Whenever quarterback Joe Flacco finally retires, he’ll have a reward waiting for him in Baltimore.
Flacco will be joining the Ravens Ring of Honor.
The first episode of the latest season of Quarterback on Netflix focuses on Flacco’s Week 1 return to Baltimore in the 2025 season, where he faced the team that made him a first-round pick in 2008. During a pregame conversation, Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti makes it clear to Flacco that Bisciotti is ready to put the Super Bowl XLVII MVP in the Ring of Honor once Flacco finishes his playing career.
“I’m so happy you’re healthy and still pulling this off,” Bisciotti says. “I thought I’d have you up in my Ring of Honor about five years ago.”
“You called me five years ago,” Flacco responds.
“I did, didn’t I?”
“We can delay that a little bit,” Flacco says.
It’ll be delayed at least another year, as Flacco embarks on his 19th NFL season — and his eighth since leaving Baltimore after the 2018 campaign.
And he’ll be back in Baltimore again this year, as the backup to Joe Burrow with the Bengals.
Defensive upgrades have been the main focus of the Bengals offseason, but they’ll need to remain a potent offensive team as well if they are going to make it back to the playoffs for the first time since 2022.
Part of that puzzle will be protecting quarterback Joe Burrow and left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. thinks the team is ready to go on that front. Brown is one of five returning starters on the offensive line and he said during an appearance on the Locked on Bengals podcast that he believes the unit is as good as it gets when it comes to slowing down opposing pass rushers.
“I really think — and I say this confidently — I really feel like we got the best pass protection unit in the NFL,” Brown said. “There isn’t a lot of groups that could come do what we do on a week-to-week basis and have the success that we’ve had, especially with the circumstances.”
Playing with three different quarterbacks last season didn’t make life easier for the line, which explains Brown’s comment about the circumstances. The lack of a consistent run game was also an issue and an upgrade on that front would make it harder to find ways to slow down the Cincinnati offense in 2026.
Veteran wide receiver Trent Taylor has announced his retirement.
Taylor made the announcement on social media over the weekend. He spent last season on the 49ers’ injured reserve list.
Taylor entered the NFL as a 49ers fifth-round pick in 2017 and spent four seasons with the team. He spent two seasons with the Bengals and one with the Bears before returning to the Niners in 2024.
Taylor caught 88 passes for 845 yards and three touchdowns for his career. Eighty of those catches and all the touchdowns came while he was playing for the 49ers. He also averaged 9.4 yards a return while serving as a punt returner for all three teams.
The NFL is making a significant change to the offseason calendar for the 2027 season.
Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reports that the free agent negotiating window will open on March 9 next year. That is the same date that the two-day window opened this year, but the change comes in how close it will be to the end of the Scouting Combine.
NFL teams will wrap up their examinations and interrogations of incoming prospects on March 8 in 2027, which moves the league away from having a week or so between the two events as they have in past years.
Under that setup, the Combine has always been rife with table-setting for free agency as agents and team executives are all in the same place with their minds on the same things. With that gap eliminated, there will likely be even more of that work being done in Indianapolis so that teams are ready to make moves right from the starting gun.
ESPN has done something it rarely ever does.
On June 18, ESPN posted a new story regarding free-agent defensive lineman Mike Pennel and a murder investigation in the Dominican Republic. Among other things, the story cited unnamed sources to support the notion that Pennel knew the woman whose remains were found on property he previously owned. ESPN has now deleted the story and posted an item with this title: “ESPN update to Michael Pennel Jr. story.”
Here’s the full text of the update: “On June 18, 2026, ESPN published a story about Michael Pennel Jr. and an investigation into the death of a woman in the Dominican Republic who disappeared on September 5, 2021. ESPN has determined the story contained errors and has removed it. Since the publication of the story, Pennel’s representatives have provided ESPN with documentation, including travel and financial records, supporting Pennel’s statements to ESPN that he was not in the Dominican Republic at the time the woman disappeared. Pennel’s representatives also issued a statement, which may be found here.”
(Frankly, that’s not an “update” — it’s a full-blown retraction.)
The statement posted by attorney Brian Wainger says that “Mr. Pennel had nothing to do with the death or disappearance of Ms. Roche and was never a suspect or person of interest in that investigation. He did not know her.”
The statement also explains that “Mr. Pennel’s personal records including his passport and other travel documents, banking records and photographs along with their geotracking locations confirm Mike was not in the Dominican Republic in September, 2021 at the time of Ms. Roche’s disappearance, or in the weeks before or after it.”
Wainger writes that “Mike was in Denver, Colorado being treated for a sports injury at the time and was signed by the Atlanta Falcons on September 15, 2021.”
“Mr. Pennel’s Dominican attorney, Cesar A. Duran, never told anyone he expected Mr. Pennel to be arrested,” Wainger adds. “Mr. Pennel owned but never lived in the property where the remains of Ms. Roche were found. Mr. Pennel’s video surveillance system captured several people unlawfully trespassing on the property the night Ms. Roche disappeared. Mr. Pennel saved the video surveillance and shared it with the Dominican authorities who did not know it existed.”
It’s a stunning development. ESPN deleted an entire story, and it has publicly acknowledged that the story “contained errors.”
A link to the update currently appears on the front page of the ESPN website, near the bottom of the list of headlines along the right rail. As of this posting, there’s no mention of it anywhere on the ESPN NFL home page, which scrolls all the way down to the report from the middle of May that the Chiefs and Broncos will play in the first Monday night game of the 2026 season.
We had posted an item on ESPN’s now-deleted Pennel report. Given ESPN’s deletion of the item, our article has been deactivated and the corresponding tweet has been deleted.
A 12-year veteran, Pennel played 2025 for the Chiefs and the Bengals.
Dexter Lawrence made a career-high nine sacks in 2024. In 2025, the then-Giants defensive tackle had career lows in sacks (0.5) and quarterback hits (eight).
His three-year streak of Pro Bowl appearances ended.
Lawrence heads into 2026 on a new team and with a chip on his shoulder.
“I’m more managing it now, because you can’t really beat up on other teams. So during the season you just let it go and you flow,” Lawrence said a week ago, via Joe Reedy of the Associated Press. “I know how I approach this game and my impact to the game, even when it doesn’t show up on the sack numbers.”
Lawrence faced the fifth-highest double-team rate among defensive tackles last season at 70.35 percent, per Pro Football Focus. The Bengals acquired Lawrence, along with adding defensive tackle Jonathan Allen and edge rushers Boye Mafe and Cashius Howell to their defensive line.
That could help Lawrence avoid as many double teams.
“We know the caliber of player he is,” Mafe said. “Having him on our side, it makes it so much easier. It makes everyone’s job around us easier. He’s a calming presence because we have him on our side.”
Lawrence got some work in with his new team during the offseason program and vows to be ready for training camp late next month.
“I’m going to be like a boxer before they’re going into a fight. You’ve got to put your head down and train,” Lawrence said.
Former NFL defensive tackle DeShawn Williams has filed a lawsuit over memorabilia that he believes was stolen from his home.
The theft wasn’t the garden-variety smash-and-grab. Via Tampa Bay 28, Williams claims that contractors hired after Hurricane Helene damaged the home in 2024 entered the premises without permission, took items belonging to Williams, and then posted them for sale on Facebook Marketplace.
DeShawn Williams and his wife, Ashlee, contend that their mortgage company hired Solid Foundation Properties LLC, which then subcontracted with Colvin Inspections to inspect and preserve the property. They claim that Colvin Inspections also removed certain property.
“They call it securing the property or winterizing the property,” their attorney, Matt Weider, told Tampa Bay 28. “But in fact, they’re just entering into a property and violating a homeowner’s security.”
The Williamses contend that DeShawn’s Denver Broncos helmet and his Bengals jersey were listed for sale on Facebook Marketplace, for $800 and $200, respectively.
DeShawn Williams, undrafted in 2015, played for the Bengals, Broncos, and Panthers. Earlier this year, he joined the Oklahoma coaching staff as a defensive analyst.
Offseason stories about the Bengals have centered on the moves they’ve made to bolster a defense that has struggled too often in recent seasons, but that’s not the only way the Bengals are trying to bring an end to their playoff drought.
Another focus has been on increasing the number of explosive plays on offense and that work has focused on how other teams have found success running plays with the quarterback under center. The top-five teams in plays under center and using play action while under center last season finished in the top quarter of the league in explosive plays.
The Bengals were 31st in under-center percentage and 30th in play action with quarterback Joe Burrow producing one explosive play in the latter category over the last three seasons. Burrow was seeing more time in those situations during the team’s OTAs and offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher said the team will continue to look for ways to make better use of those looks.
“If you are looking at, ‘How are we going to be a really explosive offense?’ the data would suggest you got to have a component of your offense that allows you to get under center and attack the defense.” Pitcher said, via Paul Dehner of TheAthletic.com. “Truthfully, yeah, I believe in what those numbers say, and we are going to have to explore that part of our offense.”
Burrow said that he is “always ready to drop back 65 times to make it work,” but said he’s excited about what the offense can do to become more explosive and said the team is “committed” to making that part of their attack for the fall.
The offseason programs around the league have largely wrapped up for 2026, with players and coaches around the league now experiencing some time off.
But training camps are just a few weeks away from opening.
The NFL announced the camp report dates for all 32 teams on Monday, with the first ones opening up in less than a month.
Below are the camp locations and report dates:
Arizona Cardinals: State Farm Stadium | Rookies: 7/22 | Veterans 7/22
Atlanta Falcons: Atlanta Falcons Training Facility | Rookies: 7/24 | Veterans: 7/28
Baltimore Ravens: Under Armour Performance Center | Rookies: 7/24 | Veterans: 7/28
Buffalo Bills: St. John Fisher University | Rookies: 7/21 | Veterans: 7/28
Carolina Panthers: Bank of America Stadium | Rookies: 7/21 | Veterans: 7/22
Chicago Bears: Halas Hall | Rookies: 7/25 | Veterans: 7/28
Cincinnati Bengals: Paycor Stadium | Rookies: 7/25 | Veterans: 7/28
Cleveland Browns: CrossCountry Mortgage Campus | Rookies: 7/23 | Veterans: 7/28
Dallas Cowboys: Marriott Residence Inn Oxnard | Rookies: 7/28 | Veterans: 7/28
Denver Broncos: Broncos Park Powered by CommonSpirit | Rookies: 7/22 | Veterans: 7/28
Detroit Lions: Meijer Performance Center | Rookies: 7/25 | Veterans: 7/28
Green Bay Packers: Lambeau Field | Rookies: 7/27 | Veterans: 7/28
Houston Texans: Houston Methodist Training Center | Rookies: 7/21 | Veterans: 7/28
Indianapolis Colts: Grand Park | Rookies: 7/27 | Veterans: 7/28
Jacksonville Jaguars: Miller Electric Center | Rookies: 7/25 | Veterans: 7/28
Kansas City Chiefs: Missouri Western State University | Rookies: 7/28 | Veterans: 7/28
Las Vegas Raiders: Intermountain Health Performance Center | Rookies: 7/23 | Veterans: 7/28
Los Angeles Chargers: The Bolt | Rookies: 7/23 | Veterans: 7/28
Los Angeles Rams: Loyola Marymount University | Rookies: 7/25 | Veterans: 7/25
Miami Dolphins: Baptist Health Training Complex | Rookies: 7/21 | Veterans: 7/28
Minnesota Vikings: TCO Performance Center | Rookies: 7/26 | Veterans: 7/28
New England Patriots: New Balance Athletics Center | Rookies: 7/21 | Veterans: 7/24
New Orleans Saints: Ochsner Sports Performance Center | Rookies: 7/28 | Veterans: 7/28
New York Giants: Quest Diagnostics Training Center/The Greenbrier | Rookies: 7/23 | Veterans: 7/28
New York Jets: Athletic Health Jets Training Center | Rookies: 7/25 | Veterans: 7/28
Philadelphia Eagles: Jefferson Health Training Complex | Rookies: 7/28 | Veterans: 7/28
Pittsburgh Steelers: Saint Vincent College | Rookies: 7/28 | Veterans: 7/28
San Francisco 49ers: SAP Performance Facility | Rookies: 7/18 | Veterans: 7/25
Seattle Seahawks: Virginia Mason Athletic Center | Rookies: 7/17 | Veterans: 7/24
Tampa Bay Buccaneers: AdventHealth Training Center | Rookies: 7/27 | Veterans: 7/28
Tennessee Titans: Vanderbilt Health Football Center | Rookies: 7/23 | Veterans: 7/28
Washington Commanders: Commanders Park | Rookies: 7/24 | Veterans: 7/28
The NFL has announced the full list of joint practices that will take place during training camps this summer.
The first set of them will take place on August 11 in four different locations. The Cowboys and Rams will practice in Los Angeles, the Colts will visit the Patriots, the Bucs will work out at the Jets’ facility and the Titans will go to Santa Clara to practice with the 49ers.
All in all, there will be 28 teams working in joint sessions in August. The Lions, Steelers, Chiefs and Broncos are the teams that will not hold joint practices.
The full list of joint practices is below with the host team listed second. If there are multiple practices scheduled, the date of the first practice is listed.
August 11 — Cowboys-Rams; Colts-Patriots; Buccaneers-Jets; Titans-49ers.
August 12 — Dolphins-Commanders.
August 13 — Jaguars-Saints.
August 18 — 49ers-Chargers; Raiders-Texans; Saints-Cowboys.
August 19 — Falcons-Colts; Ravens-Vikings; Panthers-Jaguars; Eagles-Patriots.
August 20 — Bills-Browns; Bears-Bengals; Saints-Rams; Giants-Dolphins.
August 21 — Seahawks-Titans.
August 25 — Buccaneers-Jaguars.
August 26 — Cardinals-Packers; Texans-Panthers; Commanders-Ravens.
August 27 — Bears-Titans.
