NFL Player News

An undrafted free agent out of Oklahoma State last season, Lemon spent the year on the practice squad. He has an opening after the Cowboys decided not to re-sign ILBs Keith Brooking and Bradie James. If Lemon makes the team, his snaps figure to mostly be limited to special teams.

To be clear, Maye is still dealing with a shoulder injury, but head coach Mike Vrabel said Maye “would’ve been at practice today if not for the illness.” Maye had been limited in practice all week leading up to Friday, but the team doesn’t appear too concerned about his injury sidelining him in the Super Bowl, which is still over a week away.

It’s not a surprise based on how last season ended — and how Coker blew up in the Wild Card loss to the Rams — but it’s good to get coach validation. Xavier Legette has struggled to grab hold of the role in any real way. While Coker finished the year with just a 33/394/3 line, he makes for an intriguing fantasy WR4/WR5 target in drafts and Best Ball.

Dowdle was notably down on how little he was used in the regular season finale and in the playoffs, where he rushed a combined 12 times for 19 yards, and said that would be a “factor” in his free agency. Dowdle’s fantasy stock could take a big upturn if he wound up being the obvious lead back on a new team this offseason. The Chiefs, Saints and Texans come to mind as (our speculation) possibilities. Chuba Hubbard’s stock would similarly rebound if Dowdle took off to greener pastures.

This will be effective through the 2026 NFL Draft. Brzezinski has worked with the Vikings since 1999 as the vice president of football administration and later the executive vice president of football operations. He seems likely to have a little lap in the sun here while the Vikings figure out who their next general manager will be. Wikipedia cites a Minneapolis Star-Tribune item that notes: “Brzezinski is known by staff as “Rob Zombie” due to being calm, quiet, and frankly, a downright savage. He is someone Marshawn Lynch would refer to as “Beast Mode.” And of course, you know that’s all true and definitely what was written in the article.

The Vikings signed Adofo-Mensah to a multi-year extension last offseason and sent him to the Senior Bowl earlier this week. The move comes as a major surprise, but per The Athletic’s Alec Lewis, there “had been a lot, a lot, a lot of noise in recent weeks.” Adofo-Mensah was hired as the Vikings’ general manager in 2022 and oversaw the team’s last four free agent and draft classes. His extension came after he helped build the Vikings into a 14-3 team that unexpectedly rode the arm of Sam Darnold to the postseason, but the decision to let Darnold walk in the offseason coupled with the struggles of second-year pick J.J. McCarthy are likely one of a handful of decisions made my Adofo-Mensah that ultimately led to his dismissal. With their GM spot now vacant, the Vikings have even more to figure out heading into an offseason that was already going to be headlined by a quarterback controversy.

There’s certainly no denying the Steelers made the playoffs in 2025, but with no quarterback of note on the team and no notable receiver behind DK Metcalf on the depth chart, it’s hard to definitively say the Steelers have a playoff roster in place for next season. Add in two aging veterans on the defensive side in Cam Heyward and T.J. Watt and things get even more complicated. That said, McCarthy said he does not view the Steelers’ job as “a start-over opportunity,” so it will be interesting to see what the team’s roster turnover looks like in the coming months. As was the case with Mike Tomlin for several years, the Steelers still have to find a quarterback who can be a mainstay on the roster for more than two seasons.

Shortly after, it was rumored that Switzer was the favorite to land the job; the former Ravens run game coordinator is now set to be the Browns’ OC. Switzer has spent the last three seasons working alongside Todd Monken in Baltimore, and the hope is that his knowledge of the run game, paired with Monken’s explosive passing attack, can improve an offense that ranked 31st in scoring and 30th in total yards last season. This is only one piece of the puzzle that Monken and the Browns need to figure out, as they still have plenty to do to address quarterback, offensive line, and receiver, but Switzer now has his first gig as an offensive coordinator and will continue to grow alongside Monken in Cleveland.

This comes from the Washington Post’s Mark Maske, who notes that the concussion rate on kickoffs was higher than on plays at the line of scrimmage. NFL Executive Vice President Jeff Miller said the league feels “good about the progress, but there’s more work to do” to improve the kickoff moving forward. This will be something to watch for after the season winds down and the league begins to more closely review rule changes for the 2026 season.

We’re cleaning up the exact quote a bit, but regardless, Monken’s comments confirmed a report from last season that the Ravens attempted to draft Sanders only for Sanders and his team to say he didn’t want to be Lamar Jackson’s backup. As Monken also mentioned in a video that can be found on the Browns’ socials, “it’s all worked out” now for Monken and Sanders, who, for now, are paired together for the 2026 season. Sanders struggled mightily as a rookie last season and the Browns are expected to add at least one quarterback to their room this season, per ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler. While he shouldn’t be considered a lock to open next season as the Browns’ starter, it appears Monken had some genuine interest in the former fifth-round pick, which could be a good sign for his future.

Switzer has spent the last three seasons as the Ravens’ run game coordinator. The ninth-year coach didn’t have much trouble producing with the combination of Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson, but he will have a new challenge in front of him if he lands the job with the Browns. Switzer has never served as an offensive coordinator, although we would expect head coach Todd Monken to serve as the team’s primary play-caller regardless of who is brought in.