Sports
Premium NFL wide receivers can be inexpensive, despite what agent tells ESPN
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ESPN’s Dan Graziano this week traced an exploding marketplace for the top-paid NFL extensive receivers. Equally fascinating is the flip facet of that story.
The Pittsburgh Steelers haven’t traded for a receiver since 2003, haven’t drafted one within the first spherical since 2006, and haven’t overpaid one in without end. As an alternative, in 11 of the previous 15 years, they’ve taken a second- or third-round WR.
This yr’s cut price is George Pickens, the league-wide rookie sensation of coaching camp, chosen 52nd total within the second spherical. Pickens combines with Chase Claypool (second spherical, 2020) and Diontae Johnson (third spherical, 2019) to present the Steelers a top-5 threesome. They fill out their WR room with fourth-round rookie Calvin Austin III and cheap veterans Gunner Olszewski and Miles Boykin. Mixture cap cost for all six: $15 million.
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Pittsburgh avoids the dangerous $20 million-plus receiver with this philosophy: Huge-open school offenses are producing NFL-ready receivers at a staggering price. Nothing is extra cost-efficient than starters taking part in on rookie contracts. Preserve drafting them, hold churning, don’t fall in love with them. Excellent high quality at nice costs is offered each draft in Rounds 2 and three.
Not Simply The Steelers
What NFL golf equipment agree? Indianapolis QB Matt Ryan is rising snug with three second-round receivers: Parris Campbell (2019), Michael Pittman Jr. (2020) and Alec Pierce (2022). Mixture cap cost for the Colts’ WR room: $9.4 million.
After buying and selling Marquise “Hollywood” Brown, Baltimore heard the pundits’ cries to signal a veteran receiver. GM Eric DeCosta declined, bringing to camp a dozen receivers, all of them age 25 or youthful. The group is led by Rashod Bateman (first spherical, 2021), Devin Duvernay (second spherical, 2020) and James Proche II (sixth spherical, 2020). Mixture cap cost for the Ravens’ WR room: $6 million.
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Equally, Kansas Metropolis GM Brett Veach had choices to make after refusing Tyreek Hill’s $30 million-per-year demand and buying and selling him to Miami for 5 draft decisions. Veach used one of many Dolphins’ picks on beginning CB Trent McDuffie. He used one other on WR Skyy Moore, who joins holdover Mecole Hardman and free brokers Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Juju Smith-Schuster in a rebuilt WR room that prices solely $15.4 million towards the cap.
Inexperienced Bay, infamous for not having drafted a first-round receiver since 2002, is sifting amongst 9 receivers whose combination cap cost is $16 million. Chicago and Atlanta, each rebuilding, will every hold their WR cap bills below $10 million.
‘Premium Place’? That’s Simply Agent Discuss
So we have now competing methods to guage and revel in within the coming season. In ESPN’s story, Tory Dandy, agent for A.J. Brown, Deebo Samuel, D.Okay. Metcalf, Mike Williams and Chris Godwin, not surprisingly endorsed the big-ticket method. Dandy stated, “I feel, truthfully, it’s simply turn out to be a premium place.”
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The definition of “premium place” has historically been: gamers who rating factors and instantly stop factors. By that commonplace, NFL extensive receivers have all the time been a premium place.
However premium vs. non-premium could not be the purpose. In as we speak’s NFL, the actual situation is shortage vs. surplus.
Scarce positions, if there was any doubt, had been recognized on the high of this yr’s draft – the primary seven picks had been edge rushers, cornerbacks and offensive tackles. Huge receiver, flooded annually with contemporary school expertise, is not a scarce place.
Terry O’Neil is the previous Govt Producer of CBS Sports activities and NBC Sports activities, and former Senior Vice President of the New Orleans Saints.
Sports
Caitlin Clark struggles in Fever’s loss to Liberty in wake of controversial game
One night after their controversial game against the Chicago Sky, the Indiana Fever got blown out on the road by the New York Liberty, 104-68, on Sunday.
And Caitlin Clark, the subject of the controversy, struggled mightily at Barclays Center during the team’s latest defeat.
Clark scored three points, shooting 1 of 10 from the field, including 1 of 7 from three-point territory. She also collected five assists, two rebounds, two steals and one block.
Meanwhile, the Liberty saw their stars cook up on home court as Breanna Stewart (13 points, six rebounds, five assists), Sabrina Ionescu (16 points, six assists, six rebounds), Jonquel Jones (18 points, 13 rebounds, four assists, two steals) and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton (20 points, five assists, two rebounds, two steals) led the way for New York.
The Fever were fresh off a tough win over the Sky, 71-70, the night before, and it wasn’t even 24 hours since controversy and tension brewed between those two squads.
Sky guard Chennedy Carter was seen hip-checking Clark during the game, and her Sky teammate, Angel Reese, clapped for the hard foul that turned into a flagrant 1 violation after the WNBA reviewed it on Sunday.
SKY’S CHENNEDY CARTER RIPS CAITLIN CLARK AFTER REFUSING TO ANSWER QUESTIONS ABOUT FOUL
After the game, Carter avoided questions about Clark, but her thoughts about the No. 1 overall pick of this year’s draft were confirmed with likes and reposted defenses of her actions on X.
Carter, then, posted on Threads Sunday where she ripped into Clark.
“& that’s that on that cause beside three point shooting what does she bring to the table man,” Carter wrote in reply to a post about her postgame press conference.
In a separate post on Threads, Carter also responded to the clip of Reese celebrating the hard foul on Clark during a timeout, saying, “my dawg fasho, got all my teammates.
Amid news the league was upgrading Carter’s foul to a flagrant, it also fined Reese $1,000 for skipping her postgame press conference. The Sky was also fined $5,000.
Clark was asked about Carter’s foul after the game, and she replied, “I wasn’t expecting it. It is what it is. It’s a physical game. Go make the free throw and execute on offense, and I feel like that’s kind of what we did.”
While Clark took the high road, her GM, Lin Dunn, and head coach Christie Sides spoke their minds.
“There’s a difference between tough defense and unnecessary – targeting actions!” Dunn wrote in a post on X. “It needs to stop! The league needs to ‘cleanup’ (sic) the c–p! That’s NOT who this league is!!”
Sides added, “I’m trying not to get fined. I’m just going to keep sending these possessions to the league and these plays. Hopefully, they’ll start to … take a better look at some of the things we see happening or we think is happening.”
Clark fans have seemed to go after Carter on social media, singling her out for what happened on the floor, though it appeared both of them had words prior to the hip check. But Carter posted on her Instagram Story as well, saying, “I’d rather you hate me then (sic) love me and I mean that on my dead aunt.” She prefaced that by saying “I grew up with all brothers,” so she loves “the hate more than the love.”
Carter also suggested Clark flopped on the play, making the hip check look worse than it was.
Either way, Clark knows there’s a target on her back, and subsequently the Fever, entering her rookie season as she generated tons of hype and new viewership for the WNBA after her illustrious college career at Iowa.
How she responds to “welcome to the show” moments like the one Saturday is what really matters, but it wasn’t her best performance on the back-to-back against the Liberty.
Despite the poor start to the season by the Fever (2-9), Clark is the second player in WNBA history to have at least 100 points, 50 rebounds and 50 assists in their first 10 games, joining Ionescu in that feat. She did so after collecting 11 points, eight rebounds and three assists in the win over Chicago.
Fox News’ Ryan Gaydos contributed to this report.
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Sports
UCLA's season ends in Women's College World Series loss to Stanford
The clock struck midnight on UCLA’s Bruin Magic.
After a season defined by miraculous wins, the No. 6 Bruins came up at least one comeback short, losing 3-1 in a Women’s College World Series elimination game to No. 8 Stanford on Sunday at Devon Park. UCLA returned to Oklahoma City for the eighth time in nine seasons but went out on a whimper with only one run in its last two games.
UCLA (43-12) had 12 wins this season when trailing or tied in the fifth inning or later, but couldn’t muster lucky No. 13 against Stanford ace NiJaree Canady. The USA Softball collegiate player of the year gave up four hits and one run with eight strikeouts in her fifth consecutive complete game.
The Bruins swept Stanford (50-16) during the regular season, eking out two close wins over Canady. UCLA took down the star sophomore 1-0 in nine innings to open the series then won the finale 2-0. The weekend served as a coming-out party for sophomore Taylor Tinsley, who pitched 15-2/3 scoreless innings with 20 strikeouts.
UCLA needed Tinsley to shine again Sunday after she entered in relief in the third inning of a 1-1 game. Stanford chased UCLA starter Kaitlyn Terry with a tying RBI double by Taryn Kern, then Tinsley gave up the go-ahead hit on an RBI single by first baseman Ava Gall. The Cardinal extended their lead in the fifth, leading off with back-to-back bunts and scoring on a sacrifice fly by pinch-hitter Allie Clements to bring home Emily Jones.
Tinsley gave up three hits and one run with one strikeout after Terry’s three-hit, three-strikeout start.
A two-run lead was far from insurmountable for a team that entered the World Series leading the postseason field with 7.8 runs per game in the NCAA tournament. But the Bruins picked the worst time for a dry spell.
After being shut out for the first time since April 7 by Oklahoma on Saturday, UCLA didn’t get a runner into scoring position until in the seventh inning. Savannah Pola was hit by a pitch to keep the Bruins alive with two outs, and Thessa Malau’ulu poked a line-drive single past the Stanford shortstop to get two on for the Bruins. The rowdy UCLA section seated behind the first base line waved their blue and gold pompoms as Ramsey Suarez stepped into the batter’s box. The pinch-hitter grounded out.
Sophomore Megan Grant produced UCLA’s only run with a solo home run to lead off the third inning. Back-to-back Pac-12 player of the year Maya Brady struck out three times, tying her career high and equaling her mark from Saturday’s 1-0 loss to Oklahoma. The fifth-year senior was two for 10 at the plate in the World Series, with no hits in seven appearances in the last two games for the Bruins.
Sports
Tennis players give opinions on wild 3 am finish for Novak Djokovic at French Open: 'It's not healthy'
Marathon tennis matches have been seen throughout history, but the latest finish by French Open defending champion Novak Djokovic has led many to question why a match is allowed to go until 3 a.m.
The exact finishing time for Djokovic was 3:07 a.m. after five sets against Lorenzo Musetti, and as you’d expect, he was absolutely drained. It was the latest finish in the Grand Slam’s history, but it’s a side of history U.S. Open champion Coco Gauff doesn’t think any tennis player should be on.
“I feel like a lot of times people think you’re done, but really at 3 a.m. [you’re] probably not going to bed until 5 a.m. at the earliest, maybe 6 a.m. or 7 a.m.,” Gauff said, via Yahoo Sports.
“I definitely think it’s not healthy,” Gauff continued.
“It’s not easy to play and it’s not like we’re going to fall asleep one hour after the match,” the top women’s player in the world, Iga Swiatek, added to the conversation.
NOVAK DJOKOVIC SAYS HE WAS NEVER ‘ANTI-VAX’: ‘I WAS ALWAYS PRO-FREEDOM TO CHOOSE’
“[Change] is not up to us. We need to accept anything that is going to come to us.”
Now, the ATP and WTA Tours instituted a new rule earlier this year that states no matches can start after 11 p.m. However, the four Grand Slams – French Open, Australian Open, Wimbledon, and U.S. Open – do not have that rule in their tournaments. Furthermore, men play five sets in Grand Slams, whereas the ATP Tour finishes in best-of-three sets.
So, the French Open saw the decision to put the match between Grigor Dimitrov and Zizou Bergs on the main court, Court Philippe Chatrier, go astray when Alexander Zverev’s and Tallon Griekspoor’s match needed five sets to finish.
Dimitrov and Bergs were rained out on Friday, where the former had a one-set advantage when they finally started playing again. In turn, Djokovic’s match, intended to start at 8:15 p.m. local time, didn’t do so until 10:37 p.m.
Then, with five sets to play, it just went way too long.
“I think some things could have been handled a different way,” Djokovic said after the match, prefacing his comment by saying he didn’t want to get into the scheduling discussion, “but there’s also a beauty in winning a match [so late].”
Djokovic, 37, said his limits were certainly tested in the match. But it’s hard to recover from such a feat.
But he’ll have to do so before facing Francisco Cerundolo, the No. 23 player in the world, in the fourth round on Monday in Paris to keep his chances at repeating alive.
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