NFLRT 5/24/2024

The questions and discussion…

1) Now that there has been some time to digest what happened in this year’s NFL draft… 

In your opinion which team is the number one team in the NFL? Why? 

Dan: Since not one game has been played since last season, I’m going to default with the Super Bowl champions as the best team in the NFL still.

They did improve their receiver room in the draft, adding speed. They still have Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce on offense. They still have Andy Reid as their head coach. They have most of their pieces from last season, outside of a select few, to run it back again. Most of their roster is very confident in being able to run it back. Why differ from last season’s results and pick a different team?

They were the Super Bowl champs, and until they prove that they aren’t the best team in the league, they’re placed in this spot until shown otherwise. Last year, it happened right away in Week 1 vs the Detroit Lions. Maybe it’ll happen this year against the Ravens. Maybe it’ll continue and they extend it into the season. But let’s play a game first before taking away their top of the NFL throne. 

Joe: The Chiefs won the Super Bowl and by that criteria the KC should be considered… at least pre-draft… the number 1 team.

However between the moves they made this off-season… keeping kept DT Chris Jones and LB Drue Tranquill and acquiring WR Marquise Brown, and then the players they selected in the draft…  No. 28 overall pick WR Xavier Worthy and No. 63 overall OT Kingsley Suamataia…  I think they have to still be considered the number 1 team until they get knocked off that perch.   

Recently the NFL released the schedule for its full slate of games for the upcoming season… 

2) Which team, or teams, benefitted the most from the 2024/2025 schedule? Why? 

Dan: The Falcons benefitted well from their schedule release.

Outside of weeks two and three against Philadelphia and Kansas City in back-to-back weeks, they have a pretty easy schedule the rest of the way, including the end of the season not facing one playoff team after Week 9 against Dallas. They also have six home games out of the first nine weeks, which is more advantageous for them.

For a team that finally has gotten their quarterback that has proven he can win, including helping out his supporting cast on offense, and with a beneficial schedule, should leave the Falcons in a good position to win the NFC South and make the playoffs as divisional champions. 

Joe: For the past several seasons, the NFC South has been the NFL’s weakest division.

Carolina is dumpster fire waiting to implode… New Orleans is old and the players they have are just average at best… and Tampa Bay lost a bunch of veteran talent this offseason, so they are kinda, sort rebuilding o the fly.

Atlanta now has a top QB in Kirk Cousins running the offense and a large part of what made its defense strong last year is back, and suddenly the schedule maker has the Falcons playing the bulk of their games against the AFC West and NFC East and if I’m being kind half way kind the teams in those two divisions are not very good. 

On top of which they get rookie QB led teams… Bo Nix (Broncos), J.J. McCarthy (Vikings), and Jayden Daniels (Commanders, twice)… to compete against . I won’t say those four games are locked in as wins but if I was betting my money on those games I would be taking the Falcons to win.

The Falcons should wind up winning the NFC South by a decent margin.  

3) Which team, or teams, benefitted the least from the 2024/2025 schedule? Why? 

Dan: The Steelers have the roughest second-half schedule in all of football. From Week 11 to the end of the season, they face all of their AFC North divisional opponents twice, and the only two non-divisional games are a road game against Philadelphia and a home game, on Christmas Day, against Kansas City, which ends their three games in ten days rough part of at Philadelphia, at Baltimore and at home against Kansas City.

Just the second half of their season alone makes Pittsburgh the biggest losers from the schedule release. It’s going to be a tall, tall order for them to maintain their head coach’s streak of .500 record seasons, and if they can manage through the last eight games of the season at .500, will pose well for them as a real deal football team. 

Joe: The Steelers have the hardest as schedule for the upcoming 2024/2025 season.

Early on in the season the Steelers had better rack up as many wins as they can if they want to have a change of making the playoffs because after Week 10 the Steelers don’t play a single team that had a losing record last season.

They get no breaks by having to play in the arguably toughest division in the  NFL to begin with and then their out of division opponents include the Eagles, Chiefs, Cowboys and the Aaron Rodgers led Jets.

And frankly that early season lineup isn’t loaded with creampuffs and will be a walk in the park where they can snatch up a bunch of easy wins.

So they had best be on top of their game because like I indicated they end the season with an extremely tough schedule.

4) Will the Patriots QB Drake Maye start any games in the upcoming season, or will the season be a full year of watching Jacoby Brisset start games and learning and adapting to NFL? Why?    

Dan: The New England Patriots didn’t draft Drake Maye third overall to have him sit on the bench this season, and I feel like they think, as well as I do, that he’s ready to start Week 1.

While the Patriots do need some more offensive pieces to their roster, I think having Maye get out there Week 1 and get his feet wet is the best course of action, not only for his development, but for the team’s development and path as well.

He’s ready to start, and he’s going to get playing time. Start him off with a new regime starting in New England. If he starts to struggle, let him get through it. Let him learn and develop. The Patriots aren’t expected to go very far this season or not be picking in the top five next season either, so get Maye his playing time and let him develop and go through the ups and downs of a full NFL season. 

Joe: I don’t think Drake Maye starts for the Patriots right out of the gate in the first game of the season simply due to the fact that Jacoby Brissett’s experience in the Patriots’ system could give him an advantage in certain aspects of the quarterback competition. Still I wouldn’t’ be surprised that if Brisset isn’t leading the Pats to some wins early on that Maye could be inserted as the starting QB as early as week 4.

BUT Drake Maye’s talent and potential could level the playing field and depending upon how he adapts to the Patriots system and the new coaches running the team he could surprise me and snatch the starting job away from Brisset from the get go.

5) Did the Buffalo Bills sufficiently address their WR situation this off-season or do they still need to upgrade their personnel regarding that position on their roster? Why? 

Dan: The Buffalo Bills have done enough right now but should still be on the lookout to add to their wide receiver room.

They drafted Keon Coleman, who has been lighting up the interviews since being drafted out of Florida State. They have Shakir, they have Dawson Knox and Dalton Kincaid at tight end, they have James Cook and Ray Davis as the two main backs. They signed Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Chase Claypool to add depth.

Josh Allen will be tested this season without a Gabe Davis or a Stefon Diggs at his disposal. But Josh Allen is an MVP-type quarterback. He’s a gun-slinger. He’s going to put up yards. He’s going to put balls up for grabs. He’s going to take off with his feet and put a lot of yardage on the ground. I think the Bills are in a good position to compete for an AFC East title with the Dolphins and Jets, and for an AFC title with the Bengals, Chiefs, Ravens and Jets. While I wouldn’t close my eyes on the wide receiver market in Buffalo, I think they’ve done enough to the wide receiver room to still be competitive this season. 

Joe: Trading Stefon Diggs left the Bills with a glaring hole at receiver heading into the draft with their first selection due at No. 28 overall. However when they had the chance to draft the fourth receiver off the board they  surprisingly chose to trade down twice before drafting Keon Coleman with number 33 pick.

Coleman is an intriguing prospect, but while he has size and exceptional body control and hands… traits that Diggs also had… he just doesn’t have the route-running chops or ability to separate against man coverage that Diggs had. Simply put Coleman as the solution for the Bills at WR seems far from ideal.

Since the draft, the Bills have Chase Claypool and Marques Valdes-Scantling to one-year deals.

Claypool will be joining his fifth team in three years, and he caught just four passes across eight games with his last team.

With the Chiefs last season Valdes-Scantling had just 29 catches for 443 receiving yards through the playoffs, averaging a miserable 0.78 yards per route run. And that’s with the best QB in the game today throwing passes to him.

Arguably the biggest potential area of improvement is from continued growth in Khalil Shakir who had essentially replaced Diggs as the team’s primary receiver down the stretch last season. A former fifth-round draft pick, Shakir had multiple 100-yard games in the second half of the season and five games with at least 2.6 yards per route run. Allen’s passer rating when targeting him was a massive 141.5 for the season. Still can he continue developing his game to replace Diggs fulltime as Josh Allen’s number one target down field?

Elsewhere in the receiver room are various wild cards, such as Curtis Samuel, KJ Hamler, Quintez Cephus and Justin Shorter but none of these players are sure fire locks to step up and take on the task of being either a number 1 or even a 2 receiver for the team in my opinion.

That means the top three proven options on this team are Shakir and then some combination of James Cook out of the backfield and along with their two veteran two tight ends, Dalton Kincaid and Dawson Knox. And, oh yeah, add in an unproven wideout with some question marks in Coleman.

Frankly I’m not impressed with the Bills current group of pass catchers, and they had better hope Keon Coleman and/or Khalil Shakir lights it up early or it could wind up being a very long season for Josh Allen.