to make the Playoffs at all – and wouldn't have without more than a little help from the zebras – but it is descriptive. If nothing else, it describes the ideal of the NFL season: every team “in the conversation” entering the final stretch of the season. In this case, the last five weeks. The 2021 season is, through 13 weeks, the most NFL season ever, I think. With a little Christmas magic, the Lions could still b...

  The Dolphins looked good. I didn't get to watch that game live. I watched the Condensced version later. They didn't look great. But they looked like a team making progress. The defense looked great. I know it's Mike Glennon, but Saquon Barkley can take over a game; that's a thing. It wasn't so much the score, though. It was the way players on every level of the defense made plays. It was Xavien Howard with an interception, Jaelan Phillips with back to back sacks; it was Van Ginkel making plays in the backfield and Jevon Holland being a nightmare. The offense didn't look good except for four drives. Fits and spurts, you might say. But I'm proud of them. The got the job done in the end, and that's what we're looking for if what we're looking for is marked progress each week from the rookie quarterback and his largely developmental cast of pass catchers. DeVante Parker has officially annoyed me, though. He had maybe six wow catches on Sunday a...

  Week 13 Game Power Rankings, Previews, and Predix #13 Arizona Cardinals (9-2) @ Chicago Bears (4-7) This doesn't feel fair to either of these teams. But somebody had to come in last place – and in the words of Ricky Bobby's dad, if you aren't first, you're last anyway. So what does it really matter who actually comes in last? What does it really matter that I do this at all? Dunno. Doing it anyway. The Cardinals feel like they have completely disappeared since losing to the Packers. Part of that has been that Kyler Murray and DeAndre Hopkins haven't been playing and they were on bye last week, but it's something else, too. I think it's that I don't trust them to finish the season strong. They came real close at one point to losing Jacksonville, this season. I know that Murray is back, but I also know that this is a team under Kingsbury and with Murray who have faltered down the stretch. I am absolutely not predicting a Bears victo...