NFL Player News

“The majority of team personnel that I spoke with believe he’ll hit or clear the over.” The Bengals could franchise tag Higgins for less than this, but it seems clear that most sourced accounts of the league expect Higgins to hit free agency. He will be easily the league’s No. 1 priority in free agency, as even despite battling through soft tissue injuries the last few years, a wideout of this caliber rarely makes the open market in his prime. Justin Jefferson is the current leader in average annual value per season at $35 million. It wouldn’t be surprising if Higgins found somewhere around that number if he makes it to free agency.

LaFleur said he “missed it” during his three years as Sean McVay’s offensive coordinator and noted that “the worst playcall is a late playcall.” Stapled to an ineffective Zach Wilson early in his career, it’s hard to fully understand LaFleur’s upside as a playcaller at this point. It’s certainly possible he does better in Arizona than he did in New York.

Beane noted there was an outside chance that Bass could have kicked in the Super Bowl had the Bills made it, leaving us to believe that there’s little doubt he’ll be available at the start of next season. Bass missed the entire 2025 regular season with the injury.

The 2025 fifth-round pick played in four games for the Bills before suffering the injury, and he’d played 39 percent of the snaps to that point so he was trending towards being a real contributor. His future in the league is in doubt.

Vasso also interviewed for the Titans DC job before it went to Gus Bradley. Breer adds Rams assistant head coach Aubrey Pleasant is a possibility for the job. As one of the last teams to fill their head coaching vacancy, the Cardinals are going to be left trying to find up-and-comers for their coordinator positions.

As has been the norm in Mike McCarthy’s searches this offseason, Angelichio coached under McCarthy in Green Bay. He’s a long-time NFL tight ends coach who has worked with the Buccaneers, Browns, Commanders, and Panthers in addition to the Vikings and Packers. Angelichio has not called plays since he was the offensive coordinator at (wait for it) Ithaca College in the early 2000s, but he wouldn’t have that pressure with the Steelers as McCarthy is expected to call plays.

He’ll be the steadying hand for Declan Doyle as the youngster calls plays for the Ravens. Lombardi was fired so late in the cycle that he had no real shot at an offensive coordinator job in this cycle. We suspect he’ll get interviews in 2027.

Monken brought former Ravens run game coordinator Travis Switzer on board as his OC. Switzer has never called plays at any level, so this news shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. Calling plays in Baltimore over the past three seasons, the Ravens finished fourth, third, and 11th in points per game. Monken has a proven trackrecord of success with an MVP-caliber quarterback. How he fares with the Browns’ messy quarterback situation will determine his fate in Cleveland.

He added that he’s “absolutely excited” to coach Sanders and the other Browns offensive quarterbacks. We’re not sure who else the Browns would bring in between a draft board that looks very iffy after the Raiders select Fernando Mendoza at No. 1 overall and a free-agency class at the position that looks depleted after Malik Willis. We’d give Sanders good odds of being the Week 1 starter here, but it’s clear the Browns are going to at least make him earn it.

Walters has received several OC interviews over the years. He would not call the plays in Chicago and currently works with the best wide receiver duo in the NFL, so he is understandably staying in Cincinnati for the time being. Walters has been with the Bengals since 2020.

Per Schultz, Tolzien was considered a top candidate for the Steelers’ OC job under new head coach Mike McCarthy. Instead, he will stay with the Saints, helping to mentor Tyler Shough in his second season. While an OC gig would certainly hasten Tolzien’s rise toward a head coaching job, he has a great setup in New Orleans at the moment. Shough looks like a surprising hit at quarterback and Kellen Moore is a great coach to learn the ropes of calling an NFL offense under. If things go well for the Saints in 2026, Tolzien should get to choose his spot as an OC next year.