The Giants are done waiting on Aaron Rodgers.
With Rodgers visiting Pittsburgh on Friday, the Giants have signed veteran quarterback Jameis Winston. Winston has confirmed the NFL Media report.
He joined Tommy DeVito as the only two quarterbacks on the Giants’ roster. They’ll surely add more, possibly through the draft.
Winston recently visited the Giants, along with veterans Russell Wilson and Joe Flacco.
The first pick in the 2015 draft, Winston spent five years with the Buccaneers, four with the Saints, and one with the Browns. He has 105 regular-season appearances with 87 starts. His record as a starter is 36-51.
Winston has thrown 154 touchdown passes, with 111 interceptions.
He has become an engaging and colorful personality. He might be the kick in the ass the Giants need.
The move most likely removed the Giants from the running for Aaron Rodgers, limiting his option to the Steelers, maybe the Vikings, and possibly retirement.
The Browns traded for Kenny Pickett earlier this month, but they are expected to continue adding to the quarterback position in the coming weeks.
They could add a veteran option like Russell Wilson, they could pick up a rookie early in next month’s draft or do both as they move forward without any plans for Deshaun Watson to be a factor due to his twice-torn Achilles. The Browns have the second overall pick to use on a quarterback, but they also have the 33rd overall selection and seven other picks to use as trade chips that open up different paths toward adding a potential quarterback of the future.
Louisville’s Tyler Shough could be at the end of one of those paths and Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com reports he is scheduled to visit with the team in Cleveland. Shough has also spoken with the Steelers.
Shough spent three seasons at Oregon and three seasons at Texas Tech before playing at Louisville in 2024, so his experience will likely be seen as a plus after Jayden Daniels and Bo Nix took similar routes through college ahead of strong rookie seasons. Slough wasn’t as successful throughout his time on the college level, but the need for quarterbacks gives him a good chance of coming off the board before the second night of the draft is over.
Linebacker Jerome Baker’s search for a new team has taken him to Cleveland.
Mike Garafolo of NFL Media reports that Baker is visiting with the Browns. The Browns have also signed guard Teven Jenkins and cornerback Tony Brown on Thursday.
Baker began last season with the Seahawks and started the first five games of the year before being traded to the Titans. He appeared in five more games for Tennessee and finished the year with 61 tackles, two sacks, a forced fumble, and a fumble recovery across the two stops.
Baker spent his first six seasons with the Dolphins and had 587 tackles, 22.5 sacks, five interceptions, six forced fumbles, and a fumble recovery during his time in Miami.
Cornerback Tony Brown will remain a member of the Cleveland Browns.
The team announced on Thursday that Brown has signed a new contract with the team. They did not disclose the terms of the deal.
Brown signed a one-year contract with Cleveland last year and appeared in six games during the regular season. He played 136 special teams snaps in those games and recorded five tackles and a forced fumble in that role.
Brown spent time with the Colts, Bengals and Packers prior to joining the Browns in 2024. He had 75 tackles, an interception, a sack, seven passes defensed, and three forced fumbles in 61 games for those teams.
One of the NFL’s top available free agent offensive linemen is heading to Cleveland.
Former Bears guard Teven Jenkins is signing with the Browns, according to Jordan Schultz of Fox Sports.
Jenkins was a 2021 second-round pick of the Bears and played out his rookie contract in Chicago. The Bears decided to move on, largely because of concerns about Jenkins’ ability to stay healthy, but when he’s on the field Jenkins is a solid contributor to the offensive line.
Last year Jenkins started 14 games and missed three for the Bears.
Jenkins is No. 69 on our list of the Top 100 free agents.
Thirty years after the Browns left Cleveland because they couldn’t get a new stadium, the Browns are attacking the law that was passed to keep the Browns from leaving Cleveland in order to get a new stadium.
Dueling pieces of litigation are pending over the Art Modell Law, aimed at preventing a repeat of the team leaving town.
Via the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Browns have asked to amend their pending lawsuit. It’s a basic procedural step that is routinely granted.
The Browns continue to attack the Modell Law as unconstitutional. The team’s overriding goal is to move to suburban Brook Park.
The Modell Law requires the team to provide six months’ notice before leaving town, with residents having a chance to buy the team.
Although it’s important for the city and the team to coexist, the lawyers are talking tough — as lawyers often do.
“Our actions in court are intended to ensure that the city’s irresponsible and baseless attempt to apply the Modell Law to the Browns does not slow our momentum to build a world-class stadium right here in Northeast Ohio for the Browns, our fans and the entire Ohio region,” Haslam Sports Group’s chief administrative officer and general counsel Ted Tywang said in a statement issued to the Plain Dealer.
The Browns filed suit in federal court. The City of Cleveland filed suit in state court. The Browns view federal court, where the judge is appointed for life and not subject to an election, as the preferred forum. The city sees state court, where the judge is accountable to the ballot box, as the better place for the case to be resolved.
Via the Plain Dealer, the Browns have attacked the city’s lawsuit as “legally meritless and fiscally irresponsible.” (That’s how the game is played; every civil defendant sees every case filed against it as meritless or frivolous.)
The team also has accused the Browns of attempting to “run out the clock so the Browns are unable to bring the Brook Park stadium to fruition by 2029, and so hold the team, its fans and the community hostage to an inferior alternative and the political whims of city managers.”
Even if the Browns manage to circumvent the Modell Law, they still need to strike a deal for public financing for a domed stadium at Brook Park. And they need to make it happen without the issue being put out to vote, because the citizens of very few if any cities, counties, or states would vote at this point to devote taxpayer funds to the construction of stadiums for sports teams with values approaching, if not exceeding, $10 billion.
The Browns are signing wide receiver/returner DeAndre Carter to a one-year deal, Jordan Schultz of Fox Sports reports. Carter will receive nearly $800,000 guaranteed.
Carter, who turns 32 next month, played 13 games for the Bears last season. He saw action on 137 offensive snaps and 106 on special teams, catching nine passes for 72 yards and averaging 9.3 yards on 17 punt returns and 31.9 yards on 15 kickoff returns.
Carter entered the NFL in 2015 but didn’t see playing time until 2018. Since then, he has played games with the Eagles, Texans, Bears, Commanders, Chargers and Raiders.
Carter has appeared in 107 games with 21 starts and has 117 catches for 1,331 yards and six touchdowns. He has averaged 9.7 yards on 149 punt returns and 23.5 yards on 133 kickoff returns.
Could Carson Wentz be on his way to Cleveland?
According to one Wednesday report, it could happen if the right dominoes fall.
Per Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com, Wentz and the Browns “definitely have mutual interest” if the team does not end up signing quarterback Russell Wilson.
Wentz, 32, would effectively be a bridge quarterback for Cleveland. The team also traded for Kenny Pickett earlier this month, and he’d be an option for the club at that position as well.
The Browns hosted Wilson for a free-agent visit last week. But he has also met with the Giants.
Several regimes ago, the Browns had a chance to select Wentz in the 2016 draft. But the club elected to trade the No. 2 overall pick to the Eagles instead.
Wentz spent last season with the Chiefs, appearing in three regular-season games — one against the Browns — with one start. He completed 12-of-19 passes for 118 yards.
After spending his first five seasons with Philadelphia, Wentz has played for the Colts, Commanders, Rams, and Chiefs over the last four years.
The NFL released the list of team-proposed changes to playing rules and bylaws on Wednesday and they include a proposal made by several clubs to change procedures used for footballs used in the kicking game.
Current rules call for those balls — known as K-Balls — to be prepared by teams during a 60-minute window on the day of games with three such balls being delivered to officials for use that day.
In the proposal, the Ravens, Browns, Texans, Eagles, Raiders, Vikings, and Commanders argue that the process “continues to put stress on NFL equipment staffs during the critical pregame period on game days” and calls for a change that would allow the balls to be prepared ahead of time.
NFL rules currently allow for balls used outside of the kicking game to be prepared in advance. The proposal adds that the same pregame inspection process would be applied to both sets of footballs in order to assure that no team is manipulating the balls to their advantage.
Any changes would need to be approved in a vote of all 32 teams with 24 votes needed to pass.
It seems inevitable that the NFL will expand the regular season from 17 to 18 games. The momentum is sufficiently strong that at least one team has accounted for the possibility in a recent player contract.
The Myles Garrett agreement with the Browns, a copy of which PFT has obtained and reviewed, expressly addresses the possibility of an expanded regular season.
At page 7, in the provision regarding per-game roster bonuses, the contract explains that Garrett will be entitled to up to $1 million per year, divided by the number of games for which he’s on the active, game-day roster.
“If there is a change in the number of regular season games, the per game bonus will change by dividing the maximum total bonus amount by the number of regular season games in that specific season,” the contract explains. “By way of example, if there is an eighteen (18) game season then Player would earn $55,555.55 on a per game basis.”
The Garrett contract also anticipates another potential change, regarding the number of players on the game-day roster. “If the active list number is changed, that active list number will be used to determine if the bonus is earned on a per game basis,” the contract states.
It’s widely believed that an extra regular-season game could result in expansion of the total roster and the game-day maximum number of players in uniform.
It’s not the first time the Browns have anticipated an eventual move to 18 games. Last year, they proposed a two-week delay in the trade deadline — one week for the change from 16 games to 17, and another in anticipation of the move to 18 games. (The owners adopted a one-week delay.)
There’s no doubt another game is coming. The question is whether the NFL and the NFL Players Association strike a deal before the current Collective Bargaining Agreement expires, or whether the NFL gets what it wants in the next labor deal, under threat of a lockout.
