It's getting to that time, folks. The 53-man rosters are all but set. Live NFL regular-season football hits your television screens in less than a week.

We know why games are won and lost in the NFL: quarterbacks, coaching and stars. Only it isn't that simple. Football is a complex game with many moving parts, and the influence of a star quarterback or a genius head coach only reaches the water's edge. Wins and losses also can be found in the key late sack from a pass rusher; the running game powered by a bolstered offensive line; and the secondary or tertiary target that shines when the primary is double-covered. We call these players X factors.

The performance of X factors has a disproportionate amount of leverage in their team's outcomes. If they're good, it might clarify an entire

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