Tag: Charles Woodson

FOX Sports analyst Charles Woodson likes Derek Carr’s Saints to win the NFC South

FOX Sports analyst Charles Woodson says Derek Carr will benefit from a better supporting cast than he had with the Raiders: ‘And I know because I was part of a couple of them’

Derek Carr’s got one national analyst in his corner: his former Raiders teammate Charles Woodson. The Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive back is covering the NFL with FOX Sports these days, and he’s very encouraged by what he saw from Carr in the New Orleans Saints’ season-opening win over the Tennessee Titans.

Woodson says he sees a sustainable formula for Carr to lead the Saints to a lot of wins in 2023, now that Carr has a defense which can help take some pressure off him.

“Derek Carr has played on some teams with piss-poor defenses, and I know because I was a part of a couple of them,” Woodson began. “And he’s never played with a defense that’s been one of the tops in scoring defenses in the league. But now he gets to play with the Saints, who have been at the top in scoring defenses the last three years. So he’s going to be able to play with some leads now and keep the lead, and not have to worry about going out and bringing teams back.”

Woodson also talked up Carr’s supporting cast on offense, pointing to a receiving corps that is awful talented at the top. Carr connected with four different players on receptions of 20-plus yards in Week 1, and Woodson sees more big-play opportunities ahead for them.

He continued: “And the great thing is he has other weapons (than just Michael Thomas). And I like Chris Olave. People talk about those Ohio State receivers, Garrett Wilson and (Jaxon Smith-Njigba), they think that Njigba was the best of the three? But for my money I like Olave.”

Hey, Woodson has an eye for receiving talent, too. Olave led that trio in receptions (50), receiving yards (729), and touchdown catches (7) when they were together in Columbus back in 2020, and the extra attention he demanded from defenses in 2021 help both of his teammates break out and improve their draft stock. Olave left college with the school record in touchdown receptions, too (35).

He may have been snubbed for Offensive Rookie of the Year last season, but Olave’s 112 receiving yards last week were the second-highest in a game of his NFL career so far. If the Saints defense can create opportunities for Carr to hit the field in good position, it shouldn’t take long for him and Olave to get to work.

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The best defensive player of all time for all 32 NFL teams

Who has terrified quarterbacks and coaches the most for every team?

The modern NFL game is not built for defenses to thrive. Heck, even in times of “three yards and a cloud of dust,” it’s arguable the league never actually wanted defenses to win. At least, once the powers that be learned that offense sells like hotcakes.

Suffice it to say, playing defense in the NFL can be an impossible job. So the men that have courageously taken on the assignment of slowing down high-flying attacks stand out all the more.

In pro football lore, the best defenders ever are those who made offensive coordinators lose countless hours of sleep as they game-planned. They are the players who made quarterbacks quite literally see ghosts when standing in the pocket. They are pictures of reliability and dependability and are the preeminent warriors of the West’s favorite gladiator sport.

The below list examines the greatest defender in the history of all 32 NFL teams. My criteria was simple and rooted around these questions: What was their production like? Did they have a high intimidation factor? How available were they for their teammates? Did they pioneer a new way of playing their position?

It’s not easy playing defense in the NFL. But these fine gentlemen sometimes made the impossible seem like a casual task.

Also, check out:

Marcus Peters takes Raiders No 24 once worn by fellow Oakland native Marshawn Lynch

Marcus Peters chooses legendary No 24 which was once worn by his old friend Marshawn Lynch

Taking the field today for the Raiders was newly signed cornerback Marcus Peters. And he was wearing the number 24. The same number 24 that was worn by close friend and fellow Oakland native Marshawn Lynch when he signed with the Raiders back in 2017.

Wearing the same number as Marshawn probably gives the selection personal meaning for Peters. But the number holds a whole lot more meaning to the franchise.

No number in NFL history is more legendary to a team than the number 24 is to the Raiders.

Two Hall of Fame cornerbacks wore it in Charles Woodson and Willie Brown. Making for the greatest to ever wear the number 24 on any team, let alone in Silver & Black. Two fold.

It was two years after Woodson retired that Marshawn took it over.

The last Raiders player to wear the number was former first round pick Johnathan Abram. Needless to say, he didn’t live up to the legends before him to wear it. Peters surely hopes he can do it justice.

Charles Woodson continuing to recruit Aaron Scott for Michigan football

When the GOAT tweets at you, you’ve gotta listen! #GoBlue

When you’re a Michigan football legend who is from Ohio but spurned the Buckeyes to play for the Wolverines, you’re looking for some company.

The only primarily defensive player to win the Heisman Trophy, Charles Woodson, has already let 2024 Springfield (Ohio) four-star cornerback Aaron Scott know he’s strongly desired in Ann Arbor, but he’s not taking the heat off just yet.

Last time, Woodson quote tweeted Scott’s official visit pictures from Columbus, letting him know that he’d look better in maize and blue. Now, Scott is on Woodson’s mind, even without any tweet-prompting. Unabated, Woodson tweeted at Scott showing off Michigan’s prized possession on the defensive side of the ball — the ‘turnover buffs,’ which are given to a player for a picture after they force a turnover.

Woodson also tweeted at Scott after an Ohio State fan noted the engagement on a tweet from Troy Smith, which seemed to get the younger Ohio native’s attention.

Scott is set to make his college choice on July 30, his father’s birthday, and is choosing among Michigan, Ohio State and Oregon.

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Charles Woodson responds perfectly to Aaron Scott’s Ohio State OV tweet

This is the most epic tweet of all time. #GoBlue

Michigan football was hoping to lure an unlikely duo north to Ann Arbor after growing up in enemy territory.

Though it lost out on Cleveland (Ohio) Glenville four-star cornerback Bryce West, who committed to Ohio State on Saturday, hope still remains for Springfield (Ohio) four-star corner Aaron Scott, who took his official visit to Columbus this past weekend.

Unlike West, Scott did not pledge to the home state Buckeyes, leaving the door open for the Wolverines. And one prominent Wolverine is letting him know where he’s wanted most.

Charles Woodson knows a little something about growing up in Ohio and then wearing a winged helmet. He shocked the world choosing the maize and blue before coming to Ann Arbor and winning the only Heisman Trophy given to a defensive player.

Generally, when recruits tweet, you don’t see many former players chiming in, let alone full-on legends. But when Scott tweeted his pictures from his visit to Columbus, Woodson had to have a say.

Epic.

No matter what one thinks of the visit, if you’re truly on the fence and you’re getting the greatest of all time chiming in to indicate what school is better, you’re probably going to listen.

Fans certainly hope Scott does.

Update: Scott acknowledged the shout out.

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50 legends who could be inducted into National High School Football Hall of Fame

Here are all 50 of the potential inductees.

The National High School Football Hall of Fame will soon be settling into Canton, Ohio –Ā per Josh Weir at the Canton Repository.

In five days’ time, 18 players will be inducted into the inaugural class. That group will be narrowed down from a group of 50 legends of the sport who are eligible to be inducted. The induction ceremony will take place on July 30 at theĀ Timken Auditorium at the Timken Career Campus in Canton.

Here are all 50 of the potential inductees.

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Charles Woodson: Despite many accolades one regret was not winning Super Bowl with Raiders

Even with his long list of accomplishments there’s one thing Charles Woodson wishes he could’ve done: ‘winning a Super Bowl with the Raiders’

You won’t see another resume as impressive as Charles Woodson’s. That’s not opinion, it’s a fact. No other man on earth has checked all these boxes:

Heisman Trophy
College Football National Championship
NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year
NFL Defensive Player of the Year
Super Bowl ring
Pro Football Hall of Fame

That means he’s won at every level, both on a team level as well as every personal award possible.

But even with all that, there was one thing that eluded Woodson in his career.

ā€œWinning a Super Bowl with the Raiders,” Woodson said without hesitation. “I feel like thatā€™s the one thing that got away from me, man. To be able to win a Super Bowl in the Silver & Black, man, if I couldā€™ve accomplished that, on top of all the other things ā€“ and donā€™t get me wrong Iā€™m not complaining ā€“ but, man, to have won it with the team that drafted meā€¦Getting there was great, but, man, if we couldā€™ve closed that deal, I wouldā€™ve definitely said ā€˜You know what, I did it all.ā€

Woodson got close to helping the Raiders to a Super Bowl win a few times. First in 2000 when the Raiders made it to the AFC Championship game, but lost to the Ravens.

Then the following year when Woodson forced the would-be game-ending fumble on Tom Brady only to have it overturned by the improper implementation of the now defunct Tuck Rule.

Then finally in 2002 when the Raiders made it to the Super Bowl only to face their old coach Jon Gruden.

The Raiders fell off after that and a few years later, Woodson would be allowed to leave in free agency to sign with the Packers. That’s where he would eventually get his ring in 2010.

Getting his ring came a year after Woodson won Defensive Player of the Year. And a year later, at the age of 36, Woodson was asked to switch to safety, which for many defensive backs, signaled the end of his career.

But not for Woodson. He had unfinished business.

Woodson returned to the Raiders at the age of 37 and played three more seasons before finally stepping away from the game.

Right to the end, even with nothing left to prove, Woodson was not going to go out with a whimper.

ā€œMaking it through that season was a feat in its own self,” Woodson said of his final NFL season. “In that first game I dislocated my shoulder, and then the third game of the season, playing against the Browns, I suffered a grade two MCL sprain and, man, every day from that game forwardā€¦ And then even against the Bears, I suffered a left shoulder sprain, and, aw man, it was hard each and every game to get myself in position to practice, just the little bit that I could practice to go into the game and still have to play at a high level and to go through all that and to actually in my 18th year, make a Pro Bowl, having gone through all that, I feel like that was a career all wrapped up into that 16-game schedule.”

ā€œI just kept telling myself… Iā€™m not going to spend my last season on the sideline.”

Though all that, Woodson would make his ninth Pro Bowl at the age 39 and at a second position before riding off into the sunset.

He obviously never got to hoist the Lombardi Trophy in Silver & Black. But he gave everything he had to the team that drafted him. From the moment he set foot on an NFL to the day he left it for the last time.

He may have took a trip to Green Bay for a time to get his ring, but he has never really left the Raiders.

Upcoming ‘The Perfect 10’ documentary features 3 Raiders greats to go from Heisman to Hall

Only 10 people have ever won a Heisman and gone onto the Hall of Fame. And 3 of them are Raiders greats. Set your DVRs Raider Nation.

“This is an amazing feat, man. Only ten guys have been able to accomplish this. More men have walked the moon than to have been able to accomplish what we’ve accomplished,” said Tim Brown in front of six other NFL legends to open the upcoming FOX documentary ‘The Perfect 10’.

Those seven legends all have something special in common. They’re being called ‘The Perfect 10’ because they make up the ten men in the world have hoisted both the Heisman Trophy and have a bust in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

‘The Perfect 10’ will premiere on FOX this Saturday, February 11 at 5 pm Pacific (8pm ET). And if you’re a Raiders fan, you will want to set your DVR.

No team is more well represented in this exclusive club than the Raiders.

Of the seven NFL legends in that room, three are Raiders greats.

The first to join the club was Marcus Allen. Then it was Tim Brown in 2015. And Charles Woodson completed the ten in 2021.

“To have this individual type of accomplishment and to have it be so few who have done it is really mind boggling, you know,” Woodson told Raiders Wire. “I was thinking earlier about the amount of kids who played little league football, high school football, college football, the few that make it to the NFL, and then to just carve that down to just ten guys that have done something like that with the history of the game, that is really quite amazing and hard to put it into words.ā€

Woodson said as a kid he had imagined himself winning the Heisman Trophy and winning championships (something he also did) but the Hall of Fame was not something he grew up imagining. And even the Heisman seemed out of reach once he switched to defense at Michigan.

“When I got to college and chose to play defense, that dream was pretty muchā€¦that was a wrap. Because defensive players donā€™t win that award,” Woodson said of his Heisman hopes. “So, for me to get to my junior year and to have the success we had as a team, to make the plays at the right time that I made as an individual player, when those things start to happen, thatā€™s when itā€™s like ā€˜oh manā€™ and that dream that was kind of a fleeting thought in my mind was back. . . Then to be invited to the ceremony and ultimately have my name called, holy cow, that was an incredible moment.ā€

The four other NFL legends on hand for ‘The Perfect 10’ include Earl Campbell, Tony Dorsett, Barry Sanders, and Roger Staubach. The three not present are OJ Simpson, and Doak Walker (deceased), and Paul Hornung (deceased).

Charles Woodson speaks on how Derek Carr’s Raiders career ended ‘it’s not unique’

Charles Woodson on Derek Carr Raiders split: ā€œItā€™s not unique. The business gets everybody at some point. At this point it caught up with him.”

There aren’t many players in the world who can say they played at least the first eight years of their career with the Raiders only to continue their career elsewhere. Derek Carr is one of those people. But so too is Charles Woodson.

Woodson was drafted by the Raiders with the fourth overall pick in 1998 and played eight seasons with the Raiders, at which point the once Defensive Rookie of the Year, four-time Pro Bowler, and one-time All Pro was allowed to leave to sign elsewhere.

For that reason, Woodson is one of the few people on this planet who could lend the ideal perspective to how things ended between Derek Carr and the Raiders.

So, I asked him.

ā€œItā€™s not unique. The business gets everybody at some point. At this point it caught up with him,” Woodson said of how the Raiders ended things with Carr.

Woodson understands why the Carr camp as well as his fans feel like the nine-year pro was treated unfairly.

“I think with Derek, everybody sees what heā€™s gone through as a player, from the amount of head coaches heā€™s gone through, the amount of offensive coordinators heā€™s been through, the year they had last year (2021) with all the off the field stuff and the way he handled it, he handled it with a lot of style and grace, and I think they look at it and say if anybody deserves a chance to leave his way it would be him. But, again, this business gets everybody at some point, and thereā€™s never an exact science as to the way these things are handled.”

But ultimately, the team had decided it was time to move on. And the moment that decision was made, they had to move to ensure they protect their interests, regardless of any hurt feelings.

“I certainly understand people saying that heā€™s been wronged. But again, when you think about the fact that the way the contracts are, all that plays into the fact that if he plays and gets hurt, theyā€™d be on the hook for [the guaranteed money in his contract], you kind of get it on both sides and thatā€™s the business side of it that everybody always talks about.ā€

So, yeah, Derek Carr wanted to be a Raider for life. But after nine years and no playoff wins, the team decided it was time to turn the page.

And, sure, you’d like for him to get a honorable sendoff, saying his goodbyes to the fans or what have you, rather than the abrupt ending. But that’s just not realistic. It very rarely happens that way. And in this instance, it was simply not realistic.

I mean, we’re talking about $40 million in guaranteed money if he gets injured in two meaningless games with the Raiders having basically no shot at the playoffs, knowing they were moving on. There’s no room to factor feelings into that equation.

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NFL fans blasted Charles Woodson and Michael Vick for carelessly pushing Lamar Jackson to risk his health

This was some really bad TV.

Lamar Jackson’s health has loomed over the Baltimore Ravens’ playoff prospects for over a month since he sprained a PCL ligament in his knee. On a grander scale, Jackson’s future in Baltimore — with no long-term deal in place whenever the Ravens’ season concludes — has hovered as a specter over the team’s entire 2022.

But, likely knowing people’s conversations about his status behind the scenes,Ā  Jackson took control of his narrative as the Ravens got set to take on the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC Wild Card round. Since Baltimore leadership hasn’t exactly stumped much for its franchise QB of late — more or less speaking in vague terms since his knee injury, leaving their talisman open to criticism — it was only fair Jackson stood up for himself.

With Jackson officially sitting out from the Ravens’ playoff matchup with the Bengals on Sunday night, FOX analysts/ex-players Michael Vick and Charles Woodson shared some thoughts about the electric talent during Saturday coverage.

At no risk of hyperbole, I assure you: The two men realistically could not have shared more careless thoughts as absurd Football Guys to push Jackson to play and risk his long-term well-being for a team that’s offered him zero stability moving forward. That’s not even to say Jackson is sitting out over a financial dispute. If Jackson says his knee is unstable at age 26 (!) and that he isn’t fit enough to play, then his words are enough. Why on Earth would he lie? And don’t think I’m overlooking host Charissa Thompson seeming to irresponsibly suggest Jackson is sitting out purely because he doesn’t have a contract.

What a truly terrible segment of television:

I’m still aghast at how casually Woodson seems to question Jackson’s commitment to the Ravens in the name of winning what is a meaningless football game in the grand scheme of someone’s life. That goes double for Vick to back Woodson’s sentiment up without a second thought, as if either man is in a reasonable position to critique Jackson’s personal risk assessment.

Never mind that we, once again, have been having (who am I kidding, had?) a larger conversation about NFL player safety in the wake of Damar Hamlin’s collapse from cardiac arrest. Which happened only weeks ago. With Vick and Woodson acting as the poster boys, it’s as if significant segments of the football world already forget the various egregious screw-ups in that scary situation because it’s the playoffs. And the playoffs, to many people, take precedence over young men taking their safety into their own hands. Heaven forbid. I’m not surprised discussions have quickly shifted, to some, about wins and losses. I guess it’s just how pro football proliferates shamelessly, and that remains disappointing.

What are we doing here?

I’d encourage football figures like Woodson and Vick — for two, and definitely not exceptions — to consider their words about player safety more carefully moving forward. Or, you know, maybe holster these sentiments internally for quality reflection on their part. It seems like they could use a step back themselves. But I know this league, and I know how people close to it think. It’s likely impossible for some people to dial back the backward “give it up for your team at all costs” opinions. They can’t help themselves.

So, yeah, I’m not too optimistic these kinds of outlandish football thoughts on a whim will stop being aired out any time soon.