Commanders agree on a 2-year deal with running back Austin Ekeler, AP source says
WASHINGTON — Austin Ekeler is going coast to coast to join the Washington Commanders.
Ekeler agreed to terms with Washington on a two-year deal worth up to $11.43 million, according to a person familiar with the deal. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Monday because the contract cannot be made official until the new league year opens Wednesday.
The soon-to-be 29-year-old leaves the Los Angeles Chargers after seven seasons in which he scored 69 touchdowns since making his professional debut in 2017.
Ekeler led the NFL in combined rushing and receiving touchdowns in 2021 and ‘22 before dropping to six last season.
Bringing him in gives the retooling Commanders a one-two backfield punch of Ekeler and Brian Robinson Jr.
But Ekeler wasn’t the only deal new general manager Adam Peters got done after the NFL’s negotiating period for free agents began at noon EDT. Armed with the most cap space in the league, he wasted little time spending it on three-year contracts for linebacker Frankie Luvu, defensive end Dorance Armstrong and center Tyler Biadasz.
Luvu got $36 million, according to his agency, Team IFA. Two people familiar with the deals told The AP that Armstrong’s contract is worth up to $45 million and Biadasz $30 million.
Armstrong and Biadasz are players new coach Dan Quinn knows well from his time with the rival Dallas Cowboys. Luvu is a new face at perhaps the Commanders’ biggest area of need on defense.
Luvu, 27, led the Carolina Panthers and ranked 22nd among all players in tackles last season with 125. The American Samoa native also had 5 1/2 sacks and gives Washington’s defense under Quinn and new coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. some experience at a position that was devalued under former coach Ron Rivera, interestingly a former linebacker.
Biadasz was the Cowboys’ starting center during Quinn’s entire threeyear tenure as defensive coordinator, when he was working on the other side of the trenches.
Armstrong had been a reserve with Dallas since 2018, appearing in 47 games and starting Dallas while Quinn was running the defense.
Los Angeles Rams agree to terms with tight end Colby Parkinson and guard Jonah Jackson
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Rams have agreed to contract terms with tight end Colby Parkinson and guard Jonah Jackson, a person with knowledge of the deals said Monday.
The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the free-agent deals can’t be announced until the new league year begins Wednesday.
Parkinson got a three-year, $22.5 million contract to leave Seattle, according to his representatives at Wasserman NFL. Jackson will leave Detroit to sign a three-year contract potentially worth $51 million with $34 million guaranteed.
Parkinson spent his first four NFL seasons with the Seahawks, catching 57 passes for 618 yards and four touchdowns. The Bay Area native played at Stanford before Seattle made him a fourth-round selection in 2020.
He joins a tight end group headed by Tyler Higbee, who agreed last September to a two-year, $27 million contract extension through 2025. Higbee is an eight-year Rams veteran who has been slowed by injuries in recent yearSs, and Los Angeles didn’t have a standout alternative at tight end last season.
Jackson started 57 games over his first four NFL seasons with the Lions, most recently playing left guard. The former thirdround pick made the Pro Bowl after the 2021 season.
The Rams’ starting guards last season were rookie left guard Steve Avila and right guard Kevin Dotson, who agreed last week to a three-year, $48 million deal to return to Los Angeles. Jackson’s arrival could signal the Rams plan to move Avila to center, where he played in college at TCU before moving to guard.
Coleman Shelton, the Rams’ starting center last season, is a free agent.
The Rams have dramatically improved the middle of their offensive line since it struggled throughout the 2022 season, when Los Angeles went 5-12 a year after winning the Super Bowl.
The Lakers are planning to fix a few errors carved into the base of Kobe Bryant’s statue
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Lakers say they’re planning to fix a handful of errors on the base of the statue of Kobe Bryant unveiled last month outside their arena.
The names of former NBA players Jose Calderon and Von Wafer are misspelled on the base in a rendering of the box score from Bryant’s 81-point game in January 2006, along with a misspelling of the phrase “Coach’s Decision.” There are also minor formatting mistakes in another spot on the busy base of the statue, which displays many of Bryant’s accomplishments.
“We have been aware of this for a few weeks and are already working to get it corrected soon,” the Lakers said in a statement.
The box score is carved into the marble base of the 19-foot bronze statue, which depicts Bryant in his postgame celebration of the second highest-scoring game in NBA history. Hundreds of fans gather daily around the statue, which sits among several statues honoring other Los Angeles sporting greats in front of the arena.
The statue is the first of three renderings of Bryant that will stand outside their downtown arena, according to his widow, Vanessa. The Lakers unveiled the first statue Feb. 8 to honor Bryant, who died along with his daughter, Gianna, and seven others
in a helicopter crash in January 2020.
Bryant played his entire 20-year career with the Lakers, winning five championships. He is the fourth-leading scorer in NBA history.
Clippers to move their G League team to Oceanside in northern San Diego County
OCEANSIDE — The Clippers are returning to San Diego — sort of.
The Los Angeles Clippers announced Monday that their G League team will move to Oceanside and rebrand as the San Diego Clippers. The team will play in the new Frontwave Arena beginning with the 2024-25 season. It currently plays in Ontario in San Bernardino County.
Oceanside is in far northern San Diego County and Frontwave Arena is about 37 miles north of Pechanga Arena, where the Clippers played from 1978 until they moved to Los Angeles in 1984. San Diego native Bill Walton played parts of three seasons for his hometown team, which had a winning record just once in six seasons in San Diego.
“We are proud to re-introduce the San Diego Clippers into this passionate sports market,” Halo Sports and Entertainment CEO Gillian Zucker said. “Our G League team is a critical part of our business and basketball operation, and we are thrilled to be relocating to the new Frontwave Arena next season.”
Frontwave Arena, with a capacity of 7,500, is set to open this summer and will also be home to the San Diego Sockers, an indoor soccer team.
Of the 18 players on the Clippers’ current roster, 12 have spent time in the G League during their career.
San Diego is a two-time NBA loser, also having lost the Rockets to Houston in 1971. Several minor league basketball teams have come and gone in San Diego County over the years.
Christopher Bell pulls out emotional victory at Phoenix Raceway
AVONDALE, Ariz. — Christopher Bell surged into the lead when Martin Truex Jr. was forced to pit and pulled away for an emotional NASCAR Cup Series win at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver’s victory comes on the heels of a pair of heartbreaks in the desert.
Two years ago, JGR vice chairman Coy Gibbs was found dead in his hotel room following his son Ty’s Xfinity season championship. Bell made it to the Cup Series championship four in November, but a broken rotor spoiled his championship hopes in the season finale at Phoenix.
Bell’s win in the No. 20 Toyota also ended Chevrolet’s perfect start to the season after winning the first three races. He is the eighth different winner in eight races at Phoenix Raceway’s mile tri-oval.
Chris Buescher finished second and Ty Gibbs was third. Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney rounded out the top five.
The Phoenix race marked the debut of NASCAR’s new aerodynamics package for short tracks in hopes of producing more passing on tracks of a mile or less and road courses. Goodyear also produced tires with thicker treads designed to retain heat and increase lap-time falloff.
Chandler Smith wins second career Xfinity Series race after Justin Allgaier’s late flat tire
AVONDALE, Ariz. — Chandler Smith won his second career Xfinity Series race on Saturday at Phoenix Raceway, earning a surprise victory for Toyota and Joe Gibbs Racing after Justin Allgaier crashed
while holding a big lead with just four laps remaining.
The 21-year-old Smith took the lead after Allgaier’s stunning crash and got a huge jump on the overtime restart, easily holding off Jesse Love and Sheldon Creed over the final two laps.
Allgaier’s misfortune was caused by an ill-timed flat tire.
“I hate that happened to (Allgaier) — he definitely had it in the bag,” Smith said. “But I’m so proud of everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing. It’s good, finally, to get this first one off my back with these guys. Let’s keep racking them up.”
Love finished second in his No. 2 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing. Creed ended up third, giving Joe Gibbs Racing two of the top three cars. Austin Hill, who won the first two Xfinity races of the season, finished fourth.
It was an eventful afternoon for Smith, who was involved in a major wreck late in the race that collected several of the leaders, including teammate John Hunter Nemechek, Aric Almirola and Riley Herbst.
Scottie Scheffler, with hot putter, demolishes the field to win at Bay Hill
ORLANDO, Fla. — Scottie Scheffler became the No. 1 player in golf with his sublime tee-to-green game. He got hot with the putter Sunday in the Arnold Palmer Invitational and was simply unstoppable.
Scheffler made every important putt to build a three-shot lead at the turn and then poured it on with a game so complete he closed with a bogey-free, 6-under 66 — the lowest score by two shots at Bay Hill in the final round — while playing in the last group.
He wound up winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational by five shots, the largest margin at Bay Hill since Tiger Woods in 2012. And it came a week before Scheffler defends his title at The Players Championship, which had been his last official PGA Tour win.
All that held him back over the last year was the putter. Scheffler switched to a mallet model this week, but far more important was keeping quiet between the ears, thinking more about the stroke than the outcome.
Both were superb. He made every putt inside 15 feet on the weekend to win at Bay Hill for the second time in three years.
U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark did the best at trying to stay close, and he was two shots behind through eight holes. But it all turned so quickly. Clark drove into the rough and made bogey on the ninth hole and then didn’t make another birdie until the par-5 16th. He shot 70.
Scheffler made a pair of birdie putts in the 7-foot range to start the back nine, and then he showed more emotion than usual with a 35-foot birdie on the 15th that turned the final round into a runaway.
Scheffler now has seven PGA Tour titles, all against some of the strongest fields. He picked up $4 million for winning this signature event. Scheffler finished at 15-under 273.
Coco Gauff reaches round of 16 at Indian Wells by beating Lucia Bronzetti
INDIAN WELLS — Coco Gauff gave herself an early birthday present by beating Lucia Bronzetti 6-2, 7-6 (5) on Monday in the third round of the BNP Paribas Open.
Gauff, who turns 20 on Wednesday, struggled early but found a way to hold her serve by saving 10 of 11 break points. She closed out the match with a serve into the body that Bronzetti couldn’t return. It extended Gauff’s winning streak in the United States to 18 matches, a run that includes winning the title at last year’s U.S. Open.