Tag: The Athletic

Karlos Williams apologizes to ex-Bills GM Doug Whaley

Former Buffalo Bills running back Karlos Williams has walked back some statements he made reflecting on his past with the Bills while speaking to The Athletic. 

Former Buffalo Bills running back Karlos Williams has walked back some statements he made reflecting on his past with the Bills while speaking to The Athletic.

Williams did not hold back when discussing the Bills’ general manager back in the day, Doug Whaley. The former back who had a strong breakout season in 2018 used some profanity laced words in the interview, and find a way to make it worse than that.

“Doug Whaley can die in a hole and drink bleach. I’m dead serious,” Williams said.

Whaley, who now works as an executive in the XFL, apparently made Williams mad when the Bills drafted Jonathan Williams and signed Reggie Bush, he explained. Since the story was released on Thursday, Williams has now apologized:

The former fifth-round pick of the Bills was eventually released by the team in August 2016 after showing up to training camp out of shape and being suspended for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy. He did eventually latch on with the Steelers, but then had a third suspension attached to his name. On February 21, 2019, he was reinstated by the NFL but hasn’t been signed by a team.

Williams conducted the interview because he’s attempting to make a comeback in the future with the CFL. He signed a 2020 futures contract with the Toronto Argonauts. Williams added in the interview he refused to play in the recent XFL season because of Whaley’s role with the team.

 

[lawrence-related id=58796,58789,58781,58774]

The Athletic slots Bills at No. 8 in power rankings

The Athletic gave the Buffalo Bills some of the biggest praise among all the national outlets who have recently been releasing their post-free agency power rankings. 

The Athletic gave the Buffalo Bills some of the biggest praise among all the national outlets who have recently been releasing their post-free agency power rankings.

Since their last power rankings following the conclusion of the 2019 regular season, the Bills moved up one slot, from nine to eight. With the numerous moves made around the NFL since then, including the Bills’ trade for Stefon Diggs, Buffalo is tabbed the divisional favorite by The Athletic in their recently released poll:

Dare we say the Bills are the early AFC East favorites? They have to be, right? We didn’t love the Stefon Diggs trade because of the compensation, but we’ll admit we are very excited to see what the Bills’ offense will look like with Diggs in it.

In terms of AFC East favorites, The Athletic doesn’t even in particularly think it’s close. The next closest team is the Patriots, but they’re all the way down in the No. 17 slot thanks to their loss of quarterback Tom Brady. But the Pats do edge out the Jets and Dolphins, who sit all the way back in the No. 26 and 27 spot, respectively.

Currently on paper, the Bills certainly look like the favorite. But Diggs is a massive piece to the puzzle. While his addition looks good on paper, much of his and the Bills’ future successes in 2020 depend on the improvement of quarterback Josh Allen in the third year of his career.

Currently in The Athletic’s rankings the Chiefs hold the top spot, edging the Ravens out for that honor. The Saints sit in third place.

[lawrence-related id=58338,58496,58488,58483]

Baker Mayfield, other Oklahoma players named best player to wear their number per The Athletic

Oklahoma tops the list at four numbers and earned 38 honorable mentions on the world-class list.

With the entire world on hold, it has given us time to reflect on the past. The Athletic embraced debate and decided to compile a list of the best players to ever wear each jersey number, 1-99.

Oklahoma tops the list at four numbers and earned 38 honorable mentions on the world-class list.

Baker Mayfield earns the spot for No. 6. The 2017 Heisman Trophy winner and 2018 No. 1 pick began his career as a walk-on. Twice. He was three-for-three on Big 12 championships as a starter at Oklahoma and was a Heisman vote-getter in three consecutive seasons.

Two-time All-American and two-time national champion running back Tommy McDonald ranks as the best to ever wear No. 25. In 31 games under coach Bud Wilkinson, McDonald rushed for 1,696 yards, gained 420 yards through the air, and finished his career with 35 total touchdowns.

Newly appointed College Football Hall of Fame member Rickey Dixon is remembered as the best to wear No. 29. Dixon was a Jim Thorpe Award winner and an All-American at the safety position in 1987. A true ball hawk, Dixon snagged eight of his 16 career interceptions in his 1987 season.

The second Sooner to ever win a Heiman Trophy, Steve Owens is synonymous with No. 36. With back-to-back seasons (1968-69) of 1,500+ yard rushing seasons, Owens had one of the most elite careers not just in Oklahoma history, but college football history. Owens ended his career just under 4,000 yards rushing in 31 games (3,928) and a remarkable 59 touchdowns.

Honorable mentions:  Kyler Murray (No. 1), Derrick Strait (No. 2), Marquise Brown (No. 5), Tedy Lehman & Dede Westbrook (No. 11), Sam Bradford & Josh Heupel (No. 14), Jason White (No. 18), Billy Sims (No. 20), Joe Washington (No. 24), Adrian Peterson & George Cumby (No. 28), Gregg Pruitt (No. 30), Samaje Perine (No. 32), Billy Vessels (No. 35), Roy Williams (No. 38), Leon Heath (No. 40), Rod Shoate (No. 43), Brian Bosworth (No. 44), Kurt Burris (No. 51), Jerry Tubbs (No. 53), Tom Brahaney (No. 54), Jammal Brown (No. 55), J.D. Roberts (No. 64), Greg Roberts & Bill Krisher (No. 65), Granville Liggins (No. 66), Anthony Phillips (No. 68), Orlando Brown Jr. (No. 78), Mark Hutson (No. 79), Rick Bryan (No. 80), Ryan Broyles (No. 85), Keith Jackson (No. 88), Dewey Selmon (No. 91), Tony Casillas (No. 92),  Lee Roy Selmon & Gerald McCoy (No. 93), Tommie Harris (No. 97)

Athletic Subscribers: Would You Like to Take a Survey?

We’ve found ourselves desperate to do something, anything, as we’re shut down for at least the next month and probably longer.

We’ve found ourselves desperate to do something, anything, as we’re shut down for at least the next month and probably longer. If you subscribe to The Athletic, there’s one activity you might enjoy. Notre Dame football beat writer Pete Sampson has put together a fan survey for those who bleed green, gold and blue.

For the next week, you will be able to answer 20 questions pertaining to the football program. Assuming we’ll have a season, the 2020 Irish could be a team to remember, if not just outside that tier. What better time than now to share your thoughts in a (not really) scientific manner?

The survey begins by asking you to rate how you feel about the football program, Brian Kelly and Jack Swarbrick, respectively, on a scale of 1 to 5. From there, you get to answer multiple-choice questions such as your favorite assistant coach, your favorite player from the Kelly era and whether the Irish are recruiting well enough to win a national championship. The survey concludes with some free-form questions about the biggest surprise during Kelly’s tenure, your favorite all-time player and how you would describe yourself as a Notre Dame fan.

This should be fun, and it could give insight to a top beat reporter on the type of people that cheer on the Irish. Remember when you got surveys in college and high school for a student’s project on some random topic you couldn’t care less about? This is the opposite. This is enjoyable, and we need something like this right now.

Wasserman: Notre Dame Adversely Affected by COVID-19

Subscribers to The Athletic who love college football might enjoy Ari Wasserman’s column, “This Week in Recruiting”.

Subscribers to The Athletic who love college football might enjoy Ari Wasserman’s column, “This Week in Recruiting”. If you like Notre Dame, you might not have cared for the opening tidbit from this week’s edition.

In short, Wasserman writes that because Notre Dame isn’t located in a state known for football talent, the program has to look elsewhere for prospects, and the travel restrictions put in place by COVID-19 have halted all progress. None of the prospects they were supposed to meet with live anywhere near northern Indiana, so Notre Dame won’t have a lot of time to make a splash for its next class, and that distance already makes it difficult.

If Wasserman is correct, this class will say a lot about what Brian Kelly can do with an even shorter period of time than usual. He can talk about the tradition and grandeur that comes with playing for Notre Dame all he wants, but without the opportunity to meet with the recruits he and the rest of the program desires, he’ll have to get really creative. Otherwise, the Irish could be faced with some glaring holes opponents will look to take advantage of over the next few years.

Vikings take 2 WRs in mock draft from The Athletic

After Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs, there’s no secret that the Vikings could use some depth at the wide receiver position.

After Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs, there’s no secret that the Vikings could use some depth at the wide receiver position.

And with Diggs, who really knows what’s going to happen?

In the latest seven-round mock draft from The Athletic, the Vikings take two wide receivers.

The first is Michigan wide receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones with their third-round pick (89th overall).

The second is Wisconsin wide receiver Quintez Cephus with their sixth-round pick (205th overall).

It’s interesting, I guess, that both players are Big Ten receivers.

Last year at Michigan, Peoples-Jones had 34 catches for 438 yards and six touchdowns. Over the last two seasons, he’s combined for 14 receiving touchdowns. He also has the ability to return punts, which would be a plus for the Vikings.

Cephus was a little more productive at Wisconsin during the 2019 season, catching 59 passes for 901 yards and seven touchdowns.

At this point in the draft process, I tend to look at the positions the Vikings are taking in these drafts rather than the specific players. It would be a complete shock if the Vikings didn’t draft at least one wide receiver in the upcoming draft.

The Athletic ranks CFB’s best coaches – Is Kirby Smart too low?

The Athletic ranked the best coaches in college football, but did they rank Georgia football’s Kirby Smart too low?

This week, Stewart Mandel and Bruce Feldman of The Athletic ranked college football’s top coaches.

Kirby Smart checked in relatively high on both lists, but is he high enough?

Here are the two lists.

Stewart Mandel:

1. Nick Saban (Alabama) and Dabo Swinney (Clemson)

3. Ed Orgeron, LSU

4. Lincoln Riley, Oklahoma

5. Kirby Smart, Georgia

6. Brian Kelly, Notre Dame

7. James Franklin, Penn State

8. Dan Mullen, Florida

9. Paul Chryst, Wisconsin

10. Bill Clark, UAB

Bruce Feldman:

1. Nick Saban, Alabama

2. Dabo Swinney, Clemson

3. James Franklin, Penn State

4. Ed Orgeron, LSU

5. Lincoln Riley, Oklahoma

6. Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M

7. Kirby Smart, Georgia

8. Brian Kelly, Notre Dame

9. Kyle Whittingham, Utah

10. Scott Satterfield, Louisville

Let’s discuss:

Pages: Page 1, Page 2

The Athletic’s Top 25 CFB Coaches Throws Love to Brian Kelly

Win a huge game or heck, just go a year without getting blown out against a marquee opponent.

I’ve been more of a supporter of Brian Kelly than many on the internet. I know, shocking that that Twitter or any other social media outlet goes negative.

But when you compare Kelly’s run to where things were just a decade ago it’s worthy of praise while also being aware there is still room for improvement.

Win a huge game or heck, just go a year without getting blown out against a marquee opponent.

Bruce Feldman of The Athletic released his 25 best coaches in college football Thursday morning and Brian Kelly checked in at number eight. Here’s what Feldman said about Kelly:

The 58-year-old has had a good long run at a place that often burns guys out after a few years. The Irish are 33-6 in his last three seasons. His teams have gotten blown out a bunch of times on big stages — Michigan beat Notre Dame by 31 last season, Clemson hammered them by 27 the year before and Miami crushed them by 33 the year before that — but overall he’s proven to be one of the best coaches in college football.

What does it mean?

Nothing but it is noteworthy when you see the likes of Jim Harbaugh and Paul Chryst 10 spots behind him.

What’s more important or meaningful to me is closing the gap to the truly elite. An uptick in recruiting would help that as would winning one of these marquee matchups instead of just playing a team like Georgia close.

Saints pick a safety in Dane Brugler’s updated mock draft

The New Orleans Saints invested early in their secondary but waited on help at wide receiver in Dane Brugler’s latest 2020 NFL mock draft.

[jwplayer eTBhZ75i-ThvAeFxT]

The 2020 NFL Scouting Combine is in the books, and everyone is updated their mock drafts. We took a shot at our own take earlier this week, and the latest mock-up comes from The Athletic’s Dane Brugler, one of the most accurate experts in the business. Brugler projects the Saints to select Alabama Crimson Tide prospect Xavier McKinney, one of the best safeties in this year’s draft class. But he only sees that happening with a few important caveats:

If Vonn Bell leaves in free agency and Chauncey Gardner-Johnson stays in a nickel role, safety becomes a question mark for the Saints. McKinney will have spacing issues in coverage, but he limits mental mistakes, especially vs. the run as a downhill tackler.

McKinney measured out as a marginal athlete at the combine, timing the 40-yard dash in 4.63 seconds at 6-foot-0, 201 pounds. His best results came in the jumps, leaping 36 inches vertically and 122 inches broad, both good-but-not-great marks.

However, freakish athleticism isn’t really McKinney’s best bid for the NFL. He’s regarded as a heady player who is quick to learn from his errors, and is difficult to fool with complicated passing concepts. He was disruptive in two years as a starter at Alabama, creating plenty of splash plays. He was credited with 169 combined tackles (104 solo, 11.5 for loss of yards), 6 sacks, 15 passes defensed (5 interceptions), and 6 fumbles forced (1 recovered) in his final 28 games. That would go a long way towards replacing Vonn Bell’s impact plays.

Later on in the third round, Brugler connected the Saints to Liberty wide receiver Antonio Gandy-Golden. Gandy-Golden was the 13th wide receiver to be selected in the top three rounds in Brugler’s mock draft, ahead of UCF’s Gabriel Davis, South Carolina’s Bryan Edwards, and Florida’s Van Jefferson.

Gandy-Golden is a huge target (6-foot-4, 223 pounds) who lacked speed and flexibility in athletic testing at the combine, performing best in the broad jump (127 inches). He still starred at Liberty with 150 receptions for 2,433 yards and 20 touchdown grabs — in just 24 games over two years. The jump in quality of competition from Liberty’s schedule to the NFL would be tremendous, but there might not be many better options if the Saints wait so long to address the position.

[vertical-gallery id=29377]

John Beilein’s future on the line with Cleveland Cavaliers

According to reports from The Athletic, John Beilein may not make it to the one-year mark of his five-year contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

According to reports from The Athletic, John Beilein may not make it to the one-year mark of his five-year contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers.