After the Falcons confessed a week ago today that the prank call made during the draft to quarterback Shedeur Sanders traces back to defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich, many in the league wondered whether the Falcons would get a pass.
They didn’t. The team was fined $250,000. Ulbrich personally was fined $100,000. (When comparing the respective holdings of the Falcons and Ulbrich, one of those punishments hurt a lot more than the other.)
The question is whether the league went easy on the Falcons. More specifically, whether it went easier than it would have gone on other teams.
The key here is Rich McKay. Currently the team’s CEO, he’s also the long-time chairman of the NFL’s Competition Committee. Some suspect he adroitly steers the agenda in the direction of the things the Commissioner wants. Which, if so, makes him very valuable to the league office.
It also can come in handy when it’s time for the Falcons to take their medicine.
It started 10 years ago, when the Falcons were caught red-handed for piping fake crowd noise into the Georgia Dome. The punishment for this significant competitive breach was only a $350,000 fine, a fifth-round pick, and a “temporary” suspension of McKay from the Competition Committee. (In contrast, the 49ers lost a 2025 fifth-round pick for a clerical error.)
In 2023, the Falcons received a total fine of $100,000 ($75,000 for the team, $25,000 for former head coach Arthur Smith) for failing to disclose that running back Bijan Robinson had an illness that relegated him to a cameo appearance in a Week 7 game against the Buccaneers. Given the explosion of prop bets and fantasy football, and in light of Robinson’s relevance to such bets, hiding the illness compromised many legal wagers.
In 2024, a $300,000 penalty resulted ($250,000 for the Falcons, $50,000 for G.M. Terry Fontenot) from tampering with three different players: Kirk Cousins, Darnell Mooney, and Charlie Woerner. The league also took another fifth-round from the Falcons. (It was, frankly, one of the most blatant examples of tampering during the 52-hour negotiating window that we’ve ever seen.)
All three of those violations have a potentially significant competitive impact. The punishments, frankly, don’t seem to objectively fit the crimes.
As to the Shedeur Sanders prank call, it was more about the bad look the situation created. Even though the NFL (for some reason) sent Sanders’s contact information directly to roughly 2,000 people.
The NFL, in fining the Falcons and Ulbrich, harped on the disclosure of “confidential” information. Which serves only to prove the point made earlier this week. The ability of Ulbrich’s son to obtain “confidential” information regarding Sanders invites speculation as to other “confidential” information Ulbrich’s son (and other family members of other team employees) may be getting, and using. Particularly when it comes to gambling.
It’s impossible to know whether a team other than the Falcons would have gotten a harsher punishment for the Shedeur Sanders prank call, because there’s no precedent for it. If it ever happens again, there will undoubtedly be a much stronger sanction, since one of the goals of the Falcons’ punishment is to scare everyone else straight.
It’s also impossible to know whether the explanation provided by the Falcons — that Ulbrich’s son just happened to be visiting his parents and just happened to notice an “open iPad” that just happened to be displaying the Wednesday, April 23 email with Sanders’s phone number and just happened to have a sudden impulse in that moment to write down the number for the purposes of making a prank call on Friday, April 25 — is true.
It seems convenient. Frankly, it seems fishy. It seems like there’s more to the story about whether and to what extent Ulbrich’s 21-year-old son had direct access to emails and other confidential information on official iPads and/or email accounts. Still, as to the all-important question of what Jeff Ulbrich knew and when he knew it, the Falcons’ official explanation is that Ulbrich was Sgt. Schulz.
And maybe that’s where the truth as to the Falcons’ punishment is subtly lurking. If the Falcons’ explanation is true, and given that the league foolishly sent Sanders’s updated number to the nearly 2,000 people (including Ulbrich) who receive the daily transaction report, $350,000 in fines seems like a harsh punishment. If the truth about Ulbrich’s son’s access to confidential information is something other than a series of accidentally-threaded needles, the punishment seems light.
Given the history of the league office’s lenience with the Falcons, we’ll let others decide whether they were punished stiffly for a largely innocent gaffe — or whether they were given a softer punishment for something more deliberate than a chain of sitcom-style coincidences.
Sam Howell has a new number. And it’s Kirk Cousins’s old number.
The new Vikings backup wore No. 7 at North Carolina. No. 14 with the Commanders, and No. 6 in Seattle. Those three numbers were taken in Minnesota.
So it’ll be No. 8 for Howell.
Cousins spent six years with the Vikings with two playoff appearances and one postseason win. That’s hardly enough to get his number set aside, much less retired.
The move should slam the door — if it wasn’t already closed — on the possibility of Cousins being traded to Minnesota. Then again, one injury can change everything. If the Vikings end up scrambling for a quarterback they way they were after Cousins suffered a torn Achilles tendon during the 2023 season, a return by Cousins wouldn’t be impossible.
If it happens, either Howell would have to give up No. 8 or Cousins would have to pick a new number.
That’s what Cousins did when he went to Atlanta, since tight end Kyle Pitts has No. 8. (Because a change would have been very expensive, given the league’s rules regarding unsold jerseys, Pitts didn’t give it up for his new quarterback.)
Cousins took No. 18 with the Falcons. Obviously, that would be off the table if he somehow comes back to Minnesota. One of these days, No. 18 will likely be retired for receiver Justin Jefferson.
The 2025 draft has reintroduced millions to the lost art of the prank phone call. The Jerky Boys did it. Bart Simpson has been doing it since 1989. It was one of the funniest moments in what had to have been one of Jerry Jones’s favorite ‘80s movies, Porky’s.
Growing up in the ‘70s, when we had three TV channels (PBS didn’t count, except when they rolled out the TV cart at school to show us the latest episode of Ripples) and the home video game technology generally sucked, we made prank calls. A lot of prank calls. (We tried to be a little more high-minded than asking, for example, “Is your refrigerator running?” or “Do you have Prince Albert in a can?”)
Now, the prank call is back. With a vengeance. And the NFL has a problem.
This year, there were more than a few prank calls made to draft picks. It wasn’t just Shedeur Sanders. It happened to Abdul Carter, Ty Warren, Josh Conerly Jr., Isaiah Bond, Kyle McCord, and others.
Sanders ended up being the biggest of them all. Because his name was the biggest in the entire draft pool. Because the prank call, supposedly from Saints G.M. Mickey Loomis, traced to their biggest rival, the Falcons. Because, despite the NFL’s misguided effort to paint this as some sort of serious breach of confidentiality, the league office sent Sanders’s number to roughly 2,000 people.
As the NFL under Roger Goodell has done in the past (most notably, to the Saints in 2012), the league has attempted to address a possible cultural problem by hammering the one team it caught red handed. But the NFL has direct responsibility for this one, and the league office needs to make changes far more substantive than wagging a finger at the 32 franchises and saying, “This better not happen again.”
For starters, no prospect’s phone number ever should be communicated via the email address that distributes the daily transaction report. That’s what happened with Sanders’s updated contact information. And that’s what put his phone number in Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbricht’s email inbox. (We still find the official “wandering by an open iPad that happened to have that one email visible” explanation to be convenient, and fishy.)
The contact information for the draft prospects should go to at most three people per team: owner, G.M., head coach. Or it should go to only one person, with the team designating in advance who will receive it. And the very clear instruction should be that no one else in the organization may be given the number.
While that would go a long way toward preventing leaks initiated by one of the 32 teams, it hardly solves the problem. Although Sanders said during his in-draft livestream that he received a new phone specifically for the draft from Boost Mobile (this would explain the separate email with his new number), most players are still using the cell phone that they have had for months if not years.
Others have that number. Current friends. Former friends. Former friends who, in the aftermath of a failed romantic relationship, may now be enemies.
The punishment of the Falcons has caused many to assume (incorrectly) that all of the prank calls trace back to one of the NFL’s teams. Common sense suggests that most if not all of the others came from someone who already has the player’s number, or who specifically obtained it from someone who does. (As we’ve mentioned on PFT Live a couple of times this week, a former player once received a prank call from one of his friends that he’d been traded. While on the way to the airport to fly to his new city, the player learned the truth when he called his agent.)
One way to fix this would be to send new brand phones to all the prospects. Of course, that’s a lot of phones. Unless the league can find an Official NFL Draft Prospect Burner Phone partner who will provide the phones for free (and also pay the NFL a giant pile of money), the league will have to pay for all of those new phones. (And if the NFL has by next year an Official NFL Draft Prospect Burner Phone partner, you’re welcome.)
Then there’s the simple fact that the prank-call phenomenon will prompt potential copycats to accept the challenge of positioning themselves to do it in 2026. With mock drafts already popping up everywhere (unfortunately), it’s not hard to come up with a list of the players who will be waiting for a phone call next April. If the prospect has the same phone number a year from now, the foundation is already in place for another round of prank calls.
Another possibility that has been raised here and elsewhere (Bucs G.M. Jason Licht suggested it during an appearance with Rich Eisen) is a pivot to FaceTime. It would be instantly obvious that the call is coming from a draft room, not a dorm room.
Then there’s the nuclear option. The only way to neutralize the impact of a prank call. As a reader suggested via email (and this is one of those rare moments where I don’t regret opening and reviewing them all), why do they need to call the player BEFORE he’s drafted? It’s not as if the player can say, “No thanks.” It’s a draft.
Make the pick, and then call the player.
The moment won’t change. The tears will still flow. The owner, G.M., and/or head coach will have a chance to utter the same old cliches that will be clipped off for social media. And every player who gets the call after he has been officially picked won’t be hearing the NFL equivalent of, “Wanna lick? Psych!”
Time and again, the NFL has shown that it is far more reactive than proactive. When reacting to the prank-call epidemic of 2025, the NFL must be very proactive — and creative — when it comes to ensuring that those who try to make prank calls next April will be wasting their time.
Next April, we’ll find out whether the league’s strategy has worked. If there’s even one prank call, the NFL will get an “F” in what is a very clear and simple pass-fail proposition.
After the NFL hammered the Falcons and defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich for failing to secure the Shedeur Sanders draft-day telephone number, the league started pushing the idea that the number was sent to a limited number of people per team in a confidential email, and that (basically) the Falcons shared the number with Ulbrich at their own risk.
That claim is absolutely false.
First, think of how ridiculous that sounds. Why would the Falcons, who were never going to draft Sanders (then again . . .), give that information to the team’s defensive coordinator? “Hey, Jeff, we’re not going to draft another quarterback (then again . . .), but in case we think you should personally have this phone number.”
Second, the facts obliterate any suggestion that the Falcons gave the number to Ulbrich. The league gave the number to Ulbrich, by sending him an email that had one piece of information — Shedeur Sander’s new phone number.
The league sent the email to the same group that receives the daily transaction report, commonly known as the waiver wire. As one source told us on Wednesday night, even the equipment managers received the email with Sanders’s new number.
Another high-level source with a team other than the Falcons estimated that 60 people per team receive those emails. Another source who previously had a high-level position with a team other than the Falcons estimated that it’s more than 60.
So we’ll go with 60. Given that there are 32 teams in the league, that’s 1,920 people.
The league got lucky in this case, given that social-media activity pointed to Ulbrich’s 21-year-old son. By Sunday, the Falcons had issued a statement acknowledging that Ulbrich had been the source of the leak.
Here’s where things become interesting. Possibly delicate. Then again, how delicate can it be? We know Ulbrich failed to secure his iPad. We know that Ulbrich’s 21-year-old son obtained and used the number to prank Sanders.
If, of course, Ulbrich’s version is fully and completely accurate.
Consider the official explanation. Jax Ulbrich “unintentionally came across” the number “off an open iPad” that he saw while visiting his parents’ home. And when he “unintentionally” happened to notice an open iPad that just so happened to have, of all possible communications, an April 23 email containing Sanders’s phone number, what did he do? Did he keep walking? No, he decided in that very moment to “wr[i]te the number down to later conduct a prank call.”
It’s a chain of events that would seem to be too convenient or contrived if it happened in a movie or a TV show. And now that the matter has been resolved by the league, there’s no way of knowing whether it’s true and correct that an innocent glance at an open iPad morphed in the literal blink of an eye into a devious plan to prank call Shedeur Sanders.
Yes, it was stupid to make the call. (Speaking as a former 21-year-old, 21-year-olds often do stupid things.) It quite possibly would have gone unnoticed but for the apparent fact that Jax Ulbrich could be seen in the video of the prank call being made. Which was also very stupid.
How else did the stupidity on stupidity manifest itself here? Given the facts, it’s fair to wonder. Was it really an innocent glance at an open iPad, or was it something else?
For example, did Jax Ulbrich have access to his dad’s iPad or email? (If so, it’s safe to say he doesn’t now.)
With nearly 2,000 people getting the number, the stupidity that infested the entire situation could have resulted in a very stupid belief that it would be easier to get away with it, since so many people had the number. And that, given the number of people who had the number, it wouldn’t be a big deal if someone(s) decided to have a little harmless fun. (Even if it wasn’t harmless.)
Here’s the point. The NFL sent that number to nearly 2,000 people. The NFL created the opportunity for whatever happened to happen. And it happened.
And so, if the NFL is going to fine the Falcons and Ulbrich for this, the NFL should fine itself, too.
In the aftermath of the NFL’s decision to fine the Falcons $250,000 and defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich $100,000 “for failing to prevent the disclosure of confidential information distributed to the club in advance of the NFL Draft,” the NFL has created the impression that the Falcons, not the league, gave Shedeur Sanders’s phone number to Ulbrich.
That is not what occurred.
The league sent the information directly to Ulbrich. Here’s what happened.
The process began with the league sending a memo on Wednesday, April 23, to all General Managers, head coaches, player personnel directors, and club IT directors with a list of 45 player phone numbers: 16 who were personally attending the draft, 24 (including Sanders) who were participating virtually, and five who were part of the 2025 International Player Pathway Program and who would be in Green Bay for the draft. The memo was marked “Confidential” at the top.
If that was the final communication that contained Sanders’s number, the notion that the Falcons created the problem by sharing the information with Ulbrich would hold water. However, the NFL sent a separate email after the “confidential” memo was distributed. The email was, for some reason, sent to all of the recipients of the NFL’s daily transaction report. That group includes all coaches and assistant coaches.
In other words, the NFL sent the email to Ulbrich. PFT has obtained the email. It does not use the word “confidential.”
The email, sent on April 23 to “All Waivers [NFL League]” said this: “Sheadeur [sic] Sanders has informed the NFL Player Personnel Department that he has a new cell phone number beginning today.” The email then identifies the new number.
Given that Ulbrich’s son reached Sanders, common sense says he used (wait for it) the new number. Which makes sense, since Ulbrich got the email that included one, and only one, number — the new number for Shedeur Sanders.
So, basically, ignore any effort by the NFL to spread the word via captive and/or favorable reporters that the Falcons deserve the blame for choosing to share confidential information with Ulbrich. Ulbrich got it straight from the league, thanks to the email that was sent to far more people than those that needed to know it.
Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich made his first public comments about the prank call made to Shedeur Sanders during the draft.
Ulbrich’s 21-year-old son Jax took Sanders’s phone number, which was provided by the NFL, off of his father’s unsecured iPad with the intent of facilitating a call that purported to be from the Saints about drafting Sanders. The NFL announced on Wednesday that Ulbrich has been fined $100,000 and the Falcons have been fined $250,000 for failing to secure the information.
“First of all, I’d like to publicly apologize to Shedeur and the Sanders family for what occurred,” Ulbrich said in a statement at the start of a press conference. “Second of all, I want to publicly apologize to Mr. Blank, Terry Fontenot, Raheem Morris, and the entire Falcons organization. My actions in not protecting confidential data were inexcusable. My son’s actions were absolutely inexcusable and for that we are both deeply sorry. The NFL has taken action and I fully respect the punishment. We take full responsibility — my son and myself — and we will not appeal the fine in any way. Going forward, I promise my son and I will work hard to demonstrate we are better than this.”
Ulbrich, who was hired earlier this year after serving as the Jets’ interim head coach, said that Sanders and his family were “more gracious than they needed to be” in accepting his apology.
A prank call has resulted in a very real punishment for the Falcons and defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich.
The NFL has announced that it has fined the team $250,000 and Ulbrich $100,000 “for failing to prevent the disclosure of confidential information distributed to the club in advance of the NFL Draft.”
Said the Falcons: “We appreciate the NFL’s swift and thorough review of last week’s data exposure and the event that transpired due to it. We were proactive in addressing the situation internally and cooperated fully with the league throughout the process, and accept the discipline levied to Coach Jeff Ulbrich and the organization. We are confident in our security policies and practices and will continue to emphasize adherence to them with our staff whether on or off premises. Additionally, the Ulbrich family is working with the organization to participate in community service initiatives in relation to last week’s matter.”
On one hand, the NFL had to do something about the Shedeur Sanders prank call. It was a very bad look for the league, the Falcons, and Ulbrich that he allowed an “open iPad” to be seen by his 21-year-old son, who took down Sanders’s phone number with the specific intent of making a prank call.
Also, and as recently mentioned, it underscores the importance of safeguarding confidential information. Especially since confidential information about injuries, game plans, etc. can become very valuable in the context of gambling.
On the other hand, the NFL distributed Sanders’s updated number far more broadly than needed. It went to the same recipients who get the daily transaction wire. All coaches (including assistants). Multiple personnel people.
This is the kind of stuff that should be distributed on a need-to-know basis only. Ulbrich did not need to know it.
Some thought the Falcons would get lenience because of Rich McKay’s role as chairman of the Competition Committee. And maybe they did. It’s impossible to know without knowing what the NFL would have done if another team had done it.
It’s safe to say that, if it happens again, the punishment will be worse. That said, the NFL can (and should) tighten its own procedures in order to keep it from happening again.
The Falcons have made a decision on receiver Drake London.
Atlanta will exercise London’s fifth-year option, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
London was the No. 8 overall pick of the 2022 draft out of USC. He was the lone remaining top-10 pick from that class whose team had not made it publicly known whether or not the fifth-year option was being picked up.
London is now set to receive a fully guaranteed $16.817 million in 2026.
The young wideout reached 1,000 yards for the first time in 2024, catching 100 passes for 1,271 yards with nine touchdowns.
In 50 career games, he’s recorded 241 receptions for 3,042 yards with 15 TDs.
The deadline to pick up fifth-year options on the rookie contracts of the 2022 first-round draft picks is Thursday.
Only one top-10 pick from that draft class — Falcons receiver Drake London — has not had a decision made about his fifth-year option. Seven top-10 picks will have their fifth-year option exercised; Texans cornerback Derek Stingley Jr. already has signed a long-term extension; and the Giants are declining the fifth-year option of offensive lineman Evan Neal.
London would receive a fully guaranteed $16.817 million for 2026 if the Falcons exercise the fifth-year option.
Falcons General Manager Terry Fontenot recently said the team hasn’t made a decision but spoke glowingly about the receiver.
“We’ll keep those discussions private, but you know how we feel about Drake,” Fontenot said, via Terrin Waack of the team website. “He’s a stud and stud on the field. He’s everything we’re about. Just like we’re just talking about being obsessed with the game. Obviously, he’s a good man off the field, but he blacks out when it’s time to play and when it’s time to compete, and he will do anything he can to rip your face off and win the game. That’s who he is, and that’s what we want. We don’t want just guys that are going to come in and be great, and off the field just kind of be OK. We want dudes when we lose, they’re angry and they’re not OK, and they don’t sleep well when we’re losing. That’s the kind of guy he is. We’ll take a lot like that heart that Drake has. If you could do heart transplants and do it to everybody, then we’ll be in good shape.”
London, the eighth overall pick in 2022, had a career year last season with 100 receptions for 1,271 yards and nine touchdowns.
The 2025 draft has come and gone. Quarterback Kirk Cousins remains on the Falcons’ roster.
Appearing with Adam Schein of SiriusXM Mad Dog Radio on Tuesday, Falcons G.M. Terry Fontenot addressed the status of the former starter who has been supplanted by Michael Penix Jr., including specifically whether he’ll be traded.
“We have to be patient there and we always we’re open with not just talking about Kirk, but with really anybody on our roster,” Fontenot said. “You know, we have a lot of those calls with — I’ve probably talked to already six or seven GMs, since the draft ended, and they’re talking about their roster. We’re talking about our roster because after you get through the draft, that shifts some things in terms of needs and surplus and all that.
“And so we’re always patient with those types of things because if something comes to us with Kirk or any other player that makes sense and it’s going to help this team, then we’re going to be aggressive and we’re going to do it. And if it’s not something that’s going to ultimately help this team, we always have to ask that question: Is it the best for the Atlanta Falcons or this organization? And if it is, we’re going to be willing to do it. But all that communication is always ongoing.”
There’s currently no obvious spot for Cousins to be a starter. Cleveland has five quarterbacks. The Steelers expect Aaron Rodgers to sign with them, eventually. Every other team has its 2025 starter in the building.
We made the case last week for waiting. The Falcons, and Cousins, currently have little leverage. One injury could change everything.
It happened in 2011, when Carson Palmer decided he was done with the Bengals and the Bengals did nothing about it and, two days before the trade deadline, Raiders starter Jason Campbell suffered a broken collarbone. Boom, problem solved.
Cousins isn’t agitating for a trade. He’ll be a good soldier. And, ultimately, he holds a no-trade clause. Why be the backup somewhere else when he can stay where he is? He’s getting $27.5 million, either way.
At last word, the Falcons reportedly wanted a new team to assume $20 million of Cousins’s remaining $37.5 million in guarantees. (Fontenot denied that a specific number has been applied to the negotiations.) If a team loses its starter for the season, that team might decide to pay it all.
Remember when the Vikings lost Teddy Bridgewater in late August, nine years ago? They instantly became desperate enough to send a first-round pick and a fourth-pound pick to the Eagles for Sam Bradford.
Circumstances can change. The Falcons and Cousins would be wise to wait and see if they do. Especially since the current circumstances involve no takers for Cousins as a potential starter.
