.png)
The only NFL tight end that has caught more passes for more yards than T.J. Hockenson since the Nov. 1 trade is Chiefs star Travis Kelce. Notable: Hockenson has led NFL tight ends on 3rd down in catches (17), yards (187) and first downs converted (10) since then.
— Kevin Seifert (@SeifertESPN) December 30, 2022
Dec
27, 2022
ESPN Analytics created revolutionary new metrics to measure performance in the trenches -- in both the run and pass game -- using player tracking data from NFL Next Gen Stats.
Our pass rush win rate metric tells us how often a pass-rusher is able to beat his block within 2.5 seconds. Likewise, our pass block win rate metric conveys the rate linemen can sustain their blocks for 2.5 seconds or longer.
In run stop win rate, a defender can earn a win by doing any of the following: beating his blocker so he's in better position to stop the runner; disrupting the pocket or running lane by pushing his blocker backwards; containing the runner such that he must adjust his running lane; or recording a tackle within three yards of the line of scrimmage. If a defender earns a run stop win, his blocker earns a loss, and vice versa.
Read more about our pass-game metrics and run-game metrics. Check out the 2021 leaderboard here.
ESPN
ESPN
Tight end receptions since TJ Hockenson’s Minnesota debut in Week 9:
— Adam Pfeifer (@APfeifer24) December 27, 2022
1) TJ Hockenson (52)
2) Travis Kelce (50)
pic.twitter.com/7Wz4OCl1y5
Dec 22, 2022 at 09:31 AM
Kevin
Eck | Writer
Baltimore Ravens center Tyler Linderbaum (64) during an NFL
football game against the New Orleans Saints, Monday, Nov. 7, 2022, in New
Orleans.
The Ravens are well-represented on the AFC Pro Bowl roster with
six players, but there are several others who are worthy that didn't make it.
Among them is rookie center Tyler Linderbaum, who was one
of eight players who should have received the honor, according to NFL.com's Eric Edholm.
The two centers
who made the AFC Pro Bowl roster are the Chiefs' Creed Humphrey and Bills'
Mitch Morse.
"Don't
blame Linderbaum for the offense's struggles; the rookie has been playing excellent ball,
especially of late," Edholm wrote.
Edholm took note of Linderbaum's performances against a couple of All-Pros this season.
"Turn on the Buccaneers tape from Week 8 for an
example of what we're talking about. The first-rounder takes LB Devin White on
about a 7-yard ride on one play," Edholm wrote. "Looking for
something more recent? Check out the Pittsburgh game from two weeks ago, when
the Steelers moved Cam Heyward over center quite a bit. Linderbaum more than
held his own against the three-time All-Pro."
Dec 21, 2022 at 07:00 PM
Editorial Assistant
EAGAN, Minn. — The voting results are in for the 2023 Pro Bowl Games.
The Vikings have five players that were selected to this year's Pro Bowl through a method that counts fans' votes, coaches' votes and players' votes one-third apiece.
Quarterback Kirk Cousins is making his fourth appearance; wide
receiver Justin Jefferson and outside linebacker Za'Darius Smith are getting
their third appearances; tight
end T.J. Hockenson is going back for a second time, and long snapper
Andrew DePaola has been named to the NFL all-star roster for the first time.
Nine more Minnesota players were named alternates for the Pro
Bowl Games, which is shifting this year to a flag football contest and other
competitions.
Running back Dalvin Cook, fullback C.J. Ham, outside linebacker
Danielle Hunter and return specialist Kene Nwangwu were announced as first
alternates.
Five Vikings Named to 2023 Pro Bowl
Games
T.J. Hockenson
A mid-season acquisition from the Lions on Nov. 1, Hockenson — who garnered his first Pro Bowl selection since 2020 — has also made an immediate impact for Minnesota.
https://www.vikings.com/video/hockenson-s-first-catch-as-a-viking-goes-for-19-yards
In seven games, the tight
end has recorded 39 receptions for 335 yards and a touchdown. He also caught
the 2-point conversion against the Colts last Saturday that tied the game at 36
with 2:15 left in regulation.
Hockenson currently has
65 catches for 730 receiving yards, with the latter being the second-most by a
tight end this season. He has four receiving touchdowns in 2022, which is tied for
the sixth-most by a tight end through Week 15 and he set the franchise record for most receptions (36) by a
player in his first six games with the Vikings. The previous mark was
set by Rickey Young in 1978 with 33.
Hockenson is also the first Vikings tight end since Kyle Rudolph in 2017 to be named to the Pro Bowl.
https://www.vikings.com/video/hockenson-ties-the-game-with-2-point-conversion
Photos from Slideshow:
Tyler Linderbaum seems to be working out A-okay
with the Baltimore Ravens.
The former
Rimington Trophy-winning center with the Iowa Hawkeyes is
making a splash during his rookie season with the Ravens. Selected with
the No. 25 pick in the 2022 NFL draft, Baltimore’s belief in
Linderbaum is quickly being rewarded.
Minus star quarterback Lamar Jackson this past
week, Baltimore needed a
nice performance up front. They got that as Linderbaum delivered.
Baltimore quarterback Tyler Huntley completed just
8-of-12 passes for 88 yards, but running backs J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards
combined for 186 rushing yards and a score on 28 carries to lead the Ravens to
a 16-14 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers.
In the process, the rookie center earned top marks from Pro Football
Focus for his Week 14 efforts. Linderbaum was the highest-graded offensive
lineman in all of the NFL with a grade of 91.3 last week in the Ravens’ win.
The highest-graded OL in Week 14 👀 pic.twitter.com/vXj4um6n8V
— PFF (@PFF) December 12, 2022
All of it is
made more impressive by the fact that Linderbaum was matched up against one of
the NFL’s best in Steelers defensive tackle Cameron Hayward.
“It’s really a great point. He did; they put Cam
[Heyward] over him quite a few times, which is not their norm all the time. I think they felt like they were
going to test Tyler [Linderbaum], and Tyler came through. Sure, Cam had
his plays, too. There was a lot of back and forth in the run game and the pass
game,” Ravens head coach
John Harbaugh said.
“Cam
Heyward’s one of the best players in football. So, I thought Tyler did a heck
of a job. [He] acquitted himself excellent, excellent. [He] had some really
phenomenal blocks [and] just continues to improve all the time. So, [I’m]
really happy we have him.”
For the season, Linderbaum is the No. 7 graded center according to PFF with an overall
offensive grade of 73.4 and a run blocking grade of 82.1. He ranks as the
Ravens’ sixth-highest graded offensive player on the year per
PFF.
Linderbaum’s ascension should only continue as the season and years roll along, but it’s great to see him receiving some national praise this week.
12.05.2022 | Football
Former Texas
All-American kicker Phil Dawson has been selected as a recipient of the award
that recognizes distinguished individuals on the 25th anniversary of the
conclusion of their collegiate careers.
INDIANAPOLIS
– Former
Texas All-American kicker Phil Dawson has been selected as a recipient of the
2023 NCAA Silver Anniversary Award, the NCAA announced on Monday.
The Silver Anniversary Award annually
recognizes distinguished individuals on the 25th anniversary of the conclusion
of their college athletics careers. Representatives of NCAA member
schools and conferences, along with a panel of former student-athletes, select
each year's recipients. Six former college athletes will receive the award,
which will be presented at the Honors Celebration ceremony Wednesday, Jan. 11,
during the NCAA Convention in San Antonio.
"This
is a really special honor for me and my family," Dawson said.
"Representing The University of Texas 25 years ago proved to be the great
joy of my football playing life. Being recognized by the NCAA with the
prestigious Silver Anniversary Award produces a deep sense of appreciation and
humility as I consider all those great Longhorns of old that I continue to have
the opportunity to represent. I have so many great memories, will always bleed
orange, and this is a recognition I'm honored and privileged to accept as a
Longhorn for life."
"When you talk about an
exceptional student, outstanding athlete and tremendous representative of your
athletic department, Phil Dawson truly epitomizes that," said Hall of Fame
Athletics Director DeLoss Dodds, who was the UT Men's AD from 1981-2013 and
during Dawson's time on the Forty Acres.
"He's one of the best kickers in
Longhorn history — or at any college for that matter — who went on to a long
and illustrious career in the NFL. Coupled with that, he was highly successful
in the classroom, a team leader and captain and a very active member in the
community. He's continued all of that in his life after college, has a
wonderful family, and is an extraordinary person who now is sharing all of his
wisdom and knowledge as a high school coach himself. We couldn't be prouder of
him and are so thrilled that he's receiving one of the NCAA's top honors as a
Silver Anniversary Award recipient."
A member of the Texas Athletics Hall of
Honor Class of 2012, Dawson was a four-year starter at Texas from 1994-97. He
was a two-time All-American, who earned first-team honors as a junior in
1996, and honorable mention as a sophomore in 1995, while also twice being named a semifinalist
for the Lou Groza Award as the nation's best kicker.
A 1997 team captain, Dawson garnered
all-conference recognition all four years at Texas,
including first-team honors in the Big 12 in 1996, and in the Southwest
Conference in 1994. In that span, he helped lead the Longhorns to three
conference titles, including the first-ever Big 12 Championship in 1996 and the
final SWC Championship in 1995.
Dawson finished his collegiate career
with 13 UT records, including all-time marks for scoring (339), field goals
(59) and field goal accuracy (74.7%). His scoring total ranked 16th
on the NCAA all-time list and 12th among kickers. He set UT records by hitting
15-straight field goals (1996-97) and 54-straight extra points (1994-95), while
also establishing a UT record by making six-straight field goals from 50 or
more yards from 1995-97.
A 1998
graduate of UT with a degree in political science, Dawson was a first-team Academic All-Big 12
selection in 1997.
After his
career at Texas, his determination and resiliency were tested as he pursued an
NFL career. He signed as undrafted free agent with the Oakland Raiders
following the 1998 NFL draft, was waived, and then picked up by the New England
Patriots and placed on the practice squad. He eventually signed as free agent with the Cleveland
Browns in 1999, going on to spend more than two decades in the NFL and become
one of the most consistent kickers in league history. He spent 14
seasons in Cleveland and four more with the San Francisco 49ers before
finishing his career with the Arizona Cardinals for two seasons.
During his 21-year NFL career that
included 20 as a starting placekicker, Dawson was a perennial team captain until
his retirement in 2019. He played in 305 career NFL games (currently
eighth-most in league history) and ranks eighth in field goals made (441) and
12th in points scored (1,847). He is among the NFL's top all-time field goal percentage kickers
despite spending most of his time in challenging weather conditions in
Cleveland, connecting on 441-of-526 attempts (83.8%), with a long of 57
yards.
Dawson broke legendary NFL kicker Lou
Groza's all-time Browns made field goal record with 305 during his time in
Cleveland and ranks second only to Groza on the team all-time scoring list with
1,271 points. He still owns Browns' records for most consecutive field goals
made (27) and most field goals in a game (six).
Throughout his time with the Browns, he
was a not only a star, but a prominent face and representative of the
franchise. He was voted the 2012 Browns Player of the Year by the local
Professional Football Writers Association (PFWA) chapter and
concluded his overall career by signing a one-day contract for a celebratory
retirement with Cleveland in 2019.
Among the many accolades of his career,
Dawson earned second-team All-Pro honors twice (2007 and 2012) and a spot on
the Pro Bowl roster in 2012. He earned AFC or NFC Player of the Week honors
eight times and was tabbed the 49ers Bill Walsh Award winner as the team MVP
after making 24-of-27 field-goal attempts in 2016.
Following
his playing days, Dawson has gone on to a successful career in coaching. He
first became the special teams coordinator at Lipscomb Academy in Nashville in
2020-21, and is now in his first year as head coach and assistant athletics
director at Hyde Park Schools in Austin where he began this January.
At all of
his stops along the way, Dawson has maintained deep ties to civic and community
involvement. At Texas, he was active in the community and as a member of the UT
and national collegiate Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) program,
regularly sharing his story and message with local and regional church groups
and organizations.
Dawson
has been active in every NFL community he's played in, but particularly
Cleveland where he founded the "Dawson's 4 Adoption" season ticket
program which provided tickets, apparel and food for the Adoption Network
Cleveland organization. He was tabbed the 2006 Ed Block Courage Award winner by
his teammates (Cleveland Touchdown Club) and the 2006 winner of the Doug Dieken
Humanitarian Award for his charitable and community efforts, recognized by the
Cleveland Touchdown Club. The following year, he was voted the 2007 Dino
Lucarelli "Good Guy" Award honoree by the local Cleveland PFWA.
His wife, Shannon, is an accomplished
singer who has sung the National Anthem prior to Browns' home games, toured
with Wayne Newton from 1992-94 and sang at George W. Bush's Inauguration after
he was elected Governor of Texas in 1994. They have two sons, Dru and
Beau, and a daughter, Sophiann.
By Childs Walker |
December 2, 2022
Three years.
Marshal Yanda, ever
the pragmatist, thought that would be a pretty fair NFL run for a guy from
Anamosa, Iowa, with “marginal foot quickness” and a “lack of power” in the
words of pro scouts.
“You don’t really
know how fast that goes,” he said, thinking back to those days.
After 13 NFL seasons
for the Ravens, during which he watched many a prospect come and go, Yanda
knows well how unlikely he was to have the career did.
Of the 35 players drafted in the third round in 2007,
only 18 became starters for even one season. Of those, exactly one other,
Yanda’s eventual teammate, Jacoby Jones, made a Pro Bowl. Yanda made eight, and
on Sunday, he’ll become the 11th Ravens player to join the Ring of Honor at
M&T Bank Stadium.
“I just got my hair
cut and I was talking to my hair lady,” Yanda said on the phone from his native
Iowa. “And I was like, ‘Listen, I was a junior college transfer, so for me to
go from that to a Ring of Honor inductee, it’s unbelievable.’ I unlocked
potential inside of me that I had no idea I had.”
So how did this farm
boy, who didn’t even bother fantasizing about the NFL when he was toiling
anonymously at North Iowa Area Community College, become the one to defy those
long odds?
It’s a story of discipline and toughness built over
childhood days working the harvest but also of an innate feel for football and of the luck
required to land on a team overflowing with professional role models.
“Football was the No.
1 goal in my life,” he said. “The more success I had, the more I wanted to be a
better player.”
Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz wasn’t the least bit surprised
when Yanda outperformed his draft slot. He’d watched him do it before.
“He kind of recruited
us,” he recalled. “We looked at his tape and it was good but not ‘wow.’”
When the young
transfer showed up, he didn’t exactly blow Ferentz’s staff away. He did not
have prototype size or strength, and he moved, kind of awkwardly? It wasn’t
until they strapped on pads and started crashing bodies that Ferentz realized
what he had.
“He went from being a guy I thought we might end up
redshirting to, at the end of the week, this guy might be our best lineman,” he
said.
Ferentz assumed the
same revelation would strike coaches in Baltimore, where he’d worked before he
took the Iowa job: “When I talked to scouts, I just told them that: ‘You’ll get
him in the out-of-season program when he’ll be in shorts and he’ll be OK. But
three days after you start practicing football, the line coach will come down
the hall and thank you.’ That’s his strength, just playing football.”
Chris Foerster, the
Ravens’ offensive line coach at the time, recalled Greg Roman, then his
assistant, traveling to Iowa to work out Yanda and reporting that the kid
repeatedly tripped over bags set up for an agility drill.
“Marshal wasn’t a
cone-drill guy,” said Foerster, who now coaches for the San Francisco 49ers.
“But that’s where Eric DeCosta, Ozzie [Newsome], all those guys through the
years have done such a good job: finding the right kind of guy. That’s what
Yanda was.”
Yanda, always
practical, did not fully believe he was an NFL prospect until he received an
invite to the Senior Bowl. He knew 90% of players selected for the postseason
showcase made a pro roster the following fall.
Still, he was the
third-most-hyped rookie lineman on the Ravens behind first-round pick Ben
Grubbs and mammoth tackle Jared Gaither. When he walked into the locker room,
his jaw dropped at the awesome stature of left tackle Jonathan Ogden, who’d
made the Pro Bowl 10 years in a row. Yanda, six inches shorter with
comparatively stubby arms, knew he couldn’t be that.
But what could he
pick up from these grown men who’d cracked the code of NFL success?
He watched Ogden
fine-tune his pass sets, even as the future Hall of Fame tackle came down to the
last weeks of his career, slowed by an ailing toe. He noted how outside
linebacker Terrell Suggs (and later center Matt Birk) seemed impervious to the
grinding pressure of the NFL. Middle linebacker Ray Lewis, as accomplished and
brash as Yanda was unsung and understated, taught him what it meant to work at
the game seven days a week.
Ravens offensive lineman Marshal Yanda heads to the locker room during the regular-season finale against the Steelers in 2019. On Sunday, the eight-time Pro Bowl selection will become the 11th Ravens player to join the Ring of Honor at M&T Bank Stadium. (Kenneth K. Lam)
“He was calm, he was
collected, he was never late, he never missed a meeting. Football was No. 1,”
Yanda recalled. “On Sundays, I could trust these guys. When it comes down to
it, your actions are going to be exposed. So if you aren’t doing things the
right way, you’re going to be exposed on the main stage.”
To this day, he
sounds irritated when describing the (unnamed) teammates who did not care as
much.
Yanda started the
first game of his rookie season, at tackle, because Ogden sprained his foot. By
his own contemporary assessment, he was “pretty bad,” with a pair of false
starts and a holding penalty.
Foerster saw a player
who was in over his head at times, who couldn’t demonstrate a perfect
pass-block set to save his life, but who found ways to succeed regardless.
“His start was
rough,” he said. “Not rough in that he played poorly; he played well. But he
had to figure it out, playing out of position as a rookie for a team that, at
that point, we weren’t very good.”
He noticed a quality
that Ferentz also mentioned: Even if Yanda was off-balance or confused on a
play, he always hunted for a defender to eliminate. “I remember a game, we were
on the sideline in Buffalo, and I said, ‘Marshal, I’m trying to figure out, did
you pick up this guy or that guy?’” Foerster said. “And he said, ‘Coach, I’ve
got to be honest; I just saw a whole bunch of them coming, and I picked one out
and blocked him.’”
And of course,
there’s the Taser story: Pro Bowl cornerback Chris McAlister showed up with the
shocking device and $500 for any teammate who would take a jolt. No one
immediately stepped forward, so the pot grew to $600, at which point Yanda
grabbed the Taser and shocked himself not once but twice. John Harbaugh, who
coached Yanda for 12 of his 13 seasons, referenced this episode recently when asked
what set him apart.
“That’s a guy who’s got a future in this league,” Harbaugh said, chuckling. “Especially at offensive guard.”
Ravens offensive lineman Marshal Yanda smiles during practice at
the team's training facility on June 11, 2019. “Football was the No. 1 goal in
my life,” he said. “The more success I had, the more I wanted to be a better player.”
(Karl Merton Ferron / Baltimore Sun)
Even so, Yanda hardly
took off like a rocket. He played in all 16 games and started 12 that first
season. But he tore up his knee the next year, and he had to jump back to right
tackle — a position where he held his own but never felt he had the physical
stature to dominate — to cover a roster hole in 2010. Not until his fifth
season, 2011, did he settle in at right guard and begin his long run of Pro
Bowl appearances.
“I really got
addicted to being the best I could be,” he said, recalling the rigid offseason
fitness plans, the refinements he made to his technique, the adjustments, such
as the shift he made to the left side in the middle of the 2016 season to
protect his damaged left shoulder. He never wanted to be “put out to pasture”
because he had left some stone unturned.
Somewhere in that
post-2011 span, Yanda
became the model for young linemen who walked into the Ravens locker room or
into the weight room at Iowa, where he still worked out in the offseason. They
noted the way he tried to make every practice repetition perfect, the way he
set a personal best in the back squat during his penultimate season, when he
was 34 years old, coming off shoulder surgery and an ankle fracture.
“His Pro Bowl jersey was up in our O-line room, and there
was a picture of him,” said Ravens center Tyler Linderbaum, who arrived at Iowa
more than a decade after Yanda left. “If any Iowa linemen are mentioned, he’s
one of the first to come up. We all kind of knew how he operated.”
Foerster said Yanda would be on the dream starting five
of linemen he’s coached, with 2009 Hall of Fame selection Randall McDaniel at
left guard, Ogden and current 49ers star Trent Williams at the tackles. “You get in the
club by having enough talent,” he said. “Once you’re in the club, how do you
become one of the best? That’s by who you are and how you work and how you
prepare and what you do when adversity strikes. A guy like Marshal wasn’t going
to come out and have instant success. It was going to be a grind.”
What does Yanda say
to an Iowa kid who’s walking the same steps he did 15 years ago, aspiring to
the same improbable future?
“I keep it simple for
them,” he said. “I grew up on a farm, where work ethic was a way of life. So I
tell them you have to work extremely hard for things you want in life. Every
human has choices to make every single day; you have to make the right ones.
And then discipline, which is doing that stuff when you don’t want to, 365 days
a year. Do you really want to do this? Then, this is what it takes.”
