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Rabu, 27 Maret 2019

NFL trade rumors: Giants to pursue Josh Rosen blockbuster deal with Arizona Cardinals? Why it makes sense - NJ.com

If the Arizona Cardinals put quarterback Josh Rosen on the trade market, expect the Giants to be interested.

According to a report from Ralph Vacchiano of SNY, the Cardinals are serious about taking Oklahoma Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray with the No. 1 overall pick and then flipping Rosen to the highest bidder:

The Giants are planning to investigate every possible option when it comes to finding their Quarterback of the Future, and that includes a potential trade for Arizona Cardinals quarterback Josh Rosen.

But here's the thing: At the moment they have no idea if Rosen is, or ever will be, available.

And nothing that happened at the NFL owners meetings this week has cleared that mystery up.

Multiple Giants sources told SNY this week that all they've heard so far are "rumors" that the Cardinals plan to take Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray No. 1 overall and put Rosen on the block. They have certainly discussed the possibility internally, one source said, though those talks were extremely preliminary. They don't even seem sure at the moment whether they'd prefer Rosen - the 10th overall pick a year ago -- to the quarterbacks in this year's draft.

Mostly, they are in a wait-and-see mode to see if the Cardinals do decide to trade Rosen and what their asking price might be.

Saquon Barkley had 352 touches WITH Odell Beckham: Are Giants in danger of overworking him now?

New York Giants' Pat Shurmur wants to spread the ball around, but can Saquon Barkley do more than he did as a rookie?

If the Giants are not enamored by top prospects such as Ohio State’s Dwayne Haskins, Duke’s Daniel Jones or Missouri’s Drew Lock, Rosen would make plenty of sense as a trade target.

In all likelihood, the Cardinals will ask for some sort of package that includes either pick No. 17, pick No. 37 or pick No. 95.

After a relatively disastrous rookie season that saw Rosen complete just 55.2 percent of his passes for 2,278 yards with 11 touchdowns and 14 interceptions, he likely would benefit from sitting a season behind Eli Manning and developing in head coach Pat Shurmur’s system.

Trading for Rosen would allow Giants general manager Dave Gettleman to replicate the Kansas City Chiefs model of developing a young quarterback behind a veteran while also freeing up the No. 6 pick to take the best player available.

However, the Cardinals might not even deal Rosen, especially after head coach Kliff Kingsbury praised the second-year quarterback this week.

“People have said a lot of things, that are misconceptions,” Kingsbury told reporters in Phoenix, when asked about a potential Rosen trade. “I always thought watching him at UCLA that he played his best football in a spread system, which has some similarities to what we do,” Kingsbury said. “He’s a tremendous thinker. He’s very cerebral and can throw it with anybody. We take a lot of pride in building a system around the quarterback, so for someone to say that he doesn’t fit our system just doesn’t make sense.”

Matt Lombardo may be reached at MLombardo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattLombardoNFL

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2019-03-27 11:04:00Z
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Ohio man picks perfect NCAA tourney bracket heading into Sweet 16 - WJW FOX 8 News Cleveland

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Ohio man picks perfect NCAA tourney bracket heading into Sweet 16 WJW FOX 8 News Cleveland
Perfect bracket: Meet the man who's perfect through 48 games of the NCAA tournament NCAA March Madness
NCAA Men's Tournament 2019: Power-Ranking the Sweet 16 Teams Bleacher Report
Five bold predictions for the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 NCAA Tournament games USA TODAY
Preview: Duke vs Virginia Tech in Sweet 16 of NCAA tournament NCAA March Madness
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https://fox8.com/2019/03/27/ohio-man-picks-perfect-ncaa-tourney-bracket-heading-into-sweet-16/

2019-03-27 07:54:00Z
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Roger Goodell, with Sean Payton's help, gets it right - Associated Press

PHOENIX (AP) — Roger Goodell got it right.

NFL fans rarely feel that way. Right now, they should.

Many times, perhaps most of the time, the NFL commissioner is doing the bidding of the owners. That’s led to plenty of criticism of Goodell when it’s the guys who run the 32 franchises who deserve more bad reviews than he does.

When it comes to league probes, the NFL so often has fallen short — Ray Rice, Kareem Hunt, Saints bounties — that Goodell takes the arrows rather than the investigators who should be blamed.

And yes, there are instances, particularly when it comes to handing out discipline, in which Goodell is the correct target.

So when the guy uses his power for the good of the game, for the players, the coaches and, indeed, the fans, then praise is due.

Two months after one of the most embarrassing moments of his regime — or that of any other commissioner — Goodell pretty much made sure a deeply necessary change to the rules was passed.

Don’t underestimate the significance of the addition of pass interference, whether flagged or not, to the video review officiating system. Such calls and non-calls now can be challenged by coaches and reviewed by officials. It was passed for one season, by the astounding margin of 31-1. It almost certainly is here to stay, and Goodell is a major reason.

“I told the owners we need to get to a place, and I felt strongly we should have OPI and DPI and that we should be able to throw flags (that were not thrown on the field),” Goodell said Tuesday. “Everyone in there finally got to understand through a long process and a lot of discussion, everyone wanted to get it right. Some had to remove themselves from long-shared views.”

A short-shared view among fans, especially those in the Big Easy, has been that an egregious missed call in the NFC championship game cost the New Orleans Saints a trip to the Super Bowl. Their case was strengthened by this decision.

Yet, in a way, this is a more important victory for the Who Dats and for all pro football fans. The sport has become so fast, so complex and so wide open that the officials struggle to keep up.

Even worse, technology is so advanced that the errors made in real time become exacerbated when examined in the close-up, super-slow motion shots available to viewers.

The NFL needed a leap forward like this. Indeed, it’s more like a long Drew Brees to Michael Thomas touchdown pass than an Alvin Kamara run for a first down. Both plays move the ball, but the TD throw can be an instant game changer.

Credit Goodell for laying down the law to get the video review rules enhanced. Also credit Saints coach Sean Payton, who helped lead the charge to progress not only because he was the victimized guy with the head set on the sideline for the blown call, but for catalyzing the movement.

“There were just a lot of great healthy discussions about our game,” said Payton, along with Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin the only coaches on the powerful competition committee that recommends rule adjustments. “When you are on this committee there is a little bit of a responsibility just to the game and football fans in general.

“Anytime, I think, if we have gone through a process like this and with an open heart tried to look at doing what is right, and after much discussion came to a conclusion where ownership, league office, coaches, general managers felt real good about, certainly fans won, knowing that, man, those guys are working hard at the right decision.”

___

More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL

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2019-03-27 06:39:14Z
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Selasa, 26 Maret 2019

Raiders' Gruden: Door is open for Lynch return - ESPN

2:12 PM ET

PHOENIX -- Jon Gruden has maintained communication with Marshawn Lynch this offseason, but no decision has been made on whether the hard-charging running back will return to the Oakland Raiders in 2019.

And there is no timetable for such a decision yet, Gruden said Tuesday at the NFL owners meetings during the coaches breakfast.

"I'm not going to get into the conversations that we've had," the Raiders coach said. "I've talked to Doug Hendrickson, his agent, as well, and obviously we have a need at halfback, feature back. So we're going to keep the door open, certainly, keep researching his situation and we'll see what happens. We'll let you know when we know something."

Asked how long said door would remain open, Gruden smiled.

"The door is always open for Lynch," Gruden said. "The door is always going to be open for Marshawn. Trust me. All the doors are always going to be open for Marshawn Lynch."

A day earlier, Raiders first-year general manager Mike Mayock said he had not spoken with Lynch, but did give a sense on when a decision might have to be made.

"Jon has a relationship with him; I don't," Mayock said of Lynch. "Ultimately, there's obviously kind of a big question mark at running back with us right now. I think both parties just have to kind of wait until the draft and see what happens there."

The Raiders have eight draft picks, with four in the first 35 selections.

Lynch, who turns 33 on April 22, was lost for the season with a groin injury suffered in London on an awkward tackle against the Seattle Seahawks, his former team, on Oct. 14. He was at the Raiders' home finale on Christmas Eve, lighting the Al Davis Torch in a pregame ceremony in what was then thought to be the final Raiders game in Oakland.

But with the Raiders returning to the East Bay for the 2019 season, Oakland's favorite son might want to play one last year for his hometown team.

Coming out of a one-year retirement to play for the Raiders in 2017, Lynch's two-year stint had highs and lows, but "Beast Mode" continued to be entertaining and productive. Last season, he was tied for fifth in the AFC with 331 rushing yards through Week 5, before his injury against the Seahawks

He finished the 2018 season with an average of 4.2 yards per carry, scoring three touchdowns in six games.

In 21 games for Oakland, Lynch rushed for 1,267 yards on 297 carries. The highs in Oakland also featured a dance party on the sideline in the 2017 home opener against the New York Jets, as well as being the team's Walter Payton Man of the Year candidate in 2018.

The lows included a one-game suspension for making contact with a referee after he ran on the field to protect Kansas City Chiefs cornerback Marcus Peters, who is Lynch's cousin, during a skirmish in 2017.

Lynch continued his reputation as a physical runner before getting hurt last season, forcing 23 missed tackles and gaining 311 of his 376 rushing yards after contact, according to Pro Football Focus. He surpassed the 100-yard mark for the 34th time in his career with a 130-yard effort against the Cleveland Browns in Week 4.

Lynch, who was the 12th overall pick in the 2007 draft by the Buffalo Bills, is a five-time Pro Bowl selection and a 2012 first-team All-Pro, when he rushed for 1,590 yards and 11 touchdowns with the Seahawks. With Seattle, Lynch led the NFL in rushing touchdowns in both 2013 and '14, and he ran for at least 1,200 yards in four straight seasons from 2011 through 2014.

Lynch ranks fourth among active players with 10,379 rushing yards, and his 93 total touchdowns and 12,593 total yards rank fifth.

The Raiders currently have four running backs on their roster: Jalen Richard, DeAndre Washington, Chris Warren III and James Butler.

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2019-03-26 19:22:24Z
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Match Play tournament format under review - ESPN

2:18 PM ET

AUSTIN, Texas - Five years into the existing format for the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play Championship, there is talk about altering it again.

And one possible idea has already been rejected by the players.

Tournament sponsor Dell put forth a plan recently that would have seen the 64-player field cut to 32 players after pool play -- and then have 36 holes of stroke play on the weekend.

"What would we call it?'' said Paul Casey, winner of the Valspar Championship on Sunday and a member of the Players Advisory Council that was recently presented with the plan.

"I would love to see straight knockout again,'' Casey said Wednesday at Austin Country Club, where the tournament begins Wednesday. "Lose and go home. But I understand it from trying to sell this from a corporate sponsor's point of view, from an entertainment point of view, you want as much golf as possible on the weekend.

"So the player in me, if I lose on Wednesday, I want to go home. But I don't know what the solution is. I know this is entertainment, and this is a sport. As much excitement and drama to the end is ideal.''

That was the issue with the old format, which began when the WGC event was created in 1999 and played through 2014.

The format was traditional match play with 64 players making the field, 32 matches the first day, and a win-and-advance scenario through to a two-person final.

The problem with that format was the number of top players who could be lost after just a single day.

Hence the current format, with the 64 players broken up into 16 four-man groups, and a round-robin system that sees them play three matches against those in the group, with the leader advancing to the final 16 players. From there, knockout matches take place.

"I like the group play,'' said Jim Furyk, who is among four players in the field along with Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Lee Westwood who competed in the first match play event in 1999. "I hate to see a guy fly halfway around the world and play a good solid round of golf and fly halfway around the world to get home. It's kind of the beauty and the bad part of match play is you can shoot 66 and lose and shoot 74 and win. So I don't like to see that part of it.''

Casey said he expects others ideas to be presented in the coming months. A simple one, he said, would be to have 36 holes of stroke play qualifying to determine a match play field of 32 or 16 players. Some forms of double-elimination have also been discussed, meaning all the players would be around for at least two matches.

Casey said he doesn't like the idea of losing and having to play more matches, but Furyk is an example of a player who lost a match and still made it through his pool, going 2-1 in 2015 and still making it to the weekend and finishing fourth.

If the top players in a group are tied after three matches, they go to a hole-by-hole playoff to determine the player who advances to the final 16.

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2019-03-26 19:01:19Z
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Cubs starter Hendricks gets 4-year extension - ESPN

2:41 PM ET

The Chicago Cubs and right-handed starter Kyle Hendricks have agreed on a four-year contract extension with a club option for 2024.

Including the deal he already had for this year at $7.405 million, Hendricks will earn $63 million before the option, sources told ESPN's Jesse Rogers. The extension eliminates Hendricks' last year of arbitration.

The 2024 option will vest if Hendricks finishes in the top three in Cy Young voting in 2020, a source told ESPN's Jeff Passan. If not, it turns into a club option. The option will be for $16 million and includes a $1.5 million buyout.

Hendricks, 29, is an anomaly in today's pitching world, with his fastball topping out in the low 90s. He uses control and a devastating changeup to get hitters out. That combination resulted in the lowest ERA (2.13) in baseball in 2016, the year the Cubs won the World Series. He went 16-8 that season and finished third in Cy Young voting.

Hendricks was 14-11 last season with a 3.44 ERA in a career-high 199 innings and 33 starts.

"Hopefully, watching the way I pitch and get guys out will relate to a lot of younger pitchers," Hendricks said Tuesday. "It's not always about velocity but about the way you go about getting guys out at the major league level."

The Dartmouth College product was an eighth-round pick of the Texas Rangers in the 2011 draft. He came to the Cubs in the 2012 trade that sent Ryan Dempster to Texas.

"Early on it's easy to put ceilings on guys, based mostly on velocity," Cubs president Theo Epstein said Tuesday. "He's far exceeded that ceiling. We love the process that he uses to get to where he is. He's always working."

Information from ESPN's Jeff Passan was used in this report.

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2019-03-26 18:56:23Z
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Lions coach Matt Patricia has a Gronk story, and it's pretty good - MLive.com

PHOENIX -- He was engaging. He was insightful. He peeled back the curtain a bit on Detroit’s strategies in free agency and the draft. Hey, he even cracked a joke or two. Sources confirm he even smiled.

It was like a different Matt Patricia showed up for breakfast Tuesday morning at the Arizona Biltmore, a luxury hotel here in Phoenix. Just consider his stories about Rob Gronkowski.

“Everybody’s asking me about Gronk,” the Lions’ second-year coach quipped. “Did something happen?”

You could say that. Gronkowski, one of the best tight ends to ever strap on shoulder pads, walked away from the game this week at age 29. So of course he’s become a topic of conversation here at the NFL owners meetings, and Patricia had some tall tales to spin.

“We do a goal-line seven-on-seven period every day in Friday practice," Patricia said. "I would usually stand over the cans -- we’d put the trash cans out there as the O-line -- and they’d be running crossing routes. And a lot of times, when you’re doing seven-on-seven passing plays, advantage goes to the offense. So being a defensive coach, I was trying to make it as difficult as possible. So Rob is running a crossing route behind me, and I knew he was. So I took the garbage can, and I just slung it backwards, and I caught him right between the legs. He goes down. Hard. And he’s laying on the ground, and he’s not getting up. I’m like, ‘This is the Friday before a game. That’s it. I’m done. Gronk’s not getting up. This is about it (for me).”

“And he was playing it off. He was fine. I was like, ‘Get up right now before I get fired. What are you doing?' So yeah. Great guy.”

Gronkowki was known for his playfulness as much as he was for being one of the best tight ends in the history of the game. Patricia knows that as well as anyone.

“A lot of times you look out there, and I would chuckle to myself, because this kid is out there playing football like he’s in his backyard. Like he’s 8 years old. And his love of the game is still the same,” Patricia said. “He’s still got that wide-eyed look.”

Patricia went on to tell another tale, this one from training camp.

“I was just telling someone the other day, I used to love after practices in training camp,” Patricia said. "My kids would run on the field, and he had to throw one of my kids on his back to do extra push-ups, to get the extra edge. I guess he needed another 45 or 50 pounds to do some push-ups, and he had that playfulness about him that was sincere.

“Loved working with that guy every day. We got into some situations where we would be going back and forth, and just a lot of fun. Great player, better person. And whatever career he decides to go into, he’s going to be successful. And I still don’t rule out the possibility of having to see him on Sundays either.”

Given all that, maybe it shouldn’t be much of a surprise the Lions tried to trade for Gronkowski weeks after hiring Patricia last season. But Gronkowski threatened to retire rather than play for anyone except New England, and with any quarterback other than Tom Brady. And now it seems that threat was no empty gesture either, because one more Super Bowl ring later, he’s really called it quits.

Bill Belichick is back, though, and offered a small glimpse into the close relationships Patricia still has with folks in Foxborough, bombing Patricia’s interview with reporters about 5 minutes in.

“Hey coach,” Belichick said. “Just wanted to stop by and say hello.”

Patricia responded: “How you doin'? You’re lookin’ good. Sharp as always.”

“Bill and my’s relationship is something that I hold really serious and really near and dear,” Patricia later said. “We’ll always be great friends.”

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2019-03-26 17:31:00Z
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