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Home , Bill Barnwell, Clive Walford, Corey Coleman, Derek Carr, Dowell Loggains, Kareem Hunt

AFC West Q&A: Who will be the division MVP? By STAFF ESPN July 13, 2018

Quarterback or premier pass-rusher? Our roundtable takes a look at who will be the top player this season in the AFC West.

Jeff Legwold, reporter: If can still dial up the big plays after an extended sideline absence, Raiders could give the division an MVP run, as could Chargers quarterback . But the only former MVP in the division, Von Miller, is poised for big things. The Broncos already have proved that a dominant Miller in a swirling, speed-first defense is a successful Super Bowl formula. For the Broncos to duplicate anything close to the 2015 run, the offense has to be far more opportunistic and far less turnover-prone -- the Broncos were second in the league in turnovers last season. Also, has to be able to replace at cornerback in the team's secondary. If rookie Bradley Chubb is the impact pass-rusher the Broncos hope he can be, he will force opposing offenses into the kinds of decisions in pass protection that should free Miller. Miller is still at the peak of his football powers and would be the centerpiece of one of the league's best defenses if the Broncos can give him just a little more room to work after a '17 season filled with double- and sometimes triple-teams.

Eric Williams, reporter: Kareem Hunt, Derek Carr, and Keenan Allen are all candidates, but my pick is Philip Rivers. The 36-year-old signal-caller had a solid season last year, but he should put up even better numbers in his second season under head coach . The Chargers added veteran center Mike Pouncey, who will make Rivers' job easier at the line of scrimmage, identifying fronts and picking up blitz coverages. And even without due to a season-ending knee injury, Rivers still has plenty of playmakers at his disposal, including Allen, Tyrell Williams, Travis Benjamin, Melvin Gordon, Austin Ekeler and a healthy Mike Williams. Finally, the Chargers face just two defenses this year that finished in the top 10 in points allowed last season -- Rivers and the Bolts should light up the scoreboard in 2018.

Adam Teicher, reporter: Quarterback play from the two incumbents (Philip Rivers of the Chargers and Derek Carr of the Raiders) and the two newbies ( of the Chiefs and Case Keenum of the Broncos) will be fascinating and probably determine the course of the division race. But none of those players will post classic MVP numbers. Skill players at other offensive positions won't either, though Travis Kelce will be even more interesting to watch in Kansas City with Mahomes at QB. So we'll look to the defensive side, where premier pass-rushers such as of Oakland, Von Miller of Denver and Justin Houston of the Chiefs could have big seasons. But none of those players will be a part of a division championship team. of the Chargers will.

Paul Gutierrez, Oakland Raiders reporter: With so much change in the division -- Denver and Kansas City have new in Case Keenum and Patrick Mahomes, while Oakland has a new QB whisperer for Derek Carr in Jon Gruden -- let's strike a blow for consistency. The seemingly ageless Philip Rivers appears only to get better with, well, age. After griping about the Chargers' move from San Diego to Los Angeles and its accompanying commute, "Old Man" Rivers responded by leading the top-ranked passing game in the NFL. He passed for 4,515 yards, the fourth most of his 14-year career, and had 28 and 10 , his fewest picks since 2009. Rivers is more than the AFC West's senior statesman under center -- the No. 4 overall pick of the 2004 draft also became the ninth member of the NFL's 50,000-yard passing club last season. Maturing weapons such as receiver Keenan Allen and Melvin Gordon will make Rivers, who turns 37 in December, only more dangerous.

NFL's best and worst offensive arsenals: 32-1 weapons ranking By Bill Barnwell ESPN July 13, 2018

If you had to list the reasons why the Eagles went from last place in the NFC East to Super Bowl LII champions in 12 months, weapons wouldn't be far from the top.

General manager Howie Roseman went out last year and transformed what was working with by adding LeGarrette Blount, Alshon Jeffery and Torrey Smith in free agency. Corey Clement worked his way into the rotation as a replacement for the injured Darren Sproles. took Jordan Matthews' spot and evolved from failed first-round pick into an effective slot receiver. Throw in the Dolphins scapegoating Jay Ajayi for their problems and Philly's trio of effective tight ends, and you have a group of weapons that was able to help propel Wentz to an MVP-caliber campaign and keep Nick Foles afloat in the postseason.

In light of the successes that the Eagles and Rams had in revitalizing their offenses around their 2016 first- round picks last offseason, the league followed. The Bears signed what will seemingly be an entirely new receiving corps for . The Ravens turned over their wideouts for Joe Flacco and . Cleveland brought in plenty of talent for Tyrod Taylor and first overall pick . Fifteen of the first 51 picks in this year's NFL draft were skill-position players.

Now that just about every running back, and tight end short of Dez Bryant are on a roster, let's take stock of where the league stands after a busy offseason. We're ranking each team's arsenal of running and receiving weapons from 32 to 1. Please keep a few things in mind:

These rankings are attempting to consider a team's skill-position talent without including the impact of the quarterback, offensive line or scheme. Let me repeat that again. These rankings are attempting to consider a team's skill-position talent without including the impact of the quarterback, offensive line or scheme. It's not possible to totally extricate one from the other, but this will be an educated guess.

These rankings don't include contract value. I might mention a contract here or there, but this analysis is strictly about on-field performance.

I'm solely considering how these players will perform in 2018. Long-term value beyond this upcoming season doesn't matter. It's impossible to project injuries, so I'm using each player's recent injury history as an estimate of his availability for this year.

The arsenals are weighted more toward receivers. All you have to do is take a look at contracts to see how the league values wideouts versus tight ends and running backs. The largest active annual salary on an extension for a running back is LeSean McCoy, at $8 million per year. That's what Trey Burton and Kenny Stills average on the deals they've signed over the past two offseasons.

Top-level talent wins out over depth. These rankings are weighted heavily toward each team's top five weapons, given that each squad will line up five skill-position players on most snaps. Organizations with truly remarkable depth at the skill-position spots will get a slight bump, but no team has an lurking on its bench.

Finally, I didn't mention everyone. Every team has a rookie midround pick or a veteran with some history of success lurking as their sixth or seventh option. Most of them will have only a modest impact. Mentioning all of them would turn this into an even longer piece.

All right! The Jets were 32nd last season. Surely, they've invested in their skill-position talent for new quarterback and won't be last this year, right?

32. Well, no. Former undrafted free-agent wide receiver Robby Anderson leads the way, but the secondary targets are low-ceiling veterans such as Jermaine Kearse and . General manager Mike Maccagnan let Austin Seferian-Jenkins leave, but the duo of former Raiders backup and fourth-round pick form the majority of one of the league's worst tight end depth charts. The move to spend $4 million per year on anonymous Browns back Isaiah Crowell doesn't move the needle. The Jets will be investing in skill-position talent next offseason.

31. Dolphins No team falls further in this year's rankings, as everything that looked promising for Miami in 2017 either didn't work out or didn't come back in 2018. Running back Jay Ajayi is gone and replaced by 35-year-old Frank Gore, who has nearly 15,000 carries on his back. has been swapped out for Danny Amendola and Albert Wilson, who have combined for two 100-yard games over the past two seasons. Tight end Julius Thomas whispered through a 388-yard, three- season, and he has been replaced in the lineup by second-rounder Mike Gesicki, a combination of round and position that has yet to produce even a 700-yard rookie season once. Kenny Stills was less efficient in a larger role, while DeVante Parker spent his presumed breakout season struggling with an ankle injury. The most exciting player left might be halfback , who could be squeezed by Gore and rookie fourth-rounder Kalen Ballage.

30. When you remove that dominant offensive line and quarterback Dak Prescott from the equation, the Cowboys are left with one excellent running back in and what must surely be the worst receiving corps in football. The four tight ends vying to replace have 94 combined career receiving yards, all of which come from Geoff Swaim. The team's best wideout is Allen Hurns, who had one impressive season in four years with the Jaguars and hasn't been able to stay healthy over the past two seasons. The team is excited about third-round pick Michael Gallup, which is a reflection on the power of hope, but even Tavon Austin has to believe that the organizational plan to give the former Rams wideout 12 to 24 touches per game on offense is too much Tavon Austin.

29. Knees are the concern with the Bills' weapons. Tight end Charles Clay has spent the majority of his Bills career battling through knee issues. Top wideout was traded to the Bills in part because the Panthers were concerned about the long-term health of his knees. Second-year receiver , who was the worst starting wideout in the NFL last season by most metrics, underwent knee surgery in May. Shady McCoy saw his yards per carry drop by more than a full yard last season, although that was likely due more to an ill-fitting scheme than any significant drop in McCoy's own level of play. After the soon-to-be-30-year-old halfback, though, the Bills will be relying on players with a track record of injuries to catch passes from first-round pick (or AJ McCarron or ). This is another team likely to be shopping for receivers next offseason.

28. Doug Baldwin famously argued that the Seahawks' weapons weren't "pedestrian" during their Super Bowl run, but he's the only skill-position player left from that team, and subsequent draft picks such as Tyler Lockett and C.J. Prosise haven't been able to stay healthy. The Seahawks swapped out tight end Jimmy Graham for Ed Dickson this offseason and added 34-year-old wideout Brandon Marshall, who was struggling even before suffering a season-ending injury with the Giants. Seattle fans will pin their hopes on first-round pick Rashaad Penny, but if the offensive line play doesn't improve under new OL coach Mike Solari, it might be impossible to evaluate the Seahawks' new starting running back.

27. The absence of brought T.Y. Hilton back to earth, as the 2016 receiving-yardage champion saw his streak of 1,000-yard seasons snapped at four. Hilton should return to form if Luck is back under center in 2018, while the Stanford product should make the most of one of the league's most athletic one- two punches at tight end with Eric Ebron joining Jack Doyle. Indy also bought low on Ryan Grant after he mysteriously failed his physical with the Ravens, but the former Washington wide receiver is going to turn 28 during the season and hasn't yet posted a single 100-yard game as a wideout. If Nyheim Hines or Marlon Mack emerge as a promising running back, the Colts could rise up the rankings next season.

26. The 49ers have their star quarterback and an offensive guru as coach, but they're more about depth than impact contributors at the skill positions. The curious decision to pay Jerick McKinnon more than $10 million in 2018 to join Kyle Juszczyk in the backfield gives the Niners two versatile players, but neither has been particularly effective as a runner nor receiver during the majority of their respective careers. Marquise Goodwin had his best pro season by a wide margin last season, and he will be joined by the returning Pierre Garcon and second-round pick Dante Pettis, but the most likely place for growth is with second-year target George Kittle at tight end.

25. absorbed a huge workload when healthy in 2017, with the first-round pick's numbers impacted by an ankle injury. The LSU product averaged 4.6 yards per carry before the injury in the middle of the season and just 3.2 yards per rush afterward. Fournette should be better, but the additions to the receiving corps raise question marks. Donte Moncrief never broke out in Indianapolis and will be paid $9.6 million for his one year in Jacksonville, which could cost talented young wideouts such as Keelan Cole and reps they earned last season. New tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins, meanwhile, averaged a scarcely believable 7.1 yards per reception last season, the lowest mark for any receiver with 50 catches or more in league history. Even if the Jags want to focus on running the football, they should give something more at tight end than a catch-and-fall guy.

24. The Ravens came into the offseason with a mission to overhaul their receiving corps, and indeed, Joe Flacco's top five targets might be players who weren't wearing black and purple last season. Will they be better? Probably. Will they be good? Hard to say. is a solid possession receiver with the size to make plays in the red zone, but he also has dropped 19 passes over the past three years, which is third most among wideouts. John Brown hasn't looked the same since a breakout 2015 season while fighting the effects of sickle cell anemia, and could barely get on the field for the Saints last season, first because of a suspension and then various injuries. The new tight end duo of Hayden Hurst and Mark Andrews should help Lamar Jackson in 2019 and beyond, but rookie tight ends are always more likely to disappoint than impress. Alex Collins impressed during his debut season in Baltimore, but no one on a transitioning Ravens offense seems guaranteed to hold down his starting role into 2019.

23. It's tempting to see the swap of Jordy Nelson for Jimmy Graham as a positive for the Packers, given Nelson's dramatic decline, but I'm not sure Graham is improving these days, either. He dropped off to 32.5 receiving yards per game last season, his lowest mark as a starter by more than 20 yards. Graham ran fewer routes, but he caught a pass on just 12.3 percent of his routes, which was his lowest rate as a pro. He made up for it by scoring 10 touchdowns on 57 receptions, but that 17.5 percent touchdown rate is a career outlier for the former Miami player, and something Graham is unlikely to keep up, even with under center.

If Graham doesn't at least challenge to be one of the most productive tight ends in football, the Packers aren't going to bless Rodgers with options. Davante Adams, now likely to be Rodgers' top target, still hasn't had a 1,000-yard season as a pro. (He will in 2018.) Randall Cobb, once a versatile threat at multiple spots in the lineup, has seen his yards per catch and receiving yards per game drop in each of four consecutive seasons. The Packers haven't had a single running back make it to 800 rushing yards once over the past three years, a feat only the Lions have matched. Rodgers will help this group play up, but we saw how little it was able to do with the star quarterback missing most of last season.

22. Denver Broncos With the Broncos investing $25 million guaranteed in new quarterback Case Keenum and trading for new right tackle Jared Veldheer, general manager John Elway was forced to pinch pennies elsewhere on offense. It was no surprise that the Broncos moved on from C.J. Anderson, although the move turns things over to a combination of ineffective veteran Devontae Booker and rookie Royce Freeman. Denver never really addressed tight end, so they'll hope that redshirt rookie Jake Butt can serve as a receiving threat from Day 1. The Broncos used a second-round pick on Cody Latimer in 2014 and a third-round pick last year on Carlos Henderson, but Latimer never broke out before leaving this offseason and Henderson might be on the roster bubble after missing his entire rookie season with a finger injury, leading to the selection of Courtland Sutton with the 40th overall pick. The Broncos will spend another year depending on Emmanuel Sanders and Demaryius Thomas, both of whom are now on the wrong side of 30.

21. In a similar vein, the Lions have a pair of effective veteran wideouts in free-agent acquisitions Marvin Jones and . Since taking over, though, general manager Bob Quinn has devoted two first- round picks and two significant contracts to offensive linemen. He was locked in to one big deal for and gave his franchise quarterback another one, so the Lions have needed to save money elsewhere on offense. Quinn passed on bringing back tight ends Eric Ebron and Darren Fells, and he will replace them with the uninspiring duo of Levine Toilolo and Luke Willson.

Former preseason sensation Ameer Abdullah has averaged just 3.8 yards per carry as a pro, and while LeGarrette Blount should take that spot in the rotation, the bruising former Patriots starter was one of the worst goal-line backs in football last season, and he hasn't had much success outside of New England. 's ineffectiveness as a rusher -- he has yet to break 4.0 yards per carry even once -- keeps him one step below the Duke Johnsons of the world. The Lions have an above-average offense, but that's built more upon Stafford and the offensive line than Stafford's individual weapons, Jones and Tate aside.

20. Amid the morass of quarterback injuries that was the 2017 season, one of the most disappointing absences had to be David Johnson, who was arguably the best running back in football in 2016 and then went down for the 2017 season after 17 touches with a fractured wrist. The star back should be 100 percent for 2018, but that wrist injury gets piled on his list of ailments that includes a sprained MCL, dislocated finger and a strained hamstring.

Even with a healthy Johnson, though, Arizona's receiving corps has virtually nobody in his prime. 's late-career turn into Wes Welker has been remarkable, but there's precious little behind him. (If that comparison seems inaccurate, consider that Welker posted an average line of 112-1,243-6 during his six seasons in New England; Fitz is at 108-1,131-7 over his past three seasons.) Fellow veteran Jermaine Gresham tore an Achilles last year, and while Ricky Seals-Jones flashed potential, it was over 12 catches. One member of the Cardinals' young wideout trio -- J.J. Nelson, 2017 third-rounder Chad Williams and rookie second-rounder Christian Kirk -- has to develop into someone who can consistently threaten safeties.

19. Oakland Raiders It's too easy to make the joke that this would be a top-five team in the 2015 weapon rankings, but who on this team looks better right now than he did a year ago? You can find 2017 scapegoats -- for the Raiders holdovers, Brett Hundley for Jordy Nelson, the early-season suspension for Doug Martin, Martavis Bryant for Martavis Bryant -- but it's way more plausible to believe that one of these guys will bounce back than it is to think that every one of these players is going to suddenly spark to life.

Naturally, the player who seems most likely to return to form is , given his age and track record before a dismal 2017 campaign. The track record for Nelson is less promising, while we're now two seasons (and three years) removed from the last time was a consistent top-tier running back. The Raiders are deeper than most teams, with a depth chart that has potentially useful players such as Bryant, Seth Roberts and in reserve roles, but this is an offense that is going to thrive upon its line and whatever new coach Jon Gruden has cooked up after a decade of watching from afar.

18. Washington The most appealing parts of the offense in Washington are the nontraditional weapons, all of whom struggled with injuries last season. Jamison Crowder, Jordan Reed and Chris Thompson were reduced to 203 touches, down from 250 in 2016. Each should benefit from playing with , as long as they stay healthy, which has been a particularly difficult task for Reed, who has spent most of that time either on the sidelines or playing through pain. It's tough to project him for anything close to a full season.

The primary pieces are less threatening, especially at wideout. Former first-round pick caught just 46.1 percent of the passes thrown his way in 2017, the fifth-worst rate in the league among receivers with 50 targets or more. Even as a deep threat, he needs to be more efficient. Washington gave Paul Richardson a five-year, $40 million deal, but Richardson racked up just 1,302 receiving yards across 47 games with Seattle; having both Richardson and Doctson in the lineup wouldn't seem to jibe with Smith's skill set. Second-round pick Derrius Guice should be an upgrade on Rob Kelley and Samaje Perine, and Guice will be the player who might help push Washington's weapons past league average.

17. Quietly, few teams have poured more resources into their weapons over the past several seasons than Carolina. The Panthers' wide receiving corps includes two second-round picks (Devin Funchess and Curtis Samuel) and rookie first-round pick D.J. Moore, before even considering that the team also devoted a first-round pick in 2014 to departed wideout Kelvin Benjamin. Halfback Christian McCaffrey went with the eighth overall pick last season, while tight end Greg Olsen is due nearly $27 million over the next three years as part of the contract extension he signed in April.

None of those draft picks has delivered a superstar as of yet, although there's obviously plenty of time to come. Benjamin is gone. Funchess had a three-game breakout in the middle of the season after Benjamin was traded, but he racked up 197 receiving yards over five games afterward. Samuel missed most of his rookie season with injuries. McCaffrey flashed and had a pair of 101-yard games as a receiver in losses to the Saints, but departed Mike Shula never found a way to unlock the guy who terrified opposing defenses at Stanford. The 33-year-old Olsen, meanwhile was limited to 191 yards across seven games during the regular season as a result of a foot injury. There's still a ton of potential in this group.

16. If the Bengals could ever get all of their weapons on the field at the same time and protect , they would be absolutely terrifying. Imagine a receiving corps with A.J. Green, Tyler Eifert, Tyler Boyd and 2017 ninth overall pick John Ross as the primary targets, and the duo of Gio Bernard and Joe Mixon working out of the backfield. Injuries limited several of those weapons in 2017, with Eifert and Ross combining for just five touches all season. Green's impact was dulled by an offensive line that didn't give Dalton enough time to find his star wideout. Investments in the line should help this group play up in 2018, although Eifert and Ross will perennially be question marks, given the injury histories.

15. Tampa spent last offseason focusing on getting Jameis Winston weapons, but just like when you buy your child some new toys for Christmas and he or she looks at them for a second before going back to the old favorites, Winston was mostly concerned with getting the ball to Mike Evans and Cameron Brate in key moments. DeSean Jackson, who seemed like he would be open by 5 yards downfield once or twice per game for all of eternity, didn't make a single catch on 12 tries at passes thrown 30 or more yards in the air. He had 31 such catches over the previous five seasons, second in the league behind A.J. Green. O.J. Howard showed promise, but as is often the case with rookie tight ends, his impact was limited.

All the receiving pieces an NFL coach would want are here, but the Bucs will have to prove that their taste in running backs has improved after giving Doug Martin an extension, only to see him become the first NFL player since 1934 to carry the ball 100 times and average fewer than 3.0 yards per rush in consecutive seasons. Like Washington, the Bucs will depend on a second-round pick -- USC back Ronald Jones -- to move up the ranks here.

14. Is Corey Davis going to blossom into a No. 1 receiver? Injuries and the curse that has seemingly afflicted rookie wideouts over the past several seasons limited Davis to 375 receiving yards in his debut campaign, but if the No. 5 overall pick in last year's draft takes a big leap forward, everything could fall into place for Tennessee. Rishard Matthews is likely stretched as a top wideout, but he would be an above-average No. 2.

Delanie Walker is beginning to decline as he hits his age-34 campaign, but if Davis can take some of the heat off Tennessee's star tight end on third downs -- where Walker has caught 72 passes over the past three years, more than any other tight end in the league -- Walker's aging won't slow down . The one-two punch of and Dion Lewis does have the Ice Hockey-approved big back/small back combo down, but Lewis' perennial injury concerns cap his ceiling, while the track record of backs leaving New England is riddled with disappointments.

13. thinks the Browns already have the best receiving corps in football, and while I'm not sure I agree, it's related less to talent and more to availability. Gordon produced at a 1,072-yard pace last season after returning from his suspension. The Browns add star slot receiver Jarvis Landry to that bunch and return former first-round picks Corey Coleman and . It's fair to say that counting on Gordon and Coleman to be around for all 16 games would be hopeful, at best; and Coleman hasn't played especially well around his various injuries, but the former Baylor star has spent the entirety of his pro career catching passes from Robert Griffin, Kevin Hogan, and DeShone Kizer.

If those guys do stay on the field all season, the Browns are in business. They have a wildly underrated back in , so much so that Cleveland appears set to take away his path to a bigger role by signing Carlos Hyde and drafting . The signing of Hyde seems curious given Cleveland's subsequent moves to draft Chubb and hand Johnson an extension, but the Browns have plenty of depth at halfback in the short term. Few teams have more upside than Cleveland's set of weapons.

12. In the fever dream that was 's six starts for the Texans in 2017, his weapons unfurled into a terrifying hydra. The Texans ranked third in offensive win probability added per game from weeks 2 to 8 and 30th from then on, which is both a credit to what DeAndre Hopkins & Co. can do with the right quarterback and a reminder of how most of those weapons (Hopkins aside) were anonymous with the wrong passer and a dismal offensive line.

Naturally, any 2018 projection for the Texans' weapons would find them somewhere in the middle of those two extremes. Hopkins has a reasonable case -- given his quarterback play -- for being the best wide receiver in the league at the moment. After that, though, the Texans don't have a second star. has been wildly inconsistent, and he won't score seven touchdowns in four games again, as he did last season. Lamar Miller has lacked explosion since joining Houston in free agency and has just three plays of 30 yards or more in two years as a Texans back, down from seven during his final two years in Miami. Backup D'Onta Foreman might have taken over a larger share in 2018, but an Achilles injury might delay his ascent until 2019. And the brain injury-induced retirement of tight end C.J. Fiedorowicz leaves the position bare behind Ryan Griffin, who missed most of the season with a concussion of his own.

11. Few teams could replace with Ted Ginn Jr. and not skip a beat, but the Saints managed to pull that off in 2017, thanks to an excellent season from their offensive line and the seemingly ageless excellence of . The cumulative numbers were down because the Saints held leads and slowed their pace -- they ran an even 1,000 offensive plays after making it to 1,105 in 2016 -- but the duo of Mark Ingram and became the first pair of running backs since the merger to each produce 1,500 yards from scrimmage on the same team in the same season.

They probably won't be as effective of a duo in 2018, given that Ingram is already suspended for the first quarter of the season. Kamara is unlikely to average 6.1 yards per carry again, although he could assume a bigger workload in his second season. The receiving corps behind Michael Thomas doesn't contain many locks to be effective, although Ginn's second act as an effective NFL wideout in his mid-30s now has been going on for three seasons. Cameron Meredith is likely to see more snaps than the departed Willie Snead and should be an upgrade at wideout, although the tight end depth chart offers more in blockers than it does in receivers. The Saints' offense still should be very good, but it would be fascinating to see how their weapons would look without a future Hall of Famer under center.

10. Los Angeles Chargers You get the feeling that the Chargers have one of those dry-erase boards with "It's Been ___ Days Since Our Last ACL Injury" written at the top. This time around, it is tight end Hunter Henry, who was about to move into a primary role before suffering a season-ending knee injury in May. The Chargers could re-sign Antonio Gates, but the only tight end of note on their roster is blocker Virgil Green.

One solution would be to play to the enormous amounts of depth the Chargers have at wideout, where 2017 first-round pick Mike Williams might not be guaranteed a starting role ahead of Tyrell Williams or Travis Benjamin. The obvious star is Keenan Allen, who has averaged 87.2 receiving yards per game over the past three years, which is fourth in the league over that time frame. The problem is that the former Cal star also has missed 23 games over that stretch with various injuries, and he just completed his first full 16-game season after five years in the NFL. Melvin Gordon also finished his first full season in three years, and while he has been a productive fantasy back, he has yet to average 4.0 yards per carry once as a pro.

9. It's certainly fair to say that no team this offseason has added more weapons for its quarterback than the Bears. Many of general manager Ryan Pace's moves are gambles, both in terms of the contracts involved (which aren't being considered here) and the track records of the players in question (which are). Allen Robinson once made Blake Bortles look like a promising quarterback, but he's coming off of a torn ACL. The player most likely to immediately bounce back from a torn ACL would be a young athlete who suffered the injury early in the previous season, which is exactly the case with Robinson. He is a legitimate No. 1 receiver and likely to serve as one in 2018.

The other new faces have the potential to break out but haven't yet been consistent contributors. Taylor Gabriel was a replacement-level wideout who the Bears passed on as a free agent before a breakout half- season for the Falcons in 2016; the 27-year-old was anonymous for Atlanta last season. Trey Burton was Philadelphia's third tight end and scored an unsustainable five touchdowns on 23 catches last season; now, he'll be playing the Travis Kelce role for new coach Matt Nagy in Chicago. Players such as Kevin White and Adam Shaheen have athletic pedigrees, but if the Bears believed that either player was going to be a star contributor, they wouldn't have signed Robinson and Burton or drafted Anthony Miller in the second round. After Robinson, the Bears' strength at receiver is in their depth, as opposed to individual talents, at least until someone else breaks out.

What pushes the Bears up these rankings, instead, is their one-two punch at halfback. Jordan Howard and Tarik Cohen will combine to post a cap hit of about $1.4 million in 2018 and might very well project to be the best pair of running backs in football, if Ingram and Kamara slip. Cohen's versatility seems far more likely to be rewarded by Nagy than it was by departed offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains.

8. The Patriots finished No. 1 in these rankings last year, thanks to a combination of top-level talent with unmatched depth. Those extra players came in handy when the Pats lost Julian Edelman before the year and Chris Hogan for half of the season. The Pats also have taken quite a hit this offseason, with Brandin Cooks and Danny Amendola leaving and being replaced on the roster by the combination of Jordan Matthews and Cordarrelle Patterson. Edelman, suspended for the first four games of the year, will return as a 32-year-old coming off of a torn ACL. (It is perhaps worth noting that Wes Welker, who preceded Edelman in the slot, was allowed to leave for Denver at 32 and was essentially done by 33.)

Coach Bill Belichick and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels make up for an arguably lackluster group of wideouts with Rob Gronkowski and a dizzying array of running backs. The most dominant tight end in football history can make up for plenty of mistakes, but Gronk's injury history requires no introduction. Even at halfback, where the Patriots drafted Sony Michel in the first round, New England will be forced to replace the production of Dion Lewis. will still make it all work, of course, but the Pats have downgraded from an embarrassment of riches to mere riches.

7. The team that beat Belichick's Patriots in Super Bowl LII is structured in a similar way, combining a star tight end with a rotation of useful running backs. Zach Ertz isn't as dominant as Gronkowski, but his injury history isn't as pressing. I'd also argue that the Eagles have a better group of wideouts for 2018, especially given that Edelman is guaranteed to miss at least four games. Philly can expect more out of Alshon Jeffery, who played through a torn rotator cuff last season. To the shock of everyone, Nelson Agholor emerged as a useful slot receiver, and he should continue to improve in that role, while Mike Wallace should be an upgrade on the departed Torrey Smith and could be pushed by further improvement from second-year wideout Mack Hollins.

6. I grossly underestimated the Rams' weapons last year. Running back looked stuck in mud during his second season with Jeff Fisher, then subsequently led the league in fantasy points in 2017. Robert Woods, who had been a more notable blocker than pass-catcher in Buffalo, averaged just over 65 receiving yards per game. Cooper Kupp was the second-most productive rookie wideout in the league. had a middling year, and it didn't even really matter. The Rams were a joy to watch for most of last season, and they upgraded on Watkins by trading a first-round pick for Brandin Cooks, who has averaged 1,131 receiving yards and eight touchdowns over the past three seasons.

Excitingly for Rams fans, this is a young group of weapons. 's top six targets will all be 26 or younger in 2018. (Somehow, Cooks is younger than Kupp.) If everyone produces at the same level from a year ago and they swap out Watkins for Cooks, this could be the best group in football. My one concern is that Gurley is more likely to be very good than transcendent. Here are the most recent backs who paced all rushers in fantasy scoring over the past 10 years and where each ranked among their brethren the following season:

YEAR TOP RB NEXT RB RANK 2017 Todd Gurley ??? 2016 David Johnson 122 2015 Devonta Freeman 6 2014 DeMarco Murray 18 2013 Jamaal Charles 7 2012 8 2011 Ray Rice 6 2010 4 2009 Chris Johnson 5 2008 DeAngelo Williams 14 2007 LaDainian Tomlinson 6

David Johnson is obviously the outlier because of his injury, but recent history suggests that Gurley is more likely to be something like the seventh-best running back in football than repeat as the league's most productive halfback.

5. Even the Vikings didn't expect Adam Thielen to turn into one of the most productive wideouts in the NFL, given that they offered Alshon Jeffery a multiyear deal that would have consigned Thielen to a role in the slot. Jeffery is obviously happy with the choice he made in free agency, but the Vikings ended up with one of the biggest bargains in football. Thielen finished fifth in receiving yards, and the only wideout duo to top Thielen and Stefon Diggs in receiving yards was Antonio Brown and JuJu Smith-Schuster. It seems safe to give up on former first-round pick , but new slot receiver could be an upgrade on Jarius Wright.

At the other spots, the Vikings have high-ceiling options. Kyle Rudolph's target share went down with the departure of Sam Bradford and the emergence of Thielen, but he still managed to catch eight touchdown passes. He also has played all 16 games in each of the past three seasons after missing nearly a full year between 2013 and 2014. Running back Dalvin Cook is coming off a torn ACL, and he looked promising before going down, as the 2017 second-round pick was averaging 4.8 yards per carry and generating first downs on more than 20 percent of his rush attempts. Cook is coming off early fantasy draft boards as the 10th-highest back by ADP, which speaks to his potential. The 22-year-old was on pace for more than 1,400 rushing yards when he was hurt; if Cook stays at that level in 2018, the Vikings might have the league's best big three.

4. Of course, the Steelers annually have the inside track on the best wide receiver and running back in football with Antonio Brown and Le'Veon Bell on board. Bell's 2017 season was surprising, though. For a player who had either been unavailable or incredible during his first three years as Pittsburgh's primary back, Bell was neither last season. The 26-year-old stayed healthy and assumed a massive workload, leading the league with 321 carries, but he wasn't the same hyper-efficient back of old. In 2016, Bell turned 261 carries into 1,268 yards. With 61 additional carries last season, Bell gained just 23 more yards than he had the previous season.

The problem was that Bell didn't come up with the explosive plays we saw from him in years past. From 2013 to 2016, the Michigan State product racked up a 30-plus-yard gain once every 42 touches. With 406 touches last season, history suggests Bell would have had between nine and 10 of those explosive plays. Instead, Bell had only three of them, all in the passing game and none going for more than 42 yards. Even if the chances are that Bell won't be as healthy this season, he's likely to turn more of the touches he gets into highlight-reel runs and catches.

The Steelers have a big three to match up with just about anyone in Bell, Brown and JuJu Smith-Schuster, who just racked up the sixth-most receiving yards in league history for a wideout in his age-21 season. After that, though, Pittsburgh drops off. There doesn't appear to be much behind Bell at halfback, and the tight end duo of Jesse James and Vance McDonald aren't efficient. If second-round pick James Washington makes an immediate impact at receiver -- which might be tough if Bell and Brown stay healthy, given their typical workload -- this will look low.

3. If you saw the Falcons drafting another Alabama wide receiver in the first round, pat yourself on the back. Atlanta already seemed set at wide receiver for the short term with Julio Jones and Mohamed Sanu, but with Taylor Gabriel leaving, the Falcons added a silky-smooth route runner to replace him in . The recent track records of first-round picks at wideout isn't filled with success stories, but Ridley should be an upgrade on the 378 receiving yards Gabriel racked up a year ago.

Atlanta is another team in the discussion for the best running back duo in football with Tevin Coleman and Devonta Freeman, but Freeman was less efficient across the board last season while fumbling four times on 232 touches. The anticipated breakout didn't really arrive, either, as the tight end turned a blown coverage into an 88-yard touchdown against the Bears in the opener but generated only 398 yards and two scores over the ensuing 15 games. We saw how devastating the Falcons can be when everything clicks, as was the case in 2016, but they're just one small step behind the top two attacks in football. It would help if they get to run more drives -- the Falcons had just 157 meaningful offensive possessions in 2017, lowest in the league and a whopping 38 possessions behind the league-leading Cardinals.

2. Nobody can say that Eli Manning lacks an arsenal. The Giants ranked low on this list last year out of pessimism against their running backs, fears about Brandon Marshall after a rough year with the Jets and the slim likelihood of rookie tight end Evan Engram having an immediate impact. The first two turned out to be legitimate, but Engram -- in part because he was the last man standing after injuries -- had a wildly productive debut season. The first-round pick finished with 722 receiving yards, which ranks fourth among rookie tight ends since the merger and is the most since Jeremy Shockey had 894 yards for the Giants in 2002. He was a top-five tight end by fantasy points in 2017, and he should be in the running again this season.

The expectations for Saquon Barkley, meanwhile, are Offensive Rookie of the Year. Outside of concerns about his offensive line, it shouldn't take much convincing to believe that Barkley will be a leading back from the outset, both as a runner and a receiver. Odell Beckham Jr. also should be healed from his fractured ankle and playing for a new contract, which could give the Giants a reasonable shot at having a top-five contributor at running back, wide receiver and tight end. The wideout depth chart is thin, and there's going to be an adjustment period for Sterling Shepard as the Giants get away from using 11 personnel on every snap and move the third-year wideout out of the slot, but the Giants are going to have moments this season in which they make defenders look absolutely stupid.

1. Kansas City Chiefs This has been building one year at a time for the Chiefs, who were relying on players such as and Jason Avant as meaningful weapons during their playoff run in 2015. It starts with Travis Kelce, who is the consensus second-best tight end in the league behind Gronkowski. In 2016, the Chiefs added Tyreek Hill, who graduated from his gadget return man role as a rookie into a real-deal wideout last season by posting a 75-1,183-7 line. Andy Reid & Co. drafted Kareem Hunt last season, and the running back produced 1,782 yards from scrimmage as a rookie, which was the 10th-best mark for a debuting runner in league history. The Chiefs likely will give him snaps off more frequently with the return of , but Hunt already is one of the league's best backs.

It's hard to find a team that can say it's paying its fourth-best weapon $16 million per year, and, in part, that's because the Chiefs probably overpaid Sammy Watkins. If we ignore the money and the hype surrounding Watkins coming out of Clemson, it's accurate enough to say that Patrick Mahomes' fourth- best weapon is a 25-year-old guy who averaged just over 80 receiving yards per game in 2015 and turned nine red zone targets into seven touchdowns last season. The upside for Watkins is still as a legitimate No. 1 receiver in an offense that already has two of them.

While we can never truly know whether a young quarterback would develop into a star in any situation, it's hard to imagine what else Patrick Mahomes could ask for than Reid as a coach and this bevy of talent as targets. Every team is susceptible to injuries, and Mahomes will have growing pains, but no offense has as much upside across the board at the skill-position spots as these Chiefs.

NFL Nation predicts: The MVP for every division By STAFF ESPN July 13, 2018

The NFL season is officially two months away, so it seems like a good time to start predicting what to expect in 2018.

ESPN's NFL Nation will answer a series of questions this week, breaking down the league division by division.

Thursday's question:

Who will be the division’s MVP? AFC East: The pick here is pretty obvious according to our writers -- Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. The reigning NFL MVP looked sharp at the Patriots' three-day June mandatory minicamp, although one thing bears watching: How his decision to skip voluntary workouts this year -- a change in routine -- affects his ability to develop a rapport with some of the team’s new pass-catchers. Read more.

NFC East: Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott and Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz split the votes. Elliott played in 10 games in 2017 because of a suspension and finished 17 yards shy of 1,000 yards. He has rushed for at least 80 yards in 23 of his 25 career games. Wentz was on his way to league MVP last season before tearing his ACL and LCL in December against the Rams. It takes some quarterbacks a full season to return to full form following ACL surgery. But Wentz is extremely motivated to reclaim his place as a top- tier QB. Read more.

AFC North: Steelers quarterback and wide receiver Antonio Brown split the votes here. Roethlisberger is the catalyst for one of the most explosive offenses in the league, finishing second in the NFL last season with 283 yards passing per game. Brown also will be a favorite for postseason accolades after accumulating 1,533 receiving yards and nine touchdowns last season despite playing in only 14 regular-season games. Read more.

NFC North: Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is the pick here. Forget division MVP. Don't be surprised if Rodgers wins the NFL MVP for a third time. Rodgers is coming off the broken collarbone that ruined his -- and the Packers' -- 2017 season. But the last time Rodgers broke his collarbone, he came back the next season (2014) to win the NFL MVP for the second time and led the Packers to the NFC Championship Game. Read more.

AFC South: Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson got a pair of votes from the division writers. We won't really know how well Watson can recover from his torn ACL until he's back in live game action, but he's confident that his game won't change. Before his November injury, Watson was setting rookie passing and touchdown records seemingly every week, and when his season ended, he was tied for the NFL lead with 19 passing touchdowns. Read more.

NFC South: Falcons wide receiver Julio Jones gets two of four votes. When healthy, Jones is arguably the most dominant receiving threat in the league. Get Jones more touchdowns (only three last season and nine over the past two) to go along with what should be a fifth straight season of more than 1,400 yards receiving, and it'll be hard to deny him the MVP. Read more.

AFC West: Two of four votes go to quarterback Philip Rivers, whose Chargers are favored to win the division. Rivers passed for 4,515 yards, the fourth most of his 14-year career, and had 28 touchdowns and 10 interceptions, his fewest picks since 2009. Read more.

NFC West: Rams running back Todd Gurley gets the majority of the votes here. The reigning NFL Offensive Player of the Year will once again work behind a veteran offensive line that helped him rush for 1,305 yards and 13 touchdowns last season. Gurley also developed into a proven weapon in the passing game, with 64 receptions for 788 yards and six touchdowns. Read more.

A peek behind the glass: How the Broncos’ digital playbooks and video system works By Nicki Jhabvala The Athletic July 13, 2018

For four hours on May 29, some 8,000 Starbucks stores closed across the . The shutdown was a response to an April 12 incident in Philadelphia, where a Starbucks manager called the police on two black men, Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson, who were simply sitting in a store awaiting a business meeting.

Video of the men being taken away in handcuffs went viral and Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson quickly labeled the incident “disheartening” and “reprehensible” and promised the company would “learn from this and be better for it.” Starbucks later reached a financial settlement with Nelson and Robinson, but continued to scramble to try to amend its wrong — and prevent future ones.

The company ordered 23,000 iPads and reached out to PlayerLync, a young company in Colorado that developed a tablet-based content delivery and management system. Three days after talking to Starbucks, PlayerLync was in Seattle to develop an app that would provide racial-bias training to 175,000 Starbucks employees across the country.

It was up to PlayerLync to ensure the iPads were updated with its software and to push out the equivalent of 2,000 HD feature-length films in data, all of it compressed and stored on the devices so Starbucks employees could view it offline.

Any hiccups in the process would have spelled disaster. But with PlayerLync, the plan went off without a hitch — the latest feather in the cap of the local startup that has quietly become a major player in the sports, retail and restaurant industries.

And to think it all started with the NFL team down the road.

For six seasons, the Denver Broncos have stored some of their biggest company secrets under a single pane of glass with PlayerLync’s software, helping to spur a league-wide movement from paper to digital.

A peek behind the glass is a peek into the team’s inner workings.

One of the most moments ever was captured with an iPhone inside the Broncos’ training facility without another soul in sight.

It was 2013 and Manning, in the throes of a career season with the Broncos, was quietly treating an ankle sprain. He was held out of practice and because Manning never fully holds out of any practice, he strapped on his helmet, grabbed his iPad and sat alone on the edge of the tub to multitask. One foot in, one foot out, eyes on the iPad and ears listening to the calls in the helmet.

Quintessential Manning.

But that image showed more. It was only five years ago, but that image showed the beginnings of the NFL’s transition from paper playbooks and DVDs to one-stop-shop mobile devices.

By now the sight of an NFL player staring at his tablet is commonplace; mobile devices have become ingrained in the game and the league (despite some continued pushback to use video on the sidelines) and the Broncos were among the teams at the forefront of the transition.

In Denver it began in 2012, when PlayerLync’s founders landed a face-to-face meeting with Broncos general manager John Elway and then-coach John Fox. Back then the Broncos’ playbooks were 500-page binders. Their game film was burned on DVDs, requiring hours of labor to prepare and download. Note- taking was manual and the notion of “prepping the prep work” was a real and arduous task because nothing was instant, let alone efficient or secure.

What was supposed to be an hour meeting at the Broncos’ headquarters that year turned into four hours as Elway and Fox received a glimpse into the future and agreed to become PlayerLync’s first clients.

“Originally it was to iPads. We made a deal with (PlayerLync) and with Apple, so most of it was for video,” Fox said. “You could download partial game plans and all that stuff, but the cool part about it was the minute guys would come in the building it would download. That was the beauty of it. Whether it was digital cut-ups, you could email parts of the game plan so guys wouldn’t have to be in the building to view it. I could be in another state and it would download the practice tape and you could send it to guys.

“It was just amazing what you could do with it versus faxing a piece of paper.”

The Broncos’ biggest requirement at initial launch was that all of their content — videos, playbook, messaging — could synchronize without any interaction from a player or coach. Instead of burning DVDs long after a game ends, the Broncos use remote technology built by PlayerLync to push out game film and update players’ tablets within minutes after they step off the field. And they can view it all offline.

“These devices are fully asleep,” said Greg Menard, PlayerLync’s chief technology officer and co-founder. “Even when they’re on the buses traveling to and from the airplanes, all this content can sync, download, it adds new files, it updates anything that needs to be updated and deletes all the old stuff. Pretty much by wheels up when they’re getting ready to take off, all the appropriate people have that night’s game they just played with all the markups in it, all the down and distance information.”

PlayerLync is now used by more than half the NFL, which has partnered with Microsoft to make Surface the official tablets of the league. Teams’ playbooks and video reside in a compressed format on the tablets themselves — not on a server — allowing teams to strip a device clean if a player is cut or traded or even misplaces the device. Everything is encrypted and log-in requires multi-step authentication.

Game tape that was shot and edited by the team’s video department and football operations staff can be delivered to the tablets almost instantly, though a simple drag-and-drop application. Play diagrams can be annotated, and messages can be sent between players and coaches. Plus, the content on each device can be tailored so each positional group sees only what it needs and isn’t overwhelmed by the rest.

“It’s not like a huge secret, like Department of Defense-level security,” Menard said. “But they segment it because, one, it’s overload for others guys. There’s a lot of information, so if you don’t isolate what is really pertinent to them, it’ll get lost in the shuffle.”

Team calendars and travel itineraries can be integrated into the system along with nutrition plans and workout schedules. Coaches can also track players’ usage, a feature current Broncos offensive coordinator said he doesn’t use — “we’re not wiping a lot of noses or babysitting,” he said — but one Fox especially liked.

“I don’t know if players understand that, but they can (track it),” Fox said. “I could check how much time the players spent on the iPad. You could tell when they were opening files or when they were on the video part of their iPad.

“And you could see if it was working based on their performance.”

Since the Broncos started using PlayerLync, the team has had three different head coaches, cycled through four different offensive coordinators (two stints with Mike McCoy), turned to six different starting quarterbacks and altered their playbook many times over.

This offseason, Musgrave tweaked the offense yet again to simplify it and tailor it to new starting quarterback, Case Keenum. Plays changed, terminology changed, and the outcome, well, the Broncos hope that changes too.

“Yeah, it’s pretty much all changed,” Musgrave said. “It’s really a system that we built as a staff this offseason. … We had wholesale changes on the offensive staff. We have our framework that I’m comfortable with and that I can teach and call in a timely manner. And then our staff has put together what we feel is a great system for our players, especially our QBs.”

Behind the scenes, the ripple effect of coaching changes are significant, as the video team, football analytics department, football information systems group and quality-control staff must learn the preferences of a new regime. Which cut-ups do they prefer in a given week? Do they like tables more? Or are graphics easier to digest?

“I think everybody has a different way of processing information, so it’s our job to find the way that best fits our audience,” said Mitch Tanney, the Broncos’ director of football analytics “That’s one of the biggest pieces of our job — the communication of what we’re doing, the sale of what we’re going, why it could potentially impact this part of the game or another part of the game.”

When the playbooks are changed, the process is fairly streamlined. Coaches can publish new plays themselves, and many do. Others can rely on quality-control staff to format the information and push it out to the appropriate players and coaches, with annotations and notes from meetings.

What used to take days to create and deliver now requires a few clicks.

“You hear the term cut-ups a lot,” Fox said. “In the old days it was 16 millimeter film, and it truly was a cut piece of film paperclipped to the wall and you’d actually cut up a full reel of film and create cut-ups — physically. Now you just push a button.”

In addition to cost savings and improved efficiency, the tablets have, as expected, changed the game in other ways.

Consider cornerback Chris Harris Jr., who spends hours each day watching film at the Broncos facility, and then again at home. He can send clips to coaches and trainers for review. He can message his coaches with any questions. He can filter his own collection of cut-ups to focus on certain players, certain routes by a receiver, certain down-and-distance situations.

Consider the offseasons, when players are limited with on-field work and contact with coaches but can freely review their playbooks and game film without lugging around massive binders and collections of DVDs.

On average, the Broncos and other NFL teams using PlayerLync push out 20 terabytes of data per week during the season. For comparison: The Hubble Space Telescope is said to transmit roughly 120 gigabytes of science data per week. Now multiply that by 167.

At any time, a player’s tablet can have somewhere around 3,000 compressed videos stored on the device of varying camera angles and game situations, all of which can be filtered to a player’s liking to help him prepare for the next opponent.

Then, with a few clicks, they can change the content and format in an instant.

“There are a lot of different pieces and a lot of people that have to support these players and coaches and they just don’t have that interface because they’re in other parts of the building. Sometimes they’re not even in the same building,” Menard said. “We wanted it to be that nice little single pane of glass for the players and coaches.” NFL, American Cancer Society award $3.2 million in grants By STAFF Associated Press July 13, 2018

The NFL has partnered with the American Cancer Society and awarded $3.2 million in grant funding to address disparities in breast cancer mortality that exist among women of color.

The grants were made to 32 health systems, with each clinic receiving $100,000 over two years. They'll target underserved populations, with a focus on African-American communities, and will fund care such as breast cancer screening, follow-up of abnormal mammograms and access to specialty care.

Since 2009, the NFL's Crucial Catch campaign has raised more than $18 million in support of the American Cancer Society. Health system grants to date have reached more than 632,000 individuals and contributed to 138,000 breast, cervical and colorectal cancer screenings.

'Expect a Shaq you've never seen before': Barrett's breakout season could be coming By Aric DiLalla DenverBroncos.com July 13, 2018

When Von Miller hosted his first Pass-Rush Summit in 2017, Shaquil Barrett wasn’t in attendance.

And he heard about that — quite a bit.

When Miller and returned from the workout at Stanford, they couldn’t stop talking about the level of instruction they’d received from some of the NFL’s best, both past and present.

Barrett didn’t make the same mistake in 2018.

“Last year, I missed it and Shane and Von came back talking about how good it was, and I was disappointed I couldn’t make it, because they got to learn from all these amazing people,” Barrett said in late June. “Just to be able to be down here and learn a couple more moves and learn how to perfect the moves that I do now is just going to help be a 100-times-better football player.”

Barrett was the only other Broncos player to join Miller at Big Cedar Lodge for the summit, where Hall of Famers Bruce Smith and Warren Sapp offered him tips during on-field work and broke down his film during a classroom session.

In Barrett’s eyes, that was knowledge he couldn’t find anywhere else.

“These guys have been through it,” Barrett said. “They came out on the top of it. The stuff they actually did, worked. To get the best coaching, I think they need to have been in the situation before and know how to approach it. ... Just to be able to get that coaching and teaching from them is just something that I had to take the opportunity to get."

The instruction could pay immediate dividends.

Barrett said he received tips to improve his current rushing moves and also picked up some new tactics that Broncos fans should see this fall.

“If I don’t [use them], shoot, I ain’t trying to get better,” Barrett said.

And the former undrafted Colorado State rusher certainly plans to get better.

He has made a substantial impact for the Broncos over the previous three years, and he hopes the lessons from this year’s summit will only accelerate his growth.

Barrett recorded 5.5 sacks in 2015 and another four in 2017, and he’s forced seven fumbles in his 48 career appearances.

That’s been more than enough to impress Miller, who said in June he expects big things from the 25-year- old outside linebacker.

“I think everybody knows the type of player that he can be,” Miller said. “His 10-sack season is coming. He has all the tools. He’s fast, he’s quick, he’s great with his hands. He’s done great things for us. He’s a starter. On any other team, he’d be their premier pass rushers.

“The future is great for Shaq. He’s super young. He’s got a ton of football ahead of him.”

Barrett should be in complete control of at least one issue that plagued him late in the year.

Last season, three of his sacks came within the Broncos’ first seven games. And while he forced a pair of fumbles and recorded another sack in the weeks that followed, Barrett admits that he didn’t attack film study the same way that he did early in the season.

That will change this season, he said in June, and he plans to attack practice with renewed vigor.

“I just need to get better from last year,” Barrett said. “I want this year to be my best year in football ever. I’m working for it. I’m going to be doing everything I need to do to get to that point.

“Just expect a Shaq that you’ve never seen before.”

NFL having awful summer that just won't quit at worst possible time for league By Jason Owens Yahoo! Sports July 13, 2018

Former NFL tight end Kellen Winslow Jr. was charged on Thursday with allegedly raping a 17-year-old in 2003 while she was unconscious.

It was the third rape charge for Winslow, who was already facing trial for for allegedly raping two San Diego-area women in their 50s, one of them homeless.

That news came on the heels of the latest from the LeSean McCoy saga. The Buffalo Bills running back stands accused by his estranged girlfriend of arranging a burglary in his own home that left her battered and bloody in an alleged dispute over jewelry.

NFL can’t quit negative headlines It was an awful Thursday for NFL news, keeping up the trend of a miserable summer for the league at a time when it can least afford bad publicity.

It’s no secret that interest in the NFL is waning. NFL TV viewership declined by almost 10 percent in 2017 from the previous year, the second straight season the league saw a significant ratings drop.

There’s much debate around the cause of the decline, with fans on both sides of the anthem kneeling controversy pointing to the issue and the league’s handling of it for dwindling interest.

League invited bad publicity with anthem decision The NFL appeared intent on keeping the issue in the news in May, shining light on the dormant story by announcing a controversial new anthem policy requiring players and personnel on the field to stand at attention during the playing of the Star-Spangled Banner.

The owners’ anthem decision came under intense pressure from President Donald Trump, who has gleefully fanned the flames of discord for a league that he has made his punching bag.

Trump continued his onslaught on the NFL in June when he disinvited the Philadelphia Eagles from the traditional White House visit afforded the Super Bowl champions. Trump cited the Eagles’ alleged disagreement “with their President because he insists that they proudly stand for the national anthem,” a victory dance of sorts for the President after forcing the league’s hand on the anthem issue.

Crime stories plaguing NFL When it’s not at odds with Trump, the NFL has spent the summer wrestling with police blotter headlines.

Arizona Cardinals general manager Shawn Keim has been in the news this week for a July 4 DUI arrest.

Former Seattle Seahawks cornerback Brandon Browner found himself facing a slew of serious charges, including attempted murder for allegedly breaking into a woman’s home and threatening to kill her. He also faces charges of battery, robbery, burglary, false imprisonment and two counts of child endangerment after being arrested following a police chase.

Meanwhile, the NFL suspended Jamies Winston for three games after he allegedly groped an Uber driver, the latest bad deed associated with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback who was accused of sexual assault while at Florida State.

Domestic violence charges against San Francisco 49ers linebacker were eventually dropped after his accuser recanted her story. The NFL still suspended Foster for two games for a marijuana arrest and a no- contest plea to a misdemeanor gun charge.

All of the criminal charges make Julian Edeleman’s bizarre 4-game PED suspension for a substance the NFL has not identified pale in comparison.

Meanwhile, the biggest controversy in the NBA’s offseason has involved LeBron James failing to show up for an L.A. pizza party.

Will bad news contribute to continuing ratings slide? The NFL just can’t seem to get anything right. The league keeps pumping out negative headlines on slow summer news days and stepping on itself with misguided anthem announcements in the middle of May.

The approaching season will provide another reckoning of the league’s popularity. While it’s still the most- watched league in American sports, it seems intent on ceding ground to the competition. LeSean McCoy and His Former Girlfriend Had History of Domestic Disputes By Juliet Macur The New York Times July 13, 2018

A year before Buffalo Bills running back LeSean McCoy was accused of being involved in a violent assault Tuesday against his former girlfriend, he expressed concern to the police that she might falsely accuse him of a crime, according to documents obtained Thursday from the police in Milton, Ga.

McCoy purchased a home in Milton, an Atlanta suburb, in October 2016, and the girlfriend, Delicia Cordon, appears to have moved in with him immediately after, based on her Twitter posts at the time. Since then, police officers have been dispatched to the house at least twice on calls related to disputes between McCoy and Cordon, and a third time when Cordon suspected that McCoy was improperly removing items from the residence, according to police records.

McCoy called the police to the house on July 3, 2017, just after he had begun eviction proceedings against Cordon, to report a conflict between the two of them. He said he “was very concerned that Cordon may try to either take things or make false accusations about him,” according to the police documents, and he added that he was “trying to be very careful in being around her given the climate of domestic abuse in his profession.”

On Tuesday, McCoy denied that he had been involved in an overnight assault on Cordon at the Georgia home after a friend of Cordon’s posted a photograph of her bloodied face on Instagram and suggested that McCoy was responsible. The police, without naming victims or a suspect, said a woman at the address of McCoy’s home had been injured in a home invasion and taken to a hospital.

The records released Thursday said that after McCoy called the police to the house in July 2017, they found a pile of clothing and personal items in the driveway. McCoy told officers that he and Cordon had just broken up and that they had been “having issues recently.”

McCoy said that Cordon, who was not at the house when the police arrived, had accused him of cheating. He told the police that he had subsequently asked her to return jewelry that high-end retailers had lent to them for special events, and that Cordon had refused to do so, according to the documents.

McCoy told the police that he would take Cordon’s items back into the home but would continue pursuing her eviction.

The police were again called to the residence three months ago. They left after McCoy and Cordon told them that they had resolved an argument over McCoy’s moving some furniture out of the house even though Cordon wanted the items to remain. The couple said the dispute never became physical, the documents said.

The police returned to the residence in June because Cordon, who was out of town, had checked the feed from a security camera and had seen people removing items from the house. Officers arrived to find a moving truck and spoke with McCoy’s mother, who said her son was removing his belongings from the house.

McCoy’s mother told the police that “LeSean was moving out of the home and wanted her to get his things for him so that he didn’t have to deal with Delicia.”

The police report said that “LeSean told her that Delicia could stay in the house until it was sold since she had two small children, but he wanted his things.”

In a 911 call after the assault on Tuesday, Cordon said she suspected that McCoy was behind the incident.

“The caller possibly thinks that her ex-boyfriend possibly set her up,” a police report said.

Cordon was taken to a hospital after a single male intruder entered the house at about 3 a.m. on Tuesday, beat her with a pistol and locked her in the bathroom, according to police documents.

A statement from Cordon’s lawyer, Tanya Mitchell Graham, said the intruder had specifically asked Cordon for items of jewelry that McCoy had given Cordon and “which Mr. McCoy had requested back on many occasions.”

Jacoby Hudson, a lawyer who worked for McCoy on last year’s eviction proceedings, said on Tuesday that McCoy was in Florida at the time of the home invasion and that McCoy “would never put his hands on her.”

The N.F.L. and the Bills have said they are looking into the situation. NFLPA’s Strategic Partnership With Octi Brings Fans Closer To Players Via AR By STAFF Sport Techie July 13, 2018

On Thursday, the NFL Players Association and its OneTeam Collective athlete-driven accelerator announced a partnership with Octi. The augmented video company will help fans create clips in which they interact with various NFL player avatars.

Octi applies machine learning and computer vision technology to videos taken on a smartphone. Its app uses skeleton mapping and gesture detection to recognize the human body without need for additional sensors. Images are then overlaid on the phone’s screen.

“The NFLPA and the OneTeam Collective are constantly looking to collaborate with the newest consumer technologies, and we were impressed by Octi’s team and the new platform they have built to change the way we communicate through video,” said the President of NFL Players Inc. and Chairman of the Board of OneTeam Collective, Ahmad Nassar, in a statement. “Octi’s mobile AR technology creates a wide range of opportunities for players and fans. We are incredibly excited about our investment and partnership with Octi.”

Along with its partnership, Octi announced a $7.5 million funding round with help from investors including the NFLPA, Shasta Ventures, I2BF Ventures, Bold Capital Partners, and Day One Ventures. With the funding, Octi plans to build out their team of engineers and find new uses of its proprietary technology.

“The Octi platform offers an entirely new ability to amplify human interaction and communication through a simple smartphone camera,” said the CEO and co-founder of Octi Inc., Justin Fuisz, in a statement. “What makes Octi special is that we’re building our technology to reflect the ways that humans have always expressed themselves through gestures and physicality.”

SportTechie Takeaway

Through the OneTeam Collective and other initiatives, the NFLPA has become one of the more technologically advanced players unions. Last year, the NFLPA launched a partnership with WHOOP, a wearable device that monitors an athlete’s strain, sleep and recovery, and Nassar is becoming a regular at CES. Before this recent deal, Octi won top prize for player marketing and consulting at the OneTeam Collective Pitch Day, held in Minneapolis in January.

You can get a Broncos player to deliver fast food right to your doorstep in Denver next week By Sarah Grantt The Know July 13, 2018

Fast food, throwback swag and a Broncos player? I’m lovin’ it.

The Big Mac-in’ McDonald’s is bringing back Global McDelivery Day, and this time it’s bringing a Bronco along for the ride.

As a promotional preview on July 18, Denver Broncos offensive tackle Garett Bolles will be delivering salty, guilt-inducing food from 1 to 2:30 p.m. to unsuspecting Broncos fans (or just French fry fans) around Denver.

All you have to do is order through the UberEATS app.

Where Bolles will stop, nobody knows: The locations will be randomly selected as orders come in. Heck, you might even have a chance encounter if he’s picking up where you’re putting (lunch) down.

The next day, July 19, anyone who didn’t get to meet the NFL star will be able to drown their sorrows in McFlurrys and throwback swag. Global McDelivery Day begins at 11 a.m., and so does the delivering of exclusive 1990s throwback items to anyone who places a McDelivery order through the UberEATS app again, while supplies last. (Items not delivered the day before with Bolles)

Swag includes a bandanna covered with French fries, a classic Big Mac popsocket, pins, hip socks that your friends are sure to be salty about, shirts, sweatshirts and, in true ’90s fashion: a fanny pack, denim jacket and track pants. You will not be able to choose your gear; it will be random. So start building up that good karma now if you’ve always dreamed of owning a fanny pack covered in cheeseburgers.

More information at mcdeliveryatmcdonalds.com. Terry McAulay: New kickoff rules “may be the biggest change” I’ve ever seen By Josh Alper Pro Football Talk July 13, 2018

NFL officials will be in Dallas for a clinic this weekend and the work done to get them ready to call the league’s new rules regarding helmet use will be a major topic.

It’s not the only big rules change in store for the 2018 season, however. The league has also revised the rules for kickoffs to alter where players line up prior to the kick, eliminate wedge blocking and change when players on the return team are allowed to initiate blocks.

Former NFL referee Terry McAulay, who retired this offseason and took a rules analyst job with NBC, will attend the clinic and said that potential issues implementing the kickoff changes shouldn’t be downplayed.

“It isn’t getting as much press, but the kickoff change, this may be the biggest change I’ve ever seen,” McAulay said, via ESPN.com. “People know so little about it. There are so many restrictions on what either side of the ball can do. … I spoke with a special-teams coordinator who is excited about it, and I know we all feel it can be great for the game. But [officials] have to wait and see. There are a lot of intricate rules in terms of what [players] can and cannot do.”

The NFL preseason starts on August 2 when the Bears and Ravens face off in the Hall of Fame Game. That contest and the exhibition games to follow will provide the first hints about how the new-look kickoffs will be officiated this season.