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| Friday, February 14, 2025 |
| Welcome to the Valentine's Day edition of the Pick Six newsletter! |
| It's going to be an extra romantic today in Philadelphia and that's because everyone in the city is going to be handing out hugs and high fives all day as they celebrate the Eagles' Super Bowl parade. By the time you read this newsletter, the parade will have already started (and might even be over), but you can catch up on anything you might have missed by checking out our parade live blog here. |
| Also, in what might go down as the greatest gift in Valentine's Day history, Saquon Barkley gifted each of his offensive linemen a TRUCK LOAD of beer (You can see the trucks here). |
| Anyway, for people who don't like parades or live blogs or the Eagles, we have plenty of other things in today's newsletter, like some possible landing spots for MATTHEW STAFFORD. |
| As always, here's your daily reminder to tell all your friends to sign up for the newsletter. To get them signed up, all you have to do is click here. |
| 1. Prisco's top 100 free agents: Ranking the five best offensive players |
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| For the third straight day, we are breaking down Pete Prisco's list of the top 100 free agents. On Thursday, we covered the best defensive players on the list, so today, we're going to cover the best offensive players. |
| Let's check out the top five offensive players on Prisco's list: |
| 1. Vikings QB Sam Darnod (First overall). "Darnold resurrected his career with the Vikings, putting up big numbers and leading them to the playoffs. But he fizzled in his final two games, including a playoff loss, and that has some personnel people concerned. Even so, in a quarterback-needy league, he will get action if the Vikings don't keep him off the market. I'd look for a deal near $40 million per season." |
| 2. Bengals WR Tee Higgins (second overall). "At 26 years old, Tee Higgins is in the prime of his career. He has been the No. 2 receiver in Cincinnati but now has his chance to show he's a true No. 1. He is big and coming off a season with 10 touchdowns in 12 games. His market will be robust." |
| 3. Chiefs OG Trey Smith (fourth overall). "This 26-year-old is a power player who can maul people in the run game. He has improved in pass protection, but he is known for his ability to move people in the run game. He didn't have a great Super Bowl, however." |
| 4. Falcons C Drew Dalman (seventh overall). "At 26, expect Drew Dalman to have an active market. Personnel people like him a lot more than the perception of him in the media. He was limited to nine games last season because of an ankle injury, but he is the top center on the market." |
| 5. Buccaneers WR Chris Godwin (12th overall). "Godwin was on a tear to open the 2024 season with 50 catches in seven games before breaking his left ankle. He is expected to be back for the 2025 season. He is a tactical route runner who plays his best football from the slot. When he moved outside in 2023, he wasn't as good. He is 29." |
| Prisco ranked the top 100 free agents and we only unveiled five of them here, which means there are 95 other names to check out. If you want to see those 95 other names, you can do that here. If you want to check out just the top offensive players on the list, we've got that for you here. |
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| 2. Eagles Super Bowl parade is here |
| After five days of waiting, the Eagles' Super Bowl parade is finally here and it almost seems fitting that the "City of Brotherly Love" is getting a parade on a day that celebrates love. |
| Here are a few things to know about the parade: |
| School has been canceled in Philadelphia. All city schools were closed for the day so that students could attend the parade. That's probably for the best since school attendance would have been almost zero anyway. Fans lined up early. The parade didn't kick off until 11 a.m. ET, but fans started celebrating MUCH earlier than that. There were already thousands of fans lined up at the end of the parade route by 7 a.m. You can see a clip here of just how crazy things were earlier this morning. The Rocky Statue has been moved to a special spot for the parade. The parade will be ending at the Philadelphia Art Museum, and to celebrate that fact, the Rocky Statue has been moved back to its rightful spot: At the top of the stairs at the museum. Although the statue is located there in the Rocky movies, it's been moved multiple times and normally doesn't reside at the art museum, but it's back for today and you can check out what that looks like here. Two fans are getting married at the parade. When you combine Valentine's Day with a Super Bowl parade, that's definitely a recipe for romance, and one couple is taking advantage of this rare combo by getting MARRIED at the parade. You can see them here. |
| The parade started at 11 a.m. ET and it will be wrapping up right around the time this newsletter comes out, so although I can't give you any live updates here, we DO have a full breakdown of everything that happened at the parade in our live blog. You can check that out here. |
| 3. Matthew Stafford landing spots: Steelers could be dark horse candidate to land Rams QB |
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| Not only are the Rams planning to get rid of Cooper Kupp this offseason, but there's been some speculation that they might look to trade Matthew Stafford. The quarterback's wife, Kelly Stafford, has helped sparked the speculation by making some interesting quotes over the past two weeks. |
| "If the Rams decided that they wanted to trade him, or Matthew decided he didn't want to play for the Rams, I'm good," she said on the Feb. 6 edition of her podcast. "I would move my family." |
| As recently as Monday, she shared a picture of her and Matthew with a caption that said, "Future might be blurry, but the present is clear with you." |
| I think what I'm trying to say here is that no one should be surprised if a Stafford trade does end up happening. With that in mind, Jordan Dajani decided to put together a few landing spots: |
| Steelers. "What's the best option for Pittsburgh at quarterback? Trading up in the draft and hoping Cam Ward or Shedeur Sanders is the answer? Probably not. Do the Steelers want to enter the bidding war for Sam Darnold, or take a flier on the 41-year-old Aaron Rodgers? Maybe Stafford is the best option -- if he's made available."Giants. "Here's an interesting fit. The Giants certainly could select a quarterback at No. 3 overall, but then Brian Daboll and Joe Schoen would be putting their jobs on the line for a rookie. If they are simply not sold on Cam Ward or Shedeur Sanders, Stafford would be a great option for the Giants. He and Malik Nabers could be a fun duo to watch."Titans. "The Titans were the worst team in football last year, so Nashville may not be the most attractive landing spot for Stafford. With that said, Titans head coach Brian Callahan was actually Stafford's quarterbacks coach with the Lions from 2016-17, so the two know each other." |
| We came up with a total of six landing spots, and you can check out our full list here. If you're wondering what the Steelers or Giants might offer the Rams, we came up with a few trade packages, and you can check those out here. |
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| 4. Five NFL teams to watch this offseason |
| Joe Burrow just spent two straight weeks doing interviews and then using those interviews to explain to the Bengals front office how the salary cap works. Burrow made it pretty clear that he believes the Bengals have more than enough cap room to get all of their key players under contract. Thanks to Burrow, the Bengals are one of several teams around the NFL who you'll definitely want to keep an eye on this offseason. |
| Tyler Sullivan decided to take a look at three teams who we should all plan to keep tabs on this offseason, starting with the Bengals. |
| Bengals. "The Bengals are in a precarious position with their roster. ... The depth chart faces some monumental questions that'll need to be answered this offseason. Most notably, Tee Higgins is set to hit free agency, and it's a true coin flip if the organization will be able to retain him. That's largely due to the Bengals also needing to hand fellow wideout Ja'Marr Chase what is expected to be a market-setting extension. On top of that, pass rusher Trey Hendrickson -- who requested a trade last offseason -- is also due for an extension after leading the NFL with 17.5 sacks last season. And we haven't even begun to talk about filling the holes that were already on the roster. Something will need to give here." Commanders. "Overall, the Commanders have seven picks in the 2025 NFL Draft, including No. 29 overall. On top of those assets to further bolster their roster, the club possesses the third-most cap space in the entire league this offseason. That means they should be major players in free agency, and Daniels could prove to be a massive draw in luring players on the open market to the DMV."49ers. "The recent news surrounding the 49ers is that they have allowed wide receiver Deebo Samuel to seek a trade. Of course, that'll be a storyline worth following with San Francisco, but the bigger situation worth monitoring is the contract status of quarterback Brock Purdy. He is now eligible for an extension and could be the latest to reset the QB market. While all sides have publicly stated that they want to stick together over the long term, it'll be interesting to see how smoothly -- or bumpy -- these negotiations get." |
| Tyler Sullivan listed a total of five teams that we need to keep our eye one, and you can check out his full list here. |
| 5. 2025 NFL Draft order is officially set |
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| With the Super Bowl over, that means the order for the 2025 NFL Draft is finally set. The Eagles will be getting the 32nd and final pick of the first round, and at this point, I'm guessing that pick will probably be a home run since every pick they make turns to gold. |
| With that in mind, here is the official order for the 2025 NFL Draft: |
1. Titans (3-14)
2. Browns (3-14)
3. Giants (3-14)
4. Patriots (4-13)
5. Jaguars (4-13)
6. Raiders (4-13)
7. Panthers (5-12)
8. Jets (5-12)
9. Saints (5-12)
10. Bears (5-12)
11. 49ers (6-11)
12. Cowboys (7-10)
13. Dolphins (8-9)
14. Colts (8-9)
15. Falcons (8-9)
16. Cardinals (8-9)
17. Bengals (9-8)
18. Seahawks (10-7)
19. Buccaneers (10-7)
20. Broncos (10-7)
21. Steelers (10-7)
22. Chargers (11-6)
23. Packers (11-6)
24. Vikings (14-3)
25. Texans (10-7)
26. Rams (10-7)
27. Ravens (12-5)
28. Lions (15-2)
29. Commanders (12-5)
30. Bills (13-4)
31. Chiefs (15-2)
32. Eagles (14-3) |
| One interesting note here is that all 32 teams currently hold their own first-round pick. Since the NFL expanded to 32 teams in 2002, this has never happened before in the first round of the NFL Draft. Over the past 23 years, there's always been at least one team that ended up trading its first-round pick and although that could certainly still happen, we could see history made in April if it doesn't. |
| Now that we know the draft order, you might be wondering how the first round will play out, and we have the answer right here in Chris Trapasso's latest mock draft, so be sure to click over. Trapasso started his mock off with some fireworks by having the Raiders trade up to get the No. 1 overall pick from the Titans. He also has the Lions trading for Myles Garrett, so you're definitely going to want to check out his full mock. |
| The 2025 NFL Draft runs from April 24-26 in Green Bay. |
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| 6. Extra points: Giants exploring possible sale of minority stake |
| It's been a busy 24 hours in the NFL, and since it's nearly impossible to keep track of everything that happened, I went ahead and put together a roundup for you. |
| Giants could be adding a new owner. The New York Giants have confirmed that they're exploring the potential sale of a minority stake in the NFL franchise. The Dolphins, Bills, Eagles and Raiders are all teams that have sold a minority stake over the past 18 months, so it's not a total surprise that the Giants are looking into a small sale here. You can check out the full details on the story here. Tyreek Hill set to race Olympic gold medalist. The Dolphins receiver might have just bitten off more than he can chew because he's just agreed to a race with the reigning Olympic champion in the 100m, Noah Lyles. Hill and Lyles both spoke to People Magazine this week and confirmed that a race will be happening at some point in the spring or early summer. Super Bowl 63 could he headed to Las Vegas. Sin City hosted Super Bowl LVIII in February 2024 and it could be getting another game as February 2029, according to the Sports Business Journal . The next three Super Bowls are already spoken for with Super Bowl LX in the Bay Area, Super Bowl LXI in Los Angeles and Super Bowl LXII in Atlanta. After that, Nashville will likely land a Super Bowl once the new stadium there opens up, but for now, the NFL was thrilled with how things went in Vegas last year and it appears that a return to Southern Nevada is going to happen soon. Browns want the public to pay for 50% of their new stadium. The Browns unveiled their stadium financing proposal on Thursday and it basically goes like this: The new stadium will cost $2.4 billion and the team is willing to pay for half of that, along with any cost overruns. The rest of the money would then come from public funds from three different entities: the city of Brook Park, Cuyahoga County and the state of Ohio. The team is hoping to build a domed stadium in Brook Park, which is a spot that's roughly 20 minutes away from downtown Cleveland. Pennsylvania sportsbooks lose big on Super Bowl LIX. We mentioned yesterday that Nevada sportsbooks had a record win on the Super Bowl. Well, the same can't be said for the sportsbooks in Pennsylvania. With everyone in Pennsylvania betting on the Eagles, the books there lost a combined $6.5 million on Super Bowl LIX, according to ESPN.com. On average, the Eagles drew less than 50% of the bets at sportsbooks across the country, but in Pennsylvania, they drew 73% of the bets, which is one reason why the Keystone State loss so much money. |
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| | | | | PGA Tour | | College Basketball | The best in golf are teeing off at Torrey Pines! Watch the Genesis Invitational third and final round this Saturday and Sunday at 3 ET on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.
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| | Familiar foes find themselves on the court... Watch #20 Michigan vs. Ohio State this Sunday at 1 ET on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.
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