Month: March 2023

The potential top-10 pick is clear about the influence the women closest to him—namely his mother and five sisters—have had on his success.

INDIANAPOLIS—What keeps the phenomenally talented Will Anderson grounded and humble?

“One lady: Tereon Anderson, my mom,” Will said.

The Alabama linebacker is one of the best players in the draft and a near lock to go in the top 10, and depending on trades by QB-needy teams will likely go top five. In a sport dominated by the messaging of toughness and machismo, Anderson is a breath of fresh air; He’s never shied away from the profound influence that the women closest to him have had in his life.

“All my [five] sisters, they played sports, so they played basketball, they ran track, volleyball, and I watched them,” Anderson said. “I watched how they work. I watched their work ethic. I took the good and I left the bad. Just watching the way they work. They put a lot into me, they made a lot of sacrifices for me, went up and down the road giving me advice telling me different things. That’s kinda how they molded me into the athlete I am today.”

Now that Anderson is readying for the pros, more talented women are in his corner, including Nicole Lynn, president of Klutch Sports, who recently became the first Black woman to represent a player in the Super Bowl (Jalen Hurts). Anderson also made it a point to shout out other women at Klutch Sports, Jenna Malphrus and Shakeemah Simmons-Winter, as being integral to his draft prep, specifically when it comes to getting him ready for interviews and helping him study who he’s meeting with with each team.

Anderson is a unique prospect, and the best pure edge rusher that Nick Saban had at Alabama. He entered the 2022 season as the most impressive player at his position and has lived up to the projection every step of the way, backed by a talented group of women who push him to be great.

Tyree Wilson says his health is full go

The first thing you notice about Texas Tech edge rusher Tyree Wilson is his length. He’s 6-foot-6 with a mammoth wingspan, and the measurables have vaulted him up draft boards throughout the season.

But all eyes will be on his foot after a late season foot fracture forced him to get a screw inserted in his foot. He said he’s ahead of schedule—He walked to the podium Wednesday without a limp and has been out of a walking boot for about a month.

“I think I’m real close to 100%,” he said.

While he may participate in the bench press, he’ll save the rest of workouts for Texas Tech’s pro day.

Horton has a plan

Defensive linemen are tacticians that often don’t get enough credit for their technical prowess, but to listen to TCU’s Dylan Horton describe his game is to hear someone who understands the finer points of developing a pass rush plan and adjusting when needed throughout a game. Here’s how he described his thought process going into the Fiesta Bowl against Michigan:

“There was a situation where I had to blitz and slant inside and watching film I knew that I had to go inside the guard, so faking like I was going into the B gap [between guard and tackle] and slanting across his face into the A gap [between center and guard] that’s the only way I watched it on film. But throughout the game I tried to do it but I wasn’t clean enough. So, knowing that I had to make sure I sold myself into the B gap.”

It’s a game he finished with four sacks in the Horned Frogs’ 51–45 win, so the mission was accomplished. Horton got nerdy about pass rushing because he originally wasn’t a hand-in-the-dirt defensive end until new defensive coordinator Joe Gillespe got to Fort Worth before the 2022 season (and Horton played safety in high school).

Brenton Cox trying to move forward after exit from Florida

Cox has physical tools that make him perhaps a Day 2 draftable player, but some character concerns have popped up throughout his career. He originally signed with Georgia before transferring to Florida and leaving the team near the end of his final season.

At the time, Florida head coach Billy Napier called it a “cumulative decision.” As Cox goes through the interview process with NFL teams, he’ll certainly have to explain how things broke bad near the end of his career.

“It’s not my business to try and figure out why another man did something else,” Cox said. “I just tell them I’m a hard-nosed guy and I’m ready to move on from it.”

Cox recently participated in the East-West Shrine Bowl all-star game, and found the clear instruction he received from coaches during the practices was something that appealed to him, especially working with Bill Belichick.

“It’s much different than working with college coaches,” Cox said. “It’s pretty straightforward. What they want you to do, you have to do it right away and you have to take coaching on the spot. It was great working with him.” 

In part five of the best of “Out of Character,” Seth Rollins joins Ryan Satin and discusses his regrets of not furthering his storyline with Cesaro while comparing his career with Edge’s style.

Chris Ballard appeared to temper speculation that the Colts will attempt to trade up to the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft.

Xavier Musketeers’ Jack Nunge hammered in a powerful two-handed dunk against the Providence Frairs.

The YouTube star-turned-boxer suffered his first professional boxing defeat on Sunday.

Jake Paul may have suffered the first loss of his professional boxing career to Tommy Fury on Sunday, but he certainly didn’t walk away empty-handed.

The YouTube star-turned-boxer announced on his podcast BS With Jake Paul on Wednesday that he earned $30 million for the fight.

Paul also noted on his podcast that the fight garnered 500,000 pay-per-view purchases. According to Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix, the price for the fight in the United States was $50 and $19.95 in the United Kingdom.

The 26-year-old has yet to announce his next fight. However, it’s possible there could be a Fury-Paul rematch set up in the future. Paul is definitely on board.

“We’re going to come back and get that W,” Paul said after Sunday’s bout.

Paul’s boxing record dropped to 6–1 after his loss to Fury. Fury’s record improved to 9–0 after two judges scored the fight 76-73 in Fury’s favor, while the third favored Paul, 75-74.

There is optimism that Golden State Warriors star Steph Curry (leg) could rejoin the lineup as soon as next week.

Kitchens returned to college coaching in 2022 after 16 years in the NFL.

After 16 seasons coaching in the NFL—peaking with a one-year stint as the head coach of the Browns in 2019—Freddie Kitchens returned to the college ranks as an analyst for South Carolina in ’22. Now, he’s on the move again.

Kitchens was announced as the run game coordinator and tight ends coach at North Carolina on Tuesday, the school announced. Kitchens will join head coach Mack Brown’s staff as Brown enters the fifth season of his second stint with the Tar Heels.

“Freddie brings a wealth of experience as a head coach, a coordinator and a position coach,” Brown said in a statement. “We were really impressed with his resume and believe he will mesh nicely with the other members of the staff.”

Kitchens, 48, posted a 6-10 record in his lone season at the helm in Cleveland. He was elevated to the position after serving as the Browns’ offensive coordinator the previous year. Prior to arriving in Cleveland, Kitchens had stints with the Cowboys and Cardinals.

The Tar Heels posted a 9-5 record in 2022, reaching the ACC championship game. The team fell to Oregon in the Holiday Bowl. Over the past four seasons, Brown has posted a 30-22 record with the Tar Heels.

Emmanuel Acho, LeSean McCoy, Joy Taylor, and Ric Bucher discuss whether the Dallas Mavericks should have a problem with Kyrie Irving after he missed a potential game winning shot vs. the Indiana Pacers. McCoy weighs in on Irving’s performance and explains he loves that Irving took the last shot even though he missed it.

Teams already had causes for concern about the Georgia defensive tackle. The new charges connected to the death of a former teammate could shake up the draft.

Workouts don’t start until tomorrow, but NFL’s annual de facto league-wide convention is already well underway here in the Midwest. Here’s what’s buzzing at the combine …

• Teams didn’t know that reckless driving and racing charges—stemming from the incident that killed a Georgia football player and a Bulldogs recruiting staffer—were coming on prospective top-five pick Jalen Carter.

But that Carter might find himself in trouble leading up to the draft was hardly a shocker.

The wildly talented 6’3″, 310-pound game-wrecker was already giving teams in the upper reaches of the draft order a lot to dig through well before police issued two warrants for his arrest Wednesday morning. And obviously, those warrants won’t make things any easier on those picking near the top.

“There were concerns before any of this—I don’t know the details on this one, only that it’s pretty bad,” said an AFC college scouting director. “Before this, he had a reputation as someone who was never particular fond of the process. A lot of the questions were like, well, there’s nothing criminal, but he may not really love anything about football other than game day. Now, you can’t really say there’s nothing criminal.”

“I think he loves to play football,” the director continued, “but doesn’t love to work at it.”

“A very unique personality—the guy’s gonna rub some people the wrong way, and he’s not gonna be the cleanest guy in your building,” said another AFC exec. “[The questions about effort] stem from how easy everything comes for him. The guy has had to work, but the way he moves, it’s so easy for him. Like, take Aidan Hutchinson last year, he was upright, stiff, and the guy just wills himself into becoming a great player. Jalen, you feel like, could take two months off and be the same guy. It comes very easy to him.

“He’s just really gifted and with a motor that doesn’t run that hot, it adds up to a streaky, unpredictable dude.”

One GM told me Wednesday that while Carter was on his board, this latest incident would at least lead to a discussion on whether he should stay there, and he thought, based on what we know now, some teams would like take him off theirs.

Now, for his part, Carter said in a statement that, “There is no question in my mind that when all of the facts are known … I will be fully exonerated of any criminal wrongdoing.” But his mere presence in this sort of situation, on top of the aforementioned issues and some of the people around Carter, will be enough to give teams trepidation on whether or not it’s smart to spend a high first-round pick on a guy with these sorts of questions.

A short slide resulting from it, pending how the rest of the criminal investigation plays out, is certainly possible.

• Ravens GM Eric DeCosta addressed Lamar Jackson’s contract negotiation, again, and declined to get into detail, again, on Wednesday. But DeCosta did say something interesting in explaining the challenge in doing a deal with a self-represented player.

“Well you have a lot of regard for the player, first and foremost,” DeCosta said. “I think when you deal with an agent, sometimes you’re able to speak very freely, position yourself a certain way. You have different arguments that you can use that maybe you wouldn’t say to a player. So, I think that’s part of it.”

It’s good insight that I think I can translate a little here. Normally, part of the negotiating process, especially on high-end deals like this one, includes proposals from each side that almost certainly won’t be accepted. Things, as part of that, can get contentious, but an agent is there to shield the player from hurt feelings that could come from getting low-balled or a blunt assessment of why the team isn’t willing to spend more.

It can be ugly, at times, but it also can help lead to the right conclusion because it forces each side to start putting cards, financial and otherwise, on the table.

Without an agent? The team is going to be careful not to lowball. An early offer will probably be closer to a final offer, and things can easily wind up deadlocked with everyone worrying about everyone else’s feelings.

To be clear, I’m not saying that’s why Jackson’s deal hasn’t gotten done. But that dynamic being in play probably hasn’t helped.

• The NFLPA’s survey of 1,300 players—the brainchild of union president JC Tretter—was released to the public Wednesday, and the results were pretty fascinating. It reflected really well on some teams (Vikings, Dolphins, Raiders), not so much on others (Chargers, Cardinals, Commanders). But to me, there is a cumulative effect here that should be good.

Based on the money the game generates, every teams should strive to have first-class conditions for their players and, quite honestly, the penny-pinching that happens instead in some places is flat-out embarrassing. So making a poll of players like this public should create some accountability for teams that aren’t doing the right thing, and investing back into their players the way they should be.

• Key line from Colts GM Chris Ballard today on what moving up to the No. 1 pick would mean: “That we were just convicted. That this is no freaking doubt the guy.”

This year’s quarterback class is seen as good, not great, with the four consensus first-rounders all carrying significant flaws. So it’ll be interesting to see whether or not Indy gets there on Bryce Young, C.J. Stroud, Will Levis or Anthony Richardson.

• Derek Carr’s trip to Indianapolis was efficient, with meetings with three teams stacked into two days. The interest from all three, of course, is real, but the continued moving parts on the quarterback market (and there could be a surprise or two coming in the next two weeks) have the Jets, Panthers and Saints comfortable waiting for Carr to go through a very deliberate, detailed process.

The Aaron Rodgers situation, of course, is still looming over the spot Carr’s in, too.

• We’ve mentioned this before, but it’s worth repeating, with Browns coach Kevin Stefanski having said that Deshaun Watson is “very excited” with where Cleveland is taking its offense this offseason—the more traditional, Gary Kubiak-styled attack wasn’t a perfect fit for the quarterback last year. So I’d expect we’ll see Cleveland retrofitting it to Watson’s strengths more aggressively than it did last year, with more shotgun and more spread concepts to get Watson playing fast and back in his comfort zone.

• Since this is going to keep coming up—Indianapolis remains the perfect place for the scouting combine. And I really believe moving it to Dallas or Los Angeles will cause teams to scale back further on who they send, because it’ll really take away from some of the biggest benefits of the event for teams, with it being so easy here for teams to meet with agents, agents to meet with teams, and teams to meet with other teams.

No need to wreck a good thing.