QB Cole Payton Rising On Draft Boards?
An annual tradition involves quarterback prospects making climbs based on pre-draft workouts and meetings. With a big gap emerging between Fernando Mendoza and the field this year, room for growth exists to bridge it. A familiar program has produced a candidate generating buzz to potentially be this year’s second quarterback chosen.
North Dakota State’s Cole Payton is generating early praise, with Sportsboom.com’s Jason La Canfora indicating some in the scouting community view him as this draft’s second-best QB prospect. Early-second-round grades have followed within this contingent.
The Bison, whose status as the top Division I-FCS program has triggered an upcoming move to the Mountain West Conference, have seen two of their quarterback prospects become top-three picks over the past 10 years. Carson Wentz completed a radical pre-draft rise in 2016, going second overall. Trey Lance went third overall five years later. Both the Eagles and 49ers’ moves required monster trade packages to move up. In between, Easton Stick was drafted in the 2019 fifth round.
While Wentz enjoyed an MVP-worthy 2017 and led the Eagles to the playoffs in 2019, neither he nor Lance ultimately justified their draft slots. That may play into teams’ evaluations of Payton, who is only a one-season starter at the FCS level. That season brought a strong dual-threat profile, with the 6-foot-3 prospect passing for 2,719 yards (with a 16-4 TD-INT ratio) and rushing for 923 — to go with 13 rushing scores. Payton averaged 12.1 yards per attempt and finished third in voting for the Walter Payton Award, given to the FCS level’s best player. This reminds of Lance’s 2019 season. Lance, however, was long held as a first-round prospect before San Francisco’s monster trade-up. Payton has yet to make inroads to that level and probably will not.
With Dante Moore and Arch Manning returning to school and other 2026 prospects not delivering on hype last season, a void exists. Alabama’s Ty Simpson is generally regarded as this draft’s second-best QB, so it will be interesting to see if Payton — who impressed at the Senior Bowl — can turn more heads as the pre-draft process progresses. With a host of teams needing help at the position and Mendoza almost certainly ticketed for Las Vegas at No. 1 overall, teams talking themselves into other options on Day 2 — or late in the first round — will be a draft storyline to follow.
Eagles Expected To Name Parks Frazier QBs Coach
The Eagles will have a number of new staffers on the offensive side of the ball in particular in 2026, highlighted of course by OC Sean Mannion. Several returnees are in position to handle different roles next season while continuing to work under head coach Nick Sirianni.
One of those is Parks Frazier. In 2025, Frazier worked as Philadelphia’s pass-game coordinator. He is still in the fold, and a new title is likely to be finalized shortly. Frazier is expected to be named quarterbacks coach, Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports reports.
Scot Loeffler held the role of QBs coach last season, but he was not retained upon Mannion’s arrival. An outside hire has no doubt received consideration, and Greg Olson was named as a potential Loeffler replacement. Instead, it appears as though Frazier – whose coaching career began in 2015 – will become Jalen Hurts‘ latest position coach. Frazier’s resume includes an interim offensive coordinator stint with the Colts, but he has never held the title of QBs coach to date.
The offense remained a talking point in the Eagles’ case through 2025. This past season, the team ranked 23rd in passing offense and 19th in scoring. Improving on those totals will be imperative for Mannion (Kevin Patullo‘s replacement) during his first coordinator gig but also his assistants. It appears as though Frazier, 34, will be one of the more important figures on the sideline.
Elsewhere on the Eagles’ staff, Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports assistant offensive line coach Greg Austin along with offensive quality control coaches Eric Dickerson and Montgomery VanGorder will all be retained. Each of their roles for next season have yet to be finalized, however. Further shuffling with respect to job titles could be coming as a result. Tight ends coach Jason Michael will not return in 2026, per McLane.
Meanwhile, Zenitz reports the Eagles are bringing in Bills nickels coach Mike Pellegrino. He will serve as the team’s new defensive backs coach. The secondary will remain a strength of Philadelphia’s defense in 2026 if all goes according to plan, and Pellegrino will face high expectations upon arrival.
‘No Trade Market’ For Tua Tagovailoa
FEBRUARY 16: The Dolphins’ preference remains a trade at this time, NFL insider Jordan Schultz confirms. He adds the team does not want this situation to “drag too long,” so a decision could be coming shortly. It could very include a release in the absence of a market on the trade front.
FEBRUARY 13: As the new league year is fast approaching, the Dolphins have been working desperately to figure out a way out of the corner they’ve painted themselves into. As it’s been reported recently that Miami is nearing a decision on the future of quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, it appears one option may be getting taken away from the team. 
According to SportsBoom’s Jason La Canfora, there is “no trade market” for Tagovailoa. All conversation from both the Dolphins and Tagovailoa concerning the future has revolved around the idea of a trade. At season’s end, Tagovailoa made it known that he would welcome a fresh start elsewhere, while the team made it known their hope was to trade him.
Our most recent update before this indicated that the Dolphins were still focused on the trade route for Tagovailoa’s exit, and they expressed a willingness to eat some of money owed to the quarterback in order to make it happen.
Just before the 2024 NFL season, Miami made the move to sign Tagovailoa to an extension following a season in which he led the NFL in passing yards while starting every game of the season for the first (and only) time in his career. In the wake of several other record-breaking contracts at the position, the Dolphins agreed to a four-year, $212.4MM deal with over $167.17MM in guaranteed money. Since then, Tagovailoa has missed a combined nine games in two seasons and, after averaging over 260 yards per game in three straight seasons, saw his average yards per game plummet to 190 this year.
We knew that Tagovailoa’s benching this year, combined with his huge contract and injury history, made a trade difficult, forcing the Dolphins to offer up the possibility of throwing in some offsetting cash. Per La Canfora, though, Tagovailoa isn’t a difficult trade piece; he’s a non-starter. Backed by input from several top NFL executives, La Canfora seems to indicate that teams in the league are already so turned off by Tagovailoa’s poor play and frequent concussions that they’re not even willing to take him on at a reduced rate.
La Canfora included a series of quotes from said executives, with several not limiting themselves to the language of polite society. One general manager simply told La Canfora, “They’re (screwed).” He went on to call the contract untradeable, saying that, even with Miami “willing to eat a (boat)load of” Tagovailoa’s contract, they “just don’t see a market for him.”
Another top exec relayed to La Canfora a “four-pronged” list of reasons Tagovailoa and the Dolphins were stuck with each other. It started with Tagovailoa’s inability to effectively push the ball down the field and make plays consistently anymore. It then moved to perceived leadership issues with concerns that he couldn’t move a locker room and comes off as ingenuine. The third prong called his concussion history alone “a no-go for a lot of teams,” and the fourth ended by calling his deal a “terrible…contract that nobody wants to touch.”
If Miami is unable to trade Tagovailoa, they will then be forced with the new decision of whether to cut him or keep him. In keeping him, the Dolphins would be retaining perhaps the most expensive backup quarterback in the NFL. As they attempt to obtain a new, young option at the position this offseason with which to move forward, Tagovailoa’s continued presence could also create uncertainty and doubt in the locker room. Cutting the 27-year-old, though, would shoulder the Dolphins with $99.2MM in dead money without providing any cap savings. Cutting him now would lock that money in for the 2026 season alone, whereas the best-case scenario would see the team designate him as a post-June 1 cut, allowing them to split that $99.2MM over two seasons — still a dire result.
Essentially, though the Dolphins seem to believe they’re making a decision between three options, the rest of the league appears to have limited them to two. Miami will need to figure out how best to work around the massive contract obligations that remain tied to Tagovailoa as they attempt to move on to a new era of quarterback.
Jaguars Re-Sign RB DeeJay Dallas
The Jaguars have kept a pair of veterans in the fold with today’s moves. In addition to Matt Dickerson, DeeJay Dallas will be in place for the offseason.
Dallas split his time between the Panthers and Jags in 2025. The veteran running back wound up making three appearances with each team, continuing in his familiar role as a special teams presence. Dallas will be counted on to remain a core piece in the third phase for Jacksonville in 2026, with the team announced on Monday that he has been re-signed.
During his time with the Seahawks (2020-23) and Cardinals (2024), Dallas did not manage to establish himself as a regular on offense. His career high in carries for one season is 35, and it is unlikely that will change with the Jags. Today’s news will ensure depth in the backfield as the team contemplates its options with Travis Etienne.
Etienne is not expected to receive the franchise tag, meaning a trip to free agency looms. Etienne topped 1,000 rushing yards for the third time in his career in 2025, and he could be one of the top backs on the market provided no Jacksonville agreement is reached. The Jaguars also have 2025 draftees Bhayshul Tuten and LeQuint Allen in place, and they are likely to once again have a role on offense next year.
The same will likely not be true of Dallas, 27, even if he manages to survive roster cuts this summer. Nevertheless, he could carve out a role for himself as a kick returner. Dallas has amassed 2,254 yards in that regard over the course of his career, and that figure could increase during his first full season in Jacksonville.
Dolphins Release G James Daniels, WR Nick Westbrook-Ikhine
Monday is shaping up to be an important day for the Dolphins with respect to veteran cuts. James Daniels is also on the way out. 
The veteran guard is being released, NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reports. Daniels was under contract for the next two seasons, but it comes as little surprise he is being cut given the way 2025 played out. Daniels suffered a pectoral injury in Week 1, and he wound up missing the remainder of the season. The news is now official, per a team announcement.
Instead of Miami’s new regime keeping the 28-year-old in place and hoping for a healthy bounce-back season, a release will take place. The Dolphins will be hit with a dead money charge of $4.8MM by cutting Daniels right away. If a post-June 1 designation is used, Miami will generate $2.42MM in savings against $1.2MM in dead cap. Teams can use the post-June 1 option when processing releases on up to two players per year.
The Dolphins are in position to move on from several veterans this offseason. New general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and head coach Jeff Hafley will have a number of key decisions to make ahead of the new league year opening in March. Miami was one of several NFL teams which entered Monday projected to be over the cap. In addition to necessary cost-shedding moves, a rebuild will be sought out this spring.
Daniels is a veteran of 91 games and 85 starts in the NFL. The former Bear and Steeler signed a three-year, $24MM pact last offseason to join Miami. That move was set to give the Dolphins a guard starter for 2025 and beyond, but things did not go according to plan due to the injury. A tepid free agent market is likely in store.
The Dolphins are also cutting wideout Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, per Pelissero. He was also added on the open market last year. The former Titan proved to be an effective secondary contributor on offense earlier in his career, but he posted just 11 receptions with Miami in 2025. Instead of remaining in place for the final year of his deal, Westbrook-Ikhine will also turn his attention to the open market.
Miami’s roster reset is well underway in advance of free agency. Other veteran cuts will remain something to watch for over the coming days.
Jaguars Re-Sign DL Matt Dickerson
Matt Dickerson saw the heaviest workload of his career in 2025, his first season with the Jaguars. The veteran defensive lineman will remain in place for next year. 
Dickson has re-signed with the Jags, per a team announcement. Instead of exploring the market next month, he will continue his time in Jacksonville. A journeyman across several years in the NFL, Dickerson managed to work his way from the practice squad to the active roster with the Jags in 2025.
The 30-year-old wound up making eight appearances this past season. That included the first four starts of his career. Dickerson logged a defensive snap share of 39%, comfortably the highest of his NFL tenure. He also chipped in on special teams at a higher rate than his previous stops around the league.
Dickerson saw sparse usage with the Titans, Falcons, Chiefs and Dolphins during a stretch from 2018-24. The former undrafted free agent has totaled 48 games in his career during the regular season, although he did not see any time during the 2022 campaign. A Super Bowl winner dating back to his lone year in Kansas City, Dickerson will offer plenty of experience to Jacksonville’s defensive line as he looks to continue carving out a regular role for himself.
The UCLA product was attached to a veteran minimum deal in 2025. This latest pact will no doubt be similar. Jacksonville entered Monday as one of the teams projected to be over the cap, but keeping Dickerson in the fold will not require a notable financial commitment.
Christian Gonzalez Open To Pats Extension
Christian Gonzalez was limited to just four games as a rookie. In the two years since then, he has established himself as one of the league’s top cornerbacks. 
This offseason could be impactful from a financial standpoint. A decision will need to be made on Gonzalez’s fifth-year option, and New England can of course be expected to exercise it. That will lock in a 2027 salary of $11.97MM, a figure much lower than what a long-term pact will cost.
A second contract can be negotiated at any time with Gonzalez having played three seasons in the NFL. The former 17th overall pick earned second-team All-Pro honors in 2024, an indication of his abilities when healthy. This past season, Gonzalez received his first Pro Bowl nod. Any new Patriots deal would bring about a considerable raise, and he would welcome the opportunity to remain in New England for the foreseeable future.
“Oh, yeah, no doubt,” Gonzalez said (via MassLive’s Mark Daniels) when asked about his desire to work out a new pact with the Patriots. “This is where I got drafted, and I don’t want to be anywhere else.”
New England made a big-ticket cornerback addition last year in free agency by signing Carlton Davis. The former Buccaneer and Lion landed a three-year, $54MM pact and served as a full-time starter during his debut Patriots campaign. The same was true of Gonzalez, who delivered another strong showing in coverage in 2025 while recording double-digit pass deflections once again.
The Colorado and Oregon product was also a standout performer during the playoffs. Gonzalez racked up seven pass breakups across four games – highlighted by a few key plays during Super Bowl LX – while adding one interception and one sack. That production will no doubt help his case for securing one of the most lucrative cornerback deals around the league.
The CB market saw a number of jumps over the course of the 2025 offseason. Jaycee Horn, Derek Stingley Jr. and Sauce Gardner are each attached to deals averaging at least $25MM per year. Given the rise in the salary cap – which will bring the ceiling for spending above $300MM per team – the list of players in that top echelon at the position could continue to grow this spring. If that proves to be the case, Gonzalez will be a strong candidate for a major raise.
Giants’ Dawn Aponte Hire To Strip Some Of GM Joe Schoen’s Power?
The fact that hiring John Harbaugh as head coach meant the Giants would be required to change their front office structure was no small story. In fact, it was such a big factor that it was part of the reason for a multi-day delay between when the team announced its intentions to hire Harbaugh and when the deal was finalized.
We’d only really gotten small tidbits about how different the structure would be, but Ian O’Connor of The Athletic dropped a few key details this evening that certainly show significant potential change.
Before O’Connor’s report today, the tidbits that we’d gotten were minor. Harbaugh wanted to have roster input. Harbaugh would report directly to owner John Mara and not general manager Joe Schoen. It was a similar situation to what Harbaugh had grown accustomed to in Baltimore and didn’t seem to be shaking up the boat too much. Schoen wanted to be sure Harbaugh wouldn’t be importing front office staffers to slowly take control of a front office that had been Schoen’s domain.
That appears to still be mostly the case, but there was one hire of Harbaugh’s that appears to be mixing things up. Per O’Connor, Harbaugh was pivotal in the team’s efforts to hire Dawn Aponte away from the league office. Aponte’s position with New York has been designated as senior vice president of football operations and strategy. According to Pat Leonard of NY Daily News Sports, she will be responsible for “strategic planning for football operations, analytics, salary cap management, player contract negotiations, compliance, and working closely with the college and pro personnel departments.”
That’s not all Leonard says. If it seems like several of those responsibilities would usually reside with the general manager, it’s because they would. Per Leonard, Schoen has essentially been “relegated to handling scouting” and the “rest of the building reports to Dawn.” In addition, both O’Connor and Leonard report that Aponte will report to Harbaugh, so it is beginning to look as if Harbaugh is encroaching quite a bit more than initially understood on the duties of the general manager.
O’Connor’s report doesn’t pose the situation as nearly as much of a takeover as Leonard is painting it out to be, though. He includes quotes from Harbaugh on how impressed he’s been with Schoen and how well they are working together as they both work on building the team’s new staff and future roster. But, if what Leonard claims is true, it’s hard not to believe that Schoen is getting quietly pushed into a corner. The Giants paid a lot of money and agreed to a lot of concessions in order to bring Harbaugh in to lead their team. Time will tell how each new change will affect the team’s future success.
Offseason Outlook: Green Bay Packers
During Matt LaFleur’s first five years in place as head coach of the Packers, the team totaled a record of 25-8 in games played in December and January. Things have changed quickly over the past two regular and postseasons, with Green Bay going just 3-9 over that same stretch since 2024.
A second straight promising year ending on a very low note – in particular, a five-game losing streak including a collapse in the wild-card round – invited questions about a change on the sidelines. Instead, LaFleur and general manager Brian Gutekunst will remain in place for 2026 (and likely beyond). Reaching the playoffs will once again be the target for Green Bay next year. To boost the team’s chances of avoiding another one-and-done campaign, reinforcements in at least a few key areas will be sought.
Coaching/front office moves
- GM Brian Gutekunst, HC Matt LaFleur signed joint extensions
- Player personnel VP Jon-Eric Sullivan hired by Dolphins as GM
- Defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley became Dolphins’ head coach
- Hired Jonathan Gannon as defensive coordinator
- Promoted Luke Getsy to quarterbacks coach
- Hired Bobby Babich as defensive pass-game coordinator, replacing Derrick Ansley
- Linebackers coach Sean Duggan joined Dolphins as defensive coordinator
- Analyst Nathaniel Hackett joined Cardinals as offensive coordinator
- Offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich interviewed for Titans’ OC position
LaFleur has guided the Packers to a winning record and a playoff berth all but once during his seven-year tenure. Having overseen a successful transition from Aaron Rodgers to Jordan Love at the quarterback position, LaFleur’s offense has largely remained a strong unit since his arrival. On the other hand, the past five years have produced only one playoff victory.
Raiders To Hire Andrew Janocko As OC
With the Seahawks moving to hire 49ers tight ends coach Brian Fleury as a replacement for Klint Kubiak at offensive coordinator, the situation became much more clear for Seahawks quarterbacks coach Andrew Janocko. No longer an internal candidate for the Seahawks job, a deal has now been finalized to make Janocko the Raiders’ new offensive coordinator, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter. 
In the wake of a Super Bowl victory, the Seahawks watched Kubiak depart for Las Vegas to become a first-time head coach. There began immediate conjecture around whether or not any Seattle staffers would be following him to the Raiders and who they may be. Janocko was at the top of that list.
Janocko has worked with closely with Kubiak in five of the past seven NFL seasons. They first worked together in Minnesota, where Kubiak joined as quarterbacks coach in 2019. Janocko was entering his fifth season with the Vikings, serving as assistant offensive line coach after starting as an offensive quality control coach in 2015. In 2020, Janocko moved to wide receivers coach, and when Kubiak was promoted to offensive coordinator in 2021, Janocko replaced him in the role of quarterbacks coach.
In 2022, then-Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer was fired, and Kubiak and Janocko went their separate ways. Kubiak spent a year each in Denver and San Francisco and Janocko spent two seasons with the Bears before the two reunited in New Orleans two years ago. They, once again, filled their roles of offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, and when Mike Macdonald lured them to the Seahawks the next year, they retained their titles in the move.
So, when Kubiak made the move to become the new head coach at Las Vegas, there were two immediate options that seemed to emerge. It made sense to believe that Janocko would either follow Kubiak, once again, to Las Vegas with the potential for a promotion to offensive coordinator or remain in Seattle for a chance to become an offensive coordinator on his own with the added responsibility of calling plays, something that won’t be available to him in Vegas. The Seahawks did interview Janocko — and a few other internal candidates — for the offensive coordinator position, but their ultimate decision to bring in Fleury put the writing on the wall.
The Raiders’ search for a new offensive coordinator was short and sweet. Janocko showed up to interview today and, apparently, got a deal done. The team will have needed to be Rooney Rule compliant in order to make a hire, so one would assume some interviews have taken place that haven’t yet been reported. Here’s our account of the team’s search that led to Janocko:
- Andrew Janocko, quarterbacks coach (Seahawks): Hired
- Frisman Jackson, wide receivers coach (Seahawks): To interview