Indianapolis Colts

The Chiefs brought in a receiver at the trading deadline, acquiring Josh Downs from the Colts.

Quarterback Patrick Mahomes told reporters in his Wednesday press conference that he’s excited to get going with the wideout.

“I think you can tell just the intellect and how he’s able to pick stuff up and that he’s a professional, that he knows what he’s doing and he wants to come in and just compete and to have success, and he wants to win. And so, I’m excited for that,” Mahomes said, via transcript from the team. “And then you can just see him interacting with the other receivers in the room. You can tell that there’s going to be a great cohesion there, and that’s the type of guys you want on the team, that want to compete and that want to win.”

Mahomes noted he’s impressed with the way Downs can win his one-on-one matchups.

“He runs routes really well,” Mahomes said. “He sets them up really well where he will run a route early in the game that he sets up for another one later in the game. And then he has really good feel, you can tell, obviously, playing in the system that he has, he has a lot of read-type routes, and you can tell he knows how to get himself open, settle in the right zones, and win versus man [coverage] when he can.

“And so, I think it will be an easy transition for him to kind of do that stuff in our offense. Then, with how we do things, he can play a lot of different positions as we move receivers and tight ends around.”

The quarterback also sees it as realistic for Downs to play and contribute early on in his tenure with Kansas City. While that begins with plenty of reps at practice, Mahomes and the rest of the offense can direct Downs to where he needs to be during games if necessary.

“[W]e do a great job of kind of moving guys in and out of every single position, and so guys know the entire concepts of the plays,” Mahomes said. “We’re very detailed with how we call the plays in the huddle, which will help him out a ton.

“Then when he doesn’t know, being able to talk to me in the huddle or talk to the guys as they’re breaking the huddle, and that usually helps when the guys like each other. And so, it’s good to have a guy that you can tell everybody’s going to like, and that he has his head on the right way, and he’s going to make sure that he’s going to do whatever it takes to win.”

In nine games with the Colts this year, Downs caught 33 passes for 354 yards with one touchdown.

The 49ers made a trade for wide receiver Keenan Allen on Tuesday, but he wasn’t the only Colts wide receiver on their radar ahead of the trade deadline.

During a Thursday appearance on KNBR, General Manager John Lynch said that the team turned its attention to Allen after initially targeting Josh Downs as an addition to their receiver room. Lynch said that head coach Kyle Shanahan brought up Allen while watching film on Downs and conversations with the Colts began before they landed defensive tackle DeForest Buckner in an earlier deal with Indianapolis.

“We kind of focused on Josh Downs as an option that we’d have some interest,” Lynch said, via 49ersWebzone.com. “And Kyle and I are kind of watching Josh, and in the process, Kyle’s like, ‘Man, what about Keenan?’ And I was like, ‘You know, we hadn’t given much thought to that, but let me ask about that.’ And so, there started a conversation about two and a half weeks ago, really, when the DeForest talks [happened]. ‘Would he?’ And it’s always fluid, and at a certain time, they didn’t want to give up Keenan. It kind of wasn’t going to be on the table, but we kept communicating, and ultimately we got him.”

The 49ers sent a 2027 sixth-round pick to the Colts for Allen. Downs and a 2027 seventh-round pick were eventually traded to the Chiefs for 2027 fourth- and fifth-round picks.

Don’t expect Philip Rivers to come out of retirement again this season. He’ll be busy.

Via ESPN, the NC State board of trustees is expected to finalize a contract that will make Rivers the next head coach of the Wolfpack.

Rivers played for NC State from 1999 through 2003. He was the fourth overall pick in the 2004 draft, technically of the Giants. He was traded to the Chargers (with Eli Manning going to New York), and Rivers played for the Chargers through 2019. He spent 2020 with the Colts, and he unexpectedly returned late in the 2025 season to play for the Colts again.

Rivers became a high-school coach in Alabama in 2021. He has never coached at the college or pro level, but he interviewed for the Bills’ head-coaching job.

It’s not known whether he still aspires to coach at the NFL level. As he gets experience at NC State — and if he does well — buzz could build for a shot with an NFL team.

For now, he’ll be returning to the place where he played college football. His name surfaced almost immediately after long-time coach Dave Doeren was fired last month. Along the way, NC State interviewed fellow former NC State quarterback (and NFL quarterback and current CBS analyst) Russell Wilson.

The Colts had a mini-fire sale in recent weeks, trading away four starters for future assets.

Quarterback Daniel Jones, not surprisingly, isn’t thrilled by the decision to send guard Quenton Nelson, defensive tackle DeForest Buckner, receiver Keenan Allen, and receiver Josh Downs to other teams.

“I mean, honestly, you’re not you’re not happy to see it, right?” Jones said. “You’re a player and you’re going out there competing and doing everything you can to win games. So you’re not happy to see a lot of those decisions, and — but like I said, it’s outside of our control, and our job is to play, be prepared, and play well. 
So, like I said, we got a lot of trust in the guys coming in to those spots, and we’ll be ready to go.”

It’s a bad situation for the players who remain, since it will be harder for them to win with backups thrust into the lineup. But that’s how it works whenever a non-contender admits its situation and trades players.

Those who remain have to keep going, trying to win games even if they get the impression that the front office doesn’t really care.

And even though the Jets hold the Colts’ first-round pick, a bad season for Indianapolis will result in a higher spot in every round. As the Colts embark on a rebuild, it’s not crazy to think the front office hopes to sink as low in the standings as possible, since that will enhance the priority of the picks they have.

The Jets will welcome that, since they have the Colts’ first-round pick. Thanks to the failed trade for cornerback Sauce Gardner.

Former Steelers coach Mike Tomlin has made the pivot to media. One question won’t go away.

Will he coach again?

“I’m having a lot of fun,” Tomlin said Wednesday on an NBC conference call, via Mark Maske of Front Office Sports. “Haven’t given one iota of thought about coaching. I’m sure that, you know, some of that’s going to come up in the not-too-distant future. But I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. Really haven’t thought a lot about it. Really excited about my new role and working to get better each and every week.”

He’s excellent in his new role. Which serves as a reminder to all NFL owners that he’s excellent as a coach.

Here’s the reality. Owners and/or their proxies will be reaching out through the backchannels, sooner rather than later. Some teams may not even be thinking about changing coaches unless they believe they can get Tomlin.

Despite the league’s procedures when it comes to coaches, it would be naive to think some jobs aren’t unofficially filled before the interview process ends.

Ultimately, the manner in which any pursuit of Tomlin unfolds will be dictated by him. If he says, “I’ll entertain nothing until the regular season ends,” interested teams will have to factor that into their planning. If they really want Tomlin, they’ll have to wait.

Tomlin can also wait for the right opportunity. He’d still be at the top of the “A” list after the 2027 season, and possibly (if not likely) beyond. He’d surely want to pick a team that has everything he needs to be successful right away. With the key factors (as they would be for any coaching candidate with options) being ownership support and quality of quarterback.

This year, teams to potentially watch (and this is my own list, pulled out of thin air and/or my butt) include the Jets, the Colts, the Eagles, and the Panthers.

The Cowboys would make the list, if owner and G.M. Jerry Jones was truly willing to write the check. He made it clear last week that he’s not.

And it surely will require the shattering of the piggy bank to get Tomlin. With the top of the coaching market in the range of $25 million annually, it’ll likely take $30 million (or more) annually to even get his attention.

The one to watch most closely is the Panthers. Owner David Tepper, who previously owned a piece of the Steelers, is widely believed to be very interested in Tomlin. The Jets make sense, too; with the Giants reaping the instant benefit of hiring Tomlin’s former arch rival, John Harbaugh, Jets owner Woody Johnson may become motivated to do whatever it takes to get Tomlin.

When the dust settled on the trade deadline, the Colts still had running back Jonathan Taylor under contract. It was not the outcome that most around the league expected.

All signs pointed to the Colts taking the best offer at 3:45 p.m. ET and processing the paperwork before the top of the hour. Whatever the best offer was.

But that’s what a functional organization would have done. The Colts currently are not.

The Giants were willing to give up a second-round pick and a fifth-round pick for Taylor. It’s unclear for now whether anyone else was willing to do better than that.

In the interim, Taylor spent two weeks not knowing what would happen. He didn’t get an assurance he wouldn’t be traded until roughly an hour before the window closed. (Even then, the leak felt more like a “last call” to interested suitors.)

The fans spent that same period of time wondering what the Colts were doing. And Taylor got only eight carries in the 42-7 loss to Jacksonville, at a time when it felt like a trade was imminent.

So what happens next for Taylor? If they try to trade him in the offseason, they won’t do better than they would have done when a contender was willing to pay a premium in an effort to win now. And if they don’t get at least as much as they could have gotten on Tuesday, will they refuse to trade him again?

Taylor could end up being stuck on the Colts during an obvious rebuild. Then, by the time it’s rebuilt (if it ever is), Taylor will be past his prime.

The simplest explanation is that the Colts slipped into dysfunction on this one. And it’s no surprise. Owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon is still fairly new to the job. The G.M. has been fired. And coach Shane Steichen hopes to win enough games to have a chance to keep his job; he surely wasn’t lobbying to lose his best player.

So what should the Colts have done? When they were doing the deals for guard Quenton Nelson and defensive tackle DeForest Buckner, they should have asked for the various Taylor suitors to make their last, best offers. And the Colts should have made a final decision then and there as to whether he’d be traded or retained.

Instead, they decided to wait and see whether the offers would improve. Taylor was left to wonder about his future. After the Week 9 loss to the Cowboys, he basically said goodbye to Indianapolis.

The Eagles didn’t play it that way with running back Saquon Barkley. They knew what was out there, they decided not to take the best offer, and they informed Barkley that he wouldn’t be changing teams.

The Colts instead kicked the can, not accepting the best offer and hoping it would impove. That gave Taylor two weeks to ponder the possibility of playing for a contender before the Colts decided not to pull the trigger on a trade.

They’ll never admit it, but the Colts will come to regret not taking the best deal. Because the offers won’t get any better after the season. At some point, Taylor is going to realize it’s in his best interests to request a trade.

That will be a problem for the next G.M. to deal with. And that wrinkle won’t make the job more attractive to a candidate who has options.

After last night’s abysmal performance by the offense against the Bills, the Vikings mobilized to trade for a quarterback. Ultimately, they got the guy they wanted.

Per a source with knowledge of the situation, Kirk Cousins was Minnesota’s first choice.

The Vikings explored other options. Multiple players, including fellow former Vikings quarterback Daniel Jones.

Cousins’s history with the team makes it easier to get him up to speed. He had 25 regular-season games with coach Kevin O’Connell, and four seasons with receiver Justin Jefferson.

The existence of options may have helped the Vikings keep the compensation to only a third-round pick. Given the level of desperation, the Vikings seemed destined to give up more than that to fix a problem that threatened to implode the season.

That’s not an overstatement. The dam was breaking. Frustration was rampant during the debacle against the Bills, on both sides of the ball.

It was a simple proposition. If the Vikings didn’t trade for a quarterback on Tuesday, they could not be considered a serious franchise.

In the end, they managed to stop the bleeding by sending their third-round pick (their own, not the one they acquired from the Eagles for defensive end Jonathan Greenard) to the Raiders for Cousins.

It’s unclear how much better things will be with Cousins back in the fold. It can’t get worse than what they put on the field for Week 9.

The Dolphins placed quarterback Malik Willis on injured reserve, the team announced.

Willis has had a groin injury that has limited his mobility, and an MRI showed it developed into a core muscle injury, Tom Pelissero of The Ringer reports.

Pelissero said the injury is not season-ending.

The Dolphins have Kyle McCord behind Willis, along with Brady Cook on the practice squad. McCord, a sixth-round pick of the Eagles in 2025, has never seen action in a regular-season game.

He presumably will start Sunday’s game against the Colts.

Willis will miss at least four games before returning.

He has a 58.2 percent completion percentage for 1,396 yards with six touchdowns and six interceptions.

The Dolphins also announced they placed defensive lineman Zach Sieler on injured reserve and waived cornerback Reese Taylor.

Josh Downs has gotten his wish.

After requesting a trade from the Colts, the Chiefs have agreed to acquire the wide receiver, according to multiple reports.

Kansas City will receive Downs and a 2027 seventh-round pick in exchange for 2027 fourth- and fifth-round picks.

Downs, who is in his fourth season, has caught 33 passes for 354 yards with an interception so far in 2026. He had 58 catches for 566 yards with four touchdowns in 16 games last year.

A third-round pick in the 2023 draft, Downs has recorded 231 career catches for 2,494 yards with 12 touchdowns in his 56 games.

The Chiefs have been looking for more depth at receiver and now have a new weapon in Downs. He could also play 18 games, as the Chiefs have already had their bye while the Colts don’t have theirs until Week 13.

The Colts signed wide receiver Nick Westbrook-Ikhine to the 53-player roster from the practice squad, the team announced.

They also announced they signed long snapper Jacob Bobenmoyer to the practice squad.

Westbrook-Ikhine originally signed with the team as a free agent on March 18. He was cut out of the preseason and signed back to the team’s practice squad on Aug. 31.

He has played three games this season, so he was out of elevations.

Westbrook-Ikhine has played 96 career games with 42 starts in his time with the Colts (2026), Dolphins (2025) and Titans (2020-24). He has totaled 137 receptions for 1,862 yards and 19 touchdowns.

Bobenmoyer has appeared in 98 career games in his time with the Jaguars (2026), Raiders (2023-25) and Broncos (2020-22). He has compiled 22 special teams tackles and one fumble recovery.