The NFL used to be defense-controlled. Even looking at the New England Patriots dynasty, their early championships were led by hard-hitting, stingy defenses and what we might call a ‘game manager’ Tom Brady at quarterback. The safety changes in the NFL along with America’s insatiable appetite for more points has turned the league into a fireworks show over a fistfight. Defense no longer wins championships. The best three offenses in the NFL all made it to Conference Championship weekend, with two of them making the Super Bowl. So, who had the best offenses in the NFL in 2023 and how…
Author: Travis Rapp
Travis Rapp
Travis Rapp has been a sports journalist for Gridiron Heroics since March of 2024 primarily covering the San Francisco 49ers. He previously wrote for The 49ersHub, as well as other websites. Travis has a Bachelors degree in English from Pacific Lutheran University as well as a Masters in Education from Regis University.
When gauging the best game to watch each week of the NFL season, there are a few criteria we can look at. First off, there is just the overall matchup; two good or great teams going against each other. Then there are storylines like revenge games for traded players of free agents, division rivalries, rookie quarterbacks playing against each other, and playoff or even Super Bowl rematches from the prior season. The 2024 NFL season has all of them. There are some slow weeks. where the drama is not as high as others, but let’s be real, there is always…
With six first-round quarterbacks in the first twelve picks, it’s a viable question about who will walk into a starting position. The conundrum with being a quarterbacks drafted early in the first round is that you are generally leading a team who did not have a great prior season, setting you up for some growing pains. Quarterbacks being drafted later are obviously going to teams with better supporting casts, but have a harder path to a starting position. There is always the possibility that a team trades up (like the 49ers moving up to pick three to pick Trey Lance),…
If you look at the San Francisco 49ers initial 53-man roster over the past seven years that Kyle Shanahan has been the head coach, there are some rather consistent themes. One of those themes is balance between the offensive and the defensive side of the ball. Last year was Shanahan’s most unbalanced roster make-up, with 27 players on offense and 23 players on defense. This is the second year in a row there have been more offensive players making the initial 53-man roster with 26 offensive and 24 defensive players in 2022. The only other two years the offensive side…
The San Francisco 49ers have added speed, youth, and talent to an already loaded roster this offseason through free agency and the draft, and with rookie minicamps around the corner, one might think that the last of the ink has dried. They shouldn’t stop now if they are truly trying to win a Super Bowl at the end of the next season. With all three division rivals improving and the likes of the Kansas City Chiefs restocking with a monster draft alongside the Hollywood Brown signing, they have to continue to improve their roster. While everyone in the national media…
The absolute best draft pick is sometimes the most obvious pick. For example, taking Peyton Manning first overall is a no-brainer, and the best pick the Indianapolis Colts could have made at that time. The obvious picks aren’t what we are looking at in this article. Good general managers make the good obvious picks, but great organizations find the best picks that others might not make. Today we are looking at the best pick in each round of the NFL draft. We are talking about the value of the pick the player was taken at. In a perfect world, the…
Now that the initial free agency period along with the draft is over and rookie minicamps have begun, let’s take a look at the top five remaining free agents and find their bona fide best fits. This list is a who’s who of aging stars who are either looking for one last payday, a prove-it deal, or another shot at a Super Bowl title. Interestingly, four of the top five players remaining on the NFL.com top 100 free agent list are defenders, and if you look at the remaining list as a whole, there are a lot of cornerbacks and…
The Philadelphia Eagles’ 2023 season did not end in the fashion they had planned. After being dismantled by the eventual Super Bowl-losing San Francisco 49ers and their quarterback Brock Purdy by a score of 42-19, they dropped four of their last five games of the regular season. The streak continued into the playoffs with a Wild Card loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In each of those six losses, the Eagles’ offense only crossed the 20-point threshold once, while their defense only held their opponents to less than 27 points once, and that was during their 20-17 loss to the…
“With the 31st pick of the 2024 NFL Draft, the San Francisco 49ers pick Ricky Pearsall, Wide Receiver, Florida.” WHAT! With this pick, General Manager John Lynch and Head Coach Kyle Shanahan successfully blew every 49ers fan’s mind and sent the national media into a frenzy. Wide receivers Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel immediately became sure to be replaced commodities. And, for the first time in many years, the 49ers fanbase was upset the first-round pick wasn’t used on a defensive or offensive lineman. When the draft ended and Aiyuk and Samuel were still on the roster, the narrative adjusted…
The rich get richer is the saying people should be echoing after watching the Kansas City Chiefs use the first four rounds of the draft to restock a cupboard that wasn’t even nearly empty. It is obvious that general manager Brett Veach isn’t satisfied with back-to-back Super Bowl wins and is looking to make the Chiefs the first three-peat champions in NFL history. Although they didn’t lose much in free agency — and, in fact, extended their best offensive player not named Patrick Mahomes (Travis Kelce) — they still had some boxes to check. Having Mahomes at quarterback will always…
