Category: Saints

Saints TE Jimmy Graham part of rowing event across Arctic Ocean in 2025

Jimmy Graham is part of a team that will row across the Arctic Ocean in 2025

New Orleans Saints tight end Jimmy Graham is going to be involved in quite the challenging endeavor in 2025.

Graham will take part in The Arctic Challenge. His role on the team will be as lead navigator.

Per Neworleanssaints.com:

Graham will be one of four rowers united by a passion for adventure. He will be joined by former Navy SEAL Andrew Tropp, who will serve as captain for the mission, former member of Team USA’s rowing team and a New Orleans native Hannah Huppi, who will serve as project manager, and former rower for Team USA and Team Switzerland John Huppi, who will serve as equipment manager.

Per TheArcticChallenge.com:

The team will start their journey in Tromsø, Norway. They will row 1,000 Kilometers across the Arctic open ocean, landing in Longyearbyen, Svalbard.

With 18 months of preparation and training under their belt, the team will push away from land in July 2025. The journey is expected to take between 10-20 days

The team will row non-stop in 9 meter ocean rowing boat, alternating in 2 hour shifts, 24 hours a day. They will bring all supplies on-board, rowing completely unsupported.

Jimmy Graham is part of a 4 member team that will row across the Arctic Ocean for 15 days non stop 🤯in July 2025 for a good cause 👏 https://t.co/B65mJc2zHX pic.twitter.com/FMOBk95mH9

One voter’s 2023 AP First-Team All-Pro ballot

If you’ve ever wanted to see an official First-Team All-Pro ballot, we have you covered.

There are moments in your career where you think to yourself… “Yeah, this is a moment to remember.” Two years ago, when the Associated Press asked me to be one of the analysts responsible for voting for the First- and Second-Team All-Pro teams, as well as NFL Most Valuable Player and all other individual awards, that was certainly such a moment for me.

So, this is my second year of voting, and I wanted to share my first-team ballot with our readers. It’s an honor I take incredibly seriously, and this process involves a ton of advanced metrics, tape study, and reflections from a season of diving into both.

Some of these votes were easy; some were incredibly difficult. But it will give you a bit of insight into what happens with an All-Pro vote.

Falcons fire head coach Arthur Smith after three straight 7-win seasons

The Atlanta Falcons fired head coach Arthur Smith on Sunday night, and it’s not as if Smith gave owner Arthur Blank any other choice.

America’s purest successor to Jeff Fisher has been asked to find employment elsewhere. The Atlanta Falcons have fired head coach Arthur Smith after three straight seven-win seasons, and little progress along the way.

“Decisions like this are never easy and they never feel good,” team owner Arthur Blank said in a statement. “We have profound respect for Coach Smith and appreciate all the hard work and dedication he has put into the Falcons over the last three years. He has been part of building a good culture in our football team, but the results on the field have not met our expectations. After significant thought and reflection, we have determined the best way forward for our team is new leadership in the head coaching position.”

Per the team:

The search for a new head coach of the Falcons will begin immediately. It will be led by Blank and McKay, with input from Falcons General Manager Terry Fontenot, and several other appropriate members of Blank’s Atlanta Falcons and AMB Sports and Entertainment organizations. There is no timetable for filling the role.

The Falcons have brought multiple first-round talents on offense during Smith’s tenure, and he could never quite figure out what to do with any of them. Tight end Kyle Pitts, receiver Drake London, and running back Bijan Robinson have been three of the NFL’s most camouflaged skill position players, and the only person who was able to stop them consistently was Smith, who seemed bound and determined to show how creative he could be with lesser players, to ill effect most of the time.

In the end, Smith’s fate was likely sealed by four losses in the last five games in the 2023 season, capped off by a 48-17 beatdown at the hands of the New Orleans Saints on Sunday.

America reacts to Arthur Smith’s unhappiness with the Saints’ late touchdown

Before that game, the Falcons ranked 21st in Offensive DVOA, and that was supposed to be Smith’s baby. Atlanta ranked 31st in Offensive DVOA in 2022 and 31st in 2021, so if you want to peer through rose-colored glasses, you could say that this year’s Falcons were a little bit better. But if you watch the tape, you know that this was a hopeless endeavor, especially given how Smith mishandled the quarterback situation.

 “Sure, as I’ve said many times, we know the industry that we’re in,” Smith said after the Saints loss, when asked whether he wanted to keep his job. “I love doing what I’m doing. Also, like I’ve told you many times, this is the industry that we are in. I love coaching. I would have loved to win today. Obviously, we didn’t.”

Sadly, Smith left Blank no rational choice for the future of his team.

2024 NFL Mock Draft: End-of-season quarterback decisions lead to surprising picks

How many NFL teams will stick with their current quarterbacks? A high number could make for an interesting first round of the 2024 draft.

Now that the 2023 NFL regular season is over, every team turns its attention to the draft — even those teams that are part of the postseason. Area scouts will start to move to the home facility to interact with scouting directors and general managers, and with the scouting combine less than two months away, it’s time to start putting your big boards together.

This applies especially to those teams with crucial quarterback decisions to make. For the purposes of this mock draft, we’ll assume that the Chicago Bears are sticking with Justin Fields, the Arizona Cardinals are committed to Kyler Murray, the Tennessee Titans think they have a future franchise quarterback in Will Levis, and the New York Jets think that eventually, Aaron Rodgers will stop shooting his mouth off long enough to play quarterback in 2024.

Conversely, the Washington Commanders, New England Patriots, New York Giants, and Atlanta Falcons will avail themselves of the best draftable quarterbacks possible in the interest of turning things around.

So, four quarterbacks go in the first round here, with more teams looking to build around the guys they’ve already got. That makes for one notable omission (Oregon’s Bo Nix), and a whole bunch of talented prospects at other positions pushing themselves up the boards.

America reacts to Arthur Smith’s unhappiness with the Saints’ late touchdown

Falcons head coach Arthur Smith was very unhappy with the Saints’ late touchdown. Perhaps Smith sees touchdowns as a form of aggression.

Atlanta Falcons head coach Arthur Smith has nobody to blame but himself.

Over the last three seasons, nobody has done less with more than the former Tennessee Titans offensive coordinator. Nobody has done a better job of hiding transcendent first-round talent like Kyle Pitts, Drake London, and Bijan Robinson at the expense of stupid Wildcat stuff in the red zone. And nobody has mangled his quarterback situation more notably.

But we digress. In any event, at the end of the Falcons’ 48-17 Sunday loss to the New Orleans Saints, Smith gave Saints head coach Dennis Allen a bit of what-for based on New Orleans scoring a final touchdown with 1:10 left in the game. This was a fake victory formation at the one-yard line after Saints defensive back Tyrann Mathieu picked off a Logan Woodside pass at the Atlanta 25-yard line, and ran out of gas after a 74-yard run.

What was Allen supposed to do — kneel on the ball at the Atlanta one-yard line until the clock ran out?

Apparently, Smith thinks that’s exactly what Allen should have done.

America was ready with corrective action for Coach Smith, and justifiably so. Allen shouldn’t have to apologize for a bit of it, though he did.

4-Down Territory: Playoff contenders/pretenders, underrated stars, Worst of the Week

Playoff contenders and pretenders, most underrated NFL players, and the Worst of the Week — it’s time for this week’s “4-Down Territory!”

With 15 weeks of actual football in the books for the 2023 NFL season, it’s time once again for Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire, and Kyle Madson of Niners Wire, to come to the table with their own unique brand of analysis in “4-Down Territory.”

This week, the guys have some serious questions to answer:

  1. We have three weeks left in the 2023 NFL regular season. Which team are you all-in on now that you did not expect to be at the season’s halfway point?
  2. Conversely, which team were you believing in at the halfway point, and you’re now saying to yourself, “I can no longer take them seriously?”
  3. Who’s your most underrated player in the NFL right now?
  4. What’s your NFL’s Worst of the Week for Week 14?

You can watch this week’s “4-Down Territory” right here:

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You can also listen and subscribe to the “4-Down Territory” podcast on Spotify…

…and on Apple Podcasts.

The NFL’s Worst of the Week: Jamal Adams, Kadarius Toney, and the NFL doesn’t care about concussions

This week’s Worst of the Week in the NFL features Kadarius Toney, Jamal Adams, and a league that still doesn’t care about head trauma.

Football is a wonderful, thrilling, inspiring game that can lift us to new heights in our lives.

But football is also a weird, inexplicable, at times downright stupid game that may force you to perform Keith Moon-level furniture destruction in your own living room.

So, as much as we at Touchdown Wire endeavor to write about what makes the game great, there are also times when it’s important to point out the dumb plays, boneheaded decisions, and officiating errors that make football all too human.

Folks, it’s time for the Worst of the Week for Week 14 of the 2023 NFL season. And we’re not covering officiating errors as we generally do, because we have a more important issue to discuss — the NFL still doesn’t care one bit about head trauma.

Putrid Panthers find another way to give up points against Saints

A TD off a blocked punt for the Saints against the Panthers

The Carolina Panthers are the worst team in the NFL and it isn’t close.

As the NFC South basement residents were in New Orleans on Sunday, they gave the Saints points via special teams.

The punt was blocked and recovered by D’Marco Jackson, who took it back 8 yards for the 14-3 lead after the PAT.

Bryce Young was being tormented by the Saints defense. He was 3-of-15 for 29 yards in the first half.

Alvin Kamara arrives for Saints game in some hot wheels

Alvin Kamara arrives at Superdome in one fancy car

Alvin Kamara showed up for Sunday’s Carolina Panthers-New Orleans Saints game at the Superdome in style.

Check out the NASCAR-style car the New Orleans running back drove into the parking area.

The Saints could use some of that speed as they have been struggling of late.

Lions rookie class excels early, and Saints suffer for it

The Lions are demolishing the Saints, and Detroit’s rookie class — Jahmyr Gibbs, Brian Branch, and Sam LaPorta — has been a major part of that equation.

Dennis Allen’s New Orleans Saints defense has been one of the best in the league in certain aspects, but defending the run hasn’t been a strength. Coming into their Week 13 matchup against the Detroit Lions, the Saints ranked 22nd in Run Defense DVOA, and they’ve been too vulnerable to second-level yards from opposing running backs.

The Lions were all over this on their first and second offensive drives — especially the first, which featured this 36-yard run by rookie Jahmyr Gibbs, which was blocked up about as well as you’d like.

That drive ended with a David Montgomery two-yard touchdown run. The Saints didn’t have the ball very long, as Derek Carr threw this interception to rookie defensive back Brian Branch off a mishandled pass attempt.

On Detroit’s subsequent drive, Jared Goff threw this 13-yard touchdown to rookie tight end Sam LaPorta.

The 8-3 Lions have benefitted all season long from their rookie class, and never more so than at the start of this game with a 21-0 lead halfway through the first quarter.