The NFL’s young quarterbacks aren’t so young anymore.
Baker Mayfield, the first overall pick in the 2018 draft, turns 30 today. (Happy birthday.) Others aren’t far behind.
Within the next 21 months, the top four quarterbacks in the NFL will exit their twenties. First up is Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, on September 17. Next will be Bills quarterback Josh Allen, on May 21 of next year.
Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow gets there next, on December 10, 1996. Less than a month later, Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson arrives in Club 30.
All five are in their prime. All five will keep achieving at a high level. Four of them are chasing their first Super Bowl win.
And while Mayfield isn’t in the same category as the other four, he’s closer than most realize. And the Buccaneers are quietly loaded for another potential division title — and maybe plenty more.
The first rule of Tank Club is don’t talk about Tank Club. In more ways than one.
Teams shouldn’t talk about it while they’re doing it. And the league prefers that it never be discussed after it has happened. Or after it hasn’t happened and the implications of it not happening become obvious.
Entering the final weekend of the 2024 regular season, the Patriots would have secured the first pick in the 2025 draft with a loss. Given the timing of the firing of coach Jerod Mayo (i.e., within an hour or so after the game ended), the decision to wipe the slate clean had been made.
And so, for the Patriots, a win would have meant nothing. A loss would have meant everything.
In the days preceding the draft, rumors were rampant that the Bills wanted to lose the game. That the Bills wanted to keep the Patriots from getting the first overall pick in the draft.
It wasn’t just pettiness from the Bills. They were protecting themselves against the Patriots parlaying the top pick into a player who might be a problem for the Bills, twice per year, for years to come.
Both teams seemingly tried to not win. The Patriots went with Joe Milton III at quarterback. (Starter Drake Maye was questionable with a hand injury.) The Bills, who had nailed down the No. 2 seed and had nothing to gain or to lose, benched quarterback Josh Allen for Mitch Trubisky. Late in the third quarter, after the Patriots took a 17-16 lead, Trubisky took a seat for third-stringer Mike White.
Mission accomplished, for Buffalo. Pats win. Bills lose. And New England’s potential clinching of the first pick in the draft melted into the reality of the fourth overall selection.
As the draft inches closer, the consequences of that game become more clear. The Patriots could have secured a massive haul of picks and/or players by trading down from the No. 1 spot to a team that covets Miami quarterback Cam Ward. Or New England could have stayed there, taking Colorado cornerback/receiver Travis Hunter or Penn State edge rusher Abdul Carter.
Instead, the Patriots will get none of those things. No windfall for trading down from No. 1. No Travis Hunter. No Abdul Carter. All because they won when they shouldn’t have.
Some coaches firmly believe that tanking in all forms has very real consequences to the overall culture and psyche of a program. That losing breeds more losing, and winning breeds more winning. In this specific instance, however, a win by the Patriots — at a time when they already planned to fire their head coach — kept them from securing the kind of boost they won’t get as a result of winning. And it’s one of the most critical realities of late-season games for teams that have no shot at the playoffs.
In many situations, it makes far more sense to lose than to win. For the league, it makes perfect sense to ignore it completely. In an age of widespread legalized gambling, it’s more important than ever that the NFL sell the notion that every team is trying its damnedest to win every game. (Even when it isn’t.)
After the meaningless Week 18 win, the Patriots finished the 2024 season at 4-13 instead of 3-14. Who cares? They also ended without the first overall pick in the draft. Every Patriots fan should care about that. Because it has kept the franchise from having a potential franchise-altering moment if it could have traded down from No. 1 — or if it could have landed Hunter or Carter.
After former NFL cornerback Vontae Davis’ unexpected passing, Vernon Davis said his brother’s death was a mystery. It remains that way more than a year later.
The Broward County Medical Examiner released its autopsy report on Davis on Friday, listing the cause of death as “undetermined,” per Hal Habib of The Palm Beach Post.
Davis was found unresponsive at his grandmother’s home in South Florida on April 1, 2024. Vernon Davis has said Vontae collapsed after getting out of the sauna.
Police said foul play was not suspected.
Vontae was 35 years old.
The Dolphins made him a first-round pick in 2009, and he was in his 10th season when he abruptly retired during a game with the Bills. He spent six seasons in Indianapolis, earning two Pro Bowls.
Last season, Josh Allen was named NFL MVP for the first time of his career as the Bills won a fifth straight AFC East division title. However, Buffalo was unable to get past Kansas City in the playoffs, losing against the Chiefs by three points in the AFC Championship Game. It was the fourth time in the past five seasons that the Bills were eliminated by Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs in the playoffs, a trend the Bills will be looking to end in 2025 as they look to reach the Super Bowl for the first time since the 1993 season.
Led by one of the highest-scoring offenses in the NFL last season, Buffalo will likely look to add to the defense in the draft. The Bills have two picks in the second round this season, including one acquired from Houston in the Stefon Diggs trade last offseason. However, they do not have a third-round pick after sending their selection to Cleveland in part of the midseason trade for Amari Cooper last October.
Buffalo Bills 2025 NFL Draft Picks
Round 1: No. 30
Round 2: No. 56 (from MIN via HOU)
Round 2: No. 62
Round 4: No. 109 (from CHI)
Round 4: No. 132
Round 5: No. 169 (Compensatory)
Round 5. No. 170 (from DAL; Compensatory)
Round 5: No. 173
Round 6: No. 177 (from NYG)
Round 6: No. 206
James Cook put his house up for sale not long after Bills General Manager Brandon Beane declared contract talks on hold.
The running back has a $5.3 million salary for 2025, the last year of his rookie deal, and he has made it know he’s looking for at least $15 million per year.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that things are “not great” between Cook and the Bills, which seems obvious given the for sale sign in Cook’s yard. But Rapoport adds that Cook “will play for the Bills next [season].”
While the Bills want Cook signed long term, that seems unlikely at the moment given Cook and the team seemingly have a wide gap to close in negotiations.
The Bills made Cook a second-round pick in 2022, and he has two 1,000-yard seasons, two Pro Bowls and, in 2024, he scored 16 rushing touchdowns. He is only 25 and currently headed toward free agency in 2026.
The Green Bay tush push proposal was tabled until May. And it’s likely to return in a very different form.
The Packers’ original proposal (which may or may not have been instigated by the league office, like the Lions’ playoff reseeding proposal) was badly flawed. It prevented an “immediate” push of the player who received the snap. Which, if it had passed, would have opened a can of worms regarding officiating consistency as to what is and isn’t “immediate.”
The most obvious fallback, as mentioned last week by Commissioner Roger Goodell (who seems to want the rule to change), is a return to the pre-2006 rulebook. More recently, Packers president Mark Murphy mentioned it as the likely alternative.
In those days, pushing and pulling of the ballcarrier was prohibited. The league removed the ban on pushing a teammate, because it was never called. (As we understand it, assisting the runner — by pushing or pulling — has not been called since a 1994 divisional round playoff game between the Bills and the Chiefs. During the 2024 postseason, we reported that the league would not instruct officials to call fouls for pulling a runner, given that it hasn’t been called.)
As one source with knowledge of the dynamics explained it, however, the 2006 adjustment happened as part of a broader set of changes to the rules regarding blocking. Simply prohibiting pushing without making other adjustments to the blocking rules could have, as the source put it, unintended consequences.
Frankly, it’s unnecessary to prevent a downfield shove. While it’s regarded as unnecessary roughness for a player to charge down the field and barrel into his teammate with the ball (it’s called, we’re told, five or six times per year), there’s no specific concern about a teammate pushing a teammate with the ball spontaneously.
The best approach could be to ban pushing in limited circumstances. Basically, within the tackle box and/or five yards (or some other specific distance) on either side of the line of scrimmage.
The problem is that the league doesn’t want to create the impression that it’s changing the rules to target one specific team. But we all know that’s what’s happening. Why play games with it?
If it’s a safety risk and/or aesthetically problematic, cut with a scalpel and not a chainsaw. Green Bay’s proposal from last week, bad as it was, started the conversation. The best way to finish it, if Goodell is able to twist 24 arms, is to make a change that focuses on the technique that causes concern, without trying to fix unrelated maneuvers (like a downfield push) that aren’t broken.
There’s an ongoing assault against the tush push. And one of the reasons for removing it from the rulebook is player safety. If so, it’s fair to know what the players think.
It became clear last week that the tush-push opponents are pointing to two things: safety and aesthetics. On the former, there’s no injury data to support that it presents a heightened risk of injury. It’s all hypothetical and speculative.
And incomplete.
What does the NFL Players Association think about the tush push? On Monday afternoon, the union declined to comment on any internal discussions about the play.
Regardless, if it’s truly a safety issue, the union should be involved. The union needs to be involved. If the union isn’t involved, it looks like it’s not a safety issue. It looks like safety is being used as a pretext to remove the play from the game.
Maybe the NFL hasn’t involved the union in the analysis because the league fears the union would say something like this: Since there’s no data to support that it’s an unacceptable injury risk, we’re OK with it; why aren’t you?
Cornerback Shavon Revel has lined up several pre-draft visits for this week.
Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reports that Revel will will visit the Bills, Colts, and Vikings in the coming days. Revel is seen as a possible first-round pick and is expected to be off the board on the second night of the draft if he doesn’t go that early.
Revel’s ranking on draft boards has been affected by a knee injury he suffered while playing for East Carolina last season. Revel is due for a medical recheck while in Indianapolis to visit the Colts, but his doctor has already sent a letter to teams telling them that he has been cleared for conditioning work in the spring and that he should be able to do team work during training camp.
Revel had two interceptions and he returned one of them for a touchdown before his injury. He had 54 tackles, four tackles for loss, an interception and a fumble return for a touchdown during the 2023 season.
The cost of new stadiums keeps going up. The value of NFL franchises keeps going up. The end result is more borrowing by NFL teams that are building new stadiums.
Via Ben Fischer of Sports Business Journal, the NFL’s owners approved a pair of debt moves this week.
First, the Bills got a $650 million debt waiver. The Bills needed the dispensation because they’re responsible for the overages on the $1.4 billion stadium. The current cost of the new Highmark Stadium has reached $2.2 billion.
The Titans separately received approval for an extra $100 million in debt for their new stadium.
The debt for teams building new stadiums will keep going up, because the price of new stadiums is never going to go down.
Especially at a time when many are saying that the price of everything is about to go up.
Former Bills G.M. Doug Whaley has joined the emerging trend of college football programs hiring General Managers.
Sort of.
Via Stephen Thompson of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi said Thursday that Whaley has essentially been operating in the role of G.M. “for a couple of years.”
The program later said that Whaley isn’t employed by the school. He works for Alliance 412, the NIL collective associated with Pitt.
Still, Whaley is doing more than coordinating payments to players. Narduzzi said, for example, that Whaley had been “watching video tape” in the team’s facility on Wednesday.
Whaley is apparently still affiliated with the UFL as well.
Whaley spent a decade with the Steelers before joining the Bills in 2010. He became the G.M. in 2013. He was fired after the 2017 draft. He thereafter joined the XFL, for both its 2020 return and 2023 revival.
