Category : Red Zone Rumors

Lions head coach Dan Campbell promoted Kelvin Sheppard from linebackers coach to defensive coordinator this offseason, and Campbell says he’s very pleased with the progress he’s seeing. Campbell said the Lions are “probably more up to speed defensively” than offensively and that Sheppard has all the players and coaches on

The Associated Press issued the various 2024 NFL regular-season awards during Super Bowl week. Fifty media members vote on the awards. At some point after the awards were announced, one of the 50 ballots was dumped. “AP removed an invalid ballot that was inadvertently included in its NFL Awards tabulation

Steelers tight end Donald Parham tore his Achilles during Tuesday’s organized team activity. The team officially ended Parham’s season Thursday, placing him on injured reserve. The Steelers have had on-again, off-again talks with the Dolphins about tight end Jonnu Smith. They do not have much depth behind Pat Freiermuth. Parham

There’s more potential injury news out of Indianapolis on Thursday. After head coach Shane Steichen announced quarterback Anthony Richardson is out with a shoulder issue, multiple reporters note that receiver Michael Pittman Jr. had to exit practice early with an apparent injury. It’s currently unclear exactly what happened and what

It’s finally over. After months of waiting and speculation and mystery, quarterback Aaron Rodgers has informed the Steelers that he plans to sign a contract with the team. He also will attend next week’s mandatory minicamp. It’s reportedly a one-year deal; there could be some voidable stuff on the back

Saints wide receiver Chris Olave’s name has come up in trade chatter this offseason, but it doesn’t sound like the team is motivated to move him to another city. Head coach Kellen Moore was asked about that chatter during a Thursday press conference and said “people want good players” in

In past offseasons, Rams coach Sean McVay has talked about feeling burned out, and considered retiring — even though he’s still just 39 years old. But McVay now says he can’t imagine himself walking away from coaching. McVay credited former Boise State and Washington head coach Chris Petersen, who reached

With Liam Coen on board as head coach and offensive play-caller, the Jaguars are planning for quarterback Trevor Lawrence to improve his play in 2025. One element Coen and the team’s staff have worked with Lawrence on is his footwork. On Thursday, Coen told reporters that the quarterback has made

It’s official. Until it’s official. The Steelers have announced that they have agreed to terms with quarterback Aaron Rodgers, pending a physical.. It’s a one-year contract. The terms will be leaked once the contract is filed, if not sooner. The threshold question is whether will be paid the $10 million

Two weeks ago, NFL owners cleared a path for active NFL players to participate in the 2028 Olympic flag football tournament. That led to an important question that has been to date unanswered. Who will coach the team? Broncos coach Sean Payton was asked by reporters on Thursday whether he’d

Former Cowboys offensive lineman Tom Rafferty died Thursday in Windsor, Colorado, following a stroke, Kevin Sherrington of the Dallas Morning News reports. Rafferty was 70. Rafferty’s daughter, Rachel Powers, told Sherrington her father had been hospitalized since early May. The Cowboys drafted Rafferty in the fourth round in 1976, and

The Lions have won the NFC North each of the past two seasons. They went 12-5 in 2023 and reached the NFC Championship Game and followed that with a 15-2 regular season in 2024 before being upset in the divisional round. The Lions desperately want to get where they’ve never

The Steelers wanted him. Their fans weren’t quite as committed. While plenty of Steelers fans surely support whatever the team chooses to do, a sense of dismay emerged from more than a few Terrible Towel wavers. Whether they regard Rodgers as a barnstorming opportunist who is hoping to exit the

49ers rookie edge rusher Mykel Williams recently said he was excited to learn from Nick Bosa. The veteran edge rusher said this week he’s excited to teach Williams. “A lot of eagerness to learn, more so than I have seen probably from a young guy,” Bosa said, via Andy Lindquist

Russell Wilson moved to the top of the Giants’ quarterback depth chart when he signed with the team in March, but his chances of staying there all season weren’t helped by the team’s approach to the draft. The Giants traded back into the first round in order to select Jaxson

Seahawks middle linebacker Ernest Jones IV underwent knee surgery this offseason. The knee had affected him the past two seasons, he said, and the clean-up procedure didn’t affect his free agency. He re-signed with the Seahawks on a three-year, $33 million deal. Jones has taken part in some individual drills

Ravens wide receiver Rashod Bateman has reason to smile on Thursday. Bateman signed a three-year, $36.75 million extension with the team. The deal comes a year after Bateman signed a deal with the team running through 2026, so he’s now under contract through the 2029 season. After signing the deal,

Social media has exploded on Thursday with (among other things) images of Aaron Rodgers in a Steelers uniform and a No. 12 jersey. Don’t expect that to happen. While Terry Bradshaw’s No. 12 isn’t officially retired, it’s unofficially retired. And the Steelers surely wouldn’t issue it to Rodgers without Bradshaw’s

Broncos coach Sean Payton confirmed free agent running back J.K. Dobbins is visiting with the team Thursday. “Another good football player that we’ve seen firsthand. I’ve seen for a while,” Payton said, via Mike Klis of 9News. “[We are interested because of] the importance of that position group. We really

The Chargers announced their training camp schedule Thursday, and it includes two training camp practices in San Diego at University of San Diego’s Torero Stadium. That was the home of Jim Harbaugh’s first head coaching job. Those practices will take place July 22-23, with the July 22 practice — the

When quarterback Aaron Rodgers broke his silence (and aired his grievances) with Pat McAfee in April, Rodgers said he was willing to play for $10 million in 2025. Now that he’s signing with the Steelers, we’ll find out whether he’ll put his money where his mouth is. Our guess is

Giants edge rusher Brian Burns was among the players who blew their cool during a heated OTA practice on Thursday and he addressed the fracas with reporters after the session was cut short. Burns and fellow edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux fought with tackles James Hudson and Jermaine Eluemunor during the

Terry McLaurin is one of three players not attending the Commanders’ organized team activities, with left tackle Laremy Tunsil and cornerback Marshon Lattimore also absent, per multiple reports. McLaurin’s is contract related. Jordan Schultz of Fox Sports reports that talks have been “minimal,” and McLaurin has made it clear to

The second year of the UFL did not match the first year. Via Ben Fischer of Sports Business Journal, the UFL’s in-person attendance was down by five percent in 2025. The TV audience dropped by a whopping 20 percent. Attendance in all markets was down, except one. Michigan had a

One of Detroit’s key offensive players had an offseason procedure, but it shouldn’t affect his availability for the season. Via multiple reporters, Lions receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown said on Thursday that he had a cleanup offseason knee surgery. But he’s expecting to be ready for training camp when it begins

Bill Belichick is one of the greatest football coaches of all time. His P.R. instincts leave much to be desired. Beyond entrusting his personal brand to his 24-year-old girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, Belichick has a bad habit of not letting sleeping dogs lie and/or dead horses go unbeaten. Case in point,

While many around the league may have been surprised that 29-year-old Lions center Frank Ragnow elected to retire this week, his head coach was not. Speaking to the media at his Thursday press conference, Dan Campbell said that Ragnow personally consulted with him on his retirement decision. Campbell added that

Fights between teammates are a fairly routine occurrence during padded training camp practices that feature contact, but they are a bit rarer when players are working without pads in non-contact OTAs. The spring setting didn’t deter the Giants on Thursday, however. Reporters at the team’s practice sent word of a

The Lions are planning to play a good chunk of the 2025 season without linebacker Malcolm Rodriguez. Rodriguez tore his ACL during the 2024 season and head coach Dan Campbell gave an update on his timetable during a Thursday press conference. Rodriguez was injured in late November and it looks

The Dolphins announced an addition to their defensive line on Thursday. They have signed Ben Stille to their 90-man roster. They had an open spot, so did not need to make a corresponding move. Stille was released by the Cardinals in May and this will be his second stint with

When the Patriots fired Bill Belichick, it seemed inevitable that he’d land another NFL head-coaching job. The vibe has since shifted from inevitability to impossibility. But there’s still one team to watch, in our view. It came up during Wednesday’s PFT Live, when Simms and I were identifying coaches that

Last week, the Falcons deleted a social-media self-own, thanks to a photo of players wearing jerseys No. 28 and No. 3. So when they posted on Tuesday an image of players wearing No. 34 and No. 1, a certain smartass advised that they be careful, since it’s not impossible to

While the Raiders have a new head coach in Pete Carroll, they do have some continuity on the coaching staff — perhaps most notably with defensive coordinator Patrick Graham. Graham was initially hired by Josh McDaniels to serve as DC in 2022. He remained with the team when Antonio Pierce

Washington took defensive linemen in the first round of the draft every year from 2017-2020, but only Daron Payne remains on the roster. Payne has been with the team since 2018, so one might think that he’s a fully-formed product on the field. Word from Commanders OTAs is a little

During his first two seasons with the Rams, Puka Nacua deferred to Cooper Kupp as the player who really understood a wide receiver’s role in the offense. Now that Kupp is gone, Nacua realizes there’s no wide receiver on the team who knows the offense better than he does. Rams

Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield has played for nine offensive coordinators over the last eight seasons, so he’s a good person to judge how Josh Grizzard is faring in Tampa. Grizzard replaced Liam Coen after Coen became the second straight coordinator to turn a year calling plays for Mayfield into a

With a new regime in place, the Jaguars are moving on from one of their 2024 draft picks. Per Jeremy Fowler of ESPN, Jacksonville is releasing running back Keilan Robinson. Robinson, 25, was a fifth-round pick last year. He appeared in six games last season, mainly playing special teams. He

The Browns have four primary candidates for the starting quarterback job. According to the man in charge of all of the offense, any of them — Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, Dillon Gabriel, Shedeur Sanders — can win it. “You can see them all winning the job, I think, right?” Tommy

Former NFL defensive end Greg Hardy has been arrested for assaulting a family member. Via TMZ.com, Hardy was taken into custody on Wednesday afternoon. He remains jailed pending a bail hearing. A sixth-round pick of the Panthers in 2010, Hardy spent five seasons in Carolina before signing with the Cowboys

As offseason programs get closer to winding down, the Saints have three young quarterbacks competing to start — none of whom have won an NFL game as a starter. Doesn’t that mean they could use a veteran presence in the room? Not according to one of the players in the

Browns defensive end Myles Garrett has been a first-team All-Pro in four of the last five seasons and was the NFL’s defensive player of the year in 2023, but Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz says the best is yet to come from Garrett. Schwartz said that there’s additional pressure on

The Browns hope to pay for their new stadium in part with state-issued bonds. Senate Republicans have a different idea. Via the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the initial budget of the Senate GOP’s initial proposal for the state budget would include “raiding” the unclaimed property fund. It currently has $4.8 billion.

Katherine Fitzgerald and Daniel Oyefusi were named the 2025 Terez A. Paylor Emerging Writer Award winners by the Pro Football Writers of America. Fitzgerald covers the Bills for the Buffalo News, and Oyefusi is the Browns beat writer for ESPN.com. Fitzgerald and Oyefusi, the fifth and sixth Paylor Award winners,

49ers left tackle Trent Williams is back with the team. Williams was not present for the start of their organized team activities last week, but he is in attendance this week. Williams isn’t just watching his teammates go through drills, either. Several reporters shared videos showing Williams in uniform and

The Chargers signed outside linebacker Bud Dupree to a contract extension Wednesday, the team announced. Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports it’s a one-year, $6 million extension. Dupree was heading into the final year of his deal due to make a base salary of $1.995 million in 2025. In his

The proprietors of the Factory of Sadness are happy with progress they’re making toward building a new one. Although the mechanism isn’t clear, the Browns are hoping to get $600 million in state funding for a $2.4 billion venue to be built in Brook Park. Assuming the Art Modell Law

Saints quarterback Derek Carr stunned the league last month by abruptly retiring. As explained at the time, he gave up $30 million by choosing not to have surgery to repair a shoulder injury and miss the 2025 season. “I didn’t want to have surgery and just sit there and —

In 2026, Levi’s Stadium will have a more active year than usual. It starts with the Super Bowl and continues with the hosting of World Cup games. And the World Cup matches could end up being expensive for the 49ers. Via the San Francisco Chronicle, the revised California budget from

The Browns now officially have five quarterbacks under contract. The team announced that rookie third-rounder Dillon Gabriel signed his four-year deal on Wednesday. He joins Deshaun Watson, Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, and Shedeur Sanders as quarterbacks officially in the employment of the franchise. Gabriel was the 94th overall pick in

Tyreek Hill began his NFL career as a jack-of-all trades, returning punts and kickoffs as a rookie in 2016 along with playing 41 percent of the offensive snaps. When Hill became the Chiefs’ No. 1 wide receiver in 2017, special teams coach Dave Toub campaigned for Hill still to have