Season in review: AFC and NFC North

January 3, 2013 Review

On Monday, I examined the seasons of the teams in the AFC and NFC East. Today I will do the same for the AFC and NFC North, starting in the AFC. Pittsburgh Steelers Pre-season Projection: 10 wins Maximum wins: 11 wins (after weeks 2, 5, and 9) Minimum wins: 8 (after week 16) Week 1 [...]

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How the Steelers traded Roy Jefferson and won four Super Bowls

September 28, 2012 History

Roy Jefferson isn’t well-remembered today, but he was one of the top receivers at the start of the Super Bowl era. Jefferson was a second round pick of both the Steelers and Chargers in 1965, back when the leagues held separate drafts. Jefferson chose to sign with Pittsburgh, and in his second season, he led [...]

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Mike Tomlin makes aggressive, unconventional call, converts, no one cares

September 25, 2012 Strategy

[Note: I'm scheduled to appear on The Bobby Curran Show on ESPN 1420 at just after 12:30 today. If you're interested, you can listen here.] If you weren’t watching the Steelers-Raiders game, you probably didn’t hear about Mike Tomlin’s gutsy call late in the 4th quarter. That’s because it worked. On 3rd-and-1 with 4:34 remaining [...]

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2011 Age-adjusted team rosters

August 1, 2012 Statistics

Measuring team age in the N.F.L. is tricky. Calculating the average age of a 53-man roster is misleading because the age of a team’s starters is much more relevant than the age of a team’s reserves. The average age of a team’s starting lineup isn’t perfect, either. The age of the quarterback and key offensive [...]

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