Tag: Malcolm Jenkins

Highest rated Ohio State football players in college football video game history

Highest rated Ohio State football players in college football video game history #GoBucks

A teaser trailer dropped for the new upcoming EA Sports College Football video game and despite seeing very little gameplay and details, the anticipation is at an all-time high. At this point, gamers who have waited a decade just want the playoffs and transfer portal added and would be happy with the graphics from the past generation of consoles.

According to the trailer, we can expect a full reveal this May and the game to hit shelves this summer, but if you are like me, you are too much of a pessimist to believe it. Nonetheless, it is fun to take this opportunity to look back on some of the highest-rated Ohio State football players in this game’s history. The craziest part of this list is that a now current coach on the staff is tied as the highest Buckeye ever rated.

The last game came out in 2013 and it is a real shame we missed out on studs like Nick Bosa, Chase Young and of course C.J. Stroud, but it will be interesting to see who some of the top guys are this year.

Three former football stars make Ohio State Athletics Hall Of Fame

What an honor #GoBucks

With such a storied football history, the [autotag]Ohio State[/autotag] football program has plenty of representation in the school’s athletic Hall of Fame.

That list is about to grow. Three of this year’s 14 inductees announced on Thursday were former Buckeye football stars. When they are enshrined into the Ohio State Athletics Hall of Fame, they will join an illustrious group of some of the greatest players to take the field in Ohio Stadium and around the Big Ten.

Two of the names you’ll see below are recent players, but all three were extremely highly decorated Buckeyes. Check out below which former Buckeyes will be honored as Hall of Fame members.

20 years later, here’s the top picks from each round of Saints drafts under Mickey Loomis

20 years later, here’s the best picks from each round of New Orleans Saints drafts under general manager Mickey Loomis:

The New Orleans Saints have the longest-tenured general manager in the NFL in Mickey Loomis, who has held his post since May 13, 2002 — a span that’s seen 20 NFL drafts come and go under his stewardship. Always eager to trade up and act aggressively on draft day, Loomis has made 24 picks in the first round alone during his run as general manager.

But which picks stand apart as the best? We’ve broken it down round-by-round to highlight the best returns New Orleans has found in the draft under Loomis:

Saints have 4 players accounting for $5 million in dead money for 2023

The New Orleans Saints have four players accounting for $5 million in dead money for 2023, but that number could soon increase five or six times over:

There’s a lot of work to be done in getting the new Orleans Saints under the 2023 salary cap, but don’t blame players no longer on the roster. For once, the Saints don’t have many dead money commitments from past retirements and roster mistakes — just four players are on the books right now who won’t be playing for New Orleans in the fall. As things currently stand, they won’t have any dead money leftover at all in 2024. It’s the healthiest this area of the operation has been in years.

But it won’t last. While the Saints are forfeiting $5,038,479 right now in dead money (per Over The Cap), that number could increase five times over in just a few weeks should a couple of free agents sign with other teams. And any players designated as post-June 1 cuts will factor into the 2024 salary cap mathematics. Let’s break it down:

Malcolm Jenkins teases NFL comeback: ‘Technically the Saints have the rights to my contract’

Malcolm Jenkins teased Eagles fans asking about an NFL comeback, saying ‘Technically the Saints have the rights to my contract’

Could the Philadelphia Eagles swap one former New Orleans Saints safety for another? Again? C.J. Gardner-Johnson has been sidelined by a lacerated kidney and rib injury, prompting Eagles fans on Twitter to lobby for Malcolm Jenkins to make his NFL comeback. Jenkins retired earlier this year with some time left on his contract with the Saints, which he acknowledged is a complicating factor, though the idea of returning to play with a Super Bowl contender should be appealing. This isn’t as simple as Marshawn Lynch un-retiring to re-sign with the Seattle Seahawks in December (he was a free agent at the time).

“Technically the Saints have the rights to my contract,” Jenkins shrugged in a message from his official Twitter account, before adding, “I know Eagles fans love a comeback story, but don’t think you’ll get one this time.”

Odds are better that Jenkins will remain retired while managing his business interests away from football, but you never know. Another issue is that we’re past the annual NFL trade deadline. So if he were to decide to come back and play for the Eagles, he couldn’t be traded to Philadelphia. New Orleans would have to relinquish his contract altogether meaning they wouldn’t get any compensation. They would waive Jenkins and he would sign with the Eagles upon clearing waivers.

From the team’s perspective, why would they allow that? Why let a player who already hung up his cleats suit up for a conference rival who has already gotten their goat in past trades? For goodwill with him? Come on. He would be going back on his word here, and nobody could argue in good faith that the Saints would be wrong to stand in the way.

But this is part of a bigger problem. Will the indignities never cease? It’s bad enough that Sean Payton quit on the Saints and is out here publicly daydreaming about a team-up with Lamar Jackson (who he chose not to draft in 2018, instead trading up for Marcus Davenport, who shouldn’t be re-signed after this season). Now we’ve got Jenkins at least entertaining the idea of suspending his retirement to try and win another Super Bowl ring with the Eagles.

We’ll see if anything happens here, but it’s unlikely this develops further. Stay tuned.

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Eagles reached out to Malcolm Jenkins before trading for C.J. Gardner-Johnson

Eagles general manager Howie Roseman reached out to Malcolm Jenkins before trading for C.J. Gardner-Johnson, his former Saints protégé:

So this makes sense. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jeff McLane says that the Philadelphia Eagles weren’t blind to the tight relationship between C.J. Gardner-Johnson, the subject of their big preseason trade, and his New Orleans Saints mentor Malcolm Jenkins — a fan-favorite who won a Super Bowl in Philly before returning to New Orleans, where his pro career started. McLane reports that Eagles general manager Howie Roseman consulted with Jenkins before finalizing the Saints trade, and that it may have not happened without Jenkins’ input.

“A lot of people judge him by his cover,” Jenkins said of Gardner-Johnson’s mouthy on-field persona. “That’s like his secret weapon.”

Gardner-Johnson always backed up his tall-talking in New Orleans with a comprehensive understanding of the game, but he’s playing even better with the Eagles. He currently leads the league with five interceptions. He’s been a big part of Philadelphia’s unbeaten streak to start the season. Jenkins saw so many similarities between the two of them (they even share the same birthday, ten years apart) that he couldn’t help but take the fiery young defender. It’s only fitting that Gardner-Johnson ended up following in his footsteps from New Orleans to Philadelphia.

Of course this is painful for Saints fans to cope with. The team made a bad deal after contract talks broke down with Gardner-Johnson and his relationship with coaches became frayed. New Orleans originally drafted Gardner-Johnson in the fourth round, having spent a fifth rounder to trade up for him. He’s since gone to the Eagles along with a 2025 seventh rounder in exchange for a fifth-round pick in 2023 and a sixth rounder in 2024. It’s almost impressive that the Saints managed to get less for Gardner-Johnson than they spent to acquire him in the first place after he put up three strong years’ worth of tape in the NFL. Almost.

Anyway, back to Jenkins. He told McLane before the season started that “Philly’s going to love him,” and that “He’s going to check every single box.” We’re halfway through the regular season, and it sure looks like that prediction is coming true. We’ll see what Gardner-Johnson has in store when his Eagles host the Saints in Week 17 later this season.

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C.J. Gardner-Johnson following Malcolm Jenkins’ footsteps to Philadelphia

C.J. Gardner-Johnson following in Malcolm Jenkins’ footsteps to Philadelphia with Saints-Eagles trade:

Don’t look now, but C.J. Gardner-Johnson is following Malcolm Jenkins in Tuesday’s stunning Saints-Eagles trade. Jenkins, of course, started his career as a highly-touted slot corner and won a Super Bowl with the New Orleans Saints. When things soured after he struggled in a new role as the team’s starting free safety, the Saints opted to part ways with him. He went to the Philadelphia Eagles and won another Super Bowl, earning a lot of love from the fans in Philly, too.

Gardner-Johnson’s story so far kind of looks like what Jenkins may have experienced on Earth-2 or some other alternate universe. He landed in New Orleans as a mid-round pick, loved by draftniks but overlooked by most teams, and it took some time before he elbowed his way into the lineup and took Jenkins’ old spot covering the slot. He came awful close to winning a title or two with the Saints, too, but his biggest win was ascending to household name status among the fanbase.

Now he’s been traded to the same team that once signed Jenkins, where he’ll likely play the same role as a starting safety in the Eagles defense. Whether or not Gardner-Johnson finds as much success remains to be seen. It’s also unclear whether he’ll someday return to New Orleans. That feels unlikely given everything involved, both the money Gardner-Johnson is seeking that the Saints aren’t willing to pay as well as the emotions that go into these decisions, but you never know. Mark Ingram found his way back to the Saints after moving on to a couple of different teams.

So did Jenkins. The next time fans see Gardner-Johnson he’ll be wearing an Eagles uniform. But it’s far too soon to say that it’ll be the last they seen of him. In any case, it’s a cool parallel between two one-time teammates who shared so much in common while seeing such different experiences.

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Highest rated Ohio State football players in “NCAA Football” video game history

Highest rated Ohio State Buckeyes in NCAA video game history #GoBucks #NCAAFootball

The NCAA video game series has been a pillar in many households since 1998 and for some even before that during the days of “Bill Walsh College Football.” It was downright devastating when EA Sport stopped producing the game after “NCAA ’14.”

The game — or a version thereof — is scheduled to return in time for the 2023 season and I just simply can’t wait. It got me wondering who the ten highest-rated Ohio State football players were in the video game’s history. It is important to remember that no names were used for the rosters, but we can make some safe assumptions that QB No. 2 would have been Terrelle Pryor. It’s part of the reason EA Sports had to stop making the game.

Another item of note is that it is extremely hard to find any rosters before the 2004 version, but I feel I exhausted my options and found the best results. I also want to note that the first “Bill Walsh College Football” game didn’t even have Ohio State and instead had an odd copycat team named Columbus. There were no individual player ratings and therefore that game was not used. Oh, and don’t forget, NCAA games were labeled a year in advance so the 2005 version of the game is actually for the 2004 season. Got it? No, maybe — sort of?

Let’s move forward anyway with the top ten rated Ohio State football players in the history of the “NCAA Football” video game franchise.

Saints trail NFL ‘dead money’ leaders even after Malcolm Jenkins’ retirement

The Saints rank closer to the NFL average than the top-5 leaders in dead money after processing Malcolm Jenkins’ retirement after June 1:

There’s been a lot of worrying about the New Orleans Saints’ salary cap situation — mostly from outside New Orleans. Pro Football Focus ranked the Saints dead-last in evaluating the “salary cap health” outlook for every team across the NFL, and the Saints’ unorthodox team-building strategies still draw the ire of experts like ESPN’s Bill Barnwell. But things look a lot better for New Orleans once you take a closer look at how they’ve set themselves up.

As expected, the Saints took advantage of the NFL’s post-June 1 rule and waited to process Malcolm Jenkins’ retirement until it was most beneficial for them. Despite having hung up his cleats and cut the team a break by reducing his salary to the league minimum, Jenkins will remain on the books for a meager $3.95 million (left over from his signing bonus) this year and next, just like Drew Brees did when he stepped away from the game. That adds up to a combined $33.3 million dead money charge for the Saints from past contracts with players like Brees, Jenkins, and Terron Armstead, but let’s keep some perspective.

On its face, that $33.3 million in dead money (let’s be precise — the team at Over The Cap has the Saints with a cumulative charge of $33,336,318) is daunting. It’s a total that ranks sixth-highest in the NFL. Compare it to the rest of the league, though, and you’ll see that’s it’s closer to the $25.7 million NFL-average than the $52.7 million average that the top-five teams (the Atlanta Falcons, Chicago Bears, Houston Texans, Philadelphia Eagles, and Seattle Seahawks) are accounting for. The gap between sixth-ranked New Orleans and fifth-worst Seattle ($12.6 million) is almost as wide as that between Seattle and second-place Chicago ($10.1 million).

It’s a far cry from where the Saints were not too long ago; they carried a staggering $42.9 million in dead money into the 2021 regular season. Sure, that $33.3 million figure will go up as the team processes roster cuts in August and September. But look a little further down the road and you’ll see that New Orleans only has $3.95 million in dead money on the books for 2023 — that’s the remaining charge from Jenkins’ terminated contract.

In a perfect world, the Saints wouldn’t have any dead money to worry with at all (that’s where more than half the league is projected for 2023, at the moment), but the Saints are already starting out in a better position than they’ve seen before. Next year they won’t have any lingering dead money charges for Brees or Armstead weighing them down, though it’s important to extend David Onyemata before his contract expires next spring (which would leave behind more than $10.1 million in dead money).

As is always the case, the Saints are projected to be in the red by a greater extent than any other team next season; OTC suggests the 2023 salary cap could reach $225 million, and the Saints are already over that limit by $57.9 million. Whatever work can be done now to make the descent from that mountain easier is valuable.

But let’s not lose the track here. Let’s recap each of the Saints’ dead money cap hits for 2022 and why things are, well, the way they are for New Orleans:

Potential safety prospects for Saints in each round of 2022 NFL draft

Potential safety prospects for Saints in each round of 2022 NFL draft, via @MaddyHudak_94:

While wide receiver and left tackle are paramount needs for the New Orleans Saints in the 2022 NFL draft, another position to watch is safety. New Orleans bolstered the unit in free agency with Marcus Maye and Justin Evans; the signings aligned with head coach Dennis Allen’s vision of versatility at the position. But with the departure of both strong and free starting safeties Marcus Williams and Malcolm Jenkins, the team will likely look to build back through the draft.

I broke down the state of the unit in-depth earlier this month – looking at the acquisitions and how Allen’s philosophy of interchangeable safeties could play into the draft. We’ve also been tracking the team’s meetings with prospects. In surveying the 61 prospects linked to the team, a few things stand out. They’ve done their homework meeting with 11 wide receivers and 8 offensive linemen. But they’ve also met with 12 secondary players: 4 safeties, and 8 cornerbacks.

While the number of safeties is low comparatively, it’s a group of high-quality, legitimate prospects across several rounds. The number of cornerbacks is a bit surprising. But another thing the team likes to do is convert them to safety: P.J. Williams and Malcolm Jenkins. An interesting parallel considering the reaction to Notre Dame’s Kyle Hamilton’s 40-yd dash time is the similar criticism Jenkins received back in 2009. Both Jenkins and Williams were considered top cornerback prospects in their respective draft classes. Both thrived in their transition to safety. And New Orleans is doing their homework on the position quite thoroughly; you can never have too much depth at cornerback, but it’s low on the list of needs for the level of due diligence.

Saints fans are familiar with the Relative Athletic Score (RAS) – but I feel focusing on the number itself is oversimplified. In the 2021 NFL draft, their first three selections (Payton Turner, Pete Werner, and Paulson Adebo) all had scores of 9.0 or higher. But historically, that number tends to drop in later rounds. I think there’s a correlation with the pandemic and lack of film and measurables with the recent prioritization of high RAS scores. Historically, that’s not the case. It’s really within the RAS scores that you see potential team trends.

Past Jenkins and Kenny Vaccaro taken Nos. 14 and 15 overall, New Orleans tends to hit on secondary players on Day 2: Marcus Williams in the second round, C.J. Gardner-Johnson in the fourth, and P.J. Williams in the third round. So that could be the sweet spot to look for the team to target and build back the role.

With that, here’s a look at some of the prospects the team could be targeting throughout each round of the 2022 NFL draft, and how they fit the team’s historical draft trends. Let’s start with an analysis of safeties linked to the Saints.