stroud Page 2 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Every team in the NFL playoffs, ranked
The NFL playoffs are officially set. All the ups and downs, laughs and years, improbable comebacks and unprecedented collapses, none of those mean anything now. All that’s left is a four-week sprint to immortality. ...

Michigan’s national title is a crop in the Big Ten’s budding football harvest
As maize-and-blue confetti streamed from the NRG Stadium rafters, it felt like the Big Ten’s harvest was finally ripening. The national title game was decided when Michigan outmuscled Alabama a week earlier, but Monday night’s national title was merely the coup de grâce in a process that began five ...
![San Francisco 49ers fire DC Steve Wilks after Super Bowl LVIII loss [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/1ef4ca96da9eb6ed7f574e0392ed764f.jpg)
San Francisco 49ers fire DC Steve Wilks after Super Bowl LVIII loss [Updated]
It’s one of the toughest times of the NFL calendar. The end of the regular season has been unofficially dubbed “Black Monday” for the head coaches, general managers, and coordinators who will ultimately lose their jobs. In some cases, a relationship has simply run its course, and a business-driven l...

DeMeco Ryans is the only choice for NFL Coach of the Year
Mike Tomlin still hasn’t had a losing season. Kevin Stefanski’s squad endured five different starting quarterbacks. Dan Campbell has the Detroit Lions hosting a playoff game and they’re the favorite. But, they all fail in comparison to what DeMeco Ryans has done in Houston. A rookie head coach has t...

The 2023 Jacksonville Jaguars had an unnatural loyalty to losing
The Jacksonville Jaguars began the 2023 season with a built-in advantage as the only playoff-ready team in a division of bottom-feeders. After last January’s Wild Card comeback against the Los Angeles Chargers, Trevor Lawrence was expected to continue his ascent both in the AFC and up the ranks of e...

The Texans are proof that serendipity is the NFL’s most valuable asset
Think about the Houston Texans’ path to this moment. After gutting out a win over the Indianapolis Colts, 23-19, on Saturday, DeMeco Ryans and CJ Stroud locked up a playoff spot in their rookie campaigns. The team that opted out of hiring Josh McCown because it didn’t want to get sued also let the C...

Lamar Jackson is inching closer to joining Patrick Mahomes as the only Black QBs with multiple MVPs
Since 2023 has been filled with highs for Black quarterbacks, 2024 might as well keep the party going. And if things hold steady, Patrick Mahomes won’t be the only one anymore....

Aaron Rodgers and the biggest transactions of the 2023 NFL season
With just a handful of weeks left before the end of the NFL regular season, it’s time to evaluate the moves that defined the year in review. Everyone makes big deals about offseason moves and trades, but only in hindsight can we truly find the moves that defined the year. ...

21 PGA players have lawyered up
Twenty-one players on the PGA tour announced this week that they have hired lawyers and sent a letter to the PGA Tour Policy Board asking for full disclosure of details of proposals by potential capital partners. ...

Zach Wilson keeps thriving when expectations are low
Intermittently, Zach Wilson is capable of balling out. He can’t consistently progress through reads and hit open receivers, but occasionally, his fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants quarterbacking rewards Jets fans with a rare gem. On Sunday, New York turned back to Wilson after benching him for the third...

Here's every NFL quarterback to start a game so far this season
Update: It’s the final week of the NFL regular season and even more backups will get starts as teams who’ve locked up playoff spots rest their normal QB1s....

Wait, are those the Rams knocking on the NFL playoff door?
If not for the Green Bay Packers’ Sunday night surprise win against the Kansas City Chiefs, the Los Angeles Rams would currently have the final playoff spot in the NFC. They are on a three-game winning streak since their bye week and the offense is humming even with Cooper Kupp sidelined with an inj...

The week in the NFL, college football: Sean McDermott facing heat, Deion Sanders fools everyone, Bobby Petrino gets another chance
The Buffalo Bills might be the biggest disappointment of this NFL season. A supposed Super Bowl contender, as predicted by many, can barely stay alive in the wild-card race. Buffalo lost another game on Sunday in Philadelphia, which they could’ve won had their coach not folded in crunch time. Too ma...

The Broncos are the NFL’s biggest walking plot twist
An 18-week NFL schedule creates a plethora of nexus points where the season diverts from its expected path. Aaron Rodgers tearing his Achilles four plays into the season, the New England Patriots crashing, CJ Stroud flying out the rookie gates, Frank Reich being fired after 11 games and two rookies ...

Week 12 NFL Takeaways: Live by the field goal, die by the field goal
On Sunday, the NFL made up for its Thanksgiving product that was more sleep-inducing than wolfing down a half-pound turkey in one afternoon. Jordan Love’s late-season turnaround was worthy of a hat tip, but the rest of the day would have been better spent arguing about the 2024 election. ...

Houston’s Baby Boy CJ Stroud can take a lick and keep on tickin’
The Houston Texans suffered a setback in a 24-21 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars Sunday that throttled them back into a mosh pit of five-loss teams in the AFC. However, not all losses are created equal. Wins are utilized as a quarterback stat too frivolously, but throughout his rookie season, CJ St...

Week 11 NFL Takeaways: Lions, Dolphins and Texans escape disaster
Winning a game does not mean the victorious team is better than the one that lost. The football is oblong and takes several unpredictable bounces every game. Sometimes sure-handed running backs fumble and undependable quarterbacks throw for 400 yards and four touchdown passes....

The Texans' offseason work set rookie QB CJ Stroud up for success
C.J. Stroud is well on his way to the best rookie quarterback performance in NFL history. Usually rookie quarterbacks are limited by their lack of professional experience and/or their coaches’ lack of confidence in their grasp of the complexities of football at the NFL level. Through nine games, the...

Hopefully, Anthony Richardson’s rehab includes a tutorial on how to slide
Anthony Richardson has never been so lucky to get injured in his life. The Indianapolis Colts’ rookie QB has been operating on pure talent and instincts over the first four starts of his career. He’s tallied seven TDs total — tied with C.J. Stroud the lead among all rookie QBs — in essentially 12 qu...

A lot of NFL teams tanking for Caleb Williams already have a QB
If you’ve found yourself noticing more bad football than usual in the NFL, you’re not wrong. After five weeks, there are seven teams with one win or fewer, and none of them are the New York Jets, Houston Texans, or Washington Commanders. The New York Giants, Minnesota Vikings, New England Patriots, ...