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Ridley did talk to reporters at his locker on Wednesday and Brian Callahan did say some guys would get “a rest” on Wednesday, so it’s possible that this is just maintenance. Thursday’s report will tell if the DNP was a trend or a blip. We’d tentatively expect Ridley to play.

Griese got a request to interview for the Jets head coaching vacancy earlier this year, and had an interview with the Saints for their offensive coordinator position in 2024. He likely has enough connections to find a new NFL coaching gig if he wants it. We’ll see where the 49-year-old former quarterback winds up, but it’s pretty late in the cycle for him to get more than an assistant gig for 2025.

Lombardi was swept away with the Josh McDaniels sands in Las Vegas and worked as a senior offensive assistant for the 49ers last season. He’ll replace Brian Griese as the 49ers elevate Lombardi in-house. Lombardi spent four years as an assistant with the 49ers from 2013-2016 before setting out on his own with the Jets, and, later, riding the McDaniels train from New England to the Raiders. This is only the second time he’s had an unquestioned position coach role — he was New England’s wideouts coach in 2020 and 2021.

“Obviously we have a plan there. In the next few weeks we’ll address that issue,” Mougey continued. He may be on the team now, but it sure doesn’t look like the Jets plan to keep him on the team much longer. The Jets could be letting Adams find a trade partner to recoup some value from the 32-year-old, but otherwise it seems likely that he’ll get walking papers from the Jets despite a 85/1,063/8 receiving line in 14 games in 2024. Adams is not the same player he was four years ago, but he hasn’t lost enough steps to fall out of the No. 1 wideout conversation for most of the league just yet. He’s been rumored to want to go join a West Coast team.

Baun was a first-team All Pro and finished fifth in Defensive Player of the Year voting as, essentially, a lightly-regarded free agent pickup in the 2024 offseason. The Eagles have been up front about how even they didn’t expect things to turn out this way for Baun — if they did, maybe they would have thought to build in a second year to the contract. Roseman said, when asked about how the team hasn’t traditionally valued linebacker: “To put us in a box and say...we’re not going to pay because we historically have not done that, part of what we do is evolve. We look at things and see how they’re affecting the team, see how they’re affecting the league, and our place in that.” Baun’s lack of track record might give teams some pause, but entering his age-29 season it’s hard to not call him the most impactful defender in free agency this offseason.

Sirianni went into a lengthy dissertation about how one guy wears all the blame or credit for calling plays in revealing this answer, which is true but fairly tedious. Patullo will now be in charge of handing the ball off to Saquon Barkley. The first-time playcaller will also have to keep A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith happy. There are certainly first-time playcallers who have had less to work with, we guess we’re saying. Patullo has never called plays before, but he has walked through thousands of plays with Kellen Moore, Brian Johnson, and Shane Steichen throughout his four seasons as Eagles passing game coordinator. Normally we’d bet on the passing game coordinator to bring a more pass-focused game plan, but it’s hard to not lean on Saquon Barkley after how he played in 2024.

“It’ll be good for Anthony,” Ballard said. Richardsoncoin is getting liquidated left and right. That the Colts would put this out there doesn’t necessarily mean that Richardson won’t win a competition — it’s hard to tell what quality of quarterback the Colts want to bring in during free agency. Ballard did say it had to be “someone who can challenge from a production standpoint, too.” What it does mean is that any kind of struggle stretch won’t be tolerated as “growing pains” and would probably lead to a benching. Even without knowing who the Colts are going to sign this offseason, it’s hard to imagine Richardson starting more than half the team’s games based on his 2024 form. He’ll need to take a major step forward this offseason to restore his franchise quarterback status.

Signed to a one-year deal in the hopes that he’d help them lift coverages on the outside, Brown instead suffered a shoulder injury in his first preseason game that sidelined him until Week 16. He finished the year with a 9/91/0 receiving line, and was targeted just 13 times in three playoff games. Brown will probably be in line for another one-year deal this offseason as he enters his age-28 campaign. With Rashee Rice’s return from injury, a Rice-Brown-Xavier Worthy receiving trio would likely be a step ahead of anything the Chiefs have done at receiver since they traded Tyreek Hill.

Koonce suffered a season-ending knee injury in practice ahead of Week 1, meaning he has no 2024 stat line to bring to free agency. But his 2023 stat line has a lot of good on it: eight sacks, 11 starts, 43 combined tackles, and a 78.9 PFF pass rush grade. Koonce will be entering his age-27 season and should be a popular name in free agency even despite missing all of last season.

Walker will be a candidate to have his fifth-year option picked up this offseason, which Gutekunst commented on by saying that the number for linebackers is “a little wonky because there’s so many edge guys that are part of that, which drives up that number, which probably isn’t great.” It’s possible the Packers get Walker extended this offseason rather than trying to work off the fifth-year option number in 2026. Either way, Walker is tied to the Packers through at least the 2026 season as long as Green Bay extends him or picks up the fifth-year option.

“Rashawn is a great player, and he helps us win football games, so I’d love Rashan to be around for a long time,” Hortiz said while sticking to the fact sheet. Slater is entering the fifth-year option season of his contract and, while we haven’t posted about it, his extension has been a primary point of interest for Chargers beat writers for some time now. Getting Slater to reduce his $19.04 million cap figure before free agency could help Los Angeles land another player or two, perhaps incentivizing them to sign this sooner rather than later. Slater had a 90.9 PFF blocking grade last year, which was second amongst all tackles.