David Moyes is the frontrunner to return to Everton and replace Sean Dyche as manager, sources have told ESPN, with the 61-year-old the favoured candidate of the club's new owners to steer the team away from relegation danger.

Moyes, who left Everton in 2013 after eleven years as manager to succeed Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, has been out of work since leaving West Ham at the end of last season and sources have said he is open to a second spell in charge.

Despite Jose Mourinho initially being priced as the odds-on favourite to replace Dyche, sources have told ESPN that the Fenerbahce coach is not a candidate to move to Everton at this stage.

The former Chelsea, Real Madrid and Manchester United manager, who has spoken of his determination to return to Premier League, was fired by AS Roma -- also owned by the Friedkin Group -- after two and a half years in charge of the Italian club in Jan 2024.

The Friedkin Group completed their takeover of Everton on Dec. 19 and have wasted no time in making a change of manager, with former Burnley boss Dyche officially dismissed just three hours ahead of Thursday's FA Cup third round tie at home to Peterborough United.

Everton had dropped to within a point of the Premier League relegation zone after winning just one of their last 11 league games, and with the club moving into their new stadium at the start of next season, the necessity to spark a revival and escape the relegation fight prompted the new owners to act.

Everton under-18 coach Leighton Baines and team captain Seamus Coleman have been put in temporary charge of the team, but a swift appointment is anticipated and Moyes's availability and Premier League track record have now made him the No. 1 choice to replace Dyche.

Amad Diallo has signed a new contract at Manchester United until 2030, the club confirmed on Thursday.

The deal -- previously reported by ESPN -- sees the Ivory Coast winger commit his long-term future to the club after breaking through as a key player under Ruben Amorim.

Amad has scored six goals in 28 appearances this season, including the equaliser in Sunday's 2-2 draw with Liverpool at Anfield and the winner against Manchester City in December.

His contract was due to expire at the end of the season, although United held an option to extend his deal by 12 months.

"I am really proud to have signed this new contract," Amad, 22, said. "I have had some incredible moments with this club already but there is so much more to come. I have huge ambitions in the game and I want to achieve history at Manchester United.

"It has been a difficult season for everyone, but I fully believe that we are on the right path and the future is going to be really special. I am ready to give everything to help the team and make our supporters proud again."

The announcement comes amid strong form with three goals in his last six Premier League games, though Amad endured a slow start to his career at United.

He arrived in a 37 million ($46m) deal from Atalanta in 2020 and was subsequently sent out on loan to Rangers and Sunderland. He excelled at the English club, scoring 14 goals in 42 games during the 2022-23 campaign.

He won both Sunderland's young player of the year award and the PFA Championship fans' player of the year award.

Man United are currently 13th in the Premier League and are on a five-game winless run.

Sean Dyche has been sacked as manager of Everton, the club confirmed on Thursday.

Dyche took over from Frank Lampard in 2023. Although Dyche steered Everton from relegation in back-to-back seasons amid financial strife, a combination of poor form and an uninspiring style of football has seen the Merseyside outfit act.

David Moyes is the front runner to return to Everton as Dyche's replacement, sources have told ESPN, with the 61-year-old the favoured candidate of the club's new owners to steer the team away from relegation danger.

Everton are 16th in the Premier League, having scored just 15 goals in 19 games. Only bottom-placed Southampton have managed fewer.

A club statement was released just three hours before the visit of Peterborough in the FA Cup third round, with club captain Seamus Coleman and former player Leighton Baines to take over on an interim basis.

The statement read: "Everton Football Club can confirm that Sean Dyche has been relieved of his duties as Senior Men's First Team Manager with immediate effect.

"[Coaches] Ian Woan, Steve Stone, Mark Howard and Billy Mercer have also left the Club.

"The process to appoint a new Manager is underway and an update will be provided in due course.

"Under-18s Head Coach Leighton Baines and Club Captain Seamus Coleman will take charge of first-team affairs on an interim basis."

Moyes, who left Everton in 2013 after 11 years as manager to succeed Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, has been out of work since leaving West Ham United at the end of last season and sources have said he is open to a second spell in charge.

Everton were linked with a move for Graham Potter before he joined West Ham United in a move that was also confirmed on Thursday.

The club's announcement comes less than a month after U.S. firm the Friedkin Group completed its takeover of the club. Executive chairman Marc Watts said the American ownership group were "committed to leading Everton into an exciting new era both on and off the pitch."

Everton are moving to a new riverfront stadium in Liverpool next season after 132 years at Goodison Park.

Despite Jose Mourinho initially being priced as the odds-on favourite to replace Dyche, sources have told ESPN that the Fenerbahce coach is not a candidate to move to Everton at this stage.

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. -- The Atlanta Falcons are ready to move forward with one of the most expensive backup quarterbacks in NFL history, according to the team's general manager.

The Falcons benched quarterback Kirk Cousins in Week 16 after a stretch of five games with nine interceptions and just one touchdown pass. Rookie Michael Penix Jr., who was slated to be the quarterback of the future, was thrust into the starting role over the final three weeks of the season and performed well, though the team missed the playoffs with an 8-9 record.

Cousins signed with the Falcons in March on a four-year, $180 million deal with essentially $90 million guaranteed over the first two years. Penix, who was drafted eighth overall in April, will be the Falcons' starting quarterback going into 2025 and beyond.

Where does that leave Cousins and his contract? Falcons general manager Terry Fontenot said the team is willing to keep him on for another season as Penix's No. 2.

"Kirk is a great man and he's been great support for Mike, a great teammate, great support for everybody in the building, so we're very confident moving forward with him as the backup," Fontenot said during a news conference Thursday.

Regarding the cap hit and holding on to a quarterback on the bench who performed well as a starter for nine weeks, Fontenot said the Falcons had already allocated for Cousins' money being on the books as the No. 1.

Fontenot said the expectation was "to get high-level quarterback play for two seasons."

"We understand that that didn't happen," Fontenot said. "Nobody was happy to make the switch at that time. ... So now what happens is we had to accelerate that plan and go to Mike earlier and yet the allocation of the quarterback position -- the cap allocation -- is we're eighth in the league.

"That's what we planned for with Kirk as the starter. He's not the starter anymore, but we're very comfortable moving forward with him as the backup."

Fontenot added that Cousins was healthy, and his steep falloff in performance had nothing to do with his comeback from a torn Achilles in 2023.

ESPN's Adam Schefter reported last month that the expectation around the league was that the Falcons would cut Cousins before March 17, when Cousins has a $10 million roster bonus due. Fontenot said Thursday that the report was unfounded.

If the Falcons released Cousins before the start of the 2025 league year (March 12), they would get hit with $65 million in dead money, coming from his fully guaranteed base salary of $27.5 million and $37.5 million in remaining proration, per Roster Management System. If they do it with a post-June 1 designation, the dead money would spread over the 2025 and 2026 season -- $40 million in 2025 and $25 million in 2026.

Fontenot's comments could be construed as posturing for a potential trade. Cousins has a no-trade clause. If Atlanta traded him, the team would be on the hook for the $37.5 million of remaining proration, while his fully guaranteed $27.5 million base salary would transfer to his new team. There's also a likelihood that Atlanta would have to eat some of that $27.5 million in a deal.

Regarding a potential trade of Cousins, Fontenot said, "We will take those things as they come."

"Everyone would have to be good with it, from his camp, his supporters, [Cousins' agent] Mike McCartney, Kirk Cousins, us, the other team," Fontenot said. "There's a lot of layers to that and we'll take those as they come."

McCartney didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from ESPN on Thursday.

Fontenot said he didn't want to divulge the conversations he and the team have had with Cousins about being Penix's backup in 2025.

"We'll keep those discussions private as we move forward, but I just want to be clear that we're very comfortable with [Cousins] being the backup," Fontenot said.

This week's debut of the TGL indoor golf league drew nearly a million viewers on ESPN, according to Nielsen numbers reported Thursday by Front Office Sports.

Even though league co-founders Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy were not in action, Tuesday night's broadcast attracted an average of 919,000 viewers during the 9-11 p.m. ET time slot.

To put that in perspective, that is a larger audience than any LIV Golf broadcast on The CW in 2023 and 2024, and also larger than last week's PGA Tour season opener (The Sentry) on the Golf Channel and NBC, according to Sports Media Watch.

During the same time window last year on ESPN, a Duke-Pittsburgh men's college basketball game drew 717,000 viewers.

Tuesday night's initial 15-hole TGL match saw The Bay Golf Club defeat New York Golf Club 9-2 at the SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

Woods and McIlroy both attended the match and joined ESPN play-by-play announcer Matt Barrie in the booth.

The first match in the six-team TGL that features Woods will happen when his Jupiter Links Golf Club takes on Los Angeles Golf Club on Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN. McIlroy's Boston Common Golf will face Woods' team on Jan. 27.

The 15-match regular season runs through March 4, followed by the playoffs later that month.

OWINGS MILLS, Md. -- Pro Bowl wide receiver Zay Flowers was ruled out for the Baltimore Ravens' wild-card game against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Saturday night, Ravens coach John Harbaugh said after Thursday's practice.

Flowers, who is the Ravens' leading receiver, injured his right knee in Saturday's regular-season finale. He did not practice all week.

"We'll see how it looks next week," Harbaugh said.

Harbaugh said it would be a group effort to absorb the loss of Flowers.

Last week, Flowers became the first Ravens player to reach the Pro Bowl as a wide receiver. He leads the Ravens with 74 receptions and 1,059 receiving yards and also has four touchdown catches.

LOS ANGELES -- The NBA postponed the Los Angeles Lakers' home game against the Charlotte Hornets on Thursday with several massive wildfires burning across the greater Los Angeles area.

It marks the second straight day that a game slated to be played in downtown Los Angeles has been postponed. The NHL's Los Angeles Kings were scheduled to host the Calgary Flames on Wednesday night.

The NBA had not announced a makeup date for the Hornets-Lakers game as of Thursday afternoon.

"The entire NBA family sends its thoughts and support to the community of Los Angeles during this challenging time," the league said in a statement. "We are grateful for the thousands of local firefighters and first responders who have demonstrated enormous bravery. Our prayers remain with those affected by the unimaginable devastation caused by the wildfires."

Three major fires were burning in areas of the vast Los Angeles metroplex following two days of extraordinary winds. A major threat broke out Wednesday evening in the Hollywood Hills, close to the heart of the entertainment industry, but had been contained by Thursday morning.

Roughly 180,000 people are under evacuation orders, and the fires have consumed about 45 square miles (117 square kilometers) -- roughly the size of San Francisco. The Palisades Fire is already the most destructive in Los Angeles' history.

Lakers coach coach JJ Redick, who resides in Palisades, said Tuesday before his team's game in Dallas that members of his family were among those forced to evacuate their homes.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

PITTSBURGH -- Left-hander Caleb Ferguson and the Pittsburgh Pirates have agreed to a $3 million, one-year contract.

The agreement Thursday is pending a successful physical.

The 28-year-old is 19-13 with five saves and a 3.68 ERA in 263 games with the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees and Houston Astros. Ferguson split time between the Yankees and Astros last season, going 1-4 with a 4.64 ERA.

The Pirates plan to stretch Ferguson out in spring training to see if he is an option to join the starting rotation. Ferguson has made 14 starts in his big league career, most as an opener. He made a couple of spot starts during his rookie season with the Dodgers in 2018, including working five innings against San Francisco in his second major league appearance.

The Dodgers quickly moved Ferguson to the bullpen, and he has served as a reliever for the vast majority of his career.

Pittsburgh has a need for a left-hander in a rotation anchored by right-handers, including 2024 National League Rookie of the Year Paul Skenes, Mitch Keller and Jared Jones.