NFL Player News

Friedman is a veratile reserve with the ability to play guard and center.

This was a report before Sunday’s game, but the added context of Jerry Jones’ answer on Sunday of “I don’t know that I am considering making a change” adds fire to the idea that the Cowboys will simply retain McCarthy. Because Dallas promoted Jason Garrett from his role as OC in 2010 and interviewed only McCarthy and Marvin Lewis in the 2020 cycle, it could be argued that they haven’t done an expansive and real coaching search since they fired Bill Parcells. Jones may just be comfortable keeping on at this point despite a down year from McCarthy.

It’s at least a little surprising that the Colts wouldn’t try to find a quarterback to push Richardson after an uninspiring sophomore season, but this is how the Colts under Chris Ballard have operated: They aren’t afraid to give their younger players extended looks even after they’ve struggled. What are the Colts going to do, fire Ballard? Richardson, who told reporters his back problems “might be chronic” enters the offseason needing to take a big leap to prove everybody who believed in him right.

“Got no reason to say no, so I guess yeah,” was the direct quote from Macdonald to a Seattle radio show. Smith was not the problem in Seattle in 2024, but he’s getting old enough that the Seahawks probably should start considering the future this offseason. No, John, Sam Howell doesn’t count. Smith struggled in the red zone this year but was otherwise a great quarterback dealt a bad hand on the offensive line. He should be fantasy-relevant in 2025, if not someone you want starting every week in standard leagues.

It was part of a blanket release in which the team affirmed they were also keeping head coach Brian Daboll. It has been rumored for some time that the Giants wanted to keep both in their roles, with John Mara endorsing them at midseason. But an embarrassing 3-14 record put them deeper under the microscope. Mara told reporters that improvement needed to come soon because “it better not take too long, because I’ve just about run out of patience.” It sure feels like an uncomfortable edict for a team that hasn’t shown much improvement under Schoen and needs a lot of help to get to mediocre in a suddenly-stacked NFC East.

Greenberg reportedly grew up as a Jets fan in Long Island, New York. Not to be confused with notable Jets fan and ESPN personality Mike Greenberg, the Buccaneers’ Greenberg has spent 15 seasons with the team and is in his second season as assistant general manager, per the team’s site. Greenberg has risen through the ranks in the Buccaneers’ organization and originally joined them in 2010 as a player personnel assistant. He seems like a long shot to land the Jets’ general manager vacancy, but he’ll get his shot, along with several others, to impress Woody Johnson and company.

Rapoport notes that Watson is believed to have “suffered additional damage” in addition to his ACL injury. It’s a devastating blow to the Packers and Watson, who has struggled to stay healthy during the first three years of his career. With his season likely over, Watson will undergo further evaluation to determine the extent of the damage, his availability for the start of the 2025 season is undoubtedly in question. Watson caught 29 passes for 620 yards and two touchdowns in 15 games this season, and has appeared in just 38 of a possible 51 games since being drafted in 2022.

Grigson last served as general manager for the Colts (2012-2016), where he oversaw three 11-win seasons in his five-year tenure. He had the easy decision of taking Andrew Luck in the 2012 NFL Draft but failed to put adequate parts around Luck and the offense to make the Colts legitimate contenders. Since his departure from the Colts, Grigson worked in a variety of advisor and personnel roles with the Browns and Seahawks before landing with the Vikings in 2022 in the role he’s serving in now. The Vikings have gone 34-17 since Grigson joined the front office, although much of that success has been laid at the feet of general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and head coach Kevin O’Connell. He becomes the latest in a long line of candidates to receive requests from the Jets as the team looks to move on from a disastrous 2024.

McCown spent two years with the Jets as a player (2017-2018) and has worked as a quarterbacks coach for the Panthers and Vikings over the last two years. His tenure with the Panthers was a forgettable one, but McCown is understandably receiving a fair share of the credit for Sam Darnold’s revival in his first season with the Vikings. McCown has been on the head coaching radar before. He interviewed with the Texans back in 2022 before the team ultimately decided to hire Lovie Smith and also had a “conversation” with the Jaguars about their head coaching vacancy that same offseason. McCown has never called plays at the NFL level, and may still be a few years away from landing a head coaching gig. That said, the Jets are clearly doing their due diligence in their coaching search, as McCown becomes one of several coaches to already receive requests for interviews.

Shaw remains an interesting name during coaching cycles. The former Stanford head coach worked with the team from 2011-2022 and was long viewed as a potential candidate to make the leap from the college games to the pros. That has yet to materialize, although Shaw did spend last season with the Broncos front office after taking a year off in 2023. Shaw has a record of 96-54 during his time as Stanford’s head coach, and is a four-time Pac-12 Coach of the Year winner. Shaw met with both the Chargers and Titans last offseason and appears to once again be a candidate for a head coaching job for a third-straight year.

Grubb is one-and-done as the Seahawks’ offensive coordinator. The Seahawks hired Grubb after two successful seasons as offensive coordinator at the University of Washington, where his pass-heavy schemes helped elevate the Husky’s to one of the top offensive units in the nation and Michael Penix to a first-round draft pick in 2024. Unfortunately, Grubb’s approach fell flat in Seattle. In his first and only season at the helm, the Seahawks’ passing game ranked 26th in EPA per dropback and 20th in dropback success rate. Seattles’ ground game faired better than it’s passing attack under Grubb, but that didn’t stop him from ranking in the top five in the league in both pass rate and pass rate over expected. Look for head coach Mike Macdonald to prioritize an offensive coordinator with a more balanced approach in 2025, who won’t be opposed to leaning more heavily on Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet in the running game after this failed experiment.