With the calendar flipping from May to June, it’s time for organized team activities (OTAs) all around the league. All 32 teams have turned the page from 2024 and are now gathering and getting themselves ready for 2025.
This is the first time we’re getting to see or hear from a lot of veteran players since last season ended — or since they signed with or got traded to their new teams this offseason — so it’s an important time to take stock of some of the various goings-on around the league.
With that in mind, let’s highlight a few of the key takeaways from this week’s OTA action around the NFL.
Seahawks’ Macdonald endorses Darnold after shaky OTA debut
Apparently, Sam Darnold didn’t have his best day throwing the ball on the first day of OTAs open to reporters in Seattle. Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald fielded some questions about Darnold’s status as the team’s definitive starting quarterback even though he is less than three months off signing a three-year, $100.5 million contract with the team.
Macdonald was emphatic in his answer. “It’s just not going to happen,” he said of the possibility of someone other than Darnold being the team’s QB, via ESPN. “Sam’s our starting quarterback. We love him. He’s doing a tremendous job.”
While there might be some parallels to be drawn between Darnold’s free-agent contract and the presence of third-round pick Jalen Milroe on the roster and the situation that led to Russell Wilson earning the job as the team’s quarterback back in 2012, as ESPN also noted, Darnold is making considerably more money in today’s terms than Matt Flynn was back then. And he’s also coming off a much more successful season than Flynn was at the time he signed with Seattle, when he basically had one good game that earned him a sizable deal on the open market.
Travis Hunter’s inhuman ball skills on display
We knew well in advance of his being drafted that Travis Hunter…
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