Thin Air

Well, this is something:

A major scandal is erupting in the multibillion dollar industry of fantasy sports, the online and unregulated business in which players assemble their fantasy teams with real athletes. On Monday, the two major fantasy companies were forced to release statements defending their businesses’ integrity after what amounted to allegations of insider trading, that employees were placing bets on information not available to the public.

Last week, a DraftKings employee admitted to inadvertently releasing data before the start of the third week of N.F.L. games, a move akin to insider trading in the stock market. The employee – a midlevel content manager — won $350,000 at rival site FanDuel that same week.

The incident has raised questions about who at daily fantasy companies has access to valuable data, how it is protected and whether the industry can — or wants — to police itself.

The entire article is worth the read, and it will be curious to see if other media outlets follow up, especially those connected to a network broadcasting NFL games. When I first approached this topic, Yahmule had a good comment on how entities like the Nevada Gaming Commission root out scandals related to gambling, and how things could come “back to bite [FanDuel and DraftKings] in the ass”.  Looks like that biting may come quicker than we anticipated.

All of the media discussions were focused on Adrian Peterson and his god-like ability to run and whether or not the Broncos defense could stop him. No one discussed other factors such as Teddy Bridgewater, who played well, or the Broncos offense. We discovered a few things throughout the game that are highlighted below:

Continue reading Vikings at Broncos: The 10 Things I Liked and the 10 Things I Didn’t

The Miami Dolphins fired Joe Philbin four games into his fourth season.

Along with this news, I bring to you Michael Tanier’s Monday Morning Hangover, in which he says the Dolphins need to stop alternating between changing either the coach or front office, while keeping the other, and just clean house after the season.

A neat executive-coach-quarterback/core arrangement guarantees nothing. But a situation in which a coach who wasn’t hired by a general manager tries to lead players who were not selected by either of them guarantees failure. Sometimes, it’s a dull failure like the Dolphins have endured for years. Other times, it’s the spectacular 2015 Eagles situation: The coach ousts the general manager and moves mountains for a quarterback, and everything comes unglued quicker than a no-huddle offense.

There are instances in which a GM hires a coach, then fires him later for a new hire, has worked out, but it hasn’t worked out so much when the GM was fired and the coach retained under a new GM. Just ask the New York Jets (fired Mike Tannenbaum, hired John Izdik, kept Rex Ryan, both gone two seasons later) or the Chicago Bears (fired Jerry Angelo, hired Phil Emery, retained Lovie Smith, Smith later fired, Marc Trestman hired, he and Emery fired two seasons later).

Even worse for the Dolphins is they are stuck with Ndamukong Suh through at least 2017 thanks to a poor contract structure and could be stuck with him longer if the Dolphins decide to restructure his deal to gain cap space next season.

It’s hard to argue with Sam Monson’s logic that the Denver Broncos would be 4-0 even if Peyton Manning wasn’t the QB.

I’m sure you can guess why, so I’ll just let you read the article and sing the praises of the latest version of The Orange Crush.

If you take a look at the sack list this morning, you’ll be quite happy with who is up at the top. Unless Michael Bennett has a monster game tonight, DeMarcus Ware will likely hold the sack title for a full week.  It’s evident that the Broncos and their fans are quite happy to have him in Denver right now.

But there has been a line of thought that suggests that, instead of sinking $10 million per year on a 32-34 year old Ware, the Broncos would have been better off if their misadventures between Elvis Dumervil and a fax machine never happened, as they could have had a pass rusher that was two years younger for somewhere around half the APY.

This morning, a recent quick take by Pro Football Focus contained an excellent point that compelled me to take a further look at this comparison.

Continue reading In The Matter Of DeMarcus Ware v. Elvis Dumervil

So the Broncos are 4-0 to start the season.

Sure, we can point out the deficiencies in each game. We know the offense has been merely adequate, that Peyton Manning is living life too dangerously and it’s costing him plenty of times (as was the case today on those two interceptions), and that it would be nice to see the Broncos regularly churn out rushing yards throughout the game.

And we could point out that Josh McDaniels did the same thing in his first season in Denver — heck, he went 6-0 — then things unraveled. And the Broncos schedule won’t get easier.

But this team looks different from that McDaniels team. This year’s defense is vastly better. Peyton may not be what he was in his prime, but he’s smart enough to know he can’t rest on his laurels. And the offensive line is getting better, rather than regressing like it did under McD.

Yes, I think this team has a much better chance of following up a 6-0 start with a good finish, even if it’s not 10-0. It doesn’t need to be, though. All it needs to be is enough games to win the division, maybe get a first-round bye, and then turn them loose in the postseason.
Continue reading Gut Reaction: Broncos 4-0 And We Are Loving It

This likely is nothing out of the ordinary to our good friend LH Almeida, but I’d anticipate that for most of us this isn’t something we hear that often.

Von Miller's appeal to NFL for $11,567 fine for Key & Peele act could well be based on "It was only two pumps!'' https://t.co/61KTUKyxSM

— Mike Klis (@MikeKlis) October 2, 2015

Barry Petchesky of Deadspin has several observations about Indianapolis Colts QB Andrew Luck, whose status for Sunday remains uncertain. The image of Luck wincing when backup QB Matt Hasselbeck taps him on the chest is telling. So is the Colts’ recent move to sign QB Josh Johnson.

If Luck can’t go Sunday, the 40-year-old Hasselbeck will start behind one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL. Yes, the Broncos have their O-line issues, but they look trivial compared to the Colts, who have addressed their offensive line under Ryan Grigson thusly:
Continue reading Andrew Luck: Will He Start Sunday?