Welcome to the week 11 Official NFL Power Rankings! It was an eventful weekend, all that fans (of most teams) could reasonably ask for. Whose top 15 are upside down? Is any team more PFF than substance? Happy 2 million, Discuss! 31/32 reporting

#		Team	Δ	Record	Comment
1.		Steelers	+1	10-0	Going into Thanksgiving after a solid win against the hopeless Jaguars, if the Steelers win vs the Ravens, they're in. That's right, if they beat Baltimore, the Steelers clinch a playoff spot by Week 11. Meanwhile, the Ravens know their back is against the wall after losing a tough one against the Titans and being outside of the cutoff line for the postseason. A loss against the Steelers takes their playoff odds down to 50-50, while a hot Browns team beating the same reeling Jaguars team brings their playoff chances to 75%. Expect the Ravens take their frustrations out on the Steelers in what will be both teams biggest test this season. The Ravens are desperate now and that makes them even more dangerous. Even more dangerous if they have the beerbug. If the game is postponed, disregard all of this.
2.		Chiefs	-1	9-1	The Chiefs have some soul searching to do on defense after another abysmal performance against the Raiders. Unlike the first matchup against the Raiders, the Chiefs offense was able to bail out poor performances from the defense and special teams this time thanks to the usual suspects on offense. Travis Kelce continued his otherworldly year. Tyreek Hill was as great as always. Patrick Mahomes made a game-winning drive with only 1:43 look way too easy. Even if the Chiefs defense has off days the Chiefs are always going to be competitive due to those 3 guys. They might have to lean on them, even more, when the Chiefs go to Tampa Bay next week.
3.		Saints	+1	8-2
4.		Rams	+6	7-3	Jordan Fuller is the superior 199th pick.
5.		Packers	-2	7-3	"MVS giveth, MVS taketh away"
6.		Colts	+7	7-3	The Colts drive to close the game after stopping the Packers on a late 4th and 1 was the most poorly executed drive this ranker has ever seen. It's a testament to this team's heart and talent that they still pulled out a W after that debacle. Sunday's game was one of the biggest in recent Indy football and the Colts look to surge into the back stretch of the season.
7.		Seahawks	+5	7-3	The Seahawks defense won the game on a Carlos Dunlap sack on a three man rush against Kyler Murray. This team is provocative.... gets the people goin. And the fans are here for it (RIP blood pressure). A long break between Thursday night and the game Monday night should mean the returns of Chris Carson, Shaquil Griffin, and Ethan Pocic. After a bit of a slump, the Seahawks next 4 opponents consist of the NFC East (minus the Cowboys) and the Jets. It's all comin' together, baby.
8.		Bills	--	7-3	The Dolphins, Patriots, and Jets all lost this week, which is about as good of a bye week as the Bills can ask for. This has been a very weird season with a lot of flukey wins and losses. Despite losing to them (and getting their teeth kicked in by one), it’s hard to say the Bills are objectively worse than Arizona or Tennessee. A Hail Mary ended one, and there was a whole string of strange, confusing events leading up to the other that made it a tough game to prepare for. This isn’t to say Buffalo didn’t deserve these losses, but in such an up-and-down year around the whole league, 7-3 feels pretty damn good. Now, it’s time to make the final push for the division.
9.		Buccaneers	-4	7-4	He was excessively loyal to his coordinators. No matter their follies, no matter the incompetence on full display, and no matter the need for change, he insisted they continue in their duties. He refused to step in to call plays until it was too late, and by that point, the writing was already on the wall for his job. This of course references former Buccaneers Head Coach Dirk Koetter. The parallels are there in the present, and after last night's Rams game (which included a rollout from Tom Cement Shoes Brady), OC Byron Leftwich has little confidence from Bucs fans. They better wake up, because Patrick Mahomes is next.
10.		Titans	+4	7-3	The Titans were able to once again slow the Ravens offense enough to keep pace through the first three quarters and set up an eleven-point fourth quarter to take the game to overtime. In overtime, Derrick Henry became the first player in NFL history to score a second walk off touchdown in the same season.
11.		Ravens	-5	6-4	This ranker would opt to write a blurb, but Greg Roman forced him to write a message to Hollywood instead. Can the Steelers be beaten without a DL? What about with two running backs on the COVID list? Asking for a friend.
12.		Cardinals	-5	6-4	Leading the league in penalties (now 9 more than the next most penalized team) was bound to factor into a loss at some point. The offensive line also had their worst game of the season as Seattle's pass defense looked elite. Hopefully the teak used the extended time to work on some things and Murray's shoulder had enough time to heal. Sunday's game against the up and down Patriots will be absolutely critical.
13.		Raiders	--	6-4	Bad officiating, bad defense, and scoring 30+ points and losing. Sunday night was exactly what you expect when you watch a Raiders game. The bright side for Raiders fans, they dominated KC on the road and barely scraped out a win after coming off a bye in Vegas. The Raiders can beat any team in the league, unfortunately their defense makes it so any team can beat them as well.
14.		Browns	+1	7-3	The Browns are just two wins away from the first winning season since 2007 and third winning season in TWENTY YEARS. The Browns will face the struggling Jaguars next week.
15.		Dolphins	-6	6-4	After a few weeks of glorious hope, Dolphins fans are welcomed back to the standard mood. Though the team's future still looks bright, this game was a hard reminder that the team is not yet all the way complete, and still has some glaring holes. Now the Dolphins travel to the winless Jets to see if they pull off the easy win, or if the long history of odd games in this rivalry continues.
16.		Bears	+2	5-5	The bye week featured the most watchable performance from the Bears' offense all season.
17.		Panthers	+3	4-7	The first shutout in five years was exactly what P.J. "Matty Ice" Walker and his two end zone interceptions needed. Even if this game was somehow closer than the end result, the defense really stepped up. A perfect 52 yard bomb to DJ Moore deserves specific recognition, as well as Brian Burns' overall game film.
18.		49ers	+1	4-6	Bye Week- Hopefully it allows enough time to get players off the Covid list.
19.		Vikings	-3	4-6	Dalvin Cook leads the league in rushing touchdowns, Adam Thielen leads the league in receiving touchdowns, Justin Jefferson is on pace to break Randy Moss's rookie receiving record, Kirk Cousins ranks 6th in PFF grade... and yet none of it matters because half of the Vikings' defense is on IR.
20.		Patriots	-3	4-6	Pass protection and defensive secondary struggled. Run game disappeared in the second half. lost Rex. Not Good!
21.		Broncos	+4	4-6	Tua learned a very important lesson on Sunday. No matter how good your team is, no matter how hapless the Broncos appear to be, the power of Mile High bullshit will break you. Despite having an awful start after game after game of awful offensive play, the Broncos strung together just enough yardage to complement an amazing defensive performance to squeak out a win. Ultimately meaningless except for one point — Vic Fangio has now won as many games as Vance Joseph.
22.		Chargers	+1	3-7	This game had all of the hallmarks of Chargers football: inconsistent and mistake-prone offense, a defense that only lasts 30 minutes, and incompetent special teams play. However, the Chargers hung on to win the game, probably because the other team was the Jets. Keenan Allen had a career day, as his 16 receptions in a game is a franchise record. The Herbert-Allen connection continues to grow stronger and will hopefully be a focal point of the offense for years to come. The Chargers will don the navy unis again in a cross-country tilt against the Bills next week.
23.		Falcons	-1	3-7	Thank you @Saints for the opportunity to realize a top ten draft/pick. And thank you to the fans and the city of Atlanta for putting up with the Falcons...
24.		Texans	+4	3-7	Every win against the Pats feels like a gift, even when they're as garbage as they are this year. Seeing Bill Belichick scowl at his team's loss never fails to brighten the spirits of all other football fans.
25.		Lions	-4	4-6	The offense was actually terrible. This Lions team is a shell of the offensive strength it had last year. After being shut out by an XFL QB, Patricia's seat must be scorching. Technically still in the playoff hunt, but unless the Lions blowout the Texans on thanksgiving.... don't count on it.
26.		Giants	+1	3-7	If you're going to have a Covid outbreak you might as well do it on your bye week. Here's hoping everyone makes a quick recovery and limits the spread to family members. The NFC East now has an entire division of 3-win teams, which means this dumpster fire of a division is more up for grabs than it's been all year. Big Blue heads to Cincinnati to take on the Burrow-less Bengals next.
27.		Washington FT	+2	3-7	And here we are. Come Thanksgiving, The Washington Football Team and Dallas Cowboys will battle it out for 1st place in the NFC LEAST. The winner standing tall at checks notes 4-7... This division is a toss up and we're really looking at a 5-11 or 6-10 team hosting a wildcard playoff game.
28.		Eagles	-2	3-6-1	Real talk. Carson Wentz is among the worst, if not the absolute worst, starting quarterback currently in the NFL. Doug Pederson's magic from the 2017 season is dead and buried in a 50 foot deep hole in the Vet graveyard. Jason Peters is the worst overall player in the entire league. It is time for Doug to give up playcalling to someone with an iota of common sense. It is time to bench Wentz in favor of Jalen Hurts, if only to keep Wentz healthy for next season. It is time for Eagles' fans to accept the fact that being 1st in a division while 3-6-1 is not a "positive takeaway."
29.		Cowboys	+1	3-7	Winners? For the first time in a while, Cowboys fans feel hope.
30.		Bengals	-6	2-7-1	The Bengals were never going to make the playoffs in 2020, they only had one goal for a successful season, keep Joe Burrow healthy. The front office and coaching staff failed to do that. Because Mike Brown won't step down or move aside, the changes need to start with Director of Player Personnel Duke Tobin, Head Coach Zac Taylor, Offensive Coordinator Brian Callahan, and offensive line coach Jim Turner. All four have contributed towards the catastrophic failure that is the Bengals in 2020 and need to be let go. For the remainder of the season the only goal is to land a top three pick and draft Penei Sewell.
31.		Jaguars	--	1-9	It was not a trap game. It was, however, Shad Khan's 100th loss since buying the Jaguars. That doesn't count for much, but... no. No it's all just terrible. Send help.
32.		Jets	--	0-10	The Jets have become the first team to be eliminated from playoff contention, considerably hurting their chances at making the playoffs.

Happy Wild Card Week, /NFL! I hope everyone had a great 2020 playing along and continue with us into the 2021 postseason. We're in playoff territory now, with Wild Card weekend coming up. For the regular season, Week 17 gave me a 12-4 result, bringing me to 166-90 out of 256 games (64.84% correct). I would love to hear everyone else's final results if you all want to post them.

Saturday, January 9th

Matchup	Time/Network	Winner	Comments
Colts @ Bills	1:05p ET on CBS	Bills	The Bills have a their first home playoff game since 1996, congrats to them. The Colts can cause them some offensive problems with Taylor against a shaky run D. Indy can also force Allen to try and sustain drives instead of getting big pass plays. Allen is playing well and is capable of spreading the ball around, working the middle of the field to WR Beasley and getting help from TE Knox. The Colts also don't have a true shutdown corner for Diggs. It's easier to expect Allen over Rivers to make the clutch throws to win a game this season.
Rams @ Seahawks	4:40p ET on FOX	Seahawks	The Rams have it tough this week. They're in a situation right now at QB, going with either a banged-up Goff or a guy who only has one career start under his belt (Wolford). On one hand, you could say it would be smarter to start Goff if he's healthy enough to play, but Goff is coming off thumb surgery and I would definitely have to rank the thumb as the most important finger for a QB. Although Wolford had a solid debut in Week 17, he only led the Rams to nine points. The Rams are playing a Seahawks team that has never lost a home playoff game under Carroll and are expected to have their starting O-line on the field.
Buccaneers @ Washington	8:15p ET on NBC	Buccaneers	The Bucs hope to have Evans healthy to help red-hot Brady along with Godwin, Brown, Gronk and the running game. As well as Brady is playing, this isn't the greatest spot for his pass protection against Young and Washington's front four. The Bucs' defense will contain the run, but Smith has three dangerous receiving weapons in McLaurin, Thomas and McKissic to have success moving the ball on short-to-intermediate throws. Ultimately, Tampa Bay wins comfortably as expected, but Washington works the number and keeps it to a touchdown loss with inspired play for Rivera.

Sunday, January 10th

Matchup	Time/Network	Winner	Comments
Ravens @ Titans	1:05p ET on ESPN/ABC	Ravens	Toss up pick for me. Jackson is still looking for his first playoff win after two home losses. He's relaxed and revved up as a passer, and he keeps running at a high level, sparked by Dobbins sharing the backfield with him. Look for the Ravens to get aggressive passing with him to build a lead, and limit Henry from being a consistent gateway to Tannehill's play-action downfield passing. The Ravens and Titans are playing similar offensive games at the moment, but the Titans' defensive woes catch up to them here.
Bears @ Saints	4:40p ET on CBS/Nickelodeon/Amazon Prime	Saints	The Saints are the biggest favorites of WC Weekend with a double-digit projected lead over the Bears. They have owned this matchup rather easily the past two seasons, with both games being played in Chicago. The Saints will have a rested backfield with Kamara and Murray not playing in Week 17, and they will pound away often at the Bears with them. The Saints won't sleep against another NFC North visitor like they did against the Vikings. NOLA can contain the running of Montgomery and put the game in the hands of Trubisky, which won't end well against the Saints' pressure on the road. Food for thought; Brees, Kamara, and Thomas were on the field together for only two games last season. This will be the first time since September the Saints will be at fully power offensively.
Browns @ Steelers	8:15p ET on NBC	Steelers	The Browns got their needed win over the Steelers in Cleveland in Week 17 to make the playoffs and force this rematch, but it took everything from them defensively and offensively to survive against a resting team not starting Big Ben. Pittsburgh will show their stouter run D and that will set them up to put consistent pressure on Baker, who doesn't respond well when throwing at a high volume with guys in his face. Big Ben will go to work on a Browns' secondary that has plenty of coverage holes away from Ward. Losing Vernon up front to flank Garrett also hurts. The Steelers ended up making a wise decision to not show the Browns much in way of a real game plan. The Steelers' defense reasserts itself with more offensive help than usual to win comfortable against a COVID-depleted Browns team.

Those are my predictions, let's hear yours. Keep it civil and fun. Best of luck!
Update: 4-2, on to the Divisional Round.
Divisional Round based off current predictions.

Earl Thomas wanted to show an old friend how far he had come.
It was 2013, and a then-24-year-old Thomas patrolled the Seattle Seahawks' Legion of Boom secondary. The franchise was just weeks from its first Super Bowl championship, and Thomas had flown his high school coach, Texas state Hall of Famer Dan Hooks, and his wife to see the Seahawks' regular-season finale against the St. Louis Rams.
After the Seahawks breezed past the Rams, Hooks found himself at Thomas' house for dinner, surrounded by luxury. He overlooked lake waters as Nina Thomas, Earl's future wife, prepared a tender steak. After dinner, Thomas walked Hooks to his garage to check out the Lamborghini Murcielago. Hooks can't remember if the car was blue or white, but he definitely remembers the scissor doors and hand-stitched leather seats, a rare glimpse into a player he always considered a bit of an introvert.
Thomas stressed he never drove it through rain or mud.
Seven years later, Hooks wonders how Thomas -- a once-proud playmaker now unemployed after a rocky season with the Baltimore Ravens and well-publicized problems off the field -- is navigating those same conditions in his life.
"I was really surprised when he got off track like that," said Hooks, who coached Thomas at Orange-Stark High School. "As time went on, the image he represented became a little different. I don't know what happened. But he's a great kid and I wish him success."
After nearly $90 million in career earnings, seven Pro Bowls and three All-Pro selections, Thomas has played deep safety on a likely route to the Hall of Fame. But a series of bizarre events on and off the field late in his career have raised questions about a legacy coming apart at the seams, including:
He ended his Seattle career by flashing a middle finger at Pete Carroll on Sept. 30, 2018, after a leg injury and an acrimonious contract dispute.
He ended his Baltimore career with a punch, with teammates fed up with his act well before he fought safety Chuck Clark during a training camp practice on Aug. 21, 2020. Two days later, the Ravens cut him for conduct detrimental to the team.
In between, a well-publicized issue with his wife, Nina -- who was arrested April 13, 2020, for allegedly pointing a gun at Thomas over cheating suspicions, according to court records -- took the focus off football.
Now, Thomas is 31 and hopeful for one last chance to anchor a secondary. All season, the free agent has worked out five to six days per week with Jeremy Hills, a former University of Texas teammate who trains many NFL athletes out of Austin.
"He feels like he has so much more to prove," Hills said. "He'll show up ready whenever he gets the call."
Blake Gideon, a former University of Texas safety who shared the defensive backfield with Thomas, backs up that claim, saying Thomas conveyed in recent text messages that he "understands the position he's in and is eager" to correct it with another chance.
Many former teammates and coaches said the news stories about Thomas, who didn't respond to multiple attempts by ESPN to reach him, don't match the person they know: a quiet but loyal individual who doesn't trust others easily but cares deeply once walls are broken, with a rare football focus that some mistake for iciness.
That last part complicated Thomas' status in multiple locker rooms. His relentless pursuit of greatness could create a gulf that several former teammates didn't want to discuss on the record out of respect for Thomas' career.
As one longtime Seahawk put it, Thomas was "a lot like Kobe" in his competitive drive. Kobe Bryant evolved and was beloved when he retired in 2016. Will Thomas get his goodbye, or has the game said it for him?
Faith and family in Orange, Texas Just about everything a young Thomas did felt ordained.
His interest in music became not just a hobby, but a vessel for an entire church body, playing the drums and organ in the Sunday service band in Orange, Texas.
A quiet boy with a matching tie and vest helped get the congregation at Sixth Street Community Church off their seats. Sixth Street, located in Orange's east side -- which the church's Facebook page calls "devil's territory" because of crime and drugs in the area -- spread joy from a brown-brick building. Thomas' grandfather, Earl V. Thomas Sr., was the founding pastor, and uncle Anthony D. Thomas has taken over.
Raymond Richard, Thomas' teammate at Orange-Stark, said the boys were in church three nights per week, plus weekends. Services were "filled with the Holy Ghost -- shouting and spirits moving," he said, and though Thomas wasn't the animated type, he took pride in helping others celebrate God through music.
"Every instrument, he could play. He was just gifted like that," Richard said. "I think he just learned how to play by being around it."
Growing up in Orange -- nicknamed "Fruit City," sitting on the border of Texas and Louisiana with a population of about 11,000 -- Thomas cut grass with his dad on weekends. Locals knew Thomas as Debbie Thomas' "miracle baby," because doctors told her, a cancer survivor, she couldn't have kids. Instead, "God blessed her with a millionaire," Richard said.
Thomas became arguably Orange's best player since former Dallas Cowboy All-Pro cornerback Kevin Smith in the '80s. Thomas was a hybrid cornerback-running back who hated to come off the field. No tests, on the field or standardized, would stop his ascension.
High school teammate Depauldrick Garrett recalls Thomas' struggling with his SAT scores to qualify for the University of Texas. Before his last attempt at qualifying, Thomas told him on site, "If I pass this score, 'I'm going to the league.'"
"His focus level was just different," Garrett said. "He wanted to make a name for Orange, and he learned the value of hard work from his family."
Early signs of brilliance as a Longhorn In 2008, Gideon earned Texas' starting-safety role alongside Thomas, who for weeks hadn't said more than two words to him. So Gideon approached Thomas after a practice and asked if he had a problem.
"He said, 'Man, to be honest, where I come from, you're a white boy with a buzz cut, so I fill in the blank on what you think about me,'" Gideon recalled Thomas saying. "I told him, 'Hey, bro, that's not me. I grew up in a different part of the state, but I see how you play and how you work hard and I love you for that. I promise you, I want to play next to you and help you get where you want to be.
"From that point, we really trusted one another."
Thomas' hometown is rich in football tradition but familiar with racial tension, which ESPN highlighted in a 2017 feature on Thomas' roots. A 1993 Texas Monthly story highlighted the segregation problems in nearby Vidor. In 2016, a Bridge City High School official issued a public apology after two of its football players posted a meme of a West Orange-Stark player who was Black and a message including the N-word.
Richard believes racism isn't discernibly worse in Orange; it's everywhere.
"You've got a group that's always trying to keep things turned up in every town," said Cornel Thompson, a longtime football coach and West Orange-Stark's athletic director. "In Orange here, the thing that pulls everything together is football."
And the field was never a problem for Thomas, who proved undeniable from the moment he stepped onto the UT campus.
He wasn't afraid to let people know, either. Lamarr Houston, a UT teammate and eight-year NFL veteran with the then-Oakland Raiders and Chicago Bears, remembers Thomas, as a redshirt freshman, declaring in the locker room that he would start the following year.
Houston brushed him off with a, "Yeah, yeah, we'll see."
"We kind of got into it -- he was really serious," Houston said. "He was letting everybody know."
Colt McCoy -- the Texas QB in 2008 -- was struck by how a shy redshirt freshman would play an organ at a local church on Sundays, sometimes missing an involuntary workout as a result, then become a dominant force during nighttime 7-on-7 workouts in the summer. Thomas begged McCoy, who had the keys to the field gates, to continue one-on-one sessions with him covering McCoy's receivers, over and over, until midnight.
"He was going to be the best and nothing was going to get in his way," said McCoy, an 11-year NFL veteran now with the New York Giants.
Thomas backed up that confidence with raw talent, with some teammates calling him "Earl the Squirrel" because of elite quickness that led to 10 interceptions in two seasons.
Will Muschamp, Texas' defensive coordinator from 2008 to 2010, remembers doing double-takes watching practice film because of the extra reps Thomas took, the ground he constantly covered.
Muschamp was cleaning his house during the early months of the pandemic when his youngest son, Whit, came across a picture he drew years back of his favorite Longhorn, Thomas. Muschamp snapped a picture and texted it to Thomas, who replied: "Coach, that's awesome."
"As productive a football player I've ever been around," said Muschamp, a head coach at Florida and South Carolina over the past decade.
Seattle was a perfect fit -- until suddenly it wasn't Man, he had a different burst.
That was the prevailing theme from Seattle coaches after the first practices with Thomas, a first-round pick in 2010. Coaches measured safety speed by how one tracked the "red lines" -- numbers to numbers -- and no one owned the red lines like Thomas did.
New coach Pete Carroll needed a catalyst.
"We started constructing a defense around a middle-field safety, and that's what he was," said Rocky Seto, a longtime Seattle defensive assistant who left the profession a few years ago for Christian ministry. "He had a knack for getting the ball, and his range was phenomenal."
Seattle's personnel staff followed the Thomas pick with a pair of fifth-round selections -- hard-hitting safety Kam Chancellor (2010) and lanky corner Richard Sherman (2011) -- for a defensive foundation to fuel championship runs
Thomas was different in every way, eschewing the role of vocal leader for a get-like-me mentality that some teammates couldn't reach. One Seattle coach recalled Thomas chiding teammates for doing an extra film session because he assumed everyone already did that like him.
The work ethic reached maniacal levels. Multiple people interviewed for this story remember Thomas leaving his daughter's birthday party early to go watch film in another room. Former Seahawks corner DeShawn Shead was there for that moment. He was also there when Thomas angrily confronted defensive linemen for not carrying out assignments with intensity during a walk-through.
Thomas would balance contentious moments with invites for teammates to watch "Thursday Night Football" and play video games at his house.
"We know each other's family -- wives, kids, and on the field, we were there for each other," Shead said of Seattle's secondary.
Thomas' hero was Ed Reed, and Thomas wanted to "surpass Reed and beat him by a mile" in career accomplishments, said Kris Richard, Seattle's former defensive backs coach and defensive coordinator.
Thomas hasn't quite matched Reed's 64 interceptions, but Thomas' 30 is tops among safeties this past decade, with Sherman leading the way among active players, with 35. Chancellor was a generational hitter, and Sherman could erase the top receiver, but Thomas' versatility scared opposing coaches. His freelance moves were calculated, almost always based on film tips. Richard recalls a moment when a young Thomas sniffed out a toss play for Chiefs running back Jamaal Charles, put his foot in the ground and "leveled him out of bounds."
Richard had to manage a position room with three greats, which he admits meant "sparks would fly" with emotion on occasion.
One team source said Thomas had multiple heated confrontations with coaches, though Richard said he doesn't recall that, only a player of few words but much action.
"He wanted to be the greatest safety to ever play," Richard said. "For my entirety coaching him, he was always the glaring example of what to do and how to practice, the epitome of excellence."
That football immersion made him unapproachable at times. If someone isn't helping Thomas connect on the field, a team source said, then "he's an island."
But Seattle was the ideal place for a "keeps to himself" guy such as Thomas, Seto said. Seattle is unapologetically messy when it comes to players; coaches get to know them as people, business be damned, and if that muddles contract negotiations, at least players can't say the team doesn't care. Carroll is skilled at coalescing an amalgam of personalities and embracing differences. Seto had multiple talks with Thomas about the Bible and his relationship with Jesus Christ.
"He came in as a 19-year-old guy, almost out of high school, and we saw him in that way, nurtured him," Seto said. "If there were any quirks, we learned to appreciate that part of him. We all kind of came up together."
By 2018, Thomas was 29 and found himself on that island without two trusted anchors. Chancellor retired because of neck injuries, and Sherman was released after tearing his Achilles tendon. Both played roles in corralling Thomas when he appeared distant or indifferent.
Without them, Thomas appeared increasingly irritated to be in Seattle. Public demands for an extension or a trade before the 2018 season were unsuccessful, and as trainers carted Thomas off the field in Arizona in Week 4 -- with his lower left leg fractured, and his middle finger pointed to the Glendale sky -- one Seahawks source described the moment as "numbing," a finality to a relationship that felt over much earlier. People from Orange considered the gesture uncharacteristic of the church-organ-playing football player they knew.
Sherman declined to comment for this story through the 49ers, adding that he would talk only if Thomas talks; efforts to reach Chancellor were unsuccessful. The Seahawks did not make Carroll and general manager John Schneider available for this story.
"They were pillars who knew they could lean on each other," said Richard of Thomas and the Legion of Boom. "When you remove those pillars from his life, that affects you."
From Orange, Hooks sensed Thomas' desire to return home fueled unhappiness in Seattle.
"He wanted to go to Dallas, and when that didn't happen, maybe that changed things for him," Hooks said.
Why it didn't work with the Ravens The Baltimore Ravens are among the league's best at finding bargain contracts and developing draft picks into tough-minded players, which only fueled curiosity when then-new general manager Eric DeCosta gave Thomas a four-year, $55 million contract with $32 million in guarantees in March 2019.
Thomas, two months from age 30 at the time, was believed to have a one-year deal on the table from Kansas City, but his market wasn't exactly booming. The Ravens had moved on from Eric Weddle and, without a viable replacement in the system, figured Thomas' pedigree and range could strengthen the secondary against the Odell Beckhams of the AFC North.
The signing felt rushed -- and proved unsettling nearly as fast.
Within the first month of game action, Thomas initiated a heated argument with Brandon Williams over the defensive tackle's availability against the Cleveland Browns. Thomas' unreliability became a broader issue, as ESPN's Jamison Hensley reported, once he didn't show up for meetings following the bye after a Week 7 matchup with the Seahawks.
According to a report in The Athletic, Thomas took a private jet to Las Vegas straight from the game in Seattle instead of returning to Baltimore with the Ravens. Thomas was fined repeatedly for his indifference to game prep.
"It's one of the all-time mysteries why he didn't work in here, because it seemed on paper like he'd be the perfect Raven," said a team source. "This is a good locker room, but it didn't fit from the beginning."
Peak Thomas no longer showed on the game film from the 2019 season, but he still produced 47 tackles, two sacks, a forced fumble and two interceptions.
The team's handling of the fight with Clark in 2020 showed just how many strikes Thomas had used up. Thomas was gone within two days of punching Clark during a Friday training camp practice over a blown coverage, with the team essentially paying out $22 million for one season of work.
Coach John Harbaugh consulted prominent Ravens, who believed it was time to cut ties. After Thomas' release, the team declined to provide specifics publicly and privately, eager to move on despite owing him $10 million in guarantees in 2021, which is currently being sorted out by an NFLPA grievance.
Without making excuses for Thomas, several former Seahawks acknowledge that leaving Seattle's locker room is an adjustment for veterans. Several former and current Seahawks brought this up when discussing Thomas' problems. It's not that players can't be successful elsewhere -- Sherman became an All-Pro with San Francisco -- it's that they can take the culture for granted.
Outside linebacker Bruce Irvin has been vocal about this. He left Seattle in 2016 free agency and, after 30 sacks in five seasons elsewhere, he returned to the Seahawks because he missed the nuances -- how the team traveled, practiced and took care of older players.
"Seattle has energy, a positive environment, and they tailor a lot of their defense and offense to the players," Shead said. "It can be very different compared to the rest of the league. For some, when you got to other teams, it just gets to them."
Thomas' football career started to spiral as his personal life suffered in the public eye.
The Ravens were shocked by the April 13 incident in Austin, which resulted in Nina Thomas' arrest for first-degree felony burglary of a residence with intent to commit aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
The details alleged in Travis County magistrate court records were jarring:
After finding Earl Thomas and his brother, Seth, in separate bedrooms of a rental home with separate women, Nina placed Earl's 9mm Beretta less than a foot away from her husband's head, with the safety disengaged and her finger on the trigger, all of which an officer viewed on cellphone video footage. Nina, accompanied by two women to help confront Thomas, told police she intended to scare Thomas but was unaware of a round in the chamber. Earl, who was not arrested, tussled for the gun, but police showed up at 3:41 a.m. with Nina allegedly chasing Earl with a knife. Thomas posted a since-deleted video urging people to pray instead of gossip, as "stuff like this happens."
Jonathan Goins, Nina's lawyer, told ESPN that Nina and Earl -- high school sweethearts who married in 2016 and have three children -- are reconciling.
"They are working on their marriage and doing what they have to do to make sure their three children are growing up in the best environment possible," Goins said.
Goins said he is expecting a dismissal of the case, which is currently being handled by the district attorney's office. He is working closely with Carl A. Moore, Earl Thomas' attorney, and Thomas has fully cooperated in the process.
Will Thomas get another chance? As a concerned friend, Gideon has sent encouraging texts to Thomas in recent months. He figured Thomas felt like the world was coming down on him, so he simply let him know he loved him. They had pleasant exchanges that Gideon would prefer to keep private.
"A lot of people were surprised with the issues that came to light because that was never him," Gideon said. "I don't see that as not having a great relationship with teammates in the locker room. The stuff back in Austin with his brother, that wasn't him."
According to Hills, his former teammate and trainer, Thomas has immersed himself in routine, working on his personal life and football craft without any guarantees of his career resuming.
Most days, Thomas wakes up early, jogs a mile to get loose, goes through a traditional weightlifting session (he needs to squat with the barbell across the back -- no body-weight sessions here), then it's on to conditioning and two-man offensive work, Hills said.
Hills classifies Thomas as being in "damn good shape," with speed of the NFL game the only thing they can't truly replicate in workouts. But when Hills can't find Thomas, he usually knows why.
"For the first time in a while, he has more time to be a dad," Hills said. "If he's not with me, he's probably in a bouncy house somewhere."
Family photos comprise much of Thomas' social media fare.
Thomas also has several posts that seem to promote the grand opening of Area 29 in Houston, which, according to the company's Instagram page, is the "hottest new international strip club featuring #1 dancers." Twenty-nine is Thomas' famous jersey number. ESPN left a message for a club official for comment on Thomas' involvement.
The Houston Texans appeared ready to sign Thomas in late September but backed away over concerns from the locker room, according to reporting by CBS Sports.
The Dallas Cowboys desperately needed secondary help yet didn't aggressively pursue Thomas. League sources said they believe the Cowboys once entertained signing Thomas for the league minimum, but those discussions never went very far.
Football can be cruel to aging veterans hoping to gracefully bow out. For every John Elway or Peyton Manning, there are dozens forced into retirement due to declining play.
But that's tough for Thomas, McCoy said, because of what he still can give.
"It's hard for anybody when someone tells you you can't play anymore -- it's even harder if you think you still can," McCoy said. "Hard thing to move on from. With Earl, I don't think that's what's going on. He can still play."
Richard also believes Thomas has "something left in the tank," because instincts and preparation will guide him.
Either way, a legacy awaits him in Orange, where for years he conducted a massive youth football camp. Providing a free camp to 1,000-plus kids was liberating for Thomas, who had to shake his hesitancy to speak publicly as a front-facing figure.
Thomas brought NFL peers to town and treated Orange "like Robin Hood" when it came to generosity for kids and family friends, said Derrick Scott, a former Texas strength coach who helps run the camp, which COVID-19 derailed in 2020.
"I see all this as Earl Thomas growing into the man he's going to be. I really believe he'll prevail," Scott said. "I believe his heart is in the right place. Things happen in life. I've seen his resiliency."
If Thomas doesn't get another NFL down, he has disciples to carry on his tradition -- and fiercely protect his legacy.
Any time Tennessee Titans safety Kenny Vaccaro breaks on a pass, he hopes his technique and angle to the ball would make Thomas proud.
The former UT teammate and friend can't be told any differently: Thomas revolutionized the free safety position because of his sideline-to-sideline range and anticipation.
That's why Thomas' current predicament deeply hurts him.
"Hall of Fame players like him should be able to go out on their own terms," Vaccaro said.

- One good thing that I've been mulling around in my head, about Gettleman coming back (and trust me, there is almost nothing): Since the combine workouts are cancelled, and this is going to be another weird offseason (in terms of the way prospects are scouted)... it might give us some advantage to have a familiar system in house, and a guy who prides himself in relying on the tape. Being a film grinder. There are going to be a lot of misses in this draft. Half of these kids didn't even play this year, and others played in a shortened season. Pro days are always skewed in favor of the players, so they may not be an accurate barometer. Some consistency in the front office isn't the worst thing in the world, for this particular year. Especially if our guys were looking at some of these kids last year. A new GM wouldn't have been able to come in and shake everything up, or impliment new systems of scouting, because of the way the world is right now. So hey, Gettleman is terrible, but he may have this going for him.
- To weigh in on the Sterling Shepard convo; this guy isn't bad and his contract is not a complete albatross... but it's insane that he's not being used exclusively in the slot. He's a very good slot receiver- that's what he is. But he's an average #2 and shitty #1. The fact that we used him outside this season so we could have Tate stinking it up in the slot, is mind boggling to me. It's like weakening two positions.
- Also perplexing: Once Xavier McKinney came back, why play Julian Love at safety? I had been curious about playing him at outside corner, since Patrick Graham's scheme wants the #2 corner to be a good tackle aggressive run supporter (which Julian is) and since we weren't playing press man anyway... seems like Love could have played zone as well as Yiadom, played the run as well as Yiadom, but also given that ability to play SOME off-man coverage. We saw in week 17 that he was an upgrade and allowed them to play man. Not sure why it took so long. Hoping we can keep him at CB next year, since we've now resigned Logan Ryan, and Love has no business playing that deep cover safety, anyhow. I don't want him starting, but you need depth in this league. We have it at safety, already.
- After watching bits of the games this past weekend; you cannot "scheme a pass rush" against any of these good teams. They will absolutely tear you apart. If you can't rush with four players; forget about going far in the playoffs. Or at least that's how it looked to me. These big offenses function by spreading you out and running from passing formations to keep you honest. Pass to set up the run. I think we are built to be good in "big boy football", but modern NFL offenses will laugh our big boys off the field while they are keeping plays alive for 5-7 seconds. They aren't trying to establish the run before they start bombing it all over the field. We can't protect the edges and we can't get a consistent pass rush. No amount of scheming will fix that in a shootout. We need edge talent, BADLY. Look at what Shaq Barrett and JPP did to Aaron Rogers. You can't blitz guys like Patrick Mahommes and Aaron Rogers; you've got to get to them with four.
- I've long been on the "CB in one of the first two rounds" train, but again- these playoffs are cementing that idea, for me. We shouldn't invest another big contract into CB#2 (because: resource allocation), so if those big two (three if you count Pitts) receivers are off the board at 11; I'm trading down a few spots and grabbing Jaycee Horn. Or staying put (no trade avail) and taking Surtain or Caleb Farley. WR talent will be there in round 2, and our FA money should go to receiver also. We can't compete against any good team in this league without Bradberry, and there's no guarantee he stays healthy, or stays around past his contract (2 years left). Keep the secondary strong.
- What to do about edge... Doesn't feel like you can trust Greg Rousseau's one year dominance at Miami, to take him at 11. However, I like Joe Tyron from Washington in the last 2nd or early 3rd round (who also didn't play this year, but that might help him fall to less of an investment than the first round). Can you trade down with pick #11 and still get one of those top corners and pick up another 2nd rounder to secure a guy like Tyron? We'd still need some sort of FA edge, cause the time for pass rush is NOW; a developmental prospect is not going to save our anemic rush. I'd be super curious if Bud Dupree would take a "prove it" deal.
- Dirt has been telling us for a year, but it really is incredible that DMD is the number one GM in terms of dead money over the past few years. After that whole purge and rebuild we did; we are still in the bottom third of available cap space, with a rookie QB contract. Incredible. Everyone likes to point to 2020 offseason as if it's some holy grail... It was his first good offseason (and it was very good), so we tend to look at it with starving eyes. From a 50 foot view, this guy has been nothing short of an abomination. Leave it to "short memory Mara" to only evaluate him for the 2020 offseason, in bringing him back.
I started the post with a compliment of DG, so I had to end it with an insult. Can't have people thinking I'm taking a shine to him.

Philadelphia Eagles (4-8-1) vs Arizona Cardinals (7-6)

The Jalen Hurts era started in Philly with a bang as the Eagles knocked off the number 1 seed Saints being a strong rushing attack led by Hurts and Miles Sanders. The defense was the real winner in this game as they completely shut down the Saints offense for most of the game. But the win came at a cost, Rodney McLeod tore his MCL and will be out for the season and a number of other defenders left the game and will be questionable going into the game this week. The Eagles also lost starting RT Jack Driscoll for the remainder of the season to a MCL sprain.The Eagles with their rookie QB at the helm will travel to Arizona this week to take on the Arizona Cardinals who need a win to stay close in the playoff hunt. The loss of McLeod will be felt as the Cardinals come in with an impressive passing attack led by Kylar Murray and WRs DeAndre Hopkins and Christian Kirk. Jim Schwartz will need to come up with a game plan to shutdown the Cardinals big time WRs with a banged up secondary. At the same time they will need to slow down the Cardinals running game where Murray is also dangerous, but Kenyon Drake is the real threat. The Eagles will also unfortunately still be fighting for a playoff spot by winning the NFCE shitpile, but will be eliminated this week with a Washington win and an Eagles loss. Here is to an injury free game.

General Information
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Score Prediction Contest

Date
Sunday December 20th, 2020

Game Time	Game Location
4:05 PM - Eastern	State Farm Stadium
3:05 PM - Central	1 Cardinals Drive
2:05 PM - Mountain	Glendale, AZ 85305
1:05 PM - Pacific	Wikipedia - Map

Weather Forecast
Stadium Type: Open Air
Surface: Grass
Temperature: 61°F
Feels Like: 61°F
Forecast: Clear. Clear throughout the day.
Chance of Precipitation: 0%
Cloud Coverage: 0%
Wind: 3mi East MPH

Betting Odds
Oddsshark Information
Favorite/Opening Line: Arizona -6.5
OveUnder: 49
Record VS. Spread: Eagles 5-8, Cardinals 6-7

Where to Watch on TV
FOX will broadcast Monday’s game to a national audience. Brandon Gaudin will handle play-by-play duties and Aqib Talib will provide analysis.
Week 15 TV Map

Radio Streams
List of Eagles Radio network member stations with internet broadcast availability
Radio.com 94.1 Desktop Streaming

Listen to Merrill Reese and Mike Quick
Calling the game on 94WIP and the Eagles Radio Network will be Merrill Reese, the NFL’s longest-tenured play-by-play announcer (44th season). Joining Reese in the radio booth will be former Eagles All-Pro wide receiver Mike Quick, while Howard Eskin will report from the sidelines.

Location	Station	Frequency
Philadelphia, PA	WIP-FM	94.1 FM and 610 AM
Allentown, PA	WCTO-FM	96.1 FM
Atlantic City/South Jersey	WENJ-FM	97.3 FM
Levittown, PA	WBCB-AM	1490 AM
Northumberland, PA	WEGH-FM	107.3 FM
Pottsville, PA	WPPA-AM	1360 AM
Reading, PA	WEEU-AM	830 AM
Salisbury/Ocean City, MD	WAFL-FM	97.7 FM
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, PA	WEJL-FM	96.1 FM
Salisbury/Ocean City, MD	WAFL-FM	97.7 FM
Salisbury/Ocean City, MD	WEJL-AM	630 AM
Salisbury/Ocean City, MD	WBAX-AM	1240 AM
Williamsport, PA	WBZD-FM	93.3 FM
Wilmington, DE	WDEL-FM/AM	101.7 FM
York/LancasteHarrisburg, PA	WSOX-FM	96.1 FM

Philadelphia Spanish Radio
Rickie Ricardo and Bill Kulik will handle the broadcast in Spanish on Mega 105.7 FM in Philadelphia and the Eagles Spanish Radio Network.

Location	Station	Frequency
Philadelphia, PA	LA MEGA	105.7 FM
Allentown, PA	WSAN	1470 AM
Atlantic City, NJ	WIBG	1020 AM; 101.3 FM

Cardinals Radio
Arizona Sports (98.7 FM) is the flagship station of the Cardinals Radio Network.Dave Pasch handles the play-by-play duties, Cardinals FB Ron Wolfley provides color commentary for the Cardinals.

National Radio
NA

Satellite Radio

Station	Eagles Channel	Cardinals Channel
Sirius Radio	SIRI 138(Streaming 825)	SIRI 81(Streaming 800)
XM Radio	XM 381 (Streaming 825)	(XM 226 (Streaming 800)
Sirus XM Radio	SXM 381 (Streaming 825)	SXM 226(Streaming 800)

Eagles Social Media	Cardinals Social Media
Website	[Website](https://www.azcardinals.com/
Facebook	Facebook
Twitter	Twitter
Instagram	Instagram
Snapchat: Eagles	Snapchat: SnapAZCardinals

NFC East Standings

NFC EAST	Record	PCT	Home	Road	Div	Conf	PF	PA	Net Pts	Streak
Football Team	6-7	.462	3-3	3-4	3-2	4-5	287	275	12	4W
Giants	5-8	.385	2-4	3-4	3-2	4-6	238	291	-53	1L
Eagles	4-8-1	.346	3-3-1	1-5	2-2	4-5	277	328	-51	1W
Cowboys	4-8	.308	2-4	2-5	1-3	3-6	298	400	-102	1W

Series Information
The Arizona/St.Louis/Chicago Cardinals lead the Philadelphia Eagles (59-57-5)
Series History
Head to Head Box Scores
First Game Played
November 10, 1935 at Wrigley Field, Chicago, IL. Chicago Cardinals 12 - Philadelphia Eagles 3
Points Leader
The Philadelphia Eagles lead the Arizona/St.Louis/Chicago Cardinals (719-680)
Coaches Record
Doug Pederson: 1-0 vs. the Cardinals
Kliff Kingsbury: 0-0 vs. the Eagles
Coaches Head to Head
Pederson vs Kingsbury: First Meeting of the coaches.
Quarterback Record
Jalen Hurts: Against Cardinals 0-0
Kylar Murrayl: Against Eagles: 0-0
Quarterbacks Head to Head
Jalen Hurts vs Kylar Murray: This will be the first matchup between the QBs in the NFL
Records per Stadium
Record @ Lincoln Financial Field: Eagles lead: 3-2
Record @ State Farm Stadium: Cardinals leads series: 3-0

Rankings and Last Meeting Information
AP Pro 32 Ranking
Eagles No. 23 - Cardinals No. 14
2020 Record
Eagles: 4-8-1
Cardinals 7-6
Last Meeting
Sunday, October 8th, 2017
Eagles 34 - Cardinals 7
The Eagles scored early and often in this game, for their first blowout win of the season against the Arizona Cardinals. Carson Wentz found tight ends Trey Burton and Zach Ertz for early touchdowns, and later connected with wide receiver Torrey Smith for a 59-yard touchdown to finish the first quarter. Following Smith's touchdown, the Eagles unveiled their baseball home run celebration for the first time all season. The closest the Cardinals came was in the second quarter when they trailed 21–7 following a John Brown 13-yard touchdown. In the mid third quarter, on 3rd and 19, Wentz found wide receiver Nelson Agholor for a 72-yard touchdown pass, on which Agholor juked rookie safety Budda Baker and finished the play with the Nestea Plunge. The final score was 34–7, and Wentz threw for four touchdowns, including three first quarter touchdown passes.
Click here to view the Video Recap
Click here for box score

Last 10 Meetings

Date	Winner	Loser	Score
10/08/17	Eagles	Cardinals	34-17
12/20/15	Cardinals	Eagles	40-17
10/26/14	Cardinals	Eagles	24-20
12/01/13	Eagles	Cardinals	24-21
09/23/12	Cardinals	Eagles	27-6
11/13/11	Cardinals	Eagles	21-17
01/18/09	Cardinals	Eagles	32-25
11/27/08	Eagles	Cardinals	48-20
12/24/05	Cardinals	Eagles	27-21
11/17/02	Eagles	Cardinals	38-14

Injury Reports	Depth Charts
Eagles	Eagles
Cardinals	Cardinals

2020 “Expert” Picks
Week 15 - "Expert" Picks

2020 Team Stats
Eagles Season Stats
Cardinals Season Stats

2020 Stats (Starters/Leaders)

Passing

Name	CMP	ATT	PCT	YDS	TD	INT	RAT
Wentz	251	437	57.4%	2620	16	15	72.8
Hurts	25	45	55.6%	309	2	1	82.5
Murray	309	461	67.0%	3231	23	10	94.7

Rushing

Name	ATT	YDS	YDS/G	AVG	TD
Sanders	132	746	74.6	5.7	5
Drake	201	848	70.7	4.2	9

Receiving

Name	REC	YDS	YDS/G	AVG	TD
Fulgham	33	467	46.7	14.2	4
Hopkins	94	1155	88.8	12.3	5

Sacks

Name	Sacks	Team Total
Graham	7.0	43
Reddick	10	37

Tackles

Name	Total	Solo	Assist	Sacks
Singleton	87	55	32	1.0
Hicks	101	67	34	0.0

Interceptions

Name	Ints	Team Total
Singleton/McLeod/Mills/Riley	1	4
Peterson/Kirkpatrick	3	10

Punting

Name	ATT	YDS	LONG	AVG	NET	IN 20	TB	BP
Johnston	58	2794	66	48.2	42.5	20	4	0
Lee	45	1979	58	44.0	38.7	16	2	0

Kicking

Name	ATT	MADE	%	LONG	PAT
Elliot	18	13	72.2%	54	18/20
Gonzalez	22	16	72.7%	56	38/39
Nuggent	4	4	100.0%	56	2/2

Kick Returns

Name	ATT	YDS	AVG	LONG	TD
Scott	20	438	21.9	46	0
Edmonds	18	417	23.2	54	0

Punt Returns

Name	RET	YDS	AVG	LONG	TD	FC
Ward	17	116	6.8	22	0	15
Kirk	20	132	6.6	24	0	6

League Rankings 2020

Offense Rankings

Category	Eagles Stat	Eagles Rank	Cardinals Stat	Cardinals Rank
Total Offense	326.1	26th	389.5	4th
Rush Offense	126.2	9th	151.2	4th
Pass Offense	199.8	28th	238.2	18th
Points Per Game	21.3	26th(t)	27.5	10th
3rd-Down Offense	37.4%	28th	42.5%	14th
4th-Down Offense	37.0%	28th	70.6%	6th
Red Zone Offense (TD%)	61.1%	13th	68.8%	7th

Defense Rankings

Category	Eagles Stat	Eagles Rank	Cardinals Stat	Cardinals Rank
Total Defence	347.9	14th	344.5	12th
Rush Defence	127.3	24th	119.5	18th
Pass Defence	220.6	9th	224.9	11th
Points Per Game	25.2	19th	23.3	13th
3rd-Down Defence	37.6%	9th	41.3%	16th
4th-Down Defence	37.5%	4th	62.5%	23rd(t)
Red Zone Defence(TD%)	66.7%	26th(t)	53.3%	6th

Team

Category	Eagles Stat	Eagles Rank	Cardinals Stat	Cardinals Rank
Turnover Diff.	-10	29th(t)	+3	12th(t)
Penalty Per Game	6.2	21st(t)	7.2	32nd
Penalty Yards Per Game	48.3	16th	55.9	24th

Connections
Cardinals MLB Jordan Hicks was drafted in the 3rd round in 2015 NFL Draft and played 4 seasons with the Eagles.
Cardinals LB Hassan Reddick is from Camden NJ, and attended college at Temple in Philadelphia.
Cardinals RB James Saxon played one season for the Eagles in 1995.
Cardinals LB Coach Billy Davis served as defensive coordinator of the Eagles from 2013-2015.
Eagles S Rudy Ford played two seasons with the Cardinals from 2017-2018.

2020 Pro Bowlers

Eagles	Cardinals
DT Fletcher Cox (Starter)	WR DeAndre Hopkins(Starter)
OG Brandon Brooks (Starter)	OLB Chandler Jones (Starter)
TE Zach Ertz	FS Budda Baker (Starter)
C Jason Kelce (Starter)
LS Rick Lavato (Starter)

General
Referee: Craig Wrolstad
Jalen Hurts started his first career game in Week 14 vs. New Or-leans, leading the Eagles to a 24-21 victory over the 10-2 Saints. Hurts, the Eagles’ youngest starting QB since Jack Concannon in 1964, became the second QB in NFL history to beat a team on a 9+ game winning streak in their starting debut, joining Ron Jawor-ski (12/20/75 vs. Pittsburgh with L.A. Rams - snapped Steelers’ 11-game streak). He also became the first NFL QB since 1950 to throw a TD pass and rush for 100+ yards in their first start.
Miles Sanders (746 rushing yards, 5 TDs), ranks 2nd among NFL RBs in rushing average (5.7), behind Nick Chubb (5.9) (min. 125 attempts). In Week 14 vs. New Orleans, Sanders recorded an 82-yard rushing TD, marking the 4th-longest rushing play in Eagles history. He is the first NFL RB with 3 rushes of 70+ yards in the same season since 2012, when Jamaal Charles, Chris Johnson and Adrian Peterson each accomplished the feat.
Philadelphia’s defense ranks 2nd in the NFL with 43.0 sacks, trail-ing only Pittsburgh (45.0). Since Week 10, Fletcher Cox ranks 1st among NFL DTs with 4.0 sacks, while Javon Hargrave is tied for 2nd with Aaron Donald and Leonard Williams with 3.5 sacks.
Dallas Goedert is one of three NFL TEs with 250+ receiving yards (261) and 2+ TDs (2) since Week 11, joining Travis Kelce (481 yards, 3 TDs) and Darren Waller (386 yards, 3 TDs).

Draft Picks

Eagles	Cardinals
WR Jalen Raegor	OLB Isiah Simmons
QB Jalen Hurts	OT Josh Jones
LB Davion Taylor	DT Leki Fotu
S K’Von Wallace	LB Kamal Martin
OT Jack Driscoll	DT Rashard Lawrence
WR John Hightower	LB Evan Weaver
LB Shaun Bradley	RB Eno Benjamin
WR Quez Watkins
OT Prince Tega Wanogho
LB/DE Casey Toohill

Notable Off-season Additions

Eagles	Cardinals
DT Javon Hargrave	WR DeAndre Hopkins
CB Nickell Robey-Coleman	DT Jordan Phillips
CB Darius Slay	LB Devon Kennard
	LB De’Vondre Campbell
	DT Trevon Coley

Notable Off-season Departures

Eagles	Cardinals
S Malcom Jenkins	RB David Johnson
CB Ronald Darby	DE Rodney Gunter
RB Jordan Howard	DT Cassius Marsh
WR Nelson Agholor	DT Zach Kerr
OL Halapoulivaati Vaitai	DT Cararun Reid
LB Kamu Grugler-Hill	CB Bradon Williams
RB Darren Sproles	WR Pharoh Cooper
DT Timmy Jernigan	WR Damiere Byrd
LB Nigel Bradham	LB Joe Walker
	OT William Sweat

Milestones
Eagles DE Vinny Curry (29) needs 1 sacks to move up to 18th on the Eagles all-time sack list passing DT Jerome Brown
Eagles TE Zach Ertz needs 40 yards for 6000 career receiving yards.

Food for Thought
The 1948 Philadelphia Eagles-Chicago Cardinals Championship Bout

Eagles fans recall Super Bowl LII with wonder and relish in it. These days, that date seems so very long ago, but there was another magical Championship game I’d like to remind you of, as the Eagles and Cardinals face off (and the Northeast just got a snow dump), the Eagles’ first championship. Sure, this team the Eagles will face is not the Chicago Cardinals or the St. Louis Cardinals or the Phoenix Cardinals, but it’s the same franchise of course.
As far as snowy games, fans typically recall the Eagles’ fun snow game of 2013 against the Lions in which players made snow angels in the endzone, but there was an even more memorable one, one which Eagles RB Steve Van Buren didn’t even think was going to take place. With a blizzard harrowing Philadelphia: “I was sure they wouldn’t be able to play and went back to bed,” Van Buren told [Joe Jonas]. “Then, ‘Greasy’ (coach Earle Neale) called and told me the game was on and to get a move on. I had to take a trolley, then the El, and then a second trolley. When that trolley bogged down in the snow, I had to walk down Lehigh Avenue through the drifts about two miles to the park. I got there just a couple of minutes before the kickoff.” source. Van Buren and the Eagles proceeded to run amok all over the Cardinals that fateful day.
Where the Cardinals managed 34 rushes for 96 yards, Van Buren led the Eagles to a 57 for 225 line day (let’s disregard Eagles QB Tommy Thompson stumbling toward a 0.0 passer rating: 2/12 for 7 yards and 2 INTs). Despite the Eagles controlling the game--in fact, the Eagles scored on the 1st play of the game, but it was called back for Offsides--it wasn’t until a minute left in the 4th that either team scored, a 5 yard rush by Van Buren. In victory, the Eagles exacted revenge on the Cardinals for losing the championship matchup the year prior 28-21.

Matchups to Watch
Arizona rushing attack vs the Eagles front seven
The Eagles have repeatedly struggled this season with teams who have mobile quarterbacks, who are able to escape the pocket. They did well last week against Taysom Hill, however this week they will take on Kylar Murray who is a lot closer to Lamar Jackson than Taysom Hill. The Eagles gave up 100 yards and a TD when they faced Jackson this season.again Like Jackson, Kylar Murray has the ability to break off big runs, as he is second to Jackson in rushing yards by a QB this season. Murray has over 700 rushing yards and a league leading 10 rushing TDs by a QB this season. Pair that with the impressive running attack of Kenyon Drake and the Eagles front seven will have their hands full on Sunday. With a talented receiving corp of the Cardinals the Eagles will not be able to stack the box and it will be on the front seven to keep contain and stay in the lanes to keep Murray and Drake in check. If they don’t and allow the Cardinals to establish the run look for the Cardinals to pound the run and look for a big play off play-action to one of their talented WRs.
Eagles banged up secondary vs the talented receiving corp of the Cardinals
In their win over the Saints, the Eagles lost their two best players in the secondary in safety Rodney McLeod and CB Darius Slay. McLeod unfortunately tore his MCL and will miss the remainder of the season and Slay suffered a concussion and while he has progressed through the protocol he has not been cleared as of the time of this writing. If Slay misses the game the Eagles will most likely lean on Avonte Maddox to cover All-Pro WR DeAndre Hopkins which is not good news for the Eagles. Last time the Maddox was asked to cover an All-Pro he was absolutely torched by Davante Adams. Hopkins is also questionable for the game, but is trending towards playing.Eagles DC Jim Schwartz will need to get creative with his coverages and hope his front four can continue to wreak havoc like they did last week where Hill was under constant pressure. If given time, Murray will cut up this secondary and have some big plays against the Eagles backups.
Jalen Hurts and Doug Pederson vs Vance Joseph
Cardinals’ defensive coordinator Vance Joseph will have the job of stopping the Eagles rookie QB who ran all over the Saints number one ranked defense last week. Doug Pederson said earlier this week that the Eagles simply shot themselves in the foot in the second half against the Saints, but rewatching the game it looks like the Saints made some adjustments at halftime that were effective in slowing down and confusing the rookie QB. Unlike the Saints, Joseph will have a full game tape to review and prepare for Hurts. Of course, Pederson and Eagles know what they put out on film too and will have to adjust to how they played in the second half against the Saints. It’ll be up to them to have a counterpunch ready to go depending on how the Cardinals play the rookie quarterback. Hurts was far more effective with his legs than his arm against the Saints, so I would not be surprised to see Joseph put a spy on Hurts to limit his ability to run. If the Cardinals do spy him, it will most likely go to former Eagles Jordan Hicks who is extremely athletic for an LB and should be able to match Hurts speed and athleticism. With the spy that’s one less player in coverage, which should open some up some things in the passing game if Hurts can take advantage of it. The Eagles have a lot of offensive coaches on the staff and it is their job to put him in the best position to be successful, but that is something they have failed to do with a number of guys on the offense this year, so it remains to see if they can do it with Hurts when the other team is gameplanning for him. If they can and that is a big IF Hurts will still need to execute and continue to show the same poise he did last weekend.

Special thanks to abenyishay for their help in creating this Game Preview.

Section One: Assets and Debt
Retirement Balance: $35,000 in a SEP IRA through my employer. They match 2% if I contribute at least 4%. I currently contribute 8%.
$21,000 in my husband’s Roth IRA. He’s a PhD student and the university doesn’t let him contribute to a retirement account pre-tax, so we’ve been maxing a Roth for him each of the last few years. We haven’t yet put in the full amount for this year but have it set aside in our savings.
Savings account balance: About $42,000 spread across a couple of accounts.
Checking account balance: Around $4000.
Investments: About $15,000 in CDs which will be part of a down payment at some point.
About $20,000 in a mutual fund; my parents threw I think $1000 into this when I was very young and have just let it sit and grow since then. This will also probably go towards a down payment.
HSA: $1200. I was able to contribute to an HSA when I was on health insurance through my employer; I’m now on my husband’s health insurance because he has a great and inexpensive plan through the university, but I can’t contribute to this account anymore.
Credit card debt (and how you accumulated it): None, we pay off our credit cards in full each month.
Student loan debt (for what degree): None for me; I received a merit-based scholarship that covered one year of undergrad and my parents graciously covered the rest along with living expenses. My husband’s parents paid for his undergrad degree. Tuition is waived for his PhD program, so no debt from that.
Section Two: Income
Income Progression: I’ve worked at the same company since I graduated college (over 6 years now). I started in an entry-level role in 2014 with a $29,000 salary. After about a year, I got promoted to the role I’m in now and also received a raise to $36,000. In 2018, I asked for a raise and got bumped up to $43,000. I’ve also received a small cost of living raise every year, which brings me to where I am now at about $45,000. (All of these numbers are salary only, not including bonuses; I did receive significant bonuses every year, and the amounts have increased year-over-year--I just don’t remember how much I received each year.)
Main Job:
Me: Last year I made $62,000 pre-tax. As mentioned, my salary is about $45,000, and I expect to get in the neighborhood of $17k in bonuses this year, possibly more. I take home $2725/month after taxes and 8% retirement contribution.
Husband: He makes $29,000 pre-tax as a PhD student. He takes home $2081 per month after taxes and both of our health insurance (I don’t remember what the monthly premium is).
Side Gig:
I’ve picked up a side job this year helping students prepare their personal statements/essays for their college applications, and I expect to make between $4000-$5000 from that total for the year. The amount I make per month varies, and I have to estimate my own taxes, so I set aside money for that from each weekly paycheck.
Section Three: Expenses
Rent: $1115 (includes $25/month fee for having a cat). We have a 2 bed/1 bath apartment in the suburbs of a MCOL city, and heat and water are included in our rent.
Renter’s insurance: $21.25
Investment contribution: $500/month towards my husband’s Roth IRA
Donations: $478/month in recurring donations. About half of that goes to our church and the rest is split among a variety of other charities/organizations. We also usually set aside another $50-$75/month for anything extra that comes up that we want to give to; lately this has included things like Fair Fight and the runoffs in Georgia, our local tenant resource center, and our local food pantry.
Electric: Anywhere from $40-$100 depending on the time of year; right now it’s about $50.
Wifi: $70
Cellphones: $175 (includes service, leases for both our phones, and insurance for both phones)
Subscriptions: Spotify Premium Duo for $13.70, Disney Plus for $7, we use my husband’s parents’ Netflix, Hulu is free with our phone plan, and we’re on my parents’ Amazon Prime account.
Pet expenses: We don’t budget a set amount monthly specifically for our cat, but her prescription food costs about $35 every six weeks, and we also always keep a few hundred dollars earmarked for occasional vet expenses.
Car insurance: $78.16/month (total for 2 cars)
Car registration: $226/year so we budget $19/month (total for 2 cars)
School fees: This varies and is paid on a semester basis, but we budget about $100/month for fees for my husband’s grad program. He doesn’t have to pay tuition but he does have to pay these fees (I’ll take it).
Costco membership: $60/year so essentially $5/month
Gas: $75, but this is hard to estimate
Groceries: We’re budgeting about $350 right now--a little more than in the before times but our entertainment budget is a little less to compensate.
Entertainment: $200 (see above)--in normal times this would include going out to eat, going to concerts or sporting events, etc. Now it’s pretty much just takeout.
Allowance/personal spending money: $100 each for my husband and me, which rolls over to the next month if we don’t use all of it.
This is getting long but we also budget on a monthly basis for personal care, household items, and alcohol, and for many other things on a medium-to-long-term basis in sinking funds. We use a zero-based budget, so every dollar we bring in gets allocated somewhere.
Section 4: Money Attitudes
Was there an expectation for you to attend higher education? Did you participate in any form of higher education? If so, how did you pay for it?: Yes, both of my parents have master’s degrees, and I was a very good student growing up, so it was always a given that I would pursue higher education. I have a BA and double-majored in communications and writing. I’ve covered above in the student debt section how my degree was paid for; I’m very blessed to have had my parents provide for me in this way, and I realize it has given me a huge leg up as far as savings and financial stability goes.
Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have around money? Did your parents educate you on finances?: We didn’t have a ton of conversations around money, but my parents are (as far as I can tell) very responsible with money and live well within their means, so I think I’ve learned from their example more so than from explicit instruction. We lived pretty frugally growing up, and it’s clear to me now that my parents could have had a newebigger house, nicer car, better vacations, etc, but chose not to so that they could follow through on their commitment to paying for a degree, a car, and a wedding for each of their children (which, again, has given me an enormous financial advantage in my adult life). I did have an allowance growing up and was always taught to put at least 10% toward giving, 10% to savings, and then I could do what I wanted with the rest of it, which I think was a great mindset to have from an early age.
What was your first job and why did you get it?: Maybe working the cash snack bar at our neighborhood pool when I was in middle school? I also babysat from a fairly young age. I worked a couple of other random and short-lived part-time jobs during high school and college but didn’t make much money from them and didn’t need them for my living expenses since my parents were fully supporting me.
Did you worry about money growing up?: I never worried about money growing up. If my parents had financial hardships during my childhood, they never let it show.
Do you worry about money now?: I used to worry about money a lot for the first several years of my marriage. I knew we had a good amount of money saved, but we didn’t have that money earmarked for particular things (emergency fund, travel, car maintenance, medical expenses, etc), so whenever a big expense came up, I got incredibly anxious because I didn’t really know where that money was coming from or whether this expense was leaving us vulnerable in another area. Switching to a zero-based budget and having designated savings funds for all major expenses (both recurring and unpredictable) has created an enormous amount of freedom for me with money. I don’t freak out anymore when we go to spend $1500 on plane tickets for a trip (hypothetical right now, of course) because I can see the money we have set aside in our travel fund for that exact purpose, and I know that spending that money isn’t affecting our ability to deal with an emergency because we have a separate emergency fund for that. All that to say, I don’t experience much anxiety about money anymore and I credit our budgeting system for that in a big way.
At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself and do you have a financial safety net?: I would consider myself financially responsible for myself once I got married, which was a few months after graduating from college. If my husband and I were to fall on hard times, both of our families would have the resources and the willingness to help us out to some extent.
Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income? If yes, please explain.
As mentioned above, my parents opened a mutual fund for me when I was very young with I think $1000 in it, but nothing has been added to that since. I have no idea about future inheritances or anything like that.
Note: the week I documented for this diary occurred in early December--a couple of weeks earlier than the date I’m posting this. Also, masks are a given anytime we leave the apartment.
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Day 1: Thursday
7:00am: My alarm goes off; my husband (H) and I alternate snoozing each of our alarms for the next 40 minutes, which is a loud and frequent morning ritual that leads to no additional actual sleep but at least lets us stay in bed longer.
7:40am: I remember that I start work at 8 today instead of 9 (like most days), so I jump out of bed, take a quick shower, and get dressed. H’s brother calls so he is chatting with him on the phone while I get ready.
8:00am: I sign in to work; it looks like it will be another slow day (typical for this time of year), so I need to motivate myself to work ahead on some things. Instead, I check my personal email and read the news.
8:30am: For breakfast, I make a toasted whole wheat English muffin with butter and honey, grab a handful of grapes, and make a Nespresso. I eat at my desk while I semi-work and listen to podcasts (this morning, it’s Brene Brown’s Unlocking Us and the 5-minute NPR News Now). H leaves to go into work for a few hours; there are certain things he can’t do from home, but since the pandemic, everyone in his workplace can only work in-person (masked and distanced) during an assigned shift time in order to reduce the volume of people there, so he splits his workdays between the university and our home office (which we share). Thankfully, there’s never more than a handful of people there at the same time as him and his colleagues are conscientious about following COVID protocols, so we feel pretty comfortable with him going in.
11:15am: Hungry again; I snack on Moon Cheese, which are these crunchy cheese bites that we got from Costco a month or so ago. I don’t really like them. I take a break from my computer to make the bed and tidy up our bedroom a little.
12:00pm: Lunch break--I spend the first half hour putting on makeup since I have some video calls this afternoon and evening. Pre-COVID, I considered makeup a hobby and would wear it even if I didn’t have anywhere to go or anyone to see, but a lot of the joy has been sucked out of it for me. Now, I usually just wear the bare minimum to look “presentable” on Zoom. I’m trying to have more fun with it again, though, so today I use a multichrome eyeshadow from indie brand Clionadh Cosmetics that I haven’t touched in months. Once I’m done, I have a quick lunch of a sandwich and chips before my meeting.
1:00pm: I log onto my weekly team meeting for work; H gets home partway through and brings me my Panera coffee order that he picked up on the way home. We both have a free trial of Panera’s coffee subscription right now and are taking full advantage!
4:00pm: Done with work! H has an important meeting now, so I get out of the office to give him some privacy. I start prepping chicken enchiladas for dinner.
5:30pm: The meeting went great! We eat the enchiladas and end up with a ton of leftovers. I put the food away and knock out a few dishes.
6:00pm: We get on Zoom for our weekly church small group meeting. There was a time when we felt comfortable meeting outdoors and distanced, but at this point, we’re on Zoom for the foreseeable future. Not to mention it’s cold here now.
7:30pm: Small group is done! I get an automated email from my side job letting me know that a second draft of an essay I previously worked on is available for me to edit, so I grab my computer and work on that for a little while.
8:30pm: H runs to the store for two bottles of Liquid Plumr for our shower drain (the glamour!) and red wine ($28.45). Fun fact about Wisconsin: you can’t buy alcohol from a store (anywhere that’s not a restaurant/bar) after 9pm, so he gets the wine purchase in just in time. I finish the dishes while he’s gone.
9:00pm: We put one of those 4K fireplace YouTube videos on the TV, turn on the Christmas lights, and each have a glass of wine while chatting and looking through old photos on H’s phone. H also makes some pizza rolls as a snack and I eat a couple.
11:30pm: I get ready for bed and after watching TikToks together in bed for a little while, we go to sleep.
Total: $28.45
Day 2: Friday
8:00am: Snooze my alarm for an hour before finally getting up. I am really moving slow in the mornings these days. H left to go into work around 6:30, so I have the apartment to myself for a while. I tidy up a few things around the house and spend a little while reading on the couch; the cat joins me.
9:00am: I make a Nespresso and sign on to work. I work on some tasks and send emails while listening to NPR News Now and NY Times The Daily podcasts.
10:00am: For breakfast, I have an egg over easy on toast and some grapes, again eating while I work. I spend some time reading COVID news and looking at our county’s data dashboard; our county, and Wisconsin overall, have actually been consistently trending down lately as far as cases go, which is surprising. Our plans for Christmas are still up in the air; we have been hoping and planning to visit our immediate families since we haven’t seen them in a year, but I’m still worried about the risk involved even if we are as careful as possible (quarantining beforehand, getting tested, driving instead of flying, etc). We’re putting off making a decision as long as we can.
11:30am: Our small group is “adopting” (buying Christmas gifts for) a family from a local school our church partners with, and I’ve been tasked with helping organize this, so I create a sign-up list in a Google spreadsheet to share with our group so we can keep track of what items have been purchased. I also start filling out my self-evaluation for my semi-annual review at work, which is next week. There’s twice as many questions on this evaluation compared to ones from past years (why??), so good thing I’m getting a head start.
12:15pm: I snack on Moon Cheese to tide me over until my late lunch today, but I’m still hungry afterward and craving something sweet, so I have a handful of cookies and cream popcorn that I bought a couple weeks ago to support a friend’s kid’s fundraiser (twist my arm, right).
1:00pm: Break time--I do a 20 minute full body HIIT workout from a MadFit YouTube video that really kicks my ass (my upper body and core strength is pretty dismal...I’m working on it). I shower, change, and for lunch I have leftover pesto and tomato pasta and half of an apple. We stan Honeycrisp in this household.
2:00pm: Back to work. H gets home and brings in a few packages from the mail area downstairs (one of them is a Christmas gift for him with very obviously branded packaging...oops). The other is a couple of books I ordered from Bookshop when they were having their Black Friday weekend free shipping promotion: Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language by Gretchen McCulloch, which is about how the internet is changing the English language, and Dune by Frank Herbert, which I can’t believe I’ve never read but definitely want to before the movie comes out next year!
3:30pm: I knock out some tasks for work and then take a break to carry our overflowing laundry basket downstairs to the basement laundry room and start two loads. I pay using our prepaid card that we reloaded a few weeks ago, so there’s no actual cost today. As a side note, I will greatly prioritize in-unit laundry wherever we live next. I really hate lugging a heavy laundry basket up and down multiple flights of stairs (and it’s always heavy because we put it off because we hate doing it so much. Vicious cycle.)
4:00pm: Time to switch the laundry over. On my way back upstairs I check our mailbox and see that we got a letter from our bank letting us know that an instance of fraud we had reported a few months ago had been verified and the temporary credit they had applied to our account is now permanent. So that’s a relief! Thankfully there was not much money in the account to begin with (it’s one that we use for travel because there are no foreign transaction fees and they refund us any ATM fees), but this is the second time this year we’ve had an issue with fraud (different accounts and banks each time).
5:00pm: Done with work; H brings up the laundry and we fold it together. H isn’t hungry yet but I am, so for dinner, I heat up some leftover ham and potato soup (made with leftover ham from Thanksgiving...it’s leftovers all the way down!) and make a boring salad--spring mix with diced tomato and Caesar dressing.
6:00pm: We head to Costco together, stopping first to get gas for H’s car ($22.29). We only have a few things on our Costco list but end up coming home with ginger beer, sparkling water, toilet paper, paper towels, two bottles of wine, prosciutto, pains au chocolat, a Ghirardelli chocolate assortment, cinnamon cranberry goat cheese, tikka masala sauce, sundried tomatoes, and olive oil ($127.98). Several impulse buys in there for sure, but we allow ourselves some of those since we only go to Costco once a month. I was amazed that they had both TP and paper towels in stock at the same time so we couldn’t pass that up--we were getting low on both anyway.
7:00pm: Back home, we unload the groceries and put everything away. I microwave and eat one of the pains au chocolat--these were a good purchase. I pour a glass of wine, H has a beer, and we repeat the same scene as last night: fire on the TV, Christmas lights on, chatting about life and the future--these are our favorite types of nights together. Since H didn’t eat dinner and I’m still hungry too, we pull together a makeshift charcuterie plate with what we have around the house and it actually turns out pretty well! Salami, prosciutto, the cranberry cinnamon goat cheese we just bought, Boursin cheese, and crackers.
9:30pm: H mentions this game he saw someone playing on Twitch called Late Shift, which is less like a video game and more like a choose-your-own-adventure movie. We decide to download it and try it out ($13.70) and H makes Moscow mules for us to drink while we play. It’s an interesting concept but falls a little flat for us in its execution; a lot of times, you’re given two options and you choose one, but the result you get still ends up being essentially the same as if you chose the other option, so it doesn’t really feel like the choices matter--which I would think is the whole point, right? We get bored of it after a while and decide to stop halfway through and maybe pick it up again another time.
11:30pm: We both get ready for bed, scroll TikTok for a little while, then fall asleep.
Total: $163.97
Day 3: Saturday
8:30am: Both of us wake up around the same time. It’s nice to get to sleep in together; often, H has to go into work on Saturday mornings, but not today! I put on a little makeup, then H makes us coffee and I drink mine while updating our budget spreadsheet with yesterday’s purchases.
10:00am: We join a Zoom call for a standing-invitation Saturday morning virtual brunch with a few friends and friends-of-friends. I warm up a pain au chocolat and slice up the other half of the apple from yesterday and eat as discreetly as possible while we all chat.
11:15am: I say goodbye to everybody and head out to my haircut and color appointment; I haven’t been since June, so it’s definitely needed. My hairdresser and I chat about COVID and the holidays. With tip, my total is $165 (I actually mean to tip a little more but do my mental math wrong--ugh).
1:30pm: I get home from the salon and am surprised to find that the Zoom brunch hangout is still ongoing, so I pop in again to say hi. I’m super hungry, so I heat up leftover enchiladas for me and H for lunch. I feel weird about eating anything on camera really, but I definitely draw the line at eating enchiladas on camera, so I eat in the kitchen while H wraps up the Zoom call. I want something sweet so I grab a couple pieces of chocolate afterwards, too.
2:00pm: H goes in our office to play Minecraft with some friends for the rest of the afternoon. I check to see if there’s work available for my side job, but there’s nothing. It’s been the slowest week for essay volume that I can remember since I started this job, which means I definitely won’t get a paycheck for this week (I have to earn at least $100 to get paid by the end of the week; if I don’t hit $100, the amount rolls over to the next week). Having a side job like this that I can pick up and work on almost anytime is a double-edged sword in that it’s great to have that flexibility, but I also find myself feeling guilty if I have time to work and I choose to do something fun or relaxing with my free time instead.
2:30pm: I’m part of my church’s communications/social media team and I’m scheduled to put up a post today, so I spend a few minutes pulling that together on Instagram. Then I decide to check for essays one more time and I find there’s one available, so I grab it and work on that for a while. It’s a bit of a tricky one and takes me about twice as long as it should, so I finish feeling kind of frustrated.
4:00pm: I take care of a few things around the house, including unloading/reloading the dishwasher, cleaning the litterbox, and wrapping a couple of Christmas gifts. I have to put the cat in time-out because she keeps wanting to walk on the wrapping paper. I listen to an episode of the Around the NFL podcast while I work.
5:30pm: I make grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner for me and H, and we eat together. I have some chips as well and some more chocolate. Making great choices.
6:00pm: H cleans up from dinner and does the dishes while I start reading Dune. I’ve been really wanting a fantasy novel I can lose myself in like I did as a kid, and I hope this will provide that for me. However, I definitely don’t have the attention span for reading that I did when I was younger, so I end up putting the book away to scroll on my phone for a while.
8:00pm: H and I get on a Google Meet call with some friends to play Jackbox games. We play several from the newest party pack; they’re super fun and it goes really smoothly over the video call (hasn’t always been the case when we’ve tried this in the past).
10:30pm: We say goodnight to our friends and wrap up the call. H goes back to Minecraft for a little while, and I catch myself scrolling mindlessly through my phone again and decide to just put it away for the night. I often find myself getting frustrated and annoyed lately by how much I’m on my phone for no good reason, so I’ve been trying to put it completely away for a while when I feel that way. I put my phone on the charger, wash my face, and put on a sheet mask.
11:45pm: I don’t remember how we spend the rest of the evening, but we still end up staying up pretty late (for us). Oddly, I don’t feel tired at all, but once in bed I fall asleep immediately.
Total: $165
Day 4: Sunday
8:30am: We’re both awake; I must have slept really well because I feel more rested than I have in a while. H gets in the shower and I grab my phone to review my fantasy football lineup before the games this afternoon. My team got off to a strong start but has been on a losing streak the second half of the season; I’m no longer in the running for a playoff appearance, but it’s still fun week to week.
9:00am: H has to quickly stop by work so he leaves for a little while. I make coffee in the Chemex and drink it while reading Reddit and looking at emails. I also redeem our credit card cashback for the past month and update our budget spreadsheet (total from two cards is $87.96).
9:45: H is on his way home from work and calls to see if we want to get food along with our Panera coffee orders. That sounds good to me, so I place my order and get a breakfast sandwich: bacon, egg, and cheese on brioche, and hazelnut coffee with half and half. Since the coffee is free, my total with tip comes to $6.50. H’s is $5.26.
10:00am: I turn on the YouTube livestream of our church’s Sunday service; H gets home shortly after it starts with our Panera coffee and breakfast. My order is slightly wrong--ciabatta bread rather than brioche--which isn’t a huge deal at all but contributes to the ongoing experience that whenever we order takeout food, my order is almost always wrong and H’s never is. It’s kind of a running joke at this point because it’s happened so many times since COVID. We eat while watching the church livestream.
11:30am: After church, we turn on the pregame coverage for whatever NFL game is available in our area (it’s Lions-Bears), and I purchase a Christmas gift I’ve been considering for a while for a friend: a set of specialty cocktail bitters from Bittercube, which is based in WI. It comes out to $40.89 with shipping. I pick up an essay to edit and work on that for a little while with the game on in the background, occasionally checking my fantasy score (as expected, it’s not looking great).
1:30pm: For lunch, I make a salad with spring mix, prosciutto, dates, walnuts, goat cheese, and homemade cider date dressing. We switch to watching the Jaguars-Vikings game since H and I both have players in this game on our fantasy teams. I also grab another short essay to edit; I’m glad I’ve been able to pick up at least a few over the weekend.
3:00pm: I spend a while working on a cross-stitch project while watching the Packers-Eagles game. I grew up in a home where sports were always on TV on weekends/evenings, so there’s something comforting and familiar to me about having football on in the background even if I’m not always paying attention. Once I get bored of cross-stitching, I snack on some of the cookies and cream popcorn and watch the game while wasting time on my laptop. I read that Rudy Giuliani has COVID and can’t help but relish the schadenfreude a little.
5:00pm: I get an email from Target that something I had viewed was on sale; it’s the Anova sous vide we had been considering buying for H’s mom for Christmas. With the sale price, two additional 10% off promotions, and the tiny amount of Target Circle earnings on my account, it comes out to $84.01 all told. I purchase it for pickup at our local store; H will get it on his way back from work tomorrow.
6:00pm: Inspired by a TikTok recipe, I decide to pull out my Instant Pot and make creamy garlic parmesan chicken pasta. I have a glass of wine while I cook.
7:00pm: We eat in front of the TV while watching the start of the Sunday Night Football game. The pasta is delicious; I meant to make a veggie side to go with it but forgot. Carbs it is! I also warm up some leftover pumpkin crisp from Thanksgiving for dessert.
7:30pm: H cleans up from dinner, sweeps the kitchen, and takes out the trash. I spend the evening reading Dune and watching the rest of the game. When the game is over, H makes us whiskey sours and we watch TikToks and hang out for a while.
11:45pm: We finally make it to bed. I lay awake for a long time trying to imagine how I would even go about telling my mom we aren’t coming for Christmas if that’s what we decide. There’s no scenario in which that goes well.
Total: $136.66
Day 5: Monday
7:45am: I’m up, I’m up. No shower yet because I plan to work out at lunchtime. H has already made coffee and we hang out for a little while as we drink it.
9:00am: H leaves for work and I sign on to work. I actually have a decent amount to do today. For breakfast, I have some grapes and a warmed-up pain au chocolat.
10:30am: I’m browsing YouTube for something to put on in the background while I work and I see an SNL skit from this past weekend called “The Christmas Conversation” in my recommended feed. It’s exactly what I expect it to be and it both makes me laugh and want to cry--very relevant to my late-night imaginings yesterday.
12:30pm: One of my Christmas presents arrives: the first delivery of a Winc wine subscription. I don’t mind it not being a surprise; I specifically asked for this and I already knew H was getting it for me because he had to ask me to take the quiz about my wine preferences. I won’t open it until Christmas, though.
1:00pm: On my break, I do a 12-minute intense full body HIIT workout (another MadFit one), and the “intense” description in the title is accurate. That’s enough for me for one day, so I just pedal on our stationary bike for a few minutes to cool down before taking a shower. H gets home with our Panera coffees; I got iced coffee this time. I’m ravenously hungry from my workout, to the point of feeling a little faint, so I heat up pasta from last night for lunch, then end up grabbing some chips and a couple pieces of chocolate, too.
2:00pm: I try to buckle down and get some work done in the afternoon. At least what I have to do today is self-paced tasks rather than anything urgent or time-sensitive. I make some more progress on my self-evaluation and give some thought to what I want the next year at my job to look like. I have increasingly had opportunities to work with departments outside of support as my time at this company has gone on, and those opportunities tend to be the most gratifying parts of my job because I’m better able to use my skill set there and do work I enjoy. Ideally, I would eventually transition mostly or completely out of support and into some sort of role within the company where I can do more writing and editing (which is what I do a lot of in these side projects), but I don’t know if that will ever be a possibility.
5:00pm: For dinner after work, it’s leftovers again. I read Dune for a little while followed by sweeping the bathroom floor and vacuuming the rugs.
6:30pm: My mom wanted to catch up today so I give her a call. I have to reiterate to her that we are feeling hesitant about traveling for the holidays, but it’s clear she is not going to go down without a fight on this, and I can hear how upset she is. I try to be clear and firm about my concerns, but she’s my mom, so I also feel like I have to concede to her points wherever I can and not push things too hard. I get off the call feeling physically sick to my stomach.
7:15pm: H and I talk about Christmas and he is adamant that if we do go, my parents need to commit to at least a “soft” quarantine (no nonessential interactions/outings) for 10 days before we arrive because they are being pretty irresponsible in our view about who they see and what they do right now. Knowing what we do now about their own exposure, it’s becoming clear that they are almost certainly a bigger danger to us than we are to them. I text my mom and let her know about those ground rules (while still not committing to anything), and she seems open to that plan and asks some questions about what we are and aren’t comfortable with. I think she will do whatever she needs to for us to come, which we may be able to use to our advantage.
11:15pm: I feel totally drained from my conversation with my mom and my anxiety about the holidays, so I spend the rest of the evening vegging on the couch and watching Monday Night Football. I make a cup of peppermint tea and have a stroopwafel, and we eventually head to bed.
Total: $0
Day 6: Tuesday
5:30am: H had to leave for work really early today, which inevitably woke me up, and I think it threw the cat off too because while I try to go back to sleep, she spends the next couple of hours really leaning into her chaotic energy--tearing around the room at warp speed, jumping on the dresser, scratching the side of the bed and the walls. This used to be a common problem very early in the mornings but hasn’t happened in a while.
8:30am: The cat eventually chills tf out and I get maybe an hour more of sleep. I read news on my phone and respond to a few texts. I am feeling a little calmer today about holiday plans, but now H is texting me about how anxious he is feeling about everything. That’s the secret to marriage--just try not to both be freaking out at the same time. (Kinda joking, but kinda not?)
9:00am: I make a Nespresso and start work. For breakfast, I have an egg over easy on toast and some grapes. I feel so unfocused and unmotivated today, but I do submit my self-evaluation and make progress on some other tasks. I take a break to snuggle with my cat; I haven’t talked about her a lot in this diary but she’s my buddy and basically my shadow. She is super attached to me and her affection makes her wild antics worth it.
1:00pm: Aaaand as soon as I say something nice about her, she throws up on the bed. I clean it up and put the comforter and sheets in the laundry basket. I guess we’re doing laundry again. On my break, I edit a short essay revision and make boxed mac and cheese for lunch. H gets home with our Panera coffees and we split the mac and cheese.
5:00pm: I force myself to be reasonably productive throughout the afternoon. After work, I run out to do a few errands--I pick up a prescription from the Walgreens pharmacy drive-through ($2.68, I pay with my HSA), and I run into Target to get shampoo and conditioner for myself and a few things for H’s stocking ($55 even). Target is surprisingly deserted which is nice, and I’m able to get in and out quickly.
6:00pm: H did the laundry while I was gone, and we fold it together and remake the bed when I get home. I fill H’s stocking with the items I bought, which completes all of my gifts for him for this year.
7:00pm: We’re both tired of leftovers, so H suggests we make another charcuterie plate and have that for dinner. I have a small salad as well, and we eat while we watch...Tuesday Night Football? What a weird season. There’s a slim chance I could still win my fantasy game this week, so I’m somewhat invested in this game. I have a glass of wine.
10:00pm: I do not win my fantasy game. We get in bed at a reasonable hour but spend a while reading; I read a little of Well-Read Black Girl, which is a collection of essays that is my “nightstand” read at the moment, and a little of Dune. Lights out around 11.
Total: $57.68
Day 7: Wednesday
7:45am: Up and at ‘em. I shower, make coffee in the Chemex, blow-dry my hair, and read a little.
9:00am: H leaves for work, and I start work and make myself an English muffin with butter and honey and half of an apple for breakfast. I listen to an episode of The Daily podcast about the first doses of the COVID vaccine being administered in the UK. It’s hard to wrap my mind around the idea that we’ve finally reached this point, even though it’s still going to take a long time for things to feel anything like normal again for most people.
11:30am: I’m scheduled for another church social media post, and I fumble around in Illustrator for a while trying to get the image to look the way I want. I know there’s a ton of free basic courses/tutorials out there on how to use it, and I would probably get way more out of it and get less frustrated if I just went through one of those one weekend. H is pretty proficient in Illustrator, so he often helps me. I snack on some chips and the cat tries to as well.
1:00pm: The weather is mild today (upper 40s, sunny, and no wind), so I take a walk around the neighborhood on my lunch break and listen to The Ringer Fantasy Football Show. I have a sandwich and grapes for lunch when I get back.
2:00pm: H gets home with our Panera coffees right as I am getting back to work. He grabbed lunch out today, which cost $11.09. We both go online and book free COVID tests for next week, a few days before our tentative departure date for Christmas.
5:00pm: I have a steadily busy afternoon of work, but I get everything done. After work, I browse Etsy for a Christmas gift for a friend and land on a cute London-themed tea towel; we and our spouses were supposed to go to London together earlier this year and are hoping we can still make the trip happen next year. It’s coming from the UK, so shipping is expensive; the total comes out to $27.38. I don’t know if it will arrive before Christmas, but I don’t think I’ll see this friend to give it to her until after Christmas anyway.
6:00pm: Dinner is...you guessed it, leftovers. We finish off the enchiladas. Normally I would do a lot more cooking in a week, but I’ve just happened to make several meals lately that created a lot of leftovers.
8:00pm: Quiet evening at home. H has some work to do tonight from home; I read Dune and scroll Reddit for a while. I edit a short essay. H finishes wrapping my Christmas gifts and we hang out for a while.
11:00pm: We chat with some friends in a group text before eventually heading to bed.
Total: $38.47
At the end of each day please tally up your daily expenses. Then at the end of your diary please tally up all expenses in the following categories:
Food + Drink: $127.10
Fun / Entertainment: $13.70
Home + Health: $74.76
Clothes + Beauty: $165
Transport: $22.29
Other (all gifts): $187.38
Lastly, reflect on your diary! How do you feel about your spending? Was this a normal week for you? Has this inspired you to make changes or has it given you a “wow I’m doing pretty good” confidence boost? Is there anything you’re actively working on? No need to answer any or all these questions but just use this space to write any thoughts you have!
There are some outliers here as far as spending goes because of the gift purchases and the hair appointment which only comes around every 4-5 months, but beyond that, this was pretty normal weekly spending for us. Interestingly, I felt more self-conscious about sharing what I ate than about anything money-related--I tend to think of myself as a fairly healthy eater but I don't think that was the case this week!

I am new to sports betting and I found this subreddit earlier last week. I had never placed a bet before and wanted to make a bet on this weekend's NFL games. I had no clue to how bets work with a spread of -10 or numbers like -110 next to a wager. The people on here were very helpful in answering my questions as a beginner and I was able to place a parley bet that covered all four of the games this weekend.
I don't have much money, but after okaying it with my wife, I placed a bet for $200, which was the money I won from getting 1st in my fantasy football league. I must have had some incredible beginner's luck because my parley bet ended up a winner and I won a total of $4500 off of my $200 bet! I am now finally going to be able to afford to buy a car, since my old one completely broke down on account of being super old.
In hindsight it probably wasn't the best idea to make a bet when I needed money for a car, but luckily it ended up working out this one time. Thank you for all of your help.

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We have made it through the first eight weeks of the 2020 season and it’s time to hand out some trophies (not literally of course, since we have to wait until the year is over). I already did this when I predicted the entire season about a week before we kicked things off and a lot of the candidates I mentioned back then, you will here again, but at the same time, some guys have kind of come out of nowhere. For some of these categories, three names were enough, while for a few others I mentioned two more notables. So who have been my MVP, Defensive Player and Coach of the Year, among others, for the first half of the season? Plus, at the bottom I added my All-Pro teams at this point.
Also make sure to check out my detailed recap of NFL week eight.
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Most Valuable Player:

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I think three candidates have kind of separated themselves from the rest of the pack in this MVP discussion and the guy I have at the top has been there all season long, because no other player has been more valuable to his team and their success.
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1. Russell Wilson
I have always said Wilson is one of the premiere quarterbacks in the NFL and that the only thing holding him back from quite putting up the same numbers other MVP candidates have produced is his own coaching staff and the conservative he plays in. Well, this year Brian Schottenheimer & company have finally listened to Seahawks fans screaming to “let Russ cook” and he has been smoking hot. Russ is top three in completion percentage (71.5%) and yards per attempt (8.4) and yards per game (307.3), leads NFL with a passer rating of 120.8 and 26 touchdown passes, which makes up for more than one TD every 10th attempt – also an NFL-best mark. And the crazy part is that his team has needed him to be that explosive, since Seattle’s defense has given up an average of 460.9 yards per game – easily the most of any team in the league. The Seahawks themselves are scoring an NFL-best 34.3 points per game and their season-low(!) 27 points came in a matchup, where he led one of his two game-winning drives on the season (versus Minnesota). He is also the only quarterback with multiple starts to not have lost a fumble all season long. The only blemish on Wilson’s resume and the Hawks lone loss came at Arizona in a Sunday Night game, where their quarterback threw three of his six interceptions on the year and that was his only performance that he had a passer rating below 100 in. However in that game, he lit up the Cardinals with the deep ball and made some incredible plays throughout the night. And if you break down the three picks he threw, two of them came by defenders who had to cover a ton of ground and no quarterback would have anticipated them to even be a factor, while on that third one D.K. slowed down for a back-shoulder throw The Seahawks put 35 points on the Patriots, 31 against the Dolphins number-one scoring defense and just now 37 against San Francisco – and it could easily been more if the came wasn’t completely out of hand in the fourth quarter.
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2. Patrick Mahomes
I know Mahomes has five TD passes less than Russ despite having played one more game, but he also only has one interception on the year – and that one came when he pushed it downfield on a 4th & long towards the end of the Chiefs’ only loss on the season. He is also behind only Wilson in quarterback rating (115.0) and first in QBR (86.8), with the latter thanks to what he has done taking off when nothing is there, which he has really gotten great at once he sees 2-man or other favorable situations. Of the 34 times he has taken off, nine have resulted in first downs and he finished in the end-zone twice. Of course this is still about Mahomes and Kansas City trashing opposing teams with all those weapons in the passing game. With defenses playing a lot more soft coverage against the Chiefs, Mahomes has taken advantage underneath with those short completions, while still finding ways to allow his receivers to uncover on secondary routes and getting the ball to them from all different angles. So his intended air yards may not be overly impressive, because of all the screens and stuff they draw up, and he might “only” be sixth in yards per attempt, but Pat is still tied for first with 31 passes of 20+ yards. He absolutely picked apart the Ravens defense in that huge Monday Night showdown, which tried every coverage and blitz package imaginable and the quarterback had an answer for all of them, completing some throws nobody in the league could make. The Chiefs’ season-low in points (23) came at the Chargers, when he certainly didn’t start out great, but still found a way to lead a comeback and win in overtime. And even in their only loss of the season against the Raiders, it was the opposing offense converting a sneak on fourth down, that denied Mahomes a chance to finish their late push.
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3. Aaron Rodgers
When you look at Rodgers’ most impressive statistic for his career it is his ridiculous touchdown-to-interception ratio of 4.47, which is a full point better than the next-closest guy (Russell Wilson) and twice as good as anybody that hasn’t played in the 2010’s. Well, right now he has the second-best rate for this season, behind only Patrick Mahomes at 20-2, and those two picks came in his only bad game at Tampa Bay. I’m not going to sugercoat this in any way – after going up 10-0 and once that pass-rush from the Bucs was unleashed, he could not get anything going. With that being said, he has been phenomenal in the six other contests, having throw less than 3 TDs in only of them and his lowest QB rating being at 107.6, with both of those thing coming against Detroit in week two, when the Packers just didn’t need him to crazy and still put up 42 points, as Aaron Jones got loose on multiple occasions. And Rodgers had not fumbled until that very last play we saw from him, as he was stripped from behind while trying to launch a Hail Mary at the end of the Vikings game. By the way, he was incredible in that loss as well, as the only two times the offense was stopped, Equanimeous St. Brown had consecutive passes go off his hands and then the refs for no apparent reason picked up the flag on a blatant pass interference against Robert Tonyan inside the red-zone. Rodgers leads the league with seven completions of 40+ yards and right now Drew Lock is the only starter in the league with a higher mark in yards beyond the sticks (0.9) – which when you look at the rest of the numbers isn’t always an endorsement for the second-year QB, as Lock has three more INTs on 100 less attempts. And outside of Davante Adams – who has missed some time – Rodgers hasn’t really been able to rely on any of his receivers, as they are tied for the most passes dropped at 18, even though the other two QBs with that number have played one more game than Green Bay.
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Notables: Josh Allen & Tom Brady
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Offensive Player of the Year:

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Of course, you could name the same three candidates from the MVP section here, but I tried to mix things up a little and give you three other names worthy of the award. And that includes only one quarterback.
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1. Alvin Kamara
I know that this award is often given to quarterbacks as well and it looks odd that Kamara is 16th in the league in rushing (431 yards), but he is averaging five yards per carry and he is also second to only DeAndre Hopkins among all players with 55 catches for an additional 556 yards through the air – so just over 10 yards per grab. Right now he is on pace for 2256 scrimmage yards on right around 20 touches a week, while he would also easily break the NFL record for receiving yards for a running back (1271 over 1191 from Charley Taylor in 1966). And he leads the league not only in scrimmage yards but also percentage of his offense’s yardage (36.5%), while being tied for first with 12 plays of 20+ yards on the season. While he has caught a couple of key wheel routes and can win as a downfield receiver, so far 94.5(!) percent of his receiving yards have come after the catch, constantly bailing out his quarterback by making something happen after checkdowns and ripping off big gains in the screen game. I mean against the Packers he caught 13 of 14 targets for 139 yards and he was the only reason they were in that game in the first place. The explosiveness, the contact balance and the ability get six or seven yards when there should be only three is unmatched. Kamara has scored reached the end-zone seven times and his only fumble, he recovered himself again. He is by far the best player on this Saints offense and the team overall and in the absence of Michael Thomas, he has been asked to shoulder the load for them. Since his lowest output in the season-opener, Kamara has not been held under 119 scrimmage yards in any other week.
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2. Kyler Murray
While Murray is only 16th among current starters in passing yards per game, only Russell Wilson and by about half a yard Justin Herbert have put up more combined passing and rushing yards at 326.3 a week. Right now, only Joe Burrow and Matt Ryan have been responsible for more combined first downs and touchdowns, and those two have played a full matchup more than the Cardinals and both just won their second games of the season, while Kyler is doing it in service of a 5-2 team, which outside of his own production has averaged less than 100 rushing yards on a weekly basis. As a runner, he leads all NFL players (with double-digit carries) in yards per attempt at 6.7 and 35 of his 65 carries led to first downs or touchdowns (seven TDs). I would not call Arizona’s passing game overly explosive, as Kyler is barely in the top 20 in yards per attempt (7.3), 20+ yard throws (21) and average yards to the sticks (-0.9), but a lot of that has to do with what Kliff Kingsbury wants to do with his Air Raid-based offense, while his QB is tied for second with six throws of 40+ yards and already has an 80-yarder on his resume. Plus, with that guy at the helm, they have the potential to get as hot as pretty much any team out there. Kyler had one really bad game against the Lions, in which Detroit used a lot of different coverages that had them all over the Cardinals route patterns, but #1 has been outstanding the rest of the year and I don’t come away from a lot of games thinking that a lot of his production was served up by the play-calling. I said a couple of weeks that Deshaun Watson is the most elusive quarterback in the league, but nobody is quicker at evading defenders and keeping himself upright. We all love Russell Wilson and his ability to extend plays, but just compare these numbers – Russ has been pressured 79 times and he’s been hit or sacked on 50 of those, Kyler on the other has been pressured 44 times (significantly less due to more of a horizontal passing attack), but he’s only been sacked nine times and taken five more hits (14 total). And Kyler already outdueled Russ on Sunday Night of week seven.
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3. Derrick Henry
King Henry is once again holding the crown for the league’s rushing leader at this moment. His 775 rushing yards are 123 more than any other player in the league, and while that is in correlation with handling the most carries of all RBs, he still averaging 4.8 yards per attempt, despite being asked to grind away games for the Titans. Right around 30 percent of his touches has resulted in a first down or touchdown (43 total first downs and eight TDs) and about 58 percent of his total yardage has come after contact. Nobody wants to tackle King Henry, because he can plow through 300-pounder defensive linemen at the point of attack and throw DBs around like ragdolls, when he gets around the edge (looking at you, Josh Norman), but at the same time, once he gets rolling, he is as fast as any player on the field, which we saw already when he ripped of an NFL-long 94-yarder against the Texans a couple of weeks ago. The difference between Henry and some of the other franchise backs is that he doesn’t contribute a whole lot in the passing game outside of a few screens (10 catches for 81 yards), but nobody takes on a bigger load than this guy and he really sets the table for everything the Titans do, with the heavy play-action and bootlegs. Usually this guy really starts rolling over the second half of the season, but he has been dominant right from the start this year. When you look at the three games Henry didn’t put 112+ yards on the ground, in two of them the opposing defense totally sold out against the run and Ryan Tannehill completed 75 percent of his passes with seven TDs and no picks, while the team scored 33 and 42 points respectively, and the other one came against the Steelers’ dominant defensive front. On the other hand, he also has the most scrimmage yards in a game all season, when he destroyed the Texans for 264 yards and took over that one overtime drive, to win it.
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Notables: The three MVP candidates

Defensive Player of the Year:

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I think there is pretty clear top three in this one as well and I can honestly see an argument for each one of them to be the pick, but I have stuck my selection (and bet) of a guy I believed would come back even hungrier in 2020.
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1. Myles Garrett
This was my preseason pick for Defensive Player of the Year and similar to Russell Wilson’s MVP campaign, I have been riding this all season long. Myles Garrett is tied for a league-high nine sacks and only two players have hit the opposing quarterback more overall than him. The only two games he didn’t record a sack (the season-opener at Baltimore and this past week against the Raiders), the opposing team ran the ball on 56 and 65 percent respectively and somehow all those sacks he has put up have come in big moments – a strip on Joe Burrow to set up the offense at the Bengals 1-yard line after they were just stopped on fourth down in an eight-point game, another against Washington after the Browns finally extended the lead to more than one score, stripping Dak Prescott when the game was tied at 14 and set off a 27-0 run, setting the offense up in field goal range for their first points in the rematch with Cincinnati and while it won’t be found on the stats sheet, he also directly forced a safety on a throw-away by Philip Rivers to make it a two-score game against the Colts. The only other player that has forced four fumbles just like Myles is Ravens DB Marlon Humphrey, who has become a Peanut Punch specialist – and Garrett has also recovered a couple of those himself, with both of them directly setting up touchdown for the offense from short distance. Plus, he is excellent run-defender, who can yank blockers to the side and makes tackles around the line scrimmage, with only one miss on the season. Myles has grown so much with his technique as a pass-rusher, while obviously having that incredible combination of length and athleticism, but also might have gotten “looser” in his movement and how he can torque his body different ways. And the Browns are now using him as a mismatch against guards on passing downs quite a bit.
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2. Aaron Donald
Just like he has been the last five years or so, Aaron Donald is right up there with the favorite for Defensive Player of the Year and I would not be surprised at all if he won his third trophy at the end of the season. Donald is tied with Myles Garrett for the league-lead in sacks at nine and he is top five in total pressures (22) and QB hits (13), despite offensive lines sliding his way constantly. We have literally seen this man get triple-teamed and lift All-Pro offensive linemen off their feet, but only T.J. Watt has a higher pass-rush win percentage according to Pro Football Focus (25%). This guy is the only player with a four-sack performance this season and not only does he obviously contribute in a major way himself, but because of the way he gives his teammates one-on-one’s consistently, his Rams only have three other teams in front of them in terms of sacks as unit (26), despite not having a lot of names that you would recognize, outside a questionable former first-rounder in Leonard Floyd. And I just mentioned the only two players with more forced fumbles than Donald (Garrett and Humphrey), who has three himself. He has also recorded seven tackles for loss and only missed one of his 26 tackling attempts. The crazy part with his game is that for all the numbers you can actually see, there’s about twice as many plays he makes that don’t show up anywhere in the records. The only reason I don’t have him at number one is that he has four games without a full sack and that Garrett has been a little more consistent at coming up with those real game-changing plays. Still, AD is clearly right up there.
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3. T.J. Watt
And then this guy is as complete an edge defender as we have in the league. Watt can set the edge at the point of attack, he can chase ball-carriers down from behind as the unblocked man at the line and this past Sunday against Baltimore, we saw him take both guys at times on those read-option plays. Of his 25 tackles on the season, 12 have resulted in lost yardage, which is tied with teammate Vince Williams for a league-high. As a pass-rusher, Watt is “only” tied for fourth with 6.5 sacks, but his 21 hits on opposing QBs is four more than any other player in the league and the 27 total pressure are three more than the next-closest guy as well, while PFF has him tagged with the highest pass-rush win rate in correlation with that (27%). And he headlines the most destructive pass-rush in the league, as the Steelers defense leads the league with 30 sacks and easily has the highest pressure percentage of any unit out there at a whopping 35.0 percent. Watt has also batted down three passes and picked one off. He can do your classic flat drops or carry guys out of the backfield at times, but he can also stand up and move around the line to blitz from different angles or act as a spy at times. He surprisingly has yet to force a fumble this season, but I can remember right now on the very first play he was on the field against the Titans, a good 20 quarterbacks would have lost the ball in that moment with Watt swiping at it, and since he led the league in that category last season, I have no doubt he will rack up a few of those FFs still.
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Offensive Rookie of the Year:

This award has two quarterbacks battling it out at the top right now, with one young star receivers and a couple of running backs – one picked in the first round and the other going undrafted – who are also in the running.
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1. Justin Herbert
I get that coaches always try to protect their young quarterbacks and want to give them time to learn from the sidelines, but I hope everybody gets that Herbert and Tyrod Taylor aren’t even close to each other. And I have always liked Tyrod as a bridge-starter or game-manager type, but this rookie QB has taken this offense to a completely different level. When you just look at the schedule, you see that the two QBs have the same amount of wins on the season (only one for Herbert against the Jaguars), but in the season-opener the Chargers only put up 16 points against the Bengals, who have given up 28.2 per week from that point on, and L.A. has scored 27.2 points a game since then. It is not Herbert’s fault that his defense has let him down in the second half of games and allowed big comebacks. He took Patrick Mahomes & company to overtime, had his team up 24-7 against the Bucs before a fumble a minute until halftime started turning things around, he outplayed Drew Brees at the Superdome and was inches away in overtime from pulling off a game-tying or -winning drives and before the Bolts defense allowed an epic collapse last Sunday, they were dominating the Broncos 24-3 midway through the third quarter. The way Herbert has opened up the offense with the deep ball is incredible, with two 70+ TDs on the resume already, and he makes the whole field available, after they were very limited before. Among current starters, Herbert is third in passing yards per game (303.3) and second in combined touchdowns per game (3.0), while also being top ten in completion percentage, yards per attempt, quarterback rating and QBR. He is on pace to throw for 4550 yards and 38 touchdowns to go with about 350 rushing yards and five more TDs on the ground, over the course of a 15-game season. Those numbers would shatter all rookie records.
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2. Joe Burrow
No other team has thrown the ball more than the Bengals (330 pass attempts) and their quarterback leads the league with 221 completions on the season (67% completion percentage). With 11 touchdowns compared to five interceptions, that ratio doesn’t look overly impressive, but he has set up a lot of short rushing TDs, while Cincinnati barely cracks 100 rushing yards per game as a team and only one other squad averages less yards per carry (3.7). Until this past weekend, Burrow was tied with Carson Wentz for the most-sacked quarterbacks in the league, but thanks to a non-existent pass-rush for the Titans, in large part due to the spread-based passing attack the Bengals bring to the table, a clean week has the Bengals QB at “only” 28 sacks so far. However, he has been under the fire all season long, being tied for third with 79 total pressures, despite only eight quarterbacks spending less time in the pocket. And Burrow has yet to complete less than 60 percent of his passes in any game. I know the Bengals were blown out in that one Ravens game, but do we realize that was their only loss by more than one score? They tied the Eagles in a game where Burrow was sacked eight times and hit every other snap, they scored 30+ in their two matchups with the Browns, they were up 21-0 against the Colts in the second quarter and just this past Sunday they beat the recently 5-1 Titans by double-digits. And I would argue their rookie quarterback is by far the biggest reason for it. They are already guaranteed a better record this year than last season, as we are halfway through the season – and they are getting better every week. This guy is the future in Cincinnati. Now they just need to protect him and get that defense going.
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3. Justin Jefferson
I know that Odell Beckham Jr. was the only wide receiver to be named Offensive Rookie of the Year in the last ten years and I wouldn’t put anybody on the same level as that historic season, but since then this is the most impressive start we have seen for a rookie receiver. Through seven games, Jefferson has caught 31 of his 40 targets for 563 yards and three touchdowns. That puts him 12th among all receivers in yards per game, while having recorded a league-high 14.1 yards per target and 22 of his 31 grabs has resulted in a fresh set of downs. After a rather slow start, with five catches for 70 yards through the first two weeks, Jefferson came onto the scene with 71-yarder against the Titans and now already has three games of 100+ receiving yards, while only having played 74 percent of the snaps on the season. Jefferson has only dropped one pass and not fumbled once, while Kirk Cousins when targeting the rookie receiver, has a passer rating of over 100 despite having thrown four picks and I wouldn’t put a single one of those on the receiver definitely, as on a couple of them there was a linebacker dropping underneath a deep crosser that Cousins stared down the whole way, a badly underthrown pass into a tight window and on another one he and the rookie wideout clearly weren’t on the same page in terms of the route he was supposed to run. Through eight weeks, Jefferson is Pro Football Focus has the second-highest grade among all NFL receivers. I have always been a fan of Adam Thielen and he is Cousins’ favorite target, but to determine who opposing teams believe is more dangerous, all I have to do is watch the Packers put Jaire Alexander on the first-year man for almost the whole game last week.
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Notables: James Robinson & Clyde Edwards-Helaire
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Defensive Rookie of the Year:

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For the defensive side of the ball, this rookie selection was a little tougher, because there are a few guys that have filled the stat sheet across the board, but you don’t have those typical front-runners with a lot of sacks or interceptions, which usually take home the honors.
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1. Antoine Winfield Jr.
When I look at who I believe is the best pro player among all defensive rookies already, I would say this is the name that comes to mind. Tampa Bay’s defensive scheme isn’t simple. They ran a lot of different coverages, they can blitz anybody and there are a lot of rules that you have to understand as a member of that unit. Winfield has come in and looked him he belonged from the first time he touched the field. The rookie safety has played 515 of 522 snaps on defense and he shows up quite a bit in the box score. He has recorded 31 solo tackles and only two misses all season long, showing off what a dependable tackler he is in space. He has intercepted a passe and broken up four more, plus he has forced fumble. And call it P.I. or not, he denied a two-point conversion to potentially tie the game this past Monday Night against the Giants. To go with that, he has asked to blitz 29 times in Todd Bowles’ pressure-heavy scheme, resulting in two sacks and three extra hits on the quarterbacks. What made me a big fan of Winfield coming out of Minnesota was the versatility he presents and the fact he played so much bigger than his size would indicate. The Bucs coaching staff has utilized a lot around the line of scrimmage a lot and I love how he drives on routes in quarters coverage. He gas been “credited” with giving up just over 200 yards and two touchdowns, to go with a passer rating of 114.4 in coverage, but I think about half of that production came on two plays in the Chargers game, once with him ending up as the closest defender on a deep bomb, when the other safety should have actually opened up and then on a scramble drill play, where Keenan Allen uncovered late against him.
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2. Patrick Queen
Baltimore has a rich tradition of middle linebackers, but not so much when it comes to LSU players, with Ozzie Newsome as an Alabama alumn not having drafted a single Tigers player in over 20 years as the Ravens GM. This year, with Eric DeCosta calling the shots, they wanted to bring in a dynamic player to put in the middle of their defense and when Patrick Queen surprisingly was still on the board when they were making their first-round pick this past April, it didn’t matter which college he came from. Queen was immediately put in the starting lineup and he has been filling up the stat sheet from the start. In seven games, he has recorded 48 combined tackles, four of them for loss, two sacks to go with five more QB hits, two fumbles forced and recovered, including a long scoop-and-score. His speed at the second level to string guys out to the sideline or get to the quarterback on delayed blitzes has been a big reason this defense has gone to a higher level in 2020. Of course, he is still a first-year player and not perfect. Queen has already missed 11 tackles and there have been some moments where the rookie seemed a little confused. Two that come to mind right away – the Chiefs running that double-swing fake before throwing the TE screen over the middle, where they had Queen’s head spinning and then last week against the Steelers, where I’m pretty sure he should have covered tight-end Eric Ebron in man, but thought he had the back and that allowed Ebron to easily score on a shallow crosser from 18 yards out. He is learning and we have already seen moments, where he just sees it and goes, shutting down plays before they can even get going, while he obviously has a knack for the ball.
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3. Jeremy Chinn
One of the small-school prospects I loved in this most recent draft was this 6’3”, 220-pound safety from Southern Illinois, who put up ridiculous numbers at the scouting combine and showed incredible potential on film. So far, he has put up 38 solo tackles – most by any rookie in the league, has intercepted one pass and broken up another five. Chinn has been all over the field, with his ability to cover ground and erase angles for the ball-carrier. One of the two or three negatives I had about him and why I had him around the top 50 and not even higher was the ability to process information post-snap, to not just have his talent take him to the ball, but also the anticipation and identification of certain keys to react quickly. I believe Matt Rhule, defensive coordinator Phil Snow and that entire staff has done an outstanding job of simplifying Chinn’s assignments and just letting him around and make plays. Once he sees something happening in front of him, he can get there as fast as pretty much any player in the league and the Panthers have allowed that talent to flourish. The biggest issue for him are the ten missed tackles so far, but he’ll clean that up as well. Through eight weeks, Chinn has played 96 percent of the defensive snaps and been a fixture on the punt team as well, where he had a huge first-down run against the Falcons in last week’s Thursday Night game on a fake. As he gets more comfortable in the system, I expect him to become a bigger part of the pass-rush, because his closing speed as a blitzer is just absurd.
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Notables: Jaylon Johnson & Julian Blackmon

Comeback Player of the Year:

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As I say every year when making my preseason picks, this is the most vague award of the list, because there are so many different ways you can look at it – players who were hurt for most/all of last season, guys who had a few off-years and then those who were out of the league altogether.
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1. Ben Roethlisberger
Roethlisberger is completing 67.9 percent of his passes and while he is only 25th in passing yards per game (232.6), a lot of that has to do with being part of a 7-0 team with the best defense in the league and trying to run down the clock late in games a lot of times. Big Ben has been really steady for Pittsburgh, not having completed less than 63 percent of his passes yet for a total of 15 touchdowns compared to only four interceptions, with five games that didn’t include any turnovers from him. Of those four picks, one came on a wobbling 50-50 pass, where Juju immediately called for pass interference, one came in the end-zone on the final play before halftime and another was batted up by a defensive lineman right into the hands of a linebacker. The Steelers are tied for third with converting 49.5 percent of their third downs and even though their run game is about average, they control the clock primarily with the short passing game, where their quarterback gets everybody involved. And when his team has needed him most Big Ben has come through, with two go-ahead touchdown drives in fourth quarters and taking over on crucial drives, with no-huddle attacks and almost exclusively going in the shotgun to spread it around. In the battle of unbeatens at Tennessee, the Steelers were up 24-7 at halftime, with Roethlisberger converting all four third downs with nine or more yards to go. This past Sunday in Baltimore in a huge AFC North clash with the Ravens, the Steelers offense could not get anything done for the first half plus, with Lamar Jackson gifting his opponents 14 points directly off turnovers, but when Pittsburgh needed to a couple of touchdowns to go ahead, their quarterback came through, as they threw the ball on 15 of those 18 plays and the three runs resulted in -1 yard (+ a touchdown). To do this after a season-ending elbow injury on his throwing arm last year is impressive.
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2. Jason Verrett
For this one we have to go all the way back to like 2015 and even before that. Jason Verrett was a first-team All-American selection in 2013 and then a first-round pick for the Chargers coming out of TCU. After showing a ton of potential in an injury-riddled rookie campaign, he became a Pro Bowler in his second season with three interceptions and 12 more passes deflected, including a pick-six. The next two years, he only played a combined five games with consecutive ACL injuries and then missed all of 2018 with a torn Achilles. His bad injury luck would follow him to San Francisco however, as he would go on IR with an ankle injury shortly after signing with the 49ers last year. Now, finally in 2020 he is back on the field and balling out. Verrett had a big interception in the end-zone against the Rams a couple of weeks ago and three PBUs the rest of the season, having started the last six games. However, it is the more advanced stats about what the veteran corner has done in coverage that are really impressive. On 25 targets, he has given up just 123 yards and no touchdowns. Plus, he is a highly dependable tackler, having only missed one attempt all season and holding opposing receivers to just 32 yards after the catch. The 49ers had major issues with their corners for large stretches of the season, as Richard Sherman has been on IR since week one and the with Emmanuel Moseley also missing some time, those other guys on the boundary have gotten roasted in some of their matchups. Not with Verrett. He has easily been a top ten player at his position so far and I don’t know how you can take him out of the starting lineup, once they have Sherm and Moseley back together.
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3. Aldon Smith
I thought long and hard about putting Rob Gronkowski here, because after Gronk look like his feet were stuck in mud early on, he and Tom Brady are not operating at a really high level again, and it almost seems like the big tight-end got his confidence back. However, I decided to go with somebody who was not one but five(!) years out of the league and as we all know, this award is a lot about the stories of these players. When Aldon Smith was drafted in 2011, it was immediately between him and Von Miller as the best young edge rusher in the league, and Smith out-produced the Broncos All-Pro with 14 and 19.5 sacks in his first two years, before he entered a rehabilitation center midway through 2013 season, when he has on path for another one of those years. The two following seasons, he looked like a shell of himself in San Francisco and then Oakland, as his mind clearly wasn’t right, with several off-the-field issues leading two suspensions that cost him the 2016 and ’17 seasons. Now, all the way in 2020, he is back with the Dallas Cowboys and especially early on he looked like a dominant player on the edge. Smith is now at five sacks on the season, with three of those coming against the Seahawks, as he was the only defensive player that kept his team in the game, with additional hits on the quarterbacks. To go with that, he has made some nice tackles in the run game, fighting off blocks and getting hands on the ball-carrier. He has cooled off a little bit these last few weeks, but the lack of production is more a product of how bad the Cowboys defense has been as a whole and long much they’ve been on the field. If he was on a team right now, that allowed him to rush in obvious passing situation, he could potentially be in the Defensive Player of the Year conversation.
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Notables: Rob Gronkowski & Alex Smith
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Play of the Year:

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1. D.K. Metcalf chase-down tackle on Budda Baker after the INT
One of the greatest hustle plays you will ever see and it started a meme fest on the internet.
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2. Derrick Henry 94-yard touchdown run vs. Texans
The combination of speed and power is freakish for this dude. He tore Houston a new one.
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3. Odell Beckham Jr. going 60 yards on the reverse vs. Cowboys
Of couese bad effort and angles by the Dallas defense, but this looked like Giants Odell.
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All-Pro teams:

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Since this is not about building a team or anything like that, I just went to the most used personnel sets for either side of the ball – 11 personnel and nickel defense – and filled up those spots with who I believe have been the best players at those positions. So there is differentiating between left and right tackle, 4-3 defensive end and 3-4 were put together as “EDGE” and there are just any two stand-up linebackers inserted.
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Offense:

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LT David Bakhtiari
LG Quenton Nelson
C Corey Linsley
RG Wyatt Teller
RT Duane Brown
Second team: Laremy Tunsil, Michael Onwenu, Jason Kelce, Gabe Jackson & Ryan Ramczyk
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WR DeAndre Hopkins
WR D.K. Metcalf
WR Davante Adams
TE Travis Kelce
Second team: Calvin Ridley, Stefon Diggs, Justin Jefferson & George Kittle
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QB Russell Wilson
RB Alvin Kamara
Second team: Patrick Mahomes & Derrick Henry
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Defense:

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DE Myles Garrett
DT Aaron Donald
DT Chris Jones
DE T.J. Watt
Second team: Khalil Mack, Jeffery Simmons, Cam Heyward & Calais Campbell
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LB Fred Warner
LB Lavonte David
Second team: Darius Leonard & K.J. Wright
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CB Kyle Fuller
CB Jaire Alexander
NB Marlon Humphrey
Second team: James Bradberry, Jalen Ramsey & Jason Verrett
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FS Minkah Fitzpatrick
SS Budda Baker
Second team: Jessie Bates & Antoine Winfield
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Coach of the Year in the comments!!
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If you enjoyed this content, I would really appreciate if you could visit the original piece - https://halilsrealfootballtalk.com/2020/11/05/nfl-2020-midseason-awards/
Also make sure you check out my detailed recap of the NFL's week eight on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXx87t1Dcvk