Longtime Chargers star Antonio Gates is going into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this summer and the franchise will be there to take part in the festivities.
The Hall of Fame announced on Wednesday that the Chargers will be taking part in the Hall of Fame Game this summer. They will take on the Lions at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio on July 31.
The game will be broadcast on NBC and Peacock.
Gates is joined in the 2025 class by cornerback Eric Allen, defensive end Jared Allen, and wide receiver Sterling Sharpe. None of the players spent time with the Lions, but the organizers are presumably hoping that fans will make the short trip from Detroit — which is Gates’s hometown — to see their team anyway.
The Vikings trimmed their roster a bit on Wednesday.
They announced that they have waived defensive back Najee Thompson. The move came with a failed physical designation.
Thompson signed with the Vikings after going undrafted in 2023 and played in 15 games for the team during his rookie season. He spent last season on their injured reserve list.
Almost all of Thompson’s playing time as a rookie came on special teams. He recorded seven tackles and a fumble recovery in that action.
The Vikings also waived offensive lineman Trevor Reid this week and both moves free up roster space for draft picks and rookie free agents to join the team in the coming days.
As free agency approached, Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins tried to become one. But the Falcons declined to release him.
By keeping Cousins, his remaining guarantees moved from $27.5 million to $37.5 million, thanks to a $10 million roster bonus due in March 2026.
Outside Atlanta, the game of quarterback musical chairs commenced. Seats were filled. Starting jobs, even if in some spots tentative, were claimed. And Cousins, leery about a repeat of last year’s late-April surprise, opted to wait until after the draft to entertain whether to waive his no-trade clause.
With the draft looming, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com recently reported that the Falcons want Cousins’s new team (if there’s a trade) to pick up $20 million of his remaining guarantees. Implicit in that assertion is that the Falcons would remain on the hook for $17.5 million.
At first blush, it’s a surprising revelation. With the top of the market currently at $60 million in new-money APY for a quarterback, $27.5 million is a relative bargain. With few starting jobs vacant — and with most budgets dented by contracts paid out once the frenzy began — the market has largely dried up.
It’s dried up to the point that, as Schefter puts it, there’s a feeling around the league that a team like the Vikings or Steelers would be willing to pay only $10 million of Cousins’s remaining guarantees.
That number seems to be more than coincidental. If Aaron Rodgers is willing (as he claims he is) to play for the Steelers or Vikings for only $10 million, why should either team offer more than that for Cousins?
There’s another important factor at play. If a team like the Steelers or Vikings can get Cousins for only $10 million, his spot at the top of the depth chart would become more tenuous. (He’s far more likely to start in Pittsburgh than in Minnesota, unless J.J. McCarthy gets injured or simply doesn’t have “it”.) If Cousins would be waiving his no-trade clause to potentially become a backup in a new city, why not stay in Atlanta (close to his wife’s family) and serve as the backup to Penix?
At this point, it seems like the best move for the Falcons and for Cousins will be to wait. If there’s a season-ending injury to a starter before the trade deadline, a new team might be willing to absorb much more of the remaining contract — and Cousins might be more inclined to waive the no-trade clause.
There’s no real downside to keeping Cousins around. It’s not as if he’s going to be doing shirtless driveway situps or conducting “next question” press conferences on his front lawn. He’ll be a good soldier. He’ll keep his feelings close to the vest. He’ll do his job. And he’ll be ready to play if he’s needed.
Will he be happy about the situation? By the end of the regular season, he will have made $90 million for two years in Atlanta. While money can’t buy happiness, it can go a long way toward removing the stick from one’s butt.
So unless Cousins has a clear shot at starting, why uproot his life to potentially be No. 2 in a new town?
Of course, the Falcons could decide that they don’t want Cousins on the depth chart at all, in the event Penix struggles and portions of the locker room start murmuring for the other guy. If the Falcons cut him, he’ll be free to go wherever, for whatever he can get. (And if no one will be paying more than $27.5 million, Cousins possibly would take $1.255 million and stick the Falcons with the balance.)
At this point, the Falcons have an easy way out — especially since Cousins holds full and final say over whether a trade will happen. In time, a solution could emerge. At a time when there isn’t an obvious one, patience seems like the smartest play.
The Vikings waived offensive lineman Trevor Reid with a non-football injury, the team announced Tuesday.
Reid signed with the Vikings in January after a season with the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the Canadian Football League. He also had workouts with the Colts and Bengals before joining Minnesota.
He started all 18 regular-season games and the Western semifinal for the Riders, and the team nominated him for the league’s most outstanding rookie award. The Riders own his CFL rights through February 2026.
Reid signed with the Eagles as an undrafted free agent in 2023 and spent training camp with the Falcons that season.
Reid played three seasons (2020-2022) at Louisville.
Safety Harrison Smith is back for a 14th season with the Vikings, but he isn’t looking for more of the same.
Smith has made All-Pro and Pro Bowl teams while helping Minnesota make the playoffs six times, which has made him a face of the franchise. None of those trips to the playoffs have resulted in Super Bowl appearances and Smith said on Monday that now is the time for the Vikings to push themselves beyond where they’ve gone in the past.
“There’s a foundation that’s been set that, you can notice it — things operate pretty smoothly, and the people here are giving high-level effort and winning a lot of ball games,” Smith said, via the team’s website. “But there’s another level that we need to get to, and in this business, you have to do it right now. It’s not like, ‘Oh, you know, year one was good. Let’s just keep trying,’ It’s got to happen right now. I think moving forward, that emphasis of, ‘Turn it up a little bit to a level we haven’t been before’ — that is necessary to get where we want to go.”
Smith and the defense will be a big part of anything the Vikings do this season, but their ultimate ceiling may have more to do with how quarterback J.J. McCarthy fares in his first season running the offense in Minnesota.
The Vikings have finalized their coaching staff for the 2025 season.
Head coach Kevin O’Connell, who signed a contract extension earlier this year, will be assisted by offensive coordinator Wes Phillips, defensive coordinator Brian Flores, special teams coordinator Matt Daniels, and assistant head coach Mike Pettine.
Phillips will work with passing game coordinator/tight ends coach Brian Angelichio, game management coordinator/passing game specialist Ryan Cordell, offensive line coach Chris Kuper, wide receivers coach Keenan McCardell, quarterbacks coach Josh McCown, running game coordinator/running backs coach Curtis Modkins, assistant offensive line coach Keith Carter, offensive assistant Ben Ellefson, offensive quality control coach Derron Montgomery, senior offensive assistant Chris O’Hara, assistant wide receivers coach Tony Sorrentino, and assistant offensive coordinator/assistant quarterbacks coach Jordan Traylor.
Flores will be joined on the defensive side by outside linebackers coach Thad Bogardus, defensive line coach Marcus Dixon, safeties coach Michael Hutchings, passing game coordinator/defensive backs coach Daronte Jones, inside linebackers coach Mike Siravo, assistant defensive line coach Imarjaye Albury, defensive assistant Charlie Frye, defensive quality control coach Chenzo Finari, and assistant outlside linebackers coach Patrick Hill.
Henry Schneider IV will be the assistant to O’Connell and Dalmin Gibson will serve as the assistant special teams coach.
As the Vikings begin their offseason program this week, they’re now positioning 2024 first-round pick J.J. McCarthy to begin the season as their starting quarterback.
McCarthy has said he’s recovered from the knee injury that kept him sidelined for his entire rookie season. Head coach Kevin O’Connell reiterated that on Monday, telling reporters in his press conference that he’s not anticipating any limitations for McCarthy during the spring.
O’Connell also praised McCarthy for the work he’s done to put himself in a strong position at this point in the year.
“He’s always working,” O’Connell said. “I think the spring is set up perfectly for J.J. with where he’s at from a standpoint of Phase I really being in a classroom setting, running and lifting, and continuing what he’s been able to do. A lot of his teammates haven’t been here, now the group comes back, he continues that, and eventually gets on the field and we can start throwing and catching a little bit before finalizing those two-three weeks of OTAs and minicamp where you get a little dabble of that competitive feel — running the huddle, running the show.
“So, all of it is going to kind of be systematically planned out for him. And I think he’s ready to attack it.”
Physically, O’Connell noted that McCarthy has been able to make different types of throws that are significant in the offense as he’s gone through his rehab. The quarterback has also put together several high-volume throwing days.
“Now it’s just a matter of applying it with teammates and with detail,” O’Connell said. “And with repetition to try to apply those reps so we can start projecting what not only he can continue to improve at, what are the areas need to focus on? How can we craft this offense to make sure that we’re doing the things that he does well naturally while also challenging him to grow that pot of inventory that we can ultimately pull from.”
That’s why while development is important, it’s not the only thing O’Connell is focused on for McCarthy.
“Now, it becomes a real more tangible day-in and day-out,” O’Connell said. “We can create a world here where it might not feel like a checkpoint, it might not feel like another step in the process, but you’re stacking so many days and time with his teammates together, and just the growth through the installations and how do these quarterback first with those installations and his absorption of what we’re doing. We’ve got a new center in Ryan Kelly, a veteran who’s going to be heavily involved in that aspect with the quarterback-center dynamic. And thankfully, we’ve got a lot of really high-quality skill players that J.J.’s already worked with in the past and thrown and caught with before.
“So, it’ll be a matter of what do the Xs and Os look like when there’s not competitive games? What do the fundamentals and technique look like when we’re really just trying to harness growth? And then that development word comes in where we might not be talking in the same lens that we were in a year ago when everything was brand new. That’s the beauty of the year we’ve had with him, albeit without the physical reps since the injury. But there’s been a lot of time on task and just once again want to credit J.J. for how he’s handled these last two, two-and-a-half, three months or so where I think he’s ready to hit the ground running as of today.”
Free agent guard Dalton Risner expects to be on an NFL roster soon.
Risner, who has played the last two years for the Vikings, said in a video posted to social media that returning to the Vikings remains an option, although he acknowledged he would likely be a backup in Minnesota behind Will Fries and Blake Brandel.
“Minnesota has shown interest in bringing me back, but only to an extent,” Risner said. “I will be on a team soon, I could imagine.”
Risner mentioned the Broncos and Bengals as two other teams that are options for him.
The 29-year-old Risner was a second-round pick of the Broncos in 2019 and played four years in Denver before signing with the Vikings in 2023. He has been a starter when healthy throughout his NFL career. Last year he began the season on injured reserve but started the last eight games of the season.
During his silence-shattering appearance on Thursday with Pat McAfee, quarterback Aaron Rodgers said plenty of things. Some old (he loves to re-assault deceased equines), some new.
Along the way, Rodgers acknowledged that he has spoken with a few teams. While he declined to provide the full list, it was clear Rodgers has talked to a trio of teams — the Giants, Vikings, and Steelers.
And while he insists that there were false narratives about some of the teams he was linked to (for a guy who claims to ignore anything about him, he seems to know everything that’s said), those are the three teams to which he has been most clearly linked.
Rodger said he spoke to Giants coach Brian Daboll, calling him a “beautiful football mind.” He said he has spoken to Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell, an old friend. And Rodgers confirmed (even though confirmation wasn’t needed) that he visited the Steelers.
Rodgers said he "[t]ried to do that as quietly as possible.” He said he flew into a different airport, rented a Malibu, and drove it to the team facility. “Somebody in the building must have said something,” Rodgers said.
(Yes, they did. They told Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and off it went.)
Rodgers said he was highly impressed by coach Mike Tomlin. Rodgers also met with G.M. Omar Khan, offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, and quarterbacks coach Tom Arth during his day in Pittsburgh.
“I wanted to see what it was like there, see the facility,” Rodgers said, adding he wanted a “snippet” and a “glimpse” of what it would be like.
Rodgers said there’s no deadline with the Steelers. “If you need to do something, by all means [do it],” Rodgers told the Steelers.
“I am trying to be open to everything and not specifically attached to anything when it comes to this decision,” he said. “I’m not holding anybody hostage.”
He added that he’s been “up front” from the start, and that he’s “going through a lot in my personal life that has to take precedent at this point.” He said that, when he signs with a team, it “has to be an all-in type commitment” and that he’s not ready to do it just yet.
Through it all, Rodgers flashed periodic irritation about the speculation that has emerged.
“I don’t have sources,” Rodgers said near the end of the segment. “I don’t have people that are out there pushing narratives. I speak for myself. And it’s been nice to be quiet for the last few months. It’s funny how in that time period how the shit narrative goes fucking crazy, right? When I haven’t said a fucking word. So there’s nothing to say. I just laid out where I’m at. There’s nothing else to report. There’s no other reason to be continuing to talk about me at this point. So time to turn the page, all those people that have made a lot of money slandering my name. You know, apologize for COVID, say your vax status, and keep it moving.”
On one hand, everyone should respect that there are personal issues delaying his next step. On the other hand, how hard would it have been to get that out there weeks ago? It would have avoided the very rumors and reports about which he’s now complaining.
It would have been simple. It would have been easy. And it would have answered a lot of the questions that, in the absence of Rodgers saying anything, have become the subject of rampant speculation.
It’s hard not to think that’s exactly what he wanted. To see what would happen if he added nothing to the conversation. And then, at the right time, to air his grievances regarding the things that were said in the absence of Rodgers saying anything. (And about shit from five years ago.)
Finally, there truly is nothing more to say. Until he says something else. Or unless and until the Steelers slam the door on the possibility of signing him.
The Vikings have made it clear that they plan for J.J. McCarthy to be their starting quarterback in 2025, but the identity of their backup quarterback has been the subject of some interest in Minnesota this offseason.
McCarthy did not play as a rookie because of a knee injury and Sam Darnold is now in Seattle, which leaves Brett Rypien as the only other quarterback on the roster. Rypien has been around the league for a while, but he isn’t the ideal Plan B in the event that the Vikings have to turn to another signal caller.
There’s been some thought that the Vikings are waiting to sign someone until after the draft so they don’t affect the comp pick formula and General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah said at a Thursday press conference that it is a consideration, but not the only one that the team is keeping in mind.
“We’re gonna focus on, as my staff always does, the best opportunities there,” Adofo-Mensah said. “We’re not going to rush it either way. But we’re mindful of it.”
Other teams have been less patient when it comes to securing their backups, so there’s a limited number of available free agents at the position. They include names like Carson Wentz, Desmond Ridder, and C.J. Beathard.
