Category: Sport

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Wild Card Weekend is almost here and we have Matt Harmon and Joel Smyth here to get you ready. The two preview each game and provide their favorite matchups and prop bets along the way. Smyth also shares his favorite DFS lineup for wild card weekend.

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(3:00) #5 Rams @ #4 Panthers

(15:00) #7 Packers @ #2 Bears

(27:30) #6 Bills @ #3 Jaguars

(35:00) #6 49ers @ #3 Eagles

(46:30) #7 Chargers @ #2 Patriots

(52:00) #5 Texans @ #4 Steelers

(55:00) Joel’s Wild Card Weekend DFS Lineup

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Demond Williams is not leaving Washington after all.

The Huskies QB announced Thursday night that he would be returning to Washington for his junior year after “thoughtful reflection with his family.” Williams had started to explore leaving Washington earlier in the week despite signing a new NIL deal with the school after the start of the new year. LSU and new coach Lane Kiffin were heavily rumored to be courting Williams.

“After thoughtful reflection with my family, I am excited to announce that I will continue my football journey at the University of Washington,” Williams wrote in a social media post. “I am deeply grateful to my coaches, teammates and everyone in the program for fostering an environment where I can thrive both as an athlete and as an individual.

“I am fully committed and focused on contributing to what we are building.

“Additionally, I apologize that the timing of these events coincided with the celebration of life for Mia Hamant, a beloved member of our university community. I never intended to call attention away from such an important moment.

“I am excited to reunite with my teammates and to lead the University of Washington to success in the 2026 season and beyond.”

Hamant, a goalkeeper on the Washington soccer team, died in November. She had been diagnosed with Stage 4 kidney cancer earlier in 2025. Her celebration of life was held Tuesday.

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Williams’ announcement came after Washington immediately pushed back after reports emerged he could leave and hours after his agent, Doug Hendrickson, said that he was parting ways with Williams.

[Get more Huskies football news: Washington team feed]

Hendrickson also represents Washington coach Jedd Fisch.

“Over the last few days, Demond and I have engaged in very honest and heartfelt conversations about his present and future,” Fisch said in a statement. “We both agree that the University of Washington is the best place for him to continue his academic, athletic, and social development.

“I appreciate Demond’s statement. I support him, and we will work together to begin the process of repairing relationships and regaining the trust of the Husky community.”

Per Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger, Williams signed an NIL deal worth approximately $4 million earlier in January. The deal prohibited him from entering the transfer portal and, if he left the team, his new school would also suffer a financial penalty.

When news emerged Monday that Williams was looking to transfer, Washington indicated that it would do what it could to keep him at the school via the provisions in his contract and that it wanted to investigate if a team or teams had been in contact with Williams.

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Had he entered the transfer portal, Williams would have been the most coveted player available. He was 246-of-354 passing for 3,065 yards and 25 TDs across 13 games while also rushing 143 times for 611 yards and 6 scores.

That excellence was obviously a big reason why Washington wanted to keep him around any way that it could.

John Henry Daley, one of the the top havoc-wreaking players in the transfer portal, is changing schools but not head coaches.

After starring at Utah, Daley is following Kyle Whittingham to Michigan, according to On3’s Pete Nakos. Whittingham stepped down after 21 seasons of leading the Utes and is now replacing Sherrone Moore as the Wolverines’ head coach. He’ll get an immediate boost with Daley’s arrival.

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Daley has two seasons of eligibility remaining. The 6-foot-4, 255-pound edge rusher stacked 11.5 sacks during the 2025 campaign, tied for the sixth most in the country this season.

He announced on Dec. 30 that he was entering the portal.

“I’d like to thank my teammates, coaches and Ute nation for the incredible support these past two seasons,” said Daley, an Alpine, Utah native, in a statement he posted to social media at the time.

“The experiences I’ve had here will last a lifetime. Who I consider to be family has grown significantly, and I will always cherish those relationships.”

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Daley broke out as a redshirt sophomore for an 11-2 Utah team while earning All-America honors. His 17.5 TFLs are tied for the fifth most of any FBS player this season. He put up those numbers in just 11 games, too.

He suffered a season-ending lower-body injury during a 51-47 win over Kansas State on Nov. 22. Daley recorded a pair of sacks and 3.5 TFLs in that game.

When declaring for the portal, Daley said in his statement that he will be “fully healthy” by the spring.

This season, Daley was a semifinalist for the Chuck Bednarik Award, which is given annually to the best defensive player in college football, and that was as a first-time starter. He’ll have big expectations waiting for him in Ann Arbor, where he’ll once again play under Whittingham.

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Who will be the next head coach of the Miami Dolphins? Yahoo Sports’ Andrew Siciliano, Charles Robinson and Ben Fawkes break down where Mike McDaniel will go next and question the coincidental timing of the firing before previewing the NFL Wild Card weekend slate of games that includes a juicy rematch between the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears. The trio also analyzes the Buffalo Bills’ tough road test as they face the Jacksonville Jaguars and the rest of the game slate before closing things out with their “One More Thing.”

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(1:35) – Dolphins fire Mike McDaniel

(11:13) – Bucs clean house

(18:25) – Rams @ Panthers

(28:55 ) – Packers @ Bears

(39:27) – Bills @ Jaguars

(47:23) – 49ers @ Eagles

(56:40) – Chargers @ Patriots

(1:04:25) – Texans @ Steelers

(1:12:10) – One More Thing

🖥️ Watch this full episode on YouTube

Check out the rest of the Yahoo Sports podcast family at https://apple.co/3zEuTQj or at Yahoo Sports Podcasts

We’re at the point where we can officially call this a slow MLB free agency. Pitchers and catchers are due to report to spring training in a little more than a month, yet six of Yahoo Sports’ top 10 free agents have yet to sign.

There have been slower offseasons and greater pitfalls for top free agents, but it now seems safe to say that certain players just aren’t having their asking prices met. And among the players who have signed, we’ve seen the most qualifying offers accepted in MLB history and some surprisingly small deals, such as the $34 million that Japanese star Munetaka Murakami got from the Chicago White Sox.

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Here’s how the markets for those six top unsigned free agents seem to be shaping up and why teams might not be lining up to give them nine-figure deals.

Kyle Tucker

Red flags: Injury history, a ho-hum 2025

For the past few years, Tucker receiving MLB’s next eye-popping contract has been treated as an inevitability. However, judging from current reporting, no team save for the Toronto Blue Jays has emerged ready to give him that huge contract, and even the Jays — baseball’s biggest spenders so far this offseason — seem to be trying to keep the price down.

A month and a half ago, Toronto was reported by ESPN’s Jeff Passan to be considered the favorite for Tucker’s services and to have hosted him at its Florida complex in December. However, the fact that no deal has been reported would imply the two sides still have ground to cover. If the Jays don’t want to give Tucker the long-term deal he seeks, the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets are reportedly looming as options.

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However, the Dodgers and Mets are reportedly more interested in a short-term deal that would pay Tucker an extremely high average annual value and allow him to reenter the market while he still has star value. That has been done before (e.g. every major Scott Boras client in 2024) and would be a boon for either team’s lineup.

After losing the 2025 World Series in excruciating fashion, Toronto has committed a combined $337 million to the quartet of Dylan Cease, Kazuma Okamoto, Tyler Rogers and Cody Ponce. They do not appear to be finished and could make another major move with Tucker or …

Bo Bichette

Red flags: Injury history, defensive limitations, a miserable 2024

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Had it not been for Miguel Rojas’ unlikely Game 7 home run, Bichette almost certainly would’ve entered free agency as an all-time hero for the Blue Jays, thanks to his go-ahead homer off Shohei Ohtani earlier in the game. He still presents an enticing package, but consider us skeptical that any team sees him as a long-term shortstop.

Second base is Bichette’s likely destination, especially after he played there in the World Series, and he has signaled to teams that he’s willing to move there, according to MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand. The Jays are obviously interested in bringing him back, particularly in the event they miss on Tucker, and the New York Post’s Jon Heyman reported last week that the Dodgers, New York Yankees and Chicago Cubs have all checked in on Bichette.

On Thursday, The Athletic reported that the Philadelphia Phillies had entered the fray and scheduled a meeting with him. Adding Bichette would likely result in the Phillies moving on from J.T. Realmuto, a free agent, and Alec Bohm, a trade candidate.

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Of course, if Heyman’s claim that Bichette is “thought” to be seeking a contract of around $300 million is true, that might be a tough sell for any team.

Alex Bregman

Red flags: Age, one All-Star season since the COVID-19 pandemic

This is a familiar position for the Boston Red Sox’s third baseman. He entered free agency last offseason and encountered a similarly frosty market. He ended up signing a three-year, $120 million deal with the Red Sox that included two opt-outs, allowing him to reenter the market as soon as he posted a good season.

Did he do that in 2025? Well, he was definitely doing that until May 23, when he sustained a quad strain. Before that day, he was hitting .299/.355/.583. Then he came back in July and hit .250/.338/.386 for the rest of the season. That’s not exactly the final impression you want to make when you’re turning 32 at the start of the 2026 season. But Bregman still opted out.

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The Red Sox are interested in a reunion, according to ESPN’s Buster Olney, and could offer something in the range of the six years, $171.5 million the Detroit Tigers offered Bregman last offseason. MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand suggests the Tigers are still interested, too, and mentions the Arizona Diamondbacks are also a major player. The Blue Jays were in there, too, until the Okamoto deal.

Bregman waited until February to sign the deal he just opted out of, and we seem on track for a similar wait this winter.

Cody Bellinger

Red flags: Perhaps the most inconsistent star in baseball

It’s really not an MLB offseason if we know what’s happening with Cody Bellinger. The Dodgers non-tendered him after 2022. The Chicago Cubs swooped in and signed him on a one-year deal for 2023, then brought him back in free agency. A down 2024 season led to a trade to the New York Yankees, with whom he enjoyed a resurgent 2025. And now Bellinger is a free agent again, still looking for the nine-figure deal that has eluded him.

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The Yankees have made pretty clear they want him back, with multiple contract offers reportedly on the table. Among the other reported teams to check in on Bellinger are the Cubs, Phillies (pre-Kyle Schwarber deal), San Francisco Giants, Mets, Dodgers and Los Angeles Angels.

As with Bregman, there doesn’t seem to be much movement as of now. Bellinger presents an enormously risky profile, but he can play all three outfield positions and is a true middle-of-the-order presence when healthy. Most teams aren’t eager for that sort of mystery box, as his previous forays into free agency have shown.

Framber Valdez

Red flags: Age, a rough end to 2025, a bizarre catcher incident

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Cease landing a $210 million deal at the start of free agency was seen as a good sign for both Valdez and the next guy on this list, but it hasn’t amounted to much yet. Valdez seemed on track for a huge deal midway through 2025, but a 6.05 ERA in his final 10 starts and a fateful pitch to catcher Cesar Salazar underlined the concerns around the 32-year-old.

The Mets, a rich team desperate for rotation help, have loomed as interested, according to The Athletic, as have the Baltimore Orioles. The Giants also met with Valdez in November, per MLB Network’s Jon Morosi.

Ranger Suárez

Red flags: A 90 mph fastball

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Suárez is coming off a career year and has a robust postseason track record, but his sinker going from an average of 92.3 mph in 2023 to 90.1 mph in 2025 could be limiting his market. Granted, that diminished velocity hasn’t stopped Suárez from getting outs, but it complicates the idea of signing him into his 30s.

The Orioles are in on him, according to the Baltimore Banner, as are the Astros and Cubs. A reunion with the Phillies could be in the cards, too, but it doesn’t look like we’re seeing a bidding war yet.

The sport of baseball has changed a lot under MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, with the institution of the pitch clock, the infield shift ban, the ghost runner and, starting next year, the automatic ball-strike challenge system. But what he floated on Thursday might be the biggest change yet.

Speaking on WFAN’s “The Carton Show,” Manfred addressed the possibility of MLB expanding to 32 teams after nearly three decades with 30 teams. The commissioner sounded more than open to the idea, saying there are several cities that want an MLB team.

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“When people want your product, you ought to try to find a way to sell it to them,” Manfred said. “It’s kind of basic.”

That’s not too new. Manfred has been flirting with the idea of expansion for years and said just a few months ago that he intends to select two cities for expansion before his planned retirement in 2029. It got interesting, however, when Manfred made pretty clear that he intends to realign the league once the two new teams are aboard.

That seems to mean going from the American League and National League to something like an East and West league, much like the NBA and NHL currently use.

Among Manfred’s reasons for the change is making travel easier for the players:

“It does a ton for us from a format perspective. You would realign, you would do it along geographic lines, which could alleviate a ton of the travel burden that’s on players.

“Remember, we ask our players [to play] 162 times in 186 days. So most of the [time] between 162 and 186 [is] travel, right? So you can eliminate a lot of that travel, make it less burdensome, which would be a great thing in terms of player health and safety.”

MLB has been composed of the American League and National League for 125 years. They used to be very distinct leagues, with separate governing systems, rulebooks and umpire crews, but that line dissolved in 2000 under former commissioner Bud Selig to more closely resemble the rest of the sports industry.

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Manfred’s other pitch is that some playoff series would align better time-wise for fan bases (i.e. East Coast fans not having to stay up late to watch an ALDS game on the West Coast):

“If you play geographically, we get in a postseason. You know, we have those four-window days that I love, right? You get four baseball games in a day. It’s awesome. But when you think about the fans in the individual markets, you always end up with, because of the way we’re set up, you know, you get Boston versus Anaheim in one of the early rounds. So you’re either going to be too late for the fans in Boston or too early.

“So if you realign geographically, you would look more like other sports, where you play up East into the World Series and West into the World Series. And that 10 o’clock game on the West Coast that sometimes is a problem for us becomes a prime-time game on the West Coast for the two teams that are playing. So there’s a lot of advantages to it.”

Manfred shared a vision of eight divisions of four teams and keeping teams in the same city in separate divisions.

How would that look? To throw out a quick mock-up, let’s just say the two expansion cities are Nashville and Portland. If we try to create eight geographically distinct divisions with no teams in the same city while trying to preserve some premier rivalries, we could get something like this:

• West: Seattle Mariners, Portland, San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Dodgers

• Southwest: Los Angeles Angels, San Diego Padres, Las Vegas Athletics, Arizona Diamondbacks

• South: Texas Rangers, Houston Astros, Colorado Rockies, Kansas City Royals

• Midwest 1: Minnesota Twins, Milwaukee Brewers, Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals

• Midwest 2: Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Guardians, Detroit Tigers, Cincinnati Reds

• Northeast: New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays, Pittsburgh Pirates

• Mid-Atlantic: Washington Nationals, Baltimore Orioles, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies

• Southeast: Atlanta Braves, Nashville, Tampa Bay Rays, Miami Marlins

Please note: That is absolutely not a serious attempt to create permanent, harmonious divisions for MLB. There are some obvious problems. It’s just meant to show how different things could become if Manfred is serious. And condolences to the Pirates if those divisions actually do come to pass.

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That might not be the only major change to the structure of MLB that Manfred is considering, as he was also asked about the NBA Cup in-season tournament. He didn’t deny that his office has discussed a sort of MLB Cup, but he seemed hesitant, given some obvious drawbacks:

“We’ve talked about split seasons, we’ve talked about in-season tournaments. We do understand that 162 [games] is a long pull. I think the difficulty to accomplish those sort of in-season events, you almost inevitably start talking about fewer regular-season games.

“It is a much more complicated thing in our sport than it is in other sports because of all of our season-long records. You’re playing around with something that people care a lot about.”

Manfred also confirmed that he still intends to retire at the end of his contract in January 2029. His successor could find themselves running a very different league.

Thursday night’s game between the Chicago Bulls and Miami Heat was postponed because of condensation on the United Center court, the NBA announced after a nearly two-hour delay for a scheduled 8 p.m. ET tip-off.

The game will be rescheduled, and its date will be announced at a later time, per the league.

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On an uncharacteristically warm January day in the Windy City, temperatures hovered in the mid-50s with close to 90% humidity outside, along with a heavy dose of rain.

The United Center doubles as the home of the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks. The ice underneath the floorboards was melting along the edges of the hardwood, per The Athletic, which reported that Thursday marked the first time an NBA game has been rescheduled due to slippery conditions since March 6, 2017. That’s when similar unseasonably warm weather led to an unplayable court in Minneapolis, shelving a Minnesota Timberwolves home game versus the Portland Trail Blazers.

“We always want to try to go,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said following the postponement, via The Athletic. “Players were complaining about it on both sides, so, as a staff we went out there and pretty much immediately we thought it wasn’t playable.

“We have that in our practice facility [in Miami] when there is condensation, it takes about 15 minutes for it to change. But this is a huge building. We weren’t optimistic it was going to change.”

Water was visible on the court moments before the game was supposed to start, according to The Athletic’s report, which cited league sources when noting that, as of 8:30 p.m., the humidity inside the arena was nearly double (60%) what it usually is (30%) for a typical basketball game.

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Crew chief Sean Wright told Chicago Sports Network’s K.C. Johnson in the pool report interview that players pointed out the slippery conditions with 9:13 remaining on the warmup clock. It was at that time, Wright said he checked the court and notified the replay center about the situation.

Wright was asked why the decision to delay took as long as it did.

“We weren’t notified until 9:13 on the warmup clock, that’s why it went down to the zeros,” he said.

Wright later added, via the pool report:

“Player safety is always the most important, despite the efforts by the United Center to rectify the situation. We were unsuccessful in doing so, and we decided that player safety was the most important, and we just couldn’t guarantee a safe on-court experience.”

While maintenance staffers were mopping up moisture on the hardwood, players passed the time. They hung out on the floor, chatting with each other and getting up shots, per Johnson, who reported that Bulls wing Isaac Okoro and guard Jevon Carter were even playing a game of HORSE or PIG.

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At one point, Benny the Bull banked in a backward half-court shot in front of Tyler Herro, earning a dap from the Heat star to the tune of some cheers from the crowd, as captured by The Athletic’s Joel Lorenzi.

Around 8:50 p.m., the teams returned to their locker rooms for the first time, as the delay continued to drag on, according to the Associated Press.

Then, around 9:25 p.m., game officials and Heat players and coaches, followed later by a collection of Bulls players, came back out onto the court, per the AP.

Bulls head coach Billy Donovan and Spoelstra were seen chatting.

Without trying to warm up again, the teams left the court again at approximately 9:45 p.m., as reported by the AP.

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Soon after, the NBA announced the game’s postponement. And the Bulls announced that tickets for Thursday’s matchup will be valid for the makeup game.

The Bulls (17-20) have lost three games in a row and are off Friday. The Heat (20-17), who were set to play the second of four straight road games Thursday, are also off Friday.

The problem is, the United Center will be in use for hockey. The Blackhawks are penciled in for a Friday night home game against the Washington Capitals.

So the rescheduled Heat-Bulls game might not be for a bit.

If Tarik Skubal is playing for another team on Opening Day of 2027, the Detroit Tigers will at least be able to say they made him a record-setting offer. It just won’t be a good record.

Thursday saw MLB teams and players submit their filings for salary arbitration, a clerical move that sets up arbitration fights for further into the offseason. A player asks for one salary, his team asks for a different, lower salary, and then an arbitrator looks at the player’s accomplishments and decides which number to use for the season.

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It’s not often the most thrilling day, but the numbers filed by Skubal and the Tigers were interesting for multiple reasons. Skubal asked for $32 million, while the Tigers offered $19 million, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan.

That $13 million gap is reportedly the widest in arbitration history by a large margin. And if Skubal wins, his $32 million salary would be the largest in arbitration history, besting Juan Soto’s $31 million with the New York Yankees in 2024.

There’s no telling who will win. It will be up to the arbitrator to decide if Skubal is worth more or less than $25.5 million, the midpoint between the two sides. These decisions are based primarily on precedent, using past players with similar stats, and normally value more old-school numbers than what you’d find on a Baseball Savant page. Teams and players often avoid these battles because of the awkwardness of arguing why a guy deserves less money in front of said guy.

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If we look at pitchers only, here are some recent big names and what they got in their final years of arbitration, which Skubal is entering. You be the judge on whether he should get more than they did:

• Framber Valdez (2025): $18 million

• Dylan Cease (2025): $13.75 million

• Corbin Burnes (2024): $15.6 million

• Max Fried (2024): $15 million

• Julio Urías (2023): $14.25 million

Notably, all of those numbers were reached via agreement, not arb hearing.

[Get more Tigers news: Detroit team feed]

Whichever side wins the Tigers’ hearing, Skubal will be receiving the largest arbitration salary for a pitcher in MLB history.

That, of course, makes sense, because no recent MLB pitcher has had Skubal’s résumé while still in arbitration. Skubal has been the easy pick for the best pitcher in baseball over the past two years, with two Cy Young Awards and a Triple Crown in 2024. Besides Skubal, six pitchers have won multiple Cy Youngs in the past 15 years — Clayton Kershaw, Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, Corey Kluber, Jacob deGrom and Blake Snell — and none of them entered arbitration after the second trophy.

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That’s because teams usually do whatever they can to keep that kind of player, but that effort hasn’t been fruitful for the Tigers so far. Skubal is slated to enter free agency after 2026, and he and the Tigers have been reported to be so far apart in negotiations for an extension that a trade could be on the table.

The fact that their arbitration filings exhibit a similar chasm between the two sides underscores how unlikely a deal appears to be.

Welcome back to the playoffs, New England Patriots.

The last time we saw the Patriot Way grace us this deep into January, New England got drilled in Buffalo with Mac Jones leading the way at quarterback in the 2021 season. New England’s last postseason home game happened to be the last time we saw Tom Brady in a Patriots uniform, suffering an upset loss to Mike Vrabel and the Tennessee Titans in the 2019 season’s playoffs.

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Speaking of Vrabel, he’s back, this time in familiar digs as New England’s head coach. But all eyes will be mainly focused on his quarterback, Drake Maye, who is in a tight MVP race with the Los Angeles Rams’ Matthew Stafford.

Previous meeting this season

The Chargers and Patriots didn’t play each other this season. The two teams matched up late in 2024 with Los Angeles winning decisively in New England, 40-7. Maye passed for only 117 yards, his worst game as a full-time starter during his rookie season.

On the other side, Justin Herbert posted the kind of performance the Chargers will need from him Sunday night. He threw for 281 yards and three touchdowns, two of those scoring passes going to Ladd McConkey, who finished with 94 yards. J.K. Dobbins (now with the Broncos) rushed for 76 yards.

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Health update

The Patriots have no major injuries to deal with going into Sunday. But five players missed practice this week due to illness and the team will hope more don’t come down with a bug leading up to kickoff. For the Chargers, starting running back Omarion Hampton — the team’s second-leading rusher — hasn’t practiced all week due to an ankle issue that sidelined him for eight games this season. Edge rusher Bud Dupree has also missed practice.

The head coaches

It’s Michigan vs. Ohio State on the opposing sidelines.

Vrabel is a leading candidate for Coach of the Year honors after turning New England around from a 4-13 slog in 2024 to a 13-4 resurgence this season. He has a 3-5 playoff record, which includes the Tennessee Titans’ run to the AFC championship game in the 2019 season. Harbaugh boasts a 5-4 mark, which includes three consecutive NFC championship games with the San Francisco 49ers and an appearance in Super Bowl XLVII. Yet the Chargers lost in last season’s wild-card round, 32-12, to the Houston Texans.

Key player for the Chargers

As Herbert goes, so do the Chargers. Last season, he threw four interceptions in Los Angeles’ playoff defeat. This season, when he didn’t play well, the Chargers typically couldn’t overcome those poor performances. (The lone exception was Week 14’s 22-19 overtime win over the Philadelphia Eagles, in which Herbert threw for only 139 yards.) However, the Patriots may provide an ideal matchup for Herbert to shine. New England allowed 4,459 passing yards this season and 8.9 yards per throw, both worst in the AFC. And only the Bengals gave up more TD passes (36) this season than the Patriots’ 31 among conference teams.

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Key player for the Patriots

Maye has been viewed as an MVP candidate throughout the season. But he’ll face the NFL’s fourth-best pass defense (3,314 yards allowed) in the Chargers. Only two other teams had more interceptions than the 19 Los Angeles grabbed this season. So the Patriots may have to run the ball to win. That could suit them well, as they compiled the third-most rushing yards in the AFC. TreVeyon Henderson led the team with 911 yards and nine TDs. He ran for a season-high 148 yards and two scores in Week 15 versus the Bills.

Prediction

New England was actually better on the road (8-0) this season than at home (6-3). But temperatures in Foxborough, Massachusetts, are expected to be in the mid-30s by Sunday’s 8 p.m. ET kickoff, which isn’t ideal for a team coming from Los Angeles.

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The conditions could make it difficult for both quarterbacks, which puts an emphasis on the running game. Maye should get more help in that regard than Herbert. The Patriots’ ability to control the line of scrimmage on offense with two talented running backs capable of rushing for 100 yards could be the difference.

Patriots 24, Chargers 16

Ole Miss RB Kewan Lacy didn’t immediately return to the Fiesta Bowl after suffering an apparent injury on a 73-yard touchdown run in the first half.

The score at the start of the second quarter was Lacy’s second carry of the game. After the touchdown, he was replaced in the backfield by backup Logan Diggs. The ESPN broadcast referenced an apparent right hamstring injury for Lacy.

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You can see that Lacy slowed up on the touchdown run as he broke free and replays showed that he appeared to be laboring as he got closer to the end zone.

“They’re looking at him so we’ll figure out at halftime,” Ole Miss coach Pete Golding said in his halftime interview on ESPN. Lacy’s TD was the only one Ole Miss scored as the Rebels trailed 17-13 at the break.

Lacy had two carries for 75 yards while Diggs had four carries and QB Trinidad Chambliss officially had three with sacks included.

Lacy would return to the game in the second half but was mostly used as a decoy by the Ole Miss offense in the third quarter and largely ineffectual in the fourth quarter as the Rebels found more success through the air.

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However, after Ole Miss went up 27-24 with just over three minutes left in the game, Miami mounted a drive of its own and QB Carson Beck scored on a short run with just 18 seconds left to win the game for the Hurricanes. (The Rebels had a Hail Mary attempt that fell incomplete.)

Lacy was a star in 2025. He entered the game with 1,464 rushing yards on 295 carries and had scored 24 touchdowns counting his long run on Thursday night. He also had 28 catches for 173 yards. As Chambliss finished in the top 10 in the Heisman voting, Lacy was an equally important part of Ole Miss’ offense as the team made the College Football Playoff for the first time.