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Top 10 NFL Drafts of the Past 30 Years

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With the NFL draft looming on the horizon, it’s time to look at some of the best NFL Drafts from the past thirty years.
The Draft is an exciting time for football fans as they eagerly await to see which players their favourite teams will select. Over the past 3 decades, there have been some remarkable drafts that have produced many stars and legends of the game.
Here we will take a look at the top 10 NFL drafts of the past 30 years, as this one isn’t going to crack any ‘top lists.’

  1. 1996 NFL Draft

    This draft produced some of the greatest players in NFL history. The top three picks in this draft were all future Hall of Famers: Keyshawn Johnson, Kevin Hardy, and Jonathan Ogden. Other notable players in this draft include Ray Lewis, Eddie George, Marvin Harrison, Terrell Owens, and Zach Thomas. The 1996 Draft had some of the top players across every position. Those were the days.

  2. 2011 NFL Draft

    The 2011 draft was one of the deepest in NFL history, producing many future stars who are still playing today. Cam Newton was the first overall pick, and he went on to win the NFL MVP award in 2015. Other notable players in this draft include Von Miller, A.J. Green, Julio Jones, J.J. Watt, Richard Sherman, and Colin Kaepernick.

  3. 1989 NFL Draft

    The 1989 draft produced three players who would go on to win the NFL MVP award: Troy Aikman, Barry Sanders, and Deion Sanders. Other notable players in this draft include Derrick Thomas, Steve Atwater, and Mark Carrier. Check out some of the pictures of the 1989 Draft, and the fashion choices alone should let you know that it was totally different era.

  4. 1991 NFL Draft

    The 1991 draft produced many future Hall of Famers, including Brett Favre, Aeneas Williams, and Herman Moore. Other notable players in this draft include Ricky Watters, Ted Washington, and Mike Croel. Hard to believe that this draft was over 32 years ago.

  5. 2012 NFL Draft

    The 2012 draft produced many top QB stars of the future, including Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III, and Russell Wilson. Other notable players in this draft include Luke Kuechly, Fletcher Cox, and Bobby Wagner. Despite being 10 years ago, there are still a few players from this draft playing in the league.

  6. 1998 NFL Draft

    The 1998 draft produced two future Hall of Famers in Peyton Manning and Randy Moss. Other notable players in this draft include Charles Woodson, Fred Taylor, and Hines Ward. This was more of the ‘grit-iron’ generation of tough as nails players.

  7. 2017 NFL Draft

    The 2017 draft produced many impact players, including the first overall pick, Myles Garrett. Other notable players in this draft include Deshaun Watson, Patrick Mahomes, Christian McCaffrey, and Alvin Kamara. This Draft is also known as the ‘coulda, woulda, shoulda,’, as many pundits and fans lament of what could have been had players signed elsewhere.

  8. 2001 NFL Draft

    The 2001 draft produced many Pro Bowl players, including LaDainian Tomlinson, Steve Hutchinson, and Richard Seymour. Other notable players in this draft include Michael Vick, Drew Brees, and Reggie Wayne. This could have been known as the HOF class, as many of the players in this group were record-setters.

  9. 2004 NFL Draft

    The 2004 draft produced three future Hall of Famers in Eli Manning, Philip Rivers, and Ben Roethlisberger. Other notable players in this draft include Larry Fitzgerald, Vince Wilfork, and Jared Allen. 2004 brought us a whack load of great QBs, which beckons when another draft like this could happen?

  10. 1999 NFL Draft

    The 1999 draft produced five future Hall of Famers, including Edgerrin James, Champ Bailey, and Torry Holt. Other notable players in this draft include Ricky Williams, Donovan McNabb, and Jevon Kearse.

The NFL draft is a significant event in the April calendar of football, and it has produced many great players over the years. The drafts listed above were some of the best of the past 30 years, producing numerous stars and legends of the game. As football fans, we look forward to seeing what the future holds for the NFL draft and the next generation of players who will make their mark on the league.

Who will be the star of the future in the 2023 NFL Draft?

 

Feb Football News

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Holy crap, is football really over? Has anyone started to go through withdrawal yet, or get a massive case of the shakes?
Well, we can help you out with a round up of some of the latest Feb Football news.

If you are suffering from some of these symptoms, try to digest the following, and make sure you watch plenty of old games.
The XFL is also on, but ughhh…so let’s start there.

XFL

Can you smell what the Rock is cooking? ‘Cause it’s smells a bit undercooked, as the XFL kicked off its third incarnation in mid Feb 2023.

When Vince McMahon first birthed the XFL in 2001, many had hoped that the league might remain and offer a building block of rosters for the NFL.
Sadly it collapsed just like his WWE dreams, before it was saved by one of his former employees.

The Rock had tried to revive the league, partner it with the CFL, then took a safety in 2021 when the then ‘coronavirus’ punched any hopes of the league restarting right in the throat.

So how did it do on its return to the airwaves in 2023?
Meh.
Ratings are down huge from 3.3 million in 2020, to well under 1.6 million for the new games.

To put that in perspective, that’s LESS than both the launch of the AAF and the 2022 debut of the USFL, which brought in over 3 million viewers.

The XFL does benefit from being on both ABC and ESPN, so there is hope for the league if they continue blasting it to bored fans.

Not so easy for us to watch in the UK though, with games not starting til roughly 1am.

Some clever clog on Reddit made a concept for an XFL expansion. We’ll just leave that here for you.

Chad Ocho

NFL legend Chad Ochocinco has dropped a big bomb on fans that he actually lived at the Cincinnati stadium during his first two years in the league.

Ever clever and good for sound bites, Ocho revealed on a recent podcast that given the Bengals stadium had showers, food, video games and more, it made sense for him to live there to save some dosh.

While no one can officially confirm that Ocho did actually live there for 2 seasons, it would be on par with the behaviour of a celebrated bon vivant of the league.

How cool would it be to play Madden on the Jumbotron when you had the stadium to yourself?

Pay Brady

Tom Brady needs money y’all, so someone else has just dumped a truck load of cash to his Florida bachelor pad.

SiriusXM has renewed Tommy’s ‘Let’s Go’ podcast with former NFL’er Larry Fitzgerald and broadcaster Jim Gray, for more cashola.

TB12 isn’t required for his 10 year broadcasting deal with FOX, in which he will make another $375 million.

Of course that won’t mean anything, if the Dolphins or 49ers get to that point in the season where they just need one top QB to get them to the promised land.

He’ll be back…

Free Agents

As we all patiently wait for the 2023 NFL Draft, eyes are on some of the top prizes in the game, and where they might end up next season.

Some of the big guys everyone will be watching includes:

Lamar Jackson

Will the Ravens be foolish enough to part with Lamar, or are they planning on building a team around him?
The ‘will they’ or ‘won’t they’ has become so infuriating with Baltimore, it feels like the romantic twist in a bad sitcom.
We predict that he will stay in Baltimore for next year and beyond.

Geno Smith

Geno was initially seen as a stop gap solution when he beat out Drew Lock to captain the Seahawks last season. Then Geno went off, and the whispers of ‘MVP’ started circling given the way he was able to sling some Seattle wins together.

So will the Seahawks pony up and pay the man?
Seems pretty bloody likely given how well he played for what he was paid.
Had their running game not gone to crap, maybe they could have made the post season.

Derek Carr

This Carr cracker crumbled in 2023, after his much hyped Las Vegas Raiders ate a big turd-burger despite some pretty marquee talent.

Carr is gone from Vegas despite promising fans that the Raiders would be the last team he would play for. He can still sling the pig skin, so it makes sense that he plays a few more years, before taking his fugly-jug to the broadcast booth next to his gorgeous bro.

We see Derek Carr heading down to New Orleans next year to lead the Saints to a losing record.

London Games

Are you ready for the Bills, Titans and Jaguars to come to London this year?

Us too, and we’ll let you know more as soon as we hear about it.

Make sure you check here for all the latest news, and thanks for reading our Feb Football News.

https://www.nfl.com/uk/international-games

 

 

Super Bowl 57 Review

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Holy smokes, what a game that was on Sunday, as we look at what went down in our Super Bowl 57 Review.

The Kansas City Chiefs are the Super Bowl champions once again, after a 38-35 victory in Arizona.
It was a back and forth battle all game, but it was the heroics of Patrick Mahomes once again that did the work necessary to get the W and hoist the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

The Eagles played valiantly, and Jalen Hurts would have been the game MVP with his touchdown performance had the game gone the other way.

Let’s take a look at some of the key takeaways from the big game in our Super Bowl 57 Review.

Kansas City Chiefs

All hail the Chiefs, who had to listen to the odes to Buffalo and Cincy all season, before getting the respect they demanded with a Super Duper performance.

Kansas City seemed to struggle a bit to get the right momentum in the first half.
The defence played fast and fierce on the line, shutting down anything that moved past it, but behind the Eagles O line, they struggled to contain Philly as the second half wore on.
Mahomes ill-fated ankle once again looked to be injured, sending the hopes of ChiefsKingdom everywhere into serious doubt.

Whatever happened in that locker room at half-time set the tone for the game, as the Chiefs changed the game in the second, making the Eagles play catch-up.
Andy Reid wisely switched to heavy run game that was able to find outside lanes for key yards, and Patty M was able to dissect the Eagles secondary for big gains.
Toney’s punt return also helped put the nail in a Philadelphia team that just couldn’t rally when it was time.

Philadelphia Eagles

You have to give to Philly for the road they took to get to Super Bowl 57, and there solid performance throughout the season and post. The Eagles may have lost, but they will be post season candidates for a while.

Jalen Hurts Wass truly a beast on Sunday, and if wasn’t for that sloppy drop that led to a pick 6, the game might have been very different.
While it took a while for Philly to find their stride in the first half, they seemed to be able to be on the right path to victory with a 10 point lead heading into the half.

The second half was another story for the Eagles, who much vaunted D left some pretty huge gaps for Mahomes and Kelce to fill. How they let so many zone holes with no one around was very perplexing. You know you’re playing against the best QB in the league right?

Heads held high Philly, if you would have won, you would still be cleaning up your broken city right now.

The Call

Penalties called in the final two minutes of the Super Bowl better be pretty damn important, or they are not worth calling.
It’s tough to say if this one was.

When now-hated ref Carl Cheffers flagged Eagles cornerback James Bradberry for holding on Juju Smith-Schuster, it allowed the Chiefs to not only get the first down, but shut down the game and clock.

Bradberry would later admit that the refs got it right, but that still doesn’t address the real issue, or an even bigger problem with refs this season.

The last two minutes of the Super Bowl should only be penalties that are so damn obvious and egregious that you HAVE to call them. Otherwise, play on.

Rihanna

Let’s not forget about the half time show of Super Bowl 57, which many Super Bowl party attendees know, is only watched by about 30% of your crowd. Everyone else is either pissing, getting pissed, pissed off about the game, or doesn’t give a shit about the artist.
True NFL fans remember the class and dignity of ‘Up With People’ and like it gosh-nammit.

It was Rihanna’s halftime y’all, as she paid the NFL over $1million to karaoke shuffle some of her greatest hits, rub her crotch, sniff her fingers, and announced she was pregnant again.
Sorry was this a halftime show, or was there going to be a gender reveal, didn’t see that in the prop bets?

The performance was anchored by some very Squid Game looking backing dancers, which gave some the impression that perhaps they might be sacrificed in some ritualistic contest to fed Rihanna’s unborn.
‘When bitch better have my money comes on, jump off the elevated platform!’

The real star of Super Bowl 57 was ASL interpreter Justina Miles, whose performance certainly shone like a diamond, and whose lip-synching was far better than Rihanna’s.

Gronk’s Kick

The much touted field goal attempt by Rob Gronkowski turned out to be a turd, as Gronk shanked it left.

Gronk blamed a ‘sudden change in wind’ as the cause of his mistake, which sounds like a line he and his brothers bring out a lot when it’s chilli night.

Although it was billed as ‘live’, it looked like the thing was pre-recorded in an Arby’s parking lot.

The real winner was no one, especially Gronk.

End in the end, it was an amazing Super Bowl 57, and the third highest watched ever with over 113 million people in America tuning in.

The season is done, and us NFL fans have no entertainment for the next 8 months, and that is it for our Super Bowl 57 Review.
Or until the XFL..or USFL..or CFL…give us football!!!

 

 

 

Goodbye Goat

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Well we all knew it was going to happen eventually, as Tom Brady finally announced his second ‘official retirement’, as we say Goodbye Goat.

At 45 years old, TB12 has played in the NFL for 23 years, with over two decades in Boston, and then the final in Tampa.
The acronym of ‘GOAT’ was originally applied to him, and it’s hard to see anyone taking that title away from him in this lifetime.

Sure, it was only a year ago that Tommy retired for 6 weeks, only to return for hist worst season ever at the Bucs.
This time the retirement feels real, but let’s see how many QBs the 49ers lose in 2023.

By Numbers

Looking at Brady’s stats per decade, he could easily make the Hall of Fame each and every decade based on his own performance.
His numbers in his 40s are staggering, including two Super Bowl titles.

Brady ends his career as the all time passing leader (89, 214 yards), most touchdown passes in the regular season (649), not to mention most pass attempts (12,050) as well as most completed passes (7753). When it comes to the digits, Brady crushes them all.

Let’s also not forget the SEVEN SuperBowls that Brady as won, that has also rewarded him with 15 Pro Bowls (who cares about Pro Bowls?) These numbers don’t even include his post season numbers, which push Tommy boy so out of reach of the regular human QBs that he plays against.

TV Time

The future for Brady looks bright, as he signed a ridiculous 10 year broadcasting contract which will keep him on our TVs for the next decade or so.
Unless he sucks.
We haven’t really had a full induction to the TB12 broadcast booth ways, and as much as people were initially enamoured over Tony Romo, the amount of schtick he took this year was surprising.

Don’t expect him to be doing any of that goofy colour-commentator crap, Tommy’s too good for that.

Brady Future

While it might be an end of era, it is also the signal for a new generation to step up and set their own records.

Most QBs in the NFL today grew up watching Brady and emulating his heroics on playgrounds across America.
Now that the GOAT can finally rest, it’s time for this new legion of stars to step up and make their own mark.

So thank you Tom Brady for showing us how truly magical it is to watch a player who was so clutch it hurt.

Also thanks for leaving Boston and silencing those very annoying fans.

We can all sleep a little easier at night with them quiet.

Thanks for everything GOAT!

Just maybe not thanks for this.

Week 16 Picks Podcast

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Ho Ho Ho everyone, and a merry Christmas to you all, as we present our Week 16 Picks Podcast.

Wade and Ryan have been pulling long hours in the toy shop, as they craft their best predictions for the Christmas slate of games in week 16.

Will Santa give our presents to all the good teams this year, or will all the bad teams get a big old steaming pile in their stockings this year?
Not up to us.

If you want to give the gift of the podcast to your friends, you can unwrap it here, and share it with those you love, like detest and hate.

Here are some of the games that Wade & Ryan look at in their picks for Week 16.

Giants (8-5-1) vs -4 Vikings (11-3) +48

Welcome to the ‘Disappointment Bowl’, where two teams who had previous high expectations, have led us all to question their voracity going forward.
Are both these teams pretenders?

The Giants have slid down from their high hopes of the past, as they start to groove into the middle of the NFC East.
With the team steadily relying on Saquon, it’s been tough for Daniel Jones to establish himself when their O-line makes it equally as difficult for him.
The Vikings have also been called Chrissie Hynde ‘Pretenders’ as of late, although their massive comeback against the Colts in Week 15 has to have added a bit of fire to the belly.
Ryan isn’t convinced that the Vikings are the better match here, and doesn’t see how Cousins is going to keep up with the pace of the Giants.
Wade also agrees that the Giants might have more to lose here given the Vikes have already clinched, so that might but a little fire under their keister.
Ryan- Giants 24 Vikings 23
Wade- Giants 26 Vikings 23

-2.5 Lions (7-7) vs Panthers (5-9)  +43.5

How about ‘dem Lions? From getting Hard Knocked around at the start of the season, to potentially ended up ahead of the Packers for second place in the NFC North.
Dan Campbell has inspired his players, and Goff and the goofs have been answering, scoring points and unleashing a D that has been tough for recent opponents.
The Panthers on the other hand have nothing to lose.
The lost Baker, they lost McCaffery, they lost Robbie, a coach…but sometimes a slimline makes you meaner.
Carolina still boasts a D that keeps them in games that they might not normally be in, and might give Sam Darnold a chance to exorcise his ghosts of the past.
Ryan loves the Lions here, and thinks that they are on the right path to victory with Dan Campbell fired up on all fronts.
He doesn’t think that the Panthers have the tools to compete with a feisty Michigan squad.
Wade is smelling an upset here, as the combination of the Panthers furious D, and the outdoor setting of the south during Christmas to give the Lions some trouble.

Ryan- Lions 27 Panthers 20
Wade- Panthers 21 Lions 18

-8 Bills (11-3) vs Bears (3-11)  +41.5

The boys have the ultimate battle on Christmas Eve, as Ryans Bills visit Wade’s Bears in Soldier Field on Saturday.
There is more at stake than pride here..actually-nope, that’s pretty much all there is.
Buffalo continues to roll despite some injuries and worries that Josh Allen might not be 100%.
The Bills D hasn’t been the same since losing Von Miller, but Josh continues to be the running and driving force for the team.
Justin Fields has been having a pretty good season, even if the Bears haven’t.
They have lost six games straight since signing Chase Claypool, and the O line is about as effective as wet cocaine.
Ryan loves his Bills for a win here, and doesn’t see how the Bears are going to be able to keep up, despite their run of Fields lately. He thinks Allen and the guys steamroll through Soldier Field easily.
Bears fan Wade isn’t as convinced. He thinks that the Bills will win, but that the weather, and fact that the Bills have to face the Bengals in Week 17 might be enough for them to have their heads elsewhere.
Ryan- Bills 28 Bears 17
Wade- Bills 26 Bears 19
That’s it for our Week 16 Picks Podcast! Hope you enjoy listening to the whole show.
On behalf from all of us at NFL in London, we wish you all the Merriest of Christmases, the Happiest of Holidays, and the safest of the season.
We’re nothing without you, so take care of each other this holiday season.