Bryan Knowles's Articles

More analysis of NFL awards for 2024, looking at Rookie of the Year, Comeback Player of the Year, and who will win the Super Bowl in New Orleans.

Bryan and Cale take a look at the most likely award winners for 2024: the best bets, the strong longshots, and the best values.

Is anybody going to challenge the Chiefs in the AFC West? No, but you can still bet on the over/unders for those other teams!

The AFC South is now an exciting division where all four teams have a quarterback on a rookie contract. Can the other three teams stop the Houston Texans?

Who will win the NFL's most lauded division? Can the Ravens dominate again, are the Bengals back, or is it all about the Browns defense?

Can the Dolphins get past the Bills? Will the Jets finally put up the big season with Aaron Rodgers? How bad are the Patriots?

Can anyone catch the 49ers in the NFC West, or even the whole NFC? Are the Rams and Seahawks going to go over or under their season win totals?

Could the Saints be the NFC South favorites? Could the Bucs repeat? Or is it time for the Falcons and new QB Kirk Cousins?

Can the Packers carry over last year's late success? Are the Lions really Super Bowl contenders? Plus the Bears and Vikings.

Are the Eagles properly the favorite in the NFC East? Are the Commanders on the rise? Plus, Cowboys and Giants.

Looking at how QBs did throwing wide vs. to the slot in 2023. Was Patrick Mahomes' "off year" entirely based on screens and quick outs?

Taking a look at which WR succeeded in the slot vs. out wide in 2023. Amon-Ra St. Brown and CeeDee Lamb may surprise you!

Taking a look at which receivers had the most YAC over expectation in 2023, a stat where the 49ers always do very well.

Looking at the most efficient receivers in 2023: CeeDee Lamb, Brandon Aiyuk, and... Evan Engram?

Can we learn something from how often offensive pressure is caused by a blown block? The Arizona offensive line says yes.

We know the Vikings blitzed more than anyone else in 2023. Were they good at it?

Jared Goff had great numbers in 2023, but not when he was under pressure. We look at all the QBs.

A stat where Brock Purdy was great and Patrick Mahomes was poor? It also wasn't a great year for Bryce Young or Derek Carr when it came to complete passes that still were unsuccessful plays.

Are teams trying to get smaller at defensive back? Plus more defensive numbers from 2023.

Shanahan and McVay influenced coaches like their teams smaller, while the Ravens go big.

What does it mean that analytics did such a bad job of projecting Josh Allen and the other quarterbacks of 2018? We look at the whole draft with the advantage of time.

As if it wasn’t enough for the Kansas City Chiefs to be the dynasty perched atop the league, they have the sheer temerity to be one of the league’s youngest teams while doing so? For shame. While the 2023 Chiefs were slightly older than the 2022 version, they still ranked just 25th in snap-weighted age […]

The very top of the Speed Score leaderboards is some rarified air. Since electronic timing started at the combine in 1999, only 11 running backs have hit 120 or higher; a number usually reserved more for track stars than NFL stars. We hadn’t had anyone join the club since Jonathan Taylor ran a 4.39 back […]

The Kansas City Chiefs were already a dynasty. But now they’re a Dynasty, capital-D, all rights reserved. After the NFL’s 100th season in 2019, I went back on our old website and attempted to systematically rank every dynasty in the history of the league, casting a wide net to attempt to catch any sustained period […]

In 2004, the original Scramble for the Ball writers, Ian Dembsky and Al Bogdan, wrote the first Prop Bet Extravaganza at our old website, previewing the upcoming Patriots-Panthers Super Bowl. Twenty years later, the betting landscape has slightly changed. Twenty years ago, actually betting on these things was a bit more challenging. Unless you lived […]

Oh, did you think you’d be safe, just because of a little thing like an entire website shutting down? It takes more than that to stop the Woodchoppers from finding you. The All-Keep Choppin’ Wood Team is our annual attempt to sift through the debris of the season that was, pulling out the prime examples […]

One game more. For the Detroit Lions, this has been a season for wiping out droughts. They entered the year with the longest playoff losing streak, both in terms of games lost (9) and number of seasons since their last win (32); they took care of that against the Rams two weeks ago. They entered […]

Losing in the playoffs is never fun. But really, it had to be them? If this year’s postseason feels somewhat familiar, there’s a reason for that. There have been 39 instances in NFL history of one team having at least a three-game postseason win streak over an opponent – not necessarily in consecutive years, but […]

On Sunday, the Green Bay Packers beat the Dallas Cowboys, becoming the first seventh seed to win a playoff game in NFL history. No, that’s not right. The Packers didn’t beat the Cowboys – they annihilated them. Jordan Love and the Packers put up a passing DVOA of 189.9%, the best in Green Bay franchise […]

Lamar Jackson is a one-time MVP, looking like he’s going to be a two-time MVP in a couple of weeks. He is a regular feature in the Pro Bowl when healthy, and by any measurement or consideration is one of the best quarterbacks in football today. He is at the helm of the fifth-best team […]

This is not supposed to be happening right now. At this point last year, the Houston Texans were fighting for the top pick in the draft – a battle they lost. They were forced to settle for second-choice quarterback C.J. Stroud. A new head coach in his first time in the job, an offensive coordinator […]

It’s time once again, boys and girls – time for the annual Joe Thomas Draft! My favorite time of the year, by far. We started the Joe Thomas Draft on our old website in memory of Thomas’ long, fruitless career; one of the best to ever play the game toiling away in the Factory of […]