Sad news: Cleveland browns are in serious trouble for losing loose of the skills coaches by replacing……

 

 

 

 

Duce Staley joins Browns as RBs coach 

Does DT Maurice Hurst See A Future With Browns Next Season

Ex-Browns RB Coach Stump Mitchell Has One Regret From Time In Clevela

Sometimes NFL coaching changes can get messy. That’s not the case for recently fired Browns running backs Stump Mitchell, who in a tell-all interview with Camryn Justice of local TV station, News Channel 5, expressed no ill will for the Browns organization or head coach Kevin Stefanski. nd.?hanski.

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Former NFL running back and Panthers running backs coach Duce Staley will be hired as Cleveland’s next running backs coach, according to a report from Josina Anderso

 

Staley, who also interviewed with the Jets, will fill the role that was previously held by Stump Mitchell, who was fired last week after spending the previous five seasons as the running backs coach. Offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt and tight ends coach T.C. McCartney were also fired but have yet to be replace

Staley, who was also the assistant head coach with the Lions and Panthers, spent last season with the Panthers, who ranked 20th in the league with 104.1 rushing yards per game.

Panthers running backs Chuba Hubbard, Miles Sanders and Raheem Blackshear averaged 3.5 yards per carry last season, but the Panthers had one of the least effective offensive lines in the league as well as one of the worst offenses, finishing last in the league with just 13.9 points per gam

 

Staley was previously the assistant head coach and running backs coach with the Lions from 2021-2022. Detroit advanced from 19th in the league in rushing in 2021 to 11th in 202

 

As a running back in the league himself, Staley played with the Eagles (1997-03) and Steelers (2004-06). He totaled 5,785 rushing yards over his career and 24 touchdowns while also totaling 2,587 receiving yards and 10 receiving touchdown

 

Staley will oversee a Browns run game that finished 12th in the league last season in a year where its top running back, Nick Chubb, played only two games. Jerome Ford stepped in as the primary back in his second NFL season and averaged four yards per carr

 

General manager Andrew Berry said Monday he intends to have Nick Chubb on the roster in 2024 in the final year of his contract even though it is currently set to come at a steep price for a 29-year-old back coming off a season-ending injury. Chubb’s current deal accounts for $15.8 million against the salary cap, and the Browns could opt to restructure or extend the deal to create more cap flexibility this offseaso

The Minnesota Vikings have a few major questions to answer this offseason when it comes to their roster. Several hard decisions are going to have to be made as they will decide whether to continue down the path of retooling and becoming a younger roster or run it back with veterans and make another go of it.

The biggest decision that will be made will come at quarterback. Kirk Cousins was playing at a high level this season before he suffered a season-ending Achilles injury in Week 8 against the Green Bay Packers. He was leading the league with 291.4 yards per game when he went down, throwing 18 touchdowns and only five interceptions.

Cousins was completing 69.5 percent of his passes as he was doing everything he could to help keep the team afloat after a rough start. It would certainly be a risk moving on from Cousins, but the Vikings would be able to upgrade other parts of their roster by not re-signing him.

However, finding a quarterback capable of producing at the level that Cousins has would be tough. Certainly, no one is envious of the Vikings’ front office having to make such a tough decision.

NFL analyst Peter King also revealed something that makes this an even tougher negotiation for the team, as Cousins isn’t going to give any sort of discount, whether it is the length of the contract or how much money he signs for.

“There’s two great quarterback mysteries in this offseason in the NFL,” NBC Sports’ Peter King said on “The Cook Joe Show” on January 23. “One is Kirk Cousins. Because he will not go back to Minnesota on a one-year contract.”

“A lot of people are going to say, ‘Wow, he’s going to be 36 [years old] next year, coming off a torn Achilles. Do we want to commit to him for two years,’” King said. “I would if I were a team.

But we’re also talking two years, $90 million, which is excessive. But it’s also the market. So I’m not saying it’s a bad deal or a bad idea.”

There likely isn’t a team in the NFL that has as much information and knowledge about the rehab Cousins has been doing on his Achilles.

That should give the Vikings a leg up when it comes to retaining him, should they want to, as they will know how things have gone every step of the way.

Committing long-ish term to a quarterback who is going to be 36 coming off a devastating injury is a hard sell.

But, that could be the least costly route for the Vikings to take. Moving up in the draft would cost a fortune and the options are limited when it comes to established, veteran quarterbacks in free agency

The Montreal Canadiens have placed forward Mitchell Stephens on waivers and loaned defenseman Justin Barron to the AHL’s Laval Rockets. Stephens started the season in Laval, clearing waivers ahead of the season’s start. He scored 12 points in 16 AHL games before joining Montreal on Dec. 1.

Meanwhile, Barron is slated for his first stint with Laval, after playing in 41 of Montreal’s 46 games this season. The 22-year-old defenseman has managed 12 points in that stretch, a step down from the 15 points he recorded in 39 games with Montreal last season.

Barron also recorded 16 points in 25 AHL games last year. While Stephens has already cleared waivers once this season, his depth has proven valuable throughout his eight-year professional career.

Stephens was originally drafted 33rd overall in the 2015 NHL Draft, just a few picks before the Carolina Hurricanes drafted Sebastian Aho.

He made his professional debut in the following year, playing five AHL games at the end of the 2015-16 season.

He returned to juniors in the following season, but played his first full pro season in 2017-18, scoring 41 points in 70 games with the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch.

That year’s scoring remains Stephens’ career-high, although he matched it in 68 games during Laval’s 2022-23 season.

The 26-LLCyear-old forward has only played in 95 career NHL games, recording 16 points and 22 penalty minutes. He’s also recorded 219 career AHL games and 137 points

New Las Vegas Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce was not shy about reminding his new boss what happened when their teams faced each other earlier in the season.

The Raiders introduced Pierce and new GM Tom Telesco on Wednesday, which led to a fairly amusing moment. Telesco joined the Raiders after being fired by the Los Angeles Chargers, his new team’s AFC West rival.

Telesco was shown the door after Pierce’s Raiders beat the Chargers 63-21 in a nationally televised Thursday game that also cost coach Brandon Staley his job. Pierce was not afraid to remind Telesco of that.

The new coach admitted that he had already mentioned it to Telesco and was not shy about pointing out that the Raiders had wanted to get up to 70 points.

That game likely played a significant role in Pierce getting his interim tag removed. He might as well tout it, even if it is a way of tweaking the team’s new GM.

Telesco was a fairly surprising hire for the Raiders, as the team seemed satisfied with interim GM Champ Kelly.

His AFC West experience clearly mattered, though the Raiders will want to ensure that no more 42-point losses are in his future

After signing a minor-league deal with the Cincinnati Reds this offseason, infielder Alex Blandino is now looking to reinvent his career as a knuckleballer. “

Blandino debuted in MLB as an infielder,” according to a translated post from Fernando Rayo, a reporter with a television station in Nicaragua, Blandino’s home country. “

After a retirement and reappearing in the WBC (World Baseball Classic) with Nicaragua, he’s now become a knuckle pitcher and will start in Double-A.”

Blandino has been serviceable across several infield positions in the majors, sporting a career .976 fielding percentage in 107 total games for the Reds across the 2018, 2019 and 2021 seasons.

For reference, the league fielding percentage across that span was .981. But he’s struggled at the plate in MLB, slashing .226/.339/.291 in 234 at-bats over those three seasons. He returned to Triple-A in 2022 and played in the WBC in 2023, but then remained unsigned until his latest agreement with the Reds.

Blandino will now try to build on some limited pitching experience — 4.2 innings’ worth with the Reds in 2018 and 2021 — to reinvent his career.

Blandino won Pitching Ninja’s 2018 award for best pitch by a position player for his knuckleball. And he has displayed a 90 mph fastball as well.

If he can emerge as an effective knuckleballer, he will certainly have a path back to the big leagues. “Knuckleballers are a unique breed and don’t always need strong velocity to succeed, but Blandino’s ability to hit 90 mph doesn’t hurt,” MLB Trade Rumors noted.

“But on the other hand, it’s unclear if he could maintain that kind of velocity while pitching on a regular basis over a full season.”

It’s increasingly common to see position players take the mound here and there as pitchers reduce their volume. But a full conversion from an infield position to full-time pitching is rare.

Very early on in their careers, though, high-caliber hurlers like Sean Doolittle, Jacob deGrom and Kenley Jansen all transitioned from position roles.

It seems unlikely that Blandino would be able to make a similar transition, but the Reds are certainly hoping he breathes new life into his career by taking the mound

Veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins seemingly wants to re-sign with the Minnesota Vikings as a free agent this offseason but continues to be linked with the Atlanta Falcons amid that club’s interest in former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick

Fowler revealed that the “buzz” around the league is that both Belichick and Cousins could soon call Atlanta home. “The feeling out of New England was that Belichick planned to target an established veteran quarterback for the Patriots in 2024,” Fowler said.

“If he gets the Atlanta job, as some expect, he can follow a similar blueprint.” Cousins mentioned last week that he is “not gonna turn down an opportunity to play with a future Hall of Fame coach,” but Josh Kendall of The Athletic reported on Tuesday that “Belichick’s candidacy for the Falcons’ head coaching job has cooled in the past week.”

Assuming Atlanta ultimately hires the 71-year-old, Fowler noted that the Falcons “offer several high-end skill players on offense and an improving defense” that could attract the attention of Cousins, a 35-year-old who possesses a 1-4 record across five career playoff starts. “