| Dianna Russini of The Athletic takes the coffee orders (and non-orders) of NFL coaches: Lions head coach Dan Campbell doesn’t shy away from being himself or from fueling his body with outrageous amounts of caffeine. Every time he pops up on TV, I can’t get his coffee order out of my head. Beyond the tremendous job he’s done keeping Detroit on track on both sides of the ball, his coffee routine is legendary: two 20-ounce Starbucks cups, each with two extra espresso shots. After every win, he and his wife, Holly, post his “victory coffee” on Instagram (probably with a shaky hand). He is far from the only NFL coach with a habit. Longtime college and NFL assistant Mike Heimerdinger once told the Denver Post that he drank eight to 10 Diet Cokes a day. Pete Carroll had a famous fondness for Mountain Dew, although he says that’s in the past. Former Jets coach Adam Gase used to down five or six 20-ounce Keurig coffees a day, The Athletic’s Dan Pompei once reported. “You know what we should do one day, is you guys should come up to my office and just rip espressos with me,” Arizona Cardinals coach Jonathan Gannon told media members last year. “I got a good machine. My wife hooked me up.” Curious about other head coaches, I asked some plugged-in baristas around the league about caffeine quirks. Sean Payton stirs in a single sugar with a splash of 2 percent— but only drinks half because he hates lukewarm coffee. Kevin O’Connell keeps it simple with black coffee or a straight espresso. Mike Vrabel goes for a quad espresso — which sounds more like a dinosaur than a drink. Dan Quinn likes a large coffee with a little half-and-half. Brian Callahan, Mike Tomlin, Shane Steichen, Matt LaFleur, Mike Macdonald and Ben Johnson all take it black. Brian Daboll opts for cream and sugar. (Not a single NFL coach will admit to preferring a Pumpkin Spice Latte with extra foam, even in late September?) And then there are the abstainers: Kyle Shanahan, Todd Bowles, Aaron Glenn, Andy Reid and Nick Sirianni are among those who don’t touch the stuff. I’m sure someone could chart a direct correlation between these coffee orders and win totals. Until that happens, enjoy your cup however you like it. (For me? Two sugars and a splash of half-and-half. My editor, Dan? Whiskey.) DB – black with pink sweetner. |
| NFC EAST |
| WASHINGTONQB JAYDEN DANIELS is back Sunday at the Chargers, but he will be operating without WRs TERRY McLAURIN and NOAH BROWN. And WR DEEBO SAMUEL isn’t a sure thing to be available either. John Keim of ESPN.com: Washington Commanders receiver Terry McLaurin was ruled out of Sunday’s game at the Los Angeles Chargers because of a lingering right quad injury. Washington also ruled out receiver Noah Brown. Washington (2-2) plays at the Chargers (3-1) on Sunday. Because the Commanders are flying to Los Angeles on Thursday night, they were able to rule out players who did not make the trip. However, quarterback Jayden Daniels did make the trip, putting him in line to start after a two-game absence due to a sprained left knee. McLaurin injured his quad while trying to dive into the end zone at the end of a 56-yard catch vs. the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 3. McLaurin did not play in Sunday’s 34-27 loss to the Atlanta Falcons. Brown, dealing with an injured groin and knee, has missed two consecutive games. McLaurin was working on a side field with athletic trainers Thursday, the first time he has done so during portions of practice open to the media. He was running sprints at around half to three-quarter speed. Brown also has worked with athletic trainers the past two days. On Wednesday coach Dan Quinn said both players were trending in the right direction but did not specify what that meant for their return. Two other players, corner Mike Sainristil and Deebo Samuel, did not practice the past two days but did make the trip. Both were working at mostly full speed while performing drills on a field separate from the rest of their teammates. |
| NFC SOUTH |
| TAMPA BAYThe Buccaneers will be without RB BUCKY IRVING for awhile. Jenna Laine of ESPN.com: – Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Bucky Irving is expected to miss Sunday’s game at the Seattle Seahawks due to a foot sprain, a source told ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler. There is also concern he could miss next week’s game against the San Francisco 49ers, the source said. Irving finished the Bucs’ Week 4 game against the Philadelphia Eagles but left the locker room on crutches and has been in a walking boot all week. Coach Todd Bowles said earlier in the week, “If he’s not out of the boot by Friday, I’d be more inclined to say he’s probably not going to play.” Irving has played not only a crucial role for the Bucs on the ground — since entering the league last season, his 4.9 yards per carry rank ninth among NFL running backs — but he’s also emerged as an important contributor in a passing game dealing with an injury-ravaged offensive line. Irving led the Bucs in Week 4 with 102 receiving yards and 63 rushing yards. The Bucs will rely on Rachaad White — considered their best pass protector at running back and arguably their most dynamic receiving back — and Sean Tucker, along with rookie Josh Williams, a former undrafted free agent out of LSU. Quarterback Baker Mayfield said Wednesday of potentially being short-handed: “I mean, yeah, having a lot of reps with Rachaad and you guys have seen what Tuck has been able to do, as well, with his speed — it’s elite. But yeah, just getting back to what we had prior to Bucky and then you add in a guy like Josh Williams if Bucky is not able to go…[He is] a guy that I told you guys during training camp that I really, really liked. [He’s a] smart kid, knows exactly what we’re trying to get done. “So, it’s not the same without Buck because he brings a different spark to it and those explosive plays that you guys have seen for two years now that we’ll be missing, but we’ll see. Hopefully he’s able to play, but if not, we trust the guys that are in there.” |
| NFC WEST |
| LOS ANGELES RAMSNot that we have anything against simple dive plays as a part of the regular course of business. But on 4th and 1, with the game on the line in overtime, it just didn’t seem to scream great coaching. Sean McVay seemed to feel that way as well after the Rams had lost. Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com: Rams coach Sean McVay put Thursday night’s loss to the 49ers on himself for the call he made on the last play of the game. McVay called a run into the line on fourth-and-1 at the 49ers’ 11-yard line with 3:41 remaining in overtime, and the 49ers were ready for it and stopped it for no gain. “Bad call. Bad call by me,” McVay said. “It was a poor decision by me right there.” McVay said he didn’t consider kicking a field goal to tie the game. “No. In hindsight I wish I would have, but we came in here to try to win the football game,” McVay said. “That wasn’t even thought, but the play selection was very poor. I’m sick right now because I put our players in a shitty spot.” McVay said there were better plays he could have called and he was kicking himself for what he went with. “My job is to try to put our players in successful situations,” McVay said. “That wasn’t it right there.” That was the call that ended the game, with the 49ers holding on to win 26-23. QB MATTHEW STAFFORD professed to be okay with the play call. More from Smith of PFT: The Rams lost on Thursday night when they eschewed a field goal that would have tied the game with 3:41 left in overtime and went for it on fourth-and-1. They got stopped, but quarterback Matthew Stafford wasn’t second-guessing the decision to go for it. “I love that we went for it. We’re not playing for a tie. Let’s go. Just wish we would have kept the drive alive and found a way to score,” Stafford said. The fourth-and-1 call was a Kyren Williams run into the line that went nowhere, but Stafford said he thought it was a good play call, the 49ers just out-executed the Rams on the play. “That’s a bread-and-butter short-yardage call for us, so I didn’t have any problem with it,” Stafford said. Stafford played well in the game, completing 30 of 47 passes for 389 yards, with three touchdowns and no interceptions. But the game came down to that fourth-and-1, and the Rams came up short. WR PUKA NAKUA is on pace for more than 170 catches this season as he sets the record for fastest to 50. He went 10-85 in Thursday’s loss. |
| SAN FRANCISCOCoach Kyle Shanahan glanced at the line for the Rams-Niners game – and he was not happy about it. Kyle Wagoner of ESPN.com with that and the rest of the reaction from the winning locker room: – In the hours before Thursday night’s game against the Los Angeles Rams, San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan approached quarterback Mac Jones and let him know that the short-handed Niners were more than touchdown underdogs against their division rivals. “I don’t really pay attention to much to it,” Jones said, laughing. “Kyle came up to me, and he was pissed about it. He’s like, ‘Dude, I can’t believe they moved us to underdogs again,’ or like more [extreme underdogs] or whatever. And I’m like, ‘I don’t know what that means really, [but] like, yeah, let’s go kill them.’ He was pissed about it. I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m pissed, too.'” Jones said he doesn’t pay much attention to social media and has little knowledge on the inner workings of odds making, but Shanahan’s motivational ploy seemed to work as the Niners’ backup quarterback delivered one of his best career performances and the 49ers pulled off a 26-23 victory despite missing many of their biggest stars. The Niners entered the game as 8.5-point underdogs, according to ESPN BET, and Thursday night’s win was their first outright victory with odds that big since 2011 against the Philadelphia Eagles, when they were 9.5-point underdogs. It was also the largest upset of the 2025 season so far, surpassing the Cleveland Browns’ win against the Green Bay Packers in Week 3 as 7.5-point underdogs. San Francisco improved to 4-1 on the season and 3-0 in the NFC West despite missing starting quarterback Brock Purdy, top-three wideouts Brandon Aiyuk (knee), Ricky Pearsall (knee) and Jauan Jennings (ribs/ankle), and star tight end George Kittle. In addition, star defensive end Nick Bosa is out for the season with a torn right ACL. To open the game, Jones was throwing to a collection of receivers and tight ends that had mustered zero catches for the 49ers in 2024, with Kendrick Bourne and Demarcus Robinson starting at receiver and Luke Farrell getting the nod at tight end. Jones battled through a sprained left knee and a cramping forearm to finish 33-of-49 for 342 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions for a passer rating of 100.9. “He played his ass off,” Shanahan said. “He was unbelievable in the first half. Got banged up a little bit there in the second half, and battled through it, and protected the ball. Going against that defense and throwing the ball that many times and not having a turnover and protecting it like he did, I can’t say enough good things about Mac.” With a few extra days to rest before a Week 6 trip to play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Niners don’t yet know how much longer they’ll need Jones to start. The team ruled Purdy out Wednesday, and though he has indicated his toe is still much better than it was following the initial Week 1 injury, Shanahan said there is no definitive timeline on Purdy’s return. “Everything we told you guys last week is true,” Shanahan said. “He just reaggravated it, and it’s week-to-week. We don’t know how it’s going to heal, and hopefully it’ll be better tomorrow, and we’ll continue to go throughout the week.” in Thursday night’s overtime win over the Rams. Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty ImagesJones and the Niners’ cobbled-together group of pass catchers opened the game with a pair of touchdown drives as he hit Tonges and running back Christian McCaffrey to stake San Francisco to a 14-0 lead. For most of the night, Jones was on point. He had only two off-target throws among his 49 attempts, a 4% mark that is his lowest in a start since Week 12 of 2022 as a member of the New England Patriots. Jones even handled the Rams’ pass rush well, going 6-of-9 for 53 yards and four first downs when pressured. Many of his throws were to Bourne, whom the team signed before Week 2 against New Orleans. Coming off a game against Jacksonville in which he had three drops, Bourne had another key drop Thursday night and also had some issues lining up correctly, but he atoned for the mistakes by setting career highs with 10 receptions for 142 yards, including eight catches for first downs. “KB has brought so much energy, so much juice to this team, and we love and appreciate him so much,” fullback Kyle Juszczyk said. “Guys that have played with him before knew that, but I think everyone that hasn’t has seen it right away. He’s definitely helped spark this team.” As in San Francisco’s three other wins this season, the team also got key contributions from defensive members of its 2025 draft class. Second-round defensive tackle Alfred Collins forced and recovered a fumble at San Francisco’s goal line late in the fourth quarter to prevent a potential game-winning touchdown, and rookie safety Marques Sigle was in on the final tackle of Rams running back Kyren Williams to stop him short on fourth-and-1 at the Niners’ 11. “[General manager] John Lynch is probably going to celebrate on that plane tonight,” linebacker Fred Warner said. “Our young guys really coming and playing big for us. I mean all these games so far … and they’re just getting started.” |
| SEATTLEMichael-Shawn Duggar of The Athletic with a long look at LB ERNEST JONES IV, who is playing 2025 for his late father: Ernest Jones IV is ready to talk now. On Aug. 2, he announced he had lost his father, Ernest Jones Jr., and that he needed time before he could speak on it publicly. “I’m hurting,” the younger Jones wrote in a letter to Pops. After a training camp practice on Aug. 19, Jones agreed to hold a news conference on the condition that there be no questions about his father. The reporters obliged, yet midway through the interview, Jones responded to a question about the Seattle Seahawks’ defensive line with a mention of his dad. “I respect each and every one of you for keeping the things I’ve been going through with my father between us,” he said from behind a lectern outside the practice field. On Sept. 9, it wasn’t yet the right time. Jones wore a custom shirt bearing images of his late father to the Seahawks’ regular-season opener against San Francisco. He was among the team’s leading tacklers and recorded an interception in the loss. In a postgame news conference, Jones was asked about the T-shirt tribute. “Dang,” Jones replied, “you’re gonna make me cry, man.” It’s mid-September now, and Jones, Seattle’s standout inside linebacker, says there’s nothing off limits as he leans forward in his seat inside the team’s practice facility. This time last year, Jones was a member of the flailing Tennessee Titans and one month removed from being jettisoned across the country by the Los Angeles Rams, in a move head coach Sean McVay described as a “football decision.” For Jones, it was more than that. “It’s a lot personal for me,” Jones says after a year to reflect. “They gave up on me too early. They gave up on my knee. They thought I wasn’t going to be anything. They thought I was going to be dead and out this league pretty soon.” Jones’ football career is still alive — and thriving. He’s in the middle of the league’s second-ranked scoring defense and the green-dot-wearing linebacker who is an extension of one of the NFL’s brightest defensive minds. One year ago, Jones transformed this defense upon arriving from Tennessee in a midseason trade, the second time in less than 60 days his wife and newborn son had been shipped more than 2,000 miles away. That was personal, too. For a few reasons: his perpetually swollen knee and yet another relocation, all while on an expiring contract. Doubt crept in. Though only 24 years old at the time, Jones wondered whether football was still what he wanted, whether it was still his purpose. “I was in a lot of dark moments,” he says. The Seahawks, Jones says, pulled him out of the darkness. “They wouldn’t let me sit and sulk in my own pity, having a pity party on my own,” he says. “These guys, these coaches, they believed in me at a moment in time where I thought, Man, I don’t know if I’mma play football too much longer. “These guys have shifted my perspective on that. And I’m here for the long haul.” Jones’ candor is one of his strengths. It’s impossible to be around him and not know what and who he’s fighting for, either through his actions or words. There’s power in knowing the “why” behind the way he is. On this day in the Virginia Mason Athletic Center, Jones shares a little of everything, including stories of his father, who has always been one of his driving forces for playing this game. There’s an added element since he died of cancer on July 29 at age 53. Jones and his dad talked every Tuesday, an off day for NFL players. In their final conversations, the elder Jones did what he had always done: express extreme confidence in his son. “This is our year,” the elder Ernest told him. Individually, a Pro Bowl. For the Seahawks, a Super Bowl. “I’m putting this thing together for him,” Jones says. The Seahawks spent most of the 2024 season, head coach Mike Macdonald’s first in Seattle, struggling to defend the run. Then Jones showed up. “As soon as EJ got here,” Pro Bowl defensive tackle Leonard Williams said this summer, “we kind of turned that run game defense around.” Jones was not solely responsible but had an undeniably profound impact. From Week 1 to Week 8, the Seahawks’ defense was one of the league’s worst at stopping the run. By Week 18, it was among the 10 best. Seattle finished with a top-five defense by points per drive and has carried that momentum into 2025, ranking second behind the Houston Texans by the same metric. Seattle entered this season expecting to have the league’s No. 1 defense and is on track to deliver. A key contributor to that offseason optimism was the presence of Jones, who signed a three-year, $28.5 million contract in March. Jones has all the physical requirements of a high-end NFL linebacker: vision to sort through the fray and find ball carriers; toughness to shed blocks from players nearly 100 pounds heavier; awareness to feel route combinations developing behind him; and athleticism to make plays on the ball. Only safety Coby Bryant (four) has more interceptions than Jones (three) for the Seahawks since Week 8 of last season. “He came here and immediately, the first week of practice, it was different,” Pro Bowl safety Julian Love said. That first week, Jones made a mistake during practice, which was understandable given the circumstances. Well, understandable to everyone except Jones. “He takes off his helmet and slams it on the ground and was so mad,” Love said. “Something about him doing that let everybody realize: This guy carries a swagger about him, and he cares. I just remember that moment so vividly, like, ‘I’m going to like playing with this guy because he plays with passion.’” The center of an NFL defense is chaotic. A calm confidence is necessary to command the respect of the other 10 defenders. It’s about barking calls amid deafening noise, yes, but it’s more about inspiring belief that when times are toughest, you’ll lead them through the fire. Jones lives for those moments. “He’s such an alpha,” Macdonald said. “He has such poise about him. He’s kind of unshakable.” This character trait is why former Gamecocks head coach Will Muschamp worked so hard to recruit Jones to South Carolina, why he played as a true freshman, why he was in the middle of a Super Bowl-winning Rams defense as a rookie and why he’s right at home in the middle of Seattle’s unit, which touts connectedness as its secret sauce. As fellow linebacker Drake Thomas said, “He’s doing it for something bigger than himself.” “When it’s smoke, when it’s fire, I want to be the first one to run through it,” Jones said. “Because I know when I get through there, I’m going to get through it, and I’m also going to be able to tell you how to get through it. “I got a big heart, and I care about these boys deeper than this football stuff. So when it’s time to go, I’ll be ready to go.” Sometimes, Jones’ leadership manifests in something quantifiable, like using his football IQ to adjust the defensive line to make a tackle for loss. “He can call the play out before it even happens,” veteran defensive tackle Jarran Reed said this summer. “He helps us play fast.” Other times it’s more subtle. Like in Week 4, when he redirected Devon Witherspoon during a middle-finger salute to an Arizona Cardinals offensive player to avoid the third-year nickel corner drawing a taunting penalty in the fourth quarter of a one-score game. Jones loves Witherspoon’s passion; the veteran simply knew the energy needed to be channeled differently in the moment. Sometimes Jones doesn’t care about discernment, like when he twice punched Green Bay’s Zach Tom in the head after the right tackle struck Witherspoon. A brawl ensued, with Jones on the front lines. Jones will consider the consequences of retaliation when he’s the one being stepped to. But when a teammate is violated, all bets are off. “That’s what triggers me more than anything,” Jones said. “Don’t put your hands on someone I go to war with.” And as a result, teammates love standing beside Jones in battle. “EJ is a controlled crash-out,” Love said. “It takes somebody to push him to that limit. But he’s not naturally like that. He’s a little bit introverted. A cool, calm, collected guy. But when you take him there, he’s going to live there. And I love that from my Mike linebacker.” Macdonald’s relationship with Jones is central to this as well. They’re the defensive version of a quarterback and offensive play caller. They meet during the week and talk during TV timeouts to ensure they’re always on the same page and a step ahead of the offense. Jones joked that he’s Macdonald’s favorite player. “He’s like having Mike Macdonald on the field,” outside linebacker Uchenna Nwosu said of Jones this week on Seattle Sports radio. In Week 3, Seattle snapped a seven-game losing streak at Lumen Field. Macdonald directed “a lot” of the credit to Jones, who, before the Seahawks beat the New Orleans Saints by 31, emphasized the importance of protecting their home turf. “Guys probably listen to him more than me,” Macdonald said. That remark was part hyperbole but also an example of Macdonald understanding the gravity of Jones’ role. “He just embodies the leadership and our style of defense,” Love said. “You get the vibe of how emotional he is for us. It’s his words, how he presents himself, how he carries himself.” Jones was lying in bed with his wife, Tyra, the night he signed his extension with the Seahawks, when reality set in. In the eight months before the ink dried, their life had been a whirlwind. Ernest Jones V (known as “Quinton”) was born in July 2024. They closed on a house in California … which sat vacant as they bounced to Nashville and then Seattle over the span of two months. For weeks, home was a hotel. They found a home in November. Then Western Washington was swept by a cyclone that caused millions to lose power. Jones returned from Seahawks HQ to a freezing-cold home, his wife and infant son bundled in blankets. The home didn’t have much furniture, aside from an air mattress. Shortly after power was restored, their water went out. Jones began to wonder, “Is this even worth it to keep putting my family through this?” Contract negotiations with the Seahawks were tabled in early January. Then came reports of offseason knee surgery, which his agent, Ira Turner, re-framed as a positive. To Jones, it was. For two years, swelling in his knee prevented him from playing like himself. After undergoing a knee scope in February, Jones could more confidently plant his leg and trust everything would be OK. Now he could play free, mentally and physically. All of this was on Jones’ mind the night he signed a contract that meant “everything” to him. “I’m sitting there looking at the numbers,” Jones recalled, “and I’m like, ‘Bro, this can’t be real life.’ I swear it felt like a million bricks left off my shoulder.” Jones loves to talk about his family. About how he knew Tyra was “the one.” During his first year at South Carolina, he was uncharacteristically doing more following than leading, a young man still finding himself. “She talked so much life into me,” he recalled. “I knew from then not too many women going to be here trying to do this.” About his son: “My motivation to get up in the morning.” The moments when Jones leaves the football field and sees Ernest V sprinting to him are a dream come true. “I want him to honestly understand what football is, and me be able to have this moment with him so we can look back on it,” he said. About his mother, Porsche Wells, for whom he bought a Mercedes-Benz this spring. Another dream come to life. As Jones grew up in Waycross, Ga., Wells’ willingness to work multiple jobs to support him and his siblings inspired his selflessness. Wells confided in Jones, through good times and bad. Her coaching points shaped his perfectionism. Because of Wells, Jones believes in leaving a place better than he found it. His mom, Jones said, “made me who I am today.” About his dad. “Love him to death,” he said, smiling. “Miss him to death.” About their memories. About the time Dad disciplined an adolescent Jones for stealing gum from a corner store, which had a clerk who knew Big Ernest. The part that pissed off Dad? His son wasn’t upholding the standard for their family name. “Family was everything to him,” Jones said. “And that rubbed off on me.” Jones wears all this every day inside the Seahawks’ building. That vulnerability strengthens his chemistry with teammates. It’s why someone like Witherspoon was devoted to uplifting Jones last season, knowing he was going through it. “We just let him know, ‘We’re here for you. Don’t ever feel like you’ve got to take that on alone, bro,’” Witherspoon said. “We’re with each other every day, man. We can talk to each other. It’s a brotherhood. That’s one great thing about this game of football: You create long-lasting relationships.” On Sept. 9, when Jones posted about his father on Instagram, along with photos and videos from his Game 1 performance, the caption featured the hashtag “LongLivePops” and a black heart emoji. The location: Home. The Seahawks had a Hall of Fame linebacker play for a decade. After a few swings and misses at landing a successor, the middle of Seattle’s defense has a new stabilizing force in Jones, who perhaps more than anyone on the team values the stability of his situation. He spent a year learning under Bobby Wagner in Los Angeles. The next era of Seahawks football is in full swing, and Jones, a year removed from darkness, is where he belongs: in the front, leading the franchise through the fire. “Seattle owes me nothing,” Jones said. “This is a team that brought me out of one of the darkest moments of my life. A team full of players that when I got here, they believed in me. They trusted me, and I owe Seattle everything, and this is home for me. I want it to be my home the rest of my career.” Unanswered in the story is why the son of Ernest Jones, Jr. is Ernest Jones IV? Did an older brother, Ernest III, pass away? And not exactly a question – but we note that Ernest IV’s mother is named Porsche and he bought her a Mercedes. If she was named Mercedes, would he have bought her a Porsche? |
| AFC WEST |
| DENVERDenver has the NFL Defensive Player of the Year in Bill Barnwell’s eyes thru Week 4: 1. Nik Bonitto, Edge, Denver BroncosI’m just not sure we can put anybody ahead of Bonitto, who rates out as the best pass rusher in the NFL this season by about every metric I can put together beyond sacks — where his 4.5 are a half-sack behind Brian Burns of the Giants. Bonitto has done that on 86 pass-rush opportunities, while Garrett is at 98 and Burns has had 127. Leave sacks aside. Pressures? Bonitto’s 27 are the most in football, and his 31.4% pressure rate is about double that of superstars like Hines-Allen and Aidan Hutchinson. Quick pressures? Bonitto’s 15 are four more than anybody else in the league, and his 17.4% quick pressure rate is almost laughably outlandish. The second-best quick pressure rate for guys with 80 pass-rush opportunities or more is Garrett at 11.2%, and he’s closer to 23rd than he is to Bonitto in first. Bonitto doesn’t get double-teamed as often as the Garretts and Hutchinsons of the world, both because he doesn’t have the reputation as a superstar and because the Broncos have a couple of very good rushers elsewhere on their D-line in Zach Allen and Jonathon Cooper. He’s not the same caliber of run defender as Garrett or Simmons, but Bonitto is fast enough for the Broncos to have used him as a spy when they’ve played Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen in the past. Even acknowledging those realities, though, Bonitto has simply been head and shoulders above everyone else in getting to the quarterback and creating problems this season. There might not be anybody better right now at getting off the line and around opposing tackles; there’s usually at least one snap per game where it looks as if Bonitto was in the offensive huddle and knew the snap count and the protection scheme. He made major strides between 2022 and 2023 and then again between 2023 and 2024. It looks as if he has leveled up into one of the league’s best speed rushers in 2025. |
| LAS VEGASOther than keeping Jon Gruden from getting his fortune a couple of months longer, we wondered why the NFL’s legal team thought that billing the league for an appeal to the same court that had just ruled against it was a good idea. The Nevada Supreme Court apparently wondered the same thing. Don Van Natta, Jr. of ESPN.com: The Nevada Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously rejected the NFL’s petition seeking a rehearing of an August decision that said former Raiders coach Jon Gruden could not be forced into league arbitration in his lawsuit alleging the league leaked damaging emails to the media before he resigned from the team in 2021. All seven justices signed the order rejecting the league’s petition for a rehearing. The last legal resort left for the NFL is an appeal for the U.S. Supreme Court, which sources with knowledge of the situation have told ESPN is likely. A league spokesperson declined to comment Thursday night. In August, by a 5-2 ruling, Nevada’s high court did not determine whether the league had leaked Gruden’s emails. But a majority of justices found that the league’s decision to force his complaint into arbitration proceedings overseen by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell — the target of Gruden’s civil lawsuit — was “unconscionable.” As a former employee, Gruden should not have been bound by the provision in the NFL constitution mandating arbitration for such complaints, the court ruled. “By its own unambiguous language, the NFL Constitution no longer applies to Gruden,” the justices wrote. “If the NFL Constitution were to bind former employees, the Commissioner could essentially pick and choose which disputes to arbitrate.” Gruden’s lawsuit alleges that Goodell and the league pressured the Raiders to fire Gruden by leaking emails containing racist, sexist and anti-gay comments sent by Gruden when he was an on-air analyst at ESPN. Gruden resigned from the Raiders in November 2021. He was their coach when the team moved to Las Vegas from Oakland in 2020. Gruden is seeking monetary damages, alleging that selective disclosure of the emails and their publication by The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times ruined his career and endorsement contracts. Gruden’s attorney, Adam Hosmer-Henner, said Thursday that “we’re obviously pleased with the decision.” Gruden was unavailable for comment. In August, after the Nevada Supreme Court decision, Gruden told ESPN that the selectively leaked emails, which contained anti-gay and racist remarks about Goodell and other league figures, disrupted the Raiders’ 2021 season, forcing owner Mark Davis to seek the coach’s resignation when the team was 3-1. “I’m looking forward to having the truth come out and I want to make sure what happened to me doesn’t happen to anyone else,” Gruden told ESPN. “What happened wasn’t right, and I’m glad the court didn’t let the NFL cover it up.” Remember, we’re four years into this thing – and we are still arguing who has jurisdiction for a trial or arbitration proceeding. |
| AFC NORTH |
| CLEVELANDDaniel Oyefusi of ESPN.com on the process that led to QB DILLON GABRIEL starting for the Browns: As the news trickled out Wednesday morning that Cleveland Browns rookie Dillon Gabriel would take over as the team’s starting quarterback, a good friend of Gabriel sent him a picture of a fire station. “When he sends it, he just lists the obvious, right?” Gabriel said. “Like, doors are open, garage doors are open, things are ready to go, they’re just waiting on that phone call to respond surgically. Just what a great representation of the job I have and being ready for that moment. “And I think I smile because it’s a moment you prep for, and you are extremely excited for, but also got to realize that it’s extreme focus, and that’s what I’ve continued to harp on. “But, you wait for the perfect time, you’re going to wait a whole lifetime. So, for me, I’ve always been ready for every moment.” Gabriel’s preparedness and that of the Browns will be tested as the third-round pick becomes the franchise’s 41st starting quarterback since it returned to the NFL in 1999 (most in the league over that span). The Browns initially turned to Joe Flacco, who helped lead the franchise to the playoffs late in the 2023 season, to begin this season. However, his second stint in Cleveland got off to a rough start, as the 18-year veteran posted a Total QBR (27.0) that ranks above only Tennessee Titans rookie Cam Ward. Flacco’s struggles led Browns coach Kevin Stefanski to insert Gabriel for his first career start. Though the weekly preparation in the first month of the season was geared toward helping Flacco, the Browns have also been working hard to develop their rookie passers, Gabriel and fifth-round pick Shedeur Sanders, to set them up for success, from film study to splitting scout team snaps to post-practice reps. The merits of that strategy will be in the spotlight Sunday when Gabriel, who becomes the first NFL quarterback to make his first career start in an International game, leads the Browns (1-3) against the Minnesota Vikings (2-2) in London (9:30 a.m. ET, NFL Network). “The big thing for us, it goes back to that intentionality of what we do,” Stefanski said. “That’s [quarterbacks coach] Bill Musgrave, that’s [offensive coordinator] Tommy Rees, that’s our player development team. Everybody understanding that we’re bringing our guys along. And it may, on one day, mean meetings, may, on one day, mean a physical individual drill — if you will, at practice, while this side’s doing this, these guys are doing that. So, just like, big picture being very intentional about every minute that you have.” THE BROWNS ARE first turning to Gabriel, a six-year college player at UCF, Oklahoma and Oregon, in an attempt to jump-start an offense that has scored the second-fewest points in the NFL (14 points per game through four weeks). He takes over a quarterback group that has been through numerous changes since the April draft. Stefanski on Wednesday announced that Flacco will be the backup, while Sanders, son of Pro Football Hall of Famer and Colorado football coach Deion Sanders, will continue to serve as the No. 3 and emergency QB. Deshaun Watson is eligible to return to practice from the physically unable to perform list, but he continues to rehab his Achilles injury. Watson, though, has posted workout videos of himself throwing on his surgically repaired Achilles. And to add to the depth of passers on staff, Cleveland brought in veteran passer Bailey Zappe, who started a game for the Browns last season and is familiar with Stefanski’s offense, to the practice squad. Meanwhile, Gabriel, 24, impressed the Browns during the predraft process by recalling concepts and processing that information. Though Gabriel, 5-foot-11, is one of the shortest starting quarterbacks (i.e., at 5-10, the Carolina Panthers’ Bryce Young and Arizona Cardinals’ Kyler Murray are the only ones shorter), Cleveland’s coaches don’t believe it has had a big impact on his game. Gabriel’s work during training camp and the preseason made the team comfortable with trading Kenny Pickett to the Las Vegas Raiders and naming Gabriel as Flacco’s backup to start the season. Tyler Huntley, who was signed during the summer amid injuries to Pickett, Gabriel and Sanders, was released as part of roster cuts and is on the Baltimore Ravens’ practice squad. CLEVELAND, IN A way, entered the regular season well-versed in allocating practice time for multiple quarterbacks. During training camp, the team juggled splitting practice reps among four quarterbacks when Pickett was on the roster, and, at times, a fifth when it signed Huntley. Many of those plans carried into the regular season, where Flacco took the majority of the practice reps for game prep. Stefanski on Wednesday said that Gabriel received reps with the starting offense in the first month of the season. Gabriel talked about those starting reps as “here and there throughout practices but also respecting Flacco getting his reps throughout those weeks. So, I think we try to fit it in as much as possible, but I think we also did a good job of that in training camp. So, like I said, you got to build those moments up to get to this moment, and I think a great week of prep will set us up for success.” A large portion of Gabriel’s practice reps, though, came as Cleveland split scout team reps among him, Sanders and Zappe. “On Wednesdays, there’s a scout team meeting, so we’ll go in there, and defensive coaches will go over the cards to kind of give us a heads-up,” Zappe said, “because Wednesday is kind of like the bulk, that’s your bigger practice. Those are the practices that you practice the most. So, they want to get those fine-tuned.” The rotating of scout team reps among multiple quarterbacks is a bit different for most NFL teams, Musgrave said, but has allowed each quarterback to get valuable snaps, even if they aren’t preparing to start. |
| AFC SOUTH |
| INDIANAPOLISThat Bill Barnwell of ESPN.com has Bills QB JOSH ALLEN as number 1 in assessing the state of the NFL MVP race after Week 4 is no surprise, and needs no explanation. However, what were the chances that the guy he has number two would be in that spot 30 days ago: 2. Daniel Jones, QB, Indianapolis ColtsIf you saw this one coming, you’re ahead of the game. Jones has been put in position to succeed in Indy. His defense has allowed him to play from ahead or in close games, his running back has been playing at an extremely high level, and Jones’ receivers have generated 120 yards after the catch over expectation, the second most of any offense in the league behind the Steelers (per Next Gen Stats). Next Gen Stats credits Indy’s pass catchers with just one drop on the season, a figure that presumably doesn’t include Adonai Mitchell dropping the ball just before entering the end zone against the Rams last week. At the same time, Jones has more than held his own. He is third in the NFL in Next Gen Stats’ completion percentage over expectation, trailing only Dak Prescott and Jared Goff. He’s averaging 8.9 yards per attempt, third behind Jackson and Sam Darnold. Jones’ prior revival in 2022 (with the Giants) was built around getting the ball out quickly on short throws to limit his issues with taking sacks and fumbling the football. But this time around, his 8.4 air yards per attempt is the third-longest figure in the league, and his 3.0% sack rate is the fourth-best mark. Sunday’s game against the Rams was the first time it really felt like Jones was beginning to fall back to earth. He threw his first two interceptions of the season and had his first multi-sack game of the year, losing the ball on a strip sack (though the Colts were able to recover it). Even in a game where he struggled, though, Jones completed nearly 73% of his passes, averaged just under 8 yards per attempt and came one Mitchell meltdown away from throwing two touchdown passes against one of the league’s toughest defensive fronts. If that’s what happens after the clock strikes midnight, Jones and the Colts will be just fine. |
| THIS AND THAT |
| KICKING INFLATIONWe watched in surprise Thursday night as PK EDDY PINEIRO easily pumped through his career-long 59-yard FG for the 49ers. Then, we read this on Friday morning. Kalyn Kahler of ESPN.com gets to the bottom of the inflation of FG distances: At this year’s NFL meetings in March, resolution proposal G-2 passed with very little publicity, no interest from fans or reporters, and hardly any discussion among the clubs voting on it. G-2. By Baltimore, Cleveland, Houston, Las Vegas, Minnesota, Philadelphia, and Washington; to permit clubs to prepare kicking footballs (“K-Balls”) before game day, similar to the process permitted for game footballs. But on Tuesday, unprompted by any reporter, Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio called out this previously anonymous resolution. Fangio had watched on Sunday as Tampa Bay Buccaneers kicker Chase McLaughlin tied for the second-longest field goal in NFL history (and the longest outdoor field goal) when he made a 65-yarder against Philadelphia. “You know what you guys have missed? Not just you but everybody is, we gave up a 65-yard field goal and a 58-yard field goal,” Fangio said in a news conference. “These kicking balls that changed this year, have drastically changed the kicking game, field goals in particular. It’s almost like they need an asterisk era, like it was the live ball era, or the asterisk for those home runs that [Barry] Bonds or [Sammy] Sosa or [Mark] McGwire were hitting. The way they have changed the ball, the NFL has drastically changed the field goals.” Fangio is correct that a small change in preparing the K-ball has made a big difference for kickers’ weekly processes across the NFL, but several special teams coaches told ESPN that they think Fangio’s comments are an exaggeration. The data doesn’t support his argument that kicking has entered into the equivalent of a steroid era. Through four weeks of the 2025 NFL season, kickers have made 56 of 76 50-plus-yard field goal attempts (73.7%) which is lower than 2024’s percentage and attempts through four games (61 of 81 attempts, 75.3%). The 2022 season set the mark for the highest percentage of 50-plus-yard makes with at least 50 attempts in four weeks — 41 of 53 for 77.4%. “There’s really nothing to see here,” said one special teams coordinator who requested anonymity because he was not authorized by his club to talk. “There may be a little extra distance on the ball. I mean, could you argue that maybe there are a couple, 3, 4 yards extra on every ball? But the odds of making the kick haven’t changed one bit, so I don’t think it’s going to change your game analytics that much.” The way Fangio initiated the conversation might lead one to suspect the NFL had juiced the balls and kickers corked their cleats, but if NFL kicking has entered into a new era in 2025, it’s a much more practical one. In 1999, the NFL placed restrictions on how teams could prepare kicker balls at a time when a narrative had formed that teams were manipulating the K-balls to gain an advantage — and to add distance on kickoffs to produce touchbacks (which were then at the 20-yard line). There were tales of teams cooking footballs in ovens, steaming them in saunas, tumbling them in dryers, filling them with helium, whatever they could do to make them softer and fatter, which allows the football to travel farther. So the NFL changed the process to stipulate that football manufacturer Wilson shipped the K-balls straight to the officiating crew’s hotel, allowing officials to transport the fresh-out-of-the-box footballs to the stadium on the day of the game. Teams were limited to 60 minutes to prepare their three K-balls, using only water, towels, brushes and tacky sponges. Meanwhile the other game balls, the Q-balls, (quarterback balls), could be worked up all week and used in practice. “We were in a mad scramble, and for what reason?” asked the special teams coordinator. “Three brand new balls out of a box, and the equipment guys would be scrambling to get these balls done for the officials [to inspect] prior to the game. The guy would be sweating — it was a workout.” The coordinator’s story exemplifies why this process was “prehistoric.” During a game after 1999, his specialists told him there was a problem with the K-balls; they were terrible. The coach did some investigating and found out that the opponent’s K-balls had essentially never been touched since they came out of the box, because the opponent’s equipment staffer injured his back in the process of partially breaking in just one of the three footballs. So from 1999 to 2024, a kicker’s field goal range could differ from the week of practice to game day, because the game footballs were not consistent with what the kickers were using in practice. Because of the rush to prepare the footballs pregame and allow time for the officiating crew to inspect them, the special teams coach said kickers sometimes didn’t even see the football until they kicked it off. And the compressed timeframe didn’t allow clubs to spend equal time conditioning each of their three allowed K-balls, so if the first football was kicked into the stands on a field goal or point-after try, or had to be replaced in bad weather, and Balls 2 and 3 weren’t as worked up, it created a disadvantage. The coordinator and another special teams coach told ESPN that the condition of the K-ball is so important that losing the first two could even shrink a team’s field goal range within a game. The allowed materials (water, towel, brush, sponge) remain the same, but this season, NFL kickers are no longer seeing their footballs for the first time minutes before the game. Equipment staff can prepare the K-balls whenever they wish without any time constraints (the same process as the Q-balls), and kickers can practice with the balls they will use in the game and better know how the football will feel coming off their foot on game day. The officiating crew still inspects and signs off on the balls before the game, confirming they are the correct size and PSI and that there’s nothing irregular. No scuffs, marks or weird-looking seams. And the special teams coach said that if an official throws out a team’s K-ball because it has been worked up too much, the league can fine the team, ensuring coaches are careful not to go too far in preparation. A league spokesman confirmed that teams are subject to discipline for this practice. Each K-ball can be used in up to three consecutive games. “The big difference is now the prep of the footballs is already done — to perfection,” a second special teams coordinator, who was also not authorized by his team to speak, said in a text. The K-ball proposal was the brainchild of Baltimore Ravens senior special teams coach Randy Brown, a veteran kicking coach who had been seeking momentum to change this process for several years. Brown and the Ravens did not respond to ESPN’s request for comment by publication. NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent said the conversation about changing the K-ball process has been going on for as long as he has been in the job (since 2014). Vincent said that as opposed to the more informal conversations of the past, the difference this year was that seven clubs brought forth a formal proposal. “When you have a collective group of clubs that said, ‘We think this could be good,’ that makes all the difference in the world,” Vincent said. The first special teams coordinator said that there was a motivating factor that got the support of multiple clubs. The coordinator said there were several instances last year in which the tracker chip came loose inside the football during the the pregame period to condition the ball and the clubs were “SOL,” stuck with kicking with the defective balls because they had no time to prepare any other replacements. When the chip comes loose inside the football, the coordinator says it affects the feel of the ball and the way it moves when kicked, and this got more teams to seriously question the old process. “Why are we in this mad rush right to prepare these footballs when the quarterback balls get prepared all week?” the coordinator said. The vote for the proposal was 31-1 in favor, with the Chicago Bears the lone dissenting vote. Vincent said there was “zero” conversation about the resolution when it came up for a vote, and that there was no concern among membership that the change to K-ball preparation might disrupt the competitive product and make longer field goals too automatic. “You take this, with the rule adjustments throughout the years for player protection or playing surfaces, and you should have better and higher percentages of kicks,” Vincent said. “And the kickers are getting stronger. They’re specialized. So should we be surprised to see 50-plus-yard field goals? No.” But the second special teams coordinator said that the consistency in the K-ball process has helped boost field goal performance. “The ball is flying 5 yards further because the balls are broken in well,” he wrote to ESPN in a text message. Vincent said he is happy with where the league’s kicking game is right now, and during the quarterly competition committee meeting this week, the group discussed the excitement that special teams plays, including blocked kicks and an increase in kickoff returns, have created this season. “After four weeks, I’ve walked out of here at the Art McNally Gameday Central, like, damn, we had three walk-off field goals today!” Vincent said. “And it’s not just walk-off. They’re not like they are 30 yards, they are kicking that thing from 50-plus, and they’re walking off.” Vincent also said that the competition committee discussed the K-ball preparation change for “10 seconds” on their quarterly call. The NFL’s slides from the meeting examine a “potential K-ball effect” and tracked field goal percentages and distances and punt yards from 2021 to 2025, to monitor any impact from the K-ball update. The slides cite a “continued increase in long Field Goal Attempts, though 2025 looks like 2024” and “no evidence that the punt play was impacted by the K-ball rules change.” “The data speaks for itself,” Vincent said. “Something that we will just keep monitoring.” |
