According to SI, Antonio Gates restructured his contract to free up $1.5 million in salary cap space for the Chargers. Gates has two years left on the 6-year, $39 million contract he signed in 2010. He was due $5 million this season, but $3 million was converted to a salary bonus. My question is why now? Do the Chargers need to free up money to make a trade? That would be unusual so early in the year, but I can't think of any other reason why this would be done now.
No link for this one...the Ray Rice story is all over the net. All I'm going to say about it is that justice is finally served. That video takes away any shadow of a doubt that anyone may have had.
Monday Night Football: Kinda hate these double headers...luckily I don't live on the East Coast. Chargers 18-17 lost to the Cardinals was so disappointing on many levels. Phillip Rivers wasn't sharp. Players dropped potential first downs and interceptions. Critical mistakes; an interception, blown coverage to hand the Cards 3 points at the half and a botched snap to take the Chargers out of FG range at the end of the game. Defense couldn't step up to make one play in the Cardinals last two drives...Carson Palmer throws only 1 incomplete pass in those two drives (and it was a sure INT that was dropped) and never got sacked. Still Rivers had 2:25 left and 2 timeouts...and it ends on a dropped passed. Yea, I know it was tipped, but Keenan Allen had both hands on the ball and couldn't hold on. Difference between losing teams and winning teams is the winners find a way to make positive plays and limit negative ones...in a 1 point game only a few of those plays would have made the difference.
Bright spots for the Chargers were the two defensive rookies picked 1-2 by the Chargers in the draft. Jason Verrett held his own against the big Arizona receivers. Jerry Attaochu didn't play a lot, but it seemed like every time he was on the field he made an impact on the game. He made great plays in kick coverage, blocked a punt, and got the strip/sack on Palmer. This Chargers may not be great at getting a team ready early in the season, but their first two drafts have produced 4 potential stars (D.J. Fluker, Keenan Allen last year).
A co-worker and I were discussing all these so-so performances. Tom Brady, Nick Foles took a half to finally get going, even Peyton Manning wasn't sharp. Tony Romo looked terrible in the first half. We wondered if it could be that teams aren't preparing enough in the preseason (they're shorter now and teams are afraid their starters will get hurt). Almost none of the starters play any in the last preseason game. Chargers starters at most played a quarter of the "dress rehearsal" 3rd preseason game and only a series in the previous two. No starter that I remember played in the 4th game. Rivers and the Chargers as a team weren't sharp...even Antonio Gates was dropping passes. Would be interesting to find out how many minutes the teams that played well (Seahawks, Falcons/Saints - at least the offenses, Vikings, Lions) played their starters.
Bulldog over at Nothing If Not Random posted his preseason picks and mentioned the stat that 4-5 teams, on average, make the playoffs that didn't make it the previous season...of course that means 4-5 teams that made it last season don't make it back. Call this 1 game overreaction, but could one of those teams be the Patriots? Sooner or later the mighty have to fall. Could it be this year? Lets imagine the Viks and Lions are for real and it's not a 1 game aberration. Pats go to Minnesota next week and play the Lions in Week 12. They also play the Bengals and Broncos at home and have to go to Green Bay and Indy. Lets image they lose all those games...that's 6 losses and still have the rematch against Miami in Week 15. Can the Pats go 9-7 and miss the playoffs? I would say that's a one game overreaction, but if they lose next week in Minnesota...
It wouldn't be a stretch to imagine the Chiefs and Chargers missing the playoffs this year...that would account for the AFC teams. The NFC is a lot tougher to see a team not repeating. Falcons missed the playoffs last year and made a strong case that they'll be in this year...but who would be out? Packers lost in Week 1, but the Seahawks treat most teams that visit Seattle badly. Arizona was a 10-6 team last year and missed post season play, so they are a strong candidate to make it, but again who's out? Could it be the Saints? Saints and Packers are the only playoff teams to lose in Week 1. Before the season started I thought the Panthers would be one of the teams that miss out, but then they go and win a game with their backup QB at the helm. This was the team that everyone said had no WRs or RBs to help Cam Newton.
How many of you fantasy players have put in for Kelvin Benjamin and Allen Hurns?
Lions adopted the Saints offense this year and Week 1 they did a pretty good Saints imitation. That was an impressive offensive showing. Calvin Johnson is...well Calvin Johnson. Seeing him lineup against DBs...the size difference is alarming...and the guy can leap over tall buildings and is faster than a speeding bullet. Now Detroit has Golden Tate and Reggie Bush playing the role of Darren Sproles. If Stafford holds up his end this could finally be the year for the Lions.
When are the Indianapolis Colts going to admit they made a big mistake in acquiring Trent Richardson? The guy runs hard, but looks slow and doesn't change direction very well. Colts seem blindly committed to this guy for some reason.
After week 1, the #1 RB in fantasy football is Knowshon Moreno and will likely be the starting RB in Miami the rest of the season...how many of you predicted that? Please, drop your hands, I know your lying.
I won't go into why, because you know why, but Justin Forsett will be the #1 most picked up player in Fantasy Football this week.
I agree that maybe the Pats are on the downward slope. Seems weird to say about a team who went to the AFC championship last year. Brady has been holding this team together while playing with subpar targets. Gronk is great when he is in there but that has not been much. They haven't had a true number one receiver since Randy Moss. New England has also had a patch work defense for many years. Granted their secondary may be the best it has been in years due to the addition of Revis. Still this is a defense that has been 25th or worse for the last four years in yards allowed. True they were much better in points allowed but it seems it is only a matter of time when age and what I consider many draft "whiffs" catch up on defense.
ReplyDeleteIndy blew it with the Richardson deal. I liked it at the time but it has definitely been a bust. Who would have known? Maybe Cleveland did but I doubt they even thought he'd fall this bad. I think if Indy can find an answer at running back this team could be ready to compete against the big boys in the conference.