Kalen DeBoer’s first six weeks on the job at Alabama after Nick Saban’s retirement were a whirlwind. He had to fill out a coaching staff, hold together the Alabama football recruiting class for 2024, manage the college football transfer portal and get the ball rolling on his Class of 2025. Now that 2024 College Football National Signing Day has passed, …

Sean Allen, Special to ESPN.comFeb 20, 2024, 12:30 PM ET CloseSean Allen is a fantasy analyst for ESPN.com. He was the 2008 and 2009 Fantasy Sports Writers Association Hockey Writer of the Year. You can tweet him @seanard. The NHL trade deadline is two and a half weeks away. There are usually strong fantasy implications that flow from the annual …

Longtime Patriots special teams ace Matthew Slater announced his retirement on Tuesday morning after 16 seasons and 239 games with the franchise. While he’s no longer New England’s head coach, Bill Belichick released a statement on Tuesday, praising one of the special players in franchise history. “Matthew Slater deserves every accolade someone could receive,” Belichick said, via ESPN’s Adam Schefter. …

Michigan won the college football national championship in 2023, and now the CFP format has been approved for next season. The field is set. Well, at least the criterion is. The first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff will operate under the format of five spots for the five highest-ranked conference champions and the remaining seven berths for the next seven highest-ranked …

With USC quarterback Caleb Williams the heavy favorite to be the first pick in April’s NFL Draft, the odds indicate a QB will be taken with the next two picks as well. North Carolina’s Drake Maye and LSU’s Jayden Daniels are the consensus next best QB prospects in the draft behind Williams. RELATED: Bears expected to take Caleb Williams No. …

The NFL’s draft order is determined by wins and losses, but it does not necessarily shed light on the future outlook of each organization. Some are better positioned to win now while others are building towards the future.  It is a purely subjective topic, but here’s how I rank the top-10 teams in the 2024 NFL Draft order by outlook …

When nostalgia is done right, it can be epic, but when it’s done wrong, it can be a proverbial dumpster fire. The gaming world is about to find out where the cookie crumbles when EA Sports’ College Football 25 comes out in July. All indications are there won’t be a dumpster fire to be found. It’s been over a decade …

USATSI Gabe Davis does not seem like someone who expects to be back in Buffalo next season. The Bills wide receiver is set to hit free agency in March, and on Monday, he posted on Instagram an eight-minute highlight reel that seemed to serve as his goodbye to “Bills Mafia,” the team’s fanbase. The video includes such notable highlights like …

Tom Brady, other Patriots alumni react to Matthew Slater’s retirement originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston It’s been an offseason of monumental change in New England. Just over a month after the Patriots parted ways with legendary head coach Bill Belichick, team captain and special teams ace Matthew Slater announced his retirement from the NFL on Tuesday. Slater spent his …

Washington tight end Jack Westover (37) is tackled by Michigan linebacker Ernest Hausmann (15) during the College Football Playoff national championship game at NRG Stadium. The 12-team College Football Playoff will include the five highest-ranked conference champions and seven at-large bids, the group’s Board of Managers confirmed on Tuesday. Set to debut during the 2024 season, the new playoff format …

Joel Klatt College Football Analyst Draft season is here! As we prepare for the three-day event that will be held in Detroit in late April, I’ll be dropping some positional rankings before unveiling my top 50 prospects in the 2024 NFL Draft.  Let’s start with the quarterbacks.  First and foremost, this is a great quarterback draft. This draft is deep …

The 2024 NFL Combine is imminent. Draft season is here, people. It’s time for my first top 25 big board of draft season. There are a few surprising names ranked highly, and a few “consensus” top prospects further down my rankings or not included at all. That’s just how everything worked out with my grading system.  As for that grading …

Saquon Barkley’s future in New York is once again up in the air. The Pro Bowl running back is slated to become a free agent this spring, which comes a year after the team placed the non-exclusive franchise tag on him last March. Barkley and the Giants went back and forth in contract negotiations, but he ultimately settled on a …

The College Football Playoff will look very different next season. (Robin Alam/Getty Images) The College Football Playoff officially has a new format. CFP leaders on Tuesday adopted a change to the 12-team expanded playoff model, moving to a “5+7” system that incorporates five automatic qualifying spots for the highest-ranked conference champions and seven at-large spots for the next highest-ranked teams. …

Eric Williams NFC West Writer It’s a fresh start for the Seattle Seahawks now that Pete Carroll has moved off the sideline and general manager John Schneider has officially assumed his role as president of football operations. Last month, Seattle replaced the oldest head coach in the league with the youngest. Mike Macdonald, the 36-year-old former Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator, …