The NFL season is long. No one is going to feel bad for those of us with a dream job to cover the league professionally but around this time every year, the weekly content churn turns into a slog. A handful of teams turn unwatchable, some just hellaciously dull. Some storylines become tedious to the point of madness. We can’t cast those pests out to sea for another month-plus. They continue to impose their presence upon us.

However, what keeps us engaged and hungry for each morsel of a game the NFL world has to offer is the pure joy the game brings. You can’t do this job well if you don’t love football. I know I am hopelessly smitten with this weird game. As we round toward the final chapters of the 2019 NFL regular season, these are the top-10 themes that keep me watching with joy.

Kyler Murray building his outrageous foundation

No player has proven more enthralling since Halloween than Kyler Murray. The No. 1 overall pick has played lights out football over the Cardinals last three games, completing 67 percent of his throws with a 7:1 touchdown to interception ratio, plus 16 rushes for 139 yards and a score.

The early returns were mixed but the latest evidence has been clear. It looks like the Kyler/Kliff Kingsbury marriage is going to be a raging success in Arizona. If you aren’t completely captivated by Murray, hanging by his every move when you watch him prepared for the next dime he’ll uncork, you might not like the sport.

You can look at all the metrics you want, including the fact that Arizona has scored on 41 percent of their drives. That’s the sixth-highest rate among NFL offenses. But the reality is that the evidence for Murray’s wildly high potential is on the game film. The ultra-gifted passer is shooting up the arm strength rankings. Every week he’s completing extremely high-degree of difficulty throws.

Kyler Murray starting to stack truly sick throws like this on a weekly basis. Leaping up the mythical "best arms" rankingspic.twitter.com/CRf82wRM0A — Matt Harmon (@MattHarmon_BYB) November 17, 2019

When a franchise hits on a quarterback, it changes everything for that one squad. When that quarterback hit looks like he can realistically offer the gifts to be an individual difference-maker, not one who just lives and dies by his ecosystem, the shape of the league is rattled.

Given some of the pure arm capabilities and raw talent Murray has put on film the last month, he’s inching closer to convincing us he can be that player. You can’t overstate this, he looks downright unbelievable. Cam Newton was once that player for the Carolina Panthers, rocketing them into the inner circle of NFL relevancy with an annual chance to compete for the playoffs. With the artistry he brings as a runner, his ridiculous release points and the unreal holes he’s able to fit the ball, Murray looks like a fun-sized version of Cam Newton.

Lamar Jackson dunking on the league

Imagine being someone who doubted, god forbid continues to doubt, Lamar Jackson before the season and having to log on this year. He hasn’t just been good. Jackson has become the defining figure of the 2019 NFL season.

There is no more reasonable negativity you can throw Jackson’s way. He’s captaining the lone offense to score on over 50 percent of its drives in 2019. The Ravens quarterback passes every metric test, ranking seventh with an 8.6 adjusted yards per attempt. You can’t even call his rushing work a gimmick-based result, as his big plays have primarily come off improvisational runs. Jackson averages an absurd 10.6 yards per rush on scrambles.

In a magical quest proving all the haters wrong, Jackson has proceeded to dunk on the entire league. He’s proven to be a difference-maker. A transformative figure capable of remaking an entire franchise. It’s without question that Lamar Jackson is the most fun player to watch in football, but the idea of him as an entity is just as joyous to consider.

Dallas’ offensive transformation

After becoming interesting in 2016 with the arrival of rookies Ezekiel Elliott and Dak Prescott, the Cowboys of 2017 and 2018 slipped back into the malaise of mediocrity that’s typically surrounded this franchise. What’s been unveiled in 2019 has been anything but the boring version we received the two years prior.

Story continues