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How Important Is Quarterback Footwork?

NFL

Matthew Stafford and Drake Maye went to work with decidedly different feet.

At some point during the 2025 NFL season, it seemed like the only thing anyone was talking about was feet. Tom Brady wouldn't shut up about the feet.

A lot of it centered on younger quarterbacks with poor mechanics. Their feet were happy and Tom was sad.

J.J. McCarthy was the poster boy for it all. Ball-knowers and film-grinders diagnosed all 10 of his toes, like JP Acosta after the Vikings loss to the Bears:

"McCarthy knows where to go with the ball, but he rushes his process and dirts [the pass]. Look at his feet in the pocket;

Fixing the Bills WR Problem

AFC East

Buffalo will be active in Indianapolis as they remake their wide receiver room.

You can't really know where the Bills are going until you know where they've been.

Honestly? Things have been great. The drought is in the rearview. The current regime nurtured an NFL MVP and ensured the team would remain in Buffalo. The new stadium opens this summer. Tracy McGrady and Vince Carter own a slice of the team. That's sick as hell.

The past two seasons, however, have been simmering toward a boiling point that finally blew its lid in Jacksonville.

Buffalo entered the game with five wide receivers. They left it with only three. How could the season possibly

Fantasy Scoring Averages

Fantasy Football

3-year weekly and season-long averages for QBs, RBs, WRs, TEs

Fantasy Scoring Averages — Josh Allen, Derrick Henry, CeeDee Lamb, Sam LaPorta

Stripping away names and focusing on weekly finishes can help provide a check against our various biases, rooting interests, petty grievances, gut hunches.

Below you'll find four weekly and season-long charts that illustrate FantasyPros data across the big four positions: QB, RB, WR, TE.

FantasyPros uses Half-PPR scoring but the data can be used for PPR and standard leagues as well. Research has shown that there isn't much of a difference in how players stack up across the three scoring formats.

You'll also find some written analysis in the weekly (QB, WR) and season-long sections (QB, RB, WR).

Weekly Averages

Schemers Have No Aura

NFL

Offensive coordinators tempt fate when they try to reinvent the wheel

Schemers Have No Aura — Ben Johnson (L) and Josh McDaniels (R)

There are three dominant schemes in the NFL: "West Coast, Air Coryell, and Erhardt-Perkins," as Chris B. Brown writes in his book, The Art of Smart Football.

"Given that every NFL team runs the same plays, each of these NFL offensive families is differentiated mostly by how these plays are communicated."

Starting with the passing game.

The Memory System

"The system is as old as football itself, which is no surprise given that Bill Walsh's onetime mentor Paul Brown is credited as much as anyone with inventing the modern conception of huddles, game plans, and play calls. For more than

Offensive Line Continuity

NFL

To be effective against modern defenses, offensive lines need to move like synchronized swimmers in lockstep with one another, knowing how their arms and legs will move in any situation without having to think. That takes time.

Offensive Line Continuity — Buffalo Bills starting OL (from left): Dion Dawkins, David Edwards, Connor McGovern, O'Cyrus Torrence, Spencer Brown

Four of five starters along the Buffalo Bills offensive line have played more than 2,000 snaps together the past two regular seasons. Bookend franchise tackles Dion Dawkins and Spencer Brown are north of 3,000 snaps.

Left guard David Edwards joined the team in 2023 and played 148 snaps (12.7%) before playing 977 snaps (89.8%) in 2024, when Connor McGovern (97.6% in 2023 and 88.3% in 2024) moved to center to replace longtime great Mitch Morse. Right guard O'Cyrus Torrence played 100% of snaps during his rookie year and 93.1% last season.

That type

NFL Coaching Continuity

NFL

Coaching might be the single biggest competitive advantage NFL teams can exploit during the salary-cap era.

NFL Coaching Continuity — Six members of the Chiefs coaching staff who have been with the team since 2013 (L-R): Andy Heck, Mike Frazier, Rick Burkholder, Andy Reid, Tom Melvin, and Dave Toub.

Here's where I'm at in building out an extensive coaching tree for all the sickos.

It's still in the sapling stage but the goal is to grow an evergreen so big and tall that Rockefeller Center comes calling around Christmas Future.

I went to each NFL team's website, toggled to their coaching page, and went to work compiling a timeline of the coaches' previous stops over the past three seasons.

I quickly learned that I would need to establish a few guardrails if I was going to come up with any sort of viable formula to assess coaching continuity at

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NBC Sports writer and on-air talent Denny Carter cuts through bad faith in the discourse with clear-eyed, incisive posts and enough jokes to lighten the mood while keeping us informed.

How Important Is Quarterback Footwork?

Fixing the Bills WR Problem

Fantasy Scoring Averages

Weekly Averages

Schemers Have No Aura

The Memory System

Offensive Line Continuity

NFL Coaching Continuity

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Weekly Averages

The Memory System

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Popular Tags

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Scouting

NFL Draft

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End of Football

Man, Free: A Football Newsletter

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