| Gregg Rosenthal of NFL.com has a list of 25 players that will be free agents at the end of the season if nothing like a contract extension happens. Six of the 25 are Rams. The 2027 free-agent class, much like the 2027 NFL Draft class, looks better than usual. History indicates they both won’t appear as promising by spring. Early contract extensions, trades and franchise tags will take many of the players listed below off the board before free agency officially opens on March 11. Still, some teams (hello, Rams) won’t be able to keep everyone. 1 Puka Nacua LAR WRNacua would already be paid long-term if not for his immaturity off the field. On it, he’s off to one of the best starts to a career for any receiver in league history. 2 George Pickens DAL WRThe Cowboys don’t sound particularly interested in paying Pickens beyond this season to be Robin to Ceedee Lamb’s Batman. All signs from training camp point to Pickens backing up his breakout ’25 campaign. 3 Tucker Kraft GB TEBoth the Packers and Kraft have expressed confidence that a deal will get done soon, despite last November’s ACL tear. The 6-foot-5, 259-pounder has rare value as a complete tight end. 4 Kobie Turner LAR DTThe 89th pick of the 2023 draft, Turner has developed into one of the best interior pass rushers in the NFL. Playing next to Aaron Donald should only help him. 5 Byron Young LAR EdgeYoung is another great development story for the Rams, equally adept at bending the edge as a pass rusher and finishing plays in run defense. Last season, he had 29 QB hits and 12 sacks, numbers that should give him a higher profile. 6 Baker Mayfield TB QBMayfield has stabilized his career in Tampa despite his streakiness. He’s going to be a starter next year and is likely to remain with the Bucs if he prospers in 2026. 7 Sam LaPorta DET TELaPorta is just a tick below the best tight ends in the league in blocking and athleticism. He’ll get huge money if he puts the injuries behind him. 8 Quenton Nelson IND OGAn eventual Hall of Fame candidate, Nelson is coming off a strong season. He entered his 30s in March, but great guards often age well. 9 Brian Branch DET SA top-10 safety immediately upon entering the league, Branch could climb even higher in these rankings if he can stay healthy in 2026. 10 Tuli Tuipulotu LAC EdgeWhile Tuipulotu doesn’t wow you with any one elite trait, his strength and doggedness make him very productive. We ranked him as a top-25 edge defender on NFL Daily. 11 Steve Avila LAR OGA starter at guard since his rookie season, Avila is an imposing threat who is equally stout as a run blocker and pass protector. Players with his strength and consistency get at least $20 million per year in today’s market. 12 Kyler Murray MIN QBThis ranking is a hedge. Either Murray rejuvenates his career like Sam Darnold in Minnesota and makes $45 million-plus per year or he slips into the realm of permanent bridge quarterback. 13 Joey Porter Jr. PIT CBLike a lot of great man-coverage cornerbacks, Porter knows how good he is. The Steelers have been with him through some ups and downs; they should want to retain him during his prime. 14 DJ Turner II CIN CBBased on 2025 tape, Turner was a top-10 NFL cornerback. Maintaining that level at a volatile position could lead to a franchise tag in Cincinnati. 15 YaYa Diaby TB EdgeDiaby is one of the best pocket pushers in the NFL. He’s also tough to move off his spot in the running game because he’s so strong. 16 Kevin Dotson LAR OGThis is the fifth player (and second interior lineman) from the Rams to make this list. Dotson is a favorite in Los Angeles for his attitude and aggression in the run game. Both he and Steve Avila were ranked in the top 15 at guard by PFF in 2025. 17 Riley Moss DEN CBLook past the penalties last season and you’ll see that Moss has developed into a plus starter at cornerback in Denver. 18 Chase Brown CIN RBA three-down threat, Brown is underrated as a receiver and in escaping tight spaces. He’s a complete back who could have a James Cook-like trajectory. 19 Moro Ojomo PHI DLThe Eagles can’t pay everyone, so Ojomo could be the rare talented lineman to leave Philadelphia for more cash elsewhere. 20 Parker Washington JAX WROne of the biggest surprises in Jacksonville last season, Washington is the type of do-everything receiver who can fit into any scheme. 21 Mike Onwenu NE OLOnwenu took a surprising paycut to remain with the Patriots, but he’s a versatile lineman who can play inside and out. His roller-coaster career has included some very high highs when he’s been right. 22 Josh Downs IND WRDowns can be one of the league’s best slot receivers when healthy. 23 Jessie Bates ATL SIn a thin year for free-agent safeties, Bates still brings veteran know-how. 24 Andrew Van Ginkel MIN EdgeVan Ginkel might fit best in a Brian Flores-type defense, but a few more have popped up around the league to help his market value. 25 Davante Adams LAR WRHe may not win as regularly down the field, but Adams’ release package still gets open in the red zone and on third down. |
| NFC NORTH |
| CHICAGOTwo of Chicago’s top offensive threats left Thursday’s practice – but at least for RB D’ANDRE SWIFT it doesn’t seem serious. Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com: The Bears saw two offensive players leave practice early on Thursday and a report updates the reason why one of them left the field. Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that running back D’Andre Swift had a cramp. Reporters at the practice said that Swift was holding his midsection as he made his way to the sidelines. There’s no word on Swift’s outlook, but the Bears will take a few days off before returning to finalize their preparations for their Week 1 trip to Carolina and a cramp would not seem to be a long-term injury. That would be good news as Kyle Monangai is questionable to play due to a hyperextended knee. Odunze’s condition has not received a similar update, but reporters at the practice said he was trying to get back into the workout so the Bears may have avoided major injuries on both fronts. |
| DETROITAlbert Breer of SI.com with a good look at QB JARED GOFF: Jared Goff knows you haven’t changed your mind. He knows it was made up as his half-decade run as the Rams’ quarterback circled the drain. Back then, in late 2020 and early 2021, Sean McVay was frustrated as his team kept hitting a glass ceiling. There was friction. Then, Goff was dealt. Or dumped, as most people saw it, into Los Angeles’s blockbuster trade to get Matthew Stafford, with Detroit taking on Goff’s monster contract as part of the deal that landed the Lions two first-round picks and a third. Only Dan Campbell and Brad Holmes never saw it that way, and the proof is on the depth chart. Five and a half years later, Goff’s still their starting quarterback, and now has been a Lion, believe it or not, for longer than he was a Ram. And yet, a lot of people still can’t wrap their heads around what Goff has become. Again. “You’re not wrong,” said Campbell, when confronted with the idea that Goff doesn’t get near the credit he deserves. “Yeah, totally,” he added. “But as we know, it doesn’t matter. I mean, we can’t change that. Like, it doesn’t matter. All that matters is we keep winning, and you win the big one, man. You win your division, and then you find a way to win the big one. And then, so be it. And if you still don’t get respect, who gives a crap, because you won, and nobody can take that away from you. “So, yeah, absolutely. I mean, he is massively underrated. This is a quarterback that plays the quarterback position—he knows how to play quarterback. When you gotta have it, [he] can stand in the pocket, make an accurate throw, an accurate read, and that’s what the quarterback position is. And he’s a rare breed of man.” To be clear, Campbell’s take does matter to Goff. As for what other folks think? Goff doesn’t really care. But most around him are like Campbell—a little miffed that others can’t see what they do. From a team standpoint, it’s pretty cut and dried. Goff’s taken two franchises to the conference championship game, and neither team was in a good place before he arrived. Goff was drafted by the Rams in 2016, joining a team that hadn’t made the playoffs in over a decade and one that was in the midst of a relocation. He was traded to the Lions in 2021, when Detroit had gone 30 years since its last playoff win, 38–6, over the Cowboys in the divisional round on Jan. 5, 1992. Goff had rough first seasons in both places. By his third year as a Ram, he was playing in the Super Bowl. In his third year as a Lion, he was back in the NFC title game. Goff’s sustained excellenceThat path is different to be sure. There are similarities to Baker Mayfield—another former No. 1 pick traded after he led the Browns to their first playoff win in a generation—and maybe less with Sam Darnold, Daniel Jones and Geno Smith, who had less success in their first stops. What the other reclamations lack is the level of team success Goff has carried over from his first home to his second, or twin rebuilds he was a part of. Goff does feel a kinship with them, saying, “It’s not too dissimilar from those guys. There’s mutual respect between myself and them.” He does, however, acknowledge the difference. “What do I make of it?” he says, smiling. “I’m just trying to continue to get better. I really, really, really, honestly ignore all of it and think about who matters and whose opinions I really care about, which is my coaches and my teammates, and how can I improve that daily? How can I improve their vision of me daily? And that’s really all I care about. I really, truly don’t care [about] the outside stuff. “Of course, you hear it sometimes, and it’ll be like a baby ignition sometimes, but if you don’t have the internal fuel, that fire will burn out.” “So, yes, it’s driven me for sure. … When I got traded, subconsciously, obviously, you never want that to happen again. So every day in practice was like, ‘I need to prove myself.’ And not that I wasn’t working hard in L.A. and trying my best. I certainly was. But I think realizing how quickly things can change, I mean, it was …” As for Goff’s stated goal—to get better—that’s happened, too. He was fifth and eighth in passer rating in his first and second years with McVay, respectively. He’s been in the top 10 in passer rating the past four years under Campbell, coming in second in his final year under Ben Johnson and third last year under the since-fired offensive coordinator Johnny Morton. His career rating of 96.8 is better than Josh Allen’s and Justin Herbert’s and, yes, Stafford’s, too. That, of course, doesn’t necessarily mean he’s better than those guys. But it does speak to the level of play he’s sustained and how he produced in different environments and systems. And, yes, the benefits he’s taken from getting knocked down and having to dust himself off. “I’ve always known I’m tough mentally, but I think it’s certainly made me tougher,” Goff said. “It’s made me more perseverant. It’s when you see the bottom—and again, it’s relative to playing football—but when you see what rock bottom looks like, being traded, going 3–13, starting the next year at 1–6, that stretch of two years is about as hard as it’s going to get, other than not winning a game. When you see what that looks like, you become so much more thankful, knowing you never want to go back there. “So, yes, it’s driven me for sure. … When I got traded, subconsciously, obviously, you never want that to happen again. So every day in practice was like, I need to prove myself. And not that I wasn’t working hard in L.A. and trying my best. I certainly was. But I think realizing how quickly things can change, I mean, it was …” It was a quarterback fighting for his spot, knowing how quickly everything could change. “Yeah, every day,” Goff responded. “And even though I’m a starter and I have been for five years here, I don’t think that’ll ever leave me. And I think that’s a really good thing.” Goff excels despite changesThis year, more has changed for Goff than at any point since he became a Lion. A new coordinator, Drew Petzing, came in from outside the Campbell coaching orbit. All-Pro Penei Sewell is moving from right to left tackle, and rookie Blake Miller is starting opposite him. A new center, Cade Mays, was imported to take Frank Ragnow’s old spot, though he’s hurt now. And so, again, Goff has to be the bellwether amid the turnover. The head coach sees him as ideal because he thought Goff would be good to lead another rebuild in the first place. As Saints assistant head coach, Campbell faced Goff in the Superdome in the 2018 NFC title game, saw a steady hand regardless of what was around him, and projected (correctly) that he was built for any storms ahead. As a leader. As a player. As a person. “Because, first of all, he gives a crap,” Campbell says. “And he is very hard on himself. He demands a lot of himself. And he’s unbelievably coachable. Like, you coach him hard, man, and he wants you to, because he wants to get better. But he also knows if we get after him, everybody on that team sees it. And so nobody’s got an excuse. If we’re getting on Jared Goff, then we can get on the rookie free agent, and, listen, man, nobody’s off limits. “It means that much to him. … And then, man, look at the guy. First of all, he can see, he’s big, he’s tall, he’s tough, he’s smart. His processing speed reminds me of [Drew] Brees. He sees it, he sees it. And every year it’s gotten faster and faster. And then watch him under duress. Nobody makes a more accurate throw under duress than Jared Goff.” The plan for 2026, for Petzing, is to leverage all that by melding Goff’s past, in different systems, with his present—that being all that he’s gotten from a decade playing. On the first count, Petzing is reemphasizing elements of Johnson’s offense (particularly in the keeper game), under which Goff had his best individual days as a quarterback, and also taking things that the QB would be familiar with from playing for McVay in Los Angeles. On the second, the new OC is giving Goff a good level of autonomy at the line of scrimmage to play the cat-and-mouse game with the defense right to the snap. Which, of course, is a far cry from the criticism he once got for having McVay in his ear until the 15-second cutoff on headset communication. That, in turn, has become another area where people haven’t updated their opinions on who Goff is, where he’s not the same as he was, even just a few years ago. “All the presnap stuff, where I can get us in and out of the best play and help the O-line if I can see some things, pick up the blitz, change the play, the freedom I’ve been given here [in Detroit] is much more than I was given previously,” Goff said. “So you’re able to learn through some mistakes. Over the last five years, being able to change the play or get in and out of things has been fun.” And that level of ownership of the scheme is one area where he sees himself playing faster and better than he ever has before. “The guys who have played 10-plus years, you’ve seen a lot of coverages, you’ve seen a lot of things, and you’re able to eliminate options pretty quickly, so if there’s four guys out in a pattern, I know two of them aren’t going to be open, I can really work two of them based on what I know about the coverage and using your cues presnap,” Goff says. “And you’re able to lower your options, which increases your odds, right? “So, that. And I think my feet, being able to, again, move through progressions quickly with my feet is about as good as I’ve ever been. Accuracy, I’ve always been pretty accurate, but that’s improving, too.” That all plays into how he’s gotten here, where few figured he’d get, headed into his sixth year as the Lions’ quarterback. Goff’s ‘healthy perspective’Goff can say he doesn’t care what people say. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t hear it. He does. Because the people he’s close to have told him. And while he can easily brush off what the public thinks of him, the part he doesn’t like is when it gets to his family and best friends, who pass along to him what bothers them about the commentary. “Of course, and if I was in their shoes, I’d do the same thing,” he said. “I think it’s really hard for them not to want to make you feel better when things are bad, and people are saying things. And one overarching thing for me is trying to have a really good perspective. So you have all these voices and opinions for 10 years, but people have longer careers than me, and for some, it’s 10 years longer. And having a perspective of, like, I’m playing football, my family’s healthy, my wife’s healthy, I’m healthy, I’m fortunate to be rewarded for my play. “Having a healthy perspective of that can kind of wash it away.” As part of that, going into his second NFL decade at 31 years old, he’s thought some about how much longer he wants to go, and the answer, for now, is, “As long as I’m able to help a team win a championship. I don’t think that’s one year. I think that’s a long time, but if I feel like I can lead a team to winning a Super Bowl, that’s how long I want to play.” And with Petzing, Sewell, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jameson Williams, Sam LaPorta, Jahmyr Gibbs, Aidan Hutchinson, Jack Campbell, Alim McNeill, Kerby Joseph and Brian Branch alongside him—the young homegrown core he helped raise—Goff sees the opportunity to do that now, and for the foreseeable future. Like he was in L.A., he’s in the center of it, as the tone-setter and triggerman. Best of all, those who matter to him most can see it clearly. “The guts, the moxie, when you’ve got all those intangibles with the skill set he’s got, tell me how he fails,” Campbell says. “I know the answer—he doesn’t fail.” So, for Goff, this isn’t about changing anyone’s mind. It never has been. With the people who really count to him, that was never necessary. Lions head coach Dan Campbell was briefly Drew Brees’ teammate in New Orleans, and was on the Saints’ coaching staff for the last five seasons of Brees’ career. And Campbell says that in Detroit today, he sees a quarterback who reminds him of Brees. Some might say Jared Goff hasn’t earned the comparison to Brees, who was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame on the first ballot this year. Campbell says Goff absolutely has. “I mean, he is massively underrated,” Campbell said of Goff, via Albert Breer of SI.com. “This is a quarterback that plays the quarterback position—he knows how to play quarterback. When you gotta have it, [he] can stand in the pocket, make an accurate throw, an accurate read, and that’s what the quarterback position is. And he’s a rare breed of man.” Campbell said Goff can read defenses as well as any quarterback. “His processing speed reminds me of Brees. He sees it, he sees it. And every year it’s gotten faster and faster. And then watch him under duress. Nobody makes a more accurate throw under duress than Jared Goff,” Campbell said. Campbell and Goff are heading into their sixth season together in Detroit, and although they’ve already turned the franchise around, Campbell believes Goff’s best football is still ahead of him. Goff turns 32 in October. |
| NFC WEST |
| ARIZONAWR MICHAEL “Mike” WILSON of the Cardinals gets a nice second contract after a breakout 2025 where he eclipsed WR MARVIN HARRISON, Jr., once the 4th overall pick, as Arizona’s best reliever. Jeremy Bergman of NFL.com: Arizona is locking down one of its top weapons for the long haul. The Cardinals have agreed to terms with receiver Michael Wilson on a three-year, $75 million contract extension, NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport and ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported on Thursday. Wilson’s deal includes $47 million guaranteed and can be worth up to $78 million, per Rapoport and Schefter. The 2023 third-round pick will be signed in Arizona through the 2029 season. The Cardinals later announced the deal on Thursday. Though Marvin Harrison Jr. and rookie Jeremiyah Love garner most of the offensive headlines in the desert, Wilson enters the 2026 season as the Cardinals’ most reliable producer outside of Trey McBride. Since entering the league out of Stanford in 2023, he’s recorded at least 545 receiving yards and three touchdowns in each campaign. Wilson logged his first 1,000-yard season in 2025, hauling in seven touchdowns on 78 receptions and targeted by Cardinals quarterbacks a career-high 126 times. As the campaign wore on and Arizona fell out of playoff contention, Wilson saw even more action. His target share rose from 11.0% over the first five weeks to 23.2% from Week 6 on, per NFL Pro, as Arizona was trailing or tied on 651 of 769 plays (84.7%) from Week 6 through the regular season, the fifth-highest rate in the NFL. With a young roster and first-year head coach in Mike LaFleur, the Cardinals could be trailing often again in 2026. At least they’ll have the steady Wilson to look to, for now and the years to come. |
| AFC EAST |
| NEW YORK JETSOnce the gold standard of kickers, then out of the league amidst behavior allegations, PK JUSTIN TUCKER has a tryout with the Jets. Jason Owens of YahooSports.com: Former Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker worked out for the New York Jets on Wednesday, according to multiple reports. Tucker was part of a group workout that also featured Michael Badgley and Josh Karty, NFL insider Jordan Schultz reports. The Jets are in search of a kicker after Jason Sanders missed an extra point and a 54-yard field-goal attempt in Friday’s preseason loss to the Giants, concluding a failed competition for the job from training camp. The Jets have since waived Sanders and claimed Blake Grupe off waivers. Sanders is back with the team on the practice squad. Tucker was an eight-time Pro Bowler and five-time first-team All-Pro for the Baltimore Ravens in 13 seasons with the team. The Ravens released Tucker in 2025 after 16 women accused him of sexual misconduct that he allegedly engaged in repeatedly over the course of years during massage therapy sessions. Tucker has denied the allegations and was not criminally charged. Weeks after the Ravens cut Tucker, the NFL announced he was suspended for 10 games for violating the league’s personal conduct policy. Tucker has not kicked in an NFL game since. The Saints and Colts both reportedly worked Tucker out over the summer, but he did not make either roster. With New York’s kicker position still unsettled, the Jets are giving Tucker a shot. Tucker was one of the most accurate and reliable kickers in NFL history during his tenure with the Ravens. But his performance declined in his final season with the team prior to the news of the scandal and his release. He converted a career-low 73.3% of his field-goal attempts in 2024, well below his career conversion rate of 89.1%. Tucker is 36 years old. |
| THIS AND THAT |
| BATON ROUGE JUDGE ALLOWS BATON ROUGE SCHOOL TO SIGN FORMER PROSLSU got the ruling it wanted (in a case purportedly brought by some aggrieved players) from a judge elected by voters in the Baton Rouge area. Dae’Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris are currently cleared to return to college football after brief stints in the NFL, according to a judge’s orders issued Thursday evening, setting up a dramatic showdown between the SEC and LSU leading into its season-opening game this weekend. Wright and Harris, both former Ole Miss players, said in a lengthy court hearing Thursday they intend to join their former coach Lane Kiffin during his debut season at LSU, which opens play Saturday night against Clemson. They are among a group of 42 athletes from various sports — including former Notre Dame pass rusher Junior Tuihalamaka, who also plans to play for LSU — who are suing the NCAA to play a fifth and final season of college sports. “I look forward to putting on a college uniform again,” Wright said after the decision. The two former Rebels are among a handful of football players who have successfully petitioned state courts in Texas and Louisiana for permission to play in college after signing pro contracts and spending most of August in NFL training camps. Administrators at the NCAA, SEC and most of their schools are adamantly opposed to the players’ return, but Judge William Jorden approved a preliminary injunction Thursday that prohibits the NCAA and SEC from punishing any school that puts them on the field. The ruling does not apply to all athletes, only those named in the lawsuit. Attorneys representing the SEC in court say they plan to file an appeal to Jorden’s decision as soon as possible. The SEC says it reaffirmed a rule last week that was designed to allow its commissioner, Greg Sankey, to punish any school that added a former NFL, NBA or WNBA player to its roster by suspending the team’s coach for half of his program’s season and levying fines that could reach tens of millions of dollars. The players’ attorneys argued the league added more specifics to its professional ban last week in an effort to work around the judge’s orders. “That sounds an awful lot like wide-open collusion,” Jorden said from the bench while listening to closing arguments Thursday. Every school except for LSU voted to approve the suggested sanctions, Sankey said in court Thursday. Multiple university presidents from SEC schools told ESPN this week they “will not budge” on their stance against pro players returning to college. The SEC would be violating a court order if the league office sanctioned LSU. The league filed a separate lawsuit against LSU and Kiffin on Thursday morning, asking a federal judge in Alabama to give them a clear path to enforcing the new punishments established last week. The judge in that case has not yet issued any ruling. LSU must finalize its roster by Friday, and may have to make that decision with the uncertainty of conflicting court orders. The dramatic showdown between LSU and the rest of the SEC is an early test to the league’s ability to govern itself in the absence of effective oversight from the NCAA. Thursday’s hearing, which unfolded less than three miles and 48 hours away from the start of football season, captured the current nationwide turmoil of a college sports industry that is struggling to agree on and enforce a stable set of rules. “Honestly, it’s embarrassing,” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney told reporters earlier this week. “We have no rules. There’s no governance. It’s a joke. There are zero rules, and when you enforce rules someone just goes and finds a judge that says, ‘No, you can’t enforce that.'” The NCAA changed its eligibility rules in June, moving from a system that allowed players to compete in four seasons during a five-year window to a system that allows players to compete in all five seasons of a five-year window. The change created a group of outgoing seniors who exhausted their eligibility under the old rules, but would have one more season under the new rules. The NCAA’s Division I Board of Directors decided not to grant those players an extra season, saying it would unfairly take away opportunities from incoming freshmen. Hundreds of outgoing seniors who competed in each of their first four years on campus joined a wave of lawsuits in the last several months claiming the NCAA was illegally denying them a fifth season of eligibility. They’ve had mixed results, with some judges granting injunctions or restraining orders to allow athletes to compete this season while others have denied similar requests. The NCAA has appealed each of the restraining orders. A small number of those athletes signed contracts with teams in pro leagues during the short timespan when they believed they had no chance to play another season in college. Those players and their attorneys say this specific group should not be punished for joining NFL teams during a time when the rules for playing in college were uncertain. They also argue that the NCAA and its conferences are unfairly attempting to block them from playing while dozens of current college athletes are allowed to compete despite having previously earned money in European professional basketball leagues. Jason Williams, one of the lawyers representing the SEC on Thursday, said granting an injunction in this case would harm the “bright line” that separates college and pro sports. Ryan Downton, one of the players’ attorneys, argued that European players and other exceptions the NCAA has made in the past have already blurred that line. “If the line is so clear, why can’t they articulate it?” Downton asked in court. Many college sports officials say they are afraid that the judges’ orders set a precedent that future athletes could use to jump back and forth between college and pro teams, further eroding one of the last barriers that separates the NCAA from professional sports. All four power conferences created similar new rules last week in an effort to ban players who have signed some types of pro contracts. In a separate lawsuit filed in Texas last week, a judge granted similar protection to three other players who signed NFL contracts — linebacker Wesley Bissainthe and receivers Jordan Hudson and Omari Evans. None of that trio has said which college team they would want to join if they return to school. Another player initially involved in the Louisiana case, former LSU linebacker Jack Pyburn, decided to remain in the NFL after being signed by the Kansas City Chiefs this week. Wright had 39 catches for 635 yards as a tight end for Ole Miss last season and would join an LSU roster that currently features preseason All-SEC tight end Trey’Dez Green. Harris is a 6-foot-8, 330-pound defensive tackle who had 58 tackles and three sacks last season. College football teams are allowed to keep 105 players on their roster. LSU players told the judge Thursday that the team would not have to cut any players to remain under the 105-player limit if it adds Wright, Harris and other players in the lawsuit. Kiffin told reporters earlier this week he “struggled” with the impact the late additions could have on his locker room, but said his current players were in favor of adding new players to the team days before the season begins. “Every one of them was emphatic about, ‘If they can help us win, bring ’em,'” Kiffin said Monday at his weekly news conference. “We understand we have a team that’s practiced together and worked together all offseason, but one of them said, ‘Hey, this is how it works at the next level, and this is how the real world works.'” Anticipating the loss in LSU’s home court, the SEC filed a civil suit in a court they deem more favorable to their interests. Mark Schlabach of ESPN.com on the legal action which goes after LSU Coach Lane Kiffin directly. The SEC sued LSU in U.S. District Court in Alabama on Thursday, alleging the university is violating the league’s First Amendment right of expressive association by ignoring SEC rules that prohibit signing and playing former NFL players. The lawsuit, which also names the LSU board of supervisors, LSU president Wade Rousse, athletics director Verge Ausberry and football coach Lane Kiffin as defendants, was filed while SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and others testified during a separate injunction hearing in a state court in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. During Sankey’s testimony in the state court hearing, one of the plaintiff’s attorneys brought up the newly filed federal lawsuit. The revelation sent a buzz through the packed courtroom, as few people were aware of the new development until it was mentioned. The lawsuit was filed just after midnight on Thursday morning, not during the hearing. “The SEC has endured and thrived for nearly a century because its members have adhered to that common set of rules, which each member institution, and every coach at those institutions, has agreed to follow,” the SEC’s federal lawsuit said. “Among the most fundamental of those rules are the longstanding provisions that prohibit individuals who have entered a professional draft, signed professional contracts, or been rostered on a professional athletics team from returning to compete in college athletics (the “Professionalism Rules”). “These rules are built upon an essential principle: college athletics is reserved for students who are actively pursuing an education while competing for their universities. The Professionalism Rules preserve competitive fairness, protect opportunities for high school students and current college athletes, and maintain the distinction between college and professional sports.” The SEC is asking the federal court for a preliminary and permanent injunction “prohibiting the defendants from violating the conference’s First Amendment rights by compelling the conference to associate with conduct that is contrary to the Conference’s purpose and mission,” and a preliminary and permanent injunction “barring Defendants from seeking to deter, coerce, prevent, or punish the Conference for exercising its First Amendment rights.” The lawsuit said the distinction between playing amateur and professional athletes is “critical” to the SEC’s structure and governance.– – –The SEC’s lawsuit notes that every one of its members, including LSU, affirmed that “individuals who choose to leave college athletics, sign professional playing contracts, and compete professionally should not then be permitted to return to college competition.” The lawsuit says that LSU, through Rousse, voted in favor of the SEC issuing a statement Aug. 25, in which the league affirmed its longstanding rules prohibiting SEC teams from having professional athletes on their rosters. “Despite the SEC’s longstanding rules prohibiting professional athletes from returning to college athletics, Defendants saw this as an opportunity to be exploited,” the SEC’s lawsuit said. The conference alleges its “organizational purpose and core values” are being undermined by LSU. “The SEC brings this action to vindicate its First Amendment right of expressive association, i.e. its right not to be forced to associate its competitions, brand, and championships with conduct that it has expressly condemned since the SEC’s founding. The SEC also seeks declaratory and injunctive relief to vindicate the SEC’s right to disassociate from conduct that directly undermines the SEC’s organizational purpose and core values.”– – –Louisiana state court Judge William Jorden ruled Friday that the SEC and Sankey are not allowed to punish member schools if they play a college football player who returns to campus after signing a contract with NFL teams this summer. Jorden’s ruling prohibits the SEC from enforcing a rule it affirmed last week, which threatens schools with stiff penalties for using former NFL players, including a half-season suspension for coaches, a fine that matches 50% of the sport’s annual budget and revocation of league voting rights. |
| THE RUSSINI REPORTThe Athletic investigated its former employee Dianna Russini for her work and conduct during their employee. Coverup? Expose? Let’s see what their in-house report from the well-respected Andrew Marchand says: Ex-NFL insider Dianna Russini violated The Athletic’s standards because of her undisclosed relationship with New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel, the publication’s lengthy inquiry concluded. “Specifically, when it comes to The Athletic’s standards, Russini was noncompliant,” the report said. The inquiry, publicly released Thursday, did not determine the full extent of the Russini-Vrabel relationship, which has drawn speculation after a media firestorm this spring. It also found scant evidence that it impacted Russini’s or The Athletic’s reporting on Vrabel and his teams. Russini resigned from The Athletic in April following pictures published by the New York Post’s Page Six that showed Russini and Vrabel together at a Sedona, Ariz., resort. The two were the only ones in the photos, which captured them holding hands, hugging, and, in one instance, sitting together in a pool. The whole episode, from the pictures being published to her resignation, took place over one week. “We neither completed an investigation nor reached any conclusion about the nature of the full relationship between Vrabel and Russini, but the totality of the public photographs are enough to conclude a violation of company policy,” the report said. Dianna Russini was The Athletic’s senior insider for the NFL from August 2023 until April 2026. During that time, her work appeared on the site and app, on audio and video. She also made appearances on behalf of The Athletic off platform. On April 7, 2026, Russini reached out to executives at The Athletic and The New York Times Company to tell them of an impending Page Six (New York Post) article that would suggest a romantic relationship between Russini and Mike Vrabel, the head coach of the New England Patriots. The story would be based on photographs of the pair together, taken at a…Before the Page Six photos, Russini, 43, was considered a star reporter, dueling with the top NFL insiders for scoops during her nearly three years at The Athletic. She joined the platform after eight years at ESPN. When reached for comment on the report, Russini declined to be interviewed, but gave a statement saying, “I stand by any and all reporting I’ve ever done in my career.” A spokesperson for The Athletic declined further comment. Mike Semel, The Athletic’s editorial director for standards and editorial quality, conducted the full review of Russini’s work regarding Vrabel. In the inquiry, which lasted nearly five months since the announcement of an investigation, Semel wrote that he viewed 903 stories and 77 videos published on The Athletic’s site that Russini either authored or contributed to. Semel watched or listened to 204 of Russini’s “Scoop City” podcasts for The Athletic and 25 off-platform appearances in which Russini represented the company. He also studied 75 stories by The Athletic of events involving Vrabel and his teams and compared them to coverage in other publications. Semel said he interviewed “approximately 14” Athletic staffers, who had worked with Russini. Russini was not asked to participate in the review of her work, according to a source briefed on the process who was not authorized to speak publicly about the report. While the full nature of the Russini-Vrabel relationship is still unknown, the vast majority of Russini’s work for The Athletic had nothing to do with Vrabel, the report said. Of the 903 pieces, around 5 percent were in some way about Vrabel or his teams. Of the around 46 pieces that mentioned Vrabel or his teams, nearly a third were transactional moves about trades or hires. None of them were scoops, meaning The Athletic did not report the stories exclusively. Semel said he did not investigate Russini’s personal conduct because she was no longer an employee of the company, but he continued to examine her journalism. “Russini should have disclosed to The Athletic the nature of her relationship with Vrabel to allow editors to assess the kinds of stories on which she should have been working, if any,” Semel concluded. “She did not.” While the inquiry reached no conclusion on whether the Russini-Vrabel relationship was romantic, Semel noted that Russini, after Page Six confronted her about the photos in April, waited two days before telling her editors and managers. The Athletic’s executive editor Steven Ginsberg initially supported Russini in a statement as she denied there was anything untoward. “The photos don’t represent the group of six people who were hanging out during the day,” Russini said in a statement upon the publication of the Page Six story in April. As more information came in, The Athletic, which is owned by The New York Times, adjusted its stance. Shortly after, The Athletic suspended Russini from reporting. She resigned a week after the Page Six story was published. Regarding the initial reaction, the inquiry found that Russini “told a story to explain the photos that did not align with the facts, raising issues of trust.” Although Russini’s conduct was deemed below standards, the report found limited evidence that she favored Vrabel in her writing or analysis. “Most of what Russini wrote about Vrabel or the Patriots was transactional and newsy,” Semel wrote. “In addition, I’ve not found a clear link to conclude that Russini used her platform to promote Vrabel or help his teams during her time at The Athletic.” Semel did note that there were a few times Russini wrote glowingly about Vrabel “that in hindsight are awkward or even uncomfortable.” In a column last October, she said that Vrabel returned to face his former team, the Tennessee Titans, as “New England’s hero.” Semel did not find Russini’s tone for the struggling Titans and the resurgent Patriots much different than other outlets’ coverage. She was also effusive about Vrabel on a few occasions on her “Scoop City” podcast, Semel said. During her nearly three years with the platform, The Athletic published three in-depth stories on Vrabel, Semel said. Russini had a byline on one of them, helped another reporter gain access to another and had nothing to do with a third. For an inside story about Vrabel’s gap year between his Titans and Patriots head coaching jobs by reporter Zack Rosenblatt in January 2025, Semel concluded it “likely would not have happened” without Russini’s involvement. Rosenblatt came up with the idea and asked Russini to set up a meeting with Vrabel. Russini arranged it but had nothing to do with the story that Rosenblatt had a solo byline on, according to Semel. Russini also co-bylined an analysis with Joe Rexrode in January 2024. Rexrode, the inquiry said, obtained the key information for the story. Semel said that Russini should have disclosed her relationship with Vrabel for the piece, though it “was straight down the middle and fact-based.” In December 2023, in Russini’s “What I’m hearing” column, there was an item buried deep inside about the reasoning behind Vrabel’s Titans going for a sabermetric-based two-point conversion. In all, Semel recommended an “Editor’s Note” be placed on this column and on three videos. “Of the 77 videos that featured Russini, three were specific to Vrabel,” Semel wrote. “Two were done at a joint preseason practice between the Vikings and Patriots in August 2025. They were light-hearted (“50 seconds of questions for Vrabel’s 50th birthday” and “What annoys Mike Vrabel?”). (She similarly did quick takes with Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell at the same event.) “The third was also somewhat light-hearted about a training camp fight between the Patriots and Commanders. In it, Russini discusses Vrabel’s role in breaking up the fight, and he comes across as somewhat heroic. Given the New York Post photographs, I recommend an Editor’s Note be appended to those videos.” The report also concluded that “Russini’s work was seldom reliant on Vrabel as a source or a subject. In interviews with reporters with whom she worked most closely, it was clear Russini was sourced around the NFL, not just with Vrabel or the Patriots.” According to the report, there was no suspicion that Russini was closer to Vrabel than anyone else. “But, of course, the appearances surrounding her relationship with Vrabel undermine our audience’s confidence in her impartiality,” Semel wrote. In his conclusion, Semel recommended adding a 30-minute review with the Standards Editor for any onboarding newsroom employee to clarify The Athletic’s conflict of interest guidelines. Hence, they are “more exact” and to “clarify and strongly enforce The Athletic’s sourcing standards.” Mike Florio: It took much longer than expected. In the end, it didn’t say much (if anything) that was unexpected. The Athletic has posted its internal review of former NFL Insider Dianna Russini’s reporting, following her resignation in the wake of the revelation of her relationship with Patriots coach Mike Vrabel.– – –The report apparently concludes all matters between The Athletic and Russini. And it likewise concludes the story — unless and until Russini tells her version of it. If she hopes to make the biggest splash and cause the most potential chaos, Tuesday, September 8 (the night before the Patriots-Seahawks regular-season opener), continues to be the ideal date for her next move. And this, a barebones comment from Russini: “I stand by any and all reporting I’ve ever done in my career,” Russini said in a statement to Andrew Marchand of The Athletic, while also declining to be interviewed. The issue wasn’t the accuracy of her reporting, even though The Athletic pointed out her claim that a firing of then-Titans coach Mike Vrabel was “not happening,” before he was fired. The problem was that “Russini’s relationship with Vrabel was in clear violation” of the publication’s standards. Either way, it’s the first comment she has provided on the matter since her April 14 resignation letter. It remains to be seen whether she’ll fully address the situation, before or after taking another job in sports media. |
