It is safe to say that the Kansas City Chiefs are lucky they have Patrick Mahomes . Although it takes foresight to win an NFL Draft, the Chiefs likely did not have much of an idea of the success that was ahead of them when they selected the former Texas Tech Red Raiders gunslinger 10th overall at the 2017 NFL Draft. The Chiefs originally were scheduled to pick 27th overall but traded up with the Buffalo Bills to get to No. 10. The rest was history.

Meanwhile, in his latest Football In America column, Peter King reminisced some of the pre-draft predictions writers, including his, had, heading to that year’s NFL Draft. He had the Chiefs getting Mahomes at No. 27, and while the QB was selected much earlier, he correctly predicted the landing spot of the now multi-Super Bowl champ signal-caller.
Why’d I have him going to Kansas City? I’d heard they loved his on-campus workout in Lubbock, Tex., heard they loved his visit to the KC facility, and heard he was making it known privately that Kansas City, with Reid and incumbent Alex Smith, was the place he really wanted to go. But did I know anything real? Absolutely not. Just took a shot, as happens with most mock picks.
The Chiefs still had Alex Smith at the time, but once Mahomes took over the reins under center, there was no looking back. The Chiefs were a force with Mahomes orchestrating the offense. And after winning Super Bowl 58 earlier this February in Las Vegas, Kansas City already has three Super Bowls in four Super Bowl appearances in the Mahomes era.

The Quarterbacks Drafted Before Mahomes Went To The Kansas City Chiefs At The 2017 NFL Draft

There was only one quarterback taken before Mahomes in his class, and that was Mitchell Trubisky, who was selected second overall by the Chicago Bears. Trubisky is a free agent as of this writing after getting released by the Pittsburgh Steelers. Mahomes was also selected two picks earlier than Deshaun Watson, who went to the Houston Texans.

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Las Vegas Raiders reportedly continue to shop disgruntled wide…

After an abysmal 2023 campaign, resulting in a mid-season firing of head coach Josh McDaniels, the Las Vegas Raiders will try to return to relevance next year. The storied AFC West club is on the right track, finding late-season success with then-interim frontman Antonio Pierce. With the interim tag removed, Pierce has started finalizing his coaching staff heading into the upcoming NFL draft and free agency. However, from a roster standpoint, one highly skilled wide receiver is not in the Raiders’ plan going forward. Per Pro Football Rumors, Las Vegas will continue to shop wideout Hunter Renfrow despite the coaching change. Renfrow fell out of favor with the offense last season, with former head coach Josh McDaniels failing to utilize his talents more effectively. Rumors swirled around the organization shopping the Clemson product before the deadline, but a deal never came to fruition. Despite a new coaching staff, the Raiders will try to move Renfrow again this offseason. Las Vegas Raiders: Plotting to Move Hunter Renfrow The Raiders will continue to look for a trade suitor regarding wide receiver Hunter Renfow. The club tried to move the 2021 Pro-Bowler at the trade deadline last season, but the remaining guaranteed money in his contract became a deterrent. Following his breakout 2021 season, the Raiders inked Renfrow to a two-year contract extension with the Raiders worth $31.7 million. He has an out in his contract following the end of next season but could remain under contract until 2027, his age-32 season. However, after the conclusion of last year, Renfrow is owed only $11 million in non-guaranteed base salary. Pro Football Rumors suggests a rework in his remaining contract could make him a viable trade piece. Renfrow, a fifth-round pick in the 2019 NFL draft, has spent his entire five-year career with the Raiders. After back-to-back 600-yard receiving campaigns, Renfrow posted 103 receptions, 1,038 yards, and nine touchdowns in 2021. The two-time College Football Playoff National Champion earned a contract extension for his play. However, Las Vegas hired Josh McDaniels to become their next head coach in 2022, with Renfrow’s playing time taking a massive hit. The 5-foot-10 wideout saw a decrease in snaps while catching just 36 passes for 330 yards in 2022. He again saw a reduction in snaps last year, playing a career-low 35% of the offensive plays. Hunter Renfrow: looking for a Change of Scenery Renfrow’s statistical output and playing time fell drastically under the Josh McDaniels regime. He did show some flashes of his old self after Antonio Pierce took over midway through last year, but he still posted lackluster numbers. He did not record a catch in his final five games. A change of scenery could do Renfrow good, especially on a team where he becomes more involved with the offense. The Raiders will likely release Renfrow if they can not find a trade partner.

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NBA All-Star Game winners and losers: Tyrese Haliburton is the…

The NBA All-Star Game was another exhibition heavy on highlights, long-range shots and dunks, and light on competitiveness, defense and effort. Here are the winners and losers from the Eastern Conference’s 211-186 victory over the Western Conference. Winners Tyrese Haliburton Damian Lillard may have taken home the Kobe Bryant Trophy, but Tyrese Haliburton was the People’s MVP. The Indiana Pacers hosted the All-Star Game, and their young star showed out in the game. After winning the Skills Challenge with a half-court shot Saturday night and falling just short in the Three-Point Contest tiebreaker, Haliburton came out firing, opening the game by drilling five three-pointers in a minute. He ended up putting on an outside shooting exhibition, hitting 10 of his 14 triples for 32 points, and delivering six assists, including a Jason “White Chocolate” Williams-style elbow pass to Lillard for a three. Damian Lillard Is it a little gauche to intentionally try to win All-Star Game MVP? Maybe, but that never stopped a player like Kobe Bryant from trying for the trophy. Lillard scored 39 points on 14-of-26 shooting and 11-of-23 from three-point range, nailing some extremely deep triples for his first year on the Eastern Conference squad. While Lillard hasn’t had a ton of postseason success, he has done extremely well with fake-ish NBA awards. He took home the inaugural and highly manufactured MVP from the 2020 “bubble” season in Orlando. Lillard has won two Three-Point Contests, an NBA Teammate of the Year and two Big Sky Conference Player of the Year awards. Now he’s added an All-Star MVP. Sure, he took 11 more shots than his rival, Haliburton, to score just seven more points. Sure, the Indiana crowd heartily booed Lillard as he held up the trophy. But in the history books, people will see the trophy and not the gunning or the crowd’s displeasure. Karl-Anthony Towns Towns competed in the Three-Point Contest this year, but he submitted an audition tape for next year’s dunk contest during Saturday’s game. He had a stunning 50 points on 23-of-35 shooting, including a highlight reel of jams. The downside? Every shot he took that wasn’t a layup or dunk. Towns went 19-of-22 from two-point range, but only 4-of-13 from deep. He probably could have passed to teammate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (12-of-16, 7-of-10 from three-point range) on a couple of those long bombs. SGA is also a minor winner, but it’s hard to give out more than one of those to a team that lost by 25 points. Doc Rivers Did Doc Rivers deserve to coach the Eastern Conference All-Star team after taking over the Milwaukee Bucks at midseason? Probably not, but those are the rules. He was 3-7 with Milwaukee since assuming the head coach, but now he’s 1-0 in All-Star Games! He won the game with masterful coaching advice like, “Shoot it from mid-court, Dame!” and “Guys, it doesn’t look like anyone is guarding the basket.” But Rivers should be able to bask in this victory and the excellent games by his Bucks — Giannis Antetokounmpo and Lillard combined for 62 points — until his inevitable disappointing playoff loss this May. Losers Defense Adam Silver may have hoped that a return to the All-Star Game’s traditional East vs. West format would increase the game’s competitiveness, but instead we saw a 48-minute layup line. The East scored 211 points while making a record 42 three-pointers, which captain Giannis Antetokounmpo celebrated by declaring, “Winner winner, chicken dinner.” The biggest sign of the absolute indifference to playing defense is that the two teams combined for three fouls in 48 minutes. That’s right. The teams were so disinterested in making any defensive effort at all that there was less than one foul per quarter, and three blocked shots. Hilariously, one of them came from 6-foot-3 Steph Curry, who wildly celebrated his denial of Paolo Banchero. Of course, that was followed by an uncontested dunk on the other end. Old Guys LeBron James sat out the second half. Kawhi Leonard and Paul George played 10 minutes each. Curry shot 6-of-17, but admittedly that was due to trying a number of trick shots. At least he had eight assists! The Western Conference was older, and the players seemed to care about the game significantly less than the Eastern Conference did. Plus, Nikola Jokic and Luka Doncic, some of the younger stars, seemed to have a great deal of fun in the game but possibly didn’t break a sweat. Look, it’s not realistic to expect an injured James to care deeply about his 20th All-Star Game, but the fact remains that the Eastern Conference cared a lot about winning this game, and the Western Conference seemed more intent on avoiding injury and getting a good night’s sleep. Anthony Edwards The Timberwolves guard declared that he was going to shoot left-handed for the entirety of the game. He didn’t shoot left-handed, or really at all. Perhaps he was embarrassed by clanking his lefty attempts in the Skills Challenge, but Edwards was invisible in his 13 minutes, finishing with four points after taking just three shots. It’s likely not what the NBA wanted or expected from a player who is considered one of the league’s next big stars. But perhaps he didn’t want to get in the way while his teammate was putting up 35 shots. TNT’s alternate broadcast The much-hyped alternate gamecast of the All-Star Game featuring Draymond Green, Charles Barkley and Taylor Rooks fell flat. One reason is that it didn’t feel like much of an alternative. For a decidedly non-serious basketball game, TNT’s regular broadcast was already jokey and irreverent. By contrast, the Chuckster just seemed cranky. Barkley is normally considered a voice of light-hearted, straight-shooting honesty. He sounded old and conservative during the game, replacing his normal light-hearted jauntiness with complaining and grievances that felt like he wanted the All-Stars to “get off my lawn.” Hating on homeless people makes Barkley sound ancient and unreasonable. It could be that Barkley simply isn’t used to the length of an NBA game. On “Inside the NBA,” his job is to talk in short segments. This game featured long stretches of actual basketball he had to comment on, for two-and-a-half hours. Green wasn’t the ideal partner, as the post-therapy Draymond was generally positive and non-controversial, leading to a stagnant telecast of a non-competitive game. And why did we need to see the broadcasters’ faces in a sidebar for the whole game? At this point in television history, viewers can trust that the people speaking during a sporting event are the people announcing it. Green got his best line in and the end of the game, when longtime Warriors doubter Barkley told him, “Good luck in the play-in.” Just like his CNN show, “King Charles,” Barkley’s alternate broadcast is in danger of cancellation.

NBABasketball fans were treated to a rowdy spinoff of “ManningCast” Sunday night as Charles Barkley and Draymond Green trash-talked each other while watching the NBA All-Star Game. The alternate cast — airing on truTV and Max — did not disappoint and even produced some newsworthy nuggets. At one point, Barkley brought up Golden State’s reported trade interest in LeBron James. While no details have emerged on which players the Warriors were willing to part with, Barkley felt Green’s team would have been “stupid” to give up Jonathan Kuminga for the aging Lakers star. “If the Lakers can get Klay (Thompson) and Kuminga for LeBron, they’d do that deal tomorrow,” Barkley opined. In response, Green — known to be close friends with Warriors owner Joe Lacob — seemingly provided some insight into Golden State’s trade-deadline package. “Who said we were giving up Klay or Kuminga?” Green asked. “…When I spoke to Joe on the phone and discussing what we had to give up, I said, ‘(If) it’s Kuminga, the answer is ‘No.'” Later in the feed, as the two men continued to exchange barbs, Barkley poked fun at the play-in-bound Warriors, telling Green to prepare for the inevitability of missing the playoffs. Green, a former four-time NBA Champion, would resort to the old “take my ring” line to slight the ring-less Barkley. If the Warriors don’t make the postseason, as Barkley predicts, Green could be back in the TNT booth in a few months. He did so last year after his Warriors were bounced out of the second round of the playoffs. That said, the Warriors (27-26) won eight of their last 10 games before the All-Star break, and could potentially creep up in the standings over the next few months. They currently sit in the 10th seed.

MLB

NBA

Atlanta Hawks point guard Trae Young wowed the NBA All-Star Game crowd in Indiana on Sunday after taking the soul away from Phoenix Suns’ star Kevin Durant late in the second quarter. In a back-and-forth, high-scoring first half, Young found himself one-on-one with Durant. After a cross-over, Young passed the ball to himself between Durant’s legs, resulting in an easy floater for two points. Young’s wizardry resulted in his only basket of the first half (1-of-3), but he certainly made it count. A multiple-time All-Star, participating in the annual showcase is nothing new for Young. However, his disrespectful move around KD is by far the highlight of his All-Star outings thus far. The 25-year-old missed out on the All-Star Game in 2022-23 but earned his third career nod this season after averaging 27 points and 11 rebounds over 50 games for the Hawks.

NFL

NFL Analyst Proposes Blockbuster Trade Between Cowboys, Saints

One of the best parts of the NFL offseason is watching two teams come together to make each other better. The Dallas Cowboys need another wide receiver, as Brandin Cooks is starting to slow down and Michael Gallup never truly came back from his ACL injury. The New Orleans Saints, meanwhile, are in salary cap hell and could look to trade a disgruntled Michael Thomas. At least, that’s what LP Cruz of SB Nation’s Blogging the Boys believes. In the latest article, the Cowboys analyst suggests that Dallas reach out to the Saints and see if the two sides can come to terms on a Michael Thomas trade. Terms of the trade were not revealed in the article, but Cruz gives a compelling case for why both sides would be open to such a transaction. “Thomas is a decorated player…who has fallen on hard times. Thomas has suffered various injuries over the last few years, most recently placed on season-ending injured reserve last season, and has played just 20 games in the previous four seasons. Yet, this is precisely why the Cowboys could target Thomas, because they might be able to get him on the cheap.” Blockbuster Michael Thomas Trade Proposed Between Cowboys, Saints Does A Michael Thomas Trade Make Sense? First and foremost, we need to see if either team would realistically agree to a Michael Thomas trade. Looking through a pure football lens, this proposal makes all the sense in the world. Wide receiver is one of the biggest needs for the Cowboys, as Dallas needs to find someone other than CeeDee Lamb capable of threatening a defense. The Saints, meanwhile, have Chris Olave and might want to part ways with Thomas, who may have become something of a locker room nuisance. Michael Thomas is not the player he once was, but the Cowboys could still get a good player in a trade. While injuries have limited him to just 13 games over the past two seasons, there have been some moments of gold on his tape when he suited up. Last year, the wideout ranked 65th in PFF grade and 60th in yards per route run despite a subpar quarterback situation. Michael Gallup, meanwhile, ranked 74th and 82nd, respectively, in those same metrics. If nothing else, the present-day version of Michael Thomas would be the third-best receiver on the Dallas Cowboys, and that alone could justify a trade. The Saints will probably take anything they can get for Thomas, so Dallas shouldn’t have to forfeit anything more than a late-round pick. However, there is one major hurdle both sides need to clear. Making the Money Work There is a very real chance that the Cowboys and Saints don’t have the financial liberty to make a Michael Thomas trade work. Right now, the Saints are $81.95 million over the projected 2024 salary cap, while the Dallas Cowboys need to clear $14.3 million in cap space to become league-compliant. According to OverTheCap, a Michael Thomas trade would invoke an $18.18 million cap hit for the Saints if done before June 1st. By comparison, his current cap number is just $12.4 million. There is a way out of this, as the Saints could designate him a post-June 1st transaction and drop his dead cap hit to just $8.99 million. However, that’s still a lot of money to hand out to a player that isn’t helping your team. The New Orleans Saints are masters at maneuvering the salary cap, so perhaps they can restructure Michael Thomas before coming to terms on a trade. However, this could lead to the Cowboys taking a higher cap hit for Thomas, and they probably won’t sign on for that. Perhaps the two sides can find a way to make the money to facilitate a Michael Thomas trade. If that happens, the Cowboys and Saints could benefit from this transaction.

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Doc Rivers attempts to distance himself from Bucks’ poor play with…

Things haven’t gone well for the Milwaukee Bucks since deciding to change course at head coach mid-season. However, the man brought in to replace Adrian Griffin and save a sinking ship, Doc Rivers, wants everyone to know that the team’s struggles aren’t his fault. Rivers recently revealed to Yaron Weitzman of Fox Sports that he’d initially requested to begin his stint as the Bucks’ head coach during the All-Star break in hopes of a “nicer” transition, but the team insisted he start immediately. “The organization felt strongly that a change needed to be made defensively and things like that, and that’s what we’re doing,” Rivers said. “The problem is, while you’re doing that, you’re in the middle of the season on the toughest trip.” The first five games of Rivers’ tenure came on the road, including matchups against two top-five teams from the Western Conference, the Denver Nuggets and Phoenix Suns. The Bucks went only 1-4 during that stretch. Rivers mentioned that he came aboard early to improve the team’s defense, and he’s done that, as Weitzman pointed out. In 10 games with him at the helm, the Bucks are allowing three points fewer per 100 possessions (113.6) this season compared to the 43 games with Griffin running the show (116.8). However, despite defensive improvements, the results simply haven’t been there, as the Bucks are only 3-7 since he took over. Furthermore, his team might already be tuning out. Leading up to the All-Star break, the Bucks have looked like two different teams. Only days after defeating the defending NBA Champion Denver Nuggets in an impressive home victory, the Bucks showed a lackluster effort in consecutive losses to the Miami Heat and Memphis Grizzlies. Following the loss to Memphis, Rivers criticized his team’s play but chalked it up to players checking out ahead of the week-long vacation. However, others like Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal believe it’s a sign of pending doom for a team that began the year with aspirations of winning another Larry O’Brien Trophy. O’Neal recently predicted that the Bucks will ultimately suffer an early exit from the playoffs. “It’s a championship team on paper, but they’re nowhere near a championship,” O’Neal said. “The way they’re playing right now, they’re gonna get swept in the first round.”

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