VINCENT VERHEI has been a writer and editor for Football Outsiders since 2007. In addition to writing for Football Outsiders Almanac 2019, he did all layout and design on the book. During the season, he writes the “Quick Reads” column covering the best and worst players of each week according to Football Outsiders metrics. His writings have also appeared in ESPN The Magazine and in Maple Street Press publications, and he has done layout on a number of other books for Football Outsiders and Prospectus Entertainment Ventures. His other night job is as a writer and podcast host for pro wrestling/MMA website f4wonline.com. He is a graduate of Western Washington University.
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Our route-by-route look at passing statistics shows the brilliance of Drew Brees, the strengths and weaknesses of Kirk Cousins, the few holes in Patrick Mahomes' game, and -- as always -- lots and lots of talk about Jameis Winston.
Our look at receivers on specific routes reveals some surprises. Michael Thomas was not great at everything. Teams are calling more in-breaking routes such as digs and drags. And two routes look to be dying out: the wide receiver screen (hooray!) and the go/fly (boo!)
Five years ago, former Detroit Lions quarterback Erik Kramer attempted to take his own life. Though he survived the incident, he was left with severe brain damage that left him vulnerable to an ex-wife who he claims victimized him in a scheme that ultimately cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars. He tells his story to Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports in hopes that others suffering mental illness (including many of his former colleagues in the NFL) will seek the help they need.
The 2019 season in a nutshell: the Lions didn't blitz anybody, the Buccaneers blitzed everybody, and the Ravens really loved to use blitzes out of the secondary.
The New England Patriots and San Francisco 49ers had the best defenses in 2019, and as you might expect, pass pressure played a big role in the success of both teams ... but for very different reasons. The Dolphins, meanwhile, were bad.
Eric D. Williams, who covers the Los Angeles Rams for Sports Illustrated, had five questions about our chapter covering the team in Football Outsiders Almanac 2020.
Laurent Duvernay-Tardif is a starting guard for the Kansas City Chiefs and a Super Bowl champion. He's also a doctor who has spent his offseason fighting COVID-19 in his hometown of Montreal, and because of that experience he has decided to opt out of the 2020 NFL season. (Updated.)
The NFL has formally suspended free agent wide receiver Antonio Brown for the first eight games of the 2020 season.
What's the one thing Andy Dalton did better than anyone else last year? What made Lamar Jackson (and, for entirely different reasons, Dwayne Haskins) so special? How are quarterbacks in the NFL changing? And why are these results getting harder and harder to predict?
Despite having one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL in Russell Wilson, the Seattle Seahawks have not been to their conference championship game in half a decade. We look back at 35 years of DYAR history in search of Drew Brees and other quarterbacks who played so well with so few victories in the postseason.
