Thursday’s #PFTPM including a simple question: “What are your thoughts on a potential Bills-Rams Super Bowl?”
My thoughts are it could happen, because both teams are firmly in the Super Bowl window.
In any given year, not many teams truly are. And while teams not apparently in the window can, in theory, win their way in, the salary-cap system has matured to the point where some teams have cracked the code — and some teams can’t crack their way out of a paper bag.
It also helps to have drafted and developed a franchise quarterback.
In most years, roughly 10 teams are in the window, roughly 10 teams aren’t, and the remaining 12 could break either way. This year, the AFC’s true short-list contenders are the Chiefs, Bills, Ravens, Bengals, and Texans. The Broncos and Chargers could force their way into the conversation.
In the NFC, it’s the Eagles, Lions, Rams, 49ers, and Commanders. Maybe the Buccaneers. Maybe the Vikings.
Again, things can and will change. That’s why they play the games, as someone once said. All the time.
For those who like a little variety, it would be nice for someone other than the Chiefs to get a turn in the Super Bowl. And for someone other than the Eagles, 49ers, or Rams to emerge from the NFC.
Since 2017, it’s been the Eagles three times, the 49ers twice, the Rams twice, and the Bucs once. For the AFC, it’s been only the Patriots, Chiefs, and Bengals.
That’s it. Over eight seasons, seven total franchises have taken the 16 total Super Bowl berths.
Free agency, the salary cap, and a draft process that rewards failure should be enough to mix things up. But the reality is that good teams stay good, and bad teams stay bad.
We’ve recently taken a look at the coaches on the hot seat for 2025. This week, a reader asked the same question as it relates to quarterbacks.
Plenty of them are feeling the heat, or should be, this season. Let’s take a look at each spot, based on the loose arrangement of the conferences and divisions that has been tattooed onto my brain.
Justin Fields, Jets: His contract has $10 million in guarantees that spill into 2026. That’s not enough to guarantee him two years as the starter. He needs to do enough in 2025 to earn 2026 — and beyond.
Tua Tagovailoa, Dolphins: His contract guarantees his pay through 2026. If the Dolphins fall flat and change coaches, the next coach likely will want a fresh start at quarterback. While the cap charges will complicate a split before 2027, every high-end quarterback contract eventually leads to a big cap charge when the relationship ends. The next coach (and the next G.M., if owner Stephen Ross cleans house) may want to rip the Band-Aid off in one motion.
Aaron Rodgers, Steelers: He says he’s pretty sure this is his last year. If he doesn’t play well enough for the Steelers in 2025 and if he wants to keep playing in 2026, the Steelers may give him the same cold shoulder that Russell Wilson got after 2024.
All Browns quarterbacks: With Jacksonville’s first-round pick in their back pocket, the Browns could be in position to get a future franchise quarterback in next year’s draft. That raises the stakes for every quarterback currently on the Cleveland roster. Because there’s a chance none of them will be the starter in 2026.
Daniel Jones and Anthony Richardson, Colts: It already feels like Jones will be the Week 1 starter. He’ll then have a chance to lock the revolving door the Colts have had since Andrew Luck retired. If he doesn’t, the Colts will be looking elsewhere in 2026. As to Richardson, his best play is to play better than he ever has, if and when he gets the chance.
Trevor Lawrence, Jaguars: Every new coach wants his own quarterback, except when the coach inherits a true franchise quarterback. But Tony Dungy landing with Peyton Manning doesn’t happen very often. And it’s not clear whether Lawrence is a short-list franchise quarterback. He was on track to be one as of 2022. The past two years haven’t been good enough, long-term contract notwithstanding. What do coach Liam Coen and G.M. James Gladstone want? If Lawrence doesn’t play better in 2025 than he did in 2024, Lawrence and everyone else may find out in 2026.
Geno Smith, Raiders: He’s being mentioned simply to say he’s not on the hot seat. He has $18.5 million in guarantees for 2026, and his close ties to Pete Carroll will keep Smith around for at least two years. (Unless, of course, a certain minority owner decides otherwise.)
Dak Prescott, Cowboys: He’s probably not on the hot seat, because his $60 million per year contract would wreak havoc on the salary cap if the Cowboys were to cut or trade him (yes, he has a no-trade clause, but he can waive it) in 2026. The complication for the Cowboys is that his $45 million salary for 2027 becomes fully guaranteed on the fifth day of the 2026 league year. They’re basically stuck — all because they waited too long to give him his second contract, and then waited too long to give him his third contract.
Russell Wilson, Giants: If he’s the Week 1 starter (if Jaxson Dart lives up to his first-round draft stock, Wilson shouldn’t be), the clock will be ticking. Immediately. In 2004, the Giants benched Kurt Warner after nine games for Eli Manning, even though the Giants were 5-4 at the time. When Dart is ready, Dart will play. Even if Wilson makes it through 2025 without getting benched, he’ll have to do plenty to keep Dart on the sideline for 2026.
Jordan Love, Packers: He’s not on the hot seat per se, but he needs to play better in 2025 than he did in 2024. If not, he will be on the hot seat in 2026. The wild card in Green Bay is new CEO Ed Policy, who operates as the de facto owner of the team.
J.J. McCarthy, Vikings: He’s getting his shot to play, after a knee injury wiped out his rookie season. Anything other than an outright disaster will ensure his status for 2026. At worst, he’d have to compete with a more established veteran next year.
Tyler Shough, Saints: He’ll need to do enough in 2025 to earn the chance to do well enough in 2026 to get the Saints to not pursue the grandson of Archie Manning in 2027. (And, yes, I think Arch Manning will spend two years as a college starter before entering the draft.)
Bryce Young, Panthers: In year three, he needs to continue the growth he showed late in the 2024 season, in order to secure a fourth season, the fifth-year option, and ideally (for him) a second contract.
Kyler Murray, Cardinals: His contract gives him two more years of financial security. But this is the team that drafted Murray a year after using the 10th overall pick on Josh Rosen (not Lamar Jackson). So who knows what the Cardinals will do if Murray doesn’t propel the team into contention this year?
Sam Darnold, Seahawks: He has a one-year deal, as a practical matter. And the Seahawks seem to really like rookie Jalen Milroe. Darnold will need to play very well to secure his status for 2026.
Matthew Stafford, Rams: It’s not the “hot seat” as much as it’s a mutual understanding that player and team are taking things one year at a time. After the season, both sides will have to recommit. Whether the Rams will want to do that depends on how Stafford plays in 2025, and on their other options for staffing the position in 2026.
That’s a lot of names. But it’s no surprise. There aren’t many true, unquestioned, year-after-year franchise quarterbacks. And the teams that don’t have one are always hoping to find one.
It has created more quarterback movement in recent years than ever before. Plenty of the names listed above will be on the move in 2026.
In the betting odds for the 2025 season, the closest division race appears to be in the NFC West, where the 49ers are the slightest of favorites over the Rams — thanks in large part to the 49ers’ last-place schedule.
The 49ers are currently the betting favorites to win the NFC West at +165, while the Rams are just behind them at +175. Those odds don’t necessarily mean the 49ers are viewed as the better team, however.
It’s also important to note that the injury-riddled 49ers finished last in the NFC West last year and the Rams finished first, which gives the 49ers a big edge in the NFL’s scheduling formula, which determines three opponents for each team.
The scheduling formula means the 49ers get to play the last place teams in the NFC North, NFC East and AFC North from last season. Those teams are the Bears, Giants and Browns. In the early lines, the 49ers are favored in all three of those games.
The Rams play the first-place teams in those divisions, the Lions, Eagles and Ravens. The Rams are underdogs in all three of those games.
In a close division, those three games could be the difference, and could help the 49ers move from worst to first in the NFC West.
Jalen Ramsey is headed to the AFC North.
According to multiple reports, the Steelers have agreed to acquire Ramsey from the Dolphins.
Ramsey confirmed the news with a video posted to social media.
While terms of the deal were not immediately reported, Ramsey is set to receive a $1.5 million raise in 2025 to make his salary $26.6 million.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Media noted that the Rams were another team heavily involved in Ramsey trade talks.
The Dolphins made it known that Ramsey would be available via trade earlier in the offseason and it became clear that the two parties would not reconcile.
Ramsey, 30, started all 17 games for the Dolphins last season, recording two interceptions, 11 passes defensed, and a sack. The three-time All-Pro and seven-time Pro Bowler will now play for his fourth team.
This trade continues an uncharacteristic offseason for the Steelers, who also brought in high-profile players like DK Metcalf, Darius Slay, and most recently quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
Puka Nacua took on a new role as a leader of the Rams’ wide receiver group with Cooper Kupp’s departure this offseason, but that’s not the only change that the team has seen in him since the end of the 2025 campaign.
Nacua has only been in the NFL for two seasons and offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur offered a reminder during the team’s offseason program that the wideout is still growing as a player as he heads into his third year.
“I think if we watched his routes on air from a year ago, I think he’s cutting a little bit better than he was a year ago,” LaFleur said, via the team’s website. “I think he’s breaking down a little bit better. He’s always had incredible hands, that’s an elite skill set of his, on top of toughness and his physicality, but I think he’s even more confident in it.”
While Nacua has moved up the list of longest tenured Rams wideouts, he’s not without a veteran to lean on. Davante Adams joined the team as a free agent and gives the team experience along with a threat who will keep defenders occupied while Nacua tries to turn his increased confidence into points on the field.
Before the Rams and Eagles met in the playoffs, Rams linebacker Jared Verse said he hates Eagles fans. Verse hasn’t backed off from that, but he also respects the passion of the fans who he says scream obscenities at him from the stands.
In an interview with the YouTube channel Whistle, Verse was asked to name the best opposing fan base.
“Probably the Eagles,” Verse answered. “I’ve got to give them that. I like when you kind of get into it, you’re aggressive, you’re loud, and they stand by that with no doubt.”
Verse also said the Eagles are the toughest crowd to play in front of in the NFL.
“Playing the Eagles is like playing your rival in college because you never know what they’re going to say, and they’re going to try to say disrespectful stuff,” Verse said. “They’re going to bring something up. Don’t get me wrong, they’re not going to say anything where it’s like, ‘Bro, you crossed a line,’ but they’re going to say something where you’re like, ‘Hey, who you talking to?’”
Verse will hear it from Eagles fans again in Week Three, when the Rams visit Philadelphia.
The Rams are bringing back a passer who was most recently in the UFL.
Los Angeles is expected to sign Dresser Winn, according to James Larsen of UFLNewsroom.com.
The UFL’s Wednesday transaction wire listed Winn’s contract as being terminated because he was signing with an NFL team.
This will be Winn’s third stint with the Rams. Winn, 26, entered the league with the club back in 2023 but was let go during roster cuts. He came back later in the season on the practice squad after spending time with the CFL’s Edmonton Elks. He was waived again at roster cuts in 2024.
In 2025, Winn started four games for the Memphis Showboats of the UFL. He completed 58.4 percent of his throws for 834 yards with three touchdowns and four interceptions.
Aside from starter Matthew Stafford, the Rams also have Jimmy Garoppolo and Stetson Bennett on their roster at quarterback.
The Rams announced their 2025 training camp schedule.
They will have eight open practices on the campus of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. It marks the second consecutive year the Rams have held camp there.
The practices are free and open to the public, but fans must register and have a valid ticket for entry. Registration to claim a ticket will open at therams.com/trainingcamp on Wednesday at 3 p.m. PT.
Rams season ticket holders will receive early access to claim a limited number of tickets beginning Wednesday at 9 a.m. PT.
The first open practice is Thursday, July 24, at 4:40 p.m. PT, and the last open practice is Sunday, Aug. 3, at 4:40 p.m. PT.
The recent incident involving federal agents attempting to enter the parking lots at Dodgers Stadium has a bright-line connection to other L.A.-area sporting events that will begin in fewer than two months.
SoFi Stadium will be hosting 19 total NFL games featuring the Chargers and the Rams.
Unlike Dodger Stadium, where the gates can be accessed only through a parking-lot area not open to the public, the gates at SoFi Stadium are fully open to the public and not within an area to which access can be denied. Which means that federal agents can, if they choose, gather at the gates to SoFi in search of those who are or who may be authorized to be present in the United States.
It’s still not entirely clear what happened at Dodgers Stadium on Thursday. The team said Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were denied entry to the parking lot. ICE called that claim “false.”
Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told NBC News that Customs and Border Protection vehicles “were in the stadium parking lot very briefly, unrelated to any operation or enforcement.”
That wasn’t the end of the matter. On Friday, the Dodgers donated $1 million to “toward direct financial assistance for families of immigrants impacted by recent events in the region.”
That wrinkle raises an obvious question. Will the other Los Angeles teams follow suit?
Immigration continues to be a hot-button issue, throughout the country. But it’s one thing to secure the border and/or to remove immigrants who have engaged in documented wrongdoing. The indiscriminate snatching and grabbing of human beings by federal officers who are inexplicably wearing masks raises very real questions about who we are and what we are becoming.
Right or wrong, these actions create real trauma for immigrants and their families. By contributing $1 million to the effort, the Dodgers have underscored the simple reality that the chest-thumping mass deportation effort has real consequences for those who are taken away, and for those who have left behind.
Maybe you’re wired to say in response, “Eff around and find out.” Or maybe you’re actually inclined to believe and live the lessons of the New Testament, and not to simply pretend to be a Christian.
Quarterback Sam Darnold’s lone season as Minnesota’s starter was magical, until it wasn’t.
At 14-2 and with one game in Detroit with the No. 1 seed on the line, Darnold’s chariot became pumpkinized. Then, in the wild-card round, the orange menace spread to the rest of the team.
“For lack of a better term, we laid an egg as an offense,” Darnold recently told Mike Silver of TheAthletic.com. “And I think, for me personally, that sucks. I felt like we were a really good team, but at the end of the day — and this is gonna sound a little pessimistic — but when you get to the end of it and you don’t win the whole thing, you failed.”
He’s right. There’s only one trophy. And the better a team performs in the regular season, the more prominent the failure seems when it happens.
“I feel like I could have played way better, to be completely honest with you,” Darnold said. “I feel I didn’t play up to my standard. I truly feel that way. I feel like if I would have just played better, I would’ve been able to give the team a chance.”
Darnold’s play was more conspicuous in Week 18, when the Vikings repeatedly had chances and Darnold repeatedly misfired. By the time the playoffs started, the Vikings were simply overmatched and overpowered.
So what happened in those two losses that turned a 14-2 start into an 0-2 finish?
“I feel like L.A. did very similar things on third down to what Detroit did to us,” Darnold said. “They played man and tried to play some ‘robber’ stuff, and that just gave us some troubles. It gave me some troubles, personally.”
As Darnold tries to learn from that experience, it sounds as if he’ll be more committed to running with the ball in 2025 if/when his options are stymied in the passing game.
“[Kevin O’Connell] and those guys in Minnesota did such a good job — and we do a great job here as well — of giving me answers if they take options away,” Darnold told Silver. “Like, just go through your progressions and work your feet and if it’s not there take off and run — because there’s no one accounting for the quarterback, unless they play a spy or whatever.”
Whatever happens in 2025, the gains Darnold made in the first 16 games of the 2024 season were undermined by the regressions of the final two. And even if he gets off to a great start again this year, the real question will be whether he shows up when the lights are the brightest and the stakes are the highest.
