NFL News Updates

Author: nfltalk

  • Utah star QB Cam Rising hints 2024 college football season will be his last: ‘Seven years is more than enough’

    Utah star QB Cam Rising hints 2024 college football season will be his last: ‘Seven years is more than enough’

    Getty Images

    Utah star quarterback Cam Rising is not aspiring to become an eighth-year senior, even though he would be eligible to play again in 2025. The 25-year-old Utes icon clarified during Big 12 Media Days that he intends for the 2024 season to be his last in the college ranks.

    In response to a question from Brett McMurphy of the Action Network about using an eighth year of eligibility, Rising said “that’s not the plan,” adding “seven years is more than enough.” 

    Rising is among a handful of players in line to benefit from a proposed consent decree by the United States Department of Justice that would prohibit the enforcement of NCAA transfer rules. One of the provisions states that Division I student-athletes deemed ineligible for any portion of a season during or since the 2019-20 academic year will be granted an extra season of eligibility by the NCAA. Rising began his college career at Texas as a redshirt in 2018 before transferring to Utah in 2019 and sitting out a year as was required by NCAA rules at the time.

    The 2020 season also didn’t count against Rising’s eligibility because of the relief provided by the NCAA amid the COVID-19 pandemic. If Rising wanted to capitalize on the DOJ’s proposed consent decree, none of his first three seasons of college football would count against his eligibility.

    Rising used two seasons of eligibility as Utah’s starting quarterback in 2021 and 2022 before taking a medical redshirt in 2023. Rising has thrown for 46 touchdowns and run for 12 more in his two full seasons as the Utes’ starting quarterback. Utah was picked to win the…

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  • Vikings’ Justin Jefferson addresses Kirk Cousins leaving, expectations for J.J. McCarthy and Sam Darnold

    Vikings’ Justin Jefferson addresses Kirk Cousins leaving, expectations for J.J. McCarthy and Sam Darnold

    Getty Images

    The Minnesota Vikings made 2022 NFL Offensive Player of the Year Justin Jefferson the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history this offseason when they signed him to a four-year, $140 million extension. 

    Thanks to his partnership with four-time Pro Bowl quarterback Kirk Cousins, Jefferson is averaging 98.3 receiving yards per game in his career, the most in NFL history. Jefferson’s 5,899 career receiving yards are also the most in NFL history through a player’s first four seasons. However, he is going to have to adjust to life without Cousins after the soon-to-be 36-year-old departed in free agency for the Atlanta Falcons on a four-year, $180 million contract.

    Cousins’ move down south didn’t fully surprise the Vikings’ top target. 

    “Yeah and no,” Jefferson said on “The Rich Eisen Show” on Tuesday when asked if he was surprised when his quarterback left. “I always knew Kirk was going to do whatever he…

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  • Colorado got $2.5 million signing bonus to join Big 12; other new members didn’t. Why?

    Colorado got $2.5 million signing bonus to join Big 12; other new members didn’t. Why?

    LAS VEGAS –  Big 12 Conference commissioner Brett Yormark was asked a question Tuesday about what actually went down behind the scenes one year ago, when he helped convince four schools from the Pac-12 to leave that league and join the Big 12 instead.

    He didn’t want to talk about it.

    But documents obtained from the schools by USA TODAY Sports – and brief remarks by Yormark here Tuesday – paint a picture of a cutthroat strategy to destabilize the Pac-12 last year to the point that it fell apart to the Big 12’s benefit.

    According to the documents, the University of Colorado was offered a $2.5 million signing bonus from the Big 12 Conference last year as an added enticement to get the Buffaloes to leave the Pac-12 and join the Big 12 instead, starting on Aug. 2, 2024.

    But here’s what’s curious about that: The other three Pac-12 teams that followed Colorado’s path into the Big 12 a week later apparently didn’t get any signing bonus, according to their Big 12 admission agreements.

    Why not?

    Was Yormark hoping that by sweetening the pot for Colorado and getting the Buffs to jump first, then the others would do the same out of fear of being left behind in a crumbling Pac-12?

    “I’m not going to discuss my negotiating tactics, but listen, we were thrilled that Colorado was the first mover,” Yormark told USA TODAY Sports Tuesday at the Big 12 football media days event. “Ultimately one got us four, you know, when you think about it. Whatever we did in those negotiations seemed to work out pretty well for us.”

    How it factors into the realignment timeline

    Colorado announced its move to the Big 12 on July 27 last year – the first of eight defections from the Pac-12 last year that all but destroyed it. A week later, Arizona, Arizona State and Utah also announced they were leaving the Pac-12 for the Big 12, but…

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  • Patriots’ Chad Ryland, Joey Slye set for a training camp competition at kicker

    Patriots’ Chad Ryland, Joey Slye set for a training camp competition at kicker

    Last year the Patriots spent a fourth-round draft pick on a kicker, Chad Ryland. The results were not good: Ryland made only 16 of his 25 field goal attempts and New England finished dead last in the NFL with a 64.0 percent field goal success rate.

    This offseason, the Patriots signed veteran kicker Joey Slye, and Patriots.com reports that Ryland and Slye will have a true training camp competition with both of them having a real chance of winning the job and the one who performs better getting the nod.

    In minicamp, Slye was the more accurate of the two, but that’s not saying much. Last year Slye kicked for the Commanders, making 19 of his 24 field goal attempts and ranking 29th of 32 NFL teams in field goal accuracy. Slye also has a career extra point rate of just 88.5 percent, which ranks dead last among kickers with at least 100 extra point attempts since Slye entered the NFL in 2019.

    The bottom line is the Patriots have two kickers on the roster, neither of whom has proven himself worthy of being counted on. They’ll hope that one of them proves himself in training camp.

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  • Michigan football recruiting: Ivan Taylor, son of ex-Steelers star Ike Taylor, flips from Notre Dame

    Michigan football recruiting: Ivan Taylor, son of ex-Steelers star Ike Taylor, flips from Notre Dame

    247Sports

    Michigan coach Sherrone Moore picked up his first significant win on the recruiting trail by flipping four-star safety commit Ivan Taylor from Notre Dame. Taylor committed to the Fighting Irish in December 2023 but flipped after taking an official visit to Michigan last month.

    Taylor is the son of former NFL defensive back Ike Taylor, who won two Super Bowls with the Pittsburgh Steelers during a 12-year career from 2003-14. The younger Taylor ranks as the No. 41 overall recruit in the 2025 recruiting cycle by 247Sports and is the second-ranked player at his position in the class. The West Orange High School product out of Winter Garden, Florida, is the fifth-ranked player from the Sunshine State.

    He becomes Michigan’s highest-ranked recruit in the 2025 cycle, jumping four-star safety Kainoa Winston. Despite coming off a national championship in January, Michigan ranked No. 41 in the national recruiting rankings as recently as May 31. With Taylor’s commitment, the Wolverines jumped eight spots to No. 15 in the 2025 class rankings from 247Sports.

    “I like Coach Wink [Martindale], I like Coach [Lamar] Morgan, and I like Coach Moore,” Taylor told 247Sports. “I think they’re all great people, and it was a really good time on the official visit getting to know them and getting to know their families as well.”

    Other members of Michigan’s recruiting class include four-star defensive linemen Nathaniel Marshall and Jaylen Williams and four-star offensive tackle Avery Gach.

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  • Steelers turn 91: Ranking the 20 best players in team’s history as T.J. Watt cracks list of all-time legends

    Steelers turn 91: Ranking the 20 best players in team’s history as T.J. Watt cracks list of all-time legends

    Since 1972, no NFL team has been as consistently good as the Pittsburgh Steelers. In the 1970s, the Steelers were so dominant that NFL Films narrator John Facenda once said, “There are 27 teams in the National Football League, and then, there are the Pittsburgh Steelers.”

    From 1974-79, the Steelers won four Super Bowls in a six-year span, a feat that has yet to be matched. Pittsburgh has since won two more Super Bowls along with four more AFC titles. In 2024, the Steelers can match the Cowboys for the most consecutive seasons without a losing record. Pittsburgh hasn’t had a losing season since 2003 and has never posted a losing record under head coach Mike Tomlin. 

    Obviously, the Steelers have benefitted from having great players over the years. Pittsburgh currently has a whopping 32 players in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, while 49 former players have been enshrined into the Steelers Hall of Honor. 

    With their 92nd season set to begin soon (the team celebrated 91 years on Monday), I decided to rank the top 20 players in Steelers history, a list that includes a slew of NFL legends. 

    ** denotes a player who is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame 

    1. Joe Greene, DT (1969-1981)**

    The first player Chuck Noll selected after becoming the Steelers head coach, Greene’s play on the field and unyielding drive to become a champion helped drive Pittsburgh’s success throughout their dynasty run.

    The league’s Defensive Player of the Year in 1972 and again in 1974, Greene spearheaded Pittsburgh’s legendary “Steel Curtain” defense that held the mighty Oakland Raiders to just 29 yards rushing in the ’74 AFC title game and the Minnesota Vikings to 17 yards on the ground in Super Bowl IX, Pittsburgh’s first of four Super Bowl wins during the decade. In Super Bowl IX, Greene recorded an interception and a fumble recovery while ending the Steelers’ 42-year championship wait. 

    The following season,…

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  • High school football: Lakota West LB commits to Big Ten school

    High school football: Lakota West LB commits to Big Ten school

    Jul. 8—Grant Beerman verbally committed to Purdue over the weekend.

    A three-star linebacker prospect, Beerman chose the Boilermakers from a final four that also included Cincinnati, West Virginia and Michigan State.

    He is the third player from Lakota West’s class of 2025 to commit to an NCAA Division I FBS school, joining tight end Luka Gilbert (University of Miami) and tight end/defensive lineman Vincent Giordano (Bowling Green).

    The 6-foot-4, 220-pound Beerman is the No 17 prospect in 247Sports Composite rankings for Ohio and the 46th-ranked linebacker.

    He had 79 tackles, including 12 for loss and three sacks, last season for the Firebirds, who advanced to the regional finals in the Division I playoffs before losing to Cincinnati Moeller.

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  • NFL offseason power rankings: No. 18 Atlanta Falcons had quite an interesting offseason

    NFL offseason power rankings: No. 18 Atlanta Falcons had quite an interesting offseason

    Other NFL team previews: 32. Panthers | 31. Patriots | 30. Broncos | 29. Commanders | 28. Giants | 27. Titans | 26. Raiders | 25. Cardinals | 24. Saints | 23. Chargers | 22. Vikings | 21. Seahawks | 20. Buccaneers | 19. Jaguars 

    All first-round picks in the NFL Draft are somewhat memorable. Some make you sit up in your chair a bit, but only a few are guaranteed to be talked about for years.

    The moment the Atlanta Falcons selected quarterback Michael Penix Jr. with the eighth overall pick of the NFL Draft, it became a talking point for the next decade or more. Good or bad.

    No team’s offseason was discussed more than the Falcons. They started it by changing coaches, firing the overwhelmed Arthur Smith and giving Raheem Morris a second chance. Then they made one of the rare big quarterback additions in free agency, signing Kirk Cousins to a $180 million deal. That led to weeks of excitement, reimagining the Falcons with a staff that understood it needs to use its best players on offense, with a quarterback that can get them the ball. If the offseason would have ended there, it would have been nothing but good vibes for the Falcons.

    To be fair, the Penix pick could end up a win. Think about how everyone questioned the Green Bay Packers’ Jordan Love pick for three years. Do you think the Packers look smart now? Of course. Love is an ascending star at the game’s most important position. If we look up in 2028 and Penix is at the level Love has reached by his fifth season, everyone will be offering a lot of apologies to Atlanta. The Falcons even cited “the Green Bay model” in explaining the pick. The quarterback position is undisputedly the most important in all of sports, and it’s not terrible to be creative and double up to pursue success at it. For all of the easy criticism of the Falcons’ pick, it could turn out very well for them.

    But the Penix pick was also different than the Packers picking Love, or most “quarterback in waiting” first-round picks we’ve seen over the…

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