Jeff Risdon - Football Analysis

To put your finger on the pulse of sports fans, all you have to do is visit your local sports bar on a Sunday afternoon. There you'll get to see all the games and hear armchair quarterbacks and all their glory. That is what Encroachment did for Week 4. Read more »

Three weeks are in the NFL books, and the list of injured impact players grows. While injuries happen every year to seemingly every team, league parity and a lack of capable fill-ins make the injured players appear even more valuable. Read more »

By varying degrees of surprise the Ravens, Vikings, Cardinals, Packers, Texans, Chargers, and Raiders are all 0-2. And there's a common theme amongst that group which explains a lot of their collective misfortune. It's the same reason the Benglas, Steelers, Bucs, and Giants (among others) are 2-0. The biggest difference between the 2-0 and the 0-2 is offensive line play. Read more »

Before 49ers and Dolphins fans start clamoring for playoff tickets, or The Mike's (Shanahan and Tice) start looking for new gigs, let the unpredictability of Week 1 die down and reality set in for the next few weeks. Read more »

Every year several rookies break out and immediately establish themselves as NFL forces. So who will become this season's Ben Roethlisberger, Anquan Bolden, or Tommie Harris? There's always a few surprises, but one things is for sure and that is Dick Vermeil has a pretty good rookie in Derrick Johnson. Read more »

This week's installment of Encroachment is done in honor of Larry King. Longtime visitors to RealGM.com are familiar with Mr. Risdon's prior homages to the King's old USA Today column of rambling observations of the very obvious, 1950s B-list celebrity name dropping, bizarre non sequitirs, and dreadfully antiquated sports references. Read more »

The St. Louis Rams are picked by almost nobody to make a return to the NFC playoffs. Apparently their crushing 47-17 loss in the NFC divisional playoff to the Falcons has made for overly critical eyes. Here's some Visine to help get the eyes focused more clearly on a team that could be a lot better than most people think. Read more »

Bill Parcells wondered aloud on ESPN how many other coaches had won multiple Super Bowls in different decades, then took another franchise back to the Super Bowl after finishing 6-10 the year before. Ultimately, the Tuna failed to get inducted, in no small part because most people failed to believe he was done coaching. They were proven correct when Parcells took over the Dallas Cowboys in 2003. Read more »

This season features as many as 20 teams who believe they have legitimate chances to make deep playoff runs. A quick check of the bombardment of preseason tabloids shows 11 different teams making the AFC or NFC Championship games, the vaunted final four that qualifies as a successful season. Read more »

On July 18th I became a father for the first time. My son Layne entered the world and I couldn't be prouder or happier. In those hazy hours of restless awakeness we share, I look at my big boy and dream for him. As someone whose football career was ruined by injuries, I envision for my son all the glory upon which I missed out. Read more »

Shawn Alexander of the Seahawks is the latest big-name player to pledge his allegiance to the annual summer rite of NFL crybabies: threaten a holdout due to the franchise tag. Since the CBA in 1993 added the concepts of "franchise tag" and "transition player." Read more »

The slowness of the Cowboys, a goodbye to Sam Mills, the rising Cardinals, NFL crime and the continue decline of the QB's from the 1999 draft in 10 Cents On The NFL. Read more »

Since their return to the league the Browns offense has ranged from humdrum to pathetic and despite a new coach, new players and new excitement surrounding the team, don't look for the offense to do much better in 2005 than it has the past few seasons. Read more »

With the surprise drafting of Mike Williams and the return of a healthy Charles Rogers, the conventional wisdom for most Lions' fans puts the burden of the 2005 season squarely on the shoulders of Joey Harrington. Read more »