Vikings To Hire Nolan Teasley As GM; Rob Brzezinski Staying On As EVP
The Vikings have landed on their next general manager. Seahawks assistant GM Nolan Teasley will be taking over the front office in Minnesota, per NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero.
Teasley is coming off Seattle’s Super Bowl victory, their second during his tenure. He first joined the Seahawks in 2013 as a scouting intern shortly before they won their first Lombardi Trophy. Now, 13 years later, he is headed for the GM job in Minnesota, where the Vikings are hoping he can bring two-time Super Bowl-winning GM John Schneider‘s roster-building expertise and put them on a championship path of their own. Because Teasley is a minority candidate, the Seahawks will receive two third-round picks as compensation for his exit, Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports reports.
A few weeks after the end of a disappointing 9-8 season, the Vikings fired GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah in late January. The team opted against launching an immediate search and decided to wait until after the draft. Executive vice president of football operations Rob Brzezinski, who has worked for the Vikings since 1999, took over for Adofo-Mensah on an interim basis.
Brzezinski guided the Vikings through the most important parts of the offseason and emerged as a candidate for the full-time GM job. He joined Teasley and three outside assistant GMs – Reed Burckhardt (Broncos), Terrance Gray (Bills), John McKay (Rams) – as finalists for the position. They all received second interviews. As Kevin Seifert of ESPN notes, Brzezinski was the only contender without a scouting background – something ownership (Zygi Wilf and Mark Wilf) valued in this search.
Like Brzezinski, each of Burckhardt, Gray and McKay entered the process with notable Vikings ties. Before joining the Broncos’ front office in 2022, Burckhardt was a 13-year Vikings employee who worked in various scouting and personnel roles. Gray was a Vikings scout from 2006-16. While McKay has no past experience in Minnesota, he has worked with head coach Kevin O’Connell. He was part of the Rams’ front office when O’Connell was their offensive coordinator from 2020-21.
Teasley will now be the one teaming with O’Connell, though Brzezinski is not leaving the organization. He will remain the Vikings’ EVP of football operations, Jones reports. He has served as a contract negotiator and salary cap analyst in that role.
Connor Byrne contributed to this post.
Giants Plan To Add WR; Odell Beckham Jr. Still On Team’s Radar
With injuries ravaging the Giants’ receiving corps, the team plans to add another wideout, Paul Schwartz of the New York Post reports. The Giants will work out receivers Monday, per Schwartz, who names free agent Odell Beckham Jr. as a likely participant.
Beckham, who starred with the Giants from 2014-18, met with the team back in April. Head coach John Harbaugh stayed in touch with Beckham afterward, though a potential reunion was put on the back burner. The Giants now appear more willing to turn to Beckham after losing receiver Gunner Olszewski to a torn Achilles in practice on Friday. The chances of them signing Beckham have gone from almost zero to around 50/50, according to Schwartz.
While Olszewski is not high on the Giants’ list of targets, his injury was the latest blow to their depth chart. No. 1 wideout Malik Nabers‘ has endured a difficult recovery from the torn ACL and meniscus he suffered last September. Nabers’ status for Week 1 is up in the air, while Darius Slayton is on the mend from core-muscle surgery. Their issues have left the Giants with nine healthy receivers, according to Schwartz, who notes they need more available for 7-on-7s and full team workouts.
With Nabers and Slayton working back from their surgeries, Darnell Mooney, Calvin Austin, third-round rookie Malachi Fields, Isaiah Hodgins and Beaux Collins make up the Giants’ current top five. If Beckham joins the group, he would have to spend the summer months fighting for a roster spot. The fact that he doesn’t play special teams may work against him.
While Beckham boasts an impressive resume that includes 575 receptions, 59 touchdowns and three Pro Bowl trips, it is unknown if the 33-year-old is an NFL-caliber receiver anymore. He hasn’t taken the field since Dec. 8, 2024, when he was a member of the Dolphins. Beckham caught just nine passes for 55 yards in nine games that year. The 10-year veteran didn’t sign anywhere last season, but he still had to serve a six-game suspension for performance-enhancing drugs.
Beckham’s original Giants stint ended when they traded him to the Browns in 2019 for a first-round pick (which became Dexter Lawrence), a third-rounder and safety Jabrill Peppers. In addition to those teams and the Dolphins, Beckham has suited up for the Rams and Ravens. Beckham played for Harbaugh in 2023 in Baltimore, where he pulled in 35 catches for 565 yards and three TDs over 14 games. The former star’s stock has continued dropping since then, but rejoining Harbaugh in New York would give Beckham a chance to earn his way back into the league.
Cowboys Could Still Make ILB Addition
Coming off a nightmarish defensive campaign, the Cowboys identified inside linebacker as one of their main needs entering the offseason. Top option DeMarvion Overshown missed 11 games in 2025, leaving Kenneth Murray and Shemar James to receive the most snaps at the position. They struggled, as did Logan Wilson after he came over in a November trade with the Bengals.
Murray, who is still a free agent, and the retired Wilson are now out of the organization. Injuries limited Overshown to just 19 of a possible 51 games in his first three seasons, but he is expected to start under new defensive coordinator Christian Parker. Looking for a partner for Overshown earlier in the offseason, the Cowboys pursued high-end free agents Devin Lloyd, Nakobe Dean and Quay Walker. They came up empty on all three, while trade talks centering on the Dolphins’ Jordyn Brooks and the Steelers’ Patrick Queen did not lead anywhere.
The Cowboys finally made a couple of notable off-ball linebacker additions at the draft. The first came in a Day 2 trade with the 49ers, who sent Dee Winters to Dallas for a fifth-round pick. The three-year veteran was a 17-game starter for the first time last season, but he is not under contract beyond 2026. After trading for Winters, the Cowboys picked up a potential long-term solution in third-rounder Jaishawn Barham, a former Michigan Wolverine who went 92nd overall.
As things stand, Overshown and Winters look like the Cowboys’ starting tandem. James, Barham, Justin Barron and Curtis Robinson are also in the mix. However, bringing in another vet could still be on the table, per Jon Machota of The Athletic. As Machota notes, the Cowboys have not yet decided who will wear the green dot in his helmet and relay the defensive calls to his teammates. Rookie safety Caleb Downs, the 11th overall pick, may be a candidate to take on that role, but head coach Brian Schottenheimer said at the draft that the responsibility will likely go to a linebacker (via Tommy Yarrish of the team’s website).
Free agency has thinned out in general since it opened in March, but it may prove beneficial for Dallas that there are still a handful of battle-tested off-ball LBs available. Ten-time Pro Bowler Bobby Wagner heads the class. Age is working against Wagner (he’ll turn 36 in June), but it didn’t stop him from posting excellent production with the NFC East rival Commanders last year. Bobby Okereke, Matt Milano, Shaq Thompson and Germaine Pratt are a few other 30-somethings who could be of interest to the Cowboys if they are looking for a potential stopgap starter.
Giants Restructure Andrew Thomas’ Deal
MAY 30: The Giants in fact completed a maximum restructure of Thomas’ contract, per Dan Duggan of The Athletic. His base salary has been reduced to the veteran minimum of $1.215MM with a new total of $11MM of additional cap space. $3.67MM has been added to Thomas’ cap hits from 2027 through 2029, which all sit between $29.5MM and $30MM – still a reasonable price for an elite left tackle, though Thomas will have to stay healthy to be worth it.
MAY 28: The Giants and Andrew Thomas have once again agreed to a restructure. New York’s six-year left tackle starter has agreed to a reworking of his pact to create immediate cap space.
Team and player agreed to the latest restructure yesterday, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports. A portion of Thomas’ base salary for 2026 was converted into a roster bonus. The move created $6.46MM in space. As a result, Thomas is now on course to carry a cap charge of $17.59MM this season.
The former No. 4 pick was largely durable while playing out his rookie contract, something which helped New York make a big-money commitment in his case. Thomas inked a five-year extension worth $23.5MM per season in 2023. He has missed time every year since then, including the 2024 campaign in which Thomas was limited to just six appearances. His deal was restructured last September to create financial breathing room.
The Giants have taken the same route this time around. New York is currently near the bottom of the league in terms of cap space, so this Thomas restructure will help carve out some financial flexibility once it is processed. The team inked Francis Mauigoa to his rookie pact yesterday, but fellow top-10 selection Arvell Reese has not yet signed. The space created by this move will help make Reese’s deal easier to absorb and allow for other roster adjustments through the summer.
Thomas, 27, remains under contract through 2029 as things stand. None of his scheduled compensation beyond the coming campaign is guaranteed, although he is due a $2.5MM roster bonus next March. A healthy campaign would help ensure that payment winds up being made while also offering strong showings on the blindside for a Giants offensive line seeking improved play in 2026.
Rams G Steve Avila Hoping For Extension
The Rams took care of a crucial piece of offseason business when they inked MVP-winning quarterback Matthew Stafford to a contract extension last week. With that out of the way, Rams general manager Les Snead can turn his attention to other extension candidates as the summer approaches.
The Rams have a slew of prominent players entering contract years. The list includes (but is not limited to) wide receivers Puka Nacua and Davante Adams; outside linebacker Byron Young; defensive lineman Kobie Turner; guards Steve Avila and Kevin Dotson; and right tackle Warren McClendon Jr. Snead will prioritize some of those players before others. Nacua, Young and Turner appear to have the highest long-term earning power of the group. The 26-year-old Avila could also be among those to cash in on a lucrative deal, and he has made it clear he wants to stick with the organization.
“I feel like everybody that’s up for extension is hoping to get one,” Avila said (via Nate Atkins of The Athletic). “That’s definitely something I wish could happen. I try my best to stay the same every single year. I know for me, I’ve always improved every single year I’ve played football. I feel like I owe it all to the team to be the best version of myself.”
The Rams spent the 36th overall pick in the 2023 draft on Avila, a former TCU standout who primarily played center in his first couple of college seasons. He shifted to left guard in 2022, a 15-start campaign in which he earned consensus All-America honors. Avila carried his effectiveness into the NFL, where he started all 17 games as a rookie left guard and was the lone member of the Rams’ offense to play every snap (1,148 in total).
To this point, Avila’s first season has been the only full one of his career. After missing seven games with a sprained MCL in his second year, he suffered a high ankle sprain in Week 1 last season. The injury sidelined him for two games, though it may as well have been four. Avila was active in Weeks 4 and 5, but the Rams deployed Justin Dedich as their starter in those games. They permanently turned back to Avila the next week. He took just one penalty and yielded only one sack over 13 starts, according to Pro Football Focus, which rated his performance 10th among 79 qualified guards.
Back in February, head coach Sean McVay specifically named Avila as one of the “guys we have strong interest in continuing our journey with” (via Stu Jackson of the team’s website). That suggests an extension could come together with Avila, who is a legitimate starter with age on his side. The team also has a decision to make on Dotson as he enters the last season of a three-year, $48MM pact, but he will turn 31 in September 2027.
If the Rams are only going to pay one member of their guard tandem, Avila’s relative youth could tip the scale in his favor. The average annual value of Avila’s second contract should at least end up in the neighborhood of Dotson’s current deal. Dotson is one of four guards raking in between $14MM and $17MM per season on a multiyear arrangement. There are a dozen other guards making between $17.5MM and $24.5MM per annum. With the cap continuing to rise, perhaps Avila’s camp will push to join that group.
Raiders TE Brock Bowers Back At 100%
Raiders tight end Brock Bowers was limited for most of the 2025 season due to a bone bruise and a PCL sprain in his knee. He did not require any offseason surgery and has worked his way back to 100% with full participation in the Raiders’ ongoing OTAs.
“It feels good to be back out there practicing full speed,” Bowers said (via ESPN’s Ryan McFadden).
Bowers, 23, was the No. 13 pick in the 2024 draft and electrified as a rookie with 112 receptions on 153 targets for 1,194 yards and five touchdowns. He earned Pro Bowl and first-team All-Pro recognition and finished second in Offensive Rookie of the Year voting.
In 2025, he appeared in just 12 games and caught 64 of his 86 targets for 680 yards and seven touchdowns. Those numbers represented drops in season-long and per-game volume – down from 6.6 receptions and 70.2 yards per game to 5.3 and 56.7 – but he maintained very similar efficiency metrics when healthy. Despite the down year, he still earned a Pro Bowl nod.
Bowers’ third season in Las Vegas will be very different than his first two. He will be playing under a new head coach and catching passes from a new quarterback for the third year in a row, though that turnover should end with Klint Kubiak and Fernando Mendoza now in place for the foreseeable future.
Bowers’ role in the Raiders offense has yet to be determined. The Seahawks’ tight ends were not seen as a huge part of Kubiak’s scheme last year, though A.J. Barner quietly had a solid season with some key catches in the playoffs. But one of Kubiak’s strategies at his various stops has been to funnel the ball into his best player’s hands, whether that was Justin Jefferson in Minnesota or Jaxon Smith-Njigba in Seattle.
The Raiders applied this strategy to Bowers during his All-Pro rookie year, which featured 153 targets – the most of any tight end and sixth-most league-wide. He could see a similar workload in 2026, especially with a rookie quarterback who will benefit from schemed-up touches to his star tight end.
Texas Tech, QB Brendan Sorsby Appeal NCAA Decision
As expected, following the NCAA’s denial of Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby‘s reinstatement for the 2026 college football season, Sorsby’s team has filed an appeal. The team’s argument (via Ross Dellenger fo Yahoo Sports) leaned heavily on the framing of Sorbsy’s gambling problem as an issue of mental health and asked that, in lieu of the revocation of his remaining eligibility, the NCAA consider a two-game suspension.
In it’s denial, the NCAA stated that it “did not find any circumstances that warranted reinstating (Sorsby’s) eligibility.” By citing the specifics of Sorsby’s diagnosis and transgressions, the appeal attempts to paint the situation as one without precedent. In doing so, the team argues that the NCAA wouldn’t be following the precedent set by past players who have gambled and been caught; instead, it would be setting a new precedent for punishing a player who admitted to and sought treatment for his mental health disorder.
The team’s appeal obviously argues that Sorsby struggles from a gambling addiction, the mental health challenge that perpetuated his continuous activity, but the first instances of betting could not have been a result of a developed addiction, so they’ve framed that, too, within the scope of mental health.
As a report today from ESPN’s Mark Schlabach and David Purdum detailed at least 2,900 bets at Indiana, alone, totaling more than $30K in wagers, including at least 40 bets on the Indiana football team and its players, Sorsby’s physician asserted that the quarterback’s first bets were the result of “an adjustment disorder with anxiety that caused him to place those bets to feel part of the team.”
That assertion seems to be coming from pretty far out of left field, but if they can successfully establish the ordeal as a result of Sorsby’s struggles with mental health, it will be difficult for the NCAA to continue denying his reinstatement. The team’s appeal cites the NCAA’s own mission statement, grabbing snippets such as “fostering (student-athletes’) lifelong well-being” and promoting “a culture of care.”
The appeal attempts to shift the focus of the punishment away from Sorsby’s transgressions and towards his ultimate decision to seek treatment. The appeal states that “imposing a career-ending sanction on Sorsby will send the message to current and future athletes hiding in the shadows of the stigma of mental health challenges and addiction that they need to stay silent and never seek help or treatment because the NCAA will take a punitive approach by automatically applying the maximum sanction.” By instead imposing only a two-game suspension, the appeal argues that the NCAA would “be sending an important signal to current and future student-athletes that seeking treatment for an addiction does not have to mean ruining your future.”
The release of the appeal and the documents detailing just how far Sorsby’s gambling went on the same day set up a battle of perception. The 40 bets he placed on his own team only totaled around $850, ranging from $1 to $114, but that represents only a microcosm of his habits. Utilizing “accounts registered in his name, a family member’s name, and friends’ names, Sorsby placed at least $90K in impermissible wagers” through four separate betting sites. He reportedly had to transfer up to $60K to friends in order “to cover bets made on his behalf.”
If Sorsby’s team is successful in convincing the NCAA to view the entirety of Sorsby’s gambling history as actions stemming from struggles with mental health, he stands a strong chance of getting to play out his tenure with the Red Raiders. To this point, though, the NCAA has been adamant that it will not negotiate a settlement to reinstate Sorsby. It will be interesting to see if the team’s mental health appeals successfully scare the NCAA away from its current conviction. Will it see a maximum sanction as disincentivizing future student-athletes from gambling or disincentivizing future student-athletes “from seeking the help they desperately need?”
QB C.J. Stroud Addresses Potential Texans Extension
Throughout the offseason, signs have pointed to the Texans waiting until after the 2026 season takes place before authorizing a C.J. Stroud extension. Houston’s QB1 appears to be content with that approach, although he feels he has done enough to warrant a second contract.
Having played three years in the NFL, this offseason marks the first time during which Stroud could sign an extension. His rookie deal runs through 2026, while the Texans made the obvious decision of exercising his fifth-year option. That leaves the former Offensive Rookie of the Year under team control through at least the next two seasons.
When speaking to reporters, Stroud acknowledged the matter of an extension has been discussed within his camp. A big-money commitment has also been weighed by the Texans, and the team made one to fellow 2023 draftee Will Anderson Jr. earlier this spring. No serious negotiations with Stroud are known to have taken place so far, however.
“I let my agent handle that. If it’s time to do it, then it is,” the 24-year-old said (via ESPN’s DJ Bien-Aime) when speaking about the possibility of an extension. “My job is football. That’s what I’m focused on, just getting better. I think I’ve held my bargain up. Whatever happens, happens.”
The penultimate sentence from those remarks certainly suggests Stroud feels an extension would be warranted. During his tenure – which has overlapped with that of head coach DeMeco Ryans – Houston has managed double-digit wins every season and reached the divisional round of the playoffs each time. Postseason shortcomings have increasingly become a talking point for the Texans, though, and Stroud’s play in 2025 in particular led to criticism.
The Ohio State product committed seven total turnovers across two playoff games this past season. Stroud also missed three contests in 2025 due to a concussion, but otherwise he has been largely durable in the NFL. Any long-term deal would check in at or near the top of the quarterback market (currently $60MM per year) given his age and production to date. Houston waiting one season could, on the other hand, not end up costing much more with the QB market not expected to see another surge in the immediate future.
Anderson and many of the Texans’ other key defensive players remain attached to lucrative deals. Earlier this week, the team authorized a short-term bump in pay for top receiver Nico Collins. Those financial commitments need to be kept in mind, of course, when general manager Nick Caserio and Co. contemplate the terms of a second Stroud contract. It will be interesting to see if traction is gained ahead of training camp with respect to negotiations or if Houston continues to opt for patience.
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NFL Interest In Marcus Freeman To Continue
For two years now, Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman has been a major name of interest for NFL teams looking to hire a new head coach. He saw early NFL interest two years ago but, ultimately, signed an extension to stay with the Fighting Irish. According to Jason La Canfora on SportsBoom, Freeman has not slammed the door shut on an NFL future.
Freeman rose quickly through the collegiate coaching ranks, starting as a graduate assistant at his alma mater a year after getting drafted out of Ohio State in the fifth round of the 2009 NFL Draft. He landed his first position coaching job the next year as the Kent State linebackers coach and found his way to the Power 5 two years later in the same position at Purdue. In his fourth season with the Boilermakers, Freeman was promoted to co-defensive coordinator, and a year later, he got his first full defensive coordinator role at Cincinnati.
Freeman spent four years with the Bearcats, completely transforming the team’s defense and finishing the 2020 season as a Broyles Award finalist as one of the NCAA’s best assistant coaches. In 2021, he left Cincinnati for Notre Dame and was named head coach when Brian Kelly left the school to assume the same position at LSU. After losing the team’s bowl game in his first head coaching appearance, Freeman saw the team’s record improve each year under his leadership going 9-4 in 2022, 10-3 in 2023, 14-2 with a loss in the College Football Playoff National Championship game in 2024, and 10-2 as they just missed out on the CFP last year.
Even before nearly winning a national championship in only his third full year in any sort of head coaching role, Freeman had already become an immediate name to watch in NFL circles. In 2024, he was named a dark horse candidate for the Bears job, which ultimately went to Ben Johnson after Freeman signed what is believed to have been a four-year extension to stay at Notre Dame. In 2025, he was a popularly rumored name with the Giants, Titans, and Steelers, but once again, he announced his intentions to remain with the Fighting Irish.
According to La Canfora, Freeman claimed to have “gained some valuable experience” from his most recent cycle of NFL inquiries, and though he didn’t offer any kind of timeline, Freeman didn’t seem to shut the door on eventually taking that next step to the NFL. As a young, fast-rising, defensive-minded coach, Freeman is expected to receive no shortage of NFL interest in the coming years. When head coaching vacancies inevitably appear near the end of the 2026 season, look for Freeman’s name to come up, once again.