| NFC NORTH |
| DETROITEDGE AIDAN HUTCHINSON is full go. Eric Woodyard of ESPN.com: Detroit Lions star Aidan Hutchinson says he’s fully cleared to return for football activities. The Pro Bowl edge rusher, speaking to reporters for the first time since last year’s season-ending leg injury, couldn’t hide his excitement about reentering the mix. Hutchinson said he didn’t have any setbacks during the lengthy rehab process, adding he always knew he would get back to normal form after suffering a gruesome fractured tibia and fibula injury in Week 6 at Dallas. “I’m rolling with the boys now and it feels like I’m back to being myself again,” Hutchinson said Thursday. “I’m really looking forward to the season. I think this is the most excited I’ve been for OTAs in my life. This is the biggest hiatus I’ve had without playing ball, so I’m pumped.” After a strong start to the 2024 season, Hutchinson was carted off the field at AT&T Stadium against the Dallas Cowboys on Oct. 13. During his time away, Hutchinson pushed through psychological, physical and spiritual hurdles while fighting back. “In those moments, you try to look at all the silver linings that you can in order to make it make sense a little bit and still, at the end of the day, you’re still questioning, ‘why?'” Hutchinson said. “That’s why you dive into faith, and that’s kind of what I did, and it was a very challenging time for a few months. |
| NFC SOUTH |
| ATLANTAOC Zac Robinson implies, actually more than implies, that TE KYLE PITTS has not been all that he could be. Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com: Falcons tight end Kyle Pitts was drafted in the first round in 2021 because of his potential to make explosive plays in the passing game, but there haven’t been as many of them as the team hoped to get. Pitts had 68 catches for 1,026 yards as a rookie, but has not matched either number over the last three seasons and there has been plenty of offseason discussion each year about what Pitts needs to do in order to meet expectations. This offseason is no different and offensive coordinator Zac Robinson said this week that the key for Pitts is to show that he fully grasps the team’s offense. “I think for Kyle, it’s just how can he take that next step — next level of details, next level of consistency, all those things that we’ve talked about with him and have talked about in the past,” Robinson said. “He’s in Year Two of the system, and I think the thing we’ve always talked about with Kyle is just play fast. No matter what, play fast, take the thinking out involved with it. That’s more of what we’re looking for from Kyle is just that next level of that understanding of the offense.” The Falcons exercised their fifth-year option on Pitts’s contract because they believe he is capable of bigger things, but he’s running short on time to show that reality can live up to the hype. |
| NEW ORLEANSAt least for public consumption, WR BRANDIN COOKS believes that Coach Kellin Moore will make either (or both) QBs TYLER SHOUGH or SPENCER RATTLER into first rate NFL field generals per Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com: Saints wide receiver Brandin Cooks is a veteran in an offense that has the NFL’s most inexperienced quarterback room, but he’s just fine with that. Cooks said he’s enjoying working with the three quarterbacks competing for the Saints’ starting job, Tyler Shough, Spencer Rattler and Jake Haener, and he’s confident one of them is going to emerge as a quarterback who can win in New Orleans this season. “I think it should bring the best out of you, and so it’s fun seeing those guys compete,” Cooks said. “They’re all three of them having a great spring. And so it’s going to be fun to watch that competition.” Haener is currently not throwing because of an injury, but Cooks says Shough and Rattler are passing the ball well. “They’re playing with a lot of confidence, both of those guys. And you can see the competition going on. They can definitely sling it. So I look forward to continuing to see that grow,” Cooks said. Cooks said he has told the young quarterbacks that they have the right coach to teach them in Kellen Moore. “Be you, don’t try to do anything outside the box, be coachable do what Kellen’s trying to get you to do and lock in and let everything else take care,” Cooks said he has told his young teammates. Cooks said he believes the Saints have all the talent they need around their young quarterbacks. “There’s a lot of speed, there’s a lot of space and those guys, those big boys up front, even though we ain’t got pads on, we definitely got a special unit up front to be able to protect the quarterback and to be able to do what we want to do outside at the perimeter,” Cooks said. “And at the end of the day, we’re going to do the best that we can and do our job to the best of our ability and let Coach kind of call the plays and let everything else take care of itself.” |
| NFC WEST |
| ARIZONAA mysterious “non-football injury” has ended the 2025 season of CB SEAN MURPHY-BUNTING. It happened before the draft per ESPN.com: Arizona Cardinals cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting was placed on the non-football injury list Thursday and will miss the 2025 season. The move to put Murphy-Bunting on the reserve list, where he will not count against the 90-man roster, was released on the NFL’s daily transactions report. The Cardinals had not made any announcement about the move, and there was no immediate word on what the injury is. Non-football injuries are injuries that happen away from an NFL facility, including working out to get ready for the season. An NFI designation can lead to players forfeiting their salaries. Murphy-Bunting was supposed to be guaranteed a $7.7 million base salary this season as part of the three-year, $22.5 million deal he signed last offseason, but that is now in jeopardy. Murphy-Bunting started 15 games in his first season in Arizona and had three interceptions and five passes defensed. He was in the mix to be a starter again in 2025. A source told ESPN’s Josh Weinfuss that the Cardinals knew about Murphy-Bunting’s injury before last month’s NFL draft, where the team selected two cornerbacks, including Will Johnson in the second round, and a safety. Max Melton, a 2024 second-rounder, is also in the mix at outside cornerback. |
| SAN FRANCISCOQB BROCK PURDY thinks he left money on the table/structured his contract in such a way so that the 49ers can still compete with a quarterback making top dollar. Nick Shook of NFL.com: Brock Purdy’s contract is worked out two months before camp and he couldn’t be happier. What else would you expect from a man who entered the NFL as Mr. Irrelevant, worked his way onto the 49ers roster, rose to the starting job, led his team to a Super Bowl appearance and after three years of making pennies in comparison to his counterparts, finally signed a contract worth $265 million over five years? “For me what I realized is it just doesn’t happen overnight,” Purdy said Wednesday. “You’ve got to go through good, bad, tough times, the hard workouts, all the things to get there. And how you respond to adversity and all the things. Man, am I grateful to be able to just stay the course, and this is just my story. I haven’t tried to live out anybody else’s story. It’s just been where God has had me and I’ve been all in on it. I’m extremely grateful to be in this position. “It fires me up more than anything to want to continue to get better and help this organization win. Nothing is set in stone yet in terms of how we are as a team or this year or the future going forward, it’s every single day I have to come in and be present and work to earn success and just do my part for this team. I’m excited.” The only guarantee in Purdy’s (and the 49ers’) future is that he’ll soon be a rich man. At signing, $100 million of his new deal is guaranteed. He already earned $40 million in a signing bonus and is guaranteed a grand total of $181 million, going from a contract that paid him less than $1 million per year on average to an exponentially higher total. George Kittle happy 49ers aren’t having ‘drama-filled’ offseason: ‘Good for our team chemistry’Lost in those numbers is where Purdy made concessions to help the 49ers build for their future. He isn’t the highest-paid quarterback in the NFL, ranking below six other signal-callers in average annual value. As Purdy saw it, there was more value in preserving the 49ers’ ability to surround him with talent than in trying “to take every penny for myself.” “I think where we ended up was exactly where we needed to be,” Purdy said of negotiations with San Francisco. “I’m extremely happy with where we ended and I know the Niners are, too. With that being said, for me it’s all about football now. However they use the cap space and all that kind of stuff, that’s not my job. My job is to now go and win games and lead this team.” Winning is far from guaranteed in this league, a lesson Purdy learned in 2024. As injuries ravaged those around him, Purdy found the going to be increasingly difficult as the 49ers limped to a 6-11 finish. Plenty of roster turnover has followed, a necessary outcome for a team that needed to retool less than two years after reaching the Super Bowl. Purdy’s negotiation might have provided a breath of fresh air to the 49ers amid a transitional offseason. Instead of worrying about whether they’ll keep a top target like they did with Brandon Aiyuk in the summer of 2024, Purdy and the 49ers got his deal done with time to spare. That alone should benefit them as they turn their focus toward preparing for the 2025 season. “I feel like every year there sort of has been someone that was like, man, you’d like to get them done, and it’s gone on pretty late,” Purdy said. “Whether that has affected the locker room or not, not really sure, I don’t want to just pinpoint something. But this year, having the guys done and being able to get back to work and be around the guys in the locker room and build our culture and standard really from the ground up with all the new guys we have, it’s been pretty cool. Everybody’s bought in right now, and we’re excited obviously to do more team activities as we move along the offseason. “It’s hard to explain, but the young guys, the older guys, everybody is bringing it right now. I think it’s just so important that we’re around each other a lot doing little different activities and continuing to build chemistry, like that’s the kind of stuff that matters when you get late in the season and things get tough and you go through some tough things as a team. You want to be able to know the guy next to you and what he’s about and that he’s going to have your back. Having the contract stuff done, it’s been a huge blessing for the whole team and organization.” With the ink drying on his contract and tens of millions headed toward his bank account, Purdy has accomplished two significant goals in his once-unlikely NFL career. There’s no need to explain what stands atop that list going forward. Now, he can set his sights on achieving it. Purdy also mentioned only one semi big ticket item that he might buy – if he can get permission from his wife. Brigid Kennedy of SI.com: Fresh off a lucrative $265 million contract extension, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy already has something in mind for his first big purchase. “We’re still thinking about some stuff, but, I don’t know, I’ve always been a big fishing advocate. So I was telling my wife and she’s annoyed with me but, I’ll say it—I’d like to get a bass boat one day,” Purdy told reporters on Wednesday. “That’ll be my first big purchase.” How much does a bass boat cost? We asked Grok (and slightly reduced the response for space) – is this true anglers? Average New Boat Price: Across popular brands (Tracker, Nitro, Ranger, Skeeter, Triton), the average price for a new bass boat is around $33,378, with prices ranging from $8,935 for basic models to $112,007 for fully rigged, high-performance boats. Even though on the home front, Purdy still has to seek permission to spend $50,000 or so, TE GEORGE KITTLE notices that he is more assertive around the team. Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com: Brock Purdy got a new contract this week, but 49ers tight end George Kittle said that the quarterback didn’t wait for the ink to dry on that agreement before making a noticeable change to the way he carries himself around the team facility. Purdy is heading into his fourth NFL season and the contract extension solidifies his role as a team leader. Kittle said that is a role that Purdy has leaned into since the start of the team’s offseason work. “One thing I’ve already seen from Brock this offseason, just being back around for all of [the offseason program] and stuff, is just his voice is heard significantly more in the building, which I love, whether he’s breaking down the team, talking in the locker room,” Kittle said, via 49ersWebzone.com. “He’s always kind, he’s always nice to everybody, but he’s just more vocal to everybody in team settings, which is huge. And people, when they hear the quarterback talk, your head kind of snaps. That’s what you listen for because he’s the face, the leader of the team. And so, when you have a guy like that, who’s continually growing . . . it’s just awesome to see a young guy keep his feet in the ground, and then want to work hard, and want to make all the guys around him really good. So, that’s one of the things I’ve just been happy with seeing.” Purdy’s contract is structured in a way that the 49ers could get out of it before the full five years are up, but the plan is for his off-field leadership and on-field production to mesh in a way that makes him a long-term fixture in the offense. |
| AFC WEST |
| LAS VEGASPK DANIEL CARLSON charged a pretty penny to let RB ASHTON JEANTY wear the number 2. Madison Williams of SI.com: The Las Vegas Raiders announced earlier this month that their first-round pick Ashton Jeanty would continue wearing the No. 2 in the NFL, a number he’s sported for most of his football career. At the time, it was reported that Raiders kicker Daniel Carlson switched to No. 8 in order for Jeanty to secure his lucky number. However, that move came with a price. “I didn’t get this for free,” Jeanty admitted to Kay Adams this week. Jeanty had to negotiate with Carlson in order to get the No. 2 from him. He detailed how that phone call went. “I called him and I’m like, ‘I’m trying to get that No. 2. I’m willing to negotiate whatever you’re thinking,’” Jeanty said. “I gave him what I was thinking first. Then, he came back, and I’m like, ‘I’ve got to do it. I got to drop that little bag for No. 2.’” Jeanty couldn’t share the exact amount he paid Carlson in order for the kicker to make the switch. But, he gave some telling hints when speaking to Adams. “You could probably buy a house, a nice size house” Jeanty told Adams. “Actually, I’m not going to say a house. I’m going to say a car, like a nice Mercedes, you could buy like a Mercedes GLE.” The Mercedes GLE goes for over $60,000 right now, so it sounds like Jeanty paid a pretty big price to continue being “Deuce” in the NFL. Despite having to pay a fee to get the No. 2, Jeanty said Carlson was “cool” about changing numbers. Some of the money Jeanty sent him is also going to charity. |
| AFC NORTH |
| PITTSBURGHQB AARON RODGERS took to the Joe Rogan Experience for three hours of conversation. Mike Florio listened, and emerged even less a fan of Rodgers than he was going in. On Wednesday, a new episode landed of the Joe Rogan Experience. His guest was free-agent quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Over the past two days, I’ve listened to all three hours. I took some notes. Ultimately, there was no indication given (and no question asked) regarding if or when he’ll sign with the Steelers or any team. The closest Rodgers came to addressing his football situation happened when he mentioned that a “number of people in my life” are battling cancer. That meshes with prior comment to Pat McAfee that Rodgers’s inability to commit to a team flows from personal issues. As to his future, Rodgers addressed only the question of whether he’ll continue to live in California. “I think I’m gonna get out,” he said. The rest of the 184-minute conversation was a flee-flowing back-and-forth on a variety of non-football topics. I came away from the exchange with three inescapable conclusions, in addition to wanting those three hours of my life back. First, Rodgers loves conspiracy theories. All of them. On every topic. In his view, everything that happens can be explained by some alternate truth the government is hiding from us. Some of his theories are obviously rooted in faulty premises. They killed the guy who came up with a water-powered car! Even though there’s, you know, no way to get chemical energy from water. There’s a loose nonchalance to some of it. For example, Rodgers wondered aloud why the Johnny Depp civil trial was televised but the Diddy criminal trial isn’t. They basically shrugged at the unspoken assumption that it must be something nefarious and moved on, when the simple (and accurate) explanation is that state-court trials (like Depp’s) can be televised and federal-court trials (like Diddy’s) cannot be televised. On the broader point, if you believe that every accepted truth is not really true but instead the product of a conspiracy theory to hide the truth, you’ll eventually be right about some of them. You’ll also be wrong about many of them. Conspiracies are hard to maintain. Too many people have to keep quiet, indefinitely. And then when anyone who possibly knew the truth dies of natural causes, they of course were killed by someone seeking to keep the secret. Some of Rodgers’s casually-mentioned ideas seem objectively nutty. At one point, Rodgers said Robert F. Kennedy’s former running mate, Nicole Shanahan, thinks someone is now “controlling” Bobby. There’s plenty of other stuff. From nanobots in vaccines that come together in the body under certain frequencies (Rogan wasn’t willing to accept that one) to the pyramids and other Egyptian landmarks having been built by aliens to aliens currently living in the ocean and otherwise walking among us to sudden infant death syndrome being caused by vaccines to Alex Jones being right about pretty much everything. (Last year, CNN reported that Rodgers had “shared deranged conspiracy theories” about the Sandy Hook shooting not being real. He later denied it, sort of.) Two, Rodgers cannot quit talking about COVID. He presumes that everything about the government’s response was a lie, that the vaccine never worked for anyone, that anyone who received a vaccine and then criticized him about anything is bought and paid for by the pharmaceutical companies, and that he is personally owed apologies and/or accountability from someone/anyone/everyone. It’s so much more than Rodgers believing that, for him, the vaccine wasn’t necessary. He speaks derisively of anyone who received it, and he has plain disdain for those who choose to wear masks. Why does he care if people decided to get the vaccine? Why does he care if people believe they should wear masks in order to protect their health (or to keep a contagious illness that they have from spreading)? He repeated his chronic claim that anyone who ever says anything about him should first disclose their vax status. Here’s my answer: I did what my doctor advised me to do, given my overall medical situation. (If/when Rodgers signs with the Steelers, he’ll probably meet him. Perhaps when Rodgers shows up for his physical.) Third, Rodgers has very strong conservative political beliefs. And that’s his prerogative. He also believes, as more and more now realize, that Joe Biden suffered cognitive decline during his four-year term as president. But there was an edge to Rodgers’s comments that seemed at times to be disrespectful. There was almost a sense of glee, and downright meanness, when he mocked Biden for his age-related infirmities. At one point, Rodgers referred to Biden as a “fucking neck sniffer.” We’ll all get old, if we’re lucky. Few will retain their full faculties until they climb into bed at 100 and don’t wake up. And while it’s now apparent that someone was working to hide Biden’s condition until it could no longer be concealed, that doesn’t translate to an open-ended license to make fun of an old man who is going through the things old men go through. The fact that Rodgers has yet to succumb to the realities of aging when it comes to throwing a football will make him attractive to a team like the Steelers, regardless of whether he loves conspiracy theories, won’t stop litigating COVID, and/or makes mean-spirited comments about an 82-year-old old man who is showing all the signs (and then some) of being 82 years old. Still, there can be no doubt based on his latest appearance with Rogan about who they are getting. And it’s for the Steelers to decide whether Rodgers’s unique proclivities will be a fit in the locker room. Or whether they’ll deal with the other stuff once he throws a pass and it whizzes by someone’s helmet with a sound that the players have never heard before. For the Steelers, the sound of a Rodgers piss missile will likely overcome the sound of any of the bullshit that comes out of his mouth. |
| AFC SOUTH |
| INDIANAPOLISZak Keefer of The Athletic makes a point: @zkeeferI always thought Irsay’s reputation nationally was MUCH different than locally. Here, he was beloved. The Colts’ rise mirrors that of the city. Players revered him. Edgerrin James, Dwight Freeney and Marvin Harrison ALL picked Irsay to present them at the Hall of Fame. The above take is a distillation of Keefer’s longer remembrance below: When my phone buzzed late at night and “No Caller ID” flashed across the screen, I knew. I knew who was calling. I knew I needed to get my notebook ready. Most of all, I knew I wasn’t going back to sleep for several hours. Those calls with Jim Irsay, the longtime Indianapolis Colts owner who died Wednesday at 65, were … an adventure. It came with the territory. I was a Colts beat writer for 10 years. The Irsay Experience was part of the gig. Sometimes they’d last for hours. Sometimes I’d barely squeeze in a question. He’d start on one topic, veer into a dozen others, then eventually find his way back home. He’d dish on Peyton Manning and Jimi Hendrix and Hunter S. Thompson in the same thought. He’d tell stories about watching Gale Sayers in the 1960s and how it reminded him of watching Jonathan Taylor in the 2020s. He’d vent on the state of his team or an article I’d written that he didn’t appreciate or whatever else happened to be on his mind at 1 in the morning. Say this much about the man: in a buttoned-up league that often takes itself too seriously, he was a renegade. Jim Irsay couldn’t do boring if he tried. I watched him belt out the lyrics to “All Along the Watchtower” at a concert in Nashville the night before a game. I sat with him in his office, in his suite at Lucas Oil Stadium and on the balcony of his hotel room at the NFL owners’ meetings in Phoenix. I watched him sit in a cheap plastic chair and fight back tears the night Andrew Luck walked away from football. I shared too many late-night conversations with him to count, conversations that helped me better understand his football team and what it takes to win in this league. He was a character, eccentric and outspoken, ruthlessly competitive and unfailingly optimistic. He could be combative, too, if his team’s season wasn’t going the way he thought it should. During those calls, Irsay did not hold back. He didn’t just read what reporters thought about his team, he cared what reporters thought about his team. He valued local media in a unique way. He’d invite us into his office, the one with guitars worth eight times more than my house. He’d stop to chat after road wins, knowing his words would fill up our notebook. He’d call, often late at night. He’d text. (Big emoji guy.) I imagine no owner in NFL history this side of Jerry Jones relished a microphone or camera as much as Irsay. He always reminded us that he was a broadcast journalism major at SMU, so he knew our jobs better than most. We weren’t supposed to be cheerleaders. We were supposed to be fair. He understood that. Even if, on occasion, what we wrote ticked him off. After one testy conversation late in the 2022 season, he called back after a few minutes to apologize. He’d fumed over a story I’d written about the Colts’ reckless decision — his reckless decision — to hire Jeff Saturday as interim coach midway through the ill-fated campaign. He’d bragged the night he hired Saturday, challenging the reporters in the room to “put your money on the table and bet against this man.” Everybody in that room — aside from maybe him and Saturday — knew it wouldn’t work. The Colts stumbled home 1-7, were outscored by 87 points and suffered the single-biggest collapse in NFL history. So when Irsay called back later that night, he was calmer. He seemed angrier at himself than at what I’d written — a “brutal, sucker punch” of a season “set up by destructive rationalization.” What kind of owner admits that? Irsay was so stunningly honest in front of the cameras and microphones that it sometimes hurt him. (The same night he introduced Saturday as interim coach, he somehow mentioned Michael Jordan, flights to Mars, the CIA and the enduring lessons of Al Davis. Try fitting all that into a story on deadline.) He might own the NFL record for most news conferences held without uttering a single cliché. He told stories. He quoted musicians. He sold hope. He boasted about winning “three straight Lombardis” even though his roster was in no way ready to compete for a championship. Right or wrong, his passion spilled out of him every time he spoke. I once wrote he was the “biggest Colts fan who ever lived.” He never disputed that. In fact, he wore it as a badge of honor. The man couldn’t help himself. The team was his life. Consider what some of his former players wrote on social media Wednesday night: @ReggieWayne_17This hurts my soul…. @TYHilton13Please don’t ask me if I’m ok. Cuz I’m not. Thank You Sooo Much Mr.Irsay. I will forever hold our talks close to my heart. Love You! RIP Mr.Irsay 🥹🥹🥹🥹😢😢 @PatMcAfeeShowThis is devastating.. Jim had friendships with a lot of his former players.. I was lucky to be one of them. Playing for a team that Mr Irsay ran was an honor. He was funny, brilliant, unique, and somehow still wildly relatable for a man who became the sole owner of an NFL team at the age of 37.. and before that, hired as the youngest general manager in the history of the league as a 24 year old. He battled his demons, as we all do but, God blessed Jim Irsay with an abundance of compassion.. he wanted to give back/help everybody and everything he saw or knew about… putting a list together of all of the causes/things/people that he’s given to would be an impossible task.. probably well over $100,000,000.. there was even a whale about to get an assist from Jim at one point. The 1st time he and I really had an extended convo was at training camp after the lockout in 2011.. players and front office weren’t allowed to communicate with each other during the lockout but, Jim followed me on Twitter throughout the CBA negotiations.. his first day at training camp, immediately after the lockout ended, he drove his golf cart over to where I was and started firing off questions about Twitter.. He enjoyed the thought of being able to connect with Colts fans all over the world.. he appreciated the opportunity to be able to share some of his thoughts in his own way.. and he absolutely LOVED the idea of being able to give money/experiences/tickets/etc. away to people on Twitter. He was a mogul who had a creative artist’s brain.. Everything he did he wanted to do in a big and imaginative way.. his Twitter Giveaways became just that.. he wanted them to be awesome… and they were. He was a Billionaire who yearned to share his wealth in fun ways. Anybody that met him would say that he seemingly woke up everyday wanting to help people.. life got in the way sometimes but, anybody who actually knew him, loved him. A true anomaly. When I decided to retire.. he and I had a 2.5 hour conversation in his office. He was sitting at his desk.. hitting the shit out of his vape .. and we talked about everything I was hoping to go do. He tried to stop me for a few minutes.. even offered to renegotiate my contract.. and then once he realized my decision was made.. the convo turned into him trying to give me as much game as possible about running a business and maintaining authenticity. He gave me quotes and words to live by.. told me stories of mistakes he and others had made and he promised he would do anything he could to help me in my venture. “If for some reason this doesn’t work or you don’t want to do it anymore, you’ll always have a job here at the Colts. You are family.” Since that day.. Jim has done everything he can to help me succeed.. He’d join our show anytime I asked, no matter where he was in the world.. He’d send me motivational messages when he heard I was going thru something.. he’d forward articles that he’d come across that he thought I should read.. He’d answer any question I had about decisions I had to make.. and he even offered up his connections if I wanted to “buy that lovely wife of yours something nice brother” Jim was a real one.. and we will all miss the shit out of him. I send my positive prayers and vibes to his daughters, his grandkids, his loved ones, his staff, and everybody who has been working with Jim for the last 40 years. Thank you for EVERYTHING big man.. You were a damn legend. Rest Easy, brother. “I am heartbroken to hear about Jim Irsay’s passing,” Manning wrote in a post on Instagram. “He was an incredibly generous and passionate owner and I will always be indebted to him for giving me my start in the NFL. His love for the Colts and the city of Indy was unmatched. His impact on the players who played for him will not be forgotten. My thoughts and prayers are with his family and everyone in the Colts community. He will be missed. Jim, rest in peace my friend.” His reputation nationally — that he was this weird, rambling owner, the son of the guy who snuck the Colts out of Baltimore in the middle of the night — never squared with how he was viewed in Indianapolis. Here, he was respected. Revered, even. Irsay was the man who lifted a franchise from the league cellar into Super Bowl champs. Once a basketball hotbed, this is a proud football town because of the likes of Manning, Marvin Harrison and Edgerrin James. Make no mistake, it’s also a proud football town because of Jim Irsay. He’d watched his father sabotage this franchise in the 1980s, and privately, always vowed he’d do it differently. He learned what to do by learning what not to do. “He had no idea how to run a football team,” Jim said of his father, later noting that his dad “fired me more times than I can count.” The younger Irsay, in many ways, became the opposite: a man of the people, beloved as much for his generosity as his accessibility. Fans never had to wonder what Irsay thought. Neither did reporters. From our seat, that’s all you can ask for. He didn’t hide, and he didn’t sugarcoat. For better or worse, he was unfailingly authentic. He was the owner who passed out $100 bills at training camp, who held contests on social media for free tickets, who flew fans to the Super Bowl and covered their hotel rooms and meals. And there was so much more he did that never made its way into the news. Ask anyone who’s worn the horseshoe. Chances are, if they lost a loved one while playing for this team, Irsay flew them home on his private jet for the funeral. Starter or third-string, head coach or low-level scout, it didn’t matter. He was, without question, among the greatest philanthropists this city and state have ever seen. “It has to be about more than just football,” Irsay once told me. “It has to be about the community, making the community better. I think it’s the most notable endeavor you can pursue.” He was the rare owner who grew up in the game; Jimmy, they used to call him, started out as a teenage ballboy for his father’s Baltimore Colts in 1972. He was general manager by 24, and the hard lessons from his draft whiffs and free agency misses humbled him. I once asked him why, after his father passed in 1997 and he assumed full control of the team, he didn’t stay heavily involved in personnel decisions. Why not try and be the next Jerry Jones? “There’s no way I could do both, even back then,” he said flatly. Deep down, he knew if the Colts wanted to compete for championships, he needed someone else calling the shots. So he traded for Bill Polian in 1998 and stepped back. Months later, in the tense few days before the 1998 NFL Draft, Polian stormed into his office, sweating over the No. 1 pick. When Polian weighed the pros and cons of Tennessee’s Peyton Manning, part of him saw another Bernie Kosar. “You’re getting Bernie Kosar!” Polian screamed at his new boss, slamming his fists on Irsay’s desk. “Can you live with Bernie Kosar?!?” Irsay nodded. He knew he wasn’t getting the next Bernie Kosar. The city would never be the same. The NFL lost an original on Wednesday. Indianapolis lost an icon. The Colts lost a lifer. There will never be another quite like Jim Irsay. Not in the NFL, and likely not in any sport. He made the Colts more competitive and my job far more fascinating. I’ll be forever grateful our paths crossed along the way. |
| THIS AND THAT |
| UNDERRATED PLAYERSFrom Aaron Schatz of ESPN.com: What does it mean for an NFL player to be underrated? In simple terms, it is someone who is better than the conventional wisdom suggests. But that can still mean a lot of different things. It could be that a player is misconstrued as good when they’re actually great. It could mean a player is considered average by fans, but he’s actually above average on the field. It can even point to a player being acceptably productive despite being criticized for being subpar. I went through the entire league to identify one player at every position who is currently underrated in some way — and you’ll find instances of all three definitions on the list. Let’s start with a quarterback who just cashed in on a massive extension, and we’ll end with a punter who has largely flown under the radar. Quarterback: Brock Purdy, San Francisco 49ersMany claimed Purdy wasn’t a legit MVP candidate in 2023 because he received too much help from San Francisco’s offensive scheme and his talented teammates. Yet in 2024, while many of Purdy’s teammates were injured, he still played very well. One area of outside help is the tremendous yards-after-catch production of the Kyle Shanahan offense. I have a model for YAC over expectation based on the air yards and location of each pass: The 49ers led the NFL in this metric for six straight years from 2018 through 2023, but they dropped to sixth last season. Purdy’s overall numbers were strong anyway. Overall, Purdy performs well in metrics that try to separate a quarterback from his receivers and his blocking. For example, Purdy was seventh in the NFL with a 67.9 QBR for the 2024 season. Kevin Cole’s adjusted quarterback efficiency, which attempts to adjust for everything from yards after the catch to dropped passes, had Purdy seventh in value per play (ninth in total value). And Purdy was fourth in Ben Baldwin’s adjusted EPA per play (which also has adjustments for pass protection). Does Purdy’s huge contract extension mean he is no longer underrated? On the contrary, some of the criticism of the extension suggests people don’t understand how much better Purdy has been compared to the other Shanahan quarterbacks in San Francisco. Running back: Chuba Hubbard, Carolina PanthersLet’s be honest, the public tends to think about running backs based on their fantasy football value. Hubbard was never one of the top 20 fantasy backs in his first three NFL seasons. Last season was his best performance as a pro, yet he was only 13th in fantasy points. He wasn’t going to put up league-leading totals on a losing Carolina team that didn’t allow him to run out the clock in victories. But did you realize that Hubbard had 1,195 rushing yards and scored 11 touchdowns? On a per-play basis, he was outstanding. Hubbard ranked fourth among qualifying running backs last season in NFL Next Gen Stats’ rushing yards over expectation per carry (1.1). It was his best year in that metric, but he was also above average in 2022 and 2023. The Panthers signed Rico Dowdle in free agency and drafted Trevor Etienne, but Hubbard should still be the clear No. 1 back for Carolina in 2025. (Last year’s second-round pick, Jonathon Brooks, is out for the upcoming season after his second ACL tear in 13 months.) Wide receiver: Darius Slayton, New York GiantsSlayton wasn’t supposed to be anything special as a fifth-round pick in 2019, but he started nine games and caught eight touchdown passes in his rookie season. Sure, he hasn’t come anywhere close to that end zone production since then. But the Giants played Slayton alongside Malik Nabers last season, and you need at least two starting wide receivers to survive in the modern NFL. Slayton caught 39 passes for 573 yards, which was convincing enough for the Giants to bring him back on a three-year, $36 million contract. Advanced metrics support the move since Slayton has had a positive receiving DVOA (defense-adjusted value over average) for three straight seasons. And it’s not like he has done that while working with any of the NFL’s best quarterbacks. With Russell Wilson, Jameis Winston and/or Jaxson Dart under center in 2025, Slayton should continue to work as a deep threat opposite Nabers. He’ll probably put up another quietly productive and surprisingly efficient season. Tight end: Zach Ertz, Washington CommandersIt looked like Ertz’s career might be over after he played only seven games for the Cardinals in 2023 at age 33. But he had a big comeback season with the Commanders in 2024. Ertz caught 66 passes for 654 yards and seven touchdowns, emerging as one of rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels’ go-to receivers. Ertz also ranked 10th among tight ends in my DYAR (defense-adjusted yards above replacement) metric. He had an 85.7% run block win rate, one of the best figures among starting tight ends, too. The Commanders re-signed Ertz to a one-year, $6.25 million contract for 2025. They didn’t add any other tight ends in free agency or the draft, signaling that they’re keeping him in the starting role. Offensive tackle: Garett Bolles, Denver BroncosAfter struggling early in his career, the 2017 first-round pick has developed into one of the top left tackles in the league. Bolles is still waiting for his first Pro Bowl nod, but he was seventh among tackles in pass block win rate last season (93.4%) and 13th in 2023 (91.6%). Bolles anchors a Broncos line that finished No. 1 in run block win rate (74.9%) in 2024. FTN data also had him seventh at left tackle in the rate of pressures allowed. His only problem might be the flags, as he was fifth among linemen last season with 15 total penalties (including declined or offsetting). Interior offensive line: Elgton Jenkins, Green Bay PackersUnlike Bolles, Jenkins has made two Pro Bowls in his six-year career. But most fans still don’t think of him as one of the NFL’s top linemen. Last season, Jenkins led left guards in the lowest rate of pressures allowed, according to FTN data charting. He ranked eighth among all guards in pass block win rate (92.4%), but he also brings versatility to Green Bay’s offensive line. He has played at both tackle spots and is now penciled in as the starting center for 2025. Jenkins is waiting on a new deal before taking the field, though. Interior defensive line: Zach Allen, Denver BroncosEven though he was chosen as a second-team All-Pro, I’m not sure most fans outside of Denver realize just how good Allen was in 2024. He plays as a 5-technique defensive end in Denver’s 3-4 scheme and was key for the Broncos’ unit. He dominated in defeats, which is the sum of big defensive plays (turnovers, tackles for a loss and tackles/passes defensed to prevent a conversion on third or fourth down). Allen’s 25 defeats tied for second among interior defensive linemen with the Steelers’ Cameron Heyward and was one behind the Seahawks’ Leonard Williams. Allen was also second in run stop rate (89%), which measures how often one of his tackles prevented a successful run for the offense. He had 36 pressures for good measure, which ranked second to the Chiefs’ Chris Jones among interior linemen in 2024. Edge rusher: George Karlaftis, Kansas City ChiefsIf you want to find an underrated edge rusher, there’s a general rule to follow: Look for someone who ranks a lot higher in pressures than sacks. That means he’s getting to the quarterback and causing negative plays for the opponent, even if he isn’t getting the press. In 2024, Karlaftis was that guy. He followed up a 10.5-sack season in 2023 with eight sacks last season, but his pressure total was far more impressive. Karlaftis was tied for 14th in the NFL with 44 pressures. He added 11 more pressures in three playoff games and had three sacks against the Texans in the AFC divisional round. Linebacker: Lavonte David, Tampa Bay BuccaneersThis might as well be a lifetime achievement award for one of the most underrated players in NFL history, but David is still getting it done at age 35. He is the all-time leader (since 1991) in defeats, and David was still making these big plays last season (tied for fourth with 29 defeats). David made his average run tackle after a gain of just 2.7 yards, which ranked sixth among starting off-ball linebackers, too. His only (relative) weakness was pass coverage, where he had a below-average coverage DVOA and allowed 7.7 yards per target. He is back in Tampa Bay for another season after signing a one-year deal. Cornerback: Christian Benford, Buffalo BillsOne of the tough parts of trying to identify an underrated cornerback is that the position’s metrics are very inconsistent from season to season. But Benford is coming off two very strong seasons in a row, which doesn’t seem like a fluke. You might not have noticed Benford’s 2024 impact because he had only two interceptions. But overall coverage success is based on a much larger sample of numbers than just INTs. In 2023, Benford ranked 18th in my coverage DVOA metric among qualified corners. Last season, he climbed up to fourth overall. He was targeted on 10.1% of passes when he was on the field, one of the lowest figures in the league, and he allowed just 6.1 yards per target. Safety: Taylor Rapp, Buffalo BillsWe’re going back to the Bills’ defensive backfield here — but in a different way. As I noted earlier, there are different ways to be an underrated NFL player. Benford, for instance, is considered good but is actually one of the best in the league at his position. Rapp, meanwhile, is considered a hole on the Buffalo roster — but he’s actually reasonably productive. Although many have described the Bills’ safeties as underwhelming, they were an important part of a defense that finished 11th in DVOA last season. They ranked seventh in defensive DVOA on deep passes (16 or more air yards), and Rapp was most frequently in the role of deep safety. He also had a strong season as a tackler, with only four missed tackles compared to 48 solo tackles — one of the lowest broken tackle rates in the league. And despite mostly playing back from the line of scrimmage, he ranked among the top 20 safeties with 48 run plays (tackles and assists). Specialist: Corey Bojorquez, Cleveland BrownsThe Browns’ punter led the NFL in my gross punting metric last season, which is based on punt distance assuming average returns (adjusted for weather and altitude). Yet, Bojorquez had a negative net value because the Browns’ punt coverage team was awful. This wasn’t an issue of Bojorquez outkicking his coverage. He was third in the league with 36 punts inside the 20-yard line, but the Browns also allowed three returns of over 50 yards. His talent can be seen in his consistency. Last season marked the fourth straight year that Bojorquez ranked in the top 10 for gross punt value. He was ninth in 2023, fifth in 2022 and 10th in 2021. |
| BROADCAST NEWSBuffalo in August, then the NFC East during the season – that’s what “Hard Knocks” has planed for 2025. Dave Campbell of The AP: The reigning NFL MVP will be a featured attraction this season on the league’s training camp documentary, with the Buffalo Bills making their first appearance on “Hard Knocks.” The New York Giants will get another shot, too, after their uncomfortable debut. The NFL announced Wednesday at the spring owners meetings that the Bills, led by quarterback Josh Allen, were selected for the behind-the-scenes show on HBO that’s in its 25th year. The five-part series will air on Tuesdays beginning on Aug. 5. The NFC East was also picked as the featured division on the in-season show, with filming of the Giants, Dallas Cowboys, Washington Commanders and defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles set to air in December. The league reached a new multi-year deal with HBO to continue to broadcast the show. The Bills, who hold their training camp off-site at St. John Fisher University outside of Rochester, New York, have entered their ninth year under head coach Sean McDermott. Still seeking their first championship, having not appeared in the Super Bowl since their fourth consecutive loss following the 1993 season, the Bills have won five straight AFC East titles and qualified for the playoffs in seven of the past eight years. Allen has been a driver of that success, entering his eighth season and coming off his first MVP award. The Bills return a majority of their offense from a team that finished second in the NFL in scoring in the 2024 season. They retooled their defense, starting with the addition in free agency of edge rusher Joey Bosa. The NFL revamped its rules last year around “Hard Knocks” appearances, previously allowing teams that made the playoffs within the previous two seasons to decline to participate. Such an opt-out is no longer an option. Teams now ineligible for selection include those with a first-year head coach, those that have appeared on the training camp version of the show in the past eight seasons, and those picked for the in-season version focusing on one division. The Chicago Bears were a first-time “Hard Knocks” participant last season during training camp. HBO and co-producer NFL Films last year added the in-season show, filming around the four AFC North teams, and an offseason version that premiered — and perhaps ended — with a focus on the Giants. The awkward goodbye between running back Saquon Barkley and general manager Joe Schoen was a prominent part of that series, which has so far not been renewed. Barkley, who signed with the rival Eagles and went on to win the Super Bowl, later complained that his side of the conversation with Schoen was recorded and aired without his consent. Schoen’s informing Barkley that the Giants would not make him a contract offer or put the franchise tag on him and thus let him become a free agent became a must-see scene, along with a pained reaction from owner John Mara about losing a popular player. |
