Author: alaskaadmin

Is Jayden Daniels in danger of following the fate of a cautionary quarterback tale? Is Dak Prescott on his way to winning his first NFL MVP Award? And speaking of QBs, is second-year Saint Tyler Shough already one of the NFL’s best at the position? NFL fans brought the heat with their takes to our @NFLonFOX Instagram after Week 2. I selected a handful of them to decide whether they’re on target or miss the mark. Let’s dive in: Fact or Fiction: Fiction I hate that we’re going down this road, but the comparisons between Daniels and former Commanders quarterback Robert Griffin III are inevitable at this point. After missing 10 games last season, Daniels is facing another extended absence after dislocating his left elbow for the second time in 10 months in Washington’s loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday. To this point, a variety of injuries have prevented him from truly building off his historic 2024 rookie season. It’s all frighteningly similar to the trajectory of RGIII. Like Daniels, Griffin was a No. 2 overall pick by Washington and a dual-threat quarterback who won Offensive Rookie of the Year. Unfortunately, RGIII never built off his early success, in large part due to injuries. In Daniels’ case, injuries have slowed him ever more: Entering Week 3 of Year 3, Griffin had appeared in more games (30 regular-season appearances) than Daniels has (26). The only solace I can offer Commanders fans is this: Daniels’ story is still unfolding. This is how his career has started, but that doesn’t mean it will be how it ends. We don’t know how long he’ll be out with this latest elbow dislocation. We don’t know if he can stay healthy in his ensuing years. Through two weeks of Daniels’ third NFL season, we can’t define his career — even if we’re in the territory of catastrophizing. So I won’t compare Daniels to RGIII. Not yet. I will say, though, that this is setting up a fascinating offseason for the Commanders. As I outlined in my Best and Worst piece earlier this week, Daniels is extension eligible in 2027. How do the sides approach contract negotiations? Because of the injuries, will Washington and Daniels’ camp kick that can down the road? How do the Commanders approach getting insurance at the quarterback position? In Washington, there’s plenty in limbo. But let’s not paint a broad brush on Daniels’ story right now. Fact or Fiction: Fiction I can’t blame you for thinking that way. Prescott torched the Commanders’ defense in Week 2, completing 83.9% of his passes for 279 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions. His 143.8 passer rating was the fourth-highest mark of his career and his best since Week 18 of 2022. Entering this season, monster numbers for Prescott felt inevitable, given that he was entering Year 2 with arguably the league’s best wide receiver tandem in CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens. Prescott started poorly in Week 1 against the Giants, but he bounced back big against the Commanders and confirmed our expectations of what he’s capable of this season. Still, I don’t see him winning the league MVP — and it has nothing to do with Prescott. Saying he’ll win MVP is not just saying that he’ll put up MVP-caliber numbers. It’s also saying that the Cowboys will finish as a top-two seed in the NFC. For context, 12 of the past 13 MVPs (all quarterbacks) led teams that finished the regular season in first or second place in their conference. The outlier in that group is 2025 MVP Matthew Stafford, whose Rams played in a division with two other teams that also won 12-plus games (Seattle Seahawks, San Francisco 49ers). And I don’t see the Cowboys being that good, even though I think they’ll make the playoffs this season. Dallas has legitimate issues running the football (just 135 rushing yards through two games), and its defense is too much of a wild card right now under first-year coordinator Christian Parker. Fact or Fiction: Fact Talk like this is warranted! For one, Brian Flores is the best coordinator in football right now. His blitz-heavy scheme held a Bears offense that had scored 59 points in Week 1 to three points (!) in Week 2. That’s the second-largest drop-off by any team from Week 1 to Week 2 in NFL history, according to Next Gen Stats. Caleb Williams’ injury midway through the fourth quarter doesn’t take away what Flores did to Chicago through the first three-and-a-half quarters, frustrating one of the NFL’s most potent offenses. And this was just a week after Flores wreaked similar havoc on the Packers’ talented offense. Quarterback Jordan Love was pressured on a career-high 50.0% of his dropbacks, per NGS. Don’t be surprised to look up at the end of the year and see that Minnesota has a top-five defense. These 2-0 Vikings become truly scary if Kyler Murray, returning from concussion protocol this week, can be just a competent quarterback for coach Kevin O’Connell. Minnesota already has impressive talent at the offensive skill positions — led by superstar wide receiver Justin Jefferson — and on the offensive line. Last season, the Vikings went 9-8 with essentially the same supporting cast despite below-average quarterback play from J.J. McCarthy, Carson Wentz and Max Brosmer. Minnesota doesn’t need Murray to be what Wentz was in relief in the season opener against Green Bay (12-of-19 for 133 yards, three touchdowns, a two-point conversion, 123.5 passer rating). But if Murray recaptures the Pro Bowl form from his early Arizona Cardinals days, all of sudden the Vikings will belong in the conversation with the top NFC contenders. Fact or Fiction: Fiction I’m a massive Tyler Shough fan. He’s leading the league in completions (62), first downs passing (30) and passing yards (662) through two weeks. He has the Saints looking like a contender to take the NFC South — they’re coming off an upset victory at Baltimore, where they scored 15 unanswered points to win. Given Giants QB Jaxson Dart’s knee injury and Titans QB Cam Ward’s uneven play, Shough is the one passer from the 2025 draft class positioned to be a true franchise quarterback right now. He’s a star in the making. With that said, he has a long way to go to becoming a truly elite quarterback. Elite quarterbacks can consistently put together great performances for full games. Shough still needs to show that he can play at a high level for one full game. Through two weeks this season, he’s been lights out in the fourth quarter and overtime — a 78.4% completion rate for 350 yards and four total touchdowns with no turnovers. But Shough has left much to be desired during the first three quarters — a 62.3% completion rate for 312 yards with no touchdowns and three giveaways, including two interceptions. Even if you want to look at Shough’s rookie year, the three games in which he had a 100-plus passer rating came against the Tennessee Titans and the Carolina Panthers (twice), both of whom were below .500 teams last season. We haven’t seen Shough play at a high level for four quarters against a great team yet. I think he’ll get there. Remember, he’s started just 11 NFL games so far. The late-game prowess tells you what he’s capable of. But he’s not elite right now.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

International soccer is back, and the World Cup stars are heading straight into a new World Cup cycle. The first international window since the World Cup is a three-week break in which countries can play up to four matches each, and most soccer leagues will not resume until Oct. 9. The Nations League competition begins Thursday, qualifying for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations starts, and several new national team coaches take charge of their team for the first time. Lionel Messi has one game left for Argentina, Cristiano Ronaldo is still in Portugal’s squad, and the U.S. and Mexico are using the window to give opportunities to teenagers. Messi announced his retirement from international soccer after the World Cup, and Argentina’s federation organized a farewell match for him on Oct. 6 against Benin in Buenos Aires. Arranging it took work. The federation had to find opponents willing to travel to Argentina and deal with a FIFA punishment for the behavior of fans and players at the World Cup, which limits Argentina’s first match of the window, and possibly the second, to half of a stadium’s capacity. Messi finished the World Cup with eight goals, did not score in Argentina’s last three games, and lost the final to Spain. He is expected to appear only in the Benin match. The two games before it, against Bolivia and Burkina Faso, will be the first look at Argentina without him. The question for Lionel Scaloni is who takes the No. 10 role? Portugal is the reigning Nations League champion and Cristiano Ronaldo, 41, is in Portugal’s squad for new coach Jorge Jesus’s first games, starting Thursday at home against Wales. New coach Jorge Jesus replaced Roberto Martínez and has kept most of the group that lost in the round of 16 at the World Cup. Portugal lost to eventual champion Spain in the World Cup. Ronaldo started at the World Cup, and some pundits have called for Portugal to move on from Ronaldo. He has scored three times for Al-Nassr this season. Ronaldo has 146 goals for Portugal, and is 21 short of his stated goal of 1,000 career goals. Portugal’s other two opponents in group play are Norway and Denmark, and the Norway matches put Ronaldo opposite Haaland twice, first in Norway on Sept. 27 and then in Portugal in early October. Spain is the team to beat as the Nations League begins, and its opener is a trip to Wembley on Saturday to face England in a repeat of the Euro 2024 final. Spain won the World Cup this summer by beating France in the semifinals and then beating Argentina 1-0 in extra time on a goal by Ferran Torres, and it conceded once in eight matches. The core of the squad has barely changed since Euro 2024, with World Cup golden ball winner Rodri, Marc Cucurella, Pau Cubarsí, and Barcelona standout Lamine Yamal still operating as the base of the team. The main risks are complacency and keeping Yamal content. The Barcelona forward arrived at the World Cup after a hamstring injury and has said he was not fully satisfied with how he played. England finished third at the World Cup, its best result in 60 years, but the squad will have some new faces, including Trent Alexander-Arnold and Cole Palmer, who many believed should have been at the World Cup. After Spain, England travels to Czechia and Croatia and closes the calendar with a home match against Czechia. Kylian Mbappé won the World Cup Golden Boot with 10 goals and became the first player to win the award at two World Cups. Mbappé also became the tournament’s all-time leading scorer with 22 goals. France opens the Nations League on Friday at Türkiye, the first match for Zinédine Zidane as coach. Mbappé remains captain, but he missed training Tuesday with flu-like symptoms and has not been ruled out. France plays four matches in 11 days: Türkiye, Belgium on Sept. 28, Italy on Oct. 2 and Belgium again on Oct. 5. Erling Haaland had an unforgettable summer in the States as he scored seven goals at his first World Cup, leading Norway to the quarterfinals for the first time before losing 2-1 to England in extra time. Haaland looks to lead Norway to more history as the nation now plays in the top division of the Nations League for the first time. It hosts Denmark on Thursday in Oslo and hosts Portugal on Sept. 27 before playing at Wales and at Portugal in early October. Haaland has 62 goals in 55 appearances for Norway and scored seven goals in his first seven games for Manchester City this season. Jürgen Klopp and Xavi Hernández both make their debuts on Thursday when Germany visits the Netherlands. Klopp is taking his first national team job after Germany’s exit in the round of 32 at the World Cup. He named an extended 44-man squad that will be split across two groups for this block of four matches. Hernández will have longtime Netherlands captain Virgin Van Djik, but has left off former national team regulars like Memphis Depay and Wout Weghorst from his first roster as the boss of the national team. France icon Zidane replaces Didier Deschamps, who coached France for 14 years and won the 2018 World Cup and runners-up in 2022. Zidane’s first 23-man squad includes five players earning their first and leaves out N’Golo Kanté. The opening matches include two Nations League catchups against Belgium, coached by Mark van Bommel, and one against Italy, coached by Roberto Mancini. Both teams who also under new management. Mexico’s Rafael Márquez debuts Saturday against Colombia in Baltimore. Mexico also plays Peru in New Jersey, the U.S. in Phoenix on Oct. 3 and Chile at the Rose Bowl on Oct. 6. Speaking of El Tri, the USA and Mexico meet Oct. 3 in Glendale, Arizona, looking toward the 2030 World Cup after co-hosting the previous edition of the tournament. Mauricio Pochettino, who signed a new contract through the next World Cup, left Christian Pulisic off the roster and named a group that has no one over 30, 12 players who could make their national team debut and seven teenagers. Pochettino has described the window as a different approach, since the World Cup is four years away, and it also looks toward the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. The U.S. plays Peru on Sept. 26 in Orlando, Chile on Sept. 29 in St. Louis, Mexico on Oct. 3 and Canada on Oct. 6 in St. Paul. 16-year-old wunderkind Cavan Sullivan is the name that stands out on Pochettino’s latest roster. The Philadelphia Union midfielder became the second-youngest American to receive a senior call-up after Freddy Adu, and has agreed to sign with Manchester City when he turns 18 and his teammate Mathis Albert is the other. The 17-year-old Dortmund winger became the youngest American to play in the Bundesliga at 16 years and 340 days and has the least senior experience in camp. Mexico has 11 players who are 23 or younger, including Gilberto Mora, who is 17 and the youngest in the group. Hugo Camberos is the 19-year-old Chivas winger receiving his first senior call-up. He and fellow Chivas teenager Santiago Sandoval combined for seven goal contributions as Mexico won the Concacaf under-20 championship in August and qualified for the 2028 Olympics, and both are regular starters for Chivas. Márquez was recently spotted at a Chivas training session and has called up six Chivahermanos in his first camp, coming off a summer where the Guadalajara-based club was the backbone of the national team with five players called up during the World Cup. The North American giants begin a new chapter this weekend.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports