Iowa City Liberty coach Scott Chandler on team identity entering 2025 HS football season
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Report – Inter Milan Could Keep France Defender After Offloading Nicola Zalewski To Atalanta
Benjamin Pavard could reportedly stay at Inter Milan after Nicola Zalewski joined Atalanta. According to FCInterNews, the Nerazzurri could take the French center-back off the market. Despite showing readiness to negotiate the 29-year-old's exit, Inter are having second thoughts. Indeed, they've recently sold Zalewski to Atalanta for a reported fee of €17 million. As a result, they no longer face pressure to offload the former Bayern Munich star. Inter Milan Consider Keeping Benjamin Pavard After Selling Nicola Zalewski MILAN, ITALY – APRIL 16: Benjamin Pavard of FC Internazionale applauds the fans as he warms up prior to the UEFA Champions League 2024/25 Quarter Final Second Leg match between FC Internazionale Milano and FC Bayern München at San Siro on April 16, 2025 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by) Udinese's Oumar Solet remains a concrete target for the Nerazzurri. Though his addition would increase competition for places, the Frenchman could co-exist with Benjamin Pavard. For context, new coach Cristian Chivu is eager to deploy Carlos Augusto as a wingback. The Brazilian often operated as part of Simone Inzaghi's back three, but the Romanian has other plans. As such, Augusto's return to his preferred position would open space for both Solet and Pavard. However, a significant offer could still make Inter reconsider their stance. Galatasaray and Marseille are reportedly interested in signing the 2018 FIFA World Cup winner.
Yahoo
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Luther Burden's blocks weren't the only neat thing about those TD runs
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Madden NFL 26 predicts 2025 season: Falcons, Super Bowl champs? Pass rusher with 31 sacks? Let's get wild
The NFL regular season may not kick off for a few weeks, but here at Yahoo Sports we're already in full-on football mode. For the eighth year in a row, we're running our simulated season, with Charles McDonald and Anthony Sulla-Heffinger reprising their roles as Madden Maestros. Usually, the results are a mixed bag, with last year's simulations absolutely nailing Jared Verse winning Defensive Rookie of the Year and the Titans securing the No. 1 pick with a jarringly accurate 3-14 record. We'll opt to leave it at that and not mention the Dak Prescott MVP or Ravens Super Bowl title that was predicted in both of our simulations. [Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Football league for the 2025 NFL season] If you've been with us for a while, you know the rules. If not, here's a refresher: McDonald and Sulla-Heffinger each ran a full simulated season in Madden NFL 26, pulling out key takeaways and Senior NFL Editor Joey Gulino deciding which outcome is more likely. Super Bowl: Sulla-Heffinger: For the second year in a row, my Madden sim has the 49ers in the Super Bowl. After last year's sim predicted a loss to the Ravens, this year Kyle Shanahan finally gets over the hump and hoists the Lombardi Trophy, even exorcising his Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid demons with a 35-30 win over the Chiefs. Brock Purdy was the standout performer on the 49ers' side, throwing for four TDs and thoroughly outplaying Mahomes. Christian McCaffrey added 102 yards and a score on the ground while Isiah Pacheco found pay dirt three times. Naturally, Ji'Ayir Brown was named Super Bowl MVP, picking off what we have to assume was a crucial Mahomes pass. McDonald: Somehow, the Falcons, as a No. 6 seed, went on the road and dominated their way to a Super Bowl victory over the No. 4 seed Texans. Atlanta went on the road to Philadelphia, Tampa Bay and San Francisco before their Super Bowl victory, following an incredibly strong performance from Michael Penix Jr. — who had a breakout season throwing for 38 touchdowns and 11 interceptions in his first season as a starter, while finishing third in the MVP race. The Falcons defense was middle of the pack, but their elite offense kicked into overdrive and they were able to score points in bunches en route to a 31-24 victory over Houston, featuring Ray-Ray McCloud as an unlikely Super Bowl MVP. More likely to happen: Charles swears his sim wasn't just fanfic from his own head, but even so we'll go with the 49ers winning it all MVP McDonald: Josh Allen won his second straight MVP on the Madden sim, leading the Bills to a 10-7 record. Allen threw for 4,074 yards, 44 touchdowns with only five interceptions and he boasted a 72% completion rate. He also chipped in 417 yards and six touchdowns on the ground for a clean 50 total touchdowns on the year. Unfortunately, his year came to an end in the wild-card round at the hand of the Super Bowl runner-up Texans. Sulla-Heffinger: Fair or not, the NFL MVP discussion has basically become equal parts 'which QB played the best?' and 'whose turn is it?' In my sim, Bengals QB Joe Burrow won the award — justifiably — by leading the league with 5,152 passing yards and 43 TDs against just five interceptions. Burrow added 493 yards on the ground and two more scores, leading Cincinnati back to the playoffs as the No. 5 seed. Burrow led the NFL in both passing yards and TDs last year but didn't take home the award, finishing fourth behind Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson and Saquon Barkley, but Madden clearly thinks he'll break through that barrier this year. More likely to happen: Burrow, whose Herculean efforts to keep the Bengals competitive (see OPOY below) will be rewarded this season Offensive Player of the Year Sulla-Heffinger: Puka Nacua was an absolute force for the Rams in my simulation. Nacua, in his third year, took home the triple crown with 115 receptions, 1,713 yards and 20 TDs. This was the second year in a row my Madden sim predicted a wide receiver to win OPOY. McDonald: Chase did what he does best all season: torch defenses through the air. Chase caught 107 passes for 1,632 yards and 18 touchdowns (shockingly, only the touchdowns would be a real-life career high!). He led a receiving core that featured another 1,000 yard receiver in Tee Higgins, 983 yards from free agent signing Amari Cooper and 826 yards from Mike Gesicki. (The Bengals defense was so bad they somehow missed the playoffs with all this and went 7-9-1.) More likely to happen: Chase, because Matthew Stafford's potential back issues could limit Nacua's production Defensive Player of the Year McDonald: I have never seen this in a Madden season where every game was simulated: Somehow, Jaguars pass rusher Josh Hines-Allen was able to rack up an unreal 31-SACK SEASON and cleaned up on this award. For reference, Myles Garrett had the next most sacks with 19.5. After a quiet start to the season with zero sacks in Week 1, Allen had 13 sacks by Week 6 and finished with ELEVEN games with two or more sacks. He should retire and just take his gold jacket now. Sulla-Heffinger: Since 2019, T.J. Watt has played at least 15 games in six of seven seasons. In each of those he has finished top five in DPOY voting, winning the award once. (Steelers fans may or may not want to talk about 2023's results.) In my simulation, Watt took home the award by leading the NFL with 20.5 sacks and 22 tackles for loss. He also added two blocked kicks en route to his second career defensive crown. More likely to happen: Josh Hines-Allen's 31 sacks are so gloriously ridiculous we're gonna go with that Offensive Rookie of the Year Sulla-Heffinger: Considering Ashton Jeanty is the favorite to win this award at BetMGM (+260), Madden is playing it safe with this pick. Jeanty finished with 1,298 rushing yards (sixth in the NFL) and nine touchdowns. Factoring in his relatively light impact in the passing game (233 yards, three TDs) gets him over 1,500 yards from scrimmage and 12 total TDs, making him one of most impactful rookies in my simulation. We'll circle back to the Raiders in a little bit. McDonald: It was a fairly quiet year on the rookie front, with Bears rookie wide receiver Luther Burden III winning the award with 801 yards and 10 touchdowns. The touchdown number is impressive, but that's a pretty low number of yards for these awards. For whatever it's worth, Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders really struggled with 11 touchdowns to 14 interceptions while Cam Ward put together a solid season with 3,409 yards, 20 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. More likely to happen: Jeanty, easy peasy Defensive Rookie of the Year McDonald: Jalon Walker had a breakout rookie season for the Super Bowl-winning Falcons with 14 sacks and 16 tackles for loss. He also included two more sacks in the Super Bowl and was a big reason for the Falcons' actually being a league-average defense. Sulla-Heffinger: 49ers linebacker Nick Martin was the winner for me here. Martin finished with 121 tackles, 5.5 sacks, two interceptions, seven pass deflections and eight tackles for loss, putting together a complete defensive performance. If this comes to pass, Martin could be in line to become the next great 49ers linebacker. More likely to happen: Walker, because somebody has to work out as a pass rusher for the Falcons eventually, right? Coach of the Year Sulla-Heffinger: Pete Carroll, who turns 74 during the season, orchestrated a remarkable turnaround in Las Vegas in my simulation, earning him his first Coach of the Year award. We're still not done with the Raiders. McDonald: Mike McDaniel was able to silence the haters and doubters with a bounceback 13-4 season from his Miami Dolphins. The Dolphins had the No. 2 offense in terms of points per game at 27.6, only behind Buffalo's 27.9. While the Dolphins clinched the first-round bye for the AFC, their playoff run came to a swift end at the hands of the No. 4 seed Houston Texans — who were also able to bounce Josh Allen and the Bills out in the first round. More likely to happen: Carroll. More on them in Surprise Team No. 1 pick/Worst record Sulla-Heffinger: Just End The Season. New York fans immediately know what I'm referring to with those four words. The Jets finished tied with the Arizona Cardinals at 5-12, but earned the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft by tiebreaker. After bringing in head coach Aaron Glenn from Detroit, the Jets had the league's worst defense, giving up 444 points and disappointing everyone in the virtual stands, including Fireman Ed. It's worth noting that the Cardinals were one of two teams to fire their head coach after the season, so at least the Jets have continuity on their side in that department. McDonald: The Saints had a season that many people are predicting for them, only winning three games and finishing with the worst record in the league. Spencer Rattler started all 17 games, but only managed to throw for 159.4 yards per game as the Saints were only able to muster 14.7 points per game. Tyler Shough was unable to push Rattler and now it looks like the Saints will be taking a quarterback first overall. More likely to happen: Saints, because we believe in Aaron Glenn Surprise team McDonald: Tampa Bay finished 12-5 and held the No. 1 seed in the NFC, which is fairly surprising. The Bucs' season ended with a home playoff loss to the Falcons in the divisional round, but they had an incredible season from their defense to get that far. They had the best defense in the league, allowing only 187 passing yards per game and allowing 16 points per game. Vita Vea had a 10 sack season, YaYa Diaby broke out with 12.5 sacks and Haason Reddick came back to life with a whopping 17.5 sacks for the year. Sulla-Heffinger: Jeanty won OROY, Carroll won COTY and the Raiders won the AFC West with a 13-4 record, tied with the Ravens for the best in the AFC and overall second-best in the entire NFL. In his first year with Las Vegas, Geno Smith turned in a predictable season (3,272 yards, 24 TDs, 9 INTs, 68%) and Maxx Crosby did his usual, racking up 17.5 sacks and being an absolute wrecker on the defensive line. Beyond Jeanty, rookie CB Darien Porter was tied for the league lead with four interceptions. Las Vegas was the No. 2 seed entering the postseason but lost to the Steelers in the wild-card round. Still, it would be a remarkable turnaround for a franchise that hadn't had a winning record since 2021 or won its division since 2002. More likely to happen: Rrraaaaiiidddeeerrrsss Biggest disappointment Sulla-Heffinger: I am going with a tie here. Both the defending champion Eagles and perennial AFC contending Bills finished 7-10 and out of the playoffs. For Philadelphia, the reason is very simple: Saquon Barkley got hurt. Barkley, the cover star of Madden NFL 26, played just two games, rushing for 188 yards on 22 attempts. Philadelphia's offense hinges on Barkley's health, so if that were to happen in real life it would likely be equally catastrophic. For the Bills, there were no glaring injuries and Josh Allen, despite not reaching his 2024 MVP heights, did finish with more than 4,300 total yards and 38 total TDs (28 pass, 10 rush). Buffalo's defense was third-worst in the league, however, allowing 416 points. McDonald: There were a couple teams to choose from here, including the Eagles who scraped by to a 9-8 record, but no one had a more dastardly season compared to expectations than the Bears in this sim. They finished 4-12-1 (their tie came against Cincinnati) and the Bears defense just fell off an absolute cliff in their first year under Ben Johnson and Dennis Allen. Caleb Williams actually had a solid sophomore season, completing 68% of his passes and throwing for 28 touchdowns and nine interceptions. However, it wasn't enough to overcome one of the worst defenses in the league that allowed roughly 26 points per game. More likely to happen: Sorry, Bears fans. We don't necessarily believe Chicago will disappoint under Ben Johnson, but *gestures at Bears for most of Super Bowl era*
