NFL Player News

Dart is playing fast and loose as a runner, resulting in a myriad of minor injuries and a concussion check that head coach Brian Daboll rushed him through. The good news is that a full practice is more or less a maintenance day for the rookie. He will be good to go by the end of the week. Coming off a career-best day through the air, Dart has worked his way into the QB1 ranks for Week 8.

Rivera, 64, is currently the general manager for the University of California’s football program. He was head coach of the Panthers from 2011-2019, leading the team to a Super Bowl appearance and winning NFL Coach of the Year twice. Rivera then coached the Commanders form 2020-2023 to more lackluster results, failing to finish with a winning record across four seasons. The Cardinals are continuing to search for the right head coaching candidate and Rivera, who has been out of the NFL for two years, is the latest on the interview list.

Brady spent the past two seasons as the Bills’ offensive coordinator and play-caller after getting the interim offensive coordinator job in 2023. Garafolo reports that Brady will continue to call offensive plays after the Bills promoted him to head coach. Despite Buffalo aiming for some change after firing Sean McDermott, the team retains familiarity on offense. Brady’s offenses ranked top-three in EPA per play in both 2024 and 2025. With offensive play-calling settled, Brady will need to find a defensive play-caller and an offensive coordinator to work with in evolving Josh Allen’s offense.

The Pro Football Hall Of Fame voting process is an annual disaster, so this qualifies as disappointing but not all that surprising. ESPN’s column refers to former Colts general manager Bill Polian as a cheerleader for having Belichick “wait a year” before induction on account of the Spygate and Deflategate scandals. There’s not really a way to tell the story of the modern NFL without the six-time Super Bowl champion head coach who won 333 games over the course of his career, of course. There’s little doubt that he will eventually be a Hall of Famer. (The actual HOF announcements are coming next week.) Because of the way voting is grouped, Belichick was up against Robert Kraft, Ken Anderson, Roger Craig, and I.C. Greenwood. It’s unknown whether any of the members of that group got 80 percent of the vote.

He’s not waiting for the Raiders anymore. Cam Ward could see a completion percentage spike in his second year as Daboll has tended to focus more on underneath routes and quick-hitters as Giants head coach. We’re not sure it’s enough to get him out of the low-end QB2 ranks without some help at receiver or a better running game, but it’s a start. This news brought to you by major Titans source Jelly Roll.

Are we finally out of road here for Joe Lombardi? It’s the third OC job he hasn’t been able to keep for longer than three years, and not even buddy Sean Payton could keep riding this train. It’s possible the Broncos elevate Davis Webb, who has garnered head-coaching interviews, to their offensive coordinator position. Lombardi has plenty of experience as a quarterbacks coach and, despite working as an NFL coach since 2006, is only 55. He should at least be able to find NFL work elsewhere as a lower-rung assistant.

What is the first order of business for the Mike McCarthy Era? Obviously it’s interviewing his old coaches. Simmons was with McCarthy in Green Bay from 2011-2018. He’s been Washington’s defensive passing game coordinator since 2024.

Clinkscale was actually co-defensive coordinator with Jesse Minter at Michigan under Jim Harbaugh, so it would be a natural move for the Chargers to keep this job in-house. Whether they’ll actually do that remains up for debate. Clinkscale joined the Chargers in 2024 with Harbaugh and has coached the last two years as their defensive backs coach. He also has coordinator experience with the 2015 Cincinnati Bearcats.

Doyle withdrew from the Eagles search despite the lateral move technically improving his standing by letting him call plays. We’ll see if he’s interested in actually interviewing for this one. Hard to do much better as a playcaller than starting off with Lamar Jackson, even if the Jackson we saw late last season was not playing up to his MVP standard of 2023 and 2024.

McDaniel was scarce on details — not surprising — but promised to rein in the signal-caller a bit. McDaniel added “I think not relying too heavily on Justin’s ability to do above and beyond I think is critical. ... That’ll be one of the first things that we’ll try to do is take a little off his plate.” Reading between the lines, it’s possible that Herbert will be instructed to run a little less in 2026. He took off a career-high 83 times for 498 yards and two touchdowns. His overall fantasy value will probably remain as it was in 2025 — or improve — due to improved schematics. But we’re hoping the Chargers keep the running plays on the table for fantasy purposes and this does not sound like a team that plans to do that after watching him play the final six weeks of the season with a left hand that was recovering from surgery to repair a fracture.

Campanile was the only one of the two that was still up for a head-coaching gig after the Bills picking Joe Brady sealed off Udinski’s final interview opportunity. Campanile will apparently say no to the Cardinals and move ahead with the Jaguars for another season. Jacksonville’s first-place schedule and sudden improvements will make them a target for regression, but keeping coaching staff continuity should help ward some of it off.