Leonard Floyd, the Rams’ outside linebacker, has been released.
Floyd and seven others were cut by LA on Friday, according to statements released by the organization.
TE Roger Carter, DB T.J. Carter, WR J.J. Koski, TE Jared Pinkney,WR Jaquarii Roberson, WR Jerreth Sterns, and DE Brayden Thomas were cut as well.
Floyd, 30, was in Los Angeles for three seasons. In 50 games, he recorded 29 sacks, logged 59 quarterback hits, and 184 tackles. In each of those three seasons, he produced at least nine sacks, including a career-high 10.5 in his debut season with the Rams in 2020.
He started all 17 games in 2022 and had a team-high nine sacks and 59 total tackles. Floyd recorded 9.5 sacks, 70 total tackles, and an interception in 17 games for the Rams in 2021, en route to winning Super Bowl LVI.
Whether or not the Rams are using Floyd’s post-June 1 designation remains a mystery. If they don’t, they will incur a $19 million cap hit in dead money while only saving $3 million on the cap.
For the Rams, a dead cap charge of $6.5 million in 2023 would be offset by a $15.5 million savings in cap space if the designation were made after June 1.
Stephen A. Smith to Tee Morant: ‘You’re Not One of His Boys, You’re His Dad’
Ja Morant has reached a bit of a crossroads due to a near-impressively lengthy string of deplorable actions. He can assess the situation and determine that he would rather be the face of the NBA than throw it away. However, we could revisit this after a couple of years and ponder what could have been. Let’s hope that is not the case.
Now, Morant is not with the Memphis Grizzlies and there is no schedule for his return.
This sort of material might be a challenge for sports debate programs thought, as we saw Skip Bayless, of all people, bring up the Crips. Stephen A. Smith took a different approach, equating Morant’s predicament to Allen Iverson’s early years.
Then he offered Ja’s father, Tee Morant, some parenting advice:
“Now in the case of pops, only thing, I’m not throwing any shade on somebody’s parent or anything like that,” Smith said. “I’m simply trying to highlight and illuminate to Tee Morant the importance of him being a dad. You raised him. You helped get him to this point. Make sure that you don’t let anybody get in the way of what he is on the verge of accomplishing. Make sure you do your part to protect him instead of joining in to have a good time like you one of his boys. You’re not one of his boys. You’re his dad.”
The world is at Ja Morant’s fingertips, and he must choose between doing the right thing or jeopardizing what looks to be like a hall-of-fame career when its all said and done.
Does TCU stand a chance against UGA? │CFB Title Game Preview 2023
Ask anyone who knows me; I tell it like it is. If a player lets UGA down, I’m going to bring it up. Accountability is key to building the championship standard the Dawgs are trying to create at Georgia.
If you truly enjoy winning, whether it’s one championship or three, they’re all equal to me. I don’t know, but I would assume it got sweeter for Mike and Kobe with each passing parade. The Dawgs are looking to bring a title back to Athens for a second straight year, while TCU has a chance to make history and shock the world. In such an unlikely yet intriguing championship game, we must consider what each team must do if they want to be remembered in CFB lore forever.
After two highly contested and chaotic College Football Playoff national semifinal games on Saturday, the matchup has been determined: the reigning champs and unbeaten Dawgs will face the Cinderella TCU Horned Frogs.
The No. 1 Bulldogs (14-0) and No. 3 Horned Frogs (13-1) will battle on January 9 at SoFi Stadium in Southern California. Here is an early look at the matchup between the undefeated Bulldogs and 13-1 Frogs.
KEY MATCHUP:
TCU’s wide receiver Quentin Johnston and QB Max Duggan vs Georgia’s secondary:
In the Fiesta Bowl, Johnston caught six passes for 163 yards and one touchdown against Michigan’s impressive defensive secondary. Johnston, a junior from Temple, Texas, has caught 65 passes for more than 1,100 yards and seven touchdowns on the year. He has had a great season so far. Duggan and his go-to receiver have shown that they can win no matter who their opponent is or how good they are. They are a Cinderella team, but they really aren’t after what I saw from everyone on Saturday. These Frogs certainly are not to be taken lightly, and UGA is highly mistaken if they think TCU got this far to lay down and die. They will come out swinging; they don’t care who you are. This isn’t free money if you plan on betting.
Unfortunately for my Dawgs, they have us right where they want us if they want ANY chance:
Georgia’s secondary is coming off two of its worst performances of the season, surrendering 502 passing yards to LSU in the SEC title game and 348 passing yards to Ohio State in the Peach Bowl. In those games, opponent quarterbacks completed 54 of 86 passes (63%), threw two interceptions, and scored seven touchdowns against Kirby Smart’s team. He is also very aware that this pattern must stop against TCU. UGA will have to mix it up, throw a multitude of different defensive packages, fire zones, and much more to get to Duggan before he makes his reads in time. Jalen Carter got locked up last week, and Ringo looked clueless last weekend. Both definitely lost some NFL stockto me…
The X-Factor:
Tight ends are rarely game changers in big games, but that will be the case in the championship game.
Darnell Washington, a 6-foot-7, 270-pound mammoth of a man for Georgia, left Saturday’s semifinal game with an injured left ankle and did not come back. He was observed entering the locker area with the assistance of two staff members. Smart told reporters later that he didn’t know what was wrong, but that some people thought it was an ankle sprain.
“We’ll have to evaluate and see,” said Smart. “The good news is he’s got more than a normal week [in between games]. I know he’ll do everything he can to get back. He’s headed out west toward where he’s from [he was born in Las Vegas]. It will be important to him to try to get back.”
Washington is a terrific blocker and receiver at the tight end position. This season, he has 25 receptions for 403 yards. Washington and No. 1 tight end Brock Bowers offer Georgia one of the best 1-2 punch combinations at the position. The primary edge Georgia has over TCU is on the lines of scrimmage. Washington is a core part of this. If he is unable to play against TCU, Georgia’s power rushing game and red-zone passing will suffer, but I think UGA will have another player step up if he does not play.
What the Bulldogs need to do to repeat:
The Bulldogs were quite harsh in their assessment of their performance vs Ohio State. Their defense was sliced and diced for the most of the game, quarterback Stetson Bennett IV admitted to playing “about 30 minutes of bad football,” and Georgia missed two field goals. Therefore, this squad will not enter the championship game with a feeling of being superior and disregard TCU. Even with a 14-0 record, the Bulldogs fully understand the importance of what it will take after practically being dead in the water against OSU Saturday.
“If we want any chance of winning a national title, we have to play a lot better,” HC Kirby Smart stated in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Georgia needs to do a much better job of covering receivers and hurrying the quarterback this week. Ohio State’s wide receivers bullied Georgia’s secondary, and quarterback C.J. Stroud had much too much time to read coverage and space to scramble. TCU’s Duggan is a faster runner than Stroud, therefore Georgia will have to keep him in line.
Georgia will likely want to improve its offensive run-pass balance from what it had against Ohio State. The Bulldogs only ran the ball 26 times, which is their fewest since their season-opening game against Oregon. Additionally, offensive coordinator Todd Monken’s approach heavily relies on play-action passing. There is less to fool defenders when there is less of a running-attack. Championship offenses must be multidimensional.
With that being said, Georgia can pass and run, and on a crucial Peach Bowl night, the strength of its receiving unit was on exhibit. Bennett has a wide range of options for how to move the ball with Adonai Mitchell playing at full strength and Arian Smith showcasing his lightning speed. There are plenty of plays that can be made against the TCU defense, as Michigan and some other opponents have illustrated.
What the Frogs need to do to make HISTORY:
In last year’s SEC title game defeat and Saturday’s close call in the Peach Bowl, Georgia appeared vulnerable to having to face a truly exceptional wide receiver. Quentin Johnston has this power to help the Horned Frogs make plays, and they are not afraid to use it. Garrett Riley, the offensive coordinator, came up with the screen pass plays that led to the touchdown against Michigan on Saturday. Riley is a master at coming up with creative ways to get the ball ton Johnston. Johnston will likely need a game-changing effort to win the game.
But if the championship game becomes a track meet, it will be difficult to play a one-dimensional game against Georgia. Consequently, TCU will also need better output from its running game, regardless of which running back starts (Kendre Miller or Emari Demercado). This is easier said than done against a Georgia defensive front headed by defensive tackle Jalen Carter, who is due for a massive game.
The Horned Frogs’ defense was strong against Michigan’s run game, but it still allowed over 40 points while playing complementary football with two interceptions of their own. The defense may have to stand up without receiving gifts like it did from Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy, but it is unknown how it will hold up because it is tough to predict which version of the Georgia offense we will watch. If Georgia has Washington, TCU will need to really, really step up like they did vs. Michigan.
MyConclusion: I’m rolling with the Dawgs in what I expect to be a really intense, competitive, and hard-hitting game.
Free Early Rose Bowl Pick 01/02/2023 | PSU vs. Utah | 5:00 PM EST
What a bowl season and CFB playoff we have gotten so far this year, and the last day of the 2022 calendar year HAD to have been the best two semi-final matchups in CFB playoff history. As a Georgia fan, I thought my Dawgs were out for the count and still don’t know how the guys pulled it off. Also, there is absolutely nothing fraudulent in TCU. Anyways, let’s talk about who we are rolling with in this year’s Rose Bowl, everyone loves “The Granddaddy of Them All”
Analysis and key takeaways:
Elite Utah CB, Clark Phillips lll, has made the choice to miss out this year’s Rose Bowl in order to focus on training for the draft. However according to Football Outsiders, Penn State has a superior defensive line (ranked seventh as opposed to Utah at 58th), special teams (ranked twenty-three as opposed to sixty-fourth), and overall defense (ranked fifth as opposed to seventeenth). During the season, Utah had a record of 2-3 SU and 0-5 ATS when the line was 7 or less.
PSU S Ji’AyirBrown
Penn State has a record of 8-1 SU and 6-2 ATS when playing on grass, while Utah has a record of just 3-2 SU and 3-2 ATS when playing on grass as well. Penn State has a sharper record against other bowl teams, especially on defense, and has played on a more difficult schedule this season. (ranked 10th compared to Utah at 21st). Take the underdog Nittany Lions.
THE PICK: PSU +1.5 (-110)
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Raiders @ Steelers Pick and Prediction | 12/24 | 8:15 PM EST
Derek Carr will try to reverse his terrible track record in freezing temperatures, which stands at 1-7 when the weather drops below 40 degrees and 0-4 when it’s below 32 degrees. Pittsburgh is great at stifling the run, therefore the game will be in his freezing hands.
Kenny Pickett is expected to contribute to Pittsburgh’s rushing attack in his comeback for this matchup. In three of their last four games, the Steelers’ rushing attack has topped 150 yards. Meanwhile, the Raiders’ rushing defense just got trampled by the Patriots. The Steelers are the better team due to their stronger coaching staff and home field advantage vs a team that obviously plays in a dome.
Steelers @ Panthers Week 15: Key Takeaways, Points and What We Saw
The Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Carolina Panthers by setting the tone from kickoff on. With a 6-8 record and a road victory against Carolina, Pittsburgh’s AFC North title chances are dead, but a wild-card berth is still a slim possibility. Their ability to control and play the game at their own tempo was demonstrated by the Steelers’ 21-play drive to begin the second half, which occupied most of the third quarter. Pittsburgh tallied 91 yards and extended their advantage to 21-7 with a TD. The seven-pass, 14-run series was the longest in terms of plays and time of possession of any NFL team this season. Neither a block in the back nor a Diontae Johnson taunting penalty were able to derail it. It was also the Steelers’ longest possession in terms of plays and time since at least 2000. The Panthers rallied with 10 consecutive points to tie the game, and the Steelers’ several second-half penalties assisted them. But that one Steelers drive was enough to finish off the Panthers.
Carolina has seemed to drift away from their recent competitive play. The Panthers entered the game having won three of their past four games, and with legitimate aspirations of looking to win the NFC South crown, while the Buccaneers are continuing to struggle to put away their opponents. The Panthers’ recent success has been largely due to the run game and their situational defense, neither of which were visible on Sunday. They ran the ball 16 times for a season-low 21 yards. Interestingly, the Panthers abandoned their heavy-package run plays as indicated by the attempts, employing it on only a few of snaps in the first half, which was surprising given its success in previous games. The preceding three games, Carolina’s defense on third downs has been improved significantly, allowing only 35.8% of third-down conversions. Sunday? The Steelers were effective on 12 of their first 15 third-down attempts. This is how you lose a home game with significant stakes to Mitchell Trubisky.
The phrase “American original” is overused and overpriced, but it perfectly describes the late Mike Leach, who died Tuesday as a result of complications from a heart problem. There has never been a college football coach like him, and there will never be another after him.
Leach was eccentric, intelligent, brave, humorous, at times harsh, and always out of the ordinary. In an era when coaches are becoming increasingly (and boringly) uniform, he emerged from an unusual mold that was quickly broken upon his arrival. Only Leach could have paved a path from playing rugby (rather than football) at BYU to receiving a law degree at Pepperdine and eventually becoming possibly the most prominent offensive coach of the twenty-first century.
He was an unrepentant maverick who spoke differently, coached differently, and marched to a different rhythm. During his stay in Washington State, he walked almost seven miles round-trip to work every day, frequently spending the time on the way home to make rambling late-night phone calls to reporters. His mind was an endless conversation generator.
Coach talk was something that Leach didn’t just do. During the week, he was known as the go-to expert in his field when it came to pirates, gave out free wedding advise, and talked at length about hypothetical animal battles. Then on Saturdays, he called more passes than any coach in the history of college football.
What precipitated college football’s shift from “Thou Shalt Establish the Run” to “Spread It and Chuck It?” When Mike Leach began to win games in this fashion.
The Air Raid offense was developed between 1989 and 1996 by then-offensive coordinator Leach and his boss Hal Mumme at the relatively unknown tiny colleges of Iowa Wesleyan and Valdosta State. Within a few decades, it would completely alter the landscape of sports.
Some of Leach and Mumme’s offensive ideas came from BYU’s playbook when LaVell Edwards was the head coach, but their underlying philosophy was more radical and subversive. The old guard scoffed at The Air Raid because it was just a gimmick, but it was effective, and its inventors took great pleasure in annoying the skeptics.
In 1997, Kentucky athletic director C.M. Newton was so anxious for a style that would put butts in seats and provide star quarterback recruit Tim Couch a vehicle to flourish that he took a chance on the two radicals. Coaches took notice of that strategy after it helped Kentucky to its first winning season since the 1980s and made Couch the first overall pick in the 1998 NFL draft.
Oklahoma signed Leach to be offensive coordinator under new head coach Bob Stoops, and he transformed Josh Heupel into a 3,000-yard passer. After one season at the University of Oklahoma, Leach accepted his first head coaching position at Texas Tech. From that point on, he significantly altered how offenses were built and plays were called.
While Heupel was helping Oklahoma win the national championship in 2000, Leach was in Lubbock instructing sophomore Kliff Kingsbury to throw the most passes in the nation. This would be a reoccurring motif. Today, the four quarterbacks who attempted the most passes in a single season were all coached by Mike Leach: Kliff Kingsbury (712 attempts in 2002), Graham Harrell (713 attempts at Tech in 2007), Connor Halliday (714 attempts at Washington State in 2014), and B.J. Symons (719 attempts at Tech in 2003).
This is the eleventh consecutive year that a Leach team has led the country in pass attempts. His teams hold FBS records for the most passes thrown in a game (Washington State threw 89 against Oregon State in 2013), the most passes attempted and completed per game for a season (64.3 and 42.5, respectively, at Wazzu in ’14), and the most passing first downs per game (23.5 at Texas Tech in 2003) A man who did not model himself after anyone else ended up inspiring a whole generation of copycats as he rewrote the record book. Take a look at the coaching ranks at the moment and tally up the number of Leach disciples who either played for him or coached under him: Kingsbury, who is in his fourth season coaching the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals; Heupel, who led Tennessee to 10 wins this season. Harrell, who is the offensive coordinator at West Virginia after a stint in the same job at USC; and Sonny Cumbie, the coach at Louisiana. USC coach Lincoln Riley, who has mentored three of the last six Heisman Trophy winners and TCU’s Sonny Dikes. Yeah, he mentored some pretty huge names in the world of college football.
There are a great number of other people who have just taken parts of the Leach playbook and implemented them without working for him. His ideas and strategies are now widely utilized across all levels of competition in the sport. It is not a coincidence that the FBS average for team pass attempts per game reached 30 for the first time in 1999, which was Leach’s season at Oklahoma. That number peaked at 33.6 in 2007, as the Air Raid effect continued to spread throughout the college football landscape.
The only snag was that Leach was never able to put everything together to the point where they could win a championship. He had two opportunities, ten years apart, at two different schools, and he came very near both times. His Texas Tech team from 2008 went 11–2 and won a share of the Big 12 South Division title along with Oklahoma and Texas, but they had to watch Oklahoma advance to the league championship game and then the BCS championship game instead. In 2018, Washington State finished with an 11–2 record and matched for the title of Pac-12 North champion, although they were defeated by Washington in the tiebreaker.
The trait of persistence that made Leach so successful also worked against him. Because he was indifferent to defense, disdained the running game, and was fixated on recruiting individuals to match his obscure system, he rarely fielded teams with all of their necessary personnel.
And to tell you the truth, Leach’s personality just didn’t mesh well with blue blood programs. He was a fantastic coach for difficult jobs, but he was just eccentric enough that he never got the simple ones.
Leach, the winningest coach in school history, was fired in 2009 amid controversy about how he handled a player with a concussion. This undoubtedly had a chilling effect on Leach’s ability to obtain another position during the subsequent hiring cycle. In 2012, he took over a Washington State program that had endured eight consecutive losing seasons. By the time he left, Leach had the highest winning percentage of any Wazzu coach who had been there for more than two seasons since before World War II.
At Mississippi State, the steady progress looked familiar, improving from 4–7 to 7–6 to 8–4. But there were health issues during this 2022 season, eliciting quiet concerns that the 61-year-old might have to retire. He seemed to bounce back in recent weeks—then came the stunning news Tuesday.
Mike Leach was a man who made the game of college football better for everyone. He changed the way the game was played and influenced so many people in his lifetime. My condolences go out to Leach’s loved ones and friends, and really the entire college football world. We lost a hell of a coach yesterday.
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According to ESPN’s Ed Werder, the Cowboys are concerned that Odell Beckham Jr. will be unable to play before mid-January after conducting a physical on him during his visit. Dallas is concerned that signing the wide receiver will be futile until the 2023 season.
Beckam Jr Running Routes in preparation last year’s Superbowl
The news comes after Cowboy’s owner Jerry Jones stated that he’s “not confident at all” about acquiring a WR after such a devastating type of injury with hopes of getting anything in return. Beckham, who suffered a torn ACL in the Rams’ Super Bowl victory in February, is still out. Along with the Cowboys, his agent has also recently visited with his former team, the Giants, and the Buffalo Bills.
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The Wizards are showing more interest in this player than anyone else. Why?
So far, free agency has been going on for a little more than 4 hours. (feels like 40 already) and a plethora of moves are being made, so here is a move that not many people are talking about but it is actually a good one. According to Carmichael Dave, the Wizards are more interested in John Collins than any other team. Dave’s tweet read:
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“NBA Trade Bombshell: KD Tells Nets Owner he wants out”
Kyrie Irving is now in, while Kevin Durant wants to leave. What an insane, disappointing year it has been for the Nets and their fans.
According to various sources around the league, KD requested to be traded by the Nets early Thursday. Durant apparently went straight to Nets owner Joe Tsai to break the news, ahead of the start of free agency. ESPN has also reported Nets GM Sean Marks is working with Durant and his agent Rich Kleiman to potentially find a trade destination for the former MVP. According to Yahoo Sports, Durant, who is now 33 would love to be moved to Phoenix, and Miami is also in the talks.
Durant signed a four-year, $194 million contract agreement with the Nets during the offseason prior to the 2022-23 season.
This story will be updated by Team OOS as it progresses*
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