Critics of Raiders offseason – including us – vindicated

by | Nov 14, 2008 | 2008 NFL Free Agency, NFL Random Thoughts

We here at Zoneblitz.com were moderately amused by – and critical of – several of the moves made by the Oakland Raiders during the last off-season. And we weren’t the only ones, not by a long shot.

The team threw eight-figure signing bonuses at a half-dozen players who, at least from an educated fan’s perspective, didn’t make any sense.

We even had the audacity in March to suggest that perhaps the team, ergo Al Davis, was trying to sign a collection of stiffs and dogs so gross that it would put Lane Kiffin in an unwinnable situation and give Davis a reason to get rid of him.

Well, it’s mid-November. The Raiders have the league’s highest payroll this year for yet another 2-7 record.
Kiffin is gone. A couple of the lesser-name guys like defensive end Kalimba Edwards, who has five sacks, have turned out to be solid additions. But as far as the big-name guys who backed Brinks trucks up to the front office complex to drive their bonus bucks home, we’ve been pretty close to right on the mark.

Here a synopsis of how some of the Raiders’ high-profile signings have worked out so far this season:
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Reviewing Week 10 Best Bets

by | Nov 13, 2008 | NFL Gambling

I’m back, baby!!!

Okay, that’d be a stupid thing to think when it comes to gambling. And it probably does nothing more than tempt fate. But I did hit three of four Best Bets during week 10, just a week after flubbing all four of my picks.

Game by game, the Giants hung on to beat the Eagles straight up. The Vikings held on to beat Green Bay by a point but the Packers covered the spread. And Baltimore slobberknocked Houston, so not only did I hit my first three picks but they were all underdogs – a valuable thing when betting for real in Vegas.

I did stumble on picking the over in the San Diego v Kansas City tilt. But my 3-1 mark for the week brings me to 5-6 for the three weeks I’ve been doing these picks – not bad … if you take out the 0-4 second week. Uggh.

So, anyway, here we go with Best Bets Version 3:

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Jury awards former football stars $28.1 million

by | Nov 10, 2008 | Business of Football, NFL Breaking News

Jurors in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California Monday awarded more than 2,000 former professional football players a $28.1 million verdict against the NFL Players Association and its licensing and marketing division, after determining that the union and its subsidiary, Players Inc., failed to market retired players’ marketing rights under a group licensing authorization contract.

The contract was supposed to cover licensing of electronic games, collectables, and other merchandise. The jury award included more than $7 million in actual damages and $21 million in punitive damages for the claim, which was originally filed by Herb Adderley.

Adderley wept following the announcement and told the Associated Press “I won three Super Bowls and this feels better than all of them combined.” NFLPA Acting Executive Director Richard Berthelsen told the AP the union planned to ask U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup to toss out the verdict. If that fails, the union intends to appeal.

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Best Bets? We’ll try again this week

by | Nov 9, 2008 | NFL Gambling

Well, last week anyone reading this page would have been better off betting against me – they’d probably be on their way to an early retirement, in fact.

One lesson I think I should learn is to just stay away from betting on Cincinnati games. You just never know what is going to happen when the Orange and Black hit the field this season.

In fact, bad teams in general have tended to screw me up this season, so perhaps staying away from Oakland, St. Louis and Detroit would be wise as well…

Nah.

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Crappy weekend for QBs

by | Nov 3, 2008 | NFL News

Turned my attention back to the Monday Night Football game just in time to watch Byron Leftwich take the helm for Pittsburgh to start the second half.

Apparently Ben Roethlisberger was still in the locker room getting treatment on a shoulder injury. Save for his long windup, Leftwich looked pretty good on that first drive, nailing Nate Washington with a 50 yard pass that led to a touchdown run by Willie Parker.

Roethlisberger has been getting the crap beaten out of him weekly. But he was hardly the only one this week.

Kyle Orton is supposed to be out a month with a high-ankle sprain for the Bears while Matt Schaub will give way to Sage Rosenfels for at least a couple weeks while he recuperates from a knee injury.

Dan Orlovsky made room on the Detroit Lions roster as well by hurting his thumb – and gave offensive coordinator Jim Colletto an opportunity to put his foot in his mouth by saying he didn’t want to “embarrass” Drew Stanton by playing him now.

That doesn’t bode well for Chicago or Houston, or for Detroit, though their season is already pretty much shot. Dallas went from one bad backup to another on Sunday and both performed so badly that Wade Phillips described Brooks Bollinger as “just another quarterback.”

Then on Monday the Cleveland Browns announced that Brady Quinn will replace Derek Anderson as starter. I don’t think Anderson has gotten a ton of help and Cleveland has played a killer schedule. The quarterback play league-wide has been underwhelming this year. Save for a half-dozen competent to great QBs you can toss most of the ham-and-eggers into a bucket and not really know the distance.

Having two quarterbacks used to be a luxury. These days, it seems, having even one might make that statement true.