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Month: March 2025

J.J. McCarthy Fully Healed; Latest On Vikings’ QB Plans

March 27th, 2025 at 10:15pm CST by Adam La Rose

Aaron Rodgers has yet to make his final decision for the 2025 season, but it appears his preferred choice of signing with the Vikings will not come to fruition. Minnesota will still likely be in the market for a veteran passer even with J.J. McCarthy currently atop the depth chart, though.

The No. 10 pick in last year’s draft missed his entire rookie campaign due to a meniscus tear, but his rehab has gone well. McCarthy went as far as to say during his recent Up And Adams appearance that he is 100% healthy (video link). As a result, he is positioned to handle a heavy workload during the spring in anticipation of training camp and the 2025 campaign.

With Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones each departing in free agency, though, Minnesota needs to add at least one depth passer. Only McCarthy and Brett Rypien are on the roster as things stand, a factor which helps explain the fact Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has not fully closed the door to a Rodgers signing. The four-time MVP continues to be linked most closely with the Steelers, and an agreement on that front would leave Minnesota with a short list of veteran signal-callers to choose from.

“At every checkpoint, whether it been the draft process or practice until the injury and really the offseason now, he’s met the bar,” Adofo-Mensah said when speaking about McCarthy’s rehab and development (via ESPN’s Kevin Seifert). “He’s exceeded our expectations at every point. So I don’t have the ability to tell you what the future is, but I can tell you what I expect to be the outcome this offseason from the competition.

“But it’s also our job to set up a quarterback room that’s going to have to… provide insurance in case somebody needs to come in for a couple of games. And that’s our job as a personnel department to look at all the options out there and make sure we’re setting ourselves up for the best case we can.”

Adofo-Mensah added the Vikings could wait until after the draft before making any moves under center. Free agents signed past April 29 do not count against the compensatory pick formula, and as such movement could pick up after that date. Veterans like Joe Flacco, Carson Wentz and Drew Lock are unsigned at this point; if that remains the case after the draft – by which point Rodgers’ future will likely be clear – Minnesota could pursue one of them as McCarthy insurance.

The Vikings sport an offense with an upgraded O-line, a skill-position group led by wideout Justin Jefferson and reigning Coach of the Year Kevin O’Connell. Expectations will be high for the unit regardless of who is in place as quarterback for 2025, and McCarthy remains on track to handle those duties without serious offseason competition.

2025 NFL Draft Rumors: Saints, Packers, Falcons, Revel

March 27th, 2025 at 10:13pm CST by Ely Allen

The Saints continue to stay busy having visits with 2025 NFL Draft prospects, according to multiple reports from Nick Underhill of NewOrleans.Football.

Last night, the team hosted several Georgia players for dinner, including a top defensive end prospect in Mykel Williams as well as wide receiver Arian Smith. They also reportedly had dinner this week with Pittsburgh tight end Gavin Bartholomew, a likely Day 3 prospect whose name has not been making the rounds this early in the process. Lastly, the team was in Knoxville today reportedly meeting with some Tennessee players, including running back Dylan Sampson and defensive tackle Omarr Norman-Lott.

Underhill adds that the team has been doing a ton of work during the pre-draft process on running backs. Even though lead back Alvin Kamara had a career-high 950 rushing yards in 2024, combined with 543 receiving yards, the sheer depth of this year’s class of running back prospects nearly ensures that quality backs will be available into the fourth or fifth round. Dane Brugler of The Athletic has eight running backs listed in his top 100 prospects list, so it makes sense that New Orleans is doing its homework on the position.

Here are a few other rumors concerning possibilities in the 2025 NFL Draft:

  • The Packers currently have eight picks in the 2025 NFL Draft, but if general manager Brian Gutekunst has anything to say about it, they could be angling for more. According to Matt Schneidman of The Athletic, when asked about not having many picks this year, Gutekunst added the addendum “yet” to the end of the statement, indicating that he would have some interest in acquiring more picks via trade. Green Bay currently sits at No. 23 overall in the first round. It’s been posited that many teams from pick No. 20 on are looking to trade back out of the first round due to a lack of elite, top-end talent in this year’s class, as opposed to the tremendous depth the class seems to provide. Unfortunately, due to that same issue, there are going to be few, if any, takers willing to give up precious draft capital to move up into the first round.
  • One trend we seem to be seeing shows the Falcons as likely candidates to go defense in the first round of the draft. Josh Kendall of The Athletic selected safety Nick Emmanwori in the site’s beat writer mock draft, and the other players he says he considered with the pick, safety Malaki Starks, linebackers Jalon Walker and Jihaad Campbell, cornerback Will Johnson, and edges Mike Green and Shemar Stewart, all reside on the defensive side of the ball. Kendall bases this belief that the team will go defense off of new defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich wanting to build a new, uniquely hybrid defense.
  • Lastly, Ryan Fowler of The Draft Network reported today that the Cowboys will be hosting East Carolina cornerback Shavon Revel for a top-30 visit next week. We know that Revel is attempting to make a comeback from a torn ACL that ended his final collegiate season after only three games and that he is projected to be back in time for training camp. What makes this an interesting visit is that, according to Clarence Hill Jr. of All City DLLS, Revel’s ACL repair surgery was performed by Cowboys team doctor Dan Cooper, likely giving the franchise a uniquely exclusive insight on his prognosis and recovery.

Draft Rumors: Pro Days, Jackson, Taylor

March 27th, 2025 at 9:28pm CST by Ely Allen

We’re in the thick of Pro Day Season and, while some of the 2025 NFL Draft’s top quarterbacks are showing out after not throwing at the NFL Scouting Combine, some of the draft’s top pass rushers have chosen to sit out of their pro days. Two of the class’s top pass rushing prospects, Penn State’s Abdul Carter and Texas A&M’s Shemar Stewart, have made the decision not to work out at their respective pro day events.

Carter’s announcement, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, was relayed by his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, who said that his client was “still finishing up rehab on the shoulder injury” he suffered during the College Football Playoff game against Boise State. He won’t work out at the pro day but will still be measured, which is important because he didn’t get measured at the combine after having to leave early for medicals, according to Dane Brugler of The Athletic. Rosenhaus added that Carter may still work out at private team workouts in mid-April.

Stewart also missed workouts at both the combine and his team’s pro day, per Tony Pauline of sportskeeda. Stewart, a former five-star high school recruit, is a true physical specimen, but after only recording 1.5 sacks in each of his three seasons of play with the Aggies, scouts were hoping to get some insight via pre-draft workouts. If he still goes in the first round of the draft, as is currently projected, it will likely be solely based on traits over production.

Here are a couple other draft rumors on potential Day 1 prospects:

  • Another pass rushing prospect, Arkansas’ Landon Jackson is hoping to work his way into the first round with Carter and Stewart. After a phenomenal combine performance that included a 4.68-second 40-yard dash, a 40.5-inch vertical jump, and a 10-foot-9 broad jump, Jackson continued to impress on the stopwatch with a three-cone drill timed at under seven seconds, per Pauline. While Jackson surprisingly sat out of defensive line drills in Fayetteville, he’s still being projected as an easy top-42 pick, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if he found himself getting selected on Day 1.
  • Lastly, LSU tight end Mason Taylor had an impressive pro day in Baton Rouge, timing out from 4.58-4.62, depending on the stopwatch, on his 40-yard dash and repping out 28 on the bench press. While the Giants and Cowboys both ran him through some blocking drills, the only team with an official top-30 visit planned, per Pauline, is the Chargers.

QB Draft Notes: Browns, Dart, Milroe

March 27th, 2025 at 7:47pm CST by Ely Allen

We know that the Browns have been exploring the quarterback options in the 2025 NFL Draft, conducting a private workout with Miami’s Cam Ward following the Hurricanes’ pro day in Coral Gables. The holders of the No. 2 overall pick in the draft know, though, that Ward may not be available to them.

According to Tony Grossi of TheLandOnDemand.com, the Browns’ road trip didn’t end there. Grossi informs us that Cleveland’s general manager, Andrew Berry, and head coach, Kevin Stefanski, conducted private workouts with Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart and Alabama passer Jalen Milroe this week, as well. He adds that the two will finish their quarterback workouts when the travel to Boulder for Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders pro day next Friday.

While Ward and Sanders seem like the only two possible choices for Cleveland with the second overall pick, the team’s interest in Dart and Milroe provide the potential that they could go for another position, taking Penn State’s Abdul Carter or Colorado’s Travis Hunter, at No. 2 and go for a quarterback in a later round. Dart has lately been cast as a potential first-rounder, but it’s perfectly reasonable to think that he might be available to Cleveland at the top of the second. Milroe, on the other hand, has been seen, at times, as a likely Day 3 pick, further expanding the Browns’ options for a rookie passer.

Here are a few other rumors concerning quarterbacks in the 2025 NFL Draft:

  • We’ve seen the Saints spend lots of time at dinner in the past week as they continue to meet with draft prospects. Per Nick Underhill of NewOrleans.Football, their latest dinner date was Dart, who met with the team tonight. The team previously held interest in Texas’ Quinn Ewers, hosting him and several of his teammates earlier this week. Dart getting picked at No. 9 overall by the Saints seems like an unlikely projection at the current moment, but Dart or Ewers on Day 2 could both be potential scenarios.
  • Dart isn’t the only quarterback New Orleans saw today. According to Mike Garafolo of NFL Network, the team held a private workout today for Syracuse quarterback Kyle McCord. While McCord hasn’t received a ton a press so far in the pre-draft process, he deserves some respect after leading the NCAA in passing yards and passing yards per game last year, being the only one in the country to out-pass Ward and even beating him in a head-to-head matchup. McCord could join Dart and Ewers as potential Day 2 or 3 options for the Saints.
  • Lastly, Milroe has been getting more and more interest lately as rumors begin to swarm grouping him with Ward, Sanders, and Dart as a potential first-rounder. Colin Cowherd of FOX Sports said on The Herd today that “the Steelers really like Jalen Milroe” and may even consider drafting him at No. 21 overall. Cowherd believes that most teams sitting in the draft picks from Nos. 20-32 want to trade back out of the first round due to a lack of elite talent. Unfortunately, for that same reason, there likely won’t be many takers, and those teams will be forced to make a pick, even if overvalued. That pick for the Steelers could be Milroe as they only roster Mason Rudolph and Skylar Thompson at the moment and they continue to wait on Aaron Rodgers. Even if Rodgers signs, they would view Rodgers as a stopgap option, with Milroe as the future. As they examine the landscape of quarterbacks available, they believe Milroe is far more athletic than any other options and want to do something special at the quarterback position.

Previous Jets Regime Considered 2025 Quincy Williams Extension

March 27th, 2025 at 5:56pm CST by Sam Robinson

Jamien Sherwood‘s market producing the result it did creates an interesting issue for a new Jets regime. A special-teamer for three seasons, Sherwood stood out subbing for the injured C.J. Mosley in 2024. The result: a three-year, $45MM contract — agreed to just before free agency — that came with $30MM guaranteed at signing.

That deal matched Nick Bolton‘s second Chiefs contract, with both approaching Zack Baun‘s Eagles re-up. This trio helped provide a bump for the off-ball linebacker market, which had taken some hits in recent years. The market soon included three more eight-figure AAVs — in Robert Spillane (Patriots), Dre Greenlaw (Broncos) and Terrel Bernard (Bills). However, the Jets’ most accomplished linebacker is not among this expanding group.

Quincy Williams remains attached to a three-year, $18MM deal. Considering the multiyear Mosley ILB partner has a first-team All-Pro nod on his resume and has played well for four Jets teams, it would seem the team’s Darren Mougey-Aaron Glenn regime has an update to make. It is not yet known if they have another payday in mind for Williams, but ESPN.com’s Rich Cimini notes the Joe Douglas-Robert Saleh partnership was open to a 2025 extension.

As the off-ball linebacker market stagnated following the Fred Warner and Shaquille Leonard extensions in 2021, Williams expressed disappointment with the contract he ultimately received from the Jets. Re-signed months before younger brother Quinnen received a high-end extension, Quincy disagreed with the comps the Jets used in negotiations. That 2023 offseason saw a host of off-ball LBs sign deals in the Williams neighborhood, but the Jets received a bargain. The former Jaguars castoff soared to the All-Pro level during his first season on that contract and added another strong season in 2024, though last season brought front office and coaching staff overhauls.

Sherwood received a much better market for his services this year, as the cap had climbed by a staggering $55MM between the 2023 and ’25 offseasons, but only has one season as an LB regular on his resume. Sherwood, however, is nearly four years younger than Williams; the latter is going into his age-29 season. That adds to a potential Jets dilemma, one that likely soon will involve Williams taking issue with his now-low-middle-class contract. The Murray State alum, who posted four forced fumbles and two sacks to go with 14 tackles for loss this past season, has become one of the league’s top off-ball LBs. He is now the NFL’s 37th-highest-paid player at the position.

One of the top acquisitions of the Douglas era, Williams is now in a key period regarding earning potential. This will be the last last season of his 20s to market toward a lucrative contract, and a $15MM-per-year floor certainly makes sense for a player who has been one of the drivers for the Jets’ Saleh-Jeff Ulbrich-era defensive turnaround. It will be interesting to see how Glenn views the productive ILB, who is due a $6.5MM base salary in 2025.

Elsewhere on the Jets’ payroll, the team added Josh Myers for even cheaper than initial reports suggested. The four-year Packers center signed with the Jets on a one-year, $2MM deal, KPRC2’s Aaron Wilson tweets. It is fully guaranteed. This is well outside the ballpark fellow free agent center Drew Dalman landed in, and it profiles as a “prove it” pact. Myers, though, does not have a clear path to starting in New York, which has its 2024 interior-line trio (John Simpson, Joe Tippmann, Alijah Vera-Tucker) returning.

Rounding out Jets O-line notes, the team’s Chukwuma Okorafor contract is worth $1.3MM, Cimini tweets. Despite bailing on the Patriots after one game last season, the former Steelers RT mainstay received $758K guaranteed. He will vie for time at tackle for a team that lost 2024 RT starter Morgan Moses to the Pats.

Falcons To Sign German-Born K Lenny Krieg

March 27th, 2025 at 4:58pm CST by Nikhil Mehta

The Falcons are signing German-born kicker Lenny Krieg to a three-year deal, according to NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo.

The 22-year-old Krieg is a converted soccer player who previously played in professional football in Europe. He drew the attention of NFL scouts when he converted all 14 field goal attempts at the Combine, the only kicker to do so. He impressed once again at the NFL’s International Player Pathway pro day on Wednesday and scheduled visits with multiple teams.

Atlanta was his first and ultimately only stop. Expecting competition for Krieg’s signature, the Falcons offered him a three-year deal with a signing bonus and a base salary guarantee, per Garafolo. He will enter training camp competing with Younghoe Koo to be the team’s kicker in 2025.

Koo emerged as one of the league’s best kickers after his first three years in Atlanta, earning a five-year, $24.25MM extension to become one of the highest-paid players at his position. He took a step back over the next three years, culminating in a disappointing 2024 season. He ended the year on injured reserve after converting just 73.5% of his field goal attempts, his lowest in six years with the Falcons.

Krieg’s arrival in Atlanta – especially on a multi-year deal with guaranteed money – is a clear sign that Koo’s time as a Falcon may soon come to an end. The 30-year-old is due $8.75MM over the next two years, significantly less than Krieg is likely to earn on his contract. The Falcons would save $4.25MM in 2025 cap space by moving on from Koo after June 1, with $2.5MM in dead money split between 2025 and ’26.

Eagles To Reunite With OL Matt Pryor

March 27th, 2025 at 4:07pm CST by Nikhil Mehta

The Eagles are reuniting with offensive lineman Matt Pryor, per Jeff McLane of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Pryor will sign a one-year deal to return to Philadelphia, where he started his NFL career as a sixth-round pick in 2018.

Pryor made the Eagles’ 53-man roster as a rookie but did not play in any games. He appeared in 12 games in 2019 exclusively on special teams before emerging as a versatile starter in 2020. Injuries to the Eagles offensive line pressed Pryor into action for 10 starts: six at left guard, three at right tackle, and one at right guard.

Pryor was then deemed surplus to requirements during final roster cuts in 2021 and traded to the Colts as part of a late-round pick swap. He started five games in Indianapolis, including three at left tackle to add even more versatility to his resume.

The Colts re-signed Pryor to a one-year, $5.5MM deal for the 2022 season. He started nine games across three different positions, but poor performance hurt his free agency stock, forcing him to take a veteran-minimum deal with the 49ers. He only played 42 snaps on offense in San Francisco and signed with the Bears in 2024. He took over the starting right guard role from Nate Davis in Week 3 and put together one of the strongest seasons of his career.

Pryor was interested in staying in Chicago after changing teams for three years in a row, but he will instead reunite with legendary offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland in Philadelphia. The 30-year-old will likely compete for the starting right guard spot left vacant by the departure of Mekhi Becton to the Chargers.

Jets To Sign WR Josh Reynolds

March 27th, 2025 at 1:10pm CST by Nikhil Mehta

The Jets are signing veteran wide receiver Josh Reynolds to a one-year deal worth up to $5MM, per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.

The deal includes $2.75MM in fully guaranteed money with another $2.25MM available via incentives, according to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler.

The Jets’ new regime is very familiar with Reynolds. General manager Darren Mougey helped bring Reynolds to Denver during free agency last year when he was the Broncos’ assistant GM. Reynolds spent the previous 2.5 seasons in Detroit, where he worked closely with then-Lions passing game coordinator Tanner Engstrand. Engstrand is now the Jets’ offensive coordinator under new head coach Aaron Glenn, who also overlapped with Reynolds in Detroit.

After releasing Davante Adams and letting Tyler Conklin walk in free agency, the Jets needed to add an experienced pass-catcher to their offense. The team is expected to release Allen Lazard after June 1, per ESPN’s Rich Cimini, and the rest of their wideouts outside of Garrett Wilson have combined for 12 career starts.

Reynolds fits the bill with 55 starts across eight years, plus an understanding of what Engstrand wants to do on offense. Two of the best seasons of Reynold’s career came in Detroit in 2022 and 2023 before a hand injury hampered him in 2024. Finding a similar role in New York may help the 30-year-old build on the success he found the last time he played under Engstrand.

The 6-foot-3 wideout has spent most of his time on the outside, though he also has plenty of experience lining up in the slot. He is also known as a strong run blocker, another plus for a Jets offense that figures to take a run-heavy approach with their young backfield of Justin Fields, Breece Hall, and Braelon Allen.

Since Reynolds was released by the Jaguars earlier this month, his signing will not count towards the compensatory pick formula (if his APY even qualified).

Titans Arrange Second Cam Ward Meeting

March 27th, 2025 at 9:33am CST by Sam Robinson

MARCH 27: The Titans’ Ward workout will take place tomorrow, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reports. Provided all goes well, the chances of Tennessee retaining the top pick and selecting him will no doubt increase.

MARCH 25: As the Titans appear to be moving closer to starting over at quarterback instead of trading out of No. 1 overall, they will do more research on the player pegged as the top passing prospect in this draft. Another Cam Ward meeting is on tap.

Like the Browns, the Titans will circle back to the Miami QB. Tennessee is arranging a workout with Ward, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports. The team already used a “30” visit on Ward. The Titans have not slammed the door on trading down, of course, but Schefter reaffirms it will take an “even stronger” package for the team to now move out of the top draft slot.

Tennessee sent plenty of representatives to Ward’s pro day Monday, and this upcoming private workout will give a rearranged front office another chance to evaluate a player who played for three schools during this transfer-happy period. A former recruit at Division I-FCS Incarnate Word, Ward transferred to Washington State and then concluded his career at Miami. Following Jayden Daniels, Bo Nix and Michael Penix in raising his draft stock following a transfer, Ward has been the frontrunner to be the first quarterback selected for months. Creating distance between himself and Shedeur Sanders, Ward has long had support in the Titans’ building, and the team has been deep in QB research for months.

The Titans met with Ward earlier this month and, per veteran Titans reporter Paul Kuharsky, had a contingent dine with the QB Sunday night. Since that point, rumors have circulated pointing the AFC South team to staying at No. 1 and picking Ward. It appears nothing at the 6-foot-2 prospect’s pro day has changed that course, but Titans brass will take another look. Selecting Ward would mean passing on players viewed as safer prospects (Abdul Carter, Travis Hunter), but punting on a QB in this draft would leave the Titans without a long-term plan after a rough Will Levis sophomore outing.

Entering the Combine, the Titans had received calls about No. 1 and were viewed by some as more likely to trade out of the pick than stay. After free agency did not send a starter-level veteran to Tennessee, which swapped out Mason Rudolph for Brandon Allen. The Titans effectively paved a path to Ward at No. 1 in free agency, unless they pivot to Russell Wilson or Aaron Rodgers. The team has not been linked to Rodgers, and a report suggested it is not interested in Wilson.

Ward’s 39 touchdown passes led Division I-FBS last season, and he paired that total with 4,313 passing yards and seven interceptions. While only 204 rushing yards came along with these numbers, Ward is viewed as having more athletic upside than Sanders. The Titans saw Levis rank last in QBR — by a wide margin — in 2024, and they fired the GM (Ran Carthon) who traded up for the Kentucky prospect in 2023. Chiefs import Mike Borgonzi will run this year’s Titans draft, with heavy input from football ops president Chad Brinker.

Ward did not work out at the Combine but is on track to do so for Titans reps. As it stands, non-Tennessee teams connected to Ward will need to hope the Titans change course and stand down. Regardless, the Browns and Giants will need to do extensive homework on Sanders, whose draft landing spot remains a bit of a mystery.

Gardner Minshew Addresses Decision To Sign With Chiefs

March 27th, 2025 at 8:59am CST by Adam La Rose

Following his Raiders release, Gardner Minshew elected to remain in the AFC West. The veteran quarterback signed with the Chiefs to operate as their backup, a move he recently spoke about.

“From the end of our season – when it seemed like I was going to get cut – I knew in my head that this is where I wanted to be,” Minshew said of Kansas City during his introductory press conference (via Pro Football Talk’s Myles Simmons). “I took a pre-draft visit with the Chiefs back in the day [before] coming into the league. I feel like everything went really well… I always knew that [Kansas City would] be a really good fit.”

The former sixth-rounder began his career with the Jaguars, but after only two years in Jacksonville he was traded to the Eagles. That set Minshew up for a pair of seasons in Philadelphia, followed by his single campaign with the Colts (which included 13 starts). While Indianapolis was interested in re-signing him, Minshew took a two-year Raiders deal last spring to compete for Vegas’ QB1 gig.

The 28-year-old won a training camp competition against Aidan O’Connell, one in which neither passer delivered a convincing performance. Minshew’s ball security gave him an edge, but his time atop the depth chart fluctuated over the course of the season. He was benched on more than one occasion, although O’Connell’s injury situation still resulted in nine Minshew starts. The latter suffered a broken collarbone in November, leading to a failed physical designation for his Raiders release. 

Given his injury situation, it came as something of a surprise Minshew signed quickly in the wake of his Vegas tenure coming to an end. A number of other quarterback dominoes had not fallen at the time of his one-year Chiefs agreement, and waiting out the situation could have yielded a path to at least competing for a starting gig with a different team. Given Minshew’s remarks, though, it is clear his priority was to head to Kansas City on the open market.

The Chiefs had Carson Wentz in place as Patrick Mahomes‘ backup last season, and he made just one start (a Week 18 game which came after the No. 1 seed in the AFC had been clinched). Minshew will likewise not have a path to playing time barring a Mahomes injury, but he clearly landed his preferred opportunity for the 2025 campaign.

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