It sounds illogical, but the story of the CFP selection committee’s second rankings never was going to be the top four (or five).
Businesslike wins by No. 1 Georgia, No. 2 Alabama and No. 3 Notre Dame, plus quality road victories by No. 4 Clemson and No. 5 Oklahoma, suggested that nothing would change at the top, and it didn’t. Tuesday’s rankings reset instead would shine a spotlight on the next set of contenders, namely unbeatens Wisconsin and Miami.
The committee’s message: There’s work left to do, as winning isn’t everything.
Wisconsin moved up only one spot to No. 8 after its 45-17 win at Indiana, even after Ohio State and Penn State plummeted out of the race. Miami moved up three spots to No. 7 after smashing Virginia Tech, ranked 13th in the committee’s first rankings. Both teams linger behind four one-loss teams: Notre Dame, Clemson, Oklahoma and No. 6 TCU.
Miami has to be a bit ticked that it didn’t jump TCU in the rankings. Although Miami can record its best win of the season this week against No. 3 Notre Dame, so can TCU, which visits No. 5 Oklahoma. What type of performance would the Hurricanes need to jump a Frogs team that wins in Norman? Is it possible for Miami to displace Oklahoma next week if both teams defend home field on Saturday night?
The good news for Miami is that it likely will have another profile-boosting opportunity against No. 4 Clemson in the ACC title game. The TCU-Oklahoma winner likely won’t face a top-five foe in the Big 12 championship. So advantage, Canes.
While Miami finally started building its playoff profile last week, Wisconsin, now the beleaguered Big Ten’s best playoff candidate, can begin to craft a top-four-worthy résumé this week against No. 20 Iowa, which entered the rankings after its historic beating of Ohio State. The Badgers caught a break with the first team revealed Tuesday night, No. 25 Northwestern, which they beat Sept 30. The Wildcats are favored to win out, and Wisconsin is pulling for them.
Wisconsin also will be rooting for the winner of this week’s Michigan State-Ohio State clash in Columbus. With the Spartans surging to No. 12 and the Buckeyes falling to 13th, it’s a decent bet Saturday’s winner will reach the Big Ten championship game ranked in the committee’s top 10. Wisconsin desperately needs a top-shelf win there, or a perfect season in a Power 5 league still might not be enough to make the playoff. Sorry, Barry Alvarez.
The biggest obstacle for both Miami and Wisconsin, other than the SEC tandem at the top, looks to be Oklahoma. Although everyone is questioning the Sooners’ defense right now, including committee members, they could have the nation’s best one-loss profile if they win out. After taking down Ohio State and Oklahoma State on the road, Oklahoma has a chance for at least two more top-15 wins (TCU and the Big 12 championship). A home game against West Virginia, which could crack the next set of rankings if it beats Kansas State this week, only helps the Sooners.
Clemson also emerged from Tuesday night in good shape. Its win at Virginia Tech doesn’t look quite as splashy (the Hokies dropped to No. 17), but a Week 2 triumph over Auburn, which now sits at No. 10, helps Clemson’s case to remain in the top four. Dabo Swinney’s Tigers become big fans of Gus Malzahn’s Tigers the rest of the way, as Auburn hosts Georgia and Alabama the next two weeks and, with victories, would face Georgia again in the SEC title game.
Auburn might be the most popular team in America the next two weeks, but are the Tigers more than spoilers? Three wins over likely CFP top-five teams would make Auburn an attractive top-four candidate, despite two losses, especially if multiple two-loss conference champions are fighting for a spot.
One of those champions could be USC, which moved to No. 11 after outlasting Arizona. The Trojans have been unpredictable, but they’ve also played one of the nation’s most taxing schedules. Their playoff chances remain minimal, but they’re still on the radar — barely.
Washington remains the Pac-12’s best candidate after moving up three spots to No. 9. The league’s dream title-game matchup — Washington versus USC — is still in line, and if the Trojans win their next three games, that matchup will pair two top-10 teams. Washington will root for USC, and it also wants No. 19 Washington State to win its next two games before the Apple Cup in Seattle.
UCF remains in the driver’s seat for a New Year’s Six bowl, though the Knights have to be a bit peeved about staying at No. 18 — behind eight two-loss teams — despite a solid win at SMU. There’s a good chance that the AAC title game, which projects as a UCF-Memphis rematch, will decide which Group of 5 team goes to a big-time bowl.
Tuesday night’s rankings were unusually static, even boring, with only one team (Michigan State) making a major move (12 spots). But another A-list slate of games on Saturday promises more drama in the weeks to come.
Before Game 1 of the World Series, I was talking to Dodgers second baseman Chase Utley about playing behind Clayton Kershaw.
Utley said only one pitcher could match Kershaw in intensity and preparation: Roy Halladay, his former teammate with the Phillies.
“He’s even better than I expected,” Utley said of Kershaw. “You see all the work he does between starts, and you really appreciate that. He definitely reminds me of Roy. Roy worked his butt off between starts, and that’s one reason both had so much success.”
You could see Utley’s eyes light up as he compared the two pitchers, one great player appreciating two other great ones. More than any other pitcher, Halladay was the bridge from the Hall of Fame generation of the mid-1990s and early 2000s — Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson, Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz — to the current generation of aces led by Kershaw, Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer.
“We are numb over the very tragic news about Roy Halladay’s untimely death,” the Phillies said in a statement. “There are no words to describe the sadness that the entire Phillies family is feeling over the loss of one of the most respected human beings to ever play the game.”
Halladay’s remarkable 10-year run from 2002 to 2011 was one of the best in recent decades. In those seasons — eight with the Blue Jays, the final two with the Phillies — Halladay went 170-75 with a 2.97 ERA, with most of those seasons coming in a high-offense environment. He won two Cy Young Awards, finished second twice and third once, made eight All-Star teams and led his league five times in strikeout-to-walk ratio. But perhaps nothing sums up Halladay’s work ethic better than these numbers: He led his league four times in innings and eight times in complete games. He pitched 63 complete games in that 10-year period, 30 more than any other pitcher in that span and more than Kershaw, Verlander and Scherzer have in their careers combined.
When you think of Halladay’s peak, you have to go back to his no-hitter against the Reds in the 2010 National League Division Series. It was only the second no-hitter in postseason history, after Don Larsen’s World Series perfect game. It was beautiful to watch, as he threw from a three-quarters delivery, mixing that running two-seam sinker with a cutter. He threw just 104 pitches and struck out eight, with only a fifth-inning walk keeping him from matching Larsen.
“Maybe someday — maybe in a month, maybe in a year, maybe in half a century or so — Roy Halladay will come to understand what he did Wednesday on a baseball field in Philadelphia,” Jayson Stark wrote after the game. “To say he pitched a baseball game that people will talk about for the rest of his life doesn’t truly capture the magnitude of it.”
Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz summed up Halladay’s stuff that night like this: “Oh, my god.”
That Halladay became a legendary pitcher wasn’t a sure thing, even though he was a first-round pick and nearly pitched a no-hitter in his second career start. After a solid rookie season in 1999 — when he went 8-7 with a 3.92 ERA — Halladay forgot how to pitch. His numbers in 2000 were beyond terrible. In 67 innings, he allowed 107 hits and had nearly as many walks (42) as strikeouts (44). His ERA of 10.64 is the worst ever by a pitcher with at least 50 innings.
In 2001, Halladay had to go all the way back down to Class-A Dunedin. He remade himself as a pitcher. He initially came up as an overhand four-seam fastball and curveball pitcher. In the minors, he dropped his arm slot and started throwing that two-seamer. With help from Mariano Rivera at an All-Star Game, he perfected a cutter. With Halladay leading the way, that style of pitching — sinkers and cutters — became a prominent method of attacking hitters. Of course, nobody did it as well as Halladay, who could paint the corners with movement and still have the velocity to induce swing-and-misses.
“I wanted to be Roy Halladay,” former All-Star pitcher Dan Haren tweeted. “Heartbroken, rest easy Doc.”
As other players tweeted, we felt the respect everyone had for Halladay.
“One of the best teammates ever,” Roy Oswalt tweeted.
“Blessed to have shared the field with you as a teammate, competitor, friend and more importantly a brother,” Shane Victorino tweeted.
Halladay is eligible for the Hall of Fame in 2019. He will appear on that ballot with Rivera, Andy Pettitte and Todd Helton, among others. In my book, he’s a pretty easy selection. A pitcher who dominated the sport for 10 years should be a Hall of Famer, even if he won “only” 203 games. His career WAR of 65.6 doesn’t quite scream automatic selection, but it’s comparable to that of other Hall of Famers such as Jim Palmer (68.1), Smoltz (66.5), Juan Marichal (61.9) and Don Drysdale (61.2).
The low win total will scare off some voters, but the dominance in Cy Young voting will help. Halladay threw a perfect game in the regular season and the playoff no-no. In some ways, he was the last of the workhorses, a guy who wanted to pitch all nine innings.
Yes, the end was sudden. After he finished second in the Cy Young voting in 2011 — Kershaw won, though Halladay probably deserved it, with an 8.9 WAR to Kershaw’s 6.5 — he came down with shoulder problems and pitched just two more seasons.
When he underwent surgery early in the 2013 season, he knew his career was on the edge.
“Nobody wants to go out on a bad note,” Halladay told Stark that May. “If you had your choice, you want to go out strong. Ideally, you want to go out as a world champion. But some of those things aren’t in your control.”
The 13-member College Football Playoff selection committee hit the repeat button at the top, maintaining the status quo with the first five spots: No. 1 Georgia, No. 2 Alabama, No. 3 Notre Dame, No. 4 Clemson and No. 5 Oklahoma. There was a bit of natural shuffling in the top 10 following the upsets of Ohio State and Penn State last week, as they both sank to No. 13 and No. 14, respectively. Undefeated Wisconsin is now the Big Ten’s highest-ranked team at No. 8, but with six total Big Ten teams ranked — including No. 25 Northwestern — it’s clear the committee respects the league, which certainly helps the Badgers’ strength of schedule.
TCU jumped to No. 6, further emphasizing an already important Big 12 matchup on Saturday between TCU and Oklahoma. The other notable move within the top 10 was No. 7 Miami leapfrogging Wisconsin. Both teams are undefeated, but the committee is clearly giving the Canes the edge for their win over now No. 17 Virginia Tech.
At No. 10, Auburn remains the highest-ranked two-loss team, and at No. 18, undefeated UCF is still the leading candidate from a Group of Five conference to earn a spot in a New Year’s Six bowl.
Here’s what the bracket would look like today:
As for the other New Year’s Six bowls, here’s a projection based on the current rankings:
The Capital One Orange Bowl is guaranteed the ACC champion, but since Clemson is in a semifinal, it would take the next highest-ranked ACC team, which would be No. 7 Miami. The Orange Bowl then chooses the next highest-ranked non-conference champion from the SEC, Big Ten or Notre Dame, but it can’t choose the Big Ten champion, which is projected to be No. 8 Wisconsin in this week’s ranking. It would then choose No. 10 Auburn.
Because the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic, PlayStation Fiesta Bowl and Chick-fil-A Peach bowls are non-contract bowls, meaning they’re not tied to any particular conference champions, those bowls will be assigned based on the best potential matchups. While the selection committee doesn’t try to avoid rematches in the semifinal games, they do try to avoid them in the other New Year’s Six bowls. Any displaced conference champion from the Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12 or SEC automatically gets a berth in one of the Cotton, Fiesta or Peach Bowls.
Considering fan interest and matchups, this week’s projection slots No. 11 USC against No. 18 UCF in the Peach Bowl and No. 5 Oklahoma in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic against No. 8 Wisconsin.
With the other bowls filled, it makes sense from a matchup and geography standpoint to put No. 6 TCU against No. 9 Washington, the projected Pac-12 champ, in the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl.
Here’s what the New Year’s Six and New Year’s Day would look like, based on this week’s rankings:
(All games can be seen on ESPN and the ESPN App)
Friday, Dec. 29
8:30 p.m. ET: Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic: No. 8 Wisconsin vs. No. 5 Oklahoma (AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas)
Saturday, Dec. 30
4 p.m. ET: PlayStation Fiesta Bowl: No. 9 Washington vs. No. 6 TCU (University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona)
8 p.m. ET: Capital One Orange Bowl: No. 10 Auburn vs. No. 7 Miami (Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida)
Monday, Jan. 1
12:30 p.m. ET: Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl: No. 18 UCF vs. No. 11 USC (Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta)
5 p.m. ET: College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Rose Bowl Game Presented by Northwestern Mutual: No. 3 Notre Dame vs. No. 2 Alabama (Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California)
8:45 p.m. ET: College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Allstate Sugar Bowl: No. 4 Clemson vs. No. 1 Georgia (Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans)
Monday, Jan. 8
8 p.m. ET: College Football Playoff National Championship Presented by AT&T (Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta)
Roy Halladay, a two-time Cy Young Award-winning pitcher who retired from baseball nearly four years ago, has died in a plane crash in the Gulf of Mexico. He was 40.
Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco said during a news conference that Halladay’s ICON A5, a small single-engine aircraft, went down around noon Tuesday off the coast of Florida.
The sheriff’s office marine unit responded and found Halladay’s body in shallow water near some mangroves. No survivors were found. Police said they couldn’t confirm if there were additional passengers on the plane or say where it was headed.
Nocco said the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating the crash.
“All of us at Baseball are shocked and deeply saddened by the tragic passing of former Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Roy Halladay,” commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “A well-respected figure throughout the game, Roy was a fierce competitor during his 16-year career, which included eight All-Star selections, two Cy Young Awards, a perfect game and a Postseason no-hitter.
“On behalf of Major League Baseball, I extend my deepest condolences to his family, including his wife, Brandy, and two sons, Ryan and Braden, his friends and countless fans, as well as the Blue Jays and Phillies organizations.”
Halladay received his pilot’s license several years ago and tweeted photos last month of himself standing next to a new ICON A5 as part of the plane’s marketing campaign.
In a story posted last month on ICON’s website to promote the A5, Halladay said he had “been dreaming about flying since I was a boy but was only able to become a pilot once I retired from baseball.” In a video posted on ICON’s website, Halladay said the terms of his baseball contract prevented him from having a pilot’s license while playing, and that his wife was originally against the idea of him getting the aircraft.
“Hard. I fought hard. I was very against it,” Brandy Halladay said in the same video, before explaining why she eventually understood and approved of her husband’s desire to have the plane. The couple have two sons, Ryan and Braden.
The A5 was a newer model from ICON, based in Vacaville, California. It’s a two-seat “light-sport aircraft” that can land on water.
On May 8, two ICON employees, the company’s lead test pilot and the director of engineering, were killed in a crash in an A5 in Napa County, California. The NTSB report said the probable cause was “the pilot’s failure to maintain clearance from terrain while maneuvering at a low altitude.”
“We were devastated to learn that former MLB pitcher Roy Halladay died today in an accident involving an ICON A5 in the Gulf of Mexico,” the company said in a statement. “We have gotten to know Roy and his family in recent months, and he was a great advocate and friend of ours. The entire ICON community would like to pass on our deepest condolences to Roy’s family and friends. ICON will do everything it can to support the accident investigation going forward and we will comment further when more information is available.”
Nocco said Tuesday that Halladay was a “personal friend of our sheriff’s office” and that it is a “sad day for us here in Pasco County.”
“Being a pilot, flying planes, that was his passion,” Nocco said. “He would talk about it, about refurbishing planes.”
Halladay was an eight-time All-Star and went 203-105 with a 3.38 ERA in his 16-year career with the Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies. He threw a perfect game with the Phillies during the 2010 season, and on Oct. 6 of that year, against Cincinnati in the NL Division Series, he became only the second pitcher to throw a postseason no-hitter, joining Don Larsen, who accomplished the feat for the Yankees in the 1956 World Series.
“We are numb over the very tragic news about Roy Halladay’s untimely death,” the Phillies said in a statement. “There are no words to describe the sadness that the entire Phillies family is feeling over the loss of one of the most respected human beings to ever play the game. It is with the heaviest of hearts that we pass along our condolences to Brandy, Ryan and Braden.”
Halladay signed a one-day contract with Toronto in December 2013 so he could retire as a member of the Blue Jays, the team with which he spent the first 12 years of his career.
“The Toronto Blue Jays organization is overcome by grief with the tragic loss of one of the franchise’s greatest and most respected players, but even better human being,” the team said in a statement. “It is impossible to express what he has meant to this franchise, the city and its fans. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.”
Halladay won the 2003 AL Cy Young Award and went 148-76 with a 3.43 ERA in 12 seasons with the Blue Jays. He was traded to the Phillies after the 2009 season and won the NL Cy Young in 2010.
He is eligible for the Hall of Fame in 2019.
Several of Halladay’s former teammates and opponents offered their condolences on social media after learning about his death.
By far the fiercest teammates I have ever been around with a heart of CHAMPION…sad we never got to win one together but will never forget this great night!!! Blessed to have been on the field to witness…Miss ya Brother https://t.co/W7t9CI14i0
Other baseball players to die in plane crashes included Pirates star Roberto Clemente in a relief mission from Puerto Rico traveling to earthquake victims in Nicaragua on New Year’s Eve in 1972; Yankees catcher Thurman Munson piloting his own plane near his home in Canton, Ohio, in 1979; and Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle piloting his own plane in New York City in 2006.
Halladay was nominated several times for the Roberto Clemente Award, given by Major League Baseball to players for sportsmanship and community involvement. The Halladay Family Foundation has aided children’s charities, hunger relief and animal rescue.
“Many of you know Roy as a Cy Young winner, future Hall of Famer, one of the best pitchers ever to pitch the game of baseball,” Nocco said. “We know Roy as a person, as a caring husband who loved his wife, Brandy. He loved his two boys tremendously … and we are so sad for your loss.”
Joined ESPN as a college basketball Insider in June 2013
Previously wrote for CBSSports.com and FOXSports.com
Three UCLA men’s basketball players — including LiAngelo Ball, the younger brother of Los Angeles Lakers rookie Lonzo Ball — were arrested in China just days before Friday’s season-opening game against Georgia Tech in Shanghai, sources told ESPN’s Jeff Goodman.
One source told ESPN the group of players — which also included freshmen Cody Riley and Jalen Hill — were arrested on shoplifting charges.
The players are being questioned about stealing from a Louis Vuitton store that is located next to the team’s hotel.
A source tells ESPN the players are not currently with the team.
Multiple calls and texts to UCLA head coach Steve Alford at approximately 1 a.m. local time on Wednesday morning were not immediately returned.
UCLA released a statement: “We are aware of a situation involving UCLA student-athletes in Hangzhou, China. The University is cooperating fully with local authorities on this matter, and we have no further comment at this time.”
One source told ESPN that nearly 20 police officers came into the Hyatt Hangzhou at approximately 8 a.m. local time Tuesday and spoke to multiple players from both Georgia Tech and UCLA. The players, according to the source, were kept in a room for hours and not allowed to speak to any of the coaches.
“They weren’t messing around,” the source told ESPN. “The kids were scared.”
The Georgia Tech players were allowed to leave the room hours later, and the UCLA players were seen getting into a police vehicle around 1 p.m. local time, according to the source.
Georgia Tech released a statement to ESPN on Tuesday, saying that three of their players were questioned by local authorities at their hotel.
“During the questioning, it was determined that Georgia Tech student-athletes were not involved in the activities being investigated,” Georgia Tech said in the statement. “They have resumed their scheduled activities in advance of Saturday’s season opener versus UCLA in Shanghai.”
The teams are scheduled to visit Shanghai Disney Resort on Wednesday.
Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy said Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay told him that quarterback Andrew Luck‘s injury is “inside his head.”
Dungy made the comment Monday during a live look-in at Dan Patrick’s radio show during its television simulcast on the Audience Network.
“I don’t know what’s going on there, I really don’t,” Dungy said during the look-in. “Is he going to play? Jim Irsay made a comment about six weeks ago, ‘You know, it’s inside his head now.'”
Patrick followed up by asking the former Colts coach: “Wait, it’s inside Luck’s head?”
“Yeah, he said that I guess when I was up there for Peyton’s [Manning’s] ceremony,” Dungy said.
The Colts honored Manning last month by unveiling a statue outside Lucas Oil Stadium in his honor on Oct. 7 and retiring his No. 18 jersey at halftime of their game against the San Francisco 49ers on Oct. 8.
Luck had surgery in January to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder. He practiced multiple times last month before being shut down and given a cortisone shot. When the soreness in his shoulder didn’t subside, Luck was placed on injured reserve by the Colts last week.
“The consensus from all the doctors is to continue rehab, to be patient and continue rehab,” Colts general manager Chris Ballard said last week. “The shoulder is subjective and after a surgery everybody’s different, everybody rehabs at a different way. So we’re going to shut his throwing down and we’re going to continue to rehab. We’re going to continue hard rehab.”
Luck originally injured his shoulder during the 2015 season in Week 3 at Tennessee. He missed two games because of his shoulder and then missed the final seven games of that season due to a lacerated kidney. Luck missed a game last season with a concussion and all of this season with the shoulder injury.
The Phoenix Suns are finalizing a deal to send guard Eric Bledsoe to the Milwaukee Bucks for center Greg Monroe, a protected 2018 first-round pick and a 2018 second-round pick, league sources told ESPN.
The teams reached an agreement in principle on terms of a deal late Monday night and were spending early Tuesday finalizing medical evaluations on the players involved before formalizing a trade, league sources said.
Bledsoe is not expected to play with the Bucks (4-5) on Tuesday night in Cleveland, multiple sources told ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. The plan is for Bledsoe to meet the Bucks in San Antonio on Wednesday. The Bucks play the Spurs on Friday.
Bledsoe has been away from the Suns (4-7) since general manager Ryan McDonough sent him home on Oct. 23. One day earlier, Bledsoe tweeted, “I don’t wanna be here.”
McDonough announced at the time that Bledsoe “won’t be with us going forward,” and said he didn’t believe Bledsoe’s explanation that he was tweeting about wanting to leave a hair salon.
McDonough reiterated on Oct. 31 that the Suns had no timetable for a potential trade involving Bledsoe.
Bledsoe previously had met with Suns owner Robert Sarver and McDonough during the preseason and requested a trade, sources told ESPN. Bledsoe was told by management, according to sources, that the team had underperformed ever since he was given starting point guard responsibilities.
Bledsoe, 27, averaged career highs in points (21.1), assists (6.3) and rebounds (4.8) last season, but the Suns (24-58) finished with the worst record in the Western Conference. It was the second consecutive season that Phoenix’s winning percentage was less than .300.
Monroe, 27, has played only five games this season and hasn’t played since Oct. 26 because of a left calf strain.
Monroe averaged 15.6 points and 9.5 rebounds per game for Detroit and Milwaukee from 2011-12 through 2015-16. His production dipped last season, when he played 81 games without making a start.
The Phoenix Suns have traded disgruntled guard Eric Bledsoe to the Milwaukee Bucks for center Greg Monroe, a 2018 protected first-round and a 2018 protected second-round draft pick, league sources told ESPN.
The teams reached an agreement in principle on deal terms late Monday night and finalized the terms Tuesday morning, league sources told ESPN. The Bucks resisted including guard Malcolm Brogdon, the NBA’s reigning Rookie of the Year, in the deal, league sources said.
Milwaukee has lost three straight — including four of five games — to drop to 4-5 on the season. Bledsoe is not expected to play with the Bucks on Tuesday night in Cleveland, multiple sources told ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. The plan is for Bledsoe to meet the Bucks in San Antonio on Wednesday, two days before their road game against the Spurs
With the move, Milwaukee creates a $3.38 million trade exception that will be available to use for one year. The Bucks also have a $5 million trade exception that will expire in February. They are now $4.4 million below the luxury tax.
The Suns (4-7) potentially could have three first-round picks in 2018: their own, Miami’s (top-seven protected) and Milwaukee’s (lottery protected). Phoenix could have seven first-round picks from 2018 to 2021.
Milwaukee will send its 2018 first-round pick to Phoenix if it lands between Nos. 11 and 16, league sources said. If the pick carries beyond 2018, the Suns get a loosening of protections in 2019 (Nos. 4 to 16), 2020 (Nos. 8 to 30) and 2021, when the pick would come unprotected, league sources said. The Suns will get the Bucks’ 2018 second-round pick if it lands between Nos. 48 and 60, league sources said. Otherwise, the Bucks keep the pick.
Bledsoe has been away from the Suns since general manager Ryan McDonough sent him home on Oct. 23. One day earlier, Bledsoe tweeted, “I don’t wanna be here.”
McDonough announced at the time that Bledsoe “won’t be with us going forward,” and said he didn’t believe Bledsoe’s explanation that he was tweeting about wanting to leave a hair salon.
McDonough reiterated on Oct. 31 that the Suns had no timetable for a potential trade involving Bledsoe.
Bledsoe previously had met with Suns owner Robert Sarver and McDonough during the preseason and requested a trade, sources told ESPN. Bledsoe was told by management, according to sources, that the team had underperformed ever since he was given starting point guard responsibilities.
Bledsoe, 27, averaged career highs in points (21.1), assists (6.3) and rebounds (4.8) last season, but the Suns (24-58) finished with the worst record in the Western Conference. It was the second consecutive season that Phoenix’s winning percentage was less than .300.
Monroe, 27, has played only five games this season and hasn’t played since Oct. 26 because of a left calf strain.
Monroe averaged 15.6 points and 9.5 rebounds per game for Detroit and Milwaukee from 2011-12 through 2015-16. His production dipped last season, when he played 81 games without making a start.
Information from ESPN’s Bobby Marks was used in this report.
Has your team exceeded, lived up to or fallen short of expectations?
Here’s a rundown of the Week 10 Power Rankings, as voted on by our power panel — a group of more than 80 writers, editors and TV personalities — with a look at how all 32 teams measure up to their preseason rankings.
ESPN Stats & Information’s John McTigue contributed the following information.
Methodology: These rankings are based on which teams voters think would win head-to-head matchups. Higher-ranked teams would be favored against lower-ranked teams. Coming off a win doesn’t guarantee a jump, and a loss doesn’t guarantee a fall.
Preseason ranking: 15.Carson Wentz leads the NFL in touchdown passes (23) and is the primary reason the Eagles jumped from 15th heading into the season to first in our midseason edition. Thanks to the great start, Philadelphia is the FPI favorite to win the Super Bowl (20.8 percent chance).
2017 record: 6-2 Week 9 ranking: No. 2
Preseason ranking: 1. If there’s any concern around the Patriots this season, it’s the fact that five of their past six games have been decided by eight or fewer points. They aren’t blowing teams out, but wins are wins, and the defending champions still belong toward the top.
2017 record: 6-2 Week 9 ranking: No. 4
Preseason ranking: 4. The Steelers looked like they could slide down the rankings, but since hopping back on the Le’Veon Bell train, they’re back on track. Bell has rushed 92 times for 389 yards in Pittsburgh’s three-game win streak.
2017 record: 6-2 Week 9 ranking: No. 5
Preseason ranking: 17.Case Keenum has started the bulk of the games for the Vikings this season, and they’ve still jumped from middle of the pack to near the top in the rankings. Keenum deserves credit, but so does the defense, which has allowed the third-fewest points per game this season.
2017 record: 6-3 Week 9 ranking: No. 3
Preseason ranking: 8. The Chiefs are 1-3 in their past four games after a 5-0 start. With Kareem Hunt slowing down (47.8 rushing yards per game over the past four), Alex Smith will need to continue making big plays.
2017 record: 5-3 Week 9 ranking: No. 6
Preseason ranking: 3.Russell Wilson might not be getting enough credit. He’s been pressured at the third-highest rate this season, and he’s the only quarterback leading his team in both passing and rushing. The Seahawks would’ve fallen much further from their preseason ranking if not for his efforts.
2017 record: 6-2 Week 9 ranking: No. 8
Preseason ranking: 27. The biggest risers since the preseason edition of our rankings are the Rams, who lead the NFL in scoring with 32.9 points per game. How good has the offense been? They’ve scored 40 points three times this season. The last time the Rams did that in a season was in 2001, when they reached Super Bowl XXXVI.
2017 record: 5-3 Week 9 ranking: No. 7
Preseason ranking: 6. There hasn’t been much movement for Dallas, but when you start at No. 6, that isn’t a bad thing. Dak Prescott is second in the NFL in Total QBR, and Ezekiel Elliott is second in rushing, so these Cowboys might be here to stay.
2017 record: 6-2 Week 9 ranking: No. 9
Preseason ranking: 23. The Saints are just the third team in the Super Bowl era to win six straight games immediately following an 0-2 start. That win streak has led to one of the most significant rises in our rankings, but there’s better news for New Orleans: The two other teams to win six straight following an 0-2 start both went on to win the Super Bowl.
2017 record: 5-3 Week 9 ranking: No. 14
Preseason ranking: 28. The Jaguars have been one of the biggest risers in our rankings, and it’s (mostly) thanks to defense, which ranks first in points allowed per game (14.6), Total QBR (33), sacks (35) and TD-INT ratio (0.4).
2017 record: 6-3 Week 9 ranking: No. 12
Preseason ranking: 16. It might not be the prettiest of climbs, but the Panthers have risen in the rankings despite the drama surrounding Cam Newton. His passing hasn’t been on point, with 10 touchdowns to 11 interceptions so far this season, but he has picked up the running, accumulating 251 rush yards the past four games, 11th in the NFL in that span.
2017 record: 4-5 Week 9 ranking: No. 21
Preseason ranking: 7. The NFL season is entering Week 10, and the Raiders’ defense still hasn’t intercepted a pass. Opponents are completing 71.2 percent of their passes against Oakland, so despite a few recent wins, it’s no wonder the team has slipped in the rankings.
2017 record: 4-4 Week 9 ranking: No. 18
Preseason ranking: 20. The Redskins are .500 despite playing the most difficult schedule so far, so they’re deserving of the bump in these rankings. It doesn’t get much easier going forward with the Vikings, Saints and Cowboys coming up in three of the next four weeks, so if Washington wants to keep climbing, the team will have to pull off some more big wins.
2017 record: 5-3 Week 9 ranking: No. 19
Preseason ranking: 12. What to make of the Titans, who have seen a slight dip in these rankings since the preseason? They currently sit atop the AFC South, but they’re the only winning team with a negative point differential (minus-12).
2017 record: 5-3 Week 9 ranking: No. 11
Preseason ranking: 26. The Bills have climbed our rankings well, thanks to a 5-3 start, but a Week 9 loss to the Jets could indicate that they’re still the same team. This is the fifth time they’ve been over .500 through eight games since 2000. They missed the playoffs the past four times.
2017 record: 4-4 Week 9 ranking: No. 15
Preseason ranking: 19. The Lions took down an Aaron Rodgers-less Packers team to end a three-game losing streak, with Matthew Stafford posting his first game this season of 300-plus yards, multiple touchdowns and no picks. Detroit has had its ups and downs this season but has risen slightly in these rankings.
2017 record: 4-4 Week 9 ranking: No. 13
Preseason ranking: 2. The Super Bowl runners-up have lost four of five following a 3-0 start. The offense was expected to pick up where it left off last season, but Atlanta is averaging 16.6 points per game the past five games, cracking 20 points just once to make them one of the biggest fallers.
2017 record: 4-4 Week 9 ranking: No. 16
Preseason ranking: 5. It’s no surprise that the Packers have fallen so far in the rankings with Aaron Rodgers hurt. They’re 0-3 since Brett Hundley took over in Week 6 and haven’t mustered more than 17 points in any of those games. It’s the Packers’ longest streak of scoring fewer than 20 points since 2005.
2017 record: 3-5 Week 9 ranking: No. 22
Preseason ranking: 24. The Chargers can’t seem to put everything together, and because of that, they’ve been meddling around the low 20s in these rankings. They rank 22nd in scoring this season after ranking ninth last season and rank seventh in defensive scoring after finishing 29th last season. Maybe everything will even out in 2018?
2017 record: 4-5 Week 9 ranking: No. 23
Preseason ranking: 21.Joe Flacco has thrown eight touchdown to 10 interceptions, which is good for the third-worst TD-INT ratio in the NFL this season. He isn’t the only reason for the Ravens’ fall from grace, but with his high price tag, he’s going to take the brunt of the criticism.
2017 record: 3-5 Week 9 ranking: No. 17
Preseason ranking: 9. The Broncos won a Super Bowl with a great defense and below average quarterback play, but this season, their QB play has bottomed out. Denver ranks 29th in Total QBR this season and has seen a drastic fall in the standings and our rankings as a result.
2017 record: 4-5 Week 9 ranking: No. 26
Preseason ranking: 32. The Jets weren’t given much of a chance coming into this season, carrying with them the worst playoff chances according to FPI (0.6 percent). They’re now 4-5, and that includes two blown fourth-quarter leads. Their rise would be even greater if not for a minus-60 fourth-quarter point differential.
2017 record: 4-4 Week 9 ranking: No. 28
Preseason ranking: 10. The Cardinals were expected to return to their 2015 form, with which they went 13-3, but a 4-4 start and injuries to Carson Palmer and David Johnson derailed that train. Still, their start despite those injuries isn’t bad.
2017 record: 3-5 Week 9 ranking: No. 10
Preseason ranking: 14.Deshaun Watson briefly had the Texans in the top 10 of our rankings, but with Tom Savage back at QB, the Texans are falling fast. Only one of the 18 drives Savage has led in his two starts this season has resulted in a touchdown.
2017 record: 3-5 Week 9 ranking: No. 20
Preseason ranking: 22. The Bengals were held to one or fewer touchdowns for the third time this season last week. They’ve scored more than two offensive touchdowns just once this season, and it was against the Browns. The Bengals have seen just a slight dip from the preseason ranking, and the offense is to thank for that.
2017 record: 4-4 Week 9 ranking: No. 25
Preseason ranking: 25. The fact that the Dolphins are .500 seems like a miracle. They rank last in the NFL in scoring and have been outscored by 63 points on the season. Four wins or not, they fit in with the bottom tier in these rankings.
2017 record: 3-5 Week 9 ranking: No. 27
Preseason ranking: 29. The Bears haven’t seen a huge rise in these rankings since the start of the season, but they’ve performed better than expected, particularly on defense. The Bears rank 13th in points allowed per game this season after finishing 24th last season.
2017 record: 2-6 Week 9 ranking: No. 24
Preseason ranking: 13. The Buccaneers have lost five straight and have taken a huge dive in our power rankings as a result. The blame for the downfall lies on both sides of the ball: Both the offense and defense rank outside the top 20 in points per game this season.
2017 record: 3-6 Week 9 ranking: No. 29
Preseason ranking: 18. The Colts have won three games yet have the worst point differential in the NFL this season — and there are two winless teams. If Andrew Luck were healthy, this season could be totally different. But unfortunately for Indianapolis, that isn’t the case.
2017 record: 1-7 Week 9 ranking: No. 30
Preseason ranking: 11. The Giants have taken the biggest fall since the preseason edition of these rankings, but you can’t really blame Eli Manning. The Giants have the highest drop rate, rank 27th in rushing yards per game and rank 29th in points allowed per game.
2017 record: 0-9 Week 9 ranking: No. 31
Preseason ranking: 31. The 49ers kept it close for a stretch, losing five straight by three or fewer points earlier in the season. But when the Week 1 starting quarterback has been released and the team is 0-9, “almost” doesn’t mean much. If it weren’t for the Browns, the 49ers would be last in these rankings.
2017 record: 0-8 Week 9 ranking: No. 32
Preseason ranking: 30. At the start of the season, there was some hope that the Browns might not be the worst team in the league. But after another 0-8 start, the Browns are back to the bottom, and it isn’t getting better. No quarterback on the roster has ever won a game as a starter.
GREEN BAY, Wis. – There wasn’t the jubilation of 2015, when the Detroit Lions sprinted onto the field with fingers raised and running up and down the sideline as the clock ticked down.
None of that was needed this time. There were no streaks to break. There was no surprise or baited breath or end-of-game excitement. No, the Lions’ 30-17 win over Green Bay on Monday night was methodical. It was thorough.
And it left Lambeau Field with pockets of empty seats by the two-minute warning, fans ready to head home after watching Detroit win in Green Bay for the second time in three seasons. It was a game the Lions had to have and, in a rarity for this franchise, a game it followed through on.
The 2015 win in Lambeau Field was unexpected and came off a complete shift at the top of the organization that led to the Lions hiring Rod Wood as team president and Bob Quinn as general manager.
This win Monday night was different. For Detroit, despite its horrific record in Wisconsin over the past quarter-century, this was expected. The Lions were favored. The Lions — for a rare time in the past two decades of this series — had the better quarterback in Matthew Stafford because Brett Favre is retired and Aaron Rodgers is injured.
And the Lions were the team that was supposed to be the franchise capable of taking the next step from mediocrity into something else this season, especially after a 3-1 start.
“We went into this game just thinking this game needs to be a statement game,” receiver Golden Tate said. “We need to click collectively from all parameters and I think that’s what we did for the most part, which was very important. So it felt good to just have things rolling, especially on the road in a very, very tough environment. We dealt with weather for the first time this year and I think we handled it well.”
Monday night doesn’t exactly do that — the Lions are still a .500 team — but this win was one Detroit had to have if it wanted to realistically stay in the playoff chase in a tight NFC, where the Lions are already in a tough position to get a wild-card berth.
They accomplished that in a way that has been unlike so many of their games this season. It was a fairly dominant Detroit win — one in which the offense moved well and the defense was sharp. It was also a game in which the Lions, surprisingly, played with a lead almost the entire time.
After three straight games in which the Lions started off slow and had to try to come back in the second half, Detroit didn’t have to do that against Green Bay. The Lions scored on their first drive for the first time all season. They had one of their better first halves of the season, with efficiency on offense — two touchdowns on three drives and each drive going across the 50-yard-line. Defensively, the Lions flustered Green Bay, keeping Brett Hundley to less than 100 yards passing and the Packers to 57 yards rushing.
More important, the Lions didn’t allow a first-half touchdown.
Detroit got a clinical performance from Stafford — 26-of-33 passing for 361 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. It’s the type of performance the Lions are used to facing instead of administering to Green Bay. Against the blitz, Stafford was 12-of-18 for 252 yards and a touchdown, the best any quarterback in the league has done against the blitz this season.
Was it Stafford’s best-ever game? Not totally clear. He has had other big games, but this was on a big stage.
“He’s had some really good ones,” Lions coach Jim Caldwell said. “It’s hard to distinguish. He had a string of them there a couple years ago that were pretty strong and last year, too. But this one, well, you don’t get a whole lot better than this.”
And it came at a time when Detroit had to have it. Most of the Lions didn’t want to call Monday night a must-win game, but they understood the importance of it. They understood that a three-game losing streak turning into four could severely impact their season.
Instead, Detroit erased all that and now faces one team with a record above .500 over the final eight games of the season — Minnesota on Thanksgiving. And if Detroit plays like it did Monday night, it could end up leading to a playoff spot.
“I was telling my coach it was the most important game because it was the next game but we really needed this win, you know — kind of catapult us into the last half of the season,” Marvin Jones Jr. said. “So it was a big win for us and obviously it was a division game so we needed to get it.”
