Latest news with #defensiveplayer
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Two Ohio State players named to the 2025 Bronko Nagurski preseason watch list
The preseason watch list parade continued on Tuesday with the Football Writers Association of America releasing the 2025 Bronko Nagurski preseason watch list, and there are two Ohio State players among the 60 names initially announced. Safety Caleb Downs, who is pretty much on every single preseason watch list he's eligible for, was among the players named, as was linebacker Sonny Styles. The Nagurski is awarded to the player judged to be the best defensive player in college football annually and has been handed out by the Charlotte Touchdown Club in conjunction with the FWAA. The Trophy has been around since 1993, with two OSU players having won the award. Current Ohio State assistant coach James Laurinaitis won the Trophy in 2006, and defensive end Chase Young took it home in 2019. Downs should get plenty of consideration and might be the favorite to take it home before the season starts. He was a unanimous All-American last year after transferring from Alabama. He has been named to every single preseason first-team All-American team for 2025 so far. Styles is entering his senior year after really coming on at the tail-end of last season. He was second on the team with 100 tackles and could have a major breakout year with his athleticism continuing to catch up with the game coming to him more at the linebacker position. He's been recognized on several preseason All-American teams so far as well. The list can and will change throughout the year, with additional players being added as performance dictates. The Trophy will be awarded on December 8 at the Bronko Nagurski Awards Banquet in Charlotte, North Carolina. Contact/Follow us @BuckeyesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Ohio State news, notes and opinion. Follow Phil Harrison on X. This article originally appeared on Buckeyes Wire: Two Ohio State players named to Bronko Nagurski preseason watch list
Fox News
3 days ago
- Sport
- Fox News
Micah Parsons has 'got to want to be paid,' Cowboys executive says
The Dallas Cowboys face one giant storyline going into the 2025 season, and it has to do with locking down one of the best defensive players the team has had in quite some time. Micah Parsons is going into the final year of his rookie deal. He's recorded 256 tackles, 63 tackles for a loss and 52.5 sacks in 63 career games. He's been one of the best edge rushers in the NFL since he entered the league in 2021. So, the question is, why wouldn't he be paid? Cowboys EVP and CEO Stephen Jones offered his two cents on the matter as fans have heckled his father, Jerry Jones, to pay Parsons. "It doesn't change anything," Stephen Jones said of the fans' heckling, via The Athletic. "We want to pay Micah too. He's got to want to be paid." Top defensive players like Myles Garrett and T.J. Watt received their big-money paydays during the offseason, and it appears Parsons would be next in line. Dallas also extended tight end Jake Ferguson and defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa in the offseason. Parsons has been vocal this offseason about his contract, saying in June that a delay in signing him out ultimately cost the team more. He hinted at those deals when discussing his thoughts last week, saying he wished the Cowboys had the "same type of energy" as other organizations who locked down their star defensive players. "If they don't want me here, they don't want me here," Parsons said, via The New York Post. "I'll go about my business. I understand the nature of the business. Like I said, as long as I'm here and under contract, I'm gonna do what I have to do to perform at the highest level. But if this is the end, this is the end." "I just don't understand," Parsons added about his situation. Parsons isn't a hold-out player right now, as he's been in Dallas' camp. However, he hasn't been a full practice participant due to back tightness.
Yahoo
22-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Giants sign S K'Von Wallace
The Giants have added a veteran defensive player at the start of training camp. New York announced on Tuesday that the club has signed safety K'Von Wallace. Wallace, 27, spent last season with the Seahawks. He appeared in nine games, recording 15 total tackles and a forced fumble. He was on the field for 21 percent of defensive snaps and 53 percent of special teams snaps in games played. An Eagles fourth-round pick in 2020, Wallace has appeared in 71 career games with 19 starts for Philadelphia, Arizona, Tennessee, and Seattle.
Yahoo
18-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
LSU football linebacker Whit Weeks on why Harold Perkins Jr. is best player he's seen
LSU football junior linebacker Whit Weeks details why fellow linebacker Harold Perkins Jr. is the best defensive player he's ever seen.
Yahoo
17-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
The Pittsburgh Steelers make star linebacker T.J. Watt the NFL's highest-paid defender
PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Pittsburgh Steelers made star outside linebacker T.J. Watt the NFL's highest-paid defensive player on Thursday, signing him to a pact that will keep the perennial All-Pro in black-and-gold well into his 30s. Watt, who was entering the final season of the four-year extension he signed in 2021, is scheduled to make $123 million over the course of the three-year agreement, a person with knowledge of the deal told The Associated Press. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the contract had not yet been made public. ESPN first reported the extension. Watt appeared to celebrate by making a rare Instagram post on Thursday afternoon, sharing a picture of him flexing in his signature No. 90 jersey. Watt also posted a photo in his Instagram stories of him posing alongside protégé and third-year Steelers outside linebacker Nick Herbig. The average annual value of $41 million eclipses the previous record contract for a defender set by Cleveland defensive lineman and reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett in March. The value also eclipses the average salary of Bengals wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase, who became the league's highest-paid non-quarterback after agreeing to a new contract worth $40.25 million a season. The fact that Watt's extension is worth 2.5% more per season than Garrett's (whose overall total value of $204 million is still higher than Watt's) is not a coincidence. Watt, the 2021 Defensive Player of the Year and a four-time All-Pro and seven-time Pro Bowler, has long believed he is the best edge rusher in the NFL. For the second time in four years, he's being paid like it. Watt, who turns 31 in November, took the unusual step of skipping mandatory minicamp last month in hopes of putting pressure on Pittsburgh's front office to get something done. Head coach Mike Tomlin brushed off Watt's absence, saying it was only a matter of time before things worked themselves out. The timing couldn't be better. The new-look Steelers — now led by quarterback Aaron Rodgers — report to training camp at Saint Vincent College next Wednesday. They'll do it with a familiar face in tow. Watt, who tied an NFL record by racking up 22 1/2 sacks in 2021, is the linchpin of a defense that will be relied on heavily if the Steelers want to end a playoff drought that stretches back to the 2016 AFC Championship, a few months before the Steelers selected Watt with the 30th overall pick in the 2017 draft. ___ AP NFL:
