INTRO + The Monday Minute - 1/4/21

"As he approaches the podium, I am proud to introduce... The Commish".
*The hateful crowd including the Commish's family boo's*

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I'd like to officially welcome you to my blog, channel, platform. I have been typing out columns for fantasy football and NFL Mock Drafts for years off and on, but today is the first time I have committed myself to create some sort of NFL content. 

What you can expect to find at my channel is a variety of topical football content ranging from offseason roster transactions to in-depth fantasy analysis, self-deprecating jokes, and information that is atypical to your general hot take sports show. To start off, I hope to keep to a schedule of 3 articles a week. The Monday Minute which will be a review of the most important football news (in my opinion). Wednesday will be The Fantasy Segment where I will discuss anything from rankings during season, to draft strategy and NFL betting lines. Lastly, Free-day Friday where I will open the curtain to whatever I find especially interesting in the world of football with a more detailed approach.

Beyond these ideas, I am just a guy who is obsessed with football too much for my own good. I am by no means a writer or familiar with making consistent content, but I hope you can think of me as that work buddy you seek out for fantasy advice or your neighbor that you talk about the games with. Well now I am just wasting words, let's get into...

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THE MONDAY MINUTE

Before we dive into Week 17 and all the playoff matchups... let's talk for a minute about some of these college players who impressed this past week.

  • The Bama Boys: Count me as one of the former doubters of Devonta Smith. Something about Jaylen Waddle being out of the lineup since Week 5 and his lack of elite-ness in any one physical attribute made me skeptical. No more. He looks slow when he runs, YET he is constantly out-running defenders. It boggles my feeble mind. The thing that he does have that is elite is his hands are baseball mitts. And at this point, the production is just too much to ignore. As with all WRs, they can only succeed as much as their QBs and offenses succeed. But Devonta being reunited with his old-buddy Tua is a strong possibility for future success.

    Speaking of the possibility of being back with Tua, Najee Harris is RB1 for me and as much as the Dolphins will probably not want to take a RB in the 1st round, he is just too talented and does everything you want in a pro-style back. Mac Jones has a bounty of riches with Smith and Waddle, but when he gets tired from throwing for 300 yards, he just can toss one out to the flat where Najee will take it to the house every other time he touches the ball. 27 times to be exact just in 12 games. Showing up in the biggest games is what these 2 players do the best. I'm excited to see them play against the Buckeyes in the Natty.

  • The amount of offensive playmakers that this 2021 NFL Draft will feature is getting too many to list. We are seeing the best from guys we didn't know anything about this time last year, like Zach Wilson from BYU and Trey Sermon from OSU, that have dominated their bowl games. We have players that we haven't seen since 2019 like Ja'Maar Chase from LSU and Sage Surratt from Wake that already opted into the draft. I really like what I've seen from speedsters like Kadarius Toney from UF and Chris Olave from OSU. Don't forget about the big guys too! Kyle Pitts from UF is hardly a TE but will be successful in a Darren Waller like role in the pros and you also have Brevin Jordan from Miami and Pat Freirmuth from Penn St. That doesn't even include Etienne who has been super solid or risers like the duo of backs from UNC, Carter and Williams.

  • Last thing I want to mention from the college ranks... Steve Sarkisian was announced as the new head coach at Texas. He has left the Alabama OC position twice now, once for the Falcons OC job and now to go coach at possibly the most well-funded college football program in the nation. Texas hasn't been good for a long time, but he knows how to open up an offense for his backs and receivers. Texas isn't "back", but this is certainly an interesting hire.

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  • If you are like me, the end of week 17 of the NFL season is hardly a bad thing. The playoffs in the NFL are great and have left us with some fantastic finishes! The away teams normally are at such a distinct disadvantage. But with COVID still in full force and the strength of some away teams like Tampa, Indianapolis and Baltimore, how will they fare this year as they travel in January?

    The last time a team without a first-round bye (previously a top 2 seed) made the Super Bowl? The 2012-13 season when the Ravens and Joe Flacco beat Andrew Luck, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady in route to a lightless Super Bowl against the 49ers. With the 2020 season giving the 7th team in each conference a playoff berth, we are down to 1 first-round bye team per conference. The Chiefs are the favourites to lift the trophy, but we haven't seen a repeat champion since the 2003-04 Patriots. Let's hope the playoffs give us some parody in a season that has given us the very same.

  • Additionally, the NFL Draft's top 18 selections have been set in stone and while the Trevor Lawrence sweepstake is over, so many fans and franchises are hopeful that they can select the player that will lead them to the promised land. I will be including mock drafts on this platform when we get closer to the draft. Stay tuned for those. For a little bit of a teaser, at the very bottom of this article will be a top 10 mock draft.
  • Let's start off with a broad stroke of Week 17. In my honest opinion, the best teams ended up making the playoffs (Outside of Chicago and Washington, should just be 5 teams in the NFC.). This is more saying the Rams, Colts, Browns, and Ravens all deserved to make the dance and the Dolphins and Cardinals didn't. I don't mean to say I think all of those stated teams will win their games, but the way Miami and Arizona have been playing of late... they would've been rolled no matter their opponent.

  • As of this writing, I plan to discuss this topic more in-depth for my Friday article but... I saw a video from a press conference a few weeks ago from Jason Kelce, the Eagles Center. He illuminated the press to his opinion about how a team should operate and that is to put winning first no matter what. During Week 17, with multiple chances to win the game vs the WFT, Coach Pederson took Jalen Hurts out of the game. Carson Wentz was deemed inactive prior to the game and is reported that he will be asking for a trade. From the University of Indiana, please welcome to the entire nation (because NBC and the NFL have such a hard-on for the NFC East), Nate Sudfeld. Oh baby. As if the Philadelphia sports scene wasn't toxic enough. This specific case is so incredibly interesting and I also will touch on the over-arching debate of tanking in the NFL today in that article.

  • One thing that I noticed when watching the games on Sunday. Every team that NEEDED and GOT a playoff-clinching or scenario-clinching dub has a distinct formula, or thing that they can lean back on, when everything else fails. 
    Titans/Browns/Colts = Running Game
    Ravens = Running Game/Lamar running
    Packers/Seahawks = Elite Quarterback Play
    Rams = Defense
    Then you have teams right now that are on the outside looking in that were competitive but something just seemed to be off about them. The Dolphins, Raiders, Cardinals... all of them had great streaks this year where everything seemed to be working. But all of them had questionable losses where you win that game and your season and confidence change dramatically. MIA lost to DEN. LV lost to ATL. AZ lost to DET/CAR. My point being, the teams that did enough to still be working towards the ultimate goal, they have that thing they can turn on at any point and just win. The teams on the outside couldn't turn it on when they needed it. I know the feeling gents.

  • MVP. Everyone has an opinion. And all of them are wrong. Except for mine :) I have actually flipped around my MVP a few times this year. For some reason, we all feel compelled to place our MVP votes every single week during the season starting in... Week 2? Really?

    Russ was the clear favorite during his tear the first 5 weeks of the year. Mahomes was then my choice from then to Week 15, when I started realizing what I was watching Aaron Rodgers do. Discount double-check is my MVP. I take nothing of the narrative that the Packers over-performed last year and this year. This team is good, and Rodgers makes them Super Bowl caliber. Oh, and now the NFC runs through Lambeau. Good luck NFC. Mahomes is my #2 vote and Derrick Henry, as much as I (not personally) hate him, is my #3.

  • Last but not least, the other postseason awards: 
    Offensive Player of the Year: 1. Travis Kelce, TE KC 2. Derrick Henry, RB TEN (Kelce probably would have 3k receiving yards if the Chiefs played 4 quarters every game)
    Defensive Player of the Year: 1. Xavien Howard, CB MIA 2. TJ Watt, LB PIT (Am I biased? 100%. But he had a better year in 2020 than Gilmore had in 2019... js. 10 interceptions, most by any player in a single season since 2007.) 
    Offensive Rookie: 1. Justin Jefferson, WR MIN 2. Justin Herbert, QB LAC (My only justification is Herbert got 5 wins and because his team was so bad he got more layups. Wins are not a QB stat, I was just setting my argument up. Also, Jefferson broke the rookie record for receiving yards.)
    Defensive Rookie: 1. Chase Young, Edge WFT 2. Jeremy Chinn, LB/S CAR (This one is a formality. But Chinn being great this year is super sad because I loved him during the draft process.)
    Coach of the Year: 1. Matt Lafleur, Green Bay Packers 2. Sean McDermott, Buffalo Bills (If the Dolphins got the 5 seed, I think Flores wins it because of the way he navigated the QB situation. However, the winner of this award almost always go to a top 4 team in the regular season that beat expectations. Both coaches did that this year with matching 13-3 records.)
    Executive of the Year: 1. Chris Grier, Miami Dolphins 2. Brandon Beane, Buffalo Bills (I think BUF will take one of these. Just not sure which. The reason I have Chris in is because of not only the dramatic overhaul of the roster from 2019-->2020 but also the war chest of picks we have for this upcoming draft from that Tunsil trade.)

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If you have anything you think should have been including in the Monday Minute or would like to tell me how much of a nerd I am, let me know in the comments or at @KyleTheCommish on Twitter.

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Secret Top 10 Mock Draft

Thanks for reading to the end!
  1. Jacksonville Jaguars - Trevor Lawrence, QB Clemson
  2. New York Jets - Zach Wilson, QB BYU
  3. Miami Dolphins - Devonta Smith, WR Alabama
  4. Atlanta Falcons - Justin Fields, QB Ohio St
  5. Cincinnati Bengals - Penei Sewell, OT Oregon
  6. Philadelphia Eagles - Micah Parsons, LB Penn St
  7. Detroit Lions - Ja'Marr Chase, WR LSU
  8. Carolina Panthers - Caleb Farley, CB Virginia Tech
  9. Denver Broncos - Trey Lance, QB North Dakota St
  10. Dallas Cowboys - Patrick Surtain, CB Alabama

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