Tag: The 33rd Team

Sam Darnold has disrespectful ranking in latest QB Power Rankings

Not everyone is on board the Sam Darnold hype train, as Dan Pizzuta with The 33rd team has Darnold with a surprisingly low ranking at QB.

The Minnesota Vikings are one of two undefeated teams left in the NFL, along with the Kansas City Chiefs. Just like everyone predicted before the season started, right?

The Vikings have been one of the surprise stories in the NFL, and while they were easy to dismiss after the first week and a win over the New York Giants, it has become harder to ignore their success after wins over the San Francisco 49ers, Houston Texans, and Green Bay Packers. Those wins have most of the NFL on notice that the Vikings may very well be “for real.”

The Vikings have been climbing up most outlet’s power rankings heading into Week 5, but it seems like there’s not quite a consensus on the team — at least as it pertains to their quarterback. In the latest power rankings from Dan Pizzuta of The 33rd Team, Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold comes in as the 19th-ranked quarterback in the NFL.

That may seem absurd on the surface for a quarterback who is leading one of only two remaining undefeated teams — especially when you add in the fact that Darnold is ninth in passing yards, third in QBR, and leads the league in both passer rating, and passing touchdowns this season.

The ranking looks even more disrespectful when you look at some of the names ahead of Darnold — in particular, the name right ahead of him, Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence. Lawrence has the 26th-best passer rating in the league this year — a rating only slightly better than Dolphins quarterback Skylar Thompson.

Lawrence also has a completion percentage just barely above 50% on the season—53.3%—just four touchdown passes on the season, and a passer rating a full 40 points lower than Darnold’s.

Obviously, there’s still some skepticism about Darnold and whether or not he’s simply a product of the offense he’s in with head coach Kevin O’Connell and the weapons around him, like wide receiver Justin Jefferson. Even still, to be that low in the rankings seems questionable, at best.

Former Lions coach Matt Patricia is now part of the media

Former Lions coach Matt Patricia is now part of the media, joining The 33rd Team along with Bill Belichick

With all of the excitement surrounding the Detroit Lions and the very promising season about to kick off, it’s important to remember just how far the team has come. Four years ago, Matt Patricia was the head coach of the Lions team micromanaged with designs on winning the 1986 NFC East.

Those 2020 Lions under Patricia badly flamed out. From those ashes rose the current regime, burning through a painful first season to bring the Brad Holmes/Dan Campbell time to shine.

Patricia has bounced around coaching stops since the Lions canned him late in the 2020 season. Now he’s given up the coaching for a new opportunity in the media.

Patricia is joining The 33rd Team, along with his mentor Bill Belichick. It’s all under the oversight of longtime NFL GM Mike Tannenbaum, who created The 33rd Team. Patricia appeared on CNBC to promote his new gig, and he did so appearing to have lost a significant amount of weight.

https://twitter.com/SquawkCNBC/status/1831284033948430649

Patricia becoming part of the media, who he habitually and aggressively clashed with throughout his Detroit tenure, is certainly an interesting turn for the former coach.

Former Vikings GM predicts when J.J. McCarthy will start

Jeff Diamond, a former Vikings GM, looks for J.J. McCarthy to start in Minnesota before the end of the year.

The Vikings community is talking about when J.J. McCarthy will start for Minnesota. The Vikings went out and grabbed veteran Sam Darnold this past offseason to a one-year deal, and they have full confidence in Darnold starting the whole year—or until McCarthy is ready.

McCarthy is a proven winner. He won a state title in high school, went 27-1 as the starter at Michigan, and won a national title. However, the pundits are skeptical about McCarthy because he played in Jim Harbaugh’s run-first offense with the Wolverines. Either way, the Vikings drafted McCarthy 10th overall and will hand him the keys to the franchise at some point.

But that goes back to the question of when. Former Minnesota GM Jeff Diamond, who works for the 33rd Team, predicted when every first-round QB taken in the 2024 NFL Draft would start. Diamond believes McCarthy will earn the starting job in Week 9 against the Indianapolis Colts.

Minnesota plays the Rams on Thursday Night Football in Week 8, which would give McCarthy 10 full days to get ready for the Colts. Plenty of people have thought McCarthy may start following the Vikings’ bye week in Week 7 against the Lions, but Week 9 is a possibility as well.

WATCH: Bills’ Ed Oliver, Khalil Shakir highlighted for 2024 NFL season

WATCH: #Bills’ Ed Oliver, Khalil Shakir highlighted for 2024 NFL season:

With the 2024 NFL offseason in full swing, the Buffalo Bills duo of Khalil Shakir and Ed Oliver have been highlighted.

Dan Pizzuta from The 33rd Team joined the Bills’ radio show, One Bills Live, and previewed next season. Two names mentioned were the receiver and defensive tackle.

The full segment can be found below:

[lawrence-related id=136577,136586,136556]

Penei Sewell was the only offensive tackle to accomplish this feat last season

Lions standout Penei Sewell was the only offensive tackle to accomplish this pass protection feat last season

In 2021, the Detroit Lions sprinted to the podium to select Penei Sewell with the 7th overall pick. Since then, he’s become a foundational piece to the Lions franchise.

He’s played and started in 50 games in his career and was only inactive for the last regular season game of his rookie season. With that, Sewell has been voted to the Pro Bowl twice in his career (2022 and 2023) and last season he earned First-Team All-Pro Honors.

Adding to this, Sewell was the only offensive tackle to accomplish a rare feat in the NFL last season. According to data compiled by The 33rd Team, Sewell was the only OT last season to allow less than 20 pressures while having over 500 pass-blocking snaps.

In addition to that data, he was PFF’s highest-graded offensive tackle in the NFL last season. He also led all tackles in total snap count across the regular season and playoffs. He only committed seven penalties and only allowed one sack.

This has helped Sewell earn a four-year contract extension with the Lions that is worth $112 million dollars. The contract makes him the highest-paid offensive lineman in NFL history and keeps him in Detroit through the 2029 season. Rank him where you want but for my money, he’s the best right tackle in football.

Vikings land J.J. McCarthy and Jer’Zhan Newton in 33rd Team mock draft

The 33rd Team’s Ari Meirov sends Michigan QB J.J. McCarthy and Illinois DT Johnny Newton to the Minnesota Vikings in his latest mock draft.

One of the biggest questions coming into this week’s NFL draft is if the Minnesota Vikings are going to be able to get their quarterback of the future, and just how much they’re going to have to give up to do so. But what if the Vikings don’t have to give up anything and can still land a potential franchise QB?

That’s the scenario that played out in the latest mock draft from The 33rd Team’s Ari Meirov. Meirov has the Vikings standing pat at the 11th spot and still landing former Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy. Here’s Meirov’s analysis of the selection and McCarthy’s fit in Minnesota:

A trade-up could likely be required for the Minnesota Vikings to get a quarterback in this draft, but I don’t think they will have to go all the way to No. 4 with Arizona the way most people think, especially if it’s for J.J. McCarthy. Assuming it can’t get Maye, Minnesota could be more patient and let the draft come to them; trading up to No. 7 or 8 would make more sense.

McCarthy is the most polarizing quarterback of the top four. Still, he would walk into easily the best position of anyone: Minnesota has the play-caller in Kevin O’Connell, the playmakers with Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, T.J. Hockenson and Aaron Jones, and the protection with bookend tackles Christian Darrisaw and Brian O’Neill.

With the Vikings not trading up for a quarterback, they’re able to keep their second first-round pick and can bolster the team even further. In this mock, they’re able to beef up their defensive line with the 23rd pick, taking former Illinois defensive tackle Johnny (Jer’Zhan) Newton.

The Minnesota Vikings could very well not even have this pick if they trade up, which many people think is likely. Jer’Zhan Newton had more than 100 pressures over the past two seasons, and some people rate him as the draft’s top interior defensive lineman.

The First-Team All-American had surgery in January to repair a fracture in his foot and did not do any workouts during the pre-draft process.

This draft would be just about a dream scenario for the Vikings. They’d be able to land a quarterback they’re heavily rumored to be in on, and would get to keep their draft assets to land a player who most draft analysts have as the top interior defensive lineman available.

Andy Reid inexplicably ranked third on list of top NFL play-callers

Andy Reid was inexplicably ranked as the third-best offensive playcaller in the NFL by “The 33rd Team” despite winning Super bowl LVIII.

Despite Andy Reid’s success with the Kansas City Chiefs in recent years, it seems that the long-tenured head coach is still an underrated asset for the defending Super Bowl champions.

In a list made by popular football blog The 33rd Team, Reid inexplicably ranked as the third-best offensive play-caller in the NFL behind Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay.

While these rankings are far from definitive, it seems illogical that Reid would be left out of the top spot in favor of a coach whom he defeated in Super Bowl LVIII earlier this month.

Reid has consistently led the Chiefs’ offense to top spots in NFL rankings with Patrick Mahomes under center, and even after a year that many fans saw as a step back for the unit, Kansas City’s season still ended with a second-consecutive championship.

It is unclear what Reid would have to do to earn the top spot in this rankings, but with Super Bowl rings to show for his play-calling prowess, it isn’t likely that he cares much about his placement in rankings like these.

Veteran executive Mike Tannenbaum explains Isiah Pacheco’s slide to the 7th round

Veteran executive Mike Tannenbaum explains #Chiefs running back Isiah Pacheco’s slide to the seventh round of the 2022 draft.

The decisions made in the offseason regarding the lead-up to the NFL Draft are critical for every franchise as they seek to get younger and better at specific positions. Making these problematic decisions falls on the general managers and front office personnel keen on picking up the best available talent on the board.

Chiefs Wire’s Ed Easton Jr. recently talked with former NFL executive Mike Tannenbaum to get his thoughts on the Kansas City Chiefs NFL Draft seventh-round selection steal of running back Isiah Pacheco in 2022. Tannenbaum spoke on behalf of The 33rd Team during a special media availability, providing insight into a general manager’s mindset during the late draft rounds.

“He said they did a ten-year study on draft picks that hit and miss, and it was very interesting,” Tannenbaum explained. “He’s like if we just went with our grades literally that were like from this time of year like you watch the games period, end of story.

“Everyone’s gonna get some right, people get them right and wrong, but they’re more accurate when you don’t have the Senior Bowl, the (NFL Scouting) Combine the interviews and all the other things that we put a lot of time effort and money in.”

The Chiefs selected Isiah Pacheco without much fanfare in 2022 and watched as he immediately made an impact through training camp to become the starting running back eventually. He led the team in rushing this season, becoming one of the most essential parts of the offense.

“It’s kind of interesting because when you look at Brock (Purdy), a four-year starter at Iowa State, he was a good player, but it’s not going to test well, obviously,” said Tannenbaum. “(Isiah) Pacheco, [went] a little bit different under the radar at Rutgers, but when you put on the film, they’re really playing the same way they played in college.

“Coach (Bill) Parcells always had an expression like in the late rounds, you want to draft an attribute, and that attribute can be production. And certainly, like in [the] previous case, like you’re drafting experience, so not all late-round picks are gonna work out as we all know, but like that, to me, like Purdy, a really good example of the Casserly lesson of just go by the film and ignore everything else.”

Purdy was selected to his first Pro Bowl this season, while Pacheco continues to prove that general manager Brett Veach knows precisely what Kansas City needs moving forward.

Former NFL executive Mike Tannenbaum says Chiefs should prioritize offensive tackle in free agency

Former NFL executive Mike Tannenbaum says the Kansas City #Chiefs should prioritize offensive tackle in free agency.

The Kansas City Chiefs are heading to another postseason under head coach Andy Reid after winning their eighth straight AFC West division title. Decisions will need to be made during the upcoming offseason whether or not the team wins another Super Bowl title.

Chiefs Wire’s Ed Easton Jr. recently sat down with former NFL executive Mike Tannenbaum to get his thoughts on the Kansas City Chiefs’ offseason free agency plans. Tannenbaum spoke on behalf of The 33rd Team during a special media availability, providing insight on Kansas City’s needs, including negotiations with Chris Jones.

“I think their wide receivers are a work in progress, from Skyy Moore a year ago, Rashee Rice, to Kadarius Toney, but to me, their big issue is offensive tackle point to last week they led the league with penalties,” said Tannenbaum. “Right now, they’re just not playing great, between Donovan Smith and Jawaan Taylor. To me, that’s the bigger concern, and when they have to go on the road for playoff games, I think that’s going to be exacerbated.”

Taylor and Smith have notably struggled in their first season in Kansas City, with the latter missing multiple games with a neck injury. Tannenbaum continues to have strong trust and belief in the progress of Chiefs general manager Brett Veach to fix the issue.

“I think Brett Veach has done an amazing job, and when they lost the Super Bowl against Tampa (Bay Buccaneers) in Tampa,” Tannenbaum explained. “His answer was to fix the offensive line, and I think that’s number one, and then adding a receiver will be 1A, and I’m sure they’ll figure out a way to keep Chris Jones. I think he’s too valuable. It may cost them some other veterans, but I don’t think it’d be Chris Jones.”

Tannenbaum was a significant figure in various front offices from 1995-2018. He continues to appear on many media platforms while representing The 33rd Team, sharing his wealth of experience.

HOF QB Kurt Warner on Ken Dorsey firing: ‘I’m not sure it changes a whole lot’

The Hall of Famer needs some selling on the idea:

Kurt Warner doesn’t think the Buffalo Bills should get too excited about what’s to come after the firing of offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey.

The Hall of Fame quarterback joined The 33rd Team and discussed Dorsey’s dismissal. In his eyes, based on his experiences in the NFL, he’s not convinced it’s going to make much of a difference.

“I’m not sure it changes a whole lot,” Warner said. “You have to look at the big picture.”

Instead, Warner is seeing what some others are pointing to: Players on the Bills offense have to clean things up.

“You watch them play and there’s opportunities out there and there’s some bad football out there,” Warner said.

Warner’s full breakdown can be found in the The 33rd Team clip below:

[lawrence-related id=126804,126797,126818]