RIVERS McCOWN has written for ESPN.com, Bleacher Re- port, USA Today, and Deadspin, among other places. He’s edited for Football Outsiders, Rookie Scouting Portfolio, and Pre-Snap Reads Quarterback Catalogue. He lives in Houston, Texas, with his wife, under the control of two cats and two birds. He wants more jobs, and if you don’t give them to him, he’ll be forced to keep speedrunning video games and helping design randomizer hacks for them.
Here's our annual under-the-radar Top 25 Prospects list from Football Outsiders Almanac 2021, also running on ESPN+ this weekend. These are the top young prospects who were not chosen in the first or second rounds and haven't gotten a ton of playing time yet.
Offense is the order of the day in this division. The Texans need running backs, the Jaguars need tight ends, and the Titans need receivers. As for the Colts, they'd better have a backup plan in case Carson Wentz really is toast.
The Jaguars and Titans need to add names on defense. The Colts have already added a name at quarterback, but they should keep adding names until they find the answer. As for the Texans, they need to get rid of the name at the very top of their organization.
Patrick Mahomes is shooting for his second straight Super Bowl title. The biggest remaining Cinderella, Cleveland, will be standing in his way. On the other side of the bracket, Baltimore and Buffalo present a excellent matchup of two well-rounded teams that have peaked in recent weeks.
We've got two teams where the fan bases are hungry for some kind of postseason victory after many years in the wilderness. We've got two aging quarterbacks from the Class of 2004, trying to make one last run at Super Bowl glory. And we've got the closest matchup of the wild-card round, a rematch of both a regular-season game and a big upset from last year's playoffs.
The Jets have ... uh, Quinnen Williams, we guess. Jared Goff and the Rams got thrown into a third-and-long meat grinder.
The Taysom Hill project takes a detour that was largely expected, while Jalen Hurts' first start showed a quarterback who can use his legs and win late in the down.
The Giants have turned around their rushing attack, while the Seahawks have ordered DoorDash instead of letting Russ cook.
Derek Carr's old bugaboo comes in to play, and the Falcons make yet another late-season defensive run when it no longer matters.
The Tua bandwagon wheels off to the side of the road, while the Broncos have a decision to make on their star safety.
