- 59th in Offensive S&P+
- 101st in points per game
- 111th in Offensive Success Rate
- 107th in points per trip inside the 40-yard line
- 107th in Rushing Success Rate
- 120th in Stuff Rate
- 107th in Passing Success Rate
- 111th in Adjusted Sack Rate
Thursday, March 31, 2016
An open letter to NFL GMs
Thursday, March 24, 2016
NFL Rumors
Check out the latest NFL news and rumors below.
NFL concussion studies that downplayed the effects of head injuries on players used flawed data and left out over 100 diagnosed concussions, reports The New York Times.
Tennessee Titans general manager Jon Robinson said the team is open to trading the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft, reports ESPN's Adam Schefter.
Chat Sports: Six NFL teams that have had the worst off-seasons so far
The Philadelphia Eagles have signed wide receiver Reuben Randle to a one-year deal, reports ESPN's Dan Graziano.
San Francisco 49ers general manager Trent Baalke said the team is “nowhere near” trading quarterback Colin Kaepernick, reports CSN Bay Area’s Matt Maiocco.
Cincinnati Bengals owner Mike Brown was noncommittal about head coach Marvin Lewis’s future with the team, telling the Cincinnati Enquirer that “he’s going to be our coach this year” and “we’ll see how it plays out.”
The Indianapolis Colts signed cornerback Patrick Robinson to a three-year, $12 million deal, reports NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.
The New Orleans Saints have signed linebacker Craig Robertson to a three-year deal, reports Pro Football Talk’s Josh Alper.
Chat Sports: More NFL news and rumors inside the Chat Sports App
Las Vegas is still a relocation option for the Oakland Raiders, reports the Los Angeles Daily News’ Vincent Bonsignore.
Monday, March 21, 2016
NFL games in China? It could happen by 2018, according to report
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
Collateral damage: Players hurt by free agency
Brian Hoyer, Houston Texans quarterback: The stink remains on Hoyer after tossing four picks in Houston's wild-card loss to the Chiefs. His disastrous outing overshadowed an otherwise productive season, but Hoyer won't have a chance to make up for it. The four-year, $72 million contract handed to Brock Osweiler thrusts Hoyer back into the shadows. His only chance to open the season as a starter -- and it's a slim one -- is trading the average-armed passer to a team desperate under center.
- Top remaining free agents
- Battista: Five free agency stories to watch
- Wesseling: Which franchises are on the rise?
- Eric Weddle agrees to deal with Ravens
- Top 10 free agents available
- Free agency winners and losers
- Seven riskiest free-agent signings
- Brooks: How free agency will affect the draft
- Broncos stay course in letting Osweiler walk
Watch:
Cleveland's next quarterback: We're posting this long before the draft, so plenty can change. That said, whoever starts at quarterback for the Browns is bound to be saddled by a roster with more holes than last year's three-win outfit. With center Alex Mack, right tackle Mitchell Schwartz and deep-threat Travis Benjamin all signing elsewhere, the Browns are nowhere close to fielding a competent offense. Cleveland's new coaching staff and front office inherited a mess that will take years to steer out of.
Andy Dalton, Cincinnati Bengals quarterback: Dalton will struggle to repeat his career campaign from 2015. For starters, the Bengals passer no longer has talented play-caller Hue Jackson in his ear. The team also lost depth at receiver with Marvin Jones and Mohamed Sanu leaving for big-money deals elsewhere. With two of Cincy's top-five pass-catchers from last season out the door, Dalton's surrounding cast could include a handful of new faces in 2016.
T.J. Yeldon, Jacksonville Jaguars running back: Yeldon has plenty of potential, but the Jaguars handed Chris Ivory a five-year contract worth $32.5 million. Look for Ivory to handle plenty of short-yardage and red-zone carries, leaving Yeldon in a bind from a fantasy perspective. With both runners battling injuries last season, Yeldon will still see his share of carries. Free agency, though, turned this into a committee backfield.
Sam Bradford, Philadelphia Eagles quarterback: It's suspect to list anyone who signed a deal for $36 million over two seasons. Bradford, though, is in a fight for his starting job after new Eagles coach Doug Pederson lured quarterback Chase Daniel into the fold. Pederson -- in an attempt to quiet the chatter -- recently announced that "Sam Bradford is the No. 1. Chase Daniel is the No. 2." While fans still wait for any hint of inspired play from Bradford, we're booking Daniel for meaningful snaps in 2016.
Bishop Sankey, Antonio Andrews and David Cobb, Tennessee Titans running backs: Tennessee's ho-hum carousel of runners all dropped a spot in the pecking order with the addition of DeMarco Murray. The former Cowboys and Eagles back has the faith of new general manager Jon Robinson, who told reporters last week: "There's more than enough tread left on his tires." An enigmatic player coming off a disastrous season, Murray is no lock as a workhorse, but the Titans will hand him a massive role out of the gate.
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
Which NFL teams have stacked up the most draft capital?
Last week, the NFL handed out 33 compensatory picks to be used in the upcoming NFL draft. That annual announcement yields two pieces of insight. First, it gives all of us a quick reminder of the teams in this league who actually have any idea what they're doing, given that teams who acquire comp picks are the ones who mostly stay out of free agency and have valuable talent they can afford to lose. Second, we learn the final draft order, barring trades. The compensatory selections round out the selection order, giving us our first full look at when each team will pick in the 2016 draft.
With the draft order in mind, we can figure out which teams have the most and least to work with on draft day in terms of available capital, given their picks and what each pick is worth. The pick values come from Chase Stuart's draft value chart, which uses historical estimates of value to place an expected return on each of the first 224 selections in a given draft. The information is essentially what you would think: The teams selecting at the top of the draft have the most draft capital and the ones at the bottom of each round have the least. You don't need an estimate to figure that one out.
What's far more interesting here is figuring out which teams have done the most to accrue or give away capital heading into the draft, because that often provides insight into how general managers are trying to build their teams. To figure that out, I rebuild the draft order by removing all the compensatory picks, returning any selections voided by the league to their original teams, and undo any trades involving draft picks. Each team ends up with their original seven picks. I calculate the draft capital they would have held with those seven picks, compare it to their actual draft assets heading into April's draft, and find the difference between the two.
Let's start by running through the five teams who have added the most draft capital to their coffers here in early March. (These figures may change as teams deal picks between now and the draft, of course.) This top five is based upon the percentage by which a team improved upon their baseline draft capital. It starts with a familiar face ...
Most draft capital added
5. Baltimore Ravens
Original draft capital: 53.8 pointsActual draft capital: 60.1 points
Difference: 6.3 points (11.7 percent)
The Ravens keep doing Ravens things. They picked up two fourth-rounders and a sixth-rounder as compensatory picks from losing free agents last offseason, and moved up from a fifth-rounder to a fourth-rounder by trading the Broncos center Gino Gradkowski, who subsequently failed to make Denver's roster. (The Broncos did make the pick less valuable by winning the Super Bowl, presumably out of spite for the Gradkowski trade.)
The Ravens don't pick this high very frequently, of course. The last time they had a top-10 pick was in 2008, when they traded the eighth pick to the Jaguars for four selections so the Jags could move up and draft Derrick Harvey. Several of those picks would be traded again and the Ravens would eventually come away with Joe Flacco and Tavares "T-Good" Gooden.
4. Los Angeles Rams
Original draft capital: 44.7 pointsActual draft capital: 51.3 points
Difference: 6.6 points (14.8 percent)
Unlike most of the teams in this top five, the Rams are missing two of their original picks. They're down a fifth-rounder after selecting offensive tackle Isaiah Battle in last year's supplemental draft, and they sent a seventh-rounder to the Texans for Case Keenum, who currently sits atop the Los Angeles depth chart at quarterback. Yeah, so much of that preceding sentence feels weird.
Fortunately for the Rams, they have the most valuable traded pick (besides the Miami-Philadelphia first-round swap) in the draft heading their way: the 43rd selection from the Eagles, courtesy of last year's Sam Bradford trade. The net of all of Philly's trades these past few weeks has basically been to get themselves back to even in terms of draft capital; they have 46.4 points worth of assets after starting with 45.6 points.
3. San Francisco 49ers
Original draft capital: 52.7 pointsActual draft capital: 60.8 points
Difference: 8.1 points (15.4 percent)
If you're wondering why the 49ers and their $58 million in cap space appear to have earmarked the free-agent period as the right time for a particularly long nap, this is part of the answer. Under Trent Baalke, the 49ers have placed a heavy emphasis on acquiring as many draft picks as possible, frequently trading down while attempting to procure extra compensatory picks each offseason. You can take issue with Baalke's execution, or his desire to stick to that strategy this year given the threadbare nature of his current roster, but history tells us that he's right to pursue picks in bulk.
If Baalke and Chip Kelly do eventually turn things around in San Francisco, all of these extra picks will help. The 8.1 points of draft assets they've added is a larger raw total than anybody else in this year's draft. The 49ers picked up fourth-, fifth-, and two sixth-round compensatory picks, to which they'll add a fifth and two more sixth-round picks from trades. Two of those traded picks came from San Diego when the Chargers traded up to grab Melvin Gordon in the first round last year, a deal that hasn't worked out for them so far.
2. Denver Broncos
Original draft capital: 33.3 pointsActual draft capital: 38.6 points
Difference: 5.3 points (15.9 percent)
While the Broncos might not have had this free-agent period turn out the way they planned, they should be in line to receive a bevy of compensation picks in 2017. That goes with the healthy stash they've acquired for the 2016 draft. John Elway & Co. picked up a third-rounder for Julius Thomas, a fourth-rounder for Orlando Franklin and a sixth-round pick for Terrance Knighton. (They're already in line for two third-round picks in 2017.) Those picks alone are worth an even nine points of draft capital, roughly equivalent to the 56th pick in the draft on its own. That's not enough to get a franchise quarterback, but it's going to help the Broncos to retool their roster as they try to defend their title in 2016. And if the Broncos do end up trading for Colin Kaepernick, the extra picks will make it easier to swallow the cost of doing business.
1. Green Bay Packers
Original draft capital: 36.5 pointsActual draft capital: 42.5 points
Difference: 6.0 points (16.4 percent)
Atop the leaderboard, though, is a team that Ted Thompson rebuilt on a bed of extra draft picks. The Packers generally treat their picks as a precious resource and rarely invest in free agency, and while that may anger some more shortsighted Packers fans, it leaves the Packers with one of the league's more perennially stacked rosters. Green Bay has kept its seven picks and added a pair of fourth-rounders for losing cornerbacks Tramon Williams and Davon House in free agency. Recent Packers fourth-rounders have included rotation linebacker Jake Ryan and starting left tackle David Bakhtiari, so these picks wield more power in Thompson's hands than they do in most.
Most draft capital lost
And then, of course, there's the flip side: Here are the teams who have lost the most draft capital versus their would-be stash of original selections. This year, it's heavy on teams who have lost draft assets in a less usual way: They've been docked picks by the NFL.5. Miami Dolphins
Original draft capital: 50.2 pointsActual draft capital: 45.3 points
Difference: 4.9 points (9.8 percent)
While the Dolphins still have seven picks, they've bizarrely swapped first-rounders with the Eagles as part of the trade that sent Byron Maxwell and Kiko Alonso to Miami, a deal that Philadelphia likely regarded as a favor and should have required the Eagles to send extra draft compensation, not the Fins. Miami also drops some by virtue of lacking even a single compensatory pick, which isn't much of a surprise. The Dolphins haven't received a comp pick since 2013. They'll finally pick one up next year by virtue of Olivier Vernon's departure ... just in time for compensatory draft picks to be tradable.
4. Pittsburgh Steelers
Original draft capital: 36.8 pointsActual draft capital: 33.1 points
Difference: 3.7 points (10.1 percent)
The Steelers basically gave away two picks at the bottom of their draft in August, sending a fifth-rounder to the Eagles for Brandon Boykin and a sixth-rounder to the Jags for Josh Scobee. Boykin failed to crack the cornerback rotation and played 24.7 percent of Pittsburgh's defensive snaps before hitting unrestricted free agency, while Scobee kicked the Steelers out of a victory against the Ravens before being released.
Pittsburgh did pick up a sixth-rounder as a comp selection, but the seventh-rounder they got from the Giants for Brad Wing is seen as a sub-replacement pick (as are all picks after 224) and has zero draft value.
3. Atlanta Falcons
Original draft capital: 42.2 pointsActual draft capital: 37.3 points
Difference: 4.9 points (11.6 percent)
The Falcons also are missing fifth- and sixth-round picks, albeit under very different circumstances. Their sixth-rounder went to the Titans for free-agent disappointment Andy Levitre, who subsequently signed a restructured deal to stay with the Falcons. He wasn't much better in Atlanta. Their fifth-rounder, meanwhile, was taken away by the NFL as punishment for piping crowd noise into the Georgia Dome. Let's remember that the blame for the noise was pinned on director of event marketing Roddy White and that the Falcons somehow had a guy in their front office with the same name as their star wideout. Or maybe the more famous Roddy White really just wanted to be an event planner all along.
2. Kansas City Chiefs
Original draft capital: 35.6 pointsActual draft capital: 30.9 points
Difference: 4.7 points (13.2 percent)
This gap amounts to the Chiefs lacking compensatory picks and missing their third-rounder, which was nabbed by the NFL as punishment for tampering with Eagles wideout Jeremy Maclin. The league additionally fined the Chiefs $250,000 for contacting Maclin during the open negotiating window before free agency when teams are otherwise only allowed to contact the agents for impending free agents. If your head is spinning, you're not alone: The Chiefs were stripped of a draft pick for illegally tampering during the legal tampering period.
1. New England Patriots
Original draft capital: 35.0 pointsActual draft capital: 25.9 points
Difference: 9.1 points (26.0 percent)
And then, far away from the pack, there are the Patriots. They've lost nearly twice more of their draft capital as anybody else in football, even after acquiring a third-rounder and three sixth-rounders as compensatory picks. That helps account for New England's missing fifth-rounder, which was sent to the Texans for backup wideout Keshawn Martin and a sixth-rounder, but it does little to make up for the huge hole in New England's draft.
The Pats are down a first-rounder (and a fourth-rounder in 2017) as part of the punishment for last year's Deflategate saga. It's the second time the Patriots have been docked a first-rounder during Bill Belichick's reign, having lost their 2008 first-round pick in the Spygate scandal. That pick alone is worth 13.2 points of draft capital.
Here is a chart on draft capital leaguewide:
Monday, January 9, 2012
Get better your physical strength by using punching bags
- Hitting the bags stands out to be as one of the best physical exercise anyone could ever get. It helps you to get better your strength, stamina and agility as you move quickly around the bag punching it for several hours.
- The same method mentioned above allows you to build your endurance and fitness as you duck, sway, move away and block the swinging bag for several hours to build your reflexes and endurance.
- Punching these bags using numerous techniques or methods allows you to work out on different muscles of your body. Maintaining the same for several hours will wear you out and help you develop as an athlete.
- The boxing attires used during training enhance your training as they are quite comfortable and suitable. They help you to focus and think well which shapes up your mind.
- Training in rounds helps to build your strength and agility better instead of going at it in one shot.
- While punching, use your entire body weight and not just your fists. This leads to overall workout of your body.
- Using your legs correctly, jumping and moving swiftly warms up your muscles and act quickly as well. This surely adds to your agility and reflective nature.
- This bag could be punched using any technique which will help you to work out very different muscles of your body. This helps trainers to teach boxers different combos and punching techniques.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Alabama Football Spring Game
Alabama detained its A Day spring game on Saturday, and few question marks are slowly being sorted out. It was a day that started with the school unveiling a nine-foot tall figurine of head coach Nick Saban and.
It appears A.J. McCarron has the inside border at quarterback although Saban was pleased with the play of third-string QB Blake Sims. McCarron finished 21 of 38 overall attempts for 222 yards and a touchdown. Sims was 19 of 38 for 229 yards and one interception.
Fantasy Football