Good Morning, Broncos fans! As had been expected ever since they drafted a punter in the fifth round (!), Minnesota released civil rights champion Chris Kluwe on Monday.
Although Kluwe posted the best net average of his career in 2012, that mark ranked just 18th in the league, and he graded out as the 25th best punter according to PFF.
Kluwe first gained off-field attention for his whiteboard analyses of the league's stance on illegal hits and the 2011 lockout.
More recently, Kluwe has been, along with former Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo, an outspoken supporter of gay rights and marriage equality.
Baltimore may have gotten a good measure of revenge on John Elway in recent months, but he still owns Cleveland.
The Broncos have announced the hiring of former Browns GM Tom Heckert as their new director of pro personnel, the role recently vacated by Keith Kidd.
But Heckert was fired by the Browns, who went just 14-34 during his three-year tenure there, so how does this count as Elway sticking it to Cleveland again?
You see, Heckert was actually a popular figure in northeastern Ohio - at least enough for one activist Browns fan to set up a Dont Fire Heckert (sic) website, and another to start an online petition imploring new (and now troubled) owner Jimmy Haslam to keep the incumbent GM.
Updated 12:41pm ET
With the 173rd pick in the 2013 Draft, the Broncos took Virginia Tech tackle Vinston Painter. Three picks later, the Texans took tackle David Quessenberry. Both players have positional flexibility and might play guard in the NFL. Each was converted from another position - Painter from defensive tackle, and Quessenberry from tight end.
I’ve read in a couple of articles the idea that Painter only has a single year of offensive line work to point to, but it’s not quite true. To clarify how much experience Painter has there, consider this:
Painter, who is the cousin of Virginia Tech receiver Randall Dunn, earned first-team All-Tidewater and first-team All-Eastern District honors on the offensive line as both a junior and senior at Maury High. He was also was second-team all-district as a defensive tackle. Painter actually began his Virginia Tech career at defensive tackle, as he worked there during the fall of his redshirt season (2009), before he moved to offensive tackle for spring practice.
Continue reading "Why did the Broncos draft Vinston Painter over David Quessenberry?"
Good Morning, Broncos fans! The Dolphins continue to whine about the decision by the Florida House not to give them a taxpayer handout to spruce up their ancient stadium, which was last updated way, way back in 2006.
Dolphins CEO Mike Dee says the team will not scale back its renovation plans to compensate for the lack of sports welfare payments, and is instead going to scrap them altogether and sulk.
Dee even had the nerve to call a publicly subsidized renovation a "public-private partnership," as if the public would in any way stand to share in the team's resulting profits, and he suggests that whomever welfare queen Stephen Ross sells the team to someday, could move the team out of town.
The decision not to renovate is said to threaten Miami's chances of housing future Super Bowls, including SB 52, which Denver is vying to host.
Good Morning, Broncos fans! It's been said that for athletes in our major sports to come out as gay, general managers and coaches will have to make clear that such openness wouldn't harm their chances of making their teams.
This is likely true to an extent, but a fine place for such progress to take place is at the ownership level. As with most things, New England's Robert Kraft is ahead of the curve. Says Kraft:
We’re about winning, and (if) someone can come in here and help us win, I don’t care what ethnic background, what racial background, what gender preference they have. If they can help us win and they’re about team then I’ll be happy to have them here.
It will, of course, take more than Kraft's words to get the message across. We hope Pat Bowlen, or John Elway/Joe Ellis on his behalf, will issue a similar statement.
Doc Ponderosa and I were talking about the two known instances in Denver’s draft where a medical issue came into play last week - those of Eddie Lacy and Quanterus Smith. I thought I’d share with you what came up.
Sunday brought word that the Steelers and several other teams, including potentially the Broncos, passed on the Alabama running back due to concerns regarding a fused toe.
Doc P has found the fusion of the great toe to be a variable problem, which matches my own experience. Some people are greatly hampered by it, while others seem to handle it fairly well. Over time, though, the changes in balance created by it can hinder a player and can create or contribute to other injuries. Even if it’s not bothersome in itself, the changes in posture, gait, and stride that result from it are cumulative; a lot of people eventually develop low back, knee, and/or ankle issues as a result.
Continue reading "Medical factors and the Broncos’ 2013 draft"
Good Morning, Broncos fans! We've often railed against the all-too-common practice of handing out massive subsidies and tax breaks to billionaire NFL owners.
Score one for the good guys.
The Florida House has rejected the advances of welfare queen Stephen Ross, who was begging for a tax rebate up to $90M, and a handout as big as $289M, to spruce up a stadium that underwent renovations as recently as 2006.
Naturally, Ross is whining about being denied the ability to further profit off the backs of hardworking taxpayers, and continues to claim that the stadium renovation would have produced 4,000 jobs.
Sounds like a lot of jobs, until we consider that it's a made up figure, the jobs would be temporary (two years), and they'd come at a heavy public cost, using money otherwise used to fund public safety, education, and protecting the environment.
Continue reading "Billionaire Dolphins owner denied taxpayer handout Lard"
Despite their soul-crushing playoff loss, and even prior to their mostly excellent preseason, the Broncos have been 2013 overdogs.
As the recent Week 1-16 lines put out by Cantor Gaming suggest, nothing has changed there.
Among those 15 games, Denver is favored in 13, including eight games by a margin of at least six points, and three by double digits.
The only games in which the Broncos aren't currently favored are their Week 12 trip to New England, for which they're 1.5-point underdogs, and the Week 16 game at Houston, which is currently a pick 'em.
Happy Friday, Broncos fans! Presented without superfluous comment:
Good Morning, Broncos fans! After their many hours, weeks, and months of tireless work, it's often the days that follow the draft when NFL scouts and personnel execs lose their jobs.
Generally these changes are reserved for the franchises that have fared worst on the field and in procuring talent.
Neither has been the case with the Broncos, but they still have decided to move on without director of pro personnel Keith Kidd, whose contract has not been renewed after four years with the team. Kidd was brought to Dove Valley in 2009 by then-head coach Josh McDaniels, with whom he'd previously worked when both were in New England.
He's worked in the league for 18 seasons, with other stints with Arizona and Cleveland, and a three-year term working with Scouts, Inc. and ESPN prior to his arrival in Denver.
