NFL Player News

The 2025 Heisman Trophy winner and national champion didn’t take long to announce his decision. Just days after downing Miami in the College Football Playoff national championship game, Mendoza, who is widely believed to be the No. 1 pick in this year’s draft, will leave college for the pros. Mendoza is a fourth-year prospect who got his start at Cal, before transferring to Indiana for the 2025 season. Under head coach Curt Cignetti, Mendoza showed tremendous improvement, throwing for career-highs across the board while finishing with a line of 3,535-41-6 through the air and leading the nation in yards per attempt (9.3) and touchdown passes. He’s a prototypical pocket passer standing at 6-foot-5, and weighing in at 225 pounds, but Mendoza also showed off the wheels at times, rushing for 76-377-7, per PFF, who does not account for rushing yards lost due to sacks. The Raiders, who currently hold the No. 1 pick in the draft, seem destined to take Mendoza come April in hopes of fixing the quarterback woes that have plagued them since Derek Carr left after the 2022 season.

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.

The Eagles passed on Grizzard for their offensive-coordinator vacancy when they decided to hire Sean Mannion, but apparently liked enough of what they heard to pair him with Mannion this upcoming season. Grizzard served as the Buccaneers’ pass game coordinator during the 2024 season, when they finished sixth in yards per attempt and ranked in the top three in both passing yards (4,257) and passing touchdowns (41). He and Mannion take over an Eagles offense that finished 13th in yards per attempt last season, but ranked just 26th in total pass attempts. Hopefully, these moves lead to more pass attempts and a more aggressive down field attack for Jalen Hurts and company in 2026.

Carmichael spent two seasons working with new Bills head coach Joe Brady in New Orleans (2017-2018), when Carmichael was the Saints’ offensive coordinator. Carmichael joined the Broncos in 2024 and won’t be tasked with calling plays in Buffalo after Brady said he would continue to oversee play-calling duties. Carmichael provides a strong veteran presence in the building and has been part of several successful offenses with Sean Payton and Drew Brees.

Schultz claims Day was a “serious candidate” for an L.A. promotion before head coach Jim Harbaugh eventually settled on big-named organizational outsider Mike McDaniel. Coaching in the NFL or FBS since 2006, Day has spent most of his time in the big leagues, including time on Kyle Shanahan’s staff. He has never been a play-caller or offensive coordinator, while this would make for an unusual jump from one brother’s staff to another. John might be wondering why he wasn’t good enough for Jim’s job, but we digress.

The news was broken by Josina Anderson. Graham is only 47 years old but is becoming a coordinating lifer, spending the past four years in Vegas and a year in Miami before that. A Bill Belichick acolyte, Graham’s Steelers connection comes from his year on Mike McCarthy’s Packers staff in 2018. The Raiders’ defense was not “the problem” for the Silver and Black last season, but it certainly wasn’t the solution, either. Graham will have more to work with in the Steel City. It’s not a needle-moving hire, but it’s not a bad move.

While it would be nice to see Darnold practice fully, he threw for 346 yards and three touchdowns while managing the oblique injury last week. His availability for Super Bowl LX against the Patriots is not in jeopardy. The Seahawks will practice at home on Friday and Saturday before flying to San Jose.

Reports consistently listed Cunningham as the favorite for this role. He also notably interviewed for the Falcons’ new president of football position before later interviewing for the general manager role. Cunningham signed on with the Ravens in 2008 as a personnel assistant and was later promoted to area scout in 2013. He became the Eagles’ director of college scouting in 2017 before taking their assistant director of player personnel job in 2019 and their director of player personnel job in 2020. He then accepted the assistant general manager role with the Bears in 2021 and has served in that role until now.

Seahawks OC Klint Kubiak is viewed as the favorite for the role, but Evero is evidently still in it. Per Fowler, Evero conveyed detailed plans for the offense and, specifically, the quarterback position during his in-person meeting with the Raiders. The presentation apparently went over well. Stay tuned.