Guest

Patrick Mahomes signed a new contract this offseason that blew away prior standards for salary and length. Guest columnist Jeremy Rosen examines quarterback salaries and asks if it makes sense to devote such a massive chunk of the salary cap to one position, or whether teams would be better off going cheap at the position.

Thanks in large part to the selection of Oklahoma wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, the Dallas Cowboys were the darlings of the 2020 draft, but will their players prove to be successful? Guest columnist Benjamin Robinson looks back at five years of draft grades to see if they have any value. Do teams with higher grades end up with better players? And are some media members better than others at evaluating each team's haul?

Offenses that pass the ball well are usually good at rushing the ball well too. The relationship is pretty clear, but the reasons are not fully explained. Guest columnist Lau Sze Yui explores a few hypotheses and suggests that offensive linemen are the driving force behind both.

DVOA can tell us how each team performed compared to an average squad, but guest columnist Matt Bittle breaks down the standard deviation of each year to see who really stood out from the pack.

Well, not quite Three True Outcomes, but the closest thing we've got in football. Guest columnist Matt Weston explains why the touchdown, the interception, and the sack are the Three True Outcomes of football, and puts Jameis Winston's historic season into perspective.

Guest columnist Ajit Kirpekar looks at the Saints' pressure rate with Drew Brees and Teddy Bridgewater, the effects of the Laremy Tunsil trade on Miami and Houston, and the opponent adjustments for the New England defense that might not be as strong as you'd expect.

Guest columnist Benjamin Ellinger breaks down every draft pick in the past 10 years. Did Cleveland's tanking policy pay off? Which teams had the best results in the draft, and which wasted their picks? And is there anything meaningful in this data, or is there really some skill involved? The answer to that question might surprise you.

No, your eyes were not deceiving you: even as a rookie, Kyler Murray was the league's most accurate passer on deep balls. Guest columnist John Kinsley pores through the splits to examine deep balls by direction, out of shotgun, under pressure, and in other situations.

In many ways, NFL coaches are more aggressive than they used to be. Going into halftime, though, they still frequently run out the clock when they should be trying to score -- unless, of course, the backup quarterback is in the game.

What makes a good run a good run? Guest columnist Caio Brighenti uses visualized data to show that more often than not, it has more to do with the blocking at the point of attack than with who is carrying the ball.