Former NFL QB Matt Hasselbeck explains why Shedeur Sanders fell in NFL draft
Retired Super Bowl champion quarterback Matt Hasselbeck joins "CUOMO" to discuss Shedeur Sanders falling to the fifth round of the 2025 NFL draft before being picked No. 144 overall by the Cleveland Browns. #Browns #NFL #Shedeur
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Retired NFL offensive lineman Terron Armstead ranks top pass rushers he won't miss, with one surprising pick
After 12 strong seasons in the NFL, Miami Dolphins left tackle Terron Armstead decided to hang up his cleats this offseason. With Armstead now away from the game, the five-time Pro Bowler revealed the top pass rushers he's glad he'll never have to face again. While that list contained a few names you might expect, one could come as a major surprise. Armstead gave obvious names like Myles Garrett, Trey Hendrickson and Maxx Crosby, but the first player he mentioned was just a rookie last season. That would be Los Angeles Rams linebacker Jared Verse, who Armstead called a future Defensive Player of the Year. Armstead made sure to emphasize Verse as the No. 1 player on his list. He referred to Verse multiple times as "different" and complimented his bull-rushing ability. Advertisement He's not the only one who recognized Verse's excellence. While Verse lacked a high sack total last season — finishing with 4.5 sacks as a rookie — he still managed to win the Defensive Rookie of the Year award. Verse had 66 combined tackles, with 18 quarterback hits, 2 forced fumbles and 2 passes defended. He was an all-around threat. Big things were expected from Verse after the Rams essentially made him the team's replacement for Aaron Donald, who surprisingly retired after the 2023 NFL season. While Verse has a long way to go to reach Donald's status — that's the case for every pass rusher — his career is off to an impressive start. Even if you want to try and downplay Verse's numbers, the fact that a player as accomplished as Armstead respects Verse's game should tell you the hype isn't overblown. Armstead's other picks were less surprising, but he still provided some fun explanations for them. In Garrett's case, Armstead said, "I've had enough battles with Myles Garrett ... I'm cool with that. We've danced enough." Advertisement When the hosts mentioned Hendrickson's agent is going to use Armstead's words to get Hendrickson more money from the Cincinnati Bengals, Armstead said he didn't want to rip the team, but said signing Hendrickson is a "no-brainer." Armstead added, "The defense is completely different without [Hendrickson.]" It was a surprising amount of candor from a player who recently turned in a solid season in the NFL. After being a third-round pick by the New Orleans Saints in the 2018 NFL Draft, Armstead turned in a strong career in the league. He emerged as a full-time starter in his second year with the team, and started at left tackle for the Saints for nine seasons. Armstead made three Pro Bowls with the team before signing with the Dolphins ahead of the 2021 NFL season. Armstead played three seasons in Miami, making two Pro Bowls with the club before retiring in April.
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MLB Draft Combine 2025: Everything you need to know as the Combine begins in Phoenix
PHOENIX — This week, hundreds of the best amateur prospects eligible for the 2025 MLB Draft will descend upon Chase Field to participate in the fifth annual MLB Draft Combine. With the first two rounds of the draft scheduled to commence July 13 during All-Star weekend in Atlanta, this is a premier opportunity for players to boost their stock in the weeks leading up to the 20-round draft. Here's everything you need to know to get ready for the MLB Draft Combine. What is the MLB Draft Combine? The combine is a multi-day event in which players eligible to be selected in the upcoming draft participate in organized workouts, medical evaluations and interviews with a range of club personnel as a streamlined, league-sanctioned process through which players can showcase their skills on the field and personalities off it to all 30 MLB organizations. Advertisement The first two days will feature on-field workouts and a formal scrimmage featuring exclusively high school players, and the remaining days will include strength and conditioning assessments, medical reviews and interviews between players and club personnel. How long has this been a thing? Don't feel bad if you're unfamiliar with this event. This is only the fifth year MLB has held a draft combine and only the third time it has taken place at Phoenix's Chase Field, with the inaugural showcase held in Cary, North Carolina, in 2021 and the second set at San Diego's Petco Park in 2022. While the MLB Draft dates to 1965, only recently have the event and the process surrounding it become more accessible to fans and more promoted by the league. Unlike the NFL or NBA Drafts, which have been television spectacles for decades, it wasn't until 2009 that the MLB Draft was televised. From 2009 to 2020, the draft — or, at least, the first couple of rounds — took place in early June at the MLB Network studios in Secaucus, New Jersey. In 2021, MLB pushed the draft back a month and made it part of All-Star weekend, creating the opportunity for fans to attend the draft that Sunday evening. This has helped make the scene on television (and in person) more like that of the other major sports leagues' drafts, albeit on a smaller scale. Advertisement Solidifying the combine as a crucial week on the baseball calendar represents the latest effort from MLB to grow awareness and hype for its draft among fans, and it's an obvious opportunity to highlight the amateur players who hope to become stars at the big-league level. What happens at the combine? On Tuesday and Wednesday, Chase Field will be packed with players cycling through batting practice and bullpen sessions, all of which will be monitored by the same motion-tracking technology used during big-league games. Players who choose to participate in the on-field workouts will produce data such as exit velocities, launch angles and projected distances for batted balls for hitters and velocity, movement and spin for pitchers. For some high school players, this will be their first time performing in a setting that allows for these measured evaluations, affording them the chance to separate themselves from their peers by hitting certain benchmarks. Advertisement On Tuesday evening, a selection of high school players will compete in a game, affording scouts the opportunity to see prospects perform in a live setting beyond batting practice and bullpen sessions. This is a particularly valuable opportunity for prep players who hail from areas where the competition is lesser than it is in, say, Florida or California, as they can showcase their skills in a game setting against a higher caliber of peers. Because collegiate prospects have significantly more chances to prove themselves against higher levels of competition over the course of an NCAA season, there is less incentive to organize an official game for those players at the combine. To that end, even beyond the game, the high school players in attendance are more likely to participate in on-field workouts because they have more to gain by demonstrating their pure physical abilities than college players, who have a much larger sample of statistics on which their evaluations are already based. Performances and interviews at this week's combine could go a long way in determining next month's MLB Draft order. (Mallory Bielecki/Yahoo Sports) (Mallory Bielecki/Yahoo Sports) On Thursday and Friday, players will undergo a series of strength and conditioning assessments that track a vast array of physical traits, from foot speed and grip strength to agility, vision and much, much more. 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Each team handles this process differently, with some sending 10-plus members of the front office to participate in interviews and others sending just a handful of representatives from the amateur scouting department. In addition, some teams narrow their list of interviews to a few dozen players of interest, while others try to squeeze as many intel-gathering conversations into the week as possible. While these discussions take place behind closed doors, they can impact a team's draft board just as much as what takes place on the field. Which players will be in Phoenix? More than 300 draft-eligible players accepted invitations to attend the combine, including 174 of MLB Pipeline's Top 200 prospects for this year's class. A little more than half of the players in attendance will be from the collegiate ranks, with 90 schools sending players to the combine, ranging from Division I powerhouses to ascendant mid-majors to some junior colleges and even a Division III program in Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The rest will be prep players hailing from high schools in 31 different states, plus a right-handed pitcher from Washington D.C., four players from Puerto Rico and two from Canada. Advertisement Tennessee (eight combine invitees) and Florida State (seven) will be the programs most represented at Chase Field, with each school's headliner an elite southpaw: Volunteers ace Liam Doyle and Seminoles star Jamie Arnold. 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USA Today
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Former Longhorn DeShon Elliott signs two-year extension with Steelers
Former Longhorn DeShon Elliott signs two-year extension with Steelers At Texas, Elliott starred in the secondary, earning first-team All-Big 12 and unanimous All-American honors as a junior in 2017. Former Texas Longhorns standout safety DeShon Elliott has signed a two-year, $12.5 million contract extension with the Pittsburgh Steelers, including $9.21 million in guarantees, according to multiple reports. The new deal secures Elliott's place in Pittsburgh through the 2027 NFL season. Elliott, 28, is coming off one of the best seasons of his NFL career. In 2024, he appeared in 15 games—starting 14—and posted a career-high 108 total tackles, six passes defended, one interception, two forced fumbles, and three fumble recoveries. He also allowed a passer rating of just 88.8 as the nearest defender, marking his lowest coverage rating since his rookie campaign in 2019. The Dallas native originally joined the Steelers on a two-year, $6 million free-agent deal before the 2024 season. After just one year, Elliott has more than doubled his value, earning a significant raise and long-term security as a key figure in the Steelers' secondary. Elliott entered the league as a sixth-round pick by the Baltimore Ravens in the 2018 NFL Draft, though he missed his entire rookie season due to injury. He spent three seasons in Baltimore before signing one-year contracts with the Detroit Lions (2022) and Miami Dolphins (2023), ultimately landing in Pittsburgh, where he has become a cornerstone of the defense. At Texas, Elliott starred in the secondary, earning first-team All-Big 12 and unanimous All-American honors as a junior in 2017. That season, he led the conference with six interceptions—two of which he returned for touchdowns.
