Author: Bob Morris

I'm a sports writer in real life, though I've always focused on smaller communities, but that hasn't stopped me from learning more about some of the ins and outs of the NFL. You can follow me on Twitter @BobMorrisSports if you can put up with updates on the high school sports teams I cover.

Peyton Manning Isn’t Hurt, He’s Injured

For reference, the Giants went 8-8 in 2009.

Back to Peyton: He is injured and needs to sit down, at the very least until he’s healed, and may very likely not take another snap this season.

Forget your perceptions of Brock Osweiler. Forget about the Patriots being 9-0. Forget about the Bengals being undefeated going into Monday’s game. Forget about where the Broncos may or may not be in the playoff picture. The fact is, Peyton is no longer at the point that he can keep playing through an injury.

Omar Bolden had this injury earlier this season. Not only did he miss two games when he was listed no better than questionable, the Broncos held him out an additional game when he was listed as probable.

The Broncos have rested DeMarcus Ware twice with back spasms, were careful with Ty Sambrailo before they concluded he needed surgery, and pulled Emmanuel Sanders even after he passed concussion protocol (and before that, they limited his snaps).

Peyton can’t make excuses. He needs to concede the point, recognize he is injured, and sit out for a while. And if it turns out the Chiefs’ game was his last game, he just needs to accept that’s his last game and realize he wasn’t the first legendary QB to exit on a poor outing and he won’t be the last.

I’ve been willing to give the guy a chance. But not this time.

Gut Reactions: Broncos Were Rousey, Chiefs Were Holm

On Saturday night, Ronda Rousey, considered to be the most dominant UFC women’s fighter around, was set to defend her bantamweight title against Holly Holm. If you believed what some said, Holm was a very good fighter who could do some things well, but she had no chance against Rousey, especially if you look at how some of Holm’s earlier fights went.

Today, the Broncos took on the Chiefs at home, and if you asked most people before the game, you’d say that the Chiefs can do some good things, but if you look at how some of their games went earlier this season, you’d say they’d have no chance of beating the Broncos in Mile High.

Well, today, the Broncos were Rousey and the Chiefs were Holm. Or to put it another way, Rousey got her ass kicked by Holm and the Broncos got their asses kicked by the Chiefs.
Continue reading Gut Reactions: Broncos Were Rousey, Chiefs Were Holm

Mike Tanier: Peyton’s Records Aren’t Merely A Runner-Up Award

We know that Peyton Manning will break the yardage record this Sunday against Kansas City. Mike Tanier talks about Peyton and other quarterbacks who were known for putting up numbers but all shared a similar trait.

They lacked what so many people want to declare is the be-all, end-all of what makes for the greatest quarterback of all time: RINGZ.

Manning has coped with a weird denier movement for his whole career, and not just from Patriots fans. Manning bashing practically spawned an industry. Modern media sports coverage—midday talk shows, blogs, comment-thread arguments, Bleacher Report—all grew up around the conceit of tacking Manning, the top draft pick with the famous name and gaudy stats who couldn’t even win the big game in college, to the ceiling like a pinata and taking lazy swings to knock him down as “overrated.” Manning provided the template for how we treat everyone from Jameis Winston to LeBron James, making the job easy by falling just short enough just often enough to keep the fire perpetually stoked.

Just remember, Broncos fans: Regardless of what happens this season, know how lucky you’ve been to had one of the all-time greats on your favorite team, and that the Broncos will eventually become one of those teams to have had two Hall of Fame quarterbacks take snaps for them.

Shaq Barrett: How A Diet Change Helped Him

Robert Klemko at SI.com has a good read about Denver Broncos LB Shaq Barrett, discussing how he helped improve his performance, in large part, by changing his diet.

“In college I put sugar on my spaghetti or lasagna,” Barrett says, drawing out the ‘ah’ sound in ‘college’ in a manner specific to Baltimore’s inner city, where he grew up. “That’s why I have to stay away from pasta, because the only way I can eat it is with sugar.”

Ok, but how much sugar?

“I think I used to put like seven packs of sugar on spaghetti to make it taste edible.”

Oh no.

“Yes.”

Barrett’s high body fat (24 percent) may have been the reason why he went undrafted.

But if you want another reason to thank those who run the Denver Broncos, ensuring players got proper nutrition would be another one.

That Barrett landed on an NFL team with the proper resources to remedy his particular shortcoming was something of a dice roll. By Snyder’s count, only 12 teams have full-time dieticians on staff (the group meets at each combine, when schedules permit). When Snyder got the job in 2009, the Broncos put Snyder in a small office far away from the cafeteria and continued to outsource meals to local caterers for five years, until the team built a kitchen space and hired chefs during the 2014 season.

“Before we had our own kitchen, we would lose guys,” Snyder says. “By November, 10 or 15 guys would be getting fast food for lunch. This year I’ve only seen outside food brought in one time, and I think it was a make-the-rookie-go-get-food situation. The credit goes to [team president] Joe Ellis and [GM] John Elway and Mr. [Pat] Bowlen to free up the resources to do it right.”

Midweek Musings: Don’t Look Past The Chiefs

One would think with the Broncos sitting at 7-1, 2-0 in the division, and the Chiefs sitting at 3-5, that this week’s game at Mile High would be guaranteed a Broncos win, right?

Not so fast, folks.

No, this isn’t because the Broncos took a tough loss to the Indianapolis Colts. It’s because the Chiefs really aren’t that bad of a team and haven’t dropped off that much with the loss of Jamaal Charles for the season. Even if you took the Broncos’ weaknesses and made them strengths, the Chiefs are still in a position to challenge the Broncos because they are doing some things well.
Continue reading Midweek Musings: Don’t Look Past The Chiefs

OTC: QB Free Agents In 2016

Jason Fitzgerald projects contracts that quarterbacks set to enter free agency in 2016 are likely to get. One name should be familiar to Bronco fans.

Brock Osweiler, Broncos
…
Ryan Mallet signed for $3.5 million last season and Chase Daniel, who simply backed up Drew Brees for a few years, signed for $3.3 million so it would seem to make sense to slot Osweiler in that same range. Like those players he would probably land in a similar situation which is in a competition for a starting job on a bad team or backing up a veteran. If he can only land a backup job, sticking in Denver would probably be the best long term choice, provided they will allow him to start once Manning hangs it up.

There is, of course, another consideration: What if Peyton Manning retires after this season? Osweiler could re-sign and be named the starter.

Also of note are the veteran backups who won’t command a lot of money but will be looking for work. Matt Schaub is on the list and he knows Gary Kubiak’s system, but Drew Stanton could be an intriguing option if he doesn’t re-sign with Arizona.

The NSS Rankings And My Midseason Award Picks

Here are this week’s Not So Scientific Rankings. Following the rankings, you will have my insight on who I see as the best candidate at this point for the year-end awards. Regarding those awards, I see one in which a candidate is starting to pull away, and one in which it’s really a two-person race, but the others have quite a few worthy candidates, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see disagreement.

I group the teams within categories, noting which teams are bordering on moving up into a higher category or falling into a lower one. But it’s becoming clear who are the playoff favorites and who has the best chance of reaching the Super Bowl.
Continue reading The NSS Rankings And My Midseason Award Picks

Luck’s Victory Sunday Came At A Cost

The Colts are on bye this week but will go back to Matt Hasselbeck for at least the games against Atlanta and Tampa Bay. The Falcons are reeling and the Bucs have been below average, so it’s possible the Colts could improve to 6-5 in Luck’s absence.

But, yeah, the Broncos did pound him and Luck has been taking a beating all season long. All more the reason for the Colts to find a new GM who can do a better job building the team around him so he doesn’t have to take on such a load in the future.

ETA: Nicki Jhabvala notes the play on which the injury likely happened.

Football Outsiders: Andrew Luck And The Broncos D

Andrew Healy at Football Outsiders broke down what made the difference in the Broncos-Colts game, particularly noting how well Andrew Luck played against the blitz when he had struggled previously.

I suspect that’s why the Broncos blitzed Luck so much, because he had struggled against it. But as Healy notes, there were other issues that affected the Broncos, ranging from untimely penalties to injuries to players that may have limited what they could do. During the game, the Broncos not only lost DeMarcus Ware in the third quarter for the remainder of the game, but had to rest Chris Harris, T.J. Ward and Brandon Marshall for several plays.
Continue reading Football Outsiders: Andrew Luck And The Broncos D