Mike Shanahan Fired After An Ugly 8-8 Season.

Mike Shanahan was let go after a nightmare meltdown finish to the season, just missing the playoffs. The Denver Broncos had what seemed like a different running back starting each week. They led the AFC West every single week except the last, letting the San Diego Chargers sneak by them in the final game and losing the Division Championship.

Mike Shanahan was in Denver for 14 seasons, leading the Broncos to the playoffs 7 times, which included 2 Super Bowls and more than a few Championship games. In his last few seasons though, the Broncos have gone from an elite team to an absolute mystery, winning the big games but losing focus against some questionable opponents. In Shanahan’s last 3 seasons the Broncos have gone 24-24, and more than a few people were ready for a change.

2009 NFL draft orderTeam ‘08 Record Opp. Win %
1. Detroit 0-16 .559
2. St. Louis 2-14 .533
3. Kansas City 2-14 .537
4. Seattle 4-12 .498
5. Cleveland 4-12 .572
6. Cincinnati 4-11-1 .553
7. Oakland 5-11 .520
8. Jacksonville 5-11 .537
9. Green Bay 6-10 .504
10. San Francisco 7-9 .447
11. Buffalo 7-9 .453
12. Denver 8-8 .457
13. Washington 8-8 .479
14. New Orleans 8-8 .496
15. Houston 8-8 .518
16. San Diego-x 8-8 .516
17. N.Y. Jets 9-7 .471
18. Chicago 9-7 .475
19. Tampa Bay 9-7 .480
20. Detroit (Dallas) 9-7 .498  [part of the Roy Williams Trade]

The Following are playoff teams and may be subject to change based on how far they go in the playoffs

21. Arizona-x 9-7 .486
22. Philadelphia-x 9-6-1 .514
23. Minnesota-x 10-6 .504
24. New England 11-5 .480
25. Atlanta-x 11-5 .459
26. Miami-x 11-5 .461
27. Baltimore-x 11-5 .521
28. Philadelphia (Carolina)-x 12-4 .488  [Eagles traded out of the first round last year gaining the Panthers  2008 2nd and this pick]
29. Indianapolis-x 12-4 .498
30. N.Y. Giants-x 12-4 .502
31. Pittsburgh-x 12-4 .525
32. Tennessee-x 13-3 .459

3 coaches got canned on Monday morning: Romeo Crennel, Rod Marinelli, and in a shocker Eric Mangini of the NY Jets, after going 9-7. Brett  Favre might have dodged the bullet with Mangini losing his job this morning, but most likely Favre will be forced out with any new coaching  personnel installed. The Jets, who started off great, had only 1 win in their last 5 games, just missing the playoffs. At one point this season, people were talking Jets/Giants Super Bowl after beating New England and Tennessee in such a commanding fashion.  Now New York is singing a different tune, after what could have been an easy December.

On average the NFL has 5-6 coaching changes per year, and with Bill Cowher and Marty Schottenheimer floating around, it shouldn’t be long before one of these two guys are scooped up. Other top candidates include Steve Spagnuolo, Greg Williams, Cam Cameron, and Jeff Davidson. Don Banks has a great article for new coaches on the rise from SI.com.

Week 17  “Money Where Your Mouth Is” looks to be the first week that’ll go down without a win. While we had a winning record against the spread this week (9-6-1), the 3 bets we recommended lost…go figure. Our prediction of the Raiders playing spoiler in Tampa came through, along with our other upsets including the Colts and Texans, but we’re a little  unhappy with a couple of our predictions.

As a result of today’s wacky upsets, the Philadelphia Eagles are going to the playoffs thanks to the Raiders and Texans. The biggest thanks may belong to the missed field goal in overtime by Cincinnati to give them the tie-breaking “tie” over the Cowboys. The Cowboys and Buccaneers had haunting losses today that will definitely play in an interesting offseason. Gridiron Experts wouldn’t be surprised if both teams were blown up and re-built.

Gridiron Experts is putting together a free playoff pool called “Beat The Experts”, and after a bad week with our picks (even though we had a winning record in a tough season), this would be a great time to sign up and play for great prizes. Check back tomorrow for sign ups!

Money Where Your Mouth Is Week 17 (Last minute)

This a weekly column that puts our expertise to the test, as we show a couple of the bets that we are placing on specific games, or prop bets offered by the many sports books and casinos. Of course we are a sports betting advisory, so our goal is to help you win money, but if you can’t afford to place bets…don’t.

Week 17 is never a great week to bet on games with all the uncertainties about players being rested for the playoffs. But this year is a little different, as there are so many wildcard opportunities.

Read more…

Gridiron Experts Wk 17 Picks

In the past couple of years, week 17 in the NFL has almost been like a preseason week; teams would usually rest their star players and get ready for the playoffs. This season, there are more teams sitting on the fence fighting for wildcard spots than ever. While Fantasy Football can be a headache in last week of the year, picking winners is even harder, as teams go all out to keep jobs and try to spoil playoff chances.

The Oakland Raiders are terrible, but this is their Super Bowl rematch. Since these two teams met in Super Bowl XXXVII, in which the Buccaneers destroyed the Raiders, Oakland has been through a rollercoaster of drama. They have won only 19 games since going to the Super Bowl back in 2002. Tampa needs to win this week in order to go to the playoffs, and Oakland is looking for some redemption to turn this franchise around. This is a monster long shot, but we have a gut feeling.

The Broncos have almost blown their playoff chances with their 3 game losing streak, but will be ready on Sunday to face a hot Chargers team. The Chargers are geared up to sneak into the top spot in the AFC West, but have holes on their defense that Jay Cutler will expose.

Gridiron Experts Record

Last week : straight up 7-9/ ATS 8-7-1

Overall: 153-87 / ATS 119-115-6

Don’t Be A Boxing Day Drone
Forget the long lines in the cold with all the other suckers. “Live in the now!” Take a look into online shopping and save from the warmth of your own couch. Check out Finding You Deals.com they have coupon codes and promo links to all the big names, including ESPNshop.com and MLBshop.com. They focus more on clothing brands, which your wives and girlfriends might find interesting, but hey, at least you don’t have to leave your house. 

Findingyoudeals.com is a site run by a buddy of ours, and we promised him a plug as a christmas present.

Nothing to play for in week 17? Hang on kids, because Grid-X is putting together a free playoff game called “Beat The Experts” for great sports memorabilia that we’d be happy to give away this time of year. Make sure you check back after week 17 to enter in our playoff game.

Merry X-Mas From Gridiron Experts!

I hope everyone has a great holiday and drives safe

While some of you may be bitter after losing your fantasy football Super Bowl, we thought it would be worth a laugh if people wanted to vent in our comment section on their worst fantasy playoff loss over a rum and eggnog.

Here are a few emails we got that happened this week:

Jamie R. (from  NJ ) who lost a close one in the Monday Night game between GB and CHI. He had Kicker Mason Crosby, and was up against Matt Forte. If the late field goal hadn’t have been blocked he would’ve won; instead, the game goes to overtime and the Packers never get the ball back -lol.

Shawn A. (from Toronto Canada) was up against D. Ward and DeAngelo Williams after getting off to a monster lead in the earlier games, and had to just sit back and watch his championship run away from him.

TIM (from ?) had a long email about how he should have listened to us about the Cardinals playing in the snow, as he made the mistake of starting Kurt Warner. Not expecting huge numbers, Tim was relying on his all star running backs to pick up the slack, but in the end, either one of his back up QB’s (Fitzpatrick from CIN or J. Russell from OAK) would have won him the playoffs- ouch!

Of course nothing was worse than the legendary Brian Westbrook  kneel on the one yard line last year. That one play shocked the fantasy world, and while Westbrook owners couldn’t deny that the little spitfire RB from Philly carried them to the playoffs, he sure broke a few hearts in a monster game last year against Dallas.

The Nightmare Before Christmas -Tell us your fantasy football nightmares-lol

Snowball Fight In Vegas

Hot chocolate and Irish coffee couldn’t fix a cold betting day in the NFL this weekend. If you count the Ravens road win in Dallas on Saturday night, there were 9 upsets in week 16. While some games were a coin flip, others had playoff ramifications and were dubbed as “must wins”. Gridiron Experts seemed to avoid the betting disaster, going 2-2 in our week 16 edition of Money Where Your Mouth Is.  Kansas City broke our hearts (again) on the final drive of the game, which made us go .500.

With calling the Seahawks and Chargers wins, you’d think we’d be having a good week, but when teams like Denver and Philly blow chances at playoff opportunities, you really have to wonder who is going to the playoffs.

Last year, all anyone would talk about week after week was the Patriots. Tom Brady this and Randy Moss that; this year it’s hard to find a team worth talking about for more than a couple of weeks, as playoff runs fall apart in a matter of seconds. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were my sleeper team; I took them to beat the Carolina Panthers 3 weeks ago, thinking the Bucs could  hand an NFC South team a loss at home…man, was I wrong. At the time, it seemed very possible; Carolina had been frustrated by Tampa Bay’s defense in their first meeting, only managing to put up a field goal. Now, I wouldn’t bet on the Buccaneers to beat a high school football team. The offense has vanished, while the running defense is a joke.

The Broncos are also falling apart. You know that as hard as the coaching staff tried to hide the score of the Chargers win earlier that day, they found out. So you would think that after the Broncos caught wind of  their division rival’s win, their game vs. the Bills  would turn into a must win for them.  The Broncos are very streaky and unreliable; they don’t deserve a playoff wildcard spot. The sad thing is, the Chargers don’t deserve one either.