NFL Player News

Something of a passion project overpay during Mike McDaniel’s first Dolphins offseason two years ago, ex-Cowboy Wilson ended up catching only 34 passes in two years as a Dolphin. He needed to take a pay cut to maintain his 2023 roster spot. A “little things” receiver, Wilson helps rebuild the Saints’ depth following the release of Michael Thomas.

Haack signed with the Bills earlier this offseason after joining their practice squad in January. The veteran punter appeared in just one game for the Browns last season, attempting three punts while averaging 41.7 net yards per punt. He’s bounced around four different teams since being let go by the Dolphins after the 2020 season but has enough experience to catch on elsewhere and compete for a job in camp.

Steveson doesn’t have a football background but won the gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the 125kg freestyle. The former Minnesota Golden Gopher complied an 85-2 career record in college and won two NCAA titles in his weight class. Per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Steveson will play defensive line and first put on a pair of cleats a few weeks ago when he worked out for the Bills. We’ll see how this plays out in camp, but the 24-year-old champ faces an uphill battle to make the roster.

Risner is a proven blocker in the passing game, reliably producing PFF pass-blocking grades ranging from 67.4-to-73.6 in his five-year NFL career. Risner’s re-signing fortifies Minnesota’s offensive line as an above-average pass-protection unit for first-round quarterback J.J. McCarthy’s rookie season.

Lions GM Brad Holmes said two weeks ago said the team is ramping up the second-year back for a heftier workload in 2024. Montgomery said the team needs Gibbs “to do from a passing game standpoint is go to the next level. ... I do think there’s a certain difference between being a really efficient check-down versus a great route-runner, a guy that can run all types of choice (routes). We know we’ve seen him do those things. But now can you go into the slot and a little bit more down the field, some intermediate stuff. Can we continue to grow him there, and that’s what we’re trying to do.” This is standard fare for offseason talk of a talented pass-catching running back. Gibbs in 2023 ran 9.2 percent of his routes from the slot. We could see a slight bump in that slot usage but it doesn’t change much about his statistical profile.

Mitchell has made consistent acrobatic downfield grabs in 7-on-7 drills during OTAs, catching the attention of beat writers and Colts coaches alike. Boyd said on Thursday, Anthony Richardson “launched a deep ball down the sideline to Mitchell, who, after beating cornerback Darrell Baker contorted his body to make an over-the-shoulder grab that drew a roar of approval from the offense. That highlight-reel play explains why the Colts were willing to take a swing on Mitchell despite just one year of big-time production from him in college.” Mitchell, the 52nd overall selection in the 2024 NFL Draft, posted an explosive 55/845/11 line in his final collegiate season (his only one at Texas). Mitchell should function as a pure downfield threat for the big-armed Richardson in 2024.

New Seattle head coach Mike Macdonald agreed, describing JSN’s work ethic as “awesome.” The implication is that Smith-Njigba didn’t put in the necessary work during his disappointing rookie season, during which he caught 62 of 90 targets for 628 yards and four touchdowns. JSN would have to leapfrog DK Metcalf or Tyler Lockett in the team’s pass-catching pecking order if he’s going to be a reliable fantasy option in 2024. That seems unlikely.

A 2022 UDFA, under-sized Thompkins caught 17 balls in 17 games last season, so it’s a little surprising to see him cut loose at this stage of the offseason. Heading into his age-25 campaign, 5-foot-8 Thompkins has roughly six weeks to land on someone else’s 90-man roster before training camp. That, of course, will depend on his health.

“He’ll be available at the start of training camp, so we won’t see him working through the rest of the OTAs,” coach Sean Payton claimed. “But, on the conservative side, he’s going to be just fine. It was all good news.” It, of course, isn’t good news that Estime required a scope at all, but a truly small scope would indeed have him ready for camp. Estime handled a huge 2023 workload for Notre Dame, but he is still only 20 years old and wasn’t as heavily featured in 2021-22. Provided his recovery goes according to plan, this shouldn’t be a long-term concern. Part of what Payton has promised will be a major competition at running back, Estime maintains late-round flier appeal.

The Cardinals selected Robinson with the No. 27 overall pick in this year’s draft in hopes of bolstering their defensive front. Robinson exploded for 14 TFLs and 8.5 sacks in his final season at Missouri and was named First-team All-SEC for his efforts. He has a chance help improve a defensive unit that allowed the second-most points per game and the eighth most yards per game in 2023.

Toub points out that the new kickoff rules could require kickers to be more involved in tackles — something the Chiefs may prefer for Butker to avoid. Toub said the team watched every kickoff in the XFL, which first experimented with this rule, and found that kickers were involved in “at least 25 to 40 percent of the tackles” in the tape they watched. Toub said safety Justin Reid has been viewed as a potential option to replace Butker on kickoffs, but it doesn’t seem like anything is definite at this time. It wouldn’t be surprising to see other teams consider this approach to avoid injuries to their kickers.