Tag: defensive lineman

Broncos acquire LB Austin Calitro in trade with Bengals

The Broncos have traded a defensive lineman to the Bengals in exchange for linebacker Cincinnati Bengals.

The Denver Broncos have agreed to trade defensive lineman Christian Covington to the Cincinnati Bengals in exchange for linebacker Austin Calitro, according to ESPN’s Dianna Russini.

Unless more details emerge regarding swapped draft picks, this was a straight player-for-player trade ahead of roster cuts on Saturday. Covington was unlikely to make Denver’s 53-man roster and Calitro probably wasn’t going to survive cuts in Cincinnati given that they were willing to trade him.

The Bengals needed more depth on the defensive line and the Broncos were able to give up Covington because they are deep at the position. Denver needed more depth at linebacker with Todd Davis still recovering from a calf injury.

It remains to be seen if Calitro’s arrival will impact the roster status of linebacker Mark Barron, who signed with the Broncos earlier this week. Barron might still be safe as Denver’s coverage linebacker given that Calitro seems to be a better fit to defend the run and play on special teams.

Calitro, 26, totaled 39 tackles and one sack with the Jacksonville Jaguars in 13 games last season. He played in all 16 games with the Seattle Seahawks in 2019, totaling 42 tackles and half a sack.

The Broncos’ six-man defensive line now appears to be set with Jurrell Casey, Mike Purcell, Shelby Harris, Dre’Mont Jones, DeMarcus Walker and McTelvin Agim. Denver’s linebacker depth chart will be sorted out after roster cuts this weekend.

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2021 Gators Football Recruiting Profile: Desmond Watson

This is a prospect player profile for defensive tackle Desmond Watson of the Florida Gators football recruiting class of 2021.

Name: Desmond Watson

Position: Defensive Tackle

Height: 6’5″

Weight: 380 lbs

Hometown: Seffner, Fla.

High School: Armwood High School

Twitter: @DesmondWatson12

247Sports Composite: ⭐⭐⭐

Rivals.com: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Overview:

Successful in landing four-star running back/wide receiver Charles Montgomery’s commitment on May 24, the Florida Gators landed another Armwood High School Hawk, located in Seffner, about 130 miles south of Gainesville, in three-star Desmond Watson on July 30.

A massive defensive tackle at 6-foot-5 and 380 pounds, he is the No. 21 player at his position and a top-55 player in the state, per the 247Sports Composite.

The whirlwind life of a Power Five student-athlete is not unfamiliar to Watson, as his half-brother, Darrian McNeal, a three-star prospect in the 2017 class, played one season for then-head coach Willie Taggart’s Oregon Ducks, catching two passes for 10 yards (five avg.) and adding three rushing attempts for 21 yards (seven avg.).

Unfortunately, McNeal’s athletic career took a dark turn, as he left the Ducks in the spring of 2018 and was arrested and charged with first-degree theft and second-degree robbery in June 2020, following an incident at a Eugene apartment.

As for Watson, he originally picked up his Florida offer on January 17, 2019, and he attended two Junior Days in an approximately five-week span from February 1-to-March 7, 2020. Primarily recruited by defensive line coach David Turner and cornerbacks coach Torrian Gray, he chose the Gators over the Alabama Crimson Tide, Florida Atlantic Owls, South Florida Bulls, West Virginia Mountaineers and 16 reported others.

Andrew Ivins, a Miami Hurricanes insider for 247Sports, highlights Watson’s quick hands and effectiveness against double teams as some of his strengths and points to his weight as a possible concern.

Overall, he is the fourteenth-highest rated of the program’s 24 commits in the upcoming cycle and the eighth-highest on the defensive side of the football. Turner has picked up pledges from three defensive linemen in the class, with Fort Lauderdale’s Tyreak Sapp and Sumter, South Carolina’s Justus Boone, both four-stars, joining Watson.

Video

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Texas DL Alfred Collins named to Freshman All-American Team

Although Texas represented one player on the Preseason Freshman All-American Team, running back Bijan Robinson was absent from the list.

If you’ve been keeping up with Texas football this offseason, there’s very strong cases to be made for two freshman players. Continue reading “Texas DL Alfred Collins named to Freshman All-American Team”

Gators recruiting target four-star DE Tunmise Adeleye decommits from OSU

Four-star strongside defensive end prospect Tunmise Adeleye announced on Tuesday his decision to decommit from OSU for the 2021 class cycle.

Four-star strongside defensive end prospect Tunmise Adeleye announced on Tuesday via Twitter his decision to decommit from Ohio State University for the 2021 recruiting class cycle.

The country’s No. 4 rated strongside defensive end and No. 30 overall recruit in the 2021 class according to the 247Sports Composite Rankings out of prospect powerhouse IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., committed to Ohio State back in April. At the time he said it was a lifelong dream of his to be Buckeye, but it appears that he has had a change of heart.

OSU is one of four schools listed by 247Sports as “warm” interest locations for the young defensive lineman’s services, which also includes the University of Florida, Alabama and Texas A&M.

While there are some concerns regarding size and athleticism, the 6-foot-3-inch, 245-pounder would add some more beef to a defensive line class that already includes five-star SDE Tyreak Sapp and three-star Justus Boone, as well as three-star defensive tackles Christopher Thomas and Desmond Watson, the latter who just recently committed to the Gators back on July 30. 

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2020 Gators Football Recruiting Profile: Lamar Goods

This is a prospect player profile for defensive tackle Lamar Goods of the Florida Gators football recruiting class of 2020.

Name: Lamar Goods

Position: Defensive Tackle

Height: 6’3″

Weight: 310 lbs

Hometown: Oakdale, Conn.

High School: St. Thomas More

Twitter: @GoodsLamar

247Sports Composite: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rivals.com: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Overview:

Lamar Goods is a four-star defensive tackle from St. Thomas More School in Oakdale, Conn. The No. 4 prospect from Connecticut and the No. 361 overall player in the class of 2020 according to the 247Sports Composite, Goods early enrolled with the Gators in January.

Though Florida got in early for Goods, offering him in May 2018, he committed to Kentucky in April 2019. That commitment only lasted two months, however, as Goods decommitted from the Wildcats in June 2019.

Two days after backing off his pledge to UK, Goods committed to Florida on June 21, where he remained committed until he signed in December. His other high-profile offers included Georgia, Tennessee and Michigan State.

At 6-foot-3-inches, 310 pounds, Goods has the frame to impose his will at the line of scrimmage and shutdown the run game, but he also has the athleticism to get off blocks and pressure the quarterback. Though he may struggle to see the field in Year 1, Goods could be a key figure of Florida’s defense in subsequent seasons.

Video:

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Leonard Williams trade continues to be big win for Jets, bust for Giants

The Jets continue to reap the benefits of the Leonard Williams trade, while the Giants fail to keep him long-term.

Joe Douglas somehow solved a lot of problems when he traded Leonard Williams to the Giants. He acquired two important draft picks, cleared up cap space, eliminated a potential offseason conundrum, opened up opportunities on the defensive line and, to top it all off, inadvertently stuck a thorn in the side of the team’s roommate.

The Giants weren’t able to reach a long-term extension with Williams before the July 15 deadline, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport. Williams will now play on his one-year, $16 million franchise tag the Giants applied to him earlier this offseason. This is the complete opposite outcome Giants general manager Dave Gettleman wanted when he gave the Jets a 2020 third- and 2021 fifth-round pick for Williams. Gettleman said he made the trade to bolster the Giants’ defense in the short-term before locking Williams up in a long-term contract this offseason. Somehow, neither happened and now both sides will play out the 2020 season before re-assessing contract negotiations next season.

The Jets, meanwhile, already started reaping the benefits of the Williams trade during the season and continued to do so this offseason. New York’s run defense DVOA, per Football Outsiders, didn’t go up or down when Williams left the team and the Jets finished with the second-best run defense in the league and seventh-best in yards allowed despite losing their marquee lineman. Douglas then used the first of two picks from the trade to select Ashtyn Davis — a dynamic safety who can play all over the field — in the third round of the 2020 draft.

Davis figures to play a small but important role on the defense immediately, which could turn into a bigger one down the stretch – especially if Douglas trades either Jamal Adams or Marcus Maye. That alone is a big plus given the great depth on the Jets’ defensive line and the lack of quality defensive backs in the deep secondary. 

The lone negative of the Williams trade is that because the Giants failed to sign a long-term extension before the start of 2020 league year in March, the 2021 fifth-round pick the Jets received in the trade won’t turn into a fourth-round pick. A small loss in an otherwise massive win for Douglas and the Jets.

Even better, now the Jets don’t have to worry about negotiating a long-term extension with a defensive lineman who only tallied 7.5 sacks and 51 quarterback hits in the past three seasons. That’s the Giants’ dilemma now. The Williams trade already looked bad for the Giants after Williams recorded only half a sack and 11 quarterback hits in five games in 2019, but failing to keep him past this season would be a massive failure on Gettleman’s resume considering the draft capital the GM gave up to get him.

Douglas, meanwhile, secured a huge win by dealing Williams. Not bad for his first big trade.  

2019 Florida Gators Football Profile Card: Luke Ancrum

This is a Player Profile Card for redshirt senior defensive lineman Luke Ancrum of the Florida Gators football team.

Name: Luke Ancrum

Number: 98

Position: Defensive Lineman

Class: Redshirt Senior

Height: 6’5″

Weight: 263 lbs

Hometown: Sebring, Fla.

High School: Sebring High School

2019 statistics:

Tackles Def Int
Gm Solo Ast Tot Loss Sk Int Yds Avg TD PD
12 11 11 22 4 1.5 0 0 0 0 1

Overview:

Ancrum was a defensive end coming out of Sebring High School, though he was not highly regarded. A three-star recruit, Ancrum’s only Power Five offers other than Florida were Pittsburgh and Wisconsin. He chose to sign with the Gators in former coach Jim McElwain’s first recruiting class in 2015. He sat out his first season with the team in 2015 and redshirted before moving to defensive tackle as a redshirt freshman.

In 2016, he played in seven games, though he was limited to just three tackles. In 2017, he played in all 11 games but again wasn’t particularly productive, totaling four tackles and a pass breakup.

As a redshirt junior in 2018, he saw action in 11 games as a reserve defensive lineman and special teams contributor, totaling eight tackles. He also made his first career interception against Tennessee.

During his final season in 2019, he played in 11 games, notching a career-high 22 tackles. He started three games and had 1.5 sacks.

Video:

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2019 Florida Gators Football Profile Card: Moses Gordon III

This is a Player Profile Card for redshirt senior athlete Moses Gordon III of the Florida Gators football team.

Name: Moses Gordon III

Number: 94

Position: Athlete

Class: Redshirt Senior

Height: 6’0″

Weight: 275 lbs

Hometown: Orlando, Fla.

High School: Cypress Creek High School

2019 statistics:

Did not play.

Overview:

A 6-foot, 275-pound athlete from Cypress Creek High School in Orlando, Gordon III was a strong side defensive end coming out of high school in the 2013 recruiting class. Though he received recruiting interest from Florida State, UCF and South Alabama, he didn’t receive a scholarship offer from any FBS programs.

An unranked recruiting prospect, he didn’t sign out of high school, instead choosing to attend the University of Florida. He didn’t resurface as a football player until the spring of 2018, when he walked on to the Gators football team in the first spring practice under new coach Dan Mullen. He didn’t see any action that season, nor did he in his final season of eligibility as a redshirt senior in 2019, thus ending his collegiate football career.

Video:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laAlH3ri9A0]

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Intriguing defensive end prospect lists Texas in top five schools

Texas remains in the hunt for three-star defensive end Jonathan Jones out of McKinney, Texas.

Head coach Tom Herman has had great success recently with recruiting prospects out of Dallas,Texas. Continue reading “Intriguing defensive end prospect lists Texas in top five schools”

A look at the 2021 recruiting class with Dave Campbell’s rankings

We dove into the 2021 recruiting class with Dave Campbell’s recruiting rankings to see just how good the class looks.

The Texas Longhorns have had a busy recruiting cycle regardless of the COVID-19 pandemic putting some strain on their efforts. The 2020 class wrapped up with the edition of Jahdae Barron joining the class that ranked them eighth overall. The Longhorns finished that class with five players ranked in the top 25 of Dave Campbell’s Texas Football rankings.

  • No 6- JaQuinden Jackson | QB | Duncanville
  • No 8- Hudson Card | QB | Lake Travis (Austin, TX)
  • No 11- Vernon Broughton II | DE | Cypress Ridge (Houston, TX)
  • No 16- Alfred Collins | DE | Bastrop (Cedar Creek, TX)
  • No 25- Xavion Alford | DB | Shadow Creek (Pearland, TX)

The Longhorn were able to walk away with five of the top five recruits in the state according to the list by Campbell. They also added Troy Omeire (32), Jaylen Garth (34) and Logan Parr (37) to round out the top 40. Looking at the 2021 class, the Texas Longhorns already have commitments from the following players in the top 25 of this year’s rankings:

  • No 3- JaTavion Sanders | DE | Denton Ryan
  • No 15- Billy Bowman | ATH | Denton Ryan
  • No 20- Jalen Milroe | QB | Katy Tompkins
  • No 38- Hayden Connor | OT | Katy Taylor
  • No 39- Derrick Harris | OLB | New Caney

The 2021 recruiting cycles is far from done so this list should only grow with the team being in the mix for some of the best players in the state. In fact here is the list of top players in the rankings with offers from the Longhorns.

  • No 1- Tommy Brockermeyer | OT | All Saints (Fort Worth, TX)
  • No 7- Savion Byrd | OT | Duncanville
  • No 10- Clayton Smith | OLB | Texarkana
  • No 13- Shemar Turner | DE | DeSoto, TX
  • No 16- Ismael Ibraheem | CB | Kimball (Dallas, TX)
  • No 22- Garrett Nussmeier | QB | Flower Mound
  • No 37- JD Coffey | DB | Kennedale

With the level of talent on the radar for the Texas Longhorns and with a new staff doing the recruiting, there is a lot to be excited about. Especially when you consider the future of the program.