Covered the Philadelphia Eagles for Philadelphia Magazine and Philly.com from 2008 to 2015.
Covered the Baltimore Ravens and the NFL for BaltimoreSun.com from 2006 to 2008.
RENTON, Wash. — Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Tyler Lockett came off the PUP list Friday and is on track to be ready for the start of the regular season.
“I’m pretty much ready to go,” Lockett said. “If we had a game tomorrow, I’d play in it.”
Lockett suffered fractures to the tibia and fibula in his right leg in December. He underwent surgery and spent Christmas and New Year’s in the hospital.
Lockett spent the entire offseason in Seattle rehabbing and said he’s been running for the last three months. He didn’t participate in all aspects of Friday’s practice but has no doubts about being ready for Week 1.
“One of the things that I thought about was when I was a kid, I had a dog,” Lockett said. “When you train him, you’ve got to keep him in a little cage. I felt like I was stuck in a cage for eight months after I broke my leg. So as soon as they let me go today, I didn’t know what to do. So I was just running around, having fun, being a little kid again.”
Lockett caught 41 balls for 597 yards in 15 games last season, but he was playing at less than 100 percent for much of the year because of a knee injury suffered early in the season. He’s expected to compete for a starting job in 2017.
By luring Neymar out of a comfortable life at Barcelona and away from one of the world’s best attacking trios, Paris Saint-Germain changed football’s landscape. In one swift move, the French giant weakened a direct European rival and upended the sport’s establishment.
But the €222-million transfer doesn’t guarantee PSG success in the Champions League. Only two players in the world have the power to turn a club into a tournament favourite, and they are two of the best in history -Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
Neymar’s arrival means many more things. It validates a league that’s failed to command international respect and opens up a world of commercial opportunities. That the Brazilian will improve results is obvious; it’s his marketing impact that stands to make PSG an attractive option for future stars and partnerships.
“Before Neymar, the value of the club was $1 billion,” PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi told reporters Friday, according to the BBC. “Now it is $1.5 billion.”
Related – Neymar: Desire for ‘bigger challenge,’ not money, behind switch to PSG
No matter where Neymar plays in a front three with Edinson Cavani and Angel Di Maria, PSG now has the ammunition to frighten any defence. The Sao Paulo native’s goal-scoring record in the Champions League is also reassuring: Only four players since 2013-14 have scored more than Neymar’s 21 goals in the competition.
Whether PSG has the team to win every trophy around is another proposition altogether.
Questions have to be asked of the club’s defence. Captain Thiago Silva has shirked from the challenge on the grandest stages, and Marquinhos showed in the embarrassing 6-1 reverse to Barcelona that he’s prone to calamitous errors.
The full-back position is deep, but apart from 21-year-old Presnel Kimpembe, there’s no one else to relieve the Brazilian centre-half duo.
PSG also has the look of a top-heavy outfit. Jese, Hatem Ben Arfa, and Goncalo Guedes are outsiders on this team, and questions about Julian Draxler’s role are valid. The capital club did well to keep the tactically astute Marco Verratti this summer, especially as Barcelona circled above, but PSG still lacks a world-class midfield anchor like Real Madrid’s Casemiro or Sergio Busquets. A 34-year-old Thiago Motta doesn’t cut it, and Adrien Rabiot, who is more of a roamer, is not yet at his counterparts’ level.
The looming spectre of Financial Fair Play should also encourage PSG to sell some of its peripherals, but more importantly, it could prompt the departures of players who’d otherwise have a regular say on the pitch. Blaise Matuidi has been linked with a move abroad, and the fact that Verratti enlisted the restless Mino Raiola as his agent may mean a transfer is in the pipeline.
Even as PSG is right now, manager Unai Emery doesn’t have the best squad in the game.
Man for man, Madrid still boasts a better starting XI. Headlined by Cristiano Ronaldo, inspired by Luka Modric, and flanked by electrifying full-backs Marcelo and Dani Carvajal, Los Blancos have an authoritative figure in every position. They also have a manager in Zinedine Zidane who’s found success with different formations and maximised Ronaldo’s output.
Critics haven’t been kind to Emery, either. He faced a lashing in the aftermath of PSG’s collapse to Barcelona, with L’Equipe saying he was “too reserved” in the second leg of that historic Champions League turnaround. In Ligue 1, his tactical stubbornness cost PSG points. Many thought he wouldn’t last the season.
Even with some of football’s biggest names in recent years, PSG has stumbled at the quarter-final stage of the Champions League. It hasn’t reached the semis since 1995.
While the signing of a world-class player of Neymar’s stature is a statement of intent, the club is still a work in progress.
CANTON, Ohio — Football season is back, with the Dallas Cowboys taking on the Arizona Cardinals in the Hall of Fame Game. Well, sort of.
While Cardinals coach Bruce Arians has already said his starters won’t play Thursday, Cowboys coach Jason Garrett has made no such declaration. But Garrett has said he and the Dallas coaches are treating this game like the intrasquad Blue-White scrimmage. So the best chance to see Dak Prescott, Ezekiel Elliott, Dez Bryant, Jason Witten, Sean Lee and almost all of the other regulars will come in pregame warm-ups.
That doesn’t mean there won’t be anything worth watching.
“Young players,” owner and general manager Jerry Jones said. “I’m really anxious to see how they account for themselves in game-like conditions.”
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Jones said Tuesday it was “unlikely” the most intriguing young player, linebacker Jaylon Smith, will play. He has taken part in four of the six padded practices thus far and has had no setbacks in his return from a knee injury that kept him out all of last season.
The patience Smith has learned in rehab will have to continue, perhaps until the Cowboys’ second preseason game on Aug. 12 at the Los Angeles Rams.
The Cowboys have made no secret of their need to play younger players this season. In free agency, they did not make much of an effort to re-sign veteran secondary players Barry Church, Brandon Carr, Morris Claiborne and J.J. Wilcox. They let defensive linemen Terrell McClain and Jack Crawford walk, too.
Along the defensive line, the Cowboys selected Taco Charlton in the first round and Joey Ivie and Jordan Carrell in the seventh round. Charlton grew up down the road from Canton, in Columbus, and will have a number of family and friends at his first game.
Because of his draft status (No. 28 overall), Charlton’s every move has been watched. Going against Tyron Smith and La’el Collins in practice most days has not been too kind to Charlton. He will be glad to see the Cardinals’ tackles and their backups as well.
“I had my struggles day one, but now I’m doing fine,” Charlton said. “I basically didn’t keep my feet up under me. I was too ready to hit something that I wasn’t keeping my feet. As days went on, I got better. Things improved. The pass rush improved. Moves improved and I started winning more.”
In the secondary, the Cowboys selected cornerback Chidobe Awuzie in the second round, cornerback Jourdan Lewis in the third round, and safety Xavier Woods and cornerback Marquez White in the sixth round. And in the seventh round they picked defensive linemen Joey Ivie and Jordan Carrell.
Awuzie had an interception on his first one-on-one snap of training camp. White had an athletic interception this week in practice. Woods has made a couple of pass deflections in the past two practices.
“I’m just mad the stats don’t count if we get a couple tackles or a pick,” Awuzie said. “But it will still be good for our confidence.”
With Bryant, Terrance Williams, Cole Beasley and Brice Butler locks — plus fourth-round pick Ryan Switzer, who will not play because of a hamstring injury — the Cowboys’ crowd might be too big for a sixth receiver. But that doesn’t mean much to Brown.
“I can’t wait for the game,” Brown said. “That’s going to be my first NFL opportunity, the chance to go out there and show that I can execute not only on the practice field but when the lights turn on and it’s game time.”
Paris Saint-Germain splurged over double the previous world-record transfer fee to complete the signing of Neymar for €222 million on Thursday.
The release clause in the Brazilian’s binned Barcelona contract eclipsed the previous €105-million high Manchester United paid for Paul Pogba last summer, and promises to have La Liga and Neymar’s former employer clamouring to report PSG to UEFA for breaching Financial Fair Play rules.
The 25-year-old subsequently signed a five-year contract with Paris Saint-Germain, and ends a four-season tenure with Barcelona that saw him collect two La Liga titles, three Copa del Reys, and score in the Champions League triumph which concluded the 2014-15 campaign.
It’s been widely speculated that a move to the French capital will primarily assist Neymar’s pursuit of personal goals. In addition to an annual salary worth a reported €30 million after tax, and the €38-million bonus that the Santos product’s father and advisor, Neymar Sr., and others including agent Pini Zahavi will share, Neymar will undoubtedly be top dog at PSG. By escaping the shadow of five-time Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi at Barcelona, the forward’s view of the top individual prizes is hoped to be less obscured. He will be the centrepiece of the attack, rather than simply exploring channels down the left flank beside Luis Suarez in his No. 9 role, and the omnipresent Messi.
There’s also the coveted tag of being the most expensive player in the world. The wages and bonuses after the €222-million payment sees the potential cost of Neymar’s arrival and five-year contract reach €500 million.
