The ’90s were a wonderful time in our lives. I fondly remember a weird blue hedgehog thing, a dance that looked like a circular convulsion, and devices that played actual CDs in your pocket.

I also have glowing memories of NFL happiness, and the various ways glee was expressed. The younger folk amongst us may not remember a time long ago when the NFL allowed real fun and individuality to exist on the field. But it happened, and it...

It’s dangerous scouting defensive linemen these days. Too many projects and projections. Can he learn how to use his hands, scouts ask? Is he a fit in a 1-gap 3-4 defense as an end or linebacker, scouts wonder? They’re asking every question in the book and getting few answers because at the end of the day, they just don’t know. Nobody really does. Nobody knows anything. Yet decisions have to be made.

One of those decisions will be on Kony...

Chris Johnson can be annoying. It’s annoying when he shuffles and scans in the backfield, blatantly missing an open running lane. It’s annoying when he slams into the hind regions of his offensive linemen, gaining something between little and nothing. And it’s annoying when he wastes his still game-busting speed.

But Chris Johnson can also give you — the viewer, the coach, or the general manager — a wide football smile. Even during a 2013 season when he averaged a...

Eric Ebron is the best tight end in the 2014 draft. That’s not an adventurous statement, or a particularly bold one. At this point, it’s been accepted as fact.

Ebron has all the numbers and measurables we typically associate with the modern day behemoth tight end, standing 6’4″ and weighing 245 pounds. Like the Jimmy Grahams and Rob Gronkowskis of the league, he’s also versatile. When speaking to reporters at the scouting combine Ebron said he lined up away from...

On the dark green grass, he blended in with all the other offensive linemen wearing white uniforms. He stepped forward, locked his arms out and sat in his stance, creasing his knees before driving the defensive end out of the pitch play. It was simple, but he was still supposed to stand out from his teammates. He was the potential first-round pick, the team’s best linemen, the team’s left tackle.

For one play, Joel Bitonio didn’t look any different than...

The Kansas City Chiefs were a fun, scrappy team to watch in 2013. Under new head coach Andy Reid, his Kool-Aid wall bustingways, and a shiny new quarterback in Alex Smith, there was suddenly life in KC after only two wins the year before. And following nine straight wins to start the season there was hope for something far more than just franchise rejuvenation, however false it may have been with the five backup quarterbacks Chiefs pass rushers were...

During draft season we have a lot of time to think, a lot of time to talk, and a lot of time to listen as others talk. On the surface those aren’t bad things, because analysis is what we do around here, and thinking mixed with talking is what leads to the learning and evaluating. It’s a cycle, you see.

But sometimes that cycle can more so resemble a spiral of blinding, white nothingness, and the result is both comedy,...

The headlining quarterback during the 2009 draft has been inconsistent at best, and the draft overall wasn’t nearly as strong as the two years that followed. But it did give us a long-haired man now beloved in frosty Wisconsin, and another linebacker who disregards normal football conventions. Like wearing a helmet.

Our draft nostalgia journey continues…

The BIG story

If he could ever develop something that resembles a consistent throwing motion, maybe in future 2009 draft nostalgia pieces Matthew Stafford...

Humans do stupid things daily, all ranging in severity and consequence. As I write this there’s probably at least one groggy individual who did the classic reverse through the garage door stunt. That’s dumb, but the harm is only to door, car, and pocket. Like so many others, it’s also an example of a private matter. A privately stupid matter, but you get the idea nonetheless.

Aldon Smith is a different sort of idiot. He’s the extreme and completely clueless kind,...

Earlier this morning to (dis)honor Draft Day I went through the absolute worst in pigskin film creations. Now we follow up with the best of the bestest.

Ultimately any sports movie list is influenced by age, and in no way did I show that below with the exclusion of old classics like North Dallas Forty and Brian’s Song. Nope.

5. Monday Night Mayhem (2002)

This rarely gets love in other similar listicles, because that’s what happens with sparsely viewed TV...

Tonight if you really want to treat someone special in your life to a romantic evening, remember that Draft Day is now in theaters and available for your viewing pleasure.

Every time I see the trailer for this film, I have two frightening realizations:

• Someone actually thought it was a good idea to make a movie about the NFL draft.
• Many people are going to pay a lot of money to watch a movie about the NFL draft.

Making a...

Out of nowhere the pass-rusher threw a right jab like a boxer. One second he’s running downhill and the next … BAM! He pinned the offensive tackle on his heels, with the blocker stumbling into his own backfield, waiting for someone — anyone —to help. The pass-rusher went through the tackle and turned the corner, pressuring the quarterback out of the pocket and forcing an incompletion.

That’s the norm for the 6’3″, 251-pound Khalil Mack, who is a specimen from...

Lately I seem to be contemplating the end quite a bit. The football end, first with Tom Brady. I’m not sure what that says about my current worldview, and I’m also not sure I really want to know.

Even if it’s just briefly, somewhere late at night behind a closed door in an office cave every general manager spends time in April thinking about the end for a superstar who’s either aging, or consistently absorbing a lot of abuse....

From his 6’5″ frame hang nearly 34-inch long arms, creating a towering pass-rusher that has off-the-charts potential. When his size blends with his athleticism and explosiveness, he becomes a rare prospect that’s arguably the most impressive in this May’s draft.

But there needs to be more to a prospect than size and athleticism. Technique and tools are necessary, such as powerful hands and disciplined pad level. That’s where questions start to arise with UCLA’s Anthony Barr, who can be one...

Because nostalgia is fun and so is the pain of horribly failed decisions, over the next month we’re going to fire up the ol’ time machine and revisit drafts. Unofficially this great journey started Monday with a not-so distant trip to 2011, the year of the pass rusher.

At each stop we’ll remember the major storylines, the busts, the bargains, the trends, and some other things that start with “the”. Today, 2010 is under the microscope, and conveniently that’s...

“Old” can be a moving target in football, but it’s one we still generally have pinned down. Running backs are considered old at the age of 30, which is why, if they’ve been handling a steady workload throughout their career (hi there, Chris Johnson), we begin to talk about decay at the depressingly early age of 28.

Wide receivers last a little longer, but as we’ve seen with the likes of Randy Moss and Chad Ochocinco/Johnson in recent years, their...

During this driest of NFL dry seasons, the draft is torn down, reassembled, and deconstructed again (rinse and repeat), we’re reminded that each draft takes on its own unique characteristics and reflects the current league climate.

In 2005 three running backs were selected in the top five: Ronnie Brown, Cedric Benson, and Cadillac Williams. Nearly a decade later we recall that draft as a crushing failure and the beginning of the running back draft spiral. In the nine years since only three other backs were...

When DeSean Jackson was released by the Philadelphia Eagles and then later signed by the Washington Redskins, he became the latest of a special breed: players who are tolerated only for a short time by their current head coach, or just not tolerated at all.

To the surprise of absolutely no one, today there were more reportsthat Jackson was petulant in the Eagles locker room and not liked by his teammates. The dislike became so strong that despite still...

Buying low on a player works best when said player later becomes a sell high candidate. That doesn’t mean he has to be sold and traded again, but rather it simply means his value has risen high above expectations after your purchase at a bargain price.

When the Bills acquired Mike Williams for a mere sixth-round pick today, that became the goal. In a sense the move mirrors the sort of trade or signing often pulled off by the New...

Everything about Pete Carroll in Seattle feels right. The fanbase that quite literally shakes the Earth with its gameday roar has the league’s most energetic head coach, a man who’s seemingly on a constant caffeine drip as he defies all laws of human behavior at his quite elderly age. If you weren’t reminded nearly every game, it would be a very funny joke when someone told you that at 62 years young Carroll is behind only Tom Coughlin in age...

The quarterback draft fall is an interesting creature. As is the case with any breath and action a quarterback takes throughout his life, there’s far more attention given to his struggle.

WIth that uber importance and bright spotlight, a miss on a quarterback ends the unemployment of many people (see: Cleveland, Minnesota). This year as we sit currently just over a month away from the draft, a fall for one of the three quarterbacks hovering around the top ten feels inevitable,...

His passes fell incomplete. They beelined off his palm like a kamikaze pilot, flying across the green grass before sinking in it. They sailed through the bright stadium lights and into the dark sky before going over the receiver’s head. They blindly flew out of bounds and bounced hopelessly on the sideline.

But it didn’t matter, because UCF’s Blake Bortles had potential. The one word that all the personnel men love to use until they’ve fired for using it. Then they...

Chris Johnson is many things, and few of those things are good right now. Set to turn 29 a few weeks into the 2014 season, he’s an old man by the standards of his position, a decline made even more real by his 2,014 career touches. He’s also a shell of his former self, with less explosive downfield shaking and/or baking, and much more backfield dancing that ends badly. He had only 1,077 rushing yards this past season, which is a drop...

The guy on the left isn’t better than the guy on the right.

The NFL draft is a hope factory, which is why it’s dissected relentlessly for weeks. The heart can’t control what it wants, but it’s important that throughout the process we all remember this: too often hope is mistaken for knowledge.

The online draft community has grown in recent years, pushed by the access to All-22 film. Increasingly there are more voices, and with that comes more thoughts,...