Vincent Verhei's blog

Justis Mosqueda of Optimum Scouting looked at New England's roster and finds they have invested heavily in what he calls mid-level veterans -- players with at least five years of experience with cap hits ranging from $1 million to $6 million per season. The Patriots have 19 such players, most of any playoff team, nearly double the average of the 12 teams in the postseason, and nearly four times as many as their opponents in the Super Bowl, the L.A. Rams.

Our analysis of the Patriots' worst games in 2018 makes one thing clear for the Rams: beat New England early, or you're not likely to beat them at all.

Steve Fainaru and Mark Fainaru-Wada at ESPN.com have looked at a growing threat to all levels of football: many insurance companies have stopped offering coverage for the sport, from the NFL on down to Pop Warner leagues.

"People say football will never go away, but if we can't get insurance, it will." -- Jon Butler, Pop Warner's executive director.

The L.A. Rams are a great team, but they're not perfect. What weaknesses were exposed in their worst games this year, and how will New England be able to attack those flaws in the Super Bowl?

The Patriots' path to the Super Bowl was paved by a trio of running backs -- none of whom was particularly good when you account for the terrible quality of Kansas City's defense. Plus, updated weighted DVOA points to the closest Super Bowl matchup we've ever seen.

There were not a lot of close games this weekend, but a trio of running backs had notable performances -- two really good, one really bad.

Our look at the best passers, runners, and receivers of the wild-card games focuses on Marlon Mack, who did things to the Houston Texans defense that nobody else had done all year long.

Josh "Air Yards" Hermsmeyer wrote this piece for FiveThirtyEight showing that play-action passes do not lose their effectiveness the more often teams call them in a game. What's more interesting than the conclusion is Hermsmeyer's methodology -- using the NFL's Next Gen tracking data, he followed middle linebackers and tracked how far they moved in pursuit of running backs who they thought had the ball. It's cutting-edge analysis that looks not just at how play-action works, but why.

The most statistically notable players of 2018 included a trio of first-year starters at quarterback, a running back who is currently unemployed, and a receiver who was literally perfect.

Our look at the best players of Week 17 includes a quarterback you may have never heard of. Our look back at the year's most notable games includes several of the worst wide receiver games on record.