Daily Archives: August 23, 2022

At this years Monterey Car Week, Lincoln (F) is celebrating a big milestone - in style.

The brand, now in its 100th year, will be a featured marque at Sundays Pebble Beach Concours dElegance and will show off its Model L100 electric concept vehicle. The electric vehicle (EV) concept is a massive vehicle with a completely configurable, luxurious interior that reimagines what it will be like to be transported in an autonomous future.

Ford CEO Jim Farley believes this is Lincolns future.

The biggest change in our industry isnt really electrification, its more about autonomy coming together with a software updatable vehicle, Farley told Yahoo Finance from inside the Model L100 Concept at the Quail Event in Carmel, California. Going to a digital powertrain is great, but the real change in our industry is going to be using your interior differently than you think at least on the high end.

For the interior at least, its something Farley calls a digitally enabled experience, which can be changed ad infinitum via software updates.

Lincolns transformation, which will see the brand go all-electric and introduce 4 new EV models by 2026, is mirroring the changes happening at Ford, where Farley has split up the business into two operating units in order to drive its EV transformation.

Lincoln Model L100 Concept Interior

For Farley, the split needed to happen in order to get things done, faster.

I have no idea why other people wouldnt to it, Farley says about splitting up the ICE (internal combustion engine) business and the EV business.

I was watching the company literally struggle; I saw a transmission engineer trying to learn about batteries, [the transformation] was just going to take too much time, we dont have time, were way behind, Farley says about the need to change the way Ford was doing business. So to catch up and pass we need to specialize I have no idea how we would make this transition if we didnt specialize.

Farley says Ford is currently insourcing many things, from electronic equipment to software things the company used to outsource. That has led to hiring new workers from other industries to help that change, one that is easier for the company to do with two separate business units.

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Farley believes the new incentives for EVs and componentry coming from the just signed Inflation Reduction Act is a big deal.

It will definitely help our industry, I would say our economists would be very favorable to what just happened, but the biggest benefit isnt the EV consumer credit, its the $35 per kilowatt hour (kWh) support for battery production in this country, Farley says.

Legedary race car driver and restorer Phil Hill

As a young man, Farley worked with legendary race car driver and car restoration expert Phil Hill and Monterey. He also worked on many cars that ended up at the Pebble Beach concours competition.

[Monterey Car Week] brings me back to, for me, my original love of our industry, and frankly how I paid for grad school, and the people I learned the most about cars from where those mechanics making eight bucks an hour, Farley said. I learned more about beauty, and excellence in engineering from them, than from any of our fancy engineers.

Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on Twitter and on Instagram.

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Ford CEO: Splitting off EV unit needed to happen to transition faster - Yahoo Finance

Aqib Talib wont be joining Amazons Thursday Night Football broadcast team after all.

Aqib told the NFL Networks Ian Rapoport on Sunday that, following the arrest of his brother after a shooting earlier this month, he will be stepping away from his role with Amazon.

Aqib was set to join Amazon as an analyst for its Thursday Night Football coverage this season.

Aqib brother, Yaqub Talib, turned himself into the Dallas County Jail earlier this month and is now facing murder charges after he allegedly shot and killed a youth football coach. Aqib was present for the incident, and witnesses told WFAA last week that Aqib instigated the fight by crossing the field during a game and confronting referees.

Aqibs lawyer said in a statement after the shooting that he was very distraught and devastated.

Aqib Talib was present when this unfortunate incident occurred and is very distraught and devastated over this terrible loss of life, his lawyer said. He would like to convey his condolences to the family of the victim and to everyone who witnessed this unfortunate tragedy.

Aqib played in the league for 12 seasons from 2008-2019, first with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before spending time with the New England Patriots, Denver Broncos and Los Angeles Rams. The 36-year-old defensive back was named a Pro Bowler five times and won a Super Bowl with the Broncos.

Aqib spent time with Fox as an analyst after retiring from the NFL in 2020.

Aqib Talib was going to join Amazon as an analyst for its "Thursday Night Football" coverage this fall. (Katharine Lotze/Getty Images)

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Aqib Talib splits with Amazon after brother allegedly shot, killed youth football coach - Yahoo Sports

For the fifth year in a row, Yahoo Sports is simulating an entire NFL season in "Madden." While there have been some dubious results in the past Nick Foles leading the Bears to the Super Bowl and Urban Meyer winning coach of the year this practice has produced an accurate champion way back in 2019.

This time around, things only slightly go astray, so lets jump right in.

Apparently Zach Wilson does have that dog in him, as the New York Jets somehow managed to finish 11-6 and win the AFC East for the first time since 2002, when Wilson was 3 years old. The second-year pro, whose current status for Week 1 is in question due to injury, had arguably the worst year of all the other 2021 first-round QBs (more on this later), but racked up 3,183 yards and 28 touchdowns while limiting his interceptions to just four on the season.

Outside of that, the rest of the division winners seem entirely in the realm of possibility. The Indianapolis Colts were by far the leagues most dominant team, going 16-1, followed by the Kansas City Chiefs (13-4) and Dallas Cowboys (12-5).

Note: Due to constraints, we were unable to simulate the 11-game suspension for Deshaun Watson.

Nothing too surprising to report with the simulations wild-card teams, all of whom finished either 11-6 or 10-7. The most notable takeaway is the NFC South being the most competitive division in the league, landing three playoff teams and the Atlanta Falcons, who just missed out, finishing at 8-9.

While nobody would be stunned to see the Bengals regress a little bit (they finished 8-9 in the sim and missed the postseason), Madden flat out doesnt like the Los Angeles Rams. Last years prediction had the Rams finishing 4-13 and Matthew Stafford having the worst year of his career. This year, things were a little bit better, but Los Angeles still missed the playoffs going 9-8.

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The Rams shouldnt feel too slighted though, since Madden sims might just have a bias against the City of Angels. The Chargers, a team many have pegged as a dark horse Super Bowl contender, finished 4-13, tied for the franchises fewest wins since 2015.

Prescott had arguably the greatest regular season of any quarterback in NFL history in the sim, finishing with 5,649 yards, 57 touchdowns and completing 72% of his passes. Despite Prescott setting single-season records for both yards and touchdowns, Dallas would still fall short in January, losing in the NFC championship game to the New Orleans Saints.

While the Falcons missed the playoffs, if things play out like Madden predicts, Atlanta hit two home runs early in the 2022 NFL draft. Drake London, a wide receiver out of USC, finished the season with 1,305 yards and 11 touchdowns, earning him the top offensive rookie award over Steelers wideout George Pickens. Arnold Ebiketie, meanwhile, the 38th overall pick out of Penn State, edged out Sauce Gardner to win Defensive Rookie of the Year honors, collecting 8.5 sacks and 15.5 tackles for loss. Capping it all off, while he did not win any hardware, Falcons third-round QB Desmond Ridder threw for 5,024 yards and 36 touchdowns with a 67% completion rate.

As far as the rest of the awards go, Rams receiver Cooper Kupp won Offensive Player of the Year after setting the single-season record for receiving yards with 2,114 (600 yards more than the simulations second-highest receiver, Robert Woods); Raiders pass rusher Maxx Crosby broke Michael Strahan and T.J. Watts sack record with 24.5 to win Defensive Player of the Year; and Frank Reichs Colts led the league in wins, earning him the Coach of the Year.

The Indianapolis Colts had a whopper of a regular season when Yahoo Sports simulated the 2022 campaign on "Madden NFL 23." (Photo credit: EA Sports)

While Wilson was the only second-year QB to lead his team to the playoffs, the other four passers taken in the first round of the 2021 NFL draft managed to have solid campaigns. Heres what their stat lines looked like:

Trevor Lawrence 4,612 yards, 43 TDs, 66% completion percentage

Trey Lance 3,778 yards, 28 TDs, 60% completion percentage

Justin Fields 4,108 yards, 30 TDs, 63% completion percentage

Mac Jones 4,820 yards, 29 TDs, 70% completion percentage

Of the four, Fields was the only one who led his team to a winning record, as the Bears finished 9-8 in the NFC North. New England finished 8-9, Jacksonville 7-10 and San Francisco 5-12.

Now that he's officially been named the starter in Carolina, its not out of the realm of possibility for Baker Mayfield to have a strong season and lead the Panthers to the playoffs. In the simulation, Mayfield finished with 3,955 yards and 31 touchdowns, which would both be career highs for the former No. 1 overall pick. The bizarre thing that happened was that the Steelers traded for Sam Darnold, despite drafting Kenny Pickett in the first round of the 2022 draft. Darnold finished with 4,410 yards, 27 touchdowns and 21 interceptions for Pittsburgh, which did not make the postseason.

In what appears to be a make-or-break year for the Dolphins and Tagovailoa, the "Madden" simulation appears to leave things as murky after the season as they currently are. Miami finished last in the AFC East at 6-11, and Tagovailoa threw for 3,944 yards, 21 touchdowns and completed 61% of his passes. While the yardage and touchdown totals would be the highest of his career, the offense appears mired in mediocrity with him under center. If the actual season plays out like this, get ready for Miami to have to make a difficult call next spring.

Davante Adams, Matt Ryan and Carson Wentz were three of the bigger name players to change teams this offseason. Ryan had by far the most success of the three, both individually and from a team perspective. The former NFL MVP threw for 4,492 yards and 41 touchdowns with a 69% completion rate, leading the Colts to the leagues best record. Ryan would not get a chance to erase the 28-3 cloud that hangs over his head however, as Indianapolis lost to Kansas City in the AFC championship game.

"Madden" expects Davante Adams to have a solid campaign in his first season as a Raider. (Photo credit: EA Sports)

Heres how Wentz and Adams finished their seasons:

Wentz 4,324 yards, 31 touchdowns 63% completion percentage

Adams 105 receptions, 1,513 yards, 9 touchdowns

While the Colts and Cowboys finished with the best records in the AFC and NFC, respectively, it was New Orleans and Kansas City that played in Super Bowl LVII in Glendale, Arizona. When all was said and done, the Saints defeated the Chiefs, 34-14 to win the franchises second Super Bowl title. In a moment that brings everything perfectly full circle, Tyrann Mathieu was named Super Bowl MVP against his former team, in the stadium where the team that drafted him, the Cardinals, plays.

This was the fourth year in a row Madden placed the Chiefs in the Super Bowl.

Here's the list, in alphabetical order: Tom Brady, Joe Flacco, A.J. Green, DeSean Jackson, Julio Jones, Jason Kelce, Devin McCourty, Matt Ryan, Emmanuel Sanders, Harrison Smith, Ndamukong Suh and Trent Williams.

It seems surprising that weeks after being eliminated in the AFC championship game and coming off a 16-1 season that Matt Ryan would retire, but Madden seems to think that he and the other half of one of the most prolific QB-WR pairings in NFL history in Julio Jones will call it quits.

Few other names jumped out from the overall retirement list. As far as Brady goes, well all believe it when it actually happens for more than a few weeks.

More here:

'Madden NFL 23' predicts the 2022 season, including 16-1 Colts and Dak Prescott winning MVP - Yahoo Sports

Oil prices could spike again by the beginning of 2023, says one analyst.

"Domestically, whether it's oil or it's gas, these companies have very very limited incremental capacity at this time," Truist Securities Managing Director of Energy Research Neal Dingmann told Yahoo Finance Live.

U.S natural gas prices rallied on Monday to new 14-year highs over reserve concerns and the energy crisis in Europe. Oil prices declined during the session amid worries of a global slowdown and the prospects of a nuclear deal with Iran, which would translate into more crude entering the market.

Dingmann believes oil could fall to about $80 per barrel this year, before jumping to $110 in early next year.

"We're seeing the same thing from OPEC+. All these areas have very very little incremental capacity which makes for me the chance for a spike, whether that be for gas or oil very very possible by early next year," said Dingmann.

Oil futures came off the session lows after Saudi energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud said OPEC+ may be forced to cut production due to a disconnect of fundamentals in the oil market.

West Texas Intermediate crude (CL=F) had been down more than 4% during todays session but came well off the lows to settle 54 cents lower at $90.23/barrel. Brent crude (BZ=F) futures fell 44 cents to settle at $96.28.

Ines is a markets reporter covering equities. Follow her on Twitter at @ines_ferre

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'Limited' oil and gas capacity could send prices higher in 2023, analyst says - Yahoo Finance

RESTON, Va. & NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Yahoo today announced a partnership with Comscore (Nasdaq: SCOR) to give Yahoo DSP advertisers additional and enhanced brand safety and suitability controls for connected TV (CTV) campaigns. Additionally, contextual segments - leveraging categories like TV genre - support campaign relevancy and reach within identity-less CTV app environments.

The CTV landscape continues to see tremendous growth, and as spend increases, advertisers want to ensure content suitability and alignment, and protect brand equity, said Elizabeth Herbst-Brady, Head of Global Revenue & Client Solutions at Yahoo. Partnering with Comscore adds to our already powerful brand safety and suitability toolkit within the Yahoo DSP, and will help us continue to maximize the quality and effectiveness of advertiser CTV investments. With the addition of Comscores contextual technology, Yahoo advertisers are able to leverage a variety of solutions that enable them to maximize reach across inventory environments with or without identity.

The Yahoo DSP will integrate with Comscore Activation, a robust set of pre-bid inventory filters to help marketers achieve brand-safe, impactful campaign delivery across CTV inventory. Comscore Activation is powered by Comscores contextual AI engine and intelligent categorization technology, allowing for a better understanding of CTV media and content. Comscore also utilizes the IABs genre categories included in their Content Taxonomy 3.0 framework, enabling CTV advertisers using the Yahoo DSP to filter buys based on TV genres.

Through the partnership, Yahoo DSP advertisers can now leverage Comscore Activation to fine-tune their brand protection preferences based on brand suitability tiers. Advertisers can combine a variety of segments with numerous descriptive filters to protect campaigns based on their unique brand needs, and without sacrificing reach.

Comscores latest State of Streaming report found a 19% year-over-year increase in hours that U.S. households spent watching streaming content, meaning there is no shortage of opportunity to reach consumers on CTV, but advertisers need to ensure their CTV investments arent negatively impacting their brand, said Lee Blickstein, Vice President, Activation Solutions, Comscore. To effectively do this, CTV advertisers must have access to granular tools that go beyond the typical binary approach to brand safety, ensuring they have the confidence and security to achieve next-level campaign performance.

Yahoos partnership with Comscore expands on the companys CTV brand safety and suitability tools available in the Yahoo DSP, including ongoing DSP and SSP quality control initiatives (e.g, ads.txt support and verification, etc.), as well as built-in and third-party fraud/invalid traffic (IVT) protection, inventory mapping, tiering and categorization, support for inventory inclusion and exclusion lists.

About Comscore

Comscore (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a trusted partner for planning, transacting and evaluating media across platforms. With a data footprint that combines digital, linear TV, over-the-top and theatrical viewership intelligence with advanced audience insights, Comscore allows media buyers and sellers to quantify their multiscreen behavior and make business decisions with confidence. A proven leader in measuring digital and TV audiences and advertising at scale, Comscore is the industrys emerging, third-party source for reliable and comprehensive cross-platform measurement.

About Yahoo

Yahoo reaches nearly 900 million people around the world, bringing them closer to finance, sports, shopping, gaming and newswith the trusted products, content and tech that fuel their day. For partners, we provide a full-stack platform for businesses to amplify growth and drive more meaningful connections across advertising, search and media. To learn more, please visit yahooinc.com.

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Yahoo and Comscore Partner to Bring Advanced Brand Protection, Contextual Solutions to CTV Campaigns - Business Wire

Udonis Haslem will return for his 20th season with the Miami Heat this fall. (Michael Reaves/Getty Images)

Udonis Haslem isnt done just yet.

Haslem is expected to sign a one-year deal to return to the Miami Heat for a 20th season in the near future, he announced at the final day of his basketball and cheer kids camp in South Florida.

Haslem will sign a one-year, $2.8 million veteran minimum deal in the near future, per the Miami Herald.

I have decided to follow through what me and my father had talked about, Haslem said. I will finish what I started, and I will play 20 years. I will play this year, because I talked about that with my father.

It wont be the same, it wont be as easy. But the goal still remains the same. Win, win a championship, leave it on the line and hold your head high when its all over. Ive got one more in me for pop. Ive got one more in me for the city. Ive got one more in me for the team.

Though Haslem didnt say so specifically, it sounds like this season will be his last in the league.

The 42-year-old Miami native went undrafted out of Florida, and then made his debut with the Heat in 2003. Hes been a staple in the organization ever since, and helped lead them to three titles including two alongside LeBron James.

[Set, hut, hike! Create or join a fantasy football league now!]

Haslem appeared in 13 games last season, and averaged 2.5 points and 1.9 rebounds in 6.4 minutes per game. He hasnt played in more than 16 games in a season since the 2015-16 season.

Haslem will now join a small class of NBA players who have played in at least 20 seasons in the league. Only eight players Vince Carter, Dirk Nowitzki, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kobe Bryant, Jamal Crawford, Robert Parish, Kevin Willis and Kevin Garnett played in the league for at least two decades. LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony will join that group this season, too.

Only Bryant, with the Los Angeles Lakers, and Nowitzki, with the Dallas Mavericks, have spent their entire 20-season career with the same team. Haslem will be the third.

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Udonis Haslem to return for 20th season with Miami Heat this fall - Yahoo Sports

This post was originally published on TKer.com.

Consumer behavior is incredibly complex and nuanced.

Over the past year, weve learned that consumer spending can rise even as consumer sentiment plummets amid high inflation and the rising risk of a recession.

One category thats seen a particularly high level of inflation is travel, with airline fares up 28% from a year ago. Yet, one of the strongest areas of consumer spending has been vacation travel, which, by the way, is considered a discretionary expense.

On the matter of discretionary spending, Bank of America analysts recently found consumers do not necessarily dine out less during downturns, but rather they tend to shift to cheaper restaurants.

That brings us to one of my favorite quotes from the recent earnings season.

It comes from Lamb Weston LW 0.11% , the $11 billion potato processor that supplies frozen french fries to your favorite restaurants including McDonalds. During the companys July 27 quarterly earnings call, CEO Tom Werner called attention to the fry attachment rate (via The Motley Fool):

Despite pressure on overall restaurant traffic, the demand for fries remain solid as the fry attachment rate in the U.S., which is a rate in which consumers order fries when visiting a restaurant or other food service outlets, remains above pre-pandemic levels.

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In other words, when people go out to eat, theyre not allowing their deteriorating sentiment toward the economy affect their decision to order a side of fries.

Heres a little more color from CFO Bernadette Madarieta:

Overall, we expect U.S. demand to remain solid, but will also likely be affected by significant inflation that consumers are facing. In the event of an economic recession, we expect demand for French fries will be resilient, although with little to no growth. That's consistent with what we experienced during the great recession from 2008 to 2010.

While the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression mightve stalled growth, it wasnt enough to get people to stop ordering fries.

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Fascinating stuff.

Many of you became new subscribers in recent months. (Welcome!) Some of you havent had the time to open all of the newsletters. (Were all busy!) Some of you are free subscribers looking for a reason to become a paid subscriber.

For all yall, heres a roundup of some of TKers most talked-about paid and free newsletters. All of the headlines are hyperlinked to the archived pieces.

Passive investing is a concept usually associated with buying and holding a fund that tracks an index. And no passive investment strategy has attracted as much attention as buying an S&P 500 index fund. However, the S&P 500 an index of 500 of the largest U.S. companies is anything but a static set of 500 stocks. From January 1995 through April 2022, 728 tickers have been added to the S&P 500, while 724 have been removed.

S&P Dow Jones Indices found that funds beat their benchmark in a given year are rarely able to continue outperforming in subsequent years. According to their research, 29% of 791 large-cap equity funds beat the S&P 500 in 2019. Of those funds, 75% beat the benchmark again in 2020. But only 9.1%, or 21 funds, were able to extend that outperformance streak into 2021.

Investors should always be mentally prepared for some big sell-offs in the stock market. Its part of the deal when you invest in an asset class that is sensitive to the constant flow of good and bad news. Since 1950, the S&P has seen an average annual max drawdown (i.e. the biggest intra-year sell-off) of 14%.

While valuations feature importantly in our toolbox to estimate forward equity returns, we should dispel an oft-repeated myth that equity valuations are mean-reverting, Goldman Sachs analysts argued. there is only 26% confidence that the Shiller CAPE is mean-reverting, and 74% confidence that it is not.

Media outlets sometimes unfairly characterize a new piece of data as they attempt to draw attention from their audiences. The November 2021 jobs report came with a lot of mainstream news headlines suggesting that the creation of 210,000 jobs was a bad thing. Nine months later, were learning that the labor market boom continues without interruption.

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Picking stocks in an attempt to beat market averages is an incredibly challenging and sometimes money-losing effort. In fact, most professional stock pickers arent able to do this on a consistent basis. One of the reasons for this is that most stocks dont deliver above-average returns. According to S&P Dow Jones Indices, only 22% of the stocks in the S&P 500 outperformed the index itself from 2000 to 2020. Over that measurement period, the S&P 500 gained 322% while the median stock rose by just 63%.

After reporting disappointing quarterly results in February, Meta shares plunged 26% in a single trading day. After losing an eye-popping $251 billion of market cap, the social networking company quickly went from being the sixth largest company in the S&P 500 to the seventh. Its the kind of move that couldve rattled the confidence of investors and traders with positions in other stocks. And it did: That same day, the S&P 500 fell 2.4%. But losing 2.4% isnt remotely close to losing 26%. Thats diversification at work.

Published on Dec. 5, this newsletter showed Wall Street strategists were anticipating the S&P 500 to end 2022 somewhere between 4,400 to 5,300. The market is currently trading below the most bearish strategists target. Who knows? Maybe the market will surge during the final months of this year. That said, I think this excerpt from that newsletter was noteworthy:

Its incredibly difficult to predict with any accuracy where the stock market will be in a year. In addition to the countless number of variables to consider, there are also the totally unpredictable developments that occur along the way.Strategists will often revise their targets as new information comes in. In fact, some of the numbers you see above represent revisions from prior forecasts.For most of yall, its probably ill-advised to overhaul your entire investment strategy based on a one-year stock market forecast.Nevertheless, it can be fun to follow these targets. It helps you get a sense of the various Wall Street firms level of bullishness or bearishness.

Five stocks (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google) account for a massive share of the market capitalization of the S&P 500, which consists of 500 companies. While it may be technically accurate to say these five stocks represent five companies, its also a gross oversimplification of the businesses and markets these companies are exposed to.

Peter Lynch, the legendary stock picker who ran Fidelitys market-beating Magellan Fund for 13 years, made a prescient observation in a speech he gave to the National Press Club back in October 7, 1994: Some event will come out of left field, and the market will go down, or the market will go up. Volatility will occur. Markets will continue to have these ups and downs. Basic corporate profits have grown about 8% a year historically. So, corporate profits double about every nine years. The stock market ought to double about every nine years Because profits go up 8% a year, and stocks will follow. That's all there is to it.

The stock market can be an intimidating place: its real money on the line, theres an overwhelming amount of information, and people have lost fortunes in it very quickly. But its also a place where thoughtful investors have long accumulated a lot of wealth. The primary difference between those two outlooks is related to misconceptions about the stock market that can lead people to make poor investment decisions.

This post was originally published on TKer.com.

Sam Ro is the founder of Tk.co. Follow him on Twitter at @SamRo.

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A fascinating anecdote about the 'fry attachment rate' and consumer behavior - Yahoo Finance

As terms of the Deshaun Watson disciplinary settlement became public Thursday, an NFL executive familiar with the Cleveland Browns quarterback posed a question that is bound to linger in the ensuing months. It encapsulated the lengthy path the league carved on its way to the negotiated outcome, a route that went from the NFLs 19-month pursuit and 215-page investigative report, to an overturned arbitration ruling, to commissioner Roger Goodell embracing words like egregious and predatory to describe Watson.

After all that, the executive asked, why didnt [the NFL] drop the hammer?

The question itself is framed through an opinion. Some in the league maybe many see Watsons 11-game suspension and $5 million fine as proof positive that the NFL pulled back at the very end of the process. Others many of whom orbit the quarterback see it as far steeper than the evidence warranted in the sexual assault and misconduct allegations that have followed Watson since March of 2021. But even inside those warring vantage points, there is an undeniable reality coming out of this week. And it's this:

The NFL took control of the Watson case when it appealed the six-game suspension laid down by arbitrator Sue L. Robinson. For all intents and purposes, it controlled the end of the disciplinary process from the moment it hand-selected former New Jersey Attorney General Peter C. Harvey, who has deep ties to the league, to deliver a final verdict. From that point, everyone in Watsons camp expected a home-cooked result was in the pipeline. It meant if the NFL wanted an indefinite one-year suspension, that was going to be the result.

Yet right when the league appeared poised to dictate that outcome, to have its drop-the-hammer moment, it instead cut a deal. Rather than a one-year ban that would have pushed Watsons entire contract back a year, potentially costing $40 million or more by shaving another season off his prime earning years, it settled and kept Watsons extension on schedule.

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The question of "why?" hangs in the wind.

Deshaun Watson told reporters Thursday that he stood on his innocence. (Photo by Nick Cammett/Getty Images)

The league had the control of the disciplinary process that it wanted. And Goodell made clear what the NFL thought of Watsons alleged behavior. Not only did it say Watson committed sexual assault (by the leagues definition, not necessarily by criminal definition), but it painted him as unremorseful, predatory and acting in a way that endangered the well-being of the four women accusers whose allegations were presented in the disciplinary process.

And on top of it all, the NFL leaked the goal of a one-year suspension, plus a monetary fine. Thats not the kind of thing done when the final plan is to turn around and negotiate something less after taking control of the process, especially when there isnt any provision preventing Watson and his representation from signing a settlement and then proclaiming that the quarterback is innocent and the deal is just a tool to move forward with his career.

Yet here we are, in that precise space, with the NFL having cut a deal and Watson sending mixed messages about his responsibility in all of this. On Watsons side of the fence, the compromise makes sense. His camp and the union lacked the final control of the process and an immense amount of future salary was on the line. On the NFLs side, the deal appeared to make less sense. Unless there was a reason that wasnt readily obvious.

In the end, I believe there was.

After talking to a handful of sources who played a part in the arbitration process including reading through the briefs that changed hands I think Goodell and the leagues owners didnt want to risk what might happen on the other side of a one-year Watson suspension. Heres why.

First and foremost, I believe the leagues full suspension of Watson and an even more significant financial fine would have triggered another drawn-out attempt at cracking the leagues disciplinary dynamic in a federal jurisdiction. While that litigation would have likely been unsuccessful, it wouldnt have come without a financial cost and additional public-relations distractions. And for those who havent been paying attention, the leagues legal bills are believed to be considerably spiraling.

And, second, the leagues team owners could have risked a public-relations napalming from the NFL Players Association, which until the Watson case had been quietly seething over the NFL's track record of investigations, specifically the aggression and follow-through displayed by the leagues investigators when players (not just Watson) face allegations versus when franchise owners find themselves in legal or moral trouble.

The last thing the NFL wants is someone building a decades-long list of every potential violation of the personal-conduct policy committed during the tenure of every club owner in the league. Theres a chance that could have happened if Watson had been suspended for a year. And I think the motivation for it was fueled by Robinsons decision, which vividly painted the NFL as a corporation that is creating standards of player justice as it goes along.

Most fans might not care about that kind of thing when it comes to the leagues internal judicial process. Especially when its centered on a quarterback who faced the kind of civil allegations that Watson faced. But the union cares, because every single case like this sets a standard for how the next player is treated. Just as every investigation into a team owner that fades into the background sets a standard for how franchise owners are treated.

Theres little question that such a disparity exists, especially when an owner like the Dallas Cowboys Jerry Jones can cut a $2.4 million settlement with former cheerleaders over a workplace incident and move on like it never happened. Or Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder can be accused of well, a hell of a lot and face consequences that dont seem very consequential at all. Thats two prominent team owners. Imagine a motivated adversary engaging in a significant deep dive into the other 30 teams in the league, and then showcasing all the league investigations that never took place.

None of which gets into the litany of other things that have been going on this offseason, such as: the NFL being forced into a $790 million settlement with the city of St. Louis over the Rams' relocation; Goodell being called to testify before Congress about a wasteland of Snyder allegations; Jon Gruden filing a lawsuit against the league that has become a serious threat; the city of Oakland trying to take the league in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in an antitrust case; the league recently reaching a settlement after a particularly disgusting revelation of "race norming" in concussion settlements; and former Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores still having a pending class-action lawsuit against the league over racial discrimination.

Surely, I have left some litigation out. But you get the point.

All of this served as an undercurrent to the leagues decision to exit the Deshaun Watson disciplinary fight when it became tolerable to do so. When push came to shove, the leagues team owners didnt want any part of it dragging on. They didnt want the headlines. They didnt want the attention. They didnt want the shared legal bills or unforeseen headaches.

What they wanted was to get it over with and move on to actual football. And thats exactly what Goodell and the settlement gave them.

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Why did NFL settle with Deshaun Watson? Look at the team owners - Yahoo Sports

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal (left) is at loggerheads with Elon Musk over the Tesla CEO's proposed $44 billion takeover.Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images, Andrew Kelly/Reuters

Twitter CFO Ned Segal warned employees Friday their bonuses could be half the maximum, per The NYT.

Segal said the company's bonus pool was at 50% of where it could be if financial targets were being hit, per The NYT.

Twitter employees' bonuses are tied to the company's financial performance, which has declined of late.

Twitter told employees Friday they're on course to get half their typical annual bonuses because of the company's financial challenges,The New York Times reported.

In an email to staff, Twitter CFO Ned Segal said the social-media company's bonus pool was currently at 50% of what it could be if financial targets were being hit, The NYT reported, citing as sources two employees who received the email.

Twitter didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. The NYT said a Twitter spokesperson confirmed the email's veracity and declined to comment further.

Twitter's warning on bonuses comes as it tries to force Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to complete his proposed $44 billion acquisition of the social-media group something Twitter highlighted in its second-quarter earnings report as having had a detrimental impact on its finances.

Twitter, Meta, Alphabet, and other platforms that rely at least in part on digital advertising for revenue are grappling with a downturn in the ad market amid fears of recession.

Twitter employees receive annual bonuses based on the company's financial performance, which could improve before they are ultimately paid out.

Twitter and Musk are at loggerheads over their proposed $44 billion deal, which has culminated in a fractious legal battle between the parties. Musk argues Twitter won't provide him with necessary detail about the volume of spam bots on its platform.

In its second-quarter earnings report, published July 22, Twitter said "uncertainty" over Musk's proposed takeover of the company, as well as advertising industry headwinds, contributed to its first quarterly revenue decline since 2020. Twitter reported a net second-quarter loss of $270 million compared with a net income of $66 million in the same quarter in 2021.

Insider's Lara O'Reilly exclusively reported Friday that dozens of Google's external recruiters just lost their jobs amid its hiring freeze.

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Twitter's CFO warned employees they're on track to get 50% of their typical annual bonuses because of the company's financial challenges, report says...

I understand that fantasy football is generally a young-mans game on the field, and we like to engage possible breakout players and the hot new rookies. But sometimes a boring but reliable veteran player is a preferred fantasy jam, and today I want to offer five of those boring but useful vets for you to consider on draft day.

Why hes boring: Hes entering his age-32 season, and hes clearly the second-most talented receiver on his own team (Justin Jeffersons upside is the moon). Thielen missed four games last year, and had the lowest YPC of his career. He hasnt topped 1,000 yards since 2018.

Why hes a value: Thielen is an outstanding space receiver who excels in the red zone hes scored 24 times over his last 141 catches, covering the last 28 games. And while Jefferson might eventually cut into some of Thielens goal-line workload, its unlikely Kirk Cousins will completely ignore the red-zone chemistry he has with Thielen. The Vikings also have an exciting new coaching staff in place, which should be more creative in the passing game. Throw in a narrow Minnesota passing tree and Im plenty interested in Thielen at his Yahoo ADP of 84.7.

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Why hes boring: Hes been well-traveled, paling with four different franchises over eight years. The Texans are one of the NFLs most struggling franchises, at the front stages of what could be a lengthy rebuild. Cooks has been a steady performer for his career, but seldom a star hes never made a Pro Bowl. He has a modest 19 touchdown catches over his last four years.

Why hes a value: Houston QB Davis Mills is likely better than the public realizes. And the Texans passing game is going to route through Cooks he absorbed a juicy 134 targets last year. In some markets, the crowd is hip to Cooks hes percolated into the Top 50 of NFFC drafts in August. But his overall Yahoo ADP still rests outside the Top 70; if you can land that ticket, or anything reasonably close, youve done well.

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Houston Texans wide receiver Brandin Cooks has bounced around in his career, but has always been a reliable fantasy performer. (Photo by David Rosenblum/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Why hes boring: Hes low-key, not a glamour guy, with a quiet but reliable work ethic, seldom in the headlines or society pages. Carrs fantasy placement the last five years has been respectable but never outstanding starting with last year, hes checked in at QB14, QB13, QB16, QB18, QB19. And Carrs been around a while, stepping into his age-31 campaign.

Why hes a value: Carr finally gets to work with a dynamic receiver in Davante Adams, his old running mate from Fresno State. The Raiders also have two other plus targets in slot machine Hunter Renfrow and tight end Darren Waller. And the Vegas offense might need to be pass-heavy for 2022, as a shaky offensive line is likely to limit the running game. When you dont have faith in the beef up front, its usually easier to mask problems by proactively throwing the ball. If you like to take a value-driven approach at quarterback, Carr makes sense as the 14th quarterback off the board in Yahoo leagues.

Why hes boring: Shultz was merely a fourth-round pick in the 2018 Draft, coming into the league with modest expectations. His Player Profiler comp is Austin Hooper, not a slam but not a glowing recommendation either. Schultz did very little in his first two seasons, and over his four-year career he averages an ordinary 10.0 YPC.

Why hes a value: Schultz posted a snappy 78-808-8 breakout season last year, and slotting him as the TE3 in the end-of-year ranks. And yet hes still available as the No. 6 tight end in Yahoo drafts, behind George Kittle (dealing with a young QB; seldom scores touchdowns) and Darren Waller (a good player, but perhaps the No. 3 option in the Raiders passing game). Schultz looks like hes in the catbird seat, important in the Dallas offense but seldom to be the primary focus of defenses, given the skills of WR CeeDee Lamb. Schultz has an excellent chance to beat or at least meet his current ADP of 56.5.

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Why hes boring: Hes not heavily used in the passing game, and hes merely a good touchdown source, not a dominant one (39 spikes in 58 games). The Browns have quality backs complimenting Chubb (Kareem Hunt, DErnest Johnson), and the offense wont have Deshaun Watson for 11 games, forcing Jacoby Brissett (or perhaps Jimmy Garoppolo) to hold down the fort. The Browns use Chubb liberally but seldom force the ball to him; hes averaged 17.4 touches per game over the past two seasons.

Why hes a value: In some rooms, Chubbs ADP is falling notably. Over the past three weeks in NFC leagues, hes carrying an ADP of 25. If youre going to let me take Chubb late in the second round or early in the third, his sturdy floor calls to me. Chubb has taken an earlier pick in the Yahoo world (overall ADP of 15.1), but again I want you to target him if he slips to the late-second or early-third round, as perhaps he will now that the Watson suspension length has been solidified (hurting overall Browns stock). Im still willing to bet on Nick Chubb.

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Fantasy Football All-Boring Team: Which veterans can we actually trust in 2022 drafts? - Yahoo Sports