The Bears signed third-round tight end Sam Roush, the team announced Friday.
He receives a four-year, $7.35 million contract.
Roush’s signing completes the team’s draft class signings.
The Bears selected Roush with the 69th overall pick after he finished a four-year career at Stanford. Roush made 34 starts as a Cardinal, totaling 119 receptions for 1,201 yards and four touchdowns.
As a team captain in 2025, Roush recorded a career-best 49 receptions in earning second-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference recognition.
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The football world has noticed the social-media antics of 49ers receiver Brandon Aiyuk in recent weeks. Former 49ers quarterback and Hall of Famer Steve Young has, and he expressed concern for Aiyuk on Thursday, from the American Century Championship in Lake Tahoe, Nevada.
“I worry for him,” Young said, via Edward Lewis of the New York Post. “I feel like I want to reach out and help. This is beyond football, it feels like. . . . It just feels like we need to not make it about football right now.”
Earlier this week, former 49ers executive Ran Carthon expressed similar concern, suggesting he’d reach out to Aiyuk.
It’s possible that more than a few NFL figures have tried to advise Aiyuk, who wants to sign with the Commanders. Until he files a petition for reinstatement with the 49ers and shows up for training camp (which likely could force his release), it will be clear that he’s not listening.
To anyone.
The NFL should always be looking for ways to enhance the presentation of its games. If the powers-that-be have been keeping an eye on the World Cup, they don’t have to look far.
FIFA’s Referee View has captured game action from the middle of the fray. As explained by Ethan Joyce of Sports Business Journal, AI stabilizes what would otherwise be erratic video.
The end result is an immersive, compelling perspective of what happens on the field.
The technology, developed by Lenovo, was tested last year during the Club World Cup. Referee View made its official debut last month.
The device isn’t cumbersome; it could easily be attached to the hat every NFL official wears. Unlike FIFA, which has one referee on the field (two remain on the sidelines), the NFL has seven.
Still, whatever it costs, it’s worth it to equip an official with the same kind of camera the referees have used for the World Cup.
Cowboys wide receiver George Pickens skipped most of the team’s offseason program, but he reportedly opted to get some more work in with his teammates this week.
Clarence Hill of DLLS Sports reports that Pickens is taking part in a retreat for skill position players that quarterback Dak Prescott put together in Park City, Utah. Hill adds that Pickens and Prescott have also been joined by wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, tight end Jake Ferguson and other key players as there is 100 percent participation at the workouts.
Pickens did not take part in any of the team’s voluntary work after signing his franchise tag this offseason, but did report to their mandatory minicamp. He did not participate in team drills, however.
The Cowboys have said that they have no intention of negotiating a long-term deal with Pickens ahead of the July 15 deadline to get one done, but his presence at minicamp suggests that he will be reporting to training camp at the end of the month.
Only two running backs in the NFL have carried the ball more than 300 times in each of the last two seasons, but it sounds like the Colts wouldn’t mind if Jonathan Taylor’s streak ends there.
It’s not a question of effectiveness as Taylor has run for 3,016 yards and 29 touchdowns on his 626 totes, but running backs coach DeAndre Smith pointed out the correlation between usage and injury risk as a reason why the team would like to find other options that would allow the running game to continue to flourish while Taylor is getting a chance to rest during games.
“We definitely need to find ways to take some of that workload off him,” Smith said, via Stephen Holder of ESPN.com. “If I can find another guy or two that can take some of those carries off, he’s just going to be that much better. So, it’s definitely been a constant conversation. I’m aware of it. When he’s healthy, we’ve got a chance to win every game. So, that’s always the first thing I think about: making sure he’s available every week.”
Taylor played every game in 2025, but missed three games in 2024 and 13 games over the previous two seasons.
There’s no surefire answer on the roster at the moment as 2025 fifth-rounder DJ Giddens only ran 26 times as a rookie and 2026 seventh-rounder Seth McGowan is joined by undrafted free agents further down the depth chart. If one of those players doesn’t flash quickly in camp, the Colts may have to look elsewhere for the kind of help that Smith would like to give Taylor come the fall.
If former Raiders and Saints quarterback Derek Carr wants to play again, there are teams interested in his services. But so far, he hasn’t heard an offer intriguing enough for him to accept.
Carr said on NFL Network today that teams have contacted him about potentially coming out of retirement, and he isn’t ruling it out. Carr did not name those teams, but if they didn’t get permission from the Saints first, they were violating the NFL’s tampering rules. Carr was still under contract with the Saints when he retired, and other teams can’t contact him without the Saints’ permission. The Saints would also likely want trade compensation from any team that wanted Carr.
“I never say never,” Carr said. “It would take a special situation. There were multiple teams that reached out to me this offseason. I won’t say who or how, but they reached out and were gauging my interest on what I wanted to do. They were good, solid football teams.”
Carr said he will only return if a Super Bowl contender needs him.
“I’m just at the point where I just want to win. I want to win. So if I were to do it, it would have to be a special team that maybe lost somebody or needed somebody, but even then, it’s not guaranteed,” Carr said. “I’m having too much fun hanging out with my wife, hanging out with my kids, and trying to get good at golf. So it would take a special deal.”
When Carr announced his retirement last year, he and the Saints both said his injured shoulder would have hampered his ability to keep playing. But Carr now says that if the right team calls at the right time, he’ll be in shape and ready to play — even if he doesn’t anticipate that happening.
“I’m always training,” Carr said. “I’ll be in shape and ready, but probably not. I’ll probably be just coaching my kids.”
The 35-year-old Carr was drafted by the Raiders in 2014, played nine seasons with them, and then played his final two seasons with the Saints in 2023 and 2024. Now, after a year out of football, he’s not ruling out playing for a third team.
The Terrion Arnold case has returned to court on Friday, for a hearing on whether he’ll be required to wear a GPS monitor while on house arrest pending trial on eight felony charges.
The core question is whether he’ll be practicing or playing football in 2026. If so, the judge likely will stick with the ruling made while Arnold was still on the Lions’ roster. If not, it’s more likely that Arnold will be required to follow the standard home-confinement protocol and wear a device.
The evidence supporting Arnold’s position has come from his agent, Nicole Lynn. Via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press, Lynn testified that four teams have inquired about Arnold: the Colts, Jets, Seahawks, and Texans. She said that he visited and worked out for the Texans, per Birkett. (That workout has yet to appear on any of the daily NFL transaction reports.)
Lynn added that there is a “very good likelihood” Arnold will be signed in the next 45 days.
The next question will be whether any of those teams will confirm their interest in Arnold, or act on it. Often, if a player who works out for a team isn’t promptly signed, he’s not going to be signed by that team — at least not in the immediate future.
The other question looming over Arnold is whether the NFL will place him on the Commissioner Exempt list (i.e., paid leave). If a team has reason to think that’s coming, it will have less reason to sign him.
Regardless, the testimony worked. The judge, per Birkett, denied the prosecution’s motion. Arnold will not be required to wear a GPS device. He remains confined to his home with the exception of work and meetings with attorneys.
For years, the Scouting Combine has also been Tampering Central. Next year, the tampering will be even more central to the conversations.
The recent news that free agency will begin only one day after the 2027 Combine ends means that the technically impermissible but widespread communications regarding looming free agents will be even more prevalent than usual — and more detailed.
As one source predicted, the discussions between teams and the agents representing upcoming free agents will shift from expressions of interest and generalities regarding compensation to specific negotiations about the contracts to be officially negotiated, and finalized, the day after everyone returns home from Indianapolis.
For that reason, here’s our prediction: The flow of news emerging during Combine week will include reports indicating that specific teams will be agreeing to terms (or, at a minimum, targeting) specific players when free agency begins. It will be impossible to keep a lid on things; even if neither the team nor the free agent’s agent say a thing, it takes only one team that is told that a player will be agreeing to terms with another team (or one agent who is told that a potential spot for their client will be filled by another player) to get the grapevine vibrating.
Free-agent tampering is the NFL’s dirty little offseason secret that usually is ignored. Sometimes, the league will feel compelled to make an example of a team or a coach. Typically, nothing happens.
The “negotiating period” (loosely referred to by many as “legal tampering”) started more than a decade ago as an acknowledgement that tampering happens. It had gotten beyond ridiculous; in those days, free agency opened at midnight and multi-million-dollar deals were negotiated, start to finish, in minutes.
It still happens now. News of fully-negotiated deals emerges not long after the clock strikes noon on the first day of the negotiating period. Next year, the unofficial deals will be unofficially done even earlier.
Although the offseason schedule has gotten more and more cramped, it makes sense for the league to find a way to spread out the tentpoles a little bit more. Why jam the Scouting Combine and free agency so close together?
Given that there’s usually a lull between the first wave or two of signings and the annual meetings in late March, free agency could have waited, in theory. The problem is that, after the Combine, the Pro Days start to pop up. Making it harder for teams to sign veterans while properly scouting rookies.
Regardless, there has to be a better way to do this. Beyond the crowding of major events together, next year’s proximity of Tampering Central to legal tampering will make it more obvious than ever that everyone is breaking the rules.
It’s not unusual for older players to get a reduced workload, but Steelers defensive tackle Cam Heyward accomplished something extremely impressive in 2025: He was both the NFL’s oldest defensive tackle, and the defensive tackle who played the most snaps.
According to the snap counts at pro-football-reference.com, Heyward played 832 defensive snaps, the most for any player whose listed position is defensive tackle. And he did that at age 36 as the oldest player in the league at his position.
Heyward turned 37 in May and is the only 37-year-old defensive tackle in pro football right now, although Ravens defensive tackle John Jenkins will join him on his birthday, tomorrow. (Jenkins played 523 defensive snaps last year.)
The Steelers clearly weren’t concerned that Heyward couldn’t withstand the punishment of a lot of playing time at age 36, because they also had him on the field for 129 special teams plays, the sixth-most special teams snaps of any defensive tackle in the league last year.
In March, the Steelers extended Heyward through the 2027 season, when he’ll be 38. And he may have some good years in him beyond that.
Titans defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons has played more than 80 percent of the team’s defensive snaps in each of the last six seasons and his performance was good enough for the team to sign him to a three-year contract extension this offseason.
While that might suggest more of the same in 2026, the Titans’ new head coach has something different in mind. Robert Saleh said during the team’s offseason program that the team is designing a defensive line rotation that will cut down on Simmons’s snaps.
Saleh said that if Simmons is “able to go to 50 plays out of 60, he’s not doing it right” and that the team is prioritizing certain downs and situations for their All-Pro.
“The whole point of the rotation is to make sure that Jeffrey Simmons is ready for that one-on-one when we need it,” Saleh said, via Turron Davenport of ESPN.com. “Third down, two minute, make sure he’s fresh, ready to roll and ready to exert every last fiber in his body and winning that one-on-one. So that’s really the purpose behind it.”
Simmons said this offseason that he feels Saleh’s attacking defensive approach is well suited for his style of play and the Titans’ plan to take advantage of that is to focus on quality over quantity.
