| NFC NORTH |
| CHICAGOQB CALEB WILLIAMS lit it up Sunday night against the Bills. YahooSports.com: We got our first glimpse of second-year Bears QB Caleb Williams under new head coach Ben Johnson. And it was a sight to behold on Sunday night, as Williams immediately led the Bears to a 92-yard scoring drive capped by a 36-yard touchdown pass against the Bills. He finished 6 of 10 for 107 yards and a touchdown in two drives, and that was likely plenty to get Bears fans everywhere excited about their new-and-improved offense.– – -Speaking on the FOX broadcast, Bears president Kevin Warren would not bit on Greg Olsen’s attempt to nail him down for the City of Chicago (rather than the County of Cook): @awfulannouncingGreg Olsen: “How important is it to you guys, at the organization, to keep the future home of the Bears in Chicago?” Kevin Warren: “One of the things about it is, Chicago, and also Arlington Heights, is in Cook County. We’re in the same county.” |
| NFC EAST |
| DALLASTodd Archer of ESPN.com pours cold water on the QB JOE MILTON hype: Through two games, Joe Milton III has not done enough to convince the Cowboys he is the backup quarterback to Dak Prescott. Milton was intercepted in the second quarter forcing a deep ball into coverage. He took a sack on the first drive that led to a safety. He missed reads. It didn’t help that former Cowboys backup Cooper Rush started for the Ravens. Yes, Rush had two first-half picks and one was returned for a touchdown, but he also had a TD pass and smartly got the Ravens into field goal position late in the second quarter. The Cowboys have given Milton all of the second-team work this summer. It might be time to give Will Grier more work in the final week of the preseason. More from Garrett Podell at CBSSports.com: Both starts involved deep ball, end zone interceptions into double coverage, and Milton himself grading himself somewhere between a D and a D- for his own performance. He arguably took a step back Saturday night in Dallas’ 31-13 preseason home defeat against the Ravens given he had a week to work on the flaws he displayed in Los Angeles, but instead those same woes — holding on to the ball too long, taking unwise risks and not readily throwing with anticipation — seemed perhaps exacerbated. “If it wasn’t for the interception, I feel like it would have been a smooth C+, but right now, I still feel like I give myself a D,” Milton said postgame Saturday night. “I got to clean my eyes up and just understand if the boundary safety does roll down on that side, just suspect something over the top if it isn’t Cover Zero.” Despite a perceivable preseason backslide from Milton, head coach Brian Schottenheimer still believes he has a reliable backup quarterback behind three-time Pro Bowler Dak Prescott. Milton’s night was certainly a stark contrast to Cooper Rush, Milton’s predecessor with Dallas behind Prescott for most of the last eight seasons. Rush, who started on Saturday for the visiting Ravens in place of All-Pro Lamar Jackson, helped guide the Ravens on four scoring drives with 16 first downs for 273 total yards in the first half. Rush finished his night at the half with 198 yards, a touchdown pass (one yard) and two interceptions on 20 of 30 passing. It was a reminder of the steadiness the Cowboys might be missing in their quarterback room behind Prescott at the moment. “I think we have to believe that. I think we do believe that,” Schottenheimer said postgame Saturday night. … “Cooper Rush has played in this league a long time. What he did tonight didn’t surprise anyone in the first half. I’ve seen him do that for the last three years. Joe Milton is in Year 2. So again, I’m not panicked. It’s not just them. It’s us as coaches, it’s the other players. It’s all of it.” |
| NEW YORK GIANTSIs this injury to WR MALIK NABORS something to worry about? Jordan Raanan of ESPN.com: – New York Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers hasn’t practiced in 11 days while dealing with what multiple sources told ESPN was a minor back problem. One source characterized it as “normal camp tightness.” Nabers was held out of Saturday night’s 31-12 win over the New York Jets. He has missed each of the Giants’ first two preseason games. The Giants have only one full practice this week, and it’s scheduled for Tuesday. They will have a walk-through Monday and play their final preseason game Thursday night at MetLife Stadium against the New England Patriots. So, although Nabers could be back soon, it might not be this week given the tight schedule and quick turnaround. At this point it would seem logical for Nabers to miss the entire preseason. The regular season opens in three weeks. That should be enough time for Nabers to get ready for the Washington Commanders and the grueling early-season schedule that follows, in part because the Giants appear to be bringing him back slowly. There is no reason to rush their most explosive offensive player onto the field for the preseason. The Giants are handling the situation with caution considering how important Nabers is to their offense. He also missed the spring with a toe injury and left a practice earlier this summer after landing on a shoulder. New York has been tightlipped on injuries throughout training camp. This situation is no different despite multiple inquiries. “Not going to get into any injuries,” coach Brian Daboll said late last week. “[Nabers is] working hard to get back.” The same holds true for standout left tackle Andrew Thomas. He is on the physically unable to perform list as he rehabs from Lisfranc surgery last year. General manager Joe Schoen said at the beginning of the summer that the expectation was that Thomas would be ready for Week 1. Daboll would only say Sunday that Thomas was “getting better” and that he was “on his rehab schedule” as the team took matters day-by-day. The situation seems to be similar with Nabers, who played it somewhat coy when he didn’t finish practice Aug. 6. He said that he was listening to the trainers and that it was all part of the plan, but it wasn’t clear at the time what had sent him to the sideline. “Just everything,” he said. “Just, like I said, the process is just making sure I’m as healthy as I need to be when it’s time to play ball.” Nabers was on the sideline in uniform during parts of last Wednesday’s joint practice in East Rutherford with the Jets, though he didn’t participate. He appeared to be moving around well Saturday night while watching pregame warmups in street clothes. He stood on the sideline during the game. Those are positive signs as he has an eye on the season opener Sept. 7 in Maryland against the Commanders. Raanan also has an update on QB JAXSON DART: Jaxson Dart’s second preseason performance for the New York Giants might have been even better than the first, which was pretty good in its own right. Dart went 14-of-16 passing for 137 yards with a passing touchdown and another score rushing on Saturday night in his first game at MetLife Stadium against the rival New York Jets. The first-round pick completed his final 13 passes and led the Giants on a pair of touchdown drives to begin the second half of a 31-12 win. “He executed well,” coach Brian Daboll said of his young quarterback’s performance. Dart, the 25th pick in this year’s draft, keeps passing the tests thrown at him by his own coach. Daboll threw him into Saturday night’s game for one random play in the middle of a second-quarter drive in place of starter Russell Wilson. Dart threw a screen pass for 30 yards to tight end Theo Johnson before returning to the sideline. “I was like, all right, I didn’t know that I was going to go in for one play and then come back out,” Dart said. “So I think that that’s just [that] he’s making up scenarios where you never know when your number’s going to be called, and you got to be ready for that. He’s done it in practices. So I think that that kind of taught me that I need to continue to warm up on the sideline. You just never know when things like that are going to happen.” Daboll said he told nobody, not even his coaches, that he was going to do that Saturday. It’s all part of the quarterback development plan that he’s created for Dart, who has incrementally improved throughout the summer. It has led to Dart having the look of a franchise quarterback in his first two preseason games. He’s a combined 26-of-35 for 291 yards with two touchdowns passing and one rushing against the Buffalo Bills and Jets. His performance has Giants fans hopeful that he might be the one to ultimately get them back on track. Despite the success, Dart remains the team’s No. 2 quarterback behind Wilson, even though the rookie handled a drive with the first-team offensive line late in the first half. That was the first time this summer that Dart spent a significant amount of time working with the starting unit. “Russ is our starter, and we’re going to keep developing Jaxson,” Daboll said. Scott Kacsmar notes the Dart effect: @ScottKacsmarFile this under “it’s only preseason” But the #Giants have gone over 30 points and 300 passing yards in consecutive games. Something they’ve only ever done in real games in 2011 and 1963 (3 games). They were 32nd with 118.7 passing YPG and 10 PPG in the 2024 preseason |
| PHILADELPHIAThe Eagles have acquired WR JOHN METCHIE, a Texans 2nd round pick who started out with leukemia and has not thrived in Houston. Charean Williams of ProFootballTalk.com: The Texans and Eagles have agreed to a trade. Houston will send wide receiver John Metchie to Philadelphia, Adam Schefter of ESPN reports. The Eagles will send tight end Harrison Bryant to the Texans, with the teams swapping late-round picks, DJ Bien-Aime of ESPN reports. Houston gets a fifth-round pick and Philadelphia a sixth-rounder, with the two teams reacquiring their own 2026 picks that were part of the C.J. Gardner-Johnson trade. Metchie reunites with DeVonta Smith with the Eagles after the two played together at Alabama. Metchie improves the team’s depth at the position with A.J. Brown, Smith and Jahan Dotson at the top of the depth chart. In 13 games last season, Metchie made 24 receptions for 254 yards and a touchdown. He caught 16 passes for 158 yards in 2023. The former second-round pick missed his rookie season while recovering from acute promyelocytic leukemia. Bryant has 98 receptions for 877 yards and 10 touchdowns in five NFL seasons, four with the Browns and one with the Raiders. The Eagles signed Bryant as a free agent in March. |
| WASHINGTONIs a contract on the way for WR TERRY McLAURIN. Dean Jones of RiggosRag.com: It didn’t look like Adam Peters and Terry McLaurin would back down in their ongoing contract battle. However, the Washington Commanders’ wide receiver took a major step in the right direction when hope was quickly fading. And fans are eagerly anticipating what comes next. McLaurin was activated off the physically unable to perform list. He didn’t practice on Saturday, but the wideout is now committed to rejoining his teammates on the field sooner rather than later. Some of the team’s passionate supporters thought the Commanders would confirm a lucrative new contract for McLaurin after this news became official. That hasn’t arrived as yet, but it might not be much longer before this long-running drama concludes. Commanders could be edging closer to Terry McLaurin contract extension at long lastThe former third-round pick out of Ohio State said earlier this offseason that he’d find it difficult to practice unless significant progress was being made in negotiations. McLaurin coming off PUP is a sign that things are progressing well, although that’s not been confirmed. Everyone was becoming increasingly frustrated by McLaurin’s absence. Offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury made his feelings known, so maybe his blunt message resonated with the wideout. But it’s the money that will talk loudest when it’s all said and done. McLaurin wants to be paid among the league’s best. Peters has been extremely reluctant to meet these demands, given the fact that this new deal won’t kick in until the second-team All-Pro is 31 years old. Every card has been played by the player’s representatives. And it’s been a distraction the Commanders didn’t need with so much on the line in 2025. There is hope, but reports are conflicting. Some insiders still think both parties are a long way from finding some middle ground. Others believe an extension will be agreed upon in the coming days. It’s a waiting game for fans, but one cannot see this latest development as anything other than positive. Does Rickey Scoops know what he (or she) is talking about? @RickeyScoopsSpooky season 👻 is coming! Terry McLaurin will be getting a new deal from the #Commanders worth $30M per year and the extension should be completed before the season as details are still being finalized. A new deal for Scary Terry is coming! #RaiseHail #BarkingNews– – -Jordan Schultz hears that the Commanders are shopping RB BRIAN ROBINSON: @Schultz_ReportSources: The #Commanders have been shopping RB Brian Robinson Jr. to teams around the NFL. The former 3rd-round pick out of Alabama is entering the final year of his contract. Is RB RACHAAD WHITE in the same situation with the Buccaneers? |
| NFC SOUTH |
| NEW ORLEANSKatherine Terrell of ESPN.com speculates that QB SPENCER RATTLER has moved ahead in the Saints QB battle after his play against Jacksonville this weekend: The quarterback competition might go down to the wire. Spencer Rattler looked like he had the edge over Tyler Shough in this game despite playing in the second half with backups. Shough played four drives and gained only 9 net yards on the first two. He went 5-of-6 on his best drive, which ended on a Chris Olave drop leading to a field goal. The rookie also had a 28-yard pass to Treyton Welch on that series. Rattler had five drives, one of which ended with a field goal after he drew a 45-yard pass interference call on an incompletion to Mason Tipton. He hit Tipton for a 45-yard gain on another series. Rattler’s best drive came after he threw an interception. The Saints brought him back on the next series to run the two-minute offense, and he not only drove the team down the field for the score but also ran in the 2-point conversion himself. Rattler finished 18-of-24 for 199 yards with a touchdown and the interception. |
| TAMPA BAYQB TEDDY BRIDGEWATER looked just fine Saturday night, throwing 2 TD passes in 3 drives worth of work with the first team. But, if Miami Northwestern is still operating with an interim coach, he hasn’t given up his day job as the suspended coach at the school: @JennaLaineESPNTeddy Bridgewater FaceTimed with his former Miami Northwestern football team last night, then threw two touchdowns against the Steelers on just a few days’ practice. Miami Northwestern beat Lakeland 40-3. This is their interim coach Jaquatin Victrum holding up the phone. |
| NFC WEST |
| LOS ANGELES RAMSSarah Barshop of ESPN.com with this report that involves QBs STETSON BENNETT and MATTHEW STAFFORD: Third-string quarterback Stetson Bennett has looked much improved this preseason. Against the Chargers, Bennett completed 28 of 40 passes for 324 yards with three touchdowns and a fourth-quarter interception. Bennett’s first touchdown drive came against the majority of the Chargers’ starting defense. Bennett has started and played the majority of the Rams’ preseason games as coach Sean McVay does not play his first-stringers during the preseason. Starting quarterback Matthew Stafford, who is dealing with an aggravated disk in his back, was scheduled to workout Saturday morning at the Rams’ facility. When asked to confirm that the workout took place, a Rams spokesperson declined to comment and said McVay would address the situation Monday. |
| AFC WEST |
| DENVERWR TROY FRANKLIN is a name now on the radar in Denver. Bobby Kownack of NFL.com: Glimpses of Troy Franklin’s arrival for the Broncos were fleeting during his rookie season. On Saturday against the Cardinals, he put his potential Year 2 jump on full display, tying Pat Bryant for a team-high four receptions and converting them into 67 yards and two touchdowns. “It’s happening, and I’m excited,” Payton said of Franklin ascending to another level, per team transcript. “I think we’ve just got to be smart because he’s playing two spots, but he’s … had a really good camp. He’s confident. I’ve said this a bunch of times; it has to happen on the field, and you guys that have covered this team or any other team, you see it in the preseason every year. Some players begin to make some plays, and it carries over. “So, that’s why these games are important. Obviously, it’s challenging when you’re not going to play your starting group, but when you see growth like that, and every year we don’t know who those players are going to be, but he played well tonight.” With Bo Nix taking a seat, Franklin did all his damage running routes for Jarrett Stidham, who also had himself a nice outing with 240 yards and two touchdowns on 16-of-23 passing. The 22-year-old wide receiver scored with his first entry on the stat sheet, coming free down the sideline as Stidham dropped a pass between two defenders for a 27-yard connection. During the two-minute drill outside halftime, Franklin found space to get Denver moving with a 16-yard catch, then ended the 88-yard drive with the highlight of the night — a contested, back-shoulder snag Arizona cornerback Denzel Burke was helpless to prevent. The two end zone trips matched Franklin’s total from 2024, a season in which he reeled in 28 passes for 263 yards. More importantly, Franklin flashed another aspect to his game by coming down with the 50-50 throw. He proved himself a speedster as a rookie, but tough catches such as the one on his second score are necessary for both Franklin and Denver’s offense to build upon last year. “I think I’m just more comfortable,” Franklin said when asked what’s changed for him since then. “I’ve got a little bit more freedom to go out there and just play.” While Courtland Sutton is obviously leading the way in the WR room, Denver has more of an ensemble behind him. Devaughn Vele was second among wideouts last season with 41 catches, while Marvin Mims Jr. trailed only Sutton with six TD catches. There’s also a role for Bryant to fill if he proves capable, but a path is open for Franklin to build on his strong August and contribute to a much higher degree or even emerge as a certified No. 2. That will be his goal moving forward, and, just like his coach, his teammates believe he’s ready to make a leap. “It’s hard to put into words, because he has grown so much since last year,” Stidham said of Franklin. “And you can tell, he’s playing with so much confidence right now. I think he’s going to help our offense in a really big way, and I know the guys in our [quarterback] room, we’re really excited about that and we’re looking forward to it.” |
| LAS VEGASRyan McFadden of ESPN.com on an auspicious play by RB ASHTON JEANTY in Saturday’s game with the 49ers: Ashton Jeanty lowered his shoulder before giving Deommodore Lenoir a loud introduction to the strength and power that made Jeanty one of college football’s most prolific running backs and the sixth pick in April’s NFL draft. Lenoir, the San Francisco 49ers’ starting cornerback, tried single-handedly tackling the Las Vegas Raiders’ 5-foot-8, 208-pound rookie as he burst down the middle of the field. Instead, Jeanty pushed Lenoir down with his left hand and reached the 49ers’ 25-yard line before eventually being tackled by safety Ji’Ayir Brown on a 13-yard carry with 2:10 to go in the first quarter Saturday. “It fires me up just seeing the way [Jeanty] runs,” Raiders quarterback Geno Smith said. “He’s running through people, and he’s not shying away from contact. “He’s going to be a special player.” Jeanty has longed to have his “I’m here” moment. And even though it came in a 22-19 preseason loss to the 49ers at Allegiant Stadium, the Heisman Trophy finalist provided a glimpse of what he could bring to the Raiders’ offense during the regular season. On Saturday, Jeanty had seven carries for 33 yards. His 13-yard run was a part of an eight-play, 41-yard scoring drive that ended with him powering into the end zone from the 1-yard line to give Las Vegas a 10-3 advantage early in the second quarter. “I’ve arrived, and it’s time to keep going and make plays for this team,” Jeanty said. Jeanty, who totaled minus-1 yards on three carries last week against the Seahawks in Seattle, took hits and dished out some against San Francisco. |
| AFC NORTH |
| CINCINNATIThe saga of EDGE TREY HENDRICKSON and the Bengals with the pendulum now pointing back towards his departure from the Queen City of the Ohio. Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com: There’s been no sign of progress on a new contract for edge rusher Trey Hendrickson in Cincinnati and that could lead to a change of address before the start of the regular season. NFL Media reports that the Bengals are listening to trade offers for Hendrickson from other clubs. The Bengals gave Hendrickson permission to seek out a trade this offseason, but no deal came together. Hendrickson skipped the team’s offseason program and the first few days of training camp before reporting. He has not practiced since rejoining the team and has said multiple times this offseason that he will not play out the year under the terms of his current contract. Hendrickson is set to make $16 million under that pact, but is looking for a raise after recording 35 sacks over the last two seasons. Any team trading for him would need to take care of that desire while also satisfying the Bengals’ demands for compensation, so it’s far from a sure thing that there will be any more luck putting a swap together at this point in the calendar. Jordan Schultz of FoxSports.com hears of three teams interested in Hendrickson, only one of which might be called a contender: @Schultz_ReportThe #Panthers, #Browns and #Colts are among the teams that have shown interest in trading for #Bengals All-Pro Trey Hendrickson, per multiple sources. An in-division and in-state trade is highly unlikely and any deal will be tough regardless. Cincinnati is believed to want an impact player (or two) plus a draft pick in return. Dianna Russini of The Athletic: @DMRussiniTeams that have recently inquired about Bengals star Trey Hendrickson were told Cincinnati’s asking price included a young defensive player and a 2026 first-round pick, according to league sources. The player heading back does not have to be a pass rusher. |
| CLEVELANDSomeone, perhaps QB JOE FLACCO, will be named as the starting quarterback of the Browns this week. Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com: The Browns are set to name their quarterback for Week 1. Head coach Kevin Stefanski told reporters on Sunday that he will make an announcement this week about who will be under center against the Bengals on September 7. He said he wants to speak to Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, Dillon Gabriel, and Shedeur Sanders over the next couple of days before revealing that choice. Stefanski did not offer any clues on Sunday, but signs have pointed to Flacco being that choice for some time. The Browns have held him out of both of their preseason games while giving rookies Gabriel and Sanders the two starts in order to get them accustomed to NFL game action. Any thoughts of muddying that picture were hampered by injuries to other quarterbacks. Gabriel and Pickett hurt their hamstrings and Sanders didn’t play in this week’s game because of an oblique injury. When and if Flacco is tabbed for the opener, the question will be whether the Browns keep all four quarterbacks or if they look to make a move with a team looking to change up their quarterback room before the season gets underway.– – -Meanwhile QB DILLON GABRIEL is in damage control mode as his postgame remarks are interpreted as a shot at teammate QB SHEDEUR SANDERS. ESPN.com: Cleveland Browns quarterback Dillon Gabriel clarified Saturday that a comment he made during an in-game interview wasn’t meant as a dig at teammate Shedeur Sanders. After he completed his preseason debut against the Philadelphia Eagles, Gabriel was asked during the CBS Sports broadcast about “tuning out the noise” surrounding the Browns’ quarterback competition. “Yeah, it’s just part of it. You know, there’s entertainers and there’s competitors, and I totally understand that. But my job is to compete. And that’s what I’m focused on doing,” Gabriel said. His “entertainers” comment was taken by many on social media as a reference to Sanders, who despite being selected in the fifth round — two rounds after Gabriel — has received the brighter spotlight of the two rookies. Sanders’ draft slide after being widely expected to be selected in the first round and his famous father, Colorado coach and Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, have made him one of this season’s highest-profile NFL rookies. After the game, during which Gabriel completed 13 of 18 passes for 143 yards and two turnovers (a pick-six and a lost fumble), he issued a clarification of those comments. Gabriel explained in his postgame news conference that he refers to the media as “entertainers” and his in-game quote was something he had said before. “Yeah, first off, I’m all about our team and each other. I would never make that [comment about Sanders] and I’ve said it before that’s why it’s interesting, but for me I’ve explained it entertainers are you all, competitor, that’s what I am, and all my teammates and we both have jobs to do, so that’s it.” Sanders, who didn’t play in Saturday’s game due to an oblique injury, shined in his preseason debut the week before, completing 14 of 23 passes for 138 yards and two touchdowns against the Carolina Panthers. |
| AFC SOUTH |
| INDIANAPOLISThe race for the starting QB job in Indy is tight: Elsewhere in the QB world, the Colts battle for the starting job continues to heat up, with Daniel Jones ending up 7 of 11 passes for 101 yards while Anthony Richardson competed 6 of 11 passes for 73 yards. Those two appear to be neck-and-neck for the starting job, and head coach Shane Steichen told reporters he plans to decide the starter “very soon.” |
| JACKSONVILLEATH TRAVIS HUNTER didn’t play on either side of the ball against the Saints: Hunter was scratched by the Jaguars before their preseason game against the Saints on Aug. 17. The 22-year-old rookie — a rare, two-way player — had missed practice in recent days because of what team officials have described as an upper-body injury. Hunter was the 2024 Heisman Trophy winner and second overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. Hunter saw action on both offense and defense in the first half of Jacksonville’s preseason game against the Steelers on Aug. 9. He started at wide receiver on the game’s opening drive, playing 10 of 11 snaps and recording two catches for 9 yards. He then debuted at cornerback on the Steelers’ second offensive drive, recording five snaps (zero defensive stats), and he returned later for a few more plays. |
| AFC EAST |
| BUFFALOQB AARON RODGERS isn’t the only newlywed among the elite QBs. And we know a lot more about QB JOSH ALLEN’s wife. Andy Nesbitt of SI.com: Buffalo Bills star quarterback Josh Allen is hoping this season will end with a dream trip to the first Super Bowl of his career. During the offseason, however, he completed a different dream when he married his best friend, Hailee Steinfeld. Allen didn’t play in Sunday night’s preseason game against the Bears but he did do a live in-game interview with Fox’s Pam Oliver, who asked the quarterback about his new marriage and how that has changed his life. Allen provided a very sweet answer, saying: “To have the support that I do at home and to have someone that I share similar life interests with and wants in life it’s an awesome feeling. And I get to support to somebody as much as she supports me. So I’m very happy, obviously.” A little more on Allen and Steinfeld from Saakshi Gupta of Bollywoodhaadis.com: Josh Allen and Hailee Steinfeld first sparked dating rumors in May 2023 when they were spotted together in New York City. In the next few months, the couple quietly grew their relationship, with multiple sightings that confirmed they were spending time together. According to sources, the couple was “having fun” while balancing their love with Allen’s demanding NFL schedule with Hailee’s acting and music career. The relationship became more publicly visible in July 2024 when Allen shared a series of photos on Instagram, including a picture of them in Paris that officially confirmed their romance. After a lot of secret dates, they finally got engaged in November 2024 in a highly awaited moment for fans. The quarterback, who usually stays away from the media, sat down for a Q and A with her ‘Beau Society’ newsletter, where he recalled their intimate and emotional proposal. Allen admitted that he was nervous, not about proposing to her but keeping it a secret from Hallie, who notices everything. Although he was filled with nerves, the NFL star promised her of having a happy future together and shared his desire to start a family with her. Sharing his feelings before popping the question to Hailee, Allen mentioned: “I was very nervous. I think I was most nervous about you finding out about the proposal. It was hard to keep secrets from you and have other people in your life keep secrets from you. Then, multiple times throughout the day, a song would come on and I would tear up thinking about how special our day was going to be.” After months of private planning, Josh and Hailee exchanged vows on May 31, 2025, in an outdoor California ceremony. The event was attended by their family, friends, and a few celebrity guests, including Bills teammates and Curb Your Enthusiasm star Larry David. It marked a new chapter in the duo’s life where Hailee wore 2-3 different classic white gowns with a modern edge. Josh later described the day as “the best night of my life,” which reflected his joy at celebrating the moment with his loved ones Josh Allen earlier emphasised how family planning was a meaningful part of their journey for him. Even while proposing to Hailee, he expressed excitement about starting a family, saying he “couldn’t wait” to build a life with her. Although the couple has kept specific details private, they have expanded their family with her furry friends for now. Sharing how they are a part of the couple’s life, the actress wrote in her newsletter: “I grew up with big dogs, and I actually never planned on getting tiny dogs, but here we are! Martini and Brando would love a big dog.” Steinfeld has a wikipedia page that has this to say about her background: Steinfeld was born on December 11, 1996, in the Tarzana neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, the younger of two children of Cheri (née Domasin), an interior designer, and Peter Steinfeld, a personal trainer. She has an older brother, Griffin. Her paternal uncle is fitness trainer and actor Jake Steinfeld, and her maternal great uncle is former child actor Larry Domasin. Her maternal first cousin, actress True O’Brien, appeared in a television commercial when Steinfeld was eight years old, inspiring her to try acting as well. Steinfeld’s father is Jewish and her mother is Christian, and she has said that she “celebrate[s] it all.” Her maternal grandfather, Ricardo Domasin, was of half Filipino (from Panglao, Bohol) and half African-American descent Steinfeld was raised in Agoura Hills and later in Thousand Oaks, California, attending Ascension Lutheran School, Conejo Elementary, and Colina Middle School. She was home-schooled from 2008 until her high school graduation in June 2015. Rodgers’ wife may be named Brittani (we know there is an “i” somewhere in the name). She has a sister, Mia. |
| NEW ENGLANDWant to get Mike Vrabel mad? Have bad behavior in parking lots – with your shopping carts and your cars. Saad Yousuf and Dianna Russini of The Athletic: Vrabel’s longtime head coach in New England, Belichick, has repeatedly dismissed being present on social media. Vrabel is a bit different, saying a short stop to the TikTok app is the first thing he checks on his phone in the morning, followed by catching up on news on X. There were other fun tidbits Vrabel revealed about himself, such as his morning coffee order and his lack of patience for ping-pong. However, there were two things, outside of football, that Vrabel says drive him crazy. “People, when they leave their carts in the middle of the parking lot and they don’t take them back to the cart return,” Vrabel said. “And then, the people at Starbucks that park in a handicapped spot (who do not have a disability) and try to go in there and get their order from the mobile order.” Vrabel feels so passionately about the latter that he said he’ll check the dashboard looking for a disabled parking permit and then wait in the parking lot to confront people. One time, somebody told Vrabel they were just there to pick up a DoorDash order. “I’m like, ‘I don’t care,’ ” Vrabel said. “That’s unacceptable.” To a mom who was rushing to yoga in the morning, Vrabel said it was “ridiculous.” “When I didn’t have a job, I had nothing else to do,” Vrabel said. “I could sit here for 15 minutes, wait for this person to come out and actually see if they’re handicapped.” Vrabel said it bothers him so much that he would slash their tires if he could. When proposed with a boot instead, Vrabel was on board with the idea. “I wish I had a boot,” Vrabel said. “That’s a great idea. I would boot their car. Just like a mobile boot that says, ‘I parked in a handicapped spot and I’m not handicapped.’ ” |
| NEW YORK JETSRick Cimini of ESPN.com filed this ominous report on the Jets passing game with QB JUSTIN FIELDS: Quarterback Justin Fields and the passing offense were out of sync, which is not surprising. They’ve been sputtering throughout most of training camp, with Fields unable to get the ball downfield to his wide receivers. Fields completed his first throw — a 4-yard flare to tight end Mason Taylor — then finished with five straight incompletions in two series of action (a high snap and a QB pressure contributed to two of the errant throws.) Fields was 0-for-3 when targeting wideout Garrett Wilson, his old buddy from Ohio State. Yes, the Jets again showed potential in the running game, but it’s hard to be one-dimensional in the NFL. The lack of a legit WR2 to complement Wilson is one of the reasons they’re not clicking. — Rich Cimini |
| THIS AND THAT |
| BROADCAST NEWSESPN has decided that there no longer is a market for a series on former QB and current activist Colin Kaepernick. Richard Dietsch and Andrew Marchand of The Athletic: A much-publicized, multi-part documentary series for ESPN Films about former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick is no longer proceeding with the company. “ESPN, Colin Kaepernick and Spike Lee have collectively decided to no longer proceed with this project as a result of certain creative differences,” an ESPN spokesperson told The Athletic. “Despite not reaching finality, we appreciate all the hard work and collaboration that went into this film.” Reuters first reported the news Saturday night. The global news agency spoke with Lee on the red carpet ahead of the Harold and Carole Pump Foundation dinner, a fundraiser for cancer research and treatment, in Beverly Hills, Calif. Lee told Reuters, “It’s not coming out. That’s all I can say.” When asked why, Lee declined specifics, citing a nondisclosure agreement. A source briefed on the breakup confirmed to The Athletic that it was due to creative differences, but the source declined to provide specifics, saying that the two sides failed to get on the same page over the years the project was in development. It is believed the series can still be shopped elsewhere. Over the years, there has been reporting about the production delays of the docuseries that had been tentatively titled “Da Saga of Colin Kaepernick.” Lee told The Washington Post in 2023, “We’re still working on it. You know, when I got the call to do it, from Kap, I said, ‘Of course.’ But it takes time. This is an opportunity for him to tell his story at length.” Puck’s Matt Belloni reported last September on what he noted as creative differences in the vision of where the focus of the docuseries should be between Kaepernick’s story and a broader telling of the history of Black athletes in professional sports and social justice. Now, three weeks before the start of the NFL season, the project is done at ESPN. Within this ecosystem, ESPN recently acquired the league’s NFL Network and substantial rights to RedZone, along with other content assets, in exchange for the NFL getting a 10 percent ownership stake in ESPN. One of the overriding questions about the deal will be how ESPN covers its financial partner heading forward. The deal remains subject to regulatory approval from the Trump administration. The news comes in stark contrast to how the relationship began between Disney and Kaepernick. In 2020, in a splashy press release, the Walt Disney Company announced a first-look deal with Kaepernick’s production arm. Disney said the “partnership will focus on telling scripted and unscripted stories that explore race, social injustice and the quest for equity, and will provide a new platform to showcase the work of Black and Brown directors and producers.” More speculation on the issue from Tom Jones of The Poynter Institute: What happened with ESPN? With few specifics, general comments, and an apparent NDA, there is plenty of speculation and questions. “Of course,” Awful Announcing’s Sam Neumann wrote, “the timing is hard to ignore.” Just this month, in an unprecedented deal, ESPN acquired the NFL Network and the rights to the league’s RedZone Channel in a deal that will eventually lead to the NFL owning a 10% stake in ESPN. As soon as that deal was announced, there were questions about whether the network’s coverage of the league would be affected, seeing as how they were partners. One would guess that the documentary would have at least questioned whether NFL owners blackballed Kaepernick from the league following his protests. In addition, there likely could have been other topics that would have painted the NFL in a poor light when it came to Kaepernick’s story. Would that fall under the umbrella of “creative differences?” In addition, it cannot be ignored that the deal between the NFL and ESPN will ultimately need regulatory approval from the Trump administration. And Trump, one would also guess, would come up prominently in a documentary discussing Kaepernick and racial protests. Back in 2017, when protests were in the news, Trump, who was president at the time, said, “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired. He’s fired!’” Calling the players that name led to further protests from players. Who knows if any of this played a role in ESPN walking away from this project? As reported, issues with the docuseries have apparently gone back for quite some time, perhaps well before the NFL-ESPN deal was in the works. Perhaps ESPN didn’t think the series was any good, or that the focus was off. Or, there is always the possibility that they felt it wasn’t journalistically sound. Still, fairly or unfairly, the timing of this latest news can’t help but raise some eyebrows. |
| BILL BARNWELL’s 5 TEAMS THAT WILL IMPROVE It’s my annual look at the teams that are likely to improve in the upcoming season. This is the ninth year I’ve run this column at ESPN, and the results over the past eight seasons have been pretty solid. Over that stretch, the teams mentioned in this column have improved 31 out of 38 times, with the average jump coming by 3.4 wins per 17 games. Last year’s column went 4-1, with the Patriots sticking at 4-13 as the only holdout. (I was an Anthony Richardson 2-point conversion away from going 5-0.) The Cardinals jumped from 4-13 to 8-9, and the Chiefs rode their luck as they improved from 11-6 to 15-2, but the real exciting mentions came in two unexpected playoff teams. The Chargers improved from 5-12 to 11-6, and there was an even bigger step forward in Washington, where the Commanders went from 4-13 to 12-5, advancing to the NFC Championship Game in the process. Expecting any of these teams to make it to their conference title game is a bit of a stretch, but there’s room for solid improvement and the potential for an unexpected playoff team or two in the mix. While the Chargers were the clear team that stuck out as an obvious candidate to improve a year ago, no team stood out to me as the surefire pick in this year’s mix. With that in mind, let’s start with the franchise the Commanders flew by on their rise up the NFC East ranks in 2024: New York GiantsRecord in 2024: 3-14Point differential in 2024: minus-1422024 record in games decided by seven or fewer points: 1-7Projected strength of schedule, via ESPN’s FPI: Toughest in NFL After two years on the likely-to-decline side of the ledger, the Giants find themselves shifting the other way. The 9-7-1 playoff season Brian Daboll & Co. put together with quarterback Daniel Jones in 2022 was a false dawn, and they promptly went 9-25 over the next two seasons. There are reasons to believe they should finally take a step in the right direction in 2025, however. First, they really weren’t as bad as their record suggested a season ago. I won’t pretend to suggest this was a good team, but the Giants were 1-7 in one-score games. Some of those games weren’t quite as close as they seemed — and they included losses to backup signal-callers Jake Haener and Tanner McKee — but there also were some competitive performances.– – –I understand if narrow losses to NFC South teams aren’t exactly making you go out and buy Giants championship gear. Let’s set expectations appropriately. This was a three-win team last season. It finished 31st by ESPN’s FPI and 28th by defense-adjusted value over average (DVOA). Sometimes, good teams can look like bad teams because they were unlucky or had terrible timing. The Giants were bad and unlucky. The luck will bounce back. Their record in one-score games won’t be quite as bad. While they weren’t overrun by injuries last season, finishing 13th in adjusted games lost, the guys who did get hurt were irreplaceable. Defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence, the team’s best player at any position, missed the final five games with a dislocated elbow. Fellow defensive lineman Kayvon Thibodeaux, coming off an 11.5-sack campaign, missed five games in midseason, all losses. The injury that truly put the Giants in an unrecoverable tailspin was the Lisfranc injury suffered by left tackle Andrew Thomas — their best offensive lineman — that ended his season after six games. Over Daboll’s three years in New York, the Giants have averaged minus -0.02 expected points added per play with Thomas on the field and minus-0.11 EPA per play without him. That’s the equivalent of being the league’s 21st-best offense with Thomas and its worst without him. He played 16 games in 2022, but he has been able to suit up for only 16 over the ensuing two seasons. A healthier Thomas is a prerequisite for New York looking competent on offense this season. There are some elements of performance that are almost entirely a product of luck, like fumble recovery rates. Others are a combination of skill and a small sample size, which can create both an outsize impact and huge amounts of unsustainable variance from year to year. Defensive back interception totals are a good example; there undoubtedly is skill involved in catching the ball and getting in the right places, but the difference between a big year and a disappointing one in terms of interception opportunities might come down to four or five wobbly footballs. New York had a bad offense in 2024, but even clearly abject offenses aren’t as hopeless in the red zone as the Giants were last season. – – –They also failed to control the turnover battle. The Giants posted a positive turnover margin in just one game, the 45-33 shootout against the Colts in Week 17. They’re just the fifth team in the past 30 years to finish the regular season with one turnover margin victory, and the first since 2012, when the Chiefs and Eagles both managed that feat and got Andy Reid sent from Philadelphia to Kansas City in the process. Even if the Giants are luckier, though, no one will be excited if they are merely a bad team with reasonable outcomes. Is there a universe in which they actually have the underlying talent to be more competitive? Maybe. That starts, as it does for virtually every good or great Giants team, with the defensive line. Through the first eight weeks of 2024, they had a whopping 12.5% sack rate, the best figure for any defense through the first eight weeks of a season since 2000. With the shift away from the Don Martindale scheme, they also did that while blitzing only 29% of the time, which was just above league average. They weren’t able to keep up that performance, but they have the potential to have one of the league’s best defensive lines. In addition to getting Lawrence and Thibodeaux back, New York returns Brian Burns, and it used its top-five draft pick on Penn State edge rusher Abdul Carter, who had 12 sacks and a nation-high 24 tackles for loss last season. That sort of pass rush usually leads to strip sacks and interceptions, but the Giants forced just 15 takeaways last season and had the league’s third-lowest interception rate. A dismal year from 2023 first-round corner Deonte Banks didn’t help, and they sorely missed safety Xavier McKinney, who had an All-Pro season with Green Bay. Giants general manager Joe Schoen made two significant additions to the secondary in signing corner Paulson Adebo and safety Jevon Holland, which should give a unit that ranked 31st in Total QBR allowed when opposing quarterbacks went unpressured some hope of holding up in coverage. The most notable change this offseason obviously comes at quarterback, where the Jones era was brought to a close for contractual reasons before the end of last season. Over the past two campaigns, the combination of Jones, Tommy DeVito, Tyrod Taylor, Drew Lock and Tim Boyle combined to rank 29th in Total QBR, even with the Giants adding a wildly talented wideout to the fold in Nabers. Over that same stretch, Russell Wilson (25th) and Jameis Winston (28th) rank ahead of Jones (35th) in QBR. There’s excitement about first-round pick Jaxson Dart, who represents the first significant investment in a new quarterback under center for Daboll and Schoen. This coaching staff coaxed what was frankly too good of a season out of Jones in 2023. It would be unreasonable to project sudden stardom for Dart or a throwback season for Wilson, but there’s both a higher floor with the veterans and a higher ceiling for Dart than what the Giants have had at quarterback over the previous two seasons. The story surrounding Dart and the biggest reason to temper any excitement about the Giants, though, has revolved around the first eight weeks of the season. The Giants will play six of their first eight contests against 2024 playoff teams, including two versus the defending champion Eagles, a home game against the Chiefs and an away game versus the Broncos, who had the league’s best defense by EPA per play last season. Starting Dart from Day 1 might feel like throwing a young quarterback to the wolves. And yet, with the league’s toughest schedule this season, it’s hardly as if there’s going to be a great time to sneak Dart in without worrying about him facing stiff competition. This is widely seen as a make-or-break season for Daboll and Schoen, and it’s unclear what they need to do to justify holding on to their jobs. I would hardly be surprised if the Giants doubled their win total this season, but the brutal schedule might keep them from advancing any further. And after two years of frustrating, often ugly football, six wins might not be enough for ownership. San Francisco 49ersRecord in 2024: 6-11Point differential in 2024: minus-472024 record in games decided by seven or fewer points: 2-6Projected strength of schedule, via ESPN’s FPI: Easiest in NFL Coming off a second narrow Super Bowl loss to Kansas City, the 2024 49ers were built to win. With Brock Purdy on the third year of his rookie deal and about to become eligible for an extension, they spent $334 million, the second-highest total of any team, to both maintain an elite core and bring in significant defensive depth in free agency. It was Super Bowl or bust. Well, sometimes bust wins. The 49ers dealt with injuries to key contributors on offense, with Brandon Aiyuk, Christian McCaffrey and Trent Williams all missing significant time. The defensive additions failed to impress, as Leonard Floyd, Isaac Yiadom and De’Vondre Campbell were all one-and-done. A team that had gone 17-4 and made two deep playoff runs with Purdy as its starter got a mostly healthy season from the quarterback and still fell to 6-11, dropping to last place in the NFC West. With expectations as high as for any other franchise in the league, the Niners limped to a mostly irrelevant season, earning just two victories against teams with winning records. While I don’t think anybody could argue the 49ers were disappointing, here’s where I come in to say that they also were quite a bit unlucky. – – –The 49ers were more competitive than their record suggested, with some close games ending in frustrating losses. In Week 3 against the Rams, Jake Moody missed a field goal that would have put the 49ers up by 10 with 2:48 to go in the fourth quarter, with the defense collapsing so aggressively afterward that their division rivals managed to win the game in regulation. In Week 5, the Niners were beating the Cardinals and in position to potentially go up by two scores late when Jordan Mason fumbled inside the 10-yard line; Arizona drove the length of the field for a game-winning field goal. Up by four on the Seahawks with 46 seconds left in Week 11, San Francisco gave up scrambles of 16 and 13 yards to Geno Smith and allowed a winning touchdown with 18 seconds left. Those deciders I mentioned all hint toward San Francisco improving this season. Special teams performance tends to be wildly inconsistent for most teams from year to year, and the 49ers ranked last in special teams win probability added. Moody hit just 70% of his field goals, with Kyle Shanahan perhaps stubbornly banking on Moody’s prior accomplishments and on a player the organization drafted in the third round in 2023. They cut kicker Greg Joseph in camp and appeared to hand the job to Moody, but it’s difficult to imagine the third-year pro having as long of a leash if he struggles this season. Fumble recoveries didn’t go the 49ers’ way, as they ended up with just under 46% of the loose balls in their games, which ranked 27th. They lost 15 of 26 fumbles on offense and recovered only six of 20 on defense. They forced just two turnovers over the final nine games after their Week 9 bye, posting the worst turnover rate (2.2%) on a per-drive basis of any team since at least 2000. Unsurprisingly, their record collapsed at the same time; they were 5-4 before that bye and 1-7 afterward, turning the ball over on offense at least once in every game. One of the reasons the 49ers didn’t force many turnovers is the identities of the guys they faced. About 24% of pass attempts came from backups or QBs who weren’t their team’s preferred starter. They went up against opposing No. 1s on nearly 87% of their pass attempts, the fourth-highest rate in the league. The only non-preferred options they faced were Sam Darnold in Week 2 and Jacoby Brissett in Week 4. (My belief, based on the history of how first-round picks quickly make it into the lineup despite what coaches suggest during camp, is that J.J. McCarthy would have won the starting job in Minnesota if he had stayed healthy.) It wasn’t just the quarterbacks, either. Everybody the 49ers played seemed tough. They faced the league’s most difficult schedule, per the FPI. Ten of their 17 outings came against teams that won at least 10 games. Even in a down season, the Niners went 4-3 against the teams that weren’t double-digit winners. Unlike the Giants, the 49ers will catch a break this season: They face the easiest projected schedule of any team. While there’s always skepticism about strength of schedule metrics and how good they are at projecting real schedule difficulty, consider that the easiest schedule before the 2024 season belonged to the Falcons, who finished with the sixth-easiest slate. The second-easiest schedule projection belonged to the Chargers, who actually ended up playing the softest schedule and rode it to the postseason. I wouldn’t be confident that the 49ers will face the easiest schedule solely because of the FPI’s projection, but I’d be confident they’ll face a relatively easy run of opponents. There also are reasons to be nervous. Facing a cap crunch in light of the Purdy extension and realistically reconsidering their roster construction after a disappointing campaign, the 49ers lost eight players in free agency who signed with opposing teams for salaries of $10 million or more, the most of any team, while also trading Deebo Samuel to the Commanders. – – –And yet, looking at the players who left, it’s difficult to say many critical players on their roster walked out the door. Javon Hargrave and Dre Greenlaw missed virtually all of the 2024 season. Floyd was a solid pass rusher, but his absence is at a position of strength. Jaylon Moore was the team’s swing tackle. Talanoa Hufanga was excellent in 2022, but injuries have limited him since that breakout season. Losing Aaron Banks and Charvarius Ward will hurt. But some of these losses aren’t as significant as they might seem on paper. The biggest add the 49ers made this offseason, instead, might be a member of the coaching staff. New defensive coordinator Robert Saleh wasn’t able to coax the Jets into contending for a title as their coach, but he did an excellent job of developing talent in his previous stints in San Francisco and New York, and it might be telling that the Jets’ defense collapsed once the organization fired him. If the 49ers end up surprising and returning to their playoff form, it likely will be because Saleh was able to get more out of Bryce Huff, Dee Winters and Renardo Green than we expect. The Niners already are battling plenty of injuries in camp, and there’s not as much talent here as there was in 2022 or 2023, but I would expect them to be back in the postseason. Las Vegas RaidersRecord in 2024: 4-13Point differential in 2024: minus-1252024 record in games decided by seven or fewer points: 3-4Projected strength of schedule, via ESPN’s FPI: 12th toughest in NFL For all the numbers I can throw at you (and we’ll get to them in a minute), the simplest way for a team to improve its record overnight is to upgrade at the two most important positions. The Raiders went from Aidan O’Connell and Gardner Minshew at quarterback to Geno Smith, and they replaced Antonio Pierce with former Seahawks and Patriots coach Pete Carroll. Swapping out overmatched, replacement-level options (or worse) with solid veterans isn’t the sort of move that inspires Super Bowl aspirations, but it does raise the Raiders’ floor, where there hadn’t been competent management since the Jack Del Rio and Reggie McKenzie era nearly a decade ago. Over the past three seasons, with the Raiders cycling through coaches and quarterbacks while posting losing records, their various signal-callers combined to rank 26th in Total QBR. The Seahawks, with Smith starting 49 of 51 possible games over that span, ranked 12th. While a run of interceptions dropped Smith to 21st in QBR last season, the 34-year-old is one of the league’s most accurate quarterbacks. He had the second-best off-target rate of any passer last season, trailing Joe Burrow by a tenth of a percentage point. The Raiders’ quarterbacks combined to rank 26th. Smith ranked fifth in precise pass rate, measuring how often he hit his receivers in stride with easily catchable balls. Las Vegas quarterbacks ranked 25th. There are going to be far more viable opportunities for pass catchers Brock Bowers and Jakobi Meyers this season. While Carroll’s defenses faded by the end of his time in Seattle, the new brain trust of Carroll and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly should excite Raiders fans. Kelly was overmatched by the time he left the NFL as a head coach after the 2016 season, but the time he spent in college revitalized his scheme, which has more wrinkles and answers to defensive problems, especially on the ground, than it did in San Francisco. I’m not sure Ashton Jeanty was the best value pick of the entire draft, but the Raiders were giving backs Alexander Mattison, Ameer Abdullah and Zamir White the majority of the carries last season; Jeanty is a major upgrade on what was the weakest spot on the roster. There are two numbers I’d use as strong indicators for the Raiders to improve. One is their turnover margin, which wasn’t good. Their minus-16 mark ranked tied for 31st, as only the Browns (minus-22) were worse. Teams with terrible turnover margins often regress back toward the mean the following season. Since 1990, adjusting for the 17-game schedule, there have been 42 teams that posted a turnover margin in the minus-20 to minus-15 range. The following season, their turnover margin was collectively plus-2; in other words, they were almost exactly league average. Those teams improved their win total by an average of 2.5 victories per 17 games. As I mentioned when talking about the Commanders last season, merely picking the team that has the league’s worst turnover margin to make a major leap forward is a good way to be right. I’m not comfortable picking a Cleveland team to improve — the Browns might already be looking to 2026 — but I’m more optimistic about the Raiders and the Titans, the latter of whom also were a candidate to end up in this column. The other number I’ll use as an indicator for the Raiders: an almost pathological inability to recover fumbles. Despite being coached by a former linebacker, the Raiders couldn’t fall on the football to save their lives (or their season). They picked up just eight of the 33 fumbles in their games, yielding a paltry recovery rate of 24.2%. That’s the second-worst mark for any team in any season going back to 1991, ahead of only the 2011 Steelers (24.1%). There simply aren’t many teams as unlucky as the 2024 Raiders here. But even if we include the 30 teams since 1991 that recovered no more than 35% of the fumbles in their games, I can project improvement: Those teams recovered 51.6% of the fumbles in their collective games the following season, and their record improved by two wins per 17 games. Does all of that add up to a Commanders-esque run into the postseason? Probably not. The concerns I’ve raised about the Raiders being stuffed with bad draft picks and ill-advised trades during the Jon Gruden and Josh McDaniels eras still apply, and most of those players are no longer on the roster. The Raiders still have Maxx Crosby, and they imported plenty of veterans to eat snaps on the defensive side of the ball; but even if they project to improve, asking for the D to turn into a top-10 unit would be a lot. There weren’t many changes on offense besides the addition of Smith, so there’s not the same sort of wholesale movement on that side of the ball. The bigger problem is the roadblock ahead of the Raiders in the AFC West, where the Chiefs, Broncos and Chargers all made it to the postseason and all project to be good again. The Commanders benefited from facing the league’s third-easiest schedule a year ago, going 11-1 against teams that ended up missing the playoffs. Las Vegas will face a tougher slate, and that probably caps its ceiling at somewhere around seven or eight victories. Then again, who thought the Commanders would go from 4-13 to the NFC Championship Game? Jacksonville JaguarsRecord in 2024: 4-13Point differential in 2024: minus-1352024 record in games decided by seven or fewer points: 3-10Projected strength of schedule, via ESPN’s FPI: Ninth easiest in NFL It was a 2024 season of losing coin flips for the Jags, who had 13 of their 17 games decided by seven or fewer points. They went 1-3 and were outscored by a combined 86 points in the four games that weren’t one-score contests, which doesn’t exactly speak highly of what former coach Doug Pederson cooked up, but they were unlucky to finish with just four wins. Sometimes, teams can make a game look closer than it really was by getting a late score in the final minute to bring the final margin of victory within seven, even if they never really had a chance of being in position to tie or take the lead. That wasn’t the case for the Jaguars. In fact, in nine of their 10 close losses, they had the ball with a chance to either hold on to a lead or take one late in the fourth quarter:– – –A close loss to the Raiders is one thing, but the Jags were realistically within one drive or even a play or two of beating the Eagles, Packers, Texans and Vikings. There were too many defensive lapses, too many mental mistakes and too many turnovers at the wrong time. They lost four games they led heading into the fourth quarter, the second most of any team. If you were a Jaguars fan who stayed tuned in until that 20-yard pass to Thomas that ended the season, there was something you didn’t get to celebrate very often: turnovers. Jacksonville forced a league-low nine takeaways. Teams can win games on the strength of multi-takeaway performances, and the Jags were a historic outlier there. Ryan Nielsen’s defense had one game with two or more turnovers, just the second time that has happened since 1970. They missed top cornerback Tyson Campbell, who was out five games with injuries, and they didn’t have his new running mate in star rookie Travis Hunter, whose ball skills require no introduction. The Jags finished with a minus-15 turnover margin, which should open them up to the same sort of takeaway-driven regression toward the mean I mentioned in the Raiders section. They forced only five fumbles on defense, which is tied for the third-lowest total from any team over the past decade. Takeaways help the defense and create short fields for your offense; the Jags had the league’s worst average starting field position when they took over last season, which made life harder for a unit that was prone to making drive-altering mistakes. Getting a healthy season from Lawrence would help after he had his second half in 2023 and long stretches of 2024 altered by injuries. New coach Liam Coen is a bit of a mystery by head coaching standards, with the Jags representing his fifth move in six years after he went back and forth between the Rams and Kentucky before spending 2024 as the offensive coordinator in Tampa Bay. Coen was able to unlock a long-struggling Bucs run game; if he can do that in Jacksonville, it would help make Lawrence’s life much easier. The Jags rank 29th in EPA per play on designed runs over Lawrence’s four pro seasons. As is often the case, the Jags will benefit from playing in the relatively friendly confines of the AFC South, with Lawrence & Co. set to face the league’s ninth-easiest schedule. Of course, they also played against the league’s eighth-easiest slate a year ago, and we just went over how that went. I’m confident the defensive turnovers will bounce back, and that alone should improve them, but their chances of the sort of turnaround they made in 2022 might come down to how quickly their many new faces fit into the lineup and whether Lawrence stays on the field for 17 games. Chicago BearsRecord in 2024: 5-12Point differential in 2024: minus-602024 record in games decided by seven or fewer points: 3-7Projected strength of schedule, via ESPN’s FPI: Fifth toughest in NFL Things looked fine as the Commanders lined up for that fateful Hail Mary on Oct. 27; the Bears were one play away from winning their fifth consecutive game and hitting 5-2 for the first time since 2020, which happened to be their most recent postseason appearance. While the early results hadn’t been quite what they had hoped on offense, it looked like they were on track to compete for a playoff spot in Caleb Williams’ debut season. Well, you know what happened next. Tyrique Stevenson decided to go on an excursion to taunt Commanders fans. Noah Brown caught a Hail Mary from Jayden Daniels. The Bears never recovered, as their would-be five-game winning streak turned into a 10-game losing streak. By the time that was done, coach Matt Eberflus and offensive coordinator Shane Waldron were gone, and Williams’ rookie season had been confirmed as a disappointment. Did the Hail Mary wreck Chicago’s season? It would be difficult to suggest there wasn’t an emotional impact from what was obviously a traumatic loss, but it probably wasn’t the only factor. Through the Commanders game, the Bears had faced the league’s easiest schedule, per FPI. Afterward, they faced the league’s toughest slate of opponents. They weren’t as good as they looked during that (nearly) 5-2 start, and they probably weren’t quite as bad as they seemed during the 1-10 stretch that ended their season. While the next two games after the Commanders’ defeat yielded disappointing losses to the Cardinals and Patriots, the Bears dealt with some close defeats. In Week 11, leading the Packers by five with 4:17 to go, they allowed a 60-yard pass to Christian Watson and a touchdown shortly thereafter. After taking two sacks, Williams drove them into field goal range, only for the Packers to block a 46-yard kick by Cairo Santos that would have won the game. The following week, the Bears scored 10 points in the final 22 seconds of regulation to take the Vikings to overtime, won the coin toss, then were forced to punt after a sack. They then allowed conversions from second-and-17, first-and-15 and first-and-20 situations to Sam Darnold and the Minnesota offense, setting up a game-winning field goal. The next week, Williams drove the Bears for two fourth-quarter touchdowns and then got them in field goal range for a game-tying kick against the Lions, only for a Teven Jenkins penalty to knock them out of range and a sack to derail their opportunity. That’s three near-misses against the three other playoff teams in the NFC North. Enter Ben Johnson, who might be the most-hyped first-time head coach to take over an NFL team in recent league history. He has said all the right things in the months leading up to his first action — he comes from a Lions organization that has done an excellent job of building an organizational culture and managing game situations — but we truly have no idea of what he’ll be as a coach once Sundays come. He could be either the next Kevin O’Connell or the next Adam Gase. Bears fans might suggest that anyone would be better than Eberflus, but it’s probably safer to be optimistic about Johnson as opposed to certain he’ll step in and immediately be an upper-echelon coach. There’s a simple logic here: Johnson fixes the offense, former Saints defensive coordinator Dennis Allen gets a unit that looked great in the second half of 2023 back on track, and the Bears rocket forward. Obviously, if I’m putting them in this column, I’m willing to believe that’s in the realm of possibilities. So much depends, though, on a few key contributors. Williams wasn’t able to overcome his own on-field distractions last season and, outside of a couple of games after the Waldron firing, didn’t seem comfortable playing within structure. Can he toe the line between doing what Johnson asks and picking the right moments to abandon the scheme and create magic? A vaunted group of playmakers didn’t live up to expectations last season; can swapping out Keenan Allen for rookies Colston Loveland and Luther Burden III add more explosiveness to the offense? Much was made of the additions on the interior of the offensive line, which should be much improved, but general manager Ryan Poles didn’t find the plug-and-play left tackle the line needed. As a result, the Bears seem to be cycling through options in camp and hoping one sticks; after looking at Braxton Jones, Ozzy Trapilo and Kiran Amegadjie, there’s a real chance 2024 undrafted free agent Theo Benedet, who didn’t make it onto the field last season, could be the Week 1 starter protecting Williams on the blind side. On defense, Montez Sweat looked to be the difference-maker the Bears needed up front when he had six sacks in nine games in 2023, but he had only 5.5 sacks and 12 knockdowns while battling lower-leg injuries in 2024. He’ll have more help this season with Dayo Odeyingbo and Grady Jarrett on the line, but is Sweat the No. 1 edge rusher Chicago hoped it was acquiring, or was 2023 an outlier? And in the secondary, the Bears sorely missed safety Jaquan Brisker, who missed the final 12 games of 2024 with a concussion. Over his three NFL seasons, they have allowed a 50.4 Total QBR with their talented safety on the field and a 67.4 mark without him. That’s the difference between being the league’s seventh-best pass defense and its worst over that three-year span. I’m bringing up all of these players and situations because the case for the Bears improving, really, is on them playing better or being available more often. They were relatively healthy in 2024. They were actually a little lucky on defense, where they were much better on third down than first and second down. They had a positive turnover margin and a solid fumble recovery rate. Outside of their performance in one-score games, many of the numbers I would rely upon as indicators of improvements to come don’t move the needle. I’m optimistic about Johnson, about Williams turning things around and that the NFC North might not be quite as difficult to crack as it seems based on 2024 records. I’m also being realistic when I say the Bears have both a higher ceiling and a lower floor than most other teams, a dynamic that played out during their hot start and subsequent collapse a year ago. |
