Sports briefs
By NewsPress Now
Jets trade quarterback Zach Wilson to the Broncos
Zach Wilson was expected to be the face of the franchise for the New York Jets. Instead, he became a symbol of disappointment.
And now, the 2021 second overall draft pick will get the chance to rejuvenate his career with the Denver Broncos.
The Jets traded Wilson to the Broncos on Monday, a person familiar with the deal told The Associated Press. The Jets are sending Wilson and a seventh-round pick in this week’s NFL draft to the Broncos for a sixth-rounder, the person said.
The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the teams haven’t announced the deal. NFL Network first reported the trade.
The Jets are parting ways with Wilson after three disappointing seasons. ESPN reported New York and Denver are splitting Wilson’s $5.5 million salary for this season as part of the deal.
Wilson came to the Jets with massive expectations after he was selected out of BYU because of his exceptional athletic ability and knack for making throws on the run from various arm angles. But he struggled mightily in his first two seasons in New York before the Jets acquired Aaron Rodgers to be their starter last offseason.
When Rodgers went down for the season with a torn left Achilles tendon four snaps into his debut, Wilson took over as the starter again — and was unable to play with consistency or effectiveness while showing few signs of improvement from his first two years.
After being benched twice in his second season, Wilson was again sent to the sideline after 10 games. He sat out for two games while Tim Boyle was ineffective in two starts. The Jets turned back to Wilson, who found himself in the headlines when The Athletic reported he was reluctant to step back into his role as the starter because of potential injury concerns. Wilson denied that later in the week and said he was excited to start again.
He returned with perhaps the best performance of his career, going 27 of 36 for 301 yards — his third career game of 300 or more yards — and two touchdowns in New York’s 30-6 victory over Houston. Wilson was named the AFC offensive player of the week, but suffered a concussion the following week in the first half of the Jets’ 30-0 loss at Miami on Dec. 17.
And he didn’t play again.
“I thought he had a great OTAs, a great training camp,” coach Robert Saleh said late in the season. “I thought he battled. He fought. He’s a fighter, he really is. Obviously there’s things that he wishes he could have back and I know there’s a lot of things he improved on. Some things were out of his control.
“I’ve said it and I’ll say it again: I think he’s going to have a long career in this league.”
It won’t be with the Jets, though.
Rodgers is back this season, and the Jets signed veteran Tyrod Taylor last month to be his primary backup. The original plan last year was for Wilson to sit behind Rodgers and learn, and then perhaps take over again. But Rodgers’ injury changed all that.
“It’s just an unfortunate series of events that occurred,” Saleh said.
General manager Joe Douglas told reporters during the NFL combine in Indianapolis in February that the Jets had given Wilson and his agents permission to seek a trade. Douglas reiterated that last Friday, calling Wilson an “asset” while also saying New York was open to trading him.
And now, Wilson will look to restart his career in Denver.
He joins a quarterback room that also includes Jarrett Stidham and Ben DiNucci after Russell Wilson was released last month after two seasons with the Broncos and signed a one-year deal with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Denver currently holds the 12th overall pick and could still be in the market for a quarterback.
The Broncos have a lot of other needs, however, and if they don’t select a quarterback, it will be Wilson and Stidham in a training camp tussle to see who gets the job. Stidham is a fifth-year pro who has a 1-3 record as a starter. He went 1-1 after the Broncos benched Russell Wilson for the final two games last season. DiNucci lost his only NFL start back in 2020 with Dallas.
Stidham was the 13th quarterback to start for Denver since Peyton Manning retired after the 2015 season. The Broncos haven’t been back to the playoffs since and have posted seven consecutive losing seasons, including last year’s 8-9 under first-year coach Sean Payton.
The Broncos, who are on the hook for $37.79 million of Russell Wilson’s $39 million salary in 2024 — which is in addition to $85 million in dead cap charges over the next two seasons — are unlikely to pick up the $22.4 million fifth-year option on Zach Wilson’s rookie contract, meaning he will likely be a free agent next offseason.
Wilson went 12-21 in 33 games as a starter, throwing for 6,293 yards and 23 touchdowns with 25 interceptions. He has a 57% career completion percentage and 73.2 passer rating, ranking among the NFL’s worst in both categories in all three of his seasons. Wilson also has five touchdown runs.
The move is reminiscent of how the Jets moved on from Sam Darnold in 2021, trading him to Carolina just a few weeks before New York drafted Wilson. Darnold was the third overall pick out of Southern California in 2018, but — like Wilson — failed to live up to the lofty expectations.
Matt Ryan calls it a career, announces his retirement
FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. | On the very first pass of his very first NFL minicamp, Matt Ryan delivered a wobbly throw that left his new Atlanta Falcons teammates shaking their heads.
They couldn’t help but wonder if the team made a huge mistake drafting this skinny kid out of Boston College with the No. 3 overall pick in 2008.
“He threw a duck,” said former Falcons receiver Michael Jenkins, chuckling at the memory. “We’re like, ‘Uh, is this the guy?’”
He was.
After putting up numbers that will surely put him in consideration for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Ryan formally announced his retirement Monday to cap a 15-year career in which he spent all but one season as the steady-as-they-come quarterback of the Falcons.
He signed a one-day contract with Atlanta so he could officially close his career with his longtime team.
“I took the hometown discount,” Ryan quipped.
The decision was not a surprise, given the quarterback had not played since a single disappointing season with the Indianapolis Colts in 2022. He worked last season as an analyst for CBS, receiving a rousing ovation when he called a game in Atlanta.
Ryan, who turns 39 next month, threw for 62,792 yards and 381 touchdowns in his career, quickly becoming the face of the Falcons during the most successful era in franchise history.
He ranks seventh in NFL history for passing yards, ninth in career TD passes and won the league MVP award in 2016 when he guided the Falcons to only their second Super Bowl appearance in franchise history.
But Ryan came up heartbreakingly shy of the ultimate goal when Atlanta squandered a 28-3 lead to Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in the title game, losing 34-28 in overtime.
“It hurts,” Ryan conceded. “It’s one of those things that’s always a part of you. Falling short of what you ultimately set out to do is tough. But that’s life. There’s so many things in your life that are going to go that way. You’ve got to pick up and move on.”
The lack of a championship — and the improbable way the Falcons lost to the Patriots — could hurt Ryan’s bid for a spot in Canton.
“Obviously, if you had that Super Bowl victory, it might make things a little easier,” Jenkins said. “But I do think he’s a Hall of Famer.”
Jenkins was among three former teammates who attended Ryan’s retirement announcement at the Falcons training complex in suburban Flowery Branch. Team owner Arthur Blank sat with Ryan’s wife, Sarah, and the couple’s three young sons.
Ex-Atlanta center Todd McClure, who snapped the ball to Ryan for his first five seasons, will always remember how the guy who became known as Matty Ice helped steady the franchise as a rookie.
The Falcons were reeling from franchise quarterback Michael Vick being sent to prison for running a dog-fighting operation and Bobby Petrino abandoning the head coaching position after just 13 games the previous season.
Right from the start, Ryan brought much-needed professionalism to the locker room to go along with stellar play on the field, leading the Falcons to a surprising playoff berth in 2008 coming off an awful 4-12 season.
“You look back, the Petrino fiasco and everything that happened with Mike,” McClure said. “To be able to get a guy that would come to this organization and play for as long as he did, be the ultimate competitor, the ultimate pro, it meant a lot. He steadied the franchise. He steadied the fan base.”
Ryan’s rookie campaign turned out to be the first of five straight winning seasons for a team that had never put together even back-to-back records above .500 over the first 42 years of its existence.
Ryan thanked pretty much everyone who worked in the Falcons organization, from Blank and the front office, to the coaches and players, and even included a shoutout to the training staff and media relations team for contributing to his success.
But he reserved the biggest thanks for his wife, who he met when both were athletes at Boston College.
“I would not have had the career that I’ve had without you,” Ryan said, his voice choking with emotion. “I prided myself on coming to the building every day with the same mindset and being consistent for my teammates. But I know I wasn’t that for you when I came home. You are the one person on the planet who saw how it really was every day for me.”
Ryan would lead Atlanta to one more playoff appearance in 2017 — a season he’s especially proud of coming off that Super Bowl debacle and the Falcons becoming the butt of jokes from around the nation.
But Ryan closed his career with five straight losing campaigns. When the Falcons went into rebuilding mode after the 2021 season, the aging QB and his mammoth contract were dealt to the Colts for a mere third-round draft pick.
His tenure in Indianapolis didn’t go as planned.
Ryan posted a 4-7-1 record as the starter, had a career-low 14 touchdown passes and was benched for the first time in his pro career. At the end of the season, he was quietly let go by the Colts.
Ryan joined CBS and kept one eye on possibly returning to the field with another team. He got several offers, but nothing to his liking, so he finally decided it was time to call it a career.
With Ryan at the helm, the Falcons won three division titles and made six playoff appearances, also reaching the NFC championship game during the 2012 season. He had 10 straight seasons with more than 4,000 passing yards, highlighted by his MVP season when he set career highs with 4,944 yards, 38 touchdowns and a 69.9 completion percentage.
Ryan was a four-time Pro Bowl selectee and remarkably durable over his career, missing only three games during his Atlanta tenure because of injuries. After turf toe sidelined him for two games during the 2009 season, he made 154 consecutive starts before a high ankle sprain sidelined him for one week in 2019.
He finished his career with a record of 124-109-1 as a starter, including a 120-102 mark with the Falcons.
Asked if he thought his credentials were Hall of Fame-worthy, Ryan paused briefly but didn’t waver from making his pitch.
“I think my body of work is strong. I think I did a lot of things the right way,” he said. “But ultimately, it’s not my call.
“I will say this: I’m really proud of the things that I accomplished, that we accomplished as a group. If you would’ve told me at 15 this was the way it was going to shake out, I would’ve signed up for it every time.”
NCAA ratifies immediate eligibility for athletes
INDIANAPOLIS | NCAA athletes are now eligible to play immediately no matter how many times they transfer — as long as they meet academic requirements — after the association fast-tracked legislation to fall in line with a recent court order.
The Division I Board of Directors formally ratified the change to the transfer rule Monday and approved a tweak that allows schools to identify name, image and likeness opportunities and facilitate deals between athletes and third parties.
Athletes are not obligated to accept assistance from the school and must maintain authority over the terms in their NIL agreements. Beginning Aug. 1, member schools will be permitted to increase NIL-related support only for athletes who disclose their NIL arrangements.
Transfer windows, which are sport-specific, remain in place and require undergraduate athletes to enter their names into the portal at certain times to be immediately eligible at a new school. Graduate students already can transfer multiple times and enter the portal outside the windows while maintaining immediate eligibility.
A coalition of state attorneys general late last year sued the NCAA, challenging rules that forced athletes that wanted to transfer multiple times as undergraduates to sit out a season with their new school.
A judge in West Virginia granted the plaintiffs a temporary injunction, lifting requirements for multiple-time transfers to request a waiver from the NCAA to be immediately eligible to compete.
The NCAA quickly requested the injunction be kept in place throughout the remaining school year to clear up any ambiguity for athletes and schools. The association has had to issue guidance to its members to clarify what that means for next season. Now the rules match the court ruling.
By eliminating the so-called year-in-residence for transfers, an athlete must be academically eligible at the previous school and not subject to any disciplinary suspension or dismissal to compete immediately at a new school. Transferring athletes must also meet progress-toward-degree requirements before competing.
The board will ask the committee on academics to explore creating a new metric — similar to the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rating — that would hold schools accountable for graduating the transfers they accept.
Ex-Nebraska women’s basketball assistant coach denies sexual involvement
OMAHA, Neb. | Former Nebraska women’s basketball assistant coach Chuck Love denied ever having a sexual relationship with former Cornhuskers player Ashley Scoggin but acknowledged in a court document that he did meet with her late at night in a Lincoln parking lot.
Scoggin in February filed a civil lawsuit in U.S. District Court describing how Love allegedly took a special interest in her and saying the relationship turned sexual and caused Scoggin to fear retaliation if she refused to engage in it.
The lawsuit named Love, the university’s Board of Regents, women’s head basketball coach Amy Williams and former athletic director Trev Alberts as defendants. Scoggin seeks a jury trial in Lincoln and unspecified damages for the alleged violation of her civil rights.
Williams and Alberts, now the athletic director at Texas A&M, are accused of not setting rules, training or policies prohibiting staff members from having sexual relationships with athletes.
Scoggin played two seasons for the Huskers. She was dismissed from the team on the same day Love was suspended with pay in February 2022. Love resigned three months later. Scoggin, who is from Dallas, Oregon, transferred to UNLV.
Love’s response, filed Friday, disputed most of the allegations by Scoggin, who was kicked off the team a few days after teammates discovered her, fully clothed, in Love’s room during a road trip.
Love denied Scoggin’s claims he sought sexual relationships with students, that he discussed inappropriate topics with her and that he invited her to go out for drinks.
Love acknowledged he met Scoggin at a parking lot, saying in court papers she was “emotionally distraught and urgently insisted that she needed to see (him) immediately, so they agreed to meet at a parking lot, a place where Scoggin felt she could speak without fear of being heard by others, in particular other players on the team.”
Love denied Scoggin’s allegation of a second late-night meeting at a Costco parking lot, where she said he kissed her and asked, “Have you ever done anything with a coach before?”
Scoggin was discovered in Love’s hotel room during a trip to Penn State in February 2022. Teammates engaged in a ruse to obtain a key to Love’s room. When they entered, they discovered Scoggin on the bed fully clothed. Love said Scoggin had been in his room at her request to discuss a personal problem.
The regents, Williams and Alberts said in their joint response to the civil lawsuit that they didn’t have “sufficient information and belief to either admit or deny the allegations” of a sexual relationship between Scoggin and Love.
They said Scoggin admitted during a meeting with administrators that she violated university rules and policies. The nature of those violations weren’t specified in the court document. Williams and executive athletic director Keith Zimmer then told her she was off the team. Alberts supported that decision during another meeting that included Scoggin’s parents. Scoggin, at that meeting, said there was nothing sexual between her and Love.
“Defendants admit Williams told Plaintiff and her parents that violation of the University’s rules and policies, and the dishonesty and distrust between Plaintiff and her teammates, warranted her removal as an active member of the Team,” the document said.
—From AP reports
