THE PREMIER FOOTBALL
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Every offseason, college head coaches have to deal with roster turnover -- whether that’s due to players graduating, leaving early for the draft, putting their name in the transfer portal or retiring from football due to injury. All of this attrition causes open competition for starting spots on each team’s roster, some position battles being more significant to a team’s success than others. As teams gear up for the 2021 season, the 33rd Team will take a look at the top position battles in each Power 5 conference, rating them on the impact they will have on their chance at winning their respective conference and predicting who we think will end up earning the starting job. Texas A&M: Starting QB Jimbo Fisher has assembled a very talented roster since arriving in College Station in 2018. With Kellen Mond graduated and in the NFL, this will be the first time he...

Much will be expected from the top rookies in the NFL last season as they embark on their sophomore campaigns. There are always players that did not make a big impression as rookies who emerge in their second season to become valuable commodities. Here are four players primed for a breakout season in Year 2: Grant Delpit, S, Cleveland Browns Delpit missed his entire rookie season with the Cleveland Browns due to a torn Achilles. He was one of five safeties taken in the second-round of the 2020 NFL draft and the only one of this group who didn’t make starts for his team this past season. Coming off an Achilles tear, expectations should be tempered, but here’s a reminder of how good Delpit was when healthy at LSU: 2-time All-American Won the Thorpe Award as the nation’s best defensive back in 2018 Started 37 of 40 career games for...

The NFL and NFLPA agreed in March to add a 17th game to the regular-season schedule starting in 2021. Among other things, the 17-game schedule gives players more opportunities to beat personal, team and league records. This data set looks at the average passing yards per game for the top 5 quarterbacks and the average rushing yards per game for the top 5 running backs from the 2020 season. By taking the average yards per game for each player and adding one more game to their season-ending total, we can project what it could have looked like were there a 17th game in 2020. This gives insight on how the future season stat leaders could be impacted. Players who did not play a full 16-game schedule have been marked with an asterisk. Above, one can see that two quarterbacks in 2020 could have broken the 5,000-yard mark if there had...