| As you watch FIFA World Cup games in “Boston Stadium”, the home of the Patriots far from Boston, you will be hard-pressed to see the name of the venue’s title sponsor. Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com: FIFA’s take-it-or-leave-it specifications for NFL venues hoping to host World Cup matches required, among other things, the changing of the name of the stadiums to ditch any and all sponsors. The obligation ended up being much more precise than redacting names like “Levi’s” or “AT&T” or “Mercedes-Benz.” On Tuesday, an image emerged on Twitter of an individual seat at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro. The name “Gillette Stadium” was covered with a piece of blue tape. PFT has confirmed that, indeed, small pieces of tape were placed over the “Gillette Stadium” label on every seat in the building. All branding in every World Cup venue had to be covered. And the owners and operators of 11 NFL facilities had no qualms about doing it. They also agreed to hold no other events in the stadiums for the duration of the FIFA takeover, and to (where necessary) remove artificial turf and install high-quality grass. To the chagrin of NFL players who will be playing on the artificial turf that will be re-installed after the World Cup. No one knows how much money the various stadiums will make in exchange for these extreme efforts to comply with FIFA. Surely, these stadiums wouldn’t be doing it if FIFA wasn’t making it well worth their while. Every FIFA venue in the U.S. is an NFL stadium – Atlanta, GA: Mercedes-Benz Stadium (8 matches)Boston, MA: Gillette Stadium (7 matches)Dallas, TX: AT&T Stadium (9 matches)Houston, TX: NRG Stadium (7 matches)Kansas City, MO: Arrowhead Stadium (6 matches)Los Angeles, CA: SoFi Stadium (8 matches)Miami, FL: Hard Rock Stadium (7 matches)New York/New Jersey: MetLife Stadium (8 matches) — Host of the World Cup FinalPhiladelphia, PA: Lincoln Financial Field (6 matches)San Francisco Bay Area, CA: Levi’s Stadium (6 matches)Seattle, WA: Lumen Field (6 matches) |
| NFC EAST |
| PHILADELPHIAMichael Silver, writing in The Athletic, looks at Coach Nick Sirianni with a great headline (edited version below): Eagles coach Nick Sirianni is a hothead and a lightning rod. Just don’t call him a phony Nick Sirianni strides across the asphalt at a breezy pace, seemingly as serene as an on-the-job NFL head coach can ever be. It’s a beautiful early June afternoon in northwest Philly and Sirianni, brush in hand, is getting ready to help paint a mural on a brick wall bordering a classroom with fenced-in windows. He’s smiling at everyone he encounters, keeping the vibes high at the 29th annual Eagles Playground Build, posing for photos and making small talk — and then, abruptly, the energy changes. A man passes Sirianni on the yard. He’s wearing a “Process Blue” T-shirt, prominent against the backdrop of white Ts bearing the Eagles’ logo donned by everyone in the team’s large traveling party. The sixth-year coach locks his eyes on the man’s shirt and sees a Carolina Panthers insignia. Sirianni hesitates for a moment, like the school troublemaker on the verge of another unpleasant trip to the principal’s office. He’s well aware of his reputation; he knows a journalist is a few feet away, notebook in back pocket. Surely, he should check himself and keep it moving. Then the coach known as the most impulsive man on an NFL sideline runs that stop sign, grits his teeth and breaks unbound into character. “That’s the shirt you decided to wear today?” Sirianni yells to the man, who continues toward the building without a reaction. Then, more quietly, Sirianni adds the tagline. “Bozo.” Moments later, it’s clear he already regrets his decision. “See,” he says, “that’s the type of interaction I need to avoid.” Yet to say he was remorseful would be a stretch. Sirianni, 45, a hypercompetitive hothead who has conspicuously engaged with players (in Eagles and opposing jerseys), coaches (Eagles and opposing), fans (same) and officials, wants to be a mature person who can rein in his emotions, but not at the expense of surrendering his essence. In his heart, he would rather be called unhinged than fake, and he’d happily trade the reproach of millions for the certainty that his players understand how much he cares. As a result, he exists in a continuous state of uneasy equilibrium, purposeful in his quest to be a “servant leader” who models discipline while largely at peace with his propensity for tweaking, and the scrutiny that ensues. He runs hot and makes no apologies for his volcanic eruptions, even the most flagrant ones: the sideline jawing match with San Francisco 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw; the postgame spat with Washington Commanders tight end Zach Ertz, an Eagles legend; the mouthing off to officials after leaving the sideline box to call a timeout (“I know what the f— I’m doing!”); the tirade toward then-New York Jets coach Robert Saleh after a late hit in a preseason game (“Saleh, what the f—? … That’s f—ing bulls—!”); the trash talk to a Philly fan behind the team’s bench after a home victory. Sure, he may beat himself up a bit in the aftermath, governed by his own “moral compass” and rueful that he subjected his players to questions about his behavior. But mute his personality? “F— that,” Sirianni says. “You’ve got to be you. Especially in leadership roles. Because otherwise people are going to see through it. I’m (at work) way more than I’m at home. I can’t possibly carry a façade of being somebody else for going on six years of a job. I’d (have to) be the best actor in the world. I’d be a way better actor than Joey Tribbiani on ‘Friends.’” Relatable, self-effacing sarcasm is part of Sirianni’s charm, yet it often doesn’t translate beyond his inner circle or the confines of the Eagles’ facility. “When you’re going against it, you can’t stand it,” concedes Saquon Barkley, Philly’s star running back, who recalls being highly annoyed by his current coach when he played for the rival New York Giants. “If you don’t know Nick Sirianni, it’s easy not to like Nick Sirianni.” That makes sense when it comes to opponents, and the fan bases that revere them. Yet even many of those who bleed Kelly green habitually express less savory sentiments toward the coach who has guided the Eagles to two Super Bowls, narrowly losing the first to the Kansas City Chiefs in February 2023 and blowing them out two years later to capture the franchise’s second Lombardi Trophy. Their gripes aren’t just about Sirianni’s outbursts — which, in fairness, mirror those of so many Philly fans. Perhaps, for them, watching the coach detonate is akin to staring into a mirror and not liking what they see. As one rival NFL head coach wonders, “Could anyone be more perfect for Philly? He goes nuts. He loses his mind. Just like the (Eagles) fans do.” In the City of Brotherly Love, Sirianni is stigmatized by the widespread perception of his limitations as an offensive strategist, and he’s often marginalized as a glorified caretaker of an operation fueled by an elite owner, rock-star GM, brilliant defensive coordinator and talent-rich roster. He gets a lot of grief for someone who has a 59-26 regular-season record, ranking him fifth in winning percentage in NFL history. Sirianni, mindful of his reputational challenges and the acclaim for Philly’s perpetually stacked roster, jokes that he will never be voted Coach of the Year. “But who cares?” he says, laughing. Well — Barkley, for starters. “He doesn’t get enough credit at all, in my opinion,” Barkley says. “I don’t get why he doesn’t. Like, what he’s doing, in real time, is legendary. “If we’re being honest, no one talks about it enough. Like, we love to talk about me rushing for 2,000 yards, we love to talk about Jalen (Hurts), we love to talk about the Eagles. But he’s like the last one to get brought up, and it doesn’t really make sense.” Then again, so much about Sirianni’s ascent to the top of his profession defies conventional wisdom. Consider the way he was hired by the Eagles in January 2021, shortly after the surprising dismissal of Doug Pederson, who’d guided them to their first Super Bowl triumph three years earlier. Jeffrey Lurie and Howie Roseman were deep into an exhaustive search, with nine interviews already completed. On the recommendation of Pederson’s former offensive coordinator, then-Indianapolis Colts coach Frank Reich, they reached out to Sirianni, who was vacationing with his family in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Sirianni, Indy’s offensive coordinator, was not a sexy candidate. He’d never called plays, nor had he been interviewed for any other head coaching jobs. The overture from the Eagles, who wanted to talk to him the following day, caught him off guard. Fortuitously, the team’s powers that be had set up shop at Lurie’s lakefront mansion in Palm Beach, about 45 miles up the Florida coast from Sirianni, who was holed up at the house of his brother-in-law and sister-in-law. He didn’t have a suit with him; he hadn’t even packed pants. No problem, he was told — everyone will dress casually. Like many assistants who aspire to sit in the big chair, Sirianni had a “coaching book” full of philosophies and values and leadership points. Alas, it was back in Indiana. That night, Sirianni borrowed a niece’s or nephew’s glittery pencil with a cartoon-animal eraser, found a blank 11-by-14 piece of paper that resembled the “call sheet” he used on game days and jotted down some thoughts. The next morning, he stuck the folded paper into the pocket of his shorts, threw on a golf shirt, slipped into boat shoes with no socks and headed north in a rented minivan. He was nervous as he approached the property. The welcome was not what he’d expected. “Somebody who works for Mr. Lurie answered the door,” Sirianni recalls. “He thought I was the nurse who was there to do the COVID testing.” Given the NFL’s strict protocols during the previous season, Sirianni felt emboldened. “I mean, I could do it,” Sirianni answered. “But I’m actually here for the interview.” Lurie, Roseman and the eight other Eagles executives in the room had a good laugh after hearing Sirianni relate the interaction, but things quickly turned serious. Sirianni unfolded the call sheet and placed it on the table in front of him, but he never even looked at it. For seven hours, he talked about his journey, core beliefs and schematic preferences. Lurie was especially moved by Sirianni’s motivating force: a lifelong mission to make his father (Fran Sirianni, a longtime football coach at Southwestern High School in West Ellicott, N.Y.) proud. The owner could relate. When Sirianni drove away in the minivan, he called his wife, Brett, and told her he felt he’d nailed the interview. That suspicion was confirmed when he got a call asking him to return the following day. He showed up in a different golf shirt and sealed the deal. Then the scrutiny began. His introductory press conference was a disaster, with Sirianni mispronouncing names (including Lurie’s), awkwardly fixating on the word “systems” and struggling to express his thoughts. He was roasted by fans and media members — and, privately, by some Eagles players. “I was kinda like, ‘Yeah, he f—ed that up,’” recalls tackle Jordan Mailata. “I ain’t gonna lie to you. (We thought), ‘What the f— was he saying right there?’ But he saved himself, because he used that as a coaching moment (later in the season). It ended up working in our favor because we were like, ‘All right, you’re not allowed to pick on our coach. We’re the only ones that are allowed to pick on our coach. F— you.’” In April, Sirianni got clowned publicly again when, at the podium, he attempted to explain one of his strategies for gauging prospects in pre-draft meetings: challenging them to a game of “rock, paper, scissors” and talking trash to see how they’d react. In late October came another rough moment: the notorious “flower” press conference. Attempting to relate the message he’d imparted to the team earlier that day, Sirianni told reporters that he’d put a “picture of a flower” on the meeting-room screen and explained to them that it needed daily nurturing to mature. In Philly, that went over like somebody asking for Brie on a cheesesteak. The actual team meeting had been fiery — with Sirianni using a plant, rather than a flower, as his example, and emphatically driving home his theme: You gotta f—ing fertilize this shit! You gotta f—ing water it! Daily deposits, every f—ing day! After seeing footage of the news conference, Mailata was baffled: “I was like, ‘Dude, that’s not what he said in the team meeting.’ The intent was beautiful; the analogy of daily deposits. … It made sense for us in the meeting, then we saw the press conference, we were like, ‘Bro, what the f—?’” The Eagles were 2-5 at the time. Four days later, they rolled to a 44-6 road victory over the Detroit Lions, beginning a 7-2 run that propelled them into the playoffs. A year later, Sirianni was coaching in Super Bowl LVII, where the Eagles suffered a heartbreaking 38-35 defeat to the Chiefs. At that point, some first-time coaches would have approached rock-star status. Much of the football world, however, tended to portray Sirianni as a character from “This is Spinal Tap.” That was partly because of his penchant for going overboard with his emotions. He seemed to be playing a role: “Agro Philly Hothead.” “He’s Philly to a T,” Barkley says. “The things I disliked about Philly before I came here, he was that to a T.” Says Mailata: “(People) go, ‘How unbearable is your coach?’ He’s actually not that unbearable. A lot of people think it’s fake. And that’s one that irks me. Dude, he’s like this in practice. He’s like this all the time. So, it’s very consistent. And I can’t fault him for that. That’s him. He gives a f—.” “A lot of coaches try to hold in their emotions,” All-Pro defensive back Cooper DeJean says. “He’s a guy who lets them out and doesn’t care what anybody thinks about it. … He is who he is, and no one’s gonna change that.” If Sirianni’s conviction and authenticity play well in the locker room, he’ll take it — but that’s not the driving force behind his behavior. His nature is such that even during seemingly mundane moments, he’s hellbent on victory. Three years ago, on the Fourth of July, he got so mad during a volleyball game with extended family members that he picked up the ball and punted it across his older brother Jay’s backyard. “His niece, Jenna, yelled, ‘Uncle Nick!’” Jay says. “We made him go get it.” Another recent example: While driving his 8-year-old daughter, Taylor, to her soccer game, Sirianni assured her he could shave off two minutes from the estimated arrival time. A bet was made (Taylor wagered a bag of Doritos in exchange for a potential sleepover), and Nick proceeded to “compete” like Ricky Bobby. “She said, ‘Dad, this isn’t that big of a deal,’” he recalls. “And I thought to myself, ‘Yeah it is — I want to win.’” He didn’t, but that wasn’t the point. He’s wired how he’s wired, and if he doesn’t honor that, it feels phony. “What you see is what you get,” says Sirianni’s eldest brother, Mike. “That’s what I’m most proud of about him — he hasn’t changed. He was ornery growing up. He’s always had that little chip on his shoulder. He’s still the same guy, and I hope people appreciate that.” Clint Hurtt, the Eagles’ associate head coach/defensive line, concedes that his boss is “not for everybody.” Yet he believes that Sirianni’s lack of pretense overrides his occasional outburst. “You’re more patient … because he knows who he is and what he believes in,” says Hurtt, who famously broke up a confrontation between Sirianni and star defensive tackle Jalen Carter during a 2024 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. “A lot of coaches come from these coaching trees, and they’re hired ‘cause people want a piece of that guy — and when they try to be that guy, it doesn’t work, ‘cause they haven’t figured out who they are yet. Nick knows who he is.” Though Sirianni sometimes loses himself — and loses it — in some very high-profile settings, the most important person in his current workplace can live with the emotional explosiveness. “Without it, he isn’t as good,” Lurie says. “And occasionally, with it, he’s not quite as good as he can be. But it’s a good trade-off.”– – –As the son of educators, Nick embraces player development — and the habits that translate to success. He is hyperfocused on details and drills home teaching points relentlessly. He’s obsessed with ball-security techniques and is constantly exploring scenarios involving “situational football” for his team’s consumption. “He really doesn’t let anything slide,” says Colts coach Shane Steichen, who was Sirianni’s offensive coordinator in 2021 and 2022. “He had a checklist that he would go over every day, and he was religious about it. He’s a stickler for details, and he’s really good with accountability.” Sirianni tries to keep things fresh with relatable speeches in meetings, searching for “shared hardships” to bring players and coaches together. “His team meetings are elite, and he’s kind of been a driving force behind the scenes, because he’s so intense about the details and the process,” says Ertz, a free agent who was traded by the Eagles to the Arizona Cardinals during Sirianni’s first season. “His superpower is just driving the team and weathering the pressure — in that building, in that city — and putting an emphasis on the things that drive guys to be their best.” As Ertz suggests, the Eagles’ environment is atypical, and Sirianni’s skill set may be suited to it. He’s able to remain assertive and secure in a building where, in the words of a person in the front office who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss Sirianni freely, “it’s always fourth-and-1. We’re just a pressure cooker. It’s a high-stress place that demands excellence. It’s easy to think (Sirianni’s) a douchebag, and he doesn’t help himself. But he’s not the meathead everyone thinks he is. He’s super inquisitive and he’s open to learning.” |
| NFC SOUTH |
| ATLANTAQB MICHAEL PENIX, Jr. has yet to return to practice, but he thinks he will be good to for the start of training camp. Marc Raimondi of ESPN.com: Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Penix Jr. has not yet taken part in full practices, specifically 11-on-11 team sessions, after undergoing ACL surgery last fall. He expects that to change when training camp begins. Penix, who tore his left ACL in Week 11 last season, said Tuesday after minicamp practice that he is not yet 100%, but he is right where he needs to be at this point in his recovery. Penix said he plans to be a full go for practice when the Falcons return for camp in late July. “That’s the expectation,” Penix said. “I know I go see my doctor before all that kicks off. So, it’s really up to my doc.” Penix, 26, said if it were up to him, he’d be practicing fully right now. But this is also the third ACL surgery he has been through — he tore the right one twice in college — so he understands it’s a process to get back. “I felt confident with everything,” Penix said. “Sometimes the trainers, they stand to the side and tell me, ‘No, you can’t do it.’ And I’m like, ‘I feel like I can do it.’ But I just listen to those guys and just, like I said, continue to just trust my body, trust my knee. If it was up to me, I’d go out there and do everything. I’d do 11-on-11 now, but that’s obviously the smart thing, just understanding it’s more than just my want to play. Obviously, I got to care about my body and my future as well.” The Falcons signed quarterback Tua Tagovailoa in the offseason after his release by the Miami Dolphins to compete with Penix. Last week, Atlanta quarterbacks coach Alex Van Pelt said there can’t really be a true competition until Tagovailoa and Penix are on an equal footing, doing the same things in practice. Falcons head coach Kevin Stefanski mostly reiterated that Tuesday. “We’re not giving out any jobs in June,” Stefanski said. … “With any competition, quote unquote, those things work themselves out down the line, but we just have to be as a team. I think we have to realize, players have to realize that we’re all working towards the same goal right now in June and that’s building a foundation for this football season.” The Falcons took Penix at No. 8 overall in 2024. He took over as starter from Kirk Cousins in late 2024 and remained in that role until tearing his ACL last November. Penix has started 12 games in two seasons. He has completed 59.6% of his passes for 2,757 yards with 12 touchdowns and six interceptions. |
| NEW ORLEANSDE CAMERON JORDAN is going to return to the Saints this year, with plans to make it his last. Myles Simmons of ProFootballTalk.com: Aaron Rodgers isn’t the only veteran player who knows the upcoming season will be his last. Defensive end Cameron Jordan confirmed that he’s coming back to the Saints for 2026 with a video posted to social media that also includes the words, “one final season.” That’s a clear indication that Jordan, who turns 37 in July, plans to retire after this year. The No. 24 overall pick of the 2011 draft, Jordan has spent his entire career with New Orleans. He became the franchise leader in sacks back in 2023 and has extended his lead, posting 132.0 over the course of his career. He registered 10.5 last season. Jordan is also the Saints’ all-time leader in games played at 243, surpassing the 228 played by quarterback Drew Brees over 15 seasons. The Saints will begin their 2026 season with two games on the road against Detroit and Baltimore. The club will have two of its last three regular-season matchups at home, playing the Cardinals in Week 16 and the division-rival Bucs in Week 18. |
| TAMPA BAYTwo things can be true – QB BAKER MAYFIELD is tough, not fragile, and Mayfield needs to take fewer hits. Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com: Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles has said he’d like to see quarterback Baker Mayfield take better care of himself by avoiding hits in certain situations. Mayfield doesn’t think that’s an issue. When a reporter started to ask whether anyone on the Bucs said anything to him about the need to protect his body more, Mayfield answered emphatically that it’s a non-issue, without even letting the reporter finish the question. “I’ve started every single game last year — for the three years. So I don’t know if that should ever be a question,” Mayfield said. It’s true that Mayfield has started all 17 games in all three of his seasons as the Buccaneers’ quarterback, but there’s more to staying healthy than just being healthy enough to get on the field. Mayfield’s play and the Bucs’ performance as a team declined over the second half of last season, and it’s reasonable to think that if Mayfield took fewer hits, he’d be in better condition to play well down the stretch. So it’s easy to see why Bowles would prefer that Mayfield do more to protect himself from getting hit. Even if it’s also easy to see why Mayfield doesn’t want to change his playing style. |
| AFC WEST |
| DENVERJeff Legwold of ESPN.com points out that the Broncos negotiated their turnaround despite oodles of dead Russell Wilson cap money. It helped to have QB BO NIX: As Sean Payton strolled among his players before a recent Denver Broncos practice, he looked like a football coach who had it all. The Broncos’ new $175 million, 205,000-square-foot team headquarters, set to open later this month, sparkled in the afternoon sun, and virtually every starter from last season’s 14-3 team was back. The team had also added Jaylen Waddle to the receiver corps, further contributing to the good vibes. But Payton’s easy smile was also a testament to suddenly not having to worry about team finances — most notably, dead money against the salary cap. The team’s financial house is back in order, with the then-record $85 million in dead money from quarterback Russell Wilson’s 2024 release now completely off the books. “It feels good,” Payton said. “It’s important. It’s hard to do that.” As the Broncos get set to adjourn from their offseason work for the summer on Thursday, their present stands in sharp contrast with their past. Denver has the NFL’s second-lowest dead money charges (salary cap hits for players no longer on the roster) at about $3.4 million, with $2.16 million coming from the offseason release of linebacker Dre Greenlaw. Only the reigning Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks have less. The previous historic amount of dead money — once unthinkable to many in the league who make those kinds of decisions — didn’t set Denver back on the field. In fact, the Broncos thrived, going 24-10 in the two seasons that they dealt with the financial constraints of Wilson’s release. They broke an eight-year playoff drought, made two postseason trips and advanced to the AFC Championship Game in January. And in doing so, they might have given the NFL a template on how to separate from high-priced personnel mistakes without suffering years of losing football. For instance, Denver’s success post-Wilson might have helped prompt the Miami Dolphins’ housecleaning this offseason. In a much more extreme makeover, Miami has taken on a new-record $179 million worth of dead cap charges, mostly notably $99.2 million from the release of quarterback Tua Tagovailoa ($55.4 million of which is going against this year’s cap). But in an informal survey among 11 coaches and personnel executives around the league by ESPN in recent weeks, many respondents believed Miami’s offseason strategy was a progression from what the Broncos did two years ago. “Teams have had dead money issues, cut guys so they could draft or do free agency, and people have had to cut guys on big contracts,” an NFC general manager said. “But I do think [the Broncos] got everybody to kind of think you could rip the tape off if you really had to and you could work through it and it didn’t always have to be this long road back.” THE BRONCOS RELEASED Wilson as the 2024 combine ended, the same event in which Oregon quarterback Bo Nix had shown Denver’s decision-makers that he had the composure and mental approach to step into Wilson’s void. And that void was considerable from a financial standpoint. His release cost Denver $53 million against the 2024 salary cap (a whopping 20.75% of their cap) and $32 million in 2025. The transaction left the league’s richest ownership group with one of the smallest budgets compared to the rest of the league. Not only did the Broncos release Wilson, but they also accumulated dead money by cutting edge rusher Randy Gregory ($7.13 million), wide receiver Tim Patrick ($6.14 million) and safety Justin Simmons ($3.75 million). All told, the Broncos suffered a league-leading $89.1 million in dead money charges against a $255.4 million salary cap, with 13 players costing more than $1 million in dead cap. Even with the difficulty of those decisions, the Broncos said there was universal agreement from the decision-makers — including owner/CEO Greg Penner — on what needed to be done. Despite Denver going all in on Wilson less than two years earlier, dealing away four early picks, then signing the quarterback to a five-year extension for $245 million ($165 million guaranteed), the team had to make a change. Over the 2022-23 seasons, Wilson was 25th in QBR (44.7), 23rd in yards per dropback (5.9) and 27th in completion percentage (63.3). The Broncos went to Wilson during the 2023 season to restructure some guarantees in his contract, a negotiation Wilson later said included a threat to be benched if he did not agree. The Broncos denied that claim. The Broncos eventually sat Wilson for the final two games of the 2023 season to ensure that injury guarantees didn’t kick in. That essentially ended the Wilson era, with Payton, Penner and general manager George Paton saying they made a clear-eyed decision and were fully prepared for the consequences. “It wasn’t something you do lightly,” Payton said in retrospect. “I’ve said if somebody tells you that you can have $100,000 to renovate your house or half that, you’re going to choose the bigger number every time. But when people have asked, I’ve said we started at a point where we weren’t going to make excuses, we made the decision, get to work. There are a ton of built-in excuses, and if you’re going to make them, then you can’t make that kind of a decision.” IN ESPN’S DISCUSSIONS with coaches and personnel executives, many believed the Broncos’ ability to navigate the dead money — and that of any team that would consider taking a similar approach — is based on available quarterback options. They believed having either a veteran, long-term quarterback under contract or a draft class filled with potential starters was necessary before taking a massive dead money hit. “You can be bold, and I think more people will be if the cap keeps getting bigger … but if you do, the quarterback issue will sort of dictate how many people do something like that again,” the NFC general manager said. “[The Broncos] had some Pro Bowl-level guys on the roster, especially on defense, a really good offensive line in place and a draft with some quarterbacks.” Quarterbacks Caleb Williams (Chicago Bears), Jayden Daniels (Washington Commanders) and Drake Maye (New England Patriots) went 1-2-3 in the 2024 draft. Once they became clear top-five picks — basically making them unavailable to the Broncos — Payton had zeroed in on Nix and picked him at No. 12, as Michael Penix Jr. and J.J. McCarthy came off the board before him. “It’s always the quarterback,” an AFC personnel executive said. “Any team, [the Broncos] included, you’re going to need good enough play at quarterback and a good enough team around the guy if you’re going to go to the playoffs like they did right away, especially if the move you made was [moving on from] the previous quarterback. And a rookie deal at quarterback on a playoff-worthy team, that never hurts.” And the Broncos believed Nix was ready physically and mentally to play immediately after starting 61 college games. Payton has repeatedly said Nix’s ability to avoid negative plays (he was sacked 10 times combined in his two seasons at Oregon over 879 pass attempts), his accuracy (his 77.4% completion rate as a senior was an NCAA record) and how he managed end of half or end of game situations were selling points. “I think we all saw Bo right away for what he is: a player who was ready to be in that job, the work ethic, competitiveness, preparation. That guy showed up and looked like he’d been here for years,” Broncos tackle Mike McGlinchey said. “Certainly that’s a big part of what we can do and how we did the last couple years … but they built a team around the whole situation.” In the two years since the Broncos flipped from Wilson to Nix, other teams similarly tried to buoy dead cap hits with cheaper QB alternatives. The Dolphins’ dead money accumulation went beyond Tagovailoa, as they took significant cap hits from releasing wide receiver Tyreek Hill ($28.25 million) and trading Waddle ($23.2 million) and cornerback Jalen Ramsey ($20.87 million). The Dolphins turned to free agency at QB after that dead money spree, signing Malik Willis to a three-year, $67.5 million deal. At the league meetings earlier this year, first-year Dolphins general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan said the short-term salary pain was necessary — and his preferred approach — to attack the team’s roster issues. “If you keep kicking the can down the road, you never get healthy,” Sullivan said. “I mean, there’s two philosophies that you subscribe to in the National Football League. You pay as you go or you’re living on credit. … We want the flexibility that paying as you go provides and we can’t get there unless we kind of take it on the chin this year.” Then there are the Atlanta Falcons, who signed Tagovailoa for the veteran minimum after absorbing $35.4 million in dead cap charges ($22.7 million this year, $12.7 million in 2027) for releasing veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins. Tagovailoa joins Penix Jr. — selected four picks before Nix — as they move to the next phase of their team building. The Arizona Cardinals also joined the ranks when they took on a $46.57 million dead money charge with the release of quarterback Kyler Murray after seven seasons. Many in the league believe teams such as the Cardinals are positioning themselves for a 2027 draft that projects to have multiple quarterbacks with first-round grades — players such as Arch Manning (Texas), Dante Moore (Oregon), CJ Carr (Notre Dame), Drew Mestemaker (Oklahoma State), Darian Mensah (Miami) and LaNorris Sellers (South Carolina). Some of those surveyed offered a comparison to the Cleveland Browns, who signed quarterback Deshaun Watson to a fully guaranteed $230 million deal after a 2022 trade in which Cleveland sent six draft picks (including three first-rounders) to the Houston Texans for Watson and a draft pick. Watson has started just 19 games over the four seasons since the trade, including none last season. He served an 11-game suspension after he was accused by more than two dozen women of sexual misconduct during massage sessions and then missed more time due to two separate ruptures of his Achilles tendon. But faced with highly punitive dead money charges, the Browns have kept Watson on the roster. First-year coach Todd Monken has said Watson is in the competition to be Cleveland’s starter this season. The Browns, who have adjusted Watson’s contract with voidable years added for cap purposes, would have taken a dead money charge of over $131 million had they released Watson this year and will still end up with a dead money charge of more than $86 million when his contract voids after the season — or roughly what the Broncos took on with Wilson’s release. WHILE THE QB situation is key, it’s not the only piece of the puzzle in navigating those dead money crunches. Nix had a quality first season on a 10-7 team (his 29 touchdown passes were second-best all-time for a rookie) and ran an efficient offense in Year 2 (25 touchdown throws, plus another five rushing scores). But Denver also had a great defense (No. 1 in defensive EPA in 2024) and a youthful core. And the Broncos have an ownership group flush with cash and equity, within and beyond the franchise. The Broncos have flexed that financial muscle repeatedly in the past two years, most recently giving All-Pro cornerback Pat Surtain II a $5 million raise earlier this month with the potential of another $5 million escalator next season. They have retained a core of almost two dozen players with long-term contract extensions, paying more than $325 million guaranteed at signing. And they have turned base salary into immediate signing bonuses to create cap space, utilizing the kind of resources most franchises do not have. “I love the approach we took, which was none of us were ever going to make excuses,” Penner said. “We just look at it like, ‘We’re going to have some constraints; we’re going to have to be scrappy and we’re going to have to figure it out.'” It helped that the Broncos had rare injury avoidance during their 2024 revival. Denver had 18 players start at least 13 games, including three offensive linemen who started every game in front of Nix. That helped establish the foundation that drove the Broncos to the AFC’s best record in 2025. “The offensive line permeates your whole building. … [With] a young quarterback, you can look at how the group in front of him plays sometimes when you look at development or progress,” Payton said. “… That group, the lines, has always been a priority.” AS PAYTON WORKED his way around the practice fields at the team’s OTAs and minicamp, he was surrounded by a roster that, except for the trade for Waddle and the loss of defensive tackle John Franklin-Myers in free agency, remains mostly intact from last season. Denver has very little dead money and roughly $30 million in salary cap space, a combination that seemed far-fetched 27 months ago. The Broncos might have also blazed a path to give teams in similar situations a quicker, less painful way out of an underperforming roster with high-priced players. “Do I think they changed how people thought about it?” the AFC personnel executive asked. “I think so. That number [$85 million] was, like, over twice what any other team had taken on for any other player, and they went to the playoffs. “It’s not going to work for everybody, and nobody wants to have to make dead money decisions like that, but it worked and anything that works in this league is going to get a look.” So keep an eye on the Dolphins, Falcons, Cardinals and maybe even the Browns. The Broncos proved a ton of dead money doesn’t necessarily mean prolonged rebuilding. With the right players in place and a clear plan, teams can maneuver those massive salary cap hits and still find success … and maybe even a trip to the AFC title game as the conference’s 1-seed. “When you [execute a turnaround] with a record-setting amount [of dead money], it’s a credit to everyone: the young players, coaches, scouts,” Payton said. “I don’t know that anyone can physically feel it or see it, but certainly it exists when it pertains to your budget.” |
| AFC NORTH |
| BALTIMOREOver lunch Tuesday, it was noted that, at one prominent on-line site, the Ravens are the second favorite to hoist Lombardi in Los Angeles. We all thought that was high. On the other hand, former Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger is far less optimistic about Baltimore than the DB. Bryan DeArdo of CBSSports.com: It goes without saying that Ben Roethlisberger is not a fan favorite in Baltimore. As the Steelers’ quarterback, Roethlisberger handed the Ravens some gut-wrenching losses that included two in the postseason, one on Christmas Day, 2016 and another overtime in Week 18 of the 2021 season that ultimately was the final regular-season game of his 18-year career. Roethlisberger has once again drawn the ire of Ravens fans after he offered a very grim assessment of the current state of their team on his podcast. Baltimore, a non-playoff team in 2025, underwent drastic changes this offseason that included dismissing longtime coach John Harbaugh and replacing him with former Chargers defense coordinator Jesse Minter. “I think they’re falling apart. I really … I don’t think they’re the same team,” Roethlisberger said, via the Ravens’ website. “These feel different. They feel like their window closed. “To me, losing Harbaugh … [Derrick] Henry’s a year older, his body’s taken a beating. You just feel like, ‘What was going on with Lamar [Jackson] last year?’ He just didn’t seem like the Lamar that we’ve been used to seeing. Maybe he was injured. I think he took some shots last year that we didn’t think about. So, maybe he’ll have a bounce-back year and be great again.” With Roethlisberger could end up being right, to say that Baltimore’s window has closed may be a bit premature. The Ravens still have one of the league’s players in Jackson, a two-time league MVP who — as Roethlisberger alluded to — dealt with injuries last season but still managed to perform at a high level when he was able to play. In 13 games last season, Jackson threw 21 touchdowns (against just seven interceptions) and led the league in average yards gained per pass completion. Roethlisberger also mentioned Henry, who followed up his All-Pro season of 2024 with another big season in 2025. Henry’s 1,595 rushing yards last season was the third-highest single-season total in NFL history for a player who was over the age of 30. He did have a few critical fumbles, however, that contributed to Baltimore missing the playoffs for the first time since 2021. Baltimore’s roster includes other key mainstays in linebacker Roquan Smith, defensive backs Kyle Hamilton and Marlon Humphrey, and defensive tackle Nnamdi Madubuike, who recently underwent neck surgery after missing most of the 2025 season. During free agency, the Ravens emphatically addressed their formally meager pass rush by signing Trey Hendrickson, a four-time Pro Bowler who paced the NFL with a combined 35 sacks during the 2023 and ’24 seasons. Baltimore’s other notable offseason acquisitions included veteran offensive lineman Danny Pinter and John Simpson, veteran defensive end Calais Campbell, rookie left guard Olaivavega Ioane, rookie pass rusher Zion Young and rookie wideouts Ja’Kobi Lane and Elijah Sarratt. In Minter, the Ravens hired a defense-minded coach who will look to restore Baltimore’s tradition of formidable defensive units. As Michigan’s defensive coordinator in 2023, he overlooked a unit that allowed an average of just 10.4 points per game, the nation’s lowest. Minter’s defense gave up just 13 points during Michigan’s win over Washington in the College Football Playoff National Championship. Like every team, the Ravens have their question marks. Will their revamped offensive line find cohesion? Will Henry, now 32, continue to perform at a high level? Can Jackson stay healthy for a duration of a season? Did Baltimore do enough to improve what was an average defense this offseason? Will the rookies come of age fast enough to make an impact in 2026? Will Minter be up to the task as a first-time head coach? All of those questions — and others — will undoubtedly be answered as the 2026 season progresses. But, on paper at least, the Ravens appear to have enough talent to contend in what appears to be a wide-open AFC. And if more than a few things go their way, Jackson and the Ravens could surprise many — Roethlisberger included — by finally breaking through and reaching the Super Bowl for the first time since 2012. And while he clearly doesn’t expect much of them this year, Roethlisberger does have the Ravens splitting their season series against the Steelers, the team that formally sent Baltimore home for the winter during the final regular-season game of the 2025 season. Behind the Rams (+550), DraftKings has the Ravens and Bills (+1000) just ahead of the defending champion Seahawks (+1100). |
| AFC SOUTH |
| TENNESSEEQuestions have arisen about QB CAM WARD’s basic accuracy. Kevin Patra of NFL.com: Tennessee Titans coach Robert Saleh brushed aside questions about Cam Ward’s accuracy issues during offseason workouts. “Every quarterback is going to miss a couple here and there,” Saleh said Tuesday, via ESPN’s Turron Davenport. “I would say Brock Purdy’s one of the most accurate quarterbacks in all of football, and he would miss a lot of throws, and that’s OK. These guys are all working on a few things here and there.” Ward has reportedly struggled with accuracy during OTAs over the past few weeks. Saleh is right to dismiss concerns at this stage. Offseason workouts are a time to test boundaries and, particularly when learning a new offense, work out the kinks. Perfection isn’t the goal. Development is. With development comes some ugliness at times. Having written that, it is notable in so much as Ward entered the offseason needing to improve his accuracy consistency. During his rookie campaign, Ward’s play would ebb and flow. Finding more consistency on a down-to-down basis will bring the QB to a new level. It’s something he’ll continue to work on as we get ready for training camp in late July. Davenport noted that Ward had a much better start to mandatory minicamp on Tuesday than at previous OTAs. In addition to learning Brian Daboll’s scheme and experimenting with it during offseason workouts, Ward is still building chemistry with new wideouts Carnell Tate and Wan’Dale Robinson. “We’re making good progress,” Daboll said. “You have to make the mistakes, and you have to see it. We’re still learning. But I’m very pleased with where he’s at; he understands the offense well. I think his feet are really good. His eye discipline, his vision down the field. Cam can make all the throws.” Come training camp and the preseason, we’ll see if that progress has been tangible. The Titans’ success in 2026 depends on it. |
| THIS AND THAT |
| 5 TEAMS THAT COULD SURPRISELast year at this time, the Seahawks (as well as their Super Bowl opponent the Patriots, as well as AFC Championship Game participant the Broncos) were well down the list of Super Bowl favorites. Tom Blair of NFL.com identifies five teams in the current middle of the pack that could emulate the Seahawks. Without looking, we would expect to see the Bengals (and the Texans if they are deemed to have qualified as a dark horse): Let’s dive into the five teams below, who I think have a chance to follow the Seahawks’ 2025 trajectory. THE RULESTo be eligible, teams had to meet two basic criteria: I would not do a double-take if they made the playoffs.I would do a double-take, or maybe even a spit-take, if they won 14-plus games and coasted to victory in Super Bowl LXI. I also looked for common threads with the Seahawks’ build-up to glory, evaluating each team by the following factors: * Their starting QB’s “Sam Darnold Score,” a 1-10 scale representing how much the QB has to prove himself.* Whether the team has a unit as dominant as Seattle’s “Dark Side” defense.* The presence of a Seahawks-ian player on the roster, which is to say, a savvy veteran addition, a breakout-bound development project or a smartly drafted potential rookie contributor. 1 Houston Texans C.J. Stroud’s Sam Darnold Score: 6/10. As the 2023 Offensive Rookie of the Year, Stroud has less to prove than Darnold ever did. But there are still Questions About His Future. Stroud’s numbers have slipped the last two seasons, and the last time we saw him, he delivered one of the worst performances of his career in a Divisional Round shellacking by the Patriots. Is he a franchise QB, or will his next deal come with a bet-hedging early out for the team? Do they have a Dark Side? Do they ever. Houston’s defense was one of the most dominant units in the NFL last year, ranking first in EPA per play and fifth in yards per play allowed (4.8), and while things change from one season to the next, most of the elements behind that success remain in place. This is exactly the kind of group that — like Seattle’s own neo-Legion of Boom did in 2025 — can be the engine behind a stem-to-stern run of dominance. Who is their Seahawks-ian building block? Ed Ingram, OG. Like Seattle’s trade for Ernest Jones IV two years ago, it might have been easy to dismiss Houston’s swap for Ingram last year as something of a flier as it continued trying to solve its unsolvable O-line issues. Ingram finished the season with a sacks-allowed rate of 0.9%, per Next Gen Stats, halving the 2024 mark of his predecessor, Shaq Mason (1.9%), and proceeded to earn an extension this year. If Stroud is going to develop in the right direction, Ingram (along with rookie center Keylan Rutledge and veteran running back David Montgomery) will play a key role. Bottom line: It might seem a bit like cheating to include a team that already won 12 games last season. But this franchise has never finished higher than the third seed in the AFC or advanced beyond the Divisional Round of the playoffs. If Stroud and the offense can up their game and the defense stays elite, the Texans could truly separate themselves from the typical AFC South fray and roll into the postseason with some real momentum. 2 Minnesota Vikings Kyler Murray’s Sam Darnold Score: 8/10. The low points of Murray’s NFL tenure so far are just about even with the pre-Vikings high points of Darnold’s, but there is one tantalizing common factor in these two players’ trajectories: Kevin O’Connell, QB-renovator extraordinaire. Unlike Darnold heading into his 2024 renewal under KOC, Murray has already played well enough to validate his selection with a top draft pick. But he’s never had a head coach with as much NFL success as O’Connell (.632 career winning percentage), and he hasn’t worked with an in-his-prime receiver even close to Justin Jefferson’s level since DeAndre Hopkins in 2020. Murray has to stay healthy and make the most of this chance, but the circumstances around him might be as favorable as they’ve ever been. Do they have a Dark Side? Brian Flores’ famously formidable defense was as effective as ever in 2025, ranking seventh in EPA per play (-0.14) and points allowed per game (19.6) and third in yards allowed per play (4.7), but the offense could not keep up, with a season-long point differential of plus-11 matching perfectly with Minnesota’s 9-8 finish. Like the Texans, the Vikings have a defense that could drive true dominance, with just a little more support from the offense. Who is their Seahawks-ian building block? Dallas Turner, Edge. Drafted 20th overall in 2023, Jaxon Smith-Njigba spent the first two years of his career sharing targets with Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf. Last offseason, Seattle moved on from the veterans — and JSN became a star, piling up a league-best 1,793 receiving yards. Turner’s development has been a slow burn in Minnesota, where he started out low in the pass-rushing pecking order as a rookie in 2024. Last season, his sack total ticked up to a healthy, but still modest, eight. Now he’s got two years of experience in Flores’ scheme under his belt and a clear path to a difference-making breakout, with Andrew Van Ginkel turning 31 in July and Jonathan Greenard in Philly. Bottom line: Like Seattle, Minnesota has been fitfully competitive over the past few years. The Vikings have plenty of talent, and I have confidence in the coaching regime. If they were also working with the same level of front-office stability that the Seahawks have enjoyed under Schneider, I’d feel better about giving them the top spot. Whoever takes over as full-time GM might knock the job out of the park, but the late-January firing of Kwesi Adofo-Mensah brings some uncertainty to the team-building portion of the equation. 3 Los Angeles Chargers Justin Herbert’s Sam Darnold Score: 1/10. Herbert has had plenty of NFL success and is deep into a hefty second contract, but there’s still a tiny glimmer of Darnold visible in his playoff record (zero wins, three losses, 54.7 percent completion rate, 2:4 TD-to-INT ratio, 64.7 passer rating). Sure, he’s had to deal with things outside of his control, including the dissolution of his offensive line over the course of the 2025 season, and it’s tough to take too much away from a three-game sample. But it would be nice for Herbert to have proof that he is more than a top-10 regular-season QB. Giving this team its first postseason victory since Philip Rivers beat the Ravens in January of 2019 would be a good step. Do they have a Dark Side? It’s the defense, with a caveat: Jesse Minter is gone, having left the group he led to the eighth-best mark in defensive EPA per play last season to coach the Ravens. That said, his replacement, Chris O’Leary, has most of the same pieces to work with. The Bolts won seven of their final 10 regular-season games last season while holding all but one of those opponents to 20 points or less, a trend that continued in the Wild Card Round, when they limited the Pats to 16 points — and mustered just three of their own. Who is their Seahawks-ian building block? Akheem Mesidor, Edge. As my colleague Chad Reuter pointed out, Daniel Jeremiah’s 26th-ranked prospect is in exactly the right spot to make a key contribution as a rookie, augmenting the Tuli Tuipulotu- and Khalil Mack-led pass rush. Bottom line: Thankfully, we don’t seem to hear too much these days about the Chargers “Chargering” themselves into self-inflicted losses. And it’s tough to ding them too much for the way last season turned out, given how difficult it is to play football without a working offensive line. Herbert and Jim Harbaugh have pushed this team to 11 wins in back-to-back seasons. That’s meaningful. It would be even better if they could vault more firmly into the upper realm of conference contenders, where the franchise hasn’t truly been in nearly two decades. 4 Chicago Bears Caleb Williams’ Sam Darnold Score: 3/10. Williams is on much steadier ground now than he was coming off a somewhat spotty rookie year. For his sophomore effort, Williams won 11 games while throwing for 3,942 yards and compiling a 27:7 TD-to-INT ratio. That’s the kind of season you want to see out of a No. 1 overall pick. The trick will be performing like that again, hopefully many more times, until he’s 15 years into a Hall of Fame track. Then Bears fans will be able to breathe a little. Do they have a Dark Side? In Johnson’s first year at the helm, Chicago averaged 5.7 yards per play and ranked ninth in EPA per play (0.03) on offense. That might not look like much compared with what Johnson put up in his three years running the show in Detroit (the Lions averaged 5.9 yards per play or better in 2022-24, while finishing fourth, fourth and second in EPA per play, respectively), but it was downright revolutionary for the Bears, who last topped 5.5 yards per play in 2016, under the three-headed QB monster of Jay Cutler, Matt Barkley and Brian Hoyer. The offensive line is a concern, but if Johnson can keep things cooking in Year 2, this could be an attack that pushes Chicago into the upper reaches of the NFC standings again. Who is their Seahawks-ian building block? Montez Sweat, Edge. Sweat might be even more of a Williams-type acquisition than Williams was. When the ‘Hawks traded for Williams in 2023, they were about to begin a 4-6 slide that knocked them out of the playoffs. When the Bears acquired Sweat from Washington in October of 2023, they were 2-6 and still far from relevance — or, frankly, having an obvious pressing need for a costly (in terms of draft compensation and, eventually, an extension) mid-career pass rusher. But Sweat made an immediate difference, and when the stakes got suddenly higher last season, he was already in position to give the Bears a 10-sack effort. He’s a great example of a groundwork-laying piece who comes aboard before the final vision comes into focus. Bottom line: Are the Bears too good already to make this list? The results from 2025 say yes, but the previous 12 years say no. Between Lovie Smith’s last season (2012) and Johnson’s first, Chicago went 76-110, with two winless playoff appearances. There is enough youth in the mix, and the defense is worrisome enough, that the Bears might end up being a popular candidate to regress in 2026. But if the defense tightens up and Johnson’s offense helps the team win double-digit games in back-to-back seasons, it won’t be crazy to think back to the Super Bowl ceiling of the last Chicago team to pull that off, back in 2006. 5 Cincinnati Bengals Joe Burrow’s Sam Darnold Score: -100/10. When it comes to realizing individual potential, the first six years of Burrow’s career were basically the polar opposite of Darnold’s. Health has been a persistent challenge, but the most pressing question at this point is whether the team around Burrow can reach the minimum performance level to let him drive another Super Bowl run. Do they have a Dark Side? Cincinnati’s offense is led by three players (Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins) who can, at any point, qualify as one of the best in the league at their position. The defense surrendered more yards (6,475) and points (492) than most offenses could compensate for, let alone one that was without Burrow for nine games. If that D can move closer to league-average performance, Burrow and Co. could really put something together. Who is their Seahawks-ian building block? Dexter Lawrence, DT. This is a bit of a projection, given that Lawrence was only acquired by Cincinnati in early April, but, like Seattle’s trade for Williams, this is less of a no-doubt home run than a reasonable swing on an established veteran in need of a fresh start. If Lawrence successfully transforms the defense, he could help change the complexion of the AFC. Bottom line: The Bengals reached the Super Bowl in Burrow’s second season and the AFC title game the year after that. They should have been in the SB picture on a regular basis over the past half-decade. Instead, injuries and defensive malpractice have consigned them to the NFL’s middle class. With a little more help from the defense, Burrow can push them to the front of the pack. |
| TEAMS FOR BRENDAN SORSBYWhich teams should roll the dice on QB BRENDAN SORSBY? Nick Baumgardner of The Athletic has a list: New York JetsIf the Jets want Sorsby, there’s a solid chance the Jets will be able to get Sorsby. New York has, by a decent margin, more 2027 NFL Draft capital than any other team, including a whopping three firsts. They hold both the Cowboys’ and Colts’ opening-round selection next spring. When New York first began bulking up on draft picks last fall, conventional wisdom said it would be in great position to make a run at the 2027 draft’s top QB, be it Arch Manning, Dante Moore or someone else. The Jets are in group 1 (teams with fewer than six wins the previous season) of the supplemental draft order, and several of the other organizations in that bucket — Las Vegas, Tennessee, Cincinnati, Washington — have apparent franchise quarterbacks in place. Would this make sense?Yes, but only if New York believes Sorsby is a can’t-miss prospect, which is a pretty tough case to make. The Jets have four quarterbacks (Geno Smith, rookie Cade Klubnik, Bailey Zappe, Brady Cook) on their roster right now, although not one of them is going to scare a single NFL defensive coordinator this season. The Jets did just invest a fourth-round pick in Klubnik, however. It’s debatable as to whether or not Sorsby is a better prospect than Klubnik today. They’re both 22 years old, and Klubnik’s college career was equal to, or more impressive than, Sorsby’s. Klubnik also doesn’t come with the off-field baggage Sorsby is currently carrying. New York has a chance to see what Klubnik can give the franchise this year, and if that’s nothing, it’ll still be in a great spot to take a talent at the top of the 2027 draft. Arizona CardinalsAfter spending several years in a bit of QB purgatory with Kyler Murray, the Cardinals are now officially in QB hell, with zero firm answers on their roster. I have a tough time seeing Carson Beck (the team’s third-round pick) being better than either Jacoby Brissett or Gardner Minshew in camp, although any quarterback will benefit from having running back Jeremiyah Love, the team’s pick at No. 3 this April. If there’s a tier for NFL teams at the very beginning of a rebuild, the Cardinals would be in it. What separates Arizona from some of the others in that spot, however, is the fact Arizona is a bit more strapped for future draft capital — it currently has all seven of its standard picks for next year, but that’s it. Would this make sense?Yes, if Arizona can get Sorsby using a mid-round pick. If I’m the Cardinals, I’m not sure I’d give up more than a fourth for him, especially after just using a third-round selection on Beck (which I believe was a reach). This isn’t dissimilar to the Klubnik situation in New York, though, in that the Cardinals already have a young passer they like. Spending valuable capital on another youngster, especially one in Sorsby’s current situation, could be tough. That said, Arizona should play the game a bit here, because Sorsby is a better prospect than Beck. Arizona could be in position to snag a guy at the top of the 2027 draft, but there are no promises. Bidding a Day 3 pick on Sorsby could make sense. Cleveland BrownsSpeaking of quarterback hell, the Browns have been the host family for a while now. The Deshaun Watson saga continues to roll on, as Cleveland appears set to give him another shot to start in 2026 before he becomes a free agent next summer. After this season, Cleveland will finally be able to start freeing itself from Watson’s disastrous contract. Cleveland is also set to have a solid amount of draft capital again in 2027, including its own pick in the first, second and third rounds, three fourth-rounders and two fifths. The Browns already have as many young quarterback options on their roster as any other team — Shedeur Sanders, Dillon Gabriel and 2026 sixth-rounder Taylen Green are all expected in camp this summer. Would this make sense?It’s a no for me. The Browns have already spent three draft picks over the past two years on quarterbacks, all of whom are almost certainly destined for backup careers (at best). Sorsby is a better quarterback prospect today than any of those three youngsters were on their respective draft days, but I’m not 100 percent sure that’d be the case now, especially since Gabriel and Sanders have earned NFL starts. New Cleveland coach Todd Monken told reporters earlier this month that Sorsby’s unresolved situation is a “slippery slope” and he likes “the quarterbacks we have.” Cleveland has a chance to get Watson off the roster next year and make a move for a legitimate starter at the top of the draft. I’d keep my focus on that. Pittsburgh SteelersThe Steelers have been firmly on the veteran quarterback mercenary train since giving up on Kenny Pickett two seasons after taking him in the first round (2022). After riding with Russell Wilson and Justin Fields in 2024, Pittsburgh signed Aaron Rodgers for 2025 and brought the 42-year-old back in 2026 for what’s expected to be the future Hall of Famer’s final season. None of this is to say Pittsburgh has bypassed future investments at the position. Quite the contrary. The Steelers took former Ohio State national champion Will Howard in the sixth round in 2025, before taking ex-Penn State quarterback Drew Allar in the third round this April. Howard feels more like a long-term NFL backup, but Allar has all the physical tools to be a future starter. On the field and in reality, though, he’s very raw and might need multiple years of development to be starter-ready — if he ever gets there. Would this make sense?It might. Pittsburgh’s 2027 draft capital situation is similar to that of Arizona; the Steelers currently have a pick (including multiple seventh-rounders) in every round but the sixth. Unless Rodgers changes his mind (which, it’s Aaron Rodgers … ), Pittsburgh likely will need a new starter for 2027. Mike McCarthy has already admitted that Allar, while talented, is basically a teardown rebuild after playing in a Penn State offense that rarely made sense for him. Sorsby would hardly be entering this situation without warts. From a football standpoint, however, it’s possible that after a hypothetical year of working behind Rodgers, he’d be more ready than Allar or Howard for the job in 2027. This also shouldn’t be your normal forward-thinking QB-needy situation, as Pittsburgh believes it still has a playoff roster right now. Miami DolphinsThe Dolphins ate an NFL-record $99.2 million to get out of Tua Tagovailoa’s contract (Miami will pay Tagovailoa $54 million to play in Atlanta this season) and has moved into what could be a bridge situation with Malik Willis. Willis has started just six NFL games in four seasons and has never been a full-time starter, but he was impressive enough during relief stints in Green Bay to entice new Miami head coach Jeff Hafley. He is on a three-year, $67.5 million deal in Miami, with a potential out after the 2027 season. The Dolphins also have one of the NFL’s more crowded quarterback rooms in terms of youth, as Miami spent two Day 3 picks on quarterbacks in 2025 (Quinn Ewers and Cam Miller), then added former Iowa passer Mark Gronowski as an undrafted free agent this spring. Would this make sense?Not really. Miami’s plan under Hafley and new GM Jon-Eric Sullivan seems to be setting up for a full rebuild. Miami did score a haul of draft picks for trading Jaylen Waddle to Denver, but all of them were 2026 selections. Miami is in position to potentially use the next two drafts to bulk up Hafley’s defense before making a long-term decision on Willis (or someone else). I’m not sure giving up a pick for Sorsby, with plenty of young QB projects already on the roster, makes much sense. New Orleans SaintsFor now, the Saints will move forward with second-year quarterback Tyler Shough, their second-round pick in 2025. The 26-year-old Shough had promising stretches in nine starts last season, particularly down the stretch. He was generally accurate and decisive with the football, finishing the year with a .19 EPA/dropback in nine starts, which ranked in the top 10 among quarterbacks with at least nine starts. Frankly, Shough played like a first-round pick as a rookie. There were reasons he went in the second round, though, including his age and the fact he suffered three severe injuries in college (two broken collarbones and a broken leg). New Orleans also still has talented young backup Spencer Rattler on the roster, and it brought former first-rounder Zach Wilson into the building this summer. Would this make sense?Maybe. As a roster, the Saints are closer to Pittsburgh than the rest of the teams on this list — they’re talented enough to surprise some people this year, especially if Shough plays the way he did late last year. Sorsby is probably as talented as Shough was when he entered the draft last spring. If the Saints want to hedge their bet — and feel they might be able to get Sorsby with a mid-round pick — it could turn into a productive investment. Jason Lloyd of The Athletic begs the Browns not to take a chance on Sorsby – noting they have already had a gamble blow up in their faces with QB DESHAUN WATSON and others. They can’t. They can’t actually do this. At some point, even the Cleveland Browns have to learn from their past mistakes at the most important position and push themselves back from the table. Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby is headed to the NFL via the supplemental draft after his college career crumbled following his admission to gambling on his team while at Indiana. No NFL general manager loves shopping in the scratch and dent aisle more than Andrew Berry, and no team could use a talented quarterback prospect more than the Browns. But they can’t do it. Not this time. I have sympathy for Sorsby and believe he is the latest name in a growing public health crisis across the United States involving gambling addiction and young men in their early 20s. In this instance, however, he can be someone else’s bet. If common sense isn’t enough of a deterrent, if logical reasoning that drafting a quarterback who is a diagnosed gambling addict and dropping him into one of the most dysfunctional franchises of the last 30 years probably isn’t an ideal business plan, all the evidence they need is 1.3 miles south of Huntington Bank Field down East Ninth St. On the corner of Carnegie and Ontario, the mere mention of Emmanuel Clase still turns faces green inside the Cleveland Guardians’ executive offices. The most stable, high-functioning team in town over the last 30 years was rocked last summer by gambling allegations that sunk the careers of Clase and Luis Ortiz. Both men have been charged with allegedly rigging pitches and face up to 65 years in federal prison. They will stand trial separately later this year. The scandal shook the Guardians, infuriated team executives and created far more questions among players in the clubhouse than there were answers. The Browns, even with the worst quarterback room in the NFL, create enough problems without inviting anything like this into the building. They are finally, mercifully, entering the last season of Deshaun Watson’s $230 million contract. Shedeur Sanders will likely get an opportunity to start at some point this season if he isn’t the Week 1 starter, and Dillon Gabriel is still lingering, at least for now. Somehow, rookie Taylen Green is the only quarterback on this roster that doesn’t elicit some polarizing response from a divided fan base that has been broken over the team’s quarterback play for years. From Johnny Manziel to Baker Mayfield, from Watson to Sanders, the Browns haven’t been able to solve their QB woes. Sorsby in Cleveland would be just another toxic dart throw, and the Browns have missed so badly over the years that they have more holes on their walls than in the cork. It’s hard to imagine a Sorsby experiment ending any differently. Browns coach Todd Monken seems to understand this. It’s tough to know with NFL teams what is real and what is bluster, but Monken was so strong in his rejection of Sorsby earlier this month as a possibility in Cleveland that it would be awkward to unite them now. “I don’t think we’re in a position to go down that road,” Monken said. “That’s my opinion, that’s not (Berry’s). I like the quarterbacks that we have. I think that’s a slippery slope when you go down that, irrespective of talent, right? In terms of the situation he’s (put) himself in, we all know what it is. He put himself in that situation. And we’ve seen in other sports with players that have been banned for life from playing in professional sports. “But from my end of it, (it’s) kind of a tough angle to go down that road and think that’s going to be your franchise quarterback if he’s ever eligible to even play in the NFL.” Monken is right and speaking logically. He also subtly introduced another valid concern for any team interested in Sorsby: He could still face a suspension under the NFL’s broad personal conduct policy, which Browns fans know from the Watson trade. The Browns thought they had a good understanding of what Watson’s suspension length was going to be when they acquired him. But as backlash mounted against Watson amid allegations of sexual misconduct from more than 20 women, the league appealed the initial 6-game ruling and increased the punishment. Those allegations, of course, are far different than what Sorsby admitted to doing. Nevertheless, the 11-game suspension Watson ultimately served is proof that it’s difficult to know what the league will do until it does it. The Browns have made a complete mess at quarterback, but betting on a known gambler isn’t the way out. It’s hard to even type that line without chuckling. I don’t believe Watson or Sanders should be on the roster, either, based on performance. The Browns should have moved on from both. But if forced to choose between the two, it isn’t close. I’d take Sanders every time. There’s clearly no future with Watson. There isn’t with Sorsby, either. Like most Browns quarterbacks over the last 30 years, he’s a bad bet. |
