Welcome back to The MMQB newsletter. It was another busy week in the NFL, with new coaching hires, a Hall of Fame snub and budding Super Bowl hype dominating the news cycle. The Bills announced the hiring of Joe Brady, Buffalo's former offensive coordinator, as the team's head coach on Tuesday. Conor Orr wrote about how the hiring illuminates the full picture of what actually happened in Buffalo, while Albert Breer broke down why the Bills bet on Brady. Bill Belichick's Hall of Fame snub also shook the football world, with many wondering how the legendary coach could fall short of being inducted as a first-ballot Hall of Famer. Orr argued that the snub is a watershed moment for the Hall of Fame. And Mitch Goldich wants to race against NFL players, and three Pro Bowlers told him they're in.
But we start first with a project from Gilberto Manzano, projecting the top 100 NFL players in 2026. The top 10 may hold a few surprises, with Patrick Mahomes's knee opening the door for the No. 1 spot. |
Top 100 Player Projection |
Erick W. Rasco (Allen, Mahomes); Chris Unger/Getty Images (Garrett); Steven Bisig/Imagn Images (Nacua) |
By Gilberto Manzano We have reached the top 10 in my projections for the top 100 players in 2026, and there were so many questions to answer before settling on who's going to be the best of the best a year from now. Perhaps for the first time in a long time, there's an honest debate about who's the best football player in the world. There was no transition year after Tom Brady gave up the mantle, because Patrick Mahomes quickly established himself as the best before the greatest of all time retired five years ago. However, Mahomes sustained a significant knee injury in December, perhaps jeopardizing his ability to begin the 2026 season. But it's not just the injury that has opened the door for the No. 1 spot. Mahomes and his offense have hit a wall over the past two seasons and will need to find ways to reinvent themselves, which will be difficult without Mahomes for most of the offseason. Gilberto Manzano's top 100 player projection: Nos. 100-51 | Nos. 50-11 Also, the discussion about who's No. 1 isn't just about the quarterbacks because edge rusher Myles Garrett is coming off a historic 2025 season. But, for another reminder, this list isn't about what happened last year. We're projecting what's to come while factoring in team surroundings. All right, let's get to our top 10 projected players of 2026. I'm sure everyone will agree with these rankings. And, again, don't yell just at me because there were eight of us on the MMQB staff who voted for the top 20 players. Let the debate begin! |
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By Albert Breer The Bills knew what Joe Brady was as an offensive coach. What they didn't realize was a big part of why he's their new head coach. Brady's vision for the CEO-as-head-coach part of the job ended up winning over the team's search committee, with the Pegulas, GM Brandon Beane, top personnel men Terrance Gray and Brian Gaine, and quarterback Josh Allen in that room. It was a key piece of the interview for all candidates, and Brady's detailed and precise plan made the decision, ultimately made by Beane, about more than continuity. That said, continuity is a piece of the puzzle. The Bills were top five in scoring the past two years, Josh Allen won the MVP in 2024 and the team scored 30 points despite five turnovers in the team's playoff ouster. So the same offensive scheme is a plus for Allen. Then, there's the alignment with Beane and his group—you don't have to project what that relationship is going to be like when you already know the guy on the other end of it. Of course, this is a gamble. Going away from Sean McDermott alone was one, and if this doesn't work, then making an internal hire will look really bad. But there is sound logic to it. And with that, it's fair to say the honeymoon is already over. |
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By Gilberto Manzano I didn't make the drive to the Chargers' facility on Tuesday morning to hear new offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel crack a few jokes, but that was a big part of it, and he didn't disappoint in that department. McDaniel joked that he and Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh are the same guy, with the only difference being that his new boss is taller. On the surface, it seems that they're total opposites, which is why many football fans wouldn't mind getting a reality show from the NFL's most popular odd couple. McDaniel, the former Dolphins coach, even mentioned that he's now considering wearing Dockers to practices over his favorite pair of joggers. Also, McDaniel started his introductory news conference by saying he's not really an opening statement guy before saying a lot of good things about his new quarterback, Justin Herbert. But this was well worth the drive because not many coaches are as open as McDaniel, who offered candid responses about putting his head-coaching aspirations on hold and went behind the curtain to break down what he wants to do schematically to help Herbert reach the next level. |
Michael Allio/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images (Crosby); Cooper Neill/Getty Images (Nacua); Courtesy: Rhode Races (Goldich); Dustin Bradford/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images (Surtain) |
By Mitch Goldich Myles Garrett would rip my head off. If you put me under center—or, frankly, even in shotgun—it would take him something like 2.6 seconds to dislodge each of my ribs and deposit my lifeless body onto the turf. But that's on the football field. I think if you gave me a lot more space, and maybe put me in a noncontact jersey like quarterbacks wear during practice, I could keep the NFL's new single-season sack record holder off my tail. If I'm being perfectly honest, although I'd be a little afraid to say this in his presence, I think Myles would eat my dust. I am basing this on the most scientific research tool known to man: a tweet from five-plus years ago. At the height of the pandemic, July 2020, Garrett shared the following: "My best time in a 5K is 27:36, what's yours?" Well, Mr. Garrett, not to brag, but I was clocked at the November 2025 Newton (Mass.) Turkey Trot running a 23:51, which comes out to a 7:40/mile pace. So while you'd probably best me in arm wrestling, table-tennis, bowling and nearly any other athletic competition you can think of, distance running may be the one area where I could come out on top. |
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Robert Deutsch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images |
By Conor Orr First, a personal note and acknowledgement: My graveyard of poor takes is wider and more expansive than the New Jersey Pine Barrens (and contains nearly as many skeletons I'd wish to remain buried). On more occasions than I'd care to admit, some kind of personal animus may have driven an opinion piece down one fork in the road instead of the other, though I am always willing to point to the cold place in my heart from where it came. Regardless, on all of those occasions, the errors are uniquely my own. The damage is, more or less, self-inflicted with a name attached to it (truly, many of my co-workers pretend not to know who I am in public). But what happened on Tuesday is different. Appropriate is presenting your own personal thoughts as to why Bill Belichick is not a Hall of Famer and then getting pelted by a sack of vegetables. Inappropriate is denying one of the three greatest coaches in NFL history—a statement that is immensely difficult to argue—entry into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on the first ballot and not immediately being prepared to defend it publicly and with gusto. |
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By Matt Verderame The 2025 NFL season has been bizarre. It's been enthralling. It's also down to one game. In the Super Bowl, the Seahawks and Patriots will square off at Levi's Stadium with each looking to add to their trophy cases. Seattle has just one championship, famously falling a yard shy of back-to-back titles when it lost to New England in Super Bowl XLIX. Of course, the Patriots have won plenty over the years with six championships to reminisce about. This game, though, is about the present. It's about Sam Darnold trying to prove he was worth a top-three pick so long ago in New York. It's about Mike Vrabel and Drake Maye trying to restore the glory years in New England, years that seemed so distant not that long ago. It's about veterans like Stefon Diggs and DeMarcus Lawrence attempting to fulfill a lifetime ambition and win their first titles. But like every game, it's also about the matchups within the matchups. It's about the little-known numbers that could loom large as the contest heats up. And for those, we dive in deep with our first look at Super Bowl LX. |
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Illustration by Tim McDonagh |
By Conor Orr The wily old general manager had one last trick up his sleeve. It was just before the championship and the opposing team's quarterback was a total ringer—a kid who played big-time ball in high school at the nearby prep academy and Division I at the college down the road. The kind of guy who could topple his Mill Valley flag football dynasty and snatch a fifth championship from his grasp. So the night before, he invited the quarterback to a concert, Neil Young's famous Bridge School benefit at the Shoreline. He recruited, according to friends, two "beautiful hippie chicks" to keep the quarterback's cup full and asked that they not bring him back until just before kickoff. Sure enough, just after 10 a.m. the next morning, as panicked teammates milled about the field at Tamalpais High, 22 miles north of San Francisco, staring at their watches and calls to start the game began to mount, the quarterback arrived at the field in the clothes he'd worn the night before. As the story goes, if someone had lit a match inside the quarterback's huddle, all of Marin County would have gone up like a mushroom cloud. He played a step slow all afternoon (and in jeans). And sure enough, the GM's team, the Tamalpais Chiefs, won in the end on a heroic fourth-and-forever touchdown run. All part of the plan. |
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