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In modern football, there are few positions outside of quarterback that are more important than offensive tackle. As defenses load up on EDGE rushers to attack opposing quarterbacks from both sides of the line, it’s imperative to have a left and right tackle capable of holding up in pass protection. As such, there’s always plenty of focus coming into the Draft on the top tackles and this year presents an interesting group.

There is not a tackle in this year’s class like, say, a Penei Sewell who looks like an absolute lock to be a perennial All-Pro and will be going in the first few picks, but there’s a cluster of first-round tackles that all figure to go off the board starting towards the end of the top 10. There are things to like about all of them — for me, there’s four guys all operating in a similar tier — but also questions for each to answer. A lot of the tackle selection process will come down to personal preference this year, but there’s plenty of talent available and someone that fits just about every kind of offense.

The Top Dog: Broderick Jones, Georgia

As mentioned, there’s not a top-5 prospect in this year’s tackle group, and as such I’ll bank on the biggest upside guy for the No. 1 spot on my board. Jones has been Georgia’s starting left tackle for the past 19 games, and I’m not sure if you’ve heard, Georgia has won national titles with him holding down that spot. Jones has the tape (albeit less than two full seasons as the starter), he has the grades, and at the Combine, he brought the measureables. Jones came into Indianapolis at 6’5, 311 pounds with 34.75 inch arms and proceeded to run a 4.97 in the 40 (1.74 10-yard split) and jump 30 inches in the vertical and 9′ in the broad jump.

He is the best combination of size and athleticism there is in this Draft, and I don’t worry too much about his relative lack of experience, because he simply was waiting his turn behind other NFL players at Georgia. There’s unquestionably technique things to tighten up for him, but you can’t teach his physical attributes and he’s already played at an incredibly high level for the best college program in the country and performed in the biggest games against top tier competition.

The Next Best: Darnell Wright, Tennessee, Paris Johnson Jr., Ohio State, and Peter Skoronski, Northwestern

Like I said up top, there’s a number of tackles that you’ll find people noting as their favorites in this class. Skoronski is the consensus top-rated guy after three excellent starting seasons at Northwestern, but he also might not be a tackle at the next level coming in with short arms (32.25 inches) that has some scouts concerned about his future as an anchor on the left side. As such, he gets dinged because he might get moved inside and that is simply a slightly lesser value than a tackle, but he’s going to have a long, productive career even if that’s at guard and he’s probably the safest bet of any of these guys.

Johnson has a gigantic frame at 6’6, 313 pounds and honestly has room to add some more strength. He was very good this year moving to the left side of the Ohio State line, a group that gave C.J. Stroud so much time that scouts tend to wonder if Stroud has enough playmaking ability outside the pocket because he wasn’t often asked to do so. That’s a credit to the work Johnson and company put forth. He, like Jones, is also still young enough and raw enough to make an offensive line coach believe they can keep building on his technique and mold him into a star on the left side.

Darnell Wright really enjoyed playing under Josh Heupel and was a big reason why Hendon Hooker and the Vols offense broke out the way it did in 2022 as he moved back to right tackle for Tennessee. His performance against Will Anderson and Alabama in the Vols’ biggest win of the season is some of the most impressive film any tackle put out there this year. At 6’5, 333 pounds, he is a big fella but isn’t a statue out there — 5.01 in the 40 at the Combine. I think a right tackle who can hold up as he did in pass pro is almost as vital at this point as a great left tackle, because so many teams employ two great EDGE rushers and also will move around attack a weak spot on the right if it exists. As such, I don’t think Wright should be dinged much for not being a blindside guy, and he should be off the board by the late first round.

Boom Or Bust: Blake Freeland, BYU

Freeland put on a show at the Combine, running a 4.98 (1.68 10-yard split) in the 40 at 6’8, 302 pounds, with a 37-inch vertical and a 10′ broad jump. Those are insane athletic numbers, and someone is going to be enamored by them and take the young man on Day 2, believing that an NFL strength and nutrition program can beef out his frame and build his strength up to match his freakish athleticism. If that happens, he could be a stud at the next level because his length with that kind of athleticism is rare. That said, he’s not the strongest tackle and they don’t play in a T-shirt and shorts in the NFL, so that Combine performance won’t mean much if he can’t make that leap to add the functional strength needed to hold up against NFL rushers.

Day 3 Swing: Warren McClendon Jr., Georgia

Did I mention that Georgia was really good? Well, McClendon’s started the last three years in Athens and while he doesn’t have the elite measureables of his counterpart in Jones in this Draft, he’s just a really good football player. He can play guard or tackle, which is helpful versatility for a late round guy to have, and at 6’4, 306 pounds he’s not exactly tiny, just not a guy ideal size or athleticism. Still, give me someone who was a starter on an elite line and made it work in spite of some of those physical limitations, because that’s a guy who knows how to play football and is going to make everyone else better because of his smarts and work ethic.

Megan Thee Stallion is having a hard-earned moment, but for the rest of her life, it will be hard to top the full-circle moment of collaborating with her fellow Houstonian Beyoncé on 2020’s “Savage Remix,” a Grammy-winning track that hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Meg reflected on that milestone and her other “Hottest Career Moments,” an extension of her reign as the cover star of Elle‘s May issue:

“Beyoncé probably so tired of me saying her name,” Megan Thee Stallion said, giggling, about 70 seconds into the video. “We were in quarantine at this time. Beyoncé did the [‘Savage Remix’]. I didn’t believe she was actually gonna do it, but she did it, and my mind was blown. I called my granny. Me and my manager was in my living room, going crazy.”

She continued, “Beyoncé was like, ‘Could you please make your verse a little bit cleaner?’ I went in my living room, and I recorded it right then. Like, Beyoncé didn’t have to tell me twice! I sent that verse right back. But it was amazing. Everybody knows that I am obsessed with Beyoncé, so when I got the collab — like, being from Houston with her — I was just appreciative. When I saw people dancing to the song, vibing to it, loving it, how many famous people was dancing to the song, I was like, ‘Oh, my God, y’all know me.’”

Watch the full “Hottest Career Moments” video above, and check out outtakes from Meg’s Elle cover story below.

Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The Late Late Show With James Corden is quickly coming to an end, as the late-night program is set to wrap up on April 27. Before that, though, Corden is getting some more “Carpool Karaoke” segments under his (seat)belt. Over the past month or so, he’s done installments with Bad Bunny, Lil Nas X, Blackpink, and on yesterday’s (April 20) episode, Diddy. During their drive, Diddy had plenty to say about how Corden should approach sex.

(There appears to be an issue with embedding the video at the moment, but it can still be watched on YouTube.)

Between songs, the conversation got to Diddy’s latest child, his seventh. Corden asked how Diddy came to have yet another child, and Diddy explained it’s because he got back into music and producing R&B again. He went on to note that for love-making purposes, he made a playlist of ’90s songs, describing it as “the Super Bowl of R&B.”

Corden then broke down how he thought he should set the scene, saying, “I go home, I light a candle…” Diddy cut him off, interjecting, “You got to put the red light on, no candle. It may burn down the place.” He also encouraged a phone-free, “off-the-grid” environment during the build-up to intercourse.

At that point is when Diddy encouraged the use of his playlist. This conversation went on for several minutes, and throughout, Diddy painted a detailed picture about how to create a sensual romantic environment.

Check out the video above or here.

In a surprising development in the Rust tragedy that left cinematographer Halyna Hutchins dead after an accidental shooting, prosecutors have dropped the criminal charges against Alec Baldwin. The actor was the one holding the gun when it fired, but he maintains that he did not pull the trigger. While an investigation proved otherwise, there were a myriad of safety failures leading up to the shooting, and for now, Baldwin is no longer being charged for involuntary manslaughter. However, that could change.

According to a statement from the special prosecutors, “new facts were revealed that demand further investigation and forensic analysis.”

Via CBS News:

Those new facts were discovered over “the last few days” while preparing for a preliminary hearing that was scheduled for May 3, the special prosecutors said. “Consequently, we cannot proceed under the current time constraints and on the facts and evidence turned over by law enforcement in its existing form. We therefore will be dismissing the involuntary manslaughter charges against Mr. Baldwin to conduct further investigation.”

The special prosecutors made it a point to note that Baldwin isn’t off the hook. “This decision does not absolve Mr. Baldwin of criminal culpability and charges may be refiled.”

The statement also confirmed that the involuntary manslaughter charges against Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed remain in place.

(Via CBS News)

Coachella 2023 is on the verge of wrapping up, but not before artists make one last statement during Weekend 2. Bad Bunny and Blackpink will return for their Friday and Saturday headlining sets, respectively, while Blink-182 is replacing an injured Frank Ocean for Sunday’s headlining slot.

But Skrillex, Four Tet, and Fred Again.. will have the final word, as Rolling Stone and Variety reported on Thursday, April 20. The electronic powerhouses also celebrated the news on social media:

“OH MY GOD. TBA. Coachella. Sunday night,” Fred Again.. captioned his Instagram post. “I didn’t think I was gonna be back with my brothers like this for a longggg time. Until last night. And here we are. We’ve seen all your lovely messages. I so appreciate you guys. Let’s have an absolute TIME.”

Fred Again.., Four Tet, and Skrillex will fill the previously listed “TBA” slot at 10:25 p.m. PST, immediately following Blink-182’s set from 9:20 to 10:20 p.m. PST, according to Coachella’s official announcement of Weekend 2’s set list times:

Fred Again.., Four Tet, and Skrillex held pop-up performances earlier this year, including at New York’s Madison Square Garden in February, around the arrival of Skrillex’s Quest For Fire, his first solo album in nine years.

Quest For Fire features Fred Again.. on “Rumble” and Four Tet on “Butterflies,” which also features Starrah. Fred Again.., Four Tet, and Skrillex more recently collaborated on “Baby Again...” They won’t be hurting for material on Sunday night, April 23.

Some of the artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Obsession is a pillow-humping hit for Netflix, but one of the show’s stars has no interest in watching it. Mostly because of the pillow humping.

“I’ve never seen my naked butt on camera and I don’t want to see it,” actor Richard Armitage told the Daily Mail. “I’m in denial. I just listen to what everyone else has to say.” You might want to avoid that, too…

The Hobbit actor continued, “I won’t be watching. I don’t really like to watch most things I’ve done and this one was pretty intense… I’m left with a happy memory of what we did.” Armitage described the series as being about “sexual psychology, a trap that people get caught up in. I thought it was interesting, an exploration of psychology through physical vocabulary.”

If you were planning on watching Obsession with your folks, maybe don’t? But if you insist, you freak, Netflix has provided a helpful guide of when to walk away from the television and, I don’t know, grab a Diet Coke or something? “If you’ve made the (questionable) decision to watch Obsession with your parents, these are the moments you’ll probably want to excuse yourself,” the streaming service’s account tweeted, along with six timestamps.

Or better yet, don’t watch it at all with your fiancé’s father.

(Via the Daily Mail)

Welcome to our Yellowjackets Sting Meter. We’ll measure the erratic, unexplainable behavior of the show’s main lineup, ranking them according to how dangerous, deadly, and certifiably insane they appear in each episode. Who’s a whacky worker bee, and who gets crowned Mad Queen of episode five’s “Two Truths And A Lie”? Let’s find out.

What separates those shallow, surface-level friendships of our youth from the deeper, more meaningful connections we make as adults is trust, and none of the women on Yellowjackets have an ounce of that between them right now.

In episode five, “Two Truths And A Lie,” secrets are spilled as easily as blood, some literally going to the grave while others are unearthed, brought to the light only to cast more shadows of doubt on what’s real, what’s imagined, and who’s manipulating who. While Lottie digs her claws deeper into Nat in the present, her spiritual connection to the wilderness helps some of the girls form a tighter bond in the past. And yet, even as they’re synching their breaths and listening to the forest, they’re still lying, avoiding, and killing each other to get ahead.

Sorry besties, no one’s escaping this one clean.

Queen Bee – Misty Quigley

All Misty Quigley ever wanted was a friend, which makes her villainous turn in this week’s episode all the more heartbreaking. In the past, she trusts Crystal with a devastating secret that turns the young girl against her at the worst time. And, in the present, likely haunted by the experience of being cast out by someone she felt so connected to, Misty refuses to accept Walter’s olive branch. It’s easier for her to believe the people in her life will consistently betray and disappoint her than to form meaningful relationships built on faith, so she isolates herself in the present and covers her murderous tracks in the past. RIP Not Crystal. You didn’t deserve to go out on a poop bucket run.

Lottie

Courtney Eaton continues to shoulder the more interesting Lottie storyline this week, playing the young girl as a reluctant spiritual guru to a bunch of ravenous, hormonal teens. She’s the mystic Peter Pan to their cannibalistic Lost Boys, and she has no clue what she’s doing. Somehow, it works. But in the present, Lottie is burying her own mental breakdown beneath stacks of blackmail and weird group therapy sessions, and abuses of power. She’s less interested in helping Nat than she is in discovering what Travis’ final words actually meant and her lies flow so easily, it’s hard to get a read on what her endgame is. Everyone knows how f*cked up Lottie is except for Lottie at this point, and it’s starting to get old.

Tai

Young Tai has perfected her happy life, happy wife performative allyship at the beginning of the episode, seemingly going all in on Lottie’s woo-woo, tree-whispering nonsense. But that impenetrable mask she wears begins to crack when she finds herself lost in a blizzard with a teammate who’s in active labor. And it shatters all the way in the present when she shows up on Van’s doorstep haggard and haunted by the things that her sleepwalking alter-ego has done. It’s this episode that Tawny Cypress referred to when she labeled Tai as the hetero toxic ex that you can’t shake loose, and honestly, she’s not wrong.

Van

Van’s that messy lesbian everyone aspires to be — snacking on breakfast donuts, ignoring debt collectors, and vibing to the 4 Non Blondes while she educates some local youths about VHS systems and the golden era of Queer Girl Cinema. But Van’s got problems: a tragic past, parental trauma, and addiction to prescription pills, and a married ex on the brink of a full demonic possession who causes her to confuse her pop culture references. Haven’t we all been Van at some point?

Javi

Surrounded by the same group of girls who tried to f*ck, then feast, on his brother during a shroom-fueled orgy months earlier, Javi still isn’t in a confessing mood in this episode. His choice to stay mum on where he was and how he survived leads some of the girls to blame him for the lack of bear meat, while the rest angrily accuse him of screwing up their rescue chances. None of this is Javi’s fault, but those weird drawings and that strange aside about a woman in the woods that he only told Coach Ben? We’re sorry, but that’s the beginning of every horror movie we’ve ever seen. At this point, Javi cannot be trusted around sharp objects, and that’s all there is to it.

Nat

Past Natalie is still reeling from the feat of mental gymnastics her boyfriend performed when he linked her (admittedly bad) decision to fake his brother’s death to the reason the group didn’t find him sooner. But Present Natalie is trying to infiltrate Lottie’s cult, sow discord, and protect her girlfriend Misty from landing herself in this heliotropic hellhole. Unfortunately, Lottie manages to perform some bullsh*t therapy techniques just well enough to unearth a terrifying near-death experience that leaves Nat believing the group has “brought the darkness back with them.” So maybe it’s a good thing Misty ditched that f*ckboi with poor taste in musicals to rescue her punk rock soulmate.

Akilah

Nia Sondaya has been quietly doing some terrific character work this season but Akilah’s admission in “Two Truths And A Lie” has us worried, not only for the fate of Nugget, her pet mouse, but for her future participation in certain ritualistic killings the show has already promised fans. There’s something disturbingly relatable about her confession to Taissa about performing superstitious game-day sacraments and relating those fairly innocuous practices to whatever Lottie and company are doing in the woods. They’re not the same, but the root cause of them is: the idea that order can be found in chaos, that we have control when none exists, and that a higher power is responsible for both the good and bad done to us. Akilah probably won’t graduate to Antler Queen status, but she might just end up in the inner circle, given time.

Walter

Not only does Walter gaslight Misty with his purposefully ignorant method of playing the social game the episode is named after, but he also accuses her of killing a man before comparing her to his late grandmother. Romance? This ain’t it.

Shauna

Shauna has gone from convincing us she had the stomach to off her own daughter in last week’s episode to becoming this week’s most well-adjusted player. That’s the range of Melanie Lynskey. In the past, Shauna’s just trying to stay calm as her impending due date approaches while a coven of psychos prays over the fate of her unborn child. In the present, she’s congratulating her daughter on doing the bare minimum to throw the cops off her trail and ordering Randy to jerk it in a motel bathroom because he “owes her”. All we’re saying is, Shauna Shipman would make a great criminal kingpin.

Showtime’s ‘Yellowjackets’ streams on Fridays, followed by TV airtime on Sunday nights.

(Obviously, spoilers from Ghosted will appear below.)

Earlier this month, Chris Evans teased that a few of his Marvel buddies might pop up in his new movie, Ghosted, even though he hates asking his friends to do cameos. “It’s the worst!” Evans told Good Morning America, but he bit the bullet and it appears to have paid off pretty well.

According to Decider, Evans has a cheeky Captain America reunion thanks to cameos by both Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan, who both appear as hit-men in Ghosted. As Falcon and the Winter Soldier, respectively, Mackie and Stan played key roles in Cap’s journey in both Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War. In fact, Mackie’s Falcon is now the current Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe after Evans’ Steve Rogers bestowed him the shield in Avengers: Endgame.

But the Marvel cameos didn’t stop there. Technically, this actor isn’t an MCU star yet, but he’s on his way there. Ryan Reynolds shows up in Ghosted as an old boyfriend of Ana de Armas’ Sadie. Granted, Reynolds’ Deadpool has never appeared alongside Evans’ Captain America, but Reynolds did owe Evans one. The MCU titan made a surprise cameo in Free Guy after Reynolds personally texted him when he learned Evans was in Boston where the film was shooting. Clearly, Evans cashed in that chip real quick.

Ghosted is now streaming on Apple TV+.

(Via Decider)

Fresh off of a loss in the Eastern Conference Play-In Tournament that saw the team’s season come to an end, the Toronto Raptors have decided to make a change at head coach. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN and Shams Charania of The Athletic, Toronto has fired Nick Nurse, who helped guide the franchise to its only NBA championship back in 2019.

Per Wojnarowski, one expected candidate for the position is former Boston Celtics head coach Ime Udoka.

The move comes on the heels of a 41-41 campaign that saw the team sneak into the Play-In and host a win-or-go-home game against the Chicago Bulls, which they would go on to lose, 109-105. It marked a step back from last year, when Toronto won 48 games and made it to the first round of the playoffs before getting eliminated.

A longtime assistant under former Raptors coach Dwane Casey, Nurse was elevated to the head coaching role following Casey’s firing in the aftermath of the 2017-18 season. During Nurse’s first year at the helm, Toronto won 58 games and knocked off the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals. While the team saw Kawhi Leonard leave in free agency following that season, the Raptors still managed to be formidable in 2019-20, as they went 53-19 and made it to the conference semifinals, with Nurse getting named the NBA’s Coach of the Year.

The team struggled to hit those highs again over the last three seasons, in part due to their relocation to Tampa for the 2020-21 season due to COVID restrictions. In all, Nurse went 227-163 during his time in Toronto, and Wojnarowski reports that the expectation is he’ll be a “prominent candidate” for the coaching vacancy in Houston.

Elon Musk has some odd priorities, as evidenced by his decision to finally (after multiple false alarms) remove legacy Twitter verified checkmarks on 4/20, thereby stirring up even more chaos than his exploding SpaceX rocket would have done on its own. Musk made this choice in an attempt to pump up subscriptions for the $8+ Twitter Blue service, but few celebrities are biting, and that includes truly verified icons such as Taylor Swift and Beyoncé. Soon, however, a few famous types noticed that their checkmarks remained, and they grew vocal about this phenomenon.

This included Ice-T and Stephen King (together at last!), both of whom made clear that they never intended to pay for Twitter Blue. In particular, King previously wrote, “$20 a month to keep my blue check? F*ck that, they should pay me. If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron.”

The Cell author added, “It ain’t the money, it’s the principle of the thing.”

And speaking of cell phones, King now insists that he not only didn’t subscribe to Twitter Blue, but he also never handed over his phone number.

The mystery quickly grew less mysterious when Elon popped up in King’s replies: “You’re welcome namaste.”

Elon later admitted that he’d personally paid for some celebrities — but “[j]ust Shatner, LeBron and King” — to stay verified.

And that’s when the horror jokes began. Is Elon really King’s “number one fan”? Yikes. This also sounds like a horror story from King himself, or a really bad version of Sam Raimi’s Drag Me To Hell.

Then there’s the most likely possibility of all: Elon is aware of King’s opposition to being verified, so he’s trolling hard.

King has yet to respond, but he cannot be happy about this development.