The NFL is making a significant change to the offseason calendar for the 2027 season.
Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reports that the free agent negotiating window will open on March 9 next year. That is the same date that the two-day window opened this year, but the change comes in how close it will be to the end of the Scouting Combine.
NFL teams will wrap up their examinations and interrogations of incoming prospects on March 8 in 2027, which moves the league away from having a week or so between the two events as they have in past years.
Under that setup, the Combine has always been rife with table-setting for free agency as agents and team executives are all in the same place with their minds on the same things. With that gap eliminated, there will likely be even more of that work being done in Indianapolis so that teams are ready to make moves right from the starting gun.
ESPN has done something it rarely ever does.
On June 18, ESPN posted a new story regarding free-agent defensive lineman Mike Pennel and a murder investigation in the Dominican Republic. Among other things, the story cited unnamed sources to support the notion that Pennel knew the woman whose remains were found on property he previously owned. ESPN has now deleted the story and posted an item with this title: “ESPN update to Michael Pennel Jr. story.”
Here’s the full text of the update: “On June 18, 2026, ESPN published a story about Michael Pennel Jr. and an investigation into the death of a woman in the Dominican Republic who disappeared on September 5, 2021. ESPN has determined the story contained errors and has removed it. Since the publication of the story, Pennel’s representatives have provided ESPN with documentation, including travel and financial records, supporting Pennel’s statements to ESPN that he was not in the Dominican Republic at the time the woman disappeared. Pennel’s representatives also issued a statement, which may be found here.”
(Frankly, that’s not an “update” — it’s a full-blown retraction.)
The statement posted by attorney Brian Wainger says that “Mr. Pennel had nothing to do with the death or disappearance of Ms. Roche and was never a suspect or person of interest in that investigation. He did not know her.”
The statement also explains that “Mr. Pennel’s personal records including his passport and other travel documents, banking records and photographs along with their geotracking locations confirm Mike was not in the Dominican Republic in September, 2021 at the time of Ms. Roche’s disappearance, or in the weeks before or after it.”
Wainger writes that “Mike was in Denver, Colorado being treated for a sports injury at the time and was signed by the Atlanta Falcons on September 15, 2021.”
“Mr. Pennel’s Dominican attorney, Cesar A. Duran, never told anyone he expected Mr. Pennel to be arrested,” Wainger adds. “Mr. Pennel owned but never lived in the property where the remains of Ms. Roche were found. Mr. Pennel’s video surveillance system captured several people unlawfully trespassing on the property the night Ms. Roche disappeared. Mr. Pennel saved the video surveillance and shared it with the Dominican authorities who did not know it existed.”
It’s a stunning development. ESPN deleted an entire story, and it has publicly acknowledged that the story “contained errors.”
A link to the update currently appears on the front page of the ESPN website, near the bottom of the list of headlines along the right rail. As of this posting, there’s no mention of it anywhere on the ESPN NFL home page, which scrolls all the way down to the report from the middle of May that the Chiefs and Broncos will play in the first Monday night game of the 2026 season.
We had posted an item on ESPN’s now-deleted Pennel report. Given ESPN’s deletion of the item, our article has been deactivated and the corresponding tweet has been deleted.
A 12-year veteran, Pennel played 2025 for the Chiefs and the Bengals.
Dexter Lawrence made a career-high nine sacks in 2024. In 2025, the then-Giants defensive tackle had career lows in sacks (0.5) and quarterback hits (eight).
His three-year streak of Pro Bowl appearances ended.
Lawrence heads into 2026 on a new team and with a chip on his shoulder.
“I’m more managing it now, because you can’t really beat up on other teams. So during the season you just let it go and you flow,” Lawrence said a week ago, via Joe Reedy of the Associated Press. “I know how I approach this game and my impact to the game, even when it doesn’t show up on the sack numbers.”
Lawrence faced the fifth-highest double-team rate among defensive tackles last season at 70.35 percent, per Pro Football Focus. The Bengals acquired Lawrence, along with adding defensive tackle Jonathan Allen and edge rushers Boye Mafe and Cashius Howell to their defensive line.
That could help Lawrence avoid as many double teams.
“We know the caliber of player he is,” Mafe said. “Having him on our side, it makes it so much easier. It makes everyone’s job around us easier. He’s a calming presence because we have him on our side.”
Lawrence got some work in with his new team during the offseason program and vows to be ready for training camp late next month.
“I’m going to be like a boxer before they’re going into a fight. You’ve got to put your head down and train,” Lawrence said.
Former NFL defensive tackle DeShawn Williams has filed a lawsuit over memorabilia that he believes was stolen from his home.
The theft wasn’t the garden-variety smash-and-grab. Via Tampa Bay 28, Williams claims that contractors hired after Hurricane Helene damaged the home in 2024 entered the premises without permission, took items belonging to Williams, and then posted them for sale on Facebook Marketplace.
DeShawn Williams and his wife, Ashlee, contend that their mortgage company hired Solid Foundation Properties LLC, which then subcontracted with Colvin Inspections to inspect and preserve the property. They claim that Colvin Inspections also removed certain property.
“They call it securing the property or winterizing the property,” their attorney, Matt Weider, told Tampa Bay 28. “But in fact, they’re just entering into a property and violating a homeowner’s security.”
The Williamses contend that DeShawn’s Denver Broncos helmet and his Bengals jersey were listed for sale on Facebook Marketplace, for $800 and $200, respectively.
DeShawn Williams, undrafted in 2015, played for the Bengals, Broncos, and Panthers. Earlier this year, he joined the Oklahoma coaching staff as a defensive analyst.
Offseason stories about the Bengals have centered on the moves they’ve made to bolster a defense that has struggled too often in recent seasons, but that’s not the only way the Bengals are trying to bring an end to their playoff drought.
Another focus has been on increasing the number of explosive plays on offense and that work has focused on how other teams have found success running plays with the quarterback under center. The top-five teams in plays under center and using play action while under center last season finished in the top quarter of the league in explosive plays.
The Bengals were 31st in under-center percentage and 30th in play action with quarterback Joe Burrow producing one explosive play in the latter category over the last three seasons. Burrow was seeing more time in those situations during the team’s OTAs and offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher said the team will continue to look for ways to make better use of those looks.
“If you are looking at, ‘How are we going to be a really explosive offense?’ the data would suggest you got to have a component of your offense that allows you to get under center and attack the defense.” Pitcher said, via Paul Dehner of TheAthletic.com. “Truthfully, yeah, I believe in what those numbers say, and we are going to have to explore that part of our offense.”
Burrow said that he is “always ready to drop back 65 times to make it work,” but said he’s excited about what the offense can do to become more explosive and said the team is “committed” to making that part of their attack for the fall.
