Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
Here are a few quarterbacks expected to test well at the Combine who the Los Angeles Chargers could target to back up Justin Herbert.
The on-field portion of the NFL Combine begins on Thursday, marking the start of the testing circuit that propels some prospects into the stratosphere while ruining the stock of others. To prepare, we at Chargers Wire are previewing players from every position.
With the quarterback position, Los Angeles, obviously, will not be in the market until maybe later in the draft. Justin Herbert is unquestionably the face of the franchise, but both of last year’s backup options are pending free agents.
A quarterback prospect for the Saints in every round of the 2023 NFL draft:
There isn’t a bigger offseason priority for the New Orleans Saints than finding their next quarterback, and the 2023 NFL draft has options. They’ll have opportunities to look for a starter in the early rounds and developmental backups in the middle of the draft, and there are some prospects worth considering in the event’s final rounds.
If you don’t have a quarterback, you should keep drafting them until you get one. Keep swinging at the plate until you make contact and hit a home run. Here’s a quick look at some of the passers projected to go in each of the 2023 draft’s seven rounds:
Here’s our latest 7-round New Orleans Saints mock draft, updated after the Senior Bowl all-star game:
We’re moving quickly down the road to the 2023 NFL draft with the Senior Bowl and other college all-star games in rearview, so it’s a good time for an updated New Orleans Saints mock draft. Which players stood out in practices this week? Who did the Saints coaches working at the event get a good look at? What did they learn from this experience? That’s all factoring into our latest seven-round projection.
Let’s start with the elepahnt in the room: it feels almost certain that the Saints will address quarterback well ahead of the draft, likely by acquiring a veteran like Derek Carr or Jimmy Garoppolo. This team isn’t built for a rookie to take their time in developing into a starter. Dennis Allen’s job security hinges on whether they can be competitive right away. With the first-round quarterback prospects out of reach, look for them to turn to the free agent market (or get a jump on it by trading for Carr outright). That’s the assumption we’re working with in this mock draft.
The Browns land a high-profile playmaker in this New Year’s Eve mock draft
With just two weeks left in the season, and with the Cleveland Browns getting set to take on the Washington Commanders on New Year’s Day, we are officially nearing 2023 NFL Draft territory. And as we ramp up to draft activities, more mock drafts will come out as well. Celebrate the New Year with this 2023 NFL Mock Draft for the Browns!
Even without a first round pick, the Browns have eight draft picks to work with. Defensive tackle is a big need for the Browns, but so is wide receiver as they look to incorporate more air raid concepts into their offense in 2023. They address both of those positions early in this mock draft as they look to add talent to their underachieving roster.
Enjoy!
[listicle id=82522]
Caleb or DTR? Caleb or Bo Nix? It’s Caleb Williams. If you rank the #Pac12 QBs for 2022, he has to be No. 1. Period. #USC
Arguments are great when we can settle them on the field or in any other realm of competition where we can empirically test a claim or thesis.
Many people felt during the 2022 Pac-12 football season that Dorian Thompson-Robinson was the best quarterback in Los Angeles.
After the Utah game on Oct. 8, that might have been true, to be fair. However, Caleb Williams then played a great game against Utah on Oct. 15, while DTR was solid but hardly spectacular for UCLA against Oregon a week later on Oct. 22. Entering November, Caleb Williams and DTR were on relatively equal footing.
The last two weeks, and especially this past Saturday, the argument ended.
Caleb 1, DTR 0.
Best in Los Angeles, best in the Pac-12.
Let’s go through some of the details on how Caleb Williams separated himself from DTR, while also ranking Pac-12 QBs for 2022:
UCLA took advantage of a USC turnover as Dorian Thompson-Robinson threw a touchdown pass
USC had not given up any points when it turned the ball over … until Saturday.
The Trojans picked a bad time for that stretch to end. They were playing UCLA at the Rose Bowl in the annual battle for the Victory Bell.
Caleb Williams threw a pick to Kain Medrano.
INT!!!!!! 👀@UCLAFootball is HOTTTT 🔥 pic.twitter.com/XyGGaF6KiS
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) November 20, 2022
One play later the Bruins were in the end zone as Dorian Thompson-Robinson found a wide-open Michael Ezeike for the 30-yard TD pass.
ANOTHA ONE! 🔥@UCLAFootball makes it a 2 score game! pic.twitter.com/dJu1YNlYYG
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) November 20, 2022
#UCLA has a coach-QB combo with 5 years of experience. The Bruins have built toward this moment. It’s now or never. #USC is just getting started.
There is a ton of pressure on USC this Saturday against UCLA. Lincoln Riley, Alex Grinch, Caleb Williams, and the USC secondary all face an enormous amount of scrutiny. Failure to deliver on a stage this big will generate a lot of criticism if they fall short.
Yet, in many ways, the burden on the UCLA Bruins is greater, for one very simple reason: UCLA isn’t going to get a lot of chances to do something like this.
USC is going to have a better, deeper, more complete team next season with roster reinforcements and additions from the transfer portal, on top of incoming recruits.
UCLA? The Bruins will be in full rebuild mode, because the anchor of their team, Dorian Thompson-Robinson, has been with the program for five years. Chip Kelly’s UCLA tenure is as long as DTR’s. It has taken five years for UCLA’s coach and QB to develop to the point that they could make a run at the school’s first conference championship since 1998. This UCLA roster also includes some grad transfers. This is a very old team in college football terms. Everything has led to this moment on Saturday, and if UCLA can’t win, the Bruins aren’t going to be back here in 2023. When they move to the Big Ten in 2024, they aren’t likely to have much of a chance of competing with Michigan and Ohio State.
This was just one of many topics discussed on the Trojans Wire weekly USC show at The Voice of College Football:
[mm-video type=video id=01ghz8efd5r3y573z7fg playlist_id=none player_id=01f5k5y2jb3twsvdg4 image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01ghz8efd5r3y573z7fg/01ghz8efd5r3y573z7fg-fb98115ff76378d5a92aa1616860ac11.jpg]
[listicle id=52111]
At the @VoiceOfCFB with @MarkRogersTV, we joined #UCLA expert @TonyBruin of @LastWordOnCFB to fully break down Trojans-Bruins.
This is it. We’re two days away from USC versus UCLA. You want a massive pregame show. We have a massive pregame show, nearly 90 minutes of discussion on USC-UCLA and its many different storylines and items of interest.
Tony Siracusa joined Trojans Wire for a full-length discussion of USC-UCLA. Tony Siracusa is a UCLA expert and also an editor and writer for Last Word on College Football. He joined Trojans Wire and show host Mark Rogers at The Voice of College Football for this big game breakdown, with analysis of this Saturday’s game plus the history of the USC-UCLA series, a look at why UCLA is keeping tarps over nearly 12,000 seats at the Rose Bowl, and a lot more.
Find the video below, followed by a brief presentation of the many topics discussed in this program.
Subscribe to, like, and share Mark Rogers’ USC channel at The Voice of College Football:
DTR isn’t being quiet or subtle during #USC week. He wants #UCLA to absolutely humiliate and destroy the Trojans. Your move, Alex Grinch.
Rivalry week is off to a very spicy start in Los Angeles. This stuff is so rich with flavor and zest that it could be served by a Los Angeles taco truck.
USC-UCLA week is taking off, and it’s the Bruins who are stirring the pot with big talk. The Bruins, who just got ambushed by Arizona this past Saturday at home (that’s 4-6 Arizona, which USC was able to defeat in Tucson), are going to be very fired up for this USC game on Saturday night. They are talking a very big game and are making absolutely no secret of their belief that they can embarrass the USC defense once again.
Dorian Thompson-Robinson entered the fray on Monday. Here’s the latest, plus some background:
Oregon’s defense still needs some ironing out, but the Ducks’ offense is getting straight A’s at this point in the season.
Saturday’s monster 45-30 win over No. 10 UCLA was certainly the biggest victory in the young Dan Lanning Era. It’s arguably the biggest win Oregon has had since winning its last Rose Bowl, in consideration with the upset over the Ohio State Buckeyes a year ago.
What’s scary about this team is that although the players came up huge, the defense still has a ways to go. When the Ducks lock down their defensive scheme and make consistent plays, the sky is the limit for Oregon. Hopefully, the defense is able to reach its full potential this season, but if it doesn’t, the offense has proven to be elite and can make up any deficiencies against most teams in the country.
The report card against UCLA might tilt toward the offense, but for now, that’s all right.
