Tag: Denver Broncos

NFL QB bust Paxton Lynch final pick on Day 1 of USFL draft

The last pick on the first day of the USFL draft was once a first-round NFL pick, QB Paxton Lynch

This is not where Paxton Lynch expected to be hearing his name on 2/22/22.

However, the former No. 1 pick of the Denver Broncos in 2016 — No. 26 overall — finds himself chosen as the last pick Tuesday on the first day of the USFL draft.

Lynch was released by Denver in 2018 and the spiral … not the kind he was expecting to throw for years — has gone downward since.

It got so bad that earlier in the day he was released by the CFL Saskatchewan Roughriders. As the third-string quarterback, he did not dress for games last season and spent most of the time on the one-game injured list.

In fact, the New York Post ran a story on Tuesday saying Lynch’s career had hit a new low.

This is a new start for a player who once was hoped to be a franchise quarterback by John Elway and the Broncos’ brass.

Seahawks still give Russell Wilson the best chance to win another Super Bowl

Wilson may want to “explore his options” this offseason, but at the end of the day the franchise he’s already with gives him the best chance to win the Super Bowl

Russell Wilson isn’t going anywhere. Unless he demands a trade some time in the next two months and the Seattle Seahawks get an offer they simply can’t refuse, Wilson will likely play out at least the last two years of his current contract in Seattle.

Wilson may want to “explore his options” this offseason, but at the end of the day the franchise he’s already with gives him the best chance to win the Super Bowl. Let’s compare their situation with a handful of teams around the league that could be in the market for a different quarterback this year.

Steelers hire Brian Flores as an assistant amid his lawsuit against NFL

Flores is joining Mike Tomlin’s staff as a linebackers coach.

Former Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores is back in the league, though not in the kind of role many expected he would be.

Flores interviewed for several head coaching positions this offseason, but he will instead be joining coach Mike Tomlin and the Pittsburgh Steelers as a linebackers coach.

Given Flores’ experience, the fact that he didn’t even land as a coordinator is a surprise.

Remember, on Feb. 1, Flores filed a class-action lawsuit against the NFL (and the Dolphins, Giants and Broncos, specifically) alleging racial discrimination in hiring and firing practices and, in the case of the Dolphins, attempted match-fixing at the hands of owner Stephen Ross.

“I am excited about Brian Flores joining our coaching staff given his history of developing and teaching defensive players during his time in the NFL,” Tomlin said in a release. “Brian’s resume speaks for itself, and I look forward to him adding his expertise to help our team.”

Flores’ allegations of discrimination have to do with the handling of head coaching decisions, specifically, so his hiring as a position coach will likely have little impact on the league’s counterarguments. According to a report from CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones, Flores still plans to proceed with the lawsuit.

Among the allegations Flores levies against the league is that the New York Giants violated the Rooney Rule, which requires teams to interview at least one minority head coaching candidate. Prior to his interview with the Giants, Flores received a text from Patriots coach Bill Belichick that seemed to indicate the franchise had already decided to hire Brian Daboll without interviewing minority candidates.

He also alleges that before he was hired by the Dolphins in 2019, the Broncos conducted a sham interview with him in which John Elway and other executives arrived an hour late and visibly hungover.

Many felt that his termination with Dolphins was also premature. After a 5-11 finish in his first season, his squad finished with a winning record in each of the last two seasons and just barely missed the playoffs. The fact that he could only get a position coaching job with that experience could serve to help his case.

It may not be the level of job that Flores wanted (and deserved) but the big winner here is clearly Pittsburgh, who lands one of the brightest defensive minds in football.

[listicle id=1415725]

5 potential destinations for Bills QB Mitchell Trubisky

Under the surface need for #Bills this offseason is backup QB… IF a team signs Mitchell Trubisky. Here’s some clubs to keep an eye on that might be interested in him:

The Buffalo Bills only have one quarterback on their roster for 2022 as things currently stand: Josh Allen.

Third-stringer Davis Webb recently signed with the New York Giants. He was able to based on his standing as the No. 3 on the practice squad.

Sandwiched between Allen and Webb on Buffalo’s depth chart last season was Mitchell Trubisky. Seldom on the field, Trubisky is one of the most-talented players the Bills have had as a backup QB in a long time. If Allen were to go down, there was some confidence in Trubisky.

Heading into this offseason, Trubisky will be a free agent.

Buffalo general manager Brandon Beane expressed a desire to bring Trubisky back, but he thinks the QB will get job offers elsewhere.

Where could those be? What teams should the Bills keep an eye on in relation their quarterback situation?

Here’s a quick rundown of teams to keep an eye on regarding Trubisky’s future:

5 NFL teams to bet on winning Super Bowl 57 now before they lose their value

We’ve got the oddsmakers right where we want them. But the lines will start moving again soon enough.

Quick, while everyone else is still soaking in the afterglow of Super Bowl 56, grab your phone and look up odds for next year’s championship game.

A few things should stand out right away. The Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills are co-favorites (+650) to lift the Lombardi Trophy—surprising absolutely no one who watched them this year—while the reigning champion Los Angeles Rams are somewhat long-shots given their +1200 odds.

Teams with high upside like the Indianapolis Colts and Los Angeles Chargers are hovering at +2500 while clubs like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (+2200) almost seem to be getting the benefit of the doubt despite losing quarterback Tom Brady to retirement.

The simple point is this: as we enter NFL purgatory—the time of year when a champion has been crowned and there’s nothing rivals can do but feign happiness for the victor before rosters unlock—there’s no better opportunity to capitalize on the type of offseason moves that are all but inevitable.

That makes this one of the best times to throw a few darts on teams that should only see their lines get more and more favorable as the preseason nears.

Here’s a look at some of the contenders who are likely to see their 2023 title odds get shorter in the coming weeks, making them a prime value bet in the interim.

All odds via Tipico Sportsbook.

What are Chargers’ odds to win Super Bowl LVII?

Here are the Chargers’ opening odds for Super Bowl 57.

The 2021 NFL season has officially come to an end after the Rams defeated the Bengals in Super Bowl LVI on Sunday.

With that being said, it’s time to turn the page and look ahead to the next season.

At the moment, the Chargers are tied with six other teams for the sixth-best odds to win it all at +2000, per Tipico Sportsbook.

Those teams are the Ravens, Buccaneers, Broncos, Colts, Patriots, and Cardinals.

Los Angeles’ odds are reasonable, considering the team showed capable of going toe to toe with some of the best teams in the league, led by star quarterback Justin Herbert.

However, L.A. needs to address some deficiencies on the defensive side of the ball that showed up throughout the season to ensure it has enough ammo to take a leap.

If the Bolts nail their offseason, those odds will likely move down heading into the 2022 regular season.

Super Bowl LVII will be held Feb. 12, 2023, in Glendale, AZ.

The five teams who can follow the Rams’ win-now, pay later path to the Super Bowl

Who’s a few trades away from a Super Bowl run?

The Rams assembled a super team to win the 2021 NFL championship. All they had to do to build it was trade away seven years worth of first round draft picks.

Los Angeles general manager Les Snead emerged as the patron saint of the win-now philosophy after executing trades that brought players like Matthew Stafford, Jalen Ramsey and Von Miller to the Rams. In the process, he set the borders for a precarious championship window. So far, it’s stayed open long enough for the Rams to win their first Super Bowl on the west coast. With much of that talent intact for 2022, there’s a good chance it could remain open next winter.

The Rams have set the tone in a copycat league before. Hiring Sean McVay — now 55-26 in the regular season and 7-3 in the playoffs — set off a trend where NFL head coaching searches landed on similar young minds franchises hoped would be strategic wunderkinds. That included his opponent in Super Bowl 56, former assistant Zac Taylor.

They’ll likely play trendsetter again after Snead’s calculated gamble paid out. Los Angeles’ title run could be the evidence to push other needy teams across the country to mortgage picks in hopes of finding the expensive veteran talent who can be the booster engine to their sputtering rocket.

These win-now moves don’t always work out. The Seahawks traded to first round picks for Jamal Adams and his safety blitzes failed to overhaul their defense. The Colts acquired Carson Wentz, got a legendary season from Jonathan Taylor, and managed to win two fewer games in 2021 than they did in 2020.

These cautionary tales may be washed away in a league with a short memory. The last game of 2021 was a testament to the Rams’ aggression in roster building. What teams could look to steal that strategy between now and the first game of 2022?

Report: Bert Watts heading to the NFL with the Denver Broncos

Bert Watts will leave Auburn as return to the NFL.

Associate head coach Bert Watts appears to be on the move from the Auburn Tigers. He joined the staff after arriving from Memphis after just one season there. Watts also spent three seasons at Fresno State as the linebackers coach.

It appears that now head coach Bryan Harsin will have another assistant on this staff. Watts served as the associate head coach, special teams coordinator, and outside linebackers coach for the Tigers.

Dan Graziano of ESPN is reporting that Watts will head to the NFL to join the new staff with the Denver Broncos.

This will make the sixth coordinator to be replaced on the staff during the tenure of Harsin. The team has yet to place offensive coordinator Austin Davis, who stepped down from his post less than two months on the job.

Watts now returns to the Broncos where he helped them to the top seed in 2012. The hunt begins for his replacement. Safe to say that head coach Bryan Harsin has plenty of work to do.

[listicle id=40451]

Contact/Follow us @AuburnWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Auburn news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Patrick on Twitter: @PatrickConnCFB

Dom Capers leaving the Lions for the Broncos after one season as a defensive assistant

Capers helped Aaron Glenn transition to being a coordinator for the first time

Lions defensive senior assistant Dom Capers is leaving Detroit after one season. Capers, one of the legendary defensive architects of the modern NFL, is heading to Denver to fill a similar role with the Broncos and their new coaching staff.

Capers, 72, came to Detroit to help Aaron Glenn transition from being a position coach to a defensive coordinator for the first time. Glenn played under Capers with the Houston Texans and deployed a similar base scheme to Capers’ 3-4 with an Eagle front.

Even though the Lions defense struggled in the transition from Matt Patricia’s heavy read-and-react scheme, Capers is still quite bullish on Detroit’s defense.

“Believe me, everything was positive here,” Capers told the Detroit Free Press. “I loved Dan (Campbell) and I thought Dan did a great job this year holding this team together, keeping them fighting. And I thought A.G., I think through a lot of adversity and player movement and all those things did a really good job.”

Capers continued,

“I thought we played our best football at the end of the season, which having started two expansion teams from scratch, you’ve got some experience at having to fight through that. I just feel like the arrow’s pointing up and everything’s heading in the right direction here so that really had nothing to do with it.”

It is unknown if Capers will be replaced on the Lions staff. Detroit is hoping to hold onto defensive backs coach Aubrey Pleasant, who is still in consideration for the coordinator position with the New Orleans Saints.

Former Panthers RB Jonathan Stewart: ‘It took a while’ to get over Super Bowl 50 loss

When talking with WCNC’s Eugene Robinson this week, Panthers all-time leading rusher Jonathan Stewart said “it took a while” to put the loss in Super Bowl 50 behind him.

Even in their most successful season in franchise history, the Carolina Panthers felt the sting of how their 2015 campaign ended for quite some time. That certainly goes for one of the organization’s all-time greats in Jonathan Stewart.

The former Panthers running back reflected upon his Super Bowl 50 experience with WCNC’s Charlotte Today this week. When asked by host (and familiar radio voice of the team) Eugene Robinson if he’s been able to reconcile the 24-10 loss to the Denver Broncos, Stewart admitted it wasn’t a quick fix.

“Yeah, it took a while,” Stewart said. “But I think, at the end of the day, we have a lot of life to live and I’ve lived a good life. And at the end of the day, football—it’s a love of mine.”

Football has loved him back.

2008’s 13th overall pick went on to play 11 seasons of pro ball, capping off a noteworthy career with 7,335 rushing yards and 58 total touchdowns. He retired in 2019 as a one-time Pro Bowler and the Panthers’ all-time leading rusher.

Stewart was also the only Panther to taste the end zone in that Super Bowl defeat, hitting the paint at the 11:25 mark of the second quarter on a glorious 1-yard leap. And it’s that, along with the guys he did it with, that’ll always stick for Stewart.

“I got an opportunity to score in the Super Bowl, I got an opportunity to be in the Super Bowl with people in that locker room that I love so dearly,” he added. “I wouldn’t trade that for the world.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ0PgscTRKk

[lawrence-related id=649941,649672]

[listicle id=649096]