Shoutouts: Get ready for NFL Week 1 with read-option breakdowns

With the season about to get going, this week’s Shoutouts begin with a quick trip around some of Bleacher Report’s NFL coverage.

Mike Freeman admits he’s going out on a limb when he writes that Michael Vick and Ben Roethlisberger, two quarterbacks known for brashness, arrogance and recklessness, have changed for the better, and perhaps for good.

It’s dangerous territory to say two of the most polarizing players in all of sports have made a permanent change for the better. They fooled us once. Could it be happening again? By all indications, the change is sincere.

If you want to understand today’s NFL, you’d best know about the read-option offense. In a couple of X’s-and-O’s skull sessions, Matt Miller writes about why the NFL Just Isn’t Ready for Chip Kelly’s Read-Option Attack and Matt Bowen explains Why Stopping the Read-Option Isn’t as Easy as You Think, if you were thinking it’s easy.

Miller also checked in with his 2014 NFL Draft Stock Report, Preseason Edition.

A few Shoutouts in other sports:

Kelsey McCarson breaks down boxing’s middleweight division by asking, Is Curtis Stevens the Right Fight for Gennady Golovkin?

Joel Reuter predicts the winners of all the major MLB awards with a month to go in the season, but talks about more than just the winners, with five players on each slide of the slideshow.

And for a look at How Top 2014 Draft Prospects Can Change a Franchise’s Future in the NBA, Adam Fromal has you covered.