Latest news with #playoffs
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18 minutes ago
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Take our IndyStar Caitlin Clark Fever newsletter survey
The Indiana Fever are in the hunt for the playoffs this season. Caitlin Clark has missed games due to several injuries, but Indiana is still in the thick of things. Last year, we launched the Caitlin Clark Fever newsletter, which is dedicated to everything happening with the Fever and its reigning Rookie of the Year. Advertisement Our dedicated reporter, Chloe Peterson, leads the Indiana Fever and WNBA coverage for the IndyStar. Now we want to hear from you on how we can improve the newsletter. Give your feedback here: This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Take our IndyStar Caitlin Clark Fever newsletter survey
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an hour ago
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Fantasy Football: Cam Ward has chance to be 'Bud Light version' of Jayden Daniels for Titans in rookie season
While expectations were high for QB Jayden Daniels and the Washington Commanders last season, there's no question no one saw that type of season coming. Daniels finished as the QB4 in fantasy football while also boosting the Commanders to a playoff berth and the NFC Championship Game. There's no surprise that we're already making comparisons between Daniels and his impact on the Commanders with 2025 No. 1 pick Cam Ward and his potential impact for the Tennessee Titans. [Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Football league for the 2025 NFL season] Daniels finished his rookie season with 3,568 passing yards, 25 TDs and 9 INTs while posting a 100.1 passer rating. He also ran for 891 yards and six TDs, winning Offensive Rookie of the Year. Daniels also boosted the value of top WR Terry McLaurin, who had 1,096 receiving yards and 13 TDs to finish as the WR6 in fantasy last season. On a recent episode of the Yahoo Fantasy Forecast, analyst Matt Harmon revealed he thinks that Ward can give us a "Bud Light" version of what Daniels did for the Commanders last season, taking that offense from being a bottom-dweller to top-five in the NFL. In terms of scoring, the Titans ranked 27th in the NFL with 18.3 points per game. Tennessee was also towards the bottom in yards per game, ranking 26th with 304.2. Harmon points out there's still plenty of talent on the Titans offense. WR Calvin Ridley put together a decent season despite poor QB play with 64 receptions for 1,017 yards and four TDs. They also have Tony Pollard (and Tyjae Spears) at RB and added more depth at WR with Tyler Lockett and Van Jefferson, plus a revamped offensive line. TE Chig Okonkwo is another name that pops out as a value if Ward can elevate the offense.
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2 hours ago
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Why Budda Baker is excited despite Cardinals' struggles
The post Why Budda Baker is excited despite Cardinals' struggles appeared first on ClutchPoints. Budda Baker is bringing optimism for the 2025 NFL season despite past struggles for the Arizona Cardinals. Arizona hasn't returned to the playoffs from the NFC bracket since the 2021 campaign. Their three consecutive seasons of not playing postseason football gives motivation for the current squad to prove doubters wrong, especially for Baker. 'I was drafted here, I know it was a different GM and a different coaching staff, but for me all I've been trying to do is do my job at a high level each and every day,' Baker said on The Mina Kimes Show this week. 'Of course, I'm a sore loser, I hate losing, and my career with the Cardinals has kind of been more losing than winning. 'But for me it's just stay ten toes down, you believe in what you believe in, and I believe in this coaching staff, I believe in these players that we brought in, free agency, draft, and very excited for the future.' What's next for Budda Baker, Cardinals It's a strong statement for Budda Baker to make about the Cardinals going into the 2025 season. Baker proves that he is capable of helping Arizona be a threat with his talent. He played for the entire 2024 campaign as he made 164 tackles, five pass deflections, two sacks, and a forced fumble. His efforts helped him make the most tackles of any season throughout his career. He earned his sixth consecutive Pro Bowl selection while landing on the NFL's All-Pro second team. The Cardinals finished 2024 with an 8-9 record. It was a significant improvement from the back-to-back 4-13 records they had in 2022 and 2023, but it wasn't enough to make the playoffs. They finished third in the NFC West Division standings behind the Los Angeles Rams and Seattle Seahawks. Arizona will hope to make that jump with quarterback Kyler Murray gaining more chemistry with James Connor, Marvin Harrison Jr. and Trey McBride. Hopefully with Baker's optimism, they can do just that. Related: 1 obvious Cardinals trade candidate entering 2025 training camp Related: Cardinals rumors: Arizona urged to sign 5-time Pro Bowler for Marvin Harrison Jr. depth
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2 hours ago
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Why Trey McBride believes Marvin Harrison Jr. ‘can be a force' for Cardinals
The post Why Trey McBride believes Marvin Harrison Jr. 'can be a force' for Cardinals appeared first on ClutchPoints. The Arizona Cardinals were competitive in 2024, but they will be looking to take another step forward and become a playoff team next season with Kyler Murray at the helm. Murray is one of the most talented quarterbacks in the league, and he has two very good weapons to get the ball to in tight end Trey McBride and wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. A lot has been made about McBride's struggles finding the end zone during his three-year career, but he is clearly one of the best tight ends in football. Despite scoring just two touchdowns last season, McBride caught 111 balls on 147 targets for 1,146 yards and was a great security blanket for Murray all year. A second-year leap from Harrison would take some of the pressure off of both McBride and Murray, and the former Colorado State tight end thinks that Arizona fans are going to see that this fall. 'I don't want any part of that,' McBride said, smiling, via ESPN's Josh Weinfuss. 'No, he's a hard worker, man. There's no doubt about it. He puts the work in every single day. I've seen him every day in the offseason, working out together. He's a stud. He's young, he's growing into his body still, and man, I'm excited to see him take the next level. He's a guy who can be a force to reckon with, and I'm excited to see him grow with Kyler and to grow in this offense and to be a stud.' The discourse around Harrison's rookie season for the Cardinals was worse than it actually turned out to be statistically, but he will still be looking for improvement in year two. He caught 62 balls on 116 targets last season for 885 yards and eight touchdowns, putting up that level of production despite some synergy issues with Murray. Now, Harrison and his quarterback have had another offseason to work together and build some more chemistry on the field together. The former Ohio State star still has all of the talent and polish that he showed in college, and he will have plenty of chances to show that off in 2025. If McBride's assessment of his offseason is any indication, defenses should watch out for Harrison in his second season. Related: Cardinals' Marvin Harrison Jr. reveals big change that led to body transformation Related: Cardinals head coach provides discouraging injury update on 1st-round pick
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3 hours ago
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NFL offseason power rankings: No. 5 Buffalo Bills try again to get past Chiefs to the Super Bowl
The Kansas City Chiefs are the Michael Jordan-era Chicago Bulls, making so many Super Bowls that it's hard for anyone else to get a piece of the action. That makes the Buffalo Bills the Charles Barkley of this era. Maybe that makes the Baltimore Ravens the modern day Patrick Ewing. Or they can call dibs on John Stockton and Karl Malone. Maybe Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp. It's impossible to talk about the Josh Allen Bills (or the Lamar Jackson Ravens, which we'll get to later in the countdown) without talking about the Chiefs. This era of Bills football has been tremendous. The franchise didn't win one playoff game from the end of the 1995 season to the 2020 season, Josh Allen's third season. They went 17 seasons without making the playoffs at all. Now the Bills are playoff regulars. They've won five AFC East titles in a row after going 24 seasons without winning one. Allen won NFL MVP last season, becoming the first Bills quarterback to ever win the award. It has been a glorious stretch for Buffalo. And yet, for all of the excitement Allen has created, and for all of the team success after nearly a quarter century of ineptitude, it has also been very frustrating. That's because of Mahomes and the Chiefs. [Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Football league for the 2025 NFL season] Four of the last five seasons have ended with a playoff loss to the Chiefs. Last season, it happened in the AFC championship game, with a 32-29 loss at Arrowhead Stadium. The Bills were close, like they were at Kansas City three seasons before when they took a lead with 13 seconds left in regulation and somehow lost. Had a quarterback sneak been measured differently in last season's AFC championship game, or a fourth-down heave been brought in by Dalton Kincaid, or if any number of plays that can turn a three-point playoff game had gone in Buffalo's direction, they might have been in the Super Bowl. That's the theme of this otherwise successful decade for Buffalo. It seems like, in an alternate universe in which Mahomes and the Chiefs weren't a powerhouse, Allen would have at least one ring by now and maybe more. They're good enough. The Chiefs have just been better when it mattered most. There's a very real possibility of Allen or Jackson, two of the great quarterbacks of this era, finishing their careers without a Super Bowl appearance because the Chiefs seem to make it every season. That makes it hard for Bills fans to enjoy the plentiful success their team has had. All the Bills can do now is to keep trying to make a Super Bowl with a Super Bowl-level team. "If you tell me, next year, I'll sign up for it, to be in the AFC championship game, down three, with three-whatever to go in the game, and we got No. 17? I'll sign up for that again and take our chances," Bills GM Brandon Beane said after the season, via "You've got to do a lot of things very well to be in that position." [Get more Buffalo news: Bills team feed] The Bills will have to depend on variance to get them over the hump, because the roster is mostly the same. Continuing to take shots with the same strong core is the smart approach. There weren't many huge additions. Defensive linemen Michael Hoecht and Larry Ogunjobi were added, but both will serve six-game suspensions for violating the league's PED policy. Defensive end Joey Bosa is a big name but games missed due to injuries have been more frequent than sacks for him the past few seasons. Receiver Josh Palmer was signed to a surprising three-year, $29 million deal, and perhaps he moves the needle more than expected, but he has never been an impact player before. The draft brought some defensive help, but every other AFC contender had draft picks too, and most of them picked before Buffalo. And there's nothing wrong with running it back with mostly the same roster, in addition to some gambles on a few flawed veterans. The Bills had a tremendous offense led by the MVP and the defense has been consistently good under Sean McDermott's watch. They haven't gotten to the Super Bowl, but that doesn't mean they can't. The Bills just have to figure out how to finally beat the Chiefs. Easier said than done. Offseason grade The Bills used their first five draft picks on defense, and four of their top five free agent additions were on defense, too. Buffalo is banking on Josh Allen keeping the offense at an elite level and the defensive additions leading an improvement. Defensive line additions Joey Bosa, Michael Hoecht and Larry Ogunjobi are all gambles, because of Bosa's injury history and Hoecht and Ogunjobi serving six-game suspensions for violations of the PED policy. First-round pick Maxwell Hairston should start at cornerback, and familiar face Tre'Davious White was brought back to help at corner too. The lone offseason addition on offense who looks like a potential contributor is receiver Joshua Palmer, who got $29 million over three years but never turned an opportunity with the Chargers into much, putting up 1,165 yards and three touchdowns the past two seasons combined. The Bills shouldn't have been seeking a big makeover, and they didn't have the cap space for it anyway. They did the best with what they had to work with. Grade: B- Quarterback report The Bills' offseason philosophy was that Josh Allen had enough help on offense. That's probably not wrong after the Bills finished second in the NFL in points scored. There's an argument to be made that Allen could be even better with more help, particularly if he had a Pro Bowl level receiver. Just don't bring that up to Bills general manager Brandon Beane, who went off on the topic on "The Jeremy and Joe" radio show in Buffalo. "Well, you guys were b****ing in 2018 about Josh Allen, you guys wanted Josh Rosen, and now you guys are b****ing that we don't have a receiver," Beane said. " ... We just scored 30 points in a row for eight straight games. A year ago, I get you guys asking why we didn't have receivers, but I don't understand it now. You just saw us lead the league in points, when you add all the postseason, no one scored more points than the Buffalo Bills, including the Super Bowl champions. So, you just saw us do it without Stefon Diggs, same group. How is this group not better than last year's group? Our job is to score points and win games. Where do we need to get better? Defense. We did that. So, I get it, you got to have a show, and you got to have something to b**** about, but b***ing about wide receiver is one of the dumbest arguments I've heard." OK then. BetMGM odds breakdown From Yahoo's Ben Fawkes: 'Is this finally the year for Buffalo? Coming off an MVP campaign, Josh Allen's Bills are one of four teams with a win total of 11.5 at BetMGM and are the only NFL team projected to be favored in all 17 games this season. And not only are the Bills favored in every game, but they are at least 5.5-point favorites in 11 of those games. The Bills have gone over their win total in seven of the eight seasons under head coach Sean McDermott. The AFC playoffs should run through Buffalo." Yahoo's fantasy take From Yahoo's Scott Pianowski: 'Although Ray Davis is about 30 pounds heavier than teammate James Cook, don't overlook what Davis can do in the passing game. Davis was a reliable pass-catcher during his itinerant college days, and he secured 17-of-19 opportunities last year, making a juicy 9.9 yards per target. We've already had a look at what Davis might do in a featured role — he picked up a midseason start last year and rolled for 152 total yards. With Cook undersized and unhappy about his contract, Davis is one of the more interesting speculative plays on the board." Stat to remember The Bills led the NFL in turnover margin last season at +24. The next best team was +16. The Bills lapped the field in turnover margin, and that will be tough to replicate. A big factor in turnover margin was an offense that never turned the ball over. They had just six interceptions and two fumbles lost. Part of that is having an elite quarterback. But it's still incredibly low and unsustainable. Fumble luck was really in Buffalo's favor: The Bills recovered a league-leading 68.1% of fumbles, and only one other team was above 56.6%. That won't repeat either. The Bills' defense also thrived on forcing turnovers. They forced 32, which was just one off the NFL lead. After three straight seasons finishing in the top nine in points and yards allowed, the Bills slipped to 17th in yards allowed and 11th in points allowed (they were 11th in defensive DVOA, if you prefer advanced stats), and that was with the benefit of all those interceptions and fumbles recovered. The Bills are going to have to improve on defense to offset the inevitable regression in takeaways and turnover margin. That's why they spent many resources on that side of the ball. Burning question Does it matter who plays around Josh Allen? Brandon Beane's rant aside, it is true that the Bills have a lesser cast of supporting players for their quarterback than other AFC contenders. That's how voters justified picking for Allen as MVP, though they acknowledged Lamar Jackson was the better quarterback by voting him on the All-Pro first-team. And one of Allen's most productive teammates, James Cook, unsuccessfully spent most of the offseason trying to get a new contract after scoring a league-leading 16 rushing touchdowns and 18 overall TDs. The Bills need to hope the contract angst doesn't affect his play. Ray Davis is an interesting second-year backup behind Cook, if needed. There is some upside among the skill-position group, especially with Allen elevating everyone. Keon Coleman was a second-round pick last year and was making strides before a wrist injury set him back. Khalil Shakir didn't break out but he was a reliable target who posted 821 yards. Tight end Dalton Kincaid still has potential to be a top target, although his 2024 was disappointing, with just 448 yards. Though the answer is probably that it doesn't really matter who is playing around Allen; he won MVP last season and led the NFL's second-highest scoring offense with this same cast. Best-case scenario The Bills have been one of the best teams in the NFL this decade. Here are their DVOA ranks as a team, starting in 2020: 3rd, 2nd, 1st, 3rd, 4th. That's remarkable. Bills fans would have been overjoyed to hear that news at any point from 2000-2016, when they missed the playoffs every season. But in this championship-centric era of sports, nobody is going to end up caring too much if the Josh Allen era doesn't end with a championship. That's unfortunate but it's not changing. The good news is the Bills haven't overreacted to close losses in a one-and-done playoff format. They realize they have a top-five team in the NFL, so they've maintained the status quo and hope that eventually they'll catch the right breaks in the postseason. Buffalo should have a fantastic offense again, Josh Allen could win another MVP, the defense could rebound back to a top-10 level, the Bills should run away with the AFC East, and yes, maybe they can finally catch some green lights in the inevitable playoff matchup against the Chiefs and move on to a Super Bowl. Nightmare scenario Among all 32 teams, the Bills are by far the biggest favorite to win their division at BetMGM. They're -250 to win the AFC East and that's fair. There's no serious contender to them. But how long will that be the case? The Patriots just had a great offseason, have a young quarterback they love (Josh Allen loves him too) and hired a top-tier coach. Buffalo seems like a near-lock to win the AFC East, if Allen stays healthy, but their reign over the AFC East might not last forever. There is urgency to break through and win a championship. Nobody knows when the window will close. The Bills are an obvious contender again. But getting back to the playoffs and losing to the Chiefs, Ravens or anyone else in the AFC would be crushing for a fan base that is still waiting for its first Super Bowl championship. It's hard to go into a season in which anything less than a Super Bowl appearance would feel like a failure, but there's nowhere else for the Bills to go. The crystal ball says The AFC is really good at the top. The Chiefs are in a dynasty, the Ravens were really good last season and should be again this season, and there are teams like the Bengals, Chargers and Broncos who are capable of improvement and making a run in the playoffs. There's no reason to disparage the Bills. Josh Allen is great, they're balanced on both sides of the ball and clearly capable of winning a championship. But in a league with a lot of worthy contenders, I have two AFC teams ahead of the Bills. It's hard to choose among the top three in the conference. The separation is slight. Whether the Bills break through will just depend on their luck running well in January. That has eluded this group so far.
