4 blockbuster trade packages teams could offer Patriots for No. 3 pick

If the Patriots decide to trade back, here are four potential draft day trade packages for the No. 3 pick

The New England Patriots have a good problem on their hands with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2024 NFL draft. There are no surefire ways to go when deciding what to do with a pick that could impact their franchise for years to come.

They could stand pat and take one of the top-three quarterbacks on the board, which includes Caleb Williams, Drake Maye and Jayden Daniels. The team could also use the No. 3 pick and other draft assets to move up to No. 1 overall, assuming the Chicago Bears would be willing to trade back.

And then there’s the least loved, but perhaps more effective, strategy of trading down and accumulating more picks and players to facilitate a rebuild.

The Patriots aren’t going to suddenly morph back into perennial playoff contenders overnight. It’s clearly going to take more than one year for the team to fix the myriad of personnel issues on the roster.

Today, we’re exploring four trade packages from four possible suitors that could be offered to the Patriots for the No. 3 overall draft pick.

Vikings Game: Live updates from Vikings at Broncos in Week 11

Follow along for live updates throughout Sunday night football as the Minnesota Vikings take on the Denver Broncos.

The Minnesota Vikings are set to take on the Denver Broncos on Sunday night.

Throughout the game, we will be breaking down the big moments on each drive, keeping you updated throughout if you can’t watch the game live.

Follow along all night as the Vikings look to extend their winning streak to six games.

Behind Enemy Lines: Previewing Week 11 w/Broncos Wire

To preview Sunday’s game, we went behind enemy lines with Broncos Wire.

The Minnesota Vikings are looking to extend their winning streak to six games as they head to the Mile High City to take on the Denver Broncos on Sunday Night Football.

The last time the Vikings played on NBC with the Sunday night crew was on Thanksgiving night when they beat the New England Patriots 33-26. This season, primetime has been a mixed bag with the Vikings losing to the Philadelphia Eagles 34-28 but beating the San Francisco 49ers 22-17. They covered the spread in both games.

What should the Vikings expect when they face the Broncos? We spoke to Jon Heath of Broncos Wire to get the scoop on where the Broncos are at, as they are also on a three-game winning streak.

NFL insider names 2 popular trade targets who won’t be joining Cowboys

From @ToddBrock24f7: RB Derrick Henry and CB Patrick Surtain II will be staying where they are, per Dianna Russini. The 49ers and Eagles could make moves.

Cowboys fans have been eyeing several high-profile playmakers as potential targets for their team as Tuesday’s trade deadline draws ever nearer. But according to one NFL insider, two of the most popular names will be staying right where they currently are.

But the Cowboys’ top competition in the NFC looks to get even stronger before the window for making a deal comes to a close.

The Athletic’s Dianna Russini reports that the Denver Broncos “are not open” to trading cornerback Patrick Surtain II. Many Dallas fans had hoped that the 23-year-old All-Pro could be pried away from the 2-5 Broncos as a way to help alleviate the loss of Trevon Diggs for the rest of the 2023 season and strengthen the secondary for years to come.

While Surtain would indeed be a massive boost to the positional group currently held down by Stephon Gilmore, DaRon Bland, and Jourdan Lewis, Denver is said to view 2021’s ninth overall draft pick as “the best and smartest player on the Broncos roster.”

The Cowboys will also not be welcoming Titans running back Derrick Henry to the roster, much to the chagrin of many who had expected more from Tony Pollard, Deuce Vaughn, and the Dallas ground game. The Cowboys are averaging under 120 team rushing yards per game this season, 40-plus yards per outing behind the league-leading Dolphins.

Russini shares that, per a Cowboys source, the team has not contacted Tennessee regarding the two-time rushing champion, despite Dallas being mentioned frequently as a likely suitor for Henry. The 2-4 Titans are said to be unwilling to consider any trade offer that isn’t “exceptional.”

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The two NFC teams ahead of Dallas in every set of power rankings are taking a far more aggressive approach to adding to their ranks. Russini reports that the Eagles and 49ers are both working the phones prior to Tuesday’s trade cutoff.

“The Eagles want to make another move even after adding safety and five-time Titans captain Kevin Byard,” she writes. “I expect Howie Roseman to be busy Monday morning. He’s poking around at linebacker.”

As for San Francisco, she notes that their front office is hoping to add one or more defensive pieces, like an edge rusher or linebacker.

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Why is the Denver Broncos’ defense historically putrid?

The Denver Broncos’ defense is one of the worst in pro football history through five weeks. How did things fall apart, and how can they fix it?

In 2022, the tale of the Denver Broncos was the complete cratering of the offense with Russell Wilson, and a defense that ranked 13th in DVOA was a sub-story, at best. The Broncos made all kinds of changes in the offseason, including the trade that allowed them to hire Sean Payton as head coach, and replacing defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero with Vance Joseph.

Through the first five games of the 2023 season, the script has flipped about as much as it is possible to do. Wilson is actually performing decently in Payton’s offense — not nearly what he was at his Seattle best, but at least out of the figurative gutter.

No, the problem for the 1-4 Broncos now is a defense that is historically bad. No team has ranked worse in Defensive DVOA through the first five games of a season than Denver, and DVOA goes back to 1981 at this point. Denver has given up 13 opponent touchdowns to just three interceptions, and their opponent passer rating allowed of 124.6 is by far the NFL’s worst — the Chicago Bears rank second at 111.1.

The run defense is just as bad, which is kind of remarkable — usually, subpar defenses are sub-par in one direction or the other. Kudos to the Broncos for filling out both sides of the equation. Denver has allowed a league-worst 938 rushing yards and a league-worst 5.9 yards per carry and eight touchdowns, which is only the league’s second-worst total, behind the New York Giants and Carolina Panthers, who have each allowed nine.

The nadir of this defense this season — at least, so far — was the 70-20 Week 3 loss to the Miami Dolphins, when the Broncos became the first team in pro football history to allow 10 offensive touchdowns in a game. But things haven’t been much better since. On Sunday, the New York Jets beat the Broncos, 31-21, and it wasn’t Zach Wilson who beat them — it was a run game that amassed 234 yards, the third-most allowed by any defense in a game this season. No. 1 in that category? The 350 yards the Broncos allowed to the Dolphins in that 70-20 laugher.

So, it’s clear that the Denver Broncos have a historically bad defense. Why has this happened, and how in the world do they fix it?

Top 20 cornerbacks Justin Jefferson will face in 2023

Heading into the 2023 season, Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson is set to face some really talented cornerbacks.

After a historic season in 2022, Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson is ready to build upon that, including some predictions that have him eclipsing 2,000 yards.

As we continue to project toward the 2023 season, all of us here at Vikings Wire are looking toward the season by examining different angles. Today, we are looking at the top 20 cornerbacks that Jefferson will face in the 2023 regular season.

T.J. Ward gives his take on the 2023 Denver Broncos

T.J. Ward thinks Pat Surtain will be tested this year. On offense, Ward expects Russell Wilson to have a better season than last year.

Broncos Wire recently conducted an exclusive interview with former Denver Broncos safety T.J. Ward. This is the third part of a three-part series. 

In the final installment of Broncos Wire’s interview with former safety T.J. Ward, we discuss Ward’s impression of the team going into 2023, and his favorite moments with the team.

The NFL’s 11 best cornerbacks

Touchdown Wire’s positional lists continue with Doug Farrar’s 11 best cornerbacks heading into the 2023 NFL season.

If you want to know how variable cornerback performance can be from year to year, consider the case of Atlanta Falcons cornerback A.J. Terrell. In 2021, Terrell was one of the NFL’s best cornerbacks, allowing 29 catches on 66 targets for 200 yards, 93 yards after the catch, three touchdowns, three interceptions, 13 pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 47.5. One season later, Terrell gave up 39 catches on 68 targets for 430 yards, 142 yards after the catch, a league-high nine touchdowns, no interceptions, eight pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 115.8.

Or consider the case of J.C. Jackson. The former Patriots star never allowed an opponent passer rating lower than 62.7 over four seasons in New England. Then, he signed a five-year, $82.5 million contract with the Chargers, and between schematic issues and injuries, Jackson allowed 198 catches on 27 targets for 370 yards, 72 yards after the catch, four touchdowns, no interceptions, and an opponent passer rating of 152.4 — in just five games.

Why are CBs J.C. Jackson, William Jackson III, A.J. Terrell, and Amani Oruwariye struggling in 2022?

From year to year, cornerback performance can be as volatile as you can possibly imagine, for all kinds of reasons. The same cornerback on the same team in a system supposedly set up to help him succeed can see his performance fluctuate wildly from season to season.

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For those cornerbacks who made this year’s list — Patrick Surtain II, Marlon Humphrey, Darius Slay, Jaire Alexander, and Jalen Ramsey — it’s a case of beating the odds. This means that there are seven new players on this year’s list, which is about par for the course.

The criteria for inclusion on this year’s list were…

  • A majority of snaps at outside cornerback. If you’re primarily a slot defender, we have a separate list for you!
  • A good balance between man and zone coverage performance. If you’re off-balance to one side, it’ll affect things here, just as it does on the field.
  • Similarly, a good balance between the abilities in press and off coverage will serve you well here, as it does in the National Football League.
  • If you are prone to following top receivers across the formation, as opposed to playing one side of the field no matter what, that’ll help your case a bit.
  • Splash plays are great, but there are cornerbacks who get a lot of interceptions and give up even more big plays. Today’s NFL is about creating and preventing explosive plays, so how good are you at the latter?

This is the second in our positional rankings series, which concludes with our list of the 101 best players in the NFL today.

The NFL’s 11 best safeties

(All advanced metrics courtesy of Pro Football Focus and Sports Info Solutions unless otherwise indicated). 

Panthers pick different CB in 2021 NFL draft do-over

In his do-over of the 2021 NFL draft, Adam Rank goes in a slightly different direction for the Panthers.

As soon as the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos went back-to-back with cornerbacks in the 2021 NFL draft, we knew the selections would be forever linked—especially since those selections were both sons of former big-name pros. So, did the team who jumped first make the right decision?

NFL.com writer Adam Rank doesn’t think so, as detailed in his do-over of the event. When posed with the same choice, Rank opted for Patrick Surtain II over Jayce Horn for the Panthers and the eighth overall pick.

If the Panthers still have their hearts set on a cornerback, then they should take Surtain, who has outplayed Horn thus far, earning an All-Pro nod last season (though, to be fair to Horn, injuries have gotten in his way). For what it’s worth, I thought Carolina should’ve drafted Fields back in 2021. But he’s not available in this redraft, so Surtain it is.

Surtain has since gone on to make the Denver Broncos, and presumably his father, proud. The University of Alabama product, as Rank noted, earned his first All-Pro selection this past season and finished with Pro Football Focus’ second-highest coverage grade amongst all corners (86.7).

Joe’s kid ain’t too shabby either. Horn, who goes 16th to the Arizona Cardinals in this redo, has allowed just 29 receptions on 56 targets and a 48.4 passer rating against over his 16-game career.

So maybe, when it’s all said and done, Horn doesn’t end up being the absolute best choice the Panthers could’ve made. But he certainly wasn’t a wrong one.

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Eagles’ All-Pro WR A.J. Brown to compete in ‘The Catch’ saltwater fishing tournament

Philadelphia Eagles All-Pro WR A.J. Brown is set to compete alongside six other NFL players in a saltwater fishing tournament benefiting the Coast Guard Foundation

The quarterbacks have ‘The Match,’ and now a handful of NFL stars, including A.J. Brown, are heading to the sea for a good cause.

Eagles All-Pro wide receiver A.J. Brown is among seven-star players participating alongside Sport Fishing Championship’s leading anglers in “The Catch” saltwater fishing tournament on CBS live from the Fontainebleau Miami Beach on Saturday, April 15.

The duos will compete to raise awareness for Sport Fishing Championship’s ocean-based “community champions.” The competition will also benefit the Coast Guard Foundation.

The coastal waters off Miami will be the arena as two teams are divided and captained by the SFC’s Billfish Championship top competitors, including reigning 2022 Champion Capt. Justin Drummond of Team Quantified, 2022 SFC Fan Vote Angler of The Year, Jaselyn Berthelot of Rising Sons, and 2022 SFC Wahoo Champion and Atlantic Division rival Capt. Taylor Sanford with Team Gypsea.

Here’s more about the competition via Sport Fishing Championship’s press release:

The coastal waters off Miami will be the arena as two teams are divided and will be captained by the SFC’s Billfish Championship top competitors, including reigning 2022 Champion Capt. Justin Drummond of Team Quantified, 2022 SFC Fan Vote Angler of The Year, Jaselyn Berthelot of Rising Sons, and 2022 SFC Wahoo Champion and Atlantic Division rival Capt. Taylor Sanford with Team Gypsea.

The competition will use SFC’s billfish catch-and-release scoring system. The exhibition will showcase the Coast Guard Foundation – the premier non-profit organization supporting active U.S. Coast Guard members, veterans, and their families through investments that support families, bolster unit morale and honor the Coast Guard’s national mission.

Chargers Quarterback Justin Herbert and Chiefs Defensive Tackle Chris Jones will “captain” the two teams of NFL stars. Herbert and Jones are both avid anglers. Jones is an active sportsman, and Herbert co-founded the fishing club at his high school in Eugene, Oregon.

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