NCAA settlement to allow schools to pay players … In a decision that is sure to further disrupt the college football landscape, the NCAA and the 5-power conferences have agreed to allow schools to pay players after agreeing to settle three pending anti-trust cases. The NCAA will pay almost $3B in damages to past and current athletes over… Read More »
Pittsburgh to host 2026 draft … The NFL confirmed this morning that the 2026 draft will be held in Pittsburgh. The 2025 draft will be hosted by Green Bay April 24-26 next year.
Chiefs claim 8th round signings title … With all the teams around the NFL having officially announced their post-draft undrafted rookie free agent classes we did our annual scoring based on our unofficial list of the top undrafted free agents following last month’s draft. and in one of those ‘the rich get richer’ scenarios, the Super Bowl champion… Read More »
49ers name new director of scouting … San Francisco has promoted veteran scout Josh Williams to the post of director of scouting and football operations. Williams, who has been with the 49ers since 2011, was a national scout the past two seasons.
Broncos sign QB Nix … Denver has signed QB Bo Nix, the 12th pick overall in last month’s draft, to a fully guaranteed, 4-year $18.7M contract that comes with a $10.4M signing bonus. Like all first-round picks, Nix’s contract has a team option for a fifth year. Nix is the first of the 6 QBs taken in the… Read More »
WashComs 2nd rounder to have foot surgery … Washington figured it had something of a steal in the 2nd round of last month’s when the Commanders were able to nab Illinois DT Johnny Newton with the 36th pick overall after he slipped out of the first round because of a foot injury. Newton ultimately had to have surgery… Read More »
Pats promote de facto GM Wolf to de facto GM … New England has confirmed the team’s worst kept secret and promoted Eliot Wolf to Executive VP of Player Personnel. Wolf had been the Patriots’ director of scouting the past couple of years and ran the team’s 2024 draft preparations after the departure of former head coach Bill… Read More »
That did not take long! Bears name #1 pick starting QB … Even before they stepped on the field for their rookie minicamp, Chicago named Caleb Williams, the first player selected at last month’s draft as the team’s starting QB heading toward the season.
Texans get vet Rams TE for late round pick swap … Houston has acquired veteran TE Ben Skowronek from the LA Rams. As compensation the teams will swap late round picks in 2026 with the Rams getting the Texans’ 6th rounder, while the Rams get the Texans’ 7th rounder to complete the deal.
Panthers 1st to sign 2024 draft class … Carolina has become the first team to sign their entire2024 draft class including WR Xavier Legette, their first round pick whom the Panthers traded up to acquire at the end of the opening round.
Jets, Chiefs lead early 8th round signings … Roughly half the teams around the NFL have officially announced their post-draft undrafted rookie free agent classes. And based on our unofficial list of the top undrafted free agents following last week’s draft, the NY Jets and Kansas City have done pretty well for themselves. The Jets in fact signed… Read More »
Tips for betting on the NFL … We don’t normally advocate that folks bet on the NFL or any other sporting event for that matter; however, we do realize that many do and for those that do, whether you’re a seasoned bettor or a newcomer to the sports betting scene, with the 2024 NFL season now just over… Read More »
Ravens, Cowboys projected to lead comp pick parade in 2025 … The compensatory picks for the 2025 draft won’t be formally determined by the league’s Management Council formula until after the upcoming season is over, but several sources have become pretty good at projecting which teams will be awarded which comp picks. One of those is projecting that… Read More »
Ravens first to sign 2024 draft picks … Baltimore became the first team to sign any of its picks from last weekend’s draft as the Ravens came to terms with 5 rookie selections including CB Nate Wiggins their 1st round pick. Also signing with the Ravens were OT Roger Rosengarten, a 2nd round selection and 4th round CB… Read More »
Post-draft reading … For those still suffering a post-draft letdown, here are several draft-related articles for folks that have not seen them yet including one at ESPN with a discussion of next year’s QB class, another from USA Today with some stats on the success rate of different positions taken in the first-round, and a piece at CBS… Read More »
Giants Report: Thoughts on the draft … We kind of wanted several days to chew on last weekend’s draft before commenting too extensively, especially as it relates to the Giants. On balance, though, we thought the Giants had an outstanding draft, although of course the players chosen still have to play to their potential, but there’s a lot… Read More »
CFL’s Elks make vet LB top pick … As expected, Edmonton chose former Cincinnati LB Joel Dublanko with the first pick overall at last night’s CFL draft of Canadian players. Dublanko actually came late to the process; he was a 2022 grad at Cincinnati and was in a couple of NFL camps last summer before playing the 2023… Read More »
Draft hilites Growing dominance of power schools … One of the underlying stories from the past two drafts has been the growing dominance of the of the so-called Power-5 programs. This past weekend, for example, 87% of all players selected at the 2024 draft were from a Power 5 school or Notre Dame. And that is up from… Read More »
Don’t trade on me … Anyone who got the sense that there didn’t seem to be all that many trades at this year’s draft weren’t dreaming. There actually were significantly fewer trades than in recent years. This year, for example, there were 28 trades made during the draft, compared with 43 last year. Indeed, it used to drive… Read More »
The grades are in … The one thing we have learned in this business is that you really can’t grade a draft until at least deep into its first year of play in the NFL and that it may actually take several seasons. And that was confirmed big-time last year, for example, when Detroit’s draft was generally being… Read More »
2025 Draft just 365 days away!! … For the record, the 2025 draft is just 363 days away, so to help wile away the time, here is our annual way ‘way-too-early’ projection for next year’s draft. And while its done with more than a little tongue-in-cheek – so please don’t anybody write in asking “what we are smoking… Read More »
That’s a wrap; THE end, finished!! … The 2024 draft came to a fitting close just before 7 PM ET this evening when the NY Jets selected former Alabama S Jaylen Key with the 257th and final pick of the draft. Of course, that makes him ‘Mr. Irrelevant’ for the year. And while the actual draft is in… Read More »
It is on to the final day of the 2024 draft … The second and third rounds of the 2024 draft came to a close last evening when Washington, with a pick acquired from San Francisco selected former Rice WR Luke McCaffrey with the 100th and final pick of the third round. However, as usual there wasn’t much… Read More »
Bears, Cards ace opening round … We are always loathe to anoint winners and losers out of the first round of any draft -let’s wait to see who can actually play in the NFL – but it was hard not to like what Chicago and Arizona accomplished in last night’s draft. As we noted last night, the Bears… Read More »
SEC again leads way in opening round; PAC-12 goes out proud … Pretty much as usual, the SEC had the most players selected in the opening round of the 2024 draft as 11 former players in the conference were taken in the first round. At the same time, the PAC-12 went out with a bang as the conference… Read More »
