Wide Left

Wide Left is a newsletter that explores the NFL, delves into the politics surrounding football, and discusses various topics that catch Arif Hasan's interest. With a strong foundation in politics and debate, along with more than ten years of NFL coverage experience, I aim to offer my distinct viewpoint on the sport. If you're interested in reading more, consider subscribing!

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2025 Consensus Big Board: The Top 300 Players in the 2025 NFL Draft, According to 76 Analysts

4 days ago | wideleft.football | Arif Hasan

Welcome to the landing page for the Consensus Big Board for the 2025 NFL Draft. As often as possible, I’ve tried to provide it free, without subscription, to as many people as possible. To that end, this piece is free to everyone, as is the data. The insights generated from the board, which include analysis like who the most polarizing players are in the draft, the difference between evaluators and forecasters and post-draft team grades will continue to be subscriber-exclusives.
Defensive Pro Day Standouts: Which Non-Combine Studs Made Waves at Workouts?

1 week ago | wideleft.football | Arif Hasan

This is the defensive version of the last post I wrote, which focused on the offense. You can find it here. The intro is the same because it feels pointless to rewrite it, so if you’ve read the offensive intro, skip right to the first position, defensive tackle. Every year, there are “snubs” who do not find themselves invited to the NFL Combine but nevertheless make an impact in the NFL, sometimes even as rookies.
Offensive Pro Day Standouts: Which Non-Combine Studs Made Waves at Workouts?

1 week ago | wideleft.football | Arif Hasan

Every year, there are “snubs” who do not find themselves invited to the NFL Combine but nevertheless make an impact in the NFL, sometimes even as rookies. Twenty-five or so players in a given year will be drafted without having that combine invite and a good deal more will end up as high-impact undrafted free agents. Part of the process that identifies them to NFL talent as worthy of selection is the pro day.
What's Wrong With Pro Day Reporting?

3 weeks ago | wideleft.football | Alex Katson

When Tetairoa McMillan ran a 40-yard dash at a surprise workout on Arizona’s campus on March 17, a familiar haze of conflicting reporting set in. One of the most polarizing prospects projected in the first round of this year’s draft, McMillan had declined to run at the NFL Combine and skipped the Big 12 conference pro day, held just a few days later at the Cowboys practice facility in Frisco, TX.
Do Free Agency Grades Tell Us Anything? Looking at Media Free Agency Grades 2020-2025

4 weeks ago | wideleft.football | Arif Hasan

Do “free agency grades” matter? In a broad sense, of course not. Nothing matters. That aside, it’s pretty interesting to figure out whether analysts can meaningfully weigh the success or failure of a team in free agency. At the moment, the Minnesota Vikings, Chicago Bears and Washington Commanders are receiving near-universal praise for their performance in the NFL’s “free agency period,” or the first few weeks following the beginning of the new league year, when terminating contracts expire.
Is Next Gen Stat's Combine IQ the Future of Pre-Draft Data Analysis?

1 month ago | wideleft.football | Arif Hasan

The NFL’s release of its Combine IQ product represents one of a few recent steps the NFL has made towards democratizing access to data. And it could be the future of pre-draft data analysis. The NFL has been famously resistant to opening up their tools for fans and analysts to produce independent insight — it was a slog to get the NFL to provide access to All-22, or “coaches’ film” to fans years ago and there hadn’t been much more progress until the introduction of Next Gen Stats.
Katson: The Loneliness of the Left-Footed Kicker

2 months ago | wideleft.football | Alex Katson

The NFL Combine is an isolating experience for every player. The week of rigorous interviews, medical checks, and on-field workouts pits each prospect against their peers — but also against history. Fail to reach an arm length benchmark or an athletic testing threshold, and suddenly your professional prospects plummet. Check in with a staggering frame and a blazing 40 time, and you’ll find yourself shooting up draft boards. For specialists, the isolation is magnified.
Can We Truly Identify Combine Snubs for the NFL Draft?

2 months ago | wideleft.football | Arif Hasan

After the release of the 2025 NFL Combine invite list, draft analysts scrambled to compose a “snub” list, a separate group of players who wouldn’t attend but “deserved” an invite to the annual workout and interview process put together by National Football Scouting. These are players that, in the estimation of third-party draft evaluators, had put together a compelling enough resume or have intriguing tools worth evaluating for the NFL draft later this year.
Super Bowl Commercials and the AI Bubble - Why Investment Looks Dangerous

2 months ago | wideleft.football | Arif Hasan

One of the outstanding things about the Super Bowl is that even if the game is a boring blowout — which it was this year — it can provide us with a window into so many other elements surrounding the NFL landscape and culture at large. It doesn’t take much understanding of the game, for example, to know that Kendrick Lamar’s halftime show performance was the final step in his evisceration of Drake. So, too, with the commercial landscape.
Do Cities Benefit From Hosting the Super Bowl?

2 months ago | wideleft.football | Arif Hasan

This year, New Orleans will host Super Bowl LIX and re-establish itself as one of the premier hosting destinations for the Super Bowl, part of the NFL’s somewhat regular rotation of key hosting cities aside from an occasional year given to cities that play ball and build their teams a new stadium. Typically, sportswriters and fans love the New Orleans experience and this year seems no different.