The Monday Morning Agent

American football, for people who have never watched it.

Every argument on this site is about NFL football, and many of you watch from countries where "football" means a different game. This page gives you just enough of this one to follow the arguments and the data. The numbers themselves are on the episode pages.

The game in one minute

Two teams have 11 players each on the field. One team has the ball, the offense, and tries to move it down a field 100 yards long and into the end zone, a 10-yard area at the far end. The other team, the defense, tries to stop it. When the offense scores or loses the ball, the teams swap roles.

A game is four quarters of 15 minutes of game clock. The clock stops often, for incomplete passes, timeouts, scores, and more, so a game takes about three hours in real time. Halftime comes after the second quarter. A game tied after four quarters goes to overtime.

Touchdown, 6 pointsCarry the ball into the end zone, or catch a pass there. The scoring team then tries for 1 more point with a short kick, or 2 more points by running or passing into the end zone again from 2 yards out.

Field goal, 3 pointsKick the ball between the goal posts at the back of the end zone.

Safety, 2 pointsRare: the defense scores by tackling the ball carrier in his own end zone.

Plays and downs

The game is a series of separate plays. Each starts with a snap, when the ball is passed back from the ground to start the action, and ends a few seconds later. Between the two teams, a game has about 130 to 160 plays, counting kicks.

The offense gets four tries, called downs, to gain 10 yards. If it gains them, it gets a new first down and four more tries for the next 10 yards. If it falls short after four tries, the ball goes to the other team where the last play ended. The spot where a play starts is the line of scrimmage. The spot the offense has to reach is the line to gain.

A first down at the offense's own 35-yard line. The blue line is where the play starts; the yellow line is the line to gain, 10 yards on. The charts on the episode pages use the same two colors.

Fans say a down as two numbers. "Third and 2" means third down, with 2 yards to go to the line to gain. When the line to gain would be past the goal line, the yards to go are the yards to the end zone, and the down is "goal to go," as in "first and goal."

One set of downs, 10 yards to gain. The gray bars are the first two plays, the yellow bar the one that crosses the line to gain and starts a new set. Had the third play fallen short, it would have been fourth and short, and the choice below.

On fourth down most teams do not use the last try. They punt, kicking the ball far down the field, or, when close enough, kick a field goal. Trying for the yards instead is called going for it. Whether coaches should do it more often is episode 5's argument, "Coaches are cowards on fourth down."

A play ends when the ball carrier is tackled to the ground or goes out of bounds, when a pass hits the ground without a catch, or when someone scores. Each play is one row in the data.

Sometimes the two teams switch roles in the middle of a play. The defense takes the ball, becomes the offense at once, and can run the other way with it before the play ends. These are turnovers, and there are three kinds.

InterceptionA defender catches a pass meant for the offense. The ball is his team's from that moment, and he can run it back until he is tackled, goes out of bounds, or reaches the end zone, which fans call a pick-six.

FumbleThe ball carrier loses the ball before he is down, and whoever picks it up keeps it. If a defender does, he can run it back the same way. The offense can recover its own fumble and carry on.

Turnover on downsThe offense goes for it on fourth down and falls short. The other team takes over right there, with no kick in between.

A pass of 21 yards, a return of 12, and the ball changes hands in one play. From week 1 of 2021, Arizona at Tennessee, as the data describes it: "1-K.Murray pass deep left intended for 86-D.Harris INTERCEPTED by 31-K.Byard at ARI 44. 31-K.Byard to ARI 32 for 12 yards." The kept columns do not flag a turnover, but the description does, and the next row's posteam is the other team.

A drive, start to finish

A drive is one team's run of plays with the ball, from where it gets it to where it gives it up or scores. Here are two made-up drives, play by play, with the ball's path on the field above each. The team starts at its own 25-yard line, where a kickoff usually leaves it, and moves to the right.

Each bar is one play, as long as the yards it gained. A yellow bar reached the line to gain and earned a new first down; a gray one did not. The dashed arrows are kicks. The play numbers match the tables below. On fourth and short a coach may go for it instead: make the yards and the drive goes on; fall short and the ball changes hands right there.

Drive A

Play	Down, distance, and spot	What happened	Result
1	1st and 10 at its own 25	A run gains 4 yards.	2nd and 6 at the 29.
2	2nd and 6 at the 29	A short pass gains 3.	3rd and 3 at the 32.
3	3rd and 3 at the 32	A run gains 5, past the line to gain.	First down at the 37.
4	1st and 10 at the 37	A pass gains 12.	First down at the 49.
5	1st and 10 at the 49	A run gains 2, across midfield.	2nd and 8 at the other team's 49.
6	2nd and 8 at the other team's 49	A pass falls incomplete.	3rd and 8, same spot.
7	3rd and 8 at the 49	A pass gains 4, short of the line to gain.	4th and 4 at the 45.
8	4th and 4 at the 45	Too far from the posts for a field goal, so the team punts.	The other team's offense takes over at its own 10.

Drive B

Play	Down, distance, and spot	What happened	Result
1	1st and 10 at its own 30	A pass gains 15.	First down at the 45.
2	1st and 10 at the 45	A run gains 6.	2nd and 4 at the other team's 49.
3	2nd and 4 at the 49	A pass gains 19.	First down at the 30.
4	1st and 10 at the 30	A run gains 1.	2nd and 9 at the 29.
5	2nd and 9 at the 29	A pass falls incomplete.	3rd and 9, same spot.
6	3rd and 9 at the 29	A run loses 1.	4th and 10 at the 30.
7	4th and 10 at the 30	A field goal try from the 30: 47 yards.	Made: 3 points, then a kickoff. Missed: the other team takes over at its own 37.

In the data a drive is just its rows in order, with the down, ydstogo, and yardline_100 columns moving from one row to the next. The agent never looks at a drive as a whole in episodes 1 and 2. It counts plays.

Runs and passes

Every play from the offense starts when the center, the player in the middle of the line, snaps the ball to the quarterback. Then the offense has two choices.

A run, or rushThe quarterback hands the ball to a teammate, usually a running back, who carries it forward. Or the quarterback keeps it and runs himself.

A passThe quarterback throws the ball forward to a teammate, who has to catch it before it touches the ground.

Episode 1 tested "You have to establish the run": the belief that a team that runs the ball a lot early in a game goes on to win. To measure it, the site uses rush share, a team's runs divided by its runs plus passes. A team that ran 30 times and passed 30 times has a rush share of 50 percent.

Where the quarterback stands

The quarterback takes the snap from one of two places. Under center, he stands right behind the center, hands under him, and the ball comes straight back into them. In the shotgun, he stands a few yards back and the ball is snapped to him through the air. The data has one column for this, named shotgun: 1 for shotgun and 0 otherwise. It is the only detail the data carries about where anyone lined up.

Under center

The quarterback takes the ball straight from the center's hands. shotgun is 0.

Shotgun

The ball flies back to the quarterback. shotgun is 1.

The tush push

A sneak with a shove. The data sees a run by the quarterback, under center, short to go. It cannot see the pushers.

With a yard or less to go, a team often calls a quarterback sneak. The quarterback takes the snap under center and pushes straight ahead behind the center.

The tush push is a sneak with teammates lined up behind the quarterback who push him forward. The Philadelphia Eagles made it famous, and fans also call it the brotherly shove, after Philadelphia's nickname, the City of Brotherly Love. In May 2025 the team owners voted on a proposal to ban it: 22 for and 10 against. A rule change needs 24 of the 32 votes, so the ban failed and the play stayed legal.

The play-by-play descriptions never name it, and that is episode 2's whole problem. The agent has to define the play from the columns it has: who carried the ball, the yards to go, shotgun or not, and the down. No column says who pushed. Five definitions shows which parts of a fan's definition the data can see.

Converting

A short-yardage play is one with a yard or two to go. On such a play, converted means the play gained the first down or scored a touchdown. The conversion rate is converted plays divided by plays, so 70 conversions in 100 plays is a rate of 70 percent.

To compare two groups of plays, the site subtracts one group's rate from the other's and calls the result the gap, in points. Here "points" means percentage points: a rate of 70 percent against a rate of 60 percent is a gap of 10 points. That is not a gap of 10 percent, since 10 is one sixth of 60.

The episode pages draw every comparison the same way. Here is episode 2's main one, read from its five-season sheet:

71.5%

81.6%

81.6% is the defined play, the tush push as the agent wrote it down, in 1,412 plays from 2021 through 2025. 71.5% is every other rush with one yard or less to go, 6,147 plays. The hatched band between them is the gap, 10.1 points. The scale runs from 0 to 100 percent, with a tick every 10.

Kicking

Episode 3 takes on "Kickers are too good now." Four kinds of kick come up.

Field goalThe ball is snapped to a holder kneeling about 7 yards behind the line of scrimmage, who sets it upright on the ground for the kicker. The distance runs from the spot of the kick to the goal posts at the back of the end zone, so with the line of scrimmage at the 30-yard line the kick is about 47 yards.

Extra pointAfter a touchdown, the same kind of kick with the snap from the 15-yard line, about 33 yards, for 1 point.

KickoffIt starts each half and follows every touchdown and field goal: one team kicks the ball off a tee, deep to the other, which catches it and runs it back.

PuntOn fourth down, the punter drops the ball and kicks it before it lands, to send it far down the field.

Where the distance comes from. The holder sets the ball 7 yards behind the line of scrimmage, and the posts stand at the back of the end zone, so a kick from the 30-yard line is a 47-yard field goal. The same arithmetic makes an extra point, snapped from the 15, a 33-yard kick.

The season

The NFL has 32 teams. Each plays 17 regular-season games over 18 weeks, with one week off, from September to early January. Then 14 teams, seven from each of the league's two conferences, play a knockout tournament, the playoffs, which ends with the Super Bowl in February. A season is named for the year it starts, so the 2025 season's Super Bowl was played in February 2026.

The season in weeks, as the week column counts them. Each team plays 17 of the 18 regular-season weeks and sits out one. The blue weeks are the playoff rounds, and the yellow one is the Super Bowl. The months are approximate: the season opens the week after Labor Day.

The site's data holds the seasons 2021 to 2025, all complete, and the 2026 season so far. The 2026 numbers change as games are played. The week column is the schedule week: 1 to 18 in the regular season, and 19 to 22 for the four rounds of the playoffs. The season_type column says regular season or playoffs, and the agent can filter on it.

Who is who

One common lineup at the snap, the offense moving up the page: 11 on each side. The yellow circle is the quarterback, under center here. The letters are the position names below. Most plays start from something like this, and the data records none of it beyond the shotgun column.

Offense

Quarterback (QB)Takes the snap, throws the passes, and runs the offense. The data has no position column, so the site treats the primary passer, the player with the most pass attempts for his team in that game, as the quarterback.

Running back (RB)Lines up behind the quarterback and carries the ball on most runs. Also catches short passes and blocks.

Wide receivers (WR)Line up wide, run down the field, and catch passes. Two or three are on the field for most plays.

Tight end (TE)Lines up beside the line. Part blocker, part receiver.

Offensive line (T, G, C)The five players at the front who block: two tackles outside, two guards inside, and the center in the middle, who snaps the ball. They never carry it.

Defense

Defensive line (DE, DT)The players across from the offensive line: defensive ends outside and defensive tackles inside. They push into the offense to stop runs at the line and to reach the quarterback before he throws, a sack.

Linebackers (LB)A few yards behind the line. They tackle runners who get through, cover short passes, and sometimes rush the quarterback too.

Cornerbacks (CB)Line up across from the wide receivers and follow them, to knock the pass away or catch it themselves, an interception.

Safeties (S)The deepest two, the last line against a long pass or a runner who breaks free. The word is also the name of a 2-point score, which is a different thing.

Defensive backsThe cornerbacks and safeties together. On a down where a pass is likely, a defense often swaps a linebacker or a lineman for a fifth defensive back, the nickel, or a sixth, the dime.

Special teams

The units on the field for kicks: kickoffs, punts, field goals, and extra points. They are mostly backups and specialists, and a game has 20 or so of their plays.

Kicker (K)Kicks field goals, extra points, and kickoffs. Episode 3's argument, "Kickers are too good now," is about this one player.

Punter (P)Punts on fourth down, and often holds for field goals.

Long snapper and holderThe long snapper sends the ball back about 7 yards for a kick and about 15 for a punt. The holder catches the snap and sets the ball upright for a field goal or an extra point.

ReturnerCatches a punt or a kickoff and runs it back up the field. He can also signal a fair catch, which ends the play where he catches it.

Coverage and blockingThe other players on a kick: on the kicking team they run down the field to tackle the returner, and on the receiving team they block for him.

Coaches and officials

Head coachRuns the team on game day and makes the big calls, among them whether to punt, kick a field goal, or go for it on fourth down.

Offensive coordinatorDesigns the offense and usually calls its plays, one at a time, into the quarterback's helmet radio before each snap. Some head coaches call the plays themselves.

Defensive coordinatorDesigns the defense and calls its plays the same way, choosing who is on the field and what each player covers or rushes.

Special teams coordinatorRuns the kicking units: who is on the field for each kick and what they do.

RefereeLeads the officials, who place the ball after each play, measure for first downs, and call penalties.

The data, in one row

The nflverse project publishes every NFL play as one row with 372 columns. Each episode keeps only the columns its question needs, 18 in episode 1 and 31 in episode 2, and none of the betting columns. Here is one real row from episode 2's file, with 17 of its 31 columns: the Eagles at the Kansas City Chiefs, week 2 of the 2025 regular season.

Column	Value	What it says
`season`	2025	The season, named for the year it started.
`season_type`	REG	Regular season, not playoffs.
`week`	2	The schedule week.
`home_team`	KC	The home team, the Chiefs.
`away_team`	PHI	The visiting team, the Eagles.
`posteam`	PHI	The team with the ball.
`qtr`	1	The first quarter.
`down`	3	Third down.
`ydstogo`	1	One yard to go: third and 1.
`yardline_100`	43	Yards from the end zone the offense is going for.
`shotgun`	0	Not shotgun: the quarterback was under center.
`play_type`	run	A run, not a pass.
`rusher_player_name`	J.Hurts	Who carried the ball: Jalen Hurts, the Eagles' quarterback.
`yards_gained`	2	Two yards, one more than he needed.
`first_down`	1	The play gained a first down, so it converted.
`touchdown`	0	No score.
`desc`	(3:44) 1-J.Hurts up the middle to KC 41 for 2 yards (35-J.Watson; 27-C.Conner).	The game clock, the player's jersey number and name, where he ran, where the ball ended up, and, in parentheses, the defenders who made the tackle.

Read across, the row says: third and 1 at the Chiefs' 43-yard line, the quarterback under center ran up the middle for 2 yards and a first down. That fits every clause of episode 2's definition. Nothing in the row says whether teammates pushed him.

Glossary

The words above, in one place, as this site uses them, grouped by topic and alphabetical inside each group. The episode pages have their own lists for the words each count uses.

The field and the clock

End zoneThe 10-yard area past each goal line. Getting the ball into it is a touchdown. The goal posts stand on its back line.

HalftimeThe break after the second quarter. Episode 1 uses the score at halftime as a filter.

Line of scrimmageThe spot where the ball sits before a play, and the line across the field that neither team may cross until the snap.

OvertimeExtra time when the score is tied after four quarters. A regular-season game can still end in a tie after it; a playoff game cannot.

Yard lineHow a spot on the field is named: the 25-yard line is 25 yards from the nearer goal line, so every number from 1 to 49 appears twice, once on each side of the 50. The yardline_100 column counts from the end zone the offense is going for.

Downs and plays

ConversionOn a short-yardage play, gaining the first down or scoring a touchdown. The conversion rate is converted plays divided by plays.

DownOne try. The offense gets four downs to gain 10 yards. The down column holds 1 to 4.

DriveOne team's run of plays with the ball, from where it got it to where it scored or gave it up.

First downThe first of a new set of four tries. A play that gains the yards to go earns one; the first_down column is 1 when it did.

Goal to goA down where the line to gain is the goal line itself, because it is closer than 10 yards. The goal_to_go column is 1.

Going for itUsing the fourth down to try for the yards instead of punting or kicking a field goal. Fall short and the other team takes the ball where the play ended.

Line to gainThe spot the offense has to reach for a new first down, 10 yards from where the current first down started, or the goal line when that is closer.

SnapThe start of every play: the center passes the ball back between his legs to the quarterback.

TurnoverThe offense loses the ball to the defense: a pass the defense catches (an interception), or a ball the carrier drops and the defense recovers (a fumble). Failing on fourth down is a turnover on downs.

Yards to goThe distance from the line of scrimmage to the line to gain. "Third and 2" is third down with 2 yards to go. The column is ydstogo.

Runs, passes, and where the quarterback stands

PassA forward throw by the quarterback to a teammate, who has to catch it before it touches the ground.

RushA run: a player carries the ball forward instead of throwing it.

ShotgunThe quarterback stands a few yards back and the ball is snapped to him through the air. In the data, shotgun is 1.

SneakWith a yard or less to go, the quarterback takes the snap under center and pushes straight ahead.

Tush pushA sneak with teammates behind the quarterback pushing him forward, also called the brotherly shove. The data never names it, so episode 2's agent defines it from the columns.

Under centerThe quarterback stands right behind the center and takes the ball from his hands. In the data, shotgun is 0.

Scoring and kicking

Extra pointThe 1-point kick after a touchdown, snapped from the 15-yard line, about 33 yards.

Field goalA kick between the goal posts at the back of the end zone. Worth 3 points. Its distance is the yards to the goal line, plus 7 for the spot of the kick, plus 10 for the end zone.

KickoffThe kick off a tee that starts each half and follows every score. The other team catches it and runs it back, and its drive starts where the runner is stopped.

PuntA kick on fourth down, dropped from the hands, that sends the ball far down the field to the other team.

Safety (the score)Two points for the defense, for tackling the ball carrier in his own end zone.

TouchdownThe ball carried into the end zone or caught there. Worth 6 points, plus a try for 1 or 2 more.

Two-point tryAfter a touchdown, one play from the 2-yard line instead of the kick. Reach the end zone and it is worth 2.

People

CoordinatorsThe three assistant coaches who run the offense, the defense, and the special teams, and usually call their plays.

CornerbackA defender who lines up across from a wide receiver and follows him on passes.

Defensive lineThe defenders across from the offensive line: ends outside, tackles inside. They stop runs at the line and rush the quarterback.

Head coachRuns the team and makes the fourth-down call.

LinebackerA defender a few yards behind the line, who tackles runners, covers short passes, and sometimes rushes.

Offensive lineThe five blockers at the front: two tackles, two guards, and the center, who snaps the ball.

Primary passerThe quarterback as the data can see him: the player with the most pass attempts for his team in that game. The data has no position column.

QuarterbackThe player who takes the snap, throws the passes, and runs the offense.

ReceiversThe players who catch passes: wide receivers, who line up wide, and tight ends, who line up beside the line and block too.

Running backThe player behind the quarterback who carries the ball on most runs.

Safety (the position)One of the two deepest defenders, the last line against a long pass or a runner who breaks free.

Special teamsThe units on the field for kicks: the kicker, the punter, the long snapper, the holder, the returner, and the players who cover or block.

The season and the data

PlayOne snap, from the ball's movement to the whistle. One row in the data, with its one-line description.

PlayoffsThe knockout tournament of 14 teams after the regular season, ending with the Super Bowl in February. In the data, season_type is POST.

Regular seasonThe 17 games each team plays over 18 weeks, September to early January. In the data, season_type is REG.

SeasonOne year of games, named for the year it starts. The site holds 2021 through 2025 complete, and 2026 as it is played.

WeekThe schedule week: 1 to 18 in the regular season, 19 to 22 in the playoffs.

Where to go next

The series page lists all eight arguments. Episode 1 tests "You have to establish the run," and episode 2 defines the tush push before it judges it. Every play comes from nflverse, published under a CC BY 4.0 license.