A long Off-season awaits - Links, Columnists, Stats websites that you read/recommend

poldebruin

Hi All, first things first - apologies if this already exists - if it does, I have not found it.

It's the worst time of the year for me - the week after the Superbowl. The realisation that Sundays will not be enjoyable for another 7 months. No amount of draft previews and free agancy talk is going to fill the void left when the season was in full swing.

I thought it might be useful to have a thread dedicated to links to websites for news, columnists you read and find have a good take on the game, sites that carry statistics, alternate views on the game etc etc. It might also help tide us over whilst browsing for the off season. I find I go to the same websites and columns time and again and would love to see where others go for inofrmation or entertainment. Possibly fans of other teams read the local papers and can recommend good columnists etc.

Finally, I always like to read the local newspaer for the Denver opposition the day of, and after the game and thought it would be good to have a list of sites for this...i.e Denver post, Boston Globe etc.

I'll likely add to this as I browse naturally over the next while, all suggestions or links to articles welcome.

American Football Links:
NFL @ SI.com
Bleacher Report
Pro Football Talk
Fark Sports
National Football Post
Grantland
New York Times
NFL Lists from Wikipedia

A few Columnists I like:
Peter King/MMQB/TMQB over at SI.com
Don Banks


A few websites for stats etc:
Often tackling conventional wisodnm , and looking into the numbers
Cold, Hard Football Facts
Not strictly AF only, but during the season and occasionaly during the off season, they look at the economics of football - more interesting than it sounds
Freakonomics
Looking for pure, raw stats ? These guys have everything - considered the bible of statisitics
Pro Football Reference
Innovative Statistics, discussion
Football Outsiders
Another site dedicated to hidden (and not so hidden) statistics
Advanced NFL Stats
Sortable/comparison player stats site
Playerfilter

Local Newspapers - Sports

helimachoptor

also any good apple/android apps for news?

mikemac1

Well everything is there in itunes

But if you don't have that then

ESPN Football Today, every Tuesday and Thursday for the off-season I think
http://espn.go.com/espnradio/podcast/archive?id=2544457

Rich Eisen Podcast. It's all very buddy buddy, I only listen for Mike Mayock
http://richeisen.nfl.com/

ESPN First Draft. Kiper and McShay. Worth a listen
http://sports.espn.go.com/espnradio/podcast/archive?id=3881101

NFL.com Draft podcast. Bucky Brooks is the analyst, it's good
http://blogs.nfl.com/2012/02/08/nfl-draft-podcast-tracker-prepping-for-combine/

If you use itunes there are all available with a search

poldebruin

What Would the End of Football Look Like?
An economic perspective on CTE and the concussion crisis

poldebruin

The QB Files: Tom Brady vs. John Elway
a pre-sb comparison of the only 2 qbs to start 5 superbowls

spiralism

General site with a bit of humour mixed in but this site really comes into its own in the offseason, great mock drafts and offseason columns, while also being a good nfl picks site during the regular season :

WalterFootball

Definitely a good idea to trawl your own teams forums for news as well as reading the local newspaper's online coverage of the team... I always read the Broncos boards and the Broncos section of the Denver Post, great for keeping up!

Amirani

mikemac1 wrote: »

Podcast List

Might as well throw in the NFL Rants & Raves Podcast. Lots of filler and off-topic stuff but it football media is sparse in the off-season:
http://www.nflrandr.com/shows/podcast/

I also enjoy PFW in Progress. It's a Patriots radio program that goes out to podcast. I'm sure other teams have something similar:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/new-england-patriots-pfw-in/id187310910

poldebruin

spiralism wrote: »

General site with a bit of humour mixed in but this site really comes into its own in the offseason, great mock drafts and offseason columns, while also being a good nfl picks site during the regular season :

WalterFootball

Definitely a good idea to trawl your own teams forums for news as well as reading the local newspaper's online coverage of the team... I always read the Broncos boards and the Broncos section of the Denver Post, great for keeping up!

Looks good for Fantasy stuff too. Cheers.

mikemac1

Two other good podcasts were

NFL.com Cover Two podcast. Steve Wyche and Bucky Brooks just chatting, they got the odd interview
http://blogs.nfl.com/tags/cover-two-podcast/

NFL.com The Coachs Show
Brian Billick did this, he's a class act. The best episode was him and Jim Mora Jr explaining how coaches on the sidelines talk to each other during games
http://blogs.nfl.com/tags/the-coaches-show/

These two are now finished for the year
But they are all archived so if you're bored you can always listen

HigginsJ

spiralism wrote: »

General site with a bit of humour mixed in but this site really comes into its own in the offseason, great mock drafts and offseason columns, while also being a good nfl picks site during the regular season :

WalterFootball

Definitely a good idea to trawl your own teams forums for news as well as reading the local newspaper's online coverage of the team... I always read the Broncos boards and the Broncos section of the Denver Post, great for keeping up!

Walterfootball.com is a great site. Weekly mock drafts, and good scouting reports for the new rookies.

Pudsy33

When are the new jerseys out? Dont know abour you guys but I cant wait!

mikemac1

Reebok contract ends first of May so straight afterwards I'd assume

Teams have already started slashing prices to shift their stock, I know the Rams did anyway.
And the niners often slash prices too

Ravens don't for some reason Charging top prices on players who left years ago.

me-skywalker

What date are the Wonderlick results released? Are they conducted during combine?

mikemac1

During the combine

And those are leaked, not officaly released

You may never find out the score for many or most players

me-skywalker

mikemac1 wrote: »

During the combine

And those are leaked, not officaly released

You may never find out the score for many or most players

Well they seem to leak them every year. Should be easy enough to get them as before. Not a huge thing really but I enjoy seeing them being challenged intelectually too, brings in another variable to consider.

mikemac1

Yeah, fair enough, I'll correct myself

So many of them get leaked they may as well just release the results

poldebruin

A nice breakdown of Defense. It's not often you will see such an in-depth analysis - different strategies and techniques used in todays nfl. a bit advanced, but helps enjoy some nuances of the game. One for when you have a lot of time to kill!

Part 1 - Guide to N.F.L. Defenses

Part 2 - Evolution of 4-3 Front

Part 3 - The 4-3 Front Continued

Part 4 - The 3-4 Front

Part 5 - The Zone Blitz

Part 6 - The 46 Defense

Part 7 - Nickel Subpackages

JaMarcus Hustle

Very good article here from Steelers Depot, which is possibly the best team-specific blog on the internet imo. It's basically the work that their chief contract negotiator has done so far this offseason to shave $29 million off of their salary cap in an effort to make room for Mike Wallace so they don't lose him.

http://www.steelersdepot.com/2012/02/math-of-khan-how-the-steelers-trimmed-over-29-million-off-the-2012-salary-cap/

Then there's a follow up article on how it doesn't necessarily have a detrimental affect on the following years cap as so many of these short term fixes normally would.

http://www.steelersdepot.com/2012/02/how-bad-are-all-of-the-restructured-contracts-hurting-the-steelers-in-2013/

adrian522

I'd love to see SF make a play for Wallace though I don't think it's gonna happen.

They have the cap space and he is easily worth a first round pick, but from listening to Trent Baalke it seems like they will be aiming their sights much lower in free agency and won't be going after any of the big names.

SantryRed

helimachoptor wrote: »

also any good apple/android apps for news?

Did you find any Heli. Or Has anyone else found any? Thanks

poldebruin

SantryRed wrote: »

Did you find any Heli. Or Has anyone else found any? Thanks

I've tried a few apps for news, but none of them were that great to be honest. Love to hear some suggestions too.

I intalled Tweetcater and followed Peter King, Adam Schefter, Pro Football Talk, (Jim Rome, Tim Cowlishaw, Around the Horn, Rish Eison, MJD, Larry Fitzgerald, Jay Cutler, Warren Sapp, also - but these are just a by-the-by as opposed to news) and this keeps a constant stream of reports, rumopurs, confirmations all throughout the day. Very enjoyable to dip in and out of every hour.

The app is also good as it groups people you may like to follow into categories , sports>football etc

deisedude

Check out the YooTubeMee Youtube channel. Has a lot of Hard Knocks episodes and Americas game

SantryRed

Lads, can any one confirm to me that what is on the Sports Illustrated iPad app is the exact same what is in the print magazines? Love reading SI when I'm in the States and recently got an iPad. I've a friend in the States so was going to subscribe him for the print version and read the iPad version myself, and when he's coming home he'll the bring the mags with him, thanks.

JaMarcus Hustle

Another great Steelers article here about how they approach the draft, but it's a good read no matter what team you follow.

http://thesidelineview.com/columns/draft/steelers-project-part-1-steeler-way

http://thesidelineview.com/columns/draft/steelers-project-part-2-drafting-steelers