Tag: Super Bowl

Jameis Winston says more of a ‘see you later’ than ‘goodbye’ to Tampa

For the last five seasons, Jameis Winston has been the man-under-center for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. During his time as quarterback, Winston showed signs of brilliance, however, his five-year run was plagued by turnovers. In what became his last …

For the last five seasons, Jameis Winston has been the man-under-center for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. During his time as quarterback, Winston showed signs of brilliance, however, his five-year run was plagued by turnovers. In what became his last season, Winston led the NFL in passing yards with 5,109 and finished second with 33 TD’s. The blemish? The 30 INTs that put Winston in a class of his own as the only player to surpass 30 touchdowns 30 and interceptions in the same season.

It was speculated that Winston was seeking $30 million per year on a new contract, which left a truly divided fan base unsure if the Buccaneers would bring him back. When the news broke that Tom Brady agreed to an offer from the Buccaneers, it started becoming clear that the team would move on from Winston. When it was officially announced that Brady had signed his contract — after an odd-at-best couple of days trying to schedule a physical with the new rules surrounding the coronavirus — it put the final nail in the coffin for Winston as the quarterback in Tampa.

This morning, Winston took to Twitter to thank the Buccaneers and the city of Tampa. However, instead of a ‘thank you’ and ‘goodbye’ the quarterback offered more of a see you later. “It’s been a great 5 seasons as a Buccaneer. All love and respect, I love Tampa and I look forward to seeing y’all again in February,” Winston’s tweet read.

As of now, Winston has not signed a deal with any teams, and it’s unknown where he will find himself in 2020.

In his five years playing for the Buccaneers, Winston threw for 19,737 yards, 121 TDs and 88 INTs. Whether you are a fan of Winston or not, there is no denying that he can move the ball down the field, as the Buccaneers averaged 28.6 points per game in 2019 with Winston as their front-man.

What are the Steelers getting in OG Stefen Wisniewski?

The Pittsburgh Steelers signed guard Stefen Wisniewski on Thursday.

It’s not often a veteran gets to play for their hometown team. But Stefen Wisniewski will. The 10-year offensive lineman, who spent seasons with the Raiders, Jaguars, Eagles, and Chiefs, was signed to a two-year contract Thursday.

The Pittsburgh native played high school football at Central Catholic before attending Penn State, where he helped the Nittany Lions to runners-up in the Big Ten title as a junior. The next spring, Wisniewski switched from guard to center, and earned first-team All-Big Ten honors.

Wisniewski was drafted with the 48th overall pick by the Oakland Raiders in 2011. He started all 61 games in four seasons at center for the Raiders.

After one season with the Jaguars in 2015, Wisniewski switched to left guard after signing with the Eagles. He became a Super Bowl-winning guard after Philadelphia beat New England in the 2018 Super Bowl.

After a successful three-year run with the Eagles, Wisniewski spent the past two seasons with the Chiefs, where he won his second-consecutive Super Bowl ring. The Chiefs starting LG, Wisniewski’s blocking helped score three unanswered touchdowns in the game’s final minutes of the 2019 Super Bowl. During his two-year Chiefs career, Wisniewski played in pass-blocking 131 snaps over eight games, which earned him an 80.5 grade from Pro Football Focus.

Wisniewski joins a top-ranked Steelers offensive line that is anchored by Pro Bowl center, Maurkice Pouncey, two-time All-Pro guard, David DeCastro; and two-time Pro Bowl left tackle, Alejandro Villanueva. Pittsburgh’s offensive line also includes starting tackle Matt Feiler, whom the team gave a second-round tender, and reserve tackle Zach Banner, who signed a one-year deal with the Steelers Thursday.

ESPN to air 7-hour Tom Brady marathon special Sunday

ESPN has scheduled a seven-hour Tom Brady marathon Sunday. The programs will feature many of the quarterback’s greatest games.

New England Patriots fans will want to be in front of their televisions Sunday. The team’s leagion of fans will want to watch when ESPN presents a seven-hour special on quarterback Tom Brady, who is leaving the team via free agency for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The network announced its plans Thursday:

Brady, of course, was part of six Patriot teams that won Super Bowls.

The first game will be thee 2001 Divisional Round game against the Raiders. It will air from noon until 1:30 p.m. EST. Next up is the quarterback’s first Super Bowl victory against the Rams.

Super Bowl XXXVIII against the Panthers is third in the lineup, followed by Super Bowl XXXIX against the Eagles and then a 2014 Divisional Round game against the Ravens. Each game will be shown in a 30-minute slot.

Super Bowl XLIX versus the Seahawks will air from 4:30-5:30 p.m. EST, then the remaining games will see 30 minutes of airtime. Super Bowl LI against the Falcons will start at 5:30 p.m., the 2018 AFC Championship will follow at 6 p.m. and Super Bowl LIII against the Rams will finish the marathon at 6:30

 

Here’s a look at the Buccaneers’ Super Bowl odds with Tom Brady

Now that quarterback Tom Brady is expected to join the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, take a look at the team’s Super Bowl odds heading into 2020.

In case you missed it, Tom Brady will be the starting quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, at the very least for the 2020 NFL season.

According to Caesars Sportsbook, the Buccaneers are now sitting with 22/1 odds to win the Super Bowl, pitting them as the eighth-favorite team to hoist the Vince Lombardi trophy — at their own stadium no less. The top 10 teams are as follows:

  • Kansas City Chiefs- 4/1
  • San Francisco 49ers- 7/1
  • Baltimore Ravens- 8/1
  • Dallas Cowboys- 11/1
  • Seattle Seahawks/New Orleans Saints- 14/1
  • Green Bay Packers- 16/1
  • New England Patriots 20/1
  • Buccaneers/Philadelphia Eagles- 22/1

Of course, this is where the Buccaneers currently stand, and it could be set to shift more in favor of the Buccaneers if they make any other big splashes in free agency and grade well in the upcoming draft.

With Super Bowl LV being played at Raymond James Stadium, Brady signing with the Buccaneers makes them legitimate contenders in the league. The talk of this team being the first to play a Super Bowl on their home field has certainly increased ten-fold.

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Tampa Bay’s Shaq Barrett on addition of Tom Brady: ‘We’re going to the championship’

Shaq Barrett, who’s heading into his second season with the Bucs, says he’s thinking Super Bowl with the addition of Tom Brady.

Shaq Barrett, who’s heading into his second season with the Bucs, says he’s thinking Super Bowl with the addition of Tom Brady.

Tampa Bay’s Shaq Barrett on addition of Tom Brady: ‘We’re going to the championship’ (Bucswire)

Shaq Barrett, who’s heading into his second season with the Bucs, says he’s thinking Super Bowl with the addition of Tom Brady.

Shaq Barrett, who’s heading into his second season with the Bucs, says he’s thinking Super Bowl with the addition of Tom Brady.

Aqib Talib says Rams ‘didn’t put enough work in’ due to Super Bowl hangover

Aqib Talib says the Rams’ Super Bowl hangover was real.

There was a lot of talk last offseason about the Los Angeles Rams experiencing a Super Bowl hangover after making it to the big game and losing to the Patriots. Players, coaches and everyone in L.A. brushed off that misconception, saying the Rams had the right guys in the building to remain on track in 2019.

Of course, they didn’t maintain the success they had the previous two years, going 9-7 and missing the playoffs for the first time under Sean McVay. Aqib Talib was with the Rams for half the season before being traded to the Dolphins, and he says the Super Bowl hangover was real.

He explained what caused it on “The Dave Dameshek Football Program” recently, saying his workouts were shorter after the Super Bowl, which trickled down to the rest of the team, too.

“I don’t know what it is, but you play till February, so your whole offseason gets started later. And I think, me personally, the success makes your work not as long,” he said. “The year before we went to the Super Bowl, my offseason workouts were three hours. We went to the Super Bowl so I’m like, ‘All right, I’m a little tired. We played longer.’ My offseason workouts go to an hour and 45 minutes. And that just trickles throughout the whole team so it’s less amount of work put in, and your offseason is a product of your season. What you put in is what you’re going to get out. Everybody put in a little bit less, and you get out a little bit less. I mean, a little bit less is four more losses, so 9-7.”

There was a lot of blame to go around last season. Jared Goff struggled behind a terrible offensive line, while the defense was as inconsistent as any in the NFL; one week, it looked like a top-10 unit, and the next it was gashed by a team like the Bucs or Cowboys.

Talib doesn’t blame the coaching or talent for the Rams’ struggles, but rather the work that was put in during the offseason.

“That’s my opinion. I don’t think it was coaching. I don’t think it was personnel. I don’t think it was none of that,” he added. “I just think it was, we got the target on our back now, they went to the Super Bowl and everybody going to give us their ‘A’ game and we didn’t put in enough work to be ready for those ‘A’ games.”

This is a surprising claim by Talib, given how focused the Rams seemed to be last season. The only distractions they dealt with were questions about Todd Gurley’s knee and the possibility that teams had figured out McVay’s offense after Bill Belichick dismantled the Rams in the Super Bowl.

There will be no Super Bowl or postseason hangover this offseason after the Rams fell way short of expectations in 2019, but another disappointing year in 2020 could raise the level of concern in L.A.

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The Vikings have a good number of pieces — now all they need to do is make them fit

It’s time to put things in perspective: Minnesota will likely be just fine.

If you’ve been reading offseason content about the Vikings so far, you might think the outlook for next season isn’t great.

Minnesota has a glaring problem with the salary cap. It seems as though the team will have to cut some veteran talent. A star receiver on the team is acting suspicious on social media. And Minnesota’s starting quarterback, Kirk Cousins, has a contract that’s a $31-million-dollar hit to next season’s cap space.

It seems like nothing is going right for the team, but let me remind you: it’s March. There’s a lot of offseason left.

The Vikings are coming off a year where they won a playoff game, and their quarterback improved in leaps and bounds from the season before.

Minnesota showed that it has the pieces and depth to compete against pretty good teams in the NFL. Sure, the next Patrick Mahomes probably isn’t going to just walk through the door. But the Vikings still have a number of pieces, all the team needs to do is make them fit.

Minnesota can restructure players like Riley Reiff and Linval Joseph. The team could let the lackluster, high-paid talent walk, and then keep players who can still contribute and start like Reiff and Joseph. That would lessen the cap hit significantly, enough to bring back a player like Everson Griffen.

The Vikings aren’t in a perfect spot in the draft, but their first round pick will still suffice to a player who can become an instant starter. The team could draft a tackle in the first round, even if Reiff is still on the team, and then move Reiff to guard. It could also take a cornerback in the first round, where they could find a talented athlete like Trevon Diggs or CJ Henderson.

The team might not re-sign Trae Waynes or Anthony Harris, but the Vikings will still have enough talent on defense. They could take a safety to replace Harris, and Waynes hasn’t always looked to be a starting-caliber cornerback, anyways.

Not re-signing Harris would give Minnesota enough money to find a defensive tackle in free agency, or maybe a corner if the Vikings don’t like the talent in the draft. The defense won’t drop off a cliff in terms of production if Harris leaves.

Mike Zimmer has said that safety probably isn’t the most important position on the defense, and it’s hard to say whether Harris’ stellar year was a sign of more to come or a flash in the pan. Offenses will definitely be more mindful of Harris next season, knowing what he did with the Vikings in 2019-20.

Both Cousins and Jimmy Garoppolo are known to be game managers. Vikings fans shouldn’t look at the Chiefs and think that Cousins would do as well with that team as Mahomes would, that’s ridiculous.  What they should ask is this: Could Cousins take a team like the 49ers to a Super Bowl? I think the answer is yes. The 49ers defense is better than the Vikings, but if Minnesota can check some boxes in the secondary and add a talented rookie or free agent at cornerback, the Vikings could look a lot better defensively.

The narrative surrounding Cousins is that he can’t win the biggest games, but Chiefs coach Andy Reid proved this season that narratives can change in an instant. Reid was always known as a solid coach who could not take a team to a title, but that all changed when he did it with the Chiefs.

The narrative almost didn’t change, though, because the 49ers had stifled the Chiefs offense for much of the game. I think if that game is played 10 times, the 49ers could win four. You never know how a Super Bowl is going to play out, but the 49ers are still set up for long-term success and a quarterback who manages games well. I wouldn’t be shocked if they won a Super Bowl in the next several years.

That could be the Vikings, too. They just have to make some moves in the offseason.

Princeton students upset Marshawn Lynch named ‘Class Day’ speaker

Princeton students have expressed their concern over Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch being named as their ‘Class Day’ speaker.

Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch was bestowed quite an honor recently, being named the “Class Day” speaker for Princeton University seniors, celebrating honorary class members.

Some Princeton seniors, however, apparently aren’t pleased with the selection process this year and expressed their concerns in an op-ed published by the student newspaper.

“As seniors, we had been looking forward to the speaker announcement for months,” the letter begins. “Many of us were disappointed when we saw that this year’s speaker was to be Marshawn Lynch, mainly because we did not feel included in the process by which this speaker was nominated and finally selected.”

The students noted Lynch’s treatment of the media during his first run with the Seahawks as one of their causes for concern.

“Among articles that praised his NFL career and philanthropic contributions, we came across articles discussing Lynch’s reticence with the media and his terse responses at press conferences,” the students wrote. “In 2013 and 2014, for example, Lynch was fined $50,000 and $100,000 for refusing to speak to the media. During the 2015 Superbowl Media Day, Lynch famously responded to multiple questions with variants of ‘I’m just here so I won’t get fined.’

“With no other frame of reference, such reports caused confusion over the set of criteria that led to his nomination.”

While the students might not be pleased with Lynch as this year’s “Class Day” speaker, as a media member who has covered him since he first set foot in Seattle, I can assure them at least his speech will be short.

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Jim Irsay: Colts wanted to draft Russell Wilson to back up Andrew Luck

Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay recently revealed that his team wanted to draft Russell Wilson in the fourth round of the 2012 draft.

Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay stated during a press conference on Sunday that his front office personnel planned to draft quarterback Russell Wilson in the fourth round of the 2012 NFL draft had he not fallen to the Seattle Seahawks.

“I know we were going to take Russell Wilson the year we took Andrew in the fourth round, but he was gone in the third,” Irsay said. “We would have taken him, but that’s a long story.”

The Colts selected Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck with the first overall pick that year after releasing longtime signal-caller Peyton Manning. They had their QB of the future but were planning on selecting Wilson to back him up.

That plan failed as the Seahawks selected Wilson at No. 75 overall in the third round of the draft. It is safe to say that Seattle does not regret the pick, as the Seahawks have seen a run of success under Wilson and coach Pete Carroll that has been unprecedented in franchise history, including a Super Bowl title.

Luck was one of the most hyped quarterback prospects in NFL history, so it is easy to understand why the Colts drafted him when they had the chance. Luck would show flashes of brilliance but unfortunately retired early at 29 years old after suffering numerous injuries throughout his career.

However, this worked out immensely well for the Seahawks as it enabled them to draft Wilson, who has largely proven the doubters wrong after hearing concerns about his short stature.

Wilson is now in the prime of his career and hoping to lead Seattle to another Super Bowl title in 2020.

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