Raiders’ No. 1 Pick ‘Virtually Unattainable’
Since the NFL/AFL merger in 1967, 13 teams have traded out of the No. 1 overall pick in the draft. The Raiders, owners of the No. 1 choice this year, will not add to the total. To no surprise, the Raiders plan on using the pick, which is “virtually unattainable,” per Jason La Canfora of SportsBoom.
The Silver and Black prevailed over the Giants in a late-season chess match to finish last. The Raiders secured the selection after shutting down their two best players, defensive end Maxx Crosby and tight end Brock Browers, ahead of a Week 17 matchup with the Giants. While it didn’t go over well with Crosby, now the subject of ongoing trade rumors, the Raiders locked up last place with a 34-10 loss.
Had the Giants fallen to the Raiders and ended the season 32nd, a trade involving the No. 1 pick may have been more realistic. After all, the Giants are optimistic they have an answer at quarterback in 2025 first-rounder Jaxson Dart.
With Dart in tow, the Giants would have been in prime position to receive a haul for No. 1 overall. The same is true of the Raiders, but unlike the Giants, they are in dire need of a prized young quarterback. They are certain to take Indiana Heisman Trophy winner and national champion Fernando Mendoza with their pick.
If this year’s class featured other high-end QB prospects, perhaps the Raiders would entertain moving down. But there is no surefire first-round passer available beyond Mendoza. Arch Manning returning to Texas and Dante Moore staying at Oregon no doubt crushed some QB-starved teams’ hopes.
With Manning and Moore putting off the NFL for another year, Raiders part-owner Tom Brady – arguably the greatest QB of all-time – is dead set on Mendoza.
“You aren’t getting that pick from Brady,” a GM in the market for QB help told La Canfora.
In 2020, with LSU’s Joe Burrow looking like a generational prospect, the Dolphins reportedly offered the Bengals four first-rounders for No. 1. That wasn’t enough for the Bengals to pass on Burrow, who has lived up to the hype when healthy.
On the possibility of a similar offer for Mendoza, a GM said to La Canfora: “Is somebody going to throw three ones (first-round picks) at them to draft the kid from Indiana? That’s not going to happen. They’re drafting the quarterback.”
Mendoza is a strong prospect, but he isn’t on the level Burrow was when the latter was on his way to the pros. With that in mind, it’s unlikely another team would mortgage the future for Mendoza in the way the Dolphins would have for Burrow.
When Mendoza’s move to Las Vegas becomes official in April, he’ll form an enticing duo with rookie head coach Klint Kubiak. The Raiders are understandably eager to pair Mendoza with Kubiak, whom they hired after he won Super Bowl LX as the Seahawks’ offensive coordinator last season.
Offseason Outlook: Miami Dolphins
During an offseason in which several head coaches were held responsible for organizational shortcomings while general managers retained their jobs, the Dolphins were the rare team to start fresh. Despite initially giving Mike McDaniel some input in the team's GM search, the Dolphins canned their four-year HC and will reboot around Packers staffers.
Miami brought in Green Bay exec Jon-Eric Sullivan, who hired two-year Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley to succeed McDaniel. Sullivan inherits a quarterback quandary, thanks to ousted GM Chris Grier's ill-advised Tua Tagovailoa extension. The Dolphins are staring at a record-setting dead money number. Were the team to keep Tagovailoa for one more season, a 2027 breakup would be much easier. As it stands, a 2026 separation looks like where this is headed. And it will overshadow Miami's first Sullivan-Hafley offseason.
Coaching/front office:
- Fired head coach Mike McDaniel
- Hired Jeff Hafley as HC replacement
- Hired Jon-Eric Sullivan as general manager
- Promoted senior pass-game coordinator Bobby Slowik to OC
- Defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver became Ravens' DC
- Hired Sean Duggan a DC replacement
- Hired Kyle Smith as assistant GM, Chris Tabor as special teams coordinator
- Added Kevin Patullo as pass-game coordinator
- QBs coach hire Nathaniel Hackett became Cardinals' OC; Bush Hamdan named replacement
- Defensive pass-game coordinator Brian Duker became Jets' DC
- Retained defensive pass-game coordinator Joe Barry
- Added Ladell Betts as RBs coach, Tyke Tolbert as WRs coach
Reporting shifted in the wake of Grier's Halloween firing. McDaniel appeared to have done enough to retain his job for a fifth season. The Dolphins won four straight games to reach 6-7 and the fringes of the wild-card race. This included an upset win over the Bills. But an ugly showing in Pittsburgh on a Monday night brought big-picture changes.
Chiefs’ Rashee Rice Accused Of Domestic Violence In Civil Suit
Domestic violence allegations against Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice surfaced in early January. A month and a half later, accuser Dacoda Jones – Rice’s ex-girlfriend – filed a civil lawsuit against him in a Dallas court on Monday, Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports reports. She is seeking more than $1MM from Rice.
According to the alleged victim, Rice repeatedly assaulted her between December 2023 and July 2025. Last month, she displayed photos of injuries that Rice allegedly inflicted on her. Jones, who has two children with Rice, claims most of the alleged abuse occurred when she was pregnant. Accusations first emerged last month.
“Rice has grabbed, choked, strangled, pushed, thrown, scratched, hit, and headbutted Ms. Jones, as well as hit her with inanimate objects,” the lawsuit says (via Michael Rothstein and Nate Taylor of ESPN).
In response, Rice’s attorney Sean Lindsay stated (via Adam Schefter of ESPN): “On October 9th, 2025, well after the parties’ relationship had ended, Ms. Jones stated under penalty of perjury in a sworn Affidavit for a Non-Prosecution that ‘Mr. Rice and I had a verbal argument, but he did not punch me.’ We will allow the legal process to run its course and have no further comment at this time.”
In a statement of their own, the Chiefs said, “The club is aware [of the lawsuit] and remains in communication with the National Football League.”
The NFL, which began investigating Jones’ claims last month, said Wednesday that “the matter remains under review.” It’s unclear if the league will discipline Rice in this instance, but it has already handed him one suspension in his three-year career. Rice served a six-game ban to open last season stemming from a hit-and-run crash in Dallas in March 2024. Rice, then facing eight felony counts, turned himself in a week and a half later.
After pleading guilty to felony collision involving serious bodily injury and racing on a highway causing bodily injury, Rice was sentenced to 30 days in jail and five years’ probation. He was also ordered to pay $115K to the injured victims.
In May 2024, mere weeks after Rice’s street-racing incident, he was the subject of an investigation for alleged assault on a photographer. The accuser did not press charges, but it continued a disturbing trend of off-field problems dating to Rice’s time at SMU.
During the 2023 pre-draft process, NFL teams became aware of an alleged incident in which Rice or a member of his party fired multiple shots into an empty car belonging to a member of SMU’s basketball team. It wasn’t enough to prevent the Chiefs from using the 55th pick in the draft on Rice, who has been an important cog in their offense when available.
Rice played a 16-game rookie season and helped the Chiefs to a Super Bowl title, but he has combined for just 12 appearances since then. An LCL tear limited Rice to four games in 2024, and he had nine absences last season as a result of his suspension and a concussion. He’s on track to play the final year of his rookie contract in 2026.
Dolphins Could Pursue Jimmy Garoppolo
After six up-and-down years with the Dolphins, quarterback Tua Tagovailoa will likely exit Miami in the near future. Releasing or trading Tagovailoa would put the Dolphins in position to add another veteran passer this offseason.
Packers backup Malik Willis is a rumored target, but the Dolphins are at a disadvantage in cap space (a projected $3.18MM, per OverTheCap) compared to other teams that may chase him. Rams reserve Jimmy Garoppolo, who should come at a much lower price than Willis, is also a name to watch for the Dolphins, Cameron Wolfe of NFL Network reports.
The 34-year-old Garoppolo spent the past two seasons behind 2025 MVP winner Matthew Stafford in Los Angeles. After starting one game in 2024, Garoppolo didn’t attempt a pass in three appearances last season. A crack at playing time in Miami, where Garoppolo would presumably compete with 2025 seventh-rounder Quinn Ewers, may entice the 12-year veteran.
Since beginning his career as a Patriots second-rounder in 2014, Garoppolo – once considered the heir apparent to Tom Brady – has played for four teams and accumulated 64 starts. His most recent attempt as a full-time starter came with the 2023 Raiders, who erred in handing him a three-year, $67.5MM deal in free agency that March. Eight months later, after Garoppolo performed poorly over six starts, the Raiders benched him for Aidan O’Connell in November. They released Garoppolo during the ensuing offseason.
Garoppolo’s Las Vegas stint did not go according to plan, but he was in position to land his expensive contract after enjoying success with the 49ers from 2017-22. In 2019, a career year, Garoppolo completed 69.1% of passes and threw for 3,978 yards, 27 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. The 49ers went 13-3 in the regular season and advanced to Super Bowl LIV, but they lost 31-20 to the Chiefs.
As PFR’s Sam Robinson noted in his Dolphins Offseason Outlook, new head coach Jeff Hafley and offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik overlapped with Garoppolo in San Francisco. As the defensive backs coach from 2016-18, Hafley was on the other side of the ball. But Slowik worked closely with Garoppolo as an offensive assistant/pass-game specialist/pass-game coordinator from 2019-22. If the Dolphins are merely looking for an inexpensive stopgap to replace Tagovailoa, we could see Garoppolo reunite with Hafley and Slowik in 2026.
Seahawks Franchise Officially For Sale
Ten days after they won their second Super Bowl championship, the Seahawks announced that they are up for sale.
“The Estate of Paul G. Allen today announced it has commenced a formal sale process for the Seattle Seahawks NFL franchise, consistent with Allen’s directive to eventually sell his sports holdings and direct all Estate proceeds to philanthropy,” the team stated. “The Estate has selected investment bank Allen & Company and law firm Latham & Watkins to lead the sale process, which is estimated to continue through the 2026 off-season. NFL owners must then ratify a final purchase agreement.”
The Seahawks have enjoyed stable ownership since Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft, purchased the franchise for $200MM in 1997. Allen passed away in 2018, but the team has stayed in his family since then.
Jody Allen, Allen’s sister, has taken control over the past eight years. Rumors of a potential sale have persisted for a few years, most recently before the Super Bowl, making Wednesday’s announcement unsurprising.
Allen’s goal was for his sister to eventually sell the Seahawks and the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers and donate the proceeds to charity. Jody Allen sold the Blazers for approximately $4.2 billion last August. The wheels are now in motion to offload the Seahawks at a significantly higher price tag.
Josh Harris bought the Commanders for a record $6.05 billion in 2023, but the Seahawks figure to blow past that number. They could cost anywhere from $9 billion to $11 billion. Recent reports indicated Jeff Bezos, owner of The Washington Post and founder of Amazon, is not expected to vie for the Seahawks. Regardless, with the NFL pushing for a Seahawks sale sooner than later, bidders will begin lining up in short order.
Latest On Eagles’ Situation With WR A.J. Brown
It’s been just over a month since the Eagles’ season ended with a home loss to the 49ers that featured what appeared to be a heated shouting match between head coach Nick Siriani and wide receiver A.J. Brown on the sidelines. Despite late-season rumors that the team could consider the possibility of trading Brown in the offseason, it’s been all quiet on that front up to this point. It might not remain quiet for much longer, though. 
According to Dianna Russini of The Athletic, while “substantial conversations about his future have not yet taken place,” there are expectations that talks on the matter will “ramp up around the NFL combine.” With over 300 college athletes headed to Indianapolis next week for the NFL Scouting Combine, scouts and executives from every NFL team will be congregating to evaluate and speak with draft prospects. With so many personnel decisionmakers in one place, the combine has become a notorious event for teams to begin preliminary discussions on players that might be available for the right price. This allows front offices to gauge interest in players and determine which teams may be willing to enter conversations.
Until then, though, discussions on the possibility of Philadelphia dealing Brown have continuously pointed to the idea that, more likely than not, the veteran wide receiver isn’t going anywhere. Jason Fitzgerald of OvertheCap.com did a deep dive on the financial implications of cutting or trading Brown with four years remaining on his current contract. Cutting him makes little sense. Doing so now would only help the team avoid a nominal $4MM 2027 salary guarantee set to be triggered soon while still requiring them to cover his $29MM guaranteed salary for 2026, resulting in $72.45MM of dead money along with a loss of $49.06MM in cap space. A post-June 1 designation only slightly deflates those figures to $45.35MM of dead money with a $21.96MM cap loss.
Moving Brown in a trade is a bit more viable, due to the nature of how Philadelphia structures their contracts. Per Fitzgerald, the Eagles utilize option bonuses that cover “all of the salary for a player in a year except for the minimum that is mandated” by the Collective Bargaining Agreement. This essentially functions in the same way teams use signing bonuses on restructures to pay players more in a given year while reducing their cap hit for the season. The deadlines for those options do hit until late in the preseason, so the team gets all summer to explore trade options for Brown.
Financially, trading Brown now would have similar costs to designating him as a post-June 1 cut. The transaction would result in $43.45MM of dead money with a $20.06MM cap loss. Per Mike Garafolo of NFL Network, because of those costly figures, the Eagles would likely require some serious compensation in order to move him any time from now until June 1. Trading him June 2 or later finally starts to make some modicum of sense, as the dead money figure reduces to $16.35MM and $7.04MM of cap relief becomes a possibility.
With how difficult it could be to move Brown, there’s always a possibility that the Eagles resort to retaining the veteran wideout for the 2026 NFL season, and if Brown’s recent appearance on The Edge With Micah Parsons podcast is any indication, that very well could be where things are headed. Throughout the interview, Brown had only good things to say. When asked about the firing of offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo, Brown told host Micah Parsons that he had “the utmost respect for (Patullo),” going on to claim that “he did a tremendous job,” despite the offense racking up the ninth-fewest yards in the NFL. Brown even spoke on the future of the team. He started ambiguous, expressing his excitement “for the season” and “for what’s to come” but then laid out some team-oriented goals.
“As an offense, we just come back and just really watch tape and, like I said earlier, rediscover ourselves and go to work,“ Brown told his host. “We have great leadership in our locker room, and I’m fortunate to be part of it on offense. We do have a lot of talent, but talent gets us nowhere. It’s all about being detailed and disciplined.”
That all sounds nothing like a player making trade demands. That sounds everything like a player who has every intention of returning to run it back with his current team. There’s always a possibility that Brown realizes the financial restrictions his contract imposes on a potential trade and that acting like he has no intention of ever playing for the Eagles again would kill any leverage Philadelphia may need in order to accumulate the compensation necessary to make a trade worth the dead money and cap loss.
So, either Brown is playing the role of dutiful teammate to better his team’s chances of trading him or Brown is genuinely excited about his future with the team, and a trade might not be necessary. It’s hard to solidly get behind either theory at the moment, but more information may clear things up a bit once talks pick up at the NFL Scouting Combine next week.
Raiders Fill Multiple Coaching Positions
Klint Kubiak and Co. were busy today as the team filled several position coaching roles. This morning, Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports reported the team’s decision to hire Omar Young as the team’s new running backs coach, then this evening, reports came out on the hiring of Ronell Williams as linebackers coach (via ESPN’s Adam Schefter) and Al Holcomb as a senior defensive assistant (per Mike Garafolo of NFL Network). 
Young returns to the NFL ranks after serving one year as the running backs coach at Iowa in 2025. Young has bounced back and forth between the college and NFL levels over the years, holding minor offensive assistant roles at San Jose State, Colorado, and South Carolina as well as with the Browns, Packers, Bears, and Patriots. His first coaching job ever was as a special teams coordinator/secondary coach in 2010, and he didn’t earn another position coaching role until working as running backs coach at Eastern Illinois in 2019 and adding co-special teams coordinator to his title for the next two years. After moving into the Power 4 with the Hawkeyes last year, he’ll now get his first position coaching opportunity in the NFL.
Williams finds his way to Las Vegas after spending three seasons with the Eagles. Starting as a linebackers coach at Widener and a graduate assistant/defensive analyst at Temple, Williams found his way to Chicago in 2019 as a defensive quality control coach for the Bears. He joined the Eagles in 2023 as the nickel cornerbacks coach, was moved to assistant linebackers coach in 2024, and added defensive quality control coach to his title last year. Like Young, this will be Williams’ first opportunity to lead a position room in the NFL.
According to Jonathan Jones of NFL on CBS, the team planned to interview Titans senior defensive assistant Ben Bloom for the role before landing on Williams. Bloom spent the past two years working with Tennessee’s outside linebackers, so he may still be able to find a role on staff working with that more specific division of the position group for the Raiders.
Holcomb arrives in Vegas with over 30 years of coaching experience, with the last 17 all coming from the NFL. Starting as a graduate assistant at Temple in 1995, Holcomb held roles at Colby, Bloomsburg, Kutztown, and Lafayette over the next 13 years. He made his NFL debut as a defensive quality control coach with the Giants before being named a defensive assistant for the team. He worked as linebackers coach of the Panthers for five years before earning a defensive coordinator opportunity with the Cardinals. That opportunity only lasted a year, though, before he went to Cleveland as linebackers coach and run game coordinator.
After returning to the Panthers for three years and serving as an interim defensive coordinator before departing, Holcomb found his way to his most recent stop, Buffalo. He’s spent the past three years in Buffalo, starting as a senior defensive assistant before working the past two seasons as linebackers coach. His tenure with the Raiders will begin in a similar fashion as he provides his wealth of NFL experience in a minor role.
Lions President Rod Wood To Retire
After 10 years of service with the Lions, team president/CEO Rod Wood will be retiring from his position in Detroit. He will remain with the team until a “global search” led by Russell Reynolds Associates finds his replacement. The search for Wood’s successor is set to begin immediately.
Wood was hired by the Lions in 2015 following the dismissal of his predecessor, Tom Lewand. Then-team owner Martha Ford reportedly promised to conduct “a national search for the best leadership to manage (the) team going forward” after firing Lewand. Two weeks later, the position was given to Wood, who was already extremely familiar with Ford from his prior occupation as president and CEO of Ford Estates. Despite the team’s claim that Wood had been working closely with the team throughout Lewand’s tenure, which began after the Lions became the first NFL franchise to record a winless season, Wood acknowledged his lack of football experience, telling reporters that he “would probably say that (he’s) not qualified to run any other NFL team.”
Detroit intended for Wood to focus solely on the business side of the front office, while the team’s general manager would handle all things personnel. Wood still held some personnel-related duties tied to financials including management of the Lions’ salary cap and the signing of any high-value players. During his tenure, Wood oversaw the first planned major renovations to Ford Field since it had opened in 2002, completely overhauling the stadium’s videoboards and sound system and upgrading club seating areas. The team also installed new turf in 2023, replacing the previous 10-year-old turf with one meant to provide a more grass-like feel and improve player safety, though the results have since been questioned by the NFLPA.
During Wood’s tenure the Lions were 85-85-2, but seeing winning records in each of the past four seasons shows a positive trajectory for the franchise that had only seen two winning seasons in the 15 years before Wood was hired. The statement released by the team relayed that “Wood and his wife, Susan, are proud parents and grandparents who are excited to spend more time together and with their family,” so it appears that the executive in his mid-60s will be retiring from the workforce instead of returning to other business ventures. He gave the following quote in the Lions’ release:
I want to thank the Ford Family and, ultimately, Lions fans everywhere for trusting me to lead the Detroit Lions for the last 11 seasons. It has been an absolute thrill for me to lead this organization, and I am proud of what we have accomplished over that decade-plus. I am most proud of where I am leaving this organization, in the capable hands of (team owner) Sheila Hamp, (general manager) Brad Holmes, and (head coach) Dan Campbell.
Minor NFL Transactions: 2/18/26
Here are Wednesday’s minor moves from around the NFL…
Cincinnati Bengals
- Re-signed: WR Kendric Pryor
Denver Broncos
- Re-signed: WR Michael Bandy
Los Angeles Rams
- Re-signed: OL David Quessenberry
San Francisco 49ers
- Re-signed: OL Nick Zakelj
The 35-year-old Quessenberry, by far the most experienced player in this quartet, has 97 games and 30 starts on his resume. Quessenberry was a sixth-round pick of the Texans in 2013, but a foot injury and then a three-year battle with Lymphoma kept him off the field in his first four seasons. He beat cancer to make his long-awaited NFL debut in 2017. Quessenberry has since gotten into games with the Titans, Bills, Vikings and Rams. In 2025, his first season as a Ram, he made 13 appearances and totaled 91 snaps (73 on special teams, 18 on offense).
Zakelj, 26, has been a career-long 49er since they chose him in the sixth round in 2022. The former Fordham Ram has come off the bench in 27 of 29 appearances, including three last season. Zakelj picked up his only two starts in 2024, his lone 17-game season.
Wyatt Teller Expects To Leave Browns
With a trip to free agency looming, longtime Browns tight end David Njoku took to Instagram on Feb. 9 to say goodbye to Cleveland. Another Browns staple, pending free agent guard Wyatt Teller, did the same on Wednesday (via Mike Garafolo of NFL Network).
As part of a lengthy letter, Teller wrote: “I wish things were different and this is hard to put into words. When Buffalo traded me to Cleveland seven years ago, I never could have imagined how much this city would mean to me. Ultimately, the Browns took a chance on me that changed the trajectory of my life forever … While we are excited and look forward to what the future holds, Cleveland will always have a special place in our hearts.”
Teller joined the Bills as a fifth-round pick out of Virginia Tech in 2018, but they moved on despite seeing him start in seven of eight appearances as a rookie.
Shortly before the start of the 2019 season, the Bills traded Teller and a 2021 seventh-rounder to the Browns for a fifth- and sixth-rounder in 2020. It proved to be a great trade for then-Browns general manager John Dorsey, though he ended up losing his job after a 6-10 campaign.
A left guard in Buffalo, Teller turned into a stalwart on the right side in Cleveland. After coming off the bench in six of 15 games in 2019, he became a full-time starter the next year. The 31-year-old has since gone to three Pro Bowls and earned second-team All-Pro honors twice.
Teller logged his second 17-game season in 2023, but he followed that up with back-to-back years with stints on injured reserve. He missed four games with an MCL sprain in 2024 and then sat out four more with a calf injury last season. Pro Football Focus ranked the banged-up Teller a middling 39th among 79 qualifying guards in 2025, but his track record suggests he’ll land the second lucrative contract of his career soon.
Teller just wrapped up the four-year, $56.8MM extension he signed in 2021. As of last September, there was reportedly a decent chance of a new deal coming together with the Browns. Five months later, it appears the two will go in different directions.
It is obvious the Browns’ offensive line will look much different next season. Not only is Teller on his way out, but their other top guard, Joel Bitonio, is unsigned and considering retirement. Center Ethan Pocic, tackles Jack Conklin and Cam Robinson, and backup guard Teven Jenkins are also scheduled to reach the open market in March.