Don Banks Profile

Musings, observations and the occasional insight from Friday at the NFL Scouting Combine, when the top-rated quarterbacks take to the podium to talk up their own game.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight from Thursday's doings at the NFL Scouting Combine.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight from an interesting Wednesday at the NFL Scouting Combine, with the league's club executives and head coaches taking center stage.

As their new outside-the-box GM hire, Mayock knows the Raiders' rebuilding job has to extend past their three first-round picks.

This season there will be eight new coaches in the NFL, a quarter of the league having started over at the most important non-playing position in their organization.

A new HBO documentary about former Patriots linebacker Nick Buoniconti brings his fascinating life story to the screen.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we wrap up the 2018 NFL season with a strange and ultra-low-scoring Super Bowl LIII in Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Cut by three teams in 2018, C.J. Anderson is the one of the most unlikely Super Bowl participants ever.

Don Banks on a potentially crucial discovery about those trick-play-loving Los Angeles Rams.

Let the memory of each of these "givens'' provide another cautionary tale when it comes to the folly of predicting what will transpire in the NFL season just ahead.

Which clubs have at least a chance to rise from the ashes and finish the 2018 season in a blaze of glory (and confetti)?

With only two seasons left in the NFL decade, here's how the 32 teams rank in terms of winning percentage, with a summary of each club's highlights and lowlights from the preceding eight years.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we slog through early June and the last week or so of the NFL's offseason program schedule.

Don Banks' assessment of who'll be under the gun, needing to produce, when the season kicks off in September.

Here's a stab at the 10 most important players on the mend and what we know so far about their prospects for this season.

It now appears no final resolution to the controversial question is likely to be reached next week when the owners convene for two days in Atlanta, Ga., according to sources familiar with the league's current thinking.

The NFL is on an undeniable hot streak of sorts when it comes to historic teams winning it all in seasons ending in 8.

With most of the personnel moves already made around the league, and the NFL entering its offseason workout portion of the proceedings, here's Don Banks' assessment of the seven new coaches, ranking them from most to least likely to make the playoffs in 2018.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as the NFL's 2018 Draft concluded on Saturday with some memorable moments in rounds four through seven.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight from a somewhat low-key second night of the NFL Draft at AT&T Stadium.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we digest the wildly entertaining and absorbing first round of the 2018 NFL Draft, held in the Taj Mahal of football, AT&T Stadium (aka Jerry World).

This most intriguing of NFL drafts is finally upon us, and the unknowns still abound. Here's my final attempt at mocking out what will unfold Thursday night at AT&T Stadium.

The most interesting thing I heard on the day before the NFL Draft opens was that New England worked out Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson privately in South Florida two weeks before he visited Foxboro for an official visit to Gillette Stadium.

There are the usual 256 games on the just-released 2018 NFL regular-season schedule. In chronological order, here are the 25 most compelling matchups, from the vantage point of late April, even before the draft unfolds.

With the first round of what promises to be the most intriguing NFL Draft in years just two weeks or so away, here's our latest attempt to mock out what will transpire in Arlington, Tex., on the night of April 26.

With free agency activity slowed down to a veritable trickle and the intriguing 2018 draft still three weeks-plus away, let's take stock of how things stack up in the NFL as spring unfolds.

If you thought the Indianapolis Colts would be the last team in the NFL to oppose the so-called "Josh McDaniels rule,'' allowing teams to sign a head coaching candidate to a contract even if their original team is still alive in the playoffs, you thought wrong.

Here's the reality of the NFL's new player safety-minded rule that will penalize any player who lowers their head and initiates contact with the helmet.

Relatively late in the day on Tuesday, the NFL somewhat surprisingly moved to expand and significantly sharpen its rules against players lowering their head and using their helmets to make contact.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight gleaned from Tuesday's coaches media breakfast at the NFL annual meeting in Mickey Mouse land.

Had the Colts' well-chronicled courtship of Josh McDaniels unfolded next year instead of this year, chances are the Patriots long-time offensive coordinator would be attending the 2019 NFL annual meeting as Indianapolis' new head coach.

In his nearly 15-minute session with reporters, Belichick did not shed any real light on two of the stories that have so far dominated much of the Patriots' offseason.

Nothing accomplished at this week's NFL annual meeting here in vacation-land will match the importance of the league finally taking steps to fix the catch rule.

Don't be surprised if passers go 1-2-3 for the first time since 1999.

Nothing has remotely matched the hyperactive veteran quarterback market for creating intrigue and interest thus far this NFL offseason.

With the NFL's Scouting Combine in the rear-view mirror, we're at least starting to get a sense for how the league's 32 teams view this year's incoming class of prospects.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as the quarterbacks put the ball in the air Saturday at the NFL's Scouting Combine.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as the quarterbacks took center stage Friday at the NFL's Scouting Combine.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as the draft prospects started talking on Thursday at the NFL's Scouting Combine.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight from day one of the football-fest known as the NFL's scouting combine.

What a wildly familiar bunch of OCs have been assembled this season.

It's mid-February 2018 in the NFL and slowly the reality is dawning on us: It's an ex-backup quarterback's world, and we're all just living in it.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we try to make sense of that entertaining absurdity of offense we just witnessed in Super Bowl LII in U.S. Bank Stadium, a history-making win for the Philadelphia Eagles.

Dispatches from Super Bowl LII as Sunday night's Patriots-Eagles game starts to come into view.

Rodney Harrison on Patricia's coaching future, the Patriots, Super Bowl LII and more.

Recent history tells us these teams aren't producing a mismatch.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as Super Bowl LII week in Minneapolis-St. Paul begins.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight from the Gillette Stadium press box, on a balmy and mixed bag of a Championship Sunday in the NFL

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we take stock of an unforgettable divisional round of the NFL playoffs….(Holy Stefon Diggs!)

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we re-cap the mostly entertaining first round of the NFL playoffs...

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we wind down the NFL's regular season on New Year's Eve and celebrate the 50th anniversary of the epic Ice Bowl in Green Bay.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we offer up a relatively snappy version of some Week 16 Christmas Eve Snap Judgments.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we digest an ultra-significant and scintillating Week 15 in the NFL.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as an eventful Week 14 unfolded, kicking off the final quarter of the NFL's regular season.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight from an interesting Week 13 in the NFL.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight from a jam-packed holiday-infused Week 12 in the NFL.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight from a Week 11 that got considerably more interesting as the day unfolded.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight from a somewhat uneven Week 10 in the NFL.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we review an NFL Week 9 heavy on divisional rivalries, with all that familiarity perhaps prompting some fighting.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we dive into a Week 8 in the NFL that featured some bad weather and surprisingly good finishes.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we take stock of some pretty ugly field-goal-fest football in Week 7.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as this NFL season grows ever-more intriguing in Week 6.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we absorb an ultra-competitive Week 5 in the NFL, which has so far featured nine games decided by one score.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we dive into an upset-heavy Week 4 in the NFL.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we take stock of a sobering and yet absolutely captivating Week 3 in the NFL, one where the focus was largely centered on what transpired before the ball was kicked off, at least until those wildly entertaining games began.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we re-cap a Week 1 in the NFL that was dominated by games decided by double-digit margins.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as the 2017 NFL season finally kicked off with that banner-hanging reality check at Gillette Stadium, a stunning 42-27 upset win for Kansas City over the defending Super Bowl champion Patriots on Thursday night/Friday morning.

With the NFL's Thursday-night season-opener looming just hours away, it's predictions time, circa 2017.

Rather quietly in terms of the attention it has received, this is a potentially historic week for the Patriots organization.

Jimmy Johnson on his friend and fishing partner, Bill Belichick.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as the lengthy enshrinement ceremony for the seven-man 2017 class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame unfolded Saturday night at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium.

Love him or loathe him, Jerry Jones is an immortal now.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as the 2017 NFL season kicked off Thursday night with a surprisingly entertaining exhibition of football known as the Hall of Fame Game.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as the NFL finally goes to training camp.

Taking a vibe reading of 15 teams with potential mojo problems as training camps open across the NFL.

Ten burning questions that need answers as we count down the days until the opening of NFL training camps later this month.

After the devastation of last winter, and what unfolded that memorable night against the Patriots in Houston, Falcons fans are looking for reasons to believe this summer. And surprisingly enough, there are many.

The beauty of the NFL is how much we presume to know about it at any given point on the calendar, only to be repeatedly proven wrong in our projections and assumptions.

Here's a look at each team's ceiling and floor - in our estimation at least - meaning a best-case, worst-case scenario for every franchise.