ESPN’s clunky rollout of the latest round of layoffs, which included a long list of recognizable names, came at a time when ESPN is reportedly closing in on paying Pat McAfee $60 million per year. That juxtaposition (triple word score) has created an obvious slew of what’s-wrong-with-this-picture? complaints.
McAfee addressed the pink-slip elephant in the room during his show on Tuesday.
“We hate any time this happens,” McAfee said, via Brendon Kleen of Awful Announcing. “Obviously this is terrible. We don’t like that. But we are very honored that we are still partnered with ESPN and Disney for the good of sport and the future.”
McAfee nevertheless acknowledged the connection that is being made between ESPN not having the money to keep some employees while having more than enough cash to further break the bank for his weekday show and other assignments.
“The first time we licensed the show through ESPN, one of these happened, we got blamed,” McAfee said. “OK, OK. Thank you. I feel like you don’t fully understand budgets and where things are coming from, but I do appreciate that. This time, we’re getting blamed as well. Which I guess I can understand, but I mean, there’s billions and billions of dollars in these companies, and hard decisions have to get made. And we don’t like any of them, and we hope we’re an asset to the company going forward.”
Here’s the basic reality at any company in any industry. The money is there for the people they want. For those they don’t, certain opportunities arise (such as, in this case, the acquisition of NFL Network) to purge the ones they used to like but no longer do.
It happens throughout American business. And it’s driven by management. Currently, McAfee is one of the favorite sons in the eyes of those who have their hands on the wheel. And that’s management’s prerogative.
The other reality is that management’s prerogative can, and will, change. The only true job security is indispensability. For now, guys like McAfee and Stephen A. Smith have it.
But the basic truth is that we’re all replaceable. In time, we’ll all be replaced. The only question is whether we walk away by choice, we’re gently nudged, or we get a two-handed shove.
The only protection against that comes from, to use the technical term, owning your own shit. McAfee owns his daily platform. If/when the ESPN run ends, he’ll go elsewhere or he’ll take the operation independent, again.
Colts Clips
If/when someone seriously challenges Hall of Fame head coach Don Shula’s all-time win record, the magic number shouldn’t be 347.
It should be 349.
Dave Hyde recently explained that Shula doesn’t get credit for a pair of victories in the Playoff Bowl, a third-place game the NFL staged in the 1960s. Shula won it twice with the Colts, capping the 1965 and 1966 seasons.
In 1965, Shula’s Colts beat the Cowboys. The next year, Shula’s Colts beat the Eagles.
“It’s silly to say it’s a vacation deal,” Shula said after the 1966 game, per Hyde. “You couldn’t ask for more desire or effort, and that goes for both teams.”
The Playoff Bowl eventually yielded to the Pro Bowl. But Shula’s victories were wins that happened in the NFL postseason. They should count as postseason wins.
By way of example, Kylian Mbappé’s two goals in Saturday’s World Cup third-place game count toward his 2026 World Cup total and all-time World Cup total, giving him both the Golden Boot for the most goals in the latest tournament and the all-time World Cup goal record, with one more than Lionel Messi.
Without those two goals in a “meaningless” game, Messi would have won the Golden Boot — and Messi would hold the record for the most World Cup goals.
It doesn’t matter that the NFL would never again have a third-place game. It once did. And it was a playoff game, at a time when the NFL staged far fewer playoff games than it now does. Those two wins from the 1965 and 1966 Playoff Bowl should be added to Shula’s record.
Greg Hawthorne, the Steelers’ first-round pick in 1979, has died. He was 69.
A member of the Super Bowl XIV-winning team, Hawthorne spent five seasons in Pittsburgh. He then played for the Patriots for three seasons, before finishing his career in Indianapolis in 1987 as a three-game replacement player during the strike.
Hawthorne played running back, receiver, and tight end during his eight-year NFL career. He finished with 527 rushing yards, 1,112 receiving yards, and 11 touchdowns.
In the 1985 AFC Championship upset of the Dolphins, Hawthorne recovered a fumble on the opening kickoff of the second half, setting up a touchdown that gave New England a 24-7 lead. The Patriots went on to upset Miami for a berth in Super Bowl XX, 31-14.
Daniel Jones progressed to 7-on-7 work during the team’s offseason program, and the Colts quarterback expects to do everything at camp.
“I’m doing everything. Cleared to do everything,” Jones said Friday, via video from James Boyd of TheAthletic.com. “I think it’s just about, at this point, sharpening that, getting more explosive, getting stronger, kind of improving what you can do. I can do everything and feel really good doing it.”
Jones ruptured his right Achilles in a Dec. 7 game against the Jaguars and underwent surgery two days later. He said Friday that he hit “a lot” of his rehab milestones before the mandatory minicamp and has gotten even stronger since.
“I’m feeling good,” Jones said. “I think I’ve made a good amount of progress since minicamp and will continue to do that these next two weeks before camp and then all through camp. But I’m feeling really good and feel like I’m in a good spot.”
Jones admitted he is not over the mental hurdle of forgetting about the Achilles repair.
“You still think about it. Probably will until you get playing and into games and stuff,” Jones said. “You’re putting a lot of time into it. It’s kind of the central part of all my training and all my time this offseason. Still thinking about but really happy with where I am.”
He will work out with his teammates next week in preparation for the start of training camp.
Jones completed 68 percent of his passes for 3,101 yards with 19 touchdowns and eight interceptions in the 13 games before his injury last season.
Only two running backs in the NFL have carried the ball more than 300 times in each of the last two seasons, but it sounds like the Colts wouldn’t mind if Jonathan Taylor’s streak ends there.
It’s not a question of effectiveness as Taylor has run for 3,016 yards and 29 touchdowns on his 626 totes, but running backs coach DeAndre Smith pointed out the correlation between usage and injury risk as a reason why the team would like to find other options that would allow the running game to continue to flourish while Taylor is getting a chance to rest during games.
“We definitely need to find ways to take some of that workload off him,” Smith said, via Stephen Holder of ESPN.com. “If I can find another guy or two that can take some of those carries off, he’s just going to be that much better. So, it’s definitely been a constant conversation. I’m aware of it. When he’s healthy, we’ve got a chance to win every game. So, that’s always the first thing I think about: making sure he’s available every week.”
Taylor played every game in 2025, but missed three games in 2024 and 13 games over the previous two seasons.
There’s no surefire answer on the roster at the moment as 2025 fifth-rounder DJ Giddens only ran 26 times as a rookie and 2026 seventh-rounder Seth McGowan is joined by undrafted free agents further down the depth chart. If one of those players doesn’t flash quickly in camp, the Colts may have to look elsewhere for the kind of help that Smith would like to give Taylor come the fall.
The Terrion Arnold case has returned to court on Friday, for a hearing on whether he’ll be required to wear a GPS monitor while on house arrest pending trial on eight felony charges.
The core question is whether he’ll be practicing or playing football in 2026. If so, the judge likely will stick with the ruling made while Arnold was still on the Lions’ roster. If not, it’s more likely that Arnold will be required to follow the standard home-confinement protocol and wear a device.
The evidence supporting Arnold’s position has come from his agent, Nicole Lynn. Via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press, Lynn testified that four teams have inquired about Arnold: the Colts, Jets, Seahawks, and Texans. She said that he visited and worked out for the Texans, per Birkett. (That workout has yet to appear on any of the daily NFL transaction reports.)
Lynn added that there is a “very good likelihood” Arnold will be signed in the next 45 days.
The next question will be whether any of those teams will confirm their interest in Arnold, or act on it. Often, if a player who works out for a team isn’t promptly signed, he’s not going to be signed by that team — at least not in the immediate future.
The other question looming over Arnold is whether the NFL will place him on the Commissioner Exempt list (i.e., paid leave). If a team has reason to think that’s coming, it will have less reason to sign him.
Regardless, the testimony worked. The judge, per Birkett, denied the prosecution’s motion. Arnold will not be required to wear a GPS device. He remains confined to his home with the exception of work and meetings with attorneys.
Adam Vinatieri is set to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in August and he’ll be celebrated by one of his former teams during the regular season.
The Colts announced on Wednesday that Vinatieri will be inducted into the franchise’s Ring of Honor in October. The ceremony will take place on October 18 during their Week 6 home game against the Titans.
Vinatieri signed with the Colts as a free agent in 2006 and helped them to a Super Bowl win during his first season. Vinatieri hit 14-of-15 field goal attempts during that playoff run to set a record for most made field goals in a single postseason. He went on to spend 14 seasons with the Colts before retiring after the 2018 season.
Vinatieri is the NFL’s career leader in points scored and field goals made in both the regular season and playoffs.
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.
Cornerback Kenny Moore requested and received his release from the Colts on May 7. He remains a free agent.
“I’m at the perfect point in my career where I really want to win, and hopefully that comes with a team that has the culture, the scheme set up for me,” Moore said on Sirius XM Radio. “I just don’t want to be a guy on the team, because I feel like I have so many strengths to give to the secondary or give to the team, and just be a leader. But for me, I was putting down in my notes probably two days ago, whenever I was flying in. It’s more so, whatever role I have on a team, it’s more so like perfecting that role and not really -- it’s less about me. I don’t talk about me.
“I want to talk about how I can be in a new place and serve. I want to serve not just the team, not just learning the plays, but I want to serve the community and continuing everything I was doing in Indy. Where I was in Indy, it was less me and more about the team. So I want to be a team guy and I want to win and hopefully we can do that together.”
Moore, 30, and the Colts agreed to seek a trade in April.
He was set to make $9.49 million in base salary for 2026 before his release.
Moore joined the Colts in 2017 after his release from the Patriots, who had signed him as an undrafted free agent. He has played 132 games with 111 starts, totaling 21 interceptions, 68 passes defensed, six forced fumbles and 11.5 sacks.
“I’m so thankful for my time with the Colts,” Moore said. “I can’t say that enough. They’re family. I can still call the people that I’ve experienced and grown with over the years, I’ve got a lot of humility, but I think I’ve just gone through growth. Just growing.
“I’m at a perfect point of my career where I really want to win.”
Then, there was one. . . .
The Falcons reached agreement with tight end Kyle Pitts on a three-year, $54 million deal, leaving Cowboys wide receiver George Pickens as the only player who will play this season on the franchise tag.
Pitts, Pickens and Jets running back Breece Hall were tagged by their team, but Pitts and Hall have agreed to long-term deals. Hall signed a three-year, $43.5 million contract last month.
In addition, Colts quarterback Daniel Jones, who received the transition tag, signed a two-year, $88 million contract in March.
The Cowboys have until July 15 to reach a long-term deal with Pickens, but they already announced the Pro Bowler will play 2026 under the tag. Pickens has signed the $27.3 million tag and participated in the mandatory minicamp last week.
