Athlon Sports Preseason Sports Magazine's provide in-depth analysis of the upcoming seasons and events. Each preview includes great feature stories, team previews, depth charts, predictions, schedules and more.
What a whirlwind. The months of February and March were one long, extended, director’s cut episode of NFL Offseasons Gone Wild. GMs worked high-level trades like kids exchanging prized playing cards. Superstars walked away from secure situations, lured by the almighty dollar — or, in many cases, by the chance to chase something far more precious, a Super Bowl ring. It was as if the entire NFL saw what the Los Angeles Rams accomplished last season — going all-in on a Super Bowl run by adding a couple of superstars to a solid roster — and said, “Us too!” And the cherry on this chaos sundae? The guy helping to drive the narrative was a soon-to-be 45-year-old quarterback who kicked off the festivities by quitting. But more on that in…
1 Another MVP for Aaron Rodgers? The Packers traded up in the first round of the 2020 draft to select Jordan Love as the heir apparent to Aaron Rodgers. Surely, their plan wasn’t for Love to sit for three years, but that’s where they are after Rodgers won back-to-back MVP awards. Rodgers can join former Packers quarterback Brett Favre as the only players ever to win three MVP awards in a row. Favre won in 1995 and 1996 and tied Barry Sanders for the award in 1997. Peyton Manning, Joe Montana and Jim Brown are the only other players to win MVP awards in consecutive seasons. Rodgers received 39 of the 50 votes, with Tom Brady getting 10 and Cooper Kupp one, following the 2021 season. It was Rodgers’ fourth MVP…
Last year on these pages, Colts running back Jonathan Taylor was knocking on the door of the top 10 at his position. A year later, he’s a solid No. 1 running back. Meanwhile, Christian McCaffrey was Athlon’s No. 3 running back in our 2021 rankings; another injury-ravaged season later, he’s fallen out of the top 20. In today’s fast-changing NFL, it doesn’t take much for players to rise and fall, which is why consistent excellence is so remarkable and why players who remain at the top of their positions from year to year are such unique and special athletes. Rookies ascend, and veterans start to feel their age. Here are our top 50 players overall and the best players at every position group for the 2022 NFL season — lists…
On the first day of February, the man who is arguably the greatest quarterback in NFL history — is it really even arguable? — announced his retirement. That decision by Tom Brady, in almost any other year, would’ve been the biggest, most earth-shaking story of the offseason. But this has hardly been just any other year. Consider what happened next: Exactly one month later, on the first day of March, Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians was speaking at the NFL Scouting Combine when he said the “door is never closed” on Brady unretiring. At the time, no one really believed that would ever happen. Twelve days later, Brady unretired. Seventeen days after that, Arians retired. If that seems like a head-spinning turn of events … well, it was…
The period from Feb. 1 to March 30 was unlike any in NFL history. Here are just a few of the league-altering, narrative-shifting developments that rocked the league and the entire sports world during those two fateful months: Feb. 1 — Brian Flores files a class-action suit against the NFL and the Giants, Broncos and Dolphins organizations, alleging racial discrimination. Feb. 13 — The Rams win the Super Bowl, validating their all-in experiment — one that included such win-now moves as acquiring quarterback Matthew Stafford and pass rusher Von Miller — and prompting others in a copycat league to craft a similar blueprint. March 7 — Calvin Ridley gets suspended indefinitely — at least through the end of the 2022 season — for betting on NFL games, including those involving…
MATTHEW STAFFORD hoisted the Super Bowl trophy for the first time in his life on Feb. 13. He’d never even made it beyond Wild Card Weekend as a member of the Lions. For its part, Detroit was able to recoup two first-round picks, a third-round pick and placeholder quarterback Jared Goff for Stafford’s services. In the context of recent NFL history, the Lions certainly came out well in the deal. In contrast, stars Khalil Mack (Bears), Jamal Adams (Seahawks) and Laremy Tunsil (Texans) each cost two firsts for the franchises trading for them and wound up stalling the progress of each team. So, yes, the Lions got value in the Stafford trade. But the Rams got more. In fact, even if the Rams hadn’t won the Super Bowl, they changed the…
