My Pro Football Focus Debut

PFF's work ensures that players like Michael Bennett get the recognition they deserve.

I'm incredibly excited to announce that, through a combination of hard work, networking, and good fortune, I have joined Pro Football Focus as an Analyst for the upcoming NFL season. 

Over the past couple of years, PFF has become my most trusted resource for evaluating the performance and impact of every NFL player. In an industry where many analysts throw their hands up and lament that "we still don't have a stat for offensive linemen," PFF looks at every player on every play in every game to quantify who is deserving of our praise, and who is more hype than substance. 

I've referenced PFF many times in previous posts because, frankly, it's the best football analytics site out there. NFL teams, like my beloved Super Bowl Champion Giants, trust its data. Our founder, Neil Hornsby, even joined Peter King for his annual training camp tour this summer. Having the chance to join such an influential and highly-regarded team is a dream come true.

In addition to breaking down game tape for PFF every week (something that you've seen me do here before), I'll also be writing weekly articles for the site, all of which I will link to here. I'll still post exclusive articles here on Eternal Football, including my picks every week. I also may have a new feature related to another big development in my life, but I'll explain that in a future post.

Basically, this is still your destination to find all of my content, so keep on checking in. I'm not going anywhere.

For my first PFF article, I previewed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for a "32 Teams in 32 Days" series. The Bucs made bigger moves this offseason than any other NFL team, and I think they can surprise a lot of folks this year. You can see my full analysis here:

https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2012/08/29/tampa-bay-buccaneers-2012-preview/

As always, thanks for reading, and I hope you'll enjoy all of my upcoming work as I enter this very exciting time in my career.

No matter what site I am writing for, you can always find me on Twitter, at @BostonGiant.

Image found here.

Returning Next Week

Life has been pretty hectic recently.

As I've hinted at before, I've undertaken some serious life changes in the past couple of weeks that have given me little time to post. I'll be returning next week with a review of my predictions from last season and my picks for this year. As you take in some exhibition football, here's last year's post about my trip to a Patriots preseason game.

You can follow me on Twitter at @BostonGiant.

Image found here.

Marry, Boff, Kill: My Fantasy Football Values, Sleepers, and Busts

If you've ever been on a long road trip, odds are that you've played Marry, Boff, Kill. You and your friends may have called it something a bit less eloquent, but for the sake of propriety, let's go with the 30 Rock version:

As I prepare for my fantasy football drafts, I classify each player by whether he's a good value, an under-the-radar sleeper, or a likely bust. It's basically one long game of Marry, Boff, Kill. To help you prepare for your own drafts, here are some of the players I feel most strongly about, in no particular order.

MARRY

Demarco Murray, RB, Cowboys - If I'm going to draft a young running back on a great offense with a checkered injury history, I'd rather have Murray in Round 2 than Ryan Mathews in Round 1. (Note: I wrote this even before Mathews broke his clavicle last night.)

The NFL's Other Lockout

The NFL needs Ed Hochuli's guns this season.

It's been a very hectic weekend for me (details in a future post), but I did want to quickly use today's post to draw your attention to some summer drama that fans should keep their eye on.

Unless you've been following the riveting world of sports labor negotiations, you may have missed that the NFL is currently locking out another union. This time, it's the league's contract negotiations with its officials that have spilled from the negotiating table into the court of public opinion.

In the league's defense, the referees' demands are significant. The rumor is that the impasse comes out to $100,000 per team (which is a nicer way of saying $3.2 million). If you want to assume a seven-man officiating crew for each of the 16 games a week, that's a $28,000 raise per ref. For about 18 weekends of work, that's not exactly chump change.

The NFL is using replacement referees during the preseason, and the locked out officials have taken every opportunity to disparage the so-called scabs. Former head of officiating, Mike Pereira, claims that one of the substitute officials was dismissed from the Lingerie Football League (yes, that is a real thing). You could almost hear the groans from 345 Park Avenue when the replacements called the coin toss incorrectly at this Sunday's Hall of Fame Game.

August gaffes aren't anything to get too worked up about, as even the most seasoned officials are rusty early in the year (cut to Al Michaels saying, "Remember, it's preseason for the officials too."). Plus, some fans would say, "who cares who the league hires to get the calls wrong?" But with the implementation of instant replay and stricter player safety rules, referees have more power and responsibility than ever before. Inevitably there will be a in which a team and its fans think they were complete screwed by a controversial call. It would behoove the NFL not to give them a lightning rod to direct their criticism towards. Let's hope that this year's lockout has as little effect on the real season as last year's did.

You can follow me on Twitter at @BostonGiant.

Image found here.

Cam's Struggling, Eli's Falling, and Other Lessons We Learned Last August

Remember when the critics were right about Cam Newton?

This Sunday, the Saints and Cardinals kick off the 2012 NFL preseason with the annual Hall of Fame Game. Fans know that we shouldn't read too much into what happens in August. These ae exhibition games, after all. But then our offense goes three-and-out on every drive, and then our quarterback gets blindsided on two straight plays, and then our defense can't stop the pass, and then our starting cornerback sprains his knee, and then OH MY GOD HOW ARE WE GOING TO WIN A GAME THIS YEAR???

Take a deep breath. I know, we haven't had seen live football in six months. It feels like an eternity since the Patriots' Hail Mary fell to the ground (and I almost threw myself off the Lucas Oil mezzanine). And with meaningful games still a month away, we indulge ourselves in meaningless side stories that make Antonio Cromartie and Chaz Schilens back page news. As Arian Foster said this week when reporters were obsessing over his switch to a vegan diet, "It’s just the flavor of the week. Y’all will forget about it in a month."

Last year, I detailed the error of reading too much into the preseason. To again help you keep perspective in this month of over-analysis and overreaction, let's take a look back at some of the things we learned last August.

Fantasy Football 101 - Bachelor Pad Edition

A representation of my street-cred after this post.

Last week, my girlfriend told me that she was going to organize an all-female fantasy football league for her and her friends. After explaining why this made me more attracted to her than ever before, I agreed to write her a beginner's guide to fantasy football, explaining the basic rules of the game to someone who is completely new to it. And to tailor it to her audience, I put it in terms of the summer reality show, Bachelor Pad (my roommate Doug describes it as a brilliant show where D-list celebrities look down upon aspiring D-list celebrities).

You might say this post will ruin my credibility, but the joke's on you; I don't have any credibility to begin with. Here it is for your enjoyment/ridicule. 

FANTASY FOOTBALL 101 - SO YOU THINK YOU CAN FOOTBALL?