Innehållsförteckning för Issue 70 från Gridiron

WHAT’S IN THE BOX? As NFL defenses become more hybrid in structure, decision-makers are seeking malleable players who can line-up across the field. TomKislingbury If you close your eyes and picture an NFL linebacker and a safety, you likely have very different players and body types in your mind. Linebackers all look like Dick Butkus. All grizzled, angry eyes and taped-up fingers. Safeties are an altogether sleeker species. Their uniforms are cleaner, their hair better, their bodies less mangled. The reality is that the two have been moving closer and closer together for many years and there’s a huge grey area where the two positions cross over more than they ever have before. As we go into the draft we naturally want to try and understand which teams have which…

LEAD FEATURE WRITER @SiClancy Twelve months ago, as we headed into the meat of the 2021 draft season, people, as is their wont, began throwing names around for the 2022 class. Atop almost every list was a 6’5 inch, 250 pound edge rusher with the sort off get off that was accompanied with words such as “generational”. As an eighth grader, Kayvon Thibodeaux had been kicked out of a Pop Warner All-Star game because his opponents couldn’t handle the force of his tackles. Vice magazine called him the best player in the class of 2019 and potentially “the best pass rusher to come out of the West Coast this millennium” while he was still a sophomore in high school. He was a lock to be the #1 overall pick after…

THE GREATEST LATE-ROUND PICKS IN HISTORY @carlsonsports Where are a few problems when you’re trying to choose the greatest late-round draft steals of all-time. First is simply weighing up the value of careers: impact on a team, quality of play, recognition at the time and all the other factors which make cross-generational evaluation so difficult, and so much fun. But when you’re talking about drafts, there are other considerations: just how do you define the late rounds? The NFL has had fewer teams, and also longer drafts. Paradoxically, when the draft went 20 plus rounds, teams were doing less scouting, and relying on a lot of word of mouth, or even word of the press, when they tossed the dice in the later rounds. After all, rosters were smaller, and…

@OllieConnolly The NFL Draft is all about new beginnings – new stars, new storylines, and a dollop of hope for franchises across the league. This issue also marks a new beginning for the Gridiron team; It marks my first edition as the magazine’s editor. The keen-eyed among you will already notice some changes. There are new contributors, bringing fresh ideas and perspectives. Change in the NFL, as the cliché goes, is constant. There are rule switches (hooray for the new overtime format!), schematic evolutions, and a rotating door of talent and stories. The last month or so has seen more head-spinning transactions than at any time in modern league history. We’ve had moves from Davante Adams and Tyreek Hill, resetting the receiver market in the process. The Jaguars threw money…

RUSSELL WILSON (QB) CONTRACT: $51M/2 YEARS (FROM SEAHAWKS) DEAD MONEY HIT: $26M FIRST-ROUND PICKS (2022&’23) SECOND-ROUND PICKS (2022 & 23) FIFTH-ROUND PICK (2022) DREW LOCK (QB) NOAH FANT (TE) SHELBY HARRIS (DT) DAVANTE ADAMS (WR) CONTRACT: $140M/5 YEARS DEAD MONEY HIT: $0 FIRST-ROUND PICK (2022) SECOND-ROUND PICK (2022) DESHAUN WATSON (QB) CONTRACT: $230M/5 YEARS DEAD MONEY HIT: $16.2M FIRST-ROUND PICKS (2022, ‘23 & ‘24) THIRD-ROUND PICK (2023) FOURTH-ROUND PICKS (2022 & ‘24) TYREEK HILL (WR) CONTRACT: $120M/4 YEARS DEAD MONEY HIT: $2.65M FIRST-ROUND PICK (2022) SECOND-ROUND PICK (2022) FOURTH-ROUND PICKS (2022 & ‘23) SIXTH-ROUND PICK (2023)…

@SiClancy It the start of March, as pro day season was in full swing, a Detroit Lions reporter for MLive, the most popular website in Michigan tweeted the following: “Carson Strong says this quarterback class is “getting a lot of crap” they don’t deserve. Says Malik Willis is crazy good. Also says his knee won’t fall off his body, which seems helpful.” In 33 words, Kyle Meinke seemed to sum up the collective feelings about the QB position heading into the draft. It’s not that there aren’t any options, more that on paper and on film, the class is, at best, a jumble, and at worst massively underwhelming. As the evolution of NFL offenses to follow the pattern of college football has gathered pace, and younger, more progressive minds have…

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS NEEDS: OL, DL, LB, DB AIDAN HUTCHINSON, EDGE, MICHIGAN Even after splashing the cash in free agency, the Jags need impact players on both sides of the line of scrimmage. Hutchinson is a polished prospect who’ll bring energy and speed to a lacklustre pass-rushing room. DETROIT LIONS NEEDS: QB, ED, DB CYLE HAMILTON, SAFETY, NOTRE DAME The Lions have a solid core, but they need playmakers. It’s unusual for a safety to crack the top five of any draft, but Hamilton isn’t your typical middle-of-the-field roamer. He’s a matchup defender who can align anywhere. HOUSTON TEXANS NEEDS: EVERY POSITION EVAN NEAL, OL, ALABAMA When you have needs everywhere, you take the surest thing in the draft. Neal is that. NEW YORK JETS NEEDS: DB, LB, WR TRAVON WALKER, DL, GEORGIA The Jets don’t need…

John Madden, Philadelphia Eagles 1958 round 21 pick 244 A tackle out of Cal Tech San Luis Obispo, Madden’s college career had been stalled by injury at Oregon, and he got injured again in the Eagles’ camp. But while injured he sat and watched a lot of film with the Eagles’ newly-acquired veteran QB Norm Van Brocklin. He decided then he would go into coaching, and he had a pretty decent career doing that, and that moving into the easier business of TV commentary.…

WHY I SUPPORT MY TEAM 1986. I started life at a new secondary school knowing a little about the NFL thanks to Channel 4 and William ‘The Refrigerator’ Perry. My new pals supported teams like the 49ers, Dolphins and Raiders, but I’d seen the tiger- striped helmets and a blonde, left-handed quarterback who seemed to hand the ball off to the running back, fooling both the camera operators and the defense before chucking it miles downfield to an open receiver. The QB’s name was Boomer Esiason and I was smitten. I still am. FAVOURITE MOMENT AS A FAN The 1988 Super Bowl run provided so many indelible memories, most notably the home field-securing overtime win against Washington, and head coach Sam Wyche being soaked with Gatorade as watched Jim Breech…

BOYE MAFE E Mafe is the ultimate ‘workout warrior’. Thanks to dominant performances throughout his offseason workouts, he’s slated to creep into the first round. CHRISTIAN WATSON WR The 6-foot-4, 208-pound wide receiver has the kind of unteachable traits that NFL teams will refuse to pass up. He should wind up in the first round. CHAD MUMA LB Muma had himself a weekend in Indy, with a 4.63 40- yard dash, a 7.06 three-cone drill and an insane 40-inch vertical jump. He’s a fringe first-rounder. TARIQ WOOLEN CB Woolen ran the fourth-fastest 40-yard dash in the history of the scouting combine. Scouts are also intoxicated by his size, 6-4 with 34-inch arms. NICK CROSS S Cross played a roving role on the Maryland defense, just the kind of multi-positional, Tyrann…

MANAGING EDITOR @OllieConnolly Once the initial shock of the Russell Wilson-to- Denver trade wore off, one thing immediately jumped to mind: How exactly will Nathaniel Hackett and Wilson make this partnership work? Hackett joined Denver from the brightest, most innovative offensive room in the league this offseason. Over the span of three years in Green Bay, Matt LaFleur, Aaron Rodgers, and Hackett set to work redefining what a Rodgers-led offense could look like, and in doing so built the most expansive system in the NFL. They reset the Packers’ passing game, building on top of the second-phase stylings that Mike McCarthy initially introduced but adding a new-fangled timing element into the second-phase. McCarthy was one of the first NFL head coaches (or offensive scheme designers in general) to fully embrace…

QB 1956 1956 ROUND 17/PICK 200 Just one place behind Brady, but since Starr was in effect the Brady of the Sixties, it makes it a justifiable coincidence. Starr was languishing on the horrible pre-Lombardi Packer teams, and had injury problems before finally becoming the full-time starter in 1961. For the next seven years he had a record of 69-18-4 as a QB, and a post-season mark of 9-1, with a playoff passer rating of 104.8 at a team when the league average was around 70. Although he was only AP first-team All Pro once and played in four Pro Bowls, he was named to the All-Decade team, and when I came to write about the Packers’ best quarterbacks, I had him ahead of Brett Favre and level with Aaron…