Smith Page 3 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Joe Burrow was chum in the water for Jim Schwartz and Cleveland's defense
Watching Joe Burrow slinging a wet ball against Cleveland’s bloodthirsty defense in Week 1 was akin to noticing a shark fin circling towards a helpless swimmer. Kevin Stefanski hired blitzing connoisseur Jim Schwartz this offseason to install a pressure scheme to activate his lethargic defense an he...

The Seahawks are taking a trip back to 90s this season with a brief uniform change
Unlike the orange popsicle colored uniforms in Tampa Bay, the Seattle Seahawks have a throwback jersey worthy of throwing back to. The Kingdome may be long gone, but the royal blue home jerseys have returned. Rookie Jaxon Smith-Njigba was featured in 90s inspired promo for the old jerseys, and there...

Where should expectations be set for Victor Wembanyama’s summer league dress rehearsal?
Victor Wembanyama’s career prologue is almost as long as he is. It already feels like Wembanyama’s in his second NBA season doesn’t it? It feels like just yesterday, when he was in the (French) Finals at the exact same time as Nikola Jokic. According to Marc Stein, Wembanyama’s scheduled NBA debut h...

Examining the 2023 NFL Draft’s most polarizing war rooms
Drafting is an inexact science. If it were an exact one, teams wouldn’t rely on so much vacuous football speak during the evaluation period. That uncertainty is what makes the draft an annual crapshoot. The 2023 edition is no different. After the top two picks, the draft pivoted into unpredictable t...

Howie Roseman continues to rough up the NFL in trades
The bully on the block in the NFL is Howie Roseman. Other NFL general managers need to hide under their desks when he calls, because he is coming for their lunch money. For the second consecutive NFL Draft, Roseman has used the three days to significantly upgrade his roster both with rookie, and vet...

The top 18 NBA Draft prospects to watch in the NCAA tournament
We’re less than a week away from the start of the NCAA Tournament and several of the stars that will shine during March Madness will end their college careers during the showcase. While the lose-o-rama for Victor Wembanyama, the projected No. 1 overall pick, has been underway for several months now,...

What does Adam Thielen have left to offer?
One of the best stories in the NFL, Adam Thielen’s improbable run with his hometown Minnesota Vikings came to an end this morning as the team released him. At 32 years old, Thielen proved he still had some gas left in the tank in 2022, posting 70 receptions for 716 yards and six touchdowns. Accordin...

These are the top 10 young cores in the NBA right now
The “middle class” of the NBA is slowly eroding. Surprisingly, it’s not totally a bad thing. Almost every team has a talented young core with potential, raising parity within the NBA. Even the teams at the bottom of the standings have enough young players to have something to look forward to in two ...

No, 'Bama fans, you don’t get to claim Jalen Hurts
We need a ruling on which campus gets to claim which player now that college players are transferring at a record rate. Is it where the player finishes his career? So much about being a college football fan is about measuring your program against everybody else, and one of the ways we do that is by ...
![Should any coach want the Houston Texans' HC job? DeMeco Ryans becomes 3rd hire in as many seasons [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/10ae20bd37b20a6c564c4802295508a5.jpg)
Should any coach want the Houston Texans' HC job? DeMeco Ryans becomes 3rd hire in as many seasons [Updated]
On Tuesday, San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans visited with his former team, the Houston Texans, to discuss their vacant head coaching position. According to NFL insiders, Ryans is expected to be hired by the Texans, making him their third coach in three years. ...

Seriously, we need to stop buying Madden
Sports video games are notoriously awful. Rarely anything about them changes from year to year aside from roster updates and an occasional graphics overhaul. Gameplay stays relatively the same, thus the fun stays about the same as well. Actually, the fun may be decreasing as several sports franchise...

Some day, not now, Jabari Smith Jr. will know what it’s like to have a true point guard
For as much tanking and general thirst that the top three picks of the 2022 NBA Draft garnered, they haven’t merited that attention quite yet. In Chet Holmgren’s case, it’s impossible because he’s out for the season. Paolo Banchero is going to win Rookie of the Year, and little else on an Orlando Ma...

The Second Coming of Dennis Smith Jr.
Maybe all he needed was to come home. Smith is from Fayetteville, North Carolina, and is now playing with the Charlotte Hornets, just a mere three hours from his hometown. The Hornets are Smith’s fifth team in six seasons. Last year, he split time between three teams, including the Hornets. So why h...

Week 6 NFL Powerless Ranking: The stench is overwhelming
It’s time to check in on the teams that can’t get out of their own way. The first few weeks of the 2022 NFL season have been somewhat unpredictable, but there are always a few teams we expect to disappoint their fanbases. Now let’s get into the Powerless Ranking for Week 6....

NFL Week 5: MVP and LVP
Who had the better four-touchdown outburst, Travis Kelce or Taysom Hill? Kelce and Hill showed that efficient production trumps volume in wins. In the red zone, Kelce has a knack for getting open, and despite only gaining 25 yards on seven receptions, he maneuvered himself open for Mahomes on nearly...

IDIOT OF THE MONTH: We're surrounded by idiots
“Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.” ― Mark Twain...

Kirk Cousins is not the problem
The Vikings are a good football team...on paper. Just looking at their roster, you’d think this team was a perennial playoff team with Super Bowl aspirations, if they could only get past those pesky Packers. They haven’t been that though. They haven’t won their division since 2017 and have reached t...

Big bucks for wide receivers is bad news for several other positions
There are currently 12 wide receivers in the NFL with contracts that earn them an average annual value of $20 million or more. Nine of those contracts — Chris Godwin, DJ Moore, Cooper Kupp, Davante Adams, Tyreek Hill, Mike Williams, A.J. Brown, Terry McLaurin, and Stefon Diggs — were signed during t...

Make it a best of 13
Usually, especially in a Stanley Cup Final, you need at least a few games before the level of play truly takes off. Coaches and teams want to try different things, chase their matchups, or keep things tight as they can to preserve already exhausted players until there is absolutely no choice. No one...
