Baltimore Ravens
The Ravens have signed all of their 2026 draft picks.
Second-rounder Zion Young became the final member of the group to sign on Tuesday. The edge rusher signed a four-year deal with the team.
Young had 42 tackles, 16.5 tackles for loss, 6.5 sacks, and two forced fumbles for Missouri last season. It was his second season at the school after opening his college time with two seasons at Michigan State.
Trey Hendrickson became the big addition to the Ravens’ edge rusher group after the team pulled out of the Maxx Crosby trade. Young joins Tavius Robinson, Mike Green, and Adisa Isaac as options to join him in the lineup.
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Running back Derrick Henry down on the ground holding his knee is just about the last thing that the Ravens want to see at an OTA practice, but they got a glimpse of it on Tuesday.
Henry stayed down for a bit after banging knees with a teammate during drills. He eventually got up and got more work in 11-on-11 drills before giving himself a clean bill of health while speaking to reporters.
“I laid on the ground a little bit. The ground felt like a bed for a little while,” Henry said, via the team’s website. “And I saw you all looked hot and bored, so I was like, ‘I’ve got to give them something to tweet and write.’”
Henry’s on the money about the attention paid to star players going down in practice and the Ravens hope that eyeballs will be on Henry for more positive reasons the rest of the way.
Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson’s attendance at the team’s offseason program became a topic of conversation for head coach Jesse Minter on Tuesday.
Jackson has been an infrequent participant in voluntary work over the years, but he was present for the early days of the team’s first program since hiring Minter early in the offseason. Jackson was not present for Tuesday’s OTA practice, however, and that created questions for Minter about how often Jackson has been around the team this spring.
Minter didn’t specify anything on that front, but said that the quarterback’s absence this week is not expected to be an extended one.
“Lamar’s been one of our leaders of the offseason program,” Minter said. “Couple of things going on yesterday and today, do expect him to be back soon. We’ve had some great conversations, know when he’s gonna be back, and I’ll probably leave those between me and Lamar.”
Jackson can earn a $750,000 workout bonus by attending at least 80 percent of the offseason program. It’s not clear how close he might be to forfeiting that bonus, but his presence at any remaining workouts open to the media is sure to be well documented.
While Lamar Jackson has been in attendance for parts of Baltimore’s offseason program, he is not on the field on Tuesday.
Via multiple reporters on the scene, Jackson is not attending the Ravens’ second OTA practice, which is the first open to the media.
It’s currently unclear whether or not Jackson was there on Monday — though the Ravens did not post any images of him on social media.
Jackson was there for Baltimore’s first day of offseason work and the club’s voluntary veteran minicamp under first-year head coach Jesse Minter.
Jackson has a $750,000 workout bonus tied to his attendance for at least 80 percent of the offseason program. In both 2024 and 2025, he waived that bonus.
For the first time in a few years, Jackson is set to play under a new offensive coordinator in Declan Doyle.
The Commanders and Ravens are both set for joint practices with multiple teams this summer.
The Vikings announced that they will be working with the Ravens ahead of their preseason game in Minnesota on Monday and the Ravens announced that they’ll also be working out with the Commanders a short time later.
That session will take place at the Ravens’ facility on August 26. The two teams will wrap up the preseason with a game in Baltimore two days later.
While the Commanders will be making the short trip to work with the Ravens, they’ll be the hosts when the Dolphins come to town earlier in the month. Nicki Jhabvala of TheAthletic.com reported that they will practice with the Dolphins before their August 14 game.
The Vikings will only have one home preseason game this summer, but they’ll get more than one day of work against their opponents that week.
The team announced that they will have two days of joint practices with the Ravens. They are set to work with the AFC North team on August 19 and 20 with the preseason game between the teams scheduled for August 22.
Joint practices have been a regular occurrence during Vikings’ camp in recent years. They have also worked with the Patriots, Browns, Titans, and Cardinals in recent seasons.
The Vikings will visit the Giants and Broncos in their first and third preseason games this summer. The Ravens will be hosting the Eagles and Commanders.
John Harbaugh gave the commencement speech at his alma mater over the weekend, and he used his own recent firing to illustrate a point about resilience.
Harbaugh, who was fired by the Ravens and hired by the Giants this year, spoke at Miami University of Ohio, where he played football in the 1980s.
“There’s going to be tough times. They’re going to show up, too. You might get a call with some bad news. Maybe about your job. Maybe they’ll tell you they don’t want you anymore. Time to move on,” Harbaugh said, via ESPN. “It happens. In those moments, I hope you’ll find resilience. And you’ll be able to rejoice in all the good you’ll still have. And all the people who still care for you. That you’ll come to understand that there is a great opportunity on the next horizon of your life. And you can still walk together into every uncertain future with the people you love.”
Harbaugh told graduates he wants them to know about the “amazing power of caring and encouragement” and how they can affect the lives of the people around them by pointing out what’s special about them.
During 19 years with the Steelers, coach Mike Tomlin worked 114 games against teams from the AFC North. In his fifth game as an analyst on NBC’s Football Night in America, Tomlin will be handling a game involving an AFC North team.
It’ll happen on October 11 in Atlanta, when the Ravens face the Falcons.
As mentioned on Thursday’s PFT Live, Tomlin’s assessment of the Ravens and quarterback Lamar Jackson promises to be must-see TV.
That opinion is based on just a few minutes of hearing Tomlin talk during an FNIA planning meeting on Monday about the challenge of defending Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, along with other things Tomlin believes Jackson needs to do as he gets closer to his 30th birthday.
I’ll defer the details to Tomlin. But his comments riveted the room. In general, you won’t want to miss anything Tomlin says before any Sunday night game. You definitely will not want to miss what he has to say during the pregame show before Jackson and the Ravens face the Falcons in Week 5.
We don’t know if Fernando Mendoza will be starting at quarterback for the Raiders in Week 1 of the regular season, but we do know who the Raiders will be playing in the first overall pick’s potential debut.
The NFL’s schedule reveal on Thursday night shows that the Raiders will host the Dolphins at 4:25 p.m. ET on Sunday, September 13. The game will be on Fox.
Mendoza will have to get the nod over Kirk Cousins in order to start for the Raiders. Offseason addition Malik Willis is expected to make his first appearance for the Dolphins. Both teams will definitely have head coaches making their offseason debut as Las Vegas hired Klint Kubiak in February and Miami hired Jeff Hafley in January.
Sunday will also feature a pair of divisional games in the late afternoon window. The Packers will visit the Vikings while the Commanders will be in Philadelphia to renew their acquaintance with the Eagles. The NFC North matchup will be on CBS while the NFC East clash will be broadcast by Fox.
The other late game on Sunday afternoon will see the Cardinals visiting the Chargers on CBS. Arizona could have Jacoby Brissett, Gardner Minshew or rookie Carson Beck at quarterback for that contest.
The 1 p.m. ET games will send the Bills to Houston for a date with the Texans while the Browns go on the road against the Jaguars. The Colts will host the Ravens, the Saints will visit the Lions, the Buccaneers will travel to Cincinnati for Dexter Lawrence’s first game as a Bengal, and the Steelers will kick off the Mike McCarthy era — with or without Aaron Rodgers — at home against the Falcons.
Previous reports revealed that the Jets will be in Tennessee and that the Bears will head to Charlotte to face the Panthers. The Jets-Titans game will be on CBS along with the Bills-Texans, Ravens-Colts and Browns-Jaguars games. All the other 1 p.m. games will be on Fox.
The entire Week 1 slate will kick off on Wednesday, September 9 with a Patriots-Seahawks Super Bowl rematch in Seattle on NBC. Thursday will bring a Netflix game between the 49ers and Rams in the NFL’s first game in Melbourne and Sunday night will find the Cowboys at MetLife Stadium to meet the Giants on NBC’s Sunday Night Football. Those games were all announced ahead of Thursday’s full schedule reveal, which was also the case for the ESPN Monday night game between the Broncos and Chiefs in Kansas City.
When Jaire Alexander stepped away from the Eagles last season, there was word that he planned to “focus on getting himself right physically and mentally before deciding on his future” as a player.
Alexander’s knee troubles led to the Packers releasing the cornerback after the 2024 season and he wrote in an essay for The Players Tribune that he struggled to deal with that release while likening the end of his seven-year run in Green Bay to a “divorce.” He signed with the Ravens, but had a poor outing in a season-opening loss to the Bills that left him “very, very embarrassed” and doubting his health. He would only play one more game as Baltimore deactivated him in order to try to recover on both fronts and eventually traded him to the Eagles.
Alexander wrote that he made the decision to step away without appearing in a game because his knee began troubling him again and that led to a repeat of doubts about his ability to do the job. He wrote that he “needed to listen to myself, and look out for myself, and put my well-being first.” Alexander’s essay outlines some of the ways he’s done that and whether he is considering a return to the field.
“People still sometimes ask me if I’m ever gonna come back and play,” Alexander wrote. “And, you know what . . . I’ll never say never — I still work out, and the knee’s fine now, so I’m in good shape. But for me, right now, the most important thing really is just to be in a good place overall. To be happy.”
Alexander had previously addressed his mental health and the detail he shares in the essay underlines how difficult last season was for him. His play when healthy in Green Bay would likely earn him a look if he does decide to play again, but it’s far from certain things will play out that way.