Tag: The Athletic

Bills add OL in The Athletic’s way-too-early 2021 NFL mock draft

The Athletic had some fun and looked way, way ahead in a way-too-early 2021 mock draft. In that, the Bills, picking No. 20 overall land an offensive lineman.

The 2020 NFL Draft is over, so who could the Buffalo Bills take with their next selection? You know, the team’s next one at the 2021 NFL Draft?

The Athletic had some fun and looked way, way ahead in a way-too-early 2021 mock draft. In that, the Bills, picking No. 20 overall, land an offensive lineman.

Here’s how draft insider Dane Brugler breaks it down:

20. Buffalo Bills — *Samuel Cosmi, OT, Texas
Cosmi has some anchor strength questions, but he is quick out of his stance and stays square to rushers, marrying his hands and his eyes to stay busy. Last season, Cosmi vs. K’Lavon Chaisson was an interesting back-and-forth matchup with wins on both sides.

Obviously, a ton can change by next season. Buffalo’s second-round pick, AJ Epenesa, was the No. 6 overall pick in very early 2020 mock drafts and he ended up being a second-round pick. LSU quarterback Joe Burrow ended up being the easy No. 1 pick this year, too. That only came about after his stellar 2019 season.

But looking at Cosmi, his position could be on the Bills’ radar in a year from now. Buffalo is entering next season hoping continuity improves their offensive line, as all five starters return. It’s a good plan, but not a guarantee. Also, their offensive line was average. Two seasons ago the group was so bad that last year’s group seemed among the NFL’s best by comparison. But they were not.

Also worth noting: No. 20 overall? Buffalo is a playoff team. Starting next season the NFL will add two playoff teams, one per conference. That rule helps the Bills slide in via a wild card berth, but they ultimately lose that game.

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The Athletic predicts Bills fortify defense in Day 2 mock draft

The two players are LSU’s Krisitan Fulton in the second round followed by Tennessee’s Darrell Taylor.

With the second day of the 2020 NFL Draft set to get underway Friday, The Athletic put together their predictions on how the second and third rounds will unfold.

The Bills hold their first two picks of the draft in that time frame. There’s still talent the Bills can land with both picks, at No. 54 and No. 86, respectively. The Athletic picks a cornerback and defensive end for the Bills in those slots.

The two players are LSU’s Krisitan Fulton in the second round followed by Tennessee’s Darrell Taylor. Here’s how draft analyst Dane Brugler sees it (at least in regard to Taylor):

Taylor looks the part and has ability, but he needs to let it loose and prove he can translate his talent into consistent football production. And the chance to learn from Jerry Hughes could be what bridges the gap in his development.

In both instances, the draftees would come to the Bills and have a dog fight on their hands to find playing time as rookies. Taylor would be stuffed behind Hughes and Mario Addison in 2020, while Fulton would enter a four-way battle for the No. 2 cornerback, a battle that already includes incumbent Levi Wallace and free agent additions Josh Norman and EJ Gaines.

At 6-foot-4 and near 260 pounds, Taylor has the frame of an NFL edge defender. At this point he’s viewed as a raw prospect, but again, the Bills would provide him that time to improve. Fulton’s addition would certainly be welcomed by Tre’Davious White, a fellow LSU alum. Fulton has ideal size at 6-foot, 197 pounds, to help the Bills secondary deal with bigger receivers down the road.

 

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Where every MSU Football player ranks on The Athletic’s top-300 NFL Draft Board

Dane Brugler of The Athletic released his top-300 draft board Tuesday. Here is where every Michigan State player placed.

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Dane Brugler of The Athletic just put out a very thorough top-300 NFL Draft Board, which you can read here. Brugler’s Board features a few different draft-eligible Spartans, which we will list below along with a short passage from Brugler’s story. Of course, you’ll need to fire up a subscription to The Athletic, or use a free trial, to read his full scouting report on each player, and I encourage you to do so.

  • No. 91: Josiah Scott, CB
    • “Overall, Scott’s lack of size, length and strength show up on tape, but so does his foot quickness and compete skills to mirror and match, projecting as a subpackage rookie with potential to be more.”
  • No. 157: Kenny Willekes, DE
    • “Overall, Willekes lacks the anchor and length to be a consistent edge-setter vs. NFL offensive tackles, but his resilient mentality and competitive motor translate to production, which should land him in a defensive line rotation.”
  • No. 162: Joe Bachie, LB
    • “Overall, Bachie is an active, intense competitor with the toughness and awareness required for the pro game, but his athletic limitations might make it tough for him to surpass backup status in the NFL.”
  • No. 220: Raequan Williams, DT
    • “Overall, Williams has a reliable play motor with the lateral quickness, length and strong hands to earn snaps as a one-technique, although his hurried play style and lack of consistency project him as more of a backup.”

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Report: Bills’ Sean McDermott ‘concerned’ PSE culture could harm Bills

The Athletic reports that Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott has concerns over Pegula Sports and Entertainment’s toxic culture.

Pegula Sports and Entertainment, the entity run by Bills owners Terry and Kim Pegula that also oversees the ownership of the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres among other Western New York sports clubs, hasn’t been taking the best of headlines recently.

In part due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, layoffs and furloughs have been announced by PSE. Despite the Bills being included in PSE, they’ve remained untouched. The Athletic’s Tim Graham investigated these recent moves made by the club, some of which included some high-ranking folks with the Sabres.

While much of the insight includes the Sabres and PSE as a whole, that doesn’t mean some names with the Bills aren’t concerned. Namely, head coach Sean McDermott. One excerpt from The Athletic‘s deep dive says McDermott is concerned that a “toxic culture” within PSE could leak over to the football operations, potentially:

Two sources close to Bills head coach Sean McDermott say the January meetings left him concerned about low morale eroding the culture he and general manager Brandon Beane have cultivated over the past three years with a meticulous, holistic attitude.

In a release when announcing some of the personnel moves for the Sabres, PSE stated the Bills would “continue to operate at normal levels” because the NFL is still mostly running at a status quo, which includes the upcoming draft this week.

Another mention of the Bills says the one source doesn’t want the Sabres’ “s—” affecting the football team. While issues with Covid-19 are certainly making a difference for the Sabres and PSE, many of the job changes were described as moves that would have been made regardless, leading to many anonymous survey PSE employees from past and present describing a “toxic culture” at the organization. Whether or not issues or job changes trickle over to the Bills could depend on the length of the current pandemic and if it does begin to the change the NFL’s upcoming schedule.

Thus far the Bills are completely going full-go into their offseason as business as usual. It was even announced by NFL Network on Monday that the Bills are one of three teams that will have their players working out together via virtual workouts since they can’t meet up in Buffalo per current NFL rules.

We’re still likely a ways away from seeing if the upcoming schedule will be changed and force the Bills and PSE’s hand in terms of making personnel changes. Thus far, no NFL team has made any sort of significant moves.

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An update and analysis on where former Badgers land in The Athletic’s latest mock draft

NFL Draft writer Dane Brugler of the Athletic released his 2020 NFL Mock Draft 5.0 last week and sees four former Badgers being selected…

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NFL Draft writer Dane Brugler of the Athletic released his 2020 NFL Mock Draft 5.0 last week and sees four former Badgers being selected during next week’s event.

The four, to no surprise, are linebacker Zack Baun, running back Jonathan Taylor, center Tyler Biadasz and wide receiver Quintez Cephus.

What is a slight surprise, though, is where Brugler slotted some of the Badger products to go.

Here is an overview of where the mock draft has the four players, an analysis of whether the selections make sense and a look at their potential fits with those teams.

 

Zack Baun: 28th overall (1st round) to the Baltimore Ravens

This would be the best-case scenario for both Baun and the Ravens come draft day.

I went on the Locked on Badgers podcast yesterday and discussed the potential best landing spots for the Badgers entering the draft. When the topic shifted to Baun, the Ravens were my clear choice.

Baun brings valuable versatility to the table in addition to clearly being a stellar pass rusher. This fit would see Baun land in Baltimore on a defense headlined by Earl Thomas III, Calais Campbell, Matthew Judon, Marlon Humphrey, Marcus Peters and more.

One of the Ravens’ only needs in this draft is a pass rusher, a role Baun would fill tremendously as he would join a stellar defense, outlined above, that would put both him and the team in a position to succeed right away.

 

Jonathan Taylor: 35th overall (2nd round) to the Detroit Lions

This one does not make as much sense to me.

First of all, the Lions have a fine backfield set for 2020 with Kerryon Johnson, Bo Scarborough and Ty Johnson. Adding Taylor to this group would definitely be an upgrade but would also come at the peril of missing an obvious opportunity to fill the holes the team has at cornerback, pass rusher, interior defensive line, safety and more.

This selection would represent a fine fit from the former Badger running back’s perspective as the Lions have a solid offensive line, a good quarterback and an above-average overall offense when key pieces are healthy, something which wasn’t the case in 2019.

In total, though, the Lions have much more significant needs than running back and I don’t see it likely that they use the 35th overall pick on Taylor.

Side note: the mock draft has Taylor as the second running back off the board after Ohio State’s J.K. Dobbins is selected at No. 26 by the Miami Dolphins.

 

Tyler Biadasz: 113th overall (4th round) to the Carolina Panthers

Brugler’s mock draft has the Panthers addressing their weaknesses at linebacker, cornerback and defensive line in the first three rounds before selecting Biadasz to sure-up their offensive line in round four.

I like this selection by the Panthers and like how Biadasz fits in Carolina, especially given running back Christian McCaffrey‘s new contract and how significant he is to the offense.

The former Badger would join an offensive line that ranked 18th in the NFL last season and would likely battle for the starting job with the team’s current center Matt Paradis, a guy who dropped off in 2019 after finding success in the beginning of his career and finished the season having allowed a position-high 47 quarterback pressures according to ProFootballFocus.

 

Quintez Cephus: 228th overall (7th round) to the Atlanta Falcons

The Falcons would be an ideal landing spot for Cephus, even if he has to wait until the seventh round to go there.

The former Badgers is from Macon, Georgia, about an hour outside of Atlanta, and would be a worthy flier for the Falcons to take with one of their late picks.

The current Falcons depth chart sees Julio Jones and Calvin Ridley at No. 1 and 2 respectively, but no sure thing after them. While a No. 3 receiver isn’t a glaring need for the team, aiming at a guy like Cephus in the late rounds would be a low-risk, high-reward plan to fill that role.

Cephus no doubt has the talent to make an NFL roster, and were it to be with the Falcons having Matt Ryan as his quarterback to begin his career would be great news for Cephus’ chances at sticking in the league.

 

The NFL Draft begins this upcoming Thursday night and will conclude on Saturday.

Paul Chryst ends with good reviews in a recent fan survey

In a recent fan survey conducted by The Athletic’s Jesse Temple, coach Paul Chryst and the Wisconsin football program received extremely…

In a recent fan survey conducted by The Athletic’s Jesse Temple, coach Paul Chryst and the Wisconsin football program received extremely positive reviews.

Temple, The Athletic’s beat reporter for the Wisconsin football and men’s basketball teams, conducted a survey a few weeks ago in which he asked questions about fans’ approval rating of Chryst overall as a coach, the program as a whole, Chryst as a recruiter and as an on-field coach, whether the fans believe the team will contend for a Big Ten title in the near future, who they believe should start at quarterback in 2020 and much more.

The results were almost all positive in terms of the state of Chryst’s tenure as coach and the outlook for the team going forward.

Specifically, on a scale from 1-5 with five being the highest, fans’ average response to their overall approval with the current state of the program was 4.41.

In terms of Chryst specifically, fans’ average response to their approval with the job Chryst has done thus far came in at 4.43, their average response to his job as an on-field coach was 3.828 and that for him as a recruiter was 3.96.

Other meaningful results were that 90.3 percent of respondents believed the Badgers would win the Big Ten within the next five years, 62.2 percent thought Jack Coan should start the season at quarterback and 49.4 percent answered “wide receiver” to what position group they were least optimistic about.

 

Brian Lewerke ranked No. 11 QB in 2020 NFL Draft by The Athletic

The former Michigan State quarterback was ranked No. 11 of 20 by Bob McGinn of The Athletic.

Bob McGinn of The Athletic recently posted an article ranking every quarterback in the NFL Draft and former Michigan State Football quarterback Brian Lewerke came in at No. 11 out of 20.

You should definitely read the full piece (here) to see McGinn’s take on Lewerke, but here is an excerpt where he had a scout give feedback on the Spartan QB:

“He looked good in 2017. Then he had a rough year in 2018 and this year was awful. It’s like he had the yips. He couldn’t make routine throws. It was tough to watch. Can he play better? Yes, but if you have to make a decision right now I’m saying he’s not going to be a good NFL player.”

There were only two other Big Ten quarterbacks in the rankings and that was Nate Stanley at No. 12 and Shea Patterson, who came in at No. 17.

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How Steelers fans rate HC Mike Tomlin in new Athletic survey

Pittsburgh Steelers fans made their feelings known about head coach Mike Tomlin in a survey from The Athletic Pittsburgh.

In a fan survey complied by Sean Gentile of The Athletic, participants were asked a bevy of questions from all-time favorite Steeler to their confidence in running back James Conner as an every-down back.

The question that elicited the most comments were those regarding head coach Mike Tomlin.

When asked how fans would rate the job Tomlin did in 2019, the majority of fans (844/1,078) gave him an eight or above.

397 fans rated him at an eight on his career in Pittsburgh overall, and 67 percent of them are optimistic about his future with the Steelers.

Sure, fans miss Bill “The Chin” Cowher and the emotion he displayed on the sidelines. Tomlin takes a much less animated approach to the game. However, in a 13-year comparison of records, Tomlin has a slight advantage.

In 2008 — Tomlin’s second season — he became the youngest HC to ever win a Super Bowl at age 38. Cowher didn’t win a Super Bowl until his 14th season. The Steelers were AFC Champions in both Tomlin and Cowher’s fourth season (2010 and 1995).

After 13 seasons, Tomlin’s record is 133-74-1; Cowher’s was 130-77-1.

Last year, the Steelers announced that they signed Tomlin to a one-year extension, keeping him under contract through 2021. At that point, Tomlin will have been with the Steelers for 15 seasons, the same amount of years that Cowher was before he retired.

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Breaking down the Browns’ haul in The Athletic’s 7-round mock

Breaking down the Browns’ haul in The Athletic’s 7-round mock

One of the more prestigious and insightful mock drafts every year comes from Dane Brugler of The Athletic. Brugler produced his annual 7-round mock draft this week, and it’s got some changes from the norm for the Cleveland Browns across the board.

The Browns’ haul, as conveniently condensed by The Athletic:

1 (10) OT Mekhi Becton, Louisville
2 (41) DS Jeremy Chinn, Southern Illinois
3 (74) LB Jordyn Brooks, Texas Tech
3 (97) EDGE Trevis Gipson, Tulsa
4 (115) WR Donovan Peoples-Jones, Michigan
6 (187) CB John Reid, Penn State
7 (244) TE Cheyenne O’Grady, Arkansas

The Browns made a sizable upgrade at right tackle with the signing of Jack Conklin, but left tackle remains a large question mark. You could make an argument for any of these top tackles here or even a trade down for a player like Ezra Cleveland, but I think Becton fits what they want on offense.

It’s a divergent choice from what many pundits expect of the Browns. Becton’s size isn’t often seen as an optimal fit for the new scheme head coach Kevin Stefanski is expected to implement, but he sure made it work well in college.

Chinn is a great pick in the second round, a bundle of athleticism and energy that needs some refinement but has the potential to be the long-term impact solution at the problematic safety spot. Brooks in the third can help the run defense and blitzing from the middle.

Of the Day 3 picks, Peoples-Jones stands out. He never met expectations in his career at Michigan, but the athletic tools are all there. Peoples-Jones is also a potential high-end solution as a punt returner.

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Re-drafting a seven-round 2020 mock draft for the Saints

Dane Brugler of The Athletic put together a lengthy seven-round mock draft of the 2020 NFL Draft, so we redid his New Orleans Saints picks.

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Let’s start this off with a round of applause for The Athletic’s Dane Brugler, who put together a comprehensive seven-round mock-up of the 2020 NFL Draft. It’s difficult enough to build a mock draft for just one team, much less all 32. Here’s who Brugler ended up connecting with the New Orleans Saints:

  • Round 1, Pick 24: LB Patrick Queen, LSU
  • Round 3, Pick 88: WR Van Jefferson, Florida
  • Round 4, Pick 130: CB Troy Pride Jr., Notre Dame
  • Round 5, Pick: 169 DT Larrell Murchison, N.C. State
  • Round 6, Pick 203: RB Raymond Calais, Louisiana

However, this gave us a great opportunity to try out a re-draft, making our own choices at each of the Saints draft picks. While we left the rest of Brugler’s mock draft intact, here are the prospects we ended up selecting for the Saints:

  • Round 1, Pick 24: WR Justin Jefferson, LSU
  • Round 3, Pick 88: LB Malik Harrison, Ohio State
  • Round 4, Pick 130: CB Michael Ojemudia, Iowa
  • Round 5, Pick: 169: DT Larrell Murchison, N.C. State
  • Round 6, Pick 203: T/G Tremayne Anchrum, Clemson

While Queen would be a huge addition for the Saints defense, we have Jefferson rated higher on the big board and feel he’s more of a sure thing as far as his NFL projection. It took Queen some time to climb the Tigers depth chart and there are still some warts to his game, whereas Jefferson played in a very similar offense and could slot into the same role in New Orleans. Linebacker is definitely a bigger need than receiver after the opening waves of free agency, but we’re comfortable bringing in Jefferson to overload Drew Brees with weapons and study under Emmanuel Sanders for the next two years.

While this year’s draft class isn’t as deep at linebacker as it is at receiver, we were happy to pick Harrison out of Ohio State in the third round. He’s a big, heady defender who should compete right away with Alex Anzalone and Kiko Alonso to start at either middle linebacker or on the strong side. He moves well (especially for someone his size, at 6-foot-3 and 247 pounds) and could also help out on special teams. This is the sort of smart, good-value pick the Saints have been known for recently.

As for the remaining selections: Ojemudia was a better fit for the Saints from a height-weight-speed perspective than Pride, thanks to his wider wingspan (nearly 78 inches against Pride’s 74 inches) and greater collegiate experience (appearing in 51 games against Pride’s 45). This decision will probably be a push in most war rooms, but we went with Ojemudia based off the types of players the Saints have shown interest in before.

We were in agreement with Brugler on Murchison, a mid-round interior lineman who spearheaded the Wolfpack defense in his senior year. The team captain also led N.C. State in both tackles for loss (12) and sacks (7) last season, and should bolster the Saints defensive line while Sheldon Rankins continues to recover from his latest lower-leg injury. Murchison was the best prospect available here.

And now we’ll close out with Anchrum, a three-year starter at right tackle for Clemson who also earned team captain recognition in 2019. He might lack the length teams covet to remain at tackle in the NFL but his aggressive style of play and well-conditioned body should help him execute blocks on the move. He could be a candidate to compete for Larry Warford’s job if the Saints move on from him next offseason, which is maybe the best you can hope for out of a sixth-round pick.

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