19 h. ago Lotteries, stashed teens and bidding wars: reimagining the NFL draft

The draft makes for brilliant television and maintains interest in the league even during the offseason. But it’s worth considering other optionsThere is something funky about the draft being one of the NFL’s marquee events. At root, it’s a man stepping to the podium, being booed and reading names. The NFL still dominates Sundays and Mondays and Thursdays and playoff Saturdays during the season; the draft allows the league to gobble up the offseason months too. But as interest continues to grow, there has been relatively little pushback from those who make the draft work: the prospects, particularly those slated to go at the top of the first round.Think about it. Your reward for being one of the best college athletes in the country is to wind up on one of the worst rosters in the NFL, typically one beset by mismanagement at the top, iffy coaching or a third-rate roster. Quarterbacks can win with teams that draft them No 1 overall – Peyton Manning and Troy Aikman are a couple of exam...

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4 d. ago NFL's smallest market prepares to host league's top offseason spectacle as draft comes to Green Bay

The NFL draft’s annual pilgrimage to cities across the league is arriving in Green Bay next week with all the pageantry that comes from operating in the home of the league’s only publicly owned franchise

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5 d. ago Rams' draft headquarters to be at LAFD Air Operations base to honor first responders to wildfires

The Los Angeles Rams will make their selections in the upcoming NFL draft from the Los Angeles Fire Department’s Air Operations base in Van Nuys to honor the first responders who stopped the deadly wildfires that blazed across Southern California earlier this year

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5 d. ago NFL scouting is broken. Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders is all the proof you need | Andrew Lawrence

The son of Coach Prime has the production, pedigree and poise to lead a franchise. But he challenges the prototype of what an NFL quarterback is supposed to look and act likeNFL scouting is broken, and Shedeur Sanders is the proof. Everything about him screams future star quarterback, and yet teams would sooner assume the worst.Make no mistake: there is no prospect in this year’s draft who is better equipped to turn around a struggling franchise than the 23-year-old Texan, a savior to not one but two college fanbases. The last four years saw him restore the proud football tradition at Jackson State and put Colorado back on the college football map. Sanders did this despite skeptics casting doubt on his ability to make the jump up from competing against small historically Black schools to playing against major college powers in the Pac 12 and Big 12 conferences. Last year he led a 9-4 turnaround at Colorado, the school’s first winning season in seven years, while snapping a four-year...

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5 d. ago A road trip to Lambeau Field: my search for the magic of the NFL draft | Emma John

Why are a quarter of a million people set to descend on Green Bay? I went to Wisconsin to find out I’ve just got back from a road trip in Wisconsin. The upper Midwest is not an obvious destination for a spring break, certainly not in early April. As my plane circled above Milwaukee, the brown and leafless landscape warned me I’d travelled back in time to midwinter.It was too cold to brave the beaches – the Lake Michigan shore was covered in snow and ice – but the bars at least were convivial. This is often the case in Wisconsin, the state with the highest alcohol consumption per capita. Many of my fellow drinkers were keen to point out that they were responsible for nearly all the brandy sold in the US (as a collective, not individually). Continue reading...

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9 d. ago NFL draft prospect Kyren Lacy dies at 24 amid fatal car crash charges

Receiver had allegedly caused death in December crashCause of death for player has not been releasedLawyer says he believes charges will be declinedFormer LSU receiver Kyren Lacy, who was facing criminal charges stemming from a fatal car accident in December, has died at the age of 24, his attorney and the college confirmed on Sunday. A cause of death has not been released.“It is with profound sorrow that we confirm the tragic passing of Kyren Lacy. First and foremost, we ask that the public and the media give his family the space and time they need to grieve this unimaginable loss in peace,” Lacy’s attorney, Matthew Ory, told ESPN. Continue reading...

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1 week ago Built different: Is the 6XL, 464lb Desmond Watson too large for the NFL?

The defensive tackle is one of the most intriguing prospects in this year’s draft. But the attributes that make him stand out could also be his downfallDesmond Watson is pro football’s next very big thing: a 6ft 6in, 464lb defensive tackle who is poised to become the heaviest player ever selected at the NFL draft, which takes place later this month. “He’s a unicorn,” his coach at Florida, Billy Napier, said last month. “You’ll go the rest of your career, and you’ll never be around a guy that’s that stature.A native of Plant City, Florida, the state’s strawberry capital, Watson was the Gators’ big man on campus, a larger-than-life folk hero to match the school’s 7ft 9in basketball prospect. When Watson arrived at college, he already weighed 440lb – or about as much as a standup piano. Watson’s legend grew once he cracked the team’s starting lineup the following year. During a 2022 game against South Carolina, Watson left 89,000 fans gasping after he split a double team and ripped the...

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