Doesn't seem necessary to write up a grade of every team's final results.  Too many of them are B's.  Most teams did Good.  A couple did great, a couple barely had picks, and a couple seemingly went incomprehensible.  

For those I do take a closer look at, I'm mostly looking for coherent strategies.  For example, going by Best Player Available, the Eagles absolutely won.  Again.  One of the benefits of having an awesome roster though right?  When you have no needs, its easy to just sit around and grab the best you can.  Good for Howie, but not as entertaining for us. Sadly the Ravens similarly feasted

Cardinals are not in as good of a place.  But they chose coherently: all D# except for one pick.  TB did the same.  Not complex, but not all problems are, I like it!!

Jax I think had an amazing draft.  They had too many holes to fill.  Therefore, they mostly filled the defensive backfield, presumably so that numbers can swarm up front.  And then they slam dunked several offensive picks to round it out.  Good picks and effective strategy imo.

Vegas might be another one I'll put at amazing.  They appear to have feasted very well on trade back picks.  I didn't like their top WR chosen as much as others, but they got multiple at several key positions, and Jeanty.  Hard to hate such a thorough job of successfully addressing everything.

Seattle I'll call borderline amazing.  I love a lot of their picks.  It doesn't feel as coherent as I'd like however.  Mark it as a wait and see, but it could prove promising.

Browns leaned into interesting.  Too many holes obviously.  They ignored the O-line, and built everywhere else.  RISKY.  It could work.  The current O-L is old or broke, but top notch when working.  So its a little house of cards.  It could work well, or it could fall apart entirely.  I don't particularly like this strategy, but it has coherency.  And some of their individual picks I love.  Most especially the TE Fannin; he's a perfect fit to line up with Njoku.  
On its own note: I kinda like double-dipping at QBack too.  Hopefully offseason testing will prevent a total carousel, but that's more for the future benefit rather than this year.  Tony Dungy was a huge fan of Dillon Gabriel, but I don't know much about him beyond what I've read today.

Patriots and Colts both had a few picks I really liked, although lacking the continued flash of some of the above.  Still an A to both

Denver and LAC both had particularly great defensive strategies with a hint of flash to make them A

I kind of surprisingly like what the Giants did for strategy, except for the wasted trade up to get a QB right before the rest started sliding. Where Texans are the opposite.  Their strategy seemed bad, but they also picked some of the best.  B's by strange routes lol

Who tanked?

Da Bears.  Tripling and Quadrupling down on the things your team was best at does not mesh.  If this team does well, give all credit to Ben Johnson; cause they don't seem to have a vision of what they are trying to build.  

Falcons.  Not entirely just because of the massive trade up.  Like TB and the Cards, they also went all D#.  Unlike Cards and TB, I'm less convinced that what they are building makes any sense for a coherent D# strategy.  But since I don't know their current roster very well, I'm almost content to leave this in the wait and see pile... just not optimistically, given they did the same dumb shit last year

Steelers were yet another team going almost all D#.  Their choices make sense but...  I can't make sense of putting all your eggs in the Aaron Rogers basket.  Will Howard doesn't feel like a real back up option to that, unless maybe they feel comfortable trading for Cousins or something also.

Not sure I can totally make sense of the Lions' picks either.  Two offensive guards and a mostly undiscussed second round WR just seems adjacent to their needs and a low value choice respectively.

I havent found a good spot to just evaluate the trades themselves.  There were so many it was a bit absurd.  Makes me think there was a consistent approach to value with them from the GMs in many circumstances.  Doesnt seem likely to have happened accidentally.

https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/bucs-guarantee-undrafted-free-agent-ben-chukwuma-a-nigerian-native-300-000-to-sign

Derek Carr is retiring! Saints are going to be bad this year. 

wow i wasnt expecting that.  you could argue the Saints wouldn't have been that good even with Carr lol, but yeah going right to a B-grade rookie for a replacement does not bode well for them at all, at all

on Fantasy:
https://www.nbcsports.com/fantasy/football/news/2025-fantasy-football-playoff-schedules-to-attack-bucs-and-falcons-are-primed-for-points

Two years ago I juggled several common draft strategies to test them.  On the whole, I did not find most of them to matter (esp the "stacking" strategy mentioned several times in that link).  Strength of schedule however seemed to be one of the few that rose to the top as potentially valuable.  To adapt that, last year, I leaned HEAVILY on the above approach i.e. not just strength of schedule, but specifically strength of schedule during the fantasy playoffs.  Only to have it be made irrelevant, when my QB got injured second week of the playoffs 5mins into the game.  Because of this, I will not be leaning nearly as heavily on that approach this year.  But I'm also not going to ignore it.

Last year I designed my own numerical weighting system rather than use any links like the one above.  For good reason.  An article from this site:
https://www.sharpfootballanalysis.com/
had tipped me off to an intriguing concept of "strength of rest."  Basically taking a look at where teams were being run down due to too much travel, games too close together, etc.  It was super intriguing and extremely valuable.  I didn't like taking their numbers as presented however, because they baked in other assumptions of team strength (like the Falcons being good) that I did not buy into.  

How much effort I put into it this year will probably be more based on how busy I am in Aug more than anything else.  But when I saw that posted, it did make an interesting discussion point.  If nothing else, Strength of Schedule is one of the few things that i could probably analyze before Aug; b/c it won't be changing significantly.

Edit: found link for Rest Disparity woot

https://www.sharpfootballanalysis.com/analysis/10-things-you-need-to-know-nfl-schedule-2025/

lol yall were just talking bout dis laswsuit

https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/fan-who-sued-over-shedeur-sanders-draft-slide-requests-early-discovery

Anyone have knowledge of Lou Anarumo (former Bengals DC) as to his effectiveness?

some quick takeaways from what i caught (admittedly small) from yesterday:

Browns still got cinci's number on D#.  why our kickers seem to all be cursed is... concerning.  hopefully the dropped passes clear up.  for cinci, preseason wasnt enough to iron out there offense?  that is concerning.  After Jags they got a lot of good D's to go up against, they will really need to get their precision back if they are going to succeed

Lions.PAckers.  Only one concern for Lions despite their epic loss.  That O-line needs to do better.  It was their biggest strength.  I made fun of them for drafting at that position as much as they did.  And now its their weakest point?  Concerned.  But my only concern, the rest of the pieces are there.  for GB, i do think they are for real.  they gave the eagles more of a struggle than anyone else last years playoffs in their SB ascension.  love's injuries look cleared out of the way.  and Parsons...  it is concerning the news reports that "No AFC Team wanted to trade for him."  collusion is the only thing that can make sense there

TB/Atlanta.  only caught the tail end of this one, but i still loved how TB was able to come through in the end.  Still got a lot of confidence there.  Atl I never had confidence in...  but i did like Penix in college so it was nice to see him looking legit.  

Pitt fans are probably going to like Rogers now LOL.  i was mostly just happy to see the Jets do well though.  like 3 of us IRL were feeling good about them, but the media reports had me questioning the collective instincts a little bit more than usual on this one.

GO BILLS!!  freaking love what they are doing in buffalo.  hopefully getting Hairston back will help their D# even out a little bit.  but some other guys were stepping up, and for once the bills miracle victory had help from more people than just josh allen.  

didnt get to watch Colts play but am super excited about their asskicking.  i had expected nothing less than failure from Mia though, so want to see it against a real team next.  Den next week will probably be an impossible mountain, but more winnable games are on the horizon after that

Hou might be my biggest concern.  i had thought they relied too much on Mixon last year.  now that flaw seems particularly emphasized

unanswered question:

i didnt get a good feel on how Sea game played out, and am very curious

also a little surprised Titans were as competitive as they were.  something to that? or just first week jitters for Den?

LV/Pats played out numerically like i expected but i havent even caught highlights there so that could just be coincidence rofl

https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/nfl-player-tracking-clocks-jordan-davis-at-18-59-mph-on-blocked-field-goal-return

<3 / gutlaugh

Is it just me or are the Seahawks going to crush the Cards tonight?  Can't believe the spread is so low

All right Seahawks slaughtering Cards as expected.  Boring game; let's throw some darts at odds for the rest of the week.

my "easy" picks underlined.  those with just comments but not markings are too dicey for me

Sunday, Sep. 28
-1.5  Minnesota vs Pittsburgh  +1.5 9:30 am - international games are chaos not touching it
-2.5  Washington at Atlanta  +2.5 1:00 pm
+16.5  New Orleans at Buffalo  -16.5 1:00 pm 
+8.5  Cleveland at Detroit  -8.5 1:00 pm
+7.5  Tennessee at Houston  -7.5 1:00 pm - i like Hou to win but thats a lot of spread.  if i had to pick i would go titans to cover
+4.5  Carolina at New England  -4.5 1:00 pm
-5.5  LA Chargers at NY Giants  +5.5 1:00 pm - this might be a double-bet scenario... or triple-bet
-2.5  Philadelphia at Tampa Bay  +2.5 1:00 pm - eagles should win but that spread is crazy awkward to guess around
+4.5  Indianapolis at LA Rams  -4.5 4:05 pm - i might be guilty of wishful thinking here, but i would take colts on the moneyline to win outright
+3.5  Jacksonville at San Francisco  -3.5 4:05 pm - most interesting game of the week, with two borderline teams struggling with themselves.  i'm crazy interested in the result for future discussion, but def not picking a winner here
-2.5  Baltimore at Kansas City  +2.5 4:25 pm - unfortunately, this might also be a double-bet scenario; but i would rather not and cheer for KC 😀
+1.5  Chicago at Las Vegas  -1.5 4:25 pm - the range of outcomes is so high with both these teams.. unlimited possibilities plays better in imagination than gambling
+5.5  Green Bay at Dallas  -5.5 8:20 pm - is Dal seriously favored here?  take Green Bay on the moneyline for higher payout!!  either that or triple-bet it
Monday, Sep. 29
+2.5  NY Jets at Miami  -2.5 7:15 pm
+7.5  Cincinnati at Denver  -7.5 8:15 pm

ugh 4/10 no bueno

rofl i've literally split games every week so far between the two fantasy leagues.

playoff quicktakes!!

Saturday, Jan. 10

4:30 p.m. 5 Los Angeles Rams at 4 Carolina Panthers (FOX, FOX Deportes) - yeah Rams easy, previous upset not enough to change my mind

8 p.m. 7 Green Bay Packers at 2 Chicago Bears (Prime Video) - this would be a good game to drink to!!  i'll pick the Bears, but not with a ton of confidence

Sunday, Jan. 11

1 p.m. 6 Buffalo Bills at 3 Jacksonville Jaguars (CBS, Paramount+) - This game should be the game of the week;  I'll take Jags in a shootout.  

4:30 p.m. 6 San Francisco 49ers at 3 Philadelphia Eagles (FOX, FOX Deportes) - I'll be cheering for the niners, but 4real they too beat up.  money's on Eagles.

8 p.m. 7 Los Angeles Chargers at 2 New England Patriots (NBC, Peacock, Universo) - i'll take this as the designated trap game.  Chargers grind out an ugly win.

Monday, Jan. 12

8 p.m. 5 Houston Texans at 4 Pittsburgh (ESPN/ABC/ESPN+/ ESPN Deportes; ManningCast-ESPN2/ESPN+) - Houston.  but also not with a ton of confidence.  what happens when two smuggling defenses have punt wars maybe.

Leaning Seahawks to win it all

just diving into footage from the Combine.  it'll still be another month before i'm hearing the more valuable draft analysis, but i surprised myself by enjoying interviews from the new head coaches for both Browns and Ravens.  

stumbled on this in comments of the Browns' Monken interview: