Since the news is slowing to a standstill, I decided to go through and update all of our Sporcle quizzes.
Here they are, for your trivial pursuits:
Continue reading "Trivia Trough: We’ve updated all of our Sporcle quizzes"
Good Morning, Broncos fans! Probably because he's a baseball guy, Mike Klis follows up his characterization of Von Miller as a "near superstar" by using the retirement of Brian Urlacher to bring up the moronic concept of whether a player deserves to be a "first ballot HOFer".
A guy is either a HOFer or he's not, and we all know that Brian Urlacher is a HOFer.
Now, in that column, Mike Tanier raises the question of whether Urlacher will be a first ballot HOFer, but there he's just acknowledging the HOF's stupid voting process, which caps the number of enshrinees each year. Tanier isn't splitting HOF-worthy players into first-ballot and non-first-ballot categories, as Klis obnoxiously does.
Continue reading "Enough with this ‘first ballot’ garbage Lard"
Legendary center Tom Nalen will be inducted to Denver's Ring of Fame, the team announced on Wednesday.
The induction ceremony will take place on September 29, at halftime of Denver's Week 4 game versus the Eagles. As for why this isn't taking place Week 8, when Mike Shanahan is in town, is beyond us (we hope it's not due to some sort of bad blood between Pat Bowlen, John Elway, and Shanahan).
Nalen was the Broncos' pivot for 14 seasons (1994-2007), playing in 194 regular-season games (188 starts), plus 13 playoff starts.
Continue reading "Tom Nalen to be inducted to Broncos Ring of Fame"
As we've noted here at IAOFM, new Denver draftees Sylvester Williams and Montee Ball were featured in segments for ESPN's excellent Sport Science.
Two years earlier, the Sport Science team put Von Miller through their testing gauntlet. I enjoy their work - they bring some solid technology to measure the things that make a certain player effective, and it highlights aspects of that player’s skill set. Even if it's a bit late, I thought I'd discuss Von's Sport Science segment here.
Watching Miller’s work is like seeing the Mikhail Baryshnikov of the NFL. Baryshnikov himself used to seem to leap up into the air and just pause there for a long moment; it was astonishing to watch. Miller reminds me of that quality - he often looks as if he’s playing at a different speed than the rest of the people on the field. He dashes through what are pauses between moments to the rest of us.
With the Raiders having stolen Charles Woodson from under the Broncos' noses, there are already some great comments today regarding rivalries and hatred. We might as well collect some data to match, right?
So, go ahead and vote, and please explain your choice in the comments.
Good Morning, Broncos fans! According to Mike Klis, the Broncos weren't outbid by very much in the Charles Woodson sweepstakes.
Woodson took a reported $1.8M base (including a $700K signing bonus), plus $2.5M in incentives, for a max value of $4.3M to return to Oakland. Klis says the Broncos offered a contract with a maximum value of $3.7M, and we already know the base value was more than the $940K minimum.
Was it just about the money for Woodson, as Klis suggests? If it was, the difference may have been more than just the $600K gap in max value. We don't know how much Denver was willing to guarantee, or how easily reached the incentives would have been, versus the ones he got from the Raiders.
Continue reading "It probably wasn’t just the money for Woodson Lard"
Charles Woodson may be the matchup safety Denver needs, but he won't be joining them in 2013. Woodson has agreed to a one-year deal with the Raiders that includes a $700K signing bonus, base value of $1.8M, and a maximum of $4.3M.
Originally selected by Oakland fourth overall in the 1998 Draft, Woodson spent his first eight years in silver and black before heading up to the frozen tundra for seven seasons. Green Bay released the 2009 DPOY in February to avoid what would have been $9.4M in compensation for 2013.
Continue reading "Woodson snubs Broncos, returns to Raiders"
Only a few hours ago, we noted the signing bonus given Lerentee McCray by the Broncos, and what it meant.
What it doesn't mean, is that he's good enough for the NFL; the Broncos will presumably figure that out over the next few weeks and/or months.
As an example of how little regard teams can have for undrafted players, consider the case of former Stony Brook running back Miguel Maysonet.
Continue reading "Postscript: UDFAs usually go undrafted for a reason"
Good Morning, Broncos fans! Charles Woodson will take his visit with the Raiders today.
Signing with them would not only be a homecoming and bring him closer to his own winery, but it would reunite Woodson with Matt Flynn and Reggie McKenzie, whom he knows from their time together in Green Bay.
As for Denver, Jeff Legwold suggests the primary sticking point between the two sides is Denver''s desire to only commit to one year with Woodson, who apparently wants a multiyear deal.
Of course, we've mentioned before that such a difference only matters if there's guaranteed money beyond the first year's compensation.
Continue reading "Raiders to make their pitch to Chuck Wood Lard"
Good Morning, Broncos fans! The first of three organized training activities (OTA) for Denver will take place today through Wednesday.
The second one will span three days starting next Wednesday, and then four days starting the Monday after that.
A week later, from June 11-13, the Broncos will hold their mandatory minicamp, and then they'll be off until training camp, the start date for which has not been announced.
There will be no contact allowed at these OTA's, but they are the first full-squad practices for the 2013 Broncos.
Updated 10:13am ET
Continue reading "Declaring the opening of Kool-Aid season Lard"
