bingo415

Red-something. It was an IPgate alt of Hai.

TCU over Texas in 'The Upset'--still the most out-of-nowhere game on the site Penn State - Oklahoma NCG -- maybe the most competitive game ever, with certainly some of the best players ever

J.B., WE NEED YOU... Broncos Can't Run the Ball, Drop Second Straight Without Blacknall Sam Chapman scoots into the endzone for his touchdown in the Jets' dominant 3rd quarter on Sunday afternoon

I'm out of likes, but this would have gotten one...

I hear ya. Still leaving you at #7 for now. Gut feeling. Sorry.

Noted. I don't anticipate feeling bad about where I've got you...

With the help of Sr. Smackems, we present this week's Power Rankings (semi-regular) with some insight into who we think each team's Best Player and Biggest Surprise has been this season. Or, that's the case mostly. Sometimes I went rogue. Remember, if you don't like where you are in these rankings...play better. 1. Los Angeles Rams Best Player: Brandon Sauter. Sauter is currently a favorite for DPOY, with 28 tackles, 3 INTs, 4 FFs, and 5 FRs. He’s a turnover machine and quite possibly the best SS in the game. Biggest Surprise: Allama Banta. Banta—not Walt Peck, not Derrick Schwartz—is leading the Rams in receiving yardage and YPC. Wut?! 2. Carolina Panthers Best Player Everyone Forgets About on the Panthers: Trent Hayes. The veteran OLB has 50 tackles and 3 sacks. That’s some serious production from a guy I can’t remember ever making All-Pro. Biggest “What?!” Stat: leading the Panthers in TD receptions? Not Monte Jackson, not super rookie Curtis Henry. WR3 Chip Johnson, with 9. 3. New York Jets ACTUAL Best Player on Defense: FS Reshad Jenkins. 38 tackles for FS is fantastic. 5 INTs is straight demonic. Good luck throwing deep on the Jets. Guy Who is Happiest the Jets Have a Good OLine: Sam Chapman. He’s not gonna break anyone’s ankles, but he runs well behind his pads and finds the holes made by the monsters up front. 4. San Francisco 49ers Best Example of Balance: WRs JSD and Kevin Branch: 68 and 67 catches respectively. 962 yards each. 7 and 8 TDs, respectively. Both average 74 ypg. Most Overrated Niner: Dennis Niland. 3 sheets, 9 tackles, 1 sack. Yuck. Niners are excellent despite their 84 rated DE. 5. Detroit Lions Candidate for Most Improved Player: Doug Carolan. Now is his 3rd season, Carolan has jumped forward with 39 tackles and 10.5 sacks. In 2019, he made 4 sheets, 21 tackles, and only 6 sacks. That’s quite an improvement. Area for Improvement: I know the Lions are hoping for a nice progression for Jeremy Cook, and they’ll need one. Somehow, the Lions are scoring plenty of points with a receiving corps topped by Adrian Allen (81) and Aaron Pagliei (81), neither of whom are in the top 40 in receiving yardage, League-wide. 6. Jacksonville Jaguars Best Player: There’s a lot of talent on offense for the Jags. Asante Sowell and Raheem Robinson are, already, Top 3 players in the League at their positions. But Christian Haywood, in his second year, is the 3rd best ILB in the AFC (Cameron Jonah and Alex Martin can fight over #1). On a defense that is routinely in the Top 10 of the major statistical categories, Haywood is the only one with more than 35 tackles, and is filling up the rest of the stat sheet causing turnovers. Most LOL stat: The Jags lead the League in team YPA at 14.61. The next highest is 8.65. 7. Indianapolis Colts Best Player: Aaron Shea is just incredible. Among other amazing stats, only Allan Taylor has a smaller INT % than Shea (1.3 to 1.4). The difference? Shea throws a TD 7.46% of the time, Taylor only 5% of the time. Best LB Corps No One Talks About: Kelly Mitchell, Keyou Clark, and Lukas Forman all have put up solid production. Mitchell really makes the group go, with his 56 tackles and 2 picks. 8. Green Bay Packers Best Player Now: Jason Johnson. Obviously. Best Player in 3 years? If Marquise Reed stays healthy, he’s shutting down WRs with regularity, stepping up and making tackles, and has 4 picks. He’s a sure-shot All-Pro waiting to happen. Biggest Surprise: Rated 78, Justin McCain has more catches, yards, and touchdowns than Dan Nomellini (96), Bernard Taylor (90), and Tom Grant (87). Commissioner Alien should create the “WTF” Award, give it to McCain, and immediately retire it. 9. Dallas Cowboys Quiet Assassin on Defense: In an absolutely loaded defense, this was my favorite stat line from the MNF loss to the Niners. Jarius Shaw-Dodd, he of the 962 yards receiving, was held to a 4 for 32yards and 2 DRPs by T.J. Hunter. Player Awaiting Biggest Payday Increase: Adrian Robinson is making $1MM this year, and $1MM next year. He also is averaging 6 YPC behind Abraham. Who wants to pony up for a quality back with basically nothing on the odometer? 10. Philadelphia Eagles Great Draft Choice No One Talks About: Martin Whiting has 38 tackles, 2 INTs, a sack, a FF, and a FR. Pretty solid for a late first on a team with Rodrick Milligan roaming the middle of the field. Biggest Surprise: K Mark Kirschbaum has missed one (1!!) kick all year, while hitting 11 from 40+. 11. Oakland Raiders Raider I Hate the Least: Shah Vereen is quietly having a very solid rookie season at DE. 6 sheets, 23 tackles, 4.5 sacks, a strip sack TD—quite nice. Things About the Raiders I Dislike Immensely: Margin of Victory = -1. And they lead the AFC West. I will now go bury myself in a sand dune until the playoffs begin. 12. Denver Broncos Best Player: Cameron Jonah continues to lead the League in tackles (71) and adds 3 INTs and 5 FFs. If the Broncos make the playoffs and Jonah ISN’T the DPOY, I’m gonna set Descreto on fire. Biggest Surprise: OLine injuries are WAY down for DEN this year. In 2019, we lost 18 games to injuries from our top 5 OLine. 2020 = 2. 13. Atlanta Falcons Sim Player I’d Pay Z-Cash to Watch Work Out: Early Davis is a freaking stud. The Falcons aren’t gonna make the playoffs, which is too bad, because Early could do some work. Biggest Surprise: Rookie TE Jason Erwin has 40 catches for 497 yards at 6 TDs. Pretty solid for a 75 rated blocking TE. 14. Seattle Seahawks Best Bookends: Steve Jordan and Brian Glenn are two 6th year guys that to this point have had solid careers. In 2020, however, they decided to have a position meeting in the QBs pocket. 10 and 10.5 sacks between them. Damn. Gift Jarius Jones Wants from the Seahawks: A young WR with some speed would be ideal. Faneca (6th year) and Warner (5th year) are slowing down considerably—less than 14 ypc for both is just not helpful against the tough secondaries of the NFCW. 15. Baltimore Ravens Guy Who’s Still Got It: Reggie Watkins is sitting at 20 TDs to 9 INTs. I was giving the Ravens a TON of crap about not starting Brett Fisher during their poor start to the season. I can admit when I’m wrong. I was wrong. Biggest Surprise: That the Ravens are not only in the Playoff hunt with this team of oldsters (Moussa Goode providing literally ALL of the youthful energy for the Ravens), they are in really good shape to nab the 2nd wildcard. EDIT: Upon further review, the Ravens have a pair of excellent 2nd year guys on defense in Troy Marshall, Alexander Hardison. Even DE2 Matthew Davis has been passable (13 tackles, 2 sacks). 16. Kansas City Chiefs Best Offseason Acquisition: This could also be Best Player for 2020, since Spec Davidson is single-handedly keeping Thomas Wheeler in the top half o the League’s QBs. Spec’s 987 yards and 11 TDs are making up for a so-so WR corps and youth at RB. Guy I Was Definitely Wrong About: I gave KC a hard time about their dual rookie DEs in the early part of the season. Luke Lyles hasn’t done much yet, but Isaiah Hall has 19 tackles and 4.5 sacks. That’s not nothing. 17. Miami Dolphins Best Player - Brian Brown - One could make really solid arguments for D.J. Gibson and Marcus Barry here, but in the end the answer has to be Brian Brown. It’s well known around the league that the Dolphins’ receivers are near the bottom of the league, but that hasn’t stopped Brown from having another stellar campaign. Brown currently sports a 111.15 QBR and 34 touchdowns which is pretty phenomenal considering the lack of reliable targets outside of Gibson and Greg Cobb. Brown went to Philadelphia and put up a perfect QB Rating against a tough Eagles defense. The ‘Fins have been killed this season by untimely fumbles and poor defensive effort, but Brian Brown continues to show he is one of the best in the league. Most Surprising - Jason Bryant - The obvious answer here is D.J. Gibson who is on pace to double his output from last year, but the more fun answer is 6th year OLB Jason Bryant. In the 2018 and 2019 season combined Jason Bryant had a total of 31 tackles and 4 sacks. Through 13 games this season Bryant already has 39 tackles, 6.5 sacks, 2 INTs, 2 FF, and 2 FR. He’s enjoying a resurgence in his 6th season flying around the field and making plays. 18. Pittsburgh Steelers Best Player - Patrick Murphy - Murphy has been a tackling machine at OLB sliding in at 4th in the league for tackles by an OLB. Murphy has also shown a knack for being able to get to the quarterback with 6 sacks on the year as well. The Steelers defense has been inconsistent this season, but Murphy has been a solid force each game. Most Surprising - Rob Corp - Corp came in and played 7 games in relief for Paul Davenport and played amazingly. In those 7 games had a stellar 112.57 QBR while tossing for ~1,600 yards and 12 TDs with only 4 INTs. Corp also ran for 3 TDs and showed the ability to get out of the pocket and make plays with his legs. Davenport is back now, but Corp more than held his own which is a far cry from what he did last year when he took the field. 19. Houston Texans Best Player - Marvin White - White was acquired in the offseason through a trade with Oakland and has immediately come in and become the team’s best/most consistent weapon. White has opened up the field for Leshoure and company to move the ball and has really aided in Alex’s development. White just broke the 1,000 yard mark on the season and will likely break into double digits for touchdowns soon. Most Surprising - Riley McNeil - The rookie FCS kicker is having a stellar campaign converting 88.5% of his kicks including 12 from between 40-49 yards. The guy is only rated a 75 so the Texans have to be stoked with his performance up to this point. 20. Cleveland Browns Best Player - Tai Miller - The Browns had a nice draft bringing in a lot of young talent that will ultimately pay dividends in the future. However in the here and now Tai Miller continues to be their best player. Miller has 68 catches on the year for 1,036 yards and a nice 15.24 YPC average. Cleveland lacks a lot of other weapons on offense so without Miller, QB Ryan Clark would have a hard time making plays. Most Surprising - C.J. Thomas - Yes, I know what you’re thinking, why is C,J. Thomas surprising? Well, Cleveland doesn’t really sport a lot of surprising performances so I’m going to go with the rookie coming in and being arguably the best player on their defense. Thomas leads the team with 50 tackles and continues to put himself in position to make plays. As the league matures, rookies coming in and contributing at such a high level will become less frequent. The Browns can take solace in the fact they a great player at arguably the most important position on defense. 21. Cincinnati Bengals Best/Most Surprising Player - Adrian Jankowski - Jank has been the best player on the loaded Cincy offense with 75 catches for 1,062 yards and 9 TDs. I think most around the league thought the Jank had the potential to be one of the better wideouts in the league, but after a disastrous rookie campaign in Tampa there were certainly doubters out there. Cincy QB Joel King had a poor rookie campaign so there were questions if Jank would even have a quarterback capable of getting him the ball, but those questions were quickly negated during the preseason. Adrian shows the unique ability to run crisp routes and grab those tough target type of throws, while having the speed and vertical to go get the long ball. 22. Tennessee Titans Best Player - Tyler Jones - The rookie has come in and unleashed havoc on the league. Jones leads the team with 8.5 sacks and has made rushing a nightmare for opposing defense. Pairing with 2nd year player Charles Woods - the Titans have put together one of the scariest pairs of edge rushers in the league. Most Surprising Player - Jordan Harris - This was a tough one, but the jury was out on Harris during the draft. There was hesitation since most of the league wasn’t sure how FCS players would perform in the league. Harris has had a nice rookie campaign grabbing 3 interceptions on the year, which has to have the Titans excited for his future. 23. New Orleans Saints Best Player - Aaron Devereaux - The Saints have struggled mightily on defense this year, but “Devy” continues to be the best player on the team. The Saints have gone on a nice winning streak and a lot of it has to be attributed to him. He’s putting up almost equal stats to division-mate Christian Skaggs which has to at least give the Saints hope for the future. If the Saints can put even a passable defense on the field they should make a big jump in the standings. Most Surprising - Steve Alexander - There really hasn’t been a lot of surprising performances by the Saints. Their defense is playing about as poor as you would expect and the big names are performing about as well as you would expect on offense. Steve Alexander has already more than doubled his TD output from a season ago and is on pace to have his first 1,000 yard receiving season (I think). He’s always been a decent player, but is really playing well as the second option this year in New Orleans. 24. New York Giants Best Player(s) - Kenyatta Henderson/Aaron Hammond - The Giant’s duo of OLBs have both performed spectacularly this season. Henderson’s contract aside he continues to show a knack for getting to the QB and Hammond shows all around versatility to make life difficult for opposing offenses. The Giants have nice defensive pieces if they can just get a little most consistent on offense. Biggest Surprise - Cotton Lewis - Lewis already has 10 TDs on the year which is 8 more than he had in the 2019 season. Considering the Giants’ passing game isn’t particularly great it’s interesting to see Lewis having such a successful year making plays. It should give them a nice building block for the future. 25. Chicago Bears Best Player - Morris Millen - Millen has been all over the field making plays this year. 2 INTs, 4.5 Sacks, and 2 FFs and doing what the team needs from him. There hasn’t been a lot to be excited about in Chicago this season, but Millen is showing he still has a lot left in the tank. Biggest Surprise - Quincy Honeycutt - If you would have said this after Honeycutt’s disastrous debut I probably would have laughed at you, however; Honeycutt has rebounded to have a really solid rookie campaign. Quincy is sporting a nice 4.65 YPC average and is on pace to break the 1,000 yard mark. He needs to clean up his fumbling issues, but Chicago has to be excited about potentially finding their RB of the future. 26. Buffalo Bills Best Player - Chad Dess - Earlier in the season Dess was leading the league in rushing and probably would still be up there if it wasn’t for Buffalo’s change in offensive philosophy. Dess continues to show value at being a workhorse running back. There really hasn’t been a lot to be excited about in Buffalo this season, but at least Dess is still going strong. Most Surprising - Joaquin Younger - He’s obviously not the starting quarterback anymore, but Younger has shown a lot in playing other positions for the Bills. He’s made some plays at wideout, running the ball, and passing in a close loss to the Raiders. The Bills have nothing to lose at this point, but seeing Younger make some cool contributions is fun at least. 27. Arizona Cardinals Best Player - Marcus Banks - The Cardinals haven’t had a lot to be excited about this season, but Banks continues to bring his best every game. The clear best option on their anemic offense Banks has contributed 65 catches for 855 yards and 5 TDs. Most Surprising - Omar McManus - The rookie has come in a posted 5 sacks on the year which puts him ahead of a majority of the DEs taken before him in the draft. McManus might benefit from the lack of impact plays by other players on the team, but nonetheless he’s still having a solid campaign. 28. Tampa Bay Buccaneers Best Player - Taylor Heiden - Arguments could be made for a couple of players on the defense, but props need to be given to Heiden. Taylor is still one of the better quarterbacks in the league and is performing admirably with a lack of a running game and playmakers on the outside. If Tampa can find an answer for their lack of running game and get another wideout on the outside I think Heiden will flourish. Most Surprising - The further down the list we go the more difficult this choice becomes. Let’s going to go with Jerry Cipa here. Cipa had a decent 2019 season, but has improved his ability to get in the endzone this year. With 3 games remaining it’s possible that Cipa could hit the 1,000 yard mark which would be a marked improvement over last season. 29. Washington Redskins Best Player - Fred Romanowski - Another team with not a lot to be excited about this season. Romanowski has been an anchor in the middle with 50 tackles and 4.5 sacks. Most Surprising - Sam Hiller-Weeden - It’s not particularly surprising that SHW is performing well, but he’s been their best offensive player outside of Ricardo Reed. SHW has such little help from his other wideouts that it’s impressive he’s able to put up the numbers he is putting up. 30. New England Patriots Best Player - Elvis Williams - Williams has a tendency to put the ball on the turf, but he’s having a nice season otherwise. The Patriots don’t really seem to have much else to be happy about so this choice seems pretty easy. Most Surprising - …..Honestly.. There’s just not really anything that could be considered a good surprise here. 31. Minnesota Vikings Best Player - Cleveland Merrill - The Vikings haven’t had a lot to be proud of this season either, but Merrill has played hard nonetheless. Cleveland leads the team in tackles and is the obvious leader of the unit. Most Surprising - Josh Taylor - He’s only started a few games, but has put up respectable stats in his limited action. He’s probably not the RB of the future but it’s something at least. 32. Los Angeles Chargers Best Player - Scott Howard - Not much to say here. Howard has played well all season, he’s probably the only player who can say that. Most Surprising - Bryan Jones - He has 50 tackles on the season which seems like a lot for a 74 rated OLB.

Awesome. Need QB stats to add to the ever-growing Shrine of Jennings...

I know from experience that McGill is a great owner. I thought he was a pretty damn solid Gm too. Congrats and Best of luck in the expanded role, Rome.

Go Ducks! Looking for 3 straight wins over Top 25 (or close) PAC-12 opponents...

Great series, Franz, and a fun read. I'd bet that Shane Easley will make this team in 2 years time. If he stays for 4 years, perhaps Trevon Yeldon as well.

Good game, Jets. Really hoped Blacknall would be back this week. No worries: Rams/Jets back to back within a TD of each without our running game. Bengals, get ready.

Defense optional in the NFCS, great game in Philly, OAK edging out Buffalo...this is a very bizarre set of box scores, but all with the expected (?) results.

Come on, fellas. There's some long-standing community members on these lists. Would hate to see you gone. Get your teams some new recruits.

Lol Utah Great game in Tempe!