In the 2026 NFL Draft, the Minnesota selected safety Jakobe Thomas. Doing so came from within the context of seeing legendary safety Harrison Smith still undecided about his future – on that topic, how did that situation work out? — so reloading made plenty of sense.

The Vikings’ 3rd-Round selection boasts good size and some swagger within his on-field demeanour. Better yet, the defensive back was coming off a great ride to the College National Championship with the Miami Hurricanes (losing to Curt Cignetti’s and Fernando Mendoza’s Hoosiers). At minimum, Thomas was looking like a depth safety who would be an assassin on specials.

Vikings 3rd-Round Selection Jakobe Thomas Sitting in Better Spot

What’s become tough, though, is that a back injury has lingered. Some may have worried about a Gavin Bartholomew situation; the TE missed all of his debut season due to his own back injury.

Thankfully, that’s not going to happen with Thomas.

Consider the nice update that arrives from Alec Lewis of The Athletic: “Vikings practice just wrapped up a bit ago. Didn’t see S Theo Jackson, so it was a lot of Jacob Thomas and Jakobe Thomas mixing in with the 1s. Jakobe Thomas was back and flying around, his first extensive practice in a couple of weeks.”

All along, there was just a tiny chance Thomas would get cut. What seemed more plausible was possibly needing to shuffle Thomas over to an injury spot to allow him to get healthy. So long as there aren’t any setbacks, the rookie safety should be ready in time for Week 1 since he’s getting a heartier workload.

The Vikings tend to play things cautiously with player health and have certainly followed that approach with the rookie 3rd-Round selection. Seeing this thing drag out would have created some concern that may nevertheless be lingering.

For starters, the rookie has missed valuable development time. He’s therefore finding himself in a spot where it could be hard to catch up in an NFL that’s only accelerating. Things move fast in football, especially for the young lads.

There’s then the depth chart to sort through. At minimum, Josh Metellus, Theo Jackson, and Jay Ward are higher. It appears possible that Jacob Thomas is, too. Tavierre Thomas is a probable roster player due to his special teams prowess, meaning that’s already five players in the mix at safety even if Tavierre Thomas isn’t an insurmountable force.

Consider how things have looked recently for all of the Vikings’ options at safety:

• Josh Metellus — Bounce Back Season?
• Theo Jackson — Bounce Back Season?
• Jay Ward — 4th Year Growth?
• Jamal Adams — Done for Season Due to Injury
• Jakobe Thomas — Working Back from Minor Injury
• Tavierre Thomas — Special Teams Ace
• Jacob Thomas — UDFA Gem
• Kahlef Hailassie — Likely on the PS
• Harrison Smith — Help Us, Chris Tomasson

Jakobe Thomas stands at 6’1″ and roughly 210 pounds. He’ll need to overcome these early injury hiccups to prove capable of getting into the mix on specials and defense in Week 1.

Recent word of his return functions as a nice gust of wind to push the safety toward a Week 1 workload as the Packers travel to the Twin Cities for an early NFC North battle.

Senior Editor for Vikings Territory & PurplePTSD . Twitter & Bluesky: @VikingsGazette. Email: k.joudry[at]vikingsterritory[dot]com. Canadian. Jude 1:24-25.

Advertisement

Manchester City star Nico O’Reilly has been crowned the PFA Young Player of the Year

Manchester City star Nico O’Reilly has been crowned the PFA Young Player of the Year, as voted for by his fellow top-flight stars. The 21-year-old enjoyed a stellar breakthrough campaign last season, making 51 appearances in all competitions scoring nine times.

His brilliant displays for City saw him called up to Thomas Tuchel’s England squad for the World Cup during the summer, helping the Three Lions take home the bronze medal.

Fellow City star, Rayan Cherki, was also nominated for the award but he was pipped to it by his teammate.

Arsenal’s Max Dowman, Kobbie Mainoo from Manchester United, Junior Kroupi from Bournemouth and Liverpool’s Rio Ngumoha were also shortlisted.

Winning the award is testament to the brilliant campaign O’Reilly had under Pep Guardiola at the Etihad Stadium.

Speaking in March last season, Guardiola lavished praise on the England international and said: “He [O’Reilly] started to play when Rodri was injured and impressed a lot.

“Against Newcastle he played holding midfielder alongside Nico, he can play in the pocket, it’s his natural position and every cross he is there.

“In the aerial action offensively he is really strong. Defensively he has to improve. So far, he has been a surprise even for me. His season so far has been extraordinary.”

There will be more to follow. We’ll bring you the very latest updates on this breaking news story.

For the latest news and breaking news visit our Manchester City page. Get all the big headlines, pictures, analysis, opinion and video on the stories that matter to you.

Follow us on Twitter @‌ManCityMEN – the MEN’s City Twitter account – for all the latest football news as it happens in real-time.

We’re at facebook.com/ManCityMEN where we’ll bring you breaking stories and images, plus you can chat with United fans around the world. We’re also on Instagram here.

And if you sign up to our free City newsletter here, we’ll send all the latest headlines, reaction and features straight to your inbox, every day.

Shakur Stevenson has offered a somewhat surprising selection for the most underrated fighter of all time.

Stevenson has claimed world honours at featherweight, super-featherweight, lightweight and now super-lightweight, becoming boxing’s third-youngest four-division world champion.

Stevenson is coming off perhaps the best win of his career, having dominated and outclassed Teofimo Lopez to capture the WBO and Ring super lightweight titles. Since then, he has signed a promotional deal with Zuffa Boxing and has been strongly linked with a fight against Devin Haney.

Speaking on the ‘Ball in the Family’ podcast, Stevenson was asked to name the most underrated boxer of all time. His choice was Vasiliy Lomachenko, a fighter who lost to both Lopez and Haney.

“Probably Lomachenko [is the most underrated boxer of all time].

“I think that Lomachenko is underrated because I feel like he fought outside of his weight-class. He fought at 135, where he is really like a 126lber but people discredit him because he lost the big fights against a lot of bigger fighters, so he didn’t really get a chance to fight at his weight-class.

“He should be fighting against guys like [Naoya] Inoue, not Teofimo [Lopez] and Devin [Haney] and s**t, so he is underrated to me.”

Lomachenko is one of the greatest amateur boxers in history, putting together a 396-1 record which led to him entering the paid ranks and becoming a three-division world champion, before the aforementioned losses to Lopez and Haney.

Both Lopez and Haney have since gone on to become welterweight world champions, whilst Lomachenko is planning to announce his comeback imminently, and is reportedly targeting a super-featherweight return against Charly Suarez and then a potential challenge against Emanuel Navarrete.

San Diego Padres third baseman Manny Machado has been underwhelming so far in his eighth season with the organization.

The 33-year-old veteran has posted a .215 batting average, .304 on-base percentage, .711 OPS, 24 home runs and 72 RBIs. While it is still encouraging to see him hit for power, he is simply not making contact the way he used to.

Advertisement

Still, the Padres have no choice but to trust Machado to turn it around given he is signed through the 2033 season on a massive 11-year, $350 million extension.

MORE: Jackson Merrill quietly did something that will cost the Padres millions

Monday’s loss against the Pittsburgh Pirates was especially painful for San Diego as they failed to drive in any runners from scoring position in extra innings despite having multiple chances.

After the game, a bad night got worse. Padres manager Craig Stammen spoke with reporters and revealed that Machado has suffered an injury setback. He has a bruise on the inside of his index finger that gets irritated when he makes contact off the end of the bat.

Advertisement

“He’s got a little sleeve that he’s going to wear now, and hopefully it’s not something that lingers for very long,” Stammen said, per Annie Heilbrunn of The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Machado’s status should be viewed as day to day moving forward, and it is unclear if he will be in the starting lineup for Tuesday’s matchup against Pittsburgh.

The Padres cannot afford to lose Machado to the 10-day injured list, even if he has not lived up to his usual standards this year as a seven-time All-Star. San Diego currently holds sole possession of the final NL wild card spot, but the Arizona Diamondbacks sit just two games behind.

— Enjoy free coverage of the top news & trending stories with The Big Lead Newsletter —

The San Francisco 49ers enter the upcoming regular season with expectations to remain competitive within arguably the best division in football while battling early injuries, older franchise mainstays returning from surgeries, and, most recently, off-field news involving the team’s owner. 

That doesn’t seem to be a recipe for success, and Colin Cowherd agrees. During Monday’s edition of The Herd, Cowherd questioned whether San Francisco can maintain its position among the elite teams in the conference.

“I tend to think the Niners are very close to pulling a Thelma and Louise and driving off the cliff here,” Cowherd said, comparing the 49ers to the hit ’90s movie.

On paper, the 49ers have reloaded with talent. They signed star wide receiver Mike Evans to beef up their wide receiver room and brought back Dre Greenlaw to solidify what they have at linebacker. 

However, tight end George Kittle continues working back from Achilles surgery with a chance to play in Week 1, and running back Christian McCaffrey remains on a planned load management schedule during practice reps. 

With that in mind, Cowherd pointed out that age and recovery timelines across essential positions present distinct hurdles for San Francisco when compared to younger rosters across the league. The roster remains heavily reliant on a core group of established veterans, several of which are returning from surgical procedures.

Christian McCaffrey continues to manage his workload at practice coming off a 2025 season where he led the NFL with 413 total touches for 2,126 scrimmage yards and 17 touchdowns.(Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)

“This is an old, old team, oldest roster in the NFL, and almost all their old guys are coming off serious surgeries,” Cowherd said. “They are really dependent on five older players: Trent Williams, left tackle, he’s 38. Kittle, going to be a hall of farmer, coming off surgery. Nick Bosa, coming off his second surgery. Christian McCaffrey led the NFL in touches. Mike Evans, who is often banged up, though I love him and Fred Warner off a surgery as well.”

San Francisco’s depth issues have been compounded by injuries to recent high draft selections.

“Don’t forget their last two first-round picks: Ricky Pearsall, out for the year, injured. … Mykel Williams, who is a great young talent, he’s banged up and won’t be there for Week 1,” Cowherd added. “They are hanging on by peptides and a prayer.”

Compared to the recent success NFC West rivals the Seahawks and Rams have had in the draft, the Niners will have their work cut out for them.

“The Seahawks and the Rams have drafted so brilliantly over the last three years, very few misses. … Those are four games the Niners go in as an underdog,” Cowherd said.

San Francisco receives early scheduling relief to begin the regular season. Following their trip to Australia, the team returns home for consecutive games against the Miami Dolphins and Arizona Cardinals before entering a more challenging stretch that includes matchups against the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos.

Despite the favorable early home slate, Cowherd expressed skepticism regarding San Francisco’s postseason prospects over a full 17-game schedule.

“I don’t think they’re a playoff team,” Cowherd said. “I love the coach. I love McCaffrey. I love the organization. I think they’re heading right for a cliff.”

RJ Luis Jr., a former St. John’s standout who recently signed with LSU after spending time with two NBA clubs, was cleared by a court Monday evening to start practicing and potentially play for the Tigers this season.

Luis, who briefly was under contract with the Utah Jazz and Boston Celtics but never played in an NBA game, hugged LSU coach Will Wade after the ruling by East Baton Rouge Parish District Court judge Ronald R. Johnson.

After a five-hour hearing, Johnson granted the player’s request for a preliminary injunction against the NCAA, which had argued Luis was unlikely to win reinstatement after leaving college to turn pro in 2025.

“This is precedent. It’s monumental,” said Baton Rouge-based attorney Tony Clayton, who represented Luis along with Elliot Abrams of Raleigh, North Carolina. “This allows him to go practice, go play and we’ll let the legal process work itself out.”

(Photo by Jaiden Tripi/Getty Images)

The timeline for that process was not immediately clear.

“I don’t know, but there’s a lot of discovery that Elliot and I have to obtain,” Clayton said. “We’ve got a lot of questions.”

Luis’ attorneys noted that the NCAA had granted exceptions allowing numerous players from overseas professional leagues to join college basketball programs, and argued that American players must be afforded the same opportunity.

They stressed that Luis not only had never played in an NBA game, but also had not played for the Celtics’ G League affiliate because of an injury, and had far less of a professional basketball resume than numerous college players who’d been recruited from abroad.

NCAA attorney Taylor Askew argued that Luis’ situation was not comparable to those who played for the developmental squads of pro organizations overseas because Luis chose to leave college for the NBA.

Askew noted that the only player in a similar situation to Luis was Alabama’s Charles Bediako, who won a temporary retraining order allowing him to play five games for Alabama last season before an Alabama judge ultimately sided with NCAA assertions that he was ineligible.

“I understand Mr. Luis is disappointed that he was not drafted and did not play in the NBA as much as he would have liked,” Askew said. “Actions have consequences. Decisions have outcomes and they’re not always the right ones or the ones that you want.”

As he made his ruling, Johnson said, “In the court’s mind, (Luis) did not actually play professional basketball,” and that whether Luis was properly advised of his options at the time he left college “lingers heavily before this court.”

Reporting by The Associated Press.

Whilst all attention is on Moses Itauma potentially become boxing’s second-youngest heavyweight world champion on Saturday, one former heavyweight ruler is focussing on breaking records at the other end of the spectre ahead of his comeback.

Itauma collides with Filip Hrgovic this weekend and hopes to take Floyd Patterson’s position as boxing’s second-youngest heavyweight champion by capturing the IBF crown at the age of 21 years old, with Mike Tyson being the only man to have achieved the feat at a younger age.

Meanwhile, the late George Foreman is the holder of the record as boxing’s oldest heavyweight world champion, famously recapturing world honours when he knocked out Michael Moorer as a 45-year-old back in 1994.

However, two-time champion Hasim Rahman, who famously knocked out Lennox Lewis in their first encounter, only to suffer the same fate in the rematch, is planning to break that record ahead of his comeback next month. He believes the lessons he has learned since retiring in 2014 will serve him well, as he explained in an interview with About Boxing.

“I feel like a person who says, ‘man, if I knew then what I knew now then I would be dangerous’, but I know it now. I am strong, I am in shape, I am going to knock somebody’s head off.”

At the age of 53 years old, the return of ‘The Rock’ has understandably raised alarm bells in the boxing community, but the Baltimore-born knockout artist attempted to ease those concerns by stating that he is ‘not putting himself at risk’ despite believing that he ‘can make history’.

“A lot of people do [worry about my comeback] because a lot of people look at the average guy that is my age or a guy that has been through what I have been through, but I am different. I am an entirely different species.

“I love me, I’m not going to put me at risk, I am strong, I am in shape and I can fight, I am hitting hard.”

“I just feel like I can make history. Sometimes, you have got to take a step back before you can take a step forward.”

Advertisement

Rahman will face the 4-4 recorded Phillip Triantafillo for the USA Indiana State heavyweight title on Saturday, September 24, seeking a first win in over 15 years.

“A year ago, I told my team that we need to step things up by two gears, and we did that,” Schalke‘s second-year coach, Miron Muslic, told the club’s website ahead of this season’s return to the Bundesliga.

“Now we need to step things up by two gears all over again. At first glance it may sound like a threat, too dramatic, but this is what we will need to meet this challenge. The lads know this and we are confident that we have a higher gear in us.”

The challenge for Muslic is not simply to avoid relegation in year one after three seasons in the second division, but to “establish ourselves in the Bundesliga.”

It will also be Muslic’s first season in the Bundesliga after he succeeded where several of his predecessors failed – guiding the Royal Blues back to the topflight.

‘Where did this guy come from?’

It’s something few would have predicted just over a year ago, when he was unveiled as Schalke’s new head coach. Many, if not most, of the club’s supporters will have been left scrolling on their phones to try to figure out just who he was.  It’s a point not lost on the Austrian coach, who fled the Bosnian War with his parents at the age of nine.

“Many were wondering; ‘Who is this guy, where did he come from?’” Muslic, who joined from lower league English club Plymouth Argyle, told German football magazine “kicker” last October, after Schalke had climbed to the top of the standings for the first time in the campaign.

That’s where they finished the first half of the season. But during the January transfer window, Muslic and sporting director Frank Baumann still weren’t sure the squad had what it would take to guarantee a top-two finish – and automatic promotion – at the end of the campaign.

Proven goal scorer looking for playing time

Then the final piece to the promotion puzzle fell into Muslic’s lap. Bosnia captain Edin Dzeko, a striker who has been prolific virtually everywhere he has played, was largely languishing on the bench at Italian club Fiorentina, and looking for playing time. He let it be known that he was prepared to take a major pay cut to help Schalke achieve promotion. By the time they’d done just that, he had contributed six goals to the cause – and just turned 40.

Advertisement

Many expected Dzeko to hang up his boots after he captained Bosnia in just their second appearance at the World Cup this past summer. However, a couple of weeks before the start of the season, Dzeko confirmed that he would make his return to the Bundesliga – 15 seasons after he last played in the league with Wolfsburg. After signing a one-year, bonus-heavy contract, Dzeko said that while he had “three other options” he made up his mind that if he was to continue playing, it would only be at Schalke.

Dzeko ‘still hungry’ at 40

“Winning promotion to the Bundesliga is one of the highlights of my career,” Dzeko told the club’s website.

“I’m still hungry. And I want to help our team in the Bundesliga, too.”

Just how much action Dzeko will see in the Bundesliga is unclear. However, Muslic, who is understood to have pushed hard to bring his countryman back for another year, believes he can still be a difference maker in key situations.

Still, he isn’t expected to see as much playing time as the third member of Schalke’s Bosnian triumvirate, central defender Nikola Katic, whose winding road to Gelsenkirchen saw him work with Muslic a few years ago at Plymouth. Even before Dzeko arrived in Gelsenkirchen last winter, he and Katic already knew each other from the national team.

‘Once Schalke, always Schalke,’ but…

Now all three are committed to ensuring that Schalke’s return to the Bundesliga is more than a one-season excursion, and Muslic, whose contract runs through the end of the 2027-28 season, hopes he will remain in charge for years to come.

“I will remain a member of Schalke 04 forever — 100 percent. No matter how our paths might part one day,” the coach told “kicker” last October.

Advertisement

At the same time, he’s realistic enough to know that as a coach, he won’t be in Gelsenkirchen forever. While his current focus is all about Schalke, he already knows where he would like to wind up somewhere down the road.

“I would like to be the national team coach of Bosnia-Herzegovina one day,” he said.

“And I believe it will happen. The fundamental prerequisites are simply a perfect fit — my background, my connection, and the love for my home country.”

For now though, the focus is on the new season; Schalke were left licking their wounds after fourth-tier Halle took them to extra time in their first-round German Cup match on Monday – before emerging with a 5-2 win. Dzeko, who had come on in the 64th minute expecting to play only half an hour, scored two of Schalke’s goals. 

Ever the optimist, Muslic said afterwards that the hard-fought result not only proved that “we’ll need Edin” in the Bundesliga season, but that Schalke had also demonstrated their “resilience.” 

Advertisement

Next comes the first real test of whether Schalke can indeed kick it up a couple of gears, when they make their Bundsliga return in Augsburg on Sunday.

Edited by: Matt Pearson

Cal Raleigh busted out of a season-long slump with the first three-homer game of his career Monday night.

The switch-hitting catcher capped a five-run first inning with a two-run shot off struggling Philadelphia Phillies ace Zack Wheeler.

Raleigh added a leadoff homer against Wheeler in the fifth and a solo drive off reliever Chase Shugart in the seventh to give him 17 home runs this season.

It was the first multihomer game of the year for Raleigh, who finished 3 for 3 with a walk in a 9-2 victory and raised his batting average from .159 to .167.

Raleigh was runner-up for the AL MVP award last year, when he led the majors with 60 home runs and added 125 RBIs.

Reporting by The Associated Press.