NFL

A two-time Pro Bowler has helped stabilize the Kansas City offensive line after its struggles a few years ago, Thuney will join Ben Johnson’s revamped Bears offense in 2025. Thuney, 32, who has missed just one regular season game over three years with the Chiefs, was graded last season by Pro Football Focus as the league’s 21st best pass-blocking offensive lineman. The Chiefs, per the Kansas City Star’s Sam McDowell, “weren’t in position to extend a 32-year-old guard with so many of their own young players headed towards free agency.” The Bears appear keen on bolstering their line after acquiring Jonah Jackson from the Rams on Tuesday. Chicago in 2024 had the league’s eighth best pass-blocking line, per PFF, while Caleb Williams took a league-high 68 sacks.

Increasingly it looks like Tennessee will bow out of the first overall selection as other teams in the top ten jockey for the chance to take QB Cam Ward, by far the most sought after quarterback prospect in the 2025 draft class. “The sense in talking to multiple sources with the Titans is the franchise will conduct a thorough process before coming to a decision,” Davenport and Fowler said. Reports that the Titans consider Shedeur Sanders a superior fit for head coach Brian Callahan’s offense could mean the Titans are comfortable with trading to another pick in the top five and taking Sanders. The Jets are Giants are among the teams pursuing the top overall pick, according to Fowler.

Though Ward is considered the clearcut QB1 in the 2025 NFL Draft, Sanders might fit head coach Brian Callahan’s system better than Ward. Sanders’ “pocket-passing ability as a deft processor is appreciated and will make for an easy NFL transition, thus he becomes a slightly better fit for a Brian Callahan offense in Tennessee, according to multiple scouts.” If Titans coaches and the team’s front office believe Sanders is the better option for the team’s offensive system, they would be more likely to trade away the first overall pick and grab Sanders a few selections later. Fowler reported that the consensus at the NFL Combine was that the Titans would move out of the first spot. Titans GM Mike Borgonzi recently complimented Sanders’ processing ability and his anticipatory throws.

Thomas will make $1.03 million and Hoffman will make $1.1 million for the 2025 season. Over the last two seasons with the Cowboys, Thomas has appeared in 29 games, totaling five passes defended and one forced fumble as a reserve safety and special teamer. Hoffman played three games in 2022, but appeared in all 34 games for the Cowboys over the last two seasons. In that time, he started nine games in the interior offensive line. Both Thomas and Hoffman have become useful reserve pieces for Dallas.

The Browns are starting their top-30 visits off with the top projected prospects in the draft. Ward and Sanders are the top quarterbacks on the board and very much in play for the No. 2 pick. If the Browns choose to hold off on a quarterback selection, Carter and Hunter are the top non-quarterback prospects on the board. Given the Browns have to manage the Deshaun Watson situation and do not currently have a quarterback plan, Ward and Sanders are the guys to keep an eye on in Cleveland this week.

The second-year receiver was left motionless and removed on a stretcher after a helmet-to-helmet hit against the Texans in Week 15. DuBose revealed that he was “induced into a coma as part of the recovery process.” Anyway, every NFL player is a superhero. DuBose will be fighting for a job on the tail end of the Dolphins wideout depth chart this offseason.

Williams ends his Saints career with just 154 carries for 470 yards and two touchdowns in two seasons with the team. He took more than 20 snaps in just four games with New Orleans last year between injuries and the rise of Kendre Miller late in the season. Williams is entering his age-30 season and could make for a reasonable backup for a team that wants a goal-line grinder to spell a back who can stay on the field on third down. The release frees up $1.59 million in cap space for the Saints, meaning they only need to find another $45 million in cuts or restructures to be cap compliant. Easy.

Jackson writes that keeping Chubb on his current contract, which has a $28.6 million cap hit, is “unrealistic” for Miami. The team could designate him as a post-June 1 cut and save $19 million in cap space, but that money wouldn’t free up until after June 1 and thus couldn’t help the Dolphins in the initial wave of free agency. If the Dolphins instead were able to talk Chubb, who missed all of last season after a devastating late-2023 knee injury, into a pay cut, they could use that money at the start of free agency. That’s the exact script that worked on Terron Armstead last week. Chubb is entering his age-29 season and is coming off an 11-sack season in 16 games in 2023, so if teams believe he’s healthy, he would make for an interesting free agent.

Farabaugh adds that Harris “seems to have several suitors” and that the Raiders were “one team that came up quite often when talking about Harris.” Steelers general manager Omar Khan was quoted at the NFL Combine as saying that Pittsburgh hasn’t closed the door on a return for Harris, but that’s not exactly a statement brimming with optimism and movement towards a deal. The Athletic’s Mike DeFabo wrote today that Harris “appears far more likely to be playing elsewhere than the GM’s public comments made it seem.” Harris seems likely to wind up elsewhere in free agency, leaving Jaylen Warren as Pittsburgh’s lead back for the short term.

Lions general manager Brad Holmes talked about the Lions being in the “planning stages” of getting Hutchinson extended at the combine. Pouncy speculates that the Lions could save a million or two beating the notoriously slow-moving Cowboys front office to their extension on Micah Parsons. Hutchinson is entering the final year of his rookie contract and the Lions will almost certainly pick up his fifth-year option, giving the team plenty of leverage to negotiate from. The star EDGE was on an All-Pro pace last season before fracturing his tibia and fibula against the Cowboys in Week 6.