John O’Korn will try out for the Lions

Posted on May 19 by admin

Five quarterbacks went in the first round of this year’s draft and 13 quarterbacks were chosen over the entire three-day affair, but none of them were former Michigan Wolverine John O’Korn.

O’Korn called himself the “the most NFL-ready quarterback in terms of “knowing what to do on a day-to-day basis, game-planning” because of his experience playing in pro style offense under former NFL head coach Jim Harbaugh in Ann Arbor. That didn’t convince any teams to pick him, but O’Korn will get a chance to convince the Lions that he’s worth keeping on the roster.

Avery Williamson plays with speed and, most of the time, discipline. He does it so well, in fact, that the Jets guaranteed him $16 million in free agency, which is why the Titans had to draft Rashaan Evans in this year’s first round. Zach Mettenberger got a better chance than most sixth-round quarterbacks get. Head coach Ken Whisenhunt made him the starter in Weeks 8-14 in 201Mettenberger also started four games in 2015. In the end, he validated the suspicion that arm strength alone can’t make a QB.

Part of the reason, General Manager John Elway said, is because the Broncos aren’t ready to give up on Paxton Lynch.

“We are not kicking him to the curb,’’ Elway said, via Mike Klis of Denver’s 9News. “He can still develop. When we drafted him two years ago, as I said, we knew it was going to take some time.

“Paxton is going to compete with Chad [Kelly] for that backup spot. We are not going to bring another one in for OTAs. We will take a peek at that. It will be those two and Case [Keenum]. We are going to OTAs with those guys and go from there.”

Lynch and Kelly will compete for the backup job behind Keenum, who signed a two-year, $36 million contract last month. Lynch, the 26th overall choice in 2016, has gone 1-3 in four starts with four touchdowns and four interceptions. colts_017

Patricia case has plenty of unanswered questions

Posted on May 12 by admin

The sudden disclosure on Wednesday night that Lions coach Matt Patricia was indicted in 1996 for aggravated sexual assault created an assortment of P.R. options for Patricia. He could have said nothing at all, he could have issued a written statement but otherwise said nothing verbally, he could have issued a written statement, supplemented it with verbal comments, and otherwise taken no questions, or he could have issued a written statement, issued verbal comments, and answered all questions, fully and completely.

Patricia opted for a hybrid of the last two options, issuing a written statement, making verbal comments at a Thursday press conference, and then attempting to answer questions by reciting sound bites and buzz words without directly and fully answering the questions.

Do we have a right to know any of these things, or is it none of our business? That’s a fair question, and reasonable minds may differ as to the answer. On one hand, Patricia has provided a broad denial to a broad claim. In the absence of specific allegations, there’s arguably no reason for Patricia to provide specifics.

We’ll find out. We’ve got to communicate, Carroll said Sunday, per ESPN.com’s Brady Henderson. Phase 2 doesn’t look like it’s suiting him right now, so we’ll see, we’ll see what’s happening. Phase 3 is around the corner for us, so we’ll see. We’ve got one more week of Phase 2.

Pittsburgh has had little success with backups for Big Ben, with another Oklahoma product, Landry Jones, never approaching the Roethlisberger level. When Oklahoma State played at Heinz Field last year and won 59-21, Rudolph threw for five touchdowns in the first half. Five quarterbacks went on Thursday night, from top overall pick Baker Mayfield (coincidentally, a Sooner) to Lamar Jackson of Louisville at No. 32. Then, nothing. Until Rudolph, who was not on hand. Rudolph will join James Washington, his main target at Oklahoma State and Pittsburgh’s second-round choice.

NFL Draft tracker To go on to the next chapter with one of your brothers and the best receiver you’ve spent your whole college days with and maybe spend 15 years with, Rudolph said, it’s awesome. Also not present when his name was called 59th overall by Washington was LSU running back Derrius Guice. Guice was among the 22 players on hand for the opening round, but he cleared out after not being chosen. orioles_087

Jets sign LB Kevin Minter, WR Charles Johnson

Posted on April 23 by admin

The Jets made a pair of free agent acquisitions on Monday.

The team announced the signings of linebacker Kevin Minter and wide receiver Charles Johnson to their 90-man roster. Minter visited with the Bills earlier in free agency while Johnson visited with the Jets last month.

Minter was a 2013 second-round pick of the Cardinals and played for Jets head coach Todd Bowles in Arizona. Minter signed with the Bengals as a free agent last year and started seven of the nine games he played in Cincinnati after two years as a starter for Arizona.

“That pushed and motivated me even more going into the 2017 season.”

This became evident as Melvin played with increasing confidence while also trying to display better verbal leadership skills. Before landing on injured reserve, Melvin started 10 games at left cornerback and finished with 13 pass break-ups, 36 tackles and four interceptions while primarily matched against the opponent’s top receiver.

So why didn’t Indianapolis try harder to re-sign him?

Immediately upon returning as Philadelphia’s football czar following a one-year exodus in the waning days of the Chip Kelly era, Roseman began making the moves that helped the Eagles become last season’s champs.

Roseman and his staff not only continued assembling top-flight talent in 2017. They made sure the Eagles were well-stocked at key positions in case of injury.

For example, Philadelphia weathered the loss of star left tackle Jason Peters. Nigel Bradham excelled when shifting from the outside to replace injured middle linebacker Jordan Hicks. Undrafted rookie running back Corey Clement helped fill the void left by Darren Sproles’ absence.

And the most notable decision of all: signing Nick Foles as Philadelphia’s backup quarterback and having faith that he could excel should anything happen to Wentz.

During a one-on-one interview Monday with Sporting News at the NFL Owners Meetings, Roseman reflected on the road he took to help the Eagles soar higher than ever before in the Super Bowl era. texans_276

Chiefs work out Sharrod Neasman

Posted on April 14 by admin

The Chiefs worked out safety Sharrod Neasman on Wednesday.

The Falcons did not tender Neasman, making him an unrestricted free agent. But the Chiefs are the first team known to show interest in him.

Atlanta signed Neasman as an undrafted free agent in 2016. The Falcons released him before the start of the season but signed him to the practice squad.

While winning for just the third time in 11 games Monday night, the seven runs the Padres scored were one shy of their total in their previous five games, and they tied their season-high with 13 hits. Two of their victories this season have been against the Rockies, whom they already have played five times.

Padres shortstop Freddy Galvis, acquired from Philadelphia in an offseason trade, doubled and scored San Diego’s first run Monday in the fourth. He’s hitting .351 with a .455 on-base percentage and has reached base safely in each of the Padres’ 11 games. But more importantly, Galvis has stabilized a key position that was a Padres weakness last season.

“When you have someone like that that brings consistent defense at a high level, that alters the course of the game,” said Padres pitcher Clayton Richards, who worked five innings Monday, earned the victory and hit the third homer of his career. “When he’s able to make plays like that consistently, it puts us in a really good position.”

Like most, Dungy is waiting to hear more about how the rule will be implemented, and most importantly how it will be enforced. If applied as broadly as it is written, the rule will eliminate not only the deliberate use of the helmet as a weapon but also, as Dungy explained on PFT Live, the inadvertent striking of a player with the helmet while trying to execute a form tackle.

And so we all will continue wait for more information on a rule that could result in major changes to the game. It’s hard not to wonder whether the same secrecy that accompanied the passage of the rule will be used as the powers-that-be, whoever they may be, tweak the rule into a final form that will be applied when the league’s 32 teams return to game action in August and September.

A trade for Beckham is realistic and warranted for only three other teams, all of which have the three elements needed to acquire him: enough wide receiver need, enough salary-cap space and enough comfort that they won’t have same issues the Giants have had with him. texans_002

Browns trade Cody Kessler to Jaguars

Posted on April 10 by admin

Blake Bortles has a new backup.

Cody Kessler has been traded from the Browns to the Jaguars, the teams announced.

The trade is for a 2019 conditional seventh-round pick, which basically means the Browns were about to cut Kessler and were glad to get anything for him at all.

He has only one interception and one forced fumble in his pro career. His contract expired a few weeks after his arrest and the Ravens didn’t pick up his option. He was soon booked again on a theft and battery complaint after a dispute with his girlfriend over an iPhone. By the end of 2017, he was working at a Dick’s Sporting Goods in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Five years ago, Matt Elam was signing autographs for fans. Wednesday, he was just hoping to catch the eye of one NFL team willing to give him a second chance. (AP) More The charges were dropped. No one seemed to notice or care. The phone didn’t ring. So if nothing else, he cherished the chance to work out on Wednesday. He said he watched NFL Network constantly, unable to turn off the TV. It’s been a year off for me, he said.

Everyone’s enthusiastically behind this and in support of this, Goodell said, noting coaches were involved with the decision to change the rule. We understand that the players still are…. They haven’t yet seen all the data that we have and they haven’t seen exactly how we’re going to approach this. But I’m confident in the next few months, we’ll be able to do that. They’ll understand, and our game will be in a much better place for it.

Under the broadened rule, offending players would be penalized for lowering their heads and leading with the crown of their helmets to initiate contact against an opponent on any play. A 15-yard penalty would be assessed and players may be disqualified depending on the severity of the hit. Goodell said replay will be used to determine whether a player should be ejected from the game.

I think it was [Patriots] Coach [Bill] Belichick who first raised it, but if we’re able to have replay to confirm when there’s one of these fouls that we think should be removed from the game and that also confirms whether someone should be ejected, I think there’s a great deal of more confidence among the coaches that it’ll be done consistently and fairly, he said. And I think it also gives the officials more confidence to be able to make those judgments because they know there will be some type of video input in that. broncos_014-500x500

Odell Beckham Trade Rumors: 49ers Have’Real Interest’ in Moving for Giants WR

Posted on April 5 by admin

The San Francisco 49ers are reportedly on the list of teams eyeing wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. as a potential trade target.

According to Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports, the 49ers are in a proactive mode and are monitoring this thing closely with real interest.

I can’t answer that one way or another, New York owner John Mara said when asked whether Beckham would be traded, per Ralph Vacchiano of SNY. We’re certainly not shopping him if that’s what you’re asking. But again, when you’re coming off a season where you’re 3-13 and played as poorly as we played, I wouldn’t say that anybody is untouchable.

Beckham played just four games in 2017 because of an ankle injury but topped 1,300 receiving yards and at least 10 touchdown catches in his first three seasons.

San Francisco is trending in the right direction after it won its final five games of the 2017 season with Jimmy Garoppolo under center. Adding Beckham would give the 26-year-old signal-caller a legitimate No. 1 option to develop in the coming years as the 49ers look to return to the playoffs for the first time since the 2013 season.

The latter is a restricted free agent. Floyd, the 13th overall pick in 2012, played with the Minnesota Vikings last season and recorded 10 catches for 78 yards over 11 games. Snead is coming off a down year as he struggled to find a role with the New Orleans Saints after starting the season on suspension. If Snead is offered a contract, the Saints will have the chance to match the offer and sign him for a fourth year in New Orleans. The Ravens have already signed receivers Michael Crabtree and John Brown this offseason, releasing Jeremy Maclin.

The coaches from all of the biggest programs in college basketball came to New Jersey to watch his high school team play, and somehow, every single one of them took a pass on Marques Townes.

This is no exaggeration, either. Every coach from a power-conference team watched St. Joseph (Metuchen) play when Townes was on the team, because every coach worth his designer shoes and seven-figure salary wanted a shot at the team’s two blue-chip recruits.

Townes was on a team with center Karl-Anthony Towns and point guard Wade Baldwin, and it didn’t take much scouting to know that college basketball would be a pitstop for both on the way to the NBA. Towns went to Kentucky. Baldwin went to Vanderbilt. patriots_176-223x223

Report: Detroit Lions to sign tight end Luke Willson to 1-year deal

Posted on April 3 by admin

The Detroit Lions have found a replacement for Eric Ebron.

The Lions signed veteran tight end and Windsor native Luke Willson to a one-year contract Wednesday, NFL insider Adam Caplan reported.

Zirm posted video on Saturday that showed the same motion:

Darnold turned the ball over 22 times in 2017, and if NFL clubs believe his release played a role there, they could be looking for him to prove that he can make that mechanical adjustment successfully before spending a first-round pick on him. That could happen when Darnold has private workouts with teams in the coming weeks, but it’d help if he could at least show just how quickly he can get the ball out on Wednesday, regardless of his motion.

But what if the Bills are unable or unwilling to make a deal Who should they take at No. 12 Jay Skurski tackles that question at the top of his latest Bills mailbag: That depends on the Bills’ evaluation of Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson. If they feel he has franchise potential, taking him at 12 is justifiable. (More on Jackson later).

If the Bills don’t think Jackson is worth the 12th pick, the other glaring need on the roster is at linebacker, Skurski concludes. If Georgia’s Roquan Smith is still available, and there is a chance he could be with four quarterbacks going in your scenario in the first 11 picks, he would become an immediate starter.

It’s not just on the officials to enforce it. It’s not just on the league to discipline for it. It’s on the coaches to coach it… everyone is enthusiastically behind this in support of this. Goodell downplayed questions about how the NFL will resolve player kneeling protests during pre-game playing of the US national anthem. One idea is to play the song while teams are in the locker rooms before games. A resolution is expected at the May owners’ meetings. – Helmet safety rule’ridiculous’ – NFL cornerbacks Richard Sherman of San Francisco and Josh Norman of Washington told USA Today they were frustrated at the new helmet-hit rule change. It’s ridiculous, Sherman wrote in a text to the newspaper. Like telling a driver if you touch the lane lines, you’re getting a ticket. (It’s going to) lead to more lower-extremity injuries. jets_108

The quarterback Beane wants might still be on the board at 12.

Posted on March 22 by admin

Eh, not exactly. Instead, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that New York is looking at some lesser talents, such as Andrew Cashner, Jason Vargas, Jaime Garcia, Jeremy Hellickson and John Lackey. Sure, they bring depth, but not the talent a team on the bubble of contention needs. Of course, those pitchers were cheap before spring training started — at this point it can only be assumed the Mets are salivating at the thought of such savings.

Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard should be considered the only sure things in New York’s rotation. deGrom, to the Mets’ delight, threw a career-high in innings last season, but he had elbow surgery in 2016. Syndergaard, meanwhile, missed the majority of last season with a lat injury.

Then there’s Matt Harvey, who hasn’t thrown a complete season since 2015. He also had a 6.70 ERA last year. He’s penciled in as the Mets’ No. 3 starter. Again, this team is striving for contention.

After him, there’s Steven Matz, whose career-high in innings pitched is 140.2 — if you count the minor leagues. Zack Wheeler, after missing all of 2015 and 2016 thanks to Tommy John surgery, had a 5.21 ERA over 17 starts in his return last season.

Seth Lugo, Robert Gsellman and Rafael Montero fill out the bottom of the depth chart. Not one of them has had success as a starter, and Lugo dealt with his own health problems last season.

He also can hold on to a fair amount of his pick haul; if Beane wants to move up for the third pick, as an example, the Jimmy Johnson chart says the Bills would only need to deal their two first-round picks and the third-rounder they just got from the Browns.

At the same time, it’s fair to wonder whether the Bills should have been this aggressive to move on from an above-average left tackle in the prime of his career.

Glenn’s extension was massive at the time, but the Bengals are acquiring Glenn with three years and $30 million left on his deal.

That’s not an awful contract by any means, and while the Bills were impressed with rookie Dion Dawkins last season, Buffalo could have kept Glenn on the left side and installed Dawkins as an upgrade over Jordan Mills at right tackle.

Their new quarterback might have appreciated having Glenn around.

As for the Bengals, their offense was sunk by a dismal offensive line last season.

The move to push overmatched right tackle Cedric Ogbuehi to the left side as a replacement for Andrew Whitworth was disastrous, and they couldn’t run behind that line in 2018. packers_119

Kirk Cousins free agency rumors: Former Redskins teammate believes Denver is the next spot

Posted on February 28 by admin

If D.J. Swearinger is right, the Broncos will be the next team for Kirk Cousins.

The Redskins safety spoke to NFL Network Monday and said he believes Cousins will wind up in Denver.

Swearinger’s opinion falls in line with what many think about Cousins’ next NFL stop. While the Jets are willing to break the bank to land the sixth-year quarterback and Browns tackle Joe Thomas is openly recruiting Cousins, the Broncos might give Cousins the best opportunity to play for a contender immediately.

“You never want to see that. But it’s a blessing in disguise. Everything happens for a reason and we’re moving forward from it,” Swearinger said, adding he’s ready to embrace Smith in D.C. “I think we can be better.

“I don’t know what Alex as a leadership standpoint brings, but I hear he is a great player. I see he is a great player. He’s done a lot of great things in this league. A Pro Bowlguy and I can’t wait to get with him and get some championships going.”

“We have a will to win,” coach Bruce Cassidy said. “There are 82 of these and sometimes you just don’t have it, but I think our group is pretty good at pushing right to the end. It would have been easy for us to say it was our third game in four nights and we were playing back-to-back games, and maybe it is not our night after the frustration early on of not being able to finish and (Oilers goalie Cam Talbot) being really good, but we stuck with it.”

Bruins goalie Anton Khudobin agreed the key was staying positive after falling behind a team they felt they were outplaying.

“If you are thinking things aren’t going your way, then they are never going to go your way,” he said. “You have to keep positive, keep playing and shooting and you are going to get rewarded. We were rewarded tonight.”

Ryan Strome and Jujhar Khaira had the goals for the Oilers (24-31-4), who have lost seven of eight.

“At the end of the day, you’re here for wins and losses and it’s tough to take moral victories out of the game,” Strome said. “We know the position we’re in and that’s a disappointing result after 40 good minutes.” jays_297_e719cd6119ccfb7d-180x180

Jon Gruden showed us the last time a quarterback caught his own touchdown pass, as Marcus Mariota did on Saturday.

Posted on January 28 by admin

T.J. Watt’s preseason debut for the Steelers was so dominant (two sacks) that outside linebackers coach Joey Porter declared that Watt would start over the ageless James Harrison. Watt’s second preseason game, though, didn’t go as smoothly.

On Sunday, it was an uneven first half for Watt, who looked solid in run defense, but failed to make an impact as a pass rusher. He notched four tackles (two solo), including one for a loss.

It made for a funny moment because ESPN didn’t just show the clip on TV, and we learned Gruden had an iPhone instead of some flip phone.

Shots fired, bulletin board material posted, whatever else you want to call the two players’ interactions through the media. However, as much as I don’t blame the Jaguars for taking offense to Roethlisberger’s comment, his comments were based more on his own individual desire for redemption, not solely directed towards the Jaguars’ defense.

So to coach the Giants, he’d likely need to be traded and that’s possibly the most unrealistic part of it all. No coaching trade has happened since Jon Gruden was traded from the Raiders to the Buccaneers in 2002 and it’d be a messy end to a tremendous era in New England.

It would also cost the Giants a ludicrous price tag to get Belichick. According to the New York Daily News, it’d take three first-round picks to pull the Patriots coach away, which presents a couple significant problems:

We have a pretty good, balanced team. Sometimes these issues help you bring the team together, too.

Being an official isn’t for the fainthearted. When they get things right it’s taken for granted. They’re roasted whenever they do make a mistake. But they seemed to get more things wrong than usual this week. sabres_815

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Category: Philadelphia Eagles