AI-assisted summary
• Dak Prescott enters his 10th season as the Cowboys’ starting quarterback, nearing franchise records for touchdowns and passing yards.
• Despite individual achievements, Prescott’s focus remains on winning a Super Bowl, ending the Cowboys’ 30-year drought.
• Prescott’s leadership and talent are unquestioned, but his playoff performance remains under scrutiny.

Sift through the Dallas Cowboys’ top storylines leading up to Week 1, and there isn’t much mention of quarterback Dak Prescott.

The contract negotiation stalemate between Jerry Jones and Micah Parsons, and the Cowboys’ Netflix documentary “America’s Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys” have dominated the news cycle surrounding the NFL’s most popular franchise.

A stark contrast from a year ago when Prescott was embroiled in contract extension negotiations. Now Prescott is entering Year 10 and currently holds the title of highest-paid player in the NFL (in terms of average annual salary).

It’s hard to believe Prescott is a few days away from beginning his 10^th season as the Cowboys starting QB. Prescott is 36 touchdown passes away from breaking the franchise record and with 2,747 passing yards this season he’ll become the team’s all-time passing leader.

“Yes, I’m aware of it,” Prescott answered this offseason when asked if he knows of the team records he’s approaching. “I didn’t know of the touchdowns necessarily. I knew the yards were coming upon. I don’t want to stop there. It would be awesome. It’s going to be cool, I should say, but that’s not the end goal. I plan to have many more seasons, touchdowns (and) yards.

“Something that I felt like I should be doing. It would be something that’s cool to have but not anything that weighs on me or that I’ll carry and be like, ‘Job well done on.’”

Prescott tossed a career-high and league-leading 36 touchdowns in 2023 and has six 3,000-yard passing seasons. He has a decent shot of breaking at least one of the franchise records if he remains healthy this season. The addition of George Pickens to pair with CeeDee Lamb should only bolster his chances.  

“You see their ability to separate and contested balls and things like that,” Cowboys first-year coach Brian Schottenheimer said to reporters of Pickens and Lamb. “Those guys, you don’t have to do much to get them open…Those two guys, they just feed off each other. It shows you when you have one on one side and one on the other, it’s pretty daunting for a defense.”

But leading the league in passing yards and breaking franchise records isn’t what motivates the 32-year-old quarterback.

Prescott and the Cowboys watched their NFC East rival, Philadelphia Eagles, win Super Bowl 59. The Eagles have won two Super Bowls since Prescott became the Cowboys starter in 2016. Prescott’s won just two playoff games in that span.

“Having fun and winning a Super Bowl, period. That’s what I want. That’s what I want from this game, and I know that’s what everyone wants in this locker room. We have a head coach who I know is hungry for it,” Prescott said. “That’s what’s on my mind 10 (years) in and ready to play another 10 (years). I want that first and foremost now. That is the urgency that I carry with the love and the passion of this game, not only wanting to win for myself but wanting to win for this organization. It been damn long enough.”

Prescott’s 76 career regular-season wins are the fourth most by any QB in franchise history and he’s registered a 33-8 record against NFC East opponents. Yet he’s part of the Cowboys’ 30-year Super Bowl drought. He’s just 2-5 in the postseason.

“They are gonna criticize him because of the playoff performance, and rightfully so. I love Dak and I’m with him. I’ve been with him. Everybody knows how talented he is. Arm talent, he has everything. He’s real smart, he’s a leader. The leadership is unquestioned. He has his team ready to run through a wall for him,” Lamb said to reporters. “I know we are gonna have a good one this year, though, that’s for sure.”

What constitutes a good year for the Cowboys?

Not the individual records or the team’s constant presence in the news cycle. It’s dethroning the Eagles on the way to reaching the pinnacle of the sport. Something the Cowboys haven’t done in three decades.

The 2025 US Open is fully underway and emotions are running high at the fourth and final Grand Slam of the year, as evidenced by a heated exchange between Taylor Townsend and Jelena Ostapenko.

Townsend defeated Ostapenko, 7-5, 6-1, in their second-round match Wednesday evening on Court 11 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Townsend of the U.S. and Ostapenko of Latvia approached the net for a customary post-match handshake and a verbal confrontation ensued. Both players went back and forth as Ostapenko waved her finger at Townsend. Townsend eventually ended up walking away from Ostapenko. The American threw her racket down in celebration and prompted the crowd to cheer by holding her hand to her ear.

‘People get upset when they lose and some people say bad things,’ Townsend said following the match. “(Ostapenko) told me I have no class, no education and to see what happens when we get outside the U.S.’

Here’s what we know about the exchange:

What caused US Open confrontation between Taylor Townsend, Jelena Ostapenko?

Ostapenko revealed on her Instagram Story that the confrontation stemmed from Townsend’s lack of apology for ‘a net ball’ during their match. (It is a common courtesy for players to acknowledge if they win a point after the ball clips the net, although not mandatory.) Ostapenko also took issue with Townsend’s warmup routine.

‘After the match I told my opponent that she was very disrespectful as she had a net ball in a very deciding moment and didn’t say sorry, but her answer was that she doesn’t have to say sorry at all,’ Ostapenko wrote. ‘There are some rules in tennis which most of the players follow and it was first time ever that this happened to me on tour. If she plays in her homeland it doesn’t mean that she can behave and do whatever she wants.’

Jelena Ostapenko: ‘I was NEVER racist in my life’

‘I respect all nations of people in the world, for me it doesn’t matter where you come from. There are some rules in tennis and unfortunately when the crowd is with you, you can’t use it in disrespectful way to your opponent,’ Ostapenko wrote. ‘Unfortunately for me coming from such a small country, I don’t have that huge support and a chance to play in homeland. I always loved to play in the US and US OPEN, but this is the first time someone is approaching the match this disrespectful way.’

Taylor Townsend: There’s ‘no beef on my side’

Ostapenko opened Wednesday’s match with a 5-3 lead in the first set — “When she was playing well, I didn’t say anything. That just shows class,’ said Townsend — before the American won nine consecutive games. Ostapenko got on the board in the second set at 5-1, but it was too little, too late for the Latvian.

‘I turned it up another level and that’s what I’m most proud of today,’ said Townsend, who later added in her press conference: ‘(Ostapenko) was just playing really well. Then when the tables turned, it all of a sudden became an issue. So I chalked it up to competition. I chalk it up to being upset and, you know, she pulled out all the stops to try and break the momentum. Sometimes people do that, but it is what it is.’

Despite the confrontation, Townsend said there’s ‘no beef’ with Ostapenko on her end.

‘No, there’s never been any history. I don’t know how she feels about me, but there’s no beef on my side,’ Townsend said during her press conference. ‘I didn’t back down because you’re not going to insult me, especially after I carried myself a certain type of way with nothing but respect. If I show respect to you, I expect respect as well. That’s just the fact of the matter.’

Taylor Townsend, Jelena Ostapenko head-to-head matchup

Townsend, who was recently ranked the No. 1 overall player in doubles, is never one to back down from competition and said she’s ‘looking forward to’ playing Ostapenko again in the future. ‘I beat her in Canada outside the U.S. I beat her in New York inside the U.S. So, let’s see what else she has to say,’ she added.

Wednesday’s match marked the third overall meeting between Townsend and Ostapenko. Townsend leads the head-to-head 2-1. In addition to Wednesday’s US Open win, Townsend defeated Ostapenko, 6-2, 6-1, at the 2024 National Bank Open in Toronto. Ostapenko took their first matchup, beating Townsend, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, at the 2018 US Open in New York.

Townsend will face No. 5 seed Mirra Andreeva in the third round of the US Open. Her best finish in the tournament was the 2019 US Open, when she advanced to the fourth round.

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AI-assisted summary
• Ty Simpson, a redshirt junior, has been named Alabama’s starting quarterback.
• Simpson, a former five-star recruit, has limited college experience but is considered highly talented.
• Simpson’s father and coaches have noticed increased confidence and maturity in his approach to the game.

Thomas Morris knows Ty Simpson better than most. 

Morris trained Simpson starting in eighth grade for QB Country in Memphis, Tennessee. Morris watched Simpson blossom into the five-star quarterback who signed with Alabama, played under Nick Saban and alongside Bryce Young and Jalen Milroe.

Morris, who came to Alabama from for Westview High School in Martin, Tennessee, was one of Simpson’s first calls when the Alabama redshirt junior quarterback was named as the Crimson Tide’s starter, two weeks before the start of the season.

But even then, as Simpson prepares for Alabama’s Aug. 30 opener against Florida State, Morris still doesn’t know what Simpson, the Crimson Tide’s starting quarterback, will look like. 

“I don’t think anyone really knows what we have in Ty yet,” Morris told The Tuscaloosa News. “And that goes to me. I don’t know what’s going to happen when the lights are on.” 

Simpson has fewer than 200 snaps of playing time, having sat behind Milroe and Young for three seasons. And when Simpson steps behind center at Doak Campbell Stadium against the Seminoles, it will be his first time as an Alabama starter, winning the role over redshirt sophomore Austin Mack and freshman Keelon Russell.

But Morris knows what Simpson could be. Simpson is “one of the most talented guys I have ever been around” and “a first-round talent type of quarterback.” 

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That’s the message Morris shared when Simpson told him he was Alabama’s starting quarterback: It’s time to show the college football world who Simpson can be. 

“I think he’s been waiting patiently to show the world that, ‘I’m this guy, I’m this talented, I can lead this team to heights just like these other greats that have come through,’” Morris said. 

“I think he wants to be a great. He wants to be an all-timer.” 

‘I do not need to be Superman’

At Westview High, Simpson could be “Superman.” 

Based on arm talent and athleticism alone, Simpson could take over a game by himself, ‘running around like he’s Johnny Manziel making crazy throws and crazy plays,” Morris said. It’s how Simpson became a five-star quarterback. It’s how he caught Alabama’s attention initially. 

But a superhero was not what the Crimson Tide needed. 

“People talked with Saban about being a ‘system quarterback,’” Morris said. “Really, what this means is how do you run this offense, right? And I think, for Ty, it was just learning how to run an offense knowing, ‘I do not need to be Superman. I have five-star receivers. I have five-star running backs and tight ends. I can just dump it off to them. Not everything needs to be a big play.’” 

It’s learning how to take what opposing defenses are giving, taking a check-down if necessary, anticipating windows and knowing when a play is over. 

It’s learning how to run the show. 

“Everybody wants to push the ball downfield and make Brett Favre-style plays and stuff like that,” said Jason Simpson, Ty’s father and Tennessee-Martin’s football coach. “Just through maturity-wise, Ty’s learned … it’s calculated risk, I’d tell you that. (Those are) conversations I’ve had with him, anyway. … Completions, get first downs.” 

At Alabama, it’s known as the ‘gimme’ offense: making the easy plays easy and, simply, moving the ball downfield as safely as possible.

It’s what Mac Jones did at Alabama, Morris said.

Jones turned his redshirt junior season with the Crimson Tide − his first as a starter − into an NFL draft first-round selection, leading leading the SEC in completion percentage and passing yards. He also took the Crimson Tide to a national championship.

“Mac just knew how to get his playmakers the ball. And he had amazing playmakers,” Morris said, adding that Jones is “not nearly as talented” as Simpson is physically. 

But through Jones, Morris said, Simpson found an opportunity. 

“I think Ty saw that and said, ‘Man, if it takes three years, it takes three years. But I want to win a national championship. I want to get coached by the best. I want to be the best.’ 

How Ty Simpson became the right fit for Alabama football QB

The path was set for Simpson. It’s been done before at Alabama. But to run the show for the Crimson Tide, Simpson admits he first had to mature. 

As a younger quarterback, battling for playing time with Young and Milroe, Simpson would call his father, Jason, after each practice and each scrimmage, breaking down each play made or missed and dissecting each praise or critique he received from the coaching staff. 

Comparison ruled Simpson’s mind, leading to worry and anxiety, which fed questions about his place at Alabama. 

To mature, Simpson had to change his mindset, something he couldn’t do alone.

“I sat back in my room one night and was like, ‘I’m going to pray (and) give everything I’ve got to the Lord. Just make sure I understand that I’m going to be the best player, the best Ty Simpson I can be,’” Simpson said. 

When Jason Simpson hears about Ty’s increased confidence, it makes sense to him. Ty’s in the second year of an offensive scheme under coach Kalen DeBoer. Ty’s heading into his fourth season with the program.

But Jason Simpson sees a player in Ty Simpson who has simplified things. 

“I think, as a young player, you probably pay attention to too much stuff,” Jason Simpson said. “As an older player, you realize, ‘Hey, I’m judged about taking care of the football, moving the ball, leading the team.’ You can’t talk your way into that spot.” 

Ty Simpson didn’t have to. 

Alabama offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb saw a quarterback who was authentic, who slowed the game down, who showed consistent desire to get better before earning the trust of the coaching staff. 

“I really felt like he had showed enough through camp to be the dominant player in the room,” Grubb said. 

‘Ty’s a grown man now’

Days before Ty Simpson was named Alabama’s starting quarterback, Jason Simpson watched his son take the field at Bryant-Denny Stadium for the Crimson Tide’s first fall scrimmage. 

Jason saw glimpses of that “Superman” quarterback, the one who won a state championship at Westview. And when Ty got home hours after the scrimmage was complete, he wasn’t eager to break his performance down.

“He sits down in his chair,” Jason Simpson said. “And normally we would pull up the scrimmage and go through every play and talk through it and this, that and the other. But he was just locked in, confident in himself.” 

Ty Simpson doesn’t talk about many plays with his father now unless Jason wants to install them into his own offense, Jason Simpson said with a chuckle. Their relationship simpler now.

Before every game, Jason sends Ty a text. The specifics may change from week to week, but the overall message remains: Use your platform to honor God, catch every snap, check the ball down and I love you, dude. 

Jason Simpson doesn’t think Ty needs much more than that. 

“Ty’s a grown man now,” Jason Simpson said. “This is his career, and I’m here just to support him.” 

Colin Gay covers Alabama football for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him atcgay@gannett.com or follow him@_ColinGay on X, formerly known as Twitter. 

AI-assisted summary
• UCLA football boosted its team with the arrival of top transfer quarterback Nico Iamaleava and offensive coordinator Tino Sunseri.
• Coach Deshaun Foster has implemented a highly secretive approach to fall camp, limiting what people know about UCLA.
• The Bruins face another challenging schedule in 2025, which will test if they are a dark horse playoff team.

LOS ANGELES — It’s a mystery what’s brewing in Westwood.

After a middling debut season in the Big Ten, UCLA went from a hazy future to suddenly one filled with optimism.

It landed arguably the top transfer in the country, a College Football Playoff-experienced quarterback in Nico Iamaleava. He was part of a transfer portal haul that’s top 20 in the country according to 247Sports. The high school recruiting class isn’t bad either. Plus, Tino Sunseri – instrumental in Indiana’s electric offense last season – is now offensive coordinator. 

Quickly, the Bruins looked like they could make some noise. Maybe become a surprise College Football Playoff contender.

But for a team that has struggled to generate interest recently, the Bruins haven’t been doing much outwardly excited the fan base.

In his second season at his alma mater, coach Deshaun Foster has restricted how much the outside world can get a glimpse into preseason preparations. The team left Los Angeles and started fall camp 41 miles away in Costa Mesa. He has limited media viewing and interviews, and not revealed much when he does talk. No photos or videos from practice, including a session open to the public at the Rose Bowl.

His reasoning? Not letting an opponent get an edge into what is happening.

“You guys film our practice and put it online,” Foster told the media. “If I was an opponent for another team, I’d look right at you guys and stuff and see what’s going on. So for them not to get a beat on (Sunseri) or depth or anything that’s going on, that’s why it’s closed.”

Well then. While it can be interpreted several ways, especially when it’s a team in need of connecting with its fans and generating hype, maybe Foster does have something worth hiding. With 50 new players and eight new assistants, it’s unknown how the Bruins will look. Keeping it secret has advantages.

Nico Iamaleava will be in UCLA spotlight

But we do know it starts at quarterback.

Iamaleava hasn’t talked much − and it isn’t just because he’s a quiet person. He has avoided reporters, but when he spoke to the media three days before the season opener, he was smiling about playing his first game at the Rose Bowl.

It was a weird offseason full of twists and turns. Now, he can put it all behind him and showcase what made him such a highly-praised recruit.

‘It’s been an exciting moment for me just to get out there and go play football again,’ Iamaleava said. ‘I can’t wait to just get out there.’

Not much speaking, but his coach and teammates have been doing plenty of that for him, praising his actions and reinvigorating excitement in the program.

“Since he’s came here, he just had his head down. He kept his nose down and he worked,” said offensive lineman Julian Armella. “Whenever he comes out here, you see the leader. Whenever he steps out on the field, he commands a presence.”

Iamaleava brings a resume UCLA hasn’t experienced this century. The Bruins last played in a major bowl game in the 1999 Rose Bowl, the first season of the Bowl Championship Series. In his first season as starter, Iamaleava threw for 2,616 yards and 19 touchdowns at Tennessee last season, leading the Volunteers to the College Football Playoff. 

There’s no media footage of him at Bruins practice, but the school has shown him off on social media with several throws showcasing the arm strength that made him such a prized recruit. 

“Nico at quarterback, he’s one of the most impressive players I’ve ever been around,” said tight end Hudson Habermehl.

The arrival of Sunseri, who is a rising offensive mind in the sport, is a coup for Iamaleava. With Indiana last season, Sunseri was influential in helping the Hoosiers to the second-best scoring offense in the country. 

Since he was quarterbacks coach at James Madison in 2021, Sunseri’s signal-callers have thrown for at least 2,600 yards and 25 touchdowns with a 63% completion percentage every season. 

Iamaleava also credited his offensive coordinator for helping him get out of his comfort zone and be more vocal. Sunseri stressed his quarterback’s voice is important, and when he speaks, everyone in the room is listening.

The combination of quarterback and play caller should give the UCLA a needed boost; the Bruins had the eighth-worst scoring offense and were 16th-worst in total offense. In addition to scoring more points, improvement on that side of the ball will help a defense that was mainly the reason UCLA was able to rebound from a 1-5 start. 

Even though he’s known for his work quarterbacks, what really drew Foster to Sunseri was his approach to the running game, noting he ‘checked all the boxes’ for what he wanted in a balanced offense. It was tough for Foster, a former NFL running back, to have see his running game in 2024 average 86.6 yards per game, third-worst in FBS.

“We’re going to be able to make sure that we’re going to be able to stretch the field vertically and horizontally. To be able to make sure the defense blade guards every single blade of grass,” Sunseri said. 

UCLA looking to build on strong finish

The improved offense and a close knit team that connected over “Brotherhood” meetings during fall camp intends to build on optimism from the improved play at the end of last season. UCLA finished 5-7 and didn’t qualify for a bowl game in a full season for the first time since 2019, but four wins in its last six games showed signs of a team that could be competitive in the Big Ten.

This season will put Foster’s theory on growing his team’s popularity to the test. When asked if he was worried limited media would hurt the marketing of it, he responsed there’s only one true way to do it, and that’s to produce results.

“If you win games, you’re marketed,” he said. “We’re going to go out there and focus on winning games.”

The summer sun sure does shine in Southern California. When the team was in Costa Mesa, Foster said he felt like he needed to put his sunglasses on.

It wasn’t because of the sun. Rather, because Foster feels his team’s future is incredibly bright. 

Corny? Sure, but the man in charge of the Bruins feels like his team is on the rise.

We’ll soon find out if we’ll need a pair of shades too.

The unfortunate truth of fantasy football is that every year, there will be players who end the season as busts.

It’s statistically impossible for every player to reach his exact fantasy-point projection. Just as many players might overperform their draft position in a given year, others will fall short (maybe even well short) of their expectations.

Here are four wide receivers we feel have the highest potential to be a bust in the 2025 season. In other words, do your best to avoid this quartet in fantasy football drafts over the coming weeks.

Fantasy football WR busts to avoid in 2025

Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Seattle Seahawks

In some ways, Smith-Njigba has the upside to be a WR1 in fantasy leagues as he comes off of a breakout season with the Seahawks last year. He finished his second season as WR17 in fantasy points per game, thanks in part to a second-half stretch between Weeks 9-18 that had him in top-10 fantasy wide receiver territory.

Add in the fact that the Seahawks brought in a new quarterback, Sam Darnold, with better marks in passer rating, touchdowns and average depth of target in 2024 than previous starter Geno Smith, and the outlook looks brighter.

On top of that, Seattle traded away Smith-Njigba’s biggest competition for targets: DK Metcalf.

However, the Seahawks did bring in wide receiver Cooper Kupp, which could limit some of Smith-Njigba’s upside. But more concerning is how Klint Kubiak, Seattle’s new offensive coordinator, has historically liked to run his offenses. He’s generally been the kind of guy who leans far heavier on the run game than the pass, and a vast majority of Kubiak’s plays as the Saints’ offensive coordinator last year used personnel groupings with two or fewer wide receivers.

That’s concerning for a receiver like Smith-Njigba, who thrives far more from the slot (as a ‘third’ receiver) than he does on the outside.

Terry McLaurin, Washington Commanders

McLaurin was the talk of the town on Monday after finally signing his contract extension to stick around in Washington through 2028. But is he set up for success in fantasy football in 2025? Signs point to … maybe not.

Reasons to be excited about McLaurin this season include the fact that he’s been the model of consistency. Despite years of turmoil at Washington’s quarterback position, last year was the wideout’s fifth straight year with more than 1,000 receiving yards. Add in that Jayden Daniels seems to have solved the Commanders’ quarterback problem and that it led to a career-high touchdown total (13) for McLaurin last year, and it’s easy to see the hype.

What’s concerning about McLaurin is that the improved quarterback play didn’t significantly enhance production in other key stats. His targets in 2024 were his fewest since his rookie season, and his yardage total didn’t jump significantly, keeping his realistic ceiling around the 1,100 mark. A big reason for his improvement in fantasy football was that leap in touchdown output, rather than other factors.

The addition of fellow receiver Deebo Samuel Sr. to this offense won’t exactly help McLaurin in that regard. He’ll poach more of the Commanders’ lead receiver’s targets in general, and there will be more competition in red-zone targets specifically.

McLaurin went from being Washington’s No. 1 receiver by a wide, wide margin to still being Daniels’ lead wideout, but without as big a drop-off to the second option.

Garrett Wilson, New York Jets

As with McLaurin and Smith-Njigba, there are signs of a potentially big season for Wilson. But there are also some red flags that could hold him back from reaching that high ceiling.

First, the good. Wilson is easily the leading receiver in the Jets’ passing offense, and there isn’t much of a competition there. The second option for new quarterback Justin Fields is either Josh Reynolds, Allen Lazard or rookie tight end Mason Taylor. Wilson is also coming off of a season in which he set career-high marks in receptions (101) yards (1,104) and touchdowns (7), which is only more encouraging.

But here comes the bad. His quarterback is former college teammate Fields, a passer who hasn’t managed to stay healthy for a full season in his career and one who spent most of last year on the bench. A passer who also struggled to throw the ball accurately and with consistency throughout much of training camp and in preseason matchups. A passer who appears to trust his legs far more than his arm.

So while the floor may be high for Wilson – thanks to the higher volume he will likely see due to the lackluster receivers room in New York – his ceiling is capped significantly by Fields’ limitations as a passer.

DK Metcalf, Pittsburgh Steelers

Once again, we come to a receiver whose outlook for 2025 appears phenomenal on the surface. Little serious competition for targets and due to catch passes from a well-established quarterback.

However, Metcalf’s landing in Pittsburgh means he ends up in a fantasy wasteland for pass-catchers.

Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith has a well-established history of tanking the fantasy value of his top receivers. Outside of A.J. Brown’s 2019 and 2020 seasons in Tennessee, no player in a Smith-led offense has surpassed 1,000 receiving yards or more than five touchdowns.

Falcons tight end Kyle Pitts had 770 yards and five scores in 2021. Receiver Drake London had 866 yards, four touchdowns and 905 yards, two touchdowns in 2022 and 2023, respectively. Last year, then-Steelers receiver George Pickens had 900 yards and three touchdowns in his first year under Smith, one season after leading the league in yards per reception.

So, like Wilson, Metcalf has a decent floor because of the volume potential in Pittsburgh’s otherwise unimpressive receivers room. But his ceiling is capped hard by the Smith-run offense.