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Good Morning Raider Nation! Here are a couple of interesting reads from each of our enemies!
AFC West
Chiefs:
Recently the Kansas City Chiefs made some waves by releasing Pro Bowl CB Brandon Flowers. It was a not completly unexpected move since it was widely known that he was already on their trading block but any time a player of Flowers' quality gets dumped it is a big deal. Chiefs head coach Andy Reid finally has laid out his reasoning for the release, and money was indeed one of the reasons after the release raised their cap space from $2.6M to $9.7M.
Chiefs' Andy Reid talks about "the fit" with Brandon Flowers - Arrowhead Pride
Even after the release of one of the most talented players on the Chiefs defense they are still betting big on that side of the football. They have one of the scariest defenses on paper and they have continued to add more talent to that side with 1st round selection Dee Ford out of Auburn. The real question is whether DC Bob Sutton is the man to get the job done with this extremely impressive collection of athletes. The Chiefs are betting big that he is.
Chiefs to gamble on defense - ESPN
Broncos:
The Broncos already had one of the best pass rushers in the league in Von Miller, though his sophomore year was lacking compared to his rookie output. Then this off-season they decided to go out and pair him with one of the best pass rushers in NFL history in Demarcus Ware. That is a scary combination if both players are healthy and playing at their top levels. If that happens it is hard to come up with a pass rushing tandem better than that duo in the entire league.
Where will Ware Wear out the other team? - Mile High Report
The rich keep getting richer in Denver, that is for sure. Besides an impressive crop of FA's signing on to try and get revenge after a historical Super Bowl meltdown last season, they also are getting one of their secret impact players back as well. S Quinton Carter was drafted in 2011 to pair up with Rahim Moore and hold down their Safety spots for years to come but Carter has had knee problems that kept him out the last two years. Healthy for the first time in a long time, Quinton is back for the Broncos.
Broncos welcome back Carter - Yahoo Sports
Chargers:
The Chargers major changes came last season with the removal of Norv Turner as head coach and replacing him with Mike McCoy. They also changed GM's going from AJ Smith to Tom Telesco as well. After such major front office shake ups you usually see a couple of years of big player changes, but that hasn't been the case for San Diego. This off-season they were very quiet in FA and relied on the draft and the improvements within their own squad to get better. Without much activity it should be no surprise that their off-season grade isn't the highest.
Off-season Report Card: Chargers - Sports illustrated
Pro Football Focus has been going around grading depth charts across the league themselves. Recently our own Levi Damien pointed out this series from PFF for our very own Raiders. Now they have hit up the Chargers roster and graded them out too. The chart they have makes it very easy to see that San Diego will be relying on their offense far more than their defense.
2014 Depth Chart: Chargers - Pro Football Focus
NFL
Sometimes it is interesting to see what coaches are getting credit for their work and which coaches are not. Some coaches get credit for all the wins, but do they really deserve as much praise as they get? The opposite is true sometimes too, some coaches are ignored for their talents far too often too. Frank Schwab and Eric Edholm recently wondered about that very topic and have named their most over-rated and most under-rated coaches in the NFL.
Shutdown Corners' Over-rated and Under-rated: Head Coach - Yahoo Shutdown Corner
The most intriguing thing going on in the NFL right now is probably the quandary of which position Saints' TE Jimmy Graham should be paid as for his franchise tag designation. Graham is a player with a unique skill set that has been lined up far more often at WR spots over TE positions for the Saints over the last couple of years but he is a TE on the depth chart. The difference between the TE franchise tag and the WR franchise tag is a difference of millions of dollars and Jimmy wants to be paid like a WR. The grievance hearing to decide which designation is to be used is officially starting today.
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