Enjoy a Tuesday notes column.
Dan Orlovsky, writing recently on ESPN.com, listed the NFL’s best quarterbacks in seven different categories: arm strength, ball placement, mechanics, decision-making, pocket presence, rushing ability and second-reaction creativity. His top 10 lists in each category (based on current performance and expectations) included former Vikings starter Kirk Cousins in just one: “decision making with the football.”
Orlovsky defines decision making as knowing what the defense “is trying to get him (the QB) to do with the ball—and what it is trying to keep him from doing.” Add to that, Orlovsky writes, the QB needs to figure out whether the first read is “going to work given what the defense is showing.”
Cousins, who signed on with the Falcons in the offseason after being The Guy with the Vikings since 2018, checked in at No. 10 in the decision-making rankings. Aaron Rodgers, Matthew Stafford and Joe Burrow are the top three on the list.
Cousins, whose season ended last season in late October after tearing his Achilles, reportedly received a four-year $180 million deal with the Falcons. They are gambling the 36-year-old can recover from his serious injury and play at a high level for a team with playoff expectations. With a new Falcons coach in Raheem Morris and a top 10 2024 draft pick in rookie Michael Penix Jr. behind him, Cousins faces plenty of pressure to perform.
In the 2024 annual vote by NFL players ranking the top 100 players, Cousins came in at No. 81 after being 42nd last year. In fairness to Cousins, only being able to play in eight games limited his impact but his peers also watched him get off to perhaps the best start of his career. He threw 18 touchdown passes for 2,331 yards and had just five interceptions.
A popular prediction is for the Falcons to win nine to 10 games. The Vikings six to seven.
It’s a good guess the Vikings added former UFL wide receiver Justin Hall to the roster on Monday partly for roster depth if Jordan Addison is suspended for regular season games because of his July driving incident in Los Angeles. Hall, 5-8 and 189-pounds, had the third most receiving yards in the UFL in 2024 with 603 playing with Houston.
ESPN.com also recently ranked the top 100 college football players going into the season, with Golden Gophers left tackle Aireontae Ersery the only Minnesota player listed. Ersery, Minnesota’s left tackle, is No. 59 on the list that has Tennessee defensive tackle James Pearce No. 1.
North Carolina running back Omarion Hampton, who Minnesota will see in its August 29 opener, is the lone Tar Heel on the list at No. 29. Hampton is an Associated Press first team preseason All-American while Ersery is second team.
The Gophers gave up a Big Ten worst 165.9 yards per game rushing last season but could be much improved in 2024. Gophers head coach P.J. Fleck said Monday “we’re swarming more and better than we ever have to the ball.”
The Gophers have their own featured back in sophomore Darius Taylor who despite limited play last season rushed for 799 yards in six games. Taylor was a wide out at times in high school and his ability to catch the ball prompts Fleck to describe him as adding “that full playmaker ability to our offense.”
Minnesota may also have one of the deeper running back rosters in the Big Ten with Fleck yesterday talking about multiple players including Marcus Major, the 6-foot, 220-pound graduate transfer from Oklahoma who the coach said has exceeded expectations. “Every time I see that (jersey) No. 24, I just think, man, looks like 24 (former Gopher record setter Mohamed Ibrahim), just bigger,” Fleck said.
If Gophers starting quarterback Max Brosmer is injured during the season his replacement could be true freshman Drake Lindsey. Offensive coordinator Greg Harbaugh Jr. said Monday Lindsey knew coming to Minnesota would be an opportunity to learn from Brosmer, the graduate transfer FCS All-American from New Hampshire. Harbaugh has been impressed with Lindsey’s learning curve and other skills.
“I sat him down right before he signed, and we talked about how we had to bring in a transfer at that time,” Harbaugh said. “And we were talking about Max and I explained to him that this is going to be a really big thing for you to learn from him, and then for Max to take him under his wing and Drake has done that.
“If you saw him in the spring, he was running the two (second unit) offense as a true freshman, and he should be a senior in high school. He’s done a great job…as soon as he got here in January, of learning the offense, understanding the offense, making mistakes, learning from those mistakes. He’s a natural thrower of the football.”
The Twins, 70-55, will only have to go 20-17 the rest of the season to reach the coveted 90 wins mark. Since the club’s last World Series championship in 1991 the Twins have had seven seasons where they won 90 games or more. They had a regular season 95-67 record in 1991.
Luis Arraez, the former Twin now with the Padres and trying to win his third consecutive batting title, has amazingly almost as many doubles at 23 as times he has struck out, 26, in 497 plate appearances.
Bailey Ober, 12-5 and the Twins starter tonight (Tuesday) against the Padres in San Diego, has 10 consecutive quality starts—tied with Corbin Burnes from the Orioles for the longest such streak in MLB this season. Quality starts mean at least six innings pitched, giving up three earned runs or fewer.
Birthdays: baseball Hall of Famer Paul Molitor is 68 on Thursday and former Gopher women’s basketball coach Pam Borton 59.
Former Gophers head football coach Jerry Kill, now a top assistant at Vanderbilt, turns 63 on Saturday. For more on Kill’s life: https://shamasportsheadliners.com/jerry-kill-healthy-happy-cheering-for-gophers/
Hockey is the focus at the next gathering of the Twin Cities Dunkers on September 17 when TV’s Joe Schmit moderates a discussion with Brock Faber from the Wild, Gophers coach Bob Motzko and North Stars legends Lou Nanne and Tom Reid.
The Star Tribune has abandoned a long history of using Minneapolis in its name to become the Minnesota Star Tribune. It could be a cold day in hell when the Pioneer Press drops St. Paul from its nameplate.