NFL Player News

The Jenkins pick filled a serious depth and youth need for Tampa’s defensive line. He practiced on the interior in minicamps.

The 4-13 Raiders closed the 2024 regular season on a two-win streak, pushing their 2025 NFL draft spot down to the sixth overall pick. With no long-term quarterback options in-house, the Raiders must now convince Johnson that they are willing to somehow acquire their quarterback of the future despite their self-sabotaging, late-season competitiveness. Securing an interview with the highly coveted offensive coordinator is at least one positive step toward turning this franchise around. Players like Brock Bowers, Jakobi Meyers and an above-average offensive line could at least provide Johnson with offensive building blocks.

Flowers did not practice on Tuesday and was not spotted during Wednesday’s session, marking another DNP for the young wideout. Head coach Jim Harbaugh called him day to day on Monday. Even if he misses Saturday’s game, it sounds like there is a good chance Flowers is ready to suit up for the Divisional Round, assuming Baltimore takes care of business against Pittsburgh. In the meantime, Rashod Bateman and Mark Andrews will shoulder more of the receiving workload versus the Steelers.

Cooper missed a meaningless Week 18 game for personal reasons and had not returned to the team as of Monday. He was back on the field for a full practice today and is good to go for Buffalo’s Wild Card Round date with the Broncos. The team also listed a back injury for Cooper on their report, though it didn’t limit him in practice and is a non-issue. Splitting time and targets in a crowded receiver room, Cooper will be a boom/bust fantasy option for the opening round of the playoffs.

As Albert Breer notes, Glenn now has interview requests from all six teams in need of a new head coach. He and fellow Lion Ben Johnson are the two hottest names on the coaching circuit this time around. If Glenn wants to leave Detroit, he will have his choice of jobs, save for Johnson possibly being the preferred option by some teams. The Patriots gig would come with Drake Maye and a top-five draft pick but more holes than talent on the roster elsewhere, making it largely a page one rewrite for Glenn.

Love took a hit to the elbow in Week 18 and did not return. Though, with little to play for versus the Bears, it didn’t make much sense for him to retake the field in the second half. Head coach Matt LaFleur told reporters after Sunday’s game that Love was held out as a precaution and will be good to go for their Wild Card Round matchup with the Eagles. A limited practice keeps him on pace to suit up this week. As a road dog versus a surging Philly defense, Love will be one of the weaker Wild Card Weekend fantasy quarterbacks. When asked if he will play on Sunday, Love responded, “we’ll see. Yeah. I’m hopeful.”

To no one’s surprise, Kyle Shanahan will retain the play-calling duties in 2025. This marks just the second time in Shanny’s head coaching tenure that he has assigned the offensive coordinator title to someone. The other was in 2021 when Mike McDaniel held the role. Klay, another son of Gary Kubiak, got his start in the NFL as a quality control coach for the 49ers in 2021. He has worked his way up the ranks ever since and, like McDaniel before him, will be a popular name in league circles for head coaching jobs if the 49ers right the ship next year.

Lynch added, “We’re not in the business of letting good players out there.” Samuel is coming off a disastrous season that saw him catch 51 passes for 673 yards and three scores. His dramatic falloff has made him the subject of trade and cut rumors for months, but moving on from him wouldn’t be easy for San Francisco, even if they wanted to. A post-June 1st release only offers the team $5 million in savings with a $30 million dead cap hit spread over two seasons. An extension or a restructure, both of which would help kick the can down the road, are more likely for the veteran receiver this offseason.

He added that he expects that to continue throughout the week. Lattimore missed the final two weeks of the regular season with the lingering hamstring issue, but it sounds like he is on track to return for Washington’s Wild Card Round matchup with the Bucs. Quinn told reporters every on the roster is practicing in some capacity save for a handful of rest days, so Lattimore seemingly got in some work on Wednesday as well. Thursday’s session, a full-speed workout, will be more revealing for Lattimore’s status.

Belichick, of course, took a job as the head coach of the North Carolina Tarheels last month. While it’s hard to accept the fact that he has left the NFL behind, the greatest professional football coach ever will spend at least one year in the college ranks, likely more. Per Russini, “His sole focus is on coaching and recruiting for North Carolina.” Belichick could get plenty of interviews for the various head coaching vacancies around the league if he wanted to, but it sounds like he won’t even dip his toes in the water this offseason.

Nick Sorensen was promoted to defensive coordinator ahead of the 2024 season but was let go after the team allowed 25.6 points per game this year. Per Shanahan, Sorensen could be retained as the team’s special teams coordinator or in another role. Staley previously served as the Rams’ defensive coordinator for a year before being hired as the Chargers’ head coach. He lasted three seasons and was fired after a disappointing 2023. Robert Saleh is expected to be offered the defensive coordinator job if he doesn’t land another head coaching gig, so Staley is likely stuck in his role for at least another year.