HEADLINES

Month: July 2025

No Formal Discussions Imminent Regarding 18-Game Schedule

July 1st, 2025 at 11:50am CST by Adam La Rose

It has long been viewed as an inevitability that the NFL will expand to an 18-game regular season. An adjustment to the CBA will be required for that to be possible, and as such an agreement involving the NFL and NFLPA will need to be negotiated.

Informal talks on the subject of reducing the preseason to two games and adding an 18th regular season contest have taken place between the league and union already. In part due to those discussions, some have pointed to 2027 or 2028 as the point at which an expanded schedule could be implemented. The current CBA runs through 2030, but new media rights deals – and thus the main source of another pending surge in revenues – will be in place by then.

Commissioner Roger Goodell said this spring that no formal discussions are planned about CBA adjustments or extensions. To little surprise, then, Mark Maske of the Washington Post reports no serious talks related to the schedule are expected to commence until at least early 2026. Any concession on the part of the union would of course be tied to negotiations on other fronts. Topics such as travel, playing surfaces and the addition of a second bye week have been mentioned as key issues for the NFLPA.

Maske names the period after the 2026 league meeting as a point at which negotiations could pick up. In any case, the nature of talks on this front will make for a notable storyline as efforts on the league’s part continue to expand the regular season schedule. Per Maske, Goodell has not yet “pressed” the union to accelerate discussions, although the NFL’s goals regarding a broader international schedule in particular are of course well known.

Adding an 18th game would likely pave the way for a slate of 16 international contests each regular season. Other matters will no doubt be tied to movement on this front, so a number of key CBA-related issues will be affected if/when an agreement can be reached between the league and union. The timeline for such talks is currently uncertain, though.

Dolphins To Acquire TE Darren Waller From Giants

July 1st, 2025 at 10:19am CST by Adam La Rose

The Dolphins have taken an unexpected route to find a new veteran tight end. A trade agreement is in place with the Giants for Miami to acquire Darren Waller, Tom Pelissero of NFL Network reports.

Waller is coming out of retirement to head to Miami. New York still held his rights, requiring this swap to take place. The former Pro Bowler only intended to resume his playing career if he could do so with the Dolphins, Pelissero adds. That will indeed be the case. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports Miami will receive Waller and a conditional 2027 seventh-round pick in exchange for a sixth-rounder in 2026.

Acquired via trade from the Raiders, Waller faced high expectations upon arrival with the Giants. The former sixth-rounder wound up only playing one season in New York, however. Retirement was brought up on more than one occasion, and last June Waller officially decided to hang up his cleats. That move – which came in the wake of a frightening health episode in November 2023 – created cap savings for the Giants but the team did not deal away his rights at any point. Two years remained on Waller’s contract at the time of his retirement, but Pelissero notes he will ink a restructured pact heavy on incentives as part of this trade.

Providing details on that point, Schefter adds this will be a one-year deal worth up to $5MM via incentives. Waller will now aim to provide his new team with a veteran pass-catching option in the wake of Jonnu Smith being dealt to the Steelers yesterday. The Dolphins were in the market for a tight end as a result, but this move is certainly not the one many would have expected.

In addition to health issues, Waller cited a waning passion for the game when addressing his decision to retire. That is of course commonplace for many around the league when they elect to hang up their cleats, but it seemed to confirm Waller would not be eyeing a return. With one exception clearly being made in the case of the Dolphins, however, he is now set to play a ninth NFL campaign.

Miami’s depth chart at the TE spot consisted of veteran Pharaoh Brown along with Julian Hill, Hayden Ricci and Jalin Conyers. Each member of the latter trio entered the league as an undrafted free agent. Expectations will be limited in their cases as a result, but it will be interesting to see how this Waller experiment unfolds in 2025.

RT Taylor Moton Hopes To Finish Career With Panthers

July 1st, 2025 at 9:46am CST by Adam La Rose

One year remains on Taylor Moton‘s contract. The Panthers are set to have their longtime right tackle play out the 2025 campaign while carrying an inflated cap charge, but it remains to be seen how the parties will move forward beyond that point.

If Moton has his way, however, he will stay in Carolina through the remainder of his career. The 30-year-old has handled starting duties since his second NFL season, compiling an Ironman streak of 104 consecutive starts along the way. That franchise-record mark came to an end in 2024, but Moton does not feel as though his playing days are nearing an end at this point.

“Looking forward, I do believe I have another contract in me,” the ninth-year veteran said, via Joe Person of The Athletic (subscription required). “But right now my focus is on the 2025 season and making sure I do whatever I can to have the best season I can for everybody involved.”

Moton inked a five-year, $85MM extension in 2021. That pact has been restructured three times, resulting in a $31.35MM cap charge for the 2025 campaign. General manager Dan Morgan made it clear early in the offseason the team would be comfortable with that figure for one year. In the absence of an extension, though, Moton’s Carolina future and market value will be dictated by his level of play this season.

The former second-rounder has remained consistent throughout his Panthers tenure, grading out between 13th and 23rd amongst qualifying tackles in terms of PFF evaluation over six of the past seven years. A similar performance in 2025 would help Carolina’s efforts to build off the offensive momentum shown at the end of last season. The tandem of Moton and left tackle Ikem Ekwonu will remain together for at least one more campaign, but the latter hopes to land a Panthers extension tying him to the team well past 2026.

Moton was limited to 14 contests last year, and a pectoral injury limited his workload during OTAs and minicamp this spring. He expressed confidence in his ability to deal with the knee issues which have arisen in recent years, though, something which will be key in determining his availability and level of play in 2025. It will be interesting to see if a strong start to the campaign opens the door to extension talks or if the Panthers prepare for a potential departure in the spring.

Browns Finalize Land Purchase For Domed Stadium Construction

July 1st, 2025 at 9:00am CST by Adam La Rose

JULY 1: Ohio’s budget has been finalized, and the Browns are officially set to proceed with construction on the new stadium. A statement from Jimmy and Dee Haslam confirms the project will move forward with the land deal now in place.

JUNE 28: Efforts on the part of the Browns to construct a new, domed stadium have seen a notable development. An agreement has been reached for the purchase of land 12 miles outside of downtown Cleveland.

Primacy Development – a company located at the Browns’ headquarters with ties to the Haslam Sports Group – has closed on the purchase of a 176-acre plot in Brook Park, Daryl Ruiter of 92.3 The Fan reports. Cuyahoga County records indicate the price will check in at more than $76MM. This news comes after the Browns exercised their purchase option on the land in December.

To pave the way for the agreement to be finalized, the Modell Law (which prevented the Browns from leaving Cleveland) has been amended. Ohio governor Mike DeWine is now in position to sign the necessary provisions into law next week while finalizing the state’s budget. That includes $600MM in state funding for the construction of the team’s new stadium, which is currently expected to cost a total of $2.4 billion.

The Browns’ new home will be a domed (rather than outdoor) stadium, making it the first of its kind in the AFC North (and marking a departure from the Ravens, Steelers and Bengals). Once construction is complete, the AFC East will be the league’s only division consisting entirely of teams – the Bills, Dolphins, Patriots and Jets – which play outdoors when at home.

The targeted start time for construction of Cleveland’s new stadium is early next year, with the Browns planning to move there in time for the 2029 campaign. Provided the land purchase agreement is indeed finalized in the coming days, the process will take an important step forward.