LYNCHBURG, Va. — Ralph Wilson, better known as “Chopper” at the Ninth Street Parlor, just finished giving Liberty University football coach Hugh Freeze a shave and haircut. The 56-year-old barber wanted the coach to look especially good for what he insisted was the biggest day this town, best known as the home of television evangelist Jerry Falwell Sr., has seen in his lifetime.
Maybe ever.
“It’s going to blow,” Chopper said late Monday afternoon. “MAAA-an, it’s going to blow!”
Chopper was talking about pro day at Liberty University, which, until Tuesday, barely drew a blip on the NFL radar. Instead of the typical eight to 10 scouts, barely enough to run the wide assortment of drills, 120 NFL coaches, scouts and front office personnel will be on campus.
Instead of having one or two players hopeful of being a late-round pick or an undrafted pickup, 19 will be on display.
All 32 NFL teams will be represented, but some more than others. The Carolina Panthers, who have the No. 6 overall pick and are looking for a quarterback, will be out in full force with general manager Scott Fitterer, head coach Matt Rhule, offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo and others, just as they were on Monday in Pittsburgh for quarterback Kenny Pickett.
ESPN and NFL Network will do live shows from the campus outlined by the Blue Ridge Mountains.
They’re will all here because of one player: senior quarterback Malik Willis, whose never-before-seen-talent in these parts has put Liberty on the NFL map in ways few, if any, ever imagined.
Even the city manager has called offering assistance.
“I don’t think I can quantify [what this day means],” Freeze said. “I just know it’s huge.”
‘This is monumental’
The school has spent weeks preparing for the pro day, an event they barely invested a few days in the past. Chopper, who half-jokingly claims he looks like a combination of Magic Johnson and George Foreman, says it’s all people in the parlor have talked about since it became apparent Willis could be a first-round pick —
• “It’s an unprecedented brand-building opportunity,” McCaw said.
• Ranks: Between spring practice and preparing for pro day, Freeze had little time to relax the past month. Chopper took care of that for about an hour and a half in his barber’s chair. “He was just snoring,” he said. Tuesday was wide open, beginning with check-ins at 9 a.m. and weight room testing at 10 a.m. The schedule calls for Willis, who led Liberty to a 17-6 record while passing for for 5,107 yards and 47 touchdowns in two seasons, not to perform until 1 p.m. so he didn’t steal the spotlight early. But Willis, considered undersize at 6-foot and 225 pounds, will steal the spotlight on draft day. The Panthers are looking at him as a possibility, just as they are Pickett. They are searching for a franchise quarterback after failing to make a trade last week for the
INDIANAPOLIS – One league executive at the NFL combine said the Carolina Panthers are a “sh– show’’ with three straight five-win seasons, a quarterback situation that is a mess and a coach who hasn’t gotten a public vote of support from owner David Tepper.
Others wonder if there is a shift of power with Matt Rhule being one of five head coaches who didn’t have a formal podium interview, while general manager Scott Fitterer did.
Amidst all the uncertainty surrounding the Panthers, one thing is clear: They have to figure out the quarterback position to turn things around and give Rhule an opportunity to coach beyond the 2022 season.
And that won’t be easy.
“There’s a lot of teams looking,’’ Cincinnati Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin told ESPN.com. “And there’s not enough elite guys to go around, and that’s something that everybody is keenly aware of.
“There’s a lot of good quarterbacks to go around, but finding the elite one is very difficult.’’
Tobin got an elite quarterback in Joe Burrow, the top pick of the 2020 draft out of LSU, who, in two years, took the Bengals from one of the worst teams in the NFL to the Super Bowl.
Carolina doesn’t have the luxury this year of having the top pick or a quarterback class with the immediate star appeal the past two drafts did. The free-agent crop isn’t stellar, either.
And the likelihood that the At best, it appears Newton would be a role player and not a long-term solution.
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Alaina GetzenbergESPN
INDIANAPOLIS — Mitchell Trubisky signed a one-year deal with the Buffalo Bills to reset his career after four years in the spotlight with the Chicago Bears.
But the Bills are being realistic about the quarterback’s future, understanding that he’s likely to get an opportunity to compete for a starting role as opposed to returning for another year as Josh Allen’s backup.
“I think it’s unrealistic to think that we’re going to be able to have him back,” coach Sean McDermott said at the NFL Scouting Combine. “But I want him to go on and do great things for him and his family, which I know he’s going to do.”
Trubisky, 27, only saw the field in 2021 once the Bills games were out of reach, but the second overall pick from the 2017 draft was able to learn from Allen and the coaching staff, including now-New York Giants coach Brian Daboll.
“It’s hard to handle a situation where you’re coming from basically a career starter to being a backup. That’s a totally different dynamic,” McDermott said. “When somebody else is in front of the microphone a couple lockers down from yours, I thought Mitch Trubisky handled that extremely well, as good as anybody could have handled it.”
In his four seasons with the Bears, Trubisky started 50 games finishing with a 29-21 record. He has completed 64.1% of his careerpasses with 64 touchdowns to 38 interceptions.
He found success in the Bills’ preseason game against the Bears in 2021, finishing 20 of 28 for 221 yards and a passing touchdown.
“[Trubisky’s] a marry your daughter type of guy,” general manager Brandon Beane said. “… The whole year was ready if his number was called. Fortunately, Josh stayed healthy, but I got nothing but positive things for him, and I feel sure he’s going to get a good opportunity to at least compete for a starting job this year.”
Beane noted that the criticism of Trubisky is higher because of where he has picked and because of what other quarterbacks in his class have done, “just was never going be able to live up to some of the things that [Patrick] Mahomes, [Deshaun] Watson and some of those guys did.”
As for the Bills, Allen is currently the only quarterback under contract for 2022 and Beane said that he will look at all potential avenues to find the right backup.
“I want Peyton Manning or somebody like that if you got him,” Beane said. “But in all seriousness, yeah, I mean, that’s an important position. … We’re going to look high and low.”
Browns wide receiver Jarvis Landry tweeted Tuesday that he would “like to stay” in Cleveland, but added that he is confident he can still be a contributor for another team in “winning a championship.”
Landry struggled with injuries throughout the 2021 season, beginning with, as he noted in the Twitter thread, a Week 2 knee sprain.
3/3 I have put the ball in CLE court by telling them I would like to stay but if not then I’m confident enough in myself to be a better healthy me this year and moving forward to helping do my part in winning a championship elsewhere.
— Jarvis Juice Landry (@God_Son80) February 22, 2022
He finished the season with 52 catches while playing in 12 games. Landry had just 570 yards receiving with only two receiving touchdowns.
Landry did not interview with reporters through the team the rest of the season following wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr.’s release in early November. Landry and Beckham are close friends dating back to their time together playing at LSU.
On Twitter, Landry explained why he stayed silent as the Browns struggled down the stretch on the way to an 8-9 finish, saying he was “focused on getting on the field as healthy as possible during the week and after games.”
Landry is not a free agent but has no guaranteed money left on his deal.