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Cleveland tweeted that he received positive news from the doctors regarding his knee injury suffered Monday night and will be “back soon and better than ever.” Ben Powers will step in at left guard for the foreseeable future with LT Alejandro Villanueva still in for Ronnie Stanley (ankle). If Lamar Jackson weathers this storm in Week 6 against the Chargers, he’ll undoubtedly be ahead of the pack as the early 2021 MVP.

Well, it really made no sense to keep Engstrand and find a new playcaller, so we guess from that point of view it makes sense. Engstrand’s run game was versatile and varied and he probably deserves a role as someone’s run game coordinator at the very worst next year — perhaps he’ll head back to Detroit. The Jets will do whatever it is the Jets do from here, which from the looks of their defensive coordinator search probably means they’ll wind up paralyzed by overanalyzing 10 different candidates. Frank Reich has been the rumored playcaller replacement for the Jets in recent days.

Duker, whose biography at Dolphins.com brings up a “This page cannot be found” result after the takeover of new head coach Jeff Hafley, was part of the Lions staff in 2021-2023 as a defensive backs coach and also worked with the Ravens, 49ers, and Browns in his early days. He’s been Dolphins pass game coordinator and secondary coach for the past two years and, considering the talent he worked with, we’d say he did a pretty great job. He’s the latest entry into a Jets DC search that has seemed to take an abnormally long time.

In other words, this is exactly like the Mike McDaniel scenario that played out over the last week. Daboll had enough pull to organize a ready-made Plan B in case he did not win a head-coaching job this cycle, just as McDaniel picked the Chargers offensive coordinator position while completing interviews for head-coaching gigs. It’s very unlikely any of this would have leaked to reporters if Daboll actually had a real chance at winning the Raiders job, but sometimes NFL teams do very strange things at the last minute.

Stefanski added that he thinks “you see a player on tape that can get through progressions, can layer the ball, can push the ball down the field” and said Penix is attacking his rehab from a late-season torn ACL. Stefanski was notably reluctant to dive into the future on Kirk Cousins, which could be read as a non-endorsement for his return. If Cousins doesn’t return, the Falcons may need a new bridge quarterback for the early season while Penix returns to the field. But with no first-round pick, it always made sense for the Falcons to give Penix the balance of the season to see what he could do. Alternatives with notably higher upside would appear hard to find in free agency or in the later rounds of the draft.

Stefanski ceded play-calling power to Rees down the stretch in Cleveland last year and they turned into a heavily screen-focused team with (holding back laugh) Pro Bowler Shedeur Sanders under center. We wouldn’t necessarily expect the same things next year in Atlanta since we don’t know who the quarterback will be just yet, but Rees did get a decent amount of offense out of what was a fairly weak core on paper last year.

This is slightly longer than the original 12-week estimate given by Adam Schefter, but obviously there’s no rush to get Nix back on the field in April or May. Nix should have a full training camp and be raring to go in 2026 after losing his chance to play in the AFC Championship game to a broken bone in his ankle.

Both will come in for second interviews this week. Cunningham has been regarded as the favorite all along and interviewed for Atlanta’s preposterously-named “president of football” job before it wound up being Matt Ryan’s gig. Liipfert clearly impressed Falcons brass in his interview last week. We’d still imagine Cunningham as the favorite here, but we’ll see how both fare in an extended sitdown with Kevin Stefanski and Ryan.

With Joe Brady landing the Bills head coaching job, Daboll is resigned to take over as OC for head coach Robert Saleh’s Titans. Daboll, who served as Bills offensive coordinator before becoming Giants head coach, will be charged with molding second-year QB Cam Ward following Ward’s uneven rookie year in which he was among the NFL’s most inefficient passers. Turning Ward into a viable starting NFL quarterback will be Saleh’s priority for 2026 as he tries to establish a winning culture for a team that has struggled mightily in recent years.

Maye seemed to have injured his shoulder during the Patriots’ AFC title game win over the Broncos. Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel was vague when asked about Maye’s practice status for the coming weeks. “This is a sport where there’s gonna be things that come up. We’ll talk about whatever status each player has for the game once we’re required to,” Vrabel said. If Maye is struggling with an injured shoulder, he’ll have a while to recover ahead of New England’s Super Bowl matchup against a tough Seattle defense. Joshua Dobbs is the Patriots’ backup QB.

It’s reportedly a five-year deal for Brady. While it’s hard to separate Brady’s play calling and offensive scheming from the all-world quarterbacking of Josh Allen, Brady’s Buffalo offenses have been productive. The Bills have been top-six in points scored and top-ten in total yards in all three of Brady’s seasons at the helm of the offense. Brady, 36, served as OC for the Panthers before coming to Buffalo in 2023. The Bills over the past three years lead the NFL in EPA per play and rank second in offensive success rate, trailing only Kyle Shanahan’s 49ers. Brady, at worst, will bring continuity to the team after they fired longtime head coach Sean McDermott following a Divisional Round loss to the Broncos.