The Broncos do not control their own destiny (that distinction belongs to the Jets and Ravens), but oddly enough, they can STILL make the playoffs even if they lose.  Go figure.  Here are the updated Broncos playoff scenarios.  Make sense of it what you can.

Broncos clinch a playoff spot with:

1) DEN win + NYJ loss or tie + BAL loss or tie OR 

2) DEN win + NYJ loss or tie + PIT loss or tie OR  

3) DEN win + NYJ loss or tie + HOU win OR

4) DEN win + BAL loss or tie + PIT loss or tie OR

5) DEN win + BAL loss or tie + HOU win OR

6) PIT loss + BAL loss + HOU loss + JAC loss OR

7) PIT loss + BAL loss + HOU loss + NYJ loss OR

8) PIT loss + BAL loss + JAC loss + NYJ loss OR

9) PIT loss + HOU loss + JAC loss + NYJ loss OR

10) MIA loss or tie + NYJ loss + BAL loss + HOU loss + JAC loss or tie

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Even if the Seahawks lose their final game to finish 5-11, they would still have a better record this year than 2008.  However, record does not perfectly represent how well a team has played, and lately, the Seahawks have been healthy and horrible.  I was curious how the teams compared statistically.  This is what I found:

2008:  Strength of Schedule ranking (1 being hardest):  19th

2008:  DVOA:  -21.9%  (meaning they were 21.9% worse than an "average" NFL team)

2008:  "Estimated Wins":  5.6  (based on how the team played, it deserved to win between 5 and 6 games)

vs.

2009:  Strength of Schedule ranking: 23rd (currently)

2009:  DVOA:  -27.4%  ("weighted DVOA" is -33%)

2009:  "Estimated Wins":  3.5

Keep in mind, this was BEFORE today's 48-10 loss in Green Bay.  I already knew we were in the 2nd year of a collapse, however, I was really surprised to see the 2009 team was this bad given they had won 5 games and had been mostly healthy the last two months.

Interesting article/discussion over at the Cards SBnation blog. 

Aaron Curry - This has to be one of the easiest picks, as Curry's only in his rookie season and has played very well so far. He will develop into a leader on the defense, and has a wide enough skill set to blitz, stop the run, or drop in coverage. Should one of our aging linebackers(Okeafor, Berry, Haggens) leave or retire, Curry would be a great replacement.

Check it out and see what other players they've noticed.

There may not be an Adrian Peterson sized talent in this draft, but there is some very good depth at the position.  When the Seahawks come to the podium for their first selection in the 2010 draft, it is likely they will have their choice of any declaring NCAA RB.  Unless the Seahawks love Spiller or Best, I have a hard time seeing them go RB with their first pick, which figures to be in the tweens.  However, Denver's pick will be near the end of the 1st round and that is likely where we will begin to see teams making a run on this class of running backs.  It is possible that Spiller and/or Best could still be on the board by Denver's pick.

You can read about 2010's RB prospects at Walterfootball or dozens of other notable sites.  In case you are too lazy, a quick description of some of the RB's that interest me personally:

CJ Spiller:  ZBS RB's that excel tend to be either very fast or very powerful.  Duckett and Dunn in Atlanta's "DVD" offense is a great example of that.  Spiller is the quickest, most agile RB in this draft.  His moves are almost as good as Knowshon Moreno's last year but unlike Moreno Spiller has "take it to the house" speed.  Spiller is also a very good return man and a potent receiver.  Simply stated, he's not just a good running back, but a legit playmaker who adds explosiveness to an offense.  He's not a workhorse type though and would probably be a Felix Jones type in the NFL who splits carries.  Spiller might end up winning the Heisman and his stock is rising.  Unfortunately, I see Spiller as being too big a reach for the Seahawks first 1st rounder but will likely be off the board before Denver's 1st rounder.  The Seahawks do not own a 3rd rounder so trading up from Denver's pick would be difficult.  If he was still there by Denver's pick, I would definitely hope Ruskell considers him.

Jahvid Best:  Probably considered the best RB in this class a few months ago.  Best fits the Ruskell mold of elite players that have slumps in their last college seasons.  Not that Best is slumping in 2009- but barring a ridiculous finish, he's not going to match his 2008 total of 1500+ yards and a crazy 8.1 YPC.  Best is likely to be drafted lower than his talent and past production dictates, in that sense he would be a John Carlson-esque selection.  I think I'd prefer Spiller to Best, just because Spiller is so damn fun to watch and football is entertainment after all.  Best is more of a featured back.  The Seahawks run ZBS and probably desire a 2 back running game, but the last two years Julius Jones has essentially been the teams featured back.  Its not unthinkable they could draft a featured back like Best and use Forsett on some passing downs since he's been pretty good as a 3rd down back.

Toby Gerhart (rounds 2-4):  Gerhart is having an impressive senior season (1217 yards / 16 TDs and counting)  to follow up a nice junior season (1136 yards and 15 TDs).  As said above, a prototypical ZBS two back offense prefers a power back and a speed back.  Gerhart is a nice powerback option that should be available later in the draft.  My dream scenario would be the Seahawks somehow drafting Spiller with Denver's pick and then nabbing Gerhart in the 4th.  Gerhart has had 100+ yards in all but two games this season, and the two games he didn't he had 82 and 96 yards respectively, and a 4.8 YPC in both efforts.  Gerhart doesn't figure to be an elite power rusher in the NFL (otherwise he'd be a 1st rounder), but he's been very impressive every week in a high parity PAC-10 conference.  I think he'd be a steal in the 4th.  Granted, I'm probably biased because the two games I saw him were when he single-handedly raped UW and Oregon.

Here it is.  Check out that second 1st round pick!  Boo ya.

Rang normally has the pulse on Tim Ruskell's drafts.  He was probably the only person on earth the called the Tatupu pick.  He nailed the Lawrence Jackson pick in 2008.  He called the Curry pick two weeks before it happened.  He's probably correctly called other Ruskell picks as well.  Why do I bring this up?  Because its required that this post have 75 words!  There we go.

Hey guys, a couple things-

First, what kind of gif making software do you guys use?  I use Adobe Photoshop (Image Ready).  Its "ok", but it has a major problem.  Any time I export a gif from it, using efficient settings (for web, etc), it still has a file size of about 10kb per frame.  (so a ~2 second, 45 frame gif would be 450 KB).  That's just too large for most sites and I'm sure the bigger the filesize, the more it would bog down the gamethreads.  Ideally, I'd like something that can do 3-5 KB per frame and look essentially lossless.  The smallest gif I've gotten out of Image Ready is 5kb/p, but it looks like garbage.  Any suggestions?

Second, are there any golden rules for posting gifs in the threads here?  I know you guys prefer stuff small, how big is the biggest tolerable size (resolution size or KB size)?

Any help, especially about gif programs would be very appreciated.  I remember I saw a comment in a Fieldgulls thread back in August I think, in which some highly recommended gif making programs were tossed around.  I'm kicking myself for not writing them down.  : (

I don't know if its appropriate to discuss UW football here, but as the Huskies are Seattle's "other" football team, I felt compelled to share my feelings.  Jeff at lookoutlanding always does these nifty post game thoughts for Mariner's games that are fun to read, so I thought I'd try the same thing here.

• For those who follow the Mariners, remember 10 months ago when the Seahawks announced their finalists for the GM opening?  A lot of fans were hoping for a "new school" GM that would inject statistical analysis into their methods.  Of the 4 finalists, none were as old-school as Bavasi, but none were as new school as say, Billy Beane or Chris Antonetti.  The one guy who stood out as the most old-school, scout-type, was Jack Zduriencik, so while nobody was dead set against him, he was probably the least favored candidate on the blog-o-sphere.  When the M's announced Z-man as the next GM, a lot of fans groaned that Lincoln/Armstrong "did it again" by hiring a guy they were comfortable with instead of a guy that could help the team.  However, in very short order, Z-man acquired a ton of defensive talent including Gutirrez and Chavez while adding a good, undervalued bat in Branyan.  In less than two months, without even winning a single game on the field, Z transformed a fanbase of skeptics into believers.  With his first season nearly in the books, Zduriencik looks to be one of the up and coming GM's in the MLB.
  
• I bring this up because last year I was skeptical that Sarkisian was the right hire for UW.  Star Texas-tech coach and offensive mastermind Mike Leach was a finalist for the job, one of the most exciting candidates for UW head coach, maybe ever.  I just assumed that if Leach was really willing to come here, the Huskies would sign him in the blink of an eye.  After all, the Mike Holmgren hire (another offensive mastermind and high profile head coach before coming to Seattle) worked out pretty good for the Seahawks.  Sarkisian was himself kind of high profile as a long time OC for one of best offenses this decade in USC, but I've always been wary of promoting Coordinators to HC, because being a head coach is about so much more than playcalling, and if possible, you'd like to see a guy prove himself as a HC somewhere else first.

• That said, Sarkisian made a terrific first impression on me against LSU.  That Huskies team did not display the attitude you would expect for a team on a 14 game losing streak.  And granted, beating Idaho means nothing, but today's game was so sharp offensively (Huskies first punt came late in the 3rd quarter), that it sealed it for me:  Sarkisian is the real deal and a wonderful hire.  If you saw the clip at halftime where he talked to his team after the LSU loss, you could see that Sarkisian has well above average articulation and motivational speaking skills.  Its no wonder why this team has bought in to his system and his leadership so quickly. 
• That, and the fact that its working.  The Huskies have over 800 yards of offense in two games.  And Jake Locker went from looking like "bad" Jake Locker last year to looking like a "good" Jake Locker last week to looking like John Elway this week.  I didn't think that accuracy was a teachable skill, and maybe its not, but Locker's accuracy is vastly improved this year, as is his decision making.  Also, I've noticed a real difference in Locker's feel for the ball- he threw perfect spirals on every pass today.  The team has an unreal 3rd down conversion rate to this point.  Part of that is luck and small sample size, but credit is due for Locker's poise on 3rd down (his 3rd and 14 scramble and throw today in the 1st quarter was a thing of beauty) and Sarkisian's shrewd 3rd down play calling.  I'm starting to think that Jim Mora made a terrible mistake accepting the Seahawks job, because Sarkisian has looked Steve-Spurrier-esque in his debut, plus he's young.  Like Zduriencik for Seattle (most improved MLB team) or Holmgren for the Seahawks (8-2 in first 10 games), we've seen that great careers often get off to surprisingly good starts right off the bat.  Its just 2 games and an inevitable 1-1 record, but if you watched the games, its obvious that the Huskies are off to a much better start that only the most kool-aid quenched homers saw coming.  It wouldn't shock me at all if Sarkisian holds down the UW job for a decade if not longer.  Which is too bad, because I was looking forward to seeing Jim Mora walking up the Husky Stadium sideline in a purple Huskies shirt someday.
  
• Idaho is just a WAC team, but Idaho was probably a tougher opponent than they had been in the past today.  Their QB looked pretty awesome himself for most of the game, especially under pressure.  If not for some key drops and penalties, this might have been a closer game.  The Huskies secondary is pretty bad, but I won't blame them for today.  The QB they faced was having an "on" game.
• The Huskies opened the game with a Touchdown drive once again, except this time the drive started at their three.  When was the last time the Huskies opened a game offensively with a 97 yard drive?  Oh yeah and prior to that drive they had lost 15 straight games.  WTF.
• Chris Polk had another good game.  He kind of reminds me of Mo Morris, doesn't dance or do anything fancy, just hits the hole fast and hard and tries every play to get 7-8 yards instead of trying for the home-run.  Polk doesn't seem like a game changing back, but he's an important reason for the Huskies insane 3rd down conversion rate.  Not only because he usually picks up the first on 3rd and short, but because he does a great job on 2nd down of gaining yards to make 3rd downs manageable.  He may not break 100 yards very often this year, but so far he's been a big contributor to the Huskies almost unstoppable station to station offense this year.
  
• Jake Locker had a NCAA passer rating of 192.6 today.  He also rushed for a touchdown.  Remember when people laughed at Sarkisian for his lofty goal of turning Locker into a 60% completion QB?  Well, in two games Locker is 42/70.  Guess what 42 divided by 70 equals?
• After next week, the Huskies could be the best 1-2 team in years!  Damn shame they have yet another brutal schedule this year.  On the upside, if the Huskies somehow beat the odds and upset USC, they will actually be the front runners to win the Pac 10.  Pretty scary thought, huh?