The Titans continued a busy Monday by adding another piece for their offensive line.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that they have agreed to terms on a contract with guard Cordell Volson. It is a one-year deal a 1-year deal with and a maximum value of $4.215 million and $2.5 million in guaranteed money.
Volson was a 2022 fourth-round pick by the Bengals and he has spent his entire career in Cincinnati. He started 48 games in his first three seasons, but missed all of 2025 with a shoulder injury.
The Titans also agreed to terms with center Austin Schlottman on Monday. Guard Kevin Zeitler and center Corey Levin are among last year’s Titans linemen set for free agency.
The Saints are adding a tight end for quarterback Tyler Shough to throw to in 2026.
NFL Media reports that Noah Fant has agreed to terms with the team. It’s a two-year deal for Fant in New Orleans with no financial terms reported.
The Saints have Juwan Johnson coming back as their top tight end, but Foster Moreau and Taysom Hill are both set for free agency.
Fant had 34 catches for 288 yards and three touchdowns with the Bengals last season. He spent three seasons with the Seahawks and three with the Broncos before heading to Cincinnati as a free agent last offseason. He has 334 catches for 3,593 yards and 18 touchdowns for his career.
The Seahawks are set to lose another member of their Super Bowl LX roster.
Edge rusher Boye Mafe’s agent Mike McCartney announced that his client has agreed to a three-year deal with the Bengals. Running back Kenneth Walker and safety Coby Bryant have also agreed to deals with other teams on Monday while cornerback Josh Jobe agreed to re-sign with the team.
Per multiple reports, Mafe’s deal is worth $60 million.
Mafe appeared in 65 regular season games and four playoff contests since joining the Seahawks as a 2022 fourth-round pick. He had 164 tackles, 20 sacks, three forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries in the regular season and he had seven playoff tackles. Five of those came during the team’s run to the Super Bowl title earlier this year.
The Bengals saw Joseph Ossai agree to sign with the Jets on Monday and Trey Hendrickson is expected to move on, so Mafe will be part of a new look on the edge of the Cincinnati defense.
Another player in the Chiefs’ secondary is about to leave Kansas City.
The Bengals are expecting to sign former Chiefs safety Bryan Cook, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network.
The team and Cook’s agents have agreed on a three-year, $40.25 million deal.
Cook has started all 17 games for the Chiefs each of the last two seasons. His departure comes after two Chiefs cornerbacks, Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Watson, both landed with the Rams. The Chiefs’ secondary will look a lot different in 2026.
The Bengals desperately needed to bolster their defense, and with Cook they think they’ve done it.
The Jets have agreed to make a couple of additions to their defensive line early in free agency.
Defensive ends Joseph Ossai and Kingsley Enagbare have both agreed to deals with the team. According to multiple reports, Ossai has agreed to a three-year, $36 million deal with the team and Enagbare has agreed to sign a one-year, $10 million pact.
Ossai was a 2021 third-round pick in Cincinnati and he had 14.5 sacks while playing a rotational role with the Bengals over the last four seasons. He also had 116 tackles, 44 quarterback hits, four forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries.
Enagbare was a 2022 fifth-round pick and he appeared in every Packers game during his four years in Green Bay. He had 146 tackles, 11.5 sacks, 31 quarterback hits, three forced fumbles and a fumble recovery.
The Jets also agreed to trade for veteran safety Minkah Fitzpatrick on Monday as they work to remake one of the league’s worst defenses.
The Bengals will head into the new league year without a clear backup behind Joe Burrow.
Per Jeremy Fowler of ESPN, Cincinnati is not tendering Jake Browning as a restricted free agent, making him an unrestricted free agent this week.
Browning, 29, started three games for the Bengals in 2025 with poor results, leading the club to trade for Joe Flacco. Browning completed 64.8 percent of his throws in five games last season for 771 yards with six touchdowns and eight interceptions.
Browning previously started seven games for the Bengals in 2023, with Cincinnati going 4-3 in those starts. He completed 70.4 percent of his passes that year for 1,936 yards with 12 touchdowns and seven picks.
Fowler adds that the Bengals are open to bringing back Browning.
Flacco is also set to become an unrestricted free agent this week.
As expected, the war in the Middle East has forced the Saudi Arabian flag football event out of Saudi Arabia.
Via Sports Business Journal, Fanatics Studios has announced that the March 21 three-team tournament will relocate to Los Angeles. The games will be played at BMO Stadium, a 22,000-seat soccer venue that will host flag football games during the 2028 Olympics.
The latest announcement has a new twist. Two teams will consist of current and former NFL players. The third team will be the U.S. men’s national team.
As initially described, the tournament consisted of three teams coached by Kyle Shanahan, Sean Payton, and Pete Carroll. Now, the coaches with NFL ties will be Shanahan and Payton, with Robert Saleh serving as the defensive specialist for both of the teams made up of non-flag players.
On March 18, the two teams will pick players from a pool that is expected to include Saquon Barkley, Myles Garrett, Odell Beckham Jr., Rob Gronkowski, and Logan Paul (with Paul there, Le’Veon Bell could make an unscheduled appearance).
The involvement of the U.S. men’s team will indeed make it a real competition. USA Football will eventually determine the identity of the U.S. men’s team for the Olympics. The existing flag football players will want to show that they deserve fair consideration. And the flag players know the flag game far better than the non-flag players do.
That alone makes the tournament far more compelling. And it underscores that the active NFL players who will be participating will be assuming a risk of injury that is less than playing tackle football but greater than not playing flag football against a team of flag-football experts with something to prove.
Joe Mixon’s future with the Texans was never in doubt, but his future in the NFL remains in question.
The team made it official on Friday, releasing the running back a day after he asked for the move.
The Texans traded for their RB1 this week, a move that will become official next week, when they worked out a deal with the Lions for David Montgomery.
Mixon, meanwhile, becomes a free agent. The question is: Will he play again?
Mixon did not play last season, because of an off-field foot injury that remains a mystery. Texans General Manager Nick Caserio revealed at the Scouting Combine that Mixon underwent surgery for his injury this offseason but would not elaborate.
The Texans save $8.5 million by parting ways.
Mixon, who turns 30 this summer, made the Pro Bowl in his first season with the Texans, rushing for 1,016 yards and 11 touchdowns in 2024.
He has 7,428 rushing yards and 60 rushing touchdowns since the Bengals made him a second-round pick in 2017.
Former Bengals offensive lineman Willie Anderson underwent a successful kidney transplant this week.
Anderson, 50, posted his gratitude on social media.
“God is great, man,” Anderson said. “Everything went well, kidney’s well.”
He announced last month that he would undergo the transplant 10 years after being diagnosed with kidney disease. Anderson’s girlfriend was his donor.
“I appreciate the prayers and support! I hung on every word y’all sent me!” Anderson said. “Hopefully my ordeal can help others.”
Anderson is in the Bengals’ Ring of Honor and was a Pro Football Hall of Fame finalist again this year.
The Bengals are not using a franchise or transition tag on defensive end Trey Hendrickson and that means Hendrickson will be free to move on to another team as a free agent when the new league year gets underway next week.
Hendrickson made it clear that he intends to do exactly that on Tuesday afternoon.
In a post to his Instagram account, Hendrickson expressed gratitude to the Bengals, his teammates, coaches and the team’s fans for his five years in Cincinnati. He called the city home “now and forever” before ending the farewell message.
Hendrickson posted 61 sacks in his 72 regular season games with the Bengals and added 3.5 more during the team’s run to the Super Bowl after the 2021 season. That pass rushing ability should make him a coveted player once teams can start negotiating with free agents around the league next week.
