☀️ Good morning and welcome back to The Nosebleeds.

💯 The NFL released their annual Top 100 players list, which always leads to some great debates.

🎬️ Lights, camera, action.

🥇 Patrick Mahomes is the NFL’s top dog

Whether you ask fellow players or Pro Football Focus (PFF), Patrick Mahomes is the best player in football. In the five seasons since Mahomes succeeded Alex Smith as the Kansas City Chiefs starting QB, the Chiefs have been to five AFC Championships and three Super Bowls—with two of those appearances resulting in championship rings. It is no debate, he is simply the best player in football, and that is why he is the NFL Top 100 and PFF #1 player. Here is the entirety of the top ten from the NFL Top 100:

1. Patrick Mahomes

2. Justin Jefferson

3. Jalen Hurts

4. Nick Bosa

5. Travis Kelce

6. Joe Burrow

7. Tyreek Hill

8. Josh Allen

9. Micah Parsons

10. Chris Jones

My biggest problem with this—in what world is Jalen Hurts a better quarterback than Joe Burrow? Yes, Hurts led the Eagles to the Super Bowl and was fantastic in that game, but he also had the most complete team in football around him. Burrow, on the other hand, had a trash offensive line (again) and was one roughing the passer penalty (which was also a bit of a dive from Mahomes let’s be honest) away from potentially making his second straight Super Bowl appearance.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d love if Hurts was the quarterback for my team. But who in their right mind would choose to start their franchise with Hurts over Joey B if they had the choice? That is why I put more stock into PFF’s player rankings (shown in the IG post below). Their rankings are based on an individual’s performance independent of team, so it really paints a picture of who are the most dominant players in the game regardless of the quality of their teammates.

JJ still clears Davante though ;)

💎 The most valuable teams in North America

Earlier this week, Sportico released a ranking of the highest valued sports teams in North America. All of the big five North American leagues were included in the ranking.

So, without further ado:

Just because I’m a nice guy and I don’t want any of you to strain your eyes squinting, here is the top ten:

1. Dallas Cowboys - $9.2B

2. Golden State Warriors - $7.56B

3. New York Yankees - $7.13B

4. New York Giants - $7.04B

5. Los Angeles Rams - $6.94B

6. New England Patriots - $6.7B

7. New York Knicks - $6.58B

8. Los Angeles Lakers - $6.44B

9. San Francisco 49ers - $6.15B

10. New York Jets - $6.11B

It is absolutely mind boggling to me how every NFL team is ranked in the top 40 of this list when football is really only prominent in North America, and the other four sports are highly international. Just goes to show how powerful the NFL is in North America, and especially the US.

Jerry Jones bought the Cowboys for $140M in 1989. They are now worth damn near 11 digits. Decent return.

💰️ ESPN x PENN

In some more sports business news, ESPN reached a deal with PENN Entertainment to rebrand their sportsbook to ESPN Bet for $2B (i.e., 21.7% of the Dallas Cowboys).

I can already picture it clearly. It is a crisp Monday October night, and you’re watching the Manningcast version of Monday Night Football. Because what else would you be doing? It’s a one possession game late in the fourth quarter, highly intense. Or at least it was, until Peyton Manning tells little brother Eli he’s an idiot for taking the under on Ceedee Lamb’s receiving yards prop.

Football and gambling all from one place—America’s largest sports platform. It’s beautiful. 

Murica, baby 🦅 

The other interesting aspect of this deal is Barstool Sports/Dave Portnoy. Portnoy sold Barstool to PENN for $550M awhile back, but as part of the deal with ESPN, PENN sold Barstool back to Portnoy for a single dollar.

While this is unquestionably an unreal deal for Portnoy, there are some interesting details and covenants that are well laid out in the thread below:

🤑 Phil Mickelson, Degenerate

One of us.

Next time your family or your buddies accuse you of having a sports betting problem, you can tell them at least you’re not as bad as Phil Mickelson.

Buddy just couldn’t stop. And Rory couldn’t stop himself from absolutely flaming Phil in his press conference today.

Absolutely ruthless.

I really don’t have much to say about this story, it just gets crazier the more details you learn about it and I couldn’t help it but to share.

That ESPN/PENN deal is certainly not good for Lefty’s financial future…

🩸 Bloody Good Play of the Week

While this play doesn’t look super impressive in and of itself, the rarity of this play could not be ignored (first time this type of double play has occurred in half a decade!)—earning it the Bloody Good Play of the Week crown 👑 

🤔 NFL Trivia

Patrick Mahomes topped the NFL Top 100 list for 2023.

• Question: who was the #1 ranked player in 2022?

Answer at the bottom.

📺️ Weekend Watchlist

🏈 NFL Preseason is in full-swing as of this weekend, so there will be plenty of football for your viewing pleasure. However, the preseason is a great time to get our first look at the top rookies, so here are my top recommendations for this weekend:

• Sat, Aug 12 @ 1 PM EST: Indianapolis Colts @ Buffalo Bills - Will we see shades of Cam Newton from Anthony Richardson in his debut?

• Sat, Aug 12 @ 1 PM EST: Tennessee Titans @ Chicago Bears - Our first look at Will Levis, and Justin Fields “will play”

• Sat, Aug 12 @ 4 PM EST: NY Jets @ Carolina Panthers - Bryce Young’s Panthers debut

⚾️ Not a lot of great series this weekend, except for one:

• Baltimore Orioles @ Seattle Mariners - A three-game series between two of the AL’s hottest teams

 ⛳️ The FedEx Cup Playoffs are underway with the PGA Tour’s top 70 in the FedEx Cup standings facing off at the FedEx St. Jude Championship.

• Jordan Spieth (-7) holds a one shot lead over Tom Kim after R1 on Thursday

🫡 Talk to ya Tuesday!

Trivia Answer: (It wasn’t the guy in the photo [Aaron Donald]), the correct answer is Tom Brady.

🙏 Thank you for reading! Follow us on Twitter for more (@nbleedsports, @younggun001) or you can subscribe here!