Tag: Blake Gillikin

Saints punter Blake Gillikin preparing for awkward jersey talk with Derek Carr

Saints punter Blake Gillikin is preparing for an awkward chat with Derek Carr. Both players happen to wear the same jersey number:

So now that the dust has settled and the New Orleans Saints have brought in their new franchise quarterback, and we can get to the really important question: who will be wearing No. 4 in black and gold, Derek Carr or Blake Gillikin?

The Saints’ punter is a restricted free agent, which means the team has multiple options in retaining him for 2023. They also don’t have a single punter under contract for the 2023 season, so it’s a safe bet that he’ll be back. But will he let Carr buy the jersey off of him? Gillikin has only made $2,059,441 from his three-year rookie contract with New Orleans, so this is a great opportunity for him to carve out a slice of Carr’s $150 million pie.

Gillikin responded to a fanmade edit of Carr wearing New Orleans’ No. 4 jersey (usually used by Gillikin) with a classic reaction meme of a child delivering a nervous side eye near the soft drink fountain at a Popeyes restaurant (an aside: the kid’s name is Dieunerst Collin, and he recently signed an NIL deal with Popeyes after becoming a Division II college football player), so he’s at least considering his options if he and Carr are on the same team next year.

As for other their options: Gillikin wore No. 93 in college at Penn State and No. 33 in high school, while Carr has used No. 4 all the way back to his high school days (and his Fresno State alma mater retired it in his honor back in 2017). Neither of Gillikin’s past numbers are eligible for punters in the NFL, though, so he’ll eventually have to pick from one of the open numbers (Nos. 1, 4, 5, 11, 14, 15, 17, and 19; if Jameis Winston, Tre’Quan Smith, or Michael Thomas move on then Nos. 2, 10, and 13 could be available) for at least training camp if Carr buys No. 4 off of him. It’s something very, very minor to monitor in the months ahead.

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The Saints took a big step back in 2022 NFL special teams rankings

The Saints took a big step back in Rick Gosselin’s 2022 NFL special teams rankings. After finishing 1st, 5th, and 5th from 2019 to 2021, they’ve dropped to 20th:

The New Orleans Saints special teams squad had a rough go of it in 2022. Place kicker Wil Lutz had his worst year as a pro by connecting on just 74.1% of his field goal tries, lowest for a team in the NFL, and it took a while for Rashid Shaheed to emerge as their best option returning punts and kickoffs. The Saints struggled to cover their own kicks, too, with injuries sidelining some of their best gunners at different points throughout the year.

It all compounded for New Orleans to rank at No. 20 in Rick Gosselin’s 2022 NFL special teams rankings. Gosselin has been scoring every team’s performance in the game’s third phase for years and he’s seen as the foremost authority on special teams play around the league. So it’s concerning to see the Saints fall within the bottom-third of the league.

That’s a steep drop from their fifth-best ranking in 2021 and 2020. And it’s kind of surprising. The Saints were ranked first in the NFL back in 2019, the first year with special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi in the building. Rizzi added the assistant head coach title in 2022 so it’s possible his added responsibilities in that role led to some gaffes in the kicking game, but that’s impossible to prove from the outside looking in.

Hopefully things turn around in 2023. The Saints may release Lutz as a salary cap casualty, and punter Blake Gillikin is a restricted free agent (as is their special teams ace J.T. Gray). Six of their top seven players in special teams snaps played last year are pending free agents: linebacker Andrew Dowell (379 snaps), safety Daniel Sorensen (319), Gray (320), linebacker Kaden Elliss (278), running back Dwayne Washington (259), and linebacker Chase Hansen (197). Change feels inevitable there, but after a down performance it’s probably needed.

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Former Penn State punter Blake Gillikin rips Pat Narduzzi’s final coaches ballot

Former Penn State player fired off shots at Pat Narduzzi and Pitt on Twitter

This week saw the final USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll released following Georgia‘s national championship romp over TCU in the College Football Playoff national championship. While the coaches’ individual ballots are kept secret during the course of the regular season, the final ballots are shared publicly to allow fans to see how the coaches stacked teams up from 1 through 25.

We got a chance to dive into James Franklin’s final ballot, and he did have a couple of Big Ten teams ranked while the consensus stuck to just Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State. But it is also interesting to see which coaches ranked Penn State the highest and which ranked them the lowest. Perhaps not too surprisingly, Penn State’s lowest ranking in the final coaches poll of the season came from none other than Pittsburgh head coach Pat Narduzzi.

Narduzzi’s final ballot had Penn State ranked at no. 9, which is still a solid final ranking for the Nittany Lions. But Narduzzi was the only coach in the poll to vote Penn State that low.

Seven coaches ranked Penn State as low as no. 8 and most coaches voted Penn State at no. 7, with a handful of ballots going as high as no. 6 (including Rutgers‘ Greg Schiano and Maryland’s Mike Locksley).

Conversely, Kansas head coach Lance Leipold had Penn State ranked the highest on his final coaches poll ballot of the year. Leipold ranked Penn State at no. 5 and was the only coach in the poll to do so.

But Narduzzi’s ballot did not go unnoticed by the Penn State community, of course. And it was former Penn State punter [autotag]Blake Gillikin[/autotag], now with the New Orleans Saints, who fired off a bit of a shot at the head coach of the Panthers upon looking over the final ballots.

“Pat Narduzzi is SALTY,” Gilliken said on his Twitter account after looking over the breakdown of the coaches ballots.

But Gilliken didn’t stop there. He followed up with a kind reminder that it has been quite some time since the last time Pitt won a major bowl game.

It’s true. Pitt’s last major bowl victory was the 1982 Sugar Bowl against Georgia to spoil Georgia’s national championship hopes. But since then, Pitt is 0-4 in games that make up today’s New Years Six.

Surely Narduzzi has some explanation for ranking Penn State as low as he did when everyone else in the country had the Nittany Lions at least one spot higher. But we probably have a good guess as to why Narduzzi voted the way he did.

And, of course, Franklin left Pitt off of his ballot entirely.

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What went right, what went wrong for the Saints in 2022

There’s plenty to criticize about a 7-10 football team, but it wasn’t all bad. Recapping what went right, what went wrong for the Saints in 2022:

There’s plenty to criticize about a 7-10 football team, but it wasn’t all bad for the New Orleans Saints. They exited the 2022 season with plenty to think about, work with, and maybe put behind them as the calendar turns towards 2023.

From lowlights like Andy Dalton and Dennis Allen’s performance on top of the program to a surprisingly-fraught special teams unit to bright up-and-comers in Chris Olave, Juwan Johnson, and Rashid Shaheed, there’s plenty to discuss. And that doesn’t even get into the front office decisions that put this team together.

So let’s break it down. We’re recapping what went right and what went wrong for the Saints in 2022:

Juwan Johnson, Kaden Elliss lead Saints’ top-7 2023 free agents to re-sign

Juwan Johnson, Kaden Elliss headline the list of the Saints’ top 2023 free agents to re-sign:

It might not feel like it, but we’re already in the middle of the New Orleans Saints’ rebuild. The high-end rosters that defined Drew Brees’ final years with the team have gotten older and lost key players in each phase of the game: offense, defense, and special teams. To be frank, the Saints haven’t played enough competitive football over the last two seasons to look at them in the same light as the squads that preceded them.

With the 2023 offseason around the corner, it’s important the Saints take a hard look at the shape of their roster and consider which free agents to prioritize in the spring. There are many players they should bring back, but some in-house free agents should take priority. Here are seven on top of our list:

4 pending free agents the Saints must re-sign in 2023

LB Kaden Elliss and TE Juwan Johnson are some of the pending free agents the New Orleans Saints must re-sign once the 2022 season is over:

Few teams are in for as active an offseason as the New Orleans Saints, who look to start out over the 2023 salary cap by more than $50 million with 28 players headed for free agency in the spring. They’ll have to bring back many of those guys just to fill out the roster, but some players take priority over others.

So who should they prioritize for contract extensions? Here are four pending free agents that should be easy decisions when it comes time to talk shop:

Every Penn State player on an NFL opening day roster in 2022

Here is every former Penn State plater on an NFL roster to start the new NFL season in 2022.

The start of a new season in the National Football League is here and there will be a good amount of Penn State flavor throughout the league this season. Penn State will have the eighth most players on an NFL opening day roster this season with 34 players appearing on an NFL team’s 53-man roster to start the season (plus two additional players on injured reserve and another on the physically unable to perform list). In all, Penn State claims 44 players are on NFL rosters to start the year with the inclusion of practice squad players.

That includes nine players who were on the Penn State roster in 2021, including wide receiver [autotag]Jahan Dotson[/autotag], defensive end [autotag]Arnold Ebiketie[/autotag], and safety [autotag]Jaquan Brisker[/autotag]. Dotson is one of four Penn State players on the Washington Commanders, the most of any NFL franchise to start the season.

Former kicker [autotag]Robbie Gould[/autotag] continues to be the elder statesman of the Nittany Lions football family in the NFL. Gould, of the San Francisco 49ers, is entering his 19th season in the NFL.

Here is a look at every Penn State player on either an NFL team’s 53-man roster or practice squad at the start of the 2022 season.

Secret Superstars for Week 2 of the 2022 NFL preseason

Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar names the most impactful under-the-radar performers in Week 2 of the 2022 NFL preseason.

There are those who will tell you that preseason games don’t matter — they are useless to analyze, as you have starters going against starters in relatively vanilla schemes, or backups going against backups; most of whom won’t be playing in the NFL when the regular season starts.

When you peel back to the truth past that hyperbole, there’s a lot more to it than that. The story in the middle of that is a huge ball of players who are either trying to establish themselves as potential starters, or are trying to save their careers in short spaces of time. What you’re looking for is how people fit into teams and schemes, or not.

And that’s why preseason performances actually do matter — they set the tone for the regular season more often than you may think.

Here are our Secret Superstars for Week 2 of the full 2022 preseason — the guys who stood out above the rest. These are not recent first-round picks, or lead-pipe locks to make a roster; these are the guys fighting for every bit of starting opportunities.

Blake Gillikin says he’s been randomly drug-tested after record-tying performance

Blake Gillikin says he’s been randomly drug-tested after a record-tying performance against the Packers:

Come on, man. Blake Gillikin returned to New Orleans after a record-tying preseason game against the Green Bay Packers to learn that he’s been randomly selected for NFL drug testing. Gillikin shared the news on his personal Twitter account, which remains unverified though he’s used it often since he became a highly-rated high school recruit back in 2014.

It isn’t unusual to see players called in for random testing this time of the year. But the optics couldn’t be worse given Gillikin just booted an 81-yard punt for the New Orleans Saints a few days ago while dropping several other balls deep inside enemy territory. He’s established himself as a weapon for the Saints in the kicking game, and this big game in Green Bay is just the latest proof of it.

And, hey: look at Gillikin following in his mentor’s footsteps. His predecessor Thomas Morstead was also memorably popped for random performance-enhancing drug testing back in 2019, just days after he shared an intense workout video on social media. Hopefully the tests clear Gillikin of any wrongdoing and he can get back to flipping the field on Sundays.

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Saints punter Blake Gillikin gets ‘random’ drug test after 81-yard punt

Saints punter Blake Gillikin got a “random” drug test from the NFL after one of the most amazing punts you will ever see.

The NFL would like us to believe that punters are people, too. So, why is there such disrespect from the league when punters do great things? Second-year New Orleans Saints punter Blake Gillikin certainly feels the disrespect. Against the Green Bay Packers on Saturday, Gillikin put forth one of the greatest punts you’ll ever see — this 81-yard bomb in the third quarter, turning the field from the New Orleans 19-yard line all the way to the opposing end zone for a touchback.

The punt had a couple yards of roll at the end, but that was a freaking Howitzer.

How did the NFL respond? By questioning the veracity of Gillikin’s methodology, and giving him a “random” drug test.

Punt at your own risk, indeed. Last season, the Penn State alum had 83 punts, averaging 47.7 yards per punt (which ranked seventh in the NFL), and his longest was 63 yards.

So, why the disrespect now? The punter slander must stop.