Real Madrid would be willing to let Gareth Bale leave this summer to go to China for free, as they look to unblock a tense situation at the Bernabeu, a source at the club has told ESPN FC.

Zinedine Zidane said on Sunday it would be "best for everyone" if the Wales international left "soon," to which the player's agent Jonathan Barnett responded by calling the Frenchman "a disgrace" -- adding: "If and when Gareth goes, it will be because it is in the best interest of Gareth and nothing to do with Zidane pushing."

- International Champions Cup: All you need to know
- Full International Champions Cup daily fixture schedule
- ICC: News and coverage

To resolve the issue, Madrid are willing to tear up the remaining three years of Bale's contract if he moves to China as a last resort because no European team has made any offer to sign the 30-year-old this summer, the club source said.

Jiangsu Suning and Beijing Guoan are the Chinese clubs reportedly interested in matching Bale's €17 million-a-season net wages -- and getting him off the payroll now would mean a saving for Madrid of around €100m over the next three years.

Barnett would not comment to ESPN FC on whether his client would be open to a move to China. Bale did not feature in the match squad as Madrid began their International Champions Cup schedule with a 3-1 defeat to Bayern Munich in Houston on Saturday.

The Madrid source told ESPN FC that the player had asked not to play while his exit was being managed, and Zidane was "tired" of Bale's behaviour as he had "not focused on anything" during the team's time in North America so far. However, Barnett denied to ESPN FC that a request had been made to sit out the ICC game.

Reports in the media that Bale could move to Paris Saint-Germain as part of a swap deal for Neymar are not being taken seriously at the Bernabeu, the Madrid source said.

Jiangsu Suning are owned by Chinese billionaire Zhang Jindong, whose Suning Sports holding group purchased a majority stake in Inter Milan in 2016.

"I have a lot of respect for [Carlos] Vela," Zlatan Ibrahimovic said after scoring a hat trick and leading the Galaxy to a win over LAFC on Friday. "He's a good player but you made one mistake: You compared him with me. That was your biggest mistake. I believe in myself. People call it arrogant, I call it confidence. Ignorant people call it arrogant, intelligent people call it confidence."

Here at the Power Rankings, we also believe in ourselves. Our rankings are perfect and unimpeachable. Don't compare us to other rankings. That would be a big mistake.

Ignorant people would call it arrogance, but intelligent people know it's confidence. It's ranking time.

Previous rankings: Week 19 | Week 18 | Week 17 | Week 16 | Week 15 | Week 14 | Week 13 | Week 12 | Week 11 | Week 10 | Week 9 | Week 8 | Week 7 | Week 6 | Week 5 | Week 4 | Week 3 | Week 2 | Week 1

1. LAFC (14 wins, 4 draws, 3 losses)

Previous ranking: 1

Next MLS match: Friday vs. Atlanta (10 p.m. ET on ESPN, ESPN Deportes)

Welp. Last week, the narrative was that LAFC was an unstoppable juggernaut charging toward a double haul of trophies on the back of a record-breaking attack led by Vela. This week, the narrative is that LAFC can't win big games and might be in store for a playoff meltdown. El Trafico caused some whiplash.

2. San Jose Earthquakes (10-4-7)

Previous ranking: 3

Next MLS match: Saturday vs. Colorado (10 p.m. ET on ESPN+)

The "New Almeydians" won again, picking up their fifth victory in their last six games. The stats on the Quakes' bombardment of their last two opponents, at LA and Vancouver, is stunning: 32 shots in each game for a two-game combined total of 64. The Galaxy and Whitecaps? They managed 11 shots combined.

3. Philadelphia Union (11-6-6)

Previous ranking: 2

Next MLS match: Saturday at Montreal (8 p.m. ET on ESPN+)

One thing the Union haven't really had during their run and stay at the top of the Eastern Conference is big goals from Marco Fabian. The Mexican DP scored an absolute banger in the win over Chicago on Saturday; if he can do that regularly, it could carry Philly through the balance of the season.

4. New York City FC (8-8-3)

Previous ranking: 4

Next MLS match: Friday vs. Sporting KC (7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN+)

Winning in Colorado is never easy, even when the Rapids are bad and have a man sent off. NYCFC did what was necessary to secure three road points this weekend and can still point to having several games in hand as a reason to believe that big move up the table is still in the offing.

5. Minnesota United (10-4-7)

Previous ranking: 5

Next MLS match: Saturday vs. Vancouver Whitecaps (8 p.m. ET on ESPN+)

A draw in Utah slowed the Loons down a bit, but they remain in impressive flight with a five-game unbeaten streak. Other teams in playoff contention have found the going tough at Rio Tinto and no one in MLS -- much less Minnesota United, striving for a first-ever playoff spot -- will look a road point in the mouth.

6. Atlanta United (11-3-8)

Previous ranking: 11

Next MLS match: Friday at LAFC (10 p.m. ET on ESPN, ESPN Deportes)

It was a very good week for the Five Stripes and not just because they picked up six points and pulled into second place. Sunday's win over DC United featured something rarely seen in 2019: a good game from Pity Martinez. A goal and an assist as a sub against DC might be the spark that lights the fire that changes everything.

7. New England Revolution (8-6-8)

Previous ranking: 6

Next MLS match: Saturday vs. Orlando (7 p.m. ET on ESPN+)

The Revs ran through the Whitecaps 4-0 in midweek and FC Cincinnati 2-0 on Sunday, extending the post-coaching-change unbeaten run to 10 in the process. Bruce Arena himself is 5-2-0 as New England's boss, taking 17 of a possible 21 points during the stretch. Never doubt The Bruce.

8. LA Galaxy (12-1-8)

Previous ranking: 9

Next MLS match: Saturday at Portland (10:30 p.m. ET)

An admission: Your humble neighborhood power ranker fell victim to one of the classic blunders ahead of the season's first El Trafico. The most well known is "Never get involved in a land war in Asia," but only slightly less well known is "never bet against Zlatan when bragging rights are on the line."

9. Seattle Sounders (10-5-6)

Previous ranking: 7

Next MLS match: Sunday at Houston (8 p.m. ET on ESPN+)

There can't really be any takeaways from the Sounders' home loss to the Timbers. Seattle got beat, but the nature of the rivalry -- physical, ugly and stretching the definition of "soccer" -- makes it tough to draw any conclusions. A couple of misses changed the game.

10. FC Dallas (9-5-8)

Previous ranking: 8

Next MLS match: Saturday vs. Real Salt Lake (8 p.m. ET on ESPN+)

Based on what we know so far, FC Dallas figures to be fighting tooth-and-nail with a handful of other teams in the West for one of the final few playoff spots. That's why wins like this past Saturday's, on the road over Sporting Kansas City, are so important. The time of playoff six-pointers is practically here and next week's tilt against RSL will have that feel.

11. New York Red Bulls (10-4-8)

Previous ranking: 10

Next MLS match: Saturday vs. Columbus (8:30 p.m. ET on ESPN+)

The Red Bulls lost a frustrating game in Toronto in midweek and bounced back with a narrow road win over Orlando on Sunday. Amid the rumors that European clubs are eyeing Aaron Long and the continuing struggles of juggling a busy schedule, the three points in Florida feel big.

12. Portland Timbers (8-4-8)

Previous ranking: 15

Next MLS match: Saturday vs. LA Galaxy (10:30 p.m. ET)

Cascadia belongs to the Timbers. At least for now and thanks to Brian Fernandez. The Argentine rides a fine line between disruptive and irresponsible, but he also scores goals. The two Fernandez scored at CenturyLink Field to lead the Timbers to a win were his seventh and eighth goals in nine games.

13. D.C. United (9-8-6)

Previous ranking: 12

Next MLS match: Saturday at Chicago (8 p.m. ET on ESPN+)

United won in Cincinnati in midweek, but decide to give Wayne Rooney a rest in Sunday's match against Atlanta. The loss against the champs brought about an event that seemed a long time coming: the Black & Red dropping out of second place in the Eastern Conference.

14. Colorado Rapids (5-5-11)

Previous ranking: 13

Next MLS match: Saturday at San Jose (10 p.m. ET on ESPN+)

Someone hit the brakes on the Rapids after a seven-game unbeaten run that gave them a tiny bit of hope that they could salvage their season. Now winless in three (a draw in Portland was a decent result), reality has settled back in, embodied by the strange debut of teenager Sebastian Anderson, who scored a goal and received a straight red in the first 33 minutes.

15. Real Salt Lake (9-3-9)

Previous ranking: 17

Next MLS match: Saturday at FC Dallas (8 p.m. ET on ESPN+)

RSL followed an impressive win over Philadelphia last week with 1-1 draw against Minnesota this past Saturday. The vagaries of MLS -- what came easily last week was difficult this week -- hit Real Salt Lake harder than most teams. The margins are small each and every time they step on the field.

16. Montreal Impact (9-3-11)

Previous ranking: 14

Next MLS match: Saturday vs. Philadelphia (8 p.m. ET on ESPN+)

Playing patsy to the Crew is a bad look these days. Even with the Impact near the top of the Eastern Conference standings, it was hard not to think they were a poor team masquerading as a contender. Saturday's loss sent them tumbling down the standings. Don't expect them to climb back up.

17. Orlando City (7-5-10)

Previous ranking: 16

Next MLS match: Saturday at New England (7 p.m. ET on ESPN+)

The Lions ground out a road result in Portland on Wednesday, then fell to the Red Bulls back in Orlando on Sunday. The latter was just cruel: Orlando City hit the woodwork three different times while chasing the game in the second half. Orlando continues to cycle through wins, losses and draws just enough to stay mired outside of the playoffs spots.

18. Houston Dynamo (9-3-9)

Previous ranking: 18

Next MLS match: Saturday vs. Seattle (8 p.m. ET on ESPN+)

The Dynamo broke an eight-game road losing streak with a win at BMO Field thanks in part to some lineup rotation by the Reds. No one in orange will care much for the hows and whys of the victory; just getting on the right side of the ledger was crucial following a period of six losses in seven games.

19. Toronto FC (8-5-9)

Previous ranking: 20

Next MLS match: Saturday vs. FC Cincinnati (8 p.m. ET on ESPN+)

Greg Vanney's team scored an Eastern Conference win on Wednesday against New York, but dropped three points at home to the Dynamo. The Reds haven't been out of second gear all season and it's almost starting to look like they don't have a higher one to shift to.

20. Sporting Kansas City (6-7-8)

Previous ranking: 19

Next MLS match: Friday at NYCFC (7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN+)

A picture says a thousand words, like Seth Sinovic's hand-to-head moment when his pass back to Gianluca Busio missed the midfielder and ended up allowing Michael Barrios to set up Dominique Badji for FC Dallas's first goal Saturday. Most of the words said by that picture are of the four-letter variety.

21. Chicago Fire (5-8-10)

Previous ranking: 21

Next MLS match: Saturday vs. DC United (8 p.m. ET on ESPN+)

The Fire played in a sauna in Chester and fell to the Union 2-0. Dax McCarty and Nicolas Gaitan missed out, a circumstance that certainly hurt Chicago but saved the two veterans from playing in the greenhouse. Did we mention that it was really hot in Chester?

22. FC Cincinnati (5-2-15)

Previous ranking: 23

Next MLS match: Saturday at Toronto FC (8 p.m. ET on ESPN+)

Last week in this space, we gave FC Cincinnati credit for putting together its second winning streak of the year and wondered if the team could extend it to season-best three games. This week, we must sadly report that FC Cincinnati is back on a losing streak. Ouch.

23. Columbus Crew (6-3-14)

Previous ranking: 24

Next MLS match: Saturday at Red Bulls (8:30 p.m. ET on ESPN+)

An unbeaten two-game week for the Crew is something to celebrate in Columbus, with a weekend win over Montreal breaking an epic winless run. The last time Columbus won a game, bread was 89 cents a loaf and Ace of Base topped the charts. It feels like it, anyway.

24. Vancouver Whitecaps (4-8-11)

Previous ranking: 22

Next MLS match: Saturday at Minnesota (8 p.m. ET on ESPN+)

The 'Caps are still looking for answers in the middle of a tough stretch of games coming one on top of the next. Marc Dos Santos summed it up after Saturday's loss to San Jose by saying, "Right now, we're in a bad moment." Marc Dos Santos is prone to understatement.

The Pakistan Cricket Board has invited Sri Lanka to play their upcoming two-match Test series in Pakistan. Pakistan are due to host Sri Lanka for two Tests later this year, and by default, the matches were scheduled in the UAE, where Pakistan have played almost all "home" Test matches since the terror attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in March 2009. Sri Lanka Cricket, ESPNcricinfo understands, has not dismissed the proposal out of hand, and appear to have consented to a security assessment.

This is the first Test series for both sides in the upcoming Test Championship, with the result of each Test netting points towards the rankings.

PCB confirmed the boards had engaged on the sidelines of the recently concluded ICC annual conference in London. Though both boards have been in discussion since the Asia Cup meeting in Singapore, the invitation was only formally extended last week. The series is slotted for October, and while it is still most likely to be played in the UAE, Sri Lanka will only take a decision after they send a security delegation to inspect security plans in Lahore and Karachi.

If the series is played in Pakistan, it will mark the first Test played in the country since the attack in Lahore in 2009, where gunmen ambushed the Sri Lankan team bus in a deadly terrorist strike. Eight people were killed and a few Sri Lanka players were injured. The incident effectively isolated Pakistan as a cricketing destination, with no international cricket held in the country for six years. Over the past four years, some cricket has trickled back, though the prospect of holding a Test match has always appeared very distant.

With teams refusing to tour Pakistan in the aftermath of the attack, the board was forced to adopt UAE as its home venue for international cricket, as well as for the Pakistan Super League. Besides two Tests held in England against Australia in 2010, every Pakistan home Test has been played in the UAE, invariably to nearly empty stadiums.

In 2015, Zimbabwe became the first Full Member to tour Pakistan since 2009, with a limited-overs series held in Lahore. Despite extensive security measures, a bomb blast occurred 800m away from the Gaddafi Stadium during the second ODI, killing two people. Zimbabwe stayed on and finished the series two days later, but the tour did not lead to a change in the perceptions about security in Pakistan.

ALSO READ: PCB hoping to convince England, Australia to tour Pakistan

It was two years before a similarly high-profile match would occur in Pakistan. That was the Pakistan Super League final in March 2017 at the Gaddafi Stadium. This was followed by a successful tour of the World XI for three T20Is in September, which saw a number of high-profile cricketers turn up. The World XI side was coached by Andy Flower and included five players from South Africa - including Faf du Plessis and Hashim Amla - three from Australia, two from West Indies and one player each from England, Bangladesh, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. The matches received official T20I status from the ICC, who also hired independent experts to oversee security arrangements. Players were offered USD100,000 to play the series, which spanned five days.

Sri Lanka's T20I squad then toured Pakistan for one match in 2017, though several regular players stayed away. Sri Lanka's then T20I captain, Upul Tharanga, pulled out, along with Lasith Malinga, Niroshan Dickwella, Suranga Lakmal and Akila Dananjaya. The team was captained by Thisara Perera while SLC president Thilanga Sumathipala and sports minister Dayasiri Jayasekara accompanied the side to Lahore. The brief tour became a major stepping stone and paved the way for PCB to convince teams to play more international cricket in Pakistan.

The Zimbabwe women's team have become the first to feel the full brunt of the ICC's suspension of Zimbabwe Cricket. Four players - and a coach - selected for the Women's Global Development Squad have been barred from travelling to England to take part in a series of T20 games against Kia Super League teams at the end of July.

Zimbabwe women's captain Mary-Anne Musonda and squad members Anesu Mushangwe, Tasmeen Granger, and Sharne Mayers were all due to take part in the series, while coach Adam Chifo was to have accompanied them to gain vital experience. All five of them have been blocked from participating.

"As I'm sure you are aware, the ICC Board has taken the decision to suspend Zimbabwe Cricket with immediate effect and place a restriction on the Zimbabwe national team participating in ICC events," ICC Women's Cricket manager Holly Colvin wrote in an email to Chifo.

"Unfortunately this also extends to their participation in the Women's Global Development Squad program, and so it is with great regret that I write to inform you that Adam as Head Coach and the four Zimbabwe players will no longer be able to take part in the UK edition of the tour next week," Colvin wrote.

While at least one member of the men's squad, allrounder Solomon Mire, has already announced his international retirement, Zimbabwe's women cricketers have been hit particularly hard by the fallout between the Sports and Recreation Commission and Zimbabwe Cricket, and the resultant suspension of Zimbabwe by the ICC.

As soon as the SRC stepped in to dissolve the ZC board in June, claiming electoral irregularities - amid various other allegations against ZC - the ICC moved to freeze all funding to Zimbabwe. That meant that no contracted players would be paid match fees or salaries, and also that the Zimbabwe women's tour to Ireland and the Netherlands, which was supposed to have run concurrently with the men's tour, was cancelled at the last minute.

The suspension also means that Zimbabwean representative teams will not be able to take part in any ICC events. The women's squad had been scheduled to travel to Scotland for the Women's T20 World Cup Qualifiers at the end of August, having gained entry to the event by winning the Africa Region qualifying tournament in May.

Several squad members took to social media to voice their despair at the unfolding events:

"Was broken after the @ICC ruling last Thursday," wrote allrounder Granger.

"I'm gutted," wrote captain Musonda. "This is wrong and unjust. We can't be the team that almost made it. No! Do the right thing. We are bleeding to death. You are watching."

"My heart bleeds as I have watched these ladies work hard for this," wrote ZC Women's Cricket Coordinator Samu Nkiwane. "The determination, sacrifices, hard work, team spirit and achievements so far, for them not to go to the Global Qualifiers?"

"This might not mean anything to others but it means a lot to us and Women in general...This is our life..this is our game..we have invested years and years into this...why now should we be denied a chance to qualify for the WORLD CUP and emulate what the Zim Gems have done!!! Why are women not taken seriously in anything?" wrote former national player and assistant coach Sinikiwe Mpofu.

"After all the hard work we cannot suffer like this, our hearts are bleeding and nothing is being done," wrote national squad member Nomatter Mutasa.

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. -- Atlanta Falcons coach Dan Quinn expressed support for DJ Durkin, the former Maryland coach who was placed on leave following the practice-related death of Terrapins player Jordan McNair and subsequently fired.

Durkin was one of four coaches announced as assistants for training camp. Lance Schulters, Jamel Mutunga and Tracy Zimmer were added as Bill Walsh Coaching Fellows, while Durkin was announced as a guest coach for the camp.

Of the Maryland tragedy, Quinn said, "Unfortunate situation, of course.''

When pressed on why he added Durkin considering the controversy at Maryland, Quinn stood his ground.

"I hope people would understand, and people know me well enough, that nothing is more important than team,'' Quinn said. "The fact that I know this coach firsthand, I know what his character is, and then the due diligence that goes with that, I would certainly hope that anyone covering the team or the fan base knows that I always have the team's best interest in mind and would never put anybody in a space that would be otherwise.

"That said, it's not that unusual for me to have people come to be a part of our program and add value to it for a smaller period of time. I've done it before, and I'll do it again in the future."

Quinn started off Monday's post-practice news conference by addressing the Durkin story, even before recapping the first day of training camp.

"I know DJ firsthand, about what he is as a coach,'' Quinn said. "I've coached with him. And I know what his character is. We did all of our due diligence of calling everybody at Maryland and had our own follow-up to there. So what I would know is in the past, we've had Ron Wolf come to help me with another set of eyes. Last year, Darrell Bevell coming into the same role.

"I think it's a huge advantage that you can have somebody of respect and can look at some certain things to help your team in the evaluation.''

Durkin spent five years at Florida, working two seasons (2011-12) on Quinn's defensive staff.

Quinn said he has no reservations because he is familiar with Durkin's character and understands his value as a defensive and special-teams coach.

Durkin is bringing 14 years of coaching experience to the Falcons training camp including three seasons as the head coach at Maryland. Durkin was the defensive coordinator/linebackers coach for Michigan in 2015. That season the Wolverines' defense only allowed 16.4 points per game, which was sixth in the FBS.

Odell Beckham Jr. revealed in a new GQ cover story that he felt "disrespected" by the New York Giants when they traded him to the Cleveland Browns earlier this offseason and that things got so bad at times the past few years that he had contemplated stepping away from the game.

The wide-ranging interview covered Beckham's happiness (he says he's happier now than ever), his musical taste, rumors about his being gay (he said he found it humorous, adding, "I have no problem with anyone's sexual orientation"), his hair, The Catch, the trade and the Giants.

Beckham was drafted by the Giants in the first round in 2014. He became a superstar and record-smashing receiver in New York before he was traded in March.

"My initial reaction was not disappointment. ... I felt disrespected. Like, after everything I've done for them," Beckham said in the interview. "This is me being honest: This team has not been good for the last six years. Period. Even the year we went to the playoffs and everyone was talking about this and that. And we went there, and I didn't have a great playoff game. Don't get me wrong, I had a terrible game. But I left the game with seven targets, and I'm supposed to be your number one receiver. I left the game with seven targets. We lost. They scored 40 points. It's just all bad.

"I felt disrespected, because I felt like I was a main reason at keeping that brand alive. They were getting prime-time games, still, as a 5-and-11 team. Why? Because people want to see the show. You want to see me play. That's just real rap. I'm not sitting here like, 'It's because of me.' But let's just be real. That's why we're still getting prime-time games. I felt disrespected they weren't even man enough to even sit me down to my face and tell me what's going on."

Beckham's anger was directed at general manager Dave Gettleman and coach Pat Shurmur. Gettleman famously said on multiple occasions that the Giants didn't sign Beckham to trade him. Shurmur has said that the trade wasn't personal but instead a football decision.

Neither seems to be at the top of Beckham's Christmas card list, although his relationship with co-owner John Mara seems much more amicable post-trade.

"I'll forever have respect for [Giants president and CEO] Mr. Mara. Everything he's ever done for me, he's shown nothing but love," Beckham said. "Even when we were having our talks, it was coming from a place of love. I could always feel it. So I'll forever have respect for him.

"But then to be called like that and then be texted by your coach and be like, 'Oh, yeah, I heard the news.' Yeah, you heard the news? It happened because of you. The reason I'm gone is because of you. It was just tough because of the way I initially felt. On the other side of it, I was excited about a new start because I had been ... honestly, I had been praying to God the season before this season for a change."

Beckham said there were times last season when he was pacing up and down the sideline asking, "Why did you sign me?" He signed a then-record five-year extension potentially worth $95 million before the season.

The Giants finished 5-11 and he missed the final four games of the season with a leg injury. It was the final chapter of a rocky five-year run in New York that included memorable and questionable moments, like his one-handed catch during his rookie year against the Dallas Cowboys, and celebrating by pretending to pee on the field in Philadelphia during the 2017 season.

The spotlight in the big city was on Beckham from the moment he arrived. It took on new levels with the catch and his on-field scuffle with cornerback Josh Norman.

The intense scrutiny sometimes got the best of Beckham. Football was becoming a business, not a game. That was what he was hoping to avoid, he said, but it forced him to contemplate retirement and think about how life would be different had he chosen a different sport.

"All the time, bro. Literally every day. Especially on those days I'm down," Beckham said. "I could've done any sport in the world. Not many people know, but I used to talk to my momma and I'd be like, 'Ma, if I was done doing this now, would you still be proud of me?' And this was a couple of years ago, about two or three years ago."

Beckham was setting records two or three years ago. He had the most receptions and second-most receiving yards in NFL history through 50 career games.

Still, it was a roller coaster he contemplated disembarking.

"Twenty-four years old. Just off it. To love something so much to a place where it is my everything, and to watch it be tainted, or all kinds of things be in the middle of it. Like, it hurt me to my soul," Beckham said. "It be like loving someone and putting them on such a level to where life is about them and you love that person through anything. Through the good, the bad. And to watch them do something so heinous and vulgar. Something just so, like, almost unforgivable. You still love them, but it's, like, wow."

An NFL season lasts only 16 games, but in terms of our memories, it seems to be the only football we can possibly remember. Both fans and analysts alike are subject to recency bias, in which we treat the most recent information we have as the most important information in understanding and projecting a complex game. The NFL moves quickly and has an impossibly high attrition rate. It's easy to forget what happened years ago.

In most cases, though, we can look through history to get a sense of what's likely to reoccur from season to season. What happened in 2018 will stay in the record books forever, but there will be plenty of elements and stories from 2018 that won't happen again in 2019, even if it seems as if the circumstances or the talents involved are staying the same.

Let's run through a few of those 2018 stories which might seem likely to reoccur in 2019 and detail why they're not likely to happen again:

Jump to a team:
BAL | CHI | DAL
KC | LAC | NE | SF

Don't be surprised if ... Amari Cooper's touchdowns dry up

It's hard to argue against the idea that Cooper transformed the Cowboys in 2018. After Dallas sent a first-round pick to the Raiders to acquire the former Alabama star, Cooper turned around both his own season and his new team. Dallas won seven of its final eight games with Cooper in the lineup, and the star wideout clearly made the difference in two crucial divisional victories. Cooper went off for 180 yards and two touchdowns in a 31-23 win over Washington and topped that with a 213-yard, three-score effort against the Eagles in a 29-23 overtime victory two weeks later. It's a trade the Cowboys clearly won't regret anytime soon.

Cooper racked up 53 catches on 76 targets for 725 yards and six touchdowns over nine games with the Cowboys. Those numbers were good for 105.6 fantasy points, which was seventh in the league over that stretch and ahead of stars like Michael Thomas and Mike Evans. It was a major leap on Cooper's prior nine games with the Raiders, which had produced 28 catches for 461 yards and three touchdowns. Is this the new normal for him?

At the very least, it's fair to figure his touchdown rate will decline. Cooper scored seven touchdowns in nine games with the Cowboys, which prorates to 12.5 scores over a 16-game season. In Oakland, Cooper scored only 19 times in 52 games, for a prorated figure of just under six scores per 16 contests. In an offense in which Ezekiel Elliott will gobble up red zone touches, it's difficult to see Cooper topping 12 touchdowns over a full season.

Some of Cooper's scores came on big plays which might not be repeatable. He scored a 90-yard touchdown on a play in which he was surrounded after the catch by three Washington defensive backs who inexplicably failed to make a tackle. Cooper's three-score game against a banged-up Eagles secondary included a 75-yard score in which safety Corey Graham appeared to lose the ball in the lights. Those plays still count in the record books, of course, but fans expecting multiple games approaching 200 yards with multiple touchdowns might be disappointed by Cooper in 2019.

Don't be surprised if ... the 49ers improve with (or without) Jimmy Garoppolo

A trendy pick to make the postseason this time last year after going 5-0 with Garoppolo as their starter in 2017, the 49ers started 1-1 before Garoppolo tore his ACL in the middle of a loss to the Chiefs. Kyle Shanahan's team proceeded to lose eight of its next nine games and eventually finished with the league's second-worst record at 4-12. It's unclear whether the 49ers would have made it into the playoffs in a division in which the Rams and Seahawks were both impressive, but once Garoppolo went down, the Niners had no hope.

I mentioned the injury concerns surrounding Garoppolo when I profiled the former Patriots backup last August, and last season did little to quell the biggest question for him. Garoppolo lasted two starts filling in for Tom Brady in 2016 before going down because of a serious sprain of the AC joint in his shoulder. We still haven't seen the 27-year-old make even six starts in a row without getting injured. Health is a skill, and until Garoppolo actually plays a full 16-game season, the 49ers can't count on him for 16 games at a time.

The good news is that Jimmy G will almost surely make it through more than three games this season. I also don't think the 49ers will be doomed in 2019 if they lose their starting quarterback again. For one, they have one of the league's more promising backups in Nick Mullens, who held his own after taking over for C.J. Beathard last season. These stats can't possibly tell the whole story between these two quarterbacks, but it is fair to note that Mullens basically impersonated Garoppolo's performance in the Shanahan offense when you look at their respective numbers in San Francisco:

San Francisco's issues had much more to do with the rest of the team than it did with the play of its quarterback in 2018. For one, the famed Shanahan rushing attack ranked 32nd in rushing DVOA. While Matt Breida posted a superficially impressive 5.3 yards per carry while playing on an ankle that seemed to re-sprain itself several times per game, his inconsistency meant the second-year back was just 30th in the league in success rate. The 49ers gave 177 less impressive carries to Alfred Morris and Jeff Wilson and fumbled a league-high 31 times. With a healthier Breida supplemented by Tevin Coleman and Jerick McKinnon, the 49ers should have more talented runners touching the football in 2019.

San Francisco's defense ranked 27th against the pass by DVOA, but the key number here is two. The 49ers had two interceptions in 2018, and if you find that impossible, I would urge you to look it up. Antone Exum took a Philip Rivers pass to the house in Week 4, and Jaquiski Tartt intercepted Josh Rosen four weeks later. Unsurprisingly, the 49ers set an NFL record for the fewest intercepted passes in one season. The weight of every other team in NFL history suggests that the 49ers will pick off more passes this season.

This should also be a much-improved pass rush after adding Dee Ford and second overall pick Nick Bosa on the edge to replace the likes of Cassius Marsh and Arik Armstead. The 49ers already have an interior pass-rushing star in DeForest Buckner, who had 12 sacks and 20 knockdowns a year ago, and while they haven't been overwhelmed by the production of former first-round picks Armstead and Solomon Thomas, this is suddenly a deep defensive line. There are questions about the secondary, but this should be a much-improved pass defense at multiple levels.

Is the ceiling for the 49ers higher with a full season from the quarterback they signed to a five-year, $137.5 million deal last February? Of course. It would be naive to pretend otherwise. Once Garoppolo went down last season, though, the 49ers weren't good enough in the other elements of the game to stay afloat. This year, some regression toward the mean and improvements on both sides of the ball should raise the floor of their performance.

Don't be surprised if ... the Bears' takeaway rate nosedives

When I wrote last summer about how the Bears were one of the league's most likely teams to improve, I mentioned that a key driver of their improvement was likely to be their interception rate. In 2017, they ranked 14th in defensive DVOA while posting the league's fourth-worst interception rate. Kyle Fuller & Co. racked up only eight interceptions on 529 pass attempts for a Tom Brady-esque pick rate of 1.5%.

In 2018, Chicago returned a virtually identical secondary, with the same five starters who lined up for coordinator Vic Fangio the previous season. With an improved pass rush thanks to the arrival of Khalil Mack, the Bears promptly picked off 27 passes on 615 attempts, with their 4.4% interception rate nearly tripling their prior mark. Fuller, who had six interceptions across his first three seasons as a pro, nearly topped the team's mark from the prior season with seven.

The Bears comfortably led the league in interception rate and total picks; after their 27, the only other team to top 18 picks was the Dolphins at 21. Unsurprisingly, the Bears also led the league in total takeaways with 36, five more than any other team. This offseason, Chicago lost Fangio and slot corner Bryce Callahan to the Broncos, and safety Adrian Amos to the divisional rival Packers, but with most of their core returning, the Bears might reasonably expect to be a takeaway machine on defense in 2019.

I think they will still be good on defense, of course, but it's tough to see them topping 30 takeaways for the second consecutive season. There's not a strong year-to-year relationship for interception rate, and interceptions on the whole continue to decline. No team has posted an interception rate of 4% or more in back-to-back seasons since the Packers in 2010-11. That was only eight years ago, but from 2011 to 2018, the league's interception rate fell from 2.9% to 2.4%.

Take a look at the breakout defense of 2017 for a recent example. The Jaguars led the league with an interception rate of 4.1% and returned the same secondary (minus nickelback Aaron Colvin) for another season, but managed to pick off only 2.2% of opposing passes in 2018. The Jags fell from second in takeaways to 22nd. Jacksonville still had an effective defense -- it finished sixth in defensive DVOA -- but the flood of takeaways wasn't there.

In Vegas, the Caesars sportsbook posted a prop bet for the Bears' defense in 2019 and set the over/under on their takeaway total at 26. That would still rank among the likely league leaders, even given that it would be a drop of 10 takeaways from Chicago's mark of 2018.

If we're looking for a team that might lead the league in interception rate in 2019, I would look for opportunistic defenses that ranked in the middle of the pack a year ago and point toward the Vikings (15th in interception rate), Chargers (16th), and even the aforementioned Jaguars (18th) as potential candidates.

Don't be surprised if ... Patrick Mahomes is better on deep balls

The most exciting moment in any given week of the NFL season was Mahomes looking downfield and firing. The second-year quarterback produced a stunning debut campaign as the Chiefs' starter, as the league MVP became the second member of the 5,000-50 club with 5,097 passing yards and 50 passing touchdowns in a single season.

Typically, this would be the moment where I'd point out how unlikely it is for any quarterback to produce those numbers in a single season. It's fair to say Mahomes probably won't make it back to the 5,000-50 club again in 2019, if only because a lot has to go right for any passer to make it there in a given year.

In terms of deep passes, though, Mahomes left a fair number of big-play opportunities on the table. The first half of the regular-season loss to the Patriots comes to mind as a place where Mahomes narrowly missed scores. He more than made up for the misses, of course, but it's scary to say that there might even be more chances for him to make magic happen in 2019.

The NFL's Next-Gen Stats define deep passes as throws traveling 20 or more yards in the air and open targets as receivers with three or more yards of separation between themselves and the closest defender. Mahomes attempted 28 deep passes to open receivers last season, 11 more than anybody else in football. He completed 14 of those passes for an even 50%; the rest of the league completed just over 62% of those same throws. Next-Gen Stats also estimates the likelihood of Mahomes completing each of those attempts and projected a completion percentage of 59.3% on those passes, much closer to the league average than his actual mark.

Chances are that Mahomes won't have quite as many receivers running totally free in the secondary as he did in 2018, but given how talented the brilliant Texas Tech product looked last season, I wouldn't be surprised if he was more efficient when those receivers do come free in 2019.

Don't be surprised if ... Sony Michel breaks out

The Patriots rarely commit meaningful resources to running backs, so it was a surprise when they used one of their first-round picks in 2018 to draft Michel out of Georgia. His debut season in the NFL was about what we would have expected, mixing efficient production with a knee injury and ending with a Super Bowl victory. Michel missed three games and a huge chunk of a fourth with knee issues, but he racked up 931 yards and six touchdowns during the regular season and then added 336 yards with six more scores during the postseason.

There was one thing missing from Michel's profile, though. The 24-year-old posted the league's 11th-best success rate, but he averaged only 4.5 yards per carry, which was 29th among qualifying backs. When you have a back who posts a high success rate with a modest yards per carry figure, that back typically isn't making many big plays. Indeed, on 209 carries, Michel had only four runs of 20 yards or more, and no run of longer than 40 yards.

To put that in context, I went and calculated the same rates for each of the 13 other backs who carried the ball at least 200 times last season. They ran for 20-plus yards on 3.1% of their carries and hit a home run of 40 yards or more 0.8% of the time. Given Michel's 209 carries, we would have expected him to rack up seven runs of 20 yards or more and two 40-plus runs.

Of course, it's fair to point out that a back like Alvin Kamara is way more likely to break a big run than, say, Peyton Barber. What makes Michel's season feel more of an aberration, though, is that he had no trouble creating big plays at Georgia; in particular, the home runs we didn't see from Michel last season. In his three years in a regular role from 2015 to 2017, he had 34 carries of 20 yards or more and nine of 40 yards or more. The guy who ran for a 75-yard score in the Rose Bowl against Oklahoma sure seems like someone who could break big runs at the pro level.

I think the missing big plays amount to an aberration, and we'll see Michel break more big gains this season. The biggest argument against a bounceback might be those knees, given that he has already now undergone two knee operations as a member of the Patriots before starting his second NFL season. Rookie Damien Harris could also eat into Michel's role, but the Patriots didn't use a first-round pick on Michel to use him for six or seven carries per game. The touchdown opportunities will be there for Michel, and if he stays healthy -- admittedly a big if -- we could see an even more impressive season outside of the end zone, too.

Don't be surprised if ... Lamar Jackson's running workload is reduced

If you watched Jackson at Louisville, you knew the 2016 Heisman Trophy winner was going to threaten NFL teams with his feet. When Jackson took over for an injured Joe Flacco last season and led what had been a 4-5 Ravens team on a 6-1 ride to the postseason, it was no surprise to see him stretch opposing defenses as a runner.

What was surprising, though, is just how frequently the Ravens left the ball in Jackson's hands. Including his first-half stretch as an occasional interloper, he carried the ball 147 times. That's the most for any quarterback (minimum: 50 passes) since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970, and it even sells short his workload. Baltimore's first-round pick carried the ball 119 times across his seven starts, averaging 17 carries per contest.

To put that in context, the previous record-holder for the largest rushing workload in NFL history was Bobby Douglass in 1972, who averaged 10.1 carries per game as a 14-game starter. In a similar midseason role, Tim Tebow took over for the Broncos in 2011 and averaged 10.5 carries per start, but even that doesn't come close to what Jackson shouldered as a starter last season.

That's not a sustainable workload for a quarterback. Jackson wasn't even able to sustain seven complete starts under that strain a year ago, as he was replaced by Robert Griffin for stretches in Weeks 13 and 14, including the final two plays of an overtime loss to the Chiefs. Jackson has a solid frame at 212 pounds and is certainly smart enough to avoid unnecessary hits, but you're asking a lot of any player to carry the ball 17 times per week in the modern NFL. That's 272 carries over a full season, a figure only Ezekiel Elliott topped a year ago.

The Ravens promoted Greg Roman to offensive coordinator this offseason, which should have been of no surprise given his success building offenses around running quarterbacks like Colin Kaepernick and Tyrod Taylor in years past. Jackson is a more talented and accomplished runner than either of those predecessors, but neither Kaepernick nor Taylor carried the ball anywhere near as frequently as Jackson did a year ago. The peak for either player came when Taylor racked up 104 carries across 14 starts in 2015, an average of 7.4 carries per contest.

I would expect Jackson to fall back to around 10 carries per game in 2019. The Ravens will still use Jackson as a threat to hold the ball on read-option looks, and he will still scramble for big plays, but they'll hand the ball more to new starter Mark Ingram and count on Jackson to be a more effective passer in his first full season as a starter.

Don't be surprised if ... Melvin Gordon takes a step back

I wrote about the Gordon conundrum in February, before the former first-round pick announced that he was holding out in the hopes of getting a new deal from the Chargers. The Wisconsin standout is entering the fifth year of his rookie deal and coming off what was unquestionably his best season as a pro. If you're making a list of the ways to tell whether a back was an elite talent, though, Gordon would fail most of the criteria.

Last season was the first in which Gordon was an efficient back in four tries. It was the first time he topped 4.0 yards per carry as a pro, and while yards per carry can be a misleading stat, his inefficiency is further confirmed by the infrequency with which he increased his team's chances of scoring by ESPN's Expected Points model. Last season was the first in which Gordon's runs increased his team's expected points rate more than 38% of the time. League average over that time frame for running backs is 39%.

Gordon adds value as a receiver, but he racked up 182 catches for 1,577 receiving yards from 2015 to 2018, which is about what Gio Bernard (166 catches for 1,415 yards) generated with far fewer snaps. You can succeed with this profile if you stay healthy and rack up a bunch of huge runs like Saquon Barkley did a year ago, but Gordon has just one play of more than 50 yards across 1,079 career touches, and he has missed nine games over four seasons, including four in 2018.

Also disconcerting for Gordon's case as a franchise running back is that the Chargers haven't missed him when he has been absent. Over Gordon's four seasons, the Chargers are 26-29 (.472) with Gordon in the lineup, averaging 23.7 points. Without Gordon, the same Chargers have gone 4-5 (.444) while averaging 23.1 points.

To put that in context, the Chargers have also spent a huge chunk of that time without star wideout Keenan Allen, and his absence has been far more meaningful. Philip Rivers & Co. are 23-18 (.561) with Allen in the lineup and just 7-16 (.304) otherwise; they average 24.4 points with Allen in the fold and 22.3 points when the Cal product has been sidelined.

The number that comes up as proof of Gordon's excellence, invariably, is touchdowns. It's ironic given that Gordon failed to score on 217 touches as a rookie, an anomaly which immediately corrected itself the following season. Analyses looking to back Gordon's claims will throw that season out as if it doesn't count, but over his full four-year career, he has now scored 38 touchdowns.

Those touchdowns are the fifth most of any NFL player since 2015. Does Gordon have a knack for scoring more than a typical player in the same situations? I'm skeptical. When you look at how he has performed inside the 5-yard line, where backs are going to accrue the bulk of their touchdowns, he has been about average. Given the chances of any NFL back scoring from each spot inside the 5-yard line and Gordon's various opportunities from those spots, we would have expected Gordon's 41 attempts to deliver 17.5 touchdowns. Gordon has topped that mark by scoring ... 18 touchdowns, or an extra half-touchdown every four years. He has been an average back near the goal line.

The case for Gordon as a transcendent back relies upon his ability to score TDs outside of goal-to-go situations and playing the way he did on a carry-by-carry basis in 2018 while simultaneously staying healthy. It's certainly possible that the guy we saw last season shows up for a second time and plays 16 games in 2019, but history suggests that Gordon is likely to fall short.