Tag: Peter King

Peter King warns potential Panthers HC candidates: ‘Just walk on by’

SI’s Peter King tore the Panthers and owner David Tepper apart in his latest column.

One of the most revered scribes in the game doesn’t seem to have much reverence for the current state of the Carolina Panthers.

NBC Sports’ Peter King recently lit up the struggling organization—more specifically, owner David Tepper. King, in his Week 14 edition of “Football Morning in America,” gave his opinion of The Athletic‘s scathing report about the team’s troubling culture.

He writes:

I think I’m assuming Joseph Person and Dianna Russini, reliable reporters, have the story nailed about there being a “Hunger Games” culture inside the Panthers, with various coaches/employees texting and talking to the owner, David Tepper, with scuttlebutt that was negative about Frank Reich. Two thoughts.

  • One: An owner who actively engages with multiple employees in opposition to what the head coach is doing is a big part of the problem. It’s not the owner’s job to encourage employees to undercut the coach. It’s reprehensible that the owner would engage in or encourage that.

  • Two: That franchise is a mess.

Person and Russini reported that Tepper had taken a very hands-on approach when dealing with Reich this season. One anecdote detailed an instance where Tepper, upon the suggestion of general manager Scott Fitterer and “others,” told Reich to fix quarterback Bryce Young’s footwork a few days before Thanksgiving.

Reich wouldn’t last much longer after that. The day following a lackluster loss to the Tennessee Titans, one Tepper was clearly upset about, Reich was dismissed.

King, in looking towards the future, continued with this:

I think there should be blinking lights to warn every coach who interviews for this Carolina head-coaching job: Beware. If you trust yourself, and if you trust that some other trustworthy, smart owner—unlike what there is in Charlotte—will want you one of these days, just walk on by. Wait.

The Panthers are set to embark on their second head-coaching search in as many seasons.

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A year after picking Saints as NFC’s top seed, Peter King writes them out of his playoff picture

A year after picking the Saints as the NFC’s top-seeded playoff team, NBC Sports’ Peter King wrote them out of his 2023 playoff picture altogether:

Ouch. Just one year after he picked the New Orleans Saints to win the No. 1 NFC playoff seed, NBC Sports’ Peter King wrote the black and gold out of his playoff picture altogether. His latest “Football Morning in America” column included predictions for the 2023 season and playoff squads in both the AFC and NFC — with New Orleans on the outside looking in.

King has the Atlanta Falcons edging the Saints out of first place in the NFC South a meagre 9-8 record. That would suggest he isn’t a believer in Derek Carr’s ability to get the offense back on track or in Dennis Allen’s ability to improve on their 7-10 record from a year ago.

Maybe he’s still salty about getting burned last season. King expressed concern that the offense could remain a force without Sean Payton conducting it, and that proved to be an issue with offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael Jr. running Alvin Kamara into the ground and failing to field a competent passing attack with either Jameis Winston or Andy Dalton under center.

Hopefully King is wrong again this year. That would mean Carr is the upgrade at quarterback the Saints have treated him as and the team wins more than they lose to punch their ticket for the playoffs. We’ll circle back in 2024 and see whether he hit the mark.

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Peter King Predicts Ravens’ WR Zay Flowers will finish 2nd in Rookie of the Year voting

Long time columnist Peter King predicts Baltimore #Ravens wide receiver Zay Flowers will finish 2nd in Rookie of the Year vote via @Thacover2NFL

Baltimore is starting preparation for their season opener against Houston, and the expectations are building for John Harbaugh’s stacked roster.

Peter King released his first installment of Football Morning In America for the 2023 regular season, and he made a few surprise predictions after five training camp visits.

King predicted Philadelphia to defeat Buffalo in the Super Bowl and then said Ravens first-round wide receiver Zay Flowers was the most impressive rookie he had seen.

King has Flowers finishing second in the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year voting, behind Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs.

“Flowers will be more spectacular. Gibbs will produce more yards,” King wrote.

King also predicted Baltimore would finish 10-7 and earn the sixth seed in the AFC playoffs, with the Bengals winning the AFC North.

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Peter King predicts the Eagles to defeat Bills in Super Bowl LVIII

Long time columnist Peter King explains on FMIA why he’s picking the Philadelphia #Eagles to defeat the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl LVIII

Peter King has been around many outstanding NFL teams, so fans and experts should take notice when he goes out on a limb to predict a Super Bowl confidently.

During his Week 1 unveil for Football Morning In America, King previewed the storylines and teams to watch, predicting a Philadelphia Eagles win over the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl LVIII.

I’m buying Philly stock. I don’t think there’s a clear weakness on the Eagles. Corner depth, maybe. Backup quarterback. But the offensive line is top-three in the league, defensive-front-seven depth is unrivaled and the quarterback is about to take his place with Mahomes and Joe Burrow at the very top of the QB pantheon. There’s no reason why Jalen Hurts doesn’t pick up where he left off in the postseason: 34.7 points per game in three starts, eight TDs produced, one turnover, going shot-for-shot with Mahomes in the Super Bowl. I have a Philly-Dallas NFC title game, which could be epic.

King has San Francisco securing the No. 1 seed in the NFC, followed by Philadelphia, Detroit, Atlanta, Dallas, Seattle, and Green Bay.

The Birds defeat the Packers in the Wild Card move past Detroit in the divisional round, before taking out the 49ers on the road.

In the Super Bowl, King has the Eagles beating the Bills by four, as All-Pro Jalen Hurts earns his first regular season MVP award.

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Josh Allen punks longtime NFL writer Peter King at Bills camp (video)

Have to admit, that’s a good one:

Josh Allen is known for liking a good laugh. He had one with longtime NFL writer Peter King at Bills training camp.

Previously, a clip went viral of a past interview King had with Allen. At the end of it, Allen goes to shake his hand and King didn’t notice it… but the cameras did.

This past week, King stopped by Bills camp again and it looks like the two had some fun with that first occurrence.

Instead of an end-of-interview handshake, Allen ends up walking away from King and leaving him hanging this time.

The funny clip, which was staged based on King’s reaction, can be found below:

Peter King compares Commanders’ fans returning to camp to ‘Field of Dreams’

After 24 long years, Washington fans are excited again.

It’s been a celebratory two weeks for fans of the Washington Commanders. When Josh Harris replaced Dan Snyder as owner of the Commanders two weeks ago, there were parties and celebrations. Harris even called into one of those celebrations to buy everyone in attendance a beer.

When the Commanders opened training camp last week, some wondered if the same passion would follow. It was clear from the first two open practices of training camp that fans were on board with the new regime. Fans packed the new bleachers, and Washington superfan Kevin Durant even made an appearance.

Nicki Jhabvala of The Washington Post showed a side-by-side picture from precisely one year before at the exact location.

Things really turned up on Saturday for the NFL’s “Back Together Saturday,” as 10,000 fans made it to Ashburn. The players were pumped. Head coach Ron Rivera was thrilled.

Legendary NFL writer Peter King of NBC Sports likened fans returning to training camp post-Snyder to the classic movie, “Field of Dreams” in his latest Football Morning in America column.

I think watching the fans streaming into Washington training camp is reminiscent of the final moments in “Field of Dreams,” with the cars lined up in Dyersville, Iowa to recapture what they loved so much and what they thought was lost forever. Good luck to the Josh Harris group in making the team what I remember from the late eighties and early nineties. Games at RFK Stadium were almost religious revivals. The ground shook and the press box swayed with the game on the line in the fourth quarter of so many of those games. May it happen again.

King covered a lot of games during Washington’s glory years from RFK Stadium. Recapturing that past glory seems much more attainable in the post-Snyder era.

The Commanders are back on the practice field Tuesday, and it is open to fans.

 

Peter King’s offseason power rankings aren’t high on the Saints

Peter King recently weighed in on where he sees the Saints in these preseason rankings for NBC Sports, via @crissy_froyd:

The start of the NFL preseason may still be months away with the 2023 draft having just come to a close, but that doesn’t mean that it’s too early for preseason power rankings.

Peter King of NBC Sports recently released his offseason power rankings and the New Orleans Saints were not exactly highly favored as he placed them at No. 24 among the league’s 32 teams.

Directly ahead of the Saints in the same “they’ve got holes” category he placed New Orleans in were the Las Vegas Raiders (No. 19), New England Patriots (No. 20), Green Bay Packers (No. 21), Atlanta Falcons (No. 22) and the Denver Broncos (No. 23).

King ranked only the Carolina Panthers, Indianapolis Colts, Washington Commanders, Los Angeles Rams, Chicago Bears, Houston Texans, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Arizona Cardinals behind the Saints in his rankings, writing of New Orleans:

A bad division is there for the Saints to win—if old warhorses like Demario Davis, Cam Jordan and Tyrann Mathieu can muster up one more charge, and if Derek Carr can improve a team that was 22nd in scoring last year to middle of the pack.

King does have a point here with how the overall mediocrity of the division puts the Saints in a decent position before considering the strengths and weaknesses of the Saints alone to begin with.

And Davis, Jordan and Mathieu have all shown how much of an impact-maker they can be respectively, so if they can all rise to the occasion and that manner and the veteran Carr can find some juice with a change of scenery, this could be a team with more pop to it than expected.

Mathieu was the cause for four of the team’s turnovers last season and the Saints’ collective defensive efforts on the pass rush made them one of just three teams with at least five players who recorded five sacks.

Offensively, a lot is going to ride of just how solid the quarterback play is with Carr on board, but looking at the big picture, there’s some room for cautious optimism the team could end up higher than this in these same standings postseason as they look to bounce back after going 7-10 in 2022.

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Only 5 teams below the Commanders in Peter King’s offseason power rankings

King understands giving Sam Howell his chance to start. Washington’s improvement in 2023 comes down to how much the offense improves, regardless of the QB.

Under construction. That’s the category longtime NFL writer Peter King put the Washington Commanders in for his offseason power rankings.

King had seven categories for his power rankings, and much to the chagrin of NFC East fans not in Philadelphia, King has the Eagles at No. 1 under the category of “can’t find a weakness.”

King had Washington in the next-to-last category, ranking the Commanders at No. 27, ahead of just five other teams: Rams, Bears, Texans, Buccaneers, and Cardinals.

King’s analysis:

I get giving Sam Howell his big chance here, and backing him up with Jacoby Brissett is okay too. But keep in mind how far this offense—which averaged 17.7 points a game in the last 16 weeks—has to go.

He’s not wrong here. But there are reasons to be optimistic. Are some overrating the potential impact of new offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy? Perhaps, but Washington has a more talented roster than several teams ahead of them in King’s power rankings.

As he stated, the question is at quarterback. It’s always been about the quarterback. If the defense is outstanding again, and there are reasons to believe it will be, Washington just needs to improve upon that 17.7 points per game, and it will be in the playoffs in 2023.

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NFL Schedule rumors: Eagles vs. Giants could be the pick for Amazon’s Black Friday game

Eagles vs. Giants could be the pick for the Black Friday game on Amazon Prime as 2023 NFL Schedule rumors start to heat up

The Eagles vs. Giants is one of the NFL’s most heated rivalries, and the league could look for the NFC East to headline the first-ever Black Friday game on Amazon Prime.

Peter King of Football Morning In America reports that a Jalen Hurts-Daniel Jones matchup is the leader in the clubhouse.

I think, with the schedule due to be announced the second week of May—in other words, next week—this is the column, maybe nine or 10 days out, when I usually have a good feeling about some of the tentpole games. This year, I have no gut feeling about any of them, except maybe the Black Friday game. The first game ever on Friday afternoon after Thanksgiving is a very big deal for Amazon on the biggest shopping day of the year. I think the leader in the clubhouse for that game is Eagles-Giants. Absolutely not set in stone, though. [NBC]

For fans, the Midnight start would kick off your holiday shopping and then feast on leftovers as Sean Desai’s revamped defense feasts on Daniel Jones and the new-look Giants.

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Peter King mock draft has best OT prospect falling to Patriots

This would be a huge get for the Patriots on draft night.

Peter King dropped his annual mock draft on Monday, and he has the New England Patriots coming away with the best offensive tackle in the 2023 NFL draft.

In a draft expected to be full of surprises, King dishes out another for the Patriots with Northwestern’s Peter Skoronski still on the board when New England comes up at No. 14.

The offensive tackle-needy Patriots take the plunge to offer more protection for Mac Jones by giving the line a major boost.

King wrote:

Skoronski could be a plug-and-play guard wherever he goes. I considered him for the Eagles, replacing the departed Isaac Seumalo. Skoronski started 33 games at left tackle for Northwestern and was a unanimous first-team all-American. But his arm length is about three inches short for ideal NFL tackle size, so the Patriots could move him inside. If I’m New England, I’m thrilled Skoronski lasted this long, and I grab him to start a decade for the franchise somewhere on the line.

Skoronski paired with Trent Brown would give the Patriots a formidable tackle duo with some solid veteran depth in Riley Reiff, Yodny Cajuste, Conor McDermott and Calvin Anderson.

Granted, it’s a long shot that Skoronski will still be on the board when the Patriots step to the podium, but then again, there are no certainties until names start coming off the actual draft board. Players pegged to go later go earlier, and players expected to go earlier end up getting picked up later.

Skoronski is a two-time First-Team All-Big Ten player, and he’s also coming off a season where he won the Rimington–Pace Offensive Lineman of the Year award.

Adding another receiver would be the more flashy move for the Patriots on Thursday, but none of it matters if they can’t protect their quarterback. Skoronski can help keep Jones standing, which would give the offense an actual chance to compete.

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