Secondary help is going to be a popular choice for the Vikings
Now that it’s January, mock drafts will be coming fast and furious and we can’t wait to bring it all to you as April’s draft gets closer and closer.
The latest one comes from Minnesota Vikings expert and current ESPN analyst Jordan Reid. He knows this team better than just about anyone in the NFL draft community and Reid showed it by sending the Vikings South Carolina cornerback Cam Smith.
Here is what Reid had to say about the talented Gamecock.
“General manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah showed in his first draft in Minnesota that he values initial quickness, and after the Vikings struggled mightily in pass defense this season (7.8 yards allowed per attempt, 31st in the NFL), they will be seeking defensive backs who show good burst and can make plays on the ball. Smith checks those boxes and has experience in the slot and on the outside. He has four picks and 17 pass breakups over the past two seasons, too. Patrick Peterson and Chandon Sullivan are on expiring deals, and Cameron Dantzler Sr. will be entering the final year of his contract in 2023, so cornerback depth will be a spot to watch.”
Having that type of versatility would serve the Vikings really well as they continue to rebuild their secondary.
A new mock draft addresses some concerns for the Commanders.
The Washington Commanders have four games remaining in the 2022 NFL season. But unlike many recent seasons, the Commanders are playing meaningful December football. At 7-5-1, Washington holds the No. 6 seed in the NFC playoff picture and controls its destiny for the remainder of the season.
So this December isn’t about which quarterback Washington will pursue in the next draft. Well, the quarterback talk never ends, but fans are more focused on the team right now, not potential draft picks.
Luke Easterling of Draft Wire recently completed a two-round mock draft ahead of bowl season. Easterling’s new mock gives the Commanders help at cornerback and the offensive line. Both are needs heading into the offseason.
At No. 18, Easterling has Washington selecting South Carolina cornerback Cam Smith:
This secondary needs a true shutdown artist to take over the No. 1 corner spot, and this gives Washington the perfect chance to do just that. Smith has the size, athleticism, physicality and ball skills to be that kind of player at the next level.
With their second-round pick, Draft Wire gives the Commanders an offensive tackle in Blake Freeland of BYU. Freeland, at 6-foot-8, 305 pounds, is a massive four-year starter for the Cougars. If Washington selected him, he would almost immediately become the starting right tackle, with Sam Cosmi kicking inside to guard.
As for Smith, he’d give the Commanders a potentially outstanding secondary. Benjamin St-Juste has had a breakout season, while veteran Kendall Fuller, still young at 27, is having a fantastic season.
His 2022 campaign began with a win over Jon Rahm at the Sentry Tournament of Champions in January. Then, two months later, he took home the biggest prize on the PGA Tour, the Players Championship. In dramatic fashion, Smith chased down Rory McIlroy at the Open. Then, he left for LIV Golf where he won in his second Saudi-circuit start.
For the Aussie, there was only one way to celebrate: head down to the nearby Breakfast Creek Hotel and have a few pints with some buddies. Oh, and watch the replay of the final putt that clinched the victory.
Cameron Smith’s last worldwide win came at the LIV Golf Series stop in Chicago, his second Saudi-circuit start. Before that, it was the 150th Open at St. Andrews.
Now, he’s in position to add to a career year.
Smith leads the Fortinet Australian PGA Championship by three shots with 18 holes to play at Royal Queensland GC in Brisbane, Australia. After using a Friday 65 to vault up the leaderboard, the Aussie fired a Saturday 2-under 69 to separate from the field.
It was an up-and-down day for world No. 3, cashing in six birdies while also adding four squares to the card.
If he wins Sunday, it’ll be his fourth DP World Tour victory.
His closest chasers are Yan Wei Liu and Masahiro Kawamura who both sit at 8 under, three back. A group of four players, including Min Woo Lee, are 7 under, four back.
“If the game is not played with high value and respect, I have no chance to grow the game.”
The 151st Open Championship is in 264 days. We’re a long way from the opening tee shot at Royal Liverpool, a venue last visited in 2014 where now world No. 1 Rory McIlroy captured his Claret Jug.
However, we won’t have to wait that long to hear the R&A’s plans for LIV Golf members.
Fast forward three months and his message remains the same.
“We’ll go public in January/February with what we are going to do with regard to LIV golfers. But if you want a guide, go back to what I said in July. We’re not banning anyone. We are not going to betray 150 years of history and have the Open not be open,” Slumbers told Golf Digest this week at the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship hosted by the R&A, the Asia-Pacific Golf Federation and the Masters.
“What we will do is ensure that there are appropriate pathways and ways to qualify. I’m looking forward to seeing Cam Smith tee up around 9:40 a.m. on the first day of the Open next year. The Open needs to set itself aside from what’s going in terms of disagreements and make sure we stay true to our principle, which is to have the best players in the world competing.”
Martin Slumbers, the CEO of The R&A and Secretary of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, speaks to the media during his pre-tournament news conference ahead of the 150th Open at St Andrews in St Andrews, Scotland. (Photo: David Cannon/Getty Images)
Smith, the current Champion Golfer of the Year, is now a member of the Greg Norman-led circuit backed by the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund.
At St. Andrews earlier this year, Norman was excluded from the Champions Challenge and Champions dinner.
“With everything that was going on, it was clear to me that there was a reason why he wanted to be there this year,” Slumbers said. “If he had been there, it would have been about noise. The Open has to be distinct from all that. I didn’t want to have noise between two rival tours and two big personalities. It would have overshadowed what was happening that week.
“I wanted the 150th Open to be special and perfect. I didn’t want other issues going on around it, ones that would have undermined it in the eyes of the public. I was very polite and very deferential to Greg. I asked him to understand my perspective. And I did so privately. I did not make it public. I never said anything and never commented on it.
“That week was supposed to be about the first event in our game’s history reaching its 150th playing. On arguably the greatest course in the world. I was never going to lose focus on that.”
In regards to our fractured game, Slumbers understands the consequences of splitting the talent pool.
“To me, this is not about ‘them and us.’ I have no issue with the players. People play for a living. I note that Saudi Arabia wants to invest a lot of money in the game I love and care about,” he said. “That’s a good thing. But I want to preserve the pathways and meritocracy on which our game is built. Sport without that isn’t sport. So I want to make sure we have the best players competing week in and week out.
“If the game is not played with high value and respect, I have no chance to grow the game. Maybe the consequence of where we are is that we only get to see all of the very best players together four times a year. So we’ll enjoy it four times a year.”
Looking ahead to 2023, just to make you feel a bit better about how far we are from meaningful golf, the Masters begins in 158 days.
Tracking the Lions 2023 NFL draft slots after Week 5 plus a quick mock draft projection of the first round picks
With the Detroit Lions on a much-needed bye week and buried in last place in the NFC North with a 1-4 record, it’s time to take a look at the 2023 NFL draft.
If the season ended today, the Lions would hold the No. 4 overall pick. There’s a lot of volatility at the top, but after Week 5 this is the cluster of teams with 1-4 records and how they sort via tiebreakers to this point.
1. Carolina Panthers
2. Las Vegas Raiders
3. Pittsburgh Steelers
4. Detroit Lions
5. Washington Commanders
The Houston Texans, who won their first game of the season in Week 5, would pick sixth with their 1-3-1 record.
Detroit also holds the pick from the Los Angeles Rams acquired in the Matthew Stafford-Jared Goff trade in 2021. The Rams are 2-3 and their pick is currently the No. 13 overall slot.
Spontaneous mock draft, with projections of players I personally would select as of today:
Six for South Carolina and six for the Hogs. These will be the difference makers.
Razorback Stadium gets its first SEC matchup of the season with Arkansas hosting the South Carolina Gamecocks on Saturday.
Both teams won their season openers, the Hogs taking on a much more challenging opponent in Cincinnati, who was ranked in last Saturday’s duel. The Razorbacks had to go through a physical battle with the Bearcats.
Losing an All-American safety doesn’t help the Hogs, especially after the secondary struggled in the second half against the Bearcats. Gamecocks’ quarterback Spencer Rattler poses a tougher challenge than Ben Bryant, who threw two touchdowns in the second half.
The Hogs have a 73% chance of winning, according to FPI. South Carolina is currently on a three-game winning streak against the Hogs, the last matchup coming in 2017. Head coach Shane Beamer will rely heavily on his “Beamer Ball” special teams to keep the streak alive.
When Cam Smith and Joaquin Niemann made the jump to LIV, Immelman suddenly had an extra pair of selections.
Trevor Immelman’s job as the Presidents Cup captain for the International Team has become more difficult as the competition approaches.
The top eight players on the points list had earned a spot on the team for the biennial event against the United States to be held Sept. 22-25 at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, meaning Immelman had four picks to make.
But when a pair of players — Cam Smith and Joaquin Niemann — made the jump to LIV Golf before the recent event outside Boston, Immelman suddenly had an extra pair of selections to play with. This followed the costly defections of Louis Oosthuizen and Abraham Ancer, about whom Immelman had previously said, “We’ve lost two guys that were absolutely going to be there at Quail Hollow.”
The Presidents Cup is a match-play event with 30 total matches, comprised of a 12-person U.S. Team and a 12-person International Team. The U.S. leads 11-1-1.
Here’s a look at the six players Immelman selected on Tuesday to fill out his team.
Couples ripped Cameron Smith, the 2022 British Open champion and latest golfer to defect to LIV Golf.
Fred Couples continues his loyalty to the PGA Tour and those golfers who dislike or have spurned the Saudi-backed LIV Golf continue to dump gas on the continuing fire brewing between the two entities.
Couples ripped Cameron Smith, the 2022 British Open champion and latest golfer to defect to LIV Golf, and shared his thoughts on social media.
“I’m just really excited to be here. This is a new kind of chapter in my life. I think this is the future of golf. I love how it is out here. It’s a little bit more laid back on the range, the music playing. I love that stuff. I play with music at home and yeah, I just can’t wait to be a part of this,” Smith said.
“Like I said, I think this is the future of golf. I think it needs to change. Particularly as our golf fans become younger, I think we need to do something to make it exciting for them. I think it’s the right move for sure.”
Couples didn’t find that reasoning to be satisfactory.
To all my friends who I missed birthdays & weddings …… so sorry, I was busy earning a living on the @pgatour and in my line of work the goal is to EARN your way to work weekends. And by weekends i mean 72 holes. Sorry not sorry .
“To all my friends who I missed birthdays & weddings,” Couple wrote. “so sorry, I was busy earning a living on the @pgatour and in my line of work the goal is to EARN your way to work weekends. And by weekends i mean 72 holes. Sorry not sorry.”
Couples is a former No. 1 ranked golfer, who won the 1992 Masters Tournament and is a World Golf Hall of Famer.
See what gear Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Cameron Smith and more are expected to use at East Lake.
The final event of the 2021-22 PGA Tour season and the FedEx Cup Playoffs, the Tour Championship, starts on Thursday at the East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta. By accumulating the most FedEx Cup points heading into the event, Scottie Scheffler will start Friday’s round with a score of 10 under, a two-shot lead over Patrick Cantlay, who will begin at 8 under.
While Will Zalatoris withdrew from the Tour Championship on Tuesday morning and said that he would not be able to play in next month’s Presidents Cup either, the field remains loaded with stars and each of them will be depending on every club in their bag to help them try to win the $18 million first prize.
Below is the list of the equipment the contenders are expected to play at East Lake.
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