NFL Pre-Free Agency Winners; Tatum Returns; SGA eyes untouchable record; World Baseball Classic Homer Frenzy

TRENDING FAN CONVERSATIONS FROM THE WEEKEND IN SPORTS

MARCH 6-8 2026

TOP 3 WEEKEND MOMENTS - NEW TO THE NEWSLETTER!

1. Tatum's Step-Back Three Breaks TD Garden — First return to action in 300 days. 0-6 start. Missed dunk. Air ball. It wasn’t looking pretty to start. But with under a minute left in the first half, Tatum created space and sent up a three from the wing that had fans and teammates at TD Garden through the roof.

2. Puerto Rico's WBC Walk-Off— A’s prospect Darell Hernaiz might have provided the most electrifying moment of a 2026 baseball season that hasn’t played single regular season MLB game yet. The San Juan crowd was all the way outside their skulls when in the bottom of the 10th, a baseball was launched 374 feet into orbit to win the game.

3. Jac Caglianone Ropes a Ball 120.2 MPH — The Royals first baseman prospect has a reputation for hitting the cover off baseballs and has continued to do so with exit velocities that very few on earth could replicate. His 120.2 exit velo in a Spring training would have been the third hardest hit ball in the MLB last season and only seven human beings have ever touched a 120+ MPH exit velocity in an MLB game. Any players in a fantasy baseball dynasty league would be smart to stash a player with ultra-rare exit velocity. He’s certainly raising his real life ceiling and power projections.

How good does this sound off the bat? *chef’s kiss

TOP STORY

Evaluating the biggest winners leading into the NFL’s free agency period, with the Las Vegas Raiders taking the early lead in the “offseason champs” race

Before free agency opened, transactions have already been setting up the league with new faces in new places for the 2026 season. Three blockbuster trades went down in a 72-hour span, including the biggest of them all being Maxx Crosby shipped off to Baltimore in exchange for two first-round picks. This move, among others, has set the Las Vegas Raiders up as early winners of this offseason.

Las Vegas Raiders

With what seemed like an inevitable trade of Maxx Crosby finally coming to fruition, the Raiders now hold two first-round picks in the 2026 draft, including the 14th overall (from Baltimore), alongside the No. 1 overall pick to be used on Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza. Their $120 million in cap space is roughly $25 million more than the next team, setting up new head coach Klint Kubiak to be tooled up with all the pieces to get his regime started off on the right foot.

Add in their newly acquired nickel cornerback, and 2023 All-Pro Taron Johnson, coming in at the expense of only a 6th round pick to help out a needy secondary. It was public knowledge the Bills were cutting him, but the Raiders didn’t want someone they feel like will be a big help to their defense to hit the open market.

Las Vegas offseason checklist is now up to: landed the top offensive guru on the market, released Geno Smith, stockpiled early draft picks, added one of the top nickel corners in the game, and they have all the money in the world to work with as free agency kicks off.

With adding all of that, and undoubtedly more big moves to come, to an improving offensive line, Ashton Jenty, and Brock Bowers, don’t be surprised if the Raiders take a sizeable step forward next season, even with a rookie Mendoza at QB.

Buffalo Bills

The Bills’ Super Bowl window is rapidly closing, so they traded a second-round pick for DJ Moore to immediately improve their offense. Some fans were melting down about the cost to acquire the soon-to-be 29-year-old Moore, and to be fair, it’s insane that somehow Buffalo is paying their wide receiver group more than Cincinnati despite the Bengals having Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins.

But here's the counter: Josh Allen is turning 30 without a Super Bowl appearance, Josh Palmer was the Bills’ primary outside receiver last season, and until Moore, there was no field stretcher on the team. Let’s also not undersell that Moore is paired back with new Bills head coach Joe Brady, whose success together in Carolina, despite a revolving door at QB, resulted in the Chicago Bears sacrificing a first overall pick in a trade to acquire Moore. Two of Moore’s three most successful campaigns have come under Brady, including a career-best 18.1 yards per reception in 2021.

His 2025 numbers (50 catches, 682 yards) were ugly, but he was operating in a system that cast him out in an attempt to center the pass game around young guns Rome Odunze, Luther Burden, and Colston Loveland. All while Ben Johnson positioned Chicago’s ground attack to be front and center of their offensive identity.

Ultimately, Josh Allen gets a new #1 target with plenty of juice left in his game to help accelerate an urgent Super Bowl push.

Los Angeles Rams & Kansas City Chiefs

Then there's the Trent McDuffie trade, which was genuinely one of the smartest two-sided deals in recent memory. Heard this before? The Rams gave up their first-round pick. Again. Why? Because Matthew Stafford is 38 and the window is right now.

McDuffie is 25, a two-time All-Pro, and fills a need at cornerback that the Rams could have used their first-round pick on to hopefully find the next McDuffie. Instead, they went out and got the guy, and now paying him $31 million per year to be the top-paid corner in the league. All that to stop JSN!

For the Chiefs? They were $57 million over the cap heading into this offseason, and knew they couldn't pay McDuffie any type of substantial sum to being with, not to mention too many other areas to address and aging top talent (Chris Jones, Travis Kelce). So they revisited their blueprint with Tyreek Hill and traded elite talent for four picks, cleared the money, and betting on GM Brett Veach to once again use that compensation to build around Mahomes. It worked in 2022. Will this move ignite the Chiefs’ dynasty 2.0 efforts?

NBA

Jayson Tatum Returns To Boston, Quickly Shaking Off The Rust As Celtics Gear Up For Deep Playoff Run

The social media “pop” when the Celtics posted "AVAILABLE" on X (formerly Twitter) Friday afternoon was heard around the NBA.

298 days later, Jayson Tatum has returned.

The return itself was messy and outstanding in equal fashion. Tatum missed his first six shots, air-balled a three, got rejected by the rim on an open dunk, and awkwardly went up for an ill-advised alley-oop attempt by Jaylon Brown. But his three-pointer before half on the Mavericks took the top off the building.

The rust is quickly starting to shake off. Through two games, he hasn’t shot great, but still has 35 points, is back to burying threes, driving the hoop, his first bucket was a put-back dunk, looks every bit as athletic, and is reminding everyone of the All-NBA talent once again.

He finished with 15 points, 12 rebounds, and 7 assists in 27 minutes as Boston blew out the Mavericks 120-100. Then on Sunday in Cleveland, he dropped 20 alongside Brown's 23 as the Celtics won by 11.

The East is in trouble with the Celtics at their strongest and playoffs around the corner.

SGA Is One Game Away From Breaking Wilt Chamberlain’s 63-Year-Old Record For Most Consecutive 20+ Point Games

Saturday night in Oklahoma City, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 27 points in a 104-97 win over Golden State and moved his consecutive 20-point game streak to 125. Wilt Chamberlain's all-time record has been 126 games, which only Wilt, who had a separate 92-game streak of 20+, has been able to come within 45 games of until SGA’s latest push to dethrone him.

Anyone reading this after the Thunder’s game on 3/9/26, it feels safe to assume is reading knowing that SGA broke the record, given his prolific scoring and off-the-charts efficiency this season.

The last time SGA failed to score 20 was October 30, 2024, when he had 18 points in a win over the Spurs. His 20 point game streak this season has come on 53% shooting, averaging 32.8 points, without padding his line in garbage time. In fact, you need more than one person’s set of hands to count how many times SGA has sat out in the 4th quarter this season due to games being in the bag already.

What’s crazy is that wilt averaged 49.2 points per game during his 126-game run. Different players, different eras, different games, but still. SGA is the only person in six decades to even get close and adds another compelling argument for him to take home back-to-back MVPs.

MLB

Home Runs Can’t Stop Flying In The World Baseball Classic, Including First Walk Off Homers In Event History

Before a single meaningful pitch had even been thrown in this year's World Baseball Classic, Shohei Ohtani had the Tokyo Dome packed to the brim two hours before first pitch. Fans showing up to catch every swing of batting practice and celebs in the stands tells you everything about where Ohtani sits on the cultural spectrum right now.

So of course, Ohtani hits a grand slam.

The only thing that could match that crowd eruption (maybe) would be a game 7, bottom of the ninth, walk off home run in the World Series.

Ohtani then homered the following day. So if nothing else, it already feels safe to keep Ohtani firmly at the top of any MVP predictions.

Suddenly, the entirety of the WBC suddenly felt like mandatory TV.

Twenty home runs across eight games was the most in a single day of the event since 2009, but it was the back-to-back walk-off home runs on the same afternoon that sent the internet on fire.

Ozzie Albies become the first to ever hit a WBC walk off and was quickly followed by Darell Hernaiz, who is replacing Francisco Lindor on the Puerto Rico roster.

The Dominican Republic outscored opponents 24-4 across their first two games, ended both games early on the mercy rule, and the lineup of Soto, Tatis, Vladdy, Caminero, and J-Rod is frankly obscene.

Italy is celebrating every home run with an espresso shot brewed in the dugout on a Keurig. Incredible free advertising.

Team USA started 2-0, unscored upon in any meaningful stretch, Kyle Schwarber homered, Tarik Skubal struck out five in three innings before swiftly returning to Tigers Spring Training after an honest day’s work.

Meanwhile, Mexico tacked on 16 against Brazil.