Defensive end Trey Hendrickson was looking for a long-term deal with the Bengals for the last couple of years, but never got the contract he desired before playing out the final year of his current pact in 2025.
There’s no sign that the Bengals and Hendrickson have made progress toward a multi-year agreement and the team is keeping the door open to extending their hold on Hendrickson via the franchise tag this offseason. Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin said at a Tuesday press conference that the prospect of the team using a tag on Hendrickson, who ended the season on injured reserve after core muscle surgery, is “not something I’m gonna talk about.”
“I don’t throw anything on or off the table with Trey, and we’re excited about attacking this offseason,” Tobin said, via Ben Baby of ESPN.com. “We have resources to attack the offseason in a big way, and we want to do that.”
A tag would come with a salary of $30.2 million for the 2026 season and Tobin was asked about the prospect of tagging Hendrickson with the intent to trade him to another club.
“All trades are difficult,” Tobin said. “You got to find a partner and you have to find somebody that you have to have some cooperation with your players that you’re talking about this with. Trades can be complicated and that hypothetical scenario would be very complicated.”
Hendrickson has been with the Bengals since 2021. He posted 57 sacks in his first four seasons before notching four in his seven 2025 appearances.
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Former Vikings General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has found a new job.
49ers General Manager John Lynch said at a Tuesday press conference that Adofo-Mensah is joining the team as a personnel executive. The Vikings fired Adofo-Mensah in January after four seasons with the team.
This is Adofo-Mensah’s second time working for the 49ers. He was their manager of football research and development from 2013-2016 and the director of football research and development from 2017-2019. Adofo-Mensah worked under Lynch in the latter position.
Adofo-Mensah spent two years as the Browns’ vice president of football operations before landing the GM job in Minnesota.
Bradley Chubb is available to sign with any team right now and the prospect of the Panthers pursuing him came up during General Manager Dan Morgan’s press conference at the Scouting Combine on Tuesday.
Chubb was released by the Dolphins earlier this month, which means a team can add him to their pass rush options before free agency opens at the start of the new league year. The Panthers had 30 sacks during the 2025 season and Morgan said that he doesn’t think a team can ever have enough strong pass rushers in general before answering a question about specific interest in Chubb.
Morgan said Chubb is “still playing at a really good level” and indicated the team is looking into the possibility of adding him to the defense.
“I don’t think anything is going to be off the table,” Morgan said, via the team’s website. “We’ll explore that, we’ll talk to his agent, but I wouldn’t say anything’s upcoming, but we’ll definitely stay on that, and we’ll see where that goes.”
Chubb missed all of 2024 with a torn ACL, but returned to record 8.5 sacks for the Dolphins last season. Derrick Brown and Nic Scourton tied for the Panthers’ lead by recording five sacks each during the 2025 campaign.
The Broncos fired offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi to keep Davis Webb. Not only is Webb now the Broncos’ offensive coordinator, he is also the team’s new play caller.
For the first time in Sean Payton’s head coaching career, he will not serve as the team’s full-time play caller.
“It was something that I kind of knew during the year,” Payton said Tuesday. “He and I visited on a handful of occasions. He’s extremely talented. With regards to play calling, it’s something that I think he’ll be really good at it. I know that’s like, ‘Man, are you going to give up play calling?’ I would only do that if I thought it would help our team. I’ll still be involved with what we do offensively, just like what we do defensively, but I do think he has a gift. I think he’s real sharp. I’m glad he’s on our staff. Typically, any decision we make like that is to benefit our team. I’m looking forward to it. . . . I think it’ll help us, and certainly I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t think it was going to help our team win. You get to a point where you’re focused strictly on improving your team any way you can.”
Bills General Manager Brandon Beane actually broke the news about Webb earlier in the day at Beane’s media availability at the Scouting Combine. Webb spent four seasons as a backup quarterback in Buffalo and interviewed for the Bills’ head coaching job last month.
Webb, 31, called plays in a preseason game last summer, drawing praise from Payton after the game.
Quarterback Bo Nix was not consulted before Payton made his decision.
“A lot of it is, the minute the season ends, you have a number of coaches interviewing for other jobs. You have coaches you definitely want to retain,” Payton said. “And it’s never going to be quite on your timeline. It’s great to see Declan [Doyle] advancing. But it wasn’t on my timeline. In other words, it just happens faster.
“I remember there was a point during the year where he and I visited and it was relative to the position he has, but also more than just having the position, being someone who would have more input and would be able to call plays. It’s still going to be our offense, but I think it’s easier to do as you get older, and you look at, ‘How do we win more games?’”
Payton did not call plays for the first time as a head coach in 2012 with the Saints. Pete Carmichael called them while Payton was serving his suspension. Carmichael called them again at the beginning of the 2016 season, in a 2021 game against the Colts after Payton broke his leg and in a 2021 game against the Bucs when Payton had COVID.
But Payton has never relinquished them full-time until now, though he said he will “still call some plays during the game.”
“I think he’s sharp,” Payton said of Davis. “I think he’s been around it. He’s a coach’s kid. He played quarterback, and then in the preseason, he was really good.
“I want to do everything I can support to him, so we’re not going to sit and grade his play calling each week. At least, hopefully we’re not. It’s more about the team.”
49ers General Manager John Lynch addressed where things stand with left tackle Trent Williams shortly after a Tuesday report that the team is struggling to come to an agreement on a new deal with the veteran.
Williams is set to have a cap number of $38.841 million in the final year of his deal and the 49ers would like to redo his contract in order to make that number easier to swallow. Per the report from Adam Schefter of ESPN, Williams could be released if the standoff over the contract cannot be resolved.
Lynch provided a rosier outlook on where things currently stand. He said that there have been “really good, productive, and substantive meetings” with Williams and his agent about the contract and expressed optimism that a solution to keeping Williams on the team will be found.
“Here’s what I know: Trent loves being a Niner,” Lynch said, via 49ersWebzone.com. “We love having Trent as a Niner. And it’s up to us to figure that out, and to thread that needle. There’s some unique circumstances in that we all know what Trent is as a player, how great of a player he’s been. He’s gonna be 38 years old, and so, there’s some things that go into that, but I think we’re all on the same page, and I feel very positive about where that’s going.”
Lynch’s positivity about where things are headed was not joined by any word about how far things might be from the finish line and they’ll need to make their way to that point fairly quickly to ensure that Williams remains on the team for another season.
Anthony Richardson’s first three pro seasons have not gone as he or the Colts would have planned.
But it sounds like Richardson, the No. 4 overall pick of the 2023 draft, should be ready for the start of the offseason program in April after missing most of 2025 due to an orbital fracture from a freak pregame accident.
“He’s getting better,” General Manager Chris Ballard said during his scouting combine press conference on Tuesday. “I know he met with another specialist. He’s getting better. He’s been cleared to play football.
“I’m proud of him. I’m proud of Anthony, man. I mean, here’s a guy that’s had to deal with a lot of injury stuff that happens. Unfortunate accident with his eye. He doesn’t win the job, Daniel [Jones] wins the job. I think the one thing that I don’t know everybody appreciates about Anthony — I do and I know some of his teammates do — he’s a really good teammate. Positive, wants to do the right things. So, it’s trending in the right direction. Still got a ways to go, but he’s cleared to play. And the eye’s getting better. So, we’ll just work from there.”
Richardson briefly appeared in two games in 2025, playing just 14 offensive snaps.
While the Colts seem highly likely to decline Richardson’s fifth-year option this spring, Ballard maintains Richardson could still have a future with Indianapolis.
“I see a future, yeah. I’m not going to — kind of like with any player, you never know what’s going to happen. And things change,” Ballard said. “But, yeah. We like Anthony.”
The Colts have two key offensive pending free agents who they’d like to retain going forward: quarterback Daniel Jones and receiver Alec Pierce.
General Manager Chris Ballard said at his scouting combine press conference that Indianapolis would prefer not to use the franchise tag for either player. But it’s an option if things don’t work out before both players hit the open market at the start of the new league year next month.
“It’s not what we want to do,” Ballard said. “It’s a tool we have. It’s not what we want to do, though.”
That’s part of why this week at the scouting combine is so critical, as agents come to town and start figuring out what the market will be for those pending free agents.
Ballard characterized discussions with both Jones and Pierce’s representation as “very positive.”
“We’ll continue to work this week and see if we can get something done,” Ballard said. “Look, when both sides are driven to get it done, it usually works out in the right way. I know four or five days doesn’t seem like a long time, but it can be in these situations.”
Jones stabilized the QB position for the Colts after years of inconsistent play at that spot, completing 68 percent of his passes for 3,101 yards with 19 touchdowns and eight interceptions before suffering a torn Achilles
Pierce, a second-round pick in 2022, has led the league in yards per reception over each of the past two seasons. He finished 2025 with a career-high 1,003 receiving yards and 47 receptions with six touchdowns.
The Colts have until March 3 at 4 p.m. ET to determine whether or not they’ll use the franchise or transition tag this offseason.
Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell’s staff for the 2026 season is set.
The team announced the full staff on Tuesday along with a number of additions and title changes for coaches returning from 2025. Among the latter group is quarterbacks coach Josh McCown taking on the role of pass game coordinator and inside linebackers coach Mike Siravo adding a senior defensive assistant title.
Assistant defensive backs coach Chenzo Funari, assistant linebackers coach Dalmin Gibson, assistant wide receivers coach Derron Montgomery, assistant offensive coordinator Chris O’Hara, assistant defensive line coach Patrick Hill, and assistant quarterbacks coach/passing game specialist Jordan Traylor also have new titles.
The new hires are offensive quality control coach Kyle Caskey, assistant special teams coach Chili Davis, and defensive assistant Will Johnson.
Those coaches join special teams coordinator Matt Daniels, defensive coordinator Brian Flores, offensive coordinator Wes Phillips, assistant head coach Frank Smith, defensive passing game coordinator/defensive backs coach Gerald Alexander, outside linebackers coach Thad Bogardus, offensive line coach Keith Carter, tight ends coach/game management coordinator Ryan Cordell, wide receivers coach Keenan McCardell, offensive running game coordinator/running backs coach Curtis Modkins, defensive running game coordinator Ryan Nielsen, offensive assistant Ben Ellefson, defensive assistant Charlie Frye, assistant to the head coach Henry Schneider, and assistant offensive line coach Derek Warehime.
The 49ers and tackle Trent Williams are in a sudden stare down.
Williams, 37, enter the final year of his contract, with $32 million in non-guaranteed base pay and a cap number of $38.841 million. Via Adam Schefter of ESPN.com, the player and the team are “struggling” to find a solution.
Absent a revised agreement, Williams could be released.
The 49ers owe Williams $10 million on April 1. If they’re willing to carry his cap number through March, they could attempt to trade him.
After the 2025 season, Williams declared that he’ll be back with the 49ers in 2026. Now, it’s hardly a given.
The NFL announced on Tuesday that the Lions will play a game in Munich during the 2026 season and it sounds like veteran left tackle Taylor Decker plans on joining the team in Germany.
Decker said at the end of the 2025 season that he needed to take some time to assess whether he would return for an 11th season and an Instagram post on Tuesday afternoon suggests that he’s made up his mind. Decker posted a picture of himself running onto the field before a game with a biblical quote as the caption and he added "#Year11" at the end of the passage.
Decker appeared in 14 games during the 2025 season while playing through shoulder issues. He has started all 145 games he’s played since the Lions selected him in the first round in 2016.
The Lions have all of their starting offensive linemen under contract for 2026, but center Graham Glasgow’s future with the team is in some doubt. Glasgow could opt to retire and the Lions could release him in a cap move if he does decide to continue playing.
