Bet the Mortgage: Week 15, 2015 – Best Bets

by | Dec 17, 2015 | 2015 season, NFL Gambling

Well, at least it’s now a contest.
weekly-bets

Andy took it in the shorts last week, losing his three big bets, but saving a little bit of face on his upset pick, but finishing down a whopping $3,700 for the week. Tony managed to go 3-1, but his one loss was his biggest bet, for a net gain of $267.

That pulls Tony within $1,000 of Andy–or rather drops Andy to within $1.000 of Tony–for the season.

And we’re back at it again…

Here is where we stand:

Last week Last week $ Overall Overall $ Bankroll
Andy 1-3 – $3,700 24-31-1 – $6,224 $ 3,776
Tony 3-1 + $267 26-29-1 – $6,954 $ 3,046

With the end of the season in sight, there’s some antsy-ness setting in. They look like they might be ready to ramp things up a notch as we pass the final quarter pole. (more…)

ZB Mock Draft Analysis: Turf Show Times

by | Aug 16, 2013 | Fantasy Football

Mike Dietrich
Author at Turf Show Times
Twitter: @dvond/@TurfShowTimes

His team picked tenth:

RB LeSean McCoy
RB Stevan Ridley
RB Reggie Bush
WR Marques Colston
QB Matt Ryan
WR Torrey Smith
WR Mike Williams
WR Josh Gordon
RB DeAngelo Williams
Bears Defense
TE Jordan Cameron
K Phil Dawson

(Mike did a round-by-round analysis much like our Anthony Maggio. You can link to the full draft clicking here.)

His thoughts: (more…)

One year later: Analyzing the RGIII trade – Rams doing alright with their haul

by | Apr 4, 2013 | 2012 season, 2013 season, NFL Draft, NFL Random Thoughts

 

When the St. Louis Rams traded the number two overall pick in the 2012 draft, they put their faith in Sam Bradford as their quarterback of the future and in General Manager Les Snead and Coach Jeff Fisher to put the collection of draft picks received in the deal to good use.

And the duo, at least to this point, appears to have done just that.

St. Louis received first and second round picks from Washington in 2012 and then additional first round picks in 2013 and 2014 in exchange for the pick the Redskins used on Robert Griffin III. Griffin was arguably the league’s most compelling story last season, as he took the league by storm in returning Washington to the top of the NFC East for the first time in the 2000s. Enough said. Assuming a return to health – and so far the medical reports are positive – this trade definitely worked out for them.

But it was a high price to pay. And Snead and Fisher immediately went to work, parlaying their newly-found collection of assets in the 2012 draft to continue laying a less flashy, but no-less solid foundation for improvement in St. Louis. (more…)

In depth 2013: St. Louis Rams

by | Mar 21, 2013 | 2012 season, 2013 season, NFL Draft, NFL Free Agency, NFL Random Thoughts

The St. Louis Rams started 2012 by making a huge trade, netting a collection of draft picks from Washington when the Redskins traded up to the second selection in order to pick Robert Griffin III. The Rams finished the season 7-8-1, an improvement of 5.5 games over 2011, in Jeff Fisher’s first year in town.

The improvement was tangible. The offense went from scoring 193 points during the 2-14 debacle in 2011 to 299 points in 2012. And the defense improved from 26th in points allowed to 14th, a 59 point improvement.

The 2013 season promises to be full of more changes. The Rams still have a ton of draft picks, including two in the first round. And all-time franchise leading running back Steven Jackson has moved on to Atlanta, meaning the team will have to find a new offensive sparkplug at that position for the first time since 2004.

The Rams are stuck in a competitive division, fighting amongst current NFC favorites in San Francisco and Seattle. But this is clearly a team that is on an uphill swing and, as the team’s 4-1-1 divisional record in 2012 showed, the Rams are not going to go down easily. Ryan Van Bibber, an editor for both Turf Show Times and SB Nation’s NFL coverage, shared his thoughts on the future of the St. Louis Rams.

Zoneblitz: What did you think of Jeff Fisher’s first year as coach? (more…)

By the Numbers: Best #81 in NFL History

By the Numbers: Best #81 in NFL History

by | May 29, 2012 | 80's, By the Numbers, Hall of Fame

We’ve reached the dog days of the NFL–I consider myself a pretty big fan of the NFL, and even I can’t get that jazzed up about OTA’s. And it’s not just because my team went 3-13 last year–seriously, if you get excited about OTA’s, you might need professional counseling. Or you might be a Packer fan.

While there’s some great debate going on in our annual Hall of Fame thread, we’ve decided to fill the dead space with a series of posts that has been kicking around in my head for some time, and recently came back to the front of my brain when I heard a local radio host discussing the uniform number choice of a highly touted rookie (in this case it was hockey, but that doesn’t matter).

A few years back I bought a book that discusses, across all professional sports, who the best players to wear each number was. Of course, some of the numbers skew towards football (50-98, where fewer athletes in other sports wear numbers that high regularly), but I also thought some of the lower numbers tended to focus more on baseball/basketball than I would have expected.

So I figured we would start a series of posts discussing each number in the NFL (randomly) and who wore that number the best in the history of the league (we’ll gladly consider AFL, and even some CFL and USFL where applicable), and allow the fans to vote for who they think was the best.

The first number up is one that has had a significant tradition of star players: #81

(more…)