cjstroud - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights



Yes, the Ravens look strong, but the numbers say 'buyer beware'
The Baltimore Ravens will play their first playoff game of the season this coming weekend after securing a bye due to being the AFC’s top seed. They finished the season 13-4, and despite not having key players like tight end Mark Andrews or wide receiver Devin Duvernay, they trampled almost everyone...

All the remaining NFL playoff teams, ranked
Anything can happen in the playoffs, and I mean anything. In just the wild-card round alone, we saw:...

The Houston Texans have arrived and they’re as good as advertised
Super Wild Card Saturday lived up to its name in the city of Houston, with the Texans’ introduction to the postseason making light work of the Cleveland Browns, 45-14. If you thought Houston’s 10 wins in head coach DeMeco Ryans’ first year with a rookie quarterback was a fluke, go ahead and smack yo...

Boom or bust: A look at the NFL's best and worst rookies
Now that the regular season is done, many NFL rookies made headlines for their skills and ability to transition well into the professional game. Pre-draft, there was lots of speculation about who would be a bust and who would excel greatly. Here is our list of booms and busts amongst NFL rookies for...

These are the biggest flops of the 2023 NFL season
The NFL is a small-sample league. Before you can even blink, 18 games have flown by and we’re left trying to make sense of everything that happened. It means that luck can play a massive part in whether a team succeeds or fails, with a few bounces of the ball defining the entire story for an entire ...

Revenge is a dish best served in the NFL playoffs
According to Christopher Wallace’s definition, beef is when you need two gats to go to sleep; when your moms ain’t safe up in the streets; when I see you, guaranteed to be an ICU; when you make your enemies, start your Jeep; and when you roll no less than 30 deep. While I don’t know how many of this...

The NFL’s Black coaches are turning Wild-Card Weekend into a diversity showcase
There’s one storyline the NFL hasn’t highlighted heading into the postseason, and that’s probably for legal reasons. At least, I can’t imagine the league’s attorneys would advise them to showcase its entire roster of Black head coaches making the playoffs, considering Brian Flores’ lawsuit is still ...

Every team in the NFL playoffs, ranked
The NFL playoffs are officially set. All the ups and downs, laughs and years, improbable comebacks and unprecedented collapses, none of those mean anything now. All that’s left is a four-week sprint to immortality. ...

Michigan’s national title is a crop in the Big Ten’s budding football harvest
As maize-and-blue confetti streamed from the NRG Stadium rafters, it felt like the Big Ten’s harvest was finally ripening. The national title game was decided when Michigan outmuscled Alabama a week earlier, but Monday night’s national title was merely the coup de grâce in a process that began five ...
![San Francisco 49ers fire DC Steve Wilks after Super Bowl LVIII loss [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/1ef4ca96da9eb6ed7f574e0392ed764f.jpg)
San Francisco 49ers fire DC Steve Wilks after Super Bowl LVIII loss [Updated]
It’s one of the toughest times of the NFL calendar. The end of the regular season has been unofficially dubbed “Black Monday” for the head coaches, general managers, and coordinators who will ultimately lose their jobs. In some cases, a relationship has simply run its course, and a business-driven l...

DeMeco Ryans is the only choice for NFL Coach of the Year
Mike Tomlin still hasn’t had a losing season. Kevin Stefanski’s squad endured five different starting quarterbacks. Dan Campbell has the Detroit Lions hosting a playoff game and they’re the favorite. But, they all fail in comparison to what DeMeco Ryans has done in Houston. A rookie head coach has t...

The Texans are proof that serendipity is the NFL’s most valuable asset
Think about the Houston Texans’ path to this moment. After gutting out a win over the Indianapolis Colts, 23-19, on Saturday, DeMeco Ryans and CJ Stroud locked up a playoff spot in their rookie campaigns. The team that opted out of hiring Josh McCown because it didn’t want to get sued also let the C...
