Storylines from 2021 and Injury News

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The regular-season finale is something of a somber event. For most of us, no more waivers, and we can bask in the glory of a championship. Others are too exhausted to care. But the season was too chaotic to turn away from it as soon as Week 18 hits. I’ve got injury updates below, but first, I wanted to go over some of the mini-seasons we went through with a few teams.

Seasons within the Season

There were so many high points or phases we collectively went through that made up 2021. Each set up a larger discussion with real and fantasy football implications that changed the course of a few franchises. I can think of quite a few more, but these three stuck out to me when looking back on the regular season.

Remember when the Panthers’ offense was fun?

I remember this one because I fell for it. Sam Darnold put on a show to start the season, and I believed he turned a corner. He baited me by giving D.J. Moore red-zone targets, and then he went full Konami on us to sweeten the deal. I couldn’t resist the upside.

It seems like a lifetime ago, but Darnold was QB9 through Week 5. Adding five rushing touchdowns does wonders for a quarterback’s rank, but Darnold’s passing was encouraging. He seemed to have fundamentally improved his game outside of the explosive plays.

Darnold improved across the board in clean-pocket situations. It’s a back-of-the-envelope way of measuring if a quarterback can do their job at a basic level, and Darnold was trending in the right direction. But tragedy was waiting right around the corner.

Darnold may have been heading in the right direction, but he still had a ways to go. He was still battling accuracy issues (20th in CPOE), and the Panthers’ offensive line was ready to give way. By Week 5, he was already eighth in pressure rate, and he was fourth in sacks taken….