7/20 MON
(8:10amET)
Today/tomorrow
-- Devy Series post all through the rest of July into August.
-- DST hierarchy/rank daily series from my research, 2-a-day added for the Draft Guide analysis.
-- Working on the HOLY series this week. Each position report will drop as they are completed. Next up: The HOLY WRs. The HOLY series will wrap up next week...WR, TE, DST/PK, all the HOLY and how it sets up the 1st-round strategy.
-- New TST video posts today: RB #3 as we start a look at some of the top RB prospects for the 2027 NFL Draft. *Was supposed to post yesterday, posts today.
Friday we dropped Jadan Baugh, Florida: https://youtu.be/tsF64-D92G0
Thursday we dropped Ahmad Hardy, Missouri: https://youtu.be/uXWag8RYlrw
-- Miscellaneous reports on things that come my way and more scouting reports to come. I have a backlog of them to get published already.
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NEW DISCORD NOTIFICATION SYSTEM/INVITE: FFM Discord Notification System
*This is not a chat room. It is a one-way channel for FFM notifications about newly posted items and critical breaking news.
This Week’s/Month’s Agenda…
-- DRD rankings will now update rankings and add/update commentaries, etc., every THU or FRI for the rest of the preseason.
-- Dynasty and Best Ball rankings audits/updates weekly +/-.
-- Full scouting reports on various prospects from now until the NFL preseason. Deeper looks at Cyrus Allen and more all on deck.
-- Any FFM News & Notes or Special Reports during the day as I get them.
== NEWS & NOTES & Xs ==
-- Slow football news day/weekend, the last if it’s kind for half-a-year. So, let me talk about the World Cup and soccer for a moment...and if this personal opinion after me watching some of the title game Sunday offends anyone -- I’m not apologizing for any of it, it’s my opinion.
So, before we talk about the World Cup/Final here’s my soccer background...it’s limited.
*One of my sons played soccer from age 5-14. City teams. Church leagues. ‘Select’ travel teams. I really enjoyed watching the game of soccer through my son’s career. I love many sports overall--but among youth sports and soccer might have been my favorite ‘watch’ of them all (especially because I didn’t have to coach it). Even though I never played the game myself.
*I’ve watched most of the Men’s USA World Cup games over the past 16-20 years. I’ve watched some Women’s USA soccer games too, but not recently. I watched all the USA Men’s games in this year’s tourney...and also happened to catch half +/- of the Argentina-England semi-final match by accident at a restaurant.
*I watched the 2nd-half of Argentina-Spain final Sunday. I kinda forgot it was on midday Sunday...I was too busy watching my new favorite team: The Pittsburgh Pirates. I had my close friend come in for a visit this weekend and all did was watch sports (baseball, MMA, and old 2025 season football games running on NFL Network), placing bets on them, and eating too much.
OK, that’s my soccer bio...here’s what I want to talk about...
So, we’re watching the World Cup Finals Sunday, 2nd-half of a 0-0 game. We understood the gravity of the game/finale. So, we’re watching it...and time after time after time after time...guys are falling down all over the place from real hits, quasi hits, phantom hits...falling down to try to get a penalty, obviously...I’ve seen it a million times in World Cup. Not in youth soccer...only in pro soccer.
So, we’re watching Spain-Argentina and the game could hardly flow because everybody was falling down and trying to draw a penalty...acting like they just got shot but a sniper rifle in the leg...always the knee/leg...they could get slightly bumped in the shoulder and they fall down and start clutching their knee in the worst acting job in the history of acting...the WWE laughs at World Cup Soccer player’s physical pain acting skills.
My friend and I just kept commenting--What is going on? Is this their title game? Are these the two best teams in this majestic sport? All they’re doing is flopping around like dead fish every other minute!
It was so awful of a viewing experience...we just turned it off and went back to watching a midseason Pirates-Guardians game instead...that was our statement on how much we valued the championship of the world in soccer.
It was so bad we turned it off.
This was your crown jewel event of your world’s most popular sport, Soccer? Your sport sucks. Not at the youth level, not in in America youth level (haven’t seen youth version in other countries)...your World Cup event--it could be so great, but it overall sucked. When the commentary of every game I watch, when talking to friends who were watching it is--how did they call that blatant acting job a foul? How did they give a red card for that bang-bang play where someone fell down?
The NFL flirts with disaster with all the technical/eyeball contest fouls where penalties get judged by how exactly a big guy landed or didn’t land on a QB. Wide receivers constantly throw their arms in the air and fling their one arm in a gesture to call a penalty/throw a flag. We all hate that. NFL games are now won and lost on a judgement call or not a call made that should’ve been. The NFL has to get this under control before they turn into soccer. We’ve got all this great camera capturing and AI technology...we should check every penalty for 15-30 seconds after it’s called, for a review in a control room to make sure it was a foul.
Optional, just spit-balling: I also think players gesturing and screaming for calls to be made--it should invoke a penalty as well for them acting like idiots. And let the coaches have 3-5 challenges to throw to call for a booth review on a penalty not called, but the coaches/team thinks the refs missed a call. Also let the control room buzz down to the refs on penalties they see.
As bad as the NFL is getting soccer-like, they aren’t (yet) flopping on the ground like a captured marlin on a fishing boat every minute of the game. You can’t earnestly watch/enjoy a soccer game with this constant nonsense...and the NFL is starting to flirt with the same issue, in a different way.
So, my friend and I shut off the soccer title game. But as the Pirates and Astros games got out of hand and we saw on our phones that the World Cup Final was getting late in the game and still 0-0, we turned back to it to see how it would finish.
More flopping.
Eventually, Spain won.
And with all the class in world...after the game ended, a few Argentinian players immediately went over to random Spanish players and sucker punched/pushed and kicked them and knocked them over before they could start celebrating with their team.
My summary of this wonderful, global iconic tournament held in the USA--I was completely turned off by it, the finale was one of the worst sporting events I’ve watched (half of). The referees are an absolute embarrassment...and that’s caused by the governing body allowing the nonsense to happen.
Why soccer is so iconic, when a similar sport is a thousand times more difficult, graceful, with absolutely (almost) no flopping, but doesn’t get NEAR the full respect that it deserves--it’s hockey. Guys could literally get into a fistfight midgame in Hockey and pay an instant price for it...because hockey was smart enough to clean up its sport and doesn’t coddle/cater to fighting and cheap shots anymore. You can legally smash players in hockey if you do it cleanly, but one wrong move trying to play too physically and off the ice you go. Hockey is referee’d wonderfully. Soccer is referre’d like too many European and South American governments are run--illogically, ineffectively, wide-open to fraud, hard-to-watch.
I think of World Cup Soccer today: I conjure the image of players fake-falling down and grabbing at their one random leg and writhing around like they blew out an ACL...and then 10 seconds later they get up and sprint down the field back into play like nothing happened.
I think of World Cup Hockey today: I remember Jack Hughes... https://youtube.com/shorts/AkcWv9umQsY?si=mSpkzFbXhiHIN5tO
-- The Athletic’s Matt Schneidman said Tucker Kraft (knee) “wouldn’t divulge the plans for his participation early in camp” when asked about them on Sunday.
The Packers have no reason to push Kraft. He knows the offense…same coach…same QB. He doesn’t need to be at camp early. If he sits out it doesn’t mean anything. As a Kraft owner I’d want him to sit out. If I see him practicing right away I’d be scared…scared he’s rushing back to be a macho man but it’s gonna set him back at some point.
-- Teams fully reporting this week...
Seattle Seahawks — Renton, Wash. (Rookies report July 17, Everyone reports July 24)
San Francisco 49ers — Santa Clara, Calif. (Rookies report July 18, Everyone reports July 25)
Carolina Panthers — Charlotte, N.C. (Rookies report July 21, Everyone reports July 22)
New England Patriots — Foxborough, Mass. (Rookies report July 21, Everyone reports July 24)
Arizona Cardinals — Glendale, Ariz. (Rookies report July 22, Everyone reports July 22)
Los Angeles Rams — Los Angeles, Calif. (Rookies report July 25, Everyone reports July 25)
== QUOTES & QUOTABLES (pulled from an internet A.I. search, I try to make sure it’s accurate but some of it is ‘trust in AI’) ==
-- “He’s a dynamic player,” Ben Johnson said, via the Bears’ website. “I’ve known that about him since he came into the league, firsthand up there in Detroit, and certainly last year I wasn’t surprised about the year he had. So, is he capable of more? Absolutely. He absolutely is. He’s a vital part of what we do here.”
-- Cam Skattebo also was asked whether he enjoys being regarded as a “wild maniac.”
“I totally enjoy that part,” Skattebo said. “I think I less enjoy the ‘brain-dead kind of guy.’ But it is what it is. I mean, the New York people love it, so I’m just gonna keep being me. And if they wanna say I’m brain-dead and I don’t have no brain, then who cares? Fuck it, you know?”
-- "Coach want me back so I can draw all the coverage and make it easy for the guys that remind him of himself back in his heyday," Brandon Aiyuk posted on his Instagram story, with a thumbs down emoji, a man emoji and a garbage can emoji.
-- George Kittle blasts NFL for World Cup surface at stadium
-- Grey Zabel on the Green Light with Chris Long Podcast:
“Poona Ford’s a great example. Dude, just pure raw strength. Like, he picked me up, like just lifted me up as I was trying to base block him, and I’m like, ‘Alright, yah I can’t do anything about it’. Kobie Turner’s the same way…I know for a fact that I would ten times out of ten, I would rather block a bigger, stronger, slower guy than some short, stocky, quick dude who can go side-to side in just like, the blink of a second.”
Zabel was then asked about, and discussed the moment after the Seahawks’ NFC Championship win over the Rams when Zabel immediately went up to Kobie Turner. Zabel explained that he was bummed Turner got hurt in the game, and he wanted Turner to know how much Zabel values facing off against him.
Sean McVay and Les Snead talk about wanting to draft guys who love football and according to Zabel, Turner is exactly that. Also, based on Zabel’s response, he seems to love football as much as anyone else in the league right now.
“Well, first off, Kobie Turner is like my kryptonite right now in the game of football. Like, I don’t know what it is, he’s just got my number, he just works me every single game, but it’s so cool. Like I said, as much you, like, want to hate the Rams, like, they’re all really good dudes. Across the board. And like Kobie, for instance, he’s out there and he just smiles. Like he just plays the game for the love of the game. No question about it. And it was a sad deal because he got a little banged up, and he couldn’t finish that NFC Championship Game. So, the moment after the game was done, I just went and talked to him, talked how awesome he was, and what a great game…how fun it is to compete against him. And he’s just an unbelievable guy. I mean, if anybody watching knows Kobie, they know exactly what I’m talking about because it’s…he’s top tier. He’s what makes the game fun to play against defensive lineman.”
Your moment of Zen for this day...
-- https://x.com/fdsportsbook/status/2079016657607860531?s=46
-- https://x.com/draftkings/status/2079012665049952524?s=46
-- https://x.com/siriusxmsports/status/2078967148559434223?s=46
== Daily Series ==
Let’s check in on the top receiver groups for a fun little tournament all July. We’ll do one matchup per day. The top 3 WRs facing off, then #4 matchup is the lead receiving TE, then #5 is the #4 WR matchup. Best of 5 matchups, first to 3 wins...and we’ll stop it when hit the three wins.
I will pick the WR that I like best as if I were an NFL GM...and just for having them for the 2026 season...based on talent not age/injury worries. Strictly talent I covet.
LAR v. SF
1) Puka d. Ricky Pearsall (LAR 1-0)
2) Mike Evans d. Davante (wanted to get the iconic older guys facing off...1-1 tie)
3) Jordan Whittington d. Christian Kirk (LAR 2-1)
4) George Kittle d. Terr. Ferguson (2-2 tie)
5) De’Zhaun Stribling d. Konata Mumpfield (SF 3-2)
Then Rams actually lost at something in 2026! A mild shocker. That Evans-Adams matchup is debatable--but Mike Evans has been a #1 for the past 2-3 years in his 30s...Adams has not been a #1 in a while.
We’re onto the Sweet 16!!
Into the Sweet 16:
NE d. NYJ (3-2)
BUF d. MIA (3-0)
PIT d. CLE (3-0)
CIN d. BAL (3-2)
JAX d. TEN (3-1)
HOU d. IND (3-0)
DEN d. LV (3-0)
LAC d. KC (3-0)
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NYG d. PHI (3-2)
DAL d. WSH (3-0)
MIN d. CHI (3-0)
DET d. GB (3-0)
NO d. CAR (3-1)
TB d. ATL (3-2)
SEA d. ARI (3-2)
SF d. LAR (3-2)
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