N/A
Geno Atkins remains a free agent. Remember him? He's the defensive tackle who set the standard for the position before Aaron Donald dominated everyone in his way. The 33-year-old 3-technique can still be a valuable late-offseason signing for a handful of teams even though everything went wrong for him a season ago.
For a long time, Atkins and Donald were the best of the best. Atkins made eight Pro Bowls, including six consecutively from the 2014 campaign to 2019. His explosiveness to disrupt opposing offenses was off the charts. No other defensive tackle posted more quarterback pressures since Atkins entered the league in 2010, per Pro Football Focus.
But his relationship with the Cincinnati Bengals deteriorated.
Atkins played in only eight games last season and saw a drastic change in usage. The coaching staff decided to go younger along their defensive front, and Atkins' reps decreased. Basically, the defensive tackle became a sub-package pass-rusher. In October, sources told the Cincinnati Enquirer's Tyler Dragon that the coaching staff told Atkins the move was "what's best for the team," and he was upset with the decision.
A shoulder injury derailed the 11-year veteran's season and landed him on injured reserve in December. Still, Atkins graded as a top-three defensive tackle when he did play, according to PFF.
The Bengals released one of the franchise's all-time best players March 19 and moved forward with a new-look front, including free-agent acquisitions Larry Ogunjobi and Trey Hendrickson.
Meanwhile, Atkins continued to rehab from a torn rotator cuff. NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reported the defensive lineman will be cleared by doctors by July 1 with multiple teams interested in his services, as they should be.
At this point in Atkins' career, and given the timing of his eventual signing, he's probably not an every-down defender. But he'll be valuable to any locker room and can still affect contests from an interior spot. Four potential contenders are logical landing spots as Atkins chases another postseason berth and possibly a championship as his career winds down.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Tampa Bay tops every list when a veteran shakes free from his previous team. The reasons are obvious.
First, the Buccaneers are the reigning Super Bowl champions. Second, the majority of last year's squad, including all 22 starters, remains intact. Third, the franchise showed a willingness to bring in multiple veterans a year ago with much success. Finally, Tampa Bay's window to win is now.
Atkins has never made it out of the first round of the playoffs. Playing for the league's best team—and in his home state—seems like a clear connection.
In Tampa Bay's case, depth along the defensive front remains one of the roster's few weak points.
Again, the starters return. But Ndamukong Suh is 34. Vita Vea has missed time in two of his three seasons, including 11 regular-season contests a year ago.
The team's defense is supremely talented on the edges with Shaq Barrett, Jason Pierre-Paul and this year's first-round pick, Joe Tryon. The interior could use a boost with Atkins capable of bringing some of the explosiveness seen during the unit's Super Bowl LV uprising.
Seattle Seahawks
Atkins can join former running mate Carlos Dunlap in the Great Northwest with the Seahawks. The veteran defensive end suffered through the same situation a year ago with the Bengals. Unlike Atkins, Cincinnati traded Dunlap to Seattle where he re-signed this offseason.
The Seahawks didn't have many assets to upgrade their defensive front this offseason. The reigning NFC West champs signed Aldon Smith and Al Woods but to minimal deals. Atkins would have to agree to a similar salary structure unless the Seahawks get creative with their salary-cap accounting.
But Atkins would immediately walk in as the team's best 3-technique, even at an advanced age.
A defensive line rotation that features him, Poona Ford, L.J. Collier, Kerry Hyder Jr., Benson Mayowa, Smith and Dunlap, as well as contributions from Woods, Bryan Mone and Darrell Taylor, should give the Seahawks plenty of depth.
Seattle's defense started slowly last season but played well down the stretch. The unit could build on its late success while improving along the defensive line.
Anything to help the team and take pressure off quarterback Russell Wilson should be viewed as a positive.
Cleveland Browns
What better way to stick it to Atkins' old team than by signing with its cross-state rival?
The Browns were busy this offseason as general manager Andrew Berry realized last year's defense wasn't good enough. All three levels received a face-lift, but the defensive front may not be complete.
Cleveland released veteran defensive tackle and team leader Sheldon Richardson to save $12 million toward this year's salary cap. The number is important because it'll help the team both in the short and long term thanks to rollover space.
Berry won't overspend to bring in another quality defender. But he's not unwilling to spend, either. He previously discussed the possibility of bringing back Richardson.
The goal is to maximize what the team has in Myles Garrett and Jadeveon Clowney.
Between those two, veteran Malik Jackson and Andrew Billings, a former Atkins teammate, are projected to start at defensive tackle. Behind Jackson and Billings, the team invested draft and free-agent capital in Jordan Elliott, Tommy Togiai and Marvin Wilson. Sheldon Day is in the mix as well. The front office even took a flyer on 2017 second-round pick Malik McDowell, who's been out of the league since 2019.
Even with these possibilities, the Browns aren't set along their defensive interior. A steady veteran presence at a discounted price may be exactly what the franchise needs to complete its defensive overhaul.
Minnesota Vikings
The previous three teams all have Super Bowl aspirations. Each made the playoffs last season. The Vikings finished 7-9, just outside the playoff picture. With that said, Mike Zimmer's squad is one year removed from a 10-6 record and a postseason berth.
How the Vikings progress this fall may be in question, but they're closer to being one of the NFC's better teams than not.
Defensively, Minnesota gets Michael Pierce back after the defensive tackle opted out of last season. Plus, the organization signed Dalvin Tomlinson to a two-year, $21 million free-agent contract.
Where would Atkins fit? Well, the better question is, "Why would Atkins fit?"
Paul Guenther is a senior defensive assistant on Zimmer's staff. Guenther spent eight seasons on the Bengals staff during Atkins' tenure in Cincinnati, including four as the team's defensive coordinator. While Guenther isn't a Vikings play-caller, his input should be strongly considered in this case.
Pierce and Tomlinson should form a mountainous and immovable interior, though they're not the most explosive defensive tackles. Atkins would be an ideal complementary piece to help the unit's pass rush.
Brent Sobleski covers the NFL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, @brentsobleski.
Welcome back to TGIFighting, where we preview the weekend's combat sports action and make humorous observations about the news of the day. Ready? Let's go.
How the Paul Brothers Are Doing More For Combat Sports Than UFC
To put it mildly, Tyron Woodley (19-7-1) had some success in an eight-year stint in the UFC. That stint included two years as welterweight champ, punctuated by three title defenses.
In March, Woodley dropped a barn-burner with Vicente Luque (20-7-1)—Woodley's fourth straight defeat. It was also the last fight on his UFC contract. At age 38 (now 39), it made sense for Woodley to leave the grind behind and ride off into the sunset. Right?
Instead, Woodley is now set to face YouTube dignitary and apparent boxing luminary Jake Paul in an exhibition match this August. Why? One last competitive mountain to climb? Uh, nah. As it turns out, Woodley could really use the money, and this one bout is more than he ever made in the UFC, including during his time as champion.
But don't take my word for it. Speaking about the Paul fight recently with Damon Martin of MMA Fighting, Woodley's manager, Malki Kawa, confirmed that Woodley "definitely [will get] paid in his base guarantee more than he ever did in the UFC, whether as a champion or non-champion."
Do we have all the receipts from the UFC to demonstrate this? No. And no reasonably informed person will hold their breath for such comprehensive data to come to light, even with UFC parent company Endeavor recently going public.
But we don't really need those numbers to draw a credible conclusion. It's an open secret (if it can be considered a secret at all) that the UFC notoriously and unapologetically underpays its fighters when compared with other sports.
It's something Paul is acutely aware of. Back in April, he took to social media with the following broadsides against the UFC and prez Dana White, who he called a "douche." He even inserted himself into the UFC's ongoing beef (over money) with Jon Jones (26-1 1 NC) over a heavyweight bout with Francis Ngannou (16-3):
"In my third fight I made more money in total pay than any fighter in UFC history. Maybe it's time to pay your fighters their fair share? No wonder they all want to get into boxing. ... Hurry up and make Jones vs Ngannou. Pay them their fair share... $10 million purse for each guy plus PPV points. Why are UFC fighters so underpaid vs. boxers?"
And it's not just Woodley. Ben Askren, a wrestler who was 36 years old when Jake Paul flattened him in April in a rather farcical affair, said the $500,000 pay-per-view he earned for the night's work (no PPV points on that, by the by) was one of if not the largest payday of his fight career.
"Honestly, I thought about this," Askren told ESPN (h/t Sports Manor). "This is kind of utterly impressive. I made more in the Jake Paul fight, just on my base purse nothing else included, than all of my fight purses in Bellator combined. That's nine wins."
According to publicly reported salary numbers, in three UFC bouts Askren received $350,000 in a win over Robbie Lawler at UFC 235; $213,500 for a loss to Jorge Masvidal at UFC 239; and $263,500 in a loss to Demian Maia.
Keep in mind that $500,000 is still not exactly a gargantuan payday in pro sports, even if it's high in an MMA context. For perspective, Paul did indeed get pay-per-view points in his bout with Askren, to the alleged tune of a $96 million windfall.
(With this in mind, should Kawa really be crowing about his negotiation skills? What did he do here besides tell Woodley where to sign? I'd like to know. Just thinking out loud.)
It's sadly humorous that boxing contracts, even on the novelty circuit and even when negotiations don't appear to break in favor of MMA fighters, can be so lopsided. Perhaps most hilarious of all is the fact that Jake Paul is now a champion of not just fighter rights but retirement accounts.
The Paul Brothers Sure Do Like to Stay Busy
Even at age 44, Floyd Mayweather (50-0) still has those hands.
In a recent training video, Mayweather showed effortless speed and fluidity during pad work. It's the kind of thing that makes you a little worried for Logan Paul (0-1), the senior of the two Paul brothers (26 years old to Jake's 24) Sunday against the iconic, sometimes controversial five-division champ.
Not a lot of subtext in this one. If Mayweather doesn't finish Paul, that likely means the fight devolved into a lucrative game of tag. But Mayweather has a history of rising to the occasion in sideshow fights; witness his TKO of Conor McGregor in 2017 and humiliating cult-hero kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa in a silly if visually compelling boxing match in 2018.
All to say, get on the money train with Mayweather. But give Logan Paul credit for boxing a boxer, rather than aging MMA fighters who aren't known for their standup games. Right, Jake?
Once MMA's Most Hyped Prospect, Aaron Pico Strives to Regain Relevance
Six or seven years ago, Aaron Pico (7-3) signed a deal with Nike—one of the first MMA fighters to do so. And at that time, he wasn't even officially an MMA fighter yet.
An Olympic-level wrestler and gold-gloves boxer before he could even order a beer on US soil, Pico's goal was always to conquer the world of MMA. He collected wrestling medals around the world and assembled an all-star team of coaches: boxing genius Freddie Roach, jiu-jitsu pioneer Eddie Bravo, Bob Cook and the braintrust at American Kickboxing Academy. All of them testified to his prodigious talent. Comparisons to Tiger Woods or Michael Phelps were made without a trace of irony.
And so the hype built (full disclosure: I was very much in on the action).
His pro MMA debut in Bellator at age 20 seemed like a formality. But against Zach Freeman (9-3) he got too hungry for the knockout, lurched too far forward, and found himself in a guillotine choke. The best-laid plans went astray in just 24 seconds.
He seemed to put his woes behind him with four straight victories—all by highlight-reel knockouts. But just when the hype train seemed poised to pull out of stagnation station he dropped two in a row, both by knockout after Pico again appeared to get too eager for the highlight reel. But then three more stoppage wins followed.
You get the idea. It's been a whiplash of a career thus far for Pico. Now, at age 24, he's on the main card against Aiden Lee (9-4) next week at Bellator 260. Lee is a bit of an unknown, a bit of apparent cannon fodder on which Pico can continue to rebuild his record.
Eventually that will need to change, though. The seven guys Pico has beaten sport a combined record of 78-41. That's not very good.
Bellator is right to bring Pico along slowly, even keeping him out of the promotion's ongoing featherweight grand prix. Still, they have to hope he eventually gets the hype train back on track. Lee would be another step in the right direction.
Stone Cold Lead Pipe Lock of the Week
Record to date: 10-3
Let the circus come to town, and give me Mayweather to finish Logan Paul this weekend. Oh, wait, no winner can be declared? Great.
I'm being told there's a UFC event this weekend, UFC Fight Night 189 in Las Vegas. Not the most sparkling of affairs, with heavyweight main eventers Jairzinho Rozenstruik (11-2) and Augusto Sakai (15-2-1) both coming off losses and would likely remain out of the title picture even with a win.
But undercarder Makwan Amirkhani could be a good pick. He's struggled against top competition, but Kamuela Kirk (11-4) is not top competition, and he'll be making his UFC debut on short notice this Saturday. Amirkhani's a -230 favorite to handle the newcomer, per DraftKings. Lock it in.
The NHL draft lottery is a beacon of hope for otherwise defeated fanbases forced to watch other teams ride the emotional high of a playoff run. The fantasy of landing the top pick of the draft provides a morsel of hope for better times ahead.
Unfortunately, not since perhaps 2012 has the top of the draft board looked less appealing. Forget about a prodigy like Connor McDavid or Sidney Crosby; there aren't even any instant game-changers available this summer.
As a result, there is no obvious choice at first overall. In fact, there are four or five prospects a team could justify taking with the top pick. Any hope of narrowing that list was crushed by the COVID-19 pandemic's disruption of the hockey season, leaving many prospects with little chance to separate themselves from the pack.
A lottery win is nevertheless good news for any team. It's better to have the first pick of the player pool than to not. The 2017 draft was similarly perceived as weak and open-ended yet has since produced marquee players such as Elias Pettersson and Cale Makar. This draft will inevitably produce a star or two, but it's going to be a difficult job for the team with the chosen pingpong balls to figure out who that player might be.
The closest to a consensus first overall pick is Michigan defenseman Owen Power. Although scouting services rank him all over the place, TSN Bob McKenzie's April poll of NHL scouts has Power at the top of the board. So too does NHL Central Scouting.
Instead, I'd argue the best choice for the winner of June 2's lottery is Power's college teammate Matty Beniers.
Beniers, a center, grew up outside Boston and is a product of the USA Hockey's National Team Development Program (NTDP). In 2018-19, Beniers played two draft classes above his own by featuring for the USNTDP U18 team alongside Jack Hughes and Cole Caufield. Beniers more than held his own against the older competition, registering 20 points in 20 USHL games.
After excelling again in 2019-20, Beniers made the jump to college hockey for his draft season. Originally committed to Harvard, Beniers switched his commitment to Michigan alongside fellow top 2021 draft prospects Power and Kent Johnson.
Once again, playing multiple years above his age group, Beniers was a standout player for the Wolverines. His 10 goals and 14 assists put him among the better predraft totals in recent memory, and he was named to the Big Ten Conference's All-Freshman Team.
His strong college performance and familiarity with the U.S. program earned him a spot on the USA roster at the 2021 World Junior Championship. Beniers was stuck behind the more senior Trevor Zegras and Alex Turcotte at center, but in third-line minutes produced a respectable one goal and two assists in seven games and did his part to help the team win the gold medal.
Player comparisons should be interpreted with caution. They often oversimplify a player's skill set and create unfair expectations of that player's future.
With that in mind, Beniers has some stylistic similarities to New York Islanders center Mathew Barzal. Beniers, at 6'1" and 175 pounds, is of similar stature and won't get any accolades for his strength or physical play. As a broad analysis, he's a good skater who, like Barzal, is more of a distributor than a finisher and can create plays in the offensive zone.
The similarities run deeper than that. One of the hallmarks of Barzal's game is his ability to carry the puck through the neutral zone and create entries into the offensive zone. Beniers is similarly effective in this manner. With great agility, Beniers can dice through the neutral zone and change direction in a flash to send defenders the wrong way.
In particular, he is fearless when carrying through the middle lane, creating a pick-your-poison dilemma for defenders who can either collapse on him and leave wingers open for him to feed or concede the territory to him for an offensive zone setup. Despite his appetite for carrying the puck toward danger, he rarely makes costly turnovers. To make a baseball analogy, he swings for home runs but rarely strikes out.
The other comparable feature of their games is in puck possession. Barzal loves the puck on his stick in the offensive zone and is not afraid to carry it for extended periods, almost resorting to a game of keep away.
Beniers also makes plays in this manner, carrying the puck around the perimeter of the offensive zone. The idea is that, by moving into different areas of the ice, he changes the angle of attack and forces opposing players to move with him and adapt to the new scenario.
Inevitably, a defending player will be late to an assignment or make the wrong read, and opportunities for a shot or pass will open up. With his vision, Beniers can find these passing seams and quickly set up his teammates for high-quality scoring chances.
The key theme for Barzal and Beniers on the offensive side of the puck is that they thrive holding on to the puck and constantly changing the angle of attack, preying on the first defender to make a wrong move.
As this is purely a stylistic comparison, it's important to caution that Barzal is elite in those areas of the game. He's a very good skater and a better stickhandler who can beat defenders one-on-one with his hands just as well as his skates. While Beniers will make plays in the NHL, it will be asking a lot to expect him to match Barzal's elite dynamism.
One area where Beniers has more upside is on the defensive end. Barzal works hard on the backcheck to eliminate his man from the play and is one of the better players in this draft class at winning puck battles. Even despite his age and on a team with a number of more veteran hardworking players, Michigan head coach Mel Pearson never hesitated to deploy Beniers on the penalty kill and in other critical defensive shifts.
Beniers is a creative offensive center who transitions the puck quickly and effectively from his own end into the offensive end and then is cool and calm in possession once his team has settled. He wants the puck on his stick and does a good job of drawing opposing players out of position and then finding teammates to capitalize on his quality setups. He's an honest defensive center who will fight to break up opposing transition rushes.
An encouraging litmus test for his skills, as well as future ability to adapt to stronger competition, has been his success at high levels of hockey. He isn't dominating at a low junior level but instead is impressing against grown men in college and against the top teenagers in the world at the World Juniors.
A lack of any elite skills inhibits his upside somewhat, as does his subpar shooting ability. He'll get his share of goals by spending so much time in the offensive zone and finding soft spots near the net, but his wrist shot isn't going to make professional goaltenders nervous.
However, his dynamic playmaking ability and well-rounded game off the puck will likely lead to a lengthy career as a top-six NHL center who sees ice in a variety of situations and creates opportunities for his wingers to finish the plays he starts. Beniers isn't going to going to singlehandedly alter the outlook for whichever franchise drafts him, but he holds the best combination in the 2021 NHL draft of immediate translatable NHL abilities and upside.
