Tag Archives: NFL

Power Ranking Ramblings: Week 2

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(Disclaimer: most of what you see below was written a year ago, when we first started doing these rankings. We didn’t see the need to completely rewrite it from scratch just because it’s a new season. We aren’t lazy. You’re lazy!)

Welcome back for another year of Power Ranking Ramblings! The rankings that we crank out every week are identical in order to the nonsensical ones that ESPN spews out every week. This is partly because creating power rankings from scratch is a painstakingly lengthy process and Kevin gave me the death glare when I suggested that we come up with our own. However, the main reason we do it that way is because ESPN’s rankings are… well, they are just awful. You will seldom come across something as overly biased and ill-conceived as ESPN’s opinion on who the best teams in the league are. And it’s a lot of fun to call them out on this, so the point of our rankings is to rip on ESPN’s version as much as possible.

Or at least that’s how it started. I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but it was a fairly abysmal first week of action for the NFL. Bad officiating, bad games and most importantly, bad teams. So while making fun of the Worldwide Leader in Sports and its rampant stupidity is always a good time, we can scarcely allow the league’s overall mediocrity to skid by unscathed.

Feel free to check out ESPN’s rankings here:

Week 2 NFL Power Rankings: Overreaction edition

And thanks for tuning in. Enjoy!

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Hopefully, the Broncos Aren’t Who We Thought They Were

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A good rule of thumb is to not overreact to week 1 of the NFL season. You don’t wanna get too high or too low, unless you’re a Bengals fan and you just watched your quarterback toss four picks and your team get shutout. Then you can overreact with impunity. For the rest of us, it’s important to stay on an even keel. Case in point? The Bills, Jaguars and Rams are all currently in first place in their respective divisions.

That’s why I’m trying not to read too much into the Broncos’ nail-biting win last night over the Chargers. On the one hand, it was encouraging to see the team eek out a close game over a division rival in Vance Joseph’s first game as head coach. On the other, it was eerily similar to last year’s opener against the Panthers. The Broncos almost blow a fourth quarter lead, only to be bailed out when they ice the other team’s kicker and then he misses his second attempt.

One game a season does not make, and there were enough promising signs to suggest that the Broncos are improved from last year’s squad that missed the playoffs. That’s why, for now, I’m not going to get too concerned that they may not have improved enough on the flaws that hindered them in 2016, and will happily take the win. More thoughts and analysis (mostly happy) after the jump.

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Another Crack at the Broncos’ Final 53

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Back in June, I got bored one day and attempted to predict what the makeup of the Broncos’ final 53-man roster would look like. For the most part, my opinions haven’t changed that much since then, but considering tomorrow is the last preseason game and I found myself kind of bored again, I figured it would be a good time to take one more shot at predicting those 53.

This will mainly consist of me offering up my insight with a couple of self-deprecating jokes mixed in, but now we also know that the Broncos are rumored to move on from T.J. Ward. And we have to talk about that too, right?

Hit the jump and we’ll get to it.

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Broncos vs Bears Recap: Heroes and Zeros

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Hello everyone. It’s been a long time since we had some actual Broncos news to dissect. It’s also been a long time since we’ve posted a new article around here. Both of those end today.

In lieu of doing a straight up game recap, I thought it would be a good idea to highlight some players who I thought did well against the Bears last night, and some who well… you know.

Maybe this will be a regular column at Pegboards. I don’t know. I don’t like to promise anything with this blog, but if I can make it happen, I will.

I don’t care that it’s preseason. Damn it feels good to have Broncos football back. Let’s get to it.

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Way Too Early Predictions for Broncos’ Final 53

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With OTA’s and minicamp in the books, we are entering the most boring time of the calendar year for the Broncos. Quite frankly, the only time any breaking news emerges from late June to early-mid July, it’s always for the wrong reason. So let’s all knock on wood and hope that none of the Broncos do anything to grab our attention until training camp starts.

In the meantime, now is as good a time as any to take a crack at what the Broncos’ final 53-man roster will look like. Let’s get to it.

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Pegboards’ Fifth Annual NFL Mock Draft

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Hello and welcome to Pegboards’ Fifth Annual NFL Mock Draft where the rules are made up and the picks don’t matter because we will be wrong 95% of the time.

This year Jesse and I are switching things up slightly. We have pulled our “friends” Eric and Ryan into the mix to help us throw darts at the mock draft dart board. Why would we do this you ask? Is it because we realized we lack some real expertise and sought out intelligent football minds to help bring some professionalism to this blog? Hahaha, no, of course not, it’s mostly because we are lazy (if you haven’t noticed by the lack of updates lately).

So here’s how it’s going to go, the draft order is Eric, Jesse, Ryan, and myself, Kevin. We were allowed to make trades but, spoiler alert, none of us did. Jesse and I will be providing most of the commentary for each pick. We will most likely use our pick’s commentary to praise ourselves and use their pick’s taking some deep shots at their character, intelligence, and overall self-esteem. So just normal, healthy friend stuff.

Without further ado, the Browns of Cleveland are on the clock…

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Assessing the Broncos’ Draft Needs

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Trying to predict which players an NFL team will take in a draft is a fruitless endeavor. In the age of social media, there are plenty of rumors fueling the fire, but good luck seeing the truth through the smoke. It’s a lot of fun though, which is why Pegboards will be presenting its fifth annual mock draft in a couple days. You know, the one where we spend more time making fun of each other for our bad picks than trying to provide any semblance of useful insight. Think of it as mock draft rehab.

Anyway, what isn’t hard and in a way can be equally enjoyable is figuring out what a team needs to get out of a draft, so in the meantime I’ll be going position by position and taking a stab at why the Broncos may be addressing that part of their team on Thursday. I was just going to cover the positions of need and then I realized that the Broncos are rather needy and require all kinds of help. More than you would think since they are barely a year removed from hoisting the Lombardi Trophy.

But that’s life in the NFL, no? Not for long. Let’s get to it.

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Romo’s Back Could Support Broncos Playoff Run (or it Could Break by August)

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Ah, the NFL offseason. Where the rumors are rampant and the desperation even more so. If your team is active in free agency and loves making big splashes, then the start of the league year is like a second Christmas. For us Broncos fans, John Elway may as well be Santa Claus, because he usually delivers an assortment of shiny new toys every March. Except last year, but hey he helped bring us a Super Bowl. How greedy are you people?

Anyway, there is one rumor that keeps coming up that I just can’t ignore. That of course is the prevailing theory that the Broncos are the front-runners to be Tony Romo’s rebound if the Cowboys file for divorce. You never know what will happen with these kinds of relationships, especially in Texas, but it seems likely that Romo and the Cowboys have reached a crossroads. The question of the day is whether or not Romo is even worth pursuing, or if at this point he is just damaged goods.

Let’s be clear on one thing: signing Peyton Manning was as good as punching an annual ticket for a first-round bye, and clearing a path to the Super Bowl. Signing Tony Romo is more like scheduling your annual eye-exam a year in advance, but then that appointment comes around and it’s not that great of a fit for you anymore. You may not have liked that joke very much (stay with me, I’m warming up), but you can at least agree with me when I say that there is a very clear difference between bringing in the Sheriff and bringing in a guy that probably dresses like one.

So here’s what I’m going to do: I’ll gave you three reasons for why signing Tony Romo would be beneficial for the Broncos, in my humble opinion, and three reasons for why it would make me extremely nervous. You with me so far? Okay, let’s do it.

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Let’s Talk About Kyle Shanahan

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We at Pegboards are still saddened over the departure of Gary Kubiak. He is a great coach and an even better person, but the Broncos have no choice but to move on and neither do we. If you want more insight as to our thoughts on Kubes and his legacy here in Denver, we have written about that at length here. This article is all about the future, and the future of the Broncos could very well be centered around Kyle Shanahan.

The prodigal son some would say, and who could blame them? His dad was only the most successful head coach in Colorado sports history and the one who finally got the Broncos to the promise land (with some help from Gary Kubiak). Kyle has also made a name for himself the past two seasons as one of the more capable offensive minds in football, turning the Falcon’s into the NFL’s top offense and resurrecting Matt Ryan’s career (with no help from Gary Kubiak). Considering his ties to Denver and the Broncos’ desperate need for an overhaul on offense, it would seem to be a no-brainer that Shanahan should be far and away the top candidate for the job, right?

Well, not so fast. While there is certainly a lot to like about Kyle following in his father’s footsteps, it may not be the slam dunk that everyone seems to think it will be. Kevin and I bring back our “Let’s Talk About” series to take a closer look at Shanahan and why the Broncos may need to proceed with caution if this is really the route they want to go down.

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Power Ranking Ramblings: Week 17

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Welcome back for another round of Power Ranking Ramblings! The rankings that we crank out every week are identical in order to the nonsensical ones that ESPN spews out every week. This is partly because creating power rankings from scratch is a painstakingly lengthy process and Kevin gave me the death glare when I suggested that we come up with our own. However, the main reason we do it that way is because ESPN’s rankings are… well, they are just awful. You will seldom come across something as overly biased and ill-conceived as ESPN’s opinion on who the best teams in the league are. And it’s a lot of fun to call them out on this, so the point of our rankings is to rip on ESPN’s version as much as possible.

Or at least that’s how it started. I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but it’s been a fairly abysmal year for the NFL. Bad officiating, bad games and most importantly, bad teams. There are three squads in each conference who have a legitimate shot at winning the Super Bowl, and after that it’s a whole bunch of meh. So while making fun of the Worldwide Leader in Sports and its rampant stupidity is always a good time, we can scarcely allow the league’s overall mediocrity to skid by unscathed.

 

Thanks for sticking with us this year. We’ll be back next season.

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