Back home, and picking up the pieces after a week at the NFL combine in Indianapolis …
• Teams always look a year ahead at quarterback in the draft.
Faced with a lackluster 2022 class at the position, some teams were already eyeing C.J. Stroud, Bryce Young, Will Levis and the ’23 group. Those that weren’t wild about that group, then looked ahead to what Caleb Williams and Drake Maye would be in ’24. And last year, part of the reason behind the run on quarterbacks in the top 12 was that ’25 looked barren.
So how does 2026 look? It’s a topic of conversation I delved into with a few team people over the past week. Before then, I had a couple guys tell me that LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier could’ve been the first quarterback to go this year, and I had a couple others agree. A couple teams, I heard, actually encouraged Penn State’s Drew Allar to declare, expecting that he’d rise through the process and go in the top 10. Clemson’s Cade Klubnik is another one who, had he declared, probably would’ve gone relatively high this year.
Then, there’s South Carolina’s LaNorris Sellers, who has an intriguing physical skill set, Georgia transfer Carson Beck at Miami, and of course the possibility that someone shoots up through the season such as Jayden Daniels did in 2023 or Cam Ward did in ’24.
That there’s a nice list of guys there to work with already (and I’m assuming that Arch Manning won’t leave Texas after a single season starting) adds a layer to the dynamic at the position in this year’s draft. If you’re a coach or general manager with some job security, you might be tempted to sign a vet and wait a year to draft a quarterback.
• There have been a lot of questions about the Tennessee Titans’ setup, with president of football operations Chad Brinker overseeing GM Mike Borgonzi and coach Brian Callahan. So when I was with Borgonzi and Callahan on Saturday, I asked them to describe how Brinker’s presence was helping them—since I know the idea has been for Brinker to take things off those guys’ plates, so they can do what they do best.
“I’ll give you a perfect example—going through the draft meetings, 15 days of me being able to sit in there with the guys and not be interrupted,” Borgonzi says. “Because there’s times, I remember in Kansas City, where Scott [Pioli], [John] Dorsey or [Brett] Veach would get pulled out of a meeting there and we’re sitting in there without him for an hour because he’s got to deal with whatever—there’s an issue with the turf outside, or we’re interviewing someone for another position.
“So for me, that’s been a huge help, where I can focus on the roster.”
“It’s a lot, to build a roster, and manage a scouting staff, manage the pro side and the college side, and coach the football team, and manage the coaching staff, and deal with the players and all the things that come with that,” Callahan says. “There’s a whole other part of the operation—it’s the turf, it’s the training room, it’s dealing with the business side, it’s dealing with the owner. … It takes a little pressure off me, Mike, where that can be handled by somebody else, at least to start. It helps the process, keeps everything moving smoothly.”
• A second franchise tag can complicate a negotiation significantly, so it’ll take some work for the Cincinnati Bengals and Tee Higgins to find common ground on a long-term deal.
Really, it’s simple math. The tag for Higgins this year will cost $26.1792 million. That means tagging him a third time would cost either 144% of that number ($37.698 million) or the quarterback tag, whichever is higher. Since the quarterback tag is likely to be well over $40 million, the amount will likely be the first figure, and it’ll almost certainly make it impossible to tag him again.
So that leads you here—the Bengals now have to put something in front of Higgins that’s better than $26.18 million and unfettered free agency in March 2026, when he’ll be 27 years old. How do you do it? You give him guarantees into the third year of a deal, and front-load the contract. The problem? By policy, with an exception for quarterbacks, the Bengals by rule don’t guarantee future years.
Which is to say, again, this is going to be pretty complicated, and even more so if the Bengals don’t agree to change the way they’ve done business forever. Especially since Higgins already took on an extra year of injury risk.
• The San Francisco 49ers trading Deebo Samuel to the Washington Commanders may help set the market for a Cooper Kupp trade.
Samuel just turned 29, so he’s younger than the 31-year-old Kupp. But both have had injury issues, and both have amassed a ton of mileage. Each had a monster year in ’21, and both have failed to reach 800 yards in a season since. And this is the key—both are expensive. Samuel is making a tick over $17.5 million in ’25. Kupp is at an even $20 million.
So if Samuel wound up fetching a fifth-rounder, it’d stand that the return for Kupp would be somewhere in that vicinity, as well.
• The Philadelphia Eagles said good bye to Darius Slay on Monday, and I’d say his case is a pretty good one in explaining, both through his arrival and his departure, why the team is what it is when it comes to roster management.
Philly’s four primary corners in 2019 were Ronald Darby, Jalen Mills, Rasul Douglas and Avonte Maddox. All but Darby were homegrown, and each served a role, but the Eagles hadn’t hit on a top-shelf corner, so they went into the ’20 offseason needing one. And they swung big, picking a disgruntled Slay off from Detroit for third- and fifth-round picks, and a top-of-market contract extension. He gave the Eagles 73 regular-season starts, eight playoff starts (two coming in Super Bowls) and nine picks over five seasons.
Then, with Slay’s age showing, and the team a little thin at the position, Philly got ahead of the problem, landing Quinyon Mitchell in the first round and Cooper DeJean in the second round. Which prepared them more than adequately for Slay’s departure—the same way they were for the retirements of Fletcher Cox (with Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis and Milton Williams on hand) and Jason Kelce (with Cam Jurgens and Landon Dickerson).
• What does Slay have left?
One NFC exec called him a “functional starter” at this point, who’s lost a few miles per hour off his fastball. Another says, “He’s certainly declining, but for one year, he still has natural cover skills and instincts.” It’s worth noting that his old defensive coordinator from Detroit, Teryl Austin, is now in Pittsburgh.
• Speaking of the Steelers, this is, of course, a big week for Pittsburgh to try to get Justin Fields re-signed. He’ll have options elsewhere—one team would be the New York Jets, and I wouldn’t be stunned to see Indy throw its hat in the ring—if he gets to the market.
I think he has a shot to get a deal like Sam Darnold got with the Minnesota Vikings last year.
• I love the deal the Buffalo Bills did with Khalil Shakir. He’s a perfect fit as a high-volume slot in their offense, and rewarding him is a good example for everyone coming up in that program. Plus, the price (four years, $60 million) is pretty reasonable.
• My guess would be that Darnold goes untagged Tuesday (that’s just a guess). The tag-and-trade idea has come up with the Vikings, but if that was the plan, they’d have to have a trade partner lined up before franchising him.
• Congratulations to Jimmy Johnson, who’s retiring from Fox Sports after spending the lion’s share of the past three decades on the set there.
I was an eighth-grader in 1994 when the Jimmy Johnson–Jerry Jones divorce happened, and the minute it did, where Johnson would coach next became one of the biggest stories in the sport. He then was with Fox for the first two years of the network’s NFL coverage, before returning to the sidelines with the Miami Dolphins in ’96. After four years in Miami, he returned to Fox in 2000, and has been there since.
It’s weird that, as great a coach as he was, he’s become almost as recognizable for his TV work as he was for coaching—he’s Madden-esque in that way. He’s also a very nice guy, who’s given back to football by mentoring dozens and dozens of young coaches (usually aboard his fishing boat in Key West) coming up in the business.
He’ll be missed, for sure.