Before he was a first-team All-Pro in the NFL, Marcus Peters played at McClymonds High School in Oakland, where he was coached by his father. Now Peters will succeed his father as the head coach at McClymonds.
Peters is the new head coach at McClymonds, where his father Michael Peters retired after last season. Michael Peters spent 33 years on the staff at McClymonds, including 13 as head coach.
Marcus Peters has big shoes to fill. His father won five state titles and went 142-24 as head coach at McClymonds. After retiring from the NFL following the 2023 season, Marcus Peters spent the last two seasons as a volunteer assistant coach to his father.
The 33-year-old Peters was the MVP of the Oakland Athletic League during his senior year at McClymonds. He then played college football at Washington and was a first-round pick of the Chiefs and the NFL’s defensive rookie of the year in 2015. He also played for the Rams, Ravens and Raiders.
“We are excited to see him now step into the role of head coach,” an announcement from the school said. “His experience at the highest level of the game, combined with his deep connection to our school, makes this truly an exciting moment for our football family.”
Raiders Clips
Less than 24 hours after the Ravens’ trade for Maxx Crosby fell through, the team agreed to terms with Trey Hendrickson. While on the surface it appeared Hendrickson was the consolation prize, General Manager Eric DeCosta previously insisted the Ravens wanted to add both edge rushers.
That was Hendrickson’s understanding of the situation, too.
“I was looking forward to rushing with him,” Hendrickson said during an appearance on Terron Armstead’s The Set podcast. “Like what an incredible opportunity that would have been to have a bookends like that terrorizing quarterbacks, getting running backs to the ground. That’s what got me excited.”
Hendrickson got his long-term deal from a team he considers a contender. The Ravens signed a much-needed edge rusher, who led the NFL in sacks in 2024 with 17.5.
Hendrickson said he believes he has his best chance to reach the Super Bowl since the 2021 Cincinnati team got there.
“When I look back, maybe I’ll be more appreciative of how special that team was, but right now I’m on the hunt for one thing and that’s to win it all,” Hendrickson said. “I’m incredibly blessed to be in an opportunity representing organizations that have done it. I’m excited to be a part of something that there is potential. When you’re talking about No. 8 [Lamar Jackson]throwing the ball around, like, you know it’s a quarterback-driven league. Sean Payton talked about that when I was a rookie [in New Orleans]. There might be 32 teams, but there’s about seven or eight that can win it all, and we’ve got one of them.”
The Raiders announced the death of their former center Barret Robbins at the age of 52 on Friday.
Robbins was a 1995 second-round pick by the Raiders and remained with the team for his entire career.
Robbins became a starter in his second season and was a first-team All-Pro in 2002. He also made his only Pro Bowl that year and he started 105 times before retiring after the 2003 season.
Robbins is best known for going missing the day before the Raiders played the Buccaneers in Super Bowl XXXVII after the 2022 season. Robbins returned to the team ahead of the game, but did not play and later attributed his disappearance to a mental health episode caused by a failure to take his medication.
Raiders General Manager John Spytek tried to trade defensive end Maxx Crosby to the Ravens for two first-round draft picks, but the Ravens nixed the trade after Crosby’s physical. The Raiders weren’t happy with the Ravens at the time, but Spytek now says he is happy to have Crosby on the team.
Spytek said in a video posted by the Raiders that they still value Crosby and think having him on the team might turn out for the best.
“My relationship with Maxx since I’ve gotten here has been great,” Spytek said. “We had a lot of conversations throughout the season, at the end of the season, through the offseason, and we were presented with a challenging and difficult decision to make. Things have a way of going a certain way and working out the way they’re supposed to, and we welcome him like he never left — because he really never did. Excited to see him work hard and attack the rehab and I know he’s going to be back ready to rock in August this year and have many good years ahead of him.”
The Raiders are continuing to get calls about Crosby, and they’d surely consider trading him if they got a good enough offer. But Spytek sounds like he’s building this year’s roster in anticipation of Crosby being a big part of it.
Raiders minority owner Tom Brady was interested enough in a potential comeback on the playing field to ask the NFL what the rules would be. The NFL reiterated that a player can’t also be an owner.
Brady told Alex Sherman of CNBC that when he looked into the rules, it was made clear to him that he can’t be an owner and a player at the same time.
“I actually have inquired, and they don’t like that idea very much,” Brady said. “We explored a lot of different things, and I’m very happily retired. Let me just say that, too.”
NFL rules would require Brady to sell his stake in the team before he could become an active player, and even then there could be additional questions about whether he would be a free agent or only eligible to play for the Raiders, and then whether money Brady has made as a Raiders minority owner would have to be counted against the salary cap. It wouldn’t be an easy process.
Brady played flag football last weekend but said that didn’t make him think he was going to return to the field.
“If anything, that game reconfirmed to me that I’m very happy in my retirement,” Brady said.
The 48-year-old Brady last played in 2022, when at age 45 he completed 490 of 733 passes for 4,694 yards with 25 touchdowns and nine interceptions.
Najee Harris visited the Seahawks on Wednesday and the running back has another visit lined up with a prospective employer for the 2026 season.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that Harris has a visit planned with the Raiders as well.
The Raiders have 2025 first-round pick Ashton Jeanty at the top of the backfield depth chart. Dylan Laube and Chris Collier are the only other backs currently on the roster in Las Vegas.
Harris is recovering from a torn Achilles he suffered while playing for the Chargers last September. The 2021 first-round pick spent his first four seasons with the Steelers and ran for 4,312 yards during his time in Pittsburgh.
The NFL news cycle has slipped into the lull between free agency and the draft. Which creates an opening — and a need — for someone to fuel the never-ending take machine.
Enter ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky. On Monday, he debuted his opinion that former Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson is the best quarterback in the 2026 draft class. Better than former Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza, the presumptive No. 1 overall pick.
And it went from there. As it often does. The take machine abhors a vacuum. The ESPN studio shows, radio shows, and podcasts have many, many hours to fill. And nothing delivers full segments of content than an opinion that cuts against the grain.
In August 2013, ESPN’s Ron Jaworski declared that Colin Kaepernick “could be one of the greatest quarterbacks ever.” It fed the ESPN take machine for days.
Is Orlovsky right on Simpson vs. Mendoza? We don’t know, and we won’t know, until both players have spent multiple years in the NFL. Even then, plenty of factors beyond the quarterback’s skills and abilities will determine it. Teammates, coaching, front office, ownership. The second (or third, or fourth) acts of players like Geno Smith, Sam Darnold, and Baker Mayfield have proven that point in recent years.
For now, however, the take machine is crying, “Feed me.” Even if Orlovsky’s opinion wasn’t fueled by the realization that calling Simpson a better prospect than Mendoza would be very good for business, it was. It is. For ESPN, and beyond.
It’s the perfect time for an organic debate like this to fill the many airwaves. And things got a little spicy on Tuesday, when ESPN’s Pat McAfee and company pressed Orlovsky aggressively on his Simpson take.
Along the way, it was mentioned that Orlovsky is represented by CAA, which also represents Simpson. Orlovsky got defensive: “The agents work for us, not the other way around, just so everybody knows. They’re employed by us. Respectfully, that’s how the business model is.”
Right, but that’s not how it really works. The biggest firms have the most influence, with everyone. If Orlovsky weren’t represented by CAA, he’d have to worry about CAA pushing another CAA client for his gig the next time his contract is up.
And that’s exactly what happens prior to the draft. Among the players who play the same position, the agents play both offense and defense when it comes to ensuring that their clients go as early as possible. They all do. They have to.
Given that Orlovsky is represented by CAA, he’ll naturally be more inclined to listen to the arguments they make for their guy. And something that was said to him possibly stuck, potentially influencing his opinion. Even without anyone making an overt ask.
It’s not a quid pro quo in the classic sense. The agents know how to work the media in the weeks preceding the draft, and they do. The firms that represent the players have clear and direct pipelines to the broadcasters they also represent.
Case in point: Lamar Jackson had no one fighting for him in 2018. No one to push back against Bill Polian’s ridiculous take that Jackson should change positions. No one to plant the seed in the brains of analysts that Jackson is as good, if not better, than the likes of Mayfield (No. 1), Darnold (No. 3), Josh Allen (No. 7), and Josh Freaking Rosen (No. 10). Jackson, amazingly, went 32nd, after the Ravens traded back into the last pick of round one to get the five-year contract that goes with first-round picks.
In the end, this one isn’t about anything other than Orlovsky’s take taking over a slow stretch for NFL news and opinion.
Whether he’s eventually right or wrong doesn’t matter. All that matters is he threw a shovelful of coal into the furnace at a time when the flame was flickering.
And, yes, in time the question of whether he was or wasn’t right will operate as another shovelful of coal, at another lull in the non-stop NFL take machine.
It sounds like the Super Bowl is headed back to Las Vegas.
NFL owners are expected to vote on the site of Super Bowl LXIII in February 2029 during next week’s annual league meeting, and it is expected to return to Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Schefter noted a source called it a “matter of formality.”
Allegiant Stadium, which opened in 2020 with the Raiders’ move to Southern Nevada, hosted Super Bowl LVIII to cap the 2023 season. The Chiefs defeated the 49ers 25-22 in overtime, with Kansas City becoming the first team to win back-to-back Super Bowls since the 2003 and 2004 Patriots.
To this point, Super Bowl LVIII is the only postseason game Allegiant Stadium has hosted.
Super Bowl LXI will be played in Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium next February, with Super Bowl LXII returning to Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta in February 2028.
If you’ve been assuming the Raiders will select quarterback Fernando Mendoza with the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s draft next month, you’re certainly not alone.
Las Vegas has reportedly taken another step in the process of making that widely held assumption become reality.
Via Ian Rapoport of NFL Media, the Raiders will host Mendoza for a top-30, pre-draft visit in two weeks.
It has not been reported whether Mendoza has taken other visits or will meet with other teams. But it would be a stunner if the Raiders were to pass on Mendoza at No. 1 overall.
Mendoza is slated to work out at Indiana’s Pro Day on April 1, which will represent another step for him on the path to the draft. But everything seems to be shaping up for Mendoza to become the next QB1 in Las Vegas.
The Raiders didn’t name a quarterbacks coach when they announced their staff on March 1. They have one now.
Mike Sullivan is joining the Raiders to work with presumptive No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza in Las Vegas, Mike Garafolo of NFL Media reports.
Sullivan was serving as a senior offensive assistant at Rutgers.
He has had four other stints as a quarterbacks coach. Sullivan served in that role twice for the Giants (2010-11, 2015) and for the Broncos (2018) and Steelers (2021-23).
Sullivan also was an offensive coordinator for the Bucs (2012-13) and Giants (2016-17).
He began his NFL career in 2002.
