Tag: The Ringer

Notre Dame football photo from 1897 found

Nice look into the football program’s early history.

With many people back celebrating Christmas with their families this year, the possibilities to pass time were endless.

One common activity is to dig into family history and discover something you hadn’t seen or known before. Maybe you rediscover something you hadn’t seen in a long time or are reminded of something you had forgotten about. Check out what happened with Kevin Clark, a senior writer and podcaster for The Ringer:

1897 was the second of Frank Hering’s three years as Notre Dame coach and the first of three years in which Jack Mullen served as captain. Notre Dame went 4-1-1 that season, beginning with a scoreless tie against Rush Medical and a 4-0 win over DePauw. A 62-0 win over the Chicago Dental Infirmary was followed by a 34-5 road loss to Chicago. The season wrapped up with a 60-0 victory over the now-defunct St. Viator and a 34-6 win in the rain against the program now known as Michigan State.

The Ringer suggests a trade that could help the Thunder’s rebounding woes

The Ringer suggests a trade that could help the Thunder’s rebounding woes.

A quarter into the 2023-24 regular season, the Oklahoma City Thunder have established themselves as a serious threat.

The young Thunder are 15-7 and in sole possession of second place in the Western Conference standings. OKC also passes the smell test. It’s ranked No. 3 in net rating, No. 6 in offensive rating and No. 5 in defensive rating.

If the Thunder continue to win at their current pace, they’ll make the playoffs for the first time since 2020. That means OKC could be buyers heading into the 2024 trade deadline.

The Ringer’s Michael Pena recently wrote about a hypothetical trade the Thunder could make to fortify their rebounding woes. OKC is No. 29 in the league in rebounding rate at 46.9%.

A player who could shore up those issues is veteran center Andre Drummond, who is the backup big on the Chicago Bulls. The 30-year-old is averaging 6.9 rebounds — 3.8 on defense and 3.1 on offense — in 13.2 minutes.

Pena suggests a Drummond for Tre Mann and a second-round pick swap:

“One option, for a franchise that doesn’t like spending money, is dumping Drummond’s $3.4 million contract into one of two modest trade exceptions OKC currently has. For that to happen, the Thunder would have to clear a roster spot, which complicates things.

What about a straight swap of Drummond for Tre Mann and a second-round pick? That might be too rich for Sam Presti’s blood, but he should imagine a playoff series against the Lakers, Wolves, Nuggets, or Pelicans.”

The deal isn’t too bad for the Thunder. Drummond is a short-term commitment on an expiring salary and Mann is outside of OKC’s rotation with no real chance to move up.

If the Thunder are buyers this season, this is the type of low-risk move they could realistically make to provide immediate help for an obvious weakness.

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The Ringer’s top-100 NBA players: 4 OKC Thunder players listed

The Thunder had 4 players make The Ringer’s top-100 players ranking.

With the 2023-24 regular season starting this week, The Ringer’s NBA writer staff decided to release their latest top-100 players ranking.

The year-round rankings are periodically updated, with the latest version publishing on Oct. 16. The staff of Bill Simmons, Rob Mahoney, Michael Pina, Chris Ryan and Justin Verrier participated in conducting the rankings.

The Oklahoma City Thunder enter the season with four players ranked in the top 100. A respectable amount considering Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s emergence and talented young core.

Let’s see what The Ringer’s staff had to say about the Thunder’s four core players and where they landed in their top 100 rankings.

Is Kirk Cousins the quintessential system quarterback?

Is Kirk Cousins the quintessential system quarterback? Steven Ruiz believes so.

Kirk Cousins has always been seen as a system quarterback. For his entire 11-year career, the narrative has always been that Cousins can’t beat a defense without a solid system in place and can’t work outside the system.

According to The Ringer’s Steven Ruiz and his 2023 quarterback rankings, Cousins is the definition of a system quarterback.

Cousins isn’t just a system quarterback. He’s THE system quarterback. And I mean that as a compliment. yes, he still throws too many checkdowns at the worst possible time, and, sure, he is pretty much useless outside the pocket. But if you need a play executed with proper timing, Cousins is your guy. And as he ages, he seems more willing to make plays on his own. He’s throwing downfield more than ever before, and he’s doing it with pressure bearing down on him seemingly every other play. There’s still a clear ceiling on Cousins’s game. He doesn’t have the talent to go toe to toe with the league’s top passers without considerable help, but he won’t go down without throwing a few haymakers. That wasn’t always the case.

Ruiz goes on to describe Cousins’ best attribute being his timing in an offense.

Cousins is a coach’s dream. The ball always comes out on time, and it’s typically thrown to the right spot. When defenses can throw off his timing, though, the mistake-prone version of Cousins shows up.

Per Ruiz, Cousins’ biggest weakness is his creativity — or lack thereof.

To Cousins’s credit, he’s trying his hardest to become more of a playmaker. He’s just not very good at it.

Cousins was 14th in Ruiz’s ranking of all 32 NFL starting quarterbacks. He was seventh among NFC quarterbacks, behind Dak Prescott, Matthew Stafford, Jalen Hurts, Tom Brady, Kyler Murray and Geno Smith. For context on Brady, Ruiz is holding the spot “just in case.” On the bright side, that means Cousins is the top quarterback in the NFC North heading into the season, according to Ruiz.

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The Ringer’s Top 125 NBA players list: Four OKC Thunder players appear

Here’s who The Ringer had from the Thunder on their top 125 players rankings:

The Ringer’s staff recently published its latest version of the top 125 NBA players. The latest rankings were updated on July 25.

The trio of Rob Mahoney, J. Kyle Mann and Michael Pina updated the list based on recent results. With the NBA entering the slowest part of the year, teams will rest and prepare for training camp to start the 2023-24 season.

The Oklahoma City Thunder continue to have four players in the rankings — a pretty fair number following a 40-win campaign.

Let’s take a look at the four Thunder players who made the list and what was written about each.

The Ringer’s Top 125 NBA players: Four OKC Thunder players listed

The Ringer recently listed four Thunder players in its top 125 player list.

The NBA offseason is upon us, which means it’s time for The Ringer’s staff to reevaluate its top 125 players list.

Updated periodically throughout the calendar year, The Ringer ranks the best 125 players in the league. In this latest update, which was released on June 14, the Oklahoma City Thunder have four members in the top 125.

Rob Mahoney, J. Kyle Mann and Michael Pena updated the rankings and gave explanations why a player was placed at their respective spot.

Let’s look at what The Ringer had to say about the four Thunder players and why they were ranked inside the top 125.

The Ringer’s Top 125 NBA players: Four OKC Thunder players appear

Let’s take a look at the four Thunder players who made @ringer ‘s top 125 NBA players list.

The Ringer’s NBA staff recently published its latest version of the top 125 players in the NBA. The list was updated on May 1 by Rob Mahoney, J. Kyle Mann and Michael Pina.

Only eight teams remain active in the 2022-23 season as the playoffs progress through the second round.

The Oklahoma City Thunder have had four mainstays in the rankings, and  all four appear again on the list. The Thunder (40-42) are fresh off an overachieving campaign. The youngest team in the league finished one win short of entering the playoffs.

Let’s look at who made the list for the Thunder, and what was said about their four representatives.

The Ringer says Bengals are one of six teams winning the offseason

Some high praise for the Bengals.

The Cincinnati Bengals were one of six teams that made The Ringer’s list of teams that are winning the offseason so far.

Steven Ruiz wrote that even though the Bengals still have to worry about contract extensions for franchise cornerstones, the signings that they have made have been enough to make them winners.

Here’s some of what Ruiz said about Cincinnati’s offseason:

So why are they on this list? Well, defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo didn’t leave for a head-coaching gig, and Higgins is still on the roster. That’s enough for this to be considered a successful offseason for Cincinnati. But the Bengals did more than just keep their core together. The Brown signing was questionable at first glance, but the four-year, $64.1 million deal is really just a two-year, $42 million commitment. That’s not a bad price for a good offensive tackle. Brown has had his problems in pass protection—especially against athletic edge rushers—but he’s more than serviceable, and his run-blocking makes up for other deficiencies. Irv Smith Jr. was a cheap replacement for Hurst and should provide a higher ceiling given his age and athleticism.

The fact that the Bengals also own all of their draft picks was a great sign for what they still can do later in April when that time comes.

Ruiz does make a good point in saying that their main source of talent is going to be coming from the draft in the foreseeable future, so don’t be surprised if Jonah Williams, who has requested to be traded, gets sent away for some draft picks.

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The Ringer’s Top 125 NBA players list: Four OKC Thunder players appear

The Thunder had 4 entrants in The Ringer’s top 125 players list.

The Ringer’s NBA staff recently published their latest version of the top 125 NBA players. The latest rankings were published on March 14.

The trio of Rob Mahoney, J. Kyle Mann and Michael Pina helped update the list based on recent results as the 2022-23 regular season nears its end.

The Oklahoma City Thunder have four players who made The Ringer’s top 125 players. A pretty high amount for the youngest team in the league which is in the mix of the Play-In tournament race.

Let’s take a look at the four Thunder players who made the list and what they had to say about each entrant.

The Ringer’s Danny Kelly ranks Devon Achane among his Top 40 players in the 2023 NFL Draft

The Ringer’s Danny Kelly lists former Aggies running back Devon Achane as one of the Top 40 players in the 2023 NFL Draft

Throughout Texas A&M’s history, running back has been a position of sheer importance throughout the last three decades, but no one has matched the speed, athleticism, and NFL potential like Devon Achane, who recently entered the NFL draft last December.

In three seasons with the Aggies, the college track star rushed for 2,097 yards and 38 touchdowns in his career, and 1,102 yards and 8 touchdowns during the 2022 season. Achane capped off his Aggie career with 215 rushing yards and 3 touchdowns against LSU, not only showing his insane speed and quickness but his durability as a runner that should translate to the pro level very well.

Standing at 5’8 1/2″, and 188 lbs, Achane ran a 4.32 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine last weekend, which was the fastest among the running back group, and ranked third in the entire Combine. Recently, Danny Kelly of The Ringer released his Top 50 players list in the 2023 NFL Draft, where Achane was ranked as the 34th best available prospect, and in his scouting report for Achane, Kelly stated,

Achane is an instant accelerator who can get up to top speed in a blink, giving him the ability to shoot through gaps that would close too quickly for most other running backs. He’s not going to run through a defender’s face, but he uses turbo-charged acceleration to rip through arm tackles and shrug off defenders in space. When he finds a little bit of green, he can access an extra gear few players have and run away from the defense. Achane tallied 35 rushes of 10-plus yards in 2022, per PFF, accumulating 53 missed tackles forced and a total of 705 yards after contact. Achane is a good pass catcher out of the backfield and even got some reps lined up wide and in the slot. He has reliable hands and is a confident catcher of the football, collecting the pass and looking to move upfield in one smooth motion. He’s also a dangerous kick returner.

Kelly briefly described that even though Achane’s speed and explosive play potential could make him a riser in this year’s draft, his small size could hinder his future as an every-down back. As with every prospect during every pre-draft cycle, size at specific positions will always prevent certain teams from taking a risk on a player with a high ceiling, and for Achane, any one of the 32 teams that take a chance on his talents is getting one of the best players the draft has to offer regardless.

Contact/Follow us @AggiesWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas A&M news, notes, and opinions. Follow Cameron on Twitter: @CameronOhnysty

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