Panthers safety Tre Boston makes Pro Football Focus list of the most clutch players of the 2019 season.
The greatest competitors of all time like Michael Jordan and Tom Brady save their best work for when the game is on the line. The clutch factor may be hard to quantify but it is undeniable when you see it.
Pro Football Focus has come out with an all-clutch team of players who performed best in the fourth quarter and overtime of the 2019 season. Texans star Deshaun Watson made the cut as the starting quarterback. Panthers safety Tre Boston also made the team, along with Malik Hooker.
Here’s what they had to say.
“Both Hooker and Boston did excellent jobs of both limiting throws into their coverage and making plays on the ball when passes did come their way. Boston was targeted as the primary coverage defender just once in this sample, but he came away with one forced incompletion and one interception anyway.”
It’s good to see Boston getting some recognition from PFF. In general, he has been overlooked for several years but has established himself as one of the league’s best free safeties.
Free safety Tre Boston certainly seems to approve of the pick.
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The Panthers secondary desperately needed some reinforcements coming into the 2020 NFL draft.
After addressing their defensive line with their first two picks, the team has shifted its focus to the back end. First, they traded up to the bottom of the second round (No. 64 overall) to pick Southern Illinois’ Jeremy Chinn, who can play any defensive back spot.
Boston had a similar reaction last night when the team picked Chinn.
Creating turnovers on the back end is one area they definitely could stand to improve on. After a promising start to the 2019 season, the secondary’s play dropped off a cliff. They finished the year with a mediocre 14 interceptions and 67 pass breakups.
The work may not be done yet. Carolina still needs to add a true slot cornerback and find a replacement for quality backup Ross Cockrell.
Watch: Panthers kicker Graham Gano is a paper football field goal master.
What do you do when you’re quarantined and have already streamed practically every show on Netflix? If you’re Panthers kicker Graham Gano, you show off your paper football skills.
Watch Gano connect on 12 field goal attempts in just 30 seconds, followed by a challenge to Tre Boston and Efe Obada.
The Panthers have released strong safety Eric Reid, who broke the news himself on his Twitter account moments ago.
Itâs been a pleasure Carolina! I enjoyed my time and the support I received from the fans, media, teammates, and staff there will be remembered. Looking forward to furthering my career in another city!
The Panthers have released strong safety Eric Reid, who broke the news himself on his Twitter account moments ago. In a classy message, Reid thanked the fans, media, his teammates and the staff on his way out.
Reid still had two years left on his contract. According to Over the Cap, cutting Reid before June 1 will save the team $3 million in salary cap space for 2020 but add another $5 million to the dead money total, which has reached ludicrous proportions.
Reid was a first-round pick by the 49ers in the 2013 NFL draft. He was a Pro Bowler for them in his first season but he hasn’t been back since.
According to Adam Schefter at ESPN, the Panthers are re-signing free safety Tre Boston to a three-year deal worth $18 million.
It’s a well-deserve deal for Boston, who was originally a fourth-round pick by Carolina in the 2014 NFL draft. After one-year stints with the Chargers and Cardinals, he returned to the Panthers in 2019, which was a strong season for him. Boston posted three interceptions and 11 pass breakups.
He should have at least a few more good years left in him. Boston will turn 28 in June. With Eric Reid still under contract, the Panthers have their starting safeties set for at least the next two seasons.
According to a report by Adam Schefter at ESPN, the Panthers are also signing free agent safety Juston Burris to a two-year, $8 million deal.
After playing his college ball at NC State, Burris (26) was a fourth-round pick by the Jets in the 2016 NFL draft. The Browns signed him off their practice squad in November, 2018.
Like former Vikings defensive end Stephen Weatherly (who is signing a two-year deal with Carolina), Burris is a career backup. He has played in 52 games with 11 starts, posting four interceptions and 14 pass breakups.
Burris gives the Panthers more depth at a spot they’ll need it. Colin Jones has asked for and been granted his release and Tre Boston is expected to sign with another team soon.
It was 6 but the Patriots used the franchise tag on OG Joe Thuney
The free agent “legal tampering” period kicks off on Monday, with signings on new teams still scheduled to begin on Wednesday after 4 p.m. ET. The Detroit Lions have ample cap room to make a big splash in the free agency pool, if GM Bob Quinn and his staff so choose.
Will they make a splash? That remains to be seen. But if I were Quinn and making the decision on which toes to dip into the pool, here are the five targets I would prioritize to try and sign in Detroit in free agency.
I’m not necessarily chasing the biggest names or the sexiest players. I’m looking more for the next Glover Quin or Golden Tate, rising young talents earning a second contract that ties an emerging player to the Lions for the prime of his career. End-of-career stopgaps (think Jason Peters or Brandon Mebane) don’t much interest me and shouldn’t interest the Lions, either.
Remember, this is not a projection of who the Lions will sign. It’s what players I would sign if I were the Lions brass.
As you might expect, there are a lot of players who are unhappy, as some 48% of them voted against it. Panthers strong safety Eric Reid has been a vocal critic of the proposed CBA and he’s making his voice heard on the subject again now that the vote is over.
Here’s how Reid is reacting to the deal, again bringing up the cuts for disabled players and objecting strongly to the general economics of it.
Iâm gutted for the families whoâs livelihoods depend on their disability benefits. Iâm blown away that many current players donât realize how bad the economics of this deal are and voted it through.
Meanwhile, Reid’s partner in the defensive backfield had a very different take. Free safety Tre Boston said he respects players whether they voted yes or no but he doesn’t respect those who did not vote at all.
I respect those who voted Yes, I respect those who voted No. We as a NFL group also voted a higher % than Gen Pop Voting. Itâs just crazy to see guys had an opportunity to have a say so and chose not to pick a side. Smh. Difference was 60 votes! đŹđłđ¤Śđžââď¸ #CantRespectNoVote
Boston also says people on both sides understand it wasn’t the best deal but some players felt they couldn’t afford to say no.
Itâs also funny to watch players think they know why players voted Yes or No. Shows how we canât even respect our own brothers decisions & see why they did so. People on both sides understood this wasnât the best deal. Some could afford to say no some couldnât afford to say no.đł
Former Panthers wide receiver Torrey Smith (now retired) also chimed in on Twitter echoing Will Blackmon, who called out the 500 or so players who did not vote.
From Tom Brady to Amari Cooper to Philip Rivers, Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar identifies likely fits for this year’s top NFL free agents.
There are all kinds of reasons players end up on new teams in free agency. The best reason, of course, is that a front office and a group of coaches will correctly estimate that the player fits perfectly in the new team’s set of schemes and concepts. Other teams prefer to take their existing cap space, throw stuff against the wall and see if anything sticks. No matter the reason, here’s where we think the top 21 players in the upcoming free-agent class will land.
This list doesn’t include players who have been given the franchise tag by their current teams, although those moves can lead to sign-and-trade deals — in the case of Jacksonville Jaguars edge-rusher Yannick Ngakoue, that scenario seems especially possible. And with Drew Brees saying that he’s coming back to the Saints and reportedly willing to take a below-market deal to do so, he’s off the list as well. These are the top 21 potential free agents at this point, and where we think they will land based on positional need, player value and team cap flexibility.
Tom Brady: Tampa Bay Buccaneers
(Mitch Stringer-USA TODAY Sports)
It sounds crazy to some, but there’s no guarantee that Brady will be back with the Patriots after 20 fairly successful seasons. Following a frustrating 2019 campaign in which he struggled with timing and accuracy with receivers who couldn’t consistently gain separation, Brady fell short of the Super Bowl despite a Patriots defense that was one of the best in recent memory. One might assume the Patriots can improve that situation in the offseason, but what if Brady is simply looking for a change of scenery? He would require a team that is on a championship curve minus the quarterback, a group of receivers who can beat coverage and an offensive play-designer who can match Brady’s remaining talents with the right scheme.
The Buccaneers come in with a check-check-check scenario. Todd Bowles coordinated a defense that rose from dead last to fifth overall in Football Outsiders’ opponent-adjusted metrics. Mike Evans and Chris Godwin are one of the NFL’s most formidable receiving duos, and if you can get Bruce Arians to use his tight ends in the passing game, there’s the dynamic duo of Cameron Brate and O.J. Howard. When matching Brady and Arians together, as some observers have tried to do based on this Tampa Bay Times report that the Bucs are “all in” on the idea of Brady, many will cite Arians’ preferred deep passing attack and Brady’s supposedly dead arm. Well, last season, even with an underwhelming group of targets, Brady still completed 26 of 67 passes of 20 or more air yards for 749 yards, with seven touchdowns and three interceptions. Plus, Arians’ passing game is more than just a bunch of go routes — think more of three levels to the quarterback’s front side, and quick bailout routes to the back side.
So, when you consider alternate accommodations for Tom Brady, Tampa Bay is definitely one destination to consider.
