Tag: Chris Mortensen

ESPN Insider on Swinney and Jacksonville, how Meyer hurt college coaches

During ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown show, ESPN Senior NFL Insider Chris Mortensen named a couple of coaches from the college ranks who could potentially emerge as candidates to replace Urban Meyer, who was of course fired by the Jacksonville Jaguars …

During ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown show, ESPN Senior NFL Insider Chris Mortensen named a couple of coaches from the college ranks who could potentially emerge as candidates to replace Urban Meyer, who was of course fired by the Jacksonville Jaguars this past week.

Meyer flamed out with the Jaguars just 13 games into his tenure as the team’s head coach, and Mortensen believes that may dissuade Jacksonville ownership from taking a chance on another college coach to lead the franchise – even one who has had success at the collegiate level like Meyer, who won two national titles at Florida and another at Ohio State.

However, Mortensen says the Jaguars, in their search for a new head coach, could perhaps still look at college coaches with NFL experience, such as Stanford’s David Shaw – an NFL assistant for nine years (1997-2005) with the Eagles, Raiders and Ravens – or Ohio State’s Ryan Day – a quarterbacks coach for the Eagles in 2015 and 49ers in 2016.

“This does negatively impact college coaches who may have an eye on the NFL, and vice versa,” Mortensen said of Meyer’s firing. “Although I had a few GMs this week tell me that if a college coach has some NFL in his background – and there is one, David Shaw of Stanford, he’s been with three different NFL teams, and Ryan Day, who’s been with two NFL teams – then they are still on the list if they have an interest.

“And some of these college coaches, now experiencing NIL in the form of transfer portals and free agency, would they be thinking to themselves, ‘If I got free agency in college, maybe I’ll look to the NFL.’ So, this will be something to watch as we go through the coaching landscape.”

For those that have speculated about Dabo Swinney possibly leaving Clemson to reunite with quarterback Trevor Lawrence in Jacksonville as the Jaguars’ next coach, Mortensen shut that idea down.

“As for a guy like Dabo Swinney, who isn’t happy with NILs and free agency – no,” Mortensen said. “He doesn’t have any NFL background. And after Urban Meyer, people should not be looking for him to go to Jacksonville, even though he’s an entirely different person.”

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ESPN’s Adam Schefter reveals Chris Mortensen just followed him on Twitter for first time

LOL.

Adam Schefter has been working with Chris Mortensen at ESPN since 2009, when the former joined the network as an NFL Insider.

But as Schefter revealed on Twitter during a very, very busy Monday of the legal tampering window opening up in NFL free agency, it turns out that Mortensen JUST started following Schefter on Twitter.

That’s right. Twelve years working together, around the same amount of time on spent on Twitter and now Mort is following Schefty. Pretty funny stuff.

Here’s the tweet from Schefter, followed by Mortensen responding, along with a few other fun responses that have us chuckling:

LOL. Too funny.

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ESPN’s Chris Mortensen praises Bills QB Josh Allen

ESPN’s Chris Mortensen on Buffalo Bills QB Josh Allen.

Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen has his team’s fans hoping a big third season is en route for him in 2020.

Allen certainly has some doubters to prove wrong still, but not amongst them is long time ESPN NFL insider Chris Mortensen. Taking to social media this weekend, Mortensen defended the Bills QB.

Mortensen replied to message sent out on Twitter by the football analytics outlet Pro Football Focus. In that tweet, PFF compared Allen to Bears quarterback Mitch Trubisky.

Trubisky, a former No. 2 overall pick that has trended downward in his career, is potentially going to lose his job in 2020. The Bears will have a QB competition between him and Nick Foles, who was signed by the Bears earlier this offseason.

Allen on the other hand is the clear-cut No. 1 QB on his team, so Mortensen came to his defense. In his response, Mortensen called Allen the “most underrated QB in the NFL.” He wasn’t done there, though. Mortensen put PFF on the blast with the rest of his remark:

 

Embarrassing? Ouch for PFF. Free beers and wings most likely await Mort Report next time he steps foot in western New York.

 

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Watch: Tua Tagovailova works out ahead of NFL Draft

ESPN’s Chris Mortensen posted seven videos of Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa working out in a Pro Day-style format ahead of the NFL Draft.

It’s been quite an interesting off-season for Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. Since dislocating his hip last season, Tagovailoa has undergone surgery to repair his hip — among other ailments — and his health has been a constant topic of discussion leading up to the NFL Draft.

Through nearly the entire recovery process reports on Tagovailoa have been overwhelmingly positive, with countless updates reporting he was on track to make a full recovery.

In fact, the only negative report about Tagovailoa’s progress came to the surface yesterday when the Athletic’s Michael Lombardi reported on this podcast — the GM Shuffle — that two teams have “failed” him for medicals. If you’re interested in hearing/reading quotes from Lombardi, Pride of Detroit’s Jeremy Reisman did a nice job pulling the important quotes from the podcast.

Meanwhile, Tagovailoa’s agent Leigh Steinberg has said the “health concerns are overblown” (no surprise), while Tagovailoa himself has reported he feels “100-percent” and was planning on showing his skills in a Pro Day-style format ahead of the NFL Draft.

Those plans can to fruition and ESPN’s Chris Mortensen posted seven videos of Tagovailoa’s workout, which you can see below:

Former Detroit Lions quarterback turned ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky weighed in on Tagovailoa’s tape:

Medical reports will still likely be the final determining factor in deciding where Tagovailoa gets selected in the NFL Draft, but every little bit of information he can put out will help his chances of that being early.

The Lions are surely hoping Tagovailoa is drawing enough interest, because if he does, it only increases the value of their No. 3 overall pick.

See the leaked pro day video of Tua Tagovailoa, who looks good

Tua looks good and healthy.

Last season in college football was an absolutely whirlwind for Tua Tagovailoa. He went from being the surefire best quarterback in this year’s draft class to an uncertain future after injuring his hip against Mississippi State last November.

We haven’t seen Tagovailoa throw a football since then, but that all changed today when ESPN’s Chris Mortensen posted footage of Tagovailoa’s pro-day on Twitter.

And, honestly, for a guy who has been rehabbing a nursing hip for the last few months, he looked great. Maybe not “Aaron Rogers and Dan Marino” great like Trent Dilfer said, but still pretty great.

Take a look.

Yeah, he’s definitely ready for the draft.