We needed a new article. That last one was getting stale.  Here’s my betting lines for the weeks games.  Mind you I have no real knowledge of betting games and have not looked at any of the lines.  But whatever.

KC vs DEN

Line: KC -14

O/U: 66

Tons of offense.  KC wins huge in a high scoring game (for KC they may get 50 of the 66 points)

CLE vs OAK

Line: Even

O/U: 30

Baker struggles from nerves in his first real start that he has time to think about.  Cleveland’s defense is enough to keep Carr and Co in check.  I’d give the line -7 for Cleveland if they were at home but OAK has home dirt advantage.

SF vs LAC

Line: LAC -7

O/U: 52

Neither team really living up to preseason hype. SF will be with a backup QB in Beat Hard who is an INT machine.  But both defenses give up points.  I’d favor more for LAC but do they really have a home field advantage?

Offense

QBs

1. Case Keenum

2. $wag Kelly

3. Vet to be named later. (Maybe Derek Anderson?)

There is no chance Paxton makes this team.  At this point in time there is no reason to keep him around and pretend he helps the roster.   A veteran QB for this team will be needed, even if Kelly is the #2, to provide stability and also to help mold Kelly into a solid professional.  Derek Anderson would be awesome for this.

RBs

1. Royce Freeman

2. Devontae Booker

3. Phillip Lindsay

4. Andy Janovich (FB)

Freeman obviously earned the starting job this preseason, and Lindsay has solidified his roster spot and his role with his play as a 3rd down back and as a returner. Janovich is a stud FB and it appears Musgrave has plans for utilizing the position. Booker makes the team just because he has experience and no one else has done anything to push for his job.

WRs

1. Emmanuel Sanders

2. Demaryius Thomas

3. Courtland Sutton

4.  DaeSean Hamilton

5. Tim Patrick

6. River Cracraft/ John Diarse

The top 4 are obvious outside of the fact that Sanders seems to be the new #1 WR for Keenum.   But Sanders Thomas Sutton and Hamilton could have been put down in ink on the depth chart AUG 1.  Tim Patrick is the next guy who has made plays and closely resembles the style of WR Denver prefers being tall long and fast.  The #6 WR could be cut altogether making room for another RB, but I think they keep 6.  Diarse is the better WR but Cracraft has benefits in the return game and could be kept in case of injury to one of the returners.

TEs

1. Jeff Heuerman

2. Jake Butt

3.  Austin Traylor

This also could be a spot where Denver only keeps 2 opposed to 3 but Musgrave likes playing from big sets and Traylor is a better blocking TE than Butt.  Rookie Troy Fumagalli will be sent to IR to red shirt a season like Butt did last year.

OL

1. Garrett Bolles

2.  Ron Leary

3.  Matt Paradis

4.  Connor McGovern

5. Jared Veldheer

6. Max Garcia

7. Billy Turner

8. Sam Jones

9. Cyrus Kouandjio

Turner can play either OT or OG, and has consistently outplayed Kouandjio this preseason.   Both Jones and Garcia can play either OG or C.  Kouandjio provides depth.

Defense

DL

1. Domata Peko

2. Derek Wolfe

3. Adam Gotsis

4.  Shelby Harris

5. DeMarcus Walker

6. Zach Kerr

This unit is finally deep enough again to rotate players out the way Bill Kollar likes to run his lines.   Harris has shown he could be pushing for a starting role and Walker and Gotsis have grown leaps and bounds.  (Thanks to Walker being in his correct position).

ILBs

1. Todd Davis

2. Brandon Marshall

3. Josey Jewell

4. Zaire Anderson

5. Alexander Johnson

Jewell has been a beast against the run and should get plenty of playing time this year. He’s definitely not a man cover guy but can play zone and has a nose for the ball.  Anderson has experience and has outplayed the other backups while Johnson just got paid in a bidding war for Denver to sign him. He won’t clear waivers so the raw monster of an ILB makes the 53.

OLBs

1. Von Miller

2. Bradley Chubb

3.  Shane Ray

4. Shaquil Barrett

No surprises here either.  This could have been inked in on the depth as soon as Shane Ray was cleared to participate.

CBs

1. Chris Harris Jr

2. Bradley Roby

3. Trumaine Brock

4. Adam Jones

5. Isaac Yiadom

Yiadom has been beaten regularly in preseason due to his poor mechanics.  Who better to teach the youngster than Adam Jones who has a great relationship with head coach Vance Joseph.

FS/SS

1. Darian Stewart

2. Justin Simmons

3. Will Parks

4. Su’a Cravens

5.  Dymonte Thomas

Both Stewart and Simmons can play either position so effectively Parks backs up both of them. He’ll play FS and the other will move to the SS position.  Both Cravens and Thomas will cover TEs and RBs.  Cravens makes this team without playing in preseason but I wouldn’t be surprised if Dymonte takes his job due to the fact that he is finally healthy and playing at a high level.

STs

PK Brandon McManus

P Marquette King

LS Casey Kreiter

PR Adam Jones

KR Phillip Lindsay

Practice Squad

Jeff Holland

JJ Dielman

John Diarse/ River Cracraft

Dave Williams

Keyshawn Bierria

CJ Smith

Mark Chapman

3 players from other teams

Notable Cuts

Brendan Langley – While he may be a PS candidate the guy just can’t hack.

Paxton Lynch-  Lol.

DeAngelo Henderson – the shifty back is just underdeveloped and is lost in a cramped backfield.  He will get picked up by another team.

The worst week of preseason games is in the books.  We will be looking at some reactions from the blog and see what weight they carry.   Homer and hater alike let’s dig into some theories.

Denver Broncos:

Overreaction: Chad Kelly Flashes Greatness

Did Kelly look good?  I’ll say maybe.  He looked better by contrast.  At a position where confidence is as important as it is to a professional golder, Kelly flashed plenty of it. His arm has some pop in it and he showed decent mobility.

But his first TD pass was on a blown coverage. His second TD pass was better but he was helped by an athletic Lindsay finding the end zone.  His stat line was 14/21 with 2 TDs and an INT (and almost threw a second INT), against 3rd stringers.  By comparison Trevor Siemian was 11/17 with 2 TDs and an INT. Both are 7th rd draft picks and both threw their first TD on a badly blown coverage.

Underreaction:  Paxton Lynch should be 3rd string

This guy needs to be off the team and out of the league.  Rumors are swirling that Paxton thinks he’s already made this team and isn’t working to get better. He’s a detriment to WRs and RBs trying to make this team. As of right now he’s 3rd string, but he needs to be gone.

Oakland Raiders

Overreaction: PJ Hall will have great career with Oakland

Yes PJ Hall had a sack on his first play in the game.  Hooray for PJ.  But he also played in a third of all the defensive plays in this game.  PJ Hall’s stat line at the end of the game?  1 sack.

I understand the position he plays and I understand the lack of stats.  But let’s pump the breaks a little and see how things play out.  We can also add Mo Hurst to this.  He had a 0 stat line.

These guys could both turn out to be dynamic, but seeing all the articles about how great the start was to their careers has been, I’d expect more than one sack between two stat lines.

Underreaction:  Chris Warren looked good

Yes the former Texas RB did look good.  But there’s more to it.   For a big man the guy can move, he flashes a punishing running style that not many backs can actually maintain at this level.  He could make the muscle hamster irrelevant, and a one-two punch of Lynch and Warren could really wear down defenses, giving Carr a little more breathing room.

LA Chargers

Overreaction:  Trade Cardale Jones and Geno Smith

While neither guy really played well and neither guy actually fits the scheme that the Chargers run, its a little early for this. Geno is set to be a career backup at this point in his career and will probably end up with the #2 job, Cardale Jones has only played in one game as a pro with a terrible Buffalo team.  Give him some time to develop. Let him get some chemistry.

I’m not guaranteeing either guy is going to become “the guy” or become “the future” but with iron man Rivers still starting your backup QB won’t matter much.  Let the chips fall and worst case scenario pick up a guy who becomes a camp casualty.

Underreaction: Four turnovers

The Chargers turned the ball over 4 times this week.  Now I’m not saying the # of turnovers is a big deal. I’m saying the turnovers looked like they came because this team wasn’t ready to play. It looked sloppy. Hopefully with all the ones in the sloppiness ends.

Kansas City Chiefs

Overreaction: Mahomes is a checkdown Charlie

The Mahomes stat line wasn’t impressive.  And yes it was full of check downs and dumps to the flat.  But Mahomes flashed some pocket presence by feeling pressure and getting the ball somewhere safe for a positive play.  At this point in time, showing he can be safe with the ball after his training camp INTs is not a bad thing.

I think we all know he will be able to air the ball out. It will be his decision making that is the real issue this year. As long as he continues to push down the field and scores some points this preseason they should be fine.

Underreaction: Depleted secondary played well

Outside of penalties from David Amerson, the Chiefs secondary without both starting safeties played well against Houston’s depth.  While I understand it was Weeden and Webb, it should be encoraging to know that this unit can play.