Sports

Ever hear the one about the daredevil plasterer who lit an Olympic flame in a four-time first-team All-Pro defensive end?

Jared Allen roars at the mention of Eddie ‘The Eagle’ Edwards, the face of the 1988 Winter Games and embodiment of Pierre de Coubertin’s mantra. The beaming, bespectacled British ski jumper finished last in the 70m and 90m events in Calgary but won hearts and minds the world over.

After 136 sacks in 12 NFL seasons, a happily retired Allen and an old friend watched the feelgood 2016 biopic that celebrates the life and times of Michael David Edwards. It had consequences.

“Yeah! Eddie the Eagle! Great movie,” Allen tells The Athletic on the telephone from Nashville. “That’s what inspired me to make a bet with my buddy to try to make the Olympics!

“Eddie the Eagle had to work his butt off to qualify and become a ski jumper, which was the inspirational side of it. But the point I loved about it was like, ‘Oh, yeah, I just need to go find a sport that’s not on the books that we don’t really do well at and go join that’,” says Allen, bursting into laughter.

And what of the bet?

Allen said he was inspired by Eddie The Eagle (Mike Powell/Allsport via Getty Images)

“The number was pointless. My buddy threw a number out. I was like, ‘Sure, whatever’. Yes, it was over beers… It’s more just a gentleman’s bet. But nobody wants to welch on a bet! I don’t want to have to tell him he was right — I want him to have to eat crow and tell me that I was right!”

So Allen got to work. In 2018, he formed the All-Pro Curling Team with three former NFL players — quarterback Marc Bulger, linebacker Keith Bulluck and offensive tackle Michael Roos — and set his sights on Beijing.

“I started off as skip, no one had curled ever — we were four football players. Life took off and I ended up joining some other teams. I had no ego, so I ended up playing lead and playing pretty good at lead and sweeping pretty good. So that’s kind of where I found my spot. I really like playing second — I think second is a fun position. But wherever they tell me they need me is where I’ll fit in.”

While he didn’t make the 2022 Games, Allen has had some minor miracles on ice.

“I beat (John) Shuster two years ago at the nationals in Denver, we beat a team last year that were top 30 in the world, we had some success over in Switzerland and Canada, I’ve got to play some really tough teams, and it’s been a fun deal.”

But brace yourselves. Just as the Milan-Cortina Winter Games loom into view, here comes the plot twist.

“I’ll probably not play this year,” Allen, 42, says. “My team kind of broke up. One guy in my team retired. Another guy has moved on. And then I actually got invited to play with Korey Dropkin as his alternate this year, but USA Curling and the USOPC put the kibosh on it, saying I didn’t have a good enough curling resume.

“Their exact words. We won nationals and all the trials, but they have replaced me as the alternate.

“And then they changed our rules — we used to have a two-year point run-up for Olympic trial qualification and now they’re taking the top three point-earners for the year based on their year to date, and then they’re doing a one tournament play-in.”

Does that mean that the Olympic dream is… over?

Allen playing in London (Michael Steele/Getty Images)

“No! No! I’ve still got time. I still love curling, I’m still gonna practise, we’ll figure it out,” Allen says. “A lot of people aren’t playing this year. Unless you can go to the Slams, Shuster, Dropkin, and (Danny) Casper pretty much already have the top three spots locked up.

“Everybody is like, ‘Why are we going to travel, waste our time on these tournaments that mean nothing for us over the next year and a half?’. So everybody’s trying to just practise for the next year, put a team together for The Challenger and try to win the play-in.”

Should Allen win his wager, it would represent another tale to tell for one of the NFL’s biggest personalities of the 21st century.

Drafted by Kansas City in 2004, Allen was traded to Minnesota four years later as the then highest-paid defensive player.

The 2009 Vikings are one of the NFL’s great nearly teams, with quarterback Brett Favre steering them to the NFC Championship in the Superdome. There, they were beaten by themselves (six fumbles, three lost, two interceptions and 12 men in the huddle in the fourth quarter to knock them out of field goal range) and the New Orleans Saints, who were later punished for the Bountygate scandal.

“If we beat the Saints and we go out and win the Super Bowl, our 2009 season arguably goes down as one of the best seasons in NFL history,” Allen says. “Unfortunately, we didn’t make it to the Super Bowl because we lost that controversial game.”

Allen headed to the Chicago Bears in 2014 and was traded to the Carolina Panthers in September 2015 for a last hurrah. The 15-1 Panthers almost went all the way, losing Super Bowl 50 against the Denver Broncos.

“It was a blast. It’s one of those surreal moments. I tell people it was my least productive statistical year of my career — I was dealing with injury and all sorts of stuff — but it was the most successful of my career because the goal is to get the Super Bowl.”

Allen after setting the Vikings franchise single-season sack record (Adam Bettcher/Getty Images)

Allen’s is a career worthy of Canton (he has been a finalist for the past four years). He led the league twice in sacks (2007 and 2011), the second seeing a tally of 22, making Michael Strahan sweat about losing his all-time record (22.5).

The highlight reel moments are many. They include his one-handed sack of Eli Manning and the tete-a-tete with Donald Penn. And then there’s his contribution to one of the most infamous plays in NFL history. You know the one.

It was 2008 and while playing for the winless Detroit Lions, quarterback Dan Orlovsky stepped out of bounds in the Metrodome for a safety. Orlovsky — now a stellar ESPN analyst — can look back and laugh. Allen is chuckling at it still.

“I wish he wouldn’t have ran out the back — I could have actually hit him! It was my sack. I was actually laughing because Kevin Williams had like four sacks that game, so I was trying to catch up to him. He was pissed. We were in a tight sack race that year. I got a cheapo. I got a freebie!

“To my credit, I did whoop the tight end. I was wide open! Could have throttled him. It was a good job they called a safety,” Allen says.

Johnny Knoxville was not so lucky. As the wider public embraced Allen with his signature mullet and everyman appeal, in 2010 he was invited to California to film a segment called The Blindside for Jackass 3.

“That was a fun deal. Knoxville is a great guy — I still talk to Johnny. I actually found out later I separated his sternum when I tackled him from behind.

“We filmed the run where he catches the ball over the middle a few times. He’s like, ‘Man, come on!’ Like, well, if you want to see what I actually do, let’s drop back for a pass and I’ll hit you from behind. So we did that. There was only one take on that one!”

Allen, who returns to England for the first time since the Vikings beat Pittsburgh at Wembley in 2013, will be inducted into the London Ring of Honor during Sunday’s game between the New York Jets and Minnesota.

He likes what he has seen so far this season from his former team.

“They’re aggressive. What’s most impressive is they are getting what they need to get out of their new acquisitions, who are already making massive impacts. That’s what you like to see when you pick up free agents.

“Hats off to the coaching staff for getting the players that fit their system and creating a system and an environment that they can be successful in.”

And he may well come face-to-face with a familiar foe. It will be almost exactly 15 years ago to the day that Favre and the Vikings beat the Packers on Monday Night Football. Allen had a career-high 4.5 sacks against Aaron Rodgers in a raucous Metrodome. “That was a great day,” he says. “Goodness. Time flies. Whenever I see Aaron it’s very cordial!”

But first, he wants to find some decent grub. “My wife and kids are coming, so I want to show them some of the sights. I want to find some good pubs, have a couple of pints and some bangers and mash.”

Who knows, perhaps he’ll bump into Eddie the Eagle.

(Top photo: David Berding/Getty Images)

Time is on my side, yes it is…
Time is on my side, yes it is…

ORLANDO, Fla. — Mike Krzyzewski, as ever, didn’t mince words.

“When I was at Duke, I was 18,” Paolo Banchero said Tuesday. “And I remember Coach K would just be on me, all the time, (about) using my voice, as being the best player and the guy on the team, you’ve got to speak up. You can’t be quiet. You can’t ever be quiet. Because at the end of the day, I’m a high-IQ player, I see the game really well. If I’m not out there talking the game, it’s doing everyone a disservice.”

Banchero and the Orlando Magic have come so far, and so fast, it’s hard to remember those admonitions from Krzyzewski came just three years ago, when Banchero was among the last of the blue-chip recruits Coach K got for the Blue Devils before retiring from coaching at Duke after 42 seasons at the helm. So, Banchero knows pressure. How’d you like to be a freshman, and the best player, on Mike Krzyzewski’s last team?

Duke made the Final Four in 2022. But the Blue Devils lost Coach K’s last home game at Cameron Indoor Stadium. To North Carolina. And they lost in the national semifinal, in the Caesars Superdome. To North Carolina.

So, yes, Banchero and the Magic losing Game 7 of their first-round series in Cleveland last spring, after leading the Cavaliers by 10 at the half, stung. It stung badly. But Banchero’s felt it before. This summer, he worked to further improve his game and his body in a push to make Orlando a top-four team in the Eastern Conference this season. Top four means home-court advantage in the first round, which means a Game 7 in the first round would be at Kia Center, rather than on the road.

“I don’t think there’s one area where you say, ‘Here’s the next step,’” said Magic president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman about his star player.

“I think it’s just continued growth, on and off the court. And I think it’s really understanding how he can use his abilities to leverage the game, to make his teammates better. He’s got his own stuff that he wants to improve on. I think, we believe, he’s going to be an excellent 3-point shooter. He’s going to be a guy who gets to the line frequently while he is lifting up his teammates.”

Now 21, Banchero made his first All-Star team last season, following up his Rookie of the Year campaign of 2022-23. He became the youngest player in NBA history to lead his team in scoring, rebounds and assists in a single season. The Magic followed his lead, vaulting up to 47 wins last year, just two seasons after going 22-60. He continued to be a robust presence in the mid-post, showing he could draw fouls at a rapid rate at his still-young age (his seven free-throw attempts per game was 10th in the league last season, tying with Damian Lillard).

And in his first playoff series, Banchero raised his game further. A mediocre 3-point shooter (32 percent) in his first two regular seasons, Banchero leveled up in the Cleveland series, shooting 40 percent (16 of 40) on 3s, splashing them with more confidence than he’d ever shown before. His usage rate, already high (29.2) in the regular season, was even more robust (33.9) against the Cavs.

Banchero’s rapid rise has helped center Orlando as, perhaps, the team with the highest ceiling in the league. Certainly, there isn’t a team in the East with a longer runway over the next five to seven years, with so much young talent on its roster.

You can make an argument that Oklahoma City’s core, led by 26-year-old Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, flanked by 22-year-old Chet Holmgren, 23-year-old Jalen Williams and 25-year-old Luguentz Dort and now including 26-year-old Isaiah Hartenstein, is as good, or better, than Orlando’s. But Magic forward Franz Wagner turned 23 in August, two months after guard Jalen Suggs. Guard Cole Anthony is 24. Center Wendell Carter Jr. is 25. And forward Jonathan Isaac, who led the NBA last season in estimated defensive plus-minus (4.1), turned 27 on Thursday.

Orlando became a defensive powerhouse last season, finishing third in the league in defensive rating, using its withering length and defensive quickness to suffocate opposing offenses. The Magic’s own offense came in fits and starts during the season. But in Game 6 against Cleveland, Banchero, Wagner and Suggs became just the third trio of players aged 22 or younger to score 20 or more points in the same playoff game. (The Thunder had two sets of 22-and-unders do it: Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden, and Durant, Westbrook and Serge Ibaka, both during the 2011 postseason.)

The Magic, though, remain sober about where they are.

“We haven’t done anything yet,” Wagner said.

Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero are the two standouts of Orlando’s young core. (Nathan Ray Seebeck / USA Today)

On the floor, Banchero continued his upward path on offense last season, responding to coach Jamahl Mosley’s challenges to be quicker with his decisions offensively and to improve defensively. But there’s still a lot of room for further improvement. Banchero ranked just 102nd in the league in estimated offense plus-minus, per Dunks & Threes. He needs to get better off the dribble and in pick-and-rolls.

Banchero spent most of the summer in his native Seattle, where his personal trainer put him through it, including a couple of circuits up a slope known locally as “Heart Attack Hill.”

“What I realized in the playoffs is that it takes you being in tip-top, elite shape to make a full run,” Banchero said. “After that Game 7, I was all the way spent. … In my head, I’m like, Cleveland’s going to play Boston in two days. If I feel like this (after the first round), how would I be able to shake back for another series, another two or three more series if I want to go all the way? It made me realize that I have to get in better shape, so that was my whole summer. I worked on my body three or four days a week — sometimes lifting, sometimes agility, some days conditioning. Just trying to get in the best shape heading into this season. And obviously, as the season goes on and on, just trying to stay consistent with my habits, and once you get to the playoffs, just having that second wind.”

But the Magic also needed to address their woeful shooting. They were only slightly better behind the 3-point line last season (35.2 percent) than they were in 2022-23 (34.6 percent). Banchero, Wagner, Suggs and Anthony all get downhill great, but there was no one who spaced the floor as a legit threat from deep.

Enter Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who left a three-time league MVP in the Denver Nuggets’ Nikola Jokić to sign a three-year, $66 million deal this summer with the Magic.

The veteran wing has shot 38.5 percent or better from deep in each of his last five seasons, playing off LeBron James and Anthony Davis in Los Angeles and Jokić in Denver. With the Washington Wizards in 2021-22, Caldwell-Pope didn’t have any teammate nearly as formidable in the frontcourt, yet still made 39 percent of his 3s. And at 31, Caldwell-Pope is exactly the kind of grizzled vet — with two rings — Orlando needed to complement its young core. Veteran point guard Cory Joseph can similarly get the Magic organized when Banchero is on the bench.

Banchero’s a more than willing passer. But now he has someone who can do damage when he draws double-teams.

“When I talk to Paolo, it’s about him being in the post,” Caldwell-Pope said. “When they bring two (defenders), what you see? I always tell him, if you see the pass, you make the pass. If I bring two, I’ve done my job. Now, my man is open in front of me. I’ve got to make that pass instead of making a bad decision trying to (dribble) through two. The more mismatches he can get, the better he can be. … I was telling him earlier while we were playing, if you see me in the corner when you’re bringing it up in transition, I’m coming over to set the step-up (screen) for you. That’s easy, 101 right there. Or switch or show, whatever they’re going to do, you still have that whole side to yourself, and you can go to work.”

Caldwell-Pope’s and Joseph’s presence on the floor and in the locker room “makes us grow up a little bit, I think, with two older guys who’ve been on championship teams,” Banchero said.

“The story of our team, the first two years I was here, was having a lot of guys that can make plays and get downhill but not a lot of guys that can make a defense pay by making shots on the perimeter. I think with KCP, those small windows that you have to drive because the defense is plugging, with KCP out there, those windows open up a little more. And if they want to keep plugging those windows, you just spray it to him, and it’s an easy knockdown for him.”

As a team, Orlando’s contending window is opening, wide. But only if the Magic learn from Game 7 and move forward in similar circumstances the next time.

“My office is right there,” Mosley said, pointing up to the third floor of Orlando’s ridiculously plush, lavish, 100,000 square-foot palace of a practice facility a block from Kia Center.

“It’s stuck at the clip, 68-71, third quarter,” he said. “Franz is starting to bring the ball up, passes it to Markelle (Fultz). I was just watching it. A reminder. To learn and to really reflect back, you have to watch it. You have to feel the sting (again). But you can’t harp. You have to learn from it. You say, ‘Yeah, it sucked. We should have won. Hundred percent.’ But we didn’t. So, now, what are we going to do? And that’s the only way you become a great team, is by getting callouses.”

Internal improvement this season will require the young guys to get comfortable being uncomfortable with one another too. It can’t all come from Mosley or his staff or Caldwell-Pope. Tough conversations during a long season are sometimes difficult, especially with a young and still-maturing group. But Banchero, who is obviously in line for a rookie extension starting with the 2026-27 season, and Wagner, who got his ($224 million) in July, know they will have to make their voices heard as much as their games are seen.

“Honestly, that’s something we have to grow into,” Wagner said. “We’re not the super-outgoing personalities, not the yellers on the team. At some point, that’s going to be required from us, though, especially with each other. We’ve got a great deal of respect for each other. We both really enjoy playing together. I think we have a great relationship. I think that’s the start, just having that trust that when you are holding each other accountable, the other person knows it’s coming from a good place.”

It’s something Banchero has had to grow into as a pro. Even if it was drilled into him by a coaching legend.

“That just comes with, your first year, you don’t want to say too much, because you’re not even sure you’re doing the right thing sometimes,” Banchero said. “And I think my second year I got better at it, but it was up and down. This year, (I want to be) just a super consistent voice for our team and for the group. When I see something, when you just say it, it gives everyone, whether it’s the guys you’re playing with, your coaches, whoever you say it to, it gives them a chance to take what you said and adjust.

“Instead of you holding it, and now the same s— keeps going on, and you lose, you go down 10, 12 points, whatever it may be. I think me just being a consistent leader and consistent voice is going to take us to another level.”

(Top photo of Paolo Banchero: Jason Miller / Getty Images)

Of course this was going to happen. It’s only a wonder it hasn’t happened sooner.

College football is a sport where more than three years after players were finally allowed to monetize their name, image and likeness, there are still no clear guidelines governing the marketplace.

There is no governing body with real teeth to enforce what little rules there are for either side of a contract, and if anyone tries, an offended party can hire a lawyer, go to court and add another chapter to the NCAA’s long line of failures in convincing a judge that its business model is fair.

Last week, UNLV starting quarterback Matthew Sluka posted that he planned to leave the program after “representations” made to him “were not upheld.”

pic.twitter.com/oK5BDRpoxK

— Matthew Sluka (@MatthewSluka) September 25, 2024

His father, Bob Sluka, told The Athletic there was essentially a verbal agreement from January to pay Matthew $100,000 for his final season of college football. Instead, he’d been given only $3,000 for moving expenses, and despite efforts to pursue what was owed, Bob Sluka said, had yet to be paid anything further from UNLV’s collective since graduating from Holy Cross this summer and showing up in Las Vegas.

However, Blueprint Sports CEO Rob Sine said in dealing with Sluka’s representation beginning Aug. 29, there was no mention of any money owed, and UNLV’s collective denied a deal existed and UNLV said it had honored all “agreed-upon scholarships” for Sluka.

GO DEEPER

An NIL disagreement led to an early split at UNLV. Will this set a precedent?

The No. 25 Rebels, who host Syracuse on Friday and are near the front of the line for a Group of 5 bid to the College Football Playoff, are moving on.

Unfortunately, plenty of pitfalls exist in a quickly changing, largely lawless system that is evolving from an exploitive Stone Age into a sport that treats players — its most valuable asset — equitably.

Eventually, I believe college football will reach a place with something resembling player contracts, the ultimate fix for situations like these, produced by schools and with mostly standard language. Eventually, college football will share some of the billions of dollars in television revenue with the players, making sure that schools have at least some money to give players.

But this doesn’t have to be you or your program. There are lessons to be learned from this unsightly saga.

1. Don’t do anything unless everything is in writing.

Both sides agree there was never a written agreement. But the Slukas say a verbal agreement with Matthew’s agent and UNLV offensive coordinator Brennan Marion was made in January, months before Sluka made the move from Massachusetts to Nevada.

There are barely any norms. And what norms there are vary from collective to collective and school to school.

“A lot of the conversations I had, the head coaches would bring up money directly,” a player who navigated the transfer portal told The Athletic this offseason for a survey about the inner workings of NIL. “They would talk about the numbers that they give to players at my position based on how much value they deem based on the level of recruit that you are and how much playing time you’ll have.”

GO DEEPER

College football portal confidential: How tampering, NIL deals and portal chaos happen

No player is more valuable than the starting quarterback, though Sluka still had to win the job over Campbell transfer Hajj-Malik Williams, who led the Rebels to a win last week over Fresno State.

In February, a federal judge in Tennessee blocked the NCAA from enforcing what laws the organization did have governing NIL. Sluka arrived at UNLV in June and began classes on Aug. 26. In all that time and through three games, he didn’t get it in writing. But he wanted to be a team player, so he kept playing.

And eventually, Skuka realized he went to Vegas and rolled snake eyes.

Fair or not, his decision to leave a team chasing a Playoff bid a month into the season will cost him his reputation in the eyes of many.

Nobody should make major changes in their life based on financial arrangements without a written agreement enforceable by lawyers.

GO DEEPER

Welcome to Las Vegas … the epicenter of college football chaos?

2. Get the right representation.

There is no agent certification process in college football beyond what some states require to do business as an agent, and the quality of agent varies widely.

Sluka’s agent, Marcus Cromartie, splits his time between college and NFL clients, but he was reportedly not certified to operate in the state of Nevada, which gave some around UNLV pause in dealing with him.

“That was very odd to me,” another agent told The Athletic.

It’s unclear why an agent would take a promise by an offensive coordinator as binding. But it was never made official.

“We tried everything. We’d take payments. Anything. And they just kept deferring it and deferring it, and to this day, we do not know why,” Bob Sluka, Matthew Sluka’s father, told The Athletic last week.

Emails obtained by The Athletic show Cromartie never broached the $100,000 in his brief communications with UNLV’s collective.

Former Florida signee Jaden Rashada did get his contract in writing, but his representation also allowed Florida’s collective to get in writing that it could terminate the contract at any time. They shorted him more than $13 million. Rashada sued the collective and Florida head coach Billy Napier this May.

3. Coaches: Know your collective.

Coaches can endorse their third-party collectives and have conversations with them, both things that were initially banned when NIL was instituted in 2021 and collectives sprouted from the NCAA rule change.

The most effective schools have great communication between the two, and the chief reason for that is budgeting. Coaches and staffers need to know how much money is on hand for a collective or how much could reasonably be raised for a transfer prospect or a high school recruit.

Bob Sluka said his son’s agent was hoping to speak with Hunkie Cooper, a UNLV support staffer, after the team’s win at Kansas on Sept. 13, saying he recalled Cromartie saying “that’s the guy who’s avoiding us right now about the money.”

A later conversation produced an offer from Cooper for $3,000 a month for the next four months, telling the Slukas to take it or leave it.

In the world of collectives, $100,000 is not a lot of money for a quarterback and especially not for a starting quarterback of a Top 25 team hunting a Playoff spot. For UNLV to be able to offer only $3,000 a month for the rest of the season points to a glaring disconnect between the coaches’ vision for their roster and the means of the collective.

Few, if any, coaches are going to make a promise they have no intention of delivering. Word travels fast, and there’s no quicker route to eroding trust with your current roster and future prospects. A member of the coaching staff discussing financial numbers for a player is against NCAA rules, though according to agents interviewed by The Athletic, it happens all the time.

“I prefer to deal with the coaches because they’re so out of their element. They’re like, ‘We can get it done.’ There’s an ego thing — you want to get it done for your position group and your school, show you’ve got money,” one agent told The Athletic this offseason in the NIL survey.

Whether or not Marion made what he believed to be a firm verbal offer, Sluka believed it was and felt strongly enough to leave the program over it. Negotiating the finer points of an offer with a coach is rare, an agent told The Athletic this week, but somewhere between the recruiting process and fulfillment of an NIL offer, the Slukas and Marion weren’t on the same page.

4. Honesty is the best policy.

If there was no money, UNLV would have been well-served to explain that to its starting quarterback.

I spoke with people around UNLV’s program this offseason who were complaining that a lack of NIL support was a big reason why the Rebels were unable to keep starting quarterback Jayden Maiava, who committed to Georgia before flipping to USC, where he’s now Miller Moss’ backup instead of chasing a Playoff bid with a team he helped lead to nine wins a season ago. He threw for more than 3,000 yards and ran for almost 300 more in Marion’s innovative Go-Go offense.

Maiava left for much more than $100,000, a person briefed on the situation told The Athletic, but that lack of support is what put UNLV on the market for a transfer quarterback in the first place.

And this situation could hurt the program and hurt both Marion and head coach Barry Odom on the recruiting trail, despite the program’s denials about what unfolded or Odom’s level of involvement.

UNLV said in a statement it interpreted Sluka’s “demands as a violation of the NCAA pay-for-play rules, as well as Nevada state law.”

That might technically be true, but those NCAA rules were already defeated in a Tennessee court in February, and the way college football is operating in 2024 is that players expect to be paid, especially if they believe they had reached a deal.

Blueprint Sports, which runs UNLV’s collective, released a statement that there were “no formal NIL offers” made to Sluka and that the collective “did not finalize or agree to any NIL offers.”

That’s true. And it’s going to hold up in court and prevent Sluka from pursuing any legal action.

But it doesn’t tackle the real issue, which is that he says he was promised money from a coach, who had had no agency to deliver it, and it wasn’t there to begin with.

5. Think through all your options.

When Sluka hit “post” on his announcement last week, he chose the nuclear option. He is moving home to Long Island, his father said; his time with the program is done.

Sluka leaving the team opened the door to him being called a quitter. There’s a portion of the population who will never see it any other way, even if they would also quit their job if they believed they had been promised $100,000 and were paid $3,000.

But he had options. Might I suggest a more creative one?

Given how fruitless the Slukas say their efforts had been to resolve the issue privately, Sluka could have publicly explained his situation, either by posting a video or statement on X. Sluka could have publicly professed his willingness to be a team player, kept working and kept his coveted spot as the starting quarterback for a Playoff contender.

Barely 12 hours after Sluka’s post announcing his exit, Circa Sports CEO Derek Stevens reportedly offered to pay him $100,000 to resolve the dispute but was told by UNLV the relationship was already too far gone.

By going public only after the relationship had been severed, he didn’t get any of the money he believes he was promised and in the eyes of many lost the public relations battle.

That’s a tough 1-2 punch, and it didn’t have to go down that way. Whatever happens between now and next season, it’s hard to imagine Sluka will end up in a better on-field situation.

 (Photo of Matthew Sluka:Kyle Rivas / Getty Images)

There was a lot of good baseball this week. Elite pitching performances. One-run contests. Stars getting big hits in big moments.

Thursday night’s Game 3 — New York Mets 4, Milwaukee Brewers 2 — was a true postseason epic. Back-to-back Brewers homers in the seventh inning. Pete Alonso going deep in the ninth to keep his Mets career going a little longer. Then Francisco Lindor sprinting for a double play to end it.

October is all about winner-take-all, and the Wild Card round had only one series that went the distance. It didn’t disappoint. The other three series were sweeps. Which brings us to our first takeaway from the wild-card round…

Game 1 is everything

Wild-card sweeps have been the norm under this playoff format.

During the era of the one-off Wild Card Game — which ran from 2012 to 2019 and returned in 2021 — many rued the brutal unfairness of a brilliant season washed away in nine innings. Wouldn’t a three-game series be a better solution than a winner-take-all game?

So far, the answer is … not really. Since the league moved to the three-game Wild Card Series in 2022, the winner of Game 1 has won all 12 series. Only two series have even gone to Game 3. That’s an 83 percent sweep rate.

If we include the 2020 postseason — following the pandemic-shortened season, MLB expanded the playoff field and staged eight three-game wild-card series — only twice in 20 tries has the Game 1 loser come back to win the series (A’s and Padres in 2020). Sixteen have been sweeps.

This is still a small sample of series, but it has taken some air out of the balloon. The league would love to have each Wild Card series go three games. Instead, almost every series has been decided in Game 1.

And if that’s the case, you’d better have a Game 1 ace.

Respect the Crown (and the chaos)

The Detroit Tigers had a winning formula for the Wild Card Series: a Triple Crown winner in Game 1, and what manager A.J. Hinch called “pitching chaos” in Game 2. Let the ace set the stage, and let everyone else close the curtain.

Whether it was Tarik Skubal for the Tigers, Michael King for the Padres or Cole Ragans for the Royals, three of the four teams that got ace-caliber performances in the wild-card opener wound up sweeping. After Skubal tossed six shutout innings against Houston in Game 1, the Tigers cycled through seven relievers in Game 2. King’s 12-strikeout gem in Game 1 left the Braves reeling and the Padres bullpen fresh for Joe Musgrove’s injury-shortened start in Game 2. It was a similar story for the Royals, whose bullpen was up to the task after Seth Lugo was pulled in the fifth inning of Game 2 in Baltimore.

Corbin Burnes also delivered an ace performance in Game 1, allowing one run over eight innings in his final start before free agency, but Bobby Witt Jr. drove in the game’s only run. The O’s managed only one run in the sweep.

Chris Sale, the NL Triple Crown winner, didn’t even make the Braves wild-card roster. With Sale suffering from back spasms, the Braves had AJ Smith-Shawver to start Game 1. He lasted only four outs. The Braves never had a chance. The Houston Astros also fell behind early when ace Framber Valdez continued last year’s postseason woes. Houston was bounced in two games. The most dominant starts in the Brewers-Mets series came not from aces but the Game 3 starters, José Quintana and Tobias Myers.

Tarik Skubal deals against the Astros. (Kevin M. Cox /. Associated Press)

Home-field blues

When we wrote about each contender’s down-the-stretch schedule, we spent a lot of words on the jockeying for byes and home-field advantage in the Wild Card Series. The former? Critically important. (Just ask the 91-win Orioles and the 93-win Brewers.) The latter? Well, how much does home field matter in this round?

The home team has won only nine of 20 three-game Wild Card Series since 2020.

Removing 2020 from the equation, because ballparks were empty and the playoff field was watered down, the home team has fared even worse in the Wild Card Series, losing eight of 12 series.

There’s no logical reason for this to be true. No team would choose to play on the road rather than at home. But perhaps home field matters far less in a three-game series than other factors: like an ace.

That doubleheader made a mess 

The Braves pitching staff had been in trouble since Spencer Strider’s elbow started barking back in spring training, but it was completely finished when Hurricane Helene forced a Monday makeup doubleheader, during which Sale was added to the lengthy list of injured Braves.

Smith-Shawver starting Game 1 with neither Austin Riley nor Ronald Acuña Jr. in the lineup? That wasn’t the Braves team anyone was expecting back in March. But by the time they were swept, Atlanta was in tatters. The Braves emptied the bullpen to split the doubleheader against the Mets, deployed a spot starter for the first game of the playoffs and then had to cover for Max Fried’s two-inning start in the second game.

They were gassed.

The other half of that season-ending doubleheader was the Mets. Luis Severino pitched well enough in Game 1 to give them a fighting chance in the Wild Card Series, sticking around for six innings despite a lot of traffic early. The cracks started showing in Game 3. After Quintana turned in six shutout innings, Buttó blew the stalemate and, all of a sudden, closer Edwin Díaz was putting out a fire in the seventh inning. Even fully rested, the Mets bullpen didn’t possess a top-tier bullpen. Exhausted, they’re more likely to break down. It was David Peterson — a starter — who put the Brewers away by saving Game 3.

The Central is dead (Long live the Central)

A few AL execs were chatting earlier this year about how MLB balancing its schedule was going to help powerful divisions (like the AL East) and hurt weaker divisions (like the AL Central). That was the idea, anyway.

But the AL Central has three of the final four teams in the American League (the Royals, Tigers and Guardians) while the East has only the Yankees. The Rays, Red Sox and Blue Jays missed the tournament, and the Orioles are already headed home.

Last season, the AL Central had only one team with a winning record while the AL East had four.

The NL Central was mostly a disappointment this season. The Brewers were their only hope to make postseason noise, but they’ve now lost their past six playoff series and gone 2-10 in postseason games since 2019. It appeared for a brief window of time Thursday night, after Jake Bauers and Sal Frelick went yard, that half the remaining playoff teams would be from the middle of the country. Instead, Alonso knocked out the NL Central entirely.

Pete Alonso after his homer against the Brewers. (Aaron Gash / MLB Photos via Getty Images)

Momentum matters

There’s a natural instinct to assume teams that come screaming into the playoff picture late in the season will be found out once the playoffs begin. Their flaws will be exposed. They were pretenders, after all.

Then along come the Tigers and Mets. The Tigers’ playoff odds were 0.2 percent on Aug. 11, the Mets’ 13.1 percent on Aug. 28. Neither had entered the season as anything more than a midfield team. They were roughly .500 teams in the first half. And then, outrageous things happened. The Tigers traded their No. 2 starter and a few other vets, and couldn’t stop winning. The Mets fiddled with the knobs on their pitching staff, found something offensively and made miracles happen in Game 161.

In this round, neither was exposed. The Tigers kept rolling. Their ace was better than the other guys’ ace, and their lineup provided timely hits. The Mets’ win wasn’t a fluke. They pitched well, caused havoc and rallied when it mattered against one of the best pitching staffs — and best closers — in baseball.

We lump the Tigers and Mets together, in part, because we had them last in our postseason pitching core ranking. Not because we thought they were trash, but because some team had to be last, and because it seemed that at some point the second-half smoke and mirrors would stop working. Not so. Two old sayings are true for those two teams:

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

And no one wants to see these guys in October.

Five teams won at least 16 games in September. Three — the Tigers, Padres and Mets — won a Wild Card Series. A fourth, the Los Angeles Dodgers, earned a first-round bye. The only wild-card team that didn’t have a winning second-half record was the Orioles, who went 33-33 and were knocked out in two games — perhaps not good news for the NL favorite Philadelphia Phillies, who were also 33-33 after the break.

You can’t predict ball

Some aces were aces, and some stars were stars — you did your families proud, Alonso, Witt and Fernando Tatis Jr. — but in the postseason, not all heroes wear All-Star and Silver Slugger capes. Some are just dudes who show up when they’re needed most.

The high-profile Padres hit three home runs in their series, and two of them came from No. 9 hitter Kyle Higashioka. The Brewers’ Game 2 comeback started with Rookie of the Year candidate Jackson Chourio, but it was Garrett Mitchell who hit the game-winning homer. Skubal lived up to his billing for the Tigers, but it was swingman Beau Briske who closed Game 1 and pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings in Game 2. Which second baseman led the Wild Card round in hits and doubles? Not Jose Altuve. It was Brewers speedster Brice Turang.

Some of the biggest swings in the Wild Card Series were from Andy Ibañez, Jesse Winker and Frelick. Some of the most pivotal punchouts were thrown by Will Vest, Nick Mears and Sam Long.

October is when even the most anonymous big leaguer can become a household name.

(Top photos of Kyle Higashioka, left, and Will Vest and Jake Rogers, right: Orlando Ramirez, Alex Stiltz / Getty Images)

Perhaps the schedule makers thought we would need a breather after Georgia–Alabama last week? There’s only one ranked matchup across the entire slate and nothing that jumps out on paper. That said, there are some intriguing matchups that could yield potentially telling results. No judgment if you opt for the pumpkin patch this weekend, but no sense in complaining about a full day of college football, either.

Let’s rank the top 10 games of Week 6, starting with honorable mentions and counting down.

Honorable Mention: Syracuse at No. 25 UNLV (Fri.), Pitt at North Carolina, Navy at Air Force, West Virginia at Oklahoma State, No. 15 Clemson at Florida State, James Madison at ULM, No. 11 USC at Minnesota

(All point spreads come from BetMGM; click here for live odds. All kickoff times are Eastern and on Saturday unless otherwise noted.)

10. SMU (4-1) at No. 22 Louisville (3-1), Noon, ESPN

Two teams the jury is still out on. Louisville has one of the best offenses in the country and outgained Notre Dame by more than a hundred yards last Saturday, but the Cards couldn’t overcome their first three turnovers of the season in a 31-24 loss. SMU has found ways to put up points — except in the loss to BYU, where the Mustangs were held without a touchdown and made a change at quarterback. Their best win is a 66-42 barnburner over TCU in the Iron Skillet. Louisville’s offensive firepower looks more promising, and receiver Caullin Lacy returned against Notre Dame, but ideally this game will tell us something about the ACC.

Line: Louisville -6.5

9. Texas Tech (4-1) at Arizona (3-1), 11 p.m., Fox

Big 12 After Dark, featuring two teams that have situated themselves at the top of the league standings in the early going. Texas Tech has rebounded from a shaky start with three straight wins and the highest-scoring offense in the Big 12, bolstered by the return of a healthy Tahj Brooks at running back. Arizona similarly responded to a blowout loss to Kansas State with a road win at Cam Rising-less Utah. Both teams are streaky but have explosive offenses, which should make for a fun, late-night matchup. Take the over.

Line: Arizona -6.5

8. UCF (3-1) at Florida (2-2), 7:45 p.m., SEC Network

Florida head coach Billy Napier survived a road win at Mississippi State and subsequent bye week, now the hot-seat watch resumes in Gainesville. There is some kerosene drizzled around this in-state matchup, the first leg of a lengthy 2-for-1 series that was agreed to when UCF was still a Group of 5 program. Florida fans have long looked down on the Knights, and in the past, the program didn’t see any reason to agree to a true home-and-home. It should offer some bulletin-board material for a UCF team that is a road favorite and seems to be charting a more encouraging course than the Gators. Napier’s dismissal has seemingly become inevitable, but if Florida loses to UCF in The Swamp, it’s tough to envision him lasting through the weekend.

Line: UCF -2.5

7. No. 10 Michigan (4-1) at Washington (3-2), 7:30 p.m., NBC

It’s wild to think that just nine months ago, these teams faced off in the national championship. Now they meet as newly realigned conference foes in a game that couldn’t crack the top half of this week’s list. Both programs have had considerable turnover coming off historic seasons. Michigan — despite getting handled at home by Texas, pulling out some narrow victories and an inability to throw the ball — is still a top-10 team. Washington has suffered a pair of tough losses to Wazzu and Rutgers, but can claim a top-20 offense and top-10 defense in terms of yards per play. We’ll see how much an edge in continuity matters for Michigan and if it has enough winning DNA to get a road upset and hang in the Playoff discussion for another week.

Line: Washington -1.5

6. No. 8 Miami (5-0) at Cal (3-1), 10:30 p.m., ESPN

ACC After Dark! ESPN’s “College GameDay” is headed to Berkeley for this one, broadcasting at 6 a.m. local time — a full 12-and-a-half hours before kickoff. Miami finally looked mortal in its controversial Friday night win over Virginia Tech, including a pair of interceptions by quarterback Cam Ward and a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit. Cal’s defense has been solid thus far as well, ranking in the top 20 in yards per play and points allowed. However, the last time we saw the Golden Bears a couple of weeks ago, they earned the ignominious distinction of being the only team to face Florida State and lose this season. Maybe the West Coast travel has an impact on Miami, but to pull off an upset, Cal will probably need a big game from running back Jaydn Ott, who has yet to fully erupt as he works back from injury.

Line: Miami -10.5

5. No. 12 Ole Miss (4-1) at South Carolina (3-1), 3:30 p.m., ESPN

Was last week’s deflating home loss to Kentucky the real Ole Miss, or will the Rebels return to their high-octane form? Lane Kiffin’s crew still has one of the top offenses in college football at more than 600 yards per game, but tallied just over half of that against UK and managed to put only 17 points on the scoreboard. Now it faces a South Carolina team that smoked Kentucky on the road in Week 2, should have beaten LSU and has a top-10 defense. The narrative on Ole Miss quickly shifted from being a Playoff team and dark-horse title contender to questioning whether the Rebs are a Potemkin village primed to collapse under the weight of an SEC schedule. With the likes of LSU, Oklahoma and Georgia still lurking, Saturday’s trip to Columbia is a test Ole Miss can’t afford to fail.

Line: Ole Miss -8.5

4. Rutgers (4-0) at Nebraska (4-1), 4 p.m., FS1

The Scarlet Knights stay chopping. It hasn’t been the most convincing undefeated start, but Rutgers is riding running back Kyle Monangai, who is third in the FBS at 147.3 rushing yards per game. A home loss to Illinois and ugly win over Purdue took some of the wind out of Nebraska’s resurgence, but the Cornhuskers are in position to reach bowl eligibility for the first time since 2016. This game could be an inflection point for both teams. Nebraska has a bye up next followed by road trips in the span of a month to Indiana, Ohio State and USC, all of which are ranked in the Top 25. Rutgers, however, has an easy schedule by Big Ten standards, avoiding Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State, Michigan and Indiana. A win Saturday could potentially set Rutgers on a path toward the Big Ten title game, thanks in part to opponents it won’t have to face along the way.

Line: Nebraska -7

3. Iowa (3-1) at No. 3 Ohio State (4-0), 3:30 p.m., CBS

I realize there’s a big spread in this game, but Ohio State has yet to appear on any of these weekly top 10 lists, because it hasn’t faced a team good enough to make a game interesting. The Buckeyes have outscored their opponents 195-27 (!!!) through four games. Iowa may well join that list of hapless challengers on Saturday, but the Hawkeyes are by far the toughest test Ohio State has seen this season and should provide a better sense of just how high the ceiling is in Columbus. It’s also a potential trap game for Ohio State, with a road trip to Oregon next week and games against Nebraska and at Penn State on the horizon. Iowa’s schedule eases up significantly after this one, but losses to Iowa State and the Buckeyes would really dampen the Playoff resume.

Line: Ohio State -19.5

2. No. 4 Tennessee (4-0) at Arkansas (3-2), 7:30 p.m., ABC

Tennessee registered its lowest point total of the season in the 25-15 road win at Oklahoma on Sept. 21, but the Vols have been one of the most impressive and balanced teams in college football, starting 4-0 and ranked in the top five for the first time since the program’s national championship season in 1998. Conference losses by Georgia and Ole Miss also crack the window a bit more for Tennessee to possibly reach the SEC Championship Game for the first time since 2007. There’s still a long way to go, with Alabama and at Georgia on the schedule, but if the Vols can split those two and win out otherwise, that might be good enough to get them there. Still, beating Arkansas isn’t a given. The Hogs rush for better than 5 yards per carry and are ranked a respectable 34th in ESPN’s SP+.

Line: Tennessee -13.5

1. No. 9 Missouri (4-0) at No. 25 Texas A&M (4-1), Noon, ABC

Does this game deserve the top spot? It’s more or less here by default. Missouri is lingering in the top 10 despite some wobbly wins over Boston College and Vanderbilt, and Texas A&M is barely hanging on in the Top 25, tied with UNLV for the final spot. Yet it’s still an important game. Is Mizzou a legit top-10 team or merely a paper tiger? Do the Aggies have enough to work their way back into Playoff contention? I get it if the knee-jerk reaction is to wince at this being the best game of the weekend, and maybe I’m a college football populist for this take, but I like that an early October meeting between Mizzou and a rebuilding A&M has some meaningful big-picture stakes involved.

Line: Texas A&M -2.5

 (Photo of Luther Burden III: Rick Ulreich / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Long after Los Angeles Rams practices in the late summer of 2021, Kevin O’Connell lingered on the field in a huddle with head coach Sean McVay, receiver Cooper Kupp and quarterback Matthew Stafford. Sweat poured off of each man and dripped into the grass as the players scuffed at it with their cleats. They gestured and debated with one another, the coaches writing notes on salt-slicked play cards.

McVay’s offense led the NFL when he became the youngest head coach in league history in 2017, but it had stalled over the previous two seasons. He and O’Connell were rebuilding it together.

O’Connell, a former star quarterback at San Diego State and then an NFL journeyman, translated Stafford’s 12 NFL seasons of football knowledge and married elements of what worked with McVay’s playbook. The head coach was drawn to O’Connell’s creativity and understanding of quarterbacks when he hired him as offensive coordinator in 2020, and after trading for Stafford in 2021 they charted new schematic territory.

Every day that summer was about adjusting tiny details with Stafford and Kupp. O’Connell wanted to prepare them for any potential problem a defense might present. “You try to give them the answers to the test before they have to take it,” he told The Athletic this summer. “There’s no such thing as a great game plan without the ability to adapt on the fly.”

In Super Bowl LVI, they all lived that.

McVay, battling an illness in the days leading up to the game, grew hoarse at times, so O’Connell quietly prepared in case he might have to actually call the game. He was also deep in the interview process with the Minnesota Vikings for their head coaching position. Star receiver Odell Beckham Jr. was supposed to be the central element of the passing game against the Cincinnati Bengals but went down before halftime with a knee injury. No. 3 receiver Van Jefferson was playing hurt, and running back Cam Akers had just returned from an Achilles repair. The ground game wasn’t working. Stafford’s cast of skill players had changed dramatically from the first quarter, and so too had the Rams’ game plan.

It was, some players and executives recalled, as if McVay, O’Connell, Kupp and Stafford had resorted to drawing up plays on the sideline in the second half.

Late in the fourth quarter, the Rams’ fate hinged on a player who had hardly ever seen the field. Down four points, the offense faced fourth-and-1 from their own 30-yard line. Voices flooded into a wide-eyed McVay’s headset as he prepared the call.

Stafford and Kupp were about to run a play that had failed when they tried it together in practice over the two weeks of preparation for the game, a play they workshopped all the way up to the bus ride to the stadium. It was a sweep handoff to Kupp that started with a stutter-step motion from the left side of the formation. Kupp was supposed to cut the sweep short after he got the ball in order to scoot behind a crucial block on the right edge, then get upfield through that hole.

The block now would be assigned to second-year tight end Brycen Hopkins, a former fourth-round pick who was only in the game because the starters and backups were injured. There was no time to doubt whether he could do it.

It worked. The handoff, the block, the improbable conversion became one of the defining plays of the Rams’ championship.

O’Connell realizes now, as a third-year head coach whose 4-0 Vikings are the talk of the league, how similar the last two quarters of the Super Bowl were to the hot, grueling days of training camp. Then, he would sometimes daydream about one day installing his own offense as a head coach. He thought about the language he would use, how he would collaborate with his own assistants and players, how he would create answers to their questions.

Hours after winning the Super Bowl, O’Connell accepted Minnesota’s head coaching job. Later that week, he stepped off a parade bus sticky with beer and confetti and into his future. He brimmed with positivity, a sunbeam pouring into Vikings offices still cloaked in winter.

O’Connell had a vision. He had a plan. He had a playbook and a sound teaching process.

Yet he couldn’t have predicted how often he’d be reminded of football’s inherent chaos — and how crucial his knack for adaptation would be — over the next two seasons.

O’Connell’s young children are really into Legos. He and his wife, Leah, have a massive tub in their home containing hundreds of the little multi-colored bricks from dozens of separate sets.

The tub has no rules, nor order — the manuals for each set were thrown out long ago. The kids grab pieces — a couple of blocks from a disassembled “Cars” character, a few more from a “Star Wars” ship — and build whatever is in their imagination.

It drives O’Connell a little nuts. Building something real requires a plan, and part of him wants to know what all of the pieces do, or the different ways they might fasten to each other, before he starts to build. But the other part of him loves that his kids are having a blast creating like this, so he happily sits on the floor and fastens a racecar tire to a TIE Fighter.

He admits his two most dominant qualities — obsession with process and detail, and empathy — compete with one another, but in an NFL quarterback room one is needed just as much as the other, often at the same time. It’s why O’Connell’s teaching method has resonated with players.

As a play-caller, Kevin O’Connell specializes in providing answers for his players. (Stephen Maturen / Getty Images)

With quarterbacks, he implements a layered approach that first explains why a play or broader concept will manifest in a certain way. This defense has a rule that says they’ll react to this formation with this type of coverage, so we will change our formation spacing to force them out of their rule and create our advantage instead of, we are lining up this way.

O’Connell installs a core alphabet for his system. Then he builds out the playbook and week-to-week game plans by tying a word players recognize in a concept or play to another word which brings them into a family of plays and eventually grows into an entire system. The player can easily jump between plays within a family and into the broader system because the words he recognizes escort him there. The point is to avoid rote memorization; everything links to something else. O’Connell calls it “dot-connecting.”

“Maybe it’s a concept that you take from an existing concept, and you say, ‘Here’s how we’re gonna change it, here’s how we’re gonna name it,” O’Connell explained. “It’s in a family of names that have sameness and likeness — big cats, sports cars — whatever it is, you name it, we’ve got a category for it. And if we don’t, we’ll have one soon enough.”

O’Connell asks his players for detailed feedback during the installation of his offense and subsequent practices. If a receiver feels more comfortable adjusting his route off a third inside step instead of a fourth, or if the quarterback wants to swap out one route for another while attacking the same space on the field, O’Connell changes his play.

“I’m not the one out there running the play,” O’Connell said. “If it doesn’t infringe upon the play-caller’s intent or the design of the play, ‘It’s yours, guys.’ I think that there is power in that, in this day and age … when they feel like they are a voice at the table, not just someone being talked to.”

“The way he connects, the way he talks with us, the way he understands us as players, I feel like it’s a really good characteristic as a coach,” said Vikings All-Pro receiver Justin Jefferson.

Plus, when players feel like they have a say in the details of the plays they run, O’Connell is comfortable asking them to trust him when he adjusts the plan in real-time. He does this often and for good reason. Defenses come up with bespoke plans — at times outside their typical system — to try to slow down Jefferson. There sometimes is no precedent for how a specific opponent will try to mitigate him until they show their strategy in a game’s first few series.

When that happens, O’Connell and his staff workshop their own offensive counters on the sidelines and in the locker room at halftime. They come up with a list of “what-if’s”: If a defense does X, how will the Vikings respond?

“I think the best coaches see it live. They can make those in-game adjustments, they don’t have to wait until after the fact to do that,” said McVay, who watches cut-ups of Minnesota’s game film every week. “I’ve seen Kevin do that in his tenure there.”

O’Connell’s adaptability beyond game-planning has been tested. While his 2022 team won 13 games — 11 by one score — they were ultimately undone by a defense that ranked near the bottom of the league and lost in the wild-card round. To fix it, O’Connell hired former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores, known for his complicated, aggressive, pressure-diverse scheme. A former quarterback hired a modern quarterback’s biggest fear.

GO DEEPER

How Brian Flores and the Vikings built such a ‘wild’ and ‘different’ NFL defense

The Vikings lost their first three games in 2023, but just as veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins and the offense began to find their rhythm and put together a string of wins, chaos struck again.

Cousins tore his Achilles against the Green Bay Packers in Week 8. Minnesota traded for journeyman Josh Dobbs, but after starter Jaren Hall suffered a concussion the following week, O’Connell was essentially forced to install a playbook for Dobbs on the fly. The Vikings won that game and the next, but Dobbs’ production did not last. Minnesota rotated quarterbacks through the last several games of the season, and O’Connell stretched himself thin managing the different players and game plans while keeping the building encouraged about the future.

“It speaks to the whole of building a culture, systems, schemes, how he works with people, how he creates an environment for guys to grow together,” game management coordinator and pass game specialist Ryan Cordell said. “Last year, we’re battling injuries, and he didn’t change. He was the same guy.”

The Vikings parted with Cousins in free agency last summer with the plan to draft and develop their next quarterback. They also signed free agent Sam Darnold, the third pick in the 2018 draft who pinballed from dysfunctional to dysfunction until he repaired his bad habits and nursed his bruised confidence last season in San Francisco.

O’Connell leveled with Darnold and Vikings fans after Minnesota selected Michigan star J.J. McCarthy with the 10th pick in April’s draft. While McCarthy would be the future, O’Connell would still do whatever he could to help Darnold compete for the starting role in 2024 on a one-year deal, to reset the narrative and give him tools to help fulfill the potential many believed he’d never reach. All the better if that gave McCarthy — who, at just 21 was the same age as Darnold when the New York Jets drafted him — more time to develop as an NFL player.

O’Connell structured most of the first-team summer reps around Darnold to help him adjust to his new system while gradually increasing McCarthy’s workload and preparing him to play in the preseason. O’Connell was mulish that he would not put McCarthy in a position he wasn’t ready for — at times bristling at questions about the rookie’s timeline.

A third-round pick of the Patriots in 2008, O’Connell’s NFL playing career fizzled out before it ever really began. (Jim Rogash / Getty Images)

That adamance (and how O’Connell expressed it) stemmed from his own tumultuous experience as an NFL backup. He understood how quickly a quarterback’s vibe can sour. O’Connell was an athletically gifted and smart prospect when he was drafted by the Patriots in the 2008 third round to back up Tom Brady. But New England cut O’Connell in 2009 and he bounced around several teams for the next three years, with a labrum surgery thrown in for good measure in 2010.

He used to view his playing career with some regret, but that perspective has shifted, especially as he got into coaching. He studied behind a future Hall of Famer in Brady and alongside blossoming young stars such as Stafford and shared position rooms with amiable teammates like Matt Cassel and Mark Sanchez. O’Connell understood what a young quarterback can learn when a position room is built thoughtfully. His experience ultimately helped inform him as a teacher and a manager of people.

That was also part of why the Vikings brought in Darnold — to show McCarthy what pro preparation and study habits look like, to give him a collaborator and to make sure a uniquely isolated position did not feel that way.

“I think back on different interactions and being able to be around some great players, coaches and humans throughout my NFL journey. I think about how I can shape our team, and my messaging to our team and our quarterbacks, to really do two things: challenge them but ultimately let them know that I have their backs and that everything I’m trying to accomplish is for them in conjunction with them achieving success,” O’Connell said.

On July 6, Vikings rookie cornerback Khyree Jackson was killed in a car accident in Maryland. “It has been a significant time in our organization, losing a player,” O’Connell said. “You are personally working through your process of dealing with something like that — while also knowing that my role is to be there… for anyone that might need support, and love, and guidance.”

Players were away from the facility during the brief break in the NFL’s calendar. O’Connell got on the phone with anybody who needed to talk, checking on players and coaches and grieving privately.

“He has a heart for people,” said McVay. “He really pays close attention to what people need, (and) he’s that for them.”

The Vikings contributed $20,000 to funeral expenses and paid out Jackson’s signing bonus to his estate. O’Connell spoke at the funeral in Jackson’s hometown, and the team also had a private memorial service with Jackson’s family in Minnesota. They keep Jackson’s locker open, and players wear decals of his initials on their helmets. O’Connell wears a pin above his heart that says “KJ.”

O’Connell told the team what he had learned through two years as a head coach and decades as an assistant and player before that: Life is a combination of success, adversity and chaos. They would all mourn as football’s unforgiving clock ticked on.

The season approached. In August, after the Vikings’ first preseason game, McCarthy tore his meniscus. His rookie season was over before it began, and for a moment, the injury soured Minnesota fans’ hopes for 2024.

But O’Connell believed in Darnold.

O’Connell’s belief in Sam Darnold (right) has manifested in Minnesota’s 4-0 start to the season. (Stephen Maturen / Getty Images)

The Vikings are 4-0 with wins against postseason favorites like the San Francisco 49ers, Houston Texans and Packers. Darnold is playing better than ever. He has thrown for 932 yards and a league-leading 11 touchdowns with three interceptions while completing 68.9 percent of his passes. He also ranks third in the NFL in completion percentage above expectation (5.7), a measurement that takes into account the situational context of a passing play.

O’Connell’s fingerprints are all over Darnold’s renewed confidence and resurgent play, which has featured help from a steady run game, skilled receivers and Flores’ No. 1-ranked defense. But O’Connell doesn’t smother the young quarterback. Instead, he provides Darnold with multiple answers on every play, giving him a manual and an understanding of how the pieces might fit together.

Against the Giants in Week 1, a 22-yard pass to tight end Josh Oliver was designed to give Darnold two options depending on how the defense covered Jefferson. If New York’s defense stuck to its system’s rules for the concept and personnel the Minnesota offense showed, a safety and extra linebacker would flow toward Jefferson’s route, leaving Oliver open up the right hash if he got behind just one other linebacker. If the defense “broke” its own rules for that look, Jefferson would be wide open.

“With the proper amount of structure, coaching and clarity that you can give these players, you can make this very difficult or you can make the complex simple,” said O’Connell. “You’re constantly trying to find that balance, and the balance is in how you’re coaching it. I never want to be a Monday morning ‘clicker coach’ where I am holding the clicker … saying, ‘You should have done this, this and this.’ If I’m saying those things, I probably didn’t coach it very well.”

Perhaps Darnold’s true “arrival” this season came on a third-and-9 pass in a Week 2 win against the 49ers after Jefferson left the game with a quad injury. Darnold threaded a pass to receiver Jalen Nailor between three defenders, letting the ball go at the perfect moment where a fraction early or late would have almost certainly led to a turnover.

In that game, Darnold threw for 268 yards and two touchdowns plus an interception and ran for 32 yards. His 97-yard touchdown pass to Jefferson was so electric that O’Connell sprinted down the sideline to celebrate, headset cord streaming behind him like a banner.

“The amount of work that goes into that position, on your quarterback journey, when everybody decides that you cannot play … ” O’Connell said after the game. “We always believed in him. Awesome to watch him go do that thing. I am really proud of Sam Darnold.”

O’Connell fought to control his voice, but it cracked with emotion as he thought about a young quarterback who got another chance and what he was building with him.

(Illustration: Meech Robinson / The Athletic; photos: Adam Bettcher, Nick Cammett, Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

MILWAUKEE — In the chaos of elation, the New York Mets momentarily allowed the star of the celebration to get away Thursday night.

Quickly, someone yelled, “Where the f— is Pete?”

The search lasted mere moments.

“He’s over there!” someone else shouted.

Another Mets player then loudly gave instructions: “Everyone attack Pete!”

Within seconds, several Mets players took turns draining their champagne bottles over Pete Alonso. “Pete! Pete! Pete!” they chanted.

Alonso savored the moment. With one hand holding a can of beer and another gripping a bottle of Champagne, he wrapped his arms around Jose Iglesias and squeezed him in a bear hug.

In the embrace, Iglesias told Alonso, “Thank you for listening.”

The second baseman was referring to the message he delivered just before the bottom of the eighth inning. That’s when Iglesias, from his position at second base, told Alonso, “Next inning, you’re going to hit a home run.”

What happened next is already etched in Mets lore. In the ninth inning of the deciding Game 3 of the Wild Card Series, the Mets trailed by two runs. With one out, they had runners on first and third. Carrying a weeks-long slump with calmness, Alonso came to the plate. He hit a three-run home run off Milwaukee Brewers closer Devin Williams to save the Mets’ season and send New York to the Division Series.

Pete Alonso struggled early but before this three-run home run he told his hitting coach, “I feel like I am right there.” (Benny Sieu / Imagn Images)

“It was meant to be,” Iglesias said after the 4-2 victory. “I’ve seen walk-offs and stuff, but this is one of my happiest moments. It’s a dream come true.”

Throughout the day, Iglesias, one of the Mets’ clubhouse leaders whose catchy song “OMG” morphed into a season’s rallying cry, had offered Alonso encouragement.

“He was feeling a little off,” Iglesias said. “I just told him, ‘Be on time. Timing is everything.’ And now? Man, I feel so proud of him.”

Later, in a rare moment on the field when he didn’t attract a crowd, Alonso said Iglesias’ simple yet consistent messaging, “Meant a lot. Really, a lot. It meant so much to me.”

For some time, the Mets needed Alonso to come through. Big time. His walk year had been devoid of special moments. But club officials always said the same thing, that, with his power, he could change a game in an instant. Still, his last extra-base hit was Sept. 19. Before the home run, Alonso was 0-for-3 with a strikeout in the seventh inning. No matter. He still believed.

In the seventh inning, Alonso used a relaxed tone when he told Mets co-hitting coach Eric Chavez, “I’m just swinging right through these pitches. I feel like I am right there. One swing away.”

Recalling the conversation, Chavez said, “He was more calm than I was.”

Players often tell coaches such things, so Chavez didn’t know exactly how to interpret the message. He noticed at least one thing, though, that he’d later say would be important. Alonso, despite the slump and the heaviness of his Mets career possibly ending Thursday night, remained positive.

On a 3-1 offering from Williams, Alonso sent a changeup that got too much plate 367 feet, over the wall in right field. He said he knew right away it was a home run. On first base, Brandon Nimmo said he wasn’t too sure. After all, the Mets hadn’t hit a home run in the first two games of the series. So, Nimmo said he was simply hoping the ball would get over an outfielder’s head. But Alonso kept running toward Nimmo. So Nimmo looked over to the outfield once more, and said to himself, “Oh my God.”

By the time Alonso had reached second base, nearly all the Mets’ players had left the dugout.

“Words can’t explain,” Alonso said. “This is unreal.”

Mets owner Steve Cohen attempted to construct a couple of sentences.

“Great players, they come through in the clutch, right?” Cohen said. “Just an incredible moment for him, for the team.”

The Mets had gone far without Alonso putting them on his back. If he’s hot, the Mets are all the more dangerous heading into their matchup against the Philadelphia Phillies starting Saturday afternoon.

Before the game, Mets manager Carlos Mendoza maintained faith in Alonso yet again and said, “We’re waiting for that one swing. Hopefully today is the day.”

Well worth the wait.

“Proud of him,” Mendoza said after the game. “It’s a dream come true for him and for all of us.”

Seven minutes after the Mets advanced, and as the team celebrated on the field, the sections of fans behind New York’s dugout at American Family Field began loudly chanting, “Pete A-lon-so! Pete A-lon-so!”

It’s a name now deeply etched in Mets playoff history.

(Top photo of Pete Alonso: Credit: Benny Sieu / Imagn Images)

The handwriting is on the wall. NFL owners want to eventually expand the regular season from 17 games to 18. The owners usually get what they want, so it seems like a matter of when, and not if, we see an expansion.

The current collective bargaining agreement runs through 2030, but NFL owners, officials and leaders of the NFL Players Association have already begun very preliminary discussions on what an 18-game season would look like and what kinds of concessions each side would have to make to facilitate such a change. But the two sides are nowhere close to hammering out an agreement.

For now, the majority of NFL players we spoke to oppose the idea of an 18-game season. Of the 108 players who answered when asked for The Athletic’s second anonymous player poll, 64 said they are not in favor of the league adding an 18th game. Meanwhile, 29 players said they would be in favor of the move and 15 described themselves as undecided.

Those opposed to the idea are staunchly opposed.

“No. Hell no,” one player said. “It’s too much on our bodies.”

“F— no. F— no,” a second player responded. “For what? F— no. F– no. F— no. Make it shorter.”

Said a third, “No. The money’s not worth it. And it doesn’t affect the playoff bracket. One more extra game is not gonna affect the playoff bracket.”

More football sounds great to fans and owners, but many players have other factors to consider.

“No, because players barely make it through 17, so adding 18, we don’t know what type of implications that’ll have long-term,” one player said, “because you’ll see guys have high use one year and the whole next year they battle injuries. Physically, I think it’s too much, and I know from the standpoint of the NFL, they see the money, but they’re gonna lose a lot of star players to injuries.”

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Another player worried that continued expansion of the schedule would decrease the magnitude of each game.

“What makes football great is there are so few games, and each game matters like 10 baseball games and five basketball games. So they all matter,” he said. “And 17 is kind of nice, because nobody is going to be .500. We’re not doing ties. You’re either over .500, or under .500. If it ever does happen, it has to be mandated grass (fields) across the league.”

Players always take issue with the NFL’s claims of caring about player safety when they also hear of owners wanting additional games. But they understand the driving factor behind such a decision.

“The NFL is all about making money, so they’re going to add another game of course,” one player said. “It’ll be more money coming in.”

He hit the nail on the head: The NFL is all about making money. Conversely, the players want to increase their earning potential as well. Because of that mutual desire, even players who strongly oppose the idea of the expansion to 18 games acknowledge they may have to relent to continue to grow their portion of the economic pie.

“I get it, it’s the money side,” a player said. “You know, get the money while you can, you just keep on adding games. But I think it has more wear and tear on the body. If they’re going to make an 18th game, they’re going to have to change something somewhere else. So I’ll be curious to see what they would do.”

Players are concerned about adding more wear and tear to their bodies if the NFL ultimately adds an 18th game. (Ken Blaze / Imagn Images)

Said another, “No. Unless they’re giving us some more money, then no. This is a long season as it is, you know? Adding the last one, it was what, 16 at first, and then to 17. Eighteen is just crazy.”

Players currently receive 48.8 percent of all revenue and the owners take in the remaining 51.2 percent, but that split would most definitely have to change if the league expects to sway players on the 18th game. Players were also asked a follow-up question as to what the NFL would need to adjust to accommodate a potential 18th game. The most common response was an additional bye week, while others cited changes to the preseason and offseason schedule and, of course, more money.

“I am in favor if that means more revenue share for the players and if there’s an additional bye week worked in within the season,” one player said.

“If it means more money, I’m down,” another said. “A lot more money, though. Not just another game check. (And) two bye weeks.”

Another player, thinking of the earning potential, also said he would sign off on an 18th game.

“Yes, if the salary, regardless of inflation, is gonna reflect it, and you up the amount of practice squad players per team,” he said. “Just because I always think about the little guys, so I’m looking at minimum salaries and practice squad players. I just want the bread. I just want another $100K or $200K. I’m not tripping off getting extra rest as long as it’s all the same playing field and everybody else get the same rest. It’s cool with me, but then again, I’m a grinder. I’ll play 20 games for another $500K.”

A few players liked the idea of an 18th game simply because they enjoy playing.

“Love the game,” one said. “You wanna add more? Add more.”

They believed with proper adjustments to the preseason and with the implementation of a second bye, players would find ways to manage and adjust to the additional wear and tear.

“Two real bye weeks,” one player said. “Not a three-day week that the league tries to get away with after Thursday games. Two full weeks and that gets you to the Presidents Day holiday for the Super Bowl like they want.”

GO DEEPER

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Players surveyed seem to know that no matter their reservations, an 18th game is coming, and there is little they can do aside from work to negotiate the best possible financial and benefits package.

As one veteran said, “I hope by the time we get to the point, way later down the road, that I’m out of the league. But I know it’s coming.”

(Top illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photos: Ryan Kang and Chris Unger / Getty Images)

With the NFL entering Week 5 — can you believe we are coming up on 30 percent of the regular season completed? — I thought it was a good time to answer NFL-specific media questions.

Questions have been lightly edited for clarity and length. Let’s go.

If you would have told me we’d be raving about Bill Belichick and raking Tom Brady over the coals, well, most would have thought the other way around. What’s your take on all the “rookies” (in broadcasting) this year? — Tom R.

What grade do you give Tom Brady four weeks into his broadcasting career? Where else does he need to improve? — Deven B.

I first wrote in 2016 while working at Sports Illustrated that I thought Belichick had all the traits to be a successful NFL broadcaster. Then came this piece for The Athletic in 2023 and this piece in January. So I’m not surprised in the slightest, and I would also not be surprised if he stuck with it after this season.

I wrote after Brady’s debut and his second game, and then last week I watched him call the Tampa Bay Buccaneers against the Philadelphia Eagles. The progress is there. It’s incremental, but he’s already a different broadcaster after four games versus his Sept. 8 call. It’s an increased comfort level that’s most obvious. I would grade him a B-minus after four weeks, and I’d consider that grade a success.

Where Brady has to improve is he’s still coming to the commentary after plays a little late, he offers little if any criticism of coaches, and we still don’t get enough second-level analysis, which for my definition is teaching me something new about the game that I didn’t see if I was following the ball. But the work in progress is heading in the right direction.

Has the NFL considered shutting out the networks and running the broadcasts themselves? Would they make more money if they broadcast themselves via NFL.com and potentially lease their stream to third parties like ESPN and others? — John B.

It’s the opposite. The NFL has been looking to shed media assets, including running the NFL Network. The financial outlay to produce the games themselves — think of all the hires they’d have to make in production and elsewhere — and then sublicense the games to another broadcaster would be so great that it’s not worth it. Also, they have existing rights contracts with companies, so the league could not even consider it for years.

I think the NFL will look to be involved in more one-off media projects rather than big-scale broadcasts, which is why I would not bet long on NFL Network doing games next decade, at least under the NFL Media banner.

Which current players are most sought after for post-retirement careers with the major networks? — Paul E.

The name that always comes up among networks isn’t a player but a coach: Mike Tomlin. The Pittsburgh Steelers coach would be hired immediately if he wants to be. All the networks love him.

If the NFL goes to a schedule with every team playing an international game each season, could that package of games, largely confined to Sunday mornings currently, dare expand to Saturday mornings? — Mark B.

What are the chances the NFL carves out a package for international games, and if so, who might be in the running for it? — Pete G.

Never say never with NFL owners, who worship money above all. But I can’t see them in the immediate future playing on Saturdays for competitive reasons. Also, the 1961 Sports Broadcasting Act effectively bars the NFL from airing a major part of its schedule Friday evenings or on Saturdays between the second Friday in September and the second Saturday in December.

As for the international package: It absolutely will happen. Kansas City Chiefs chairman and CEO Clark Hunt told Sports Business Journal’s Ben Fischer in September that, “in the short to medium term, it’s realistic to think the league might play as many as 16 games overseas.” It seems like the obvious time slot will be the Sunday morning window to create a new media-rights package, and I think you’d look to streamers such as Amazon, ESPN+, Netflix and Peacock as being interested.

Expect the NFL’s international games to become their own separate broadcast package in the future. (Vincent Mignott / DeFodi Images via Getty Images)

When do you think (Los Angeles Rams head coach) Sean McVay leaves to join TV? He has indicated that he wants to spend time with his growing family. Also, I’ve heard analysts say he would be great on TV, which I think he would, too. Yes, the money is better in coaching, but the stress is significantly less in television. Do you think he’s tied to (quarterback) Matthew Stafford in terms of playing/coaching, with the Rams’ championship window closing? — Joshua B.

Thanks, Joshua. I forwarded your question to our Rams writer, Jourdan Rodrigue, who is uniquely positioned to answer this. Here’s what she said:

“It’s a great question. Ever since McVay genuinely considered stepping away from coaching in 2022, it’s fair for people on the outside to wonder how long he will stay in that world. My experience and impression, though, is quite different than those who think he’s ready to jump at any time. I don’t think he feels tied to Stafford’s own career timeline, although it’s certainly possible he once felt that way.

“I have written in-depth about how McVay got himself back to coaching after a mental burnout in 2022 — and through those conversations and that reporting, I believe he at minimum wants to stay committed to his current contract, which runs through 2026, if not longer. McVay knows the booth will be waiting for him at any time, the prices keep going up all the same, and I believe he genuinely wants to be the type of coach who has a reputation for overcoming adversity and developing players. I believe he now understands that his legacy as a coach and reputation among his peers is about a lot more than becoming the youngest NFL head coach or that Super Bowl win.”

When will the NFL purchase the Canadian Football League to expand its base? — Leslie G.

Can’t see this happening. There’s no economic reason for the NFL to buy the CFL. Canada isn’t a market the league has targeted for expansion — the Toronto/Buffalo Bills experiment was not a success — and the NFL has made clear that Europe and Mexico are where its immediate desires sit. Also, what would the NFL be buying? None of the CFL teams would become NFL teams. Then, on the other side, the CFL prides itself on being Canadian-owned and run. I just don’t see it.

With all the money paid to the top commentators for Sunday afternoon games, is there any thought by those networks on the number of viewers they are losing to RedZone or Sunday Ticket? — Matt L.

First, you have to remember that the salaries paid to broadcasters by companies such as Disney, Comcast or Fox Corp. amount to rounding errors for the companies. That even goes for Brady at Fox. As far as RedZone: The best estimates are that the channel draws about 1 million viewers each Sunday. It’s not a significant loss for the networks given the early windows for the networks will average 17 million to 20 million viewers and the late-afternoon window usually pops 25 million.

What led NBC to extend Cris Collinsworth for another half-decade knowing a younger, superior talent (Greg Olsen) was available? I’d understand it if the incumbent was better — or even as good — and I know it’s highly subjective. I don’t think that’s the case here. Thoughts? — Barry S.

It’s subjective is the short and long answer. Is Olsen a better analyst? I think he is, but this is where subjectivity plays in. Relationships play a big role here. NBC Sports leadership likes Collinsworth, and he has deep relationships with the people charged with hiring. It’s also a big swing to bring in someone from the outside who has never worked with your production group. Collinsworth has been associated with NBC since 1990 and has been the lead analyst on “Sunday Night Football” for 16 seasons. That’s a lot of equity.

Now, the subjective part. I have written many pieces praising Collinsworth, but I do think over the last couple of years he’s become more and more a spokesperson for the NFL where once upon a time he really was a maverick in terms of being critical of the league. Maybe that happens when the years build up and you get tighter with Roger Goodell and the fellas. But as far as preparing for broadcasts and the enthusiasm for football, he still gets high marks in both categories from my perspective.

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(Top photo of Tom Brady: Kevin Sabitus / Getty Images)

Can the Florida Panthers repeat as Stanley Cup champions or is it the Edmonton Oilers’ turn to go from runners-up to No. 1? What will happen in the Eastern Conference wild-card race?

After kicking off The Athletic NHL staff’s season predictions Thursday with individual awards, today we look at team expectations. Who makes the playoffs? Who are the potential dark horses? Which fan base is bound for disappointment?

To pick apart the results of our polling, provide context and give us a healthy critique, we’ve brought in NHL senior writers James Mirtle and Sean Gentille, analytics know-it-all Shayna Goldman and betting expert Jesse Granger.

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Who will win the Stanley Cup?

Mirtle: I feel special with the lone Hurricanes pick. Maybe this is finally the year?! Right?

Goldman: Lose in the Stanley Cup Final then return to win the next year. I think I’ve seen that script before.

Gentille: I picked the Stars last season. The Devils don’t quite seem ready. The Leafs are the Leafs. The Avs have loads of question marks. It’s Edmonton by default.

Granger: I think the Devils are the perfect combination of talent, motivation and rest from a longer summer than they’d hoped for, with, finally, the addition of a top-flight goalie in Jacob Markstrom.

Who will be the runners-up?

Gentille: In other words, most of us think the Rangers will find a new way to disappoint their fans in the playoffs.

Granger: Our consensus Cup Final pick is Oilers over Rangers. You can bet that exact result at 66-1 odds.

Will Connor McDavid and the Oilers face Mika Zibanejad and the Rangers in the 2025 Stanley Cup Final? (Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)

Who will finish in last place?

Mirtle: Pray for Yaroslav Askarov, friends.

Granger: And Mackenzie Blackwood.

Gentille: The Sharks added several real, live NHL players this season. That doesn’t mean things will change all that much.

Who will be the biggest disappointment?

Must be projected at 100-plus points by Dom’s model at the start of the season. Projected point total in parentheses.

Goldman: I didn’t vote for Carolina, but it actually makes some sense here. Year after year, they’re one of the Eastern Conference favorites. But the results just don’t match the hype in the end, so it feels like the pressure is starting to amp up there.

Granger: Thatcher Demko’s injury has me very concerned for Vancouver. He covered up a lot of holes on that team with heroics in net, shown by his sky-high .845 save percentage on high-danger shots. If he ends up playing the majority of the season, the Canucks should be fine, but if not, it’s a lot to ask from Kevin Lankinen and Artūrs Šilovs.

Who’s your dark horse Cup contender?

Must be projected as a middle-of-the-pack team, between 85 and 100 points by Dom’s model at the start of the season. Projected point total in parentheses.

Granger: The Devils are my pick to win the Cup, so I kind of had to pick them here.

Mirtle: I threw Vegas my vote here as (a) the Devils are the easy choice and (b) everyone is sleeping on how good the Golden Knights remain, which includes, perhaps, the NHL’s best blue line. Plus they’re going to add two $10 million forwards at the deadline, anyway.

Goldman: I forget if I picked Tampa Bay or Nashville here, honestly. The Lightning have depth issues but aren’t dead yet. And the Predators had a really interesting offseason. They’re my two dark horse contenders to watch because Mirtle’s right, the Devils are the easy choice here.

Gentille: Someday, I’ll be done treating the Lightning as a true contender. Today is not that day.

Who’s your surprise playoff team?

Must be projected below 85 points by Dom’s model at the start of the season. Projected point total in parentheses.

Goldman: Detroit feels like the only legitimate pick here, especially if it can build off its level from that late-season push. Even if the Flyers go on a run like last year, their deadline moves likely take them right out of the conversation again.

Gentille: Yep, it’s the Red Wings by default for me, too. Their path feels realistic, at least, especially if a couple of their prospects pop.

Who will be the first coach fired?

Mirtle: Nearly half the league being mentioned sounds like the NHL.

Goldman: The average tenure of an NHL coach is less than 2.5 years, so it’s really anyone’s game here.

Gentille: There’s been so much turnover the past couple of years that we’re short on actual candidates.

East playoff field

We asked each voter to pick the eight East playoff teams. Here is the percentage of the votes received by each team. (Note: * playoff team in 2023-24)

Goldman: Sorry Atlantic Division disruptors, it apparently still is not your time.

Gentille: Very funny to see the Capitals, a team that actually made the playoffs last season and then improved over the summer, that far down the list.

Granger: The funny thing is, the oddsmakers agree. Washington is a minus-190 favorite to miss the playoffs, and plus-155 to qualify for them.

West playoff field

We asked each voter to pick the eight West playoff teams. Here is the percentage of the votes received by each team. (Note: * playoff team in 2023-24)

Mirtle: Vancouver at 100 percent with Demko’s injury issues is bold, but then again, the Pacific is no murderer’s row.

Goldman: This is Utah erasure, wow. I’m a little surprised there isn’t more confidence behind the Jets — Connor Hellebuyck can get his team there, the rest is just a little fuzzy.

Gentille: Glad to see we’re all predicting another year of the best new tradition in the sport — the Kings losing to Edmonton in the first round.

Granger: With Drew Doughty going down in the preseason and the uncertainty with Darcy Kuemper and David Rittich in net, it makes sense that the Kings are the closest to slipping out of playoff position, even if they are still deep up front.

(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic. Photos: Ric Tapia, Richard A. Whittaker / Icon Sportswire; Joel Auerbach / Getty Images)