Packers Finish Rookie Signings After Inking T Anthony Belton
The Packers announced today that they have signed second-round offensive tackle Anthony Belton to his rookie contract. Belton was the last Packers rookie to sign his four-year deal, meaning that Green Bay has concluded its rookie signings. 
Originally coming out of high school in Tallahassee as an unranked recruit but still wanting to play football, Belton took the junior college route, attending Georgia Military, where he was teammates with Buccaneers linebacker YaYa Diaby. After two years at the institution, Belton gained a bit more traction in recruiting as a three-star JuCo prospect, fielding offers from the likes of Houston, West Viriginia, South Carolina, and TCU.
Ultimately, he committed to NC State, redshirting his first year in Raleigh as the staff helped him get into good shape with a better weight room and training staff available to him. In 2022, he took over the starting left tackle job vacated by former first-round pick Ikem Ekwonu but was benched after only eight starts. He showed improvement the following year, as he returned to the starting left tackle role, and even more improvement in 2024.
In Green Bay, the Packers have watched two tackles drafted in the fourth and seventh rounds of the 2022 draft bookend the starting offensive line. Still, for the second year in a row, the team has drafted a college left tackle in the first two rounds of the draft. And, perhaps also for the second year in a row, that left tackle may not continue playing tackle. Last year’s first-round pick, Jordan Morgan, played 121 snaps off the bench at right guard and started one game at left guard in his rookie season after playing exclusively at left tackle over his five years at Arizona. Early reports show that Belton, who also played exclusively at left tackle, has been working at right tackle and guard so far in Green Bay.
While Belton may end up shifting inside like Morgan, he stands a better chance at sticking as a tackle, with some believing that he could be one of Zach Tom or Rasheed Walker‘s heir, as both are set to play the 2025 season on a contract year. While Belton only stands at 6-foot-6 (technically five and a half), he boasts a huge frame at 336 pounds. That stout form makes him a difficult player to move, and his long arms make up for a below average lateral speed. He’s a mauler that erases defenders and an active, aggressive blocker in the run game. He may not see time early in Green Bay, but he and Morgan seem to be the budding future of the offensive line.
With Belton wrapping up the rookie signings in Green Bay, here’s a final look at the Packers’ rookie draft class:
- Round 1, No. 23: Matthew Golden (WR, Texas) (signed)
- Round 2, No. 54: Anthony Belton, T (NC State) (signed)
- Round 3, No. 87: Savion Williams (WR, TCU) (signed)
- Round 4, No. 124: Barryn Sorrell (DE, Texas) (signed)
- Round 5, No. 159: Collin Oliver (DE, Oklahoma State) (signed)
- Round 6, No. 198: Warren Brinson (DT, Georgia) (signed)
- Round 7, No. 237 (from Steelers): Micah Robinson (CB, Tulane) (signed)
- Round 7, No. 250*: John Williams (G, Cincinnati) (signed)
Bengals, Shemar Stewart Remain At Impasse On Rookie Deal
Bengals rookies are supposed to report to the team’s facilities this coming Saturday, with Wednesday standing as the start date for training camp, so the next few days will be crucial for getting past the contract situation between the team and first-round defensive end Shemar Stewart. According to Kelsey Conway of the Cincinnati Enquirer, “there has been no progress made on” either side of the negotiations. 
To recap quickly, Cincinnati is attempting to build new language into its rookie contracts that would void all guarantees in future years if a player does something to void guarantees in any year of the contract, as opposed to only voiding the guarantees in the year that something occurred. Stewart does not appreciate being the guinea pig for the Bengals’ innovative concept, one that can really only stand to hurt him. This has led to an extreme holdout that could still end in several interesting ways.
Stewart’s argument stems from the fact that last year’s first-round pick, Amarius Mims, was taken 18th overall, and Mims doesn’t have that language in his contract. Stewart was taken 17th overall back in April, so how does it make sense that he would receive worse terms in a deal than Mims? Stewart and his representation have challenged the Bengals, saying that, as this is a negotiation, and Cincinnati is asking Stewart to accept a not insignificant concession, the team should be will to offer him something in return.
Unfortunately, rookie contracts are pretty set in stone; the slots have predetermined values, and for a while now, first-round contracts have all been fully guaranteed. Pretty much any negotiating power is typically in the payment structure of the rookie’s signing bonus. Per Conway, the Bengals typically push out the signing bonus in two installments: one on the day the rookie signs the contract and the other 60 days later. She believes that, were Cincinatti willing to agree to pay the whole signing bonus all at once, that would be enough of a concession for Stewart to seriously consider signing the deal.
Unfortunately, though, the Bengals have not made such an offer. In fact, they’ve made zero offers, sticking to their guns about the contract they’d already extended as the final version. Stewart has refused to accept this and left the state, as a result, returning to his alma mater. He’s working out at the Texas A&M facility at the moment, since he cannot practice with the team without a contract.
As Nikhil Mehta wrote earlier today, the Bengals still control Stewart’s rights until next year’s draft. Stewart can refuse to sign and participate in the 2026 NFL Draft, in which the Bengals would not be allowed to select him again, but in that case, he wouldn’t be able to play in college in 2025 and would just be sitting for a year outside of the game. For a player who was drafted more for his potential than his production, sitting out a year could be detrimental for his development.
The best case for both sides is to work out a deal and get Stewart on the field. Stewart needs every bit of work he can get as a developing rookie, and the Bengals need every piece they have to improve a defense that cost them a lot of success last season. It will likely come down to which side breaks first, and with neither party willing to cede any ground, we remain at an impasse.
49ers Sign Second-Round DT Alfred Collins
It’s the 49ers to the rescue! After waiting in a holding pattern since May 9, we’ve finally seen a third second-round pick sign their rookie contract. Texas defensive tackle Alfred Collins is the player to break the standstill after signing his rookie contract with the 49ers, per Adam Schefter of ESPN. 
San Francisco doubled down on improving its defensive line after selecting Mykel Williams in the first round the night before. Many expected the 49ers to address the interior of the line on Day 1, but Collins fell to them in the second round all the same. A fifth-year senior (thanks to an extra year of eligibility from the COVID-19 season), Collins made impacts early and often as a contributor on the Longhorns defense.
Despite only starting 12 games in his first four years, Collins found plenty of ways to make an impact with 12.5 tackles for loss, 6.5 sacks, and six passes defensed over that time. He became a full-time starter for the first time in 2025 and made the most of his opportunity, setting career highs in tackles (55), tackles for loss (5.5), and passes defensed (7). He serves as more of a run stopper than a pass rusher, but he’s an elite tackler with impressive durability.
The losses of Javon Hargrave and Maliek Collins were a big reason that many expected San Francisco to go for an interior defensive lineman early. Jordan Elliott returns as a starter to the line’s interior from last year, but the spot next to him is currently being manned by Kevin Givens, who started 11 games in 2022 but has only started two since. It didn’t take long for the Niners to express hopes that Collins would be able to step into a starting role next to Elliott soon.
Normally, this post would stop here, after focusing on the 49ers wrapping up their draft class signings and showing how Collins can affect the roster in 2025, but this signing has a bigger impact on the NFL outside of the Bay Area. Collins’ signing could create a domino effect of signings for the other 29 second-round picks who remained unsigned around the league.
After the Texans and Browns awarded Jayden Higgins and Carson Schwesinger, respectively, fully guaranteed contracts, Saints second-round pick Tyler Shough became the rookie to watch. As a quarterback, Shough sought the same guarantees as his fellow second-rounders. This left pick Nos. 35-39, between Higgins and Shough, sitting on their hands, waiting to see if Shough was granted those guarantees, ready to demand the same of their teams as players drafted higher than Shough.
The rest of the second round has been in a holding pattern, as well. In theory, T.J. Sanders, picked just after Shough, would be able to at least try to get the same from Buffalo, if not just under. That strategy would theoretically have continued pick after pick, with each player using the rookie ahead of them as the comparison to work off of. Collins, though, has broken the hold, receiving guarantees for $9MM of his $10.3MM deal, an 88-percent guarantee. Everyone ahead of him will likely continue to wait on Shough, but the rest of the second round can now start to use Collins’ deal as a launching point. This should result in several second-round deals being made in the days to come.
With that out of the way, here’s a final look at the 49ers’ fully signed rookie class:
- Round 1, No. 11: Mykel Williams (DE, Georgia) (signed)
- Round 2, No. 43: Alfred Collins (DT, Texas) (signed)
- Round 3, No. 75: Nick Martin (LB, Oklahoma State) (signed)
- Round 3, No. 100*: Upton Stout (CB, Western Kentucky) (signed)
- Round 4, No. 113: CJ West (DT, Indiana) (signed)
- Round 4, No. 138*: Jordan Watkins (WR, Ole Miss) (signed)
- Round 5: No. 147 (from Saints through Commanders): Jordan James (RB, Oregon) (signed)
- Round 5, No. 160 (from Vikings): Marques Sigle (S, Kansas State) (signed)
- Round 7, No. 227: Kurtis Rourke (QB, Indiana) (signed)
- Round 7, No. 249*: Connor Colby (G, Iowa) (signed)
- Round 7, 252*: Junior Bergen (WR, Montana) (signed)
Minor NFL Transactions: 7/16/25
With rookies starting to report for training camp, we’ve got a good number of minor moves for the first time in a while today:
Baltimore Ravens
- Placed on active/NFI list: T Emery Jones
Cleveland Browns
- Placed on reserve/retired list: DE Elerson Smith
Detroit Lions
- Placed on reserve/retired list: C Frank Ragnow (story)
- Waived (with injury settlement): CB Divaad Wilson
Kansas City Chiefs
- Waived: WR Justyn Ross
San Francisco 49ers
- Placed on active/NFI list: QB Kurtis Rourke
Seattle Seahawks
- Placed on active/NFI list: CB Zy Alexander, DE Rylie Mills
Smith, a former fourth-round pick out of Northern Iowa for the Giants, has decided to hang up his cleats, putting an end to an unfortunately injury-marred career at 26 years old. After opening up his rookie season on injured reserve due to a hamstring injury early in training camp, Smith played eight games as a rookie before suffering a neck injury that sent him back to IR. New York held out hope, activating him off of IR eight games into his sophomore campaign, but ultimately, Smith returned to IR after only five more games.
After the Giants waived him early in training camp in 2023, Smith found his way to the Jets’ practice squad in mid-October but was released at the turn of the month. Three weeks later he signed to the practice squad of the Raiders, with whom he would finish the season and sign a reserve/futures deal. Las Vegas, though, waived him with an injury designation before finalizing their 53-man roster for 2024. Smith rebounded once more with the Browns, and thanks to two gameday practice squad elevations, Smith played in two games last season — his first since 2022 — and signed a futures deal in Cleveland.
Injuries to his legs and neck early in his career derailed a career for Smith that was never really able to get going. Unfortunately, the former first-team FCS All-American’s playing time has come to an early end.
Ross reportedly asked for his release from the Chiefs, according to Tom Pelissero of NFL Network. The once promising Clemson star who totaled 1,000 yards with nine touchdowns as a freshman and 865 yards with eight touchdowns as a sophomore continues to struggle in his return to football stardom. After missing the 2020 season due to surgery addressing a congenital fusion condition of his neck and spine, Ross only amassed 524 receiving yards and three touchdowns in his final year with the Tigers before going undrafted in 2022.
Despite injuries leaving the Chiefs pretty thin at receiver at times in the past few years, Ross never was able to step up and take a spot on the offense. When his undrafted contract expired and he’d only seen action in 12 games and caught six passes totaling 53 yards, Ross signed the exclusive rights tender the team placed on him, as his only other option would’ve been to not play in 2025. Instead, he approached Kansas City with a request to be released, and the Chiefs acquiesced. The 25-year-old will go to the waiver wire, and if no teams claim him, he’ll be able to sign anywhere he wants.
Extension Candidate: Terry McLaurin
There’s been no shortage of noise coming out of the District of Columbia — technically 25 miles or so west of DC — concerning the extension negotiations for veteran wide receiver Terry McLaurin. It should be a no-brainer: a second-team All-Pro heading into a contract year with a $25.5MM cap hit while he’s catching balls from a quarterback on a rookie deal? Up to this point in the offseason, though, the two parties have been unable to make progress towards a new deal. 
It started early in the offseason, with the team acknowledging that an extension for McLaurin was something it was interested in. McLaurin showed the team how serious he was about receiving new terms when he held out of Organized Team Activities and mandatory minicamp, racking up over $104K in fines. Reportedly, the Commanders were taken aback at the difficulties they were having reaching agreeable terms with their star receiver, and as it became clear that the two sides were very far apart on an agreement, McLaurin voiced his frustrations with the procedures.
But why has this been such a struggle? Does the team not want to lower McLaurin’s cap hit and make sure he’s around for all of the years Jayden Daniels plays on a rookie deal? It seems multiple factors are proving challenging when negotiations are taking place as performance and status say one thing, while age and potential for decline say another.
To start, McLaurin just completed his best season to date. While he didn’t put up a career high in receiving yards (1,096), his 13 touchdowns catches were more than half of his five-year career touchdown-total coming into the season (25). He also did it all in the fewest targets since his rookie year, showing improved efficiency with his new quarterback.
That’s the other thing to consider when looking at McLaurin’s career production. After falling 81 yards short of 1,000 receiving yards in his 14-game rookie campaign, McLaurin has been a 1,000-yard receiver in every season since. While that’s impressive on its own, consider that he put up consistent production while catching passes off the arms of players like Case Keenum, Dwayne Haskins, Alex Smith, Kyle Allen, Taylor Heinicke, Carson Wentz, and Sam Howell. He’s a modern-day Andre Johnson in that regard. Now that you’ve paired him with a talented, young passer, he puts up an All-Pro season.
So, what does his production say he should be making on a new deal? First, let’s set the floor. Cincinnati’s Tee Higgins set the new mark for WR2s this year, surpassing Jaylen Waddle as the league’s highest-paid WR2 with an average annual value of $28.75MM. As a high-performing WR1, McLaurin should at least be making more than the highest-paid WR2. After that, the comparisons become difficult to make. The top-earning receivers market has drastically jumped in recent years with Ja’Marr Chase (AAV of $40.25MM), Justin Jefferson ($35MM), and CeeDee Lamb ($34MM) leading the pack.
Age becomes a factor, as well, though. Coming in as a 24-year-old rookie, McLaurin is set to turn 30 this season. Tyreek Hill was 30 years old when he signed his most recent contract ($30MM) that gave him a $54MM signing bonus. Older receivers like 29-year-old Calvin Ridley ($23MM), 32-year-old Davante Adams ($22MM), 29-year-old Chris Godwin ($22MM), 31-year-old Stefon Diggs ($21.17MM), and 30-year-old Mike Evans ($20.5MM) hurt McLaurin’s case. D.K. Metcalf ($33MM), though two years younger that McLaurin, may have helped McLaurin’s case a bit with his recent four-year, $132MM extension in Pittsburgh.
The last point of comparison may come from his status as an All-Pro. Chase and Jefferson were both first-teamers, along with Amon-Ra St. Brown ($32MM), while joining McLaurin as second-team All-Pros were Lamb and A.J. Brown ($32MM). With the lowest AAV of those five coming in at $32MM, one would expect that to be a target for McLaurin, as well. To McLaurin’s credit, he doesn’t seem intent upon resetting the market at the position. Reasonably, he is just looking to enter the echelon of pass catchers making $30MM or more.
Ultimately, there’s so many directions in which this deal can go. We’ve focused mainly on AAV, but term length, guarantees, and fee structure can all play huge roles in negotiating that AAV up or down. McLaurin could settle for a two-year commitment in order to try and get up to $33MM or $34MM. The Commanders could try to backload base salary, while supplementing the low-salaried early years with a substantial signing bonus. There’s no shortage of predictions for how this contract may end up looking, and that’s one of the reasons why there’s been so little progress and so much frustration.
Despite the frustrations, the two sides have been in constant communication and are expected to come to terms at some point. The oft-injured Deebo Samuel can be strong while on the field, but behind him and McLaurin, the receiving corps depth is either old or unproven. Look to McLaurin’s participation in training camp, and depending on what we see, we may look for an extension in the days leading up to the regular season.
Steelers Made Decision To Trade WR George Pickens Immediately After 2024 Season
Following a four-game losing streak to close the regular season, during which the offense put up 107-, 198-, 162-, and 119-yard passing performances. Following the subsequent road playoff exit at the hands of a division rival that passed it for the division lead over those final four games with a four-game winning streak, Pittsburgh knew it had to improve its passing attack. It started with a single trade, but according to NFL Insider Adam Caplan of FOX Sports Radio (h/t Steelers Depot), the Steelers always knew that two trades were going to take place. 
Early in the 2024 NFL offseason, the Steelers made a decision about a position they take a lot of pride in. Watching the offense flounder and fumble away a home playoff game, the team looked to improve its receiving corps. It started in early-March, when the Steelers traded for former Seahawks wide receiver D.K. Metcalf before the start of the new league year. While many looked at the roster as adequately improved, now sporting a pair of Metcalf and George Pickens backed by Calvin Austin III and Roman Wilson, the Steelers had made the move with the intention of trading Pickens already in mind.
That’s right, Pittsburgh knew that early that it was moving on from Pickens. In the words of Caplan, the team “made a decision at the end of the 2024 season that they knew that they were not going to extend (Pickens’) contract.” Caplan told listeners, “There was no way this would work with Pickens, they felt, and they were going to move him for whatever they could get. The best they could get. And Dallas was very interested, and they made that work.”
The Cowboys were also in a desperate search for improvement as they sought a suitable WR2 to pair with star receiver CeeDee Lamb. The Cowboys made an early offer for Pickens in the days after the Metcalf-trade, but thought they’d try their luck with the draft when the Steelers didn’t bite. Dallas also inquired into trading for Ravens wide receiver Rashod Bateman. Bateman, also going into the final year of his rookie deal, opted to stay put and signed a three-year, $36.75MM extension to remain in Baltimore.
The Steelers, on the other hand, had already done their research on the prospective pass catchers in the 2025 NFL Draft. Despite having a penchant for uncovering diamonds in the middle rounds of the draft, there were no prospects that the Steelers liked at the values which they were predicted to fall to. In fact, this lack of faith in the draft solving their problems led to the team’s decision to trade for Metcalf. Once Dallas also failed to find anyone at a value they felt was reasonable in the draft, the Cowboys came back with an upped offer, and the Steelers happily accepted.
The plan was never to play Metcalf and Pickens together; Pickens had become a headache in the building, and the two’s style of play are altogether all too similar. An extension was not in the cards for the 24-year-old, so Pittsburgh took a stab at a more proven 27-year-old asset and signed him to a four-year, $132MM extension. It wasn’t a one-for-one, put the team was even able to replenish some of the picks it sent to Seattle with the picks it received from Dallas and was able to replace a troubling, young receiver on the last year of his contract with a proven veteran signed through the 2029 season.
The Steelers played their cards fairly close to their chest, and they played them extremely well. They got the exact improvements for which they were hoping, and even did best by Pickens and the Cowboys, who may both be in a better situation now as a result. It’s not often the full details come out so soon after the dominos finish falling, but with the recent hindsight being nearly 20/20 on these Steelers’ trades, they appear artfully crafted from here.
Giants Rumors: Miller, Robinson, UDFAs
Technically an undrafted signee in 2023, Dante Miller made his NFL debut last year for Big Blue in two games off the practice squad. According to Dan Duggan of The Athletic, there’s a chance he could work his way on to the active roster in 2025.
Miller was an interesting case study in last year’s offseason. Starting as an Ivy League running back at Columbia, Miller was one of the common cases we see of Ivy Leaguers transferring for their fifth year of play — Ivy League schools don’t allow players to remain longer than four years. Miller’s 2019 season had been forfeited to COVID-19, so transferring to South Carolina, the school and student believed that he had two years of eligibility remaining.
The Gamecocks played him infrequently, as a result, letting him get garbage time snaps while prepping for a larger role in Year 2. Six games into the season, though, they learned that they had misunderstood his eligibility status and that he didn’t have two years of eligibility, he had two years to play one season. Two games past the four-game limit for redshirting, South Carolina halted Miller’s participation and immediately filed an appeal with the NCAA. Not only did the NCAA deny the appeal, but they also waited to announce their decision until after the deadline to declare for the 2023 draft, forcing Miller to continue sitting out for no reason and preventing him from getting to the NFL in 2023.
Regardless, he signed with the Giants and saw game action as a rookie in 2024. Now, in 2025, he could have more of an impact for New York. Part of the reason Miller drew NFL interest after barely participating in his final year of play was a 4.27-second 40-yard dash at his South Carolina pro day that would’ve bested any back that ran at the combine that year. Duggan predicts that, with kickoffs being moved to the 35-yard line in the offseason, Miller could make a significant impact as a return man. The running backs group is loaded in New York, with Tyrone Tracy, Devin Singletary, and Eric Gray being joined by rookie Cam Skattebo, but Miller may be able to stand out with his explosive speed on special teams.
Here are a couple other rumors from the G-Men’s offseason:
- Despite seeing the 12th-most targets in the NFL last year, wide receiver Wan’Dale Robinson expressed dissatisfaction with his role. Playing mostly in the slot in 2024, Robinson’s yards per catch was only 7.5, as most of his targets came on short routes. Duggan says that Robinson wants more opportunities to make plays downfield in 2025, and he expects to get more snaps on the outside. The Giants didn’t indicate that move with his usage in spring, but with Robinson playing on a contract year, they may want to appease him if they hope to retain him long-term.
- The Giants did an interesting thing when signing three undrafted receivers this offseason. All of Beaux Collins, Da’Quan Felton, and Juice Wells received a $234K salary guarantee when they signed as undrafted free agents. Per Duggan, that number was by design, as it’s the full-season salary a rookie makes on the practice squad. By guaranteeing that portion of the contract, New York was saying that even if they don’t make the 53-man roster, they’re essentially certain to earn a practice squad spot, or at least get paid like it. That being said, Collins earned first-team reps in the spring and could have the opportunity to make his full salary of $840K. Wells was a teammate of rookie first-round quarterback Jaxson Dart, but the expected connection between the two didn’t materialize in the spring. Felton, on the other hand, likely needs development and could benefit from a year on the practice squad.
Browns Rookie QBs Unlikely To Win Starting Gig; Dillon Gabriel Has Slight Edge Over Shedeur Sanders
The Browns’ four-man quarterback battle is slowly coming into focus as we approach training camp. With Deshaun Watson soon headed for the reserve/physically unable to perform or reserve/non-football injury list, The Athletic’s Zac Jackson tells us that he views it as Joe Flacco vs. Kenny Pickett for the starting job to open the season, and Dillon Gabriel vs. Shedeur Sanders for a potential roster spot and place on the depth chart. 
Jackson essentially doesn’t believe either rookie has a chance to open the season as the new starting quarterback, saying that he’d “be stunned if either rookie can actually win the job in camp.” In addition to their competition with each other, each rookie is also battling the usual battle of a rookie making the jump from college football to the NFL, learning the playbook and maximizing reps, while trying to improve and outshine the others around them.
This secondary battle is an important one for the Browns to watch, though. Likely, neither Flacco nor Pickett are considered long-term solutions at the most important position in the sport. Flacco is 40 years old, and even if Pickett had a Sam Darnold-esque breakout season, he’s in the final year of his rookie contract after the Browns declined his fifth-year option.
Even if they wanted to re-sign him to a long-term deal off a successful 2025 campaign, Watson’s $80.72MM cap hit in 2026 is going to make that extremely difficult to do. With that cap crunch looming, Cleveland’s best chance is for one of the two passers on rookie deals with rookie cap hits to take over in the future. So, while the Browns have the important job of preparing Flacco and Pickett to open the 2025 season as a starter, they also have the very important job of making sure one or both of Gabriel and Sanders can either be ready to start later on in the season or even next year.
In that battle, so far, Jackson posits that Gabriel has the early edge over Sanders. Gabriel got starter snaps in the spring, while Sanders’s recent run-ins with the law have not dispelled rumors of immaturity. Mary Kay Cabot of cleveland.com tends to agree with Jackson on this point, claiming that “Gabriel has at least a slight edge over Sanders to make a legitimate push for the starting job.”
She praised Gabriel’s “computer-like processing speed and decision-making,” saying that he “looked solid and held his own…Thanks to his quick grasp of the terminology and playbook.” When Gabriel signed his rookie deal, we noted that he may hold such an advantage after having to learn three different offenses under eight different coordinators in time at UCF, Oklahoma, and Oregon while always working in a spread system that feeds off of quick decision-making.
We also noted that Sanders, on the other hand, has been coached by his father at every step towards the NFL since high school. While he, too, worked with several (four) coordinators and actually saw time in run-and-shoot and air raid schemes in addition to spread, ultimately, Gabriel had much more experience coming into a new place under new leadership and taking over with near-immediate success than Sanders did. That analysis seems to be holding true as both reporters see Gabriel quickly finding his footing in Cleveland.
Ultimately, Cabot doesn’t agree with Jackson that a roster spot is on the line; she believes both rookies will make the final 53-man roster, which we touched on, as well, considering that putting either rookie on the practice squad would expose them to the waiver wire first. For now, on the surface and in their own mentality, the rookies will be pushing to compete for the starting job at the open of training camp. In reality, the two have a much more important, long-term battle to contend with that could shape the future of the Browns organization.
Falcons QB Kirk Cousins Didn’t Want To Leave Minnesota
With the second season of Netflix’s Quarterback documentary series releasing earlier this week, Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports gave some interesting context to one of the more solemn storylines of the show. Two years after appearing on the show’s first season, in which he shined as the starter of a 13-4 Vikings team who led a league-leading eight game-winning drives, Kirk Cousins returned to the show at one of the lowest points of his career. 
Coming off a 2023 campaign in which he missed the final nine games of the season with a torn Achilles tendon, Cousins found himself on the show with a new team. With the injury having ended a contract year for Cousins, his future in Minnesota had come into question. In a home interview captured in the series, Cousins harkened back to a separate interview from Atlanta’s trip to Minnesota in 2024 that highlighted the situation.
“I was asked by the broadcasting group for the game, ‘What about Atlanta made you want to leave Minnesota?'” Cousins recalled. “And I said, ‘That question is the wrong question. I didn’t want to leave Minnesota. There was nothing about anywhere that made me want to leave Minnesota. We wanted to be in Minnesota.’ But it became clear that we were gonna be there year to year, and that’s what we didn’t want.”
He continued, “At that point, we said, ‘Alright, we need to look elsewhere. If that’s our only option, then we’ll be back.’ And when we said, ‘Well, we looked around and we found there’s an opportunity that would be a longer commitment — would you be interested in giving us that longer commitment?’ (Minnesota) said, ‘No, we’re good with our offer.’ I said, ‘Okay, you made my decision really easy.'”
From that context, it’s easy to see how it all played out. Cousins desired a new deal with the Vikings, but coming off a serious injury in his age-35 season, Minnesota was weary of giving him anything long-term. The team was honest with him, telling him that they’d be willing to bring him back on a one-year deal and that they’d be drafting a rookie quarterback to groom to eventually replace him.
Unhappy with that situation, he heard the offer from the Falcons that included four years and $100MM in guarantees, a deal the Vikings were never going to touch. When Minnesota confirmed as much, he took Atlanta’s offer with the understanding that he was entering a better situation in which his status as the team’s new franchise quarterback was unquestioned. Then, the Falcons did the exact thing that led Cousins to leave Minnesota, drafting a first-round quarterback. As we frequently saw in headlines afterwards, Cousins and his agent were blindsided by the team’s decision.
Still, Cousins was the recipient of a shiny, new contract and had the keys to the offense. Unfortunately, it all came with a first-round talent breathing down his neck, something he had tried so desperately to avoid. Regardless, Cousins kept his head down, leading the team to a 6-3 start to the season before suffering an apparent arm injury in a Week 10 loss to the Saints.
Were he to have not had Michael Penix Jr. waiting eagerly on the bench for his first real chance at some action, perhaps Cousins would’ve recognized the minor nature of the injury and taken time to rest and recover for a late-season playoff push. Instead, likely fueled by the fear of Penix taking the field in his place and never ceding the job back to him, Cousins pushed through. What followed were some of the worst games of Cousins’ career. A loss of arm strength was evident, and as a result, the team lost four straight games in which Cousins threw zero touchdowns and eight interceptions.
Eventually, Cousins reached his lowest point and was benched in favor of Penix. The very thing he feared, the thing he left Minnesota to avoid, had happened, and it may have been a result of his fear pushing him to play when he should’ve been healing.
Now, he enters 2025 as a backup with the sixth-largest cap hit in the NFL. The same contract that drew him away from Minnesota and into the situation he’s found himself now remains as the biggest hurdle in finding a trade partner that would allow him to leave. With his $27.5MM salary fully guaranteed for 2025, the Falcons can’t cut him, but that figure is going to be tough to get another team to accept.
At the last report of the situation, there was no trade market for Cousins. Perhaps some quarterback-needy team — maybe the Saints, Colts, or even the Browns — will find some agreeable terms that allow Cousins a new change of scenery. For now, though, he projects to be the most expensive backup quarterback in the NFL.
CB Asante Samuel Jr. Hasn’t Ruled Dolphins Out
It stands to reason that retired cornerback Asante Samuel would harbor no love for the Dolphins, a division rival of his for the first five years of his career in New England. Regardless, his free agent son, former Chargers cornerback Asante Samuel Jr., may still have the door open to returning to his hometown to play for the team. 
In a recent episode of his podcast, Say What Needs To Be Said, the elder Samuel did what his podcast instructs. In response to Miami’s recent trade with Pittsburgh, Samuel was critical of the team’s leadership, calling head coach Mike McDaniel a “pushover” and accusing general manager Chris Grier of having “no backbone.” He claimed that the team cannot “stand up to the players…are terrified of their own players, and…have no control over their players.”
The rant comes a month after reports that the Dolphins were interested in adding his son to the roster. Even before Jalen Ramsey‘s departure, there were serious concerns about the team’s depth at cornerback, and after Ramsey’s departure, adding a cornerback with starting experience feels like a priority in Miami. The group is currently led by Kader Kohou, Cam Smith, Artie Burns, second-year undrafted corner Storm Duck, and rookie fifth-round pick Jason Marshall Jr.
Despite his father’s potential disapproval, Samuel doesn’t appear to hold the same animosity as his namesake. A recent comment on Samuel’s social media pleaded with him to ignore his father’s comments and join the Dolphins, and Samuel like the comment. Adding context to the interaction, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald passed on that, in his last check-in with Samuel a month ago, “there was nothing…to suggest he wouldn’t consider Miami if the Dolphins make an offer.”
Jackson adds that there has been contact between the two parties this offseason, so it doesn’t seem to be a stretch to imagine Samuel returning home to South Florida. If Miami does make an offer that Samuel accepts, one wonders if we’ll see his father sport a Dolphins jersey in support of his son.