Category: Sports Fox

Allegiant Stadium (Las Vegas) — It’s hard to beat the odds here. The Raiders are 7-27 over the last two years, the second-worst such mark in the NFL. In their six seasons in Las Vegas, they’ve had a winning record once, and as a franchise, they have not won a single playoff game in the 22-year lifetime of their rookie quarterback, Fernando Mendoza. They are trying to climb out of the bottom of a division with a Denver Broncos team that was the AFC’s top seed last year, a Kansas City Chiefs team that’s been to five Super Bowls in seven years and won three of them, and a Los Angeles Chargers team that might be better than both of those this season. Their hometown oddsmakers give them 18-to-1 odds to win the AFC West. It’s the exact same odds as rolling an 11 with two dice, and yet it seems even harder with the 11 the Raiders have been rolling with on any given play. But Thursday, in just a relief appearance in a preseason game, Mendoza gave Raiders fans a bit of hope, a sign that better days are coming. And once you’ve won a Heisman Trophy and a national championship at Indiana, what exactly constitutes a long shot? “He shows up every day, works his ass off,” Raiders Pro Bowl edge rusher Maxx Crosby told me about Mendoza in the locker room at Allegiant Stadium. “He’s doing a great job. He’s been a great addition to the locker room, and I’m super excited for him. He’s done it exactly the right way. He’s putting his head down and working, building relationships, just soaking up knowledge and getting better.” Thursday’s preseason debut was Mendoza’s first chance to soak things up more actively. Training camp practices can go a long way, but this was his first chance to truly feel the speed of the NFL, to appreciate how much harder it is than the college football world he dominated in a 16-0 breakout season last year. On one play, Mendoza scrambled to his right, tried to avoid a sack and ran upfield before he went out of bounds, instead taking a hit and sailing the ball onto the sidelines. It was a lesson that some of the things he could get away with in college, he can’t in the NFL, at least right now. “There was one play where I scrambled to the right, and usually sometimes I’ll be able to get the edge, maybe scramble for 2 or 3 yards, and it’s like ‘Wow, it got there a little faster than I thought,'” Mendoza said at the podium. “I’m really trying to get around them, try to throw the ball away, make the smart play to best serve my teammates. So I would say definitely faster, and they hit harder. So surprise, but no surprise.” Unlike most No. 1 overall picks, Mendoza hasn’t been handed the Raiders’ starting job. First-year Las Vegas coach Klint Kubiak said after Thursday’s loss that the job is still veteran Kirk Cousins’ to lose, potentially making Mendoza wait until he’s more prepared. That’s not the norm. The last six quarterbacks to go No. 1 overall were all Week 1 starters, and the last that wasn’t was Baker Mayfield with the Cleveland Browns in 2018. So, Mendoza watched from the sidelines Thursday as Cousins marched the Raiders down the field, with the veteran completing an efficient 5 of 6 passes for 50 yards, including a 13-yard touchdown pass to tight end Michael Mayer. Mendoza came in without all the starters in front of him, and his first drive was scuttled by a holding penalty. His second drive, though, was what Raiders fans wanted to see, starting with a 19-yard dart between two defenders and ending with a 6-yard touchdown pass on third-and-goal to receiver Jack Bech. The touchdown pass was the highlight of a strong night for Mendoza. He completed 10 of 16 passes for 97 yards and led the Raiders into scoring territory in the final of the four possessions he played, which ended in a missed kick. All those No. 1 picks that started in Week 1, none of them threw a touchdown pass in their preseason debut. Cam Ward, Caleb Williams, Bryce Young, Trevor Lawrence and Kyler Murray all combined for zero in their first taste of the NFL. In just a summer of practices and a few weeks of training camp, Mendoza has impressed the most decorated of his new teammates. “He’s the same guy that we see in practice that went out there and competed on the game field,” center Tyler Linderbaum told me after his own Raiders debut. “He’s a kid that works really hard, wants to get better, wants the best for the team, and that’s all you can ask for.” Rookie quarterbacks don’t exactly have a residency of success with the Raiders. This is the franchise of Todd Marinovich and JaMarcus Russell, of great prospects that never found NFL success. Derek Carr went 3-13 in his first year, and no Raiders rookie quarterback has ever managed a winning record as a starter. That might be asking a lot of Mendoza, as Las Vegas has managed four and three wins in the last two seasons, putting it on its sixth head coach in six seasons, including interims. But Kubiak has a chance to change that, balancing the win-now aspect of playing Cousins with the long-term development of taking lumps with Mendoza and the greatness that could await. “He led a good scoring drive, as far as getting in and out of the huddle and commanding the group and getting play calls down,” Kubiak said, measured in his praise. “I saw the same guy we’ve seen in practice. I see an ascending player, and we’ve just got to keep getting better.” The Raiders need more than Mendoza to turn things around. Linderbaum’s arrival will help their run game, which will lean on second-year pro Ashton Jeanty and could get a spark from rookie Mike Washington Jr., who broke loose for a 53-yard run Thursday. The defense is still very much a work in progress — the Cardinals scored touchdowns on their first three drives against the Raiders, completing their first 15 passes and converting their first six third downs. And if being the No. 1 pick isn’t pressure enough in today’s NFL, Mendoza takes the field under the watchful eye of Raiders minority owner Tom Brady, a seven-time Super Bowl winner tasked with helping to bring a championship mentality back to the silver and black. There were moments Thursday that showed why Mendoza was the No. 1 pick — careful, accurate throws, with a nice pump fake here, a well-executed play-action handoff there and the confidence to stay in the pocket and be patient in an entirely new experience. His personality has not changed — a genuinely positive, squeaky-clean wholesomeness that won over his teammates at Indiana. Can Mendoza find the same success in the NFL? Thursday offered nothing to suggest that can’t happen for him, just a question of how quickly. “Today was an invigorating experience,” Mendoza said. “There’s not many moments where you feel fully alive, and on the field you feel fully alive, especially in the NFL atmosphere. So I want to give thanks to that. It was great to get out there, get my feet wet. That first drive, it felt a little sped up because so much anticipation and excitement. However, I feel like my teammates around me protected me very well, and they helped me. They helped slow me down, and I think it was a good experience.”​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

Markham, Ontario — Jared Odrick is about 50 pounds lighter than when he was playing in the NFL at around 300-315 pounds. But the 38-year-old still stands at 6-foot-5. And for a man that tall who weighs about 250 pounds, getting into a race car can be tough. In fact, when he was in Las Vegas several years ago and attended a racing experience, he could only fit into a GT3 Porsche. But it was that trip that helped fuel his love of fast cars. He later bought a 901.1 Porsche Cup so that he could compete in SCAA amateur racing about four years ago. Odrick has progressed to a successful racer in TransAm and will make his second career NASCAR Canada Series start on Saturday on the streets of Markham, where INDYCAR is the headliner this weekend. “We had to move the footbox back a few inches,” Odrick said during a virtual news conference earlier this week. “The seat was good. The height was good. But just the length for the legs had to be adjusted. … Sliding through the window is kind of difficult. “I have a former football injury where I tore my labrum in my right shoulder, so I have some scar tissue there. But I also have a little bit of extra flexibility that I might not be able to have unless I had that happen that allowed me to get into the car.” Having played seven years in the NFL where he totaled 170 tackles (135 solo) for the Miami Dolphins and the Jacksonville Jaguars, the 2010 first-round pick from Penn State finished 22nd in his series debut last week at Trois-Rivieres. He was running well until getting collected in a wreck. “The competition was high, but we were so happy to see how competitive we were in a racing situation and how good the car was late in the race,” Odrick said. Odrick would love to race Cup one day but he isn’t focused on it. Currently driving for BC Race Cars in NASCAR’s stock car series in Canada, he just wants to keep competing no matter the series, whether it’s in NASCAR’s international series or in any national series. He does feel he could compete on any level if given the time to properly train and prepare with a team. He has competed against some of the top NASCAR prospects on road courses. “Everybody says they want to get to Cup, especially with the young drivers I’m driving against in TransAm,” Odrick said. “Sometimes when you’re competing against 15-, 16-year-old kids — whether it’s the Tristan McKees, Thomas Annunziatas and Brent Crews and stuff like that — sometimes you look and feel silly that your goals and aspirations are the same as a 16-year-old kid who hasn’t got a chance or is trying to actively prove themselves as a man. “Then you sit there. ‘Did I not do that with the NFL?’” With a home in Toronto near the clinic and a doctor who has treated him throughout his athletic career, Odrick said he wants to show he can switch to another sport. “I don’t miss playing the game,” Odrick said about football. “It’s a young man’s game, and I think if I missed it at 38 years old, I’d be doing something wrong. … Racing definitely has given my life new meaning, new purpose. “And it feels like a lot of the discipline that I missed as a young 20-something professional football player, I’m definitely thinking about a lot.”​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

In Driver’s Eye with James Hinchcliffe, the six-time INDYCAR winner will bring you inside the mind of a racer while breaking down the nuts and bolts of the sport for fans. As INDYCAR continues its mad dash to the season’s checkered flag, the next two stops on the calendar represent a unique challenge: brand-new street circuits. Now, this concept isn’t new for the teams and drivers in the series. It’s not even new this year, after we went to Arlington, Texas, for the first time back in March. But having this many in a season — and two back-to-back in Markham, Ontario, and Washington, D.C. — is certainly outside the norm. So naturally, you might want to know: How does a driver prepare for a brand-new, temporary street circuit? The answer is the Driver In The Loop simulator, or the DIL. The DIL is a frequently used and massively helpful tool for drivers and engineers alike in preparation for any race. But it has extra importance when coming to a new, temporary track. Why do I keep emphasizing the “temporary” part? Because if you’re going to a track that is new for you, but not brand new, there are other things you can look at to prepare. Drivers will look at on-board videos from other motorsports series that have raced there. Engineers can look at data sets from a completely different race car, then use offsets they know — based on how that type of car performs against an INDYCAR at a track that they have both been on — to try and determine rough performance parameters. But when it’s a brand-new track, the DIL simulations are the best — really, the only — tool you’ve got. Chip Ganassi Racing and Alex Palou recently posted a video online of him doing some sim laps around the upcoming D.C. venue that gives you a sense of what this is like for the driver. Behind the wheel, it provides drivers with a general literal and figurative feel for what to expect when they won’t be on the track until race weekend. For a new track, the online model used in the sim is built from laser scanning the roads the track will be run on and building out corner radii based on CAD files used to assemble the track. Think architectural drawings that show where each line, curb and wall is. Part of that scan should give you a rough idea of the level of grip in each corner and also highlight things like bumps in the road. These can all vary greatly on a street track from the sim to real life, so they have to be taken with a grain of salt. The sim is most useful for drivers getting an idea of where a new track turns left or right, for car placement in corner sequences and for the general rhythm of a track. Things like braking points and minimum speeds and gear selection should be close, but not perfect. So again, you have to understand that this is a high-level introduction to the circuit. If you take what you feel in the sim as fact, it can bite you! I remember one year ahead of going to a new track, my teammate and I did a sim day to prepare. We got comfortable and confident. But when we showed up to the real track, the grip level was so different that we had to relearn every braking point and throttle point! The whole morning of the test day was a waste because we were undoing bad habits we had built in the sim. That level of judgment comes with experience, and INDYCAR drivers this year have already experienced this process in 2026 with the streets of Arlington. So they know a bit about what to expect from the sim’s accuracy. THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE FAST: MARKHAM Before INDYCAR tackles D.C., we have the streets of Markham on Sunday. Will Power posted a similar video from the DIL showcasing what the series has in store for it in the Great White North. And I have to say, it looks mighty impressive — even if you set aside perhaps a little bias on my part with the course practically in my childhood backyard. There is one major standout feature of the new Markham track: The entire 2.19-mile circuit was repaved ahead of the race. While commonplace in F1, I can’t remember a time when INDYCAR arrived at a street track with the entire surface newly repaved. This has two significant impacts on a street track. First, it means the grip will be largely consistent across the whole track. One of the staples of street racing is having to navigate multiple different surfaces — asphalt, concrete, patches, new repairs, old and weathered sections — which inevitably have different levels of grip. The car might perform in a particular way in one corner and a completely different way in another, owing to the different surface type or age. It’s a challenging but fun trait of street courses. Another formidable, yet often less fun, element of racing on city streets is bumps. Any transition from one surface to another can create a bump. Normal wear and tear from 362 days of civilian traffic can create bumps. Harsh weather — or the response to it, like salted wintery roads — certainly contributes to that as well. With a fresh repave, you’d expect far fewer bumps than the old surface, which will affect how teams set up the cars. You’ll be able to run the car stiffer and lower to the ground. But to throw a bit of a wrench in everyone’s plans, the track layout for the sim model was scanned before the repave, so what drivers felt for grip level and bumpiness will be completely wrong! The second notable and advantageous impact of the complete repave on a debut course is more options on track layout. Since you are repaving everything, there are areas you can now drive an INDYCAR that maybe you couldn’t previously. So we now have a unique and challenging layout that isn’t just a sequence of simple 90- or 180-degree corners that you see on some street circuits. Add in a bit of elevation, which is not always a trademark of street racing, and you’ve got a recipe for a highly entertaining inaugural Ontario Honda Dealers Indy at Markham. And while this weekend will be the first INDYCAR race in Markham, it is certainly not the first in the greater Toronto area. For 40 years, the race was held in the heart of downtown Toronto, along the water beside the city’s landmark Exhibition Place. It was a venue that hosted some incredible races where many in the current generation of Canadian INDYCAR fans — myself included! — first fell in love with the sport. 1 FOR THE ROAD I want to sign this week’s column honoring the four decades of great races, lives lost, and fans captured down at Exhibition Place. The circuit had a phenomenal run, but this was the perfect time to pass the baton to Markham. I cannot wait to start the next chapter of INDYCAR history in Canada, where the next generation of Canadian INDYCAR fans will no doubt begin their love affair with the sport. MORE DRIVER’S EYE:​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

The NFL preseason is officially underway, and Thursday night brought plenty of exciting unofficial debuts. No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza made his debut for the Las Vegas Raiders alongside Arizona Cardinals rookie running back Jeremiyah Love. Meanwhile, the duo of second-year Tennessee Titans quarterback Cam Ward and rookie wide receiver Carnell Tate also got in on the action. In non-game action, two-time NFL MVP Patrick Mahomes will sit out the Kansas City Chiefs’ preseason opener and could be on the verge of missing preseason action for the first time in his career. Here’s what you need to know from Thursday around the NFL. The Fernando Mendoza era has officially begun for the Las Vegas Raiders. Making his debut on Thursday night against the Arizona Cardinals, he made his impact known bright and early in Klint Kubiak’s newly revamped offense. Mendoza entered the game on the second drive after veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins was pulled after leading the Raiders to an opening scoring drive. The No. 1 overall pick out of Indiana didn’t have to wait long to make his impact felt. Mendoza led a scoring drive on just his second possession, connecting with second-year wide receiver Jack Bech over the middle on a 6-yard touchdown slant. Mendoza finished the game completing 10-of-16 passes for 96 yards and a touchdown. While the team remains adamant about redshirting him this season, continuing at this level could spark a real quarterback competition as the year goes on. Arizona Cardinals rookie running back Jeremiyah Love made his preseason NFL debut Thursday night against the Las Vegas Raiders after sitting out the Hall of Fame Game last week. Love rushed 11 times for 58 yards, splitting work in the backfield with Tyler Allgier in the first half. The No. 3 overall pick in the draft made some standout plays while contributing to three Cardinals scoring drives. Love made a pair of Raiders defenders miss on the way to a 9-yard gain to convert on third down. The rookie running back wasn’t done there, as he hurdled over another Raiders’ defender on a draw later in the half. Love finished with 14 touches for 73 total yards. The Drew Allar era in Pittsburgh kicked off late in the third quarter on Thursday night against the Green Bay Packers. Coming in as the third quarterback of the night, Allar put together a strong Steelers debut. Allar led three scoring drives in the second half, completing 10 of 13 passes for 154 yards and two passing touchdowns. His highlight of the night came on his very first throw, which was a 74-yard slant completion to second-year wide receiver Kaden Wetjen. Allar also scored a rushing touchdown in the Steelers’ 28–9 win over the Packers on Thursday night and put together a complete performance. Mason Rudolph and Will Howard both took snaps before Allar, but all three are in a battle for the backup job behind Aaron Rodgers. If Allar keeps playing like this for the rest of the preseason, it would certainly help his case for being Pittsburgh’s QB2. And maybe the Steelers already have their heir apparent to Rodgers if Allar keeps flashing like he did on Thursday? Cam Ward saw plenty of action Thursday night with the Tennessee Titans as the new-look offense under offensive coordinator Brian Daboll was on full display. Ward orchestrated a 95-yard opening drive, capped by a 5-yard touchdown run from Tony Pollard. Ward had a roller-coaster start to the preseason, overcoming a few early misses to spread the ball around throughout the night. While he couldn’t connect with No. 4 overall pick Carnell Tate on three targets, Wan’Dale Robinson stepped up with two catches for 19 yards. He played the majority of the first half before being pulled for backup third-year quarterback Will Levis. Ward capped off his night by completing 5-of-12 passes for 57 yards, finishing with a 56.6 QBR. Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is not expected to suit up for Saturday’s preseason opener against the Los Angeles Rams, per The Kansas City Star. Instead, Justin Fields, Garrett Nussmeier, and Chris Oladokun are expected to split reps under center. Mahomes sitting out the entire preseason remains a real possibility as he continues recovering from last season’s torn ACL and LCL in his left knee. However, he’s participated in the majority of training camp so far and has a chance at suiting up for Week 1 against the Denver Broncos. Outside of 2020, when the preseason was canceled due to COVID-19, this could mark the first preseason Mahomes misses entirely. If so, all eyes shift to his health and whether he’ll be cleared in time for the team’s season opener. Prior to his Week 15 injury, Mahomes recorded 3,587 passing yards, 22 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions with a 62.7% completion rate. He also added 422 yards and five scores on the ground. After working out for multiple teams in recent weeks, cornerback Terrion Arnold is reportedly expected to sign with the Seattle Seahawks. Arnold was a 2024 first-round pick out of Alabama and was released by the Detroit Lions in June following his arrest on felony kidnapping and armed robbery charges. The NFL has yet to decide whether to place him on the Commissioner’s Exempt List. Arnold reportedly visited with the Houston Texans, New Orleans Saints, and New York Giants before signing with the Seahawks. He will now join a cornerback room alongside Devon Witherspoon and Josh Jobe. With eight felony charges hanging over him following his June arrest, it remains uncertain whether Arnold will ever play another snap in the NFL.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

Allegiant Stadium (Las Vegas) — Thursday only marked the unofficial start of the Fernando Mendoza era in Las Vegas, but he gave the Raiders plenty of reason for hope in his preseason debut. The Raiders’ rookie quarterback and the No. 1 overall pick of the 2026 NFL Draft completed 10 of 16 passes for 97 yards and a touchdown with zero turnovers in the team’s 27-14 loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Thursday. Mendoza played four drives, getting his first taste of NFL action after Kirk Cousins got the start at quarterback for Las Vegas. Here are my three takeaways from Mendoza’s preseason debut, which also featured the debut of Cardinals rookie running back Jeremiyah Love, who was the third overall pick in the draft. 1. Can Raiders Keep Mendoza On Bench For Long? Cousins got the start in Thursday’s game and did as well as anyone could’ve asked. The veteran completed 5 of 6 passes for 50 yards, throwing a touchdown pass in his only drive of the game. But all of the excitement was waiting for Mendoza, who won the Heisman Trophy and led Indiana to a national title last year. His first drive wasn’t great, converting a third-and-8 pass to wide receiver Jack Bech before the drive reached a halt due to a holding penalty by a backup offensive lineman. However, Mendoza’s second drive was enough to get Raiders fans excited. He threaded a pass between two defenders to Malik Benson for a 19-yard gain to get the drive going. Then, after another Raiders rookie, running back Mike Washington, broke loose for a 53-yard run, Mendoza made sure Las Vegas found the end zone. He took a sack on first-and-goal, but avoided another to help set up a third-and-goal at the 6-yard line. Mendoza came through on that play, completing a quick slant to Bech for a touchdown and the highlight of his preseason debut. That was the only time the Raiders put up points when Mendoza was on the field, although the team got into field goal range in his final drive of the night. Still, that might have been enough, though, to make you wonder how long Las Vegas will keep him on the bench behind Cousins, as Mendoza played into the fourth quarter. Las Vegas head coach Klint Kubiak reiterated after Thursday’s game that the starting job was Cousins’ “to lose.” Kubiak’s comment won’t stop Raiders fans from getting excited about Mendoza, though. Ahead of Thursday’s game, there was a group of fans I saw holding a flag with Mendoza’s face wearing an eyepatch in place of the Raiders’ logo. 2. Raiders Offense Looks Much Improved A rare Thursday home kickoff allowed Raiders’ minority owner Tom Brady to watch the game in person, as he’s usually busy calling games for FOX Sports when the team’s playing. And in his appearance, Brady got to see an upgraded Las Vegas offense. It was a solid offensive debut for Kubiak, who came to Las Vegas after helping the Seattle Seahawks win the Super Bowl as their offensive coordinator this past season. His team put up 317 yards of total offense on Thursday. And you can’t take much from a preseason opener, but Las Vegas’ offensive line should be much better in 2026 after dealing with a slew of injuries last season. Center Tyler Linderbaum got one of the biggest deals in free agency and upgrades the middle, and having tackle Kolton Miller healthy helps the pass protection. Even with emerging running back Ashton Jeanty, the Raiders were last in the NFL in rushing yards per game and yards per carry, but that won’t be the case in 2026. It was the Raiders’ offensive depth, though, that showed out (outside of Mendoza and Cousins) on Thursday. Bech, who the Raiders took in the second round of the 2025 NFL Draft, had three receptions, including the touchdown grab. Tight end Michael Mayer, a second-round pick in 2023, caught Cousins’ touchdown pass. 3. Love At First Glance? Mendoza wasn’t the only marquee rookie making his preseason debut Thursday, as Jeremiyah Love saw his first NFL action and impressed. The Cardinals running back had a spin move to the left on third-and-short in the red zone to set up one touchdown, and hurdled through the Raiders’ defense for a 15-yard gain just before halftime, providing one of the highlights of the night in the NFL. Love finished Thursday’s game with 58 yards on 11 carries in the first half. It’s easy to write off the Cardinals and Raiders as last-place teams in insanely difficult divisions, but both have talented young running backs and new offensive-minded head coaches in Kubiak and Arizona’s Mike LaFleur, so there’s reason for measured optimism. Arizona’s Jacoby Brissett and Gardner Minshew went a combined 15 of 15 for 123 yards in the first half, with touchdown passes on all three drives.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Nobody really thought John Harbaugh deserved to be fired in Baltimore. He had been there for 18 mostly successful seasons, and even the 8-9 disappointment last year was largely because his superstar quarterback got hurt. So when owner Steve Bisciotti did it anyway, and replaced him with Jesse Minter, a 43-year-old first-time head coach, there were definitely shock waves felt in the Ravens locker room. And there were some skeptical players who needed to be convinced that this unexpected switch was going to be good. “Yeah, but I think he did it in his first team meeting,” second-year safety Malaki Starks told me after practice Thursday. “He came in and set his expectations and his standards. He didn’t come in with a big chest saying ‘I’m the guy.’ He also didn’t come in not talking at all. He came in authentic to himself. “And we could see he’s an easy man to follow.” The Ravens better hope that’s true, and that Minter is really up to the task, because no first-year coach has more pressure on him in 2026 than he does. Minter, the former Chargers defensive coordinator, inherited a loaded team, with an MVP-winning quarterback, and more than enough talent to make a real run at Super Bowl LXI. It’s not often that a first-time coach gets to take over a team this good, with super high expectations. All he has to do is not screw it up. “Yeah, but I think the confidence that he has in himself allowed him to really come in and be himself,” Starks told me. “He came in knowing that the team that he has, and he can handle it. That’s who he is and who he wants to be. “And we all have confidence in his ability.” So far, the early reviews on Minter are good. As a former Harbaugh assistant (2017-20), he didn’t come in and rip up the foundation that his predecessor had established over the better part of two decades. He just put his own twists and personality on it. Minter told the players on the first day that his door was open, and he welcomed their input. He shortened the practices a bit from the marathon sessions Harbaugh used to run. But mostly, he worked hard every day and eventually convinced them that there’s a reason he got this job. “He’s the definition of a leader, to a T,” Starks told me. “And he’s super smart.” The defense, in particular, is counting on that “super smart” part. That was the most disappointing thing about last year’s Ravens. They ranked 24th in total defense and 28th in sacks. It’s not solely why Baltimore missed the postseason for the first time in four years, but it definitely was part of the collapse. Minter, who coached the Ravens defensive backs in 2019-20 and will call the defensive plays this year, directed one of the NFL’s best defenses the past two seasons with the Chargers, who’d been one of the worst in 2023. He brings instant credibility to that side of the ball with his new players, simply on the strength of his résumé. But it didn’t take long for them to understand why his system has succeeded. “I think the biggest thing is it’s set up to make plays,” Starks told me. “Attack the ball, fly around, and play as a unit. I think we’re going to thrive in that. I really do. Guys are really buying into it.” So far, the Ravens are buying into everything Minter is selling them, which is easy considering they haven’t even played a preseason game yet. The real proof will come in the months ahead, when they’ll really find out if their new coach is capable of making that leap. Because he certainly has the right team to make a big impact in his first season. It’s rare that a coach is the team’s biggest question mark. But the Ravens seem convinced that Minter is the right answer, too. Derrick Henry is a big man. I know, that’s not a revelation. He’s 6-foot-3, 252 pounds. But he looks bigger in person, and he must look like a freight train to defenders when he gets moving. He’s 32 years old now and, between high school, college and the NFL, has tallied more than 4,600 carries. Yet, there’s still no running back I would fear more if I played defense. “He’s a big man,” Starks told me. “Just the things he’s able to do at his size and how valuable he is to this team doesn’t get talked about enough. I’m grateful I don’t have to see him on Sundays.” If Henry is healthy all season, the Ravens rushing attack should again be unstoppable. And it’s a decent bet he’ll be healthy, since he’s missed just 12 games in his 10-year career — nine of which came in the 2021 season. The guy is just a marvel and one of the greatest running backs in the history of the game. “Lamar Jackson is aging like fine wine.” — Ravens QBs coach Israel Woolfork A Super Bowl Contender Once Again That’s nothing new for a franchise that has had double-digit wins in six of the past eight seasons, but it is a little odd for a team coming off a coaching change. Minter landed in the best spot of any new coach, though, because he inherited a powerhouse. He has an All-Pro QB and RB, an elite receiver in Zay Flowers and an elite pass-rusher in Hendrickson. Considering the rest of the supporting cast is pretty good, too, that should be more than enough. They have to stay healthy, of course. If Jackson or Henry go down, their outlook changes. Same, to an extent, for Flowers, since he’s their only reliable wideout. And Minter, known for his defensive wizardry, does need to fix a defense that struggled last year. But all the pieces are right there for the Ravens to win 10-plus games, even in what could be a much more competitive AFC North. And if the 1-2 punch of Jackson and Henry get rolling in the playoffs, the Ravens could make a deep run. I’m now headed to Latrobe, Pa., home of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and the birthplace of Rolling Rock beer, the banana split and Mr. Rogers (Fred, not Aaron). (Actually, I’m going home first before making the six-hour trek across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on Saturday, so I can be at St. Vincent College for Steelers practice on Sunday morning.) You can learn a lot while driving across Pennsylvania if you take time to read the many billboards. For example, you learn that God has a phone number, and you are heavily encouraged to call Him if you are addicted to gambling or porn. You also learn that you can get almost anything made out of sheep skin. And you learn that even though the state (excuse me, the Commonwealth) is 300 miles long, a personal injury lawyer is never very far away. Once I do get there, I’m looking forward to seeing what Mr. Rodgers (Aaron) has left in his 42-year-old right arm. At this point, you have to see him as much as possible before Father Time completely catches up. I’ve never been to Latrobe, but Pittsburgh is one of the most underrated cities in America. And PNC Park is the best ballpark west of CitiField. So, if you see me there for Red Sox-Pirates this weekend, please don’t tell my boss.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

The next two weeks will bring challenges like no other for INDYCAR drivers. Two new street circuits. Back-to-back weeks of unknowns. First up this weekend: A race on the streets of Markham, a suburb of Toronto. It’s a 2.19-mile, 12-turn course on streets that have mostly been repaved. Then next weekend: A race on the streets of Washington, D.C., around the National Mall. The relatively simple 1.7-mile, seven-turn course will go by some of the most iconic institutions in the nation’s Capitol as part of a celebration of the 250th birthday of the United States of America. Here’s everything to know about how drivers will handle the next couple of weeks. How Do They Prepare? Drivers have worked in racing simulators just as they have for other events, although the scan of the Markham track was done before it was repaved. So many of the bumps are no longer there. Also, for new street courses, teams have no data on the surface and how it reacts to tires and the like. If they were going to an existing track, they could have had a tire test. There’s another issue. Obviously, the temporary barriers have been installed in just the last few weeks, and while the track designs are close to actuality, a wall in a different spot by a few feet can make all the difference. Some drivers refuse to do the simulator or don’t put much stock in it. “I hate the simulator,” Arrow McLaren driver Pato O’Ward told me Thursday morning in Markham. “It’s so useless. It’s good for a video game. It’s not good for getting to know exactly what the car is going to feel like. “And the problem is, whenever you go to these new places, that is your first sensation of a new circuit. Then you get there and you’re like, ‘Hey, that’s not the same.’ Well, no sh–, Sherlock, it’s not the same. It’s important to know where the track goes, which I do know.” Lundgaard, a teammate of O’Ward, told me he decided not to do the simulator. “I did it in Arlington and in all honesty, I thought it hurt me. So I didn’t really want to do Markham or D.C.” But Some Have Done Simulator, Right? Rinus VeeKay, who is 10th in the series standings driving for Juncos Hollinger Racing, said he has done the simulator for both tracks and there are a lot of differences between Markham and Washington. He said he actually dislocated a rib doing the Markham simulator because of the bumps in the surface before it was repaved. The Markham track has a very tight hairpin, much like Long Beach — except drivers will be carrying much more speed into that turn at Markham. “I’d say D.C. is more of a straight-forward track, really wide with all the streets,” VeeKay told me Thursday morning. “They’re just really wide there. Markham is a lot tighter, a lot more unorthodox. “Corners we haven’t really seen with that weird hairpin there. This is going to be an interesting race. It’s going to take a lot of skill to be quick around this track here at Markham.” And there’s some feeling that this could be one of those places where preparation isn’t as important. “We’re just going to rock up and do our best,” Meyer Shank Racing driver Marcus Armstrong told me. So Who Will Be The Favorites? You could go with Kyle Kirkwood, who won the inaugural race on the new Arlington (Texas) street course earlier this year and has been one of the top drivers on street courses the last few years. And then, of course, there’s championship leader Alex Palou. He has won on the streets of St. Pete, Long Beach and Detroit this year. “You never know until you practice one or two times,” Palou told me and other reporters last week as far as who will be good this weekend. It was at Arlington where Kirkwood made a daring pass on Palou for the win. Christian Lundgaard, who has won two races on road courses this year, isn’t sure fans should expect much difference when looking at the top of the board. “I feel the strong teams will be at the strong end of the field as always,” Lundgaard told me and other reporters last week. “There may be drivers that figure it out sooner than others. I feel like it’ll be pretty similar to Arlington.” Will This Be An Even Playing Field? That’s a good question. With no driver truly knowing exactly what he needs, that could open up the chances of a driver hitting on the right setup. Or maybe even bigger, there’s more likelihood that a driver just makes mistakes and ends up in a barrier. “For a smaller team, I think it’s a good thing,” VeeKay said. “We can guess right, while some big teams maybe don’t.” As Christian Rasmussen of ECR told me: “I don’t think it hurts us guys.” Shouldn’t It Be Tougher On Teams With Smaller Budgets? It very well could. A.J. Foyt Racing driver Santino Ferrucci will admit that much. “It’s probably a bigger challenge for us than others, but I’m looking forward to it,” Ferrucci told me last week. “We’ve had four new tracks [including the Phoenix oval] this year, three of which have been brand new. “It’s just great for the sport. Venues that we need to be going to and tracks that need to be changed. …. I’m excited about it.” Romain Grosjean, a driver for Dale Coyne Racing, might run on the tightest budget of any team in the garage. Coming from Portland last week and then having Milwaukee and Laguna Seca (Monterey, Calif.) in the two weeks following Washington to end the INDYCAR season will be a challenge. “It’s a tough one for everyone,” Grosjean told me Thursday. “It’s a lot of races in a row, it’s a lot of travel. West Coast to East Coast to West Coast. But we’ll do our best. It’s exciting to have many races. “It’s exciting to be here in Markham and then D.C. is going to be a big one.” Why Are They Not Racing Where They Normally Do In Toronto? Several reasons. Construction in the area around Exhibition Place had made things a little more difficult and the streets were not in the best shape. Plus, with the World Cup at the soccer stadium, that made the timeline for trying to get the course set up even more challenging. Greene Savoree — which has the INDYCAR promotional rights for Toronto and is also the promoter for St. Petersburg, Mid-Ohio and Portland — found a new home in the Toronto suburb of Markham. The city has paved many of the streets. And having this race in Markham is a long-term deal. The new location is about a 22-mile drive from Exhibition Place. How Did The D.C. Race Come Together? The D.C. race was not on the original 2026 calendar. However, an executive order by Donald Trump that was signed in January allowed for it to be operated primarily on federal property. This put the race into high gear. It has been a scramble to get everything done for a race on the streets of Washington. The race was added and increased the schedule to 18 competitions from 17. Is It Tough To Put Up A Street Course? Yes, and especially a new one. Hundreds of concrete barriers and miles of fencing are required. Manhole covers need to be welded shut (Washington had more than 200). At Markham on Thursday, workers were scrambling to finish the track build, delaying the scheduled time for INDYCAR teams to set up in the pits so that vehicles working on fencing and barriers could get their work done. INDYCAR teams are scheduled to practice Friday at 3 p.m. ET. Why Do Street Courses? Street course events bring racing to people who don’t necessarily get to see it and can also be considered an economic generator for the area. They also create iconic images. NASCAR had its race earlier this year in San Diego with aircraft carriers in the background. The race in Washington will feature both the U.S. Capitol and the Washington Monument in the background. “Sports generally is a show,” said Grosjean, a former Formula 1 driver. “Racing in the capital of the country is the right thing to do. Going to big cities with St. Pete and Long Beach always works really well. … I’m excited for it and looking forward to be racing there.”​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

We’re coming off an incredible summer and arguably the best World Cup in history. Never had we had 48 teams spread across three host nations and so many of the star players actually produce some iconic goals. Certainly the U.S. men’s national team could have done better, even though Mauricio Pochettino’s squad did deliver some big moments in its run to the round of 16.  And now attention turns back to the European club calendar for key figures such as Folarin Balogun, Christian Pulisic, and Weston McKennie. That gives FOX Sports soccer analyst Alexi Lalas the opportunity to take stock of which of the USA’s European-based stars improved their standing after the World Cup. Who could build on the summer’s momentum, and who needs to get back on track? Club performance last season: 43 appearances, 19 goals, 4 assists If there was a breakout star for the USA this summer, it certainly was Balogun. The 25-year-old striker finished the tournament with three goals (including two in the opening win over Paraguay). His summer was slightly marred by the controversial red-card reversal, but his form bodes well for both the USA and his club. “What a summer. I think he came out probably on top if you’re power ranking who came out in the best possible light,” Lalas said. “Even with the red card controversy, I don’t think it hurt him in the least. … He did what he needed to do in terms of scoring the goals. … “People who didn’t know soccer knew who Balogun was.” The question is: will that club still be Monaco, or could he be set for a reported move to a Premier League side like Tottenham Hotspur? Club performance last season: 34 appearances, 10 goals, 4 assists It’s hard to gauge where Pulisic would have been more impactful this summer had he not suffered an early leg injury that limited him the rest of the tournament. The 27-year-old winger didn’t find the back of the net at the World Cup, and now returns to AC Milan to play under a new manager in Ruben Amorim. “Keep in mind his stock was down even before the World Cup started,” Lalas said. “He didn’t harness the power of being the poster boy of this American team … there was an element of not living up to the hype and, in particular in a home World Cup, where there were so many eyes on him.” Pulisic will hope to rebound in what will be a pivotal season for him at one of Italy’s biggest clubs. He started last Serie A season with a flourish but hasn’t scored for AC Milan since last December. Club performance last season: 48 appearances, 9 goals, 8 assists McKennie’s time at Juventus hasn’t always been the easiest amid always having to prove himself to the club’s rotating cast of managers. But the 27-year-old midfielder always finds a way to show why he remains an essential player for Juventus. “Unlike Pulisic in Italy, he had a banner year. He was able to adjust to whatever the circumstances … and make himself a valuable asset very quickly,” Lalas said. “Did he have the best World Cup? No, but he was fine and did what he needed to do. I think people really enjoyed seeing him as a player; they enjoyed his personality.” Club performance last season: 26 appearances, 2 goals, 2 assists Adams remains a reliable presence in the midfield and looked solid this summer after a season at Bournemouth that was interrupted by injury. At 27, Adams is in his prime years and should factor in the lineup under new manager Marco Rose. “What’s been the big knock been on Tyler Adams? Well, the knocks that he takes and the injuries and the time out,” Lalas said. “Again, I don’t think we have yet to see the best of Tyler Adams as a player, but I don’t think he hurt himself this summer.” Club performance last season: 42 appearances, 8 goals, 1 assist Two goals – including a set-piece game winner against Bosnia & Herzegovina in the round of 16 win – showed why the 24-year-old attacking midfielder is one of the USA’s brightest talents. Tillman will now need to build on that in his second year at his German club, which saw him struggle amid managerial changes. “He had a wonderful World Cup, the way that he showed different facets of the game and the layers that he showed, I’m not sure everybody projected that or saw that coming into the World Cup,” Lalas said. Club performance last season at Borussia Mönchengladbach: 20 appearances, 1 goal, 1 assist Reyna had one of the USA’s best goals at the World Cup with his trivela in the win over Paraguay (even making our Top 50 World Cup goals list), but went quiet the rest of the way. At 23, Reyna is now at another club after a transfer to the French club Strasbourg. A change of scenery (again) could help Reyna reach his potential, but it also feels like a last chance to impress in Europe. “I think this move says how much talent he still has and how much people still believe that they can find something,” Lalas said. “This move to Ligue 1, you can even frame it as a step-down in competition. But sometimes you have to take two steps back to take a step forward.” Club performance last season: 27 appearances, 1 goal, 5 assists Dest has proven his versatility throughout the years in both fullback positions and in a more attacking role. But after an up-and-down World Cup campaign, what’s in store for the 25-year-old defender? “I think he is still a quality player, although there might be a moving on from him when it comes to Pochettino and the national team,” Lalas said. “Which is kind of unthinkable if you look back a couple of years and what Sergiño Dest was.” But Dest is still on the radar for a return to Europe’s biggest leagues after a title-winning season with Dutch club PSV Eindhoven. Could the former Barcelona player leverage that to somewhere like the Bundesliga? “Maybe I should have put a stock up, down, or sideways,” Lalas said. “I could make an argument for stock up and down.”​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

The Dallas Cowboys having high expectations isn’t anything new, but maybe this is the year they can meet those expectations. After predicting every game on the Cowboys’ schedule, “First Things First” co-host Danny Parkins believes that Dallas will finish the season 11-6. Parkins envisions the Cowboys starting the year strong, going 5-1 as he thinks they’ll pick up wins against the New York Giants and Washington Commanders before upsetting the Baltimore Ravens. “I think they are going to continue to have a ton of success against the Giants and Washington,” Parkins said. On Baltimore, he added, “I just don’t know that Baltimore is ready to win a shootout. I am not as optimistic on Baltimore’s offense as I am on their defense, and I think their defense will be better later in the year than early.” As for the games the Cowboys will lose, Parkins sees them falling to the Houston Texans, San Francisco 49ers, Philadelphia Eagles, Indianapolis Colts, Seattle Seahawks and Los Angeles Rams. However, Parkins also believes Dallas will win one of its matchups against Philadelphia and take down the Green Bay Packers (who could have former Cowboys star Micah Parsons healthy for that game) and the Jacksonville Jaguars. “Dak Prescott is a more reliable commodity than Trevor Lawrence,” Parkins said, explaining why he likes the Cowboys to take down the defending AFC South champion Jaguars late in the year. “Overall, an 11-6 season.” Dallas isn’t projected to win 11 games in 2026, so Parkins’ prediction is certainly on the optimistic side for the Cowboys. Most oddsmakers have the Cowboys’ win total at 9.5, with over 9.5 wins sitting at +105 at DraftKings Sportsbook. But the Cowboys were favored in 11 games on the look-ahead lines. While Parkins and some others might be feeling bullish about the Cowboys, our Ben Arthur isn’t. He predicted Dallas to go 6-11 when the schedule was released in May. “It helps that the NFC East isn’t as threatening as it was a year ago at this time. But their non-division schedule is brutal,” Arthur wrote. “Expectations are high in Dallas, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see it take a step back.” However, the start of training camp could help spark some more hope in Dallas. The Cowboys made sweeping changes to their defense this offseason, poaching Christian Parker from the Eagles and making him their defensive coordinator. Dallas also has eight new starters on defense, including safety Caleb Downs, edge rusher Rashan Gary and cornerback Kobie Durant. With those changes in place, our Eric D. Williams believes that the Cowboys might have a defense suited to help their offense after finishing last in points allowed last season. “Every day we come out here, we want to compete at a high level and do your one-eleventh,” Durant told Williams following a recent Cowboys practice. “And it’s on display every day we come out here. High energy, everybody doing their part and bringing what we do in the classroom and make it come to life on the field.” If the Cowboys’ defense is better than it was last year, maybe they’ll make the playoffs for the first time in three seasons. Dallas went 7-9-1 in 2025, with Dak Prescott and the offense doing much of the heavy lifting.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

NEW YORK – This was unusual. On Tuesday night, struggling Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh stepped in front of the cameras and recorders — before his manager spoke about Seattle’s fifth straight loss — in an impromptu and surprising admission of how poorly the slugger has performed this season. “It starts with me. I’m awful,” said Raleigh, who was still in his game cleats and full uniform after swinging through three high fastballs from Yankees closer David Bednar for the final out of the game. “Gotta find a way to be better and help the guys along. We gotta play better. We’re playing very, very bad baseball in every facet of the game. We gotta pick it up from the energy standpoint, to the execution, to the little things in the game that help you win, and we’re just not doing those things right now.” Raleigh went from on top of the world last year to one of the worst hitters in baseball this year. Similarly, the Mariners go as their catcher goes. Last season, Raleigh posted a 168 OPS+ and finished as the American League MVP runner-up. Across 159 games, a playing time that was unheard of for a catcher, he led the majors with 60 home runs and accumulated 7.2 WAR, which was second only to Yankees slugger and AL MVP winner Aaron Judge. This season, Raleigh owns a -0.1 WAR and 65 OPS+ in 87 games. He has hit only 12 home runs, and his strikeout rate has elevated dramatically from 26.7% last year to 32.2% this year. On Tuesday, Raleigh ventured out of the visitor’s clubhouse at Yankee Stadium to speak to the media before his much-maligned manager, Dan Wilson, could take the heat for his team continuing to tumble down the standings. There’s an unwritten order for postgame press conferences in MLB. Managers speak first, followed by players in the clubhouse. Raleigh broke away from that custom. The speculation that the Mariners may soon part ways with Wilson and relieve him of his duties has never been higher. As much as Wilson has held firm that “a good streak can change the outcome pretty quickly,” he’s worn down by the club’s 57-65 record after Thursday’s win over the Bronx Bombers. So Raleigh, rather bluntly, taking accountability and shouldering the blame for the Mariners’ season-long slump was crucial timing. “We just gotta bring that edge every day,” Raleigh said when asked what the first step should be. “It’s tough when things aren’t going your way. It’s hard. You feel like the world’s against you. You gotta have a good attitude. You have to bring that edge, because nothing’s given to you. We gotta go take it. And sometimes, you’re feeling bad for yourself, you get a little lackadaisical out there. You have less energy. You don’t have that edge that you should have every single day. “That starts with me. I need to do a better job of that each and every night, just being prepared and being ready to go every single night. Ultimately, we’ve just gotta play with a little more urgency.” On Thursday, before Seattle narrowly avoided being swept by New York, I asked Raleigh to elaborate on some of those mental adjustments he believes the team needs to make. But Raleigh declined, saying he doesn’t want to talk about it. “I said what I said. It is what it is,” Raleigh said. “The performance has to show it.” He went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts in the series finale in the Bronx. Even so, this was another honest response from Raleigh that anyone should respect, particularly his manager and teammates. Wilson supported Raleigh’s decision to take questions from the media before the skipper’s usual postgame press conference. “I love that Cal stepped up and had a lot to say,” Wilson told me on Thursday in the visitor’s dugout at Yankee Stadium. “I think our guys understand where we’re at, and understand the urgency of what the standings have us at. We got a big series coming up. There’s definitely some urgency. As a team, we’re all pretty aware of that. We’re ready to go.” There is some truth to Raleigh admitting he’s one of the biggest reasons that the Mariners offense has been floundering this season. The lineup has mimicked Raleigh’s poor decisions at the plate, including off-balance swings and a complete absence of clutch hitting. Seattle has scored the fewest runs (469) in baseball this year after scoring the ninth-most runs (766) in the majors last year. The Mariners own a .681 OPS, which ranked 28th in MLB entering Thursday. They were batting .215 with runners in scoring position before the win over New York, which ranked 29th. All of this is confounding for a talented team that, just last October, pushed the Blue Jays to an AL Championship Series Game 7 and fell just short of the franchise’s first-ever World Series appearance. The Mariners were expected to run it back this year. Instead, they’re one of the most disappointing teams in baseball. No one understands that feeling of whiplash better than Raleigh. “It’s not just him,” Mariners center fielder Julio Rodriguez told me. “I feel like all of us could do better, especially on the offensive side of things. He tried to take all the blame, but at the same time, we got nine guys. So, I can say the same thing. I’m shifting more of my focus to, what can we do now? Instead of the whole season where we’ve struggled, we’ve battled, we’ve done a lot of things. “But what can we do now? I’m focusing on that. It’s not for him to take all the blame.” What can the Mariners do now? Due to the parity in the AL, where only five teams are playing above .500, Seattle still has a chance to qualify for a wild-card spot. The M’s are 3.5 games behind the final spot, with six teams ahead of them, which can feel daunting. The Astros lead the AL West with a five-game advantage over Seattle, but Houston has its own problems, and they’re hardly running away with the division. If the Mariners can somehow get through a brutal schedule the rest of this month without dropping further down the standings — which in itself would be a remarkable feat, since they’re slated to play the Brewers, Cubs, Phillies, Blue Jays and Red Sox in August — then they can look forward to a soft schedule in September. In the final month of the regular season, Seattle will go up against the Athletics, Rangers, Angels, and Rockies. Despite the baseball calendar coming to an end, they believe they have it in them to make a run. Before the season started, FanGraphs’ projection system gave the Mariners a 79.6% chance of making the playoffs. That number had plummeted to 24% entering Thursday’s game, but it’s not zero. Until Seattle is mathematically eliminated, it will still have hope. “We have a ton of time,” Raleigh said. “We’ll make some adjustments. That’s just how it is. Baseball is a very hard sport. You have to dig deep sometimes and try to figure out what’s going to be best for you, your circumstances, and whatever the team needs.”​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports