The NFL may be lining up its drafts farther into the future than its Super Bowls.
The Super Bowl sites have been set through February 2029. Via Ben Fischer of Sports Business Journal, the April 2029 draft possibly could be awarded at or about the same time the 2028 draft site is selected.
Fischer reports that some believe Cincinnati has the “inside track” to hosting the 2029 draft. It’s not clear, however, whether the league is willing to award the 2029 draft in the short term.
Minnesota is currently the “clear favorite” to be awarded the 2028 draft later this month.
Commissioner Roger Goodell told Pat McAfee last Friday that the league may start awarding drafts “a little further in advance,” given the size of the endeavor.
“The Super Bowl has gotten to a point where, it’s not the stadium size . . . but also it’s hotel rooms and all the other facilities that are necessary. [Hosting the draft] is slightly easier, but it’s getting more difficult,” Goodell said.
Frankly, that reality underscores the absence of a firm date for Super Bowl LXII, to be played more than two months before the 2028 draft. A date hasn’t been picked for one reason and one reason only: The NFL still hopes to expand the season to 18 games as of 2027.
And if the owners don’t announce a date certain for the game to be played in Atlanta (under the current season size, it would be February 13, 2028) at their next meeting later this month, it means that they’ll spend the summer months trying to persuade the NFL Players Association to agree to the inevitable expansion of the regular season as soon as possible.
Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin said earlier this week that the team was still determining whether or not they would exercise their option on defensive end Myles Murphy’s contract for 2027 and deliberation time has now come to an end.
According to multiple reports, the Bengals will decline the fifth-year option on the 2023 first-round pick’s deal. Murphy would have been guaranteed $14.475 million in 2027 under the terms of the option.
Those reports indicate that the Bengals are interested in working out a long-term deal that would keep Murphy from leaving as a free agent next March.
Murphy compiled 92 tackles, 8.5 sacks and a forced fumble over his first three seasons. He had 5.5 sacks last season and continued progress in the coming season would help his chances of landing that kind of multi-year pact in Cincinnati or somewhere else.
The Bengals used free agency, trades and the draft to add to different areas of their defense this offseason, but there was one position group that has been left untouched.
Demetrius Knight and Barrett Carter became the starting linebackers after being drafted last year and the Bengals did not add any competition for them over the last couple of months. On Monday, Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin said the team hasn’t ruled out making any moves before September but that they have “real belief” in the duo and he believes the addition of players like Dexter Lawrence and Jonathan Allen to the defensive line is “going to elevate those guys” in their second season.
“We’ll always look at adding the right guy again. I am not down on my linebackers,” Tobin said, via the team’s website. “They individually will improve and collectively will improve by what we’ve done and the experience that they’ve gained. If there are people that we think can add to the group, we’ll add to the group. We’re not done roster building.”
The Bengals know their defense needs to be better in 2026 and their bet on their second-year linebackers will play a big role in whether that happens.
The Bengals didn’t have a first-round pick last week because of the Dexter Lawrence trade and that means they missed out on the chance to add someone like safety Caleb Downs or edge rusher Rueben Bain to a defense that has underwhelmed in recent seasons.
Those players could develop into long-term cornerstones for their teams and director of player personnel Duke Tobin called them “worthy guys” while discussing the trade at a Monday press conference. While they were worthy, Tobin said the Bengals did not “want to be reliant” on rookies starting right away and that getting a finished product in Lawrence was a better fit than developing a younger player.
“It’s one of the attractive things about trading a 10th pick for an All-Pro,” Tobin said, via the team’s website. “You know exactly what you’re getting. And you’re getting immediate impact. That was something that was a big decision point for us. We get immediate impact instead of impact as we go. So that was important.”
The Bengals added players like Boye Mafe, Jonathan Allen, and Bryan Cook in free agency, so the trend toward veterans began well before the Lawrence trade and it fits with a Bengals team that’s trying to maximize their chances of winning in quarterback Joe Burrow’s prime. The challenge now will shift to picking up those wins because Burrow’s patience could run thin if the team falls short again in 2026.
The deadline for teams to exercise the fifth-year options on the contracts of 2023 first-round picks is May 1 and it looks like the Bengals are gonna come right down to the wire on their Myles Murphy call.
Murphy was the 28th overall pick in 2023 and he moved into a starting role during the 2025 season. Murphy recorded 5.5 sacks while playing in every game and director of player personnel Duke Tobin had positive things to say about him during a Monday press conference.
“He’s a 24-year-old guy that’s just starting to scratch the surface,” Tobin said. “I was pleased with his progression last year and how he took ownership of the starting role and how he grew throughout the season. By the end of the year, he was a problem for teams. He’s a guy we believe in.”
That belief doesn’t mean the Bengals will be exercising the option, however. Murphy would be guaranteed $14.475 million in 2027 under the terms of the option and Tobin said the team will look this week to “see what kind of costs we can layer in next year.” Tobin added that they’d like a “long-term relationship” with Murphy, but is equally unsure if that will come together in Cincinnati.
Jermaine Burton is going to get another shot.
According to reporter Jordan Schultz, Burton has accepted an invitation to work out for the Bills at their rookie minicamp.
Burton, a Bengals third-round pick in 2024, was waived in December after a string of issues with his former club. He did not appear in a game in 2025.
He played 14 games with one start for the Bengals in 2024 as a rookie, catching just four passes on 14 targets for 107 yards.
Still just 24 years old, Burton will now get a chance to make an impression on the Bills.
Free-agent defensive lineman Mike Pennel Jr. is a “person of interest” in connection with the death of a woman in the Dominican Republic, according to ESPN.
The woman, who was 22 at the time, was reported missing in 2021. Her body was found on property owned by Pennel in the Dominican Republic.
Pennel’s lawyer said Pennel didn’t know the woman and he wasn’t in the country when she disappeared. Pennel sent a text message to ESPN: “This isn’t a story. I’m not legally involved. This is fake news being reported. I’d advise you to speak with my agent/lawyer . . . before writing a false story. Damaging my reputation.”
Pennel had sold the property in 2025. A worker found the body while digging a trench in January.
Undrafted in 2014, Pennel has played for the Packers, Jets, Chiefs, Falcons, Bears, and Bengals. In 2025, he appeared in eight games with the Bengals and eight with the Chiefs. In 12 years, he has 154 regular-season appearances and 27 starts. He won a pair of Super Bowls with the Chiefs.
At the time the woman was reported missing, Pennel was between teams. He’d been released by the Bears on August 31; he signed with the Falcons on September 15.
For now, the report is that Pennel is a “person of interest,” not a suspect.
The Bengals used the final pick of the fourth round on Georgia wide receiver Colbie Young, who might have gone higher than No. 140 overall if not for an off-the-field red flag.
“I think Colbie is just an outstanding complement [to the receivers the Bengals have],” coach Zac Taylor said, via a livestream from the team. “Fortunate to get him in the fourth round. We obviously had a higher value on him than where we actually got him. I just think he’s a great target for Joe [Burrow], great catch radius. Can use him in a lot of different ways.”
Young missed nine games to end the 2024 season after his arrest on misdemeanor charges of battery and assault on an unborn child. He pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct in January 2025 after his accuser recanted her statement, and the initial charges were dropped.
Young served 12 months’ probation, paid a $500 fine and attended a family violence intervention program.
Taylor said the team did its “due diligence” and that “if we didn’t feel comfortable, we wouldn’t have done it.”
“Just talking to all the humans we talked to that really stood on the table for him, and Georgia returned him to play,” Taylor said. “So Georgia went through the whole process, returned him to play. So just felt really comfortable with the person we’re adding to our locker room, the person we’re adding to our community. Just all of us getting to know the kid. Just feel really, really comfortable with bringing Colbie in here.”
Young fractured his left fibula and tore a ligament, which required surgery and sidelined him for six games last season. He finished his final college season with 26 receptions for 358 yards and a touchdown.
Ideally, the Giants would have acquired the Bengals’ first-round pick in exchange for defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence when the pick was on the clock. That would have prevented the Giants from being potentially leapfrogged by a team that guessed right as to the player the Giants may have been eyeballing at No. 10.
That ultimately didn’t happen. Yes, the Browns traded down to No. 9 and took a tackle right before the Giants picked a player at the same position. And the Giants will never admit they would have taken Spencer Fano (whom the Browns drafted) instead of Francis Mauioga.
Still, the best way to do the Dexter deal would have been to do it when the 10th pick was on the clock.
Based on conversations with multiple league sources, it’s believed that the failed Maxx Crosby trade was a significant factor in getting the deal done early. As one source put it, both teams were concerned about Lawrence passing a physical. Pre-Crosby, that would have been less of a concern.
Consider the trade that sent receiver A.J. Brown from the Titans to the Eagles during the 2022 draft. The trade happened with Philly’s pick on the clock, preventing the Titans from being leapfrogged by a team that may have concluded they’d use the selection to draft Brown’s replacement. (The fact that receiver Treylon Burks didn’t pan out doesn’t matter. Plenty of players taken in round one don’t pan out, even if it’s become frowned upon to mention that reality, especially while the picks are being made.)
The Brown trade may not have happened that way, post-Crosby. While teams have access to the full scope of medical records (including the player’s exit physical from the prior season), all trades are done pending a physical. That’s what happened on Friday, with the Vikings and Eagles reaching a deal as to defensive end Jonathan Greenard and managing to keep it quiet until the physical was passed.
The stakes were much higher for Dexter Lawrence, the Bengals, and the Giants. Yes, there would have been a way to try to do it quietly, but it would have been difficult to pull it off. The decision was made to get it done and move on, even if every other team had five days to consider which player(s) the Giants were targeting at pick No. 10 — and possibly to cut the line in front of them. (Like the Eagles did in snatching receiver Makai Lemon from the Steelers on Thursday night.)
Lawrence and the Bengals also needed to work out a new contract. But the Eagles did that four years ago with Brown, and they also pulled it off on Friday with Greenard.
In the end, both the physical and the contract made it prudent for all involved to get the Dexter Lawrence deal done early.
That doesn’t mean no player will ever be traded for a pick that is currently on the clock. But those deals require clear contingency plans in the event the player doesn’t pass the physical. With the pick traded for the player already used, the team that lost both the player and its pick will need to get something else in return.
Even with the risk of having the player they planned to take at No. 10 plucked away by a team that could have traded up to No. 9, the move was still regarded as a win for the Giants. They knew Lawrence wasn’t happy. They believed his mindset manifested itself in his performance last season. And so they found an offramp, avoided paying him $20 million this year, and emerged with a top-10 pick who will be happy at least for the first few years of his career — even if their first choice at No. 10 would have become the player taken at No. 9.
The Bengals didn’t have a first-round pick, having traded the 10th overall pick to the Giants for defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence. They made their first pick of the 2026 NFL draft with the 41st overall selection.
The Bengals made Texas A&M edge rusher Cashius Howell a second-round pick.
It marks the second consecutive year that the Bengals have drafted an Aggie pass rusher, following the first-round selection of Shemar Stewart in 2025.
Howell was more productive in College Station than Stewart, with 27 sacks in his five-year college career. Twenty-five of those came in his final three seasons, including 11.5 in 2025 when he won SEC Defensive Player of the Year honors.
The concern is Howell’s 30 1/4-inch arm measurement — the shortest of any edge rusher since at least 1999 — could impact his ability to create separation in the NFL. He insists it won’t matter in the NFL.
The Bengals hope that’s true. They were among the worst defenses in the NFL last season, including ranking last in pass rush win rate.
