NFL Player News

St. Louis’ backup defensive tackles have been banged up in camp, so Gill may just be a practice body. Malone lost his camp battle with UDFA Johnny Hekker.

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.

Evero fielded a handful of interviews for a head coaching gig last offseason after the Panthers’ defense ranked top-10 in yards allowed in 2022 and 2023. Evero’s defense was anything but a high-end unit in 2024, ranking last in the league in yards allowed, points allowed, success rate, and EPA per play. It’s not hyperbolic to say things couldn’t have gotten much worse for Evero and the Panthers’ defense in 2024. While Evero could still field head coaching interviews in the coming days, that seems unlikely given his unit’s struggles this season.

With the Lions on bye during the NFC Wild Card round, Johnson will speak with both the Bears and Patriots. Johnson clearly has interest in both jobs, where he would have a chance to work with either the No. 1 or No. 3 overall pick of the 2024 draft. Having a talented, young signal-caller appears to be at the top of the list for Johnson wherever he lands. Both Caleb Williams and Drake Maye would meet that requirement, as Johnson is sure to be a hot candidate this coaching cycle. He felt like a near lock to land the Commanders’ job last season before bailing on them while they were en route to a second interview with him.

Flores was a finalist for the Cardinals’ head coaching job back in 2023 but ultimately lost out to Jonathan Gannon. Flores has spent the last two seasons building up the Vikings’ defense into a formidable unit. The Vikings finished the regular season ranked fifth in points allowed and 16th in yards allowed while ranking as a top-five rush defense. Flores spent three seasons as head coach of the Dolphins (2019-2021) and was dismissed after going 9-8 in his final season. He went 10-6 in his second season at the helm. Flores had the looks of a coach on the rise before his dismissal at the end of the 2021 season, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him land another head coaching gig in the near future.

An 11-year veteran of the league, Griese retired in 2008 and didn’t dip his toes into the coaching pool until 2022, when he joined the Niners as their quarterbacks coach. His work with 2022’s Mr. Irrelevant, Brock Purdy, who is on his way to earning a massive contract extension, has undoubtedly caught the eyes of front offices, the Jets not withstanding. Interestingly, it was reported last month that Jets owner Woody Johnson intentionally asked for a worse draft pick during trade negotiations with the Broncos in the 2024 NFL Draft in the hopes of landing the next Mr. Irrelevant. The Jets ended up using that pick on a cornerback who was cut at the end of training camp. There’s likely more than Griese’s connection to a successful Mr. Irrelevant drawing the Jets’ interest here, but Griese’s name hasn’t generated much interest as a head coaching target in recent years.