Month: October 2015

For several years, the NFL has made two peculiar pushes.  The first, which has had some success, is to play more games overseas.  They’re up to three now, and have been talking much about adding more. The second, which has yet to be successful, is their longstanding desire to expand the regular season to 18 games.

I’m not terribly crazy about these two proposals, though I don’t have any burning anger against them, either. It’s clearly an effort by the NFL to make even more money. But if these pushes are to continue, I’ve felt for some time that the proper solution would be one offered today by Mike Florio: Expand only to 17 games, and then send the resulting extra 16 teams overseas.

Continue reading Mike Florio Suggests Expanding Regular Season to 17 Games

  …I attended my first ever Broncos game.  I mentioned this in comments somewhere else, but this game may have very well been the very last home game where Broncos fans could witness Peyton Manning at his typical best.  While I didn’t know exactly that for sure, as the picture at the left suggests I figured to go big for this game, as there wasn’t going to be many other times to see Manning do what he does live.

You can see the entire photo gallery of my time at the game here.  Also, as a bonus, this is where I was at in Denver the day before the game.

As we continue to burn away the bye week, feel free to share your own stories of Broncos games that you’ve attended.

 

Former Denver Broncos general manager Ted Sundquist wrote an interesting piece about what led to the Broncos’ decision to trade up in the 2006 draft to select Jay Cutler.

There’s some good insight, particularly when Sundquist shares his first-hand knowledge about what the Broncos looked at and how the pieces fell into place. One item Sundquist mentions is really worth considering.

Enter Mike Heimerdinger. Dinger was a longtime friend and college roommate of Mike Shanahan’s and had previously been in Denver as wide receivers coach from 1995 to 1999. We brought him back as assistant head coach in late January 2006, about three months before the draft.

…

He immediately began lobbying for Cutler.

There’s more on top of that, but I’ll let you read the piece. I will, however, present a “what if” scenario for everyone to consider, while keeping in mind that, sadly, Heimerdinger passed away in 2011 after a battle with cancer.

WHAT IF… Mike Heimerdinger had not left the Broncos after two seasons and, after Mike Shanahan’s dismissal, been interviewed by Pat Bowlen and subsequently got the head coaching job?

Lost in all the talk about the Broncos great defense and sluggish offense is the third area of importance to any NFL team: Special teams.

In my rankings yesterday, I wondered why certain teams ranked low in Football Outsiders DVOA rankings for special teams. FO has a detailed breakdown of special teams and what they look for in each area.

To summarize, FO compares how each team does compared to the league average for all 32 teams. You can follow the link above for detailed explanations, but there are a few things that are worth keeping in mind.
Continue reading So How Are The Broncos Special Teams Faring?

OK, this time around, the Not-So-Scientific rankings are running late. Andrew Mason’s power rankings came out late, so these were delayed, too.

This go-around, I’m using five rankings, taking a suggestion made last week to include another. The rankings are, in order, and with links provided:

* Pro Football Focus power rankings

* Pro Football Reference Simple Ranking System

* Football Outsiders DVOA Rating

* Five-Thirty-Eight ELO Playoff Probability Rankings

* Andrew Mason’s power rankings

In some cases, when you look at the numbers, you will no doubt find some that don’t make sense. Again, that just demonstrates that everyone’s ranking system looks at different criteria, and my exercise is to see if I can illustrate a clearer picture.
Continue reading The Not-So-Scientific Team Rankings, Week 6

Good news for Kapri Bibbs fans: He cleared waivers and is back on the Broncos practice squad.

And the Broncos aren’t done trying out players. Most of the players in the list Nicki Jhabvala shared are likely looked at as practice squad candidates or players to sign to future contracts after the season.

The Broncos tried out these 10 players Tuesday: pic.twitter.com/DzV8xMdNmh

— Nicki Jhabvala (@NickiJhabvala) October 21, 2015

Football Outsiders’ Scott Kacsmar has his weekly Clutch Encounters column up, in which he discusses observations about Week 6, and he does discuss the Broncos’ win over the Browns.

I direct you to it, though, for what else he has to say, particularly about the Seattle Seahawks. Considers this tweet he shared.

This play is basically the difference between Seattle being known as an almost dynasty vs. NFL's biggest chokers pic.twitter.com/RGdk2g8gTX

— Scott Kacsmar (@FO_ScottKacsmar) October 20, 2015

Read Kacsmar’s column to understand why he said this. It’s an interesting observation that begs the question as to whether that Seattle Super Bowl really was the sign of a dynasty in the making.

Hello Bronco fans! There’s been a lot of activity here at Thin Air and, regardless of where anyone stands, it’s great we can have lively yet civil discussion about the Broncos. And considering they are 6-0 and feature a top-three defense but have plenty of issues on offense, there’s been plenty to discuss.

I’m a bit early with this edition of Midweek Musings because there are a few things that need to be understood with regards to what decisions the Broncos had to make this offseason and what the Broncos need to focus on now that they are six games into the season.

A lot has been discussed about Peyton Manning for obvious reasons. I do want to touch briefly on a couple of items, though, that would not necessarily have been solved by saying goodbye to Manning during the offseason.
Continue reading Midweek Musings: OMG QB Controversy~!