Time will tell who got the best haul of players in Kansas City from Thursday’s first round, but there were encouraging signs from Seattle, Houston and PhiladelphiaAfter months of rumor and speculation, Thursday night’s first round of the NFL draft featured less chaos than anticipated. There were few eyebrow-scorching picks and, instead, a steady stream of sensible selections.Let’s look at some of the winners from the opening night. Continue reading...
In the NFL’s biggest game, with the crowd roaring, the old master failed at the one play he needed to make while the underdog executed his to perfectionOne man is perhaps the greatest quarterback in NFL history. The other is a career fill-in – the player teams turn to when they need to play someone while they search for a better replacement.Nick Foles was supposed to be the worst quarterback Tom Brady had ever faced in the Super Bowl. The 29-year-old, only starting Super Bowl LII because of a season-ending injury to Philadelphia’s star quarterback Carson Wentz, was considered a minor impediment on Brady’s way to his sixth NFL championship. Related: Super Bowl: Philadelphia Eagles stun New England Patriots in...
The NFL is a quarterback-driven league but three of the four teams left standing this season don’t have superstars under centerEach April at the top of the NFL draft, teams grab at quarterbacks they envision leading them to glory. But none of the four quarterbacks remaining in the NFL playoffs took that textbook path to the conference title game. The Eagles, Vikings, Patriots and Jaguars each made it to the championship round without an early pick, “franchise QB” leading the way, not the way in which it’s supposed to be done. Jacksonville’s Blake Bortles was a first-round pick, sure. But in the four seasons from the time he was taken with the No3 overall pick in the 2014 draft to...
This has been a season of improbable storylines for Minnesota, and now they are one victory away from a Super Bowl in their own backyardIn 51 years of Super Bowls no team has ever played for football’s championship on their home field. The closest were the Los Angeles Rams, who in their previous run as tenants of the LA Coliseum, lost the 1980 Super Bowl in Pasadena’s Rose Bowl, 26 miles away.But throughout this improbable Minnesota Vikings season, the one that fell their way after rival quarterback Aaron Rodgers broke his collarbone, the Vikings have quietly eyed the Super Bowl that will be played on home turf. And in a season that has made no sense, where they had the...
It’s probably unfair to say this but Minnesota and Philadelphia simply don’t have the quarterbacks to make a convincing playoff runOver the last 42 years the regular season’s top teams have gone to the playoffs with an expectation of winning their first postseason game. They often don’t, of course, but the people who set sports betting lines have named the No1 seed as favorites every time in their playoff opener. Never have they wavered on this. Their faith in the higher seed has been automatic. But faith never met Nick Foles, the unfortunate replacement for Carson Wentz as the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback in these playoffs. For the first time since the NFL began using team records to set seeding the...