After spending some time with the Patriots during training camp, DeAndre Hopkins has found a more permanent job in coaching.
Per Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports, Georgia Tech is expected to hire Hopkins as a member of the program’s offensive staff.
After departing New England’s training camp, Hopkins has spent time this week visiting with the team.
George Godsey, Georgia Tech’s offensive coordinator, was previously Hopkins’ OC with the Texans from 2015-2016. Godsey was also on last year’s Ravens staff as tight ends coach when Hopkins was with Baltimore.
If this is indeed the end for Hopkins as an NFL player, he’ll finish with 1,006 receptions for 13,295 yards with 85 touchdowns in 195 games over 13 seasons. He had 22 catches for 330 yards with two TDs with the Ravens last year.
Ravens Clips
The Ravens got a pair of defensive players back from the physically unable to perform list on Friday.
They announced that linebacker Adisa Isaac and cornerback Bilhal Kone have both been cleared to start practicing with the team at training camp.
Isaac will be hoping for better health in his third season. The 2024 third-round pick only played in four games as a rookie due to a hamstring injury and he missed all of last season after dislocating his elbow.
Kone was a sixth-round pick last April, but didn’t play in the regular season because he tore his ACL and MCL in the Ravens’ first preseason game last summer.
Ravens running back Derrick Henry is 32. That’s 2 years beyond where most running backs are run off.
Henry, though, is defying the odds.
In the two seasons since he turned 30 and joined the Ravens, Henry has rushed for 3,516 yards, averaged 5.6 yards per carry and scored 32 touchdowns.
Henry is entering his 11th season with no thoughts of his career ending any time soon.
“I don’t try to enter another season thinking about retiring and have that on my mind,” Henry said after the Ravens’ training camp practice Thursday, via Jeff Zrebiec of TheAthletic.com. “That’s not even my mindset. My mindset is: How can I get better, be the best I can be so we can be the best team we can be? But no, I haven’t thought about retirement at all.”
The five-time Pro Bowler, who has put together a Hall of Fame resume, still has plenty left to accomplish. He has never won a Super Bowl ring, which he says is “the No. 1 goal, always,” and he has a chance to move up on the NFL’s all-time rushing list.
His 13,018 rushing yards rank 10th, and with another 1,500-yard season, he can pass Eric Dickerson (13,259), Jerome Bettis (13,662), LaDainian Tomlinson (13,684) and Curtis Martin (14,101) into sixth place.
Emmitt Smith, the NFL’s all-time leading rusher, was 35 years old in his final season of 2004. Henry isn’t thinking about how long he’s going to play, but has no thoughts of retirement.
“I love the game, and once I feel like that love is gone, then I’ll hang it up,” Henry said. “But I’m just focused on getting better.”
When it comes to his contract, Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson has a consistent habit of sharing as few details as possible. He has continued to choose to keep the situation as private as he can.
Jackson was asked during his first press conference of training camp whether he would provide an update on any negotiations with the team.
“I’m gonna keep it the same way I’ve been keeping it. You know, not here,” Jackson said. “You know, it’s private between me and the G.M.”
Because he doesn’t have an agent, Jackson has in the past cut off talks once football season began. He was asked whether he’d be working on a new deal, now that training camp has opened.
“Yeah, you know, focus on football, like it’s always been,” Jackson said.
It’s been clear for more than a year that Jackson wants, and deserves, a new deal. When he signed his current contract in 2023, he became the highest-paid quarterback in the league, at $52.5 million. Since then, that APY has slid farther and farther down the list of top quarterback compensation packages.
In January, Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti made it clear that the team wanted to get a new deal done, ideally before the beginning of the league year in March. That didn’t happen. And it still hasn’t happened — even though it would be very easy to get it done.
With the new Patrick Mahomes deal moving the bar to $63 million per year, a Jackson deal at say, $63.5 million per year, would consist of three new years at $190.5 million plus the remaining $104 million on the final two years of his current contract. That’s a grand total of $294.5 million over five years, an average from signing of $58.9 million.
The guarantees would also need to be negotiated, with perhaps the first two years fully guaranteed at signing and the third year fully guaranteed as of the start of the second year. That essentially makes the first three years fully guaranteed.
Still, both sides have to get there. Before they can get there, they have to want to get there. Since neither side will say anything about the negotiations, it’s impossible to know how and why a fairly simple negotiation has once again been bogged down — like it was throughout 2021 and 2022, until a new contract was finally signed after the rookie deal had expired in 2023.
This time around, the Ravens won’t be able to use the franchise tag, if/when the current deal expires. That gives Jackson more leverage than he had under his rookie deal. If a new contract isn’t done before the end of the 2027 season, he’ll be in line to become an unrestricted free agent in 2028.
With training camps open, list season has mercifully ended.
One of the most significant developments in this year’s collection of slow-time one-through-whatever efforts to differentiate players was the ridiculous placement of Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson in the NFL Network players-only list of the top 100 players in the league.
Jackson finished at No. 69, down 67 spots from 2025.
Jackson was asked about the placement on the NFLN list during his first press conference of training camp on Wednesday.
“It is what it is,” Jackson said. “You know, I play football. I don’t care about rankings.”
That’s the right attitude. The rankings don’t mean anything. They’re something for the media to write and talk about and for the fans to react to.
Still, it’s an opportunity to fashion a legitimate chip on the shoulder for the season to come. But Jackson doesn’t seem to be motivated by actual or perceived slights.
He goes about his business. And, in relation to the rest of the league, there’s no way 68 other players go about their business better than him.
Defensive tackle Nnamdi Madubuike is ready to get back on the field for the Ravens.
Madubuike missed most of last season with a neck injury that led to questions about his playing future, but reports throughout the offseason were optimistic about his chances of returning. Word over the weekend was that Madubuike has been fully cleared, but he was placed on the physically unable to perform list to start training camp.
The stay was a short one as the Ravens announced that Madubuike has been activated on Wednesday. That clears him to start practicing with the team and clears a path for him to return to his spot on the defensive line in Baltimore.
Madubuike made back-to-back Pro Bowls and was a second-team All-Pro selection in his last two full seasons, so that prospect is a pleasant one for the Ravens as they move toward the 2026 season.
Ravens defensive tackle Nnamdi Madubuike injured his neck in Week 2 last season and has not seen the field since. He will begin training camp on the active/physically unable to perform list, but Madubuike has come a long way after 10 months of uncertainty over whether he would ever return.
Jeff Zrebiec of TheAthletic.com reports that independent doctors have cleared Madubuike to return and the two-time Pro Bowler could practice as soon as next week.
Ravens General Manager Eric DeCosta had expressed optimism earlier this month, saying “everything looks to be pointed in the right direction” in Madubuike’s return.
The Ravens also placed nose tackles Travis Jones (pectoral) and John Jenkins (undisclosed), linebacker Teddye Buchanan (knee), outside linebacker Adisa Isaac (elbow) and cornerback Bilhal Kone (knee) on the active/PUP list. Jones, who led the team with five sacks last year, is working his way back from surgery, per Zrebiec.
Center Corey Bullock will start camp on the non-football illness list.
Wide receiver Chris Moore is back in Baltimore.
The NFL’s daily transaction report shows that Moore worked out for the Ravens on Friday and multiple reports say that he is signing on for a second tour of duty with the team. Moore was a 2016 fourth-round pick and spent his first five seasons with the AFC North club.
Moore had 47 catches for 511 yards and four touchdowns during that stint. He spent time with the Texans, Titans and Cardinals before playing in 14 games for the Commanders last season. He had 11 catches for 207 yards and a touchdown.
The Ravens worked out wideouts Sterling Shepard, Dante Pettis, and Casey Washington along with Moore. Offensive tackles Hakeem Adenjii and Geron Christian also worked out while quarterback William Atkins handled the throwing during the tryout.
Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson’s ranking in the NFL Network list of the league’s top 100 players caught the eye of head coach Jesse Minter.
Jackson is ranked 69th on the list, which is compiled by a vote of players. Jackson was No. 2 on 2025’s list and the two-time MVP’s drop was noticed by plenty of other people as well.
During an appearance on the team’s The Lounge podcast, Minter said that he had an “interesting back and forth” with the quarterback about a ranking that he feels is at odds with how things actually look on the field.
“Look, there may not even be one other player in the league better than Lamar, yet alone 68 players in the league better than Lamar,” Minter said. “When you have one year where he dealt with a little bit of injury and the team [missed the playoffs], certain players they hold onto that and certain players they give them the benefit of the doubt. This guy is a multi-MVP winner, has transcended the quarterback position. He knows how I feel about him. I guess I don’t put too much stock into what the list looks like.”
Minter said he doesn’t think Jackson puts much stock into the rankings either and suggested the quarterback just focus on being himself because he has “proven over time that the best version is the best player in the league.” If he makes the case for that again in 2026, Minter’s first season in Baltimore should play out pretty well.
After failing to win a chance at training camp to secure a spot as one of Lamar Jackson’s backups, former Ravens quarterback Diego Pavia has entered the NFL’s waiver system.
If unclaimed, what’s next?
He could choose to wait for another NFL opportunity. Injuries could open a door for Pavia to participate in a training camp as an extra arm, which would in turn give him an opportunity to earn a 53-man roster spot or a position on a practice squad.
If there’s no NFL interest, Pavia could go to the CFL. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers hold his negotiating rights, and they’ve made it clear that they are interested.
The UFL apparently has interest, too — if the social-media team has its finger on the pulse of the league’s priorities. The league retweeted the announcement of Pavia’s waiver by the Ravens with the eyes emoji.
Then there’s college football. While he doesn’t fit within the NCAA’s new eligibility rule (he turned 20 the year before his four-year college career began), Pavia could try to sue for another season. He played two years of junior-college football before commencing a four-season NCAA career in four years.
With every NCAA rule currently subject to an antitrust challenge, Pavia could give it a shot. Of course, the fact that he signed a contract with the Ravens would make it harder. But he didn’t get a signing bonus or a game check; at most, he received the standard per diem for his offseason work.
It doesn’t hurt to try, and it wouldn’t be ridiculously expensive (in theory) to hire a lawyer to file the paperwork and roll the dice.
Surely, someone would be interested. Pavia finished second in the 2025 Heisman Trophy voting. It’s a path to getting more game experience — and to getting paid more than he’d receive in the CFL or the UFL.
