Edge rusher Abdul Carter didn’t do any on-field work during Penn State’s Pro Day workout on Friday, but he still tried to make his case to be the first overall pick in this year’s draft.
While quarterback Cam Ward is seen as the likeliest choice to go first overall whether the Titans hold onto the pick or if they deal it to another club, Carter was asked why he thought his name should the first one called from the stage in Green Bay next month. Carter cited his versatility, his knack for making big plays in the biggest moments, and his ability to “make people around me better” as reasons why he can provide teams with the same kind of impact as a quarterback.
“Those great defensive players, you look in the history, they can impact the game just as much as a quarterback,” Carter said, via Brooke Pryor of ESPN.com. “There’s been defensive players who’ve taken over a game right at the end of Super Bowl in those playoffs scenes where you really need that great defensive player and he also makes people around him better. So I feel like just saying that, seeing how defensive players can take over a game, we’re just like a quarterback.”
Carter’s argument may not change anyone’s plans at the top of the first round, but he probably isn’t going to have to wait long to hear his name.
Edge rusher Abdul Carter won’t be working out at Penn State’s Pro Day on Friday, but he will be spending some time with a team picking at the top of the draft.
Albert Breer of SI.com reports that Carter will meet with members of the Giants organization in State College. The Giants pick third in this year’s draft and they lessened the need to take a quarterback with that pick by signing Russell Wilson this week.
Carter had dinner with Browns owner Jimmy Haslam and General Manager Andrew Berry on Thursday night. The Browns hold the second pick and Carter has also visited with the Titans, who own the first overall selection.
A shoulder ailment is the reason why Carter won’t be working out, but there’s been no indication that the issue will impact his readiness for the start of the 2025 season.
Signs continue to point to the Browns taking Penn State defensive end Abdul Carter with the second overall pick in the 2025 NFL draft.
Carter had dinner last night with Browns owner Jimmy Haslam, General Manager Andrew Berry, Executive Vice President JW Johnson and other team officials, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.
It’s at least the second time Carter has met with the Browns; he previously visited the team facility.
The betting odds have Carter as a strong -270 favorite to go second overall in the draft, with Miami quarterback Cam Ward a huge -1600 favorite to go first overall to the Titans. If Carter doesn’t go No. 2 overall, other possibilities include Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders (+275 odds), Colorado cornerback/wide receiver Travis Hunter (+400) and Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart (+2800).
It’s not a lock that Carter will go to Cleveland, but it’s a growing consensus that he’s the pick, and that the Browns will hope a defensive end tandem of Carter and Myles Garrett gives them a pass rush that the rest of the league fears.
Myles Garrett claimed he wanted to play for a contender, requesting a trade, until the Browns offered him a record extension for a non-quarterback. He signed the four-year extension that averages $40 million per season.
The Browns, though, won’t be a contender until they get a quarterback.
Kenny Pickett is the only healthy quarterback on their roster currently.
“Any team that’s going to go far needs a quarterback and one that’s young, can learn, and is willing to be patient with the process,” Garrett told Browns Radio Network, via video from Content Browns. “There’s going to be some bumps in the road. It’s going to be some learning pains. But us as a team has to be able to be a landing pad for him, and know being on the defensive side, help him out whenever things go wrong.”
Russell Wilson visited the Browns before picking the Giants. So, the Browns could end up with a rookie as their starter.
They draft second, behind the Titans, and sent a contingent that includes owner Jimmy Haslam, General Manager Andrew Berry and head coach Kevin Stefanski to work out University of Miami quarterback Cam Ward.
Ward, though, is the betting favorite to go No. 1 overall.
So, the Browns could have Pickett or another veteran as their starter in 2025.
“That’s not for just a young quarterback. That’s for veterans and guys who’ve been here for a while,” Garrett said of help from the rest of the team. “So as far as quarterbacks, whether it’s one from the draft or an older guy, they have some help not only in their room but from some of the veterans.”
Teams attending Penn State’s Pro Day on Friday will not get to see one of the top prospects in this year’s draft class in action.
Via Adam Schefter of ESPN, agent Drew Rosenhaus said edge rusher Abdul Carter will not work out during tomorrow’s event.
“He is still finishing up rehab on the shoulder injury he had from the Boise State game,” Rosenhaus told Schefter. “He may still do a workout for teams sometime in mid-April.”
Carter, 21, was the Big Ten defensive player of the year in 2024, finishing the season with 12.0 sacks and 24 tackles for loss in 16 games. He also recorded four passes defended and two forced fumbles.
He is widely expected to be a top-five pick in next month’s draft, if not one of the top two selections.
The NFL will play seven regular-season games outside the United States in 2025.
Although the league has discussed as many as eight international games, the NFL confirmed that the seven teams that have already announced they will give up home games to play overseas will be all of them this year.
Three regular-season games will be played in London, with the Browns and Jets giving up home games to play at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and the Jaguars giving up a home game to play at Wembley Stadium.
For the second straight year, the opening Friday of the NFL season will be in Sao Paulo, Brazil, with the Chargers playing a home game at Arena Corinthians.
Germany will host its fourth NFL regular-season game, and for the first time that game will be in Berlin, with the Colts making Olympiastadion their home.
Spain will have its first NFL regular-season game with the Dolphins playing a home game at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid.
And Ireland will get an NFL game for the first time with the Steelers playing at Croke Park in Dublin.
The league is showing no signs of slowing down on its aspirations for international growth, and 2026 will include the first regular-season game in Melbourne, Australia. It won’t be a surprise if the NFL is eventually playing 16 regular-season games a year outside the United States, with every team in the league traveling overseas once.
The Matt Weiss situation has plenty of NFL tentacles. Some predated the launch of an alleged pattern of obtaining access to sensitive information regarding college students. Some postdated it.
Weiss was working for the Ravens in 2015, when he allegedly began downloading “the personally identifiable information and medical data of more than 150,000 athletes,” including “intimate digital photographs and videos that were never intended to be shared beyond intimate partners.” It allegedly continued for the remainder of his employment with the Ravens, through 2020.
The Ravens did not respond to a request for comment on Weiss, whose investigation and indictment happened following his time with the team.
After the investigation began in January 2023, Weiss secured contract work with a pair of NFL franchises. In Seattle, it happened in 2024. In 2023, he worked as a contractor with the Browns.
He was, per the Browns, never in the building but did some “one-off” advance projects. He left in 2024 for the Seahawks.
The NFL has not responded to a specific request for comment regarding two teams utilizing Weiss’s services after the investigation culminating in last week’s indictment began.
Cam Ward isn’t the only quarterback who will have private workouts with the Titans and Browns.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that Shedeur Sanders is set for workouts with the teams holding the top two picks in the draft as well. The workouts are slated to take place after the University of Colorodo’s Pro Day on April 4.
Ward worked out for the Browns on Wednesday and is set to work out for the Titans on Thursday.
The general consensus is that Ward is likely to go first overall to the Titans or a team that trades up with them. The Browns hold the second pick and Russell Wilson’s decision to sign with the Giants leaves them short on veteran options to compete with Kenny Pickett for the starting job this year.
That doesn’t mean they’ll be locked in on Sanders, but a strong workout could help his chances of making it two quarterbacks at the top of the 2025 draft.
It’s close enough to April 1 to wonder whether it was all a ruse. It apparently wasn’t. It should have been.
Bruce Drennan, characterized by SI.com as a “longtime Cleveland Sports broadcaster,” has cited a “pretty darn good source within the Browns organization” in support of the notion that the Browns “are negotiating as we speak with the Dallas Cowboys for a trade for Dak Prescott.”
It is ridiculous. It is laughable. It should never have been said with a straight face. And it never should have been amplified by SI.com, or by anyone. Other than to say it’s ridiculous and laughable.
It doesn’t require any reporting to show it’s not true. (Nevertheless, multiple reports have shut it down.) It requires only common sense to know that it is, to use a technical term, bullshit.
Here’s the key fact. The Cowboys have already activated their prerogative to turn the bulk of Prescott’s 2025 salary into a guarantee. Given the cap consequences of doing that — as opposed to simply trading away his base salary without conversion — there’s no way they would do it. Period. The end. Finito.
By converting most of Prescott’s salary into a bonus, the Cowboys have pushed $36.6 million in cap space into future years. If they trade him now, it all crashes back into the 2025 cap. Put simply, if the Cowboys were going to trade him, they shouldn’t have (and wouldn’t have) restructured the deal.
As it stands, Prescott as a cap number of $52.974 million for 2025. (He also has a no-trade clause.) If the Cowboys trade Prescott before June 1, another $97.356 million would hit the cap in 2025. That would push the total cap charge to $150.33 million.
So there’s the answer. It’s NOT happening. It can’t happen. If it were ever going to happen, it would have happened before the Cowboys converted $45.75 million of Prescott’s 2025 salary into a bonus, avoiding another $36.6 million in 2025 cap charges.
Even without the restructuring, it would have been a very remote possibility. With the restructuring, it’s an impossibility. And anyone who would suggest otherwise is exposing their complete lack of knowledge or understanding regarding the way NFL contracts work.
Wide receiver James Proche is on his way to Tennessee.
Proche announced on Instagram that he has agreed to sign with the Titans. There has been no word regarding the terms of his deal with the AFC South club.
Proche played in 19 games and made one start for the Browns over the last two seasons. He had three catches for 21 yards and returned 49 punts during his time in Cleveland. He averaged nine yards per return in that role.
The Ravens selected Proche in the sixth round of the 2020 draft. He had 25 catches for 278 yards in 53 games for the Ravens.
