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Cowboys get Michigan DT Mazi Smith 26th overall in NFL draft

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:11:54 GMT

FRISCO, Texas (AP) — The Dallas Cowboys targeted the leakiest part of their solid defense in the NFL draft, taking Michigan defensive tackle Mazi Smith with the 26th overall pick Thursday night.As much as the Cowboys would like to add offensive firepower for quarterback Dak Prescott, the run defense on a unit led by pass rushing star Micah Parsons needed some help, too.Dallas led the NFL in takeaways for the second consecutive year in 2022 — with the Cowboys reaching the playoffs both seasons — but the run defense dropped six spots to No. 22. The Cowboys were getting pushed around enough to trade for Johnathan Hankins during the season, and re-signed the player acquired from Las Vegas. The 6-foot-3, 323-pound Smith gives the Cowboys even more size on the interior of the defensive line. Parsons approved, tweeting “Man, let’s freaking work!!!!!!”“I’ve been strong my whole life,” Smith said. “My mom say I came out of the womb looking like I did pushups in there.”Asked what ...

Bills trade up to take TE Dalton Kincaid 25th in NFL draft

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:11:54 GMT

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — The mere presence of Utah tight end Dalton Kincaid still being available as the Buffalo Bills’ late first-round selection approached was enough to convince general manager Brandon Beane to switch gears.Rather than follow through on trading back in the order or out of the first round entirely, Beane moved up two spots to select Kincaid with the 25th pick in the NFL draft on Thursday night.“Well, I lied. We traded up,” Beane said with a laugh in reflecting back to last week, when he said the odds were better he’d trade back. “Well, I didn’t lie. I just didn’t know he’d be there.”The Bills traded their 27th overall selection and their fourth-round pick, 130th overall, in a deal with the Jacksonville Jaguars in making Kincaid the first tight end selected. The move allowed Buffalo to jump ahead of Dallas, with Beane saying he had “a good feeling” the Cowboys were going to select Kincaid.Listed at 6-foot-4 and 246 pounds, Kincaid was Utah’s top receiving th...

NFL draft: Lions take RB Gibbs No. 12, LB Campbell at No. 18

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:11:54 GMT

ALLEN PARK, Mich. (AP) — The Detroit Lions made a move that even surprised the first player they picked in the NFL draft.Detroit traded down to take Alabama running back Jahmyr Gibbs No. 12 overall on Thursday night, giving up its first pick and a third-rounder to Arizona for a first-round selection and the 34th spot overall.“I was shocked,” Gibbs acknowledged, adding he expected to be drafted in the 20s.He joins a crowded backfield with D’Andre Swift and David Montgomery that may be in flux.When general manager Brad Holmes was asked about Swift, he said the dynamic running back was still on the roster.“It’s early,” Holmes said.The Lions added much-needed help on defense later in the first round, drafting Iowa’s Jack Campbell at No. 18 overall. The 6-foot-4, 249-pound Campbell, who is from Cedar Falls, Iowa, became the first player in school history to win the Butkus Award as college football’s best linebacker.“He is a Dan Campbell guy,” Lions linebacker Kelvin She...

Russia fires cruise missiles at Kyiv, other parts of Ukraine

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:11:54 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia fired more than a dozen cruise missiles at Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine early Friday, killing at least two people in an eastern city and striking a residential building in central Ukraine, officials said.Air raid sirens sounded around the capital in the first attack against the city in nearly two months and Ukraine’s air force intercepted 11 cruise missiles and two unmanned aerial vehicles over Kyiv, according to the Kyiv City Administration. There were no immediate reports of any successful strikes in Kyiv but fragments from intercepted missiles or drones damaged power lines and a road in one neighborhood. No casualties were reported.But a young woman and her 3-year-old child were killed in the eastern city of Dnipro in another attack, according to the city’s Mayor Borys Filatov in a Facebook post. He said more details would be provided later. Two cruise missiles also hit a residential building and storage facilities in Uman, around 215 ki...

US Army says 3 soldiers were killed and another injured in a collision of helicopters after an Alaska training mission

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:11:54 GMT

JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska (AP) — US Army says 3 soldiers were killed and another injured in a collision of helicopters after an Alaska training mission.Source

Chris Perkins: Top 20 players available for the Dolphins in the NFL draft

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:11:54 GMT

The Dolphins will make their first picks of the draft – selection No. 51 in the second round, and selection No. 84 in the third round – Friday night. Numerous quality players are available at a number of positions. Here are the top 20 players, some in the second round, some in the third round, the Dolphins could choose among based on talent, projected availability, and need.Steve Avila, G-C, TCUAvila (6-3, 332), who would be a second-round pick, could challenge Liam Eichenberg, Robert Jones and perhaps Dan Feeney to start at left guard. Avila is skilled, physical and feisty.Dawand Jones, OT, Ohio StateJones, a right tackle who’d be a second-round pick, would challenge starting right tackle Austin Jackson. Jones (6-8, 374) is fairly athletic but it’s not known if he’s versatile enough to serve as a backup to left tackle Terron Armstead.Sam LaPorta, TE, IowaLaPorta (6-3, 245), who figures to go in the second round, offers receiving and in-line blocking, a...

Why Patriots believed they could trade back and still draft Christian Gonzalez

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:11:54 GMT

The Patriots could have had the steal of the draft with their original pick Thursday night.Instead, they gambled.The Pats traded back three spots from 14th overall, waited and then selected Oregon cornerback Christian Gonzalez, a projected top-10 pick by most esteemed draft analysts.Speaking with reporters after the first round, Patriots director of player personnel Matt Groh explained the trade by saying the team sensed Gonzalez would still be available even after moving back.The Patriots couldn’t guarantee it, but knew the Steelers were moving up for an offensive tackle at No. 14, and had “a “good feeling” Washington, at No. 16, wanted Mississippi State cornerback Emmanuel Forbes. All that left was to learn was whom the Jets — or a mystery team trading up — would take at 15th overall. But with New York unlikely to draft a corner, the Pats took the risk and added a fourth-round pick in their trade with Pittsburgh.Groh said the Patriots expected t...

A NJ pastor-politician is gunned down, and a community reels

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:11:54 GMT

SAYREVILLE, N.J. (AP) — Nicole Teliano used to play games on her phone in the mayor’s office while her mother worked down the hall several evenings a month, tending to the tedious, often acrimonious task of serving in local government. The 11-year-old girl didn’t mind sharing her mother, Sayreville Councilwoman Eunice Dwumfour, with the nearly 50,000 residents of the central New Jersey town, the young people she nurtured as a pastor of a prosperity gospel church in Newark or the Nigerian church colleague she married in a festive ceremony in Abuja in November. “Well, my mom was a little bit of extra, so I could share a little bit. There was enough to go around,” Nicole said in a family interview with The Associated Press this month.Now, friends and loved ones are asking for help figuring out who gunned down the charismatic 30-year-old Dwumfour outside her Sayreville home on Feb. 1. The case is reverberating from New Jersey to West Africa, with touchpoints including politics, religion...

5 killed in Russian missile and drone attack on Ukraine

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:11:54 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia fired more than 20 cruise missiles and two drones at Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine early Friday, killing at least five people and striking a residential building in central Ukraine, officials said.Air raid sirens sounded around the capital in the first attack against the city in nearly two months and Ukraine’s air force intercepted 11 cruise missiles and two unmanned aerial vehicles over Kyiv, according to the Kyiv City Administration. There were no immediate reports of any missiles hitting targets in Kyiv but fragments from intercepted missiles or drones damaged power lines and a road in one neighborhood. No casualties were reported.But a 31-year-old woman and her 2-year-old daughter were killed in the eastern city of Dnipro in another attack, regional Governor Serhii Lysak said. Four people were also wounded, and a private home and business were damaged. Two cruise missiles also hit a residential building and storage facilities in Uman, around 2...

Rising GOP star embroiled in tough Kentucky primary fight

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:11:54 GMT

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Flagged as a rising Republican star who worked for Mitch McConnell and pitched Donald Trump’s campaign to Black voters, Daniel Cameron could have taken a cautious approach and run for reelection as attorney general.Instead, he took a career-defining risk by plunging into Kentucky’s competitive race for governor against a popular Democratic incumbent and a crowded field of GOP primary opponents. If he wins, the state’s first Black attorney general would become its first Black governor.But Cameron’s pursuit of Kentucky’s top political office has turned bumpy. Instead of breezing to his party’s nomination, he’s embroiled in a tough primary fight, especially with former United Nations Ambassador Kelly Craft, who has attacked Cameron in an ad blitz backed by her family’s fortune.The two are among a dozen candidates — including two other statewide officeholders, Ryan Quarles and Mike Harmon — competing for the GOP nomination in th...