The Bears confirmed their signing of wide receiver Scotty Miller on Monday and they also announced three other new additions to the roster.
Linebacker Jon Rhattigan is the most experienced member of that group. He joined Miller as a veteran tryout player at the team’s rookie minicamp over the weekend.
Rhattigan had six tackles on special teams in 12 games for the Raiders last season. He also played in one game for the Steelers and was a regular in the kicking game for the Panthers in 2024. He spent his first three seasons with the Seahawks and has 50 career tackles.
Wide receiver Kyron Hudson and linebacker Wayne Matthews also signed with the team. Both players went undrafted last month.
The only corresponding move saw the Bears place wide receiver Squirrel White on the reserve/retired list. White had signed with the team as an undrafted free agent ahead of the minicamp.
Offensive lineman Layden Robinson took part in the Falcons’ rookie minicamp on a tryout basis and he is set to stick around Atlanta for a little while longer.
Mike Garafolo of NFL Media reports that the Falcons will be signing Robinson to their 90-man roster. There’s no word of any other roster moves at the moment.
Robinson was a 2024 fourth-round pick by the Patriots and he started 11 games at guard during his rookie season in New England. Robinson landed on injured reserve last summer, however, and he was waived during the season. The Raiders added him to their practice squad and signed him to a future contract before waiving him earlier this month.
The Falcons have Chris Lindstrom and Matthew Bergeron back as their starting guards, so Robinson will likely be competing for a reserve role over the rest of the offseason.
The 2025 season did not go well for quarterback Geno Smith.
But he is set for a fresh start with the Jets, coming back to the team that drafted him after a decade elsewhere in the league.
His new offensive coordinator, Frank Reich, is also back in the pros after his last coaching stint with the Panthers lasted just 12 weeks.
On Wednesday, Reich noted that Smith is a “perfect” fit for his offensive scheme.
“I’ve liked Geno from Day 1,” Reich said in his press conference, via transcript from the team. “When he was coming out of West Virginia, I had a high grade on Geno. I had not met Geno before here, and I’m kind of glad because I’m even more impressed with him, now meeting him in person. I feel his resilience, his toughness, I always think the No. 1 attribute in any quarterback that you need, especially if you want to come and turn something around, is you need someone who’s tough. I mean tough mentally, tough physically, and I feel that from Geno on every front.
“I think his experience, the ups and downs that he’s been through, and he’s had great success, and had to deal with some tough seasons, and if you play in this league long enough, everyone’s going to face that. And if you are the person, if you’re the right kind of leader, then you come out of it better, and I think that’s the version of Geno Smith we’re getting. We’re getting the best version of who he is, and I think his best football’s ahead of him.”
From 2021-2024, Smith started 52 games for Seattle, leading the club to a 28-24 record while completing 68.5 percent of his passes for 12,928 yards with 76 touchdowns and 36 interceptions. If Smith is better than that, then the Jets will be in a much better position to have success in 2026.
The biggest story in the opening days of the 2026 league year was the Ravens’ decision to pull out of a trade for Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby and the fallout from that move went beyond Baltimore and Las Vegas.
During an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday, Buccaneers General Manager Jason Licht shed some light on how Tampa was impacted by the deal. The Bucs took edge rusher Rueben Bain with the 15th overall pick, but Licht thinks things would have played out differently had the trade gone through.
The Raiders would have landed the 14th pick and pass rusher would have been an obvious need for General Manager John Spytek in a post-Crosby world, but the pick remained in Baltimore. Spytek had also agreed to sign former Ravens center Tyler Linderbaum during the period when the trade was set to go through, which meant that the Ravens had an acute need on their offensive line at No. 14. They didn’t have as big a need for an edge rusher after signing Trey Hendrickson, so guard Vega Ioane became the choice.
“Then I think going back to free agency when, you know, the Raiders-Ravens trade didn’t work out, I think that in some way I’d like to think helped us a little bit. I was a little afraid if the Raiders made that trade, Spytek, he and I are very close, he was taunting me a little bit, hey, we’re sitting right in front of you, I know what you need,” Licht said “And then, you know, Crosby goes back to the Raiders, then the Ravens are sitting there again with their pick, and I know they love their edge rushers, too, so that had me nervous. They took Vega, which is an awesome pick, you know, they need offensive linemen. Maybe the fact that the Raiders signed Linderbaum helped us get Rueben. We’re all trying to help each other out here, especially the people that are good friends, so thanks, Spytek.”
Licht said the Bucs were in on Hendrickson “a little bit” before he agreed to terms with Baltimore, but the way everything came together left them with a “shiny new toy” at the top of the draft.
Another one of Fernando Mendoza’s Indiana teammates will be joining him with the Raiders.
The Raiders announced that they have signed wide receiver Jonathan Brady on Monday. They also signed running back Roman Hemby and wide receiver E.J. Williams Jr. as undrafted free agents last week, so there’s now a quartet of Hoosiers on the roster in Las Vegas.
Brady transferred to Indiana in 2025 after playing at New Mexico State and Cal. He caught 14 passes for 115 yards and three touchdowns in his lone season in Bloomington. He also averaged 16.5 yards on punt returns and returned one punt for a touchdown.
The Raiders placed wide receiver Justin Shorter on injured reserve in a corresponding move. He appeared in 17 games the last two seasons and saw most of his action on special teams.
