Tag: Terence Newman

Terence Newman, Kellen Moore among Cowboys on 2024 College Football HoF ballot

From @ToddBrock24f7: Some of the nominees were mainstays in Dallas for years; others crossed paths with America’s Team for just a brief moment in time.

Almost 200 players and over 40 coaches were announced Monday as candidates for the College Football Hall of Fame’s 2024 ballot.

And while that sounds like a lot, consider this: more than 5.62 million people have played college football over the 153 years the sport has existed. Of that number, just 1,074 of them are in the Atlanta-based Hall. That’s less than two one-hundredths of a percent (.02%).

So this is a case where, statistically speaking, it truly is a remarkable honor just to be nominated.

Ballots have been mailed to over 12,000 National Football Foundation members and current Hall of Famers. An announcement on the Class of 2024 will be made early next year, with official inductions coming next December.

The 2024 group of nominees includes notable players like Larry Fitzgerald, Terrell Suggs, Marvin Harrison, Marshawn Lynch, Randy Moss, and Michael Vick.

But there are also several names that will jump out to Cowboys fans. Some were mainstays of the team for many years, while others crossed paths with America’s Team only briefly during their football lives.

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‘I was scared’: Former Cowboys CB Terence Newman recalls chance run-in with Marion Barber

The longtime Cowboy spoke of seeing Barber back in 2019 and knowing something was wrong. ‘He looked like he wasn’t there,” Newman says. | From @ToddBrock24f7

Terence Newman was literally talking about the toll that football takes on the body when he saw the news of Marion Barber’s passing.

In a wide-ranging interview with Tyler Dunne of Go Long, the former Cowboys cornerback had been discussing the smart, quick-strike style of play that made him the fifth overall pick by Dallas in the 2003 draft. He recalled a Kansas State teammate who, conversely, served as the “kamikaze” on special teams. He remembered how his fellow Wildcat would “run down on the kickoff and lead with his head. Make big hits.”

He said his ex-teammate “had advance stages of CTE and was bedridden for half of a month.”

Newman compared him to Junior Seau and other past stars in the way he played, positing that “if they were alive right now, they would tell you to make it more of a finesse game.”

Indeed, just minutes after using the phrase “battle of attrition” when referring to the sport and sharing a story about Coach Bill Parcells expecting guys to play hurt during his time in Dallas, the 15-year veteran was suddenly flooded with notifications and text messages about the Cowboys running back being found in his apartment on June 1.

The two-time Pro Bowler’s immediate reaction indicated that, while saddened by the news of Barber’s passing, he wasn’t terribly surprised.

“I had seen Marion three years ago, just before I moved out here. It was raining, and I’m driving to the gas station- probably about a mile from my house- and Marion had lived in a high-rise not far from my house. So I see this guy walking down the street, in the rain. I get to the gas station, and it’s Marion. I hadn’t seen Marion in a while, but I heard he had fallen on hard times and wasn’t doing too well. So we talked and exchanged numbers, but I was scared when I saw him. He looked bad. He looked like he wasn’t there, like he was a different person, like he couldn’t function. And that’s probably why he was walking and not driving. When I tell you I was scared, I thought he might swing on me. I was actually scared.”

Newman was not the first ex-teammate to express concerns for the punishing runner’s health and well-being. Wideout Dez Bryant had described Barber as “down and out bad” in a tweet last July. Safety Keith Davis checked on Barber frequently and wondered, “Did I do enough? Could I have done something else?”

Newman continued with what he had seen personally back in 2019, shortly before leaving the Dallas area.

“His face was just droopy. It looked like he was homeless. Like he lived on the streets. I guess he had so many concussions that it really impacted him. I read in the paper he had gone to a church and got arrested — in a little town just outside of Dallas. He had taken a gun to church, and he had shown the people in the church the gun. So they called the cops and took him in for a mental evaluation.”

Nine days later, Barber’s official cause of death has yet to be revealed. But Newman believes concussions from playing football certainly contributed.

“I think that had to play some type of role in whatever happened to him,” he told Dunne.

Barber would have turned 39 on June 10.

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Vikings land two corners on PFF’s All-Old Man Team

The Minnesota Vikings were well represented on PFF’s All-Old Man Team by landing Terence Newman and Antoine Winfield on the list.

Whether it was Mike Zimmer’s era or even before that, the Vikings have utilized plenty of older cornerbacks in order to stop opposing offenses.

So it makes sense that Pro Football Focus named two former Minnesota cornerbacks to its All-Old Man Team: Terence Newman and Antoine Winfield.

Here’s what PFF’s Ben Linsey wrote about Newman:

“Nearly all of Newman’s snaps came at outside cornerback, and he allowed just 245 receiving yards into his coverage all season on over 400 coverage snaps. Newman had nearly as many forced incompletion (nine) as he did first downs allowed through the air (12). He gave the Vikings several strong seasons late in his career, but that effort in 2016 was the best of the bunch.”

Linsey also had positive things to say about Winfield:

“Winfield’s coverage stats were impressive — he allowed a passer rating of just 70.4 on 90 passes into his coverage in 2012 — but not as impressive as his run defense and tackling. Winfield led all cornerbacks this season in run-defense grade (92.3). That was a trademark for the undersized Winfield throughout his career.”

Last offseason, the Vikings opted to replace older cornerbacks with younger, more inexperienced talent. If Cameron Dantzler and Jeff Gladney work out, maybe Minnesota will land more cornerbacks on PFF’s All-Old Man Team down the road. It would’ve been nice for the Vikings to have Winfield’s son, though.

Reggie Robinson brings Cowboys intriguing options, local backstory

Dallas may have uncovered a hidden gem with their fourth-round pick, a raw talent who’s overcoming odds and questions about technique.

CeeDee Lamb falling to Dallas at 17th overall was like stumbling across one of Willy Wonka’s golden tickets just lying in plain view on a busy sidewalk. Trevon Diggs still being there at 51 addressed the team’s need in the secondary with first-round talent. Neville Gallimore going 82nd beefed up the defensive line in a big way. Tyler Biadasz, the nation’s top center, lasted until the fourth round. Defensive end Bradlee Anae was selected way past his projected slot.

But when the Cowboys one day look back on this year’s draft class in hindsight, it could well be Reggie Robinson II who is viewed as the real steal of 2020.

The 6-foot-1-inch Lone Star State native was actually the highest-rated cornerback coming out this year, with an overall draft score of 89 from NFL.com’s Next Gen Stats. But as Cowboys fans have already latched onto, the lanky Tulsa product has played safety before, and seems willing to do so once again if it gets him on the field sooner. It might, given the plethora of options at corner in Dallas.

The just-turned-23-year-old has explosive speed and ballhawking instincts, too. That could put Robinson in a prime position to contribute early on special teams. In college, he showed a particular knack for blocking kicks, doing it four times in 45 games with the Golden Hurricane. (The Cowboys as a team haven’t blocked a single kick attempt in their last 43 outings.)

But blocking kicks only gets a player so far. According to Bucky Brooks via the team’s official website:

“As a pass defender, Robinson displays good instincts, awareness, and diagnostic skills. He has a nice feel for recognizing route concepts and frequently positions himself in an ideal spot to react quickly to the ball. Robinson’s anticipation, awareness, and quick reactions results in timely interceptions on tipped passes or overthrown balls in his area. He is a more effective playmaker when he’s able to play with vision on the quarterback in a zone-based scheme.

“In man coverage, Robinson is at his best playing bump-and-run at the line. He utilizes his superior reach to jam and re-route receivers early in routes to disrupt the timing of the passing game. Robinson combines his active hands with quick feet while using a mix of shadow techniques and quick jams to neutralize receivers. When he exhibits discipline and patience at the line of scrimmage, he eliminates his assigned receiver and forces quarterbacks to throw the ball elsewhere.

“From a critical standpoint, Robinson’s shoddy technique and panicky playing style lead to some cringe-worthy moments on the perimeter. He has a tendency to grab and hold receivers down the field and his inconsistent positioning can be attributed to his lack of discipline at the line. If Robinson focused on getting his work done early, he would be in a better position to snag interceptions instead of racking up PBUs on the perimeter.”

In his deep-dive profile for The Athletic, Bob Sturm noted some of the same grabby tendencies in dissecting tape from Robinson’s senior campaign:

“I saw plenty of brief balance issues or stumbles, and then he grabs his man to hold on for dear life. This clearly is better than giving up a big play, but it quickly draws the flag. He is very physical, and you can expect this will be his hurdle: stop taking penalties. He will be called frequently early on in the NFL, I assume.”

Couple that bad habit with what Brooks calls “questionable tackling skills,” and it’s perhaps a little more clear why Robinson lasted until the 123rd pick. But raw talent can be coached up, and there’s plenty of that here.

“This is certainly a Day Two talent who slipped to the Cowboys,” Sturm says of Robinson, “and [Dallas] must think they pitched a near-perfect game in the draft to get two corners of similar profiles who can usher in their new coverage plans and ideas. This is a very impressive player who will need to put in a camp that answers any questions of readiness or offers a timetable on the project, but you can see his upside is tremendous, and he has a chance to be a solid starter with a little refining. I’d assign him a second-third round grade, making the fourth-round selection a great value.”

Will McClay, the Cowboys’ president of player personnel, had his eye on Robinson for sure, and was no doubt thrilled to see him available on Day Three.

If his new jersey number is any indication (and Cowboys Nation has certainly put a lot of stock in that this week), Robinson has some big digits to fill. The team announced that Robinson will wear No. 41, the same as the team’s 2003’s first-round selection, Terence Newman. Newman went on to earn two Pro Bowl nods in his nine years as a Cowboy and led the team in interceptions five of those seasons.

Before that, 41 belonged to the legendary Charlie Waters. From 1970 to 1981, the safety from Clemson terrorized opposing offenses, racking up 41 picks on his way to five Super Bowl appearances, three Pro Bowl selections, and two championship rings. Waters holds the NFL record for most playoff interceptions with nine.

Coincidentally, Waters started his career as a cornerback and switched to safety- where he became an All-Pro- under the guidance of coach Tom Landry.

For the newest No. 41, the start of his Cowboys career has already necessitated some personal allegiance-switching. As pointed out in The Dallas Morning News, the native of Cleburne, Texas “grew up in a family full of Pittsburgh Steelers fans, and he was a New Orleans Saints fan.”

Having grown up right there in the Metroplex, Robinson is all Cowboy now, despite being admittedly starstruck when he got the call from team owner Jerry Jones.

“I was in shock. I knew immediately who it was,” Robinson told DMN‘s Calvin Watkins. “I was kind of shaking. The whole experience, I was kind of like, ‘Man, this is really happening right now.’ I was just like, ‘Yes, sir.’ I was nervous.”

Fourth-round draft picks are never a lock to make the team, but Robinson is an easy kid to root for and a seasoned veteran at overcoming challenges. As he revealed in a profile last fall on the Tulsa football website:

“I’m deaf in my left ear. I usually turn my head to the right to hear people. I can hear that you’re talking, but the treble of your voice won’t come out clear. I will know that you’re saying something, but I can’t hear the words. During games, our safeties will give me hand signals to help me overcome the hearing loss.”

Overcoming hearing loss. Overcoming questions about technique and tackling. Overcoming a slide to the fourth round. Overcoming a potential transition to a new position at the highest level.

Robinson seems to be taking it all in stride.

Overcoming is what Reggie Robinson II seems to excel at.

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ESPN says Vikings’ best signing since 2015 has been CB Terence Newman

Newman was solid on the field, but his work was more valuable off the field for this team.

The Vikings haven’t been super active over the years in free agency, except for the signing of Kirk Cousins.

The jury is still out on that signing.

ESPN’s Courtney Cronin lists Minnesota’s best signing since 2015 to be veteran cornerback Terence Newman.

Here’s what Cronin wrote about the signing:

Few players know the ins and outs of Mike Zimmer’s defense better than Newman, who followed the Vikings’ head coach from Dallas to Cincinnati before signing with Minnesota as a free agent in March 2015. Newman spent his first two seasons as an outside corner before moving inside, where he gave the Vikings stability at the nickel position. Newman’s impact on the defense cannot be overstated. In addition to performing at a high level as he neared 40 years old, the cornerback took younger players such as Mackensie Alexander and Holton Hill under his wing and helped groom them.

Newman was solid on the field, but he was probably more valuable off the field for this team. He played with the team from 2015-2017. After his playing career, Newman served as an assistant coach on Zimmer’s staff.