One of the worst situations that any coach can find themselves in, is being “the man after THE MAN.” The instances in which the successor can come even close to filling the shoes of his or her predecessor is extremely rare.

Just think about it. Gene Bartow didn’t even last three seasons after taking over as coach for the UCLA men’s basketball team after John Wooden. Phil Bengtson lasted three seasons, with winning seasons in only one of them, after taking over as head coach of the Green Bay Packers after Vince Lombardi. Ask Chicago sports fans old enough to…

Before we officially kick off the 2021 NFL season, let’s quickly jump in the National Football League time machine and take the “short” trip back to 2016. Of course, I put quotation marks around the word “short” because five years in the NFL feels closer to five decades in real life; talking about what happened during the 2016 regular season feels like you’re harkening back to the days of the war in Vietnam.

For those who can recall, right around this time five years ago:

• Tom Brady was still in search of his (eventual) fifth, sixth, and seventh Super Bowl…

With the advent of the 2021 NFL season upon us, allow me to begin the process of emptying my brain of the unhealthily-excessive volume of football pontifications that constantly buzz around in my brain, in the following format for your reading pleasure:

• Super Bowl LVI Prediction
• Over/Under Win Totals On Which I’d (Hypothetically) Bet The Mortgage
• Postseason Award Predictions
• A Favorite for “First Coach Fired”
• The Team With The Worst Record At Season’s End

Away we go…

Super Bowl LVI Prediction

Since we’re coming of the recent summer Olympics in Tokyo just a handful of weeks ago, to borrow an Olympiad-based metaphor: the hypothetical “medal stand” for the title of the best player at the tight position in the NFL would almost certainly be comprised of Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs, George Kittle of the San Francisco 49ers, and Darren Waller of the Las Vegas Raiders. Which player gets which ‘medal,’ I’ll leave up to you to decide.

But with all due respect to the Mark Andrews’ or TJ Hockenson’s (or even Kyle Pitts’) of the world, the player…

Before the inevitable onslaught of football fans from the southeastern portion of the United States over-react to the headline of this column and immediately descend into the comments section to inform me that “I’m nothing but a hater” and “I wouldn’t know anything since I never played professional football,” let me start off by saying that less than three months ago, I described tight end and future top-5 NFL Draft pick Kyle Pitts thusly:

“the living manifestation of what every NFL Defensive Coordinator fears regarding the evolution of the modern tight end.”

“the size and strength of a tight end…

For fans of the Washington Wizards, few situations are more terrifying than finding out the team made a flurry of player transactions in a short period of time (or any period of time, for that matter). You can conduct a horrifying list of blunders this team has made that’s equally as horrifying if it’s listed alphabetically as it would be if listed chronologically.

So you’ll have to excuse this moment of rare enthusiasm and joy that fans of this team, like myself, are able to enjoy, as a result of their work on the day of the 2021 NBA Draft.

…

With the first day/evening of the 2021 NFL Draft officially in the books, there is both plenty of intrigue left, in terms of how teams will use the Draft to improve their teams through the end of the weekend, and plenty of good players to choose from in order to do so.

So as the title implies, here’s a down-and-dirty look at one person’s take on how things could shake out in Round 2 of the Draft.

33. Jacksonville — Christian Barmore, DT, Alabama
34. NY Jets — Aaron Robinson, CB, Central Florida
35. Atlanta — Azeez Ojulari, OLB, Georgia
36. Miami (from…

Let’s keep this short and simple, because you’re (hopefully) not here to have me complain about how much I hate Mock Drafts… even though THIS is the lone time of year you should actually pay attention to them.

Before diving in to the third edition of my 2021 NFL Mock Draft(s), a refresher on the ground rules:

• This is my prediction of what I think each team will do — barring any trades — as opposed to what I think a particular team should do. …