Tag: Get Up

Former NFL executive has an insane idea for Wisconsin legend Russell Wilson’s next step

This idea was insane

It is rare we write up the comments made on ESPN’s ‘Get Up,’ ‘First Take,’ or other similar shows.

First, the shows don’t talk nearly enough about college football for our taste. But second, the stupidity rarely crosses into the threshold of Wisconsin Badgers athletics.

Well, on Monday it did. Former NFL executive Mike Tannenbaum shared the following idea on Get Up for former Badger Russell Wilson’s next step after leaving the Broncos.

Related: Ranking the Big Ten head football coaches entering the 2024 season

“I think he would be a great fit with New York [Jets], and here’s why,” Tannenbaum said. His partners on the show reacted with appropriate disgust before he continued to say “pay him a million dollars and let him resurrect his career. I actually have experience with this, Vinny Testaverde got cut by the Baltimore Ravens, we signed him in June and went to the championship game that year. So, if you’re Russell Wilson…where else is he going to go? He has to resurrect his career, so if you have to sit for a year why not sit for a year behind one of the greatest of all time and then be a free agent again. Where is he going to go? He’s 36 years old. Nobody’s going to hand him a starting job. He’s going to have to be a backup somewhere.”

Here’s the full video, for context:

It’s easy to dissect why this is a terrible idea.

First, Tannenbaum said it, Wilson is 36 years old. He only has a few years of football left, so it would be foolish to spend one of them on the bench. Look around the NFL, there are far worse quarterbacks than Wilson starting for teams — Tommy DeVito, Derek Carr, Sam Howell, Josh Dobbs, Mason Rudolph to just name a few. The Wisconsin legend should get one final shot at leading a team under center.

Second, and more important in my eyes, who wants to back up Aaron Rodgers? Of all the starters in the NFL, Rodgers might be the one I’d want to back-up the least if I were Wilson. The only positive is he may get injured again, leading to quicker playing time. But Rodgers is a challenging person to work with by all accounts, which would make life tough on someone like Wilson looking for another shot.

Tannenbaum was an NFL executive for more than a decade, so there is some basis behind his opinions. I think he’s way off on this one — which the football community on ‘X’ agrees with. Wilson needs to find a starting job to try to resurrect his career, not a backup job behind a quarterback like Rodgers.

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Contact/Follow @TheBadgersWire on X (formerly Twitter), and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Wisconsin Badgers news, notes, and opinion. Follow Ben Kenney on X.

Former Heisman winner Robert Griffin III sounds off on Chiefs’ offensive woes

Robert Griffin III sounded off on Patrick Mahomes’ blow-up against the #Bills and the #Chiefs’ offensive woes on ESPN’s “Get Up”

The Kansas City Chiefs have had a tough time getting their offense into gear during the 2023 season, and much of the talk around the team’s dysfunction has revolved around its lack of firepower at the receiver position.

2011 Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III sounded off on the Chiefs’ offensive woes on ESPN’s morning show Get Up this week, and gave his take on why Patrick Mahomes reacted so negatively on the sideline during Kansas City’s loss to the Buffalo Bills in Week 14.

“They (the Chiefs) have had 33 drops this year,” He explained. “When you talk about Mahomes to his receivers, QBR (quarterback rating) wise, he’s 23rd in the league when targeting his receivers. Running backs and tight ends, he’s third in the league.”

Only Mahomes knows what caused the blow-up against Buffalo, but Griffin’s perspective certainly seems to be a point worth considering. With just four games remaining on their 2023 schedule, the Chiefs’ receiving corps will have a magnifying glass on it as fans and the media try to figure out what is at the root of Kansas City’s offensive decline this season.

Rutgers football: ESPN highlights Kyle Monangai for his block against Indiana

Rutgers’ Kyle Monangai gets a shout out for his blocking this past Saturday.

Kyle Monangai is getting some serious attention, not just for his ability running the ball but also for his blocking. The Rutgers football running back got a big-time shoutout on ESPN on Wednesday morning.

On the ESPN morning show ‘Get Up,’ a Monangai block from this Saturday’s 31-14 win at Indiana was shown. In a segment entitled ‘Sit Down,’ the crew highlighted Monangai’s block on a run by quarterback Gavin Wimsatt.

And very astutely, the crew noticed that Monangai didn’t just have one block on this particular play. The Rutgers running back finished one block and then went to another to key a run from Wimsatt.

Former NFL offensive lineman Jeff Saturday led off with the talk about Monangai’s blocks.

“He gets one down, he gets up and blocks for his boy again,” Saturday said on the ESPN segment.

“You got to love this.”

 

 

Saturday was six times a Pro Bowl selection and four times an All-Pro. During his 14 years in the NFL, he won a Super Bowl with the Indianapolis Colts.

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On the season, Monangai has 744 rushing yards and seven touchdowns. He is one of the top running backs in the Big Ten in rushing yards this season.

Rutgers is 6-2 (3-2 Big Ten) and on a bye week. They host No. 3 Ohio State next Saturday.

 

Ryan Clark breaks down Jonathan Allen’s NSFW postgame rant from Week 7

Ryan Clark on Jonathan Allen: “The Commanders made this man lose all his professionalism.”

Ryan Clark spent 13 seasons in the NFL, including two stints with the then-Washington Redskins. Clark’s final NFL season (2014) was spent in Washington.

Since retirement, Clark has become one of TV’s best NFL analysts and is a part of ESPN’s weekday morning show, “Get Up.”

On Monday morning, the “Get Up” crew was breaking down Week 7 NFL action, including the Washington Commanders’ ugly 14-7 loss to the New York Giants.

It wasn’t the game that caught Clark’s attention; it was defensive tackle — and team captain — Jonathan Allen’s postgame rant.

We’ll let Clark take it from here:

“This man chose violence,” Clark said. “The sheer audacity of the outfit says, ‘I don’t give no F’s. Zero of ’em.’”

There is much more from Clark included in the above clip.

One more from Clark: “The Commanders made this man lose all his professionalism.”

It’s hard to dispute that. Allen, a two-time Pro Bowler and one of the best in the NFL at his position, finally had enough.

How will Washington respond in Week 8 against the Eagles?

 

Ravens TE Mark Andrews says QB Lamar Jackson is focused on winning

Ravens tight end Mark Andrews said quarterback Lamar Jackson is focused on and cares about winning

The Baltimore Ravens’ regular season kicks off on Sunday when they travel to take on the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium. One of the biggest storylines facing the team leading up to the season is the contract situation of quarterback Lamar Jackson.

Jackson is entering the final year of his rookie contract, with some speculating that the fifth-year quarterback would hold out of training camp until a deal was reached. However, that’s been far from the case, as Jackson has been active with the team and working hard.

During an episode of ESPN’s “Get Up,” Ravens tight end Mark Andrews spoke with former Baltimore linebacker Bart Scott. When asked if Jackson’s contract situation was a distraction, the tight end said Jackson is focused on and cares about winning.

“Lamar approaches football in a different light. He’s a focused dude, he cares about winning. Everything that has happened this offseason with the contract and stuff like that, no one’s even heard anything about it from him. So, he’s a true pro, treats us the right way, he cares about this team, this year and what we can do. So, I know Lamar’s locked in, I know he’s focused and he’s not going to let any of that contract stuff or anything like that affect his play.”

Jackson hinted at Week 1 being an initial deadline for an extension. It’s apparent that Jackson cares for Baltimore and wants to bring the city another Super Bowl, as he promised when he was drafted in 2018. The situation doesn’t appear to be a distraction in terms of what’s happening on the football field, but it is one to monitor as it continues to play out.

Mike Tannenbaum compares Jaguars to the Golden State Warriors, thinks they should be a playoff team in 2022

Tannenbaum’s Get Up co-hosts were not fans of the analogy, to say the least.

In the wake of a week (and really, an entire tenure) of controversy from head coach Urban Meyer, Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan decided to pull the plug on the experiment with the college legend before the end of his first season. The Jags will close out the year with Darrell Bevell as interim coach before looking to make a full-time hire this offseason.

Jacksonville likely won’t be the only opening, but with a generational talent at quarterback heading into the second year of his rookie deal, there will be a lot about this job that is attractive. Former NFL executive and current ESPN analyst Mike Tannenbaum echoed that sentiment on “Get Up,” stating that the Jags’ opening could be the league’s most attractive this offseason.

“Jacksonville is a historically great opening because of Trevor Lawrence’s contract,” he said. “The day I get that job, I’m getting (star Packers receiver) Davante Adams on the phone, saying ‘congratulations, you’re a Jacksonville Jaguar.’ I am not getting off the phone.”

(Quick correction. Tannenbaum said DJ Chark would be returning, but he’s a free agent in 2022.)

Tannenbaum went further, though. He compared the current situation in Jacksonville to the one that coach Steve Kerr inherited when he took over the NBA’s Golden State Warriors. Kerr has since won three NBA Championships and set a regular-season record with 73 wins.

“This reminds me of when Steve Kerr went to the Warriors and he had the foundation there, they made a couple of tweaks, and the rest is history,” Tannenbaum said. “This is a team that should be in the playoffs next year.”

Tannenbaum’s take drew criticism from his other Get Up co-hosts. Former NFL center Jeff Saturday laughed him off.

“This dude just compared Jacksonville to the Golden State Warriors,” he said. “Man’s high!”

“They’re the worst team in the NFL, Mike,” Mike Greenberg told him.

But Tannenbaum doubled down.

“Trevor Lawrence is a generational talent, and if you surround him with ‘B’ or better players, they could be in the playoffs next year,” he said.

Tannenbaum went on to add that with the lack of state taxes, weather, and other factors, he thinks Jacksonville should be one of if not the top destination in the NFL for free agents. That certainly hasn’t been the case historically, but the team will hope having a potential franchise quarterback in place will help in that regard.

Comparing the Jaguars to the most dominant team in the NBA over the last decade may have been a bit of a reach, but Tannenbaum certainly makes valid points when it comes to the general attractiveness of the opening. The team will hope he’s right and that it can woo a top option to take over Lawrence’s development.

ESPN’s Mike Greenberg says Washington is ‘the 49ers of 2 years ago’

Mike Greenberg believes Washington has a similar formula for success as the 2019 San Francisco 49ers.

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In Kyle Shanahan’s first two seasons as the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, he finished with a 10-22 record. His third season in 2019 is where things turned around for the young coach. The 49ers went 13-3 and represented the NFC in the Super Bowl.

The 49ers turnaround was due to good coaching, solid quarterback play and an outstanding defense.

That’s a formula that could work for the Washington Football Team in 2021, according to Mike Greenberg of ESPN’s “Get Up.”

On Friday’s edition of “Get Up,” Greenberg chose Washington as his darkhorse for the upcoming 2021 season, comparing Washington to San Francisco in 2019.

“Now, the NFL gets so much attention all year round that it’s hard to imagine it could ever have a secret as well-kept as the Washington Football Team is heading into this year,” Greenberg said. “Caesars has them at 25 to 1 to win the NFL. Even Vegas doesn’t see this as coming. And it is. The formula is there, and it’s proven recently. They are the 49ers of two years ago.”

Next, Greenberg went into his list of reasons why Washington resembles that 2019 San Francisco team — and they do sound familiar.

Start with the quarterback, who has been far more magic than tragic as of late. These are the numbers, the last three seasons Ryan Fitzpatrick has a higher completion percentage than Tom Brady, a higher touchdown percentage than Dak Prescott, a higher QBR than Deshaun Watson. He’s been very good and his new team is sneaky loaded. It won an admittedly bad division last year with the worst quarterback play in the sport. They were 32nd out of 32 teams. Their top receiver is a stud. You barely know. His name is 25-year-old Terry McLaurin. He has more than 2,000 yards in two seasons playing with Dwayne Haskins, Case Keenum, Alex Smith, Kyle Allen and Colt McCoy. The running back is 23-year-old Antonio Gibson. He had over 1,000 yards from scrimmage and 11 touchdowns, starting just 10 games as a rookie. And the defense, it may very well be the best in the entire sport. They had the best pass-rush in the league in the second half of last season.

Greenberg also likes Washington’s coaching staff, led by Ron Rivera.

The comparisons to San Francisco were made in 2020, too. The 2019 49ers had four first-round picks on the defensive line and were led by a stud pass-rushing rookie in Nick Bosa.

Now, Washington should be even better with an improved group of wide receivers and a hungry veteran quarterback who has played some of his best football in the last three seasons.

We will certainly know a lot about this Washington team by Week 7 after playing Kansas City and Green Bay in consecutive weeks.

ESPN poll favors Josh Allen over Lamar Jackson, Baker Mayfield in Super Bowl chances

ESPN poll favors Josh Allen over Lamar Jackson, Baker Mayfield in Super Bowl chances:

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Ever since Josh Allen signed his record-setting extension with the Buffalo Bills, there has been a lot of buzz around sports media.

While much of that has been centered around the fourth-year QB and his newly minted pact with the team, there has also been a lot of commentary and speculation surrounding the quarterbacks considered to be his peers.

That would be the two other starting NFL quarterbacks that were also selected in the first round of Allen’s 2018 draft class who’ve had success in recent years. Those would be 2019 league MVP Lamar Jackson and the top overall selection at number one in that draft, Baker Mayfield.

On ESPN’s Get Up this week, analysts debated who among these three playmakers would be more likely to win SB LVI. Jeff Darlington and Damien Woody picking Allen and the Bills, while Sam Ocho chose Jackson and the Ravens and Mike Greenberg chose Mayfield and the Browns.

Greenberg then took to Twitter, posting a poll to settle the dispute as to who fans would bet on to win the Super Bowl, should either of the three QB’s find themselves in the championship game at season’s end.

Allen won in a landslide.

Out of 16,745 votes, Allen and the Bills finished with 62.6% of the fan voting, Mayfield and the Browns had 24.5%, while Jackson and the Ravens had 12.9%.

One aspect that the poll results illustrate could play out this season as well- That the Ravens and Browns are competing against each other in their respective division, meaning each has the ability to impact the other’s chances of winning or losing a playoff spot.

Allen and the Bills’ deep 2020 playoff run to the AFC Championship game surpassed how far Jackson and Mayfield have made it in the playoffs thus far in their careers.

As preseason rankings are high on the Bills, time will tell if Jackson’s Ravens and Mayfield’s Browns achieve a level of postseason success on par with Allen and Buffalo’s.

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ESPN analyst says Washington ‘will have the best defense in football’

Dan Orlovsky believes Washington will have the best defense in the NFL and can be the team that challenges Tampa Bay.

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ESPN analyst — and former NFL quarterback — Dan Orlovsky has been high on the 2021 Washington Football Team all offseason. Orlovsky has continually praised Washington’s offseason moves, especially bringing in Ryan Fitzpatrick at quarterback.

In a recent episode of “Get Up” on ESPN, the panel discussed which NFC team could knock off Tampa Bay. Orlovsky didn’t hesitate in his answer.

“I’ve been saying the Washington Football Team,” Orlovsky said, continuing the theme of his belief in Washington in 2021. 

“I think when we go forward, and we write the headline, ‘Who might knock them (Tampa Bay) off?’ It will read, ‘The Washington Football Team giantly turned back the hands of time, and their front four dominates Tampa’s offense.'”

There is a long way to go to reach that point. Much of the optimism surrounding Washington is because of how well the Football Team played the eventual Super Bowl champions in the wild-card round of the playoffs. Now, Washington got better this offseason on both sides of the ball.

Throughout the first week of training camp, the defense has certainly been ahead of the offense, but that’s generally how things happen in the summer — especially when there is a new quarterback.

It’s certainly no surprise that Washington’s defense is already clicking this summer. While Orlovsky loves Washington’s defense, he’s fairly high on the offense, too.

I think this defense will be the best in football. It’s the best defensive line in football, William Jackson, the addition at corner is huge, Davis, the draft pick out of Kentucky, should be a really good player, and their offense could be the fastest offense in football. Fitzy is gonna play good; their offensive line is better than people think. One team that could go knock off Tampa — or the most equipped to do it — is the Washington Football Team.

The biggest issue with Washington right now isn’t talent; it’s with COVID-19. The Football Team currently has seven players on the reserve/COVID-19 list one week into training camp.

Assuming Washington gets healthy, Orlovsky believes it has a true chance to take down the reigning Super Bowl champions. The two teams will meet in the regular season on Nov. 14.

Paul Finebaum doesn’t see Jags’ time with Urban Meyer lasting long

Paul Finebaum might be one of Urban Meyer’s biggest critics and he believes his constant run-ins with the NFL are reasons he’ll flame out.

Urban Meyer’s first few months in the NFL have been productive, but at the same time, they’ve come with some controversy. The latest incident by the first-year head coach involved both him and the Jacksonville Jaguars getting hit with a combined total of $300K in fines by the NFL, which came as the result of organized team activity violations.

Of course, as a result of the fines and other incidents that have occurred over the last few months Meyer has accumulated many critics, and ESPN’s Paul Finebaum is among them. In the most recent episode of “Get Up,” Finebaum expressed that he doesn’t think Meyer’s time in the NFL will last long due to the controversy he came into the league with and the incidents he’s already had in it.

“I’ll try not to sound like a broken record, but this is not going to work,” Finebaum said on Friday’s episode of “Get Up.” “It may work short-term because he has Trevor Lawrence and you can build a team, but ultimately, Urban Meyer is going to flame out.

“You laid it out very eloquently there. It’s already happening. This guy does not get along with rules. He does not like to be told what to do. It didn’t work at Florida when he fled, it didn’t work at Ohio State when he battled the administration and finally walked off, or was pushed out, and it’s not going to work here.”

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When processing Finebaum’s statements, he’s not the first to question how long Meyer will last in the NFL. However, NFL fans have witnessed Bill Belichick, and the New England Patriots overcome instances where rules were broken, and yet they still have six championships under him. So, in other words, there have been instances where the “rule breakers” of the league haven’t necessarily flamed out, although Finebaum may be basing this off Meyer’s collegiate track record.

As for Meyer’s controversial situations in the NFL, the Chris Doyle hiring was one Meyer should’ve undoubtedly avoided, however, the other incidents he’s had in the league aren’t as controversial as some have made them out to be.

While the Tim Tebow signing does look like a favor, many local reporters don’t believe he looks that out of place for someone on a 90-man roster, although he probably doesn’t need to be on the final roster. As for the fines, many players have praised Meyer for the type of coach he’s been since signing with the Jags like team leaders Josh Allen, Myles Jack, and Shaq Griffin. That said, it appears a majority (if not all) of the players haven’t been upset with the team’s practice habits under Meyer.

It’s anyone’s guess on if Meyer will work out in the NFL and how long he will be a part of it, but it’s worth noting that he studied the league well before entering it despite the incidents he’s had. He has several veteran NFL assistants on his staff who he trusts tremendously like Joe Cullen, Darrell Bevell, and Brian Schottenheimer, and if Meyer has success in the NFL, it’s going to be because he leaned on them heavily as he tries his hand in the league.