Tag: Where Are They Now

Broncos’ Super Bowl 50 roster: Where are the defensive players now?

Most of the Broncos’ defensive starters from Super Bowl 50 are now out of the NFL, with Von Miller being a notable exception.

Denver Broncos kicker Brandon McManus is the team’s only player remaining on the roster from their Super Bowl 50 team, and he’s one of just a handful of players from that 2015 roster who are still in the NFL.

Elsewhere on special teams from that season, long snapper Aaron Brewer now plays for the Arizona Cardinals and punter Britton Colquitt is a free agent. On offense, nine of the team’s players have retired and only one — Michael Schofield with the Chicago Bears — remains on an NFL roster.

On defense, most of Denver’s starters from that Super Bowl have retired, with Von Miller being a notable exception.

Here’s a quick look at all of the team’s defensive starters from Super Bowl 50 and where they are now.

Where are they now: Chris Borland

“Where are they now” is back with today’s focus on former Badger linebacker Chris Borland…

“Where are they now” is back with today’s focus on former Badger linebacker Chris Borland.

Borland came to Wisconsin as a three-star athlete and was ranked by 247Sports as the No. 1093 overall prospect in the class of 2009, the No. 66 athlete and the No. 59 player from his home state of Ohio.

I think it’s safe to say recruiters underestimated Borland just a bit before he began his college career.

Now, why do I say that?

First of all, he was recently named to Big Ten Network’s All-Decade first team. Second of all, he finished his college career with honors including Big Ten freshman of the year, third-team All-America as a sophomore, three straight Big Ten championships, three first team All-Big Ten nods and finally first-team All-America and the Big Ten Linebacker of the Year as a senior.

Third of all, watch this video. These guys say all that needs to be said about Borland’s impressive college career.

Quotes that stick out:

“Wherever the ball was you’d find Chris Borland.”

“He was really unblockable.”

“When Chris Borland hit you, you didn’t keep going forward. You either stood still or you fell backwards, most likely the latter.”

“Chris Borland, simply put, was one of the greatest tacklers in the history of the Big Ten.”

Former Ohio State quarterback Braxton Miller even called him the most challenging defender he had to face during his time playing in the Big Ten.

Praise looking back is one thing, but if we want to go to the numbers the Ohio native finished his college career with 420 total tackles (including a whopping 143 during his redshirt sophomore season), 50 tackles-for-loss, 17 sacks, three interceptions and nine forced fumbles.

His collegiate work was enough to hear his name called in the third round of the 2014 NFL Draft by the San Francisco 49ers.

His rookie season in the NFL began with him a backup until an injury in Week 7 saw the former Badger rise to a starting role.

The rest of that season, then, is history.

Borland’s final rookie tally included eight starts, 108 tackles, 12 tackles-for-loss, one sack, two interceptions and one fumble recovery.

In late December, unfortunately, the former Badger was placed on season-ending injured reserve with an ankle injury.

Honors from his rookie season include Defensive Rookie of the Month for November, NFC Defensive Player of the Week in Week 11 and Pepsi Rookie of the Week in Weeks 10 and 11.

As anybody who has followed Borland’s path knows, he then decided to step away from the game due to the concern of head trauma and retired on March 16, 2015.

ESPN The Magazine wrote an in-depth piece that August detailing Borland’s decision to retire and what he planned to do about the NFL’s ongoing concussion issue, calling him “the most dangerous man in football.”

After retirement the Ohio native was outspoken about his decision to retire and worked hard to bring awareness to the issue of brain trauma related to playing football, one initiative being with a non-profit focused on helping veterans with PTSD and athletes with concussions named After the Impact Fund.

Today he is a neuroscience student at King’s College in London, England and teaches for SearchInsideYourself, a Google nonprofit which “teaches practical mindfulness, emotional intelligence and leadership tools to unlock [somebody’s] full potential at work and in life.”

The path has been an unorthodox one for Borland, and it is clear that his work with brain trauma and concussions is far from over.

Where are they now: Joe Thomas

The post-draft football lull continues as we continue the “where are they now” series with a look at the college, professional and…

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The post-draft football lull continues as we continue the “where are they now” series with a look at the college, professional and post-football career of legendary offensive tackle Joe Thomas.

Thomas was born in Brookfield, Wisconsin and committed to play for the Badgers after shining as a four-star recruit and the No. 18 offensive line prospect in his class coming out of high school.

He didn’t only play offensive line in high school, though, as he was also ranked by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel as a first-team all-state defensive lineman and by the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association as the 2002 Defensive Player of the Year.

Thomas then arrived in Madison in 2003 and began his career as a tight end while he added weight and transitioned to the college level.

During the remainder of his college career, 2004-2006, Thomas started for the Badgers at left tackle during a total of 38 contests and finished his time in Madison having been named as a first-team All-American twice, to the first-team All-Big Ten twice and won the Outland Trophy awarded to the nation’s best interior lineman as a senior in 2006.

His college production and NFL Combine results were enough for the Cleveland Browns to draft Thomas No. 3 overall in the 2007 NFL Draft.

Despite the fact that it’s challenging for offensive linemen to enter the public eye as they never touch the football and aren’t drafted in fantasy leagues, especially so for one on a bad team for his whole career, Thomas became widely known as one of the greatest left tackles to ever play the game.

He did this through, over the course of 10.5 years, playing in an NFL record 10,363 consecutive snaps before a tricep tear in 2017 eventually ended his season and his career. That’s playing every snap from when he entered the league, playing his first game in September of 2007 against the Pittsburgh Steelers, to when he got injured on October 22, 2017 against the Tennessee Titans. Ten full seasons and seven weeks of never missing an offensive snap.

There’s a saying that the best ability is availability. Thomas was a perfect embodiment of that statement, impressively doing it at a position where players face contact on every play and often miss time with leg injuries and concussions.

As icing on an impressive cake, Thomas’ 11-year NFL career finished with six All-Pro nominations and ten Pro Bowl appearances, the only offensive lineman ever to do so. During that 11-year career he also allowed only 30 sacks in over 6,600 pass-blocking snaps and was recently named to NFL.com’s 2010’s All-Decade Team along with fellow Badger J.J. Watt.

Though he isn’t eligible for the Hall of Fame until 2023, he will be a sure-fire first ballot nominee as he puts a wrap on one of the greatest careers at his position in the history of the league.

In the two years since his retirement Thomas has lost 50 pounds and has transitioned to work in the NFL media both for Uninterrupted.com, for whom he hosts a podcast with his former teammate Andrew Hawkins, and for NFL Network for whom he’s an NFL analyst and regular contributor to their Thursday Night Football broadcasts.

The embodiment of Wisconsin football, Thomas will soon become only the third Wisconsin representative in the Pro Football Hall of Fame joining Elroy Hirsch and Mike Webster as he continues to work as a member of the NFL media and in close relation to everything football.

Where are they now: Gary Andersen

The “where are they now” series continues today with a shift in focus from the field to the sidelines as we catchup on former Wisconsin…

The “where are they now” series continues today with a shift in focus from the field to the sidelines as we catchup on former Wisconsin head coach Gary Andersen‘s career after spending two unforgettable seasons in Madison in 2013 and 2014.

The first of the two, the 2013 season, was understandably a tough one as Andersen was taking over from the successful Brett Bielema era after Bielema left to take a job at Arkansas. The team finished 9-4 that year, losing to No. 8 South Carolina in the Capital One Bowl, but showed promise with an improving quarterback in Joel Stave, a backfield of Melvin Gordon and Corey Clement and a defense headlined by Chris Borland, Michael Caputo and Sojourn Shelton.

What followed in 2014 was an absolute rollercoaster of a season, one which ended in turmoil and set the stage for Paul Chryst to step into the head coaching job going forward.

The 2014 campaign began with Andersen’s Badgers ranked No. 14 in the nation as they prepared to face the No. 13 LSU Tigers Week 1. The Badgers led 24-7 as one point in that game but ended up falling 28-24 and starting the season 0-1. In only one game there was already a peak and a valley, what seemed to be the theme during Andersen’s tenure.

The team then peeled off three out-of-conference victories, returning to No. 17 in the polls, but followed it up in Week 5 with a loss at unranked Northwestern that put them 3-2 on the season and out of the top-25. Valley number two.

Andersen’s unit then went on a seven game winning streak, all in-conference, with ranked victories against No. 11 Nebraska and No. 22 Minnesota. The most notable of the seven contests was the victory at Camp Randall against the Cornhuskers as Gordon broke the NCAA single-game rushing record with a 408 yard, four touchdown performance. Peak number three.

The team was riding high with 10-2 record entering the Big Ten Championship against No. 6 Ohio State who saw their starting quarterback J.T. Barrett break his leg the week prior, opening the door for sophomore quarterback Cardale Jones to start his first collegiate game.

As Badger fans know too well, Ohio State beat Wisconsin 59-0 that day, handing the Badgers their worst loss since 1972 and punching their ticket to the College Football Playoff in its inaugural year. Valley number three.

Andersen left the program four days later to take the head coaching job at Oregon State, giving way to Barry Alvarez to take over as interim head coach for the team’s 34-31 Outback Bowl victory against No. 19 Auburn.

It later surfaced that Andersen was unhappy with Wisconsin’s academic standards for athletes, something that was a driving force for him to leave the program in search of head coaching jobs elsewhere.

Gary Andersen’s tenure in Madison came to an end with a record of 19-7 (13-3 in the Big Ten) and the infamous 59-0 defeat in the 2014 conference championship game.

That became the coach’s best two seasons record wise during his coaching career as his team at Oregon State from 2015-17 held an abysmal record of 7-23 and he and the school parted ways after a 1-5 start to the 2017 season.

2018 saw Andersen return to The University of Utah, his alma mater and the place where he began his coaching career, as a defensive assistant and the assistant head coach.

Now on to last season, the coach returned to Utah State, the place he coached for four years before coming to Madison, and had a 7-6 record including a 51-41 Frisco Bowl loss to Kent State.

His quarterback was now-Green Bay Packer Jordan Love, a player who excelled in 2018 during the old coaching regime and struggled for the most part in 2019. Much was said during his draft process about the talent that graduated after 2018, but also about the coaching difference between Matt Wells, his coach for his first two years, and Andersen who led him last season.

Looking forward to 2020 the former Badger head coach is still at the helm at Utah State as he looks to improve upon the team’s 7-6 record from 2019 and reach his first conference championship game since the infamous 2014 defeat at the hands of Jones and the Buckeyes.

 

 

 

Where are they now: Nick Nelson

Nick Nelson began his college career at the University of Hawaii as a three-star cornerback out of Glenarden, Maryland. After two…

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Nick Nelson began his college career at the University of Hawaii as a three-star cornerback out of Glenarden, Maryland.

After two productive seasons with the Rainbow Warriors in 2014 and 2015, one of the most interesting names out there for a college football team, the defensive back transferred to Wisconsin and redshirted the 2016 season.

During Nelson’s only season in Madison, the 2017 campaign, he was part of one of the most successful teams in school history as coach Paul Chryst led the Badgers to a 13-1 record capped off by a 34-24 Orange Bowl victory against No. 11 Miami.

His presence was pivotal for Jim Leonhard‘s defense that year, one that ranked No. 2 in the nation in yards-allowed-per-game with 262.1 and No. 3 in points-allowed-per-game with just 13.9, as he both led the nation and set the school’s single-season record with 21 pass breakups.

His most notable play came against No. 19 Michigan on November 18 when, in a scoreless game late in the first quarter, he took a punt back for a touchdown and sparked what would become a 24-10 victory against the Wolverines.

The Maryland native finished his one year in Madison with 35 tackles, one tackle-for-loss, again a school-record 21 pass breakups and 24 punt returns for 206 yards and the one return touchdown.

After the season the redshirt junior decided to forgo his senior year and enter the 2018 NFL Draft where he was selected in the fourth round by the then-Oakland Raiders.

The beginning of his Raider career was a slow one with the cornerback only starting in three games as a rookie and logging one pass breakup, one fumble recovery and 20 total tackles.

Nelson was then waived before the 2019 season, re-signed to the Raiders’ practice squad, promoted back to the active roster in December and subsequently placed on injured reserve 13 days later.

Looking forward to 2020, Nelson projects to back up 2019 second round pick Trayvon Mullen at cornerback and receive most of his playing time on special teams.

The path to regular playing time is there for the former Badger, though, as both him and 2020 fourth round pick Amik Robertson will have a shot at battling former undrafted free agent Lamarcus Joyner for snaps at cornerback when the Raiders use a nickel formation, or snaps at one of the two starting corner positions were Mullen or 2020 first round pick Damon Arnette to struggle out of the game

Nelson is currently only signed for the 2020 season so when the time comes for him to receive snaps at corner it’s pivotal he shows the coaching staff what he’s capable of in order to earn another contract with the team.