The Las Vegas Raiders are finalizing an agreement with veteran cornerback Prince Amukamara, a source told ESPN’s Dan Graziano.
Amukamara, who has started 99 games in his career, should compete for a starting job with Las Vegas at best and provide much-needed experience and depth at cornerback at the very least.
The Raiders return Trayvon Mullen, who started the last 10 games of his rookie season last year, and used a first-round draft pick, No. 19 overall, on Ohio State cornerback Damon Arnette and a fourth-round pick on slot corner Amik Robertson.
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Amukamara, who turns 31 on June 6, was released by the Chicago Bears on Feb. 21, as he was entering the final season of his three-year, $27 million extension signed in 2018. His cap hit was to be $8 million.
Amukamara spent three seasons with the Bears, appearing in 44 of 48 games with 42 starts, and had three interceptions (all in 2018), 29 passes defended, three forced fumbles, a recovery and a defensive touchdown.
In nine NFL seasons, he has 476 tackles and 10 interceptions.
A first-round draft pick of the New York Giants in 2011, he was part of their Super Bowl team in his rookie year. He also spent a season with the Jacksonville Jaguars before joining the Bears in 2017.
Raiders general manager Mike Mayock acknowledged before the draft that the Raiders needed to address the position, especially after an offseason agreement with free-agent cornerback Eli Apple fell through.
“We feel like we got a bunch of talented young kids that we don’t know enough about yet,” Mayock said. “Trayvon played really well the second half of the season. We believe that he’s going to be a starter for years to come. Isaiah Johnson was a fourth-round pick, a former wide receiver with all kinds of physical skill set. We love his traits. He got hurt early, we brought him back late. He’s a guy we can’t wait to see play. Keisean Nixon was a free agent out of South Carolina who made the team and played well on special teams. He’s a really competitive young man. And Dylan Mabin is another kid out of Fordham who got hurt and didn’t get a chance to show what he can do.
“So, we’ve got four or five young corners who we’re kind of intrigued by. Now, do we think that we need to get better there? Yeah.”
You could draw three stripes – yellow, blue, white – and every soccer fan on the planet would instantly know what they represent. The five-time World Cup winners first donned their iconic kit in 1954 following the national tragedy that was a home defeat to Uruguay at the 1950 World Cup in all-white attire. A newspaper ran a contest to design a new strip for the national team that needed to incorporate all four colors of Brazil’s flag: green, yellow, blue, and white. A 19-year old illustrator won the prize, in part thanks to his genius idea to use green merely as trim on the yellow shirts.
39. Portland Trail Blazers (1990s)
Nathaniel S. Butler / National Basketball Association / Getty
The Blazers’ diagonal jersey stripe debuted in the ’70s but was perfected in the ’90s. The fluidity of the design running down the side of the shorts is magnificent work, and the pinwheel logo on the opposite leg, along with a bolder wordmark than in years past, created a uniform that never needs to be altered.
38. Real Madrid (2011-12)
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The panache and glamor of Real Madrid live vicariously through their all-white kits. Owning perhaps the most iconic look in all of Europe on a year-to-year basis, Los Blancos’ style peaked in 2011-12 with a look that featured collars and gold trim. Really, though, pick any given year and you’ll find one of the cleanest and classiest home kits in all of footy.
37. Miami Dolphins (1970s)
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Not only did the Dolphins produce a perfect season in 1972, but they also owned perfect uniforms. The aqua and orange combo sparkles to this day, but the prime years of Miami’s franchise and uniforms also featured the ideal jersey and sock stripes, along with a cartoonish yet brilliant helmet logo. It’s no wonder today’s Dolphins are showered with praise any time they break out their ’70s throwbacks.
36. St. Louis Blues (1970s)
Denis Brodeur / National Hockey League / Getty
After joining the NHL in the league’s first wave of expansion in 1967, the Blues opened eyes by making the Stanley Cup Final in each of their first three seasons. They also made an immediate impact by looking incredible as soon as they took the ice, donning uniforms that rivaled those in the “Original 6.” St. Louis’ blue was unique compared to those of the Maple Leafs, Rangers, and Canadiens back in the day, and the dull yellow complemented it exquisitely. Shifting to darker shades is a decision we wish the Blues never made.
35. Penn State football (current)
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It’s difficult to conceive of a more simple uniform than the Nittany Lions’ white stripeless pants, navy blue stripeless home jerseys, and logo-less white helmets adorned with a single navy stripe. In this case, simplicity is pretty close to perfection.
34. Netherlands (2016)
Dean Mouhtaropoulos / Getty Images Sport / Getty
The flag of the Netherlands is red, white, and blue, but the Dutch aren’t counted among the too-long list of sports teams donning those three colors. Instead, they’ve carved out perhaps the most unique and famous look in international sports by wearing the colors of the House of Orange, the Dutch Royal Family. The throngs of orange-clad fans who follow the Netherlands’ national soccer teams create a home stadium atmosphere anywhere on the planet.
33. Kansas City Chiefs (current)
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Full credit to the Chiefs for never entertaining the idea of redesigning their traditional uniforms, as tempting as it may have been, over the decades that passed between their Super Bowl appearances. Now, with the best football player alive donning red and yellow, the Chiefs’ classic look has a new sheen. Those bright colors really pop under the September sun in Arrowhead, but they also look great on a snowy Sunday night in January.
32. Vegas Golden Knights (current)
Mike Stobe / National Hockey League / Getty
The Golden Knights needed to make a splash with their identity as Sin City’s first professional franchise. And as if making the Stanley Cup Final in their expansion season wasn’t enough, they also happened to settle on a perfect contemporary design. Vegas opted for granite, gold, white, and a clever dash of red. The use of white gloves with the road uniforms was a phenomenal touch, one that bucked the conservative nature that consistently holds hockey back.
31. Toronto Blue Jays (1990s)
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The Blue Jays’ digs are sharp today, but the original look that provided the inspiration for Toronto’s current uniforms was even better. The tri-color hat is an all-time classic, and the use of baby blue in the logo and stripes is a style forever immortalized thanks to the club’s back-to-back World Series titles in the early ’90’s.
CINCINNATI — Before new Cincinnati Bengals assistant Steve Jackson flipped on his computer’s camera, he needed to get into character.
He put on a pair of black-rimmed glasses and reached into his closet for a plaid, multicolor sport coat, one that looks like it belongs at a country club instead of a virtual meeting with the team’s defensive backs.
Even if he looked like a game show host, he was still a football coach. And despite the inability to see players in person, coaching still needed to be done.
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The managerial landscape is rife with uncertainty given the pushed-back timelines of the domestic league seasons, but there was heavy speculation prior to the hiatus that Diego Simeone could leave his post as Atletico Madrid manager this summer.
Simeone has been at the club since 2011 and, in that time, established himself as one of the best managers in world football, leading the club to one La Liga title, two Europa League triumphs, and a pair of Champions League runner-up medals.
Should he decide to depart, his successor would have massive shoes to fill.
MANAGER
ODDS
Jose Bordalas
+200
Marcelino
+600
Mauricio Pochettino
+750
Ernesto Valverde
+750
Rafa Benitez
+1200
Massimiliano Allegri
+2000
Imanol Alguacil
+2000
Nuno Espirito Santo
+2500
Gabi
+3300
Quique Sanchez Flores
+3300
Luis Enrique
+3300
Antonio Conte
+5000
Laurent Blanc
+5000
Jose Mourinho
+6600
Joachim Low
+8000
Pep Guardiola
+15000
Jose Bordalas
There’s a reason Bordalas is the clear favorite on the oddsboard. The 56-year-old shares a remarkable likeness to Simeone in both personality and tactics. They’re both incredibly passionate, fiery individuals who demand a lot from their squad while adopting a practical approach to its playing styles.
Bordalas manages just down the road in Madrid, where he’s been since 2016, guiding Getafe up from the second division. The club is in the midst of another terrific campaign, as it is into the last-16 of the Europa League and was tied for fourth place in La Liga when the season was suspended, giving it a real shot at Champions League qualification. Bordalas built the club up in his own image and did so brilliantly, leaving little doubt he would experience immediate success at the Wanda Metropolitano should Atleti come knocking.
Mauricio Pochettino
Wouldn’t it be something if Atletico swapped one Argentine for another? Simeone and Pochettino played together with the national team back in the day and know each other quite well. The former Tottenham boss has expressed a desire to manage in Spain and would bring the sort of pedigree and experience to the club that supporters would appreciate.
Of course, the former Spurs gaffer would bring with him a clear shift in styles. Pochettino’s teams play a possession-based, attack-minded style, while Simeone’s Atletico are a lot more comfortable playing deeper and hitting back on the counter.
There’s no reason to think Atletico would be against a shift, but the main hurdle here is the competition they would face for his signature. Pochettino is arguably the most in-demand manager available, with Real Madrid and Newcastle among the clubs after his services. Could Atleti find a way to beat out the others and lure him to the Wanda Metropolitano?
Nuno Espirito Santo
Exactly as Bordalas has done with Getafe, Nuno has built up Wolves in his image, bringing them from the English Championship up to the Premier League. The club is a leg away from the Europa League quarterfinals and competing for a top-four league finish. His achievements with Wolves have been nothing short of outstanding, and there’s no question he’s deserving of a job of this stature.
He’s got experience managing in Spain, spending 18 months with Valencia, during which he led the club to the Champions League and won the Manager of the Month award three times. He’s a very affable figure who would have no issue endearing himself to supporters. Bordalas would certainly come cheaper than Nuno and be easier to pry away, but at this price, it’s worth taking a flier on the Wolves boss.
Alex Moretto is a sports betting writer for theScore. A journalism graduate from Guelph-Humber University, he has worked in sports media for over a decade. He will bet on anything from the Super Bowl to amateur soccer, is too impatient for futures, and will never trust a kicker. Find him on Twitter @alexjmoretto.