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🏈 Good morning to everybody however particularly to …

THE CHICAGO BEARS

Whereas everybody was tuned into convention tournaments across the nation on Thursday evening, the Bears rudely determined to steal the highlight by persevering with to revamp their roster. Chicago acquired star huge receiver Keenan Allen from the Chargers in change for a fourth-round choose.

The Bears have had a busy offseason already, and so they simply added one other weapon for whoever their subsequent quarterback is perhaps. Allen has established himself as probably the most prolific huge receivers within the NFL, placing up large numbers into his early-30s. He is averaged 97.5 receptions and 1,130 receiving yards over the past seven seasons. Over that span, solely Davante Adams has extra receptions and simply 5 receivers have extra yards.

This deal earned the Bears an “A-” from our personal Josh Edwards, who likes that the group is loading up on firepower for a rookie quarterback.

• Edwards: “Allen is just not going to be part of the long-term plans, however so usually groups don’t sufficient to help their rookie quarterback. It can’t be stated that Chicago is just not making that effort beneath the idea that it’s taking Caleb Williams No. 1 total. The Bears unite D.J. Moore with Allen, however the acquisition doesn’t preclude them from taking a pass-catcher within the top-10 total.”

Now the Bears simply must make their subsequent quarterback official once they make the No. 1 total choose within the 2024 NFL Draft in just below six weeks.

👍 Honorable mentions

🏀 And never such a great morning for …

BUBBLE LOSERS

Like several good “Trailer Park Boys” plot, this time of 12 months is all about bubbles, and a few NCAA Match hopefuls had theirs busted in convention event video games on Thursday. Whereas a number of bubble groups are nonetheless alive within the battle for March Insanity spots, a handful of others had been much less lucky.

• Going into Thursday, Wake Forest was certainly one of CBS Sports activities bracketologist Jerry Palm’s “Subsequent 4 Out,” and the Demon Deacons did not assist their case with a 12-point loss to Pitt.
• Villanova survived what initially seemed like a buzzer-beater on the finish of regulation, however suffered a devastating OT loss to Marquette anyway.
• Seton Corridor and St. John’s, two of Palm’s “Final 4 In,” went head-to-head within the Huge East tourney. Rick Pitino’s Crimson Storm wound up thumping the Pirates, 91-72.
• Kansas State entered its Huge 12 Match matchup vs. Iowa State as a member of Palm’s “First 4 Out.” The Wildcats exited with a 19-point loss and dampened hopes of reaching the dance.
• In a “double bubble” conflict that includes Ohio State and Iowa within the Huge Ten Match, the higher-seeded Hawkeyes laid an egg in a 90-78 loss.
• In Sin Metropolis, Utah and Colorado performed one other “double bubble” sport, and the Utes shot 32.8% from three-point vary en path to a 14-point loss.

After all, the information wasn’t dangerous for each bubble group.

• Texas A&M scored a badly wanted win over Ole Miss, 80-71, within the SEC Match.
• After a poor end to the common season, Michigan State acquired again on observe with a 77-67 win over Minnesota within the Huge Ten tourney.
• NC State saved its hopes of stealing a bid alive by upsetting Duke by a rating of 74-69 within the ACC Match.
• Within the Pac-12 tourney, Oregon did the identical factor by hanging on to beat UCLA, 68-66.

👎 Not so honorable mentions

🏈 Chiefs get a deep ball receiver for Patrick Mahomes

The Chiefs have not had a big-time playmaker at huge receiver since they traded Tyreek Hill to the Dolphins, however that hasn’t bothered them an excessive amount of. Kansas Metropolis has received back-to-back Tremendous Bowls with a fairly underwhelming huge receiver room. If it ain’t broke, do not repair it, proper? … Mistaken.

Simply minutes after the Bears swung the commerce for Allen, the Chiefs signed former Ravens and Cardinals huge receiver Marquise “Hollywood” Brown to a one-year contract value as much as $11 million. The No. 25 total choose within the 2019 NFL Draft, Brown has the potential to be a star in Kansas Metropolis’s offense.

Brown hasn’t all the time performed beneath the most effective of circumstances in his NFL profession, however he has nonetheless managed to reel in 313 catches for 3,644 yards and 28 touchdowns in 72 video games. These circumstances will enhance tremendously with Patrick Mahomes throwing him the soccer, and CBS Sports activities’ personal Garrett Podell says that has the prospect to ingite a downfield connection.

• Podell: “Alongside the rising Rashee Rice and Travis Kelce, Mahomes now has a good stronger prime three choices to select from in 2024 as Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Skyy Moore and Justin Watson all took turns chipping in at various levels of success all through the season. Now, the deep ball can return to Mahomes’ and the Chiefs’ arsenal for the primary time since they traded away Tyreek Hill to the Miami Dolphins in 2022.”

At this level, the remainder of the NFL groups must be shaking their heads. A 3-peat for the Chiefs simply acquired just a little extra probably.

⛳️ Three-way tie atop the leaderboard at TPC Sawgrass

After the primary day of motion at The Gamers Championship, the highest of the leaderboard is wanting awfully comfortable. Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele and Wyndham Clark (-7) had been the co-leaders when the primary spherical was suspended resulting from darkness on Thursday evening.

McIlroy, who hasn’t fairly been himself not too long ago, was in a position to shake off his struggles and notched a record-tying 10 birdies within the first spherical. Schauffele, then again, has been cooking thus far in 2024, and it does not appear like he’ll be slowing down this weekend.

To his credit score, Clark closed the opening spherical very properly with three straight birdies to tug even with McIlroy and Schauffele. Clark already has one win beneath his belt this 12 months — at Pebble Seashore — and now he is looking one other one. To make the following few days much more intriguing, two extra golfers are proper behind that main trio at 6 beneath by way of Spherical 1.

With Spherical 2 on deck Friday, the highest of The Gamers Championship leaderboard is as follows:

T-1. Xander Schauffele (-7)
T-1. Rory McIlroy (-7)
T-1. Wyndham Clark (-7)
T-4. Nick Taylor (-6)
T-4. Matt Fitzpatrick (-6)

🏀 Celtics go ballistic from 3 in clinching a playoff berth

Did somebody by chance activate NBA Jam settings in TD Backyard final evening? As soon as the Celtics caught hearth from past the arc, they by no means cooled down, and their three-point capturing powered them to a powerful 127-112 win over the Suns. Boston turned the NBA’s first group to clinch a playoff berth, and Joe Mazzulla — sure, the coach! — even tried to dam a apply shot of an opposing participant heading right into a timeout.

Boston was letting it fly from three-point vary, trying 50 pictures from downtown all through the sport. They wound up making a whopping 25(!) of them, and for these like me who did not ace math in highschool, that comes out to 50.0%. It was a ridiculous evening for the Celtics with the entire group draining pictures from deep.

• Al Horford was merely unconscious, making six of his 10 three-point makes an attempt.
• Each Celtics starter made a minimum of three pictures from past the arc.
• That is now the third time this season that the Celtics have hit 25 three-point pictures.

In response to SportsLine, the Celtics have the second-best odds to win the NBA title at +500. It isn’t arduous to see why once they make three-point capturing appear like a sport of Pop-A-Shot on the native watering gap.

📺 What we’re watching Friday

⛳️ The Gamers Championship: Spherical 2, 7:30 a.m. on Golf Channel
🏀 Huge Ten Match: Michigan State vs. No. 3 Purdue (M), 12 p.m. on Huge Ten Community
🏀 SEC Match: Mississippi State vs. No. 5 Tennessee (M), 1 p.m. on ESPN
🏀 SEC Match: No. 15 South Carolina vs. No. 12 Auburn (M), 3:30 p.m. on ESPN
🏀 Huge East Match: St. John’s vs. No. 2 UConn (M), 5:30 p.m. on FOX
🏀 Huge Ten Match: Ohio State vs. No. 13 Illinois (M), 6:30 p.m. on Huge Ten Community
🏀 Huge 12 Match: No. 25 Texas Tech vs. No. 1 Houston (M), 7 p.m. on ESPN+
🏒 Kings at Blackhawks, 8:30 p.m. on NHL Community
🏀 Hawks at Jazz, 9:30 p.m. on NBA TV