When Kevin Shattenkirk was bought out by the New York Rangers this summer, he was ticked off -- and ready for his next opportunity.

The Tampa Bay Lightning were among the first teams to express interest in the 30-year-old defenseman. Of course Shattenkirk talked to GM Julien BriseBois and coach Jon Cooper, but his most important conversation was with former Rangers teammate Ryan McDonagh, now a defenseman with the Lightning. Shattenkirk wanted to know about the culture in Tampa Bay. The Lightning were the league's most dominant regular-season team last season and tied an NHL record with 62 wins, but were stunningly swept out of the first round by the Columbus Blue Jackets.

"Especially after last year, I wanted to ask him a lot of questions about what was going on," Shattenkirk said. "I wanted to know what the locker room was like, how the guys all got together, things like that. I knew going into it, I was probably only going to be here for a year anyway, but I had to make sure it was going to be a good fit."

McDonagh explained how the team was handling last season's collapse. The more McDonagh shared, the more intrigued Shattenkirk was about Tampa Bay. He signed a one-year, $1.75 million deal with the Lightning.

"[The way last season ended] weighed on them a little bit; you can't hide from it," Shattenkirk said. "Everywhere we go -- until at least the end of January -- every new city we go to, people are going to be asking about it. As a team we said from the get-go, we're not going to shy away from it. That's what excited me. The guys on the team seemed to share the same mentality I had after I was bought out. Having that chip on our shoulders is something that we want to use to our advantage: not forget about what happened in the past and wipe our slate clean, but work hard and get better and prove people wrong."

Through 20 games, Shattenkirk has done just that. The Lightning are still finding their groove, which might be a good thing. If they get through early adversity, they can hit their stride when it matters. But even through it all, Shattenkirk looks like his old self, the elite puck-moving defenseman whom the Rangers coveted in 2017.

He is tied for fourth on the Lightning in scoring with 16 points (five goals, 11 assists) while manning the top pairing with Victor Hedman. Tampa Bay's system fits exactly into Shattenkirk's offensive mentality, which he got away from in his injury-plagued, two-year stint with the Rangers.

"How they want us to play with the puck really matched up with my style," Shattenkirk said. "We're not called out if you make a mistake, if you try something or join the rush. I came in here, and I wasn't asked to do anything more than what I know I'm capable of. I think I got away from that in New York. I was trying to do more than I should have. That falls on my shoulders."

Shattenkirk was one of the most sought-after blueliners in free agency in 2017 when he made headlines by taking less money and term to sign a four-year, $26.6 million contract with the Rangers, the team he grew up rooting for. (A native of New Rochelle, New York, Shattenkirk first skated as a kid at the Rangers' practice facility in Rye.)

But Shattenkirk's Blueshirts tenure was frustrating. On the first day of testing at his first training camp, Shattenkirk tweaked his left knee. It turned out to be a torn meniscus. But because there was so much hoopla and expectation after he signed, he felt pressure to play through the injury. "I was definitely the force behind that, driving that," Shattenkirk said. "I didn't want to have to start the season getting surgery. It wasn't bad enough that it wasn't manageable."

Shattenkirk got a cortisone shot. "That kept it at bay," he said. "But it kind of wore off by December."

He wasn't able to train as much, and lost a lot of strength in his leg. By January, after his knee didn't respond to a platelet-rich plasma injection in the way he hoped, Shattenkirk stopped delaying the inevitable. "It wasn't the pain that caused me to get surgery," he said. "It was the fact that I couldn't perform, couldn't skate."

About three weeks into Shattenkirk's stint on injured reserve, Rangers management announced in a letter to fans that the team was entering a rebuild. The Rangers said goodbye in the coming months to many veteran players, including McDonagh, as they embraced a youth movement. Shattenkirk felt hopeless while sidelined.

"I was just upset because I thought we had a really good team and we could have made it work," Shattenkirk said. "When they put out the letter, we were three points out of the playoffs. It felt like we had enough veteran leadership in there -- guys who had been there before -- to turn it around. That's the thing that killed me. We were good. We were fine. We just needed a kick in the butt. Eventually, they winded up firing the coach [Alain Vigneault] and doing all of that stuff, and who knows if it had happened during the season. Maybe we could have turned it around."

The Rangers replaced Vigneault with David Quinn, Shattenkirk's old coach at Boston University. Shattenkirk returned in 2018-19, but everything had changed. It was a youth-oriented team now, and he was one of several veterans who were healthy scratches by Quinn, as they were expected to do more. Shattenkirk scored only 26 points in 73 games for a career-low 0.38 points per game and averaged less than 19 minutes per night for the first time.

The media coverage, predictably, wasn't too kind, and Shattenkirk got in a bad habit of reading articles about himself.

"It's a bit toxic in a sense that when you're playing well, you're looking to see the gratification, and when you're not playing well, you're telling yourself not to look, but it's so hard not to," he said. "In New York, it's heightened because of who they are, especially when the team isn't doing well. I think in New York now, after the letter and everything was blown up, it seemed like everyone was being evaluated from an individual standpoint from the fans and the media versus how the team is doing. And I think that has become part of the mindset and the culture there for the players. And that's tough to get over."

Shattenkirk said the toughest part of being bought out was "coming back from injury and working through the rebuild and trying to see it through, investing so much time in it and not being able to see where it ends up."

This past summer, Shattenkirk and his wife, Deanna, welcomed their first child, a boy named Connor, in July. And Shattenkirk got a full summer of training in without having to rehab, too. He worked with trainer Ben Prentiss and Vegas Golden Knights forward Max Pacioretty in Connecticut. "I got to go against Max Pacioretty two-on-one pretty much every day," the veteran defenseman said. "He's a lot bigger and a lot stronger than me, so when you're chasing a guy like that, it pushes you to limits you didn't really know you could exceed."

Shattenkirk feels rejuvenated living in Florida while playing for a team with Stanley Cup aspirations. There are different kinds of pressures now, a different visibility living in a smaller hockey market and a different spotlight. As he puts it, "there are bigger stars on this team than me."

"I'm having a lot of fun," Shattenkirk said. "To get back with a winning team and a team that has that mentality that we can win every game is exciting as a player."

Even so, when he looks back on his time with the Rangers, Shattenkirk isn't resentful.

"I have no regrets about it," he said. "I'm so happy that I did it and that I had a chance to play for the Rangers. But looking back, and still talking to those guys there, it's a long road ahead for them. I was forced to move on, and I have, and it's been perfect. I was actually talking to Ryan the other day, and I told him: 'It was like I got a get out of jail free card.'"

Jump ahead:
Emptying the notebook | What we liked this week
What we didn't like this week | Three stars
Biggest games coming up | Quote of the week

Emptying the notebook

• Shattenkirk said playing with Victor Hedman took a few games to get used to, and that Hedman is probably the most talented defenseman he has even been paired up with. "He plays defense like nobody else in the league," Shattenkirk said. "He's able to cover so much ground on the ice in terms of sweeping across defensively and almost killing rushes before they start. In the offensive zone, I don't want to call them risks, but the aggressive route he takes in the offensive zone to go skate at a puck below the blue line when it's loose ... I mean, his ability to get from A to B is so quick and so fast, it has allowed me to be a little more patient knowing he can recover on a lot of plays that maybe don't work out. I think we think the game pretty similarly, and that's the fun part about it."

• As the Detroit Red Wings manage an injury to leading scorer Anthony Mantha, they called up one of their top prospects in Filip Zadina, the No. 6 overall pick of 2018. The 19-year-old got nine NHL games last season, but at times looked out of place (he scored only one goal and two assists). Ideally, the Red Wings would have wanted Zadina to remain with Grand Rapids in the AHL a little longer, but Zadina also earned this call-up; he was riding a six-game point streak upon his promotion, having scored seven goals and six assists in 19 games this season.

During training camp, I asked GM Steve Yzerman about his philosophy on calling up prospects and whether he was worried about impeding their development or confidence if they were playing on a Red Wings team that wasn't very competitive. "Whether the team is good or not is not as important as, is the player ready to play in the NHL?" Yzerman said. "Meaning, can he contribute in a positive way? Can he keep up? As a defenseman, can he defend? If he's a scorer, can he score? We want them to be successful, we want them to feel like they're making progress, not drowning. The more guys that can play positive roles on the team make your team better."

• I really enjoyed talking to Brendan Smith about how he salvaged his Rangers career by switching to forward even though it could present some risks with future contracts. Smith said one of the reasons he wanted to share his story was that it could possibly help younger players who are going through adversity early in their careers. And speaking of younger players, I asked Smith about how Rangers rookie Kaapo Kakko is fitting in with the team. It sounds like Smith and other Rangers veterans have taken the 2019 No. 2 overall pick under their wing as the Finnish teenager still gets used to life in the NHL.

"I spend a lot of time with him because he lives out by me," Smith said. "I wouldn't call myself his personal chauffeur, but I pick him up a lot and make sure he gets to the rink on time. And the biggest thing with him is that it's a big adjustment. He's coming from Europe to North America. There's a smaller ice surface. The food is different. There's a lot of different things he has to adjust to. He's a diabetic and a celiac, so there's a lot of things he needs to be aware with, especially with food. But he's a very mature kid. What is he, 18? I forget that all the time. [He is, indeed, 18 and turns 19 in February.] He's got All-Star written all over him.

"The biggest thing is to make sure, as a team, we stay inclusive. He's very quiet. There's obviously a language barrier he's working on. I enjoy being around him, but I need him to talk more. I'm trying to break his shell, that's my job I guess. We've had a couple car rides where I think he just says 'good morning' to me and that's it. So I'm working on him, trying to ask him more things. I'm going to try to learn some Finnish, I think. The more comfortable he gets, the more skill and fantastic plays you'll see on the ice."

• The Canes have won six of their past seven games to slide into third place in the Metropolitan Division. One thing Carolina players are excited about? The 11-forward, seven-defenseman experiment seems to be over for now. (The Canes were forced into that lineup for three games as they managed injuries to several forwards, including Jordan Martinook and Erik Haula, but went 0-2-1.)

"When you say 11 and seven, you're really saying 11 and six because it's tough to play seven D," coach Rod Brind'amour said. "It's not really a good rotation of seven. It has its advantages -- working your better players in sometimes -- but it can have its disadvantages too because you take certain roles of guys, and it changed. It didn't work as well for us this time around because we had to change some roles and it didn't really work." Added captain Jordan Staal: "It's always nice to have your line. Sometimes it gets a little finicky when you have a shortage of forwards. In general, when there are seven D, you know you're playing a little more which is nice, but there's good and bad to it."

• Staying with Carolina here, 20-year-old Canes forward Martin Necas has worked his way into the Calder conversation with 16 points in 24 games. I caught up with Necas in Chicago last week. "It's always interesting to hear your name mentioned, but I don't really care about those trophies," the Czech forward said. "I just care about being part of this team and helping this team. We'll see what happens. You always check how the other guys play and you can see that Cale Makar is producing a lot. That guy is unbelievable. His first year, he's so good."

What we liked this week

• Defenseman Keith Yandle lost nine teeth in the first period of the Florida Panthers' Saturday night loss. He missed the second period but then came back for the third. Twenty-four hours later, he skated with the Panthers on Sunday night. Find me an anecdote that better personifies a "hockey guy" than that. I'll wait. Yandle, by the way, has now played in 821 consecutive games for the fifth-longest streak in NHL history.

• We've been spoiled by some spectacular saves through the first seven-plus weeks of the season. But wow, Marc-Andre Fleury. Have yourself a day. (He also became the fastest goaltender to 450 wins. Martin Brodeur did it in 821 games, while Fleury accomplished it in his 816th contest.)

Marc-Andre Fleury... THAT IS BEYOND MEAN! ?? pic.twitter.com/zoMtVSAuUE

— NHL (@NHL) November 20, 2019

• The Rangers stormed back from a 4-0 deficit to beat the Montreal Canadiens, 5-4, on Saturday night. It was incredible resilience, yet we're almost becoming immune to all of these massive comebacks. New York became the fifth team to come back from a four-goal deficit this season, which has already tied the NHL record for most instances in a season. It's not even December!

• Philadelphia Flyers rookie Morgan Frost is off to a terrific start. Has he replaced goaltender Carter Hart as the fan base's new savior? He has two goals and an assist in his first two games, and Frost's chemistry with Claude Giroux is pretty exciting.

• Hometown boy returns home, does good. This was neat.

.@Jkellyhockey: "Who says you can't come home?"
Pat Maroon receives his Stanley Cup ring and gets a massive ovation from the hometown crowd. #stlblues pic.twitter.com/7l8ggMcruA

— FOX Sports Midwest (@FSMidwest) November 20, 2019

• Remember when Blues goalie Jordan Binnington posted this video of a guy getting out of his car in rush hour traffic to come say hello? Well, apparently Binnington and the fan stayed in touch, and he attended the Blues game.

First hockey game for my guy tonight https://t.co/L2bjMxBzEx pic.twitter.com/8vbmFf5Ibt

— Jordan Binnington (@binnnasty) November 20, 2019

What we didn't like this week

• I absolutely hated this play from St. Louis Blues defenseman Robert Bortuzzo after the whistle. He knew he was getting a penalty after the first cross check, then looked at the official, and did it again. That's dangerous and shows intent to injure the other player (Nashville's Viktor Arvidsson). Bortuzzo, a repeat offender, was suspended for four games by the NHL Department of Player Safety and surrenders $67,073.16 in salary. Arvidsson is out four to six weeks with a lower body injury.

• A lot has been said about the dismissal of former Toronto Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock, and there have been a few interesting (and inflammatory) Twitter threads by former players criticizing the coach.

• One thing that felt very odd to me: Babock's post-firing statement. He thanks only one player: Morgan Rielly. There must be some backstory there, but how awkward is that? Rielly is a popular player, but he must have gotten a few chirps from his teammates about that one.

• There's something amiss with the Calgary Flames. They had the best record in the Western Conference last season and the second-best offense in the league (3.52 goals per game). They defeated the Flyers in a shootout on Saturday night, but doing so snapped a six-game losing streak in which they were outscored 23-5. If things don't improve, this team could be active on the trade market. It was a rough week all around for Calgary.

Three stars

Brock Nelson, C, New York Islanders: Nelson had four goals in three games this week, including this ridiculous overtime winner against the Penguins, which extended the Isles' points streak to 16 games. (It has since jumped to 17.)

Sheesh, take a bow for this @EASPORTSNHL OT winner, Brock Nelson! pic.twitter.com/iAxixKVeET

— NHL (@NHL) November 22, 2019

Jamie Benn, LW, Dallas Stars: The Stars' captain had four points (three goals, an assist) in three games this week, and though it dates back to last week, he also had three straight games with the game-winning goal for red-hot Dallas.

Connor McDavid, C, Edmonton Oilers: The stats for Leon Draisaitl and McDavid (No. 1 and No. 2 in scoring, respectively) are just getting silly. McDavid's week included seven points (four goals, three assists) in four games to extend an 11-game point streak. It's hard to even pick our favorite highlight this week.

Connor McDavid (@cmcdavid97), like c'mon. pic.twitter.com/WzYeC59OnQ

— NHL (@NHL) November 22, 2019

Games of the week

Wednesday, Nov. 27: Florida Panthers at Washington Capitals

So you don't want to go to your local bar on Thanksgiving Eve and see what everyone from high school is up to? Great, here's an alternative. The two highest-scoring teams in the league square off in an Eastern Conference battle that's sure to be juicier than any gossip about your former classmates.

Friday, Nov. 29: St. Louis Blues at Dallas Stars

If not for the Islanders, the Stars would be the hottest team in hockey. They get a key Central Division showdown against the defending Cup champions, who are weathering the injury bug right now.

Saturday, Nov. 30: Chicago Blackhawks at Colorado Avalanche, ESPN+

The Blackhawks have shown signs of life, but their current five-game stretch against Central Division teams could determine whether they are contenders or pretenders. The Avs, though, have already proved they belong in the contender category.

Quote of the week

"I think we've come a long way in hockey. If [my nieces] decide they want to play hockey, they can walk into a hockey rink anywhere in Canada with their hockey bag and their hockey stick, and nobody's going to look twice. They don't have to cut their hair short and run into the bathroom and try to look like a boy like I had to do to try and blend in. Their road is just a little bit easier, and I want to thank everyone that made the road just a little bit easier for me. The game is truly for everyone."

-- Hayley Wickenheiser in her Hall of Fame acceptance speech

Jon Rahm is back into rarified air in the Official World Golf Ranking following his double-dip in Dubai.

The Spaniard won the season-ending DP World Tour Championship on Sunday, a victory that also netted him the overall Race to Dubai honors. It sparked a $5 million payday for the 25-year-old and also vaulted him up two spots to No. 3 in the latest world rankings.

The victory was Rahm's fourth worldwide win of the year, and it continued a rankings ascent for a player who was outside the top 10 as recently as June. Rahm's now behind only world No. 1 Brooks Koepka and No. 2 Rory McIlroy, and it's his highest standing since he was ranked No. 2 in February 2018.

Dubai runner-up Tommy Fleetwood stayed in the No. 10 slot, while Mike Lorenzo-Vera went from 96th to 65th after finishing third.

Tyler Duncan's maiden PGA Tour win at the RSM Classic led to the biggest jump of the week, as Duncan moved from No. 387 to No. 170 in the world. Playoff runner-up Webb Simpson moved up one spot to No. 11, past Bryson DeChambeau, while a fourth-place finish moved Brendon Todd from 83rd to 72nd.

Koepka remains in the top spot for another week, followed by McIlroy, Rahm, Dustin Johnson and Justin Thomas. Patrick Cantlay stayed at No. 6, with Tiger Woods, Justin Rose, Xander Schauffele and Fleetwood rounding out the top 10.

Here is the purse and FedExCup points breakdown for the 2019 RSM Classic, where Tyler Duncan beat Webb Simpson in a playoff:

INDIANAPOLIS -- The Indianapolis Colts plan to put tight end Eric Ebron on injured reserve because of an ankle injury, a source confirmed to ESPN.

"It appears so," the source said.

Ebron played in last Thursday's loss at Houston, making four receptions for 44 yards despite missing two days of practice because of the ankle injury.

Ebron made the Pro Bowl in his first season with the Colts in 2018, catching 66 passes for 750 yards and 13 touchdowns. But his production dipped this season: He has only 31 receptions for 375 yards and three touchdowns.

Ebron, who will be a free agent at the end of the season, has 283 receptions for 3,195 yards and 27 touchdowns during his six-year career.

Jack Doyle and Mo Alie-Cox will be the top two tight ends for the Colts with the loss of Ebron.

NFL Network first reported the Ebron news.

Even by 2019 standards, Sunday in the NFL was strange. The Jets outscored the Cowboys and Patriots -- combined -- with 12 points to spare. The best quarterback performances of the day belonged to the Browns and Titans. The Saints won after overcoming a pass interference penalty that was triggered by a review against their defense. The only comforting, familiar story was the Bengals losing for the 11th straight time this season, and even that involved a Devlin Hodges appearance.

With that in mind, I decided to go in a different direction for my Monday column this week. I wanted to try to honor the players who have been more impressive than public perception this season. To the extent that anybody can be underrated in 2019, I wanted to reward the players who deserve your attention or a reevaluation. I pieced together a 24-man starting lineup for my All-Underrated team.

Keep in mind that this is strictly considering how these players are performing right now as opposed to a career consideration, which is why you won't see someone like Frank Gore. It's a comparison of their current performance level to what I believe popular opinion holds about their level of play, which is why there are players all across the spectrum here. I've listed some virtually anonymous players who might actually be competent starters. In other spots, I've listed players who get chatter as above-average players when I think they're actually superstars. What matters is the difference between perception and reality, not their level of play in a vacuum.

Finally, I picked only one or two players at each position. There's a chance your favorite player might be underrated and didn't make it here. There's also a chance I think a player is really good but appropriately rated, which is true for players such as Julian Edelman and DeForest Buckner. I'll go position-by-position and start with a surprising signal-caller ...

Jump to a position:
QB | RB | WR | TE
OT | G | C | K | P
EDGE | DT | LB | CB | S

OFFENSE

Quarterback: Ryan Tannehill, Tennessee Titans

OK, in 2019, when cameras are trained on quarterbacks from the moment they get off the bus on Sundays, it's almost impossible for a signal-caller to actually be underrated. Given how bad young quarterbacks are often feted for their moments of competence by fan bases that desperately want them to succeed, the most likely quarterbacks to be undervalued are actually guys who have been around for a while and written off as irrelevant.

There was little to lose when the Titans inserted the former Dolphins starter into the starting lineup earlier this season. Tennessee scored 38 points over Marcus Mariota's final four starts, with 24 of those coming against the bad version of the Falcons' defense. Mike Vrabel didn't even seem to have much faith for Tannehill in making the move, solely hoping that the decision would spark a moribund offense.

It has! The Titans have won four of their past five games under Tannehill to get back in the playoff race at 6-5, including an upset victory over the Chiefs before the bye. After losing 20-7 to the Jaguars in September under Mariota, Tannehill and the Titans scored six touchdowns in a 42-20 blowout victory on Sunday. The Texas A&M product went 14-of-18 passing for 259 yards and two touchdowns and further chipped in by scrambling seven times for 40 yards and two additional scores. He finished with a 92.3 Total QBR, which is his best single-game performance in just over three years.

Since Tannehill took over, the Titans rank sixth in the league with 2.43 points per drive and second behind the Ravens in offensive points scored per game at 28.2. Derrick Henry unquestionably plays a huge role in making that happen, but Tannehill is playing the best football of his career. As Tennessee's starter, he ranks fifth over the past six weeks in passer rating at 114.9. He also has chipped in by turning his 23 carries into three touchdowns and eight first downs, with the latter figure tied for fifth among quarterbacks over that time frame.

Even beyond the numbers, though, Tannehill looks incredibly comfortable throwing the football. Look at his highlights from Sunday and you'll see a quarterback who is not just finding the right receiver but hitting them in stride. There's noticeable zip on his passes. He looks confident under pressure and is using his athleticism to create opportunities as opposed to mindlessly extending plays without ever getting his eyes back upfield. He looks like the quarterback the Titans were hoping Mariota would turn into after all these years.

As constituted, this offense just works. It's not the most exciting or cutting-edge attack, but the Titans have a big back who bulls over opposing defenses and receivers who can make people miss after the catch off play-action. Since taking over in Week 7, Tannehill is averaging a staggering 13.5 yards per pass attempt off play-action, the best mark in football.

The Titans are in the thick of the AFC South race, with a game against the Colts and a home-and-home against the Texans still to come. When you look at the quarterbacks on teams competing for the sixth spot in the AFC playoffs -- Mason Rudolph, Jacoby Brissett, Derek Carr, even Baker Mayfield -- Tannehill is playing better than any of them right now.

Running back: Austin Ekeler, Los Angeles Chargers

It has been lost in the shuffle amid Philip Rivers' collapse, but Ekeler remains a wildly valuable part of the Chargers' offense. Even with Melvin Gordon taking over as the primary runner in the offense, Ekeler has been the league's most efficient receiving back by a comfortable margin, topping even Christian McCaffrey.

Ekeler has generated 32.1 expected points as a receiver this season; to put that in context, he's been worth more as a receiver by EPA than any running back has generated as a runner. The future of this offense is uncertain with both Gordon and Rivers hitting free agency after the season, but Ekeler is going to be a valuable option for the next Chargers quarterback. As a restricted free agent in 2020 in a league that is coming to realize just how valuable receiving backs can be, he's not far off from an extension, either.

Wide receiver: John Brown, Buffalo Bills

Brown has a well-earned reputation as a downfield burner from his time in Arizona, but when the Bills signed Brown away from the Ravens on a three-year, $27 million deal, it was to serve as Buffalo's primary wideout. In 2019, he has proved that he can be more than just a deep threat. It's telling that Josh Allen's 34-yard touchdown pass to Brown past Chris Harris Jr. on Sunday was Allen's first completion in 16 attempts on a pass traveling 30 or more yards in the air in 2019.

That's not a criticism. Allen and Brown have been able to form a productive relationship without having to rely on desperate heaves downfield, with both maturing in the intermediate game. Brown has caught 36 passes thrown between 5 and 15 yards in the air, which ranks ninth in the league alongside superstars such as DeAndre Hopkins (37), Keenan Allen (36), Amari Cooper (34) and Julio Jones (30). The 29-year-old is being targeted on just under 25% of the routes he runs, which is right in line with guys such as Cooper (24.6%) and Allen Robinson (also 24.6%). The field-stretching ability finally showed up on Sunday, and given Allen's arm and Brown's legs, I doubt it will be the last long touchdown for the Pittsburg State product.

The Bills hoped Brown would become a No. 1. Their hopes were answered.

Wide receiver: Courtland Sutton, Denver Broncos

Sutton was erased from the game on the other side of the field Sunday, which was a product of another player on this list. Even after a day in which he caught just one of eight targets for 27 yards, the second-year wideout has emerged as one of the best draft picks of the post-Super Bowl era for the Broncos. It was Sutton's worst performance since a 40-yard Week 2 performance against the Bears; over the eight games between those contests, Sutton racked up 645 receiving yards and four touchdowns.

Those are good numbers, but they're even more impressive when you consider that Sutton has spent that time with Joe Flacco and Brandon Allen at quarterback. About the only thing Sutton doesn't have that you want from a top-level wideout is great speed. Given his size (6-foot-4) and agility (a 96th-percentile performance in the three-cone drill), he has a natural smoothness in and out of his breaks and the size to box out opposing defensive backs. He terrorized the Vikings in Week 11, racking up 113 receiving yards and completing a 38-yard pass as Mike Zimmer tried to cycle through his options and find somebody who could cover the 24-year-old.

I'm a little worried that he's going to be the next Allen Robinson and spend years covering up for the mistakes of bad quarterbacks, but Sutton has become a guy opposing defenses are worried about all game.

Wide receiver: Marvin Jones Jr., Detroit Lions

Jones made his most significant impact during that four-touchdown game against the Vikings, but the former Bengals wideout ranked seventh in both DVOA and DYAR heading into Week 12. He had a relatively modest day against Washington, catching five passes for 46 yards on 11 targets, but we're again dealing with replacement-level quarterback play in Jeff Driskel.

DVOA and DYAR for individual receivers don't tell the whole story, but there really aren't many players with Jones' profile. He has caught more than 70% of the passes thrown in his direction this season despite an average depth of target more than 13.9 yards downfield. When you look over the past decade, there are just two players who have caught 50 or more passes through the first 12 weeks of the year while keeping their catch rate above 70% and their aDOT over 13 yards: Jones and Tyler Lockett, who pulled this off in 2015 and 2018. Those are arbitrary endpoints, but it's hard not to be extremely valuable when you're catching a lot of deep passes.

Tight end: Ryan Griffin, New York Jets

The Jets' offense has been a wasteland for most of the season, but one of the few bright spots for Adam Gase and the organization has been Griffin, who signed a three-year extension to stick around with Gang Green last week. Griffin celebrated Sunday by scoring his fifth touchdown of the season on yet another example of the tight end leak concept that most offenses in the league have used at one point or another this season. He only needed a yard but easily could have scored from 30 yards out on the play. The 34-3 rout over the Raiders was Gase's best game of the season as a playcaller by a considerable margin.

Griffin, who was released by the Texans this offseason, never seemed to find a consistent role during his time in Houston. In part by necessity, he has become a reliable target for Sam Darnold and a red zone threat. The 6-foot-6 tight end is surprisingly agile for his frame, with 24-yard touchdown against the Jaguars as an example of what Griffin can do in open space. The Jets seemed to spend all season waiting for Chris Herndon to play and got only 18 snaps out of their nominal starter before Herndon hit IR with a rib injury. Griffin has been a more-than-competent replacement.

Offensive tackle: Lane Johnson, Philadelphia Eagles

Conspicuous by his absence on Sunday was Johnson, as the Eagles sputtered out on offense in a 17-9 loss that was hard to watch at times. First-round pick Andre Dillard, who was filling in for Johnson, struggled so badly during the first half that the Eagles benched him at halftime for Hal Vaitai. A Seahawks pass rush that has been lacking without the injured Jadeveon Clowney this season sacked Carson Wentz three times and knocked down the Eagles star nine times on 48 dropbacks, forcing three fumbles.

I've mentioned them several times in the past, but Wentz's splits with and without Johnson on the field continue to grow even more concerning:

Wentz has taken about 32% of his career snaps without Johnson on the field, so there's a pretty big sample at hand here. The franchise quarterback is now 25-13 in games in which Johnson plays and 3-10 when Johnson sits out entirely. Johnson wasn't the only missing party on Sunday -- the Eagles are down Jordan Howard, Alshon Jeffery and DeSean Jackson, then lost star guard Brandon Brooks in the first quarter -- but this offense isn't the same without its right tackle.

Offensive tackle: Ryan Ramczyk, New Orleans Saints

I wanted to name two right tackles, given that left tackles get most of the (limited) attention afforded offensive linemen. While Johnson is usually in the small group of players considered to be the best right tackles in football, Ramczyk is the hands-down top option for me this season. He has yet to allow a single sack this year, per Stats LLC, despite playing against guys such as J.J. Watt, Khalil Mack and Yannick Ngakoue.

With the Saints losing Andrus Peat for six weeks and Terron Armstead going down during Sunday's win over the Panthers, Ramczyk's stability on the right side makes him absolutely essential. He has been one of the best offensive linemen in football.

Guard: Marshal Yanda, Baltimore Ravens

I wouldn't typically characterize a player as experienced and well-regarded as Yanda as underrated, but what we've seen from him this season is even better than his established level of play. If anything, it's incredible that Yanda is still playing at a high level, given that he suffered a catastrophic knee injury in his second season, changed sides to play through a torn-up shoulder in 2015, and missed 14 games in 2017 after breaking his ankle. There aren't many 35-year-olds playing football at all with that sort of injury history.

Yanda has instead elevated his game. He's the best run-blocking lineman in the league's most dominant rushing attack. He leads all guards in ESPN's pass block win rate (PBWR) statistic, with his 207-5 record in our automated analysis producing a win rate of 97.6%. He has done this without committing a single penalty through 10 games, all while playing in front of the sort of quarterback whose brilliance in extending and lengthening plays can occasionally lead to penalties in Lamar Jackson. Yanda should be a first-team All-Pro for the third time this season, and in doing so, he should start engendering serious Hall of Fame discussion.

Guard: Elgton Jenkins, Green Bay Packers

Introduced into the lineup in Week 3 after Lane Taylor tore his biceps muscle, the rookie second-round pick has stepped in for the Packers and quickly made the left guard spot his own. Nobody on the Packers' line had a good night against the 49ers in Week 12, but Jenkins has been a revelation, both as a run-blocker for Aaron Jones and a pass-blocker, where his 97.1% PBWR ranks third among guards. Aaron Rodgers can also be a difficult quarterback to block for at times given how he loves to extend plays, but Jenkins has done his part on the interior.

Center: Ben Jones, Tennessee Titans

The Titans have one of the league's splashier offensive lines, given the presence of two top-11 picks (Taylor Lewan and Jack Conklin) at tackle and former Rams standout Rodger Saffold at guard. Lewan and Saffold have both struggled this season, though, and the center with the anonymous name has stood out.

Jones was a modest free-agent addition from the Texans in 2016, and after signing a two-year extension in August, he is having his best year. It's notable that in the one game he missed, Tannehill was sacked four times and the combination of Derrick Henry and Dion Lewis carried the ball 17 times for 83 yards. Jones is a key part of the offensive line for the run-first Titans and has helped Tannehill's ascension into the starting role.

DEFENSE

Edge: Matthew Judon, Baltimore Ravens

Nominally a linebacker for the Ravens, Judon is a sound run defender who also happens to be one of the most quietly devastating pass-rushers in all of football. Over their six-game win streak, a Ravens defense that struggled to start the season has improved to seventh in points allowed per drive, third in takeaway rate and fourth in pressure rate. Over that time frame, Judon produced 14 quarterback knockdowns across six games. The only pass-rusher who knocked down the opposing passer more frequently was T.J. Watt, who had 15 hits.

Judon's six sacks only hint at the havoc he wreaks. The fourth-year linebacker has been absolutely essential to a rebuilding Ravens defense. Baltimore's passer rating allowed increases by nearly 16 points with him on the sidelines, while opposing rushers average nearly 1.5 full yards per carry more without him between the lines. Judon is already well-known, but he needs to be treated like a superstar. Some team is going to pay the unrestricted free agent like he is one this offseason.

Edge: Robert Quinn, Dallas Cowboys

After missing the first two games of the season via suspension, Quinn has stepped in as a force for the Cowboys' defense. He now has at least a half-sack in eight of his first nine games with the team, including a strip sack of Tom Brady on Sunday. Quinn knocked down Brady three times amid dismal conditions in Foxborough, bringing the former Rams standout up to 18 knockdowns in nine games this season.

Quinn flashes on tape, and ESPN's machine learning analysis loves the 29-year-old. In 2018, Quinn posted a pass rush win rate (PRWR) of 33%, which was comfortably the best mark in football. (Nobody else even topped 29%.) That might seem like an aberration, but in 2019, he has posted a PRWR of ... 32.9%, which again leads the league. I wouldn't take that analysis to find that Quinn is the best pass-rusher in football, but given that he has now excelled for two different teams over the past two years, he deserves to be thought of as an upper-echelon pass-rusher when he's on the field.

Defensive tackle: Vita Vea, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Vea made headlines Sunday for catching a touchdown pass during Tampa's 35-22 win in Atlanta, but there's more to the former first-round pick than a soft set of hands. Vea has combined with Ndamukong Suh to disrupt opposing rushing attacks this season. The Bucs are a mess of a pass defense, but they lead the league in just about every rushing category this season, including DVOA. On Sunday, they held the Falcons' running backs to 34 yards on 17 carries, with just three of those runs resulting in first downs.

The former Washington standout added a sack and two passes defensed to his totals against the Falcons, although he's admittedly still a work in progress as a pass-rusher, where his limited wingspan may play against him. Vea is more realistically an example of the old George Young/Bill Parcells "Planet Theory" approach to the draft, where you recognize that there are only so many 300-plus pound human beings with truly elite athleticism on the planet and draft them when you see them.

Vea, who was a change-of-pace running back in high school, is the sort of player Parcells would have loved. He's quickly growing into a rare difference-maker for the Bucs' defense.

Defensive tackle: Matt Ioannidis, Washington

If you saw the crowd shots from Sunday, you know nobody is paying much attention to Washington right about now. (Predictably, the organization responded by getting angry at Dwayne Haskins for taking selfies with some of the few fans who weren't dressed like empty seats while the clock was at all zeros.) While this has been a disastrous, irrelevant season for the franchise, one of the few smart things the team did was quietly re-sign Ioannidis to a three-year, $21.8 million extension just before the draft.

Ioannidis has responded with his best season, racking up seven sacks and 11 knockdowns with five games to go. It's impressive for a 310-pound interior pass-rusher who the team once played as a nose tackle to hit those marks, but it's another when you consider the players around him. ESPN's automated analysis suggests Ioannidis has been double-teamed on 61.4% of his pass-rush attempts this season, which ranks among the 20 highest rates in football. Despite the attention, he has helped create eight sacks this season. As a sound run defender, Ioannidis is one of the few draft-develop-retain success stories for Washington.

Linebacker: Demario Davis, New Orleans Saints

I was skeptical when the Saints gave Davis a three-year, $24 million deal in free agency before the 2018 season, given that the Browns had basically dumped him back off to the Jets for draft bust Calvin Pryor in June 2017. Davis promptly refocused on football and had his best pro season with the Jets, but it was one good year. Given that inside linebacker wasn't even really a position of need for the Saints, I thought the Saints could have used their money more effectively elsewhere.

Wrong. Davis has been fantastic for the Saints and deserves serious Pro Bowl consideration alongside Cory Littleton of the Rams, who could also make this list. The Saints are deep at inside linebacker, but it's telling that Davis virtually never comes off the field, as he has taken 96% of the defensive snaps in 2019. His best game of the year came against Tampa in Week 11, when Davis defensed four passes, including an interception on O.J. Howard's bizarre drop in the first quarter. While Davis checked off a ton of free-agent red flags, he's arguably been the Saints' best free-agent signing since Drew Brees and a great leader on defense for the 9-2 Saints.

Linebacker: Vince Biegel, Miami Dolphins

One Dolphins player had to make it on this list. I had to sneak him onto the roster at linebacker when he's realistically an edge defender, but it was a pretty easy choice. Biegel, who was acquired from the Saints in the Kiko Alonso trade, has turned into one of the few bright spots in Miami's tankathon. He has two sacks and 11 knockdowns while playing about half of the Dolphins' defensive snaps, including a sack of Tom Brady in Week 2.

Biegel is more likely to make his long-term impact as a special-teams contributor, and he's already 26, but one of the goals in a tanking season should be to find a few guys on the bottom of NFL rosters who might plausibly contribute in some role to your organization in a couple of years. Biegel fits that premise.

Linebacker: Fred Warner, San Francisco 49ers

One of the many 49ers who excelled during Sunday's blowout victory over the Packers, Warner has been forced to assume a bigger role in the defense with Kwon Alexander done for the season. His ascension into one of the league's rangiest, smartest coverage linebackers in Year 2 has been extremely fun to watch; few linebackers fly to the flats to make plays as fast as Warner.

He unsurprisingly led the 49ers with 11 tackles during Sunday's night win, filling up the stat sheet with a tackle for loss and the strip sack of Rodgers on the opening drive that set the tone for the romp to come. Teammates DeForest Buckner and Jaquiski Tartt just narrowly missed this list, but Warner is the next great 49ers inside linebacker.

Cornerback: Tre'Davious White, Buffalo Bills

We've all come to a conclusion that Stephon Gilmore is the best cornerback in football. I'm not going to disagree, especially after he erased Amari Cooper from existence during Sunday's win over the Cowboys. If we're trying to pick the second-best cornerback in football, though, you could do a lot worse than White, who repeatedly doesn't get the attention he deserves while anchoring one of the league's best defenses.

While Gilmore was locking down Cooper, White was the one shutting down Courtland Sutton for 27 yards on eight targets, despite giving up five inches to the Broncos standout. The Bills don't always have White shadow the opposing team's No. 1 wideout, but he has helped shut down those guys. Opposing No. 1s have caught an average of just four passes for 53 yards against the Bills this season, and the only top wideout to catch a touchdown pass was DeVante Parker, who caught the touchdown when White wasn't covering him. Like Gilmore, the Bills have built their defense around encouraging opposing quarterbacks to challenge their best corner, with White the closest defender in coverage 65 times already this season. White has allowed a passer rating of just 43.1 on those throws, the fourth-best mark in football. He's a superstar.

Cornerback: Marlon Humphrey, Baltimore Ravens

Likewise, if Humphrey isn't quite at Gilmore or White's level, he's hardly far off. The Ravens blitz more than 50% of the time, which almost always leaves their corners behind in man coverage. Humphrey is the one whom coordinator Don Martindale relies upon most, trusting him to cover the opposing team's top receiver a fair amount of the time, regardless of where they line up. Humphrey has responded by allowing opposing passers to complete only 51.8% of their throws when he's the closest defender in coverage, one of the best marks in football.

His abilities also have made it easier for Marcus Peters to quickly transition into an every-down player in Baltimore, where he has looked far more like the superstar Peters once was with the Chiefs than the corner who seemed lost and destined for the bench in Los Angeles.

Safety: Marcus Williams, New Orleans Saints

It might be more fair to suggest that Williams isn't properly rated, given that the one memory everyone has of the Saints safety is his famous whiff on Stefon Diggs in the Minneapolis Miracle during the 2017 playoffs. Some defenders struggle to move on from their critical mistakes; remember that Rahim Moore, who failed to stop Joe Flacco's Hail Mary against the Broncos in the 2012 playoffs, was never again the same player.

Williams has not only powered through -- he has gotten better. Williams took a Jameis Winston interception to the house during the Week 11 win over the Bucs, his fourth interception of the season. He also has a forced fumble and is one of the deep safeties on a team that has allowed just a 74.4 passer rating on downfield throws this season, the ninth-best rating in football. The Saints have allowed the league's fifth-lowest passer rating when they don't get pressure; some of that is having Marshon Lattimore when he's healthy, of course, but even without Lattimore, Williams has been a critical part of one of the league's deepest secondaries. He's yet another standout player from the Saints' 2017 draft, which might be one of the best in league history through three years.

Safety: Justin Simmons, Denver Broncos

Vic Fangio has a habit of turning safeties into superstars. In San Francisco, it was Dashon Goldson. In Chicago, Fangio molded Adrian Amos and Eddie Jackson into difference-makers. In his new digs, Fangio's standout safety has been Simmons, who has suddenly transformed into one of the league's best safeties in his contract year. He was responsible for the biggest defensive play in Sunday's loss to the Bills, when he picked off an overthrown pass for his third interception of the season.

Fangio generally prefers to have his safeties in interchangeable roles. Simmons can do it all. At 202 pounds, Simmons has the size to fill run lanes and tackle the league's larger backs. He's going to make his money in coverage, though, and he has been brilliant there. The 26-year-old has three interceptions and six passes defensed as the closest defender in coverage this year while allowing 65 yards on 14 targets. The only safeties with a better passer rating allowed as the closest defender in coverage over 200 or more coverage snaps are Earl Thomas and Rodney McLeod.

Thomas got an enormous deal in free agency, and while Simmons isn't quite on that same Hall of Fame track, the Broncos are going to need to open their checkbook this offseason. Denver has nearly $68 million in cap space, a figure that would rise by at least $10 million more if it cuts Joe Flacco. John Elway already made Kareem Jackson one of the highest-paid safeties in the league when he signed the former Texans corner to a three-year, $33 million deal last offseason. Two critical members of the secondary are now set to be free agents in Simmons and cornerback Chris Harris Jr., who wasn't able to come to terms on a long-term extension with the team before the season.

Do the Broncos want to use the franchise tag on Harris? Do they want to commit something north of $10 million per season to a second safety in Simmons? Would they move Jackson back to corner if they lose Harris? There's a lot of uncertainty here, but the smart money is on the Broncos re-signing Simmons and figuring the rest out afterward.

SPECIAL TEAMS

Kicker: Chris Boswell, Pittsburgh Steelers

Boswell took a lot of flak after a disastrous 2018 season, when the Rice product hit just 65% of his field goals, including misses on a pair of last-second kicks against the Browns and Raiders. Sometimes, those sorts of disastrous seasons can ruin kickers, even if it's just a small sample on paper.

Other times, the paper wins out. Boswell has been back to his usual self this season, as he has started 21-of-23 on field goals. Football Outsiders' kicker stats, which account for degree of difficulty, had Boswell as the fifth-best kicker in the league on scoring plays heading into Week 12. He also added value on kickoffs, where the Steelers also ranked in the top 10 at FO. With Matt Gay having an ugly week against the Falcons, I think you can make a case that Boswell has been the best mortal (i.e. not Justin Tucker) kicker in the league in 2019.

Punter: Jake Bailey, New England Patriots

There were versions of this team with guys such as Danny Shelton, Joe Thuney and Jamie Collins on the list, but at the end of the day, the only Patriots player to make the All-Underrated team was a punter. You probably could have guessed that it would take a great prospect for Bill Belichick to give up his love for lefty punters and turn things over to the right-footed Bailey, whom the Pats drafted in the fifth round.

Bailey has played like a 10-year veteran. Aided by the efforts of Matthew Slater and the newly acquired Justin Bethel in what amounts to a special-teams superhero squad, the Patriots lead the league in value generated off of punts. (Part of that includes blocking punts, although FO's numbers don't incorporate Sunday's block in the win over the Cowboys yet.) Bailey has punted a ton for a Patriots offense that rarely turns the ball over but hasn't been good enough to score very much, which helps drive that figure. He also has fielded most of the work on kickoffs, where the Patriots ranked sixth at FO heading into the week. I wouldn't count out Belichick secretly teaching Bailey how to punt lefty for a key punt sometime in January, either.

GAFFNEY, S.C. – Chris Madden bested a stacked field to win the 29th annual Blue Gray 100 at Cherokee Speedway Sunday, which served as the inaugural Drydene Xtreme DIRTcar Series event.

Madden, again driving for Scott Bloomquist Racing, collected his sixth victory in the Blue Gray 100, which was co-sanctioned by the Carolina Clash Super Late Model Series.

“It’s pretty awesome to come here in front of our home crowd,” said Madden, who was a regular at Cherokee Speedway for years. “I have a huge fanbase here, and a lot of people don’t get to travel the road and watch us race, so it means a lot to be able to pick up a win whenever we do get to come here and race.”

From his seventh-place starting spot, Madden began his charge to the front in the early stages. Polesitter Zack Mitchell led through the first eight laps before Owens, piloting the Tommy Pope-owned No. 22 Longhorn Chassis, began working the high side of the speedway and drove around Mitchell on lap nine.

Madden kicked it into high gear, passing Mitchell for second on lap 20, and began his chase for Owens’ rear bumper. It didn’t take long for the Team Zero pilot to track Owens down, passing him on the high side less than 10 circuits later. Madden said there was no time to waste once he found his groove and caught sight of the leaders.

“I knew I needed to get to the front as quick as I could with the racetrack widening-out, just in case it one-laned,” Madden said. “I used up a little bit of tire there, but I knew I needed to get to the lead and get the [clean] air on my car to set my own pace.”

From that point on, it was lights out for the rest of the field. Madden set it on cruise control and went virtually unchallenged for the lead through lapped traffic and several caution flags to score his ninth Super Late Model win of the year in the Sweet-Bloomquist No. 0M, capping off a terrific season since changing teams more than five months ago.

Throughout his storied career, Madden has graced Cherokee Speedway victory lane numerous times in various special events. He’s raced on several different track conditions at Cherokee, and said Sunday’s racing surface was just right for a race of this caliber. That, and his great experience level gave him all the advantage he needed to get the job done.

“It had a top and it had a bottom that stayed there for quite a while,” Madden said. “I was able to roll through the middle of the racetrack pretty good.”

Contained within that Cherokee Speedway mental notebook Madden has developed over the years is a section on how to overcome its biggest obstacles. Especially in these 100-lap races, with no caution laps being counted, Madden said a great skill to have in the cockpit is how to save some of the racecar for the end.

“Tire management is always a big thing here,” Madden said. “That was another factor that’s not been a factor here with some of the other series, with them counting caution [laps] and all that. So that put some of those other guys back in play, but when we run 100 true green flag laps around this place, you’ve got to have some tire management, some throttle control and a well-balanced racecar, and we had it all tonight.”

Just a few days removed from his spot behind the wheel of the Barry Wright Race Cars house car, Ross Bailes came to Gaffney with a fire of determination burning inside as he drove fellow South Carolinian Johnny Pursley’s No. 9 to a solid runner-up finish.

Bailes said he had to play the waiting game for a bit once he reached the head of the field. Passing Mitchell for third just before halfway, Bailes was consistent in the low groove and held his position over the next 40 laps, setting himself up on Owens’ bumper for the final restart.

“I feel like if you start up front, the objective is to get to get out front quick. But if you start sixth like I did tonight, you’ve got to ride and wait for them to use their stuff up and then try to go after it,” Bailes said.

Into turn one he dove, swiping the runner-up spot away from Owens down low. With tire wear on his mind in the late stages, Bailes said he took caution, but not before pulling the biggest move of his race on the 2007 Blue Gray winner.

“That last restart with 10-to-go, I was just riding,” Bailes said. “I wanted to make sure that I got into one in front of Jimmy, and after that I just stayed on the bottom and just tried to make it to the end.”

Owens finished third to complete the podium. He led laps early but faded just a few spots as the race wore on, citing setup inaccuracies for his difficulty in the late stages.

“It was just way too tight,” Owens said. “The longer the race went, the tighter we got. Couldn’t turn.”

The finish:

1. OM-Chris Madden [6][$10,000]; 2. 9-Ross Bailes [1][$5,000]; 3. 22P-Jimmy Owens [4][$3,000]; 4. 24D-Michael Brown [5][$2,000]; 5. 76-Brandon Overton [2][$1,500]; 6. 88-Trent Ivey [10][$1,300]; 7. 2-Dennis Franklin [15][$1,200]; 8. 91-Derrick Ramey [11][$1,100]; 9. 17-Logan Roberson [13][$850]; 10. 79-Kyle Hardy [20][$800]; 11. 57M-Zack Mitchell [7][$750]; 12. O3-David Yandle [23][$700]; 13. 51M-Joey Moriarty [22][$650]; 14. 4-Matthew Nance [19][$600]; 15. 5-Corey Gordon [12][$550]; 16. 18-Brett Hamm [16][$500]; 17. 70-Jeff Smith [18][$500]; 18. 8-Kyle Strickler [21][$500]; 19. 77-Brian Connor [9][$500]; 20. 22-Chris Ferguson [3][$500]; 21. 42K-Cla Knight [8][$500]; 22. 2X-John Henderson [14][$500]; 23. 43A-Tyler Bare [17][$500]; 24. 421-Anthony Sanders [24][$500]

Tyler Duncan won his first PGA Tour event in a playoff at the RSM Classic. Here's a look inside his bag:

DRIVER: Titleist TS2 (9.5 degrees), with Fujikura ATMOS Blue Tour Spec 6X shaft

FAIRWAY WOOD: Titleist TS3 (13.5 degrees), with Aldila Tour Green 75 TX shaft

IRONS: Titleist U500 (2), with Graphite Design Tour AD-DI Hybrid 95X shaft, 718 AP2 (4-PW), with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 shafts

WEDGES: Titleist Vokey Design SM7 (50 degrees), SM8 (54, 58 degrees), with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 shafts

PUTTER: Scotty Cameron 009M prototype

BALL: Titleist Pro V1

Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane has said he is "in love" with Kylian Mbappe as his team prepare to host Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League on Tuesday.

Madrid were beaten 3-0 by PSG in September in a disastrous opening Group A game that Mbappe missed through injury.

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"I've known him for a long time" Zidane told a news conference ahead of the game at the Bernabeu. "I've been in love with him for a long time, but as a person first.

"He came here for a trial a long time ago. Tomorrow he comes here as an opponent."

He added: "What's important to me is what we are going to do. We know the player he is and his importance to his team. We have to be ready."

Madrid have got their Champions League campaign back on track since that Paris defeat with back-to-back wins against Galatasaray, including a 6-0 thrashing at the Bernabeu.

"It is the most important game of the season because it's the next game and against a very good opponent" Zidane said. "We need heart, head and above all football.

"If we're good with the ball, that's the important thing."

Tuesday's game will see more scrutiny for Gareth Bale, who was loudly whistled by the Bernabeu crowd on Saturday in his first appearance since the infamous "Wales. Golf. Madrid. In that order" flag celebration.

"We want him to help us win" goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois said on Monday. "It was the euphoria of the moment and it's been made bigger than it is.

"I know Gareth, he's a great professional. You saw how he played the other day. He wouldn't have played like that if he wasn't committed."

PSG are top of Group A on 12 points guaranteed qualification to the Champions League knockout phase. Madrid are second on seven points -- five ahead of Club Brugge -- with two matches left to play.

Zidane's side visit the Belgians, who led 2-0 at the Bernabeu in October in a game that ended 2-2, in their final group game.

If any under-pressure manager could have brushed off the sacking of Mauricio Pochettino at Tottenham as posing no threat to his own position, Arsenal's Unai Emery was probably the one feeling least concerned by the prospect of the Argentine taking his job.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Zinedine Zidane and Thomas Tuchel will all have to accept the reality of Pochettino's name being mentioned in relation to their own jobs at Manchester United, Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain respectively every time their team suffers a setback, but it is virtually impossible to imagine Pochettino being lined up by Arsenal to replace the struggling Emery.

Terry Neill left Spurs to take charge of Arsenal in 1976, while George Graham managed Tottenham for two-and-a-half years at the end of the 1990s having guided Arsenal to league titles in 1989 and 1991 but, such is the antipathy between the two North London rivals, Pochettino to Arsenal belongs in the realms of fantasy.

But right now, Arsenal don't appear to be a club blessed with the audacity, vision or self-confidence to turn the football world upside down by taking advantage of Pochettino's availability. Some clubs and owners think big and bold, but Emery's appointment as Arsene Wenger's successor in 2018 tells you everything you need to know about the safe and conservative approach adopted by the Gunners under the ownership of Stan Kroenke.

Emery was lucky to land one of the biggest jobs in the game when he took charge of Arsenal last year. His success in winning three Europa Leagues with Sevilla was rewarded with the Paris Saint-Germain job in 2016 but, having failed to deliver any kind of upward momentum at the Parc des Princes, his exit at the end of the 2017-18 season was as a coach who left little or no mark on the club where he had spent two years in charge.

The same is happening at Arsenal where, if you had just come back from an 18-month holiday without access to news or social media, you would see virtually no difference from the club he inherited from Wenger. Arsenal continue to be breathtaking to watch going forward when it all clicks, but they still can't defend, are a soft touch away from home and the midfield remains as devoid of top quality as it has been for almost a decade.

Emery has also been unimpressive in his dealings with Mesut Ozil and Granit Xhaka. With Ozil, he reluctantly handed the German midfielder a first-team reprieve at the end of October having overlooked him for all but two games in the opening 10 weeks of the season. And having allowed the players to decide between themselves that Xhaka should become captain in the summer, rather than make the decision himself, Emery then appeared to dance to the tune of the club's supporters by dropping the midfielder and stripping him of the captaincy following his reaction to being booed by the fans during the 2-2 draw at home to Crystal Palace last month. Xhaka has not played since and Arsenal's winless run in the Premier League now stretches back to Oct. 6.

Wherever you look, there are only negatives where Emery is concerned, which is perhaps why the Arsenal board took the unusual step earlier this month of issuing their public backing, alongside a demand for improved results, due to the growing tension around the Emirates. Yet while Emery may be immune from Pochettino's sacking to a large extent, how Arsenal react to events at Spurs will give a clear indication as to where they see themselves heading as a club.

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In many ways, Tottenham's decision to sack the manager who took them to the Champions League final last season has upped the ante on Arsenal. Until recently, Arsenal were the big, ambitious powerhouse in North London, but they have been overtaken on and off the pitch by Spurs.

To take such a ruthless decision as sacking Pochettino tells you that Spurs will not settle for their current state of affairs. Appointing Jose Mourinho as Pochettino's successor underlines the determination to win big at Tottenham. Arsenal, on the other hand, seem to be drifting along with no obvious sense of where they want to be.

Yet if the Arsenal hierarchy want to be the major force in London again, perhaps they have to take a leaf out of Tottenham's book by refusing to settle for stagnation. They currently sit one point, and two places, above Spurs in the Premier League table, but few would argue that Arsenal look to be a better long-term bet than their local rivals. And if Emery was being judged by the same standards as Pochettino was at Tottenham, he would probably no longer be in a job.

With a trip to Norwich, a home game against Brighton and a London derby at West Ham next up for Emery's team, anything less than six points will only increase the pressure on the Arsenal board to be as demanding as Tottenham's.

LaMelo Ball became the youngest player in NBL history to record a triple-double and emphasized his claims to be the No. 1 overall NBA draft pick in 2020.

Ball's game-high 32 points, 11 rebounds and 13 assists helped Illawarra beat Cairns 114-106 in overtime Monday night at the WIN Entertainment Centre in Wollongong, Australia.

The 18-year-old's game-tying three-pointer with six seconds remaining sent the contest to overtime with the score 99-99.

He then played his part in overtime to get the Hawks home.

"Pretty much I just believe in myself and my confidence levels is just really high, so every shot I take I feel like it's going in." Ball said. "I try to improve every day, pretty much, and just work my hardest."

Ball is on a two-year deal with Illawarra as part of the NBL's Next Stars program, which was launched in March 2018.

Under the program, the NBL contracts young overseas players -- such as Ball and New Zealand's RJ Hampton -- and fast-tracks their development to give them the best chance of being drafted into the NBA, which does not allow players straight out of high school.

Ball originally intended to play for UCLA, but concerns about NCAA eligibility rules prompted his Australian move, though an NBA clause in his contract is expected to see him depart after one season.

Illawarra coach Matt Flinn heaped further praise on Ball after a record night for the rookie.

"I think everyone saw tonight what he's capable of," Flinn said.

"We see it pretty regularly in practice when the doors are closed, but it was really nice for him to get into a flow.

"He just impacts the game in so many different ways. It's exciting to be a part of and it's also the way he brings his teammates into the game as well.

"There's so many good players in this league, but the really great ones make everyone around them better, and I think we saw tonight he can bring other people into the game."

Tim Coenraad (27 points), Sunday Dech (15), AJ Ogilvy (11) and Todd Blanchfield (10) all reached double figures for the Hawks as they recorded just their third win of the season.

DJ Newbill contributed 27 points, three rebounds, five assists and three steals for the Taipans.

Fellow U.S. import Scott Machado scored 22 for the Taipans, while Majok Deng chipped in with 19 points and six rebounds.