Retired Atlanta Falcons wideout Roddy White spent Wednesday afternoon slamming Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton on X, formerly known as Twitter.
White also called out Fox Sports NFL analyst and former Broncos star guard Mark Schlereth on social media.
The four-time Pro Bowler criticized the three-time Super Bowl champion for his recent assessment of wide receiver Jerry Jeudy, who was traded from the Broncos to the Cleveland Browns this week.
Mark Schlereth u don’t be watching film cause running juedy on choice routes is not good coaching. Russ throws the ball outside the numbers everybody knows that and he didn’t do that because his offense is more throw the ball over the middle of the field.
— Roddy White (@roddywhiteTV) March 13, 2024
Juedy is an outside wr if you put him outside the numbers and let him work he will catch 90 balls a year for thousand yards. So I don’t know what you talking about mark.
— Roddy White (@roddywhiteTV) March 13, 2024
Sean Peyton time has passed him by don’t matter who he gets in the draft drew carried that man and he ain’t done nothing since.
— Roddy White (@roddywhiteTV) March 13, 2024
It's unclear what the cause of White's gripe with Payton is, but the pass-catcher spent his entire 11-year career with the Falcons from 2005-2015 while the coach was the leader of the rival-New Orleans Saints from 2006-2021.
White also took a shot at Payton in December when Denver decided to sit quarterback Russell Wilson for the final two games of the season:
"I can’t believe Sean Peyton the disrespect is way too much. Russ should never have to backup no damn Stidham everybody in football know he can’t play. If you don’t want Russ just wait until the end of the season to move on. Terrible -ss Sean Peyton calling them terrible plays."
The former first-round pick's claim that quarterback Drew Brees "carried" Payton and he hasn't done anything since isn't completely outlandish.
Both Brees and Payton joined the Saints ahead of the 2006 season. The signal-caller made 13 Pro Bowls, earned first-team All-Pro honors once and led the team to its first and only Super Bowl title during the 2009 campaign, winning the game's MVP.
Brees' final season was in 2020, and he wrapped his career with a 172-114 record as the starter and 9-9 mark in the playoffs.
In Payton's first season without Brees, New Orleans missed the playoffs for the first time since 2016 and went 9-8 for its worst record since 2016 as well.
Payton didn't coach in 2022 and led the Broncos to an 8-9 record last season, which tied for second in the AFC West.
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The 2024 offseason expanded the $30M-per-year wide receiver club to six members. D.K. Metcalf, Ja’Marr Chase and Garrett Wilson have taken it to nine this year. Terry McLaurin is undoubtedly pushing to bump that number to 10, after seeing 2019 Day 2 classmates Metcalf and A.J. Brown land among that contingent. McLaurin reported to training camp Sunday and landed on the active/PUP list. As our Rory Parks explained, skepticism exists about how injured the Commanders’ top wide receiver really is. An ankle injury has keyed the PUP stay, but it can be safely assumed McLaurin would be ready to practice if an extension comes to pass. Nevertheless, the Commanders have been surprised by the difficulty of these talks. Using an injury to avoid practicing while negotiating — developments the Jonathan Taylor and Micah Parsons sagas brought — represents a third tactic, joining the holdout and the increasingly utilized hold-in amid extension talks. McLaurin shifted from a holdout to the injury route; no matter how he is accomplishing not practicing, the seventh-year veteran is aiming to land a lucrative third contract. His age provides a complication for Washington. McLaurin is going into an age-30 season, separating him from Brown and Metcalf. Both Ole Miss products were drafted just before McLaurin, a 2019 third-round pick, but they are each two years younger. This strengthened their cases for big-ticket third contracts. McLaurin went first to ignite the second-tier boom on the receiver market in 2022, agreeing to a three-year, $69.6M extension. That shaped the Metcalf and Deebo Samuel extensions, both of which coming in higher than McLaurin’s despite the latter’s consistency with suboptimal quarterback situations. McLaurin’s AAV has dropped to 17th at wide receiver. The Commanders are prepared to extend their top wideout, but Sportskeeda.com’s Tony Pauline indicates the "holdup" is regarding the $30M-AAV number. Some around the league point to the team not wanting to go into that neighborhood for McLaurin, despite his five 1,000-yard seasons. Courtland Sutton and McLaurin are nearly the same age, and the Broncos’ top target signed a four-year, $92M extension. That matches where the Titans went for Calvin Ridley (now 30) in 2024. McLaurin, though, has a better resume than both and should be aiming higher. The Commanders have a Jayden Daniels rookie contract to structure another McLaurin extension around as well. Adam Peters was around for the 49ers’ 2022 Samuel extension but not Brandon Aiyuk‘s $30M-per-year deal. (The Samuel extension also did not work out for the 49ers, who proceeded with a salary dump of sorts by trading him to the Commanders.) The second-year GM taking a hardline stance with McLaurin would be an interesting route given the WR’s importance to a sudden contender. Peters confirmed talks are ongoing, with that comment coming after McLaurin expressed frustration about the negotiations. A potential gap between the pack of 20-somethings (and Tyreek Hill) north of $30M AAV and the Tee Higgins–Jaylen Waddle–D.J. Moore tier could be relevant here, and it will be interesting to see if McLaurin settles for something just south of that $30MM benchmark. Guarantees and contract structure, of course, will be important to determining the value as well. A short-term extension should be reached soon, per Pauline, but if the Commanders hold the line at or around $30M, the McLaurin matter could drag on for a while longer.
The World Junior Summer Showcase is in full swing, and Maple Leafs top prospect Ben Danford is shattering expectations, truly proving how good of a player he can be. The Toronto Maple Leafs' defensive prospect, Ben Danford, is among the 44 players who were invited to Hockey Canada's World Juniors Summer Showcase. Hockey Canada finally unveiled the 44 prospects who will head to Minnesota for the showcase, after they held the roster release back while the organization dealt with several injuries, which begins Sunday and runs through August 2 in Minneapolis. Defensive prospect Ben Danford is the only Maple Leafs player invited to the annual showcase, where Canada's World Junior staff will get their first look at what their team might look like for the 2026 World Juniors, which will also take place in Minnesota in December. Danford is being called the best player at the World Juniors Summer Showcase Danford has been exceeding expectations, and one source revealed that he has been the best player at the World Junior Showcase so far. The source said Danford is steady, smart, and hard to ignore on the ice. 'Ben Danford has been the best player at the World Junior Showcase he's steady, smart, and impossible to ignore. Makes every shift count, whether he's breaking up plays or starting the rush. Canada's blue line is in good hands.' - An unnamed source The Maple Leafs selected Danford with their first pick (31st overall) at the 2024 NHL Draft. During his visit to Toronto's development camp earlier this month, the defender revealed that he's receiving mentorship from current Leafs defensemen as well as some alumni like Mark Giordano. The 6-foot-2 Danford could make for an excellent fit for Canada should he make the team. He is responsible in his own end, and he demonstrated leadership capabilities when he was named captain of the Oshawa Generals ahead of the 2024-25 OHL season.
The New York Mets, despite plenty of ups and downs, have been one of the best teams in all of Major League Baseball so far this season, but they know they will need to stay healthy in order to stay at the top of the NL East and make a push for a World Series. On Tuesday night, the Mets suffered a significant injury. During the fourth inning of a critical series against the San Diego Padres, star outfielder Juan Soto fouled a ball off of his foot and was pulled from the game with a foot contusion. After the game, Soto gave an optimistic update on the status of his foot, via SNY. “I think it’s gonna be good,” Soto said. “I think it’s gonna be good. We’ve just got to get the swelling down. Whenever the swelling is down, I think we’re gonna be fine. X-rays are negative, so it’s a good sign. We’ve just got to wait for the swelling to come down and go back to where I’m at.” Soto also addressed his pain level after the game, after appearing to be in a world of hurt when he went down on the field originally. “It’s actually numb,” he said. “I don’t feel anything right now. It’s getting a little stiff but we’re gonna see in the morning how it goes.” Soto has been finding his stride of late for the Mets after some rocky moments earlier in the season, so New York will want to have him back in the lineup as soon as he can possibly get out there. For the season coming into Tuesday, Soto had racked up 25 home runs and 62 RBI. He was hitting just .249, but was still an on-base machine with an MLB-leading 84 walks. The Padres went on to beat the Mets very comfortably in a 7-1 blowout on Tuesday night, but New York still sits in the top spot in the NL East by a half-game over the Philadelphia Phillies. The Mets and Phillies are two of the best teams in baseball, so the health of a player like Soto can go a long way toward deciding who comes out on top.
With a new NFL season comes another contract dispute between Jerry Jones and one of the Dallas Cowboys' star players. In 2019, it was running back Ezekiel Elliott. Then there was quarterback Dak Prescott and wide receiver CeeDee Lamb in 2024, and now it's defensive end Micah Parsons in 2025. Those first three all got their wish and received massive paydays without missing any game action, which has many believing that the same movie will play out with Parsons. However, in the moment, Parsons and the Cowboys don't seem to be aligned in their thinking, and that has only been magnified by ESPN insider Adam Schefter's latest update on the situation. "I would say right now we're nowhere on that deal. I would say right now we are further away from a deal in late July/early August than we were in late March/early April. The two sides have gone backwards, not forwards. I don't think they're speaking very much these days, if at all," Schefter said. "This sounds different to me. This sounds a little bit more personal from both sides. It sounds like Dallas is upset with the fact that it felt like it was getting closer to a deal, and then that deal went sideways. And I think Micah Parsons feels like this deal should've been done. I don't think Micah is real happy with them; I don't think they're real happy with him. I don't think anybody is real happy with anybody. And I don't think there's a deal that's being discussed right now, not to mention being close," Schefter added. Certainly not the update Cowboys fans were hoping to hear on Tuesday afternoon. As we know, Parsons is entering the final season of his rookie contract on a fifth-year player option, which Dallas exercised in April of 2024. The superstar pass rusher is set to earn just over $24 million in 2025-26. The 26-year-old has been participating in Cowboys training camp, though he has voiced his displeasure with the current state of contract negotiations both in interviews and on social media. Parsons is one of, if not the best, pass rushers in football, having racked up 12-plus sacks in all four seasons to begin his NFL career. His combination of strength, speed and pure athleticism is a nightmare for opposing offenses, and you can understand why he wants to be paid for it. There's no doubt that the recent deals signed by defensive end Myles Garrett of the Cleveland Browns and outside linebacker T.J. Watt of the Pittsburgh Steelers added fuel to the fire for Parsons. Garrett and Watt will both make over $40 million per season moving forward while already being 30 and 31 years old, respectively. Expectations should remain that Jerry Jones will eventually pony up and pay his franchise player, but reports like these definitely don't help anyone in this situation.