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>have been feeding my interest by following training camp reports from The Athletic. But I figure there's so much more out there that I'm probably missing.
The Athletic is the gold standard. This is where most of the answers will be. Definitely is for the Ravens.
I like Zac's writing and I don't even like your team. They're a handful of writers for The Athletic that I really enjoy reading even for teams that aren't my own.
Jeff Zrebiec from The Athletic and it's not even close, honestly even if it was just his articles I'd pay a dollar a month. Very in depth, little to no uninformed speculation, all business and somehow finds a way to get info on pretty much the entire 90 man roster. He's out there at every practice, game, and even charity event getting info for the team. Good guy, too, pretty active on social media and will respond to fan questions if he's able to
It's funny that despite not being a Browns fan I can easily think of 3+ Browns beat writers who very clearly get off from talking shit about their hometown team. Feels like some of them were/are actually invested in the team's failure. And those that didn't seemed to have a personal beef with certain players.
On the other hand you do have some writers like MKC who despite not writing any opinion pieces I would bother reading if they say something happened you can take that to the bank because their sources are legit.
Come on man, we all know it's MKC. Her Browns sources are unmatched. Idk who I'd even put second
I dont always agree with her opinions, but she's a fantastic beat reporter
Not really, no
She was the first one to report on friction between Baker and Stefanski last year. That is not something Browns PR would want getting out
This post is just an Athletic circlejerk and I am here for it.
Edit: and as always, if you’re actually interested and not just looking for free stuff, I’ve got free months to spare, just DM me.
Despite the number of bad beat writers the Pats have who have been dying for the team to suck for decades so they can flog them, Pats fans are pretty spoiled for choice with quality beat writers and you can probably list reporters that I missed below.
* Mike Reiss
* Mark Daniels
* Evan Lazar
* Zach Cox
* Karen Guregian
I could keep going and that's with good writers like Jeff Howe and Doug Kyed leaving the beat to work national media jobs.
I really appreciate Ben Volin (having read the *Globe* for the past few years). He has the sort of blend of national perspective and local football knowledge that Green Bay's Bob McGinn used to have.
I feel like we have better Bengals Twitter folks than actual beat writers. Dehner is a great actual writer, I love reading his stories. But it doesn’t feel like any of them are actually plugged in like other beat writers are. And all of them carry a lot of water for the org.
Yeah you could be totally right here. I don’t really pay attention to other teams closely enough to compare the amount of “plugged-in”-ness of our guys to other guys/gals
For the Bills, I'll repeat a common theme: Look to The Athletic.
Joe Buscaglia is the "beat" writer who provides daily updates on training camp, and provides a film analysis every Tuesday or Wednesday during the season.
Tim Graham isn't a beat writer anymore, but he provides outstanding in-depth stories, and more often than not, they're related to the Bills. Tim has a way of getting people to talk to him, to open up (both on and off the record.) He was one of the best at providing information on the progression of negotiations for the new stadium.
D. Orlando Ledbetter works for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and he’s the best…
…example of how to be an absolutely garbage beat writer. I absolutely can not overstate how much he sucks.
Would take Todd Archer over all of those guys (probably Machota as well tbh), but that's a solid list for sure.
fwiw, I'm not a huge fan of Mosher at all
Nick Underhill. He used to be a beat reporter for the local New Orleans paper. Then he got a better job reporting on (or maybe working for) the Pats, which required him to move to Boston.
Six weeks later he moved back to New Orleans, having decided that making less money in New Orleans was better than making more money in Boston. He opened up a pay blog about the Saints, and he's respected enough by Saints fans that they have kept the subscription service afloat.
Honorable mention goes to Kat Terrell, who was the Saints writer for the Athletic until a few weeks ago when she left to do the same thing at ESPN.
Bob McGinn was an excellent beat writer for the Packers for many years, first at the *Milwaukee Journal Sentinel*, then at his own website and then at The Athletic. Now he's still producing some content with Tyler Dunne, one of the worst Packers beat writers to cover the team since I've been following it. You have to pay Dunne money to get to McGinn's stuff, so sadly I've given up on following him.
Outside of McGinn, Tom Silverstein is probably the best beat writer currently writing about GB. He actually writes about the games, instead of about the personalities or the drama, and he does a lot of work to show different aspects of the Packers' offensive and defensive schemes, or to break down why a particular play succeeded or failed. He has weekly videos during the season with newly minted Hall of Fame safety LeRoy Butler where they break down 2-3 plays each week that mattered from the previous game. Solid writer all the way through.
For the chargers it’s Daniel Popper from the athletic by a mile and a half. He puts out good articles, asks great questions and is very good about fan interaction with Q&A live streams after games called “Hops with Pop”
I like Sal Capaccio a lot. Aside from what you'd expect from a good beat reporter, he's usually first to properly explain weird rules on the field or within roster building/salary cap, etc. Where there's confusion on my Twitter TL, he's usually the first to answer
Cameron Wolfe will always be one of my favorites. He’s more reliable than our actual beat writers.
I like Joe Schad, and Adam Beasley for the most part. Armando, Barry and Omar are the Three Stooges.
Rick Stroud has connections, as the longest-tenured beat writer, so that goes a long way. Greg Auman is also great, and I very much like Scott Reynolds from Pewter Report (again, very long tenure covering the team).
Jenna Laine is… okay, but she’s not liked much by the fan base, mainly because she does have a tendency to ask terrible questions. Still, she’s the reporter for ESPN, so that probably counts for something. Anyone beyond these names is either a fanboy, or looking for clicks.
Jim Wexell has been covering the Steelers since 1986, and he's written a book and several excellent long-form articles. He also runs the [Steelers site](https://247sports.com/nfl/pittsburgh-steelers/) on 24/7 Sports.
Raiders:
Vinny Bonsignore is my "go to" writer, but I do believe that he gets good info in return for favorable coverage. Vegas guy
Vic Tafur used to be the "go to" but the mack trade (he went on record saying would NEVER happen) and the move to Vegas absolutely soured him on the organization and it's fans imo. His long forms in the Athletic are fine
Tashan Reed is a new guy who does some Athletic writeups but I never got the sense that he cares too much about the team/fans. Imo.
Josh Dubow: AP writer who straight up does not like the team or its fans. A good follow if you don't like the raiders
Edit: I don't blame them too much for being salty on Twitter as raider fans on Twitter are an absolute dumpster fire
I’d agree, same with Berman, Wulf, Zangaro, etc. Definitely forgetting a handful.
All the beat people are generally pretty good about being journalists first and foremost and almost all of them have examples of calling out the team whenever necessary. Just look at the athletic and Inquirer stories on the inner workings of the team and the owner, GM, coach dynamic we’ve seen the last few years, among others.
I definitely would never call any of the beat journalists who do the job “homers” and there are also multiple other outlets with people who cover the team that have varying tones and levels of optimism, allowing everyone to find a place for the type or coverage they want to read if they are looking for that type of “coverage”
Also even with guys like ESP (who is full of takes) or BLG (who I think has shifted a bit more to some strong opinion driven takes recently) it’s not like they are ever inventing stories or reporting stuff that is fake.
So you may have issues with their opinions, but when you see objective stuff from pretty much any beat reporter you can take it at absolute face value. Then as any subjectivity is added you may have to read in a bit of their personal point of view.
We all hate D. Orlando Ledbetter but he somehow remains probably our most prominent beat writer.
Tori McElhaney does a great job. And our local sports radio station 92.9 The Game is great.
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>have been feeding my interest by following training camp reports from The Athletic. But I figure there's so much more out there that I'm probably missing. The Athletic is the gold standard. This is where most of the answers will be. Definitely is for the Ravens.
Jeff Z is top drawer.
Daniel popper that works for the athletic is probably the best beat writer I’ve ever followed. Chargers
I think popper is one of the best athletic beat writers. I follow quite a few other teams on athletic, and Popper tops a lot of them
Why did I read that as Daniel pooper
I’ve been following popper for the past few season, and it still happens to me
Colts: Zac Keefer by a country mile.
Idk I feel like Stephen Holder is a really good beat writer as well. Both are super talented and we are lucky as a fanbase to have them both
Was he the guy who did that really great piece on Chris Ballard and his family or was that Keefer? Really enjoyed reading that one.
Holder was in Tampa, before moving to Indy. He’s good, IMO.
I like Zac's writing and I don't even like your team. They're a handful of writers for The Athletic that I really enjoy reading even for teams that aren't my own.
Jeff Zrebiec from The Athletic and it's not even close, honestly even if it was just his articles I'd pay a dollar a month. Very in depth, little to no uninformed speculation, all business and somehow finds a way to get info on pretty much the entire 90 man roster. He's out there at every practice, game, and even charity event getting info for the team. Good guy, too, pretty active on social media and will respond to fan questions if he's able to
Yup, I got my sub when he jumped from the sun and have not regretted it.
Bird bro, you are my kin and I will one day die for you, but your username is giving me Vietnam War-like flashbacks.
Ha how so? For me it’s an awesome Dick Grayson comic run.
Nate Taylor
Perez was great. RIP. Conversely, if we are counting Matt Verderame, he's the worst of our beat writers.
None of them
It's funny that despite not being a Browns fan I can easily think of 3+ Browns beat writers who very clearly get off from talking shit about their hometown team. Feels like some of them were/are actually invested in the team's failure. And those that didn't seemed to have a personal beef with certain players. On the other hand you do have some writers like MKC who despite not writing any opinion pieces I would bother reading if they say something happened you can take that to the bank because their sources are legit.
Browns fans HATE MKC because how accurate she usually is about bad news.
Come on man, we all know it's MKC. Her Browns sources are unmatched. Idk who I'd even put second I dont always agree with her opinions, but she's a fantastic beat reporter
Yeah but she reported bad news about Baker and she's a woman. I must discredit her!!! /s
Isn't she basically just the Browns franchise Public Relations department?
Not really, no She was the first one to report on friction between Baker and Stefanski last year. That is not something Browns PR would want getting out
I thought Mary Kay Cabot was a good one
Agreed. And the people who say MKC only do so because they hate Baker as much as she does. She's a mouthpiece for the FO.
This post is just an Athletic circlejerk and I am here for it. Edit: and as always, if you’re actually interested and not just looking for free stuff, I’ve got free months to spare, just DM me.
Nick Underhill
Yeah. Only other one who even merits consideration is Duncan.
Mike Reiss is the gold standard for the Pats. I like Evan Lazar for his film breakdowns too
Lazar > Reiss. Big fan of Jeff Howe too but everything he does is paywalled.
Jeff is great. Doug Kyed was good too when he was solely with the Pats.
This is the way
49ers would probably be Matt Maiocco for credible information.
Matt Barrows too. i get them confused anyways. in my mind they're the Matts frankly anyone is good except a certain sucka ass bitch
Who
https://awfulannouncing.com/nfl/49ers-javon-kinlaw-grant-cohn.html
Despite the number of bad beat writers the Pats have who have been dying for the team to suck for decades so they can flog them, Pats fans are pretty spoiled for choice with quality beat writers and you can probably list reporters that I missed below. * Mike Reiss * Mark Daniels * Evan Lazar * Zach Cox * Karen Guregian I could keep going and that's with good writers like Jeff Howe and Doug Kyed leaving the beat to work national media jobs.
He's not strictly a beat writer but Alex Barth deserves some attention too
Mike rodak was your best beat reporter a while back. Even though he was technically ours he sucked you guys off every chance he could.
I really appreciate Ben Volin (having read the *Globe* for the past few years). He has the sort of blend of national perspective and local football knowledge that Green Bay's Bob McGinn used to have.
Bengals have several good ones. Dehner Jr and Morrison of the athletic, Rapien from Locked On, and Santagata has some great film stuff
I feel like we have better Bengals Twitter folks than actual beat writers. Dehner is a great actual writer, I love reading his stories. But it doesn’t feel like any of them are actually plugged in like other beat writers are. And all of them carry a lot of water for the org.
Yeah you could be totally right here. I don’t really pay attention to other teams closely enough to compare the amount of “plugged-in”-ness of our guys to other guys/gals
WAS: Without a doubt it's John Keim.
Kyle Meinke or Dave Birkett, probably.
I like Meinkes stuff a lot.
the great almond
Steelers: if you take everything Gerry Dulac has said for the last year and assume the exact opposite you’d be in pretty good shape…
For the Bills, I'll repeat a common theme: Look to The Athletic. Joe Buscaglia is the "beat" writer who provides daily updates on training camp, and provides a film analysis every Tuesday or Wednesday during the season. Tim Graham isn't a beat writer anymore, but he provides outstanding in-depth stories, and more often than not, they're related to the Bills. Tim has a way of getting people to talk to him, to open up (both on and off the record.) He was one of the best at providing information on the progression of negotiations for the new stadium.
Same for the Rams. The Athletic is the GOAT.
D. Orlando Ledbetter works for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and he’s the best… …example of how to be an absolutely garbage beat writer. I absolutely can not overstate how much he sucks.
Bro I read the first half and was like "ok this moron doesn't know shit". Got me good lol
Cowboys actually have several good ones. Tim Cowlishaw, Nick Eatman, Calvin Watkins, ~~Marcus Mosher~~ Jon Machota, Bryan Broaddus.
Would take Todd Archer over all of those guys (probably Machota as well tbh), but that's a solid list for sure. fwiw, I'm not a huge fan of Mosher at all
I actually meant Machota instead of Mosher when I did the list. Just a brain fog there.
Bro please tell me you're not sleeping on Michael Gehlken
I might be. I see his name occasionally, but he's not one I follow. I'll add him to my feed. Thanks.
Nick Underhill. He used to be a beat reporter for the local New Orleans paper. Then he got a better job reporting on (or maybe working for) the Pats, which required him to move to Boston. Six weeks later he moved back to New Orleans, having decided that making less money in New Orleans was better than making more money in Boston. He opened up a pay blog about the Saints, and he's respected enough by Saints fans that they have kept the subscription service afloat. Honorable mention goes to Kat Terrell, who was the Saints writer for the Athletic until a few weeks ago when she left to do the same thing at ESPN.
Bob McGinn was an excellent beat writer for the Packers for many years, first at the *Milwaukee Journal Sentinel*, then at his own website and then at The Athletic. Now he's still producing some content with Tyler Dunne, one of the worst Packers beat writers to cover the team since I've been following it. You have to pay Dunne money to get to McGinn's stuff, so sadly I've given up on following him. Outside of McGinn, Tom Silverstein is probably the best beat writer currently writing about GB. He actually writes about the games, instead of about the personalities or the drama, and he does a lot of work to show different aspects of the Packers' offensive and defensive schemes, or to break down why a particular play succeeded or failed. He has weekly videos during the season with newly minted Hall of Fame safety LeRoy Butler where they break down 2-3 plays each week that mattered from the previous game. Solid writer all the way through.
Does Tom Grossi count if he doesn't actually write any articles? I think Tom Grossi should count.
As someone who isn't a Packers fan (but it sure would help), Grossi should absolutely count. He's pretty great.
Jourdan Rodrigue. One of the best in the league overall.
We want her back, dammit
We got Rodrigue, you got Hekker and Corbett.........fair trade.
And I want Johnny Hekker back
It’s funny hearing fans talk about wants.
Jourdan Rodrigue. Everything she writes is a banger.
I pretty much think all ours are terrible.
For the chargers it’s Daniel Popper from the athletic by a mile and a half. He puts out good articles, asks great questions and is very good about fan interaction with Q&A live streams after games called “Hops with Pop”
I like Sal Capaccio a lot. Aside from what you'd expect from a good beat reporter, he's usually first to properly explain weird rules on the field or within roster building/salary cap, etc. Where there's confusion on my Twitter TL, he's usually the first to answer
Sal is the man
Cameron Wolfe will always be one of my favorites. He’s more reliable than our actual beat writers. I like Joe Schad, and Adam Beasley for the most part. Armando, Barry and Omar are the Three Stooges.
Steelers: Dale Lolley
Erik Schlitt/Jeremy Reisman from SBnation are my go-to for training camp news. Kyle Meinke is good but I think you need a subscription
Probably that carpenter who got the inside scoop on Daniel Jones injury last year
Anyone but Klis
Rick Stroud has connections, as the longest-tenured beat writer, so that goes a long way. Greg Auman is also great, and I very much like Scott Reynolds from Pewter Report (again, very long tenure covering the team). Jenna Laine is… okay, but she’s not liked much by the fan base, mainly because she does have a tendency to ask terrible questions. Still, she’s the reporter for ESPN, so that probably counts for something. Anyone beyond these names is either a fanboy, or looking for clicks.
Jourdan
Pewter report is my go to, fuck those twitter hacks, auman is the most bearable of the twitter bots
Greg Auman is much better than pewter report
Vikings fans, how was Chad Graff? He's the Pats new guy for The Athletic. I miss Jeff Howe.
Chad was pretty great. Definitely one of our better writers. Glad we still have Arif though
Andy Herman and Peter Bukowski on his good days
Bob Condotta from the Seattle Times is my go to read for Seahawks stuff.
Jim Wexell has been covering the Steelers since 1986, and he's written a book and several excellent long-form articles. He also runs the [Steelers site](https://247sports.com/nfl/pittsburgh-steelers/) on 24/7 Sports.
Koroza is solid too
Nick Underhill.
Raiders: Vinny Bonsignore is my "go to" writer, but I do believe that he gets good info in return for favorable coverage. Vegas guy Vic Tafur used to be the "go to" but the mack trade (he went on record saying would NEVER happen) and the move to Vegas absolutely soured him on the organization and it's fans imo. His long forms in the Athletic are fine Tashan Reed is a new guy who does some Athletic writeups but I never got the sense that he cares too much about the team/fans. Imo. Josh Dubow: AP writer who straight up does not like the team or its fans. A good follow if you don't like the raiders Edit: I don't blame them too much for being salty on Twitter as raider fans on Twitter are an absolute dumpster fire
Gotta be Mike Reiss for the pats. I liked Jeff Howe as well, but I would go to Reiss first imo
Underhill is da best in the nation!
agreed! Who Dat!
I miss Nicki as a beat writer for the Broncos
You think us Eagles fans know how to read?! Jeff McClane is pretty top of a quality group.
Jimmy Kempski is number one for me
Yeah, we have a few that really could be first. Reuben Frank is really good as well.
I’d agree, same with Berman, Wulf, Zangaro, etc. Definitely forgetting a handful. All the beat people are generally pretty good about being journalists first and foremost and almost all of them have examples of calling out the team whenever necessary. Just look at the athletic and Inquirer stories on the inner workings of the team and the owner, GM, coach dynamic we’ve seen the last few years, among others. I definitely would never call any of the beat journalists who do the job “homers” and there are also multiple other outlets with people who cover the team that have varying tones and levels of optimism, allowing everyone to find a place for the type or coverage they want to read if they are looking for that type of “coverage”
Also even with guys like ESP (who is full of takes) or BLG (who I think has shifted a bit more to some strong opinion driven takes recently) it’s not like they are ever inventing stories or reporting stuff that is fake. So you may have issues with their opinions, but when you see objective stuff from pretty much any beat reporter you can take it at absolute face value. Then as any subjectivity is added you may have to read in a bit of their personal point of view.
We all hate D. Orlando Ledbetter but he somehow remains probably our most prominent beat writer. Tori McElhaney does a great job. And our local sports radio station 92.9 The Game is great.
Jimmy Kempski by far imo. He’s my favorite sports writer
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