D2 EZ M2 THE WASHINGTON POST.WEDNESDAY, JULY 31 , 2019
BY MIKE RENNERPart of what makes the NFL such an
entertaining league is the annual
turnover. Teams go from division
champs to the cellar and vice versa
almost every year. Several teams have
gotten buzz during the offseason and
are expecting big improvements, such
as the Cleveland Browns and the Green
Bay Packers, but there are two teams —
one in each conference — that have
flown under the radar despite high-
impact roster changes. Here are two
sleeper playoff teams for the 2019
season:AFC: Jacksonville Jaguars
It cannot be understated how crucial
a change at quarterback can be.
Although Nick Foles isn’t likely to
maintain his form from the
Philadelphia Eagles’ Super Bowl run a
couple of years ago, he is an upgrade
over Jacksonville’s signal callers from
last season. The Jaguars’ quarterback
group combined for a 60.9 passing
grade on Pro Football Focus’s 0-to-100
scale — the seventh-worst team
passing grade in the NFL.
Jacksonville defenders will be
thankful for Foles’s ability to avoid
negative plays. Only 2.1 percent of his
dropbacks over the past two seasons
have resulted in turnover-worthy
plays, the eighth-best rate in the NFL.
While that will make things easier for
the defense, Foles’s ability to avoid
sacks should please Coach DougMarrone. Foles was sacked only 22
times out of 176 pressured dropbacks —
a 12.5 percent conversion rate that was
second best in the NFL and much
better than Jacksonville passers Blake
Bortles (18.3 percent) and Cody Kessler
(a league-worst 40.3 percent).
While Foles may not single-handedly
win games for the Jaguars, he won’t
single-handedly lose them the way
their quarterbacks have in recent
years. With most of the defensive talent
that led a run to the AFC championship
game two years ago still on the roster,
plus the No. 7 draft pick in outside
linebacker Josh Allen, the Jaguars
should be a contender again.NFC: Tampa Bay Buccaneers
It can be difficult to quantify
coaching impact with advanced
metrics, but the win-loss records say
good things about former Cardinals
coach and new Bucs leader Bruce
Arians. He went 49-30-1 in Arizona
despite starting the likes of Drew
Stanton (13 games), Blaine Gabbert
(five) and Ryan Lindley (two) under
center for 20 games when Carson
Palmer was out. The year after Arians
left, Arizona stumbled to a 3-13 record.Not only does Arians have a proven
track record, his offensive scheme is a
perfect fit for quarterback Jameis
Winston. Arians’s approach as a head
coach and offensive coordinator has
been a straightforward running game
mixed with a downfield passing attack.
In Palmer’s near-MVP campaign of
2015, the quarterback averaged a
league-leading 11.9-yard depth of
target.
Arians schemed Palmer consistent
opportunities to push the ball deep
over the middle, an area Winston loves
to attack. In that 2015 season, 1,324 of
Palmer’s 4,671 yards came on throws
targeted 10 or more yards downfield
between the numbers — the most in the
NFL. Since Winston entered the league
in 2015, he ranks second on those
throws, even though he made only nine
starts last season. Now Winston gets to
pilot an offense that is perfectly
tailored to where he wants to attack,
with a receiving corps that features two
players who excel at going deep and
over the middle: Chris Godwin and
Mike Evans.
There are no excuses for Winston in
his fifth season in the league, and the
pressure is on him to prove he is worth
a long-term contract.
Given that this situation is set up
well for him, he’ll have no excuses.
Expect a career year out of him, and
watch out for Tampa Bay as a surprise
playoff contender in the competitive
NFC South.
[email protected]QUOTABLE“I know I need to do my
rehab just like I did
when I was recovering
from injuries playing
baseball.... Big Papi
will be back soon.”
DAVID ORTIZ,
in a statement following his release
from the hospital after being shotPRO FOOTBALL — ANALYSISDon’t sleep on Bucs or Jaguars
WIZARDSBY CANDACE BUCKNERAs the Washington Wizards
continue evolving toward their
vision of a more modern NBA
franchise, the team on Tuesday
named Johnny Rogers, a former
player and general manager in
European leagues, to the newly
created position of vice presi-
dent of pro personnel, according
to a person with knowledge of
the situation.
Rogers, who spent the past
three seasons as director of pro
player personnel for the Los
Angeles Clippers, brings an ex-
tensive international back-
ground to the Wizards. He spent
the majority of his playing ca-
reer in Spain, Italy and Greece
and suited up for the Spanish
national team during the 2000
Olympics. Upon retiring in
2004, Rogers remained well-
known in international circles.
He has scouted for the Okla-
homa City Thunder and provid-
ed color commentary for Euro-
League games.
In adding Rogers, the Wiz-
ards plan to treat free agency as
a year-long process similar to
how the team prepares for the
NBA draft. The new pro person-
nel staff ’s work will resemble
the work done by college scouts,
who spend the season preparing
for the draft. The staff will travel
to NBA and G League games as
well as international matchups.
With Rogers’s expertise in scout-
ing, he will strengthen the
team’s handle on international
players.
“We’re not tethered to an NBA
model where you can only do
this, this and this and you can
only spend this,” new general
manager Tommy Sheppard said
recently.
Rogers’s time with the Clip-
pers also has a clear connection
to the Wizards and Monumental
Basketball, Ted Leonsis’s recon-
structed organization. Leonsis
has expressed admiration for
the Clippers’ model of collabora-
tion from owner Steve Ballmer
to the many executives.
“If you look around the NBA
right now, the team that is doing
that in I think a good way and
we hope to also be seen that way
is the Clippers,” Leonsis said
before the official announce-
ment of Monumental Basket-
ball.
“Where they have a Steve
Ballmer, and he has brought in a
great coach, he has presidents,
he has general managers. He’s
got a brain trust, and that was
very appealing to me because,
again, it was many hands make
light work.”
[email protected]Rogers
added to
revamped
front o∞ce
BY CINDY BORENNearly 40 golfers missed their
Women’s British Open practice
rounds Monday, all because Lexi
Thompson’s misplaced passport
bizarrely delayed the arrival of
their clubs.
Thompson’s clubs had been
packed into a van along with bags
belonging to others for the nearly
12-hour drive from France, where
the Evian Championship took
place last week, to Woburn Golf
Club outside London. Ian Wright,
the former caddie for the late
Seve Ballesteros, was about 45
minutes out of Geneva when he
received a call shortly after 8 p.m.
Sunday informing him that
Thompson’s passport, which she
needed to fly from Geneva, was in
her bag. The solution was for him
to wait for her caddie, Benji
Thompson, who was taking a cab
to rendezvous with Wright.
“I think I might have
screamed,” Wright told the Golf
Channel, explaining that he un-
packed about half the vehicle.
“That van was packed to the hilt.
A mouse couldn’t have found
room to live in there.” The blun-
der caused a three-hour delay
that forced Wright to drive all
night and miss a ferry to England.
He arrived at the course around 5
p.m., too late because officials
wanted to work on the course.
“Forgetting her passport, that
was an honest mistake,” Thomp-
son’s agent, Bobby Kreusler, said.
“And she had no idea retrieving it
would cause the delay it did, or
that it would impact other play-
ers the way it did. She would
never have wanted that.”
Thompson also missed prac-
tice because a British Airways
strike caused a cancellation of
her flight and she didn’t arrive as
she had planned, which meant
she wasn’t around to comment
on a blunder that punished so
much of the field.
“I don’t know why the driver
would agree to accommodate one
person knowing it would punish
about a third of the field,” golfer
Ryann O’Toole said. “The driver
should have said, ‘Hey, I’ve got to
get these clubs to Woburn. If you
want the passport, somebody’s
going to have to fly there to get it
and bring it back.’”
[email protected]
GOLF
Thompson’s
missing
passport
creates mess
CHRIS O'MEARA/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tampa Bay hired Coach Bruce Arians to guide Jameis Winston and the Buccaneers to their first playoffs since 2007.Tampa Bay and Jacksonville
are two teams that could
break through this seasonwashingtonpost.com/sports
TRACK AND FIELD
Semenya is blocked
from defense of 800
Switzerland’s highest court
ruled Tuesday that two-time
Olympic gold medalist Caster
Semenya must immediately
follow rules passed by track’s
governing body that would
require her to undergo hormone
therapy to compete in certain
women’s track events, reversing
previous rulings that allowed her
to compete pending her appeal.
The latest decision will prevent
the 28-year-old South African
from defending her world title in
the 800 meters at September’s
world championships in Qatar,
according to her legal team.
In May, the Court of
Arbitration for Sport sided with
the International Association of
Athletics Federations, upholding
the organization’s rule that put a
cap on permissible testosterone
levels for select track and field
events. The rule requires any
female athletes whose natural
testosterone levels exceed a
certain threshold to lower their
levels, holding that naturally
elevated testosterone levels
constitute an impermissible
competitive advantage.
Switzerland’s Federal Supreme
Court last month suspended that
rule, allowing Semenya to
continue competing without
using medication to lower her
testosterone levels. But a single
judge on the Swiss Federal
Supreme Court this week
reversed prior rulings, according
to Semenya’s legal team, with the
court ruling that “the strict
requirements and high
thresholds for the interim
suspension of CAS awards...
were not fulfilled,” according to
Semenya’s representatives.
“I am very disappointed to be
kept from defending my hard-
earned title, but this will not deter
me from continuing my fight for
the human rights of all of the
female athletes concerned,”
Semenya said in a news release.
— Jacob BogagePRO BASKETBALL
Portland Trail Blazers guard CJ
McCollum agreed to a three-year,
$100 million contract extension,
extending his current deal to five
years and $157 million, his agent,
Sam Goldfeder of Excel Sports,
told ESPN.
The new deal will start with the
2021-22 season.
McCollum became eligible for
the extension Saturday and joinsall-NBA teammate Damian
Lillard in landing summer deals
that solidify the Blazers’
backcourt into the mid-2020s....
In Uncasville, Conn., Jonquel
Jones had 27 points and 11
rebounds, and the WNBA’s
Connecticut Sun held off the
Chicago Sky, 100-94, for its fifth
straight win....
Tamera Young scored a
season-high 18 points, and the
Las Vegas Aces beat the visiting
Dallas Wings, 86-54.SOCCER
Pia Sundhage of Sweden took
over as the coach of Brazil’s
women’s national team with a
promise of change, but not a
radical overhaul.
Brazilian soccer confederation
head Rogério Caboclo
introduced Sundhage, 59, to
reporters and staff in Rio de
Janeiro.
Sundhage said she signed a
two-year deal with a possible
extension for the 2023 World Cup.
Sundhage won Olympic gold
medals as coach of the United
States in 2008 and 2012 and silver
with Sweden in 2016.
She is the first foreigner to
coach Brazil’s team. Her first
major challenge will be at next
year’s Tokyo Olympics.Sundhage replaces Oswaldo
Alvarez, who was fired after
almost two years in charge.COLLEGES
Eight home games, a trip to the
Cayman Islands and a road
matchup at Maryland will
highlight the 2019-20 George
Mason men’s basketball
nonconference schedule.
The Patriots, who will open the
season with five straight home
games, including against Navy on
Nov. 5, will visit Maryland on Nov.
22 for their first road game.
George Mason also will face
Old Dominion on Nov. 25 in the
Cayman Islands Classic....
Connecticut Coach Randy
Edsall said linebacker Eli
Thomas won’t return to football
after suffering a stroke last
season. The senior had been
working on his rehabilitation
since having a stroke last October
before a weightlifting session.MISC.
Chris Kunitz announced his
retirement after winning four
Stanley Cup titles in 15 NHL
seasons. Kunitz, 39, who is
joining the Chicago Blackhawks’
front office, had 268 goals and 351
assists in 1,022 NHL games with
Anaheim, Pittsburgh, Atlanta,Tampa Bay and Chicago....
The Minnesota Wild fired
general manager Paul Fenton
after just one rough season,
marked by the end of a six-year
streak of making the playoffs....
The Ryder Cup will return to
Ireland for the first time since- Ryder Cup Europe
announced the 2026 matches will
be at Adare Manor in County
Limerick. Europe defeated the
United States, 18^1 / 2 -9^1 / 2 , at The K
Club outside Dublin in 2006.
— From news services
and staff reports
DIGEST
TELEVISION AND RADIO
MLB
Noon Atlanta at Washington » MASN, WJFK (106.7 FM), WFED (1500 AM)
8 p.m. Chicago Cubs at St. Louis » ESPN
11 p.m. Milwaukee at Oakland » MLB Network (joined in progress)
TENNIS
1 p.m. ATP/WTA: Citi Open; WTA: Silicon Valley Classic, early rounds »
Tennis Channel
11:30 p.m. ATP: Abierto Mexicano de Tenis Mifel, early rounds » Tennis Channel
SWIMMING
8 p.m. U.S. championships: Day 1 » NBC Sports Network
WNBA
7 p.m. Atlanta at Indiana » CBS Sports Network
SOCCER
2:30 p.m. Club friendly: Arsenal at Angers SCO » beIN Sports
6:15 p.m. Copa Libertadores, round of 16: Internacional vs. Nacional » beIN Sports
8 p.m. MLS All-Star Game: MLS All-Stars vs. Atletico Madrid » Fox Sports 1
8:30 p.m. Copa Libertadores, round of 16: Emelec at Flamengo »beIN Sports
ATHLETICS
5:30 p.m. Pan American Games: Day 8 » ESPNU
7 p.m. Pan American Games: Day 8 » ESPNU
HIGH SCHOOL SOCCER
Noon All-America Showcase, girls’ final » ESPNU
2:30 p.m. All-America Showcase, boys’ final » ESPNU
HORSE RACING
9 a.m. Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series: Qatar Sussex Stakes »
NBC Sports NetworkNew VP of pro personnel
has experience overseas
and with Clippers