NFL Player News

Wolford’s absence leaves Bryce Perkins and Devlin Hodges as the remaining backups for the Rams. With Stafford unlikely to get a ton of reps in the preseason, Perkins and Hodges will see plenty of action. Assuming he is able to return by the start of the regular season, Wolford is still an overwhelming favorite to win the backup gig in Los Angeles.

Havenstein was often on the injury report late in the season with the shoulder ailment, but this is the first we’re hearing of a surgery. Entering his age-33 season, the Rams will likely take another stab at replacing Havenstein in this year’s draft. If for whatever reason he’s lagging behind in camp, Warren McClendon would likely be the next man up at right tackle.

“I’ll have more to know about that after [this] month goes on - see how he feels when he gets running and practicing and everything else,” Bowles continued. This makes both Jason Licht and Bowles in the “quietly confident” section on Godwin’s recovery after the 29-year-old dislocated his ankle in Week 7. Godwin certainly appears to have a chance to be ready for Week 1, but we’re probably too far out to reliably forecast that at this point.

In true Jerry Jones fashion, he managed to start a bit of a firestorm by admitting that not only had he not talked to Parsons’ agent, he didn’t even know his name. ”I’m the one who has to write the check and Micah is the one who has to agree to it,” Jones told David Moore. “That’s the straightest way to get there.” Parsons then used X: The Everything App to say that he would not be doing any deal without agent David Mulugheta and that there “will be no backdoors in this contract negotiation.” So, you know, another day as usual for the Cowboys. They could have sewn up this Parsons deal months (or even a year ago), but that would have been too competent. Too boring.

Kyle Shanahan also mentioned that he hoped Purdy wouldn’t hold out of offseason workouts today. The general tenor of contract negotiations for Purdy is that it will get done, though it perhaps has not advanced as quickly as Purdy would have preferred. York’s comment about it happening “when he’s ready” is a bit eye-catching. But with the cuts that the 49ers have made this offseason, this isn’t really a matter of cap space so much as both sides actually agreeing on the numbers.

“Kyler is a guy we want part of this moving forward,” Poles said. Gordon blossomed in 2024 with a career-best 76.0 PFF coverage grade, mostly playing in the slot. Gordon has yet to play a full 17 games, maxing out at 15 last year, but has 17 passes defensed and five picks in three NFL season.

Another special teams ace finds a late-offseason landing spot. This will be Hardee’s ninth year in the pros — he made the Pro Bowl in 2022 with the Jets — and he has played 2288 special teams snaps compared to 116 on defense. The trend should continue in 2025, which means we will be blurbing him for his next one-year deal next offseason.

“It’s kind of funny to put all that time into him for the draft and wait five years later but having him on our team five years later, we’re excited to get to work with him. I just loved how he played the position, especially in college. He got the ball to the right spot, didn’t take sacks, would hang in there and get hit to distribute the ball to his playmakers,” Shanahan told reporters. We’re pretty sure this is just complimentary coachspeak rather than some deep Brock Purdy Will Be Punished for Holding Out lore, but as Sam Darnold’s 49ers tenure taught us, anybody with a pulse in the 49ers quarterback room is going to get some public love.

The Week 15 ACL tear for McNeill will cut into his 2025 season as well, which isn’t surprising. McNeill is probably aiming for an October or November return at this point. The Lions will run out a trio of D.J. Reader, Levi Onwuzurike, and Roy Lopez in the interior until McNeill is cleared to return.

“Will it happen? I can’t dictate the draft,” Ballard continued. The Colts lost Kylen Granson to the Eagles in free agency and have not yet brought back Mo-Alie Cox, leaving them with a room of Drew Ogletree, Will Mallory, and Jelani Woods. Ogletree projects as the returning starter and profiles mostly as a blocker. Indianapolis feels like one of the surest bets in the league to take a tight end at some point in the draft, and more than a few draftniks have linked them to Penn State’s Tyler Warren in the first round.

“So, for me, the goal for Xavier Legette is let’s just take that next step. This is going to be his first offseason with us, from phase one all the way through, and I just love to see where that goes,” Canales continued. Legette certainly could be a post-hype sleeper candidate given the injuries he played through last year, but it wasn’t exactly an inspiring rookie year with a 49/497/4 receiving line in 16 games. The Panthers have every reason to want their 2024 first-rounder to be the man, but he’ll have to take a major leap forward in 2025 to become that caliber of player.