Tuesday 27 December 2016 16:18, UK
Neil Reynolds picks his favourite moments from the 2016 season, including the rise of Dallas and more London games.
Every NFL calendar year serves up bucket-loads of headlines and 2016 has proven to be no different. In fact, it has been a 12 months in which the big stories kept on coming, from the end of the last campaign, all through the off-season and into the race for Super Bowl 51 in Houston.
This could have turned into a Pick 106 column reflecting on the year that was in the NFL. But here are six compelling storylines that have shaped and defined the NFL over the course of 2016.
And as this is my final column of the year, let me wish all of you a happy and successful 2017 and I hope you and your NFL team get all you dream about!
Peyton rides off into the sunset
Very few NFL legends get to leave the game on their own terms and as a Super Bowl champion. But Peyton Manning was able to do just that as his Denver Broncos saw off the Carolina Panthers behind a strong defensive effort in Super Bowl 50.
I was on the sidelines in Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara as the confetti rained down from the sky and it was a moment to reflect on a remarkable season for Manning, who was benched and then eventually won his job back in time for the Super Bowl run.
Make no mistake, the Broncos won on the back of their defence and just enough offence from Manning, but it was fitting for such a legendary player to go out on top, even if he did so a physical shadow of his former self.
The raiding of the Broncos
It became clear within the first few minutes of the free agency window opening that the reigning Super Bowl champions were going to need to withstand a raid on their roster. And no move was more shocking than to see young quarterback, Brock Osweiler, leave town to ink a $72 million deal with the Houston Texans.
While that hasn't exactly worked out to plan for Osweiler in Houston, it did leave Denver scrambling and they reached for Mark Sanchez before eventually settling on Paxton Lynch in the NFL Draft as the long-term answer.
With second-year passer Trevor Siemian at the helm and with very little running game help, Denver's offence took a step back in 2016. But perhaps more damaging in free agency was the loss of defensive end Malik Jackson to Jacksonville and middle linebacker Danny Trevathan to Chicago. That was a lot of run-stuffing muscle gone from the defence and the Broncos have struggled to slow opposing ground attacks all season long.
The year of the injury
The superstar injury list was far too long in the NFL this season as we have hardly seen the likes of Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt, Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson and Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo.
There are plenty of others who have been sidelined for lengthy periods and I could probably name an entire starting 11 on offence and another 11 on defence who would form a pretty dominant team.
The NFL is a very physical league and I think this year has served to remind us all why the teams only play 16 regular season games apiece. The sport is just too demanding and physical to play too many more times in one year. If the league does ever increase to 17 or 18 games, roster sizes also have to grow quite considerably.
Cowboys led by young stars
There was a great deal of hand wringing in Dallas when Tony Romo suffered a serious back injury during the preseason. But some late summer performances from rookie quarterback Dak Prescott offered some hope that the ship could be steadied in Romo's absence.
Prescott has done more than steady the ship. He has steered it so successfully through the NFL waters that Romo took to the podium in November to accept defeat and anoint Prescott as the new king in Dallas.
With poise and a demeanour beyond his years, Prescott has been sensational behind the NFL's best offensive line. He has endured the occasional wobble, but not enough to de-rail the Cowboys' Super Bowl challenge.
Prescott, of course, has been helped considerably by sensational rookie running back Ezekiel Elliott and watching these two grow old together in Dallas is going to be a real treat for the Cowboys over the next decade and more.
The down-trodden rise up
There are some teams who were in lowly positions in 2015 who have made quite the run in 2016, most notably the Tennessee Titans and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Both finished bottom of their respective divisions last year but have looked very promising this season.
The first port of call when looking at the improved fortunes of the Bucs and Titans is the form of young quarterbacks who went one and two in the 2015 NFL Draft in Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota. But it should also be noted that both of these clubs have been playing very good defence in the second half of this season and have become complete teams.
But it's not just the Bucs and Titans enjoying a turnaround. Miami are in playoff contention one year after finishing bottom of the AFC East, Dallas are flying high one year after occupying the NFC East cellar and two other teams with losing records in 2015 - Oakland and Detroit - have drastically improved their fortunes in 2016.
Those are just a few examples of how quickly things can change in the NFL and how strugglers one season can become contenders the next.
More NFL games for London
London staged three more successful NFL regular season games in 2016 and the reward for another trio of sell-outs was an increase to four contests for 2017. That is half a home game slate for your typical NFL team and a real step towards us getting our own London franchise in the not-too-distant future.
British NFL fans continue to get behind the London games and season ticket renewals for the matches between Jacksonville and Baltimore, Miami and New Orleans, Cleveland and Minnesota, and the LA Rams and Arizona Cardinals have been brisk.
There is no slowing down of the momentum for the NFL in the UK and I do think when the next Collective Bargaining Agreement between the league and the players' association is hammered out in five years, a London franchise will be one of the key discussion and action points.
