Sports
Chargers receiver Quentin Johnston would like to drop this memory
He has refused to let it go, the pass that Quentin Johnston, as a rookie last season, most famously failed to catch.
At Green Bay in Week 11, in the game’s final 30 seconds, Johnston couldn’t secure a ball that would have put the Chargers at least in range for a tying field-goal attempt.
One fourth-down incompletion later, their 23-20 loss was official and an underwhelming first NFL season for Johnston crept painfully forward.
On Tuesday, after the team’s latest spring practice, Johnston said he has rewatched the play in recent months as a means of motivation, especially on days when he’s searching for a spark.
“[I’ll] pull it up real quick,” he explained, “kind of got mad at myself again.”
Johnston called the drop “just straight-up unacceptable” as he tries to rebound under the Chargers’ new coaching staff and in a vastly altered wide receiver environment.
Veterans Mike Williams and Keenan Allen left the team in March as salary cap casualties. The Chargers signed DJ Chark in free agency and drafted three wide receivers — Ladd McConkey, Brenden Rice and Cornelius Johnson.
One of the top holdovers at the position along with Joshua Palmer, Johnston finds himself with an inviting opportunity to prove he was worthy of being the 21st player taken overall in the 2023 draft.
His need to improve has been boosted by the memory — and images — of that November day in Wisconsin, where Johnston’s inconsistent play and doubted hands were on full display.
He said he has been driven by a desire to avoid having his situation “just wind down into a game like that, which obviously I do not want again.” Targeted six times that afternoon, Johnston finished with just two catches for 21 yards.
Even with Williams missing the final 14 games and Allen the last month because of injuries, Johnston’s rookie performance remained underwhelming. His 38 receptions went for 431 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
“My expectations never change for myself,” Johnston said. “Even through the bad games I had last year, I was never like, ‘Maybe I can’t do it.’ I still hold myself to a high standard.”
With Williams and Allen elsewhere, the Chargers would love to have Johnston reassert himself as a rising prospect. But what remains unclear is how much patience the team’s new regime will have for a top draft pick it inherited.
Wide receivers coach Sanjay Lal was with Seattle last year and studied Johnston extensively leading up to the draft. The Seahawks were eyeing a receiver, too, and selected Jaxon Smith-Njigba at No. 20.
“It’s not fair to look back,” Lal said when asked about Johnston’s uneven first year. “Looking forward, he moves as well as any receiver I’ve seen. So the potential is very high.”
Explaining that Johnston has “a lot of juice,” Lal said the Chargers have been working on his body positioning. At 6-foot-4, 215 pounds, Johnston possesses the necessary dimensions.
In fact, Lal said he specifically has been showing Johnston tapes of Seattle’s DK Metcalf, a player known for his body usage. A much more physical receiver than Johnston, Metcalf is 6-4, 235 pounds.
What Lal said he isn’t doing is dwelling on Johnston’s 2023 season. Since he wasn’t with the Chargers then, Lal said there’s no point in trying to figure out what went wrong under circumstances unfamiliar to him.
“I don’t know the context,” Lal said. “To take a player back to that, especially if it’s a negative, I don’t see any purpose going forward. I see, ‘This can be improved.’ I know the drills to improve it. I’m going to implement those. I don’t need the context.”
Johnston said his focus this offseason largely has been focus. He said he wasn’t detailed enough in his approach to catching the ball last year. He insisted the experience hasn’t dented his confidence.
He also used terms like “first-year jitters” and “anxiousness” in describing his sometimes disconnected partnership with Justin Herbert.
“Instead of being on the quarterback’s time,” Johnston said, “I was trying to rush it and be on my time.”
Four wide receivers were taken in the draft’s first round in 2023 — one after another from picks 20 to 23. After Smith-Njigba and Johnston, Zay Flowers went to Baltimore and Jordan Addison to Minnesota.
Among the foursome, Johnston finished last in catches, yards and touchdowns, and the numbers weren’t especially close.
The opportunity before him in 2024 is certainly enticing and encouraging, the Chargers looking to their younger wideouts for production.
“It’s different for sure,” Johnston said of Williams and Allen being gone. “But that’s just them making room for us to step up [and] grow up a little bit quicker as a leader.”
The Cleveland Browns, rumored to be willing to trade down from their No. 6 overall selection in the 2026 NFL draft, did just that Thursday evening when the traded the pick to the Kansas City Chiefs.
Cleveland traded the sixth overall pick in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft to the Chiefs, in exchange for the ninth overall pick, as well as pick No. 74 in the third round and No. 148 in the fifth round.
The Browns now hold the No. 9 and No. 24 picks in the first round of the draft. They have a total of 11 picks in the 2026 NFL Draft.
Quarterbacks Shedeur Sanders and Deshaun Watson of the Cleveland Browns watch from the sidelines during a game against the Cincinnati Bengals at Huntington Bank Field in Cleveland, Ohio, on Sept. 7, 2025. (Jason Miller/Getty Images)
So the Chiefs gave up three picks in making the first trade of the first round.
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And we know what the fan bases of both clubs were thinking prior to the selection:
Chiefs fans were thinking we know something they don’t. And then the Chiefs selected cornerback Mansoor Delane from LSU — a move no doubt forced by the club’s trade of Pro Bowl cornerback Trent McDuffie to the Los Angeles Rams earlier in the offseason.
So, the Chiefs fill a major need, assuming Delane is indeed the quality corner they believe.
LSU Tigers CB Mansoor Delane celebrates a defensive stop against the Clemson Tigers at Memorial Stadium in South Carolina. (Ken Ruinard/USA TODAY Network)
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ESPN’s Mel Kiper didn’t like the pick, by the way. He had Delane as the 14th best player in the draft.
“It was a necessity,” ESPN analyst Louis Riddick, a former NFL defensive back, responded.
Browns fans weren’t thinking that way.
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They were probably thinking something akin to “We screwed up.”
This is understandable because they’re Browns fans and this could have been the Browns Browning.
Well, the Browns, moving down three slots, gave up a shot to draft linebacker Sonny Styles of Ohio State to the Washington Commanders, receiver Jordyn Tyson to the New Orleans Saints and then the Browns got their chance with the newly acquired No. 9 pick:
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Offensive tackle Spencer Fano of Utah.
Cleveland Browns general manager Andrew Berry speaks at the NFL Scouting Combine at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis, Ind., on Feb. 24, 2026. (Kirby Lee/Imagn Images)
Fano is good. And he makes the Browns offensive line instantly better because he’s going to likely start at left tackle for them.
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So what will Browns fans think of this pick?
They’ll probably wonder why the Browns didn’t pick Miami’s Francis Mauigoa, who went with the No. 10 pick to the New York Giants and promised “to die for” Jaxson Dart if necessary. They’ll wonder this because Browns fans expect the worst.
UCLA women’s basketball team has added some star power as its revamped roster begins to take shape.
Former Iowa State forward Addy Brown announced Thursday she is committing to UCLA, giving the Bruins one of the top players in the portal.
Brown averaged 11.9 points, 8.8 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game while shooting 43.1% from the floor and 33.8% from three-point distance with the Cyclones last season. She played just 21 games due to injury, but she is one of the better two-way players in the nation on the transfer market.
The 6-foot-2 forward co-starred with Audi Crooks for Iowa State the past few seasons and was a part of the mass exodus from the Cyclones’ program.
The Bruins reeled in former North Carolina junior guard Elina Aarnisalo and former Texas Christian senior guard Donovyn Hunter a few weeks ago, adding two more experienced players to the depleted starting lineup after a record six UCLA players were selected in the WNBA draft.
UCLA also signed Arkansas sophomore guard Bonnie Deas earlier this month. She is likely to start at point guard for the Bruins and is one of the best rebounding guards in the nation.
Along with returner Timea Gardiner, the Bruins are starting to form somewhat of a core to defend their national championship. Gardiner was a starter during UCLA’s 2024-25 Final Four run, but missed all of this past season with injury and has one season of eligibility left.
A lineup with Deas and Aarnisalo in the backcourt, Hunter at the three and Gardiner or Brown at the four and adding another big or Sienna Betts at the five would be a competitive lineup in the Big Ten.
Before going to TCU, Hunter played two seasons at Oregon State where she earned All-Pac-12 Defensive Team honorable mention and All-Pac-12 Freshman team honors. This past season with a Horned Frogs team that went to the Sweet 16, she was third in scoring with 10.2 points per game and averaged 3.2 rebounds per contest. She also shot 45.7% from the field and was 33.7% from beyond the arc.
Aarnisalo played her freshman year in Westwood after she originally committed to UCLA in 2025. Due to injuries from point guard Kiki Rice at the start of the 2024-25 season, she was forced into action early her freshman season and finished the year averaging 5.1 points per game.
The Helsinki, Finland, native averaged 10.2 points per game for the Tar Heels as a sophomore last season while shooting 47.3% from the field and 40.3% from the arc. The Bruins will desperately need to replace the three-point production lost with the departure of Rice, Gianna Kneepkens and Charlisse Leger-Walker.
UCLA coach Cori Close said she wanted to sign five players from the portal. She probably needs one more guard and a little more forward depth coming off the bench following the departures of Gabriela Jaquez and Angela Dugalic.
Lena Bilic and Amanda Muse are returners coming off the bench who got a little bit of playing time in the tournament and should have much larger roles, but they are still relatively unproven in late-game situations. They will get a chance to develop as backups with some more Power Four experienced starters now in the fold.
Trump says there’s ‘no time frame’ to secure Iran deal
Republican Minnesota Senate candidate Tom Weiler joins ‘Fox & Friends’ to discuss President Donald Trump’s blockade in the Strait of Hormuz as the U.S.-Iranian conflict continues and react to Gov. Tim Walz’s, D-Minn., criticism of the president.
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Saudi Arabia was among the countries seeing missiles fly into their airspace as a conflict broke out in the Middle East between the U.S. and Iran.
The prospect of Iran targeting its Middle Eastern neighbors like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates put some sporting events on hold and questioned others. Formula 1 races in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain were canceled and rumors swirled around whether future WWE events could be held in the kingdom.
Roman Reigns celebrates his win during WWE’s Royal Rumble at Riyadh Season Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Jan. 31, 2026. (Georgiana Dallas/WWE)
As the Trump administration brokered a ceasefire with Iran, WWE announced on Thursday that its Night of Champions premium live event will be held in Riyadh on June 27.
“We are proud to welcome Night of Champions back to Riyadh and look forward to delivering another unforgettable night of WWE action for fans in the Kingdom and around the world,” General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki Al-Sheikh said in a news release.
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Sami Zayn makes his entrance during Night of Champions at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on June 28, 2025. (Georgiana Dallas/WWE)
The release touted that WrestleMania 43 will still be held in Riyadh in 2027. It will be the first time that WrestleMania is held outside the U.S.
WWE president Nick Khan was adamant before WrestleMania 42 that the event will still take place in Saudi Arabia despite the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
“We’re doing WrestleMania next year in Saudi,” he said at a Sports Business Journal event, via The Sporting Tribune. “First time ever, WrestleMania will be outside the United States or Canada. And we’ve had a big, fruitful partnership with them.”
John Cena wrestles CM Punk during Night of Champions at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on June 28, 2025. (Georgiana Dallas/WWE)
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He added that those complaining about WrestleMania being held in Saudi Arabia were a “vocal minority.”
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