(Repost, edited some parts!)
Definitions and Terms I'll be using:
FULL LIST + EXPLANATIONS ON IMGUR: per 75, TS%, rTS%, ORTG, rORTG, PnR, PPP, AST%, Backpicks Passer Rating, Box Creation, PIPM, BPM, RAPTOR, RPM.
Name:

Jimmy Butler | "Jimmy G. Buckets"

In a nutshell: 30 y/o, Miami Heat SF/PF, 6-7, 230lb, All-NBA Candidate
2020 regular-season stats: 19.9/6.7/6.0/1.8/0.6 with 2.2 TOVs on 45.5/24.4/83.4 shooting splits (58.5 TS%), 58 games played
2020 postseason stats: 22.0/4.7/4.0/2.5/0.8 with 3.3 TOVs on 46.8/54.5/85.7 shooting splits (63.0 TS%), 6 games played
Nerd stats: 25.1% Usage, +6.4 On/Off, +3.54 PIPM ^(16th) , +6.1 RAPTOR ^(10th) , +4.1 BPM (Backpicks) ^(13th) , +5.4 BPM (BBRef) ^(9th) , +3.08 RPM ^(23rd) , +2.21 Luck-Adjusted RAPM ^(12th)

🟢 The Good:

• 🟢 Efficient volume-scorer; "Jimmy G. Buckets, The 'G' stands for 'Gets'": 21.6 Points/75 on 58.5 TS% (+2.0 rTS%) in the regular-season, 23.8 Points/75 on 63.0 TS% (+5.7 rTS%) in the playoffs thus far

Butler finished the regular-season as Miami's leading scorer. He's highly resourceful at racking up points, utilising strength, speed, craft, handles, and deft touch in the paint to compensate for a jumper that deserts him on occasion. Per Basketball Index, Butler is in the 95th-percentile at off-ball movement and finishing among wings, and in the 93rd percentile for post-scoring.
Jimmy Buckets's scoring-breakdown by zone in the 2019-20 regular-season: (per stats.nba.com)

• • 38% of his shot attempts come in the restricted area, where he's finishing at an above-average rate for forwards (64 FG%)
• • 24% of his shot attempts come in the non-restricted area of the paint (a.k.a. "floater range"), where he's also scoring at above-average rate (43.4 FG%)
• • 22% of his shot attempts come from the midrange, where he's unfortunately shot at the 2nd-worst rate in the league (31.7 FG%)
• • 16% of his shot attempts come from 3, where he's shooting at the worst rate in the league (24.8 FG%)

Jimmy uses his strength/speed/footwork combination to bulldoze or finesse his way to the rim and finish through contact, capable of athletic finishes through multiple defenders. When in the post/paint, Jimmy utilises hesitation moves and jab steps effectively, has an effective handle, excellent at keeping defenders on his hips before exploding forward and finishing either at the rim or a bit further out, with a nice little floater off two feet to finish over shotblockers. Butler is also highly physical, using his body to create space - he dips his shoulders on drives, throwing his momentum into his defender's body; he doesn't lack craft, however, using ball fakes and spins a lot (he even throws a spin-fake in there sometimes!).
To quote the great Evin Gualberto:

(Butler's) foundation is his phenomenal footwork. He’s got the poise and patience to pivot and pump, and twist, and then rip through and power to the paint. He can use his force or finish with finesse; he’ll go any way he needs in order to get to the basket, whether that’s under the defender, over, around, or even through them. He’s got the ability to hit from distance, his post game is pretty with the pristine pivoting he does, but he can also go full bully ball. Speaking of, he’s an absolute bull when he wants to get to the rim. He can score any kind of way, so as a defense, all you have to do is make him take the toughest shot possible…the only problem is, yeah, he can make those with worryingly regularity as well. He is Jimmy G Buckets after all, the G stands for gets.

In previous years, Jimmy has been a decent 3-point-shooter (36 3P% in the previous 3 seasons, on 3.2 3PA/game) and has generally shot in the high 30s from midrange, which isn't fantastic but is still a value-add to his versatility as a scorer.
In the playoffs thus far, however, Butler has been money on his jumpshots, connecting on over half his threes (though on low volume - 1.8 3PA/game) and 42% of his midrange shots (again, low volume - 12 midrange attempts) so far.
As an overall scorer, Jimmy is:

• • A hyper-competent and -active cutter ^{(8% of his possessions, 97th percentile efficiency)}
• • Fantastic in transition ^{(12% of his possessions, 92nd percentile efficiency)}
• • A competent post-operator ^{(7% of his possessions, 80th percentile efficiency)}
• • A passable PnR finisher ^{(36% of his possessions, 56th percentile efficiency)}
• • Solid in isolation situations, likely buoyed by his very good rim-finishing ^{(10% of his possessions, 68th percentile)}
• • Below-average scoring from spot-up scenerios and handoffs

Despite his jumpshot having deserted him in the regular season, Jimmy ekes out efficient scoring options via drawing fouls and very solid rim-finishing in transition, isolation, and by cutting often and decisively. To quote Zach Lowe:

(Butler) can blend into a broader offensive system as a shoulder-checking cutter, and supersede that system when the situation requires.

Accordingly, 41% of Butler's buckets are assisted, a very solid rate for a primary ball-handler who had a non-existent jumpshot during the regular-season, that showcases his off-ball activity as a ferocious cutter.

• 🟢 Free-throw rate that would make Shaq blush

Jimmy Butler's foul-drawing rate this season has been, to put it mildly, something of an outlier.
Butler is 29th in the NBA in Points/game (19.9), but 5th in the NBA in FTA/game (9.1), and just to emphasize how absurdly often Butler's been finding his way to the line relative to his total shot attempts, here's a fun little table comparing Butler's FTA/game and Points/Game to the league's other elite free-throw-attempters: [TABLE].
To try and add even more context, Free Throw Rate (FTr) is a very simple statistic that gives the ratio of free-throw attempts to field-goal attempts.
Just to ballpark the sort of numbers we expect from high-volume free-throw shooters: famed foul-shot-aficionado James Harden's FTr this season is 0.528, meaning that he averages 0.528 free-throw attempts for every field-goal that he takes. (The Beard's career-high was 0.592, set in 2013.) Paint-destroyer Giannis Antetokounmpo has a FTr of 0.508 this year, and low-post monster Joel Embiid has a FTr of 0.543. A pretty dominant fella who went by the name of Shaquille had a career-average FTr of 0.578, averaging an incredible 0.653 in a 5-year span from 2001 to 2005.
Now, keeping all of this in mind ... Miami Heat All-Star wing Jimmy Butler's Free-Throw Rate, in the 2019-20 season, is 0.693.
(If you're wondering, Butler has more than managed to maintain this in the playoffs too -- after 6 games, Jimmy is 2nd in the entire playoffs in Free-Throw Rate, posting a ludicrous 0.810 FTr. Small sample size, obviously, but wow.)

• 🟢 Good playmaker

First, some numbers: 6.0 Assists/Game, 7.5 Passer Rating, 7.4 Box Creation. Miami have a fairly strong offense (+1.9 rORTG, 6th) which improves by +4.1 points with Butler on the court. Per Basketball Index, Jimmy is in the 91st percentile for playmaking among wings.
For a few seasons now, Jimmy has been a very solid passer and playmaker. Mimicking another former well-known Chicago wing who went by the name of Michael, Jimmy is a low-turnover player (career 1.5 TOV/game; this season: 2.2 TOV/Game, excellent 2.73 AST/TOV ratio). He is a decisive and relatively low-error ball-handler and shot-creator, hitting bigs and shooters well off PnDHO-action. Butler manipulates defenders with his eyes to unlock shots for teammates, and is also adept at punishing help defenders who have to react to his bruising drives to the rim by kicking to shooters and dropping it off to cutters. He's developed especially good chemistry with Bam (25% of Butler's 6.0 AST/game go to Adebayo), Duncan Robinson (who receives 17% of Butler's assists), and rookie Kendrick Nunn (18%).
Some clips of Jimmy's playmaking: (Source: stats.nba.com)

• • Collapsing the defense w/ drive, no-look kickout to M. Leonard for 3
• • Opponent defense is in scramble situation, Butler doesn't panic and makes smart interior pass to a cutting Bam
• • Again collapses the defense on drive, attracting multiple defenders and dishing to a cutting Winslow for high-% look at rim
• • Playmaking from the post, hitting Dragic with pinpoint bounce-pass around a defender; shows good anticipation, dishing to a spot in front of Goran so that Dragic can nab it easily while cutting hard to the rim with a defender hot on his heels
• • Outlet pass to Iggy after Miami forces a turnover
• • PnR dish to rolling Bam through a thicket of opponent defenders
• • More playmaking from the post, backing down his defender and attracting multiple help defenders before whipping a kickout to Dragic for the open 3
• • PnP with Bam short midrange
• • Not a catch-and-shoot per se, but still an impressive cross-court pass

• 🟢 Excellent defender

Jimmy at his peak is easily an all-league defensive talent, with tremendous instincts and effort on D, generally remaining incredibly active on that end both on- and off-the-ball. Miami's 12th-ranked defense (-1.0 rDRTG) improves by 1.0 points with Butler on the floor. Butler’s defensive awareness is top-tier, as is his lateral quickness - he's comfortable chasing speedy guards around the court; Jimmy is also uber-switchable for his size, guarding positions 1-4 at least 18% of the time each, and guarding centers for 10% of his possessions, when switched onto bigs in Miami small-ball lineups. Jimmy is in the 82nd percentile of post defenders, fantastic given his position, and players shoot a whopping 4.4% worse on 3s when Butler's the closest defender, demonstrating his defensive engagement and closeout-speed. Butler is a very physical defender as well, often "bodying-up" larger players the post, Marcus Smart-style, crowding their space and making scoring uncomfortable.
To again quote Evin:

(Butler's) ability to stand up powerful post-up players, coupled with the quickness to stick with the shiftiest wings, and the instincts and IQ to know when to stay down and when to jump to contest, make him a dynamite defender... (he) frustrates opponents with foot speed and anticipating with active hands, he’ll blow up pick and rolls, or send his man one way only to remarkably beat him to that same spot. You’ll see jumping in passing lanes, but you’ll also just see him holding his ground a lot; in one, he even holds Melo off with one arm while grabbing the rebound with the other. His intelligence shines through when he avoids getting screened and when he forced ball handlers into help.

Butler is quite disruptive off-ball (7th in Deflections/Game, 7th in Steals/Game, 13th in Steal-%, 14th in loose-balls recovered/game), often jumping passing lanes or making crisp rotations to cut off offensive angles. He's also a plus-rebounder for his position, snagging almost seven boards a game; the Heat's defensive-rebound-% spikes by almost 3 percentage points with Butler on the court. He's generally very engaged on D, providing hard closeouts to shooters (players shoot almost 4.3% worse from 3 when Jimmy is the closest defender) and providing help when the primary Miami defender is beat. Along with Adebayo, Butler is one of the main reasons Miami's defense is still better than league-average even though many of their lineups prioritise shooting over defense (see: Robinson, Herro, Leonard, Olynyk).
Most defensive metrics (taken with a spoonful or two of salt, of course) think of Butler as a very solid positive on defense (+1.0 to +2.0); Basketball Index has Jimmy as the 4th-best Wing Stopper at Passing Lane Defense, and ranks him in the 90th percentile of perimeter defenders in the league overall. It also has him in the 71st percentile as a defensive rebounder, and in the 47th percentile as an interior defender.
Here are some clips of Jimmy's defense:

• • Activity in passing lanes leading to the easy steal and transition finish
• • Excellent on-ball pressure before stripping Bembry
• • Stonewalls Hunter in the post and forcing the turnover, showcasing his strength and quick hands
• • Helps off his man to pressure the driver and force a turnover
• • Excellent closeout to a corner shooter, showcasing his speed
• • Fantastic transition D, tracks offensive player and prevents the score without fouling
• • Absolutely inhales Sexton's layup here, showcasing his rim protection; many of his blocks seem to come like this, denying smaller guards at the rim
• • More great post D, bodying up Warren, forcing him out of position before stripping him completely

🔴 The Not-As-Good:

• 🔴 Inconsistent jumpshot

Butler suffered the 7th-biggest drop in the league in perimeter shooting grade from last year to this year (per Basketball Index). Famously, he was the least efficient jump-shooter in the league by eFG% in the regular-season.
As mentioned, though, his jumpshot has been very respectable in the bubble for now, albeit on very low volume.

• 🔴 Room for improvement in some areas of scoring

Namely: spot-up shooting, handoffs, and PnR scoring, all likely related to his regular-season shooting woes.

• 🔴 Some areas of playmaking

From my very limited film study (~15 games), Jimmy doesn't seem to try advanced passes often (though that might be a Miami Heat scheme-related issue), rarely slingshoting cross-court skip-passes to corner shooters like LeBron/Luka/Trae do (please correct me if I'm wrong, Heat fans!). He can occasionally miss cutters while hunting for the kickout pass for 3. Butler's delivery can sometimes be a bit wild or inaccurate as well.

• 🔴 Some areas of defense

Jimmy's activity does dial down on occasion. He also lacks size/strength/length to defend larger wings consistently, and his gambles can blow up on him at times too when he's springing passing lanes, with the player he's supposed to be guarding getting an open 3 or cutting to the rim as Butler isn't there to recover in time. Jimmy is also vulnerable to size at the rim - despite posting one of the best block rates in the league for a guard/forward, these are mostly on smaller players and he doesn't seem to influence shot attempts at the rim too much in general - opponents shoot almost 6% better within 6 feet of the hoop when Butler's the closest defender. It also appears that Butler's pick-and-roll defense may have some room for improvement as well (46th percentile in defending PnR ball-handlers), he may have trouble negotiating man and ball occasionally.

• 🔴 A few regular-season clutch woes

Jimmy shot 45.1 TS% in the clutch this season, with a -10.4 individual clutch net rating, while Miami as a team were 24th in clutch net rating.
However, the team still broke even in the wins column (18-18) and had a 14-10 clutch record when Butler played.
In addition, I say "regular-season" for a reason (keep in mind the usual "low sample size" asterisk, of course): Miami have been the 4th-best clutch team in the playoffs by net rating, winning all 3 of their close games so far, while Jimmy himself is sporting a blistering hot 88.7 clutch TS% and +29.8 clutch net rating at the moment, with an absolutely scorching +137.5 clutch offensive rating.

• 🔴 Few durability questions

Jimmy G. Buckets (the 'G.' stands for 'Gets') has played >67 games only twice in his 9-year career.
HOWEVER, he's been very available for the Heat this season, missing 'only' 11 games.
Indeed, Butler played heavy minutes in his last playoff run for Philadelphia (38mpg in 2nd round) as well, performing admirably in a razor-close loss to the eventual champion Raptors in the 2nd round (22/7/6 on 56ts%, +1.0rTS%, vs Toronto), very nearly pulling through a Sixers team otherwise starved of late-game offensive-creation into the Conference Finals.

That's it for today, thanks for reading!

(P.S. Here's Butler's playoff career-high 40-point performance against Milwaukee in Game 1 for your viewing pleasure: LINK.)
BONUS
heres some other things I've written (if you're interested in this sort of stuff or just wanna pass the time while waiting for the games to begin)-

• [OC] Kawhi and LeBron (player breakdown)
  
• [OC] "Unicorns": Embiid, Jokic, KAT, Giannis, AD, Bam, Siakam (player breakdown)
  
• [OC] Luka Dončić vs Brandon Ingram vs Jayson Tatum (player breakdown)
  
• [OC] 5 below-the-radar breakouts from this season: Jonathan Isaac's defense, Christian Wood, Jaren Jackson Jr.'s shooting, Kris Dunn's defense, Kawhi's playmaking (player breakdown)
  
• "Miscellaneous tidbits from the 2019-20 season that you probably know about but I decided to write about anyway", a (thus far) 3-part series: here's Part 1, here's Part 2, and here's Part 3
  
• How did the 3 teams that got swept perform in the postseason? (a brief statistical post-mortem)
  
• [OC] Midrange Mastery
  
• [OC] Post-Capela "Pocket Rockets": Player production, defense, and early returns
  
• [OC] Talking about Brandon Ingram's historic single-season shooting improvement, and Luka Dončić's case for Most Improved Player
  
• [OC] So... What's Demar DeRozan been up to recently?
  

"short"
Definitions and Terms I'll be using:
FULL LIST + EXPLANATIONS ON IMGUR: per 75, TS%, rTS%, ORTG, rORTG, PnR, PPP, AST%, Backpicks Passer Rating, Box Creation, PIPM, BPM, RAPTOR, RPM.
Name:

Jimmy Butler | "Jimmy G. Buckets"

In a nutshell: 30 y/o, Miami Heat SF/PF, 6-7, 230lb, All-NBA Candidate
2020 regular-season stats: 19.9/6.7/6.0/1.8/0.6 with 2.2 TOVs on 45.5/24.4/83.4 shooting splits (58.5 TS%), 58 games played
2020 postseason stats: 22.0/4.7/4.0/2.5/0.8 with 3.3 TOVs on 46.8/54.5/85.7 shooting splits (63.0 TS%), 6 games played
Nerd stats: 25.1% Usage, +6.4 On/Off, +3.54 PIPM ^(16th) , +6.1 RAPTOR ^(10th) , +4.1 BPM (Backpicks) ^(13th) , +5.4 BPM (BBRef) ^(9th) , +3.08 RPM ^(23rd) , +2.21 Luck-Adjusted RAPM ^(12th)

🟢 The Good:

• 🟢 Efficient volume-scorer; "Jimmy G. Buckets, The 'G' stands for 'Gets'": 21.6 Points/75 on 58.5 TS% (+2.0 rTS%) in the regular-season, 23.8 Points/75 on 63.0 TS% (+5.7 rTS%) in the playoffs thus far

Butler finished the regular-season as Miami's leading scorer. He's highly resourceful at racking up points, utilising strength, speed, craft, handles, and deft touch in the paint to compensate for a jumper that deserts him on occasion. Per Basketball Index, Butler is in the 95th-percentile at off-ball movement and finishing among wings, and in the 93rd percentile for post-scoring.
Jimmy Buckets's scoring-breakdown by zone in the 2019-20 regular-season: (per stats.nba.com)

• • 38% of his shot attempts come in the restricted area, where he's finishing at an above-average rate for forwards (64 FG%)
• • 24% of his shot attempts come in the non-restricted area of the paint (a.k.a. "floater range"), where he's also scoring at above-average rate (43.4 FG%)
• • 22% of his shot attempts come from the midrange, where he's unfortunately shot at the 2nd-worst rate in the league (31.7 FG%)
• • 16% of his shot attempts come from 3, where he's shooting at the worst rate in the league (24.8 FG%)

Jimmy uses his strength/speed/footwork combination to bulldoze or finesse his way to the rim and finish through contact, capable of athletic finishes through multiple defenders.
To quote the great Evin Gualberto:

(Butler's) foundation is his phenomenal footwork. He’s got the poise and patience to pivot and pump, and twist, and then rip through and power to the paint. He can use his force or finish with finesse; he’ll go any way he needs in order to get to the basket, whether that’s under the defender, over, around, or even through them. He’s got the ability to hit from distance, his post game is pretty with the pristine pivoting he does, but he can also go full bully ball. Speaking of, he’s an absolute bull when he wants to get to the rim. He can score any kind of way, so as a defense, all you have to do is make him take the toughest shot possible…the only problem is, yeah, he can make those with worryingly regularity as well. He is Jimmy G Buckets after all, the G stands for gets.

In previous years, Jimmy has been a decent 3-point-shooter (36 3P% in the previous 3 seasons, on 3.2 3PA/game) and has generally shot in the high 30s from midrange, which isn't fantastic but is still a value-add to his versatility as a scorer.
In the playoffs thus far, however, Butler has been money on his jumpshots, connecting on over half his threes (though on low volume - 1.8 3PA/game) and 42% of his midrange shots (again, low volume - 12 midrange attempts) so far.
As an overall scorer, Jimmy is:

• • A hyper-competent and -active cutter ^{(8% of his possessions, 97th percentile efficiency)}
• • Fantastic in transition ^{(12% of his possessions, 92nd percentile efficiency)}
• • A competent post-operator ^{(7% of his possessions, 80th percentile efficiency)}
• • A passable PnR finisher ^{(36% of his possessions, 56th percentile efficiency)}
• • Solid in isolation situations, likely buoyed by his very good rim-finishing ^{(10% of his possessions, 68th percentile)}
• • Below-average scoring from spot-up scenerios and handoffs

Despite his jumpshot having deserted him in the regular season, Jimmy ekes out efficient scoring options via drawing fouls and very solid rim-finishing in transition, isolation, and by cutting often and decisively. To quote Zach Lowe:

(Butler) can blend into a broader offensive system as a shoulder-checking cutter, and supersede that system when the situation requires.

Accordingly, 41% of Butler's buckets are assisted, an extremely solid rate for a primary ball-handler who had a non-existent jumpshot during the regular-season, that showcases his off-ball activity as a ferocious cutter.

• 🟢 Free-throw rate that would make Shaq blush

Jimmy Butler's foul-drawing rate this season has been, to put it mildly, something of an outlier.
Butler is 29th in the NBA in Points/game (19.9), but 5th in the NBA in FTA/game (9.1), and just to emphasize how absurdly often Butler's been finding his way to the line relative to his total shot attempts, here's a fun little table comparing Butler's FTA/game and Points/Game to the league's other elite free-throw-attempters: [TABLE].
To try and add even more context, Free Throw Rate (FTr) is a very simple statistic that gives the ratio of free-throw attempts to field-goal attempts.
Just to ballpark the sort of numbers we expect from high-volume free-throw shooters: famed foul-shot-aficionado James Harden's FTr this season is 0.528, meaning that he averages 0.528 free-throw attempts for every field-goal that he takes. (The Beard's career-high was 0.592, set in 2013.) Paint-destroyer Giannis Antetokounmpo has a FTr of 0.508 this year, and low-post monster Joel Embiid has a FTr of 0.543. A pretty dominant fella who went by the name of Shaquille had a career-average FTr of 0.578, averaging an incredible 0.653 in a 5-year span from 2001 to 2005.
Now, keeping all of this in mind ... Miami Heat All-Star wing Jimmy Butler's Free-Throw Rate, in the 2019-20 season, is 0.693.
(If you're wondering, Butler has more than managed to maintain this in the playoffs too -- after 6 games, Jimmy is 2nd in the entire playoffs in Free-Throw Rate, posting a ludicrous 0.810 FTr.)

• 🟢 Good playmaker

First, some numbers: 6.0 Assists/Game, 7.5 Passer Rating, 7.4 Box Creation. Miami have a fairly strong offense (+1.9 rORTG, 6th) which improves by +4.1 points with Butler on the court. Per Basketball Index, Jimmy is in the 91st percentile for playmaking among wings.
For a few seasons now, Jimmy has been a very solid passer and playmaker. Mimicking another former well-known Chicago wing who went by the name of Michael, Jimmy is a low-turnover player (career 1.5 TOV/game; this season: 2.2 TOV/Game, excellent 2.73 AST/TOV ratio). He is a decisive and relatively low-error ball-handler and shot-creator, hitting bigs and shooters well off PnDHO-action. Butler manipulates defenders with his eyes to unlock shots for teammates, and is also adept at punishing help defenders who have to react to his bruising drives to the rim by kicking to shooters and dropping it off to cutters. He's developed especially good chemistry with Bam (25% of Butler's 6.0 AST/game go to Adebayo), Duncan Robinson (who receives 17% of Butler's assists), and rookie Kendrick Nunn (18%).
Some clips of Jimmy's playmaking: (Source: stats.nba.com)

• • Collapsing the defense w/ drive, no-look kickout to M. Leonard for 3
• • Opponent defense is in scramble situation, Butler doesn't panic and makes smart interior pass to a cutting Bam
• • Again collapses the defense on drive, attracting multiple defenders and dishing to a cutting Winslow for high-% look at rim
• • Playmaking from the post, hitting Dragic with pinpoint bounce-pass around a defender; shows good anticipation, dishing to a spot in front of Goran so that Dragic can nab it easily while cutting hard to the rim with a defender hot on his heels
• • Outlet pass to Iggy after Miami forces a turnover
• • PnR dish to rolling Bam through a thicket of opponent defenders
• • More playmaking from the post, backing down his defender and attracting multiple help defenders before whipping a kickouts to Dragic for the open 3
• • PnP with Bam short midrange
• • Not a catch-and-shoot per se, but still an impressive cross-court pass

• 🟢 Excellent defender

Jimmy at his peak is easily an all-league defensive talent, with tremendous instincts and effort on D, generally remaining incredibly active on that end both on- and off-the-ball. Miami's 12th-ranked defense (-1.0 rDRTG) improves by 1.0 points with Butler on the floor. Butler’s defensive awareness is top-tier, as is his lateral quickness - he's comfortable chasing speedy guards around the court; Jimmy is also uber-switchable for his size, guarding positions 1-4 at least 18% of the time each, and guarding centers for 10% of his possessions, when switched onto bigs in Miami small-ball lineups. Jimmy is in the 82nd percentile of post defenders, fantastic given his position, and players shoot a whopping 4.4% worse on 3s when Butler's the closest defender, demonstrating his defensive engagement and closeout-speed.
To again quote Evin:

(Butler's) ability to stand up powerful post-up players, coupled with the quickness to stick with the shiftiest wings, and the instincts and IQ to know when to stay down and when to jump to contest, make him a dynamite defender... (he) frustrates opponents with foot speed and anticipating with active hands, he’ll blow up pick and rolls, or send his man one way only to remarkably beat him to that same spot. You’ll see jumping in passing lanes, but you’ll also just see him holding his ground a lot; in one, he even holds Melo off with one arm while grabbing the rebound with the other. His intelligence shines through when he avoids getting screened and when he forced ball handlers into help.

Butler is quite disruptive off-ball (7th in Deflections/Game, 7th in Steals/Game, 13th in Steal-%, 14th in loose-balls recovered/game), often jumping passing lanes or making crisp rotations to cut off offensive angles. He's also a plus-rebounder for his position, snagging almost seven boards a game; the Heat's defensive-rebound-% spikes by almost 3 percentage points with Butler on the court. He's generally very engaged on D, providing hard closeouts to shooters (players shoot almost 4.3% worse from 3 when Jimmy is the closest defender) and providing help when the primary Miami defender is beat. Along with Adebayo, Butler is one of the main reasons Miami's defense is still better than league-average even though their lineups prioritise shooting over defense (see: Robinson, Herro, Leonard, Olynyk).
Most defensive metrics (taken with a spoonful or two of salt, of course) think of Butler as a very solid positive on defense (+1.0 to +2.0); Basketball Index has Jimmy as the 4th-best Wing Stopper at Passing Lane Defense, and ranks him in the 90th percentile of perimeter defenders in the league overall. It also has him in the 71st percentile as a defensive rebounder, and in the 47th percentile as an interior defender.
Here are some clips of Jimmy's defense:

• • Activity in passing lanes leading to the easy steal and transition finish
• • Excellent on-ball pressure before stripping Bembry
• • Stonewalls Hunter in the post and forcing the turnover, showcasing his strength and quick hands
• • Helps off his man to pressure the driver and force a turnover
• • Excellent closeout to a corner shooter, showcasing his speed
• • Fantastic transition D, tracks offensive player and prevents the score without fouling
• • Absolutely inhales Sexton's layup here, showcasing his rim protection; many of his blocks seem to come like this, denying smaller guards at the rim
• • More great post D, bodying up Warren, forcing him out of position before stripping him completely

🔴 The Not-As-Good:

• 🔴 Inconsistent jumpshot

Butler suffered the 7th-biggest drop in the league in perimeter shooting grade from last year to this year (per Basketball Index). Famously, he was the least efficient jump-shooter in the league by eFG% in the regular-season.
As mentioned, though, his jumpshot has been very respectable in the bubble for now, albeit on very low volume.

• 🔴 Room for improvement in some areas of scoring

Namely: spot-up shooting, handoffs, and PnR scoring, all likely related to his regular-season shooting woes.

• 🔴 Some areas of playmaking

From my very limited film study (~15 games), Jimmy doesn't seem to try advanced passes often (though that might be a Miami Heat scheme-related issue), rarely slingshoting cross-court skip-passes to corner shooters like LeBron/Luka/Trae do (please correct me if I'm wrong, Heat fans!). He can occasionally miss cutters while hunting for the kickout pass for 3. Butler's delivery can sometimes be a bit wild or inaccurate as well.

• 🔴 Some areas of defense

Jimmy's activity does dial down on occasion. He also lacks size/strength/length to defend larger wings consistently, and his gambles can blow up on him at times too when he's springing passing lanes, with the player he's supposed to be guarding getting an open 3 or cutting to the rim as Butler isn't there to recover in time. Jimmy is also vulnerable to size at the rim - despite posting one of the best block rates in the league for a guard/forward, these are mostly on smaller players and he doesn't seem to influence shot attempts at the rim too much in general - opponents shoot almost 6% better within 6 feet of the hoop when Butler's the closest defender. It appears that Butler's pick-and-roll defense also has some room for improvement as he may have trouble negotiating man and ball sometimes - he's in the 46th percentile in defending PnR ball-handlers, which isn't terrible, by any means, but is still far from elite.

• 🔴 A few regular-season clutch woes

Jimmy shot 45.1 TS% in the clutch this season, with a -10.4 individual clutch net rating, while Miami as a team were 24th in clutch net rating.
However, the team still broke even in the wins column (18-18) and had a 14-10 clutch record when Butler played.
In addition, I say "regular-season" for a reason (keep in mind the usual "low sample size" asterisk, of course): Miami have been the 4th-best clutch team in the playoffs by net rating, winning all 3 of their close games so far, while Jimmy himself is sporting a blistering hot 88.7 clutch TS% and +29.8 clutch net rating at the moment, with an absolutely scorching +137.5 clutch offensive rating.

• 🔴 Few durability questions

Jimmy G. Buckets (the 'G.' stands for 'Gets') has played >67 games only twice in his 9-year career.
HOWEVER, he's been very available for the Heat this season, missing 'only' 11 games.
Indeed, Butler played heavy minutes in his last playoff run for Philadelphia (38mpg in 2nd round) as well, performing admirably in a razor-close loss to the eventual champion Raptors in the 2nd round (22/7/6 on 56ts%, +1.0rTS%, vs Toronto), very nearly pulling through a Sixers team otherwise starved of late-game offensive-creation into the Conference Finals.

That's it for today, thanks for reading!

(P.S. Here's Butler's playoff career-high 40-point performance against Milwaukee in Game 1 for your viewing pleasure: LINK.)
BONUS
heres some other things I've written (if you're interested in this sort of stuff or just wanna pass the time while waiting for the games to begin)-

• [OC] Kawhi and LeBron (player breakdown)
  
• [OC] "Unicorns": Embiid, Jokic, KAT, Giannis, AD, Bam, Siakam (player breakdown)
  
• [OC] Luka Dončić vs Brandon Ingram vs Jayson Tatum (player breakdown)
  
• [OC] 5 below-the-radar breakouts from this season: Jonathan Isaac's defense, Christian Wood, Jaren Jackson Jr.'s shooting, Kris Dunn's defense, Kawhi's playmaking (player breakdown)
  
• "Miscellaneous tidbits from the 2019-20 season that you probably know about but I decided to write about anyway", a (thus far) 3-part series: here's Part 1, here's Part 2, and here's Part 3
  
• How did the 3 teams that got swept perform in the postseason? (a brief statistical post-mortem)
  
• [OC] Midrange Mastery
  
• [OC] Post-Capela "Pocket Rockets": Player production, defense, and early returns
  
• [OC] Talking about Brandon Ingram's historic single-season shooting improvement, and Luka Dončić's case for Most Improved Player
  
• [OC] So... What's Demar DeRozan been up to recently?
  

New England Patriots

Division: AFC East 2019: 12-4, Division Win
Before I dive in, I want to give a massive, massive thanks to timnog - who is a national treasure and the resident .gif queen of the Patriots - and arbrown83 - who provides excellent high-quality OC and manages patriotsdynasty.info, a definitive repository for content complete with data and .gifs spanning the past 20 years. Basically everything in this piece that isn't sourced in the click (twitter, youtube etc.) came from one of them and I don't want to imagine what this would look like without them.

Coaching Changes:

Losses

• Joe Judge: After eight seasons with the team, five as our Special Teams coordinator, Joe Judge has left New England to take on a head coaching job with the New York Giants. New England's special teams units have been consistently good to great during Judge's tenure with the team and particularly played a massive part in the 2018 Super Bowl victory against the LA Rams. With Judge's departure the team faces special teams uncertainty for the first time in nearly a decade
• Dante Scarnecchia: One of the few dedicated position coaches in the NFL with broad name recognition among many fans, Dante Scarnecchia has been one of the best position coaches in the league and a franchise legend. Scar has survived 5 General Manager transitions, 4 different head coaches, 3 decades of coaching, 2 sales of the franchise and a partridge in a pear tree return to work after a two year hiatus in retirement. Scar has been pivotal in the franchise's ability to continually identify and develop raw physical talent into serviceable or better starting linemen over the past 20 years. He heads off into retirement (part 2) and will be sorely missed
• Bret Bielema: After two years with the team as a consultant and defensive line coach, Bret Bielema has departed with Judge to take on a defensive advisory role with the Giants

Additions

• Jedd Fisch: Added to the offensive staff as the Quarterback's coach, Jedd Fisch has spent the better part of 20 years bouncing around between college and the NFL with the Texans, Ravens, Broncos, Seahawks and Jaguars before landing most recently with the LA Rams as a senior offensive assistant and assistant offensive coordinator in 2018/2019. Fisch brings a broad scope of experience to the table as an offensive mind. The linked article goes into some schematic possibilities that his addition may foretell, but we'll look closer at that in a later section
• Troy Brown: After stepping in last August to try his hand coaching, team Hall of Famer, fan favorite, RecevieReturneCornerback Troy Brown has been officially added to the coaching staff. While he spent much of last season working with the receivers, recent news says Brown will be working with the running backs as we go into camp. Whatever the case, if the man can impart even a fraction of his work ethic and selfless attitude onto the players he will be a welcome addition to the staff

After last year's mass coaching exodus there are relatively few losses among the coaching staff this season, but two of them are major losses that will certainly be felt. The team has remained true to form this year in handling coaching turnover - losses have been addressed by promotions from within and the team has brought in one mid-priority, experienced outsider to supplement.

Free Agency

Players lost/cut

Player	Position	New Team	Contract
Tom Brady	QB		2 yrs, $50M
Kyle Van Noy	Edge		4 yrs, $51M
Jamie Collins	LB		3 yrs, $30M
Danny Shelton	IDL		2 yrs, $8M
Ted Karras	C		1 yr, $3M
Nate Ebner	ST		1 yr, $2M
Elandon Roberts	LB		1 yr, $2M
Phillip Dorsett	WR		1 yr, $1M

• Tom Brady gets his own dedicated posts. It's simply impossible to talk about Tom Brady's Patriot tenure and legacy or what he has meant to the team, fan base and the sport of football inside a larger body post like this. The reddit limit for text posts is 40k characters and I could easily eclipse that talking about Brady and his career. I wouldn't be doing anybody justice by trying to shoehorn that commentary in here next to comments about Kyle Van Noy and Danny Shelton. It's simply a different universe of impact and significance from both objective and emotional angles. Suffice it to say in this section that he leaves a Lovecraftian void in his wake
• Kyle Van Noy received a well-deserved payday after delivering above and beyond expectation on his opportunity in New England. Acquired in a trade-deadline deal in 2016, Van Noy worked his way through backup duties into a significant role as a hybrid edge defender. In 2017 after Dont'a Hightower went down for the season injured, Van Noy stepped into the #1 LB role, playing starter's snap share as a valuable run stuffer and pass rusher, from the interior or from the edge, standup or hand in the dirt, even in coverage or blowing up screens, sometimes doing multiple in the same play. KVN became Mr. Utility in the front 7 and spent the past few years making plays in any way a front 7 player can. Van Noy leverages a well rounded skill set to impact games in any manner possible, and he's helped the team to three super bowl appearances and two wins doing it while being one of the best players on the field in SB53. He leaves for Miami to rejoin the man who helped unlock that skill set and I will not be happy seeing him on the other side of the field twice a year in the immediate future
• Jamie Collins leaves the Patriots for a second time after an excellent 2019 and a major bounce back from his poor showing in Cleveland. Initially drafted by New England in 2013, Collins rose quickly to become a key defensive force early on, capitalizing on explosive athleticism and a well rounded skill set (I know it's repetitive but it's the truth. I suggest you get used to the terms "well-rounded" and "versatile" now) to create a major impact in the 2014 playoffs, to earn 2nd team All Pro honors in 2015, and to get himself traded away to the gulag Cleveland in a surprise move in the middle of 2016. Collins came back home on a one-year deal in 2019 to try and show the world he deserved one more big pay day. He delivered with gusto. Through the first half of the season Collins was performing at an all pro level for a nightmarish New England Linebacking corps, primarily contributing exceptional coverage and explosive pass rushing skills but also playing a key role against the run. Contrasting with Van Noy, who is much more of a by-the-book type player without any outstanding athletic traits for the position, Collins has made his career largely on his absurd athletic potential and instincts, which were still on full display at age 30 this season. He leaves for Detroit to rejoin the man who helped unlock his skill set and it's nice that the Patriots won't need to see him across the field twice a season
• Danny Shelton heads to Detroit as a big man who delivered in a big way on his 2019 one-year prove-it deal. Shelton is not the kind of name that turns heads, but he brought a significant physical presence to the interior of a defense that had been fairly vulnerable to the ground game when opponents could lean into it. He wasn't much of a pass rusher - though he did have his moments - but he was a stout run-stuffer and anchor in the middle of the D, playing the second most snaps of all of Patriot DL on the season. He leaves some large shoes to fill and his loss significantly weakens the Patriot hair game
• Ted Karras also heads to Miami after taking on a starter's role at Center with less than one month's notice on the heels of David Andrews' season-ending blood clot situation. Karras, a 6th round pick in 2016, played just 430 snaps over three seasons as a reserve OL before responsibility was thrust upon him this season. Karras played admirably on over 1000 snaps and while he wasn't blowing any doors off the center position - particularly early on when he was still hammering out some snap-issues that had also flared up in 2017 - the fact that he was able to play 90% of New England's offensive snaps from a reserve role without creating glaring issues was nothing short of a godsend. Karras took home the 2nd highest paycheck league-wide from the NFL's Performance Based Pay program for his efforts, and frankly the $3M contract he received from Miami was surprisingly low given how hard it is for some teams to find a competent starting center
• Nate Ebner follows Special Teams coordinator Joe Judge to New York after carving out an 8 year career as a dedicated special-teamer. Did you know he also played rugby?
• Elandon Roberts wraps up an impressive Patriot tenure that was largely spent wanting to run through mother fuckers' faces. I've given Roberts some shit in the past for being the one player I've seen with a unique ability to fill the right hole at the right time but manage to not even touch the ball carrier, but the guy is an awesome locker room presence, willing special teamer, named team captain and just all around up for anything. Recently seen filling a need at receiver, Roberts heads out to join Patriots south where he'll go do whatever the hell they need him to
• Phillip Dorsett heads to Seattle on a minimal 1-year deal. He leaves New England much the same way he came, as a former 1st round pick with a ton of speed and not much production. He has flashed for the team at times in a 3rd/4th/5th target role but struggled when asked to do more. He'll haul in a few long bombs when things go just right though, and that's always a treat

Players signed

Player	Position	Old Team	Contract
Beau Allen	IDL		2 yrs, $7M
Adrian Phillips	S		2 yrs, $6M
Damiere Byrd	WR		1 yr, $1.6M
Dan Vitale	FB		1 yr, $1.3M
Brian Hoyer	QB		1 yr, $1M
Marquise Lee	WR		1 yr, $1M
Brandon Copeland	LB		1 yr, $1M

New England entered the 2020 Free Agency period without much cap space to speak of. After placing a franchise tag on Left Guard Joe Thuney and re-signing Free Safety Devin McCourty, the team was left without much of anything to work with. Trading away Duron Harmon turned out to be a necessary move solely for the cap ramifications.

• Beau Allen is a very large man who plays in the middle of defensive lines. He's worked as a depth IDL for the Eagles and Bucs, and would seemingly be the replacement for Shelton. Certainly not a disruptive pass rusher with just 2.5 sacks to his name across 6 seasons, he's done some good work against the run in limited snaps and appears to have an open path to a more significant role. He'll even attempt to replace Shelton in the hair game, just with his face
• Adrian Phillips has been a depth/rotational safety for the Chargers for 6 years while contributing on special teams at an all-pro level. He's the exact kind of guy Belichick loves to pick up for versatility and depth purposes, but he's also done enough on the field as a true safety to believe he can function in that capacity as well. Phillips is my favorite addition this season and given the age of the other safeties on the roster he'll have an opportunity to break into the lineup with significant snaps
• Damiere Byrd is a very fast receiver. He hasn't been able to really break out in the pros, but he's shown up with brief flashes as a returner and deep threat. He'll have an open opportunity to seize that role without many major challenges in his way
• Dan Vitale is a Fullback who has opted out of the 2020 season to put in even more work on his biceps due to conerns over COVID-19
• Brian Hoyer is the muthafuckin' destroyer
• Marquise Lee was brought in as a veteran option to compete for a receiver role. He's a talented player who has struggled significantly with injuries in recent years. He has recently opted out of the season due to concerns over COVID-19
• Brandon Copeland is a versatile linebacker who has performed mainly in a rotational role for the Jets over the past few years. He's shown an ability to play the deep hole zone coverage, which was a Jamie Collins special, and to put a hand on the ground and rush a passer or run a stunt. He's an unheralded name but those qualities might allow him to step into the giant chasm of opportunity left at linebacker in the wake of Collins and Van Noy's departures

Not much in the way of splashy names. Those signings left New England without even enough money to sign a draft class. Without even enough cap space to fit a veteran minimum contract, the team couldn't have possibly added any more players..... Wait. What?

Player	Position	Old Team	Contract
Cam Newton	QB		1 yr, $1.75M

Well, damn. - •fôrmêr NFL mvp CAM néwtôn S1GNÊD w1th THÊ néw ÊNGLAND pàtr1ôts AT thé ÊND ôf JUNÊ. PLÊNTY ôf MĚD1A héàds TALKÊD àbôut THÊ pàtr1ôts S1GN1NG càm, ßUT it HAD seemêd PRACT1CALLY impôss1blé IN l1ght ÖF thé TÊAMS càp S1TUAT1ÖN. àftér S1TT1NG ôn THÊ free AGÊNT màrkét FÖR mônths, NÊWTÖN àccéptéd A m1n1màl, HÊAV1LY incént1v1zéd DÊAL w1th THÊ pàtr1ôts THAT àllôws THÊ téàm TÖ càp1tàl1zé ÖN thé CÖNCÊPT ÖF "nôt L1KÊLY tô ßÊ éàrnéd" INCÊNT1VÊS, wh1ch DÖNT côunt AGA1NST thé CAP if THÊ plàyér D1D nôt ACH1ÊVÊ thé SPÊCiF1C bénchmàrks IN his PR1ÖR séàsôn. càm PLAYÊD just TWÖ gàmês IN 2019 DUÊ tô INJURY ànd SÖ thé TÊAM wàs AßLÊ tô PRÖV1DÊ h1m A s1gnif1cànt NUMßÊR ôf INCÊNT1VÊS thàt CAM côuld AND shôuld ÊARN if HÊ càn START à FULL séàsôn ßUT thàt W1LL nôt H1T thé TÊAMS càp UNT1L 2021. CAMS héàlth IS thé MAJÖR tàlk1ng PÖ1NT, but THÊ làst T1MĚ hé WAS ôn THÊ f1éld AND héàlthy - thé F1RST 8 GAMĚS ôf 2018 -HÊ côuld ßÊ fôund PUTT1NG up A pàssér RAT1NG ôvér 100 w1th A 15:4 TD:INT ràt1ô AND ànôthér 350 yàrds AND 4 TDS ôn THÊ grôund. G1VÊN àll THÊ disrupt1ôns TÖ ôur TYP1CAL fôôtbàll CYCLÊ ànd THÊ uncértà1nty IN whéthér ÖR nôt HÊ càn ßÊ "ôld CAM" its VÊRY hàrd TÖ sày WHAT wé CAN éxpéct IN 2020. THAT sà1d, CAM is A fôrmêr MVP. hés AN éxtrémêly SMART, prôvén VÊTÊRAN quàrtérbàck THAT réprésénts A màjôr UPGRADÊ ôvér WHAT st1dhàm CAN ôffér S1MPLY 1N gàmê KNÖWLÊDGÊ àlôné. CAM wônt F1X à NUMßÊR ôf ISSUÊS thàt ST1LL éxist W1TH thé NÊW énglànd ÖFFÊNSÊ, but PÊRSÖNALLY i AM s1gnif1càntly MÖRÊ ôpt1mist1c KNÖW1NG wéll ßÊ thrôw1ng CAM intô IT thàn I wàs WHÊN st1dhàm WAS thé ônly PLAN. fôr AS chéàp AS his CÖNTRACT is, THis s1gn1ng ÖFFÊRS à SKY-H1GH céi1ing W1TH nô MÖRÊ dôwns1dé THAN byrd's AND thàts JUST àmàz1ng• ^I'msosorry

Draft

Round	Pick	Player	Position	School
2	37	Kyle Dugger	Safety	Lenoir-Rhyne
2	60	Josh Uche	LB	Michigan
3	87	Anfernee Jennings	LB	Alabama
3	91	Devin Asiasi	TE	UCLA
3	101	Dalton Keene	TE	Virginia Tech
5	159	Justin Rohrwasser	K	Marshall
6	182	Michael Onwenu	G	Michigan
6	195	Justin Herron	OT	Wake Forest
6	204	Cassh Maluia	LB	Wyoming
7	230	Dustin Woodard	C	Memphis

• Kyle Dugger became the 6th defensive back in a decade to be taken by the Patriots in round 2 of the NFL draft. I'm going to take a minute to address this elephant in the room because the track record there is, frankly, abysmal. The most successful second round DB taken by the Patriots in the last decade is Tavon Wilson, and the gap between Wilson and the second best DB the team has taken in round 2 is incomprehensibly large considering Wilson started a grand total of 4 games in New England. Ras-I Dowling was healthy for 9 games in 3 years. Jordan Richards stuck around as a special teamer while inducing panic any time he played in an actual safety role. Cyrus Jones muffed approximately one million 4 punts and fumbled another on just 14 return opportunities before being sent to Baltimore as a sleeper agent. Duke Dawson was traded for a 6th/7th round swap 1 year after being drafted, having played exactly 0 snaps. Joejuan Williams murdered twelve puppies can't be faulted for not breaking into the starting lineup in a ridiculously strong cornerback room in year 1 and isn't a lost cause yet, thankfully. This is what comes to mind when Patriot fans think about drafting DBs in the second round. It's not any player's fault that the Patriots draft them when they do, but it's such a well-known string of failures that it became a talking point when the team traded a 2nd round pick for Mo Sanu. Enter Kyle Dugger. Dugger played for Lenoir-Rhyne, a D-II school with a sports-reference page that looks like this, boasting 6 whole names of NFL players who combined to produce 16 AV. Dugger is the highest draft pick to come out of Lenoir-Rhyne by over 100 slots, and for good reason. He arguably only ended up playing D-II because of a very late growth spurt, and by the time he had it his combination of explosive athleticism and pro-size physique left him looking a man among boys. Film on Dugger is scant, and much of what exists looks like the Zapruder tape, but even in the blurry mess you simply can't miss the guy being disruptive in coverage, flying around like a missile, decleating ball carriers and running circles around - or straight through - punt coverage. Dugger is pretty raw. A few seasons flexing on physically outmatched competition in D-II is not the best way to prepare for sophisticated NFL defenses and opponents with more similar athletic profiles. That said, the physical tools are elite even when measured by NFL standards. He's a 99th percentile SPARQ athlete who reportedly smothered TEs and receivers in senior bowl week. It's hard to say too much about Dugger until we see more but he seems to have every tool he needs to become an impact safety, a box roamer, even play some nickel/dime slot coverage in the NFL. I specifically see a Tight End eraser and eventual Pat Chung replacement if he develops well. I'm more optimistic about him than I've been about any of the other 2nd round DBs since Dowling. The age in the safety group, Chung's opt out and Harmon being traded away have opened things up for someone to take over a large chunk of the snaps and whether it happens sooner or later Dugger looks like he can be the one to break a series of sadness a decade old. I'm ready to either get hurt again or watch him become the next Brian Dawkins. At least he wasn't a projected 6th rounder
• Josh Uche became the second Michigan defender drafted to New England in two years. While he played primarily on the edge he was deployed in off-ball alignment and crowding A gaps over guards, displaying the versatility New England loves in its front 7. An excellent quick-twitch athlete, Uche produced a pressure on over 22% of his pass rush snaps in 2018 and 2019, 1st in the nation per PFF and displays explosive ability as a pass rusher off the ball to blow past OTs and as a run defender with a blazing fast closing speed. The major knocks against Uche in the draft process were a general lack of reps - as he did not break out until his junior year and was still ceding snaps to Rashan Gary and Chase Winovich - a slightly undersized frame and a lack of drill numbers owing to a hamstring tweak suffered in the senior bowl then a canceled pro day due to COVID-19. He's shown great bend and reasonably polished hand fighting technique to complement the athletic gifts, and whether he ends up primarily in a pass rushing role or moving around the front, he's a welcome addition to a severely depleted front-7. Find an excellent OC film breakdown by Memokerobi in this thread
• Anfernee Jennings Anfernee Jennings mainly filled an edge role in Alabama's hybrid defense. In contrast the quick-twitch and bend we saw in Uche, Jennings provided a stout, strong, physical presence for one of the country's best defenses. Jennings was a productive pass rusher and a particularly dominant run stuffer, at times manhandling some of the best blocking TEs in college to get there. Despite playing a majority of his snaps at the edge last season, Jennings has the physical tools to line up off-ball as a downhill thumper as well. He has experience lining up everywhere from the 4-tech to wide 9, stand-up or hand in the dirt, and he's displayed a sophisticated game IQ in play diagnosis. While his game is markedly different from Uche's, he finds himself facing the same opportunity to make an immediate mark in the linebacking corps. To this point if you think I've been repetitive while talking about the draft picks, it's because I have been. The first three picks in the 2020 draft have all been versatile defensive pieces that should be able to move around the formation fluidly. As the league evolves and offenses adapt to answer the recently-popularized "big nickel" personnel grouping, the need for defenders who can fill a variety of needs has only increased. That factor and the loss of versatile defenders Kyle Van Noy and Jamie Collins creates a pretty clear picture of what the Patriots were working towards early in the draft
• Devin Asiasi became the first TE drafted by the Patriots inside the top 200 picks since 2010. Asiasi is a well-rounded player who has shown the ability to play in-line or split wide, albeit in limited time as he's only had one season of significant usage and production. In that year, he displayed very reliable hands and solid route-running ability while making impacts at all three levels of the passing game. He was also a competent, if raw, blocker with the frame to match many edge defenders. He's a tough runner with the ball in his hands, though he's not going to outrun most defenders and with a bit of development he should be able to fill the all-around TE role the Patriots desperately need filled
• Dalton Keene became the second TE drafted by the Patriots inside the top 200 picks since 2010. Keene is a versatile guy, the proverbial H-back type who spent a significant amount of time moving all around the formation at Virginia Tech last year. He's a tenacious blocker and is described by basically everybody as having relentless effort. The main drawbacks with Keene are his production - with just 748 yards receiving across 3 college seasons - and the fact that his route tree is more a shrub. He's a player who has predominantly gotten open by leaking out of a blocking assignment or against motion on play action. That said, George Kittle makes a significant amount of his hay running leak or counter motion routes too so it's not as if that role doesn't have value. Keene is extremely unpolished, but he's shown the skills necessary to become an impactful TE if he can prove himself with a major increase in responsibilities, volume and overall refinement
• Justin Rohrwasser's name means "pipe water" in German
• Michael Onwenu (#50) is a strong, stocky interior lineman who simply bullies people in tight spaces, but he doesn't move very well and can be stiff in his stances and footwork. New England has had success in the past with coaching up stiff or awkward movers into useful offensive linemen - Marcus Cannon is a prime example - and Onwenu should have time to work on his weaknesses as he was drafted into a very strong IOL group with established starters. With some coaching up he could end up a great value for a 6th round investment
• Justin Herron is a long Tackle with decent hands and mobility who's main criticisms are a lack of any particular strength or control in the run game. After bouncing back nicely from an ACL tear in 2018, Herron played well enough at Wake Forest to earn a late round draft selection. With the uncertainty around New England's Tackle situation, he could have a good chance to stick as a depth piece for future development
• Cassh Maluia was a solid three year starter for Wyoming with good athleticism for the position and notable closing speed. Physically he's similar in build to Elandon Roberts. The gaping void that opened up at linebacker this offseason and the loss of a few dedicated special teamers should give him a chance to make the roster and leave his mark
• Dustin Woodard was a long-time starter at Memphis. He moves pretty well but he's on the small, stocky side and will need to add strength and refine his technique if he's going to contribute in the NFL. He'll have some stiff competition for a depth role as an interior lineman

It's never easy to talk about Patriots drafts. In 2020 the team clearly wanted to add versatility on multiple levels, and they did something we've seen them do multiple times before and double dipped at positions of significant need. A number of pundits have panned the Pats 2020 draft class because it didn't include a Quarterback or receiver, while others have praised it because the team moved around a number of picks and that must be a good sign. If forced to give a grade I'd throw out a B/B-. Dugger has a ridiculous potential ceiling but his rawness is scary. I absolutely love the Uche pick. He was a favorite of mine through the process with nice tape who seemed generally undervalued due to lack of volume. He could return major upside. Jennings is a classic Patriots prototype pick who could be great for the team, and he was selected at about "expected" range. Asiasi is someone I liked in the scouting process as a competent receiver but I would have preferred Adam Trautman as the more complete package. I liked Dalton Keene for fit but I didn't expect him before the middle of day 3. Trading 2 4ths to the Jets to move up for Keene there just doesn't sit right. The Rohrwasser pick is another Belichick staple on the current rookie wage scale. Once the 5th round rolls around he starts taking his "reach" shots on special teamers or long-shot projects e.g. Punter Jake Bailey, Long Snapper Joe Cardona, Punter Zoltan Mesko or reclamation projects Byron Cowart and Marcus Cannon. Most of those picks have turned out pretty good for the team. Given that track record and the need, I expected and don't hate taking the kicker there. I know nothing about Rohrwasser except he apparently went 100% from 50+ yards and had a handful of impressive kicks in bad weather, but Belichick has been on point with specialists and the team hasn't brought in any competition so I believe in his ability. The rest of the selections are just prospective depth, which is hard to get excited about but is also something the team desperately needed. I'm glad the team didn't try to take a QB and instead focused on addressing a lack of roster depth, an aging safety group, an eviscerated LB corps and the worst TE room in the league. For the oldest roster in the NFL and for how many contributing bodies the team lost in free agency, this draft class isn't exactly sexy, but it is a necessity and very on-brand for the Patriots.

Projected Depth Chart

Position Groups

Camp Battles to Watch

Schemes

Schedule Prediction

Other Offseason News that has Affected the Team

• James Develin, long time fullback, has retired from the NFL and will be sorely missed. That .gif is basically his Patriot tenure and his personality in a nutshell. He gives a relentless effort, displaying hard-nosed tenacity, and you can feel the sheer joy emanating from Legarrette Blount. Develin was a positive personality in the locker room, a versatile utility knife on the field and an all around great guy.
• The world is in the middle of a pandemic. This is very obviously affecting every team and the league as a whole. Specific to New England, the Patriots have had eight players opt out of the 2020 season. In order of 2019 snap count, the team has lost RT Marcus Cannon, LB Dont'a Hightower, safety Patrick Chung, RB Brandon Bolden and TE Matt LaCosse. On top of this, Free Agent signings Marquise Lee and Danny Vitale have opted out, as well as Guard Najee Toran, who was signed to a futures contract this past December. This is the highest number of opt-outs in the NFL. When combined with the free agent losses and the trade of Duron Harmon, the New England defense has lost 4,141 high-quality snaps and another 598 role-player snaps from 2019. That represents an absolutely staggering 45% of all defensive snaps lost from year to year. The important takeaway here isn't about football though.

Thanks for reading if indeed you have. If not, thanks for at least scrolling to the bottom. I hope it's been enjoyable and informative. Stay safe and be good to each other.
E: Of course within hours of posting this the Patriots finalized multiple roster moves. Lamar Miller was signed to a 1 year deal. While the terms are unknown at the moment, he'll be a strong candidate to come in and carry a significant workload. The signing suggests that the team is unsure of Sony Michel's availability after the foot surgery that currently has him on the PUP list and does not feel comfortable leaning on Burkhead or Harris in the event that Sony misses time. Jordan Leggett has also been signed and could push Ryan Izzo for a roster spot.

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Every year NFL Network puts out a list of the Top 100 Players for the upcoming season, as voted by their peers. I have talked about the flaws of that whole process a few times already – the players only write down their top 20 players, which is understandable, but also doesn’t result in the proper results, since everybody is somewhat to put their guys on, not all players actually get to watch a lot of games, if they don’t include teams they actually face or are limited to watching highlights, and the voting concludes before the playoff are even here, which can be the only somewhat logical reason, Patrick Mahomes was only number four on the official list – even though that would still be wrong.
For the purpose of this list, I first put together my rankings of the top players at every single position, but then somewhat went off script by just writing down names in the order that they shot into my head, before comparing it with the positional rankings and trying to weigh guys against each other. And just to make this clear – these rankings are based on players regardless of their position, since otherwise would have almost half the starting quarterbacks in the league within the top 20 or so. And of course this is a bit of a projection and not solely built on what these players did this previous season, but also not about where they will be at the end of 2020.
Here is my list:
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1. Patrick Mahomes
   
2. Aaron Donald
   
3. Russell Wilson
   
4. Lamar Jackson
   
5. Stephon Gilmore
   
6. Julio Jones
   
7. George Kittle
   
8. Quenton Nelson
   
9. Jamal Adams
   
10. Jalen Ramsey
    

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What is there still to say about Mahomes? In just two years as a starter, he has been a league MVP and just led his team to three consecutive double-digit comebacks to get that Lombardi trophy. He is the most talented player I have ever seen and will now have the Chiefs as contenders in the AFC for the next decade, after signing that blockbuster deal. You can not tell me there are three humans on earth that are better at football than this guy.
If we lived in a world without Mahomes, Donald would be the obvious pick here for the best player regardless of position. You can easily argue that the gap between the two-time Defensive Player of the Year and the next-closest players is even bigger (since I have a QB at three), since Donald doesn’t just have the numbers despite facing constant attention, but does so much more that doesn’t show up on the stat sheet, in terms of blowing up plays before they can even get going.
Wilson to me has earned his way up to being the second-best quarterback in the league. He throws those unbelievable rainbow deep balls, is elusive as it gets at extending plays as a passer and seems to always come through when his team needs him most. He has covered up a lot of issues for the Seahawks – leading his team to a winning record every single season of his career – and the only thing that can hold him back is his own conservative coaching staff.
I “only” have the league’s reigning MVP at number four, because I think there are two more proven quarterbacks and there are definitely things he can still improve upon, but holy crap, was this guy exciting last season. Lamar led the league with 43 total touchdowns and a ridiculous 9.0 touchdown percentage. His QB-record 1206 yards on the ground helped the Ravens break the all-time rushing mark for a team, but as spectacular as he was in the open field, the stats say he was also elite from within the pocket.
The reigning DPOY shows up at number five here for me and while there were other worthy candidates, Gilmore was on a different level as the other corners in the league last season. He was tied for the lead-league in interceptions and scored more touchdowns (2) than he was responsible for in coverage (1), while allowing a league-best completion percentage of 44.6 and 41.8 passer rating. Outside of a week 17 blunder, he shut down every top receiver he faced.
Julio to me is still the best receiver in the game and it’s not that close to be honest. His freakish combination of size, speed, leaping ability and hands set him apart from most guys, but it is the way he has continued to advance as a route-runner and technician that have paved his way to being an all-time great. Over the last six seasons, he has averaged 1565 receiving yards per season and his 96.2 yards per game is almost ten yards more than any player in NFL history.
The best and most complete tight-end today is Kittle. There are only five players in the entire league with more receiving yards over the last two seasons, despite seeing about 60 targets less than the five guys ahead of him, and his 1507 yards after the catch over that stretch is second only to Christian McCaffrey. As impressive as all that is, he is equally valuable as a run-blocker, being a huge factor in setting things up for the 49ers’ second-ranked rushing attack.
I know he has only been in the league for two years, but I would already take Nelson over any other interior offensive lineman in football without a doubt. When I evaluated his college tape, I thought he was a generational prospect and he has come nothing short of his expectations. Nelson has only been responsible for one sack in those two seasons combined and been named a First-Team All-Pro in both of them.
If you want to know how great Adams is, just check out the kind of compensation Seattle gave up to acquire a disgruntled player at a position that is deemed undervalued by most people. The Jets are probably happy to still get as much back as they did, but Adams was their best run-defender, coverage player and pass-rusher. He is a chess piece, that improves every area of a defense and gives them an attitude and tremendous versatility.
The one guy who can challenge Stephon Gilmore for the title as best corner in the league is Ramsey. While the numbers in coverage didn’t look quite as impressive last season, switching teams mid-season and missing four games, he still only allowed 45.6 yards per game and one total touchdown in coverage. Ramsey is one of only two or three guys at the position, who can match up with the opposing’s top receiver every single play.
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1. Saquon Barkley
   
2. Christian McCaffrey
   
3. Michael Thomas
   
4. Khalil Mack
   
5. Von Miller
   
6. Deshaun Watson
   
7. Minkah Fitzpatrick
   
8. Davante Adams
   
9. Bobby Wagner
   
10. Travis Kelce
    

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It was a very close race for the top back in the game, but I just had to go with the unbelievable talent of Saquon here. He is so explosive, elusive and powerful. Barkley was banged up for pretty much half of last season, but still averaged 5.4 yards per touch and 60 percent of his rushing yards came after contact, with bad offensive line play in front of him, that had him avoiding defenders as soon as he got the handoff at times. His 279 scrimmage yards against Washington in week 16 was the most since Julio Jones’ 300-yard performance in 2016.
McCaffrey comes in right behind Barkley, coming off a highly impressive season. CMac became just the third player in NFL history to put up 1000 rushing and receiving yards in the same season and also easily leading the league with 2392 scrimmage yards. Maybe even more impressive – he had eight yards more after the catch (1013) than total receiving yards. Nobody is a bigger asset running routes out of the backfield, but he has also become a much more efficient in-between-the-tackler runner.
Thomas set a new all-time record with 149 receptions last season and led the league with 1725 receiving yards. The crazy thing about that is the fact he lead all receiver in catch percentage last season at 80.5, despite being really the only guy the Saints could rely upon at that position on a weekly basis. He’s not nearly as dangerous after the catch or on vertical patterns as guys like Julio Jones or Tyreek Hill, but he is so physical and constantly comes through on third downs.
When you look at what Mack had done in the five years since his rookie season (49 sacks and 76 TFLs over four seasons), he didn’t quite live up to his lofty standards last season. With that being said, he is still the most impactful guy coming off the edge when totally healthy. He is an elite run-defender, routinely puts offensive tackles on skates and has a knack for getting the ball out (11 forced fumbles since 2018).
Similar to Mack – and as it has been like for several years now when these two have been right next to each other in any rankings – Miller had a down-year in 2019. He did not reach double-digit sacks for the first time since 2013, when he was put on IR mid-season, but I expect that to go back to normal with more help around him. His burst, ability to bend and smarts for the position will create issue for offenses once again this season.
Deshaun is just an absolute baller. Like his former college head coach Dabo Swinney said, he is Michael Jordan-like in the big moments. Over the last two seasons, he has completed 67.8 percent of his passes for just over 4000 yards on average and 52 touchdowns compared to 21 INTs over that stretch. More importantly, he gets the Texans out of the toughest situations and has led five game-winning drives in both years. I don’t think anybody else could have led this team back in that Wildcard game, other than maybe Mahomes.
After coming over from Miami via trade early last season, Fitzpatrick completely turned around this Steelers defense by bringing the secondary together and became one of the premiere play-makers in the entire league. He came up with eight takeaways and scored two touchdowns himself, with both of them completely shifting the momentum those respective games. Minkah is most valuable patrolling the deep middle of the field, but offers the versatility to play just about everywhere.
I know this may be a little bit of a controversial pick, with other guys at the receiver position deserving consideration, but to me Adams right now is the third-best receiver in the game. He came up with three yards short of cracking the 1000-yard mark due to missing four games and dealing with a banged up toe, but he came up big in two playoff games, with 300 combined yards and two TDs. Adams offers the best releases in the game, as well as beautifully setting up routes with head-nods and body language, to go with tremendous body-control.
Now that Luke Kuechly has retired, B-Wagz to me is the clear choice as the top middle linebacker in football. He displays great range and has to cover a lot of ground with how much base personnel the Hawks run. Wagner is also a very secure tackler, who led the league in take-downs for the second time in his career last season, after missing just one of his attempts the year before. What doesn’t get enough attention is his football IQ and the process of getting to the ball in the first place.
If I told you the next player has caught 200 passes for 2565 yards and 15 touchdowns over the last two seasons, you would say that’s a great receiver – since that ranks behind only Julio, Mike Thomas, D-Hop and Mike Evans. What is even more impressive about those numbers is that Kelce has averaged 9.0 yards despite that high target share. He is the premiere flex receiving tight-end, who can be moved all over the formation and create problems.
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1. Fletcher Cox
   
2. Chris Jones
   
3. Chandler Jones
   
4. Cameron Jordan
   
5. DeAndre Hopkins
   
6. Tyreek Hill
   
7. Aaron Rodgers
   
8. T.J. Watt
   
9. Carson Wentz
   
10. J.J. Watt
    

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In a world without Aaron Donald, Cox would be known as the best defensive tackle over the last decade. He has only reached double-digit sacks once in his career and to be fair, dipped a little last season, but the numbers will never tell the whole story as what kind of player he is. He has that quickness to shoot through gaps and show up in the backfield, but he can also bench-press 330-pounders and toss them to the side when he needs to. Just watch him destroy the interior O-line of the Seahawks and almost singlehandedly keep them in that Wildcard Round game without Carson Wentz.
Nipping at the heels of Cox is another game-wrecker on the inside of the defense for the reigning Super Bowl champs. Jones may not nearly be the same run-stopper at the point of attack, but his length and burst off the ball allow him to impact plays in a penetrating role and he is an elite pass-rusher at his position. 24.5 sacks and 49 QB hits in his last 29 games is highly impressive, but in the biggest game, he only logged on tackle and still made a huge impact, with a couple of batted passes and directly forcing a pick.
The most overlooked edge rusher and maybe overall player in the league over the last several years has been Chandler Jones. Since coming over to Arizona in 2016, he has led the league with 60 sacks and 17 forced fumbles, while also being near the top in total pressure numbers every single season. That is despite playing on one the worst defensive units over the last couple of years and having no legitimate threat up front with pretty much the entire time.
Cam Jordan is a very unique player. He has more of a 3-4 defensive end body type, rather than your typical edge rusher. He has great power and strings his hands and feet together really well, but what makes him special is the way he can read pass-sets and take advantage of weight-distribution and how far tackles open up their hips. Not only did Jordan set a personal high with 15.5 sacks last season, but he is also an excellent run-defender (15 TFLs).
Even though his trade to Arizona is still confusing for most people, when you see how little his new team had to give up, don’t let that make you think D-Hop isn’t a top-tier receiver anymore. If you take out the 2016 season, when Brock Osweiler could not have gotten the ball to his superstar receiver, even if he were just inches away, he has averaged 1369 receiving yards and 9.6 touchdowns since his rookie season. He may not as homerun-hitter, but he might be the most physical receiver off the ball and at the catch point, plus he has the best hands in the game.
Did I just say homerun hitter? Outside of Julio, I think there is an argument to be made that Tyreek is the next-best receiver in the league. He breaks the game open with his next-level speed and changes how defensive coordinators have to call coverages. However, he is much more than just a deep threat, with quick feet to stop and start on his routes, he shows great concentration when the ball is in the air and he does now shy away from the physical aspect of football.
We have not seen Rodgers play at that elite level since 2016, when he led the league in touchdown passes (40), but he is still one of the best in the game. He has lost just a little bit of his elusiveness to extend plays and does not take as many chances down the field as we are used to from him, but his quick release, ability to see the field and the arm talent to throw off platform are all still special. Just watch what he does in his second year in Matt LaFleur’s system, with added motivation.
The younger T.J. Watt stepped out of the shadow of his older brother last season, when he finished top five in sacks (14.5) and quarterback hits (36), while also leading the league with eight fumbles forced and recovering another four, to go with a couple of picks. He finished behind only Stephon Gilmore and Chandler Jones in the hunt for his first DPOY trophy and will be a terror on Pittsburgh’s ferocious defense for years to come.
At 29 is the player that shamefully didn’t even make the official top 100 list. Maybe it is people still saying Nick Foles won the Eagles their Super Bowl or they call him injury-prone, but let’s not forget Wentz set this team up with home-field advantage through the playoffs back in 2017 in an MVP-level season and he has actually missed only eight of 64 career regular season games. Last year he put the team on his back, with practice squad players catching passes and both his tackles missing multiple weeks, and led them to a home playoff game.
Closing is the top 30 is the older Watt brother. I gave the slightest edge to the Pittsburgh outside backer. He certainly the track record as one of only two guys to be named Defensive Player of the Year three times in his career, but injuries have started taking a toll on him and over the last four years, he has missed the equivalent of two full seasons. However, when he played all 16 games in 2018, he still topped his little bro with 16 sacks and 18 tackles for loss. He played at a very high level when healthy last season and miraculously returned in the playoffs to make a big impact against Buffalo.
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1. Marlon Humphrey
   
2. Derwin James
   
3. Mike Evans
   
4. Eddie Jackson
   
5. Alvin Kamara
   
6. Derrick Henry
   
7. Tre’Davious White
   
8. Zack Martin
   
9. Dalvin Cook
   
10. Nick Chubb
    

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One of the most underrated guys on the player’s countdown is Humphrey. To me there are no five corners in the game that you can tell me are better than this guy – and I actually have him at number three. He is long and physical in press-coverage, he can move into the slot, he is a hard hitter from that position and he is like a magnet for the ball, with three interceptions, two fumbles forced and three recovered. Humphrey is only 24 years old and already near the top of football.
NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah recently said something pretty interesting, when he tweeted that “if you put all players in a league-wide draft, Derwin James would be the top safety on every board”. To me Jamal Adams has done enough to earn the title as best player at that position and Derwin only played five games, but the Chargers superstar can do pretty much everything Jamal does, in terms of defending the run as a box-defender, blitzing off multiple spots and just being a position-less player, while also having the range to basically play free safety.
Big Mike has now become only the second receiver in NFL history alongside Randy Moss to start his career with six consecutive 1000-yard receiving seasons. He gets in and out his breaks better than you would ever think of a 6’5”, 230-pound guy, he is much more of a vertical threat than people label him as, averaging 1.5 yards more per catch than Tyreek Hill (17.5), and he obviously dominates at the catch point, while also bullying DBs as a blocker.
At 34 I have another defensive back, who has become a highly underrated player in my opinion. Somehow Eddie Jackson didn’t make the official list, which is still mind-blowing to me, because just a year ago, he was right up there among the premiere defensive play-makers in the game. His takeaways went way down on a Bears defense that took a step back, after coming up with eight of those in 2018 and scoring a league-high three defensive TDs, but he is still one of the smartest and rangiest player on the back-end we have in the game.
That third running back behind Saquon and McCaffrey was a tough choice, which is indicated by four players at that position over the next six spots, but I went with Kamara here. He recently that he basically played on one leg last season, which may be a little exaggerated, but when healthy, his explosiveness and contact balance are second to none, plus he is an elite weapon out of the backfield, who is basically un-coverable on option routes.
The next guy here is the reigning rushing leader Derrick Henry. This may seem a little low for him and he is the only one of this group to get that second contract so far, but since he is only a factor on screen plays in the passing game, I could not put him any higher. Still, what King Henry did down the stretch was unbelievable. He put the team on his back, rushing for 896 yards over his final six games in the regular season and 374 yards combined in wins over the then-reigning Super Bowl champs and the team with the best record in the league, on the way to the AFC title game.
Another corner that I just love to watch is the Bills’ Tre’Davious White. While he plays in a zone-heavy system, that doesn’t leave him on an island as much as a Stephon Gilmore or a Jalen Ramsey, he is tremendous in that role and can match up against some top receivers one-on-one. What makes him special is the ability to anticipate routes and read the receiver and the quarterback at the same time. He was tied for the lead-league with six INTs, while deflecting another 17 passes and forcing a couple of fumbles.
Martin has been as consistent as it gets. He has started all but two of his 96 career games at right guard and been named First-Team All-Pro in four of six NFL season. Over the course of his career, he has allowed just eight total sacks and he was flagged for holding just once last season and four times in the last four seasons. He is a road-grader on gap and zone schemes, while having a tremendous anchor and clamps in protection.
Did you know Dalvin Cook finished second behind only Christian McCaffrey in scrimmage yards per game? He was tremendous for Minnesota last season in that zone-based rushing attack and a real weapon out of the backfield, catching 53 of 63 targets for over 500 yards. Dalvin is so good at pressing the front-side and then transitioning in one step to cut off the backside, while also having the burst to threaten the edges of a defense, and he has become a very tough runner.
My final RB here is Nick Chubb. There were a lot of stars on this underperforming Browns team last season, but this guy was the best player for them pretty much every single week. Similar to Henry, Chubb is not the most valuable receiver, but his physical running style was the best part about Cleveland’s offense. He can run inside and outside zone, does a great job setting up power plays and not only is he patient with letting plays develop, he has great acceleration once he puts on the gas and consistently falls forward.
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1. Myles Garrett
   
2. DeForest Buckner
   
3. Tom Brady
   
4. Ryan Ramczyk
   
5. Odell Beckham Jr.
   
6. Za’Darius Smith
   
7. Tyrann Mathieu
   
8. Lane Johnson
   
9. Nick Bosa
   
10. Chris Godwin
    

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What happened in that week 11 Steelers game was not pretty and I’m sure people will bring it no matter what this kid continues to accomplish, but he just got a mega contract and to me is ready put his name among the elite defensive players in football. Garrett has only played 37 career games so far, but he has already put together 30.5 sacks and 32 tackles for loss, with one QB take-down per game last season. He is obviously an athletic freak, but his pass-rush arsenal has come a long way already.
DeFo is one of the most talented defensive linemen in all of football, but his technique has improved every single season and among all that talent on the NFC champions’ roster, he was named team MVP. As great as he was all the way throughout the regular season, he terrorized the interior O-line of the Chiefs in the Super Bowl. The 49ers had to move on from him this offseason due to cap reasons, but he immediately a key piece for that Colts D.
He might be the GOAT, but Brady lands at number 43 for me heading into 2020. Contrary to popular belief, his arm isn’t far off from what it was when he entered the league at the start of the millennium and his pocket movement is impeccable, but what bothered me when watching him play last season, was that reluctancy to stand tall in the pocket and take the punishment in order to deliver big plays, which will be an interesting mesh with Bruce Arians’ vertical passing attack.
While there about five guys in that conversation for me right now, Ryan Ramczyk earned the top spot here. More of a luxury pick three years ago, he ended up sliding right in at right tackle and has been absolute stalwart for them ever. Ramczyk has started 47 of 48 games and improved every single season, earning first-team All-Pro honors last season, when he did not allow a single sack and had did not have a holding call accepted against him past week two.
This is the lowest I have had Odell in my rankings since his rookie season. I have never been a huge fan of the antics with him, but the media constantly bashing on him has turned me into a fan, and I believe he will make all the haters shut up in 2020. OBJ was dealing with a foot injury all of last year and the amount of miscues between him and Baker Mayfield was countless, when it comes to break off or adjusting routes on the fly. He is still one of the all-time talents.
New to the list is a guy, who was quietly getting the job done as a rotational piece in Baltimore’s defensive front for a few years, before getting a big contract by the Packers. Smith instantly went from a nice player to one the premiere edge rushers in the entire league. While he “only” finished sixth with 13.5 sacks, he led all players with 93 total pressures and also had the fourth-most TFLs (17). I love the way Mike Pettine moves him around all over the formation in Green Bay.
The one thing I actually learned from the official top 100 is the fact Tyrann Mathieu was actually named team MVP, despite playing with the best player in the entire league. As explosive as that Chiefs offense is, the difference for this team was how the Honeybadger helped turn around this defensive unit and the energy he brought to the table. Mathieu can line up in the box, cover the slot, drop into deep coverage, blitz from multiple spots and tackle in the open field.
Another guy in that tackle conversation is maybe the most athletic one of the bunch. Johnson only played in 12 games last season, but he was tremendous in those, allowing just one sack and being called for holding once, despite facing some great pass-rushers in the NFC East and the conference overall. He has the feet to seal the edges in the run game and works up to the second level as well as anybody in the league.
The top rookie on the list this year is Nick Bosa. Making the top 20 on the official list seems a little rich, but this guy was dominant from the moment he stepped onto the field. Bosa finished one sack short or cracking double-digits, but he easily blew away the rookie record for total pressures (80) and finished tied for fifth overall in the regular season, plus another crazy 22 in the playoffs. He was also tied for fifth in tackles for loss (16) and got a pick, whilst constantly playing with all-out effort.
One of the biggest breakout players last season was Godwin. I predicted this already the year prior and wasn’t wrong necessarily, when he finished with 842 yards and seven touchdowns, but he took it to another level in 2019, when he finished third in receiving yards (1333) and tied for fourth in touchdowns (9) despite missing two games. He is so tough going over the middle to get those hard-earned yards, is incredibly hard to bring down after the catch (577 YAC) and led the league in 20+ yard receptions (25).
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1. Jason Kelce
   
2. Darius Leonard
   
3. Ronnie Stanley
   
4. Joey Bosa
   
5. Kevin Byard
   
6. Danielle Hunter
   
7. Mitchell Schwartz
   
8. Eric Kendricks
   
9. Jadeveon Clowney
   
10. Aaron Jones
    

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The title for best center in the league has been in Philadelphia for at least the last three years and to me also for the decade. He may not as powerful as a few other guys, but the mobility to beat linebackers to the spot or can put hands on people as a puller or on screen plays allows the Eagles to do pretty much anything, while also doing a great job of recovering in pass-pro and transitioning assignments. Kelce has allowed multiple sacks just once since 2015.
There is a pretty significant drop-off between the first and second linebacker, but right now I would take Leonard behind only Bobby Wagner. Over his two years in the league (28 games), he has put together 284 tackles (including leading the league as a rookie), intercepted seven passes, forced six fumbles, recorded 12 sacks and deflected another 15 passes. “The Maniac” shows up all over the field and truly has a knack for the ball.
My top left tackle in the league is Ronnie Stanley. He took his game to another level last season, when he was named a first-team All-Pro. On 515 pass-blocking snaps, he did not allow a single sack and didn’t surrender any pressures in nine games. He also was a huge piece to the Ravens breaking the NFL’s all-time rushing yardage record (3296 yards) that had stood for over 40 years, as Stanley had the lowest percentage of negatively-graded run blocking snaps according to PFF.
Joey comes in five spots below his younger brother for me. While I believe Nick Bosa is a little more athletically gifted, Joey came into the league slightly more technically refined in his hand-usage. He may not quite have the burst off the ball like a Danielle Hunter or the ability to bend like a Von Miller, but Bosa is as complete a defensive end as we have in the game. He does a great job setting the edge in the run game and when he gets after the passer, he is so smooth with his hand-combos and finds the weakness of the tackle’s pass-sets.
Another one of those enormous snubs from the actual list is Byard, who has become one of the premiere safeties in the game. Over the last three seasons, he leads the league with 17(!) interceptions and broke up another 33 passes. The range he presents as a deep-middle safety and the confidence he has in his game, combined with extremely dependable tackling in space (just two of 86 attempts missed last season), definitely earn him a spot.
Since I just talked about Hunter, this is where he comes in. The Vikings D-end is another one of those guys, who has improved pretty much every year, since coming in as a pretty raw product from LSU. Hunter has put up 14.5 sacks in each of the last two seasons, but he massively improved his total pressure number of 97 (including the playoffs) and he actually got the ball out of the quarterbacks as well (three forced fumbles). He is an athletic phenom, who has learned to string moves together incredibly well.
We have started a bit of a run on offensive tackles here, with Schwartz coming in slightly outside the top 50. There is a good argument to be made for this guy being the best at his position, especially if you base it off that incredibly postseason run he just had, when he allowed no sacks and just one total pressure on 142 pass-blocking snaps against some of the baddest dudes on the planet. Schwartz wasn’t responsible for any sacks through the regular season either and the Chiefs averaged an NFL-best 5.93 yards per carry through the gaps to either side of him.
If you just base the list on this past season, you could argue Kendricks was the best linebacker in all of football. He has been a beast against the run pretty much since coming into the league, but what put him on a different level last season was his play in coverage. Kendricks allowed only 53.3 percent of the passes his way to be completed (very low for a LB) and broke up 12 passes, leading to a forced incompletion rate of 21.9 percent, which is more than four percent better than Luke Kuechly in his best season (who had been the previous record-holder).
Let’s get this out of the way – Clowney can be an absolute game-wrecker. However, I really struggled with his ranking, because he is such a disruptive player when on the field – which the stats simply don’t tell you – but injuries have just been too much of an issue for him. That is also a big reason why he is still signed. Yet, you can not overlook how incredibly gifted Clowney is and how much better he has gotten with his hands. That week ten game at San Francisco was the best performance from a defensive player all season long.
It’s always great when you predict a player to break out and he actually does. Jones already was on all my fantasy teams two years ago, but I said he would take another step forward in 2019 and he surprised even me. His 1558 scrimmage yards were the eight-most in entire league and he was tied for the most touchdowns at 19, while touching the ball almost 60 times less than the backs ahead of him (285 touches). He is so explosive and can just slither through defenses, while also being a true downfield threat as a receiver.
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1. Shaquil Barrett
   
2. Ezekiel Elliott
   
3. David Bakhtiari
   
4. Keenan Allen
   
5. Akiem Hicks
   
6. Zach Ertz
   
7. Justin Simmons
   
8. Matt Ryan
   
9. Juju Smith-Schuster
   
10. Drew Brees
    

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I always thought Barrett was a good player as part of that rotation in Denver, but when he finally got a chance to shine, that’s exactly what he did. After posting 14 combined sacks over his four season with the Broncos, he led the league with 19.5 in his first year with Tampa Bay. He also finished second in tackles for loss (19) and forced six fumbles. Watching him rush the passer, his game is built on the bull rush and long-arm, off which he can covert power-to-speed, in terms giving a little hesitation and then winning on a quick burst to the outside.
Talking about the top backs in the game, Elliott’s name doesn’t come up too often for me anymore. He still finished fourth in the league with 1357 rushing yards, but that was running behind a top-five offensive line and he just looked a step slow to what we have seen from him, without that explosion through the hole and turning those good runs into big gains. With that being said, he might still be the most complete back in the game and could return to glory in 2020.
It almost feels bad to put Bakhtiari this low, but he is still one of those five elite offensive tackles. I think what puts him as last of that group is the fact he is closer to the average in terms of his run-blocking than the other guys. Still, he has been the best pass-protector over the last four years at least, when he did not allow more than three sacks once and the lowest amount of total pressures, despite his QB finishing in the top six of time to throw in all but one of them. While he did allow two sacks through the first half of last season, from week ten all the way through the NFC Championship game, he did not surrender a single one.
If you asked me who the best route-runner in the game today was, I would probably say Keenan Allen. He is so elusive off the line, deceptive with how he sets up his breaks and he has that quick-twitch to create separation on the short and intermediate level. He does lack some vertical speed and his YACability isn’t among the best at the position, which is why he isn’t even higher, but if you need somebody to get open on third downs, this is your guy. He terrorized Darius Slay last season.
Hicks did miss missed 11 games last season, but unlike the players around the league apparently – I did not forget about him. With just one sack and five TFLs in the five games he did play, it’s understandable that he would drop in the rankings, but let’s forget that in 2018 he rivaled Fletcher Cox and Chris Jones for the league’s best D-tackle not named Aaron Donald. Hicks was a frequent visitor in the backfield, with both ten marks in QB pressures and defensive stops. His impact was felt most when he wasn’t on the field for the Bears last season and they were closer to average than number one.
While Kittle and Kelce to me are clearly in a tier of their own, Ertz is still that third guy at the tight-end position. He has been one of the most productive pass-catchers in the entire league for several years now. After setting a new record for most receptions in a season for a TE (118) in 2018, he took a little step back last year. Ertz is by far Carson Wentz’s favorite target, having lead the Eagles in both receptions and receiving yards in all four seasons the QB has been there for. Since he isn’t as much of a downfield or YAC threat as the other two guys at his position – as well as only being an okay blocker – this is where he falls for me.
Somehow I think the player just don’t respect safeties, since this is the third guy now that should have clearly made the list at that position. I have always been a fan of Simmons and called for him getting more playing time, after mostly being a backup his rookie season, when the Broncos last won the Super Bowl. His range, instincts and smarts as a single-high free safety have allowed him to become a true difference-maker. And he certainly had the stats to back it up last season, with four picks and 15 more plays on the ball.
Matty Ice has never gotten the love he deserves on this list or from people covering the league as a whole. People seem to still think about the 28-3 game and while his MVP season was more of an outlier due to playing with the game’s best offensive mind in Kyle Shanahan, he has thrown for 4000+ yards in nine straight seasons, completing exactly two-thirds of his passes for a TD-to-INT ratio of 2.26 and a passer rating of 97 over that stretch. He has pretty much always been second tier for me, but he has had to deal with some bad O-line play and a couple of questionable years of play-calling under Steve Sarkisian.
2019 was not a good season for Juju by any means. He missed four games and had less than half the production of the year prior. However, a lot of that had to do with the worst quarterback situation in the league and you don’t put over 2300 yards and 14 TDs before you even turn 23, if you aren’t a special player. With Big Ben under center in ’18, Juju finished top five in the NFL with 1426 yards and was named team MVP over Antonio Brown – which the latter let us know later on.
I know this is what will get me the most hate, but whenever people want to give me all the stats on Drew Brees, they forget to mention that he is playing behind an elite offensive line, a record-setting receiver, one of the premiere pass-catching backs and one of the all-time great play-callers. I have called him a well-oiled machine in that Sean Payton offense several times and his command of that group is impeccable, but the raw arm talent simply isn’t quite there anymore.
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1. Dak Prescott
   
2. Demario Davis
   
3. Stefon Diggs
   
4. Marcus Peters
   
5. Fred Warner
   
6. Cameron Heyward
   
7. Calais Campbell
   
8. Grady Jarrett
   
9. Jaylon Smith
   
10. Deion Jones
    

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1. Joe Mixon
   
2. Melvin Ingram
   
3. Anthony Harris
   
4. Kenny Clark
   
5. Arik Armstead
   
6. Lavonte David
   
7. Harrison Smith
   
8. Cooper Kupp
   
9. Mark Andrews
   
10. Josh Jacobs
    

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1. Budda Baker
   
2. Rodney Hudson
   
3. Brandon Scherff
   
4. Marshon Lattimore
   
5. Byron Jones
   
6. Amari Cooper
   
7. Darren Waller
   
8. Richard Sherman
   
9. Devin McCourty
   
10. Matthew Stafford
    

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The players who just missed the cut and the ones who didn't qualify are in the comments!
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If you enjoyed this breakdown, I would really appreciate if you could visit the original piece - https://halilsrealfootballtalk.com/2020/08/07/nfl-top-100-players-of-2020/
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You can also listen to my analysis on the Youtube channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxjwwcjGcWpjlDyDj-pY5wQ

Game Information

Game Title: F1 2020
Platforms:

• PC (Jul 10, 2020)
• Xbox One (Jul 10, 2020)
• PlayStation 4 (Jul 10, 2020)

Trailers:

• F1® 2020 | First Gameplay Trailer
• F1® 2020 First Look | Circuit Zandvoort
• F1® 2020 | Announce Trailer

Developer: Codemasters
Review Aggregator:
OpenCritic - 88 average - 100% recommended - 16 reviews

Critic Reviews

Eurogamer - Martin Robinson - Recommended

A new team management mode provides some of the best single-player racing action around, alongside the series' ever-improving authenticity.

GameByte - Unscored

Quote not yet available

GameSpew - Richard Seagrave - 10 / 10

Quote not yet available

GamingTrend - T.K. Hale - 95 / 100

F1® 2020 is an amazing step in the right direction for Codemasters. By adding the My Team mode to the series, it gives this racing game a different personality; one sprinkled with adventure elements, and it works.

God is a Geek - Gary Bailey - 9 / 10

With some great improvements on and off the track F1 2020 is an exceptional racer, and the one to beat this year.

Hardcore Gamer - Cory Wells - 4 / 5

F1 2020 is as good as it gets on the current generation of consoles.

Hobby Consolas - Rafael Aznar - Spanish - 87 / 100

Codemasters has taken profit from the last five years to make a great simcade that, despite being quite continuist, is among the best Formula 1 games in history.

IGN - Luke Reilly - 9 / 10

F1 2020 is simultaneously the deepest yet most accessible Codemasters Formula One experience to date.

IGN Italy - Italian - 9 / 10

F1 2020 is not just the best episode of the franchise, but one of the best simcade racing game of this generation. This year Codemasters brings all the emotions and frantic action of the top class of motorsport to the players, crafting an incredible experience both for newcomers and experienced drivers. The new team career is awesome, and overall, the game is solid and rich of contents.

IGN Spain - Spanish - 8.5 / 10

Codemasters have not risked much in this latest installment before the generation change, although new features such as the My Team mode are appreciated.

Jump Dash Roll - Pete Taylor - 9 / 10

F1 2020 continues Codemasters' excellent form in delivering a fantastic recreation for Formula 1. The new My Team mode injects new life into the series and is far more welcome than Devon Butler was last year. It's never easy making iterative releases relevant but they sure do seem to have a grand plan in play. One wonders what we'll be treated to next year, but until then there's a bucket load of fun in F1 2020 to keep you entertained.

Metro GameCentral - 9 / 10

Codemasters' stewardship of the F1 licence finally gets into top gear with a thrillingly rigorous simulation that also makes every effort to make its appeal as broad as possible.

PC Invasion - 9 / 10

F1 2020 feels daunting for first-timers, but it lets you learn and adapt as you continue to progress and challenge yourself. Barring a few downsides with its My Team and Driver Career modes, it remains a true marvel in the sim-racing genre where every competition is nail-bitingly fierce and exciting.

Push Square - 8 / 10

This is the most complete series entry to date, with a full Formula 2 season, followed by up to 10 consecutive senior campaigns in an enthralling Formula 1 career. The new My Team mode allows for an even more personalised pilgrimage, and on track everything sings. It's a shame we're missing the story introduced in the previous entry and we hope Codemasters return to this and flesh it out in future outings. But all things considered, F1 2020 includes a frightening amount of content that makes this an essential for fans of the motorsport. This is, after all, the only complete Formula 1 season in 2020.

Saving Content - Scott Ellison II - 5 / 5 stars

MyTeam is hands-down the best mode of the past few years. It allows you to forge a path all your own, and truly get invested in the things that take place as both an owner and a driver. Codemasters strips what didn’t work in F1 2019, kept what did, and then built on that. The result is that while the real 2020 season of Formula One is abbreivated, F1 2020 is bigger and better than ever before.

Spaziogames - Matteo Bussani - Italian - 7.9 / 10

F1 2020 is a natural evolution of the series, too stuck to the past of it, with very few changes.

The Digital Fix - Posted by Seb Hawden - 9 / 10

Brilliantly authentic, incredibly immersive, F1 2020, for me, is one of the best racing games I have played for a long time. Managing your team is a brilliant addition that will perhaps entice new players on-board. The game is very user friendly, It has a massive amount of modes, features and options that will suit any type of player of every skill level. It looks good, sounds great and performs very well. Right, I am off, this F1 team is not going to manage itself.

The Games Machine - Marco Ravetto - Italian - 8.6 / 10

F1 2020 is the perfect title for those who want to enter the world of Formula 1. Graphics and sounds are ok, there are many game modes and, thanks to the different settings available, the driving system can be adapted to the needs of a wide range of virtual pilots.

TheSixthAxis - Thomas Harrison-Lord - 8 / 10

If it wasn't for the addition of My Team, F1 2020 would go down as being great for newcomers, but past the best before date for those who have enjoyed recent iterations. Some elements are now very tired, but being able to oversee the running of your own team proves to be incredibly satisfying and just enough of a distraction – for now. F1 2020 highlights just how much of a team sport Formula 1 is, and that can only be a good thing.

Wccftech - Chris Wray - 9 / 10

F1 2020 does as much as can be expected from Codemasters, offering an oustanding racing experience on the track. Where it goes further is off of the track, bringing in an incredibly extensive My Team mode, as well as fleshing out the career mode with a full Formula 2 season. With a massive amount of content, great racing and quality throughout, it's hard not to love the game. The only real issue I have is the inclusion of the new Podium Pass (battle pass) system, adding a microtransaction for cosmetics.

Pittsburgh Steelers

Division: AFC North
1. Baltimore Ravens (14-2)
2. Pittsburgh Steelers (8-8)
3. Cleveland Browns (6-10)
4. Cincinnati Bengals (2-14)

Coaching Changes

Steelers Hire Matt Canada as Quarterbacks Coach
Previous Experience: Interim HC at Maryland, OC/QBC at Maryland, LSU, Pitt
After two seasons of not having a designated Quarterbacks Coach following the promotion of Randy Fichtner to Offensive Coordinator, the Steelers decided it was for the best to re-introduce that position to their staff. Fichtner was challenged with developing two young QBs following Ben Roethlisberger’s injury while simultaneously being focused on the offensive gameplan, and at times that definitely felt like too much on one man’s plate. Having a dedicated QB coach will allow Fichtner to solely focus on the game-plan while also giving the young guys someone who is prioritizing their development. To fill this role, the Steelers hired former Maryland OC Matt Canada after a year away from coaching. It is likely that they were previously familiar with him from his time working with the Pitt Panthers back in 2016. Canada is renowned for his offensive creativity and has three drafted QBs to his name (Brissett, Peterman, Etling) from his time in the college ranks. His presence should be a huge benefit to Mason Rudolph and/or any rookie QB that may be brought in in the near future, and there’s a chance this hiring could lead to a larger role once Big Ben and Randy Fichtner retire.
Steelers Hire Ike Hilliard as Wide Receivers Coach
Previous Experience: Redskins WR Coach, Bills WR Coach
Former Wide Receivers Coach Darryl Drake passed away around the beginning of last year’s Training Camp, and former Steelers coach Ray Sherman was brought in only on an interim basis to fill that vacancy. Coach Drake was a real mentor figure and had a deep impact on all the young receivers, so his loss was an especially challenging part of last season. Regarding the full-time replacement, multiple names were floated around including former WR Jerricho Cotchery, but the Steelers eventually hired another former WR in Ike Hilliard. Coach Hilliard spent the past six years in the same role with the Washington Redskins, where he worked with receivers such as DeSean Jackson, Pierre Garcon, Jamison Crowder, and most recently Terry McLaurin. Hilliard himself had a 12-year career with the Giants and Buccaneers, which only speaks to his knowledge at the position. With the most veteran player in the room being 4th-year JuJu Smith-Schuster and also having a high profile draft pick at the WR position, Coach Hilliard has a big challenge ahead of him in maximizing all this young talent in front of him. Players have already spoken highly about him as a person and his desire to connect with them on a deeper level, and the hope is that it will pay big dividends once they get out onto the practice field. The WR room is filled to the brim with potential, and the Front Office believes that he is the man who can get the best out of them.
”Never choose good when great is available” - Darryl Drake (1956-2019)

Free Agency

In-House Moves

Player	Position	Signing Type	Contract Details
Bud Dupree	EDGE	Franchise Tag	1 year, $15.82 million
TJ Watt	EDGE	5th-Year Option	~$10 million (2021)
Matt Feiler	OT	RFA Tender	1 year, $3.26 million
Mike Hilton	CB	RFA Tender	1 year, $3.26 million
Zach Banner	OT	UFA Signing	1 year, $1.75 million
Jordan Dangerfield	SAF	UFA Signing	1 year, $825k
Kameron Canaday	LS	UFA Signing	2 years, $2.425 million

• Bud Dupree: Around this time last offseason, Steelers fans were largely convinced that Bud Dupree was a first-round draft bust who would soon be playing his last season with the team. In his first four years, Dupree showed flashes but never was able to turn the corner as a player and often left fans wanting more. Despite his inconsistencies, Kevin Colbert exercised his fifth-year option back in 2018 and that soon proved to be the correct decision. 2019 was a true breakout campaign for Dupree as he posted a career high 11.5 sacks (nearly doubling his previous high of 6) and another 28 pressures on top of that. Dupree showcased a wide variety of pass-rush moves and approaches that we hadn’t seen before and was a constant force against the run. By season’s end, it became clear that Pittsburgh couldn’t let him leave given the effectiveness of the Watt & Dupree tandem and what little depth they had behind those two. There are still some hesitations about him being a one-year wonder, so Colbert decided to place the Franchise Tag on their emergent pass-rusher (which Dupree has since signed) but no long-term deal was reached. He will play out the 2020 season looking to prove that the corner has truly been turned and that signing him is a worthwhile investment.
  
• TJ Watt: In an absolute no-brainer of a decision, Pittsburgh exercised TJ Watt’s fifth-year option of his rookie deal, keeping him in town through the 2021 season. Watt has emerged into a superstar talent and one of the league’s best pass rushers, and all indications suggest that Pittsburgh wants to keep him around as the face of their defense for many years to come. Picking up Watt’s option was the logical first step as the two sides begin to focus on a long-term deal that will surely be an expensive one. Fellow 2017 draftee and pass-rusher Myles Garrett recently signed a 5 year, $125m extension which will likely serve as a reference point for TJ’s eventual deal.
  
• Matt Feiler: Following a trade that sent long-time RT Marcus Gilbert over to Arizona, Matt Feiler emerged as a rock-solid replacement at the same spot. Feiler was a steady presence all-season long and also showcased his versatility when he kicked inside to Guard (and succeeded) against the Rams. At 28, Feiler is currently the youngest member of the OL, and his capabilities at both Guard and Tackle will likely have Pittsburgh wanting to keep him around a bit longer. For the time being, Pittsburgh has tendered a contract offer for the upcoming season where he will be a locked-on starter for the second year in a row.
  
• Mike Hilton: Mike Hilton has quietly emerged as one of the league’s better Nickel Cornerbacks over the past few seasons. Hilton is well-known for his effectiveness as a blitzer and his willingness to make plays in and around the box, but in 2019 he showed major strides in pass coverage alongside that. Despite his effectiveness in his role, Hilton’s long-term outlook with Pittsburgh is a bit murky due to the emergence of Cam Sutton as yet another effective coverage corner. With both players set to become Free Agents at the end of this season, the Front Office doesn’t seem willing to commit to Hilton on a long-term deal given that Sutton may come far cheaper. Like Feiler, Hilton was RFA tendered in order to keep him around next season.
  
• Zach Banner: #72 will be reporting as eligible once again in 2020 after signing a one-year deal to stay in Pittsburgh. After being discarded by a handful of teams back in 2017, the 6’8 360 lb mammoth of a man has found a home in the Steel City, acting as a 6th OL in short-yardage situations. Banner has endeared himself to Steeler Nation with his lovable personality and hilarious twitter account, so it is no surprise that the fanbase is excited to have him back. Banner will have a shot to take on a larger role this season as the RT spot may be up for grabs depending on where Matt Feiler plays.
  
• Jordan Dangerfield: After hanging around the practice squad for a couple of seasons back around 2014-16, Dangerfield has steadily earned a spot on the 53-man roster year after year, and he has been brought back once again on a one-year deal. Dangerfield is a reliable special teamer who contributes on all four units and also adds depth to a thin Safety room.
  
• Kameron Canaday: Kameron Canaday has been around since 2017 after winning the starting job following the retirement of long-time LS Greg Warren. He has snapped the ball long distances effectively and will continue to snap the ball the long distances following a two-year contract extension.
  

Losses

Player	Position	New Team	Contract Details
Javon Hargrave	IDL	Philadelphia Eagles	3 years, $39 million
BJ Finney	IOL	Seattle Seahawks	2 years, $8 million
Sean Davis	SAF	Washington Redskins	1 year, $4 million
Artie Burns	CB	Chicago Bears	1 year, $1 million
Tyler Matakevich	LB	Buffalo Bills	2 years, $7 million
Nick Vannett	TE	Denver Broncos	2 years, $5.7 million
Ramon Foster	IOL	Retired	N/A

• Javon Hargrave; When you’re up against the cap year after year, you unfortunately can’t keep all of your stars. That was the case this year as the young and talented Javon Hargrave priced his way out of Pittsburgh following an impressive 2019 campaign. Hargrave is a modern-day Nose Tackle who is very effective as a pass-rusher from that spot. Following a Week 6 injury to Stephon Tuitt, Hargrave moved into a full-time starting role and excelled to the tune of 60 tackles, 4 sacks, and 14 pressures. The Steelers had a decision to make between retaining Bud Dupree and Javon Hargrave and they opted in favor of Bud due positional value and much stronger depth at DL. For his efforts, Hargrave was rewarded with a cushiony 3 year $39m deal that will take him cross-state to Philadelphia. With the return of Tuitt, some young talent in the room, and an ever increasing usage of the 2-4-5 package, the loss of Hargrave isn’t the most crippling of blows, but it always hurts to lose young talent. J-Wobble and his bubble butt will surely be missed.
  
• BJ Finney: BJ Finney is an excellent depth lineman who has been the first interior player off the bench over the past four seasons. Finney made four starts this past season at both Center and Guard and his high level of play earned him an offseason payday. Pittsburgh was hoping to retain him as the long-term replacement to Ramon Foster but he was lured away to Seattle with a 2 year, $8m deal which will almost assuredly come with a starting gig from Day 1. It definitely hurts to lose young OL talent, especially when Pittsburgh has one of the oldest lines in the league, but that’s the price of keeping a core group around for so long. On a positive note, Finney will always be remembered in Pittsburgh for this infamous moment. Some say he still hasn’t snapped the ball to this day...
  
• Sean Davis: Sometimes things just don’t work out the way you’d hope with young players and that was the case with Sean Davis. The 2016 second-rounder started his career as a slot DB, moved to the starting SS spot in his second year, and eventually found his way to the FS spot in year three. Unfortunately, he never really found comfort in any of those positions. Davis performed admirably in coverage but his painful lack of ball skills and tendency to surrender lapses in coverage always haunted the secondary. After picking up a shoulder injury in preseason, Davis played one game before being placed on IR. The trade for Minkah Fitzpatrick spelt the end of his career in Pittsburgh as he was never re-activated. There’s not much to remember him fondly for during his time here, but he has an opportunity to re-write the script in Washington where he will fight for a starting FS spot.
  
• Artie Burns: Speaking of failed 2016 draft picks, former first-round selection Artie Burns is also gone following a fairly awful stint in Pittsburgh. After showing a lot of promise as a rookie, Burns failed to take the next step in year two, and then the wheels completely fell off in year three. Teams would pick on him game after game and he was unequivocally the worst player on the field before eventually getting benched for good. In the very few opportunities he did get in year four, nothing seems to have changed. Burns is a massive draft bust, rivaled only by Jarvis Jones in the past decade, and he will certainly not be missed. Chicago picked him up on a one-year deal which is likely the last hurrah of his career.
  
• Tyler Matakevich: Dirty Red carved out a nice little career for himself as a former seventh-round selection and was rewarded with a solid payday over in Buffalo. His high intensity and excellent football IQ had him falling in favor with the coaching staff early on, and he developed into one of Pittsburgh’s key special teamers over the past four seasons. Whenever there was a big punt block or forced fumble on a return, Matakevich always seemed to be the culprit. He isn’t athletic enough to be a starting LB in the NFL, but he can certainly make some spot starts when called upon.
  
• Nick Vannett: Following a rash of injuries to the Tight End room early in the season, Pittsburgh flipped a 5th-rounder to Seattle in exchange for Nick Vannett. He rewarded the team with 4 catches for 38 yards total and subpar blocking before vanishing entirely once Vance McDonald was back to full health. Vannett was not particularly good at anything and was basically a wasted pick. He eventually landed in Denver and proceeded to bash the Steelers organization afterwards. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
  
• Ramon Foster: Despite entering the league as a UDFA back in 2009, Ramon Foster carved out an impressive 11-year career where he was nothing but reliable across 145 starts. “The Big Ragu” was a fan favorite for his personality and was also the Steelers’ NFLPA Union rep the past few seasons. At 34 years old, Foster started to show his age this past season and also missed a pair of games due to injury. With his contract having expired at the end of the year, Foster decided to hang up his cleats for good and entered a well-deserved retirement.
  

Acquisitions:

Player	Position	Old Team	Contract Details
Eric Ebron	TE	Indianapolis Colts	2 years, $12 million
Derek Watt	FB	Los Angeles Chargers	3 years, $9.75 million
Stefen Wisniewski	IOL	Kansas City Chiefs	2 years, $2.85 million
Chris Wormley	IDL	Baltimore Ravens	Acquired via Trade
Curtis Riley	SAF	Oakland Raiders	TBD
Tyree Kinnel	SAF	XFL	1 year, $610k

• Eric Ebron: Ever since Heath Miller retired in 2015, the state of the TE position has been inconsistent at best. Jesse James came and went, Ladarius Green was an injury riddled bust, and Vance McDonald is still kicking around but struggled mightily without Big Ben. GM Kevin Colbert decided to give the position a new spark when he signed Eric Ebron to a two-year deal. Ebron is who he is at this point; a big-bodied target with great athleticism who will make huge splash plays but has an ugly propensity for drops. However, the blueprint for Ebron as a dominant red-zone threat was showcased with Andrew Luck and the 2018 Colts en route to a ridiculous 13 TD campaign. Big Ben loves his TEs, especially in the red-zone, so it seems like the Steelers want to recapture that 2018 magic from Ebron.
  
• Derek Watt: Move over TJ, there’s a new Watt in town! Derek comes cross-country from Los Angeles to reunite with his brother here in Pittsburgh, much to the jealousy of older brother JJ. Incumbent starter Roosevelt Nix missed the majority of last season with various injuries, and rushing performances noticeably suffered in his absence. As the Steelers look to get “back to their ways” in establishing a physical run game, Derek will be a huge addition leading the way for James Conner and the rest of the RB stable. On top of that, Derek is a key contributor on Special Teams and will be relied upon the same way in Pittsburgh as he was in LA. It also doesn’t hurt to keep TJ happy with an important long-term contract on the horizon.
  
• Stefen Wisniewski: Long-time Left Guard Ramon Foster announced his retirement following a long career, and Stefen Wisniewski was brought in as an option to fill that void. Wisniewksi has bounced around the league during his nine-year career, most recently being crowned a Super Bowl champion after starting each game during Kansas City’s postseason run. There’s nothing particularly flashy about him but he’s a solid plug-and-play starter and an added veteran presence who will compete for a starting gig. If the Steelers opt to keep Matt Feiler at RT, I expect Wisniewski to settle into the LG spot without much issue.
  
• Chris Wormley: For the first time since 1997, the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers completed a trade; Chris Wormley and a 2021 7th headed to Pittsburh with a 2021 5th headed back the other way. While certainly a huge surprise given the circumstances of the trade, it made a lot of sense to add depth to a DL room that saw departures this offseason. Wormley is primarily a 3-4 DE who is stout against the run. He will likely fill a similar role as a rotational player who may also kick inside to NT in certain pass-rush packages.
  
• Curtis Riley: In the middle of writing this piece, Pittsburgh went out and picked up Curtis Riley to add to their safety room. Riley started three games for Oakland last season and projects as more of a FS type. Given the lack of depth in the safety room, it makes sense to bring in some more bodies for competition purposes, especially since most of the current crop are SS types.
  
• Tyree Kinnel: The Steelers have shown some interest in former spring-football players recently, with AAF standout Kameron Kelly making the 53 last season and a handful of XFL castoffs being brought in this offseason. Of the group, I believe DB Tyree Kinnel has the best chance at this year’s 53 given the lack of depth at the safety position. I cannot comment much on his performance as a player since I never watched the XFL, but I definitely believe he has a reasonable shot at a depth safety spot.
  

Cuts

Player	Position	New Team	Contract Details
Mark Barron	LB	Unsigned	N/A
Anthony Chickillo	EDGE	New Orleans Saints	1 year, $1 million
Roosevelt Nix	FB	Indianapolis Colts	1 year, $615k
Johnny Holton	WR	Unsigned	N/A

• Mark Barron: Prior to drafting Devin Bush in the 2019 Draft, Mark Barron was signed to add some athleticism to a room that was desperately lacking. The former safety-turned-linebacker has dealt with injuries over the past few seasons but was still a clear upgrade athletically over the likes of Jon Bostic from the season prior. Barron eventually found a role as a Dime-backer on passing downs with Vince Williams playing running downs. While I wouldn’t call him a particularly bad player for Pittsburgh, I wouldn’t exactly call him a good one either. His coverage was solid but uninspiring and he had a bad habit of low effort plays that drove Steelers fans mad. If the team wasn’t so pressed against the cap, my guess is he would’ve been retained for depth purposes, but his contract presented too much in cap savings to justify otherwise.
  
• Anthony Chickillo: Anthony Chickillo was drafted in 2015 and has somehow stuck around due to lack of OLB depth and some reasonable special teams contributions. He found himself on the exempt list this past season due to allegations of domestic assault, but he was found not guilty and returned to the team by season’s end. Chickillo is alright against the run but offers little to nothing in pass rush. No self-respecting team should be relying on him as a third pass-rusher like Pittsburgh has these past few seasons. Surprisingly enough, he did end up finding a new home in New Orleans, probably only for special teams.
  
• Roosevelt Nix: The signing of Derek Watt marked the end of a successful stint in Pittsburgh for Roosevelt Nix. Rosie was a big fan favorite during his time here due to his selflessness as a blocker and some surprisingly big moments. Unfortunately for Nix, he only appeared in three games in 2019 due to various injuries, and it ended up costing him his job as Pittsburgh opted to target a healthier and slightly younger fullback in Watt. Rosie was excellent for the team as both a FB and a Special Teamer and Steeler Nation has nothing but love for him as he heads to Indianapolis to block for Jonathan Taylor and the rest of their rushing attack.
  
• Johnny Holton: The preseason standout Johnny Holton hung around on the Practice Squad before being activated to the 53-man roster early on in the season. He had a few opportunities for gametime due to some injuries to the starters later on in the season, but he really struggled. He has some nice speed to his game but not much else as far as receiving traits go. Cutting him gave the team some slight cap relief.
  

2020 NFL Draft

Round	Pick #	Player	Position	College
2	49	Chase Claypool	WR	Notre Dame
3	102	Alex Highsmith	EDGE	Charlotte
4	124	Anthony McFarland Jr.	RB	Maryland
4	135	Kevin Dotson	IOL	Louisiana-Lafayette
6	198	Antoine Brooks Jr.	SAF	Maryland
7	232	Carlos Davis	IDL	Nebraska

I wrote in detail about the Steelers draft with my Defending the Draft piece over on NFL_Draft. In the essence of post length, all my thoughts and comments can be found there.

Other Offseason News

Compared to the AB-laden insanity that was the 2019 offseason, this offseason was about as quiet as quiet could get. The highlight of the offseason for Steelers fans was watching Ben Roethlisberger throw a football for the first time since his Week 2 injury, and getting a celebratory haircut which drew the ire of Governor Tom Wolf. Big Ben is now cleared to go for the pre-season and the city of Pittsburgh is filled to the brim with anticipation for his big return.
Another cause for excitement for Steelers fans was watching a trio of former greats become part of the 2020 Pro Football Hall of Fame class. Legendary Safety Troy Polamalu became a first-ballot entrant in recognition of his decorated 12-year career, and former Head Coach Bill Cowher along with Steel Curtain-era Safety Donnie Shell will join him as part of the Hall of Fame’s Centennial Slate initiative. Pittsburgh was unsurprisingly selected to participate in the 2020 Hall of Fame Game against the Dallas Cowboys but that game has since been cancelled. The actual induction ceremony has been postponed indefinitely, so we won’t get to hear from Troy, Cowher, and Donnie just yet, but if it’s moved back to next Summer then hopefully Alan Faneca will finally get to join them.
Also worth noting, for the first time since 1961, Pittsburgh will not be hosting their Training Camp at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, PA due to Covid-19 travel restrictions. In what would’ve been the 55th consecutive year of attendance, Pittsburgh will instead hold Training Camp at Heinz Field. This is a huge disappointment for many fans as Pittsburgh’s Training Camp is one of the most fan-friendly experiences in the entire league, but thankfully this is just a temporary absence as the Steelers have already committed to returning to Latrobe in 2021 and beyond

Training Camp Battles

Left Guard: Matt Feiler vs Stefen Wisniewski vs Kevin Dotson
After Foster’s retirement, the Steelers signed Stefen Wisniewski from the Chiefs and then drafted Kevin Dotson in the 4th round of the 2020 Draft. However, Tomlin recently confirmed what some Steelers fans had suspected, which is that Matt Feiler will get the first crack at the LG position. Feiler was the team’s starting RT last season, but has played LG in the past.
With a truncated offseason program, rookies across the league will have a hard time making an immediate impact. Dotson will likely be relegated to a backup role, leaving the battle for LG between Wisniewski and Feiler. It’s usually safe to take Tomlin at his word, so I expect Feiler to win the job out of camp with Wisniewski being the primary G/C backup.
Right Tackle: Zach Banner vs Chukwuma Okorafor
If Feiler indeed moves to LG, that leaves his former RT spot up for grabs between Banner and Okorafor.
Banner was originally drafted by the Colts in the 4th round of the 2017 Draft. After bouncing around to Cleveland and Carolina, he’s spent the last 2 seasons as a backup for the Steelers. Last year, he gained fan-favorite status as “The Most Eligible Receiver” due to him frequently coming in as a 6th OL in heavy formations.
While Banner got much more playing time than Okorafor last year, it was actually Okorafor who got the start at RT in the game against the Rams. Foster missed the game due to injury, so Feiler slid inside to LG and Okorafor started at RT. That is a strong indication to me of how they’ll handle the situation now that Foster is gone permanently.
Nose Tackle: Tyson Alualu vs Dan McCullers
Alualu signed a 2 year deal with the Steelers in 2017, then signed another 2-year deal last year. In his time with the Steelers he’s played about 40% of snaps as the top interior DL backup. Whether it was Cam Heyward, Stephon Tuitt, or Javon Hargrave who needed relief, Alualu was the guy to step in.
McCullers, meanwhile, has been with the team since he was drafted in 2014. He’s only started 3 games in his career, but a 6+ year career as a 6th round pick is nothing to scoff at. He’s got an old-school, massive NT build at 6’7” 350 lbs, but offers little penetration and is really just a clogger. Again, taking Tomlin at his word (see the earlier Feiler tweet), I expect Alualu to win the job.
Wide Receiver Room: JuJu Smith-Schuster vs Diontae Johnson vs James Washington vs Chase Claypool
JuJu, at 23 years old, is somehow the veteran of this group. He’s the most proven and will surely be a starter despite an injury-plagued season last year. Johnson quietly led all rookie receivers in receptions last season, and showed some excellent route running and YAC ability in his rookie season. Both can play nearly any receiving role asked of them, so the question is which of them is better suited for the slot.
Washington and Claypool, on the other hand, are pure boundary WRs. Both have the speed to threaten defenses over the top and excel at tracking deep throws. Claypool is much more physically gifted, but again as a rookie in a shortened offseason I expect the coaches to bring him along slowly.
Initially, I expect JuJu in the slot with Johnson and Washington outside while Claypool tries to make an impact where he can. There might be times when Johnson is in the slot and JuJu outside, or perhaps Claypool makes a more immediate impact than expected and takes Washington’s spot. Seeing how they define the WR roles will be one of the most fascinating parts of training camp.

Full 53 Roster Prediction:

• Starters in Bold
• Rookies Italicized

For a tabulated version of the 53-Man Roster, CLICK HERE
QB: Ben Roethlisberger, Mason Rudolph, Devlin Hodges
Healthy Big Ben can still be a top 10 QB, but we won’t know how healthy he is until the pads come on. Rudolph and Hodges were good enough for 8 wins last year, but weren’t exactly driving forces in most of those. Still, they’re young enough to expect some improvement and hopefully won’t be called upon anyway.
HB: James Conner, Benny Snell, Anthony McFarland, Kerrith Whyte, Derrick Watt
Again, health is the biggest factor in this group as Conner can be a Pro Bowl back when he’s not sidelined. Snell and McFarland create a nice thunder and lightning combo behind him. I gave the nod to Whyte over Jaylen Samuels since he has a good chance to win the kick return job, though I could easily see Samuels making the team due to his receiving chops.
WR: JuJu Smith-Schuster, James Washington, Diontae Johnson, Chase Claypool, Ryan Switzer
While the Steelers have a reputation for finding great receivers in the mid-late rounds of the draft, they’ve actually spent some high capital on the position in recent years. Their top 4 receivers were all top 70 picks with one in each of the last 4 years. That leaves the final spot (or two) up for grabs. I expect Switzer to win the last WR spot over Deon Cain and Amara Darboh. With this being such a young group, I think Ben and the coaches will value Switzer’s reliability and special teams capability although it might come at the expense of a few explosive plays.
TE: Eric Ebron, Vance McDonald, Zach Gentry
Legendary stiff arms aside, McDonald has never been better than maybe the 20th best TE in the league. Sure, some teams have it worse, but the Steelers wanted more from their TE position so they went and signed Ebron. The problem is that where McDonald lacks in explosive plays, Ebron lacks in reliability. The Steelers seem to be hoping that having two B-level TEs will translate to A-level production.
OL: Al Villanueva, Matt Feiler, Maurkice Pouncey, David DeCastro, Chukwuma Okorafor, Zach Banner, Stefen Wisniewski, Kevin Dotson, Derwin Gray
The position was covered a lot in camp battles, so let’s focus on the backups. Either Banner or Okorafor will be penciled in as the swing tackle if they don’t win the RT spot, Wisniewski as the top interior backup, and Dotson is in place if injuries stack up at one position. The final spot will likely come down to whoever can show the most promise at OT, since ideally we’d have more than just one backup there. I’ve penciled in Gray, a 2019 7th round pick, who spent last year on the practice squad.
DL: Cam Heyward, Stephon Tuitt, Tyson Alualu, Chris Wormley, Dan McCullers, Isaiah Buggs
With Tuitt back from injury, he and Heyward form one of the league’s most dangerous interior DL duos. As stated earlier, Alualu is sliding inside to NT so the Steelers brought in Wormley as the new top DE backup. Buggs may also work his way into the rotation as he impressed in limited duty after being a 6th round pick in 2019.
LB: TJ Watt, Devin Bush, Vince Williams, Bud Dupree, Ola Adeniyi, Alex Highsmith, Ulysses Gilbert, Robert Spillane, Tuzar Skipper
In addition to one of the best interior DL combos, the Steelers also boast an excellent edge rush duo with Watt and Dupree. They will try to replicate, or even improve upon, their 26 combined sacks from last season. With Barron gone, Williams returns to his starting spot next to Bush, who will look to build upon a promising rookie season after being the Steelers’ first top 10 pick since 2000. Highsmith and Adeniyi will be the edge backups while Gilbert looks to be the top backup at ILB ahead of Spillane and Skipper. The depth at ILB is pretty thin - and Williams has his limitations to begin with - so I would not be surprised if the Steelers pick up a veteran after final cuts are made across the league.
CB: Joe Haden, Steven Nelson, Mike Hilton, Cam Sutton, Justin Layne
Once again, Steelers boast another excellent defensive tandem; this time at CB with Haden and Nelson. Hilton is also an excellent slot man while Sutton provides solid depth both outside and in the slot. Layne got virtually no playing time last year, but when your #5 is a 3rd round pick in his second year, it probably means you’re in a good spot depth-wise.
SAF: Minkah Fitzpatrick, Terrell Edmunds, Jordan Dangerfield, Antoine Brooks Jr., Curtis Riley
Fitzpatrick is an All-Pro caliber player that has been talked about ad nauseum since his trade from Miami. Edmunds, meanwhile, was also a 1st round pick in 2018. He’s turned into a reliable tackler and has all the physical gifts you could ask for, but his coverage skills are lacking at this point. If he can take the next step the secondary will truly have no holes to attack, which is an exciting thought for this defense. The depth here is a concern, however, as Dangerfield is more of a special teams player and Brooks is a 6th round rookie. The final spot came down to Riley or Marcus Allen. While Allen has been on and off the practice squad for the past 2 seasons, and therefore has more familiarity with the defense, Riley has starting experience at FS which none of the other backups can really offer.
ST: Chris Boswell (K), Jordan Berry (P), Kameron Canaday (LS)
After a disastrous 2018 season, Boswell re-rewarded the Steelers’ faith in him by returning to form as one of the most accurate kickers in the game. Canaday was re-signed for a reason, so I expect him to make the roster without much issue. Berry isn’t a very good punter but he’s still penciled in until Tomlin or Colbert officially cuts him.

2020 Schedule Predictions

Week 1: at New York Giants (MNF)
I expect both QBs to struggle out of the gate. Jones is a second-year QB who has lost most of his first offseason as a starter while Ben will likely be rusty coming back from injury. The difference will come on the defensive side, where the Giants have no real star-power and the Steelers have plenty.
Prediction: Steelers 20-13
Week 2: vs Denver Broncos
Denver is in a good position to compete for a wildcard spot with what could be a resurgent defense and young playmakers on offense. Adding AJ Bouye and Jurrel Casey with Bradley Chubb coming back from injury, I think they can pull off an upset in Pittsburgh while the offense is still finding its footing.
Prediction: Broncos 17-14
Week 3: vs Houston Texans
The 2020 Texans, for better or worse, remind me of the 2018/2019 Seahawks teams. I think Deshaun Watson will be running around for his life making plays with little-to-no help from the rest of his team, much like Russell Wilson has done the last couple years. Those Seattle teams still made the playoffs, but I’m afraid the bottom may fall out for Houston.
Prediction: Steelers 27-17
Week 4: at Tennessee Titans
Tennessee is a bit of an enigma for me. Unfortunately, I get some 2017 Jaguars vibes where a deep playoff run brought expectations up to an unhealthy level. Still, with home-field advantage, I think they will be too much for the Steelers to handle.
Prediction: Titans 20-17
Week 5: vs Philadelphia Eagles
Another team with a star QB and little supporting cast, I think the Steelers’ secondary will feast on the Eagles’ inexperienced receivers. If they can bottle up Ertz, Philly doesn’t stand much of a chance. Their defense always seems to give us fits, however, so I expect another low scoring game.
Prediction: Steelers 16-9
Week 6: vs Cleveland Browns
I think the Steelers offense will finally hit its stride against a familiar opponent at home. The Browns will put up a fight, but it won’t be enough.
Prediction: Steelers 34-21
Week 7: at Baltimore Ravens
Pittsburgh is one of maybe two or three defenses in the league capable of corralling Lamar Jackson, as they proved last year. With home-field advantage, however, I think the Ravens’ defense will get enough stops for the offense to pull out the win.
Prediction: Ravens 24-14
Week 8: BYE
Week 9: at Dallas Cowboys
It’s no secret that Jason Garrett was allowed to coach Dallas for far too long. I’m not sure that McCarthy is a great coach, but I’m pretty sure he’s better than Garrett. I think Dallas will have the best shot at their division this year and will handle the Steelers at home.
Prediction: Cowboys 24-21
Week 10: vs Cincinnati Bengals
I like a lot of the moves the Bengals have made this offseason and I think they could push for 7 or so wins after a 2-14 season last year, but I don’t believe they’ll be ready to win in Pittsburgh yet.
Prediction: Steelers 31-13
Week 11: at Jacksonville Jaguars
This is a trap game for the Steelers and it’s one I could easily see them dropping if they’re not careful. Looking at the talent on the Jags’ roster, however, I just can’t see them being dangerous enough to pull it off this season.
Prediction: Steelers 20-17
Week 12: vs Baltimore Ravens (TNF)
About once a season Ben just plays flawlessly. It’s usually in or around November, it’s usually at home, and it’s usually in primetime. In each of Ben’s last two seasons (2017 and 2018), it was on a Thursday night. Ask the 2018 Panthers, 2017 Titans, 2016 and 2015 Colts, and the 2014 Ravens what that’s like. It just so happens that a big rivalry game is on a Thursday night in November this year, and my money is on Ben lighting it up. The Ravens won’t go down without a fight, but I think the stars align too much against them for this one.
Prediction: Steelers 35-27
Week 13: vs Washington Football Team
Washington is quietly putting together a talented team, but it all depends on how Haskins develops. I think their team will surprise some people, but at Heinz field and pushing for a playoff spot I’m going with the Steelers to take care of business.
Prediction: Steelers 24-13
Week 14: at Buffalo Bills (SNF)
The Bills’ defense, and especially their secondary, is legit. I think they’ll be able to handle the Steelers’ receivers at home in a fight with major playoff implications.
Prediction: Bills 20-16
Week 15: at Cincinnati Bengals (MNF)
Like I said, I think the Bengals will show a lot of progress this year, but they haven’t beaten the Steelers since 2015. Their record in primetime games is abysmal. I’ll believe they can do it when I see it.
Prediction: Steelers 24-20
Week 16: vs Indianapolis Colts
I like the Colts’ roster a lot, with the exception of Phillip Rivers. He’s had a ton of talented rosters in the past that have fallen short because he just doesn’t have the clutch gene. Pencil in the Colts to have the chance at a game-winning drive that ends in an interception.
Prediction: Steelers 27-21
Week 17: at Cleveland Browns
A lot of this will depend on if the Browns have imploded or are still in the hunt. Call me unconvinced.
Prediction: Steelers 20-10
Final record prediction: 11-5. 5th seed in AFC
Link to Schemes Section

Closing Notes

I’d like to give a special thanks u/ezDuke for collaborating with me on this write-up. I focused on the portions pertaining to the past (Coaching Changes, Signings, Draft, etc.) whereas Duke focused on the portions pertaining to the future (Camp Battles, 53-Man Roster, Schedule Predictions).
I’d also like to thank u/PlatypusOfDeath for giving us the opportunity to write this piece. I hope everyone found this both enjoyable and informative!
Link to Hub