Decoded Blog

  • I thought Monday Night Football was just a game that fell on a Monday

    I thought Monday Night Football was just a Monday game. It’s the longest-running primetime show in US TV history: America’s single showcase match each week.

  • The Super Bowl MVP is basically a quarterback award

    A quarterback has won 34 of the 60 Super Bowl MVP awards, and 12 of the last 17. The prize tilts hard to one position, and Kenneth Walker III’s win in February was the first for a running back in 28 years.

  • The NFL’s other MVP is even more of a quarterback award

    American football has two MVP awards, and the season one is an even tighter quarterback lock than the Super Bowl version. A quarterback has won it every year since 2012, and no wide receiver ever has.

  • I thought the NFL power rankings were official. They’re not.

    I found the NFL power rankings on the league’s own site and read them like a league table. They’re nothing of the sort: one writer’s weekly opinion, no formula, no panel, and sometimes not a single game behind them.

  • The season opens with a rematch of last year’s Super Bowl

    Seattle host New England on Wednesday to open the 2026 season, a straight rerun of the Super Bowl they won in February. The champions always get opening night, so here’s why the rematch happened and what else is worth watching on opening weekend.

  • The player defenses pay the most is the one chasing the quarterback

    The best-paid defender in football is not the linebacker who runs the defense or the corner who shadows the star. It is the edge rusher hunting the quarterback, on about $47m a year. The money picks him; the film picks two others.

  • NFC North “Rivalries” uniforms are built on the schedule, not the drama

    The Bears, Lions, Packers and Vikings have new “Rivalries” uniforms for 2026, each worn once at home against a division rival. It’s a real Nike and NFL programme, now in year two, and the schedule is what makes it work.

  • Left-handed quarterbacks: the NFL’s rarest player

    Left-handed quarterbacks are the NFL’s rarest breed, none on a roster as recently as 2020. How many there are now, the famous names, and whether the edge is real.

  • The blindside, and the one block that can lose you a game

    One blocker beaten twice in a preseason game became a leaguewide talking point. That is the left tackle’s job: guard the blindside, the side a right-handed quarterback cannot see as he throws. Lose it, and you can lose your quarterback.

  • What is the difference between Passer Rating vs QBR?

    Passer rating and QBR can rate the same quarterback completely differently, and it isn’t a mistake. One scores the throws, the other scores the whole game. Here is what separates them, and which number to trust for which question.