Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
The Broncos have a few winners and losers coming out of the NFL draft.
The Denver Broncos picked nine players in the 2022 NFL draft over the weekend and then signed 13 undrafted free agents as well.
After adding those 22 players to the roster, the Broncos have several winners and losers going into the summer.
The Tigers had an early exit after losing to the Cyclones in the March Madness opener
It certainly wasn’t the finish the Tigers had hoped for on Friday night, but it also wasn’t exactly surprising.
The team entered the NCAA Tournament after a difficult week that began with the team firing fifth-year coach Will Wade after he was cited in a Notice of Allegations days prior. LSU had a tough first-round draw against a Big 12 team in Iowa State, and things didn’t go interim coach Kevin Nickelberry’s way in Milwaukee.
The Tigers lost their opener to the Cyclones 59-54 in a No. 6 vs. No. 11 upset, and they head back to Baton Rouge empty-handed with a good deal of uncertainty facing the program in the near future. With a premature end against a potential Cinderella squad, LSU was listed among USA TODAY Sports’ biggest losers from Friday’s action.
The No. 6-seeded Tigers played uninspired before a late rally at the end in a 59-54 loss to Iowa State in the first round of the Midwest Region. The outcome’s understandable considering coach Will Wide was fired shortly before the NCAA Tournament. This game felt like the Cyclones were the favored team throughout the night, with LSU shooting 21% from 3-point land and committing 19 turnovers with interim head coach Kevin Nickelberry trying to get this group to reestablish its identity without Wade.
CBS Sports concurred in its list of winners and losers.
With LSU seeking its next head coach after Will Wade’s firing last week, the future looks a bit frightening for the Tigers, which could still face a postseason ban or other penalties for alleged violations committed during Wade’s tenure. Five-star signee Julian Phillips shared Friday that he was released from his letter of intent, and restocking the roster may prove to be difficult for then next coach amid the possibility of looming sanctions. A deep NCAA Tournament run under interim coach Kevin Nickelberry might have changed the narrative surrounding the program a bit. But now the Tigers enter an uncertain night with athletic director Scott Woodward’s excellent track record of hiring coaches shining as the only light in what may wind up as a bleak tunnel for the LSU program.
Given the fight to make it a game at the end in spite of a 12-point deficit, poor offensive play and an interim coach on the sidelines, it’s hard not to be impressed by the effort LSU put in on Friday.
But for losing as a high seed in the very first game, it’s understandable why the Tigers are being included on these lists.
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Taking a look at the winners and losers in fantasy football from Week 11.
The fantasy football playoffs are just around the corner and yet again, Week 11 provided us with some fireworks paired with some duds for managers to ponder.
We saw a historic performance from a second-year running back, the worst fantasy performance from a quarterback since his 2017 season along with plenty of other takeaways.
Instead of simply looking at the top players at each position, this is more of a look at some trends mixed with both positive and negative performances from the week that was.
Without further ado, here are the winners and losers in fantasy football from Week 11:
Florida was a winner in the record book on Saturday, but it certainly doesn’t feel like it.
The Gators emerged victorious on Saturday, but it’s hard to call the team winners for its effort. It won 70-52 against FCS opponent Samford, but that required a comeback after Florida allowed 42 points in the first half.
The team sits at just 5-5 and needs to win one of its final games two games to get to bowl eligibility. Based on the way it has played in recent weeks, the team should be underdogs against both Missouri and Florida State.
In his winners and losers breakdown from Week 11, CBS Sports’ Shehan Jeyarajah, the Gators were squarely in the “losers” category.
The Gators managed to survive 4-6 FCS Samford in a 70-52 decision thanks to a 35-10 run in the second half, but the performance was embarrassing enough in victory that it will still force major soul-searching in Gainesville. The 52 points allowed ties the most ever given up by an FBS opponent against an FCS foe and ranks as the most ever surrendered by Florida against a non-Power Five opponent. Florida coach Dan Mullen decided to fire defensive coordinator Todd Grantham after a series of embarrassing results, but giving up a combined 92 points to South Carolina and Samford in consecutive weeks should be impossible for a team of Florida’s talent.
Mullen is running out of excuses in Gainesville, and Saturday’s game didn’t go a long way toward convincing anyone that he’s going to get things turned around.
A decision on Mullen’s future may not come until the end of the season, but it seems like UF’s ugly win over a bad FCS team may have sealed his fate.
The Cowboys certainly outperformed expectations on Thursday night, but the coaching staff did have a couple blunders which cost them. | From @NoHuddle
The Dallas Cowboys are winless in 2021. They lost last year’s season finale. They lost four preseason games. Now they’ve lost on the NFL’s opening night. That’s six losses in a row for a team that prides itself on a history of winning. The team that took the field on Thursday night, however, is much different than the previous iterations.
To be clear, moral victories do not count in the NFL. They do not get a club closer to the playoffs. If there ever was one, though, it took place when Cowboys fell 31-29 to the defending Super Bowl Champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The team didn’t come out smelling like roses in the end, and in fact, some aspects reeked. But the team also has the ultimate de-odorizer.
Jacksonville running back James Robinson finished fifth in rushing last season, but the running back room just became a bit crowded.
Second-year Jacksonville running back James Robinson was one of the league’s biggest surprises in 2020. An undrafted rookie out of Illinois State, Robinson won the starting job heading into Week 1 and never looked back, finishing fifth in the league in rushing with 1,070 yards.
The Jaguars rewarded him by drafting a running back with the 25th pick in the first round in Travis Etienne, as well as signing free agent back Carlos Hyde and Tim Tebow, who could see carries in an H-back role (if he makes the team). It’s for these reasons that Bleacher Report’s Maurice Moton lists Robinson as one of the biggest losers of the NFL offseason.
Even though James Robinson tied for fifth in rushing with 1,070 yards last year, he’ll likely accept a lesser role in 2021.
Under a new regime, the Jacksonville Jaguars signed Carlos Hyde, who played for head coach Urban Meyer at Ohio State between 2012 and 2013, and selected Travis Etienne in the first round of the draft, which creates a crowd in the backfield.
Etienne took reps at wide receiver during rookie minicamp, but he’ll likely handle a good chunk of carries during the regular season. The Clemson product rushed for 4,952 yards and 70 touchdowns through four collegiate terms.
According to ESPN’s Dianna Russini, the Jaguars may use tight end Tim Tebow in a Taysom Hill-like role. In other words, he could take direct snaps in the Wildcat formation and handoffs for short-yardage rushing attempts.
Despite Robinson’s ascension from an unknown undrafted free agent out of Illinois State to a top-five rusher, he’s one component of a three-man committee in an offense that may not feature a dominant ball-carrier.
Robinson will likely see a drop in his second-year rushing numbers with Etienne, Hyde and perhaps Tebow splitting the carries.
But does this evaluation hold water? The Jags staff has made it abundantly clear that it doesn’t intend to use Etienne in a normal running back role. He’s been described as a “slash” player and has taken a lot of reps at receiver during minicamp. He will likely see some carries in a third-down running back role, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing for Robinson. In fact, it could work to his benefit.
He shouldered an unsustainable load in 2020. He carried the ball 240 times, which led the league in carry percentage. He was productive, but he won’t be for very long if the Jaguars ask him to bear that much of a burden every year. Already, you could see the effects of his workload start to take place at the end of the season, as he missed the final two games with an ankle injury.
Etienne possesses a very different skillset than Robinson, allowing him to serve as a change-of-pace back with more capabilities in the passing game. This should allow Robinson to do what he does best without being expected to be on the field for almost every offensive snap.
The addition of Hyde only provides further depth. Though he broke 1,000 yards in 2019, he totaled just 356 yards on 81 carries with San Francisco last fall. The 30-year-old returns to the Jags after playing with them in eight games during the 2018 season, but it seems unlikely he will be a major factor in the run game.
As far as Tebow goes, it seems a bit earnest to assume he’ll be able to fit into a role similar to the one Hill held in New Orleans after nine years away from a 53-man roster. Even if he makes the team, he’ll struggle to see action at tight end, let alone as a featured player in a gadget role.
Robinson’s role on the team undoubtedly diminished a bit this offseason as the team added more pieces to the run game, and it will likely cause his carry share to drop a bit. But as previously mentioned, that may not be a bad thing.
He’s still the clear top running back option and should be the team’s leading rusher in 2021. Now, he’ll just be able to do it while also preserving his long-term health.
Nate Davis of USA TODAY gives the Seattle Seahawks 2021 NFL draft class a C-minus grade.
The Seattle Seahawks wrapped up their 2021 NFL draft with just a handful of selections. Despite a couple of trades, the Seahawks started and ended the draft with just three picks. In the end, the Seahawks came away with wide receiver D’Wayne Eskridge, cornerback Tre Brown and tackle Stone Forsythe.
The analysts’ first impressions haven’t been all that positive, although most concede it takes at least three years to fully evaluate a team’s draft haul.
Here’s a look at what USA TODAY’s Nate Davis had to say before giving the Seahawks his grade of a C-minus.
“Given they only had three picks … pretty flabbergasting – to QB Russell Wilson and The 12’s – that their highest one was used for a wide receiver, D’Wayne Eskridge in Round 2,” Davis writes. ‘It should be noted that G Gabe Jackson was plucked from the Raiders (and later extended) for a fifth-rounder in March. But it remains to be seen if S Jamal Adams was worth a pair of Round 1 choices – though the Seahawks tend to muck those up anyway – especially given how he was picked on by the Rams in the playoffs.”
Davis is spot on when he reminds readers that when looking at the Seahawks class, it’s important to include both Adams and Jackson, who truly account for some of the picks. When you look at it that way, it paints a much different picture.
For more from Davis, click here.
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The New Orleans Saints defeated the Denver Broncos with help from Latavius Murray and Demario Davis, despite Taysom Hill’s ugly moments.
Who stood out the most in Week 12’s road win for the New Orleans Saints? The Denver Broncos were beaten badly in their own building by a dominant performance from the Saints defense, but the offense won enough reps of their own against the Broncos to pour on the points.
Here are my picks for this week’s Stars, Studs, and Duds:
The New Orleans Saints defeated the Atlanta Falcons off of strong performances from Janoris Jenkins, Michael Thomas, and Kwon Alexander.
While Taysom Hill was the talk of the town in his first start for the New Orleans Saints, several teammates turned in great tape for their efforts against the Atlanta Falcons — and a few others left something to be desired. Here are our picks for standouts from Week 11:
Winners and losers from the first win for the Dallas Cowboys in over 40 days.
Before Sunday, the last time the Dallas Cowboys had won a game was 42 days ago. The four-game schneid was the team’s longest since 2015 when they suffered not one, but two losing streaks that were actually worse. Still, it ranks among the darker times this franchise has ever seen, so despite people pining for a continued tank, it’s a breath of fresh air to not be abject failures for one day.
As always, there are winners and losers from Sunday’s game. Though today’s recap will be more rosy than most in recent memory, there’s plenty of room for improvement despite the Cowboys looking like a functional football team the last two times they stepped onto the field.
