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| Tuesday, May 28, 2024 |
| Welcome to the Tuesday edition of the Pick Six newsletter! |
| I don't want to make it seem like the start of the NFL season is just around the corner, but the start of the NFL season is just around the corner. As of today, we are just 100 days away from the first game of the season, which will come on Sept. 5 when the Chiefs host the Ravens. |
| To celebrate today's milestone, we'll be giving you 100 things you need to know about the 2024 season. I might also make a cake, but I probably won't share that. |
| As always, here's your daily reminder to tell all your friends to sign up for the newsletter. Actually, you don't even have to tell all of your friends; just tell two of your friends and I'll be happy. To get them signed up, all you have to do is click here. |
| 1. 100 things to know about the 2024 NFL season |
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| I'm not sure how it happened, but we are now just 100 days away from the start of the 2024 NFL season. Cody Benjamin loves to celebrate things like this, so to help us celebrate the fact that the new NFL season is just 100 days away, he decided to come up with a list that consists of 100 things to know about the 2024 season. |
| I thought about covering all 100 things here, but this is a newsletter, not an unabridged book, so we're going to take a look at five of the nuggets from Cody's list: |
| Chiefs looking to make history. "The Chiefs will be looking to become the first team in NFL history to win three straight Super Bowls after defeating the San Francisco 49ers in February. They have appeared in four of the last five championship games, winning three of them."Nine teams will have a new head coach. In the AFC, the Chargers (Jim Harbaugh), Raiders (Antonio Pierce), Patriots (Jerod Mayo) and Titans (Brian Callahan) will all be going into the year with a new coach. As for the NFC, there will be three new coaches with the Falcons (Raheem Morris), Seahawks (Mike MacDonald), Commanders (Dan Quinn) and Panthers (Dave Canales) all hiring someone new. All eyes will be on the new kickoff rule. "Kick returns will feature a totally revised set of rules as part of a one-year trial. The new rule prohibits everyone on the kicking team (except the kicker) from moving until the ball makes contact with a returner or until it touches the ground in the designated 'landing zone.'" If you need a refresher on the rule, you can check that out here. Several teams will be rocking new uniforms. "Four different teams revealed new uniforms for this year: the Broncos, who revamped to a minimalistic look while reintroducing 'Orange Crush' throwbacks, the Jets, who reverted to their classic "Sack Exchange" look of the 1980s, the Lions, who brightened their 'Honolulu Blue' display while adding an all-black alternate, and the Texans, whose new wardrobe includes plenty of candy-paint colors."Streaming is taking over. "All of CBS' broadcasts will also be streamed on Paramount+. Netflix will exclusively stream both Christmas games this year. Prime Video will exclusively stream regular Thursday night games. NBC will broadcast on Sunday nights while its streaming service, Peacock, will air the Eagles-Packers contest in Brazil. ESPN (and sometimes ABC) will have Monday night games. ESPN+ will also get one Monday game in Week 7 (Chargers at Cardinals). |
| If you want to check out all 100 nuggets from Cody's list, be sure to click here. We also took a look at the 100 most important players heading into the 2024 season, and you can check out that list here. |
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| 2. NFL offseason could be undergoing some major changes |
| The NFL offseason could soon be undergoing some major changes, and it could happen as soon as next year. The NFLPA wants to totally revamp the offseason in an effort to make things better for players. |
| Here's what you need to know: |
| OTAs would essentially be eliminated. The spring portion of the NFL offseason includes three phases of voluntary practices that culminate in May and June with four weeks of organized team activities (OTAs). According to NFL.com, the NFLPA wants to completely eliminate the spring portion of the practice schedule. Training camp dates would change. If you're going to eliminate several weeks of practice, you have to replace it with something, and the NFLPA wants to replace it with more training camp. If OTAs go away, the NFLPA would make up for it by having a longer ramp-up period for training camp. If that happens, it means that players would report for training as early as mid-June or early July. As things stand, training camp starts for most teams at the end of July. How this would change the NFL offseason. If this proposal passes, that means players would get some serious time off following the end of the season. For instance, if this proposal was in effect this year and you played for a team that didn't make the playoffs, your season would be over on Jan. 5 and you wouldn't have to report again until the ramp-up portion of training camp in mid-June. For teams that make it to the Super Bowl, their offseason wouldn't start until Feb. 10, but they'd still get a substantial amount of time off. |
| You can read more about the NFLPA's plan here. |
| One interesting thing here is that the NFL will have to approve this offseason proposal before anything can happen, which means the league could use this as a jumping off point to get an 18-game schedule approved. The NFL can't implement an 18-game schedule unless the NFLPA approves it, and the NFLPA can't implement this offseason proposal unless the NFL approves it, so this could turn into an "I'll scratch your back, if you scratch mine" situation, and everyone loves a good back scratch. |
| 3. Ranking the best defenses in the NFL |
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| Now that we've made it through free agency and the draft, Jared Dubin thought it would be a good time to try and rank every defense in the NFL, so that's exactly what he did. |
| Well, it's not exactly what he did. Dubin actually ranked each defense, but with a twist. He went through each NFL team's roster and came up with a list of teams that are most likely to finish with a top-five defense in the NFL. Here are three of the teams that made the cut at the top: |
| Ravens. "Barring injury, the Ravens are pretty much a top-10 defense every year. Even after losing Mike Macdonald, I'm just not comfortable betting against them doing it again."Browns. "If Myles Garrett isn't the single-best defensive player in the league, he's pretty damn close. With more depth up front than at any time in recent years, Denzel Ward leading a solid secondary, and Jim Schwartz back for another year, the Browns seem likely to repeat their top-10 ranking from a year ago, even if they don't again land in the top five." Jets. "Sauce Gardner and D.J. Reed might be the league's best corner duo. Quinnen Williams and Haason Reddick are going to wreck offensive lines. The safety room has depth again. C.J. Mosley and Quincy Williams have the second level on patrol. Robert Saleh and Jeff Ulbrich have consistently gotten good results on defense. The Jets are going to be really good on defense." |
| If you want to see the rest of Dubin's ranking and his explanation for each pick, then be sure to click here. Dubin also came up with a list of teams that almost certainly won't have a top defense, and that list included the Cardinals, Broncos and Chargers. |
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| 4. Ranking every running back room in the NFL by tiers |
| We wanted to start our week off with a bang here, so we decided to unveil two sets of rankings today. Not only did we rank the best defenses, but we also ranked every running back room in the NFL by tiers. Tyler Sullivan handled the running back rankings, and here are the four teams that came in at the bottom of his list. |
| Broncos. "There was a sizable amount of fanfare for Javonte Williams heading into last season, but the former second-round pick only averaged 3.6 yards per carry in 2023. Samaje Perine is a solid veteran to have in the backfield, but this position group doesn't have a ton of high-end upside."Chargers. "The Chargers effectively adopted the Ravens backfield after signing Gus Edwards and J.K. Dobbins in free agency. Dobbins has been plagued with injuries throughout his career, including a torn Achilles last season. Meanwhile, Edwards is a sturdy back but doesn't have a massive ceiling."Cowboys. "The Cowboys lost Tony Pollard in free agency and brought back Ezekiel Elliott, but the veteran isn't the same player he was in the early days of his first tenure with Dallas. Outside of Elliott, the Cowboys have Rico Dowdle and Deuce Vaughn. Really, it seems like Dallas' backfield is in a transition phase at the moment."Giants. "The Giants lost Saquon Barkley to the Eagles in free agency and brought in Devin Singletary to replace him. On top of that downgrade at the starting position, New York doesn't have much behind Singletary." |
| If you want to know which running back rooms finished at the top of Tyler's rankings, you'll have to check out his entire story here. |
| 5. NFL eyeing three more cities for international games |
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| The NFL will be holding at least one game in three different foreign countries this year, and although that's a lot, that number could double as soon as next year. Last week, we told you that the league was looking at the possibility of putting a game in Australia in 2025, but that's not the only option on the table. |
| Here are three more cities the NFL is looking at: |
| Dublin. The Steelers have recently been pushing to play a game in Dublin, and it appears they may get their wish. Henry Hodgson, the general manager of the NFL's UK office, recently told the Irish Star that Dublin is definitely in play for a future game. The NFL hasn't held a game in Ireland since 1997 when the Steelers played the Bears in a preseason contest. Paris. Not only is Dublin on the NFL's radar, but so is Paris. Hodgson said the league is currently checking to make sure the two cities have the infrastructure to handle an NFL game. "There's a feasibility study, as we would call it, in a number of different European cities and Dublin is one of those. Looking at the stadiums, taking local meetings," Hodgson said. "That's something that's happening in Dublin, it's happening in Paris for example, and a number of other cities around the world as well." Abu Dhabi. According to the New York Times, the NFL is considering a game in the Middle East, which would likely be played in Abu Dhabi. Although it's not surprising to see that the NFL is considering two more European cities in Dublin and Paris, this option kind of came out of left field. Madrid has already been given a game. The NFL is playing in Brazil for the first time this year, and next year, the league will also be adding a new city with a game in Spain. The NFL has already announced that Madrid will be hosting a game in 2025. |
| The reason we're seeing so much international expansion is because the NFL schedule will be undergoing a major change next year. Starting in 2025, the NFL will be allowed to hold as many as 10 international games per season, which would double the total that's being held this season. Every team will have to host an international game every four years, which means there will be at least eight games on the schedule in 2025, and that number could shoot to nine if the Jaguars keep their annual game at Wembley Stadium. The NFL would then have room to add a 10th game if the league felt like it was needed. |
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| 6. Extra points: Commanders kicker accused of sexual assault |
| It's been a busy 24 hours in the NFL, and since it's nearly impossible to keep track of everything that happened, I went ahead and put together a roundup for you. |
Brandon McManus facing sexual assault allegations. The Commanders kicker has been hit with a lawsuit that accuses him of sexual assault. The alleged incident happened while McManus was playing for the Jaguars. Two flight attendants allege that McManus assaulted them on the team flight from Jacksonville to London last season. The Jaguars have also been named on the lawsuit. You can read the full details here. Harrison Butker responds to backlash over commencement comments. The Chiefs kicker made it clear that he doesn't regret anything he said during his recent commencemnt speech at Benedictine College. "It's a decision I've consciously made and one I do not regret at all." If you want to check out his full response, you can do that here.
Chiefs set to visit White House on Friday. The Chiefs will be making their second straight trip to the White House and that will come Friday, which could put Butker in the headlines again. The Chiefs kicker had some not-so-kind words for Joe Biden during his commencement speech, which could create an interesting dynamic if Butker decides to attend the event. Health emergency forces former first-round pick to retire. Billy Price, who was taken by the Bengals with the 21st overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, has decided to retire. Price's decision came after he had a pulmonary embolism in April. You can read about the details of his retirement here. Washington D.C. wants to host the NFL Draft. With Pittsburgh getting awarded the 2026 NFL Draft, that means the next draft up for grabs is the 2027 event and DC wants to host it, according to The Washington Post. Denver and Charlotte are also looking to host the 2027 draft, so there's no guarantee that the event will end up in the nation's capital. |
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| | | | | USL | | E1 | Get your fix of footy this Wednesday with a USL Doubleheader! First up, Louisville City battles Detroit City at 7:30 PM ET on our free, 24/7 CBS Sports Golazo Network. Followed by another match, Monterey Bay F.C. vs. Charleston Battery, on the CBS Sports Network at 10 PM ET.
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| | Catch coverage of the world's first sustainable electric powerboat championship this Sunday from Puerto Banus, Spain. Watch the thrilling, high-speed race at 10 AM ET on CBS Sports Network.
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