NFL News Updates

Author: nfltalk

  • Maxx Crosby trade means Ravens are out of excuses. Win now | Opinion

    Maxx Crosby trade means Ravens are out of excuses. Win now | Opinion

    Welcome to Baltimore, Jesse Minter. The expectation is Super Bowl or bust.

    That’s precisely the message the Baltimore Ravens sent when they agreed to send 2026 and 2027 first-round picks to the Las Vegas Raiders in exchange for standout edge rusher Maxx Crosby.

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    Minter, the first-year, defensive-minded head coach, is now tasked with elevating the Ravens to a place the franchise hasn’t been since February 3, 2013 – a Super Bowl.

    Minter’s predecessor, John Harbaugh, won Super Bowl 47 as the Ravens head coach. But Harbaugh was fired this year because the Ravens had underachieved and flatlined in recent seasons. A three-year span included a home AFC championship game defeat to the Kansas City Chiefs, a divisional round playoff road loss to the Buffalo Bills and the 2025 culmination of the Ravens missing the playoffs entirely.

    Minter must coach the Ravens into winners, and fast.

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    2026 NFL offseason tracker: Player signings, trades

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    2026 NFL offseason tracker: Player signings, trades

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    2026 NFL offseason tracker: Player signings, trades

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    2026 NFL offseason tracker: Player signings, trades

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    2026 NFL offseason tracker: Player signings, trades

    However, the onus really falls on a talent-laden Ravens roster (and that’s even before any free agent acquisitions, contract extensions and draft picks).

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    Lamar Jackson and Ravens star players have underachieved at the most inopportune times.

    A Zay Flowers fumble near the end zone in the AFC championship game. A Mark Andrews drop on a two-point conversion in addition to two turnovers by Jackson in the 2024 divisional round loss. There’s also Tyler Loop’s missed 44-yard field goal that sailed wide right in a win-or-go-home Week 18 contest against the rival Pittsburgh Steelers.

    Loop’s errant field goal was a crushing blow to the Ravens’ 2025 season, but it was emblematic of the franchise’s recent failures in the biggest moments.

    Ravens have upgraded their personnel. Can they upgrade…

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  • Agent’s Take: Asking prices for 10 intriguing defensive players ahead of free agency

    Agent’s Take: Asking prices for 10 intriguing defensive players ahead of free agency

    Target prices for 10 offensive players with expiring contracts were covered in an article earlier in the week. The focus now turns to defense. 

    Things will get started on March 9 when the exclusive negotiating rights NFL teams have had with their impending free agents end. The agents of prospective unrestricted free agents are allowed to negotiate with teams beginning at noon ET on March 9 until 4 p.m. ET on March 11. Prospective UFAs who don’t have an agent can also negotiate with front office executives of teams. Players can’t sign deals with new clubs until the 2026 league year and free agency officially begin at 4 p.m. ET. A player’s ability to re-sign with his current club is allowed during the period. 

    As a reminder, it was my responsibility while working on the agent side to create target or asking prices for the firm’s clients headed toward free agency regardless of whether I was the lead agent. Along those lines, I have set target prices with total contract value, overall guarantees, amount fully guaranteed at signing and first three years compensation (when applicable) for 10 intriguing defensive players who will be unrestricted free agents.

    Players don’t necessarily sign for their target prices because free agency is a fluid process where adaptations must be made to changing market conditions. Some players are disappointed in free agency’s outcome because their market never develops for a variety of reasons (age, unrealistic contract demands, supply and demand at a playing position, etc.).

    REMEMBER THE TARGET OR ASKING PRICES FOR THESE PLAYERS MAY BE ON THE HIGH SIDE AND AREN’T NECESSARILY WHAT THEIR ACTUAL DEALS WILL BE.

    EDGE Trey Hendrickson 

    Contract package: $65 million/2 years ($32.5 million per year)Overall guarantees: $47.5 millionFully guaranteed at signing: $35 million

    Hendrickson’s five-year tenure with the Cincinnati Bengals appears to be coming to an end…

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  • ESPN ranks Georgia’s Gunner Stockton as a top QB

    ESPN ranks Georgia’s Gunner Stockton as a top QB

    ESPN has released a pre-spring list ranking all 68 Power Four quarterbacks, per Bill Connelly.

    Star Georgia Bulldogs quarterback Gunner Stockton was featured at No. 8 in Connelly’s rankings. Stockton will return to Athens for his second season as the Dawgs’ starting quarterback in 2026, as the talented playmaker was elite throughout the entire 2025 campaign. Stockton recorded 2,894 yards and 24 passing touchdowns last season, as the star senior now finds himself ranked as one of the top quarterbacks in the nation.

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    Stockton will have a plethora of talent to work with on the Bulldogs’ offense in 2026. The talented signal caller could shine for a second consecutive year. Stockton is widely regarded as one of the top overall quarterbacks both in the SEC and in the country entering next season. Stockton is one of the top candidates for the Heisman Award in 2026 as well, as the star QB will more than likely dominate in his second season as the Dawgs’ starting quarterback.

    Head coach Kirby Smart of the Georgia Bulldogs reacts with Gunner Stockton #14 during the third quarter against the Marshall Thundering Herd

    “We’ve seen lots of college football offenses called “basketball on grass” through the years, and we’ve seen quarterbacks referred to as point guards even more,” Connelly said on Stockton. “But Stockton is a damn point guard. A whopping 38.6% of his passes were thrown at or behind the line of scrimmage, and only 13.7%, about 1 in 7, were 20-yarders. He distributes the ball quickly and accurately, over and over again, and Georgia won a second straight SEC title in 2025 despite ranking 131st nationally in yards per successful play.”

    Stockton and the Georgia offense will have to try to be more explosive in 2026 despite him losing many of his top receivers. The Bulldogs revamped their rushing offense a…

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  • Former Packers president and franchise legend Bob Harlan dies at 89

    Former Packers president and franchise legend Bob Harlan dies at 89

    Bob Harlan, the former Green Bay Packers president and CEO who served the franchise in various capacities since 1971, died Thursday following an illness, according to the Packers. He was 89. 

    Harlan, who was elected as president and CEO in 1989, oversaw a revival of the most historic franchise in the NFL. The Packers registered 13 straight seasons of .500 or better from 1992-2004, and captured a Lombardi Trophy in 1997 by defeating the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI, 35-21.

    “The Packers family was saddened to learn of the passing of Bob Harlan,” Packers president and CEO Ed Policy said in a statement. “Bob was a visionary leader whose impact on the franchise was transformational. From his inspired hiring of Ron Wolf to turn around the club’s on-field fortunes to his tireless work to redevelop Lambeau Field, Bob restored the Packers to competitive excellence during his tenure and helped ensure our unique and treasured flagship NFL franchise was on sound footing for sustained generational success.

    “We send our deepest sympathies to his wife, Madeline, and the entire Harlan family.”

    Harlan’s hiring of general manager Ron Wolf in 1991 was critical, as he also hired Mike Holmgren as head coach, traded for quarterback Brett Favre, and signed the legendary Reggie White in free agency. Green Bay immediately snapped a streak of two losing seasons, made the playoffs for the first time in a decade in 1993, and appeared in the NFC Championship game the very next year. Following that loss to the Dallas Cowboys, the Packers went 13-3 in 1996 and won the Super Bowl. 

    “Bob Harlan’s leadership of the Green Bay Packers was outstanding,” Favre said of Harlan in a statement. “Hiring Ron Wolf and supporting the trade that brought me to Green Bay changed my career. The organization believed in me and gave me the opportunity.

    “He was so supportive of me during the challenges I faced in my career. Challenges my family faced,…

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  • Why Curt Cignetti already moved Indiana’s 2025 trophy haul out of his office

    Why Curt Cignetti already moved Indiana’s 2025 trophy haul out of his office

    BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Looking for the spoils of the one of the greatest seasons in sports history? You won’t find it in the head coach’s office. 

    Sure, the national championship trophy was briefly displayed in Curt Cignetti’s office — almost exclusively for recruiting reasons — but on this day, if you want to find the hardware won in Miami just one month earlier, you need to stop by the small office where director of football operations Blake Jackson resides, around the corner from Cignetti’s. Atop a cluttered cabinet sit the trophies from Indiana’s four most important games in program history: Big Ten championship, the Rose Bowl, the Peach Bowl and the College Football Playoff National Championship. 

    It’s perfectly Cignetti. 

    John Talty, CBS Sports

    Cignetti loved Indiana’s playoff run and how he got to share it with his family, fellow coaches and players, calling it a “glorious five-week time to be an Indiana Hoosier,” but he doesn’t need a bunch of physical reminders of what he accomplished staring him in the face each day. The Indiana coach gave his staff the day off as they flew back from Miami following the Hoosiers’ 27-21 win over Miami in the national championship game, and then it was back to business. 

    “We got to enjoy it that night in the hotel a little bit and then flew back, and there’s a lot of work to be done,” Cignetti told CBS Sports. “My wife and I went away for about a week after the old signing day. That was nice. Right now we have our weekends off, so it sinks in a little bit, but total focus on ’26.”

    In person, Cignetti comes off matter-of-fact and almost subdued. He doesn’t need to…

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  • Jets will not tender WR John Metchie

    Jets will not tender WR John Metchie

    The Jets will not tender restricted free agent John Metchie, according to Jordan Schultz of The Schultz Report.

    That will make Metchie a free agent.

    The Texans selected Metchie with the 44th overall pick in 2022, but he missed his rookie season. While working his back back from an ACL tear, Metchie was diagnosed with leukemia.

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    Metchie, 25, caught 40 passes for 412 yards and a touchdown in 2023-24 in Houston before the Texans traded him to the Eagles for Harrison Bryant and a swap of third-round picks in training camp last summer.

    At the trade deadline in 2025, the Eagles shipped him to the Jets in exchange for Michael Carter II and a late-round 2027 swap. He caught 29 passes for 256 yards and two touchdowns in nine games for the Jets last season after making four receptions for 18 yards in seven games with the Eagles.

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  • Steelers to release Jonnu Smith: Chargers, Eagles among possible landing spots

    Steelers to release Jonnu Smith: Chargers, Eagles among possible landing spots

    Another notable name is about to enter the NFL’s open market. The Pittsburgh Steelers will release former Pro Bowl tight end Jonnu Smith, according to ESPN, with about a week to go before the start of free agency. The move saves the Steelers $7 million against the salary cap. 

    The 30-year-old Smith was part of the transaction that also brought former All-Pro cornerback Jalen Ramsey to Pittsburgh in exchange for Minkah Fitzpatrick. But while Ramsey became a valuable member of Pittsburgh’s defense this past season, Smith failed to make the same impact for the Steelers’ offense. 

    A year after setting career-highs in catches (88), yards (884) and tying his single-season high of eight touchdown catches, Smith caught just 38 of 54 targets for 222 yards and two touchdowns in 2025. He ran for a touchdown against his former team, the Dolphins, during Pittsburgh’s Week 15 win over Miami. 

    While last season clearly wasn’t his best, Smith should still have a decent market given his previous success with the Dolphins, Falcons and Titans. Here’s a rundown of some of Smith’s possible landing spots. 

    Los Angeles Chargers 

    Smith brings previous success with new Los Angeles offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel. His breakout 2024 season took place with McDaniel calling plays in Miami.

    It’s safe to assume that Smith would jump at the chance to catch passes from Justin Herbert, who earned his second Pro Bowl nod in 2025 after having one of his best seasons to date. Smith would also help complement Oronde Gadsden II, a 2025 fifth-round pick who caught 49 passes for 664 yards and three touchdowns during his rookie season. 

    Denver Broncos 

    Denver is eager to get more out of their tight ends in 2026 after that getting just three touchdowns from that position in 2025. With Adam Trautman set to enter free agency, Smith could fill his vacant spot in Denver’s starting lineup. Smith would give Denver two proven…

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  • Social media reacts to Notre Dame legend Lou Holtz passing away

    Social media reacts to Notre Dame legend Lou Holtz passing away

    It was a sad day in South Bend, and honestly, the nation, as the news of Notre Dame’s legendary head coach Lou Holtz passing away.

    He recently entered hospice care, and now his legacy will live on forever. If you are a college football fan, you know Holtz, as he made a seamless transition from coaching on the sidelines to the broadcast booth, starting with CBS then ultimately landing with ESPN. The Hall of Famer lived and breathed football, as he also played linebacker for Kent State.

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    It wasn’t just Notre Dame mourning his passing, it was many across all avenues going to social media to share stories, kind words, and more about Holtz. Below you’ll find some of the best of the heartfelt reactions to the former Irish heath coach succumbing to Father Time.

    Lou Holtz’s family delivers the difficult news

    Thoughts and prayers go out to the Holtz family during this difficult time. Lou was a treasure, not just to Notre Dame, but to the entirety of college football. He will be missed.

    Notre Dame remembers Lou Holtz

    A touching tribute from the place where Holtz made his coaching name. There have been plenty of legendary coaches in South Bend, and he’s right up there with the best of them. Fitting that it is ended by saying his “impact will never fade.”

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    Minnesota remembers Lou Holtz

    Before Holtz took the position with Notre Dame, he was Minnesota’s head coach. While his first season was a struggle, he led the Gophers to a bowl game in year two before heading to South Bend. It was just two seasons with Minnesota, but his impact was felt.

    Kent State, Lou Holtz’s alma mater remembers him

    Holtz was a linebacker for two seasons with the Golden Flashes from 1956-1957. He knew his future was coaching, as he surely soaked up everything he learned while with the team. That experience helped him become…

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