Don Banks Profile

With the 2019 NFL season now in the midst of taking its first-week steps, another set of rankings sure to rankle.

The recent trend of some NFL teams to drastically limit or even eliminate the general public from attending their training camp practices is a discouraging and short-sighted development that best reverse itself some day soon.

Some early July musings, observations and the occasional insight as we count down the days until the first NFL training camps open (believe it or not, rookies for the Ravens, Broncos, Cardinals and Seahawks report July 17).

Roughly a month before NFL training camps begin in earnest, let's take a shot at identifying which teams - one from each division - have the best shot to go from out-of-the-money to into the playoffs in 2019.

With the league's summer break upon us, here's an up-to-date team-by-team ranking of where things stand this decade so far in the league, based on regular-season winning percentage.

Summer is almost here and to varying degrees the heat is already on these quarterbacks.

With so much already in the books this offseason, including free agency and the draft, and OTAs well underway, let's power rank the league from where things stand today.

Moving to potentially fix something before anyone could even know if its broken yet, the NFL on Wednesday decided upon further review it doesn't want the replay expansion it thought it wanted. At least possibly.

The Jets somewhat surprising sacking of general manager Mike Maccagnan means that all three non-Patriots members of the division have swapped out both head coaches and top football executives from 2017 on.

A somewhat different and national perspective of New England's offseason, and where the Patriots stand in terms of division supremacy as it faces defending a league record-tying sixth Super Bowl title.

Now that Josh Rosen is a newly minted Dolphin, one of the real oddities of the looming 2019 NFL season will be that three of the four top 10-drafted quarterbacks in the 2018 class reside in the same division.

Let's take a look at 10 league topics that are still percolating as May arrives, with answers that may be days or even weeks away.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as a newsy day three of the 2019 NFL Draft in Nashville concludes the league's annual player pick-fest.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as day two of the 2019 NFL Draft unfolded Friday on the crowded streets of the city that has this week richly earned its nickname of NashVegas.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we absorb an eventful and defensive-minded first round of the 2019 NFL Draft from a soggy Music City.

Dispatches from Wednesday's media availability with about 20 or so NFL draft prospects.

One last prediction of how things will shake out from No. 1 Arizona to No. 32 New England.

Here's our Snap Judgment-style assessment of the 15 most compelling showdowns on the way in 2019.

The latest attempt to mock out the specifics of where the first round is headed.

The 2019 NFL Draft holds intrigue and significance for every club, but the reality is some teams need to nail it more than others.

For the sixth time in 18 years in the first-shall-be-last construct of the NFL draft, the Patriots enter the proceedings owning the No. 32 pick in the first round, an honor that goes to the defending Super Bowl champions.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we take a spin around the ever-active NFL news cycle and count down the days until the NFL Draft unfolds later this month in Music City.

Let's take another crack at how things will go down the night of April 25.

After much debate (and upon further and further review) the non-call for pass interference that marred the outcome of the NFC Championship Game has inspired a significant expansion of the NFL's replay review rules after all.

Day three of the NFL's annual meeting was highlighted by the coaches Tuesday breakfast with the media.

Dispatches from day two of the NFL annual meeting at the Arizona Biltmore Resort.

Before Rob Gronkowski made his retirement announcement official Sunday afternoon via Instagram, his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, said he made a last-ditch attempt to persuade his client to continue his NFL career.

The news of Rob Gronkowski's retirement announcement reverberated around the NFL annual meeting here Sunday afternoon, eliciting any number of reactions to his epic and memorable nine-year NFL career.

Upon further review, the NFL still seems unwilling or unable to expand its use of replay review to allow for the correction of egregious mistakes like the missed defensive pass interference call that sparked a firestorm and essentially sent the Los Angeles Rams to Super Bowl LIII instead of the New Orleans Saints.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we take stock of NFL free agency moves a week or so into the annual exercise.

Don Banks shares seven non-playoff teams that have done the best work so far in their attempt to join the postseason party next January.

With free agency opening next week, here's our attempt to play match-maker, linking some available quarterbacks with the teams in need of passing help.

With the combine come and gone, here's how Don Banks sees the first round going from the vantage point of early March.

With the the NFL's two-week window for placing franchise or transition tags on players opening Tuesday, the mechanics of how Nick Foles and the Eagles are going to part ways is about to take center stage.

A few final musings, observations and the occasional post-Super Bowl insight as we put the NFL's 2018 season to bed.

Maybe we should have seen this Super Bowl matchup coming for a while now, because since mid-November or so, these Patriots and Rams have pretty much mirrored each other's moves on parallel tracks leading up to the NFL's showcase game of the season.

It doesn't sound like Roger Goodell is strongly invested in seeing significant changes made to the methods of the NFL's officiating.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we absorb a riveting, comeback-filled (and controversial) Championship Sunday in the NFL, which gave us a double-barreled dose of overtime action.

We're in for a great Super Bowl pairing no matter who wins, but Atlanta can wait. It might be hard to beat the intriguing matchups we have in store on this highly-anticipated Championship Sunday.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we take stock of a Divisional round playoff weekend that not all that surprisingly was owned by the four home teams.

The matchups are all prime-time pairings, no matter where they fall on this weekend's schedule. Bring it on.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as a low-scoring but nevertheless riveting first round of the NFL playoffs wraps up.

Whomever survives to take on the Chiefs, Patriots, Saints and Rams next week should already be battle-tested this postseason.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we digest a fascinating and defining Week 17 Sunday and put the wraps on all but one very important game of the NFL's 2018 regular season.

The lineup for Week 17 in the NFL appears to be can't-miss material in terms of drama.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we try to sort out and make sense of a drama-filled Week 16 in the NFL.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we take stock of a complicating Week 15 in the NFL.

Picks for every game on the Week 15 NFL slate.

Picks for every game on the Week 14 NFL slate.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we take stock of an eventful Week 13 that was chock full of confounding outcomes and plot twists.

Picks for every game on the Week 13 NFL slate.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight from an entertaining and eventful Week 12 in the NFL.

Picks for every game on the Week 12 NFL slate.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight from a thrill-a-minute Week 11 in the NFL that featured lead changes galore.

Picks for every game on the Week 11 NFL slate.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight in a rather lackluster Week 10 in the NFL, which featured a dearth of close, competitive games.

Picks for every game on the Week 10 NFL slate.

Picks for every game on the Week 9 NFL slate.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we absorb a fairly lackluster Week 8 in the NFL.

Picks for every game on the Week 8 NFL slate.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we review a Week 7 in the NFL that was pretty darn good to road teams.

Picks for every game on the Week 7 NFL slate.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we dive into the notable Week 6 action in the NFL...

Picks for every game on the Week 6 NFL slate.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we digest an eventful Week 5 in the NFL.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we watch New England climb back over .500 in a convincing 38-24 beatdown of the injury-depleted but plucky Indianapolis Colts Thursday night in Gillette Stadium.

Picks for every game on the Week 5 NFL slate.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we take stock of an uneven Week 4 in the NFL, consisting mostly of either blowouts or thrillers.

Picks for every game on the Week 4 NFL slate.

Picks for every game on the Week 3 NFL slate.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we digest a wild Week 3, which seemed to mark when this new NFL season officially stopped making sense.

We're going to pick them all - straight up - and then look back to see how much Week 1 foretold.

Don Banks spoke with Steratore recently at the NFL on CBS media event in Manhattan, and asked him to reflect on and recount what it was like to officiate games involving Brady and the Patriots from 2003-on.

The NFL's 2018 season is almost upon us. You know the drill. Here's what I think is going to happen. As always, your results (and the actual ones) may vary.

News and notes from around the NFL as we head into Week 3 of the preseason.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we digest the not-so-important Super Bowl rematch the Eagles and Patriots waged Thursday night at Gillette Stadium.

From No. 1-32, here's how Don Banks ranks the NFL heading into Week 1 of the preseason.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as the star-studded Pro Football Hall of Fame's Class of 2018 took its enshrinement-night bows before a record crowd of 22,000-plus at Tom Benson Stadium.

Here are the highlights of Moss's 45-minutes before the cameras and microphones.

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as the NFL kicked off its 99th season with a fairly entertaining Bears-Ravens Hall of Fame Game matchup at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium.