Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
This mock has more twists than an M. Night Shyamalan movie.
We’ve hit the week of the NFL Draft, and everything in draft season has shifted. Up to this point so much of the process has been about independent evaluation and not falling for the smokescreen. Now connections take over, and we see mock drafts align with what teams will actually do on Thursday night.
Make no mistake: There will be some big surprises, but veteran NFL heads at least have a pretty good idea about the tendencies of the first picks in the draft and what teams are thinking right now.
Author: Michael
In the latest round of layoffs at ESPN, the company’s second-longest tenured executive was let go Monday morning, according to Sports Business Journal. Vice president of corporate communications Mike Soltys had been with the company for 43 years.
Soltys, who started with ESPN in 1980 as an unpaid intern, will leave the company in late June. The layoffs mark the beginning of Disney CEO Bob Iger’s plan to cut Disney’s workforce by about 7,000 jobs.
Have a ratings problem? Bring back your most popular driver AND go to the wildest, most unpredictable track on your schedule. NASCAR did both in back-to-back weeks and I have a feeling the payoff will be worth it.
Hell, did anyone see that Talladega crowd on Sunday? What is this, 1998? Unlike Bud Light’s sales, I think NASCAR should be in the green when the numbers come out. Just a hunch.
And hey — it doesn’t hurt to have arguably the two biggest villains in the sport battling it out on the final lap.
Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I was totally right about Dillon Brooks coming to regret his trash talk.
In today’s SI:AM:
🐻 The Grizzlies’ embarrassing Game 3
🗽 The Knicks’ home court advantage
🏈 Every team’s biggest needs in the NFL draft
If you’re reading this on SI.com, you can sign up to get this free newsletter in your inbox each weekday at SI.com/newsletters.
They’ve done plenty of talking
After cruising to a comfortable victory Saturday, the Lakers have a chance to push the Grizzlies to the brink of elimination tonight in Los Angeles.
After a big spring game Saturday, Colorado wide receiver Montana Lemonious-Craig announced Sunday that he intends to enter the transfer portal as a junior.
“I am truly grateful for each and every person who has contributed to my college experience,” Lemonious-Craig wrote on Twitter. “I am particularly thankful for the sincere people I have had the pleasure of meeting during my time at the University of Colorado.
While it’s certainly not the same as being without a star scorer for a key playoff game, Tom Thibodeau’s reality late Sunday morning—that he was going to be without injured Knicks wing stopper Quentin Grimes—was a tough one. Despite Grimes’s youth, he was the guy Thibodeau planned to have take on the assignment of guarding superstar scorer Donovan Mitchell.
So without Grimes, Thibodeau turned to Josh Hart—a skilled wing himself, but also a player who’s been on four teams in six years and has only been with New York since early February.
Shohei Ohtani continues to be the coolest player in Major League Baseball, and what he did over the weekend only backed up that assessment even more.
What was wild about this moment from the Angels’ game against the Royals on Sunday was that he didn’t need to hit a ridiculous home run or throw pitches that looked like frisbees bending in the wind.
All he did on this play was hit a grounder to the right side of the infield that should have been an out. It wasn’t, though, because Ohtani showed off impressive speed down the basepath and got an infield single.
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Trey Lance attended North Dakota State’s final spring practice Saturday, and questions about a possible trade followed him to Fargo.
But the signal-caller didn’t have much to say when asked directly about a potential trade—perhaps to his home state of Minnesota.
“I got no comment on that,” Lance said, per inforum.com. “I have no information.”
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported Wednesday that San Francisco was fielding calls from teams that were interested in trading for Lance. The interest in the No.
The Ravens have the 22nd pick in the first round of the 2023 NFL draft. Though it remains a guessing game as to who general manager Eric DeCosta and his team of scouts and player personnel evaluators will select, the oddsmakers predict it will be a cornerback. If they’re right, it will be the second consecutive draft Baltimore looks to bolster their secondary with a first-round selection. The Ravens drafted safety Kyle Hamilton with the 14th overall pick in 2022 and have gone with a defensive player in the first round in two of the last three years.
If you’re going to hit the transfer portal, make sure you make a splash on the way out. This is exactly what Colorado wide receiver Montana Lemonious-Craig did on Sunday night after Deion Sanders’ Colorado television debut on Saturday.
One day after making every highlight reel from the Colorado Spring game, the wideout had his name in the transfer portal. In front of a sold-out crowd in Boulder on Saturday, Montana Lemonious-Craig hauled in 154 yards and 2 touchdowns, driving up his value on national television.
Montana started twelve of the 25 games he played at Colorado.