Month: August 2015

PFF: What Should We Expect From Peyton in 2015?

Pro Football Focus has a brief analysis about Peyton Manning and what their analysts believed was a decline in his play prior to the Week 15 game against San Diego when he injured his thigh.

According to our grades, it started well before Week 15. After a solid start to the season, Manning entered his Week 9 contest against the New England Patriots with a league-high passer rating of 119.1, though he “only” ranked sixth in our PFF passing grades. He was already forcing too many passes into coverage, but was getting away with them (keeping his stats clean) while receiving quite a bit of help from his playmakers. Week 9 marked the beginning of a three-week stretch of negative grades for Manning, including one of his worst performances in years against the St. Louis Rams in Week 11.

Continue reading PFF: What Should We Expect From Peyton in 2015?

Tom Jackson Receives Pete Rozelle Award

Although no Broncos were inducted into the Hall of Fame last night, one Bronco was recognized for his contributions to radio and television.

More than 30 years after beginning his career in sports broadcasting, Broncos Ring of Famer Tom Jackson saw his hard work receive its due recognition with the 2015 Pete Rozelle Award given to him on Saturday night during the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s enshrinement ceremony.

Congratulations to Jackson, the man who inspired a site we all loved.

Meanwhile, let’s cross our fingers that Terrell Davis making it as a HOF finalist last year leads to an induction soon.

The Broncos Chose The Correct Edge Rusher In 2011…

Von Miller has had his own missteps off the field, but they were nowhere near as serious as those of Aldon Smith, and more importantly, he’s moved on from those mistakes.  Another TYJE may be in order here.

Arian Foster Reveals His Lack Of Religious Belief

Via ESPN’s Tim Keown:

Arian Foster, 28, has spent his entire public football career — in college at Tennessee, in the NFL with the Texans — in the Bible Belt. Playing in the sport that most closely aligns itself with religion, in which God and country are both industry and packaging, in which the pregame flyover blends with the postgame prayer, Foster does not believe in God.

“Everybody always says the same thing: You have to have faith,” he says. “That’s my whole thing: Faith isn’t enough for me. For people who are struggling with that, they’re nervous about telling their families or afraid of the backlash … man, don’t be afraid to be you. I was, for years.”

As a lifelong atheist who has never experienced any negativity for my own lack of belief in any supernatural power, I sometimes feel that the plight of the irreligious pales in comparison to other disadvantaged groups out there.  But clearly NFL locker rooms are a different animal.  We should all know that well having experienced the presence of the likes of Brian Dawkins and Tim Tebow on the 2011 Broncos.

The entire article is a longread, but I recommend taking the time if it piques your interest.

Eric Winston: Commissioner’s Power Must Change In New CBA

Via the Washington Post:

With the propriety of Tom Brady’s DeflateGate suspension now set to be resolved in court and many of those in and around the sport expressing the view that the NFL’s system of justice is broken, the players’ union is vowing to address Commissioner Roger Goodell’s power to hear appeals in certain player-disciplinary cases in the next set of labor negotiations.

“It would be hard to imagine any new deal if there’s not a change,” Eric Winston, the veteran offensive lineman for the Cincinnati Bengals who is the president of the NFL Players Association, said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “I can’t imagine taking a new deal back to the players and say personal conduct isn’t going to change.”

I never got around to writing a full article on this, but Winston is correct.  As the old saying goes, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”  Achieving separation of powers in disciplinary matters should be a primary goal for the NFLPA in the future.  However, don’t expect the owners’ official representative, of all people, to give that up without a fight.  Come 2021, I fear there will be a very lengthy work stoppage that will include regular season games.

Midweek Musings: Five Days of Training Camp Done

Here we are, Bronco fans. Five days of training camp already finished and we are a little more than a week away from the preseason opener against Seattle.

As somebody stuck in Kansas, I’m unable to actually go to training camp in person and will have to find other ways to watch Broncos games on certain weeks. But based on what I’ve read coming out of training camp thus far, there are a few observations I can make on what one might expect from the preseason opener.
Continue reading Midweek Musings: Five Days of Training Camp Done

Britton Colquitt Takes Pay Cut

Broncos punter Britton Colquitt agreed to take a salary reduction to $1.4M for this season.

Jeff Legwold first reported the move.

Colquitt was set to make $3M in base salary this year, but the move will free up $1.6M in cap space, assuming Colquitt makes the roster.

He is still competing with Karl Schmitz for the punting job, but now that he has taken a pay cut, his chances of making the final roster may have increased.