Drafting First-Round QB Still On Table For Giants
DECEMBER 31: During his latest episode of Breaking Big Blue, ESPN’s Jordan Raanan notes no one around the NFL is operating with the belief Schoen is in danger of being fired. The team’s head coaching future remains unclear, but it increasingly appears as though no front office moves will be coming.
DECEMBER 28: At times this year, it seemed a low period for the Giants franchise was coming to an end and starting to head uphill as we saw early success with offensive rookies Jaxson Dart and Cam Skattebo. Some of those opinions have waned as the season has worn on, to the point that some see the Giants utilizing their first-round pick on a quarterback for the second draft in a row. 
After the Giants tried and failed to move up to No. 1 overall in the 2025 NFL Draft to take Cam Ward, there was some speculation that they may attempt to trade back into the back of the first round for another quarterback option, perhaps Shedeur Sanders or Dart. The Saints had been tied to Dart, as well, but after he slipped by their No. 9 overall pick, all eyes were on New Orleans to trade back into the first round, as well. Ultimately, it was New York that pulled the trigger and landed Dart.
Expectations for Dart’s first season varied wildly. Some viewed a short leash for veteran starter Russell Wilson, while others thought Dart could hold a clipboard throughout his entire rookie campaign. After an 0-3 start to the season in which the Giants scored fewer than 10 points in two of those games, the team turned the offense over to the rookie, and Dart delivered, immediately, with a win over the playoff-bound Chargers.
The following week, Dart showed some vulnerabilities in a game that would give the Saints their first win of the season, but he rebounded with a big win over the division-rival Eagles in his third start. A playoff gauntlet that included trips to Denver, Philadelphia, and Chicago and a home matchup with the 49ers prevented any more wins from being added to Dart’s record, but the young passer continued to show strong abilities and impressive instincts in his first several starts under head coach Brian Daboll.
As Connor Hughes of SportsNet New York points out, though, Daboll’s firing led to some regression in Dart’s overall performance. After throwing 10 touchdowns to just three interceptions and rushing for seven more scores in his first seven starts, Dart has only thrown three touchdowns to two interceptions while staying scoreless on the ground up until today’s win over the lowly Raiders. Post-Daboll, the team’s designed usage of Dart was altered in a way that perhaps now lends some justifiability to looking into a new passer next year.
To that end, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reports that, before making any concrete plans for the future, the Giants will be fully evaluating Heisman-winner and projected QB1 of the 2026 NFL Draft Fernando Mendoza. While not boasting talent that commands surefire No. 1 overall status à la Joe Burrow or Trevor Lawrence, the Indiana-product (by way of Cal) has been billed lately as the top passing prospect in the coming draft. With the finalized holders of the top two picks in the draft both being quarterback-needy teams, there’s a high likelihood that Mendoza could be selected with one of those two picks.
If the team does decide to draft a new quarterback, the expectation is that they would try to trade Dart to another team searching for an answer at the position. Dart’s early promise and strong attributes could make him a strong option for many teams lacking at the position, but if the Giants grade Mendoza highly and like him more than they currently like Dart, the rookie’s concussion history and reckless play style could make him an expendable asset in the eyes of the team.
Part of these decisions will come down to the staffers making them, and while general manager Joe Schoen has been expected to be retained in New York, his position is hardly secure. In fact, while Rapoport didn’t speak to this point in his segment linked above, the banner showing as he discussed the Giants reported that Schoen was “likely to remain with (the) team for (the) draft.” It’s hard to believe New York would allow Schoen to have input on something as impactful as the team’s 2026 first-round pick — or their next head coach — if they didn’t expect to retain him past that, but NFL Network’s wording seems ominous, nonetheless.
We’re still months away from any solid answers on what the future will bring for the Giants. Next week could determine if they have the No. 1 overall pick. Several stages of the pre-draft process could determine if Mendoza will be the likely draft choice. Who the team drafts could easily determine the futures of both Dart and Schoen. Lots of variables remain up in the air for what is setting up to be a newsworthy offseason in New York.
Raiders Now In Line To Land 2026 No. 1 Overall Pick
DECEMBER 29: ESPN’s Dan Graziano reports some in the Giants’ organization found the Raiders’ IR moves leading up to yesterday’s game to be suspicious. They certainly helped Vegas move into pole position for the top selection, however. Similar actions can be expected in future years when games critical to determining the draft order take place late in the season.
DECEMBER 28: In what would be a snoozer of a game any time before, say, Week 14, today’s matchup between the two teams with the worst records in the NFL held huge implications for each franchise’s future. With a loss today, the Giants could have all but locked up the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, but after New York blew out Las Vegas to the tune of 34-10, the Raiders now sit in the driver’s seat heading into the regular season finale.
It seems only two teams remain eligible to secure the top pick in the league’s next draft, and it’s still the two who played each other today. According to ESPN’s Jordan Raanan, the Giants still hold a 20% chance to land the No. 1 overall pick by losing next week, when they host the Cowboys, and seeing Vegas beat the Chiefs. Raanan’s ESPN coworker, Adam Schefter, followed up Raanan’s report to point out the remaining 80 percent of probability belongs solely to the Raiders, who can secure the top pick with a Week 18 home loss to Kansas City.
A couple factors should give New York fans some hope behind their smaller odds. Todd Archer, another contributor at ESPN, reported shortly after the Cowboys’ Christmas Day game that quarterback Dak Prescott has “pride” in starting the final game of the 2025 season, giving the Giants a tougher matchup for the final week of the season. Additionally, the Chiefs offense will be led by QB3 Chris Oladokun after both Patrick Mahomes and Gardner Minshew suffered season-ending injuries.
Working against the Giants’ odds is the fact that the Raiders appear to be self-handicapping their team for what could be an easy matchup against the ailing Chiefs to close out the year. All before the penultimate week of the regular season, the Raiders shut down the seasons of starting offensive guard Jordan Meredith, star tight end Brock Bowers, and starting safety Jeremy Chinn, not to mention star pass rusher Maxx Crosby. Additionally, after starting quarterback Geno Smith left today’s game with an injury, head coach Pete Carroll announced that Smith would miss the team’s regular season finale with a high ankle sprain, per Ian Rapoport of NFL Network.
The move to place Crosby on injured reserve seems especially blatant as Crosby has been banging the table, advocating for himself, wanting to play out the rest of the season. Crosby had started every game this year up until this week despite suffering a midseason knee injury that both player and team have known for a while would require a meniscus trim procedure to repair. Las Vegas made the move to place Crosby on IR yesterday and plan his surgery against the will of the star pass rusher, ending his season and causing him to walk out of the team facility.
Crosby spoke against the transaction, telling the media that he doesn’t care “about the pick” and that his “job is to be the best defensive end in the world.” Crosby even received two alternative medical opinions on his situation, both of which indicated that he could continue to play, provided he could handle any accompanying pain. Seemingly to speak out against his team’s decision and prove he could still play, Crosby posted videos to his Instagram story yesterday that showed him playing basketball and playing with his daughter on a trampoline, activities that would be difficult for someone with a season-ending knee injury.
Regardless, heading into the final week of the regular season, the Raiders will enter a winnable game against an injury-riddled Chiefs squad without Smith, Bowers, Meredith, Chinn, and Crosby, as well as earlier-injured starting offensive linemen Kolton Miller and Jackson Powers-Johnson. The Giants will head into a tough matchup against a favored Cowboys team, but their draft slot will likely be determined by the actions of the Raiders, who seem to unashamedly be aiming for the No. 1 overall pick.
Titans Fear Torn Achilles For CB Jalyn Armour-Davis
In today’s loss to the Saints, Titans cornerback Jalyn Armour-Davis left the game early in the first quarter with what the team now fears could be a long-term injury. According to Jordan Schultz of FOX Sports, the fear is that Armour-Davis suffered a torn Achilles tendon. 
This unfortunate turn of events continues what has been a difficult first four years for the 26-year-old Alabama-product. Armour-Davis began his career as a fourth-round pick in Baltimore. He initially served as a developing rotational option behind starters Marlon Humphrey and Marcus Peters and then-CB3 Brandon Stephens. An early injury to Stephens gave Armour-Davis an opportunity to make an early impact, but his own injuries would cut those efforts short during his first career start in Week 3 of his rookie year. A hip injury would eventually end his rookie season after only four games.
The door was once again wide open in Year 2. The departure of Peters in free agency and an injury that held Humphrey out for nearly half the year left plenty of snaps for the taking. Unfortunately, lingering issues from the prior year hip injury may have limited Armour-Davis as he was listed as inactive for seven games, didn’t play in two games that he was active for, and spent most of his time on special teams for the eight games he did play. Instead, those snaps went to veteran free agents like Ronald Darby, Rock Ya-Sin, and Daryl Worley.
Last year, rookie first-round pick Nate Wiggins joined the secondary as the tertiary option behind starters Humphrey and Stephens. It looked like Armour-Davis was going to finally get an opportunity as the next rotating option, and he even started the first game of the season, but his role diminished greatly to special teams work in the next two games before he failed to see the field for four weeks in a row. He did earn a start in Week 8 last year and played 100 percent of the team’s defensive snaps for the first time in his career, but he was marked inactive for the following two weeks and fell back into his usual usage for the remainder of the season, before a hamstring injury ended it in January.
Going into the final year of his rookie contract, Armour-Davis failed to make the Ravens’ initial 53-man roster and was claimed off waivers by the Titans. The move reunited him with defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson, who served as defensive backs coach in Baltimore for Armour-Davis’ second year. As injuries stacked up, Armour-Davis was given an early opportunity to step up as a starter, and he finally got some consistent heavy usage, starting eight straight games.
Since Week 13, though, Armour-Davis has been dealing with an Achilles issue that had held him out of a few games but that he was able to play through last week and today. When the issues ended his day early today, Tennessee feared the worst. They will undergo further testing in the days to come to determine the full severity.
If it is a torn tendon, it’s terrible timing for the young corner. With his rookie contract expiring with the close of the season, Armour-Davis was hoping that this season would serve as an audition for his upcoming free agency. Instead, a career that has been marred with injury early and often was underlined today by his most serious injury to date. If surgery is, indeed, necessary, Armour-Davis will need to quickly work through rehab in order to return in time to try out for teams during training camps next year. Otherwise, he’ll be looking to join his next team sometime during the 2026 NFL season.
Teams Expected To Call Bengals On QB Joe Burrow
Four years ago, a second-year starting quarterback in Joe Burrow was following up a rookie campaign that ended with season-ending knee surgery to repair tears to his ACL and MCL and damage to his PCL and meniscus by preparing for a playoff run that would ultimately see the Bengals fall four points shy of its first ever Super Bowl victory. Still, somehow, teams will likely be calling Cincinnati this offseason with sincere belief that they may be able to trade for the former No. 1 overall pick, per Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports. 
Injuries and defensive woes have caused some turbulence for the young passer in Cincinnati this year. We have seen these things affect him in the past, with injuries limiting him to 10 games in his rookie season then again in 2023 and with last year’s bottom-10 defense preventing a campaign fueled by his MVP-worthy efforts to even extend into the playoffs.
This year, though, we’ve heard Burrow voice some understandable concerns that could point to a small, potential rift, leaving a thread at which several teams seem eager to pull.
After Burrow made a faster-than-expected return from an injury that many expected to end his 2025 season, the 29-year-old made some comments that drew many around the media into speculation that he may be contemplating retirement or struggling with his mental health. Burrow had simply expressed that “if (he wants) to keep doing this, (he has) to have fun doing this.” He looked back at how much he’d gone through, and asked, “If it’s not fun, then what am I doing it for?”
He made sure to specify later on that his comments were aimed at football in general and did not specifically have anything to do with his relationship with the Bengals. He also cleared up that he wasn’t considering ending his career so early, à la Andrew Luck. As the weeks wore on, reports began to naturally point to Burrow remaining in Cincinnati next year, despite the team’s struggling defense leading to another failed bid at a postseason.
Our previously most recent update on the matter — coming just yesterday — continued to emphasize that there is no indication Burrow wants out of Cincinnati or that the Bengals have any intention of moving him. Jones report from today underlines that fact, as well. Regardless, Jones’ sources report anticipation that “several teams will attempt a pursuit of trading for Burrow in the offseason,” with one executive candidly stating that “there are probably only a handful (of teams) that wouldn’t, at least, make an attempt.”
Burrow does own one similarity with Luck in that he is the same age Luck was at the time of his sudden retirement, but Jones pointed to another comparison. Jones linked Burrow to another former No. 1 overall pick that, despite decent individual success, was unable to get over the hump in Cincinnati to win a Super Bowl: Carson Palmer.
While Burrow boasts two Comeback Player of the Year awards that Palmer didn’t win, both only had two Pro Bowl selections on their résumé at this stage in their careers. Following his seventh year with the Bengals, Palmer requested a trade. When team owner/president Mike Brown turned down Palmer’s request, Palmer threatened to retire and followed through on his threat in an interview during the 2011 NFL Draft. As a result, Cincinnati drafted TCU passer Andy Dalton in the second round and, when Palmer failed to report to training camp, traded the veteran to Oakland — for first- and second-round picks — before the October trade deadline.
Now, clearly, Burrow has not requested a trade or made any such threats, but if every team in the NFL — apart from a handful of teams — is vying for his services and he sees an opportunity to have fun playing football elsewhere, the blueprint exists for history to repeat itself, though the Raiders likely wouldn’t be the beneficiaries this time around. For now, though, the Bengals should continue to nurture their relationship with the star quarterback in preparation for the wave of suitors sure to pursue this offseason.
Minor NFL Transactions: 12/27/25
Here are today’s minor moves and standard gameday practice squad elevations for the penultimate weekend of the regular season:
Baltimore Ravens
- Activated from IR: LB Jay Higgins IV
Buffalo Bills
- Signed from practice squad: TE Keleki Latu
- Elevated: K Michael Badgley, DE Andre Jones Jr.
- Waived: WR Mecole Hardman Jr.
Chicago Bears
- Activated from IR: G Luke Newman
- Elevated: CB Dallis Flowers, WR JP Richardson
- Waived: DT Jonathan Ford
Cincinnati Bengals
- Elevated: DT Howard Cross III, CB Bralyn Lux
Cleveland Browns
- Elevated: TE Sal Cannella, QB Bailey Zappe
Green Bay Packers
- Elevated: TE Drake Dabney, QB Clayton Tune
Indianapolis Colts
- Activated from IR: WR Ashton Dulin
- Signed from practice squad: DT Chris Wormley
- Elevated: C Jimmy Morrissey, G Josh Sills
- Placed on IR: WR Anthony Gould, TE Andrew Ogletree
Jacksonville Jaguars
- Elevated: G Jerome Carvin, S Juan Thornhill
Miami Dolphins
- Activated from IR: OL Andrew Meyer
- Signed from practice squad: WR Theo Wease Jr.
- Placed on IR: WR Dee Eskridge, CB Isaiah Johnson, DT Benito Jones
- Elevated: LB Derrick McLendon, OL Josh Priebe
New Orleans Saints
- Elevated: WR Ronnie Bell, TE Treyton Welch
New York Giants
- Signed from practice squad: DE Elijah Chatman, C Bryan Hudson, S Raheem Layne, K Ben Sauls
- Elevated: TE Zach Davidson, RE Dante Miller
New York Jets
- Signed from practice squad: CB Tre Brown, G Marquis Hayes, WR Quentin Skinner
- Elevated: QB Hendon Hooker
Philadelphia Eagles
- Elevated: CB Brandon Johnson
Pittsburgh Steelers
- Elevated: T Jack Driscoll, CB D’Shawn Jamison
San Francisco 49ers
- Elevated: LB Eric Kendricks, TE Brayden Willis
Seattle Seahawks
- Elevated: RB Cam Akers, T Amari Kight
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- Elevated: OLB Jason Pierre-Paul
Tennessee Titans
- Elevated: CB Kemon Hall
- Placed on IR: CB Marcus Harris
With Dalton Kincaid and Dawson Knox both dealing with injuries, the Bills add Latu to the 53-man roster for depth. To make room, Buffalo has parted ways with the veteran, Hardman, just a week after activating him from injured reserve.
A number of players are being called up as standard gameday practice squad elevations for the third and final time on their current contracts. This is the case for Flowers in Chicago, Zappe in Cleveland, Sills in Indianapolis, Driscoll in Pittsburgh, and Kight in Seattle. If their respective teams wish to see them appear in another game this year, they will need to be signed to the 53-man roster, as was done with Wormley in Indianapolis and Chatman in New York this week after they exhausted their three elevations already this year.
NFL Practice Squad Updates: 12/27/25
Here is Saturday’s only practice squad transaction:
Denver Broncos
- Signed: RB Cody Schrader
The Broncos claimed Schrader off waivers from the Rams, with whom he appeared in one game in each of his first two seasons. The Mizzou-product was waived before Denver’s Christmas Day game but stays with the Broncos via a taxi squad deal.
Patriots Place WR Mack Hollins On IR
As the Patriots prepare to make a playoff run to cap off their surprising one-year turnaround under new head coach Mike Vrabel, they will be doing so without their second-leading wide receiver. The team announced today that Mack Hollins has been placed on injured reserve as he deals with an injury to his abdomen. 
Hollins has been a true journeyman since getting drafted to the Eagles in the fourth round of the 2017 NFL Draft. After winning a Super Bowl ring as little-used rookie in Philadelphia, Hollins spent his sophomore campaign on IR with a groin injury. In Year 3, an Eagles reunion with veteran DeSean Jackson led to the team waiving Hollins.
Hollins was claimed by the Dolphins, and he spent the remainder of that year and the next two seasons in Miami. While he never broke out as a high-volume pass catcher, he showed some strong redzone capabilities with four touchdown catches in 2021. The next year, on a one-year deal with the Raiders, Hollins broke out as a formidable WR2 behind Davante Adams, recording 57 receptions for 690 yards and four more touchdowns.
Despite the career-best campaign, Hollins continued to land one-year deals and delivered average seasons with the Falcons and Bills, though he did log a career-high five touchdowns in Buffalo. Those five scores may have just been enough for Hollins to be offered a two-year contract this past offseason in New England, where he has once again broken out at 32 years old as the team’s second-leading wide receiver behind Stefon Diggs. Hollins collected 46 receptions for 550 yards and two touchdowns in 15 games with the Patriots this year.
The team’s receiving corps may be even more shorthanded for its divisional trip to New York. Third-leading receiver Kayshon Boutte has been ruled out for the week with a concussion, and WR4 DeMario Douglas is listed as questionable after a hamstring issue held him to limited participation in practice this week. When they face off against the Jets tomorrow, Maye’s receivers beyond Diggs could be whittled down to third-round rookie Kyle Williams and undrafted rookie return man Efton Chism III.
With only two games remaining in the regular season, Mack will be forced to miss the Patriots’ first two playoff games before he will be eligible to return. In the meantime, New England will need to focus on getting Boutte and Douglas in shape for the postseason, knowing they’ll be relied on for, at least, the team’s first playoff matchup.
Taking Hollins’ spot on the 53-man roster will be defensive tackle Jeremiah Pharms Jr., while fellow practice squad interior defender Leonard Taylor III and cornerback Kobee Minor will be designated as standard gameday elevations. This will be Minor’s third and final elevation on this practice squad deal. If the Patriots want to see him appear in another game this season, they’ll need to sign him to the 53-man roster like Pharms.
DC Matt Eberflus Trending Down In Dallas
There’s been no shortage of coverage on this site concerning the diminishing job safety of Cowboys defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus. As team owner/president/general manager Jerry Jones‘ negative comments on the situation continue to escalate, the likelihood that Eberflus gets a Year 2 in Dallas continues to fall. As Jon Machota of The Athletic so candidly put it, “at this point, a second season of Eberflus as DC would be a surprise.” 
Early on in the season, as the Cowboys ranked 32nd in yards allowed and 31st in points allowed, the team stood behind its defensive play-caller. Some of the early struggles were attributed to the growing pains of a defense that lost its best player only a week before the start of the regular season. Head coach Brian Schottenheimer preached patience and belief in his coordinator, asserting that things would improve over time.
Even Jones admitted that Eberflus was dealing with adversity and clung to his “tremendous experience” as some buyer’s remorse appeared to creep in. Just under three weeks later, executive vice president Stephen Jones echoed Schottenheimer and his father’s comments, expressing hope that the situation would “continue to evolve” and even expressing hope that Eberflus would return as the team’s defensive coordinator in 2026.
At that point in time, the Cowboys remained the second-worst scoring defense while just climbing out of the basement to be 31st in total defense, as well. A week ago, the unit had worked its way up two more slots in total defense while remaining at 31st in points allowed. For the first time last week, Jones brought up the potential of a coaching change, calling the consideration of making “adjustments…regarding coaching” a “legit question.”
Following a three-score loss to the Chargers in Week 16, Jones announced that no firings would occur in the final two weeks of the season but that a full evaluation of all coaches would occur when the season was over. Shortly following the team’s Week 17 win over the division-rival Commanders, though, Jones was quick to make it crystal clear that he still was not happy with the team’s defensive performance.
“No, no, not at all,” Jones replied when asked if he was pleased with the defensive coaching staff and scheme, per Machota. “We have a lot of work to do there. I’m sorry if I have let my enthusiasm for the win yesterday misrepresent. No, not at all. We got a lot of work to do over there, but we can do it.”
In the victory, Dallas allowed rookie running back Jacory Croskey-Merritt just his second 100-yard rushing performance on only 11 carries. Additionally, the Cowboys only walked away victorious after just holding off a second-half comeback by Washington’s third-string veteran quarterback, Josh Johnson.
The issues of personnel seem to have been removed from consideration when defending Eberflus as of late. While the loss of Micah Parsons is certainly difficult to come back from and multiple injuries have made things even more difficult, the acquisitions of All-Pro defensive tackle Quinnen Williams and linebacker Logan Wilson have not been enough to turn the tide in Dallas. In fact, adding to Jones’ frustrations, Wilson didn’t play a single snap in yesterday’s game, despite not appearing on the injury report or being designated as inactive. What’s worse, Jones didn’t seem to know why Wilson didn’t play.
“I don’t have an explanation for you for why Wilson wasn’t in there,” Jones told the media. “We planned to have him in there. He needs to be in there. He has good instincts. The reason we got him was because he reads the play quick and can basically be in his lane of responsibility and react quick…that’s why we got him.”
As Jones seems to struggle to find anything nice to say about his defensive coordinator, it seems Eberflus’ position in Dallas is becoming more and more tenuous. If the team’s season finale against the Giants in any way resembles the two teams’ Week 2 40-37 overtime affair, Eberflus may not even last until his post-season evaluation.
Arizona State WR Jordyn Tyson Declares For Draft
A week ago, Arizona State wide receiver Jordyn Tyson announced on Instagram that he was declaring for the 2026 NFL Draft, forgoing his final season of eligibility. Tyson is projected to be a consensus first-round pick and is thought by many to be the clear WR1 of the class. 
Initially a three-star prospect out of Allen HS (TX), Tyson had a slow start to his recruitment. In a talent-rich area of an extremely talent-rich state, Tyson only saw offers rolling in from the likes of Sam Houston State, Campbell, New Mexico, Tulsa, Texas State, and Colorado State. So, in the summer before his senior season, when Tyson took an official visit to Colorado and earned an offer over a month later, he committed soon after to the Buffaloes and then-head coach Karl Dorrell.
In one of Colorado’s worst years in program history, Dorrell was fired only five games into what would be a one-win season. When new head coach Deion Sanders arrived, prompting one of the largest mass replacements in college football history that saw 57 outgoing transfers replaced by 52 incoming student athletes, Tyson joined the crowd in searching for a new home. Luckily for the true freshman, Tyson’s last three games at Colorado put up some pretty attractive film for the portal as he combined for 13 catches, 344 yards, and two touchdowns over that span.
Tyson found his way to Tempe in the transfer portal but was limited to only three games in 2023 due to knee injuries and had to take a redshirt year as the Sun Devils struggled to a 3-9 season following the implosion of star freshman quarterback Jaden Rashada. Last year, Arizona State rebounded to 11-3 with a berth in the College Football Playoff thanks to breakout campaigns from a redshirt sophomore Tyson and transfer running back Cam Skattebo. Recording a team-leading 75 catches for 1,101 yards and 10 touchdowns, Tyson delivered the first 1,000-yard receiving season for a Sun Devil since Brandon Aiyuk‘s 2019 campaign.
With Skattebo off to the NFL, all eyes were on Tyson to see what he might do in 2025 as the main event in Tempe. Unfortunately, a hamstring injury held him out of three-and-a-half games this season, but Tyson still dominated when on the field, leading Arizona State once again with 61 receptions for 711 yards and eight touchdowns. Following his declaration, Tyson’s expected to sit out his team’s New Year’s Eve bowl game, so those numbers for 2025 should be final.
Bulking and growing into a 6-foot-2, 200-pound frame over his years as a Sun Devil, Tyson excites scouts with his pro potential. With strong top-end speed and elite route-running, Tyson is often an open target, but even more frustrating for defensive backs is that — even when he is blanketed by coverage — Tyson is one of the NCAA’s best when winning at the catch point and outmuscling the defense for 50-50 balls.
The draft’s potential WR1 isn’t perfect, though. An issue with drops (five as a true freshman in 2022) followed him from Boulder to Tempe as he logged seven in his first full season for the Sun Devils after redshirting. Scouts were hoping to see major improvement in that field this year, and Tyson delivered, only dropping one pass on 100 targets as he learned from one of the best in wide receivers coach Hines Ward.
The injury issues throughout his career may throw up a red flag, as well. After knee issues forced his redshirt in 2023 and a collarbone injury forced him to miss Arizona State’s playoff push last year, this year’s hamstring issue is only the latest challenge Tyson has worked through. The 21-year-old has shown enough, though, that his high ceiling may silence any concerns scouts may have about his durability.
So far in the pre-draft process, Dane Brugler of The Athletic ranked Tyson as his WR1 and his eighth-best overall prospect in his midseason rankings, two slots above his WR2, Carnell Tate of Ohio State. A few weeks later, ESPN’s Matt Miller gave Tate WR1 respect as his No. 8 overall prospect with WR2 Tyson coming in at No. 14. Miller’s ESPN peer Mel Kiper Jr. sided with Brugler, though, as he gave the nod to Tyson as his seventh-best overall prospect with Tate slotting in at No. 9 overall.
The two have a few months to make their case to be the first pass-catcher whose name is called on that fateful Thursday night in Pittsburgh. Tyson will likely be working to get as healthy as possible in preparation to combat any questions on his health in the interviews to come. It’s one of the few things he can do as he’s already put some of the NCAA’s best football on film over the past two years.
Jets Defense Loses Three To IR
As one of the first teams eliminated from playoff contention, the Jets don’t have much to play for down the stretch. That makes it slightly more bearable that today they put three defenders on injured reserve. 
The biggest loss to the unit is that of third-year defensive end Will McDonald. The former first-round selection out of Iowa State has followed up last year’s breakout 10.5-sack campaign with another strong season. A starter in 14 of 15 contests this year, McDonald leads the Jets in sacks (8.0) and tackles for loss (10). As McDonald sits out the rest of the way with a knee injury, the Green & White will close the season with Micheal Clemons and Braiden McGregor filling in across from Jermaine Johnson.
The Jets’ second IR placement simply confirms the end of a rookie’s season. Seventh-round Miami-product Kiko Mauigoa was expected to be a core special teamer and reserve linebacker in his first year as a pro. When starter Quincy Williams was placed on IR three weeks into the season, Mauigoa stepped in to start eight of the next nine games, though his contributions started to tail off in those last few weeks with Williams coming back into the picture. The rookie has missed the team’s last two games with a shoulder injury and has officially been shut down until 2026.
The last loss going into the final two weeks of the season is that of defensive tackle Jay Tufele. Signing with the Jets after finishing out his rookie contract in Cincinnati, Tufele looked to be competing for a starting job early in the offseason. Ultimately, he found himself coming off the bench behind Harrison Phillips and Jowon Briggs, earning two starts in a healthy rotation. With Tufele’s season ending, depth pieces Khalen Saunders and Payton Page should compete for snaps behind Phillips and Briggs, assuming recent trade acquisition Mazi Smith continues to be designated as a healthy scratch.
With games against the division-rival Patriots and Bills to close out the season, a depleted Jets defense may put up little resistance against two formidable offenses playing for division titles and a potential playoff first-round bye.