Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles will get to catch up with one of his former teams this summer.
Bowles said at a Tuesday press conference that the Bucs have set up a pair of joint practices with the Jets before the two teams play in the first week of the preseason. Bowles was the head coach of the Jets from 2015-2018.
There will likely be workouts with the Jaguars before the final game of the preseason as well.
“We lined it up with the Jets and we’re in the process of trying to line it up with the Jaguars, as well,” Bowles said, via the team’s website. “We’ll probably just play Kansas City.”
The Bucs practiced with both of the AFC teams ahead of the 2023 season as well.
The Jets have four quarterbacks on the roster. Beyond once-and-current starter Geno Smith, there are major questions about the depth chart.
They added Bailey Zappe, who has nine career starts between stints with New England and Cleveland, after the 2025 season. They have Brady Cook, who started four games last year as an undrafted rookie.
And they added fourth-round rookie Cade Klubnik, who slid to round four after entering the 2025 college football season as a potential first-round draft pick.
As explained by Rich Cimini of ESPN, the Jets want to see what Klubnik can do in the upcoming OTAs before possibly adding a more established veteran backup.
They’ve met with Russell Wilson, who says he’s weighing an offer with the Jets against an opportunity at CBS. (To date, he has accepted neither.)
Klubnik, as Cimini notes, looked good at the rookie minicamp. It will be a tougher test during practices including veteran players. If he passes, the Jets could eventually decide to make him the primary understudy to Smith for 2026.
Which would lay the foundation for Klubnik eventually becoming the starter for the Jets.
Who doesn’t like a #RevengeGame to start the season?
One such matchup will occur between the Jets and Titans, with Tennessee now employing Robert Saleh as head coach.
Saleh spent 2021-2024 as New York’s head coach before he was fired after Week 5 with a 2-3 start. Now, after a season back with the 49ers as the club’s defensive coordinator, Saleh has another chance to be a head coach with the Titans.
While it will surely be a storyline at the beginning of September, Saleh told reporters on Thursday that he’s not making very much of opening the year against his former club.
“I’ve said it before, I’m appreciative of the Jets and everything that I had,” Saleh said, via Turron Davenport of ESPN. “It’s been over a year and a half now. In the NFL, it’s kind of like 10 years.
“It’s to be expected with the NFL, but I don’t think anything of it.”
That’s at least Saleh’s public stance. We’ll see if something comes up once the players are between the white lines in September.
The Giants will have a joint practice with the Dolphins before the teams play in Week 2 of the preseason on Aug. 22.
Dolphins head coach Jeff Hafley revealed that news earlier this week.
That, though, is the Giants’ only joint practice this year.
Paul Schwartz of the New York Post reports that the Giants will not hold their annual joint practice with the Jets.
The Giants and Jets play their annual preseason game in Week 3 of the exhibition season.
The Giants will spend the first two weeks of training camp at The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.
Titans defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons has seen a lot of players come and go since joining the team in 2019 and one of this offseason’s departures hit him with particularly strong force.
Defensive tackle T’Vondre Sweat was traded to the Jets in exchange for edge rusher Jermaine Johnson. Simmons said during an appearance on CBS Sports’ Offseason Playbook that he was caught off guard when Sweat called him with the news in March because he had taken on a mentorship role for a younger player he believed was headed for bigger things.
Simmons went on to call General Manager Mike Borgonzi for more of a download on why the team decided to go in that direction.
“It was a surprise to me,” Simmons said. “Just trying to get a feel for why. I feel like Sweat — he’s got some potential that sometimes he doesn’t understand. For me, that’s the reason why I’m like Sweat, you’re coming down to Dallas with me this offseason. I wanted to pull that out of him to be able to be like ‘I have so much potential. I can be the best nose tackle in the game of football.’ And he has the potential to do that. I hate it, but it’s a business.”
Sweat was a 2024 second-round pick in Tennessee, which meant he joined the team before Borgonzi and head coach Robert Saleh were in the organization. They determined Johnson was a better fit for where they want to go and a win-win trade would be a plus for a pair of AFC teams that haven’t been consistent winners in a long time.
