Former DL Josh Mauro Passes Away
Former NFL defensive lineman Josh Mauro has passed away at the age of 35, his family announced.
The English-born and Texas-raised Mauro enjoyed a solid college career at Stanford, where he totaled 21.5 tackles for loss and 11 sacks over 47 games. He was at his best in his last season with the Cardinal, 2013, during which he recorded personal highs in tackles (51), TFL (12) and interceptions (one). He also chipped in four sacks.
Mauro signed with the Steelers as an undrafted free agent in 2014, but they cut him before the season. He quickly caught on with the Cardinals and wound up spending his first few years in their uniform. In 2016, his most productive season, Mauro made a career-high 13 starts in 15 games and notched 32 tackles.
Mauro spent three of his first four years in Arizona playing for defensive coordinator James Bettcher, who took the same job with the Giants in 2018. He followed Bettcher to New York on a one-year deal in free agency. After Mauro served a four-game suspension for performance-enhancing drugs to open the season, the run-stopping lineman returned to log 28 tackles and a sack over 12 games and four starts.
Mauro left the Giants for what proved to be a one-year stint with the Raiders in 2019. He reunited with defensive line coach Brentson Buckner, who held the same position in Arizona during Mauro’s first three seasons. Playing for the Raiders in their final season in Oakland, Mauro tallied 19 tackles over 13 games and seven starts.
Mauro began the 2020 campaign in the Jaguars organization, but he reunited with the Cardinals when they plucked him off the Jags’ practice squad in October. He played in three of Arizona’s games that year and five more in 2021. While Mauro worked out for the Bears ahead of the 2022 season, he never signed another contract. Mauro finished his eight-year career with 130 tackles and five sacks over 80 games and 40 starts.
Cardinals Sign Seven UDFAs
The Cardinals had a relatively standard draft, as the organization left the weekend with seven rookies. The team has now doubled that rookie class by agreeing to deals with seven undrafted free agents. That grouping includes:
- Elijah Culp, CB (James Madison)
- Ka’ena De Cambra, OL (Arizona)
- Jameson Geers, TE (Minnesota)
- Cameron Robertson, OLB (SMU)
- Harrison Wallace III, WR (Mississippi)
- Damonic Williams, DL (Oklahoma)
- Wydett Williams Jr., S (Mississippi)
Harrison Wallace III got a significant chunk of money to join Arizona. Per Aaron Wilson of KPRC2 in Houston, the Ole Miss wideout got a $40K signing bonus and $247.5K in salary for a total of $287.5K in guaranteed money. Following a breakout campaign with Penn State in 2024, Wallace took his production to another level during his lone season with the Rebels. The receiver hauled in 57 catches for 894 yards and four touchdowns. He’ll be competing for a spot on a depth chart that includes free agent acquisition Kendrick Bourne and rookie fifth-round pick Reggie Virgil.
Wilson also passed along financials on Ka’ena De Cambra‘s deal with the Cardinals, noting that the offensive lineman earned a $5K signing bonus along with having $50K of his base salary guaranteed. After starting his collegiate career at Hawaii, De Cambra spent the 2025 campaign at Arizona, where he appeared in 12 games. The Cardinals only used one pick on the offensive line this past weekend, selecting Mississippi’s Jayden Williams in the seventh round.
Wydett Williams Jr. may have the best shot of the UDFA class to make the 53-man roster. Budda Baker is fully entrenched atop the depth chart at strong safety, but former UDFA Kitan Crawford represents the only depth behind him. Williams is coming off a standout season at Ole Miss where he compiled 73 stops, three interceptions, and 10 passes defended.
Lions To Exercise Jahmyr Gibbs’ Fifth-Year Option, Decline Jack Campbell’s
The Lions picked twice in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft, meaning they have a pair of fifth-year option decisions to make by May 1. The team plans to exercise running back Jahmyr Gibbs‘ option, but it will decline linebacker Jack Campbell‘s, Dan Miller of Fox2 Detroit reports.
Gibbs and Campbell have turned into stars at their respective positions since entering the NFL in 2023. However, saying yes to Gibbs’ option was much more of a slam-dunk choice for Detroit. The former 12th overall will lock in a 2027 salary of $14.29MM salary, which is reasonable for an elite back who has already earned three Pro Bowls in four years.
The dual-threat Gibbs has found the end zone a whopping 49 times (39 rushing, 10 receiving) in as many games. A two-time 1,200-yard rusher, Gibbs has averaged a robust 5.3 YPC on 675 attempts. Gibbs is also fresh off a 77-catch season, easily surpassing the respectable 52 he totaled in each of his first two years.
Campbell came off the board 18th overall, six picks after Gibbs, and has evolved into a high-level off-linebacker. Unfortunately for Campbell, though, the NFL continues to group off-ball LBs and pass-rushing LBs together for valuation purposes. Teams do not value them equally, evidenced by the fact that no club has picked up an off-ball LB’s option since the Buccaneers did it for Devin White in 2022. The Lions will not snap the four-year streak despite Campbell’s successful development.
A former Iowa standout, Campbell has not missed a game in three seasons. Campbell thrived in a career year in 2025, during which he set personal bests in tackles (176), TFL (nine), sacks (five) and forced fumbles (three) en route to his first Pro Bowl selection and All-Pro nod. The original-ballot Pro Bowl bid upped the value of his option to $21.93MM, which the Lions deemed too rich. The 49ers’ Fred Warner and the Ravens’ Roquan Smith are the only off-LBs making at least $20MM per year.
While the Lions are not yet guaranteed to keep Campbell around beyond next season, there is optimism a long-term agreement will come together. He is “absolutely” in the Lions’ plans, per Miller. For now, Campbell, tight end Sam LaPorta and safety Brian Branch are among Lions core players who are due to reach free agency next year.
The Lions will keep Gibbs around for a minimum of two more seasons, but they could still try to hammer out an extension after picking up his option. A new Gibbs pact would “easily” check in at over $15MM per year, according to Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports. Only three backs – the Eagles’ Saquon Barkley ($20.6MM), the 49ers’ Christian McCaffrey ($19MM) and the Ravens’ Derrick Henry ($15MM) – are averaging that much money per annum. The 24-year-old Gibbs may join them soon.
Jets Host QB Russell Wilson
After spending last season with the Giants, quarterback Russell Wilson may not have to go far to find his next team. Wilson visited the Jets on Monday, Brian Costello of the New York Post reports.
No signing is imminent, but there is “mutual interest” between the Jets and the 37-year-old Wilson, according to Connor Hughes of SNY. Wilson still lives in the area and “doesn’t really want to leave,” per Hughes.
Wilson was among the NFL’s top signal-callers for a large portion of a Seattle run that spanned from 2012-21, but the one-time Super Bowl winner’s production has fallen off in recent years. Since the end of his decade-long tenure in Seattle, where he earned nine Pro Bowl nods, Wilson has played for three teams in a four-year span.
Wilson’s fruitful Seahawks stint came to an end when they sent him to the Broncos for two first-round picks, a pair of second-rounders, defensive lineman Shelby Harris, tight end Noah Fant and QB Drew Lock in a March 2022 blockbuster. It ended up an ill-fated trade for the Broncos, who got two underwhelming seasons from Wilson and sputtered to a 13-21 record. They released Wilson in March 2024 and took on a then-record $85MM in dead money.
Looking for an upgrade over Kenny Pickett, the Steelers made a pair of dart throws when they added Wilson and Justin Fields ahead of the 2024 season. Both players wound up making starts, but Wilson got more action. Across 11 starts, he threw 16 touchdowns against five interceptions. While the Steelers went a middling 6-5 in Wilson’s outings, they finished 10-7 and earned a wild-card berth. Wilson completed 20 of 29 passes for 270 yards and two touchdowns in the first round of the playoffs, but the Ravens handled the Steelers in a 28-14 victory. That proved to be Wilson’s last game in Pittsburgh.
Wilson was one of three high-profile QB pickups for the Giants last offseason. Before trading back into the first round to draft Jaxson Dart 25th overall, they signed Wilson to a one-year, $10.5MM guarantee and gave Jameis Winston $8MM over two years. Wilson opened the season as the Giants’ starter, but then-head coach Brian Daboll quickly pulled the plug. Daboll handed the reins to Dart in Week 4. Even though Dart later missed two games with a concussion, the Giants turned to Winston instead of Wilson in those instances. Wilson’s last start as a Giant came Sept. 21, 2025. He attempted just nine passes the rest of the year.
Shortly after the Giants’ season ended in January, Wilson revealed he suffered a hamstring tear last September. Despite that, he has insisted on multiple occasions that he wants to play a 15th season in 2026. The rebuilding Jets already have a bridge starter in offseason acquisition Geno Smith, Wilson’s former backup with the Seahawks, but the former enjoyed working with the latter in Seattle, per Costello. While rookie fourth-rounder Cade Klubnik, Brady Cook and Bailey Zappe are also in the fold, the Jets may turn to Wilson as Smith’s primary backup next season.
Chargers To Pick Up Quentin Johnston’s Fifth-Year Option
With the May 1 deadline for fifth-year option decisions looming, the Chargers have made their choice on wide receiver Quentin Johnston. They are picking up his option, Daniel Popper of The Athletic reports. Johnston is now in line to earn $18.1MM in 2027.
[RELATED: Fifth-Year Option Tracker]
Johnston entered the offseason as a potential trade candidate, but general manager Joe Hortiz revealed in mid-April that he had neither received nor made calls on the 6-foot-2, 208-pounder. Hortiz and head coach Jim Harbaugh were not in place when the Chargers selected Johnston 21st overall in 2023, but they have seen enough positives to keep the TCU product around through his fifth season.
Johnston’s career got off to a disappointing start in 2023, a 38-catch, 431-yard, two-touchdown effort in which he struggled with drops. The Chargers fired head coach Brandon Staley during what wound up as a 5-12 campaign. They brought in their current regime in the ensuing offseason, and Johnston has offered much better production since then.
Although Johnston missed two games in his second year, he still easily eclipsed the numbers he put up during a full rookie season. He hauled in 55 passes for 711 yards and eight touchdowns, giving quarterback Justin Herbert a quality complement to then-rookie sensation Ladd McConkey. Despite logging three more absences in 2025, Johnston managed his second straight eight-TD season. He racked up 51 receptions for a career-high 735 yards along the way.
Johnston finished closely behind McConkey and Keenan Allen in yards last season. Allen is still unsigned almost two months into free agency, and it is unclear whether the Chargers will bring back the franchise icon. Even if Allen goes elsewhere or retires, the Chargers appear to have a strong group of receivers entering Mike McDaniel‘s first season as their offensive coordinator. Along with Johnston and McConkey, the Bolts count 2025 second-rounder Tre Harris, 2025 fifth-rounder KeAndre Lambert-Smith and 2026 fourth-rounder Brenen Thompson among their options. All of those players are under team control for at least two more seasons.
Sean McVay, Ty Simpson Had “Secret Meetings”; McVay “High” On QB
The win-now Rams shocked many observers when they spent the 13th overall pick in this year’s draft on a developmental quarterback, former Alabama signal-caller Ty Simpson. For his part, Simpson suggested afterward he had little pre-draft contact with the Rams, saying (via Sarah Barshop of ESPN): “I met with some scouts at (Alabama), and that was really it. They talked to my agent, but that was really not much.”
[Poll: Grading Rams’ Simpson Pick]
It turns out Simpson was being cagey, as he revealed Monday in an interview with Ian Fitzsimmons on ESPN Radio.
“We tried to keep this under wraps as long as we could,” Simpson told Fitzsimmons. “It was something to where I knew they were interested, but they wanted to make it private and didn’t want people to know that they were interested.”
Simpson added that he and head coach Sean McVay “had some secret meetings” and “talked for hours and hours” about football. Meeting with a prospect is atypical for Rams brass (McVay and general manager Les Snead), Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic notes. While McVay drew plenty of attention online when he looked less than thrilled in the aftermath of the Simpson pick, that was not the case. McVay has “significant say” over the Rams’ first selection every year, Rodrigue relays. General manager Les Snead would not have pulled the trigger on Simpson had McVay been against it.
After making a mere 15 starts in college, there is no shortage of skepticism regarding Simpson’s chances of succeeding in the NFL. But both McVay and Snead are “very high on Simpson,” per Rodrigue. McVay, who has earned a reputation as an offensive guru, will play a key role in developing the 23-year-old as he breaks into the league as a backup.
It is unclear how long it will take for Simpson to get a look as a starter, as he is stuck behind one of the league’s premier signal-callers. Matthew Stafford will play his age-38 season in 2026, but he has shown no signs of slowing down. The 17-year veteran won his first MVP after throwing a career-high 46 touchdown passes last season. He came within a few points of reaching his second Super Bowl, but the Seahawks upended the Rams in a 31-27 NFC championship game. The Stafford-led Rams will aim to get over the hump and win their first title since 2021 next season, but in the meantime, he is likely to ink a lucrative extension.
The Rams may have just landed their QB of the future, but it does not appear Simpson will overtake Stafford any time soon. As was the case with past first-round QBs like Aaron Rodgers and Jordan Love in Green Bay, it may be multiple years before Simpson takes the reins.
Saints Offered Giants Fourth-Round Pick For OLB Kayvon Thibodeaux
Although Joe Schoen dismissed trade talks involving Kayvon Thibodeaux, the Friday report about Saints interest in the former Giants top-five pick appears to have been accurate. New Orleans did pursue Thibodeaux, only to see their effort fail before pivoting to Tyree Wilson on Saturday.
New Orleans sent Las Vegas a fifth-round pick for Wilson and a seventh, and although the team declined the incoming pass rusher’s fifth-year option, it will determine his fit alongside Chase Young beginning soon. Wilson was not the Saints’ first choice, though, with The Athletic’s Dan Duggan indicating the team made a better offer for Thibodeaux.
The Saints offered a fourth-round pick for Thibodeaux, per Duggan, who adds the Giants held out for a second-rounder. It is unclear if this was the only offer a team made during the draft.
Considering Thibodeaux’s inconsistency, injury history and contract status, a second-round pick is probably unrealistic. But New York stuck to its guns, even after yet another top-five investment in a pass rusher (Arvell Reese). While Reese will begin his career as an off-ball linebacker in New York, the Giants will surely explore capitalizing on his hybrid skillset.
The Giants having extended Brian Burns — a 2025 second-team All-Pro — and drafted Abdul Carter third overall last year. Reese may be opening his career at ILB, but the Giants will undoubtedly deploy him as a rusher frequently. Even the franchise that popularized the NASCAR package around an edge-rushing surplus in the early 2010s may not have a good way to get Burns, Thibodeaux, Carter and Reese on the field together too often. While the Giants have held firm on Thibodeaux, trade rumors have followed the 2022 draftee for a while.
Now in a contract year, Thibodeaux is also tied to a $14.75MM full guarantee for 2026 — his fifth-year option salary. That affects his trade value. The Broncos received first- and fourth-round picks for Bradley Chubb in his 2022 fifth-year option season, while the Commanders fetched a second-round return from the Bears for Montez Sweat a year later. Both players had shown more promise than Thibodeaux on their respective rookie contracts. A few edge rushers in recent years — from Jaelan Phillips to Chase Young to Yannick Ngakoue to Dante Fowler — have brought third-round returns or a third plus a Day 3 choice. This is probably the best the Giants can hope for in a 2026 Thibodeaux trade.
I mentioned in our Giants Offseason Outlook piece that the Giants stringing this situation out until the trade deadline may be the best way to maximize Thibodeaux’s value. Of course, that is before the team chose to make another prime investment at the position via Reese. With Reese needing to see pass-rushing time, it is certainly possible the Giants do not let this trade market reach the regular season.
The Saints held No. 132 overall in Round 4; their Round 2 selection came in 42nd. The latter pick was understandably a no-go in a trade; New Orleans chose Georgia defensive tackle Christen Miller with that choice. Although the Saints traded for Wilson, one year remains on his contract (he is only due $4.2MM this year). Two years remain on Young’s three-year, $51MM pact while two seasons are also left on Carl Granderson‘s four-year, $52MM extension. No guaranteed money remains on Granderson’s accord. The Saints did not draft an edge rusher this year.
An early-March report indicated the Giants would “prefer” to trade Thibodeaux; again, that came well before the team knew Reese — closely linked to the Jets at No. 2 — would be available at 5. A draft-week report suggested the Giants would accept a mid-round pick for the fifth-year rusher, but the team is not there yet. If the Giants stand pat here, we may see a fascinating redux of their oversaturated pass-rushing groups from the early ’10s — which housed Osi Umenyiora, Justin Tuck, Jason Pierre-Paul and Mathias Kiwanuka.
This quartet has obviously not proven to be on that level, but teams rarely feature this level of EDGE talent together, making it a must-follow position group for as long as Thibodeaux stays in the Big Apple.
Saints To Sign CB Martin Emerson
2:01pm: Emerson’s visit evidently went well. He is signing a one-year deal with the Saints, The Exhibit’s Josina Anderson reports. Emerson, 25, intercepted four passes with the Browns in 2023, helping Cleveland rank first in pass defense during that playoff campaign, and broke up 29 passes between the 2022 and ’23 seasons.
The former Jim Schwartz piece can boost his 2027 free agency stock with a solid Saints season. Emerson will join a Saints team that waited until Day 3 to draft a corner despite losing Adebo and Taylor in free agency over the past two years. The Saints, who also traded Marshon Lattimore at the 2024 deadline, may need Emerson to commandeer a starting job. And it looks like the team is confident the former third-round pick will be recovered from his July Achilles tear.
12:46pm: Mickey Loomis said the Saints were interested in adding a cornerback early in the draft. The Chiefs certainly thought this was the case, trading in front of the NFC South club to make sure they landed LSU’s Mansoor Delane.
New Orleans did use fifth- and seventh-round picks on corners, but after losing Paulson Adebo and Alontae Taylor in consecutive offseasons, the team could use more help. Martin Emerson is now on the Saints’ radar, with NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport noting the sides will meet today. Emerson was a regular starter in Cleveland before a summer 2025 Achilles tear.
Emerson, a two-year boundary CB starter with the Browns, met with the Texans earlier this month. He is not expected to return to Cleveland, and the Achilles tear represented a bad contract-year break. A one-year “prove it” deal — something most of the remaining FAs will need to settle for — may well be in the cards now.
Loomis said (via ESPN.com’s Katherine Terrell) the Saints did have plans to grab a corner earlier; those not materializing leaves New Orleans vulnerable for the time being at the position. Taylor showed impressive versatility as a Saint, logging more than 1,500 snaps inside and outside during his four-year stay. While the Saints did see rookie Quincy Riley play 54% of their defensive snaps in a five-start 2025, they have not filled Taylor’s nickel post yet. Two years remain on Kool-Aid McKinstry‘s rookie contract. The Titans gave Taylor a three-year, $58MM deal with $42MM guaranteed at signing.
Emerson had usurped Greg Newsome as the Browns’ No. 2 corner, outsnapping the older cover man in 2023 and ’24. The 6-foot-2 defender has played almost exclusively on the boundary as a pro, making him ill-suited for a nickel role. Pro Football Focus graded Emerson as a top-30 corner as a rookie but slotted him outside the top 60 the following year and then placed him 113th out of 117 qualified options in 2024. The Browns, who eventually traded Newsome for Tyson Campbell before last year’s deadline, were still planning on using Emerson as a 2025 regular before his injury.
It appears we are moving closer to seeing Emerson catch on somewhere. Unless the experienced corner (33 career starts) needs more time to recover, landing with a team before its OTA sessions start makes sense.
Ravens To Sign QB Diego Pavia
Initially set to take part in a Ravens tryout at their weekend rookie minicamp, Diego Pavia has secured a UDFA deal ahead of that point. Baltimore is signing the undrafted quarterback Tuesday, ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter tweets.
This will be a standard three-year UDFA contract. Pavia follows Jalon Daniels (Buccaneers) and Haynes King (Panthers) as QBs to find homes post-draft. The Vanderbilt quarterback finished second in the 2025 Heisman voting, completing a four-year career spent with the Commodores and at New Mexico State.
The SEC Offensive Player of the Year led the conference with a 70.6% completion rate, 29 touchdown passes, and 9.4 yards per attempt in 2025. He finished second to No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza in Heisman voting, but as our Nikhil Mehta noted during the pre-draft process, size is a major concern about his potential in the NFL. Listed as 6 feet tall in college, Pavia measured in at 5-foot-9 at the Combine.
Transferring from New Mexico State in 2024, Pavia completed 59.4% of his passes in his first Vanderbilt season. That year did include a 20:4 TD-INT ratio while also featuring 801 rushing yards and eight touchdowns. The run game served as a key component for the undersized QB in college, as he gained 923 yards at New Mexico State in 2023 and 862 (to go with 10 TDs) in his Heisman runner-up season. Pavia’s rushing ability certainly should appeal to a Ravens team that deploys the league’s most dynamic quarterback as its starter.
Baltimore has used Tyler Huntley as its backup for a chunk of Lamar Jackson‘s career, reacquiring him last year and re-signing him this offseason. Jackson and Huntley entered Tuesday as the only QBs on the Ravens’ roster (Baltimore gave Huntley a two-year, $5MM deal coming with $3.5MM at signing). That opens the door to a potential developmental backup, and it will be interesting to see if Pavia can make a case to land on Baltimore’s 53-man roster or practice squad by summer’s end.
Vikings To Meet With WR Jauan Jennings
Another wave of free agency is set up to commence. Teams’ signings of unrestricted FAs no longer count toward the 2027 compensatory formula, a transition that annually reignites the market. One high-profile free agent is seeing interest reemerge as a result.
Jauan Jennings‘ price point was believed to be misaligned with his value, but the recent 49ers wide receiver contributor entered free agency as one of the top pass catchers available. Nearly two months after hitting the market, Jennings will make a visit. The Vikings are set to meet with him over the next two days, ESPN’s Adam Schefter tweets.
PFR’s No. 18-ranked free agent, Jennings is the only member of our top 45 FAs unsigned (Joey Bosa — No. 46 — is the other top-50 player yet to join a team). The 49ers were interested in re-signing Jennings, but he is no longer in play for the team. San Francisco has since added Mike Evans, Christian Kirk and second-rounder De’Zhaun Stribling to its receiver room, one that still includes 2024 first-round pick Ricky Pearsall.
With Pearsall battling injuries again in 2025 and Brandon Aiyuk missing the full season due to his 2024 ACL tear (and dispute with the team), Jennings became a key 49ers playmaker over the past two seasons.
He filled in well for Aiyuk in 2024, accumulating 975 receiving yards. Last year, Jennings added 643 yards and a career-high nine touchdowns. These numbers were out of step with his two-year, $11.89MM deal. The former seventh-round pick pursued a raise during the 2025 offseason but settled for a late-summer incentive package.
A quality blocker who has moonlighted as a gadget quarterback (two postseason TD passes), Jennings is running out of time to cash in on his recent 49ers contributions. The Tennessee alum will turn 29 this summer, making this an important offseason on the contract front. But it is clear teams did not view the Kyle Shanahan charge as an impact free agent; potential offers have not satisfied Jennings. It is possible the 212-pound receiver will need to accept a one-year “prove it” deal. That will come with risk considering the 2027 offseason will bring Jennings’ 30th birthday.
On the surface, the Vikings do not look like the best option for Jennings to generate 2027 FA attention. Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison reside as the team’s locked-in top receiving tandem, and Minnesota used a 2025 third-round pick on Tai Felton. The team did not draft a receiver this year, however, and lost WR3 Jalen Nailor to a three-year, $35MM Raiders contract.
Coming from the Shanahan offense would stand to help Jennings acclimate to Kevin O’Connell‘s Minnesota attack, but it would not surprise to see the seventh-year veteran take more visits to determine the best fit. If a “prove it” deal is in the cards, Jennings will need to choose carefully since next year might be the point of no return with regards to the possibility of a lucrative free agency deal happening for him.