| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chris Fallica |
| @chrisfallica |
There have been 21 CFP games. 17 have been won by Alabama, Clemson or Ohio State. Expanding the playoff, which I haven't been a fan of, will not give us more title contenders, but it might be necessary to create more excitement among fan bases currently not in the CFP. 1/11/21, 9:10 PM
Best class ever??
@ESPNCFB | @SECNetwork pic.twitter.com/
San Francisco 49ers
QB situation: At the moment, the 49ers’s have Jimmy Garoppolo under contract for 2021, but every other passer is scheduled for free agency. Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch have consistently said that Garoppolo is their quarterback for next season. That is, unless the unexpected happens and a better quarterback is available. Watson qualifies.
What the 49ers have going for them in a trade: For one, the 49ers could offer Garoppolo, whom Caserio and the Patriots drafted in the second round in 2014. Garoppolo’s contract — which ranks in the low teens among highest paid passers — runs through 2022.
What the 49ers have going for them in a trade: The 49ers have an excellent locker room, a dedicated running game and a pass-catching group that includes George Kittle, Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk. They also were in the Super Bowl as recently as February.
It’s worth noting that Shanahan and Lynch paid a lot of attention to Watson before the 2017 draft, including a private workout and a pre-draft visit. At the time, the 49ers, who were picking no. 2 overall, thought they might land Kirk Cousins in an upcoming free-agency period. They did not draft a quarterback until the third round, when they selected C.J. Beathard.
— Matt Barrows
| |||||||||||||||||||||
| IG: JosinaAnderson |
| @JosinaAnderso |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Saturday
1:35 L.A. Rams (11-6, NFC 6 seed) at Green Bay (13-3, NFC 1 seed), Lambeau Field. TV: FOX. Line: Packers by 6.5. The Rams’ hopes might lay in the middle of prospective Defensive Player of the Year Aaron Donald’s ribcage. He was limited to 30 snaps in Seattle because of the mid-game rib injury, and who knows how effective he’ll be Saturday in Wisconsin. “Never bet against A.D.,” Rams coach Sean McVay said. Donald had two sacks against the Packers in his most recent duel against Aaron Rodgers, in L.A. in 2018. It was 82 degrees that day. It’ll be 22 late Saturday afternoon at Lambeau.
5:15 p.m.: Baltimore (12-5, AFC 5 seed) at Buffalo (14-3, AFC 2 seed), Orchard Park, N.Y. TV: NBC. Line: Bills by 2.5. See below.
Sunday
12:05 p.m.: Cleveland (12-5, AFC 6 seed) at Kansas City (14-2, AFC 1 seed), Arrowhead Stadium. TV: CBS. Line: KC by 8. Cinderella time? Can the Browns keep the miracle alive? It’ll be tough to beat the rested Super Bowl champs, obviously. But I’m not a big fan of resting healthy players for three weeks before the playoffs, which is what Kansas City did with Patrick Mahomes. By game time, it will have been 20 days between games for Mahomes, and his last game was a 55-percent, 17-point shaky win over the 4-12 Falcons at home. Hard not to like the defending champs, but it’s also hard to love them unconditionally entering their Super Bowl playoff defense. Gambling Note of the Week: KC’s an eight-point favorite. The Chiefs have not won a game by eight points or more since Nov. 1.
3:40 p.m.: Tampa Bay (12-5, NFC 5 seed) at New Orleans (13-4, NFC 2 seed), Superdome. TV: FOX. Line: Saints by 4. All week, you’re sure to hear that the first two games this year—Saints, 34-23 and 38-3—don’t matter now. I don’t buy it for a second. The second game, when Brady threw three picks and looked very 43, is the worrisome one. It happened Nov. 8 in Tampa, and was the worst day by far this year for Brady, and gave people sincere doubts about Brady’s resurgence. He’s continued to show he can still play at a high level, but that Saints D was frightening Sunday in the beatdown of Chicago. Second plotline is the likely last meeting of the two most statistically prolific passers of all time, which Brees will be feeling this week. “The minute he signed with the Bucs and came to the division,” Brees said Sunday, “you felt like that was going to be a team to contend with, that was going to be a team that had playoff aspirations and beyond, just like us. So I guess this was inevitable.” Should be memorable, as the last game of the divisional weekend.
Veldheer will be the first player in NFL history to play two postseason games for two playoff teams. He is allowed to sign with GB because he was on the Colts' practice squad. 1/11/21, 2:38 PM
| ||||||||||||||||||||
Download the Twitter app
| |||||||||||||||||
Download the Twitter app
One way to delay
Major League Baseball continues to plan for spring training and the season to start on time, but an idea circulating among at least a small group of owners might be more realistic.
The idea is this: Start spring training in April and the regular season in May and play a normal, 162-game schedule that extends through October. The postseason would take place in November at warm-weather neutral sites, just as the final three rounds did last season.
As reported last week, the problem with such a plan is that television networks want their sports partners to resume their normal schedules, which for MLB would mean concluding the World Series on Fox by Nov. 1. Viewership numbers, ad sales and sponsorships all were affected by altered and overlapping sports schedules in 2020.
Still, as the virus continues to rage and vaccines roll out slowly, a number of people in the game remain skeptical that spring training will begin in a little more than a month. MLB’s position remains unchanged: Start on schedule unless state or federal government agencies require that plan to change.
No comments:
Post a Comment