CONCORD, N.C. – Due to a severe weather forecast for the evening, DIRTcar Racing and Charlotte Motor Speedway officials have postponed Thursday’s DRIVEN Racing Oil World Short Track Championship open practice session.

Thursday’s originally scheduled hot lap session will be moved to noon Friday and condensed to one session following the order of Flight 2, which includes all nine divisions.

Friday’s portion of the program remains as scheduled with grandstands opening at 3 p.m. and on-track action beginning at 3:30 p.m.

Friday’s pit pass sales and registration begins at 9 a.m. All-division drivers meeting is at 11 a.m.

VADO, N.M. – With roughly nine weeks remaining before the 2020 World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series season kicks off at the new Vado Speedway Park, several drivers across multiple different divisions of racing have now had the opportunity to turn laps around the track in local and regional competition.

This past weekend, series regular Cade Dillard made the 14-plus-hour tow from his hometown of Robeline, La., and climbed back into the seat of his S&S Fishing & Rental Inc. No. 97 Modified to compete in the Rancho Milagro USRA Fall Nationals.

“Thriller” made the most of his first look at the track, collecting the victory in the preliminary feature on Friday night, later dominating the 24-car field on Sunday for a $20,101 check, leading all 50 laps en route to his second win in three nights.

After all was said and done, Dillard returned home with a big smile on his face and a lot of positive takeaways from his first experience at Vado, particularly the track and surrounding amenities.

“The facility is definitely top-notch,” Dillard said. “Everybody involved has done a fantastic job with it, and it’s definitely one of the nicest in the country.”

“The track surface was very nice, very racy the whole weekend. No issues keeping it smooth, it got slick and raced really well, and I’m really excited to get there with the late model.”

Dillard said the three-day show moved along very smoothly as well – a testament to the staff and safety crew employed under the management of track owner Royal Jones and general manager Rue Stone.

“Everything went really smooth there. Everybody involved on the track did a good job. As far as the wrecker service, they got everything cleaned up fast with no long cautions. Everything was run very professionally, and I’d definitely rate it one of the top facilities in the country,” Dillard said.

When the Outlaws finally get to grace the track on the weekend of Jan. 2-5, many other parts of the continental United States will be covered in snow, but not New Mexico.

Dillard said the warm weather, the big-name drivers anticipated to attend, and the state-of-the-art establishment will be a big pull factor for both the locals and the nation’s die-hard dirt late model fans to come out and enjoy four nights of on-track action.

“For one, it’s in better weather than most places in the country that time of year,” Dillard said. “Plus, it’s not very often you get to attend a race with a facility of this caliber like Vado is.”

It’s often times very easy for a driver to take a liking to the tracks they’re more successful on, but Dillard agreed Vado is just an all-around great place to come race, largely due to its popular size, shape and banking configuration.

“The way they’ve got the banking done, it’s flat around the bottom, and then the progressive banking makes it more racy,” Dillard said.

Overall, it was another successful weekend at the track for the first-year Outlaw. Much like some of the other drivers planning to make the post-New Year’s trip to kick off 2020, Dillard will make his debut at The Dirt Track at Charlotte for the Can-Am World Finals next weekend to wrap up the 2019 World of Outlaws season.

But modifieds are where Dillard came from, and it’s good to see he’s still got it.

“To be able to hop in [the modified] a couple times a year and still be competitive every time makes it nice, and also says a lot about the caliber of cars that MB Customs builds,” Dillard said. “I feel like a lot of the things I’ve learned with the late model has really helped my modified program as well.”

What better way to honor Halloween than acknowledge the NHL's walking, perhaps hobbling, wounded and gruesomely wonder how each individual injury might affect our own fantasy roster? Okay, if not fully holiday-apropos, at least this info is useful. Here's a comprehensive look at the fantasy fallout from those hurt horridly and not-so-horridly - plus others happily turnstile-ing it in exit of the infirmary. Everyone knows Vladimir Tarasenko is shelved indefinitely; how to coldly manage that reality to fantasy advantage is what we're all about.

Badly banged-up

Colorado Avalanche: With Mikko Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog sidelined, have you sought out Joonas Donskoi yet? Only those in the shallowest of fantasy leagues should bypass the widely available winger, at least in the short-term. One game into serving as substitute alongside elite center Nathan MacKinnon and Nazem Kadri - himself shifted to the wing - Donskoi is a goal to the good, scoring in Wednesday's overtime loss to the Panthers. Unlike Kadri, who also stands to benefit from such top-line assignment, Donskoi is available in nearly 95% of ESPN.com leagues. Providing added attraction, the former Shark could stick on that No. 1 unit even once Rantanen returns from injury, is three or so weeks, as then Landeskog's replacement. Coach Jared Bednar won't be long for shuffling Kadri back to second-line center, particularly if Tyson Jost doesn't flourish in the role. And Landeskog is said to be out for several weeks. Point is, Donskoi is at least worth a look, as member of the Avs' refurbished top unit.

St. Louis Blues: While the shoulder injury knocking out Vladimir Tarasenko long-term isn't news anymore, the most recent incarnation of the Blues' top line merits a look. The latest to earn a turn in filling in for Tarasenko aside Jaden Schwartz and Brayden Schenn, forward Sammy Blais, managed well enough scoring on his only (albeit impressive) shot in Wednesday's win over the Wild. While Craig Berube has threatened to address Tarasenko's absence by committee, the Blues head coach might feel persuaded to leave Blais be as long as it works. Rostered in less than 10% of ESPN.com leagues, the Sophomore could serve as an intriguing DFS asset, if nothing else. Right now, I like him in deeper conventional leagues too.

On the mend

Boston Bruins: Beyond the best forward unit in the NHL, it's worth mentioning that second-line center David Krejci is back after his unhealthy hiatus. Following a five-game absence, the veteran forward scored a goal and assist in his first reappearance, Tuesday, versus the Sharks. Perpetually and perplexingly underrated as a fantasy asset - 73 points last season everyone! - Krejci should be rostered in much more than a third of ESPN.com leagues, as he is now.

Pittsburgh Penguins: Sitting out 11 contests with a lower-body injury, Evgeni Malkin is now targeting Saturday's tilt with the Oilers for return. This development not only helps the centerman's own fantasy managers, but those rostering Alex Galchenyuk as well. Out himself for a nine-game spell, Galchenyuk is bound to benefit from competing alongside Malkin, once these two have real opportunity to jell. While there are plenty of fantasy competitors who have, understandably, long thrown in the towel on the underachieving former Coyote/Canadien, those still open to a potential Renaissance campaign from Galchenyuk should know he's available in more than two-thirds of ESPN.com leagues.

Nashville Predators: Sidelined with a lower-body injury since Oct. 15, Filip Forsberg is finally expected back against the Flames Thursday. Before falling hurt, the 25-year-old winger potted five goals and three assists in only six games. Jam him back into your lineup ASAP. And readjust, as in lower, your fantasy expectations of Kyle Turris as Forsberg's former fill-in on a scoring unit with Matt Duchene and Mikael Granlund. Bonus note: Looks like Calle Jarnkrok is sticking on the Predators' top unit with Viktor Arvidsson and Ryan Johansen. Rostered in only 6.1% of ESPN.com leagues, Jarnkrok has nine points on the season, including two goals and two helpers in his most recent four games.

Toronto Maple Leafs: Managers hoping for a bit more from Alex Kerfoot as Mitch Marner's centerman should realize John Tavares could be back as soon as Saturday. Fact is, Kerfoot still holds fantasy appeal on Toronto's third line, between Kasperi Kapanen and Ilya Mikheyev and has a place in deeper leagues. In other Leafs' news, Zach Hyman is believed to be close - next week maybe? - after sitting out the start of 2019-20 in recovery from offseason surgery. Not that you need to be sold on Marner and Tavares as alluring fantasy assets, but they're more effective altogether with Hyman as their usual linemate doing his bit to create space. Just FYI.

Vegas Golden Knights: Sidelined since the start of the season with an upper-body injury, Alex Tuch appears ready to re-join the fold in Vegas, perhaps as soon as Halloween night against the visiting Canadiens. Although Vegas is undoubtedly wholly better with Tuch in the lineup, there's no penetrating that Knights' top-six anytime soon. His fantasy managers - and there's a good lot of you - should manage expectations while the 20-goal scorer of last year works on a third line with Cody Eakin. It's also worth mentioning that defenseman Nate Schmidt is due back after playing only three minutes in this campaign's inaugural contest. Schmidt has limited value in deeper leagues, as member of the club's secondary power play.

'Tis but a scratch?

Tampa Bay Lightning: Placed on IR with a lower-body injury, Victor Hedman isn't eligible to return until the Lightning head over to Sweden, more than a week from now. Fortunately, that means the elite defenseman projects to miss only one more game in the meanwhile. Less sunny-side up, there's no guarantee Hedman will be good to go when Tampa plays the Buffalo Sabres in Stockholm (which wouldn't go over well with ardent Swedish fans of one of the NHL's best Swedish players). Knowing Hedman's injury isn't super serious, all we can do is monitor his progress over the next few days, and know that Mikhail Sergachev is again poised to sub in on the top power play against the Islanders Friday. If Jon Cooper doesn't choose to turn to Kevin Shattenkirk instead. Outside of Daily Fantasy competition, it doesn't matter much over the next few days.

Florida Panthers: Out five games and counting with a lower-body issue, Vincent Trocheck isn't a slam-dunk to compete against the Red Wings Saturday either - particularly since the Panthers don't play again until Thursday (why rush it?). As such, Brian Boyle merits mention as Trocheck's current sub on Florida's second scoring line between Mike Hoffman and Brett Connolly. If interested in a bargain DFS asset over the weekend, Boyle has two goals and an assist from that spot in three contests.

New York Islanders: Shelved since Oct. 12 with a lower-body injury, Jordan Eberle's remains up in the air. He's skating, but has yet to participate in practice. Question is, whose spot does Eberle take in the lineup once healthy? Josh Bailey has done an admirable job as replacement on a scoring unit with Mathew Barzal and Anders Lee, collecting two goals and three assists in five games. Also, the Islanders have won seven-straight. Fantasy managers who have jumped on the Bailey bandwagon might then reassure themselves that Eberle is more likely to replace Derick Brassard on the Isles' second unit, once fit.

Scotland 168 for 5 (Short 61*, Leask 38, Bilal 2-38) beat Oman 167 for 7 (Khawar 43, Mehran 29, Evans 3-36) by five wickets

Matthew Cross produced his second half-century of the tournament and blunted Oman's left-arm-swing threat of Bilal Khan. The Scotland keeper-batsman's unbeaten 61 took his side across the line with an over to spare chasing 167 in a five-wicket win to claim fifth place in the T20 World Cup Qualifier. Cross entered at the end of the first over after Bilal had claimed captain Kyle Coetzer for a duck driving to point, but was rarely flustered, striking eight boundaries in his knock with half of them coming against Bilal.

On the traditionally high-scoring ground, Oman's target looked slim once Cross got going. After George Munsey pulled and drove Fayyaz Butt for a pair of boundaries in the second over, Cross finally faced his first delivery in third against Bilal and was off the mark immediately, cutting him behind point for four and continued to time the ball sweetly throughout his innings.

Munsey fell to his favorite shot, defeated by a change of pace from Aqib Ilyas' offspin to miss a reverse-sweep and was fall for 17 in the fourth over. Calum MacLeod fell to the orthodox sweep, going too far across his stumps and winding up being bowled behind his legs by Khawar Ali in the eighth to make it 46 for 3. But even though the run rate was creeping towards ten an over, Cross never lost his cool.

After Richie Berrington fell for 14 in the 11th over to make it 77 for 4, Cross teamed with Michael Leask for a 61-run stand that kept the required rate well in check. Leask was the aggressor, firing a pair of sixes off the spin tandem of Khawar and Jay Odedra. With five overs left, Scotland needed a very manageable 43. Leask fell driving Bilal to long-off in the 17th leaving Cross and Tom Sole to get 30 off 21 balls.

Cross brought up his half-century off 40 balls to start the 18th pulling Fayyaz fine behind square. Sole then reverse-scooped Bilal over third man off the third ball of the 19th to bring the equation down to a run a ball. After a single put Cross on strike, he flat-batted Bilal over mid-on, then sliced a yorker over backward point for consecutive fours to end the game.

Alasdair Evans led the way with the ball to help restrict Oman to a chaseable total with his three wickets after Oman chose to bat. Evans struck in the third for the first wicket, getting Jatinder to push at a good length ball for an edge behind. After Khawar's brisk knock was ended miscuing a reverse sweep off MacLeod to backward point, Evans struck again in the 11th as Zeeshan Maqsood checked a flick and produced a leading edge high over the pitch for Evans to claim. He came back for one more at the death as Suraj Kumar slapped a length ball to mid-off. It came one ball after he ran out Mehran Khan trying to steal an extra run off a bouncer that was called a wide.

Scotland are now home for a month before returning to the UAE in December to play a Cricket World Cup League Two ODI tri-series against UAE and USA. Oman host their first League Two tri-series in January against Namibia and UAE.

Pakistan have made three changes to their squad that beat Bangladesh 3-0 in the T20I series earlier this week for the ODIs. Fifteen-year old legspinner Syeda Aroob Shah has earned her maiden Pakistan call-up, figuring in the 15-member squad for the two-match series against the same opponents at home. Left-arm spinner Sadia Iqbal, who made her international debut in the T20I series has also been included in this squad, which also has left-arm spinner Nashra Sandhu and seamer Fatima Sana.

Syeda, Sandhu and Fatima, who were part of the Pakistan Emerging squad that played in the ACC's women's Emerging Teams Cup, have come into the side replacing Ayesha Zafar, Anam Amin and Saba Nazir. All three of them finished with three wickets apiece across two games in the series. Fatima, who made her debut in May this year has played two ODIs and three T20Is while Sandhu has picked up 34 wickets in 27 ODIs and 21 wickets in 23 T20Is. Sadia picked up four wickets in the T20I series, including 3 for 19 in the second match.

A release said the selection committee, led by Urooj Mumtaz, picked a squad that strikes the balance between youth and experience, and serves players an opportunity to warm-up for Pakistan's final-round women's championship fixtures against England in December.

The two ODIs are scheduled to be played on November 2 and 4 at Lahore's Gaddafi Stadium.

ODI squad: Bismah Maroof (capt), Aliya Riaz, Syeda Aroob Shah, Diana Baig, Fatima Sana, Iram Javed, Javeria Khan, Kainat Imtiaz, Nashra Sandhu, Nahida Khan, Omaima Sohail, Sadia Iqbal, Sana Mir, Sidra Amin, Sidra Nawaz

BEREA, Ohio -- Odell Beckham Jr. came to the defense of Baker Mayfield on Thursday, calling some criticism of the embattled Cleveland Browns quarterback unfair, while noting others on the team need to play better.

"You can't sit here and say it's all on him. You have to take a look at everything going on around him," Beckham said. "Obviously, he has to play better. I have to player better. ... We all need to do better. Can't sit back and be like, 'It's Baker's fault.' I feel like that's the easiest thing for us to do. I've been in situations where one person is getting the blame, and the rest of the people are quiet to kind of stay out of the fire.

"I'm going to jump in the fire with him. I'll be the first one. Some of these losses are on me. I need to be in the right place at the right time. I'm going to do better. And that's what I plan to do the rest for the rest of the season."

The Browns are 2-5, with Mayfield tied for the NFL lead with Tampa Bay's Jameis Winston with 12 interceptions. Beckham, meanwhile, has only one touchdown catch in his first season with Cleveland and is averaging career lows with only 4.9 receptions and 69.7 yards per game.

Coming off a loss at New England, Mayfield got into a testy exchange Wednesday with a reporter before abruptly walking out of his media availability. Beckham said he'd already talked about the incident with Mayfield, referencing a Drake lyric as a lesson -- "You only lose when you fight back" -- while also offering understanding.

"Nobody likes to feel like you're being poked at or prodded at, especially not a guy like that," Beckham said. "I've been through that journey already, I've been through this fire. That's a part of me that's able to help him in a way. This is a kid who cares about football, cares about winning. Whatever people make him out to be just because of his personality -- if we were winning and he was still doing it, we'd all be here laughing. Because we're losing, we want to kind of poke at him a little.

"I'm going to be the first one here to defend him every single time. I've always got his back. I know what it's like. I've been there. ... I understand how we're looking for the negative. But he wants to win. He's upset he's not winning, or he hasn't done to the best of his ability, that's upsetting. Just upsetting. We want to be great."

Despite the disappointing start, Mayfield maintained Wednesday that he still believes the Browns will turn the season around. Beckham piggybacked on that, specifically noting that he and Mayfield will begin to click through the air soon enough.

"The more games we have together, the better we'll be, but it's time for us to turn it on," Beckham said. "You have a highly regarded quarterback I think is a phenomenal player, and I just want be able to help him in every which way I can.

"I have no doubt in my mind that at some point in time it's going to be everything that we all talked about."

With an underwhelming trade deadline day in the rearview mirror, we're about to hit the halfway point of the NFL season. While we might see a stray veteran like quarterback Andy Dalton or cornerback Aqib Talib hit the free-agent market in the weeks to come, outside of teams activating players off injured reserve, organizations are going to have to win with what they've got. The team you see over the next couple of weeks is generally going to be the team you have for the rest of the season.

Twenty of the league's 32 teams still have at least a 10% chance of making it to the postseason, per ESPN's Football Power Index, so the majority of the league will have something to play for in the second half. Some players and coaches, though, will have more to gain than others. I'm going to run through the people across the league who have the most riding on this second half in terms of their financial and professional future.

In putting this together, I'm leaving out players whose futures are generally already settled. I'm also not going to bother to mention the sort of career-threatening injury that could cost any player future earnings. We're looking for players who are facing a fork in the road with two very divergent paths based on how they perform over the next two months. Let's start with a player whom fans thought to be a building block as recently as August and might now be playing for his job, then dive into two more quarterbacks.

Jump to a player or coach:
QBs: Mariota | Newton | Trubisky | Winston
More offense: Gordon | Henry | Sanders
Defenders: Barrett | Beasley | Clowney | Peters
Head coaches: Garrett | Gase

Mitchell Trubisky, QB, Chicago Bears

In this case, Trubisky isn't playing for a raise in 2020. Instead, the Bears will need to decide on Trubisky's fifth-year option for 2021, which would pencil in a salary of more than $24 million for that season. The option would be guaranteed for injury, so the Bears would be able to move on after 2020 without any penalty if Trubisky can pass a physical. You can insert your own joke about how risky it is to ask Trubisky to pass something here.

There are two reasons to think the Bears will pick up Trubisky's option independent of his play, and they're both more about general manager Ryan Pace than they are about the embattled former No. 2 overall pick.

First is the case of cornerback Kyle Fuller. After three mostly disappointing years in Chicago, Pace declined Fuller's fifth-year option and signed Marcus Cooper and Prince Amukamara to play ahead of the former first-round pick.

Fuller rededicated himself to the game and had an impressive 2017, which forced the Bears to transition-tag him and then pay him nearly the cost of two consecutive franchise tags after the Packers signed Fuller to an offer sheet. Fuller excelled in 2018, but the Bears cost themselves millions of dollars by giving up on him too early. The same thought will be running through Pace's mind as he evaluates the 25-year-old Trubisky's chances of eventually succeeding.

The other reality is that Pace made a huge bet on Trubisky succeeding. He didn't give up a huge haul to move from No. 3 to No. 2 in the 2017 draft, but the story that Pace traded up to draft Trubisky when he could have stayed put and had his pick of Deshaun Watson or Patrick Mahomes is going to sting. My opinion is that the NFL as a whole is generally pretty bad at evaluating quarterback prospects, and it's impossible to know how Watson or Mahomes would have developed in Chicago, but the Bears chose a guy who might not be an NFL-caliber starter over two quarterbacks who were more successful in college and are arguably the two best young quarterbacks in football.

General managers who take a quarterback in the top five almost always re-raise their bets on those passers. It can hurt. Go back to that 2017 draft. After Pace took Trubisky second, the Jaguars came up with the fourth pick. With Blake Bortles coming off a wildly disappointing 2016 and a generally middling first three seasons, the Jags could have used the opportunity to draft Mahomes or Watson. Instead, after picking up Bortles' fifth-year option, they used the pick on Leonard Fournette, who has only one half-season of above-average running back play in the books.

I'm not sure we'll ever see Trubisky hit the heights that Bears fans were expecting before the 2019 season or were projecting onto him during the 2018 campaign, at least for any extended stretch of time. It was clear that coach Matt Nagy had little faith in him or the offense as a whole last week against the Chargers on Sunday, even before that now-infamous decision to sit on the ball before Eddy Pineiro missed a would-be winning field goal. The Bears ran the ball 38 times, and when Trubisky dropped back to pass, Nagy tried to keep the decision-making as simple as possible, even if it meant running a one-man route near the goal line.

Trubisky looked best on the final drive, when he did something for the first time since the opening series of Week 1: scramble for a first down. I've written about the disappearance of Trubisky's scrambling ability a couple of times this year, and while scrambling is the most likely activity to aggravate Trubisky's shoulder injury, it's also a necessary trait for teams to be scared of him as a quarterback. I know that the best-case scenario for 2019 would have been Trubisky running less and picking defenses apart from the pocket more frequently, but that dream is dead for now. Trubisky and the Bears are in survival mode: First downs by any means necessary.

If Trubisky continues to struggle, the Bears might choose to decline his option. Even if they pick up his option, you would figure they would bring in somebody better than expert backup Chase Daniel to compete with Trubisky in 2020. The presence of offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich on this staff makes for an obvious candidate, though Helfrich could get scapegoated for Trubisky's regression. Helfrich was the offensive coordinator and then head coach at Oregon while Marcus Mariota excelled for the Ducks. With Mariota likely coming available this offseason, the Bears would be an obvious landing point for the former Heisman Trophy winner.

Jameis Winston, QB, Tampa Buccaneers

After throwing for 385 yards and four touchdowns in a Week 4 victory over the Rams, it looked like Winston was set to excel in Bruce Arians' offense. Over his past two games, though, Winston has turned over the ball 10 times. Arians has tried to spread the blame for those mistakes to Winston's teammates, but this isn't exactly a new issue for the quarterback.

The reality with Winston is that we have a good sense of the quarterback he's going to be. He has a strong arm. He doesn't get rattled after mistakes. He's good at improvising and extending plays, although that can be both a blessing and a curse. His yearly stats are remarkably consistent, even if his game-to-game performance can seem wildly erratic.

For the Bucs and general manager Jason Licht, who drafted Winston with the first pick of the 2015 draft, that's been good enough to keep the former Florida State star around, if not enough to justify a long-term deal. Winston was benched for Ryan Fitzpatrick last season, and while the Bucs have only Ryan Griffin and an injured Blaine Gabbert behind him, he can't keep this level of play up for very long without the Buccaneers making a change. It's impossible to win when your quarterback is turning over the ball five times per week.

I don't think Winston will continue to turn over the ball at this sort of rate, but much of his future depends on what happens over the final eight games of the season. The Buccaneers certainly want him to prove that he's their guy for the future. The 67-year-old Arians, as he'll happily tell you, didn't take the Bucs job to develop a young quarterback for success down the line. Licht just signed a five-year extension. The best thing for both of them would be if Winston plays well enough down the stretch to justify a long-term contract.

It also would be the best thing for Winston, whose attractiveness to other organizations isn't clear. There are teams around the league who won't even consider adding a player who has been accused of multiple sexual assaults, let alone one with Winston's on-field inconsistency. He would be one in a group of borderline starting quarterback options this offseason, a group that could include Marcus Mariota, Ryan Tannehill, Joe Flacco, Andy Dalton, Case Keenum, Teddy Bridgewater and Eli Manning. Winston might be the most talented quarterback in that group, but none of those players has Winston's track record of off-field misbehavior.

Some team would sign Winston, but it's entirely possible that the only team that thinks he is worth a significant long-term deal is the one he's currently playing for. If he gets hot during the second half, the Bucs will likely give him something close to the five-year, $137.5 million deal the 49ers gave Jimmy Garoppolo before the 2018 season. That contract paid the former Patriots backup $42 million in Year 1.

If Winston doesn't impress during the second half and the Bucs head in a different direction, it will cost him a lot of money. If the league values him as a backup, he would likely be looking at a deal averaging between $6 million and $8 million per season. I can't think of another player who has more to gain -- or lose -- over the next nine weeks of football than Tampa's starting quarterback.

Marcus Mariota, QB, Tennessee Titans

Speaking of Mariota, his future looks perilous. The Titans benched him after two consecutive dismal starts for Ryan Tannehill, who has responded by leading the team to consecutive wins over the Chargers and Jaguars. Tannehill hasn't been incredible, as he has posted a Total QBR of 49.3, taken sacks more than 10% of the time and thrown a pick in each of his first two starts, but he has breathed life into a passing game that was depressingly conservative. Mariota, meanwhile, ranks last in Total QBR among qualifying starters at 31.7.

The famous stat that people tossed around with Mariota for years until 2018 was that he had never thrown an interception in the red zone. This seemed like a blessing, but it was really a reflection of his biggest flaw: He doesn't take enough risks to succeed. Tennessee's line isn't great, but Mariota's sack rate over the past two years has grown to a crippling 12%. According to NFL Next Gen Stats research, just 13.3% of Mariota's passes over the past two seasons have been thrown into a tight window, the third-lowest rate among passers with at least 300 attempts.

Mariota certainly doesn't seem close to getting his job back. The Titans face much stiffer competition before their bye in the Panthers and Chiefs -- and it's possible that consecutive stinkers from Tannehill would lead Mike Vrabel to go back to Mariota -- but his best chance of regaining the job is still a Tannehill injury. The former Dolphins quarterback hasn't played a full 16-game slate since 2015, so it's hardly out of the question that we'll see Mariota again in a Titans uniform.

It probably would take nothing short of a second playoff victory for the Titans to bring back Mariota as their starter in 2020. If he pulled that off, it wouldn't be entirely unexpected to see the Titans franchise their former second overall pick and give him one final shot. That tag likely will come in somewhere around $26 million. If not, Mariota probably is looking at a high-end backup deal, which would have an annual salary in the $7 million range. He already has lost a lot, but if he gets another chance with the Titans, he'll have to start playing like a quarterback with nothing to lose.

Melvin Gordon, RB, Los Angeles Chargers

How bad has holding out gone for Gordon? Since he returned to the Chargers in Week 5, he has averaged 2.5 yards per carry and 2.7 yards per reception. His most notable play was fumbling away a would-be winning touchdown at the goal line. Over his four games in the lineup, the Chargers have become the first team since 1946 to run for fewer than 40 yards in four consecutive games. He wanted to be paid like a special running back after one efficient season in 2018. He has been arguably the league's worst back since his return.

The deal for $10 million per year that the Chargers reportedly offered Gordon during his holdout is likely in a garbage can somewhere at team headquarters. The relationship between Gordon and the organization seems permanently soured at this point, although the Chargers always could choose to change their mind and offer him a big extension. Unless he takes a sudden, dramatic turn for the better, it's likely that he'll leave the organization after the season.

As was the case with a more accomplished back last offseason in Le'Veon Bell, the market might not be kind to Gordon. The list of teams that will need a running back and ignore history to use their cap space to pay one isn't long. We're looking at potentially Tampa Bay and Washington as viable Gordon suitors, with San Francisco as an outside candidate if it doesn't re-sign Tevin Coleman.

If Gordon doesn't impress during the second half, he's going to be looking at something close to the two-year, $8.5 million deal Coleman signed with the 49ers this offseason. With a big second half, Gordon might be able to talk someone into giving him a deal similar to the three-year, $39 million pact David Johnson signed with the Cardinals.

Hunter Henry, TE, Los Angeles Chargers

The Chargers might instead choose to use some of the resources they originally had earmarked for Gordon to bring back Henry, who likely will sign some sort of deal with the team this offseason. The size of that deal naturally depends on Henry's health, given that the oft-injured Arkansas product missed all of the 2018 regular season and four games this campaign.

His production this season suggests he could be one of the league's most impactful tight ends. The 24-year-old is averaging 76 receiving yards per game, which puts him just ahead of Travis Kelce and Austin Hooper and at the top of the leaderboard for tight ends with four or more games played. Since his return to the lineup in Week 6, Henry has generated 14 first downs in the passing game, which ranks fifth in the NFL.

Assuming that the Chargers move on from Gordon and don't need the franchise tag for quarterback Philip Rivers, they could slap Henry with the tag at around $11 million and ask him to prove what he can do for a full season. If Henry misses more time during the second half of the season, I would expect the Chargers to do just that. If he stays on the field and continues to play at this level, though, they likely will lock him up on a long-term deal. At a position in which no player has topped $10 million per season on a multiyear deal since Jimmy Graham hit that mark in 2014, Henry could be the first tight end to break up that string of zeroes.

Vic Beasley Jr., DE, Atlanta Falcons

As one of the players who was rumored to be on the market in advance of the trade deadline, it was no surprise that Beasley didn't attract much interest from opposing teams. While he led the NFL in 2016 with 15.5 sacks, the former first-round pick has just 11.5 over his ensuing 38 games, including 1.5 this season. Sacks aren't everything, but when you're a 246-pound edge rusher with a base salary of $12.8 million, you need to deliver more than one sack per month to return value.

The reality of the NFL, though, is that teams are desperate for quality pass-rushers. Beasley still is 27, and given how incompetent everyone on the Falcons' defense looks, there are going to be teams that see an opportunity to buy low on a potential difference-maker. Even if he continues to anonymously meander his way through the second half of the season, some team will give the Clemson product a one-year deal in the range of $4 million, which is about what Markus Golden got from the Giants this offseason.

If Beasley gets hot during the second half, though, his market suddenly could improve. There certainly were other teams that had first-round grades on Beasley when he came out of school, and if he can piece together a five-sack second half after Atlanta's bye, it wouldn't be shocking to see a team offer him a multiyear deal with more than $10 million in guarantees.

Jadeveon Clowney, DE, Seattle Seahawks

While the Seahawks were able to get Clowney at a bargain-basement rate by trading a third-round pick and two backup linebackers for him and what amounted to $8 million, Seattle had to make one key concession to get a deal done. General manager John Schneider & Co. reportedly promised to keep the franchise tag off Clowney in 2020, which will allow the former first overall pick to hit free agency. Any player with Clowney's skill set is going to get paid.

If he wants to get something north of $100 million, though, he is going to need to step things up over the second half. He certainly has played well for the Seahawks, but he has produced just two sacks and seven quarterback knockdowns through eight games. Everyone knows Clowney has the potential to put everything together and run off a 15-sack season, but if he continues on this pace, potential bidders will bow out after seeing modest production and microfracture surgery in his past.

The second half of Seattle's campaign could be worth $5 million per year to Clowney if he excels. A hot finish to the year also might compel a team to guarantee more of Clowney's salary in Year 3, a risk for a player with a meaningful injury history. Clowney will end up making a nice chunk of change either way, but a hot second half would make him the most important non-quarterback on the market.

Garett Bolles, OT, Denver Broncos

From 2017-18, Bolles led the league with 21 holding penalties, eight more than any other player. There was hope that legendary offensive line coach Mike Munchak would be able to turn him around, but so far this season, Bolles ... leads the league with nine holding penalties, three more than any other player. (The second-ranked player is teammate Ron Leary, so it's fair to say Munchak's arrival hasn't yet transformed the Broncos' line.)

Bolles is essentially playing for his professional future during the second half of 2019. If he continues to struggle, the Broncos will almost certainly decline his 2021 fifth-year option and pursue a replacement at left tackle this offseason, which would likely consign him to backup tackle duty, either in Denver or elsewhere. If he finally shows signs of life and plays like a franchise left tackle, Denver could very well pick up that option and commit to him as its 2020 starter. It would take a level of play the 27-year-old Bolles has yet to show during his professional career.

Marcus Peters, CB, Baltimore Ravens

It seemed like Peters was destined to be one of the young guns who would sign an extension to stay with the Rams, but after he struggled for the second consecutive season, the Rams cut bait and sent Peters to the Ravens before the trade deadline. The good version of Peters showed up for his Baltimore debut, with the former All-Pro luring Russell Wilson into the MVP candidate's first interception of the year, a 67-yard pick-six.

Is Peters' future with the Ravens? Maybe. Baltimore already has given slot cornerback Tavon Young an extension and will soon need to pay star Marlon Humphrey, though veteran Jimmy Smith's deal expires after the season, while Brandon Carr is on a team option. The Ravens have a lot of money concentrated in their secondary with Earl Thomas and Tony Jefferson also signed to free-agent deals, so it wouldn't shock me if they saw Peters as a rental they'll use to net a compensatory pick in 2021.

If he plays at a high level, he'll get paid. For all his missteps, he is too talented and has too much of a nose for the football to stay on the market for long. (He has 25 interceptions in five seasons.) Too many teams need help at cornerback in a league in which defenses are in their nickel packages more than half of the time. If we get the guy who gave up touchdowns with mental mistakes in Los Angeles, though, Peters might end up settling for a one-year deal in the hopes of resetting his market for 2021.

Cam Newton, QB, Carolina Panthers

Kyle Allen's ugly start against the 49ers quieted the wildly premature chatter that he was ready to take over for Newton as the Panthers' quarterback of the future. Allen will start again this Sunday against the Titans, but it's clear the Panthers will be giving this job back to their former MVP when he's healthy. The Panthers have the talent to compete for a Super Bowl if they can get the Newton who impressed during the first half of 2018 back in the fold. Allen can't dream of touching Newton's upside.

The Panthers likely aren't prepared to move on from their longtime starter, but this offseason brings both parties to an interesting crossroads. Newton, who's 30 years old, will be entering the final year of his deal in 2020, when he is set to make a base salary of $18.6 million. Teams typically extend their franchise quarterbacks in the summer before they officially enter that lame-duck season. A third contract would likely net Newton something in the ballpark of $60 million in guarantees at signing.

Given his recent injury history, though, Carolina could choose to let him play out the final year of his contract before either franchising him for 2021, signing him to a new deal or pursuing a new path at quarterback. If we see a healthy Newton return and reach that 2018 level of play during the second half, I think the Panthers will extend Newton this offseason. If he doesn't come back or look like his old self, though, they can't realistically extend him next summer.

Emmanuel Sanders, WR, San Francisco 49ers

Given a relevance lifeline by last week's trade to the Niners, Sanders will play out the final season of his three-year, $33 million extension and hit free agency this offseason. What happens next will depend on how he plays in San Francisco. Sanders played 82% of the offensive snaps in his debut and caught a touchdown pass in a game in which Jimmy Garoppolo threw only 22 passes. He will play a key role in this offense moving forward.

If Sanders is a healthy, productive member of one of the league's best offenses, the 32-year-old could be in line for a multiyear deal this offseason. He would likely be looking for something in the ballpark of the four-year, $37.5 million deal Golden Tate signed with the Giants, although that might be too steep given that Sanders is older and coming off a torn Achilles. At the very least, Sanders might be able to come away with a partial guarantee in Year 2 of a three- or four-year contract. If Sanders gets hurt or doesn't make an impact in San Francisco, though, he's likely looking at a one-year deal with incentives.

Shaquil Barrett, DE, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

A Defensive Player of the Year candidate after racking up nine sacks through the first four weeks of the season, Barrett went two games without a takedown before strip-sacking Ryan Tannehill last week against the Titans. Barrett was never going to keep up his unreal pace, but what happens next will determine how teams value him heading into 2020.

The Bucs are the most important of those teams, because they hold the initial card on him with the franchise tag. There are a number of plausible candidates for the tag, including the likes of Ndamukong Suh, Jason Pierre-Paul and Jameis Winston, but Barrett's limited track record and outsized production make him the most obvious candidate. (NFL teams could also have the ability to use both the franchise and transition tags in 2020 because of the collective bargaining agreement, and the Bucs could be one of the few teams to justify using both.)

If Barrett racks up only a couple of sacks over the remainder of the season, Tampa Bay will likely end up franchising him and giving him another chance to prove himself in 2020. Barrett won't be too disappointed -- the franchise tag for defensive ends should be somewhere around $18.5 million for 2020 -- but that's a pittance compared to what he would get on a multiyear contract.

On the other hand, if he continues to excel and finishes somewhere in the range of 15 sacks, the Bucs will realistically have to give Barrett a long-term deal, even if that entails a temporary path through the franchise tag. He probably would be looking at something in the range of Za'Darius Smith's four-year, $66 million deal from last offseason, with inflation pushing the deal to $70 million. Smith's deal essentially guaranteed $34.5 million over two years; Barrett could double his guarantee from the franchise tag with a similar extension.

Reshad Jones, S, Miami Dolphins

The five-year, $60 million extension Jones signed with the Dolphins in 2017 hasn't aged well. The structure of the deal -- and Miami's restructuring of that deal to create cap space -- has left the Dolphins with a $17.2 million cap hit in 2019 for a player they don't really want. Jones is the 19th-highest paid player in the league, but injuries have led him to play just three games through the first half.

His $15.2 million salary for 2020 is untenable, and it would be shocking if any team wanted to pay Jones that figure for one year. If Jones returns and plays well during the second half of the season, though, he could attract a multiyear deal in free agency. If he isn't on the field for the Dolphins, the 31-year-old will likely be looking at a one-year pact.

Adam Gase, coach, New York Jets

Let's finish up with two coaches who have a lot riding on the rest of the season. The good news for Gase is that head-coaching contracts are guaranteed. If the Jets do fire him after one season, he should be able to sit on the sideline and take what appears to be some much-needed time off. Even those who were skeptical of Gase's arrival in New York could not have imagined how poorly the first seven games have gone. His team is in absolute disarray, on and off the field.

The Jets have the league's easiest schedule over the remainder of the season, according to FPI. Their next six games are against teams whose combined record is 6-39. Then again, those opponents are probably looking at the 1-6 Jets as one of their best chances to claim a rare victory. You would like to think that they could come away with a split of those six games and turn their season around, but with their few talented players actively revolting and their young quarterback waylaid by injuries, competence would be an unexpected turn for these Jets.

If things continue as they are and Gase does get fired, his career as a head coach would likely be over. It's generally foolish to ever rule out anyone who works well with quarterbacks as a future head-coaching candidate, but Gase's middling résumé and the disastrous season that young quarterback Sam Darnold has battled through is going to stick in our collective memory for a while. Limiting Gase to a future as a coordinator drastically reduces his earnings potential after his Jets deal.

Jason Garrett, coach, Dallas Cowboys

While Dak Prescott could theoretically feature on this list, he's not likely to have any trouble getting paid by the Cowboys, no matter how many times they suggest their star quarterback should take a team-friendly deal. The Cowboys have handed out top-dollar extensions to just about every one of their drafted-and-developed stars over the past 15 years. I don't see why that's likely to change with Prescott.

Dallas' coach, though, might be in for a different battle. Garrett seemed very nearly out the door this time last season, but after a loss on Monday Night Football to the Titans dropped the Cowboys to 3-5, Dallas rolled off seven wins in its final eight games to win the NFC East. The Cowboys followed with their second playoff victory of the Garrett era, but after losing to the Rams, they haven't made it as far as the NFC Championship Game since Garrett was a 29-year-old third-string quarterback for this very franchise in 1995.

It's telling that the Cowboys didn't extend Garrett's contract after what had to be regarded as a successful season. He is now in the final year of his deal, which is a place we don't typically see teams let coaches they want to keep around reach. There's no franchise tag for coaches, so if he does well this season, he could force the Cowboys into a desperate contract this offseason.

On the other hand, owner Jerry Jones has never had much regard for convention with his coaches. If someone wants to hire offensive coordinator Kellen Moore to be their coach, would Jones just move on from Garrett and promote Moore to keep him around? If Lincoln Riley is willing to listen to Jones' overtures and leave Oklahoma, would anything short of a Super Bowl convince Jones he's better off with Garrett? The best way for Garrett to ensure that he's one of the highest-paid coaches in the league next year -- regardless of whether it's in Dallas or elsewhere -- is to make a deep playoff run this season.

Indiana Pacers center Myles Turner is listed as week-to-week after spraining his right ankle Wednesday, the team announced.

The injury occurred in the first quarter of Indiana's 118-108 road win against the Brooklyn Nets.

The team's 2015 first-round draft pick is averaging 14.8 points and 6.8 rebounds in four games this season.

Pacers point guard Edmond Sumner has a nondisplaced fracture of his right third metacarpal, the team said.

Sumner won't need surgery and will be reexamined in three weeks.

Sumner is averaging seven points and two assists in three games this season.

HE TRAINED HIMSELF to be gracious, even though no one afforded him the same consideration.

When kids in Senegal taunted him simply because he towered above them, he refused to retaliate, refused to dissolve into tears, refused to scamper home and tattle to his mother, even though he was just an 8-year-old boy.

"I could not tell my mother," Tacko Fall says. "She would have killed them."

So when they mocked him and called him Botoumboo, a goofy Senegalese cartoon character, he stood straight and silent, just as his mother had taught him. He quietly absorbed insults from boys four years older -- poking fun at someone so big made them feel tougher, stronger, cooler.

"As a kid, these are things you go through," Fall explains. "These are the things that make or break you."

When he came to America, the slights continued, but often out of ignorance rather than cruelty. Donnie Jones, his college coach at the University of Central Florida, is incredulous at the things people said as Tacko moved through the airport, from the usual "How's the weather up there?" to the more sinister "You could be in the circus!" Eventually, Jones instructed Fall to stay seated while awaiting their flights so people couldn't gauge how tall he truly was. "This is all part of your education," Jones would console him. "They only see your body, not your beautiful mind."

Tacko Fall is a man now, accustomed to life in an elongated fish bowl. When you are 7-foot-7 and cannot squeeze into a car unless you push the seat all the way back and recline so you can unfurl your spindly legs, when you cannot purchase a turtleneck long enough to cover your slender frame for the cold New England winters, you learn to improvise. You learn that people will stare -- they always have, and they always will.

"It's awkward sometimes," Fall admits. "I'm low-key, but I attract a lot of attention, and I'm not always comfortable with that."

It is an ongoing battle, this quest to persuade others to see Tacko Fall as something more than a curiosity. When they rush to greet him, pushing and jostling for a better view, they don't know (or care) that he's an inquisitive intellect with an engineering degree who scored so high on his SATs (taken in English, his second language) that he met the qualifications for Ivy League schools. They don't stop to consider his humanitarian efforts in his native country, his fervent wish to make this basketball thing work so he can establish his own foundation to help his people. "Be a global leader," Jones says. "We talk about that all the time."

These days, as the wildly popular center of the Boston Celtics, it's adoration, not derision, that engulfs Tacko Fall. But that too has a price.

Some have called Tacko Fall a basketball phenomenon, but that isn't entirely accurate. He is still learning, not ready to stake a claim in the NBA game. Under the stipulations of his contract, he can play a maximum of only 45 games for the Celtics and will spend most of his time in the G League affiliate in Portland, Maine. His passionate followers should brace themselves for the very real possibility that Fall will play but a handful of NBA minutes this season.

That won't stop them from dressing up in bulky fast-food costumes to pay homage. It won't stop men, women and kids, basketball and non-basketball fans alike, to lose their minds when they see him.

In July, when he and teammate Grant Williams stood to leave a Red Sox game, the patrons abandoned their seats and their baseball team to pursue Fall for a picture, an autograph, a handshake. It took him over an hour and a half to leave Fenway; there was no place to hide.

When you're Tacko Fall, there is never a place to hide.

"He's exhausted," Williams says. "But Tacko will never say no. He's still going to smile, stop and sign, and take the picture.

"I worry about him. People don't mean any harm, but they need to understand he's a human being like the rest of us."

Even the basketball court has threatened to lapse into a vaudeville show. It started at NBA Summer League in Vegas, when Fall's on-court appearances were greeted with the same enthusiasm as the coronation of the king. And if the discerning fans didn't get their daily dose of Tacko, they impatiently began chanting his name, demanding a cameo.

This continued once he shared the bench with Celtics teammates in preseason. It has continued into the regular season, when Madison Square Garden chanted for him on Saturday.

"It's nothing we can control," coach Brad Stevens says. "I try to recognize it. I go up to him and I say, 'Hey, man, this stinks for both of us. We'll figure it out.' He appreciates how much people love him, and this is his chance, with this platform, to show people how special he is.

"Obviously you want the fans to be happy, but when they start chanting his name, the only thing I care about in that moment is to make sure Tacko isn't uncomfortable."

He is, of course. Basketball is not a dalliance to him. He wants to earn his minutes based on his progress and his performance, like every other prospect.

"I don't want to take away from the focus of my teammates," Fall says. "And I know it's tough for Brad to hear the fans chanting, because he is also trying to focus. I want to play, of course, but it's the coach's job to decide when they need me."

And, for the moment, that isn't now.

TACKO FALL HAS never heard of Chuck Nevitt, whose nickname in the '80s was the Human Victory Cigar. Nevitt, a 7-foot-5 center, logged 825 career minutes in 10 NBA seasons wearing five different uniforms. He handled his status as a garbage-time spectacle with great humor. Sports Illustrated once wrote a feature on Nevitt in which someone asked him if he played basketball. "Some would say I do," Nevitt quipped, "and some would say I don't."

Seven-foot-seven Manute Bol -- who played regular minutes for the Golden State Warriors and others from 1985 to 1995, amassing 2,687 career rebounds and 2,086 blocks -- was less amused by the attention he garnered, delivering biting retorts to those who dared to gawk. Conversely, former Washington big man Gheorghe Muresan embraced his size -- all 7 feet, 5 inches of it -- and started his own basketball school when he retired that he named Giant Basketball Academy.

Boban Marjanovic, at 7-foot-3, became an instant fan favorite in San Antonio, even though he saw action only in games that had been long decided. The fans' fervor for him was coined "Boban Mania," and Spurs coach Gregg Popovich was so bothered, he felt compelled to remind everyone, "He's a basketball player. He's not some sort of an odd thing."

Stevens harbors similar concerns for Tacko. "He's not just tall," Stevens says. "He's someone who cares about community, who cares about the team. I saw [teammate] Rob Williams' spirit go to a whole different level when Tacko Fall was in the gym with him in preseason. His energy is contagious. I hope people appreciate there's more to him than his size."

FROM DAKAR, SENEGAL, Elhadji Tacko Sereigne Diop Fall was born into a devout Muslim home. His first love was soccer, but his mother kept him close, and he only occasionally ventured to the fields to play with the other boys. His family was so poor that when his village encountered an outbreak of malaria, they were unable to pay for mosquito nets to cover their beds.

"They cost less than $3," Fall says, "but we couldn't afford them. I was thankful that none of us got it. I had malaria when I was small and it was miserable. Fever. Chills. Scary."

Fall left for the States when he was in ninth grade, bouncing around to different schools and host families. Donnie Jones met him a year later and says, without elaborating, that Tacko's life in Senegal was "very dark, very hard.

"He came to America hoping to trust somebody," Jones says.

Fall found a basketball family at UCF, where Jones dialed up the Houston Rockets and queried them about how they trained Yao Ming without putting too much stress on his feet, knees and back. Jones special-ordered sweat pants so Tacko could have a pair that actually went below the knee. When Fall fumbled a series of easy passes, Jones took him for an eye test, then bought him contacts. "We worked hard to build his self-esteem," Jones says. "I never wanted him to feel like some guy from another planet who didn't fit."

In a quieter moment, Jones asked Fall if he ever got tired of people asking for pictures. Fall lowered his head and answered, "Coach, I know they're not taking them because of my basketball."

TACKO FALL DOESN'T want to be a human victory cigar. He also doesn't want to be Mamadou N'Diaye, a fellow 7-foot-6 player from Dakar who ventured to America, played at UC Irvine, signed one afternoon with the Detroit Pistons, then was waived before the day was over.

Fall hopes to harness his expansive wingspan -- 8 feet, 2.25 inches, an NBA combine record -- into a defensive weapon. He has massive hands and is learning to use them not just to block shots but to deflect passes and initiate fast breaks.

"One day he'll be with us full time, for sure," Kemba Walker says. "He's talented, and he works so hard. I don't think people understand things he can do for his size. He surprised me with his ability to get up and down the court."

"He actually does a pretty good job of sitting down, guarding the pick-and-roll," Stevens adds. "Now, there's going to be some matchups that are very tough. And then there's getting the speed of the game down.

"I don't care how fast you are, whether you are Kemba Walker or Jaylen Brown, there's still a transition in learning the speed of the game. It's the hardest part for young players."

When Fall arrived in Boston over the summer, he had a pronounced hitch in his shot -- "honestly, it was three hitches, the worse thing I've ever seen," Williams says -- and spent hours in the gym with assistant coach Jay Larranaga trying to extricate it from his game.

"It's gone," Fall declares. "Ask Coach Jay. I fixed it with repetition, repetition, repetition."

Fall understands his strength, defensive instincts, offensive touch and mobility must improve for him to stick. In the meantime, his Celtics teammates have formed a protective armor around their celebrity rookie, closing ranks when chaos descends.

"Tacko is so likable, with such positive energy, that people forget," says Enes Kanter. "He has feelings. He gets sad, he gets mad, he gets tired, he gets frustrated.

"At some point, he will have to learn to say no. This can't go on."

It's all about perspective, Fall says. If he looks at the constant attention as a burden, "then it will become one."

"I am used to this," Fall says. "I feel like I'm mentally strong enough to not let it bother me too much. Luckily, every day I get on the court, I have fun. That is my sanctuary."

He dreams of the day they chant his name because he scores the winning basket or makes a game-saving block. In the meantime, Tacko Fall stands tall and straight, just as he was taught, silently awaiting the moment that will make all those slights worth it.

After an awkward exchange following Game 7 of the World Series in which he said he was "not employed by the team," free-agent Gerrit Cole, a front-runner for the AL Cy Young Award, said his "thank you" to the Houston Astros and their fans via social media on Thursday.

"Last night was a tough one for us and the heartbreak hasn't gotten any easier today," Cole said Thursday on Twitter. "Before I became an Astro I didn't know much about Houston, but after just two years you have made it feel like home. So here's what I know now. You have been overwhelmingly friendly, welcoming, and kind to my family and me. The Astros organization has been such a pleasure to play for, the Cranes are indeed special people and great owners. I've met lifelong friends on the team and in the community and learned a little about pitching along the way.

"... This is a relationship between a team and it's fans like no other that I know. Thank you for making us better people and better players. This was a great season. We have a lot to be proud of."

To Houston: pic.twitter.com/1gzVByOUWI

— Gerrit Cole (@GerritCole45) October 31, 2019

Cole set an Astros team record by winning his last 16 regular-season decisions and topped the AL with a career-best 2.50 ERA. His career-high 326 strikeouts were the most in the majors and set a franchise record that had stood since 1979 when J.R. Richard fanned 313.

Cole and Astros teammate Justin Verlander are the front-runners for the AL Cy Young Award.

When asked by a team official to meet with reporters after their 6-2 loss to the Washington Nationals on Wednesday, Cole, who was wearing a Boras Corp. hat, said "I'm not employed by the team." However, after agreeing to interviews, he started out with, "I guess as a representative of myself ..."

Boras is represented by agent Scott Boras, and is poised to command a big payday on the free agent market.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.