Tag: season

Despite progress, turf fields still potential obstacle for Packers LT David Bakhtiari in 2023

David Bakhtiari and the Packers will play five road games on artificial playing surfaces during the 2023 season.

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Stating the obvious, a healthy David Bakhtiari would do wonders for the Green Bay Packers offense and first-year starting quarterback Jordan Love this season. Unfortunately, turf fields have been an obstacle for the left tackle’s surgically-repaired knee, and the Packers play five of their nine road games on artificial grass in 2023.

Here are the five games and the type of turf:

Week 2 at Atlanta Falcons: Mercedes-Benz Superdome, FieldTurf CORE
Week 12 at Detroit Lions: Ford Field, FieldTurf CORE
Week 14 at New York Giants: MetLife Stadium, FieldTurf CORE
Week 16 at Carolina Panthers: Bank of America Stadium, FieldTurf
Week 17 at Minnesota Vikings: U.S. Bank Stadium, UBU Speed Series S5-M

Turf fields have been a topic of debate for more than a decade among NFL Players who believe they are less safe than natural grass. Bakhtiari is among those strongly opposed to playing on artificial fields, especially after experiencing some discomfort in his surgically-repaired knee during a game on turf last season. In Week 9 against the Detroit Lions, he missed most of the second half when the slit film turf caused his knee to flare up.

In the same game, Green Bay’s top edge rusher Rashan Gary tore his ACL, forcing him to miss the rest of the season. A week later, Bakhtiari took to Twitter to express his disapproval of NFL teams who still have turf fields.

Currently, 16 teams play on natural grass, while the remaining 14 play on turf.

“We know we play a sport that you’re going to get beat up. We all know what we sign up for,” Bakhtiari said in April on a discussion panel partnered with The Players’ Tribune and Pennington Lawn. “Being in the trenches, we’re in contact every play. Why add that extra bit of playing surfaces that are gonna further the injury rate or add to the injuries that are already going to come?”

Bakhtiari’s beef with turf clearly hits on a personal level, but he’s far from the only one who has been outspoken about it. In November of last season, NFLPA president JC Tretter penned a letter and cited data to suggest the injury rate was lower on natural grass, writing, “Injuries on slit film are completely avoidable.”

Slit film turf is still used on four playing surfaces in the NFL, with one being a division rival in the Vikings. It’s worth noting Bakhtiari did not suit up for the season opener last year in Minnesota.

When Tretter brought up artificial playing surfaces again in April (via ESPN), the NFL’s executive vice president of communications, public affairs, and safety, Jeff Miller, said in a statement that “there are no simple answers” and “some artificial turf surfaces have a lower injury rate than some grass fields — and some grass fields have a lower injury rate than some artificial surfaces.”

Fortunately, some teams have taken it upon themselves to make their playing surfaces safer. Since the end of last season, the Lions have done away with the slit film turf that affected Bakhtiari’s knee. Another one of Green Bay’s 2023 opponents, the Giants, also got rid of their slit film turf in favor of a new synthetic turf that they believe will decrease the number of injuries.

It’s a start, but turf fields could still present an enormous challenge for Bakhtiari. Coming off a season in which he missed six games, his knee remains a question mark, though he did sound optimistic during OTAs.

“I really like how I’m feeling,” he said while pointing out that this was his first surgery-free offseason in two years.

A healthy Bakhtiari would provide the Packers’ offensive line with a level of stability that was lacking in 2022. Injuries hit that unit hard last season, but Bakhtiari did show signs of his former All-Pro self by not allowing a single sack, according to Pro Football Focus.

In preparation for a grueling 17-game season, Green Bay hopes that more rest days will help preserve their premier left tackle. It may also be worth it to rotate snaps on turf surfaces like they did when the team traveled to London.

How the Packers approach Bakhtiari’s situation could directly impact their success in 2023. Even at 31 years of age, he can still play at a high level, but they need him to be on the field as much as possible. Ultimately, that may come down to how his knee holds up on turf.

Chiefs HC Andy Reid proud of strides made by DE George Karlaftis in 2022 season

#Chiefs HC Andy Reid was proud of the progress that rookie DE George Karlaftis has shown throughout the 2022 regular season.

Kansas City Chiefs rookie DE George Karlaftis has come on strong in the second half of the 2022 NFL regular season and it hasn’t been lost on his head coach.

Karlaftis notched another sack in Week 18 against the Las Vegas Raiders, marking his sixth sack in the last seven games. He finished the regular season with six total sacks, the fifth-most by a rookie in franchise history. Only Art Still (6.5), Tamba Hali (8), Jared Allen (9) and Derrick Thomas (10) have more sacks in a rookie season for the franchise.

Speaking to reporters following the Week 18 game, Chiefs HC Andy Reid expressed pride for Karlaftis and the progress he’s shown throughout the full 17-game season.

“I’m proud of that kid because it’s hard to make it through as a rookie, period, 17 games,” Reid said. “But getting better every week at that position is something that is as much mental as it is physical, and he is relentless. You see him at practice, he goes 100 miles an hour at practice. He transfers that into the games. My hat goes off to him.”

Reid has seen the results from practice and the meeting rooms translate into results on the field. Karlaftis finished the season No. 3 among rookie edge rushers in terms of sacks, behind only the Detroit Lions duo of Aidan Hutchinson (9.5) and James Houston (8). Only Hutchinson (53) recorded more pressures than Karlaftis (48) during the regular season according to PFF.

Availability has also been huge for Karlaftis. He started all 17 regular season games as a rookie for Kansas City, joining Trey Smith and Creed Humphrey (2021) as the only rookies in franchise history to hit that mark.

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Andy Dalton will start Saints’ regular season finale vs. Panthers

Andy Dalton will start the Saints’ regular season finale with the Panthers. The move may signal the end of Jameis Winston’s time in New Orleans:

Well that’s something. New Orleans Saints head coach Dennis Allen announced Monday that he’ll stick with Andy Dalton at quarterback in Week 18’s regular season finale with the Carolina Panthers. Both the Saints and the Panthers have been eliminated from playoff contention, which makes it a bit of a curious move. So-called meaningless games like this are often opportunities to evaluate players with the future in mind.

So it says a lot that Jameis Winston will remain sidelined for the last Saints game of the season. The move suggests Allen and the Saints have already seen everything they need to see from the veteran quarterback, between his 70-plus starts with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and his three years in the facility with New Orleans.

Winston is the only Saints quarterback under contract for 2023, but it appears the team is readying to move on from him. It’s a shame that things haven’t worked out for him after he came to New Orleans looking to turn his career around, but injuries and subpar play led to coaching decisions that favored other options.

So what are their options? Winston currently has a $15.6 million salary cap hit for 2023, but releasing or trading him prior to June 1 would save the team $4.4 million against the cap. If they released him early with a post-June 1 designation they’d nearly triple their savings (up to $12.8 million) but none of it would free up until after that date, at which point it could be used to sign the rookie draft class or go towards midsummer free agent pickups. The Saints are over the projected 2023 salary cap by more than $50 million right now, so they may opt to make it a clean cut. Either way Winston gets into the free agency market at the same time as everyone else.

Or maybe we’re wrong, and the team intends to bring Winston back for the 2023 season. That’s kind of hard to believe after seeing how quickly Allen set him aside in 2022, followed by the decision to stick with Dalton for most of the season. Either way, it sure looks like the Saints will be in the market for a quarterback. They’ll have options in free agency and in the 2023 NFL draft, and it’s possible some trade candidates emerge around the league. We’ll just have to wait and see how the situation develops.

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‘Dramatic changes’ not expected for Saints coaching staff coming out of their bye week

Furthered by their decision to remain with Andy Dalton, the #Saints also don’t expect “dramatic changes” to coaching staff this year, via @RossJacksonNOLA:

After suffering their latest and most brutal loss of the season last Monday night, the New Orleans Saints are coming out of their Week 14 bye week. The time off can sometimes equip teams with the time that they need to make changes on the coaching staff. For a 4-9 football team, said changes would not be far from reality. In his day-after conference call with New Orleans media though, head coach Dennis Allen may have put the kibosh on any such changes coming to fruition before the season’s end.

“No, I don’t see any dramatic changes happening,” Allen told ESPN’s Kat Terrell after the Buccaneers loss. “When you’re sitting in, really going into Week 14… I don’t think any drastic changes are what’s going to fix, you know, the win-loss column. I think our execution, I think us as coaches, players, everybody, I think we’ve all got to just keep grinding and working to improve.”

The commitment to the status quo was further cemented with Allen’s announcement that quarterback Andy Dalton would remain under center in the team’s Week 15 matchup with the Atlanta Falcons. A decision that has continued to draw criticism as the Saints offense has struggled on third downs, in the red zone and even to find the endzone as of late. But the team feels that the offense around Dalton could be better. How that happens without changes elsewhere is the question.

While “dramatic changes” may be ruled out when it comes to the coaching staff, there are some adjustments that could be made without “upsetting the apple cart,” a concern once voiced by Allen. One of which would be addressing play-calling. Considering the talent the Saints have on the roster, the idea that things could be better around the quarterback does not feel like an insurmountable task to achieve. Offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael has done wonders with the organization in long and good-standing tenure with the franchise. However, he has not impressed as a full-time play-caller this season.

Some of that can be tied to execution, sure. But even decisions like taking the team’s top-three pass catchers off of the field at pivotal moments, the offense’s inability to get running back Alvin Kamara involved and the disappointing numbers on third down and in the red zone, it feels like at least shaking the apple cart is warranted.

There are a couple of ways to do this. The first may be too drastic for what the organization has shown it is willing to do in-season. That would be to replace Carmichael at play caller. They could do this with quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator Ronald Curry for some portion of the final four games if they went that route. Everyone on the Saints staff that has spoken with media has sung Curry’s praises and Carmichael even stated once that Curry was “ready” to be a play caller in the league.

If that is too much for New Orleans at this point in the season, at least considering a change to the overall approach might be a more comfortable shift. Being more aggressive on third and fourth downs, leaning on the playmakers like Kamara and offensive weapons Taysom Hill more in the red zone, implementing a more aggressive game plan early rather than waiting to dig into the play sheet. Easier said than done, of course. But something’s going to have to shift somewhere if the team believes they should be getting more from the offense.

And that sentiment has not gone without acknowledgement from Allen. “Andy’s done some good things,” he said. “I think we’ve got to do a lot of other things around him to help him. And that includes, you know, us a coaching staff putting everybody in better positions.” But saying it is one thing, actively taking the steps to getting it done might require some of those “dramatic” adjustments.

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Dennis Allen’s Saints team looks a little too much like his old Raiders squads

Dennis Allen’s Saints team looks a little too much like his old Raiders squads. He’s started out with a 3-6 record for the third time in four years as a head coach:

You don’t want to simplify things too much in a sport as complicated as pro football, but at the end of the day you are who your record says you are. And Dennis Allen’s New Orleans Saints team is looking a little too much like his old Raiders teams. Allen’s Saints fell to 3-6 on the season with an embarrassing loss to the Baltimore Ravens on Monday night, and it’s the third time he’s started a season with that record in four years as a head coach.

See for yourself. Here are Allen’s records through nine games in each of his four stints as a head coach in the NFL:

  • 2012 Raiders: 3-6 (finished 4-12)
  • 2013 Raiders: 3-6 (finished 4-12)
  • 2014 Raiders: 0-9 (Allen was fired after starting 0-4, and the Raiders finished at 3-13 without him)
  • 2022 Saints: 3-6 (final record to be determined)

So that’s not encouraging. These Saints teams are far more talented than the squads Allen worked with on the Raiders, but it’s worth noting Hue Jackson took them to an 8-8 record the year before Allen was hired. So it’s not as disparate of circumstances as you’d think at first glance.

What’s to be done about it? Nothing yet. The Saints have eight games left on their schedule and there’s nothing to suggest they’ll make a change in-season. Allen is going to ride out this year, and likely next season, too. Obviously that could change in a hurry, and it probably should — Saints owner Gayle Benson okayed the decision to jettison former New Orleans Pelicans head coach Stan Van Gundy after his one year on the job proved he wasn’t the right fit. Maybe the Saints will take a similar approach if Allen continues to lose games with what they all thought was a playoff-ready roster. We’ll just have to wait and see.

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Alabama vs. Austin Peay kick off time announced

SEC Network announced kick off time for Alabama vs. Austin Peay

At 7-2 on the year, the Crimson Tide has only three remaining games before bowl season as the team will likely not be in the SEC championship game. Alabama suffered an unfortunate loss this past Saturday to the LSU Tigers that probably ended their playoff dreams, however, there is still much to play for.

The Tide will travel to No. 11 Ole Miss this weekend before hosting the final two games of the season in Bryant-Denny Stadium.

The first of the two home games will be against Austin Peay, and the game time was announced today. The Tide and Austin Peay will face off at 11 a.m. CST on the SEC Network.

The Tide will finish the season hosting the Auburn Tigers in the Iron Bowl.

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Athlon sports releases 2023 college football preseason top 25

Who is your most overrated and underrated on this list?

I don’t know the exact date that it officially stops being “too early” when ranking college football teams ahead of a season but if I was college football’s commissioner that day would be whenever preseason preview magazines go on news stands.

Well, what do you know, Athlon Sports has released their preseason magazine for the 2023 season which is available for your purchase now.  They do a fantastic job of breaking down key returnees and losses for each squad and give great insight as to why it’ll be a season to remember or to forget for each time nationally this fall.

Without spilling the beans of the entire magazine and their details to each team, I’ll instead share their top 25.

For your information, you can order a copy of their magazine here.

67-pound sturgeon top catch in ‘season’ that lasts only minutes

If Michigan anglers eagerly anticipated this year’s Black Lake sturgeon season, it appears to have come and gone in the blink of an eye.

For Michiganders who eagerly anticipated this year’s Black Lake sturgeon-fishing season, it appears to have come and gone in the blink of an eye.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources announced Monday that the entire season closed after only 36 minutes Saturday, after a six-fish quota was reached.

“That’s how long Michigan’s shortest fishing season lasted this year,” the MDNR stated on Facebook.

The six-fish quota was designed to allow some harvest while ensuring the continued good health of the lake sturgeon fishery in the Cheboygan River watershed. But it’s unclear if participants expected the quota to be filled so quickly, despite a registered field of 565 fishermen and women.

ALSO ON FTW OUTDOORS: Ice fisherman lands ‘extremely rare’ golden crappie

According to the MDNR, the season began at 8 a.m. and closed at 8:36 a.m.

Harvested fish included a 67-pound male sturgeon (the largest), a 48-pound female sturgeon (the day’s first catch), and four male sturgeon that weighed between 23 and 45 pounds.

Spearing and hook-and-line angling were allowed.

To prevent going over the quota, the MDNR utilized text messages and staff visits to ice-fishing shanties to announce the end of fishing.

All six fish had been captured and released previously by researchers conducting surveys during Black River spawning runs, or on Black Lake.

Alabama Softball 2022 team roster

Team 26 is fixing to be something special!

Alabama’s 2022 softball season will soon begin, as the Crimson Tide will take on Southern Utah on Friday, Feb. 11 in Tuscon, Arizona at the Candrea Classic.

The 2021 season ended in disappointing fashion, concluding in a losing series to Florida State in the Women’s College World Series. However, the team did finish with an extremely impressive 52-9 record.

Head coach Patrick Murphy will be without a few star players like Elissa Brown, Bailey Hemphill, Sarah Cornell, KB Sides and others this season, but the team is still expected to make a run for it all.

Here’s the roster for the 2022 Crimson Tide softball team