Tag: The Athletic

The Athletic beat writers predict the NFL draft; where did Graham Barton go?

The Athletic’s NFL beat reporters put together a mock NFL draft on Wednesday, and a NFC wild card team ended up with former Duke lineman Graham Barton.

The Athletic put together a mock NFL draft on Wednesday with each beat reporter making the picks for the respective teams they cover.

In the projection, Green Bay Packers reporter Matt Schneidman had the NFL wild-card team take former Duke offensive lineman Graham Barton with the 25th overall pick.

After the emergence of quarterback Jordan Love, Schneidman thinks the top priority should be his protection. Barton, who played both tackle and center in college, could fit wherever Green Bay needs.

“At the very worst, Barton can provide much-needed depth on the interior,” Schneidman wrote.

Barton’s most frequent suitors in mock drafts, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Miami Dolphins, both picked offensive tackles instead of the projected guard.

What did anonymous scouts tell The Athletic about Graham Barton?

Duke offensive lineman Graham Barton seems like a sure bet to be a first-round pick on Thursday, but what did anonymous scouts tell The Athletic about him?

The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman released his ‘2024 NFL Draft confidential’ piece on Tuesday when scouts anonymously tell him how they feel about the best prospects in the draft.

Former Duke offensive lineman Graham Barton, a presumed first-round pick, was included in the breakdown of this year’s offensive line class, which could see 10 linemen drafted in the opening round. Feldman only included one quote from a single scout on the former Blue Devil; here’s what they had to say.

“He’s a neat prospect. He can play all over the line and I think he can be a great center. I think he’s tailor-made for a zone scheme team. Very intriguing. I do think he’s better inside than at tackle. I think he could play it if you need him to but the lack of length could get him in trouble out there.”

Barton is expected to be drafted in the mid-to-late range of the first round, anywhere from the 20th pick (Pittsburgh) to the 31st (San Francisco).

Jets trade up for Rome Odunze in 7-round mock from The Athletic

Jets trade up for Rome Odunze in 7-round mock from The Athletic

The Jets would love to come away with a Round 1 pass-catcher Thursday night and they may very well move up the board to get it.

That’s the scenario that plays out in the final seven-round mock for the Jets by Zack Rosenblatt of The Athletic. He has the Jets moving up three spots in a trade with the Tennessee Titans to land Washington wide receiver Rome Odunze and instantly make the Jets’ offense much more dynamic.

The Jets may very well get aggressive in getting one of the top pass-catchers in this draft, particularly Odunze, who would immediately form one of the best young wide-receiver duos with Garrett Wilson. In this scenario, the Jets trade pick No. 134 this year and a fourth-round pick next year to make the move and jump ahead of the Falcons and Bears to land the Washington stud.

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The Titans or Falcons feel like the teams to watch if the Jets are going to trade up to get one of the trio of stud wide receivers (Odunze, Marvin Harrison, Malik Nabers). I went with the Titans because I don’t think it can be ruled out that Atlanta might want to take a wide receiver after investing in Kirk Cousins. The Titans already have DeAndre Hopkins and Calvin Ridley and should still be able to get a top offensive tackle at No. 10.

As for the Jets: GM Joe Douglas has made it clear with all of his moves this offseason — and the structures of the contracts he has given out — that they are all-in on winning in 2024. So if the opportunity presents itself to go and get a wide receiver of this caliber (whether it’s Odunze, Nabers or Harrison), I don’t see why he wouldn’t pursue it. It shouldn’t take too much to move up a couple spots in the order and wide receiver is still a need, even after signing Mike Williams.

It would be interesting to know whether Notre Dame offensive tackle Joe Alt was still on the board when this deal was made, but regardless, coming away with Odunze would be a home run on Day 1 of the draft for the Jets and all for the low price of two Day 3 picks.

The remaining picks for the Jets in this mock are as follows:

72. Brandon Coleman, OT, TCU
111. Michael Pratt, QB, Tulane
185. Dominique Hampton, S, Washington
256. Jowon Briggs, DL, Cincinnati
257. frank Gore Jr., RB, Southern Mississippi

The Athletic reporter shares lengthy social media thread defending Duke’s transfer portal turnover

While some Duke fans voiced issues with the amount of roster turnover for the 2024-25 season, The Athletic’s Brendan Marks voiced his thoughts on Jon Scheyer’s team-building.

The volume of players in the transfer portal can often set off red flags for college sports fans, indicating either locker room problems or a culture issue.

However, despite having seven players leaving for other programs this offseason, the Blue Devils men’s basketball team is in a unique position. Head coach Jon Scheyer is welcoming six top recruits in this coming freshman class, including consensus No. 1 prospect Cooper Flagg and projected lottery pick Khaman Maluach.

The mass exodus has still incited some ire and panic from Duke fans, however, and The Athletic’s Brendan Marks released a lengthy thread addressing his take on the situation.

While fans in his mentions said they wanted to see players stay in place and grow over the course of a few years, Marks said he doesn’t think that’s the reality of college basketball anymore.

“That isn’t a uniquely Duke issue,” Marks wrote. “Every fan base in CBB has the same complaint. Lower-level programs hate seeing their guys up-transfer.”

“It’s unfortunate, but ‘lifers’ don’t really exist anymore,” he added in a following post.

Marks added that UNC fans had similar issues with the transfers of Harrison Ingram and Cormac Ryan this season, and it resulted in an ACC regular-season title.

The reporter concluded that the five open spots on Duke’s roster will allow Scheyer to build a team specifically around Flagg, and that year-to-year turnover matters less than what product the second-year head coach provides from it.

Three Notre Dame players projected as 2025 WNBA first-round picks

You’ll definitely want to watch these players for the Irish next season.

The dust barely has cleared on the 2024 WNBA draft. But that hasn’t stopped people from looking ahead to the 2025 draft. And if you do that as a Notre Dame fan, you’ll realize why next season likely will be the best chance yet for the current group to go far.

Sabreena Merchant of The Athletic has put together a list of who she believes will make up the first round of next year’s WNBA draft. Merchant figures three current Notre Dame players will be taken in that round, beginning with [autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag] at No. 3:

“It’s hard to design a more prototypically perfect 2-guard than Citron. She is tall and strong, defends well and has a beautiful jumper that goes in 37 percent of the time from long range. Citron is overtaxed as a primary ballhandler, but let her run off screens or handoffs, and she can create her own shot. She is plug-and-play on any team, adding positive value on both ends of the floor.”

[autotag]Maddy Westbeld[/autotag], who announced her return to the Irish for next season earlier this week, also made the list as the sixth overall pick:

“Another player who could have been a first-rounder in this year’s draft, Westbeld does everything well. She can shoot from distance (36 percent on 3s in her college career), and she also can drive to the basket. Westbeld is a load in the paint and dominates on the glass. She can body bigger players on defense; her effort to limit (Elizabeth) Kitley to 12 points on 4-of-11 shooting during the 2024 ACC season was an eye-opener. It’s unclear if she has All-Star upside, but Westbeld is the type of player winning teams find minutes for.”

[autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] rounds out this list at No. 8, but she has an asterisk next to her name since she still has a medical redshirt year:

“It’s been a long time since we watched Miles play basketball, so in case you forgot, she’s an elite passer who excels at creating offense in transition. She rebounds well for her position and is a defensive playmaker with 2.1 steals per game. The 3-point jumper was a work in progress during her sophomore season, but she started to fill it up from midrange at least. Without the jumper, she’d be a solid backup point guard in the WNBA, but she has a chance to be even more if that developed during her rehab year.”

So yeah, the 2024-25 Irish are going to be special. Get excited for it now because there’s no time like the present, but more importantly, all of these special players will be off to greener pastures before you know it.

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Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

The Athletic ranks Florida’s 2025 college football recruiting class

The Athletic’s college football staff recently assembled to give its current rankings from top to bottom of the Power Four schools.

Florida football has been grinding away at the recruiting trail after an embarrassing collapse at the end of the 2024 cycle. Bill Napier and Co. have put a tremendous amount of effort into the upcoming 2025 class and the fruits of their labors are beginning to show.

Make no mistake, there is still a long way to go in this marathon but the Gators have been piling up the blue-chip official visit invites while hosting many top prospects during the spring practice season. There is good reason to feel confident in the program’s progress even if it is still early in the process.

The Athletic’s college football staff recently assembled to give its current rankings from top to bottom of the Power Four schools. Florida landed at No. 17 — between the No. 16 Tennessee Volunteers and No. 18 Penn State Nittany Lions — the same ranking they had last season at this point.

“The Gators’ NIL collective has gotten its act together since the Jaden Rashada fiasco, and the in-state talent pool will always keep UF in a strong position to be a top-20 program,” Manny Navarro notes.

“Florida’s 2024 recruiting class reached as high as No. 3 nationally but fell into the teens amid a five-game losing skid and a rash of decommitments to end the season. Billy Napier needs a boost of positive momentum or Florida will continue to slip further behind in an expanded SEC.”

The Gators will play their annual Orange and Blue game on Saturday, April 13, with kickoff slated for 1 p.m. ET. The intrasquad scrimmage will be broadcast on the SEC Network+.

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Does a Florida Gator make The Athletic’s NCAA football HC Mount Rushmore?

When it comes to naming a Mount Rushmore of college football coaches, a few former Florida Gators come to mind.

Nick Saban’s reign of terror with Alabama has come to an end and most would agree that the legendary Crimson Tide head coach belongs on the college football coaches Mount Rushmore, but which other coaches make that four-man list?

Any good Florida Gators should immediately think of Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer when reading that question. Both men led the Orange and Blue to championships, Meyer with a 2-to-1 edge, but it’s Spurrier who received mention when The Athletic’s Ari Wasserman and David Ubben attempted to come up with the four greatest college football coaches of all time.

With Saban as the commonality, Wasserman went with Pete Carroll (USC), Woody Hayes (Ohio State) and Dabo Swinney (Clemson), while Ubben named Bill Snyder (Kansas State), Knute Rockne (Notre Dame) and Eddie Robinson (Grambling State).

But where is Steve Spurrier?

The Head Ball Coach was the first name up on the honorable mention list in this exercise, earning the superlative of “most entertaining.”

“He’s the troll king of college football,” Wasserman and Ubben said of Spurrier. “Poking and prodding anyone and everyone, enraging people in the sport who might take themselves a little too seriously. And he was a man after our own heart with a willingness to always take a breather for a good tee time.

“He saved the best arrows for his rivals. From telling Tennessee that you can’t spell Citrus without UT to noting he loved to play Georgia early in the season because he could count on a few players being suspended for offseason shenanigans, even the fans who hated Spurrier most had to be smiling in their heart of hearts. Funny is funny.”

Spurrier, of course, did his fair share of winning with Florida, bringing the first national championship in program history back to Gainesville and establishing the Orange and Blue as one of the nation’s elite programs.

He did good work at South Carolina too after his NFL stint. Although he didn’t make the mountain range for either write at The Athletic, Spurrier is truly among the college football coaching elite.

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The Athletic drops Florida a spot in bracket watch after close UGA win

The Athletic did not like what is saw in Nashville on Thursday night from the Gators.

Florida basketball prevailed over the Georgia Bulldogs for the third time this season on Thursday night, knocking their rivals out of the Southeastern Conference Tournament with a closer-than-expected 85-80 victory in Nashville.

The Athletic’s Brian Bennett released his updated men’s basketball bracket watch on Friday, dropping the Gators from No. 6 in the East Region in the last update to No. 7 in the South Region. There, the Orange and Blue are lined up to face the No. 10 Drake Bulldogs in the opening round held in Indianapolis, Indiana, where the No. 2 Marquette Golden Eagles also take on the No. 15 Sam Houston State Bearkats.

Looking around the Southeastern Conference, Bennett’s bracket also includes the top-seeded Tennessee Volunteers, along with the Kentucky Wildcats (No. 3),  Alabama Crimson Tide (No. 4), Auburn Tigers (No. 5), South Carolina Gamecocks (No. 5), Mississippi State Bulldogs (No. 11) and Texas A&M Aggies (No. 11)

Texas A&M is among the last four in while Mississippi State is one of the last four byes.

The Gators will face the Alabama Crimson Tide in the final game of Friday’s third-round SEC Tournament slate with a tipoff time estimated around 9:30 p.m. ET. The game will once again be broadcast on the SEC Network.

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Aaron Jones stiffs Packers, gets more money with Vikings

Aaron Jones signed with the Minnesota Vikings on a 1-year, $7 million deal that includes a $6 million base salary and $1 million incentives.

The Minnesota Vikings struggled mightily in the ground game all throughout the 2023 season, but help is on the way. A day after being released by the Green Bay Packers, running back Aaron Jones has agreed to terms with the Vikings on a one-year deal, the terms of which are now being reported.

According to Matt Schneidman, Packers beat reporter for The Athletic, the deal includes a $6 million base salary, with additional incentives totaling $1 million, to bring the potential total up to $7 million, as was initially reported by NFL Network insiders Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero.

Schneidman goes on to illuminate on why Jones ultimately chose the Vikings over re-signing with the Packers, showing that the Packers’ offer to Jones was for base salary just under $4 million, but had a bump in incentives to $2 million.

Ultimately, Jones chose the higher base salary and will be running for the purple and gold next season, joining Brett Favre, Greg Jennings and a handful of other Packers who went on to don the Vikings colors.

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Florida hangs tight in The Athletic’s regular-season-ending bracket watch

Florida did not lose any ground in The Athletic’s bracket watch after the Vandy loss.

Todd Golden’s team did not get the finish they wanted to the regular-season schedule, falling on the road in a last-minute loss to the Vanderbilt Commodores, 79-78, which left a smudge on an otherwise fantastic second-half run.

Fortunately for Florida, the defeat did not affect its seeding in the SEC Tournament and hardly sent a ripple through the NCAA Tournament projections.

The Athletic’s Brian Bennett recently released his updated men’s basketball bracket watch, keeping the Gators a No. 6 in the East Region. The Orange and Blue are lined up to face the No. 11 Texas Christian Horned Frogs in the opening round held in Brooklyn, New York, where the No. 3 Duke Blue Devils will also face off with the No. 14 Vermont Catamounts.

Looking around the Southeastern Conference, Bennett’s bracket also includes the top-seeded Tennessee Volunteers, along with the Alabama Crimson Tide (No. 4), Kentucky Wildcats (No. 4), Auburn Tigers (No. 5), South Carolina Gamecocks (No. 5), Mississippi State Bulldogs (No. 10) and Texas A&M Aggies (No. 11); the Aggies are also among the last four in. 

Florida is a No. 6 seed in the Southeastern Conference Tournament, giving it a first-round bye and matching the Gators up with the winner of Game 2 on Thursday, March 14, inside Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. Tipoff is slated for a late 9:30 p.m. ET start on the SEC Network.

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