Playcalling sequence and script is a huge part of it. You watch the Eagles for instance just hammer people with the same concepts that have been shown to be working and that’s very distinctive.

The personnel you lean on, heavy or light, can vary even when you run the “same” play concepts. Some teams (Rams) run outside zone from 11, others do a lot of outside zone from 21 (Vikings, 49ers, Dolphins), some will really only run it out of 12 or 13.

And even if a run concept/passing pattern is in like 80% of playbooks that doesn’t mean everybody’s running it the same amount.

To me it’s gotta be Garrett if not a QB, which it will be.

I believe awards should tell the story of the season, this is the season that defenses bit back and nobody proves that more than Garrett and the Browns. But instead it’s gonna go to Hurts or Mahomes or Lamar who are having what will probably go down as career average (if that) years

Honestly this makes sense. The calls to go to Heinicke were a classic example of the backup QB always being the most popular guy in town, he was really equally awful. Ridder’s not gonna make your chances of winning any worse, he’s had the best game a Falcons QB had this season by far, he’s a better runner, and you might as well see what you have in him before next season

Great stuff! Love to see this kind of work being done in-season

Rookies have to be exempt from this award or it gets way too knotty

They shouldn’t advertise a game on their network between the last two Super Bowl participants and the current consensus best teams in the league?

I think it should be noted that offenses league wide have seen a massive spike in rushing production relative to the rest of their offensive production, largely because over the last few years there was a proliferation of two high shells on defense that took away explosive plays and opened up the run game and blah blah blah

This though even took a step back this year, lots of teams moved away from that Fangio style of defense because they were fed up from being punched in the mouth every game and moved to aggressive DCs, and have seen massive improvements (Schwartz and Flores chief among them). Rushing has actually gone back down after a several year increase (last season it was as high as it’s been in like 35 years), along with everything else.

Really, this season is gonna be remembered to me as the year defenses caught up. I don’t think this is an aberration, I think the NFL is going to be much different and more dynamic on both sides of the ball from this point in with the rise of analytics and a younger breed of coaches

Yeah Lawrence definitely deserves to be in there, over Williams and Jones at least

Lost in the shuffle of this horrible game, I think I was sorta impressed by Chicago’s defense? Considering the offense was allergic to staying on the field the Bears defense held up, even for a game against the Panthers. Sweat has been a bit of a shot in the arm, Brisker and Stevenson had some nice moments, Andrew Billings has made himself some money this year.

Really hope we can see Fields soon, would be nice if Chicago would actually let their QB throw downfield and he was looking pretty fun in the two games before the injury

This season feels like the AFC North in its most distilled form. Just physicality and defense and competitiveness across the board

I think Sam is completely hilarious, the perfect cocktail of things to generate fun discussion. He looks equal parts awesome, terrible, raw and promising. And right when you think you have him figured out, next week he fucks up your whole conception of him. It rules

He’s definitely fun to watch, whether he plays good or bad. I do think that if they’d have to extend themselves to get another QB he’s definitely shown enough to roll with for another year, assuming he doesn’t totally collapse from this point on

Can we get ANOTHER Steelers fan pissed that Garrett is leading the DPOY race?? Two just isn’t enough!

Yeah there’s no denying it wouldn’t be the world’s most impressive MVP. But I think it might be time that we give up on some historic MVP year from anybody

Well, they probably will have the record. They’re the overwhelming favorite in terms of DVOA which is likely to translate to a good end of season record. Wouldn’t be shocked in the slightest if they ended the year as the consensus best team in the league. And there’s no argument that he’s not the best player on the team

And, as evidenced by his 2019 season where he barely had over 3,000 passing yards, the volume passing starts aren’t a prerequisite to winning MVP