Well...well...well...only a scant 6+ months later (since the preseason opener) and the NFL 2025 season is officially over. Seems like just yesterday that we were ready to start the 2025 season where we all knew the Eagles were a burgeoning dynasty, Nick Sirianni had been ‘made’, Jalen Hurts was a beloved and respected ‘MVP’, Saquon was clearly the best player in the game and the 1.01 for FF 2025 for sure...but make sure to watch out for Chiefs, the favorite to win the 2025-26 Super Bowl, and the Eagles better watch out for the emerging Washington Commanders and new FF QB1 Jayden Daniels. Man...the Eagles, Commanders, and Chiefs...Sept. 2025 we all thought they are so good/headed in the right direction that there’s no way they would ever fall any time soon or turnover much/any staff in the years to come.
Welcome to 2025 reality...everything you thought you knew about the NFL ‘ways’ is either now false/outdated or it’s true it’s just the timelines have shrunk from years to weeks for things to change or rise or get dismantled.
We had one of the greatest NFL seasons upheaval of the norms, so many 2024 garbage teams doing 180s to win their division (a tied-for-the-record seven new division winners, and a tied-for-the-record two worst-to-firsts this season), and so many climactic ending regular season and playoff games...so many division titles changed hands...the most hard-to-predict playoff tournament I’ve ever seen -- it was arguably the greatest thrill ride NFL season of my 15+ years of covering and studying the league.
So, it only makes sense the most radical, transformative, and intriguing season with the most wide-open field playoffs would end with the most boring ass game of the season and kinda ruin it all, to a degree.
It’s like if the movie The Karate Kid would have ended with us seeing the great karate highlights and most moments of the key matchups for Daniel all the way to the finals, like the original movie did...but then there was a swerve at the end where Daniel LaRusso did win the All Valley Karate Championship, but he did so via an essay contest vs. Johnny. And the final scene between them was the two vaunted finalists having their final battle for the title being them literally reading their 5,000-word essays aloud from a podium and the judges voted (3-0) that Daniel had the best essay...centered around the power of not bullying.
...and in-between every paragraph, read by the finalists, they would pause for several commercial reads from local businesses.
...and at halftime Pat Morita sang Japan’s top songs of the day, and he sung them strictly in Japanese...surrounded by dancing Bonsai trees...and also strong, independent geishas were shaking their backsides at the camera.
And all that singing by Morita would’ve been so frustrating for me as a viewer because I’m not very cultured nor do I know any other language...in fact, I only know of what I assume is Japan’s top song of all-time: https://youtu.be/nGy9uomagO4?si=SOPyyrt-uaDAelZF
Wait...what were we talking about? Oh, yeah...the Super Bowl summary/critique = it was kinda boring.
I thought the Patriots really had a shot at winning when I saw the first two series by Seattle because it looked like to me that Sam Darnold was throwing right into tight coverage and ‘getting away’ with some throws early and that we might see ‘bad Darnold’ too much, but Darnold settled in/course corrected, and the Seattle O-Line + run game/Kenneth Walker started taking over, and Jason Myers started doing Jason Myers 2025 things (another former Jet they don’t mention the dumb franchise let go, that now also won a title with Seattle like Darnold...in fact they played together with NYJ in 2018), and the Seattle defense started abusing Will Campbell even more...and well...it was a slow anaconda squeeze for the Patriots’ ultimate demise.
The Seahawks win...arguably the best team in the NFC...their fate changing by the Week 16 miracle game where they were getting trounced by the Rams, but then a Keystone Cops finish handed Seattle the win, and gave them the golden path to the NFC West title AND #1 seed, and ultimately a title game win over probably the 5th-best team in the AFC.
Congratulations to the Seahawks! You better hope Klint Kubiak wasn’t your Ben Johnson...and that once he’s gone, the crumbling begins. But enjoy it for now, Seahawks! We usually respect and revere our Super Bowl winners for many years...like the Philadelphia Eagles, the prior winner to you guys -- and just look at the harmony and respect for their coaching staff and franchise QB going on with that team after one year removed from a Super Bowl title.
Player/Event notes...
-- This game was another perfect example of my preaching on how the quarterback differential in a particular game/season is not the driving force to predict the winner of any game in this playoff...and really not as much of a factor in-season anymore. The era of the ‘quarterback being everything’ is dead...it had a good 30-40 year run. Now just about every team has a good QB...some have two good QBs.
We are now living in the age of the offensive line is everything...and parallel to that is the coaching staff means a lot, but more from the standpoint of what they destroy just as much as how they create. The difference of Sean McVay vs. Aaron Glenn means more, big picture, than who their QBs are. Maybe that’s a bad example...let’s say the Titans with Brian Daboll at O-C to mentor young Cam Ward vs. the Titans with the Brian Callahan disaster might be a better example...or Sam Darnold with NYJ and Carolina versus him with SF-MIN-SEA.
Not that the coaches didn't always matter but it's going to stand out more now because all teams are gonna have a good +/- quarterback. Joe Burrow and Patrick Mahomes and Aaron Rodgers and Josh Allen and Peyton Manning aren’t going to be able to cover for bad head coaches and/or their staff anymore because those QBs are/were so much better than the rest of the league’s QBs. A lot of the ‘big name’ QBs didn’t even make the playoffs this year. None of the vaunted ones made it to the Super Bowl. Sam Darnold and Drake Maye did.
And if O-Line is everything...the Seattle O-Line was just better than the Patriots here...and it didn’t even have to be so much the Seattle O-Line’s goodness as much as it was the Patriots O-Line's badness.
And, again, don’t drool over the great Seattle pass rush here. As I wrote/noted this morning in my morning report:
Once again, a game is determined by the #1 thing in football...offensive line.
Seattle sacks in games before the Super Bowl:
1 = v. LAR (NFC title game)
2 = v. SF
3 = v. SF
2 = v. CAR
0 = v. LAR https://x.com/fdsportsbook/status/2020694344056164368?s=43
1 = v. IND https://x.com/barstoolsports/status/2020685540451074117?s=43
Then 6 sacks, officially, here.
All those games listed before the Super Bowl...the low sack totals -- Seattle won them all.
This game seemed more about...
The Seattle O-Line development down the stretch and into/through the playoffs...and the Patriots O-Line getting exposed, as it has this whole playoff.
It’s more about Klint Kubiak, who Seattle will very much miss when he leaves...but he leaves behind a nice O-Line structure.
Klint Kubiak is better at his job than Josh McDaniels.
Seattle’s defense was great, but this is more about the Patriots ultimately, finally being exposed as a fraud representative in this game.
Drake Maye got sacked 6 times and was hit 11 times.
Sam Darnold got sacked once and hit 6 times.
End of game analysis.
The Patriots or any team, outside of Joe Burrow, can not overcome that massive differential in QB sacks/hits.
The decision by the Patriots to take Will Campbell #4 overall in the 2025 NFL Draft, which we were vehemently against...and not taking Grey Zabel instead, which we were vehemently trying to push as arguably the #1 greatest asset in the draft (with Ward and Hunter)...and thus allowing Zabel to fall to Seattle -- it changed the course of history, potentially.
Will Campbell got the media and NFL analyst’s push, but he ended up a joke after these playoffs...he has been a joke of an offensive tackle for a while now. Might be a good guard someday, but he is not a very good left tackle. Credit the Patriots that they got this far with the issue.
-- One of my favorite moments of the Super Bowl, when I saw the advertisement from Netflix that they are making a movie based off a character from the Tarantino movie ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’. I’m a Tarantino fan...and the upcoming The Adventures of Cliff Booth is my kinda jam. Thanks Netflix for giving me a focus to keep fighting this cancer -- gotta make it to this summer to watch this!
Sorry to bring the mood down with that, but I like to make light of heavy things. But I’m doing fine...I’m whooping cancer’s behind still.
https://youtu.be/Xw8x8NWGnDM?si=yzY4Gzf_8bSYBD5K
-- As I was watching the Patriots struggle to protect Maye and as he struggled to make throws downfield, I kept thinking -- why not use your TEs more, and right away...why challenge Seattle’s strength in downfield and outside coverage?
Then that shifted to -- where are all the screens, Josh (McDaniels)? Why did you guys even draft TreVeyon Henderson? It was supposedly because he was so good in the screen game and in pass blocking, but he ended up a disaster in pass blocking and barely used/barely effective in the screen game.
The decisions to draft Will Campbell and TreVeyon Henderson may have done more damage than not.
-- Good Will Dunkin...Ben Affleck does a great job/puts a lot of energy into the Super Bowl commercials he’s involved with. I appreciate that.
https://youtu.be/tbxKPgf7lkQ?si=VpksisczwOzDvbh5
-- So, it was 9-0 at halftime...three field goals...which really was a ‘bummer’ of a 1st-half. A defensive struggle/sloppy football that made it seem like Seattle was inevitable...because New England was showing they didn’t belong...and that’s the way it would end too.
A very boring, uninspired, lacking in storyline/intrigue game for the first two quarters (and beyond). So, maybe the half-time show would save us?
-- I’m seeing/hearing more discussion and battle about what Bad Bunny represents in the political arena than any discussion about the on-field product of ‘football’.
I have three takes on this Bad Bunny event...
1) It wasn’t ‘for me’. I couldn’t understand what was being sung or what was happening in the background or any of it. I was not ‘entertained’...I was more left in a stupor trying to figure out what was supposed to be happening...what was the point?
2) If your halftime show garners way more heated debate than your football product, that may not be a good thing over time. Or just not a good statement about the state of your product in general.
3) Add points #1 and #2 together and my overall take is...
The Bad Bunny halftime show is ‘not for me’, and that’s fine. The entire game was ‘for me’. A 5-hour TV event...and 4.5 hours of it was for me! The other 0.5 hours, I could go hit the facilities and restock my snack plate. What do I care about the halftime of any game, especially this one...except this halftime I actually watched, the first time all year I watched an entire halftime.
If this were a regular football game with no spectacle at halftime, no over-the-top show at halftime, no drama at halftime...then like 50-75M people would watch the game worldwide if it were treated like a regular ol’ NFL game. But add pre-show events, and crank up the pomp and circumstances, and add a very popular (and suddenly controversial) halftime musical artist -- then you go from 75M viewers to 100M+.
The NFL doesn’t care if you/us ‘the real football fans’ liked everything about this event...they just wanted us, and double the amount of us, to watch this spectacle. Higher viewership numbers = higher charge on ad rates = more revenue for the NFL = more salary cap = more money for the players and coaches and staff.
Did I politically like or not this halftime show or the pre-game concerts? The NFL does not care if I did or not...they just want you/us to watch the spectacle. And then that being the case, you have to give credit to the NFL = Mission Accomplished. We all watched.
Any of the offended by Bad Bunny? You’re not quitting watching football, so why let it bother you? Hate watching it and getting offended...you played right into their hands. The football game part of the show is ‘for me’...the halftime show is for the other non-football fans. Let them have their 20 minutes of this international event/TV show. It is a perfect time for anyone to go away and get more chips and drink.
I have watched 15 Super Bowl halftime events to review them for my game report...I enjoyed zero of them, and I really cannot remember any of them...so why would I let this year’s version affect me? Let the other people enjoy it. I’ll be back for the second half kickoff, and the world will not have changed one bit.
If you think Bad Bunny is moving the political needle, may I remind you of the same thoughts people had about Taylor Swift’s political influence...and it never moved the needle in the desired way.
The NFL needs to convert more Hispanic and Latin communities to American football over Fútbol. So, it’s actually smart. The NFL’s biggest growth market opportunity in the world...and they go get arguably the most popular singer of that community to perform the halftime show. It’s kinda brilliant to bring in new fans.
For every one offended person that’s ‘done with football’ because of this (which is silly), there were probably 10-20-50 new international fans introduced and now interested more in American Football.
"When you step back and look at the board, it’s actually diabolical. The NFL is using Bad Bunny to dismantle the global stranglehold of Fútbol from the inside out. They aren't just trying to put on a show; they are using an international icon as a Trojan Horse to wheel American Football right through the gates of the global market.
Think about it: while the 'purists' are busy being offended, the NFL is introducing 50 million new sets of eyes to the American product. They are using a hero of the Latin music world to lure fans away from the pitch and toward the gridiron. By the time the international audience realizes what’s happened, they’ve already been exposed to the ads, the spectacle, and the 'American Dream' of the NFL/’Merica.
They used the most popular singer on the planet to undermine his own culture’s favorite sport. It’s not a cultural mistake; it’s a corporate invasion. We aren't just sharing the stage; we’re conquering it. The Americans are coming, and we’re using their own stars to lead the march. U-S-A. U-S-A!!!"
https://youtu.be/w_VS6xC51io?si=4vFXR6HBOpV-uywl
Maybe Roger Goodell isn’t as dumb as I thought?
I’m for Bad Bunny for the halftime show every year if it means American football viewership goes up 25-50% more and it becomes the world’s sport as the NFL adds Mexico and United Kingdom or Greenland as their next two expansion teams.
We’re (American football) gonna conquer the world’s top sports...and we’re using their own popular stars to do it! Devious. Don’t sell American ingenuity short.
-- You could see that Drake Maye was losing confidence as the game wore on, and as the hits to him kept coming, and as the incompletions mounted. I again was asking...where were the adjustments, Josh McDaniels? Or was it Drake Maye’s fault for not adjusting?
I saw no real adjustments the entire game from the Patriots to get the offense going in a unique way.
Maybe it happened, but I might have been busy talking to my son and/or scrolling on my phone due to boredom with the game to notice what was happening...
-- I didn’t see this make many lists for top commercial, but I thought it was absolutely brilliant: https://youtu.be/DWRx_cTW9pM?si=53mXF-5IU1K0WPEG
-- Congrats to Kenneth Walker on his Super Bowl MVP!
If Zach Charbonnet hadn’t torn his ACL, this all never would’ve happened (the Walker renaissance)!
But now it has. And now Kenneth Walker will hit the apex of valuation in the Dynasty/Fantasy community...and in the NFL in his free agency.
Should you be trading Kenneth Walker in Dynasty right now?
We’ll be discussing that this whole month in reports, as well as a look at the RB group as a whole for 2026 and beyond, and in our Dynasty rankings/valuations that will be out near the end of February and constantly updated weekly all off season with all the latest news, free agency, trades, the draft, and the preseason.
-- Let’s rag on the Super Bowl some more before we look at some other items...
I think part of the ‘boring’ narrative everyone has about this game, part of it for sure was the initial low scoring and the Patriots kinda never being truly ‘in the game’...but I think there’s another issue rearing up, quietly = ‘Super Bowl fatigue’.
You know that thing where a private equity/big corporation buys a storied franchise, or my example here is gonna be with a restaurant...where a big money firm buys the founder-led rapidly growing business and immediately corporatizes it, trying to squeeze every ounce of money out of the thing they bought -- and they do so by slowly cutting back on ingredients quality and sacrificing service and reducing headcount/staffing and the next thing you know -- you’re Wendy’s or Panera...one-time respect giants in the faster food industry, now a shell of themselves.
Panera used to bake their breads onsite with real bakers early mornings, their baked goods were a huge success and Panera’s swept across the land. A private equity firm bought them and took over, and I see reports online from current and past employees talking about how they collapsed and why they left their employ to go elsewhere -- the private equity firms changed to no more fresh baked goods onsite, too expensive to employ real bakers, now a lot of their stuff is mostly made at a ‘center’ and shipped to the stores and the homemade soups and sides made on site are now bagged and frozen from a centralized distribution location.
Foot traffic...down. Staff reduced. Reduced staff overworked. Prices up. Revenues and profits...winding down. Who loves...or even likes Panera anymore, and if you do -- I bet it’s not like you used to love it.
That is the Super Bowl, potentially...’I bet it’s not like you used to love it’.
It’s now a giant parade of celebrities and gimmicks and halftime show controversies...all to push viewership numbers and thus advertising rates. The NFL HAS TO play to and eventually expand into an international market. The NFL is going the Starbucks route: growth through international expansion because they’ve peaked at home. They aren't a football league anymore; they’re a global media conglomerate that happens to own some helmets.
The NFL is moving towards serving growth and not caring about serving its foundational customers much anymore and will sacrifice quality for growth hopes and profit grabs. I can’t blame them...their goal is to make money, like any business. But making money from here probably moves away from satisfying their core customers...they think ‘we’ll (the fans) always be here’ because we love the product so, but so does/did McDonald’s think that...and it’s slowly starting to come apart for the golden arches, an American Icon business ruined/past its prime. Eventually, the K-Marts and Wal-Marts that seem like no one could ever stop them...they eventually get surpassed by a new thing.
It will take a long time for it all to play itself out, literally and figuratively, I assume...and maybe the NFL will course correct at some point, but most big corporations don’t...they hit a wall and don’t know how to adjust/to ‘right their ship’...and they keep sailing right into the iceberg.
But for now...we enjoy the ride and try to profit from their mistakes via FF and betting. It’s still the best weekly episodic television show of our generation...just an unsatisfying season-ender episode almost every year now.
And, yes...Bradley Cooper...I hate to break it to you...football is a ploy to try to sell you food (and GLP-1s). It’s the way the world works.
