Teams making decisions about picking up the fifth-year options on the contracts of their 2023 first-round picks now know how much that will cost.
The NFL revealed the values on Friday afternoon. There are four levels of compensation at each position. Players who have made multiple Pro Bowls as an original selection are at the top followed by players with one Pro Bowl selection and players who have hit playing time milestones before reaching the lowest level.
Panthers quarterback Bryce Young and Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud were the first two picks of that draft and both of them reached the playing time level of compensation. That will leave them with fully guaranteed salaries of $25.904 million if the teams decide to exercise the options, but longer-term extensions are also a possibility now that they have finished their third seasons.
The full list of 2023 first-rounders — there were 31 that year because the Dolphins were stripped of their pick — and their fifth-year option salaries appears below:
1. Panthers QB Bryce Young — $25.904 million (playing time).
2. Texans QB C.J. Stroud — $25.904 million (playing time).
3. Texans DE Will Anderson — $21.512 (Pro Bowl).
4. Colts QB Anthony Richardson — $22.483 million (base).
5. Seahawks CB Devon Witherspoon — $21.161 million (multiple Pro Bowls).
6. Cardinals OT Paris Johnson — $19.072 million (playing time).
7. Raiders DE Tyree Wilson — $14.475 million (base).
8. Falcons RB Bijan Robinson — $11.323 million (Pro Bowl).
9. Eagles DT Jalen Carter — $27.127 million (multiple Pro Bowls).
10. Bears OT Darnell Wright — $19.072 million (playing time).
11. Titans OG Peter Skoronski — $19.072 million (playing time).
12. Lions RB Jahmyr Gibbs — $14.293 million (multiple Pro Bowls).
13. Packers DE Lukas Van Ness — $14.475 million (base).
14. Steelers OT Broderick Jones — $19.072 million (playing time).
15. Jets DE Will McDonald — $14.475 million (base).
16. Rams CB Emmanuel Forbes — $12.633 million (base).
17. Patriots CB Christian Gonzalez — $18.119 million (Pro Bowl).
18. Lions LB Jack Campbell — $21.925 million (Pro Bowl).
19. Buccaneers DT Calijah Kancey — $15.451 (playing time).
20. Seahawks WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba — $23.852 million (Pro Bowl).
21. Chargers WR Quentin Johnston — $18 million (playing time).
22. Ravens WR Zay Flowers — $27.298 million (multiple Pro Bowls).
23. Vikings WR Jordan Addison — $18 million (playing time).
24. Giants CB Deonte Banks — $12.633 million (base).
25. Bills TE Dalton Kincaid — $8.162 million (base).
26. Jets DT Mazi Smith — $13.391 million (base) Smith was traded to the Jets by the Cowboys.
27. Jaguars OT Anton Harrison — $19.072 million (playing time).
28. Bengals DE Myles Murphy — $14.475 million (base).
29. Saints DT Bryan Bresee — $13.391 million (base).
30. Eagles LB Nolan Smith — $13.752 million (base).
31. Chiefs Felix Anudike-Uzomah — $14.475 million (base).
Rams Clips
The Rams have indeed made a proposal based on the nutty two-point play from the Week 16 overtime thriller in Seattle.
The initial report merely explained that a proposal was submitted. The details of the proposal have emerged.
Per a source with knowledge of the situation, the Rams have made two separate proposals. Under the first, a backward pass that is tipped by a defensive player and goes past the line of scrimmage would be treated like a fumble. This means that, during the final two minutes of a half, on fourth down, or on a conversion attempt, only the player who fumbled can recover the ball and advance it. If another offensive player recovers the ball, the offense gets the ball at the spot of the fumble.
As applied to the two-point attempt in Rams-Seahawks, the recovery of the loose ball in the end zone by running back Zach Charbonnet would not have resulted in a successful conversion. Seattle would have gotten two points only if quarterback Sam Darnold had recovered the ball.
Although that same situation will rarely happen, the reasoning makes sense. The defense disrupted the attempted backward pass. A fluke bounce sent the live ball beyond the line of scrimmage. In the situations where a fumble can’t be recovered and advanced by any player except the one who fumbled it, a backward pass that is batted beyond the line of scrimmage would be treated the same way.
The Rams’ second proposal would limit the time for the initiation of a replay review, capping it at either 40 seconds or a minute. Basically, if the replay process is going to activate, it needs to happen more quickly in order to keep the game moving.
For the Seahawks-Rams play, 100 seconds elapsed between the time Charbonnet recovered the ball and the moment referee Brad Allen announced that the play was under further review. The kickoff and kick-return teams were on the field and ready to proceed. The absence of a specific deadline for starting the review process allows potentially protracted delays — and opens the door for (as happened in this case) someone from outside the apparatus alerting the league to the potential need for a review.
While the league eventually got the Rams-Seahawks play right, the Rams’ thinking is that no review should take that long to get started. As it relates to the quirk that allows backward passes to hit the ground and be recovered and advanced, the Rams’ proposal would eliminate situations in which the backward pass is deflected forward and crosses the line of scrimmage.
Again, something like this may not happen again, for years. It makes sense, now that the league has witnessed that specific outcome, for the NFL to consider whether it wants to allow that same thing to possibly happen in the future.
It didn’t take Robert Woods long to find his first post-retirement job.
Woods, who signed a one-day contract to retire as a Ram last week, has been announced as a new member of the Rams’ coaching staff.
The 33-year-old Woods was a 2013 second-round pick of the Bills who played his first four years in Buffalo before signing with the Rams in 2017 and playing five seasons in Los Angeles. He then spent time with the Titans and Texans before his career came to an end when he didn’t make the Steelers’ regular-season roster last year.
Woods is already familiar with head coach Sean McVay’s offense, and his 12 seasons of experience as an NFL wide receiver give him a solid base of knowledge to coach the position.
McVay’s full staff features assistant head coach Kliff Kingsbury, offensive coordinator Nate Scheelhaase, quarterbacks coach/associate coordinator Dave Ragone, wide receivers coach Rob Calabrese, offensive line coach Ryan Wendell, tight ends coach Scott Huff, senior offensive assistant/wide receivers coach Eric Yarber, running backs coach Ron Gould, assistant offensive line coach Zak Kromer, assistant offensive line coach Brian Allen, senior offensive assistant Brian Johnson, defensive coordinator Chris Shula, run game coordinator/defensive line coach Giff Smith, inside linebackers coach Greg Williams, pass game coordinator/defensive backs coach Jimmy Lake, safeties coach Chris Beake, outside linebackers coach Joe Coniglio, pass rush coordinator Drew Wilkins, assistant defensive backs coach Michael Hunter, defensive assistant Robert Wright, special teams coordinator Bubba Ventrone, assistant special teams coach Kyle Hoke and game management coordinator/assistant tight ends coach Dan Shamash.
The Rams and Chargers won’t have company at SoFi Stadium in 2026.
Via Ben Bolch of the California Post, UCLA football will play at the Rose Bowl next season.
The announcement from the school comes only days after the dismissal of Stephen Agostini, who had served as the UCLA vice chancellor and chief financial officer. Agostini strongly supported a move to SoFi Stadium.
UCLA and the powers-that-be in Pasadena will continue their legal battle regarding the possibility of UCLA breaking a lease that runs through 2043. Kroenke Sports & Entertainment and SoFi Stadium have been added to the litigation.
In 2025, UCLA drew a record low 37,282 per game to the Rose Bowl.
Whether UCLA stays at the Rose Bowl beyond 2026 remains to be seen. Due to the upcoming Olympics in L.A., both UCLA and USC could be joining the Rams and Chargers at SoFi Stadium for the 2028 season.
After the Week 16 Thursday night overtime thriller between the Rams and Seahawks, L.A. coach Sean McVay was apoplectic about the manner in which replay review changed an incomplete pass into a successful two-point conversion.
The Rams plan to try to do something about it.
Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports reports that the Rams plan to propose a rule change that would make the outcome of the play in question an unsuccessful two-point try.
No details have been provided as to what the change would be.
The play was fueled by the fluke deflection of a backward pass that caused it to go forward. And because it was a backward pass and not a fumble, it could be recovered beyond the spot of the backward pass by someone other than the person who threw it.
One possibility would entail applying the fumble rules to a backward pass that is touched by a member of the defense or, even more specifically, one that is touched by a member of the defense and ricochets forward.
Apart from the kooky outcome is the fact that it took 100 seconds to initiate a replay review. As PFT recently reported, a call from Prime Video rules analyst Terry McAulay to NFL rules analyst Walt Anderson sparked the process.
Given the outcome of that game and its impact on the NFC West crown and No. 1 seed in the conference, it was the call of the year. Whether it prompts a rule change remains to be seen.
The fact that it happens so infrequently could be the best argument against a change, with teams continuing to coach players to pick up any loose ball they see. Like Seahawks running back Zach Charbonnet did in that key moment.
The Rams are staying in-house to fill their offensive coordinator vacancy.
Nate Scheelhaase has been promoted to offensive coordinator, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.
Scheelhaase previously had the title of pass-game coordinator, but now he’ll move up to the offensive coordinator job, replacing Mike LaFleur, who became the Cardinals’ head coach.
The Rams are also promoting quarterbacks coach Dave Ragone by giving him a co-offensive coordinator title.
Scheelhaase has impressed with his mind for directing an offense since his college career as a quarterback at Illinois who called plays at the line of scrimmage. He has been on the Rams’ staff the last two years and prior to that was offensive coordinator at Iowa State. He is widely viewed as a future NFL head coach.
Although head coach Sean McVay really runs the Rams’ offense, Scheelhaase will be McVay’s right hand, and after several head-coaching interviews this offseason, the promotion makes Scheelhaase even more likely to get a head-coaching job next offseason.
The Rams have officially brought back one of their pending free agents.
Los Angeles announced on Wednesday that the club has re-signed offensive lineman David Quessenberry.
Quessenberry, 35, appeared in 13 games for L.A. in 2025, playing mostly special teams. He was on the field for 18 total offensive snaps and 73 special teams snaps in his appearances.
A Texas sixth-round pick in the 2013 draft, Quessenberry has appeared in 97 career games with 30 starts for Houston, Tennessee, Buffalo, Minnesota, and L.A.
Wide receiver Robert Woods signed a one-day contract to retire with the Rams, the team announced Tuesday.
“After 27 unforgettable years of putting my heart into this game, and 13 incredible years in the NFL, it’s time to step away from playing the sport that has given me everything,” Woods wrote, in part, in a social media post. “Football has never just been a game to me. It has been my passion, my purpose and my lifelong dream. I cherished every moment my cleats touched the grass. Every time I stepped onto the field, I was determined to leave a piece of myself in every snap.”
The 12-year NFL veteran played for the Rams from 2017-21, appearing in 68 games. He totaled 367 receptions for 4,626 yards and 23 touchdowns. He also started all six postseason appearances with the Rams, making 38 receptions for 410 yards and one touchdown.
In 2018, Woods recorded the first 1,000-yard season of his career, leading the team in receptions (86) and receiving yards (1,219) while also finishing tied for the team lead in receiving touchdowns with six. The following season, he posted another 1,000-yard campaign (1,134), finishing second on the team in receiving. In his final season with the team in 2021, the two-time team captain contributed to the Super Bowl LVI championship roster with 45 receptions for 556 yards and four touchdowns before a season-ending injury.
The Bills selected Woods in the second round in 2013, and he spent the first four seasons of his career in Buffalo. He also spent time with the Titans (2022) and Texans (2023-24). He has totaled 8,233 yards for 38 touchdowns on 683 receptions in his career, along with 75 carries for 514 yards and five touchdowns.
Woods was not on a team during the 2025 regular season after the Steelers cut him in the preseason.
Rams assistant head coach and passing game coordinator Aubrey Pleasant is in consideration for the Raiders’ defensive coordinator position.
Pleasant is interviewing for the Las Vegas job today, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network.
New Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak was the Seahawks’ offensive coordinator last season, and he game planned against the Rams’ defense three times. He apparently was impressed with what he saw and now sees Pleasant as a potential defensive coordinator.
Pleasant played safety at Wisconsin from 2005 to 2008 and then went into coaching. He was an assistant at Michigan and has also had stints in the NFL in Cleveland, Washington, Detroit and Green Bay, usually working as a defensive backs coach. He has spent a total of seven seasons working for the Rams in various capacities as a defensive assistant coach.
The Rams had to watch a division rival celebrate a Super Bowl title last Sunday and the pain of that was made all the worse by how close the Rams came to being the NFC’s representative in the game.
After splitting two games with the Seahawks in the regular season, the Rams had their chance to win the season series and the conference title in Seattle in late January. Edge rusher Jared Verse said on The Pivot podcast that the young defense came into that game feeling that “we’ve got this all sealed” because they felt they had learned from mistakes that contributed to their loss in their previous matchup with Seattle.
The Seahawks hit on a 51-yard pass to wide receiver Rashid Shaheed on their first offensive possession in the NFC title game and Verse said everyone on the unit was “kind of like s---ting the bed” as a result. Verse said that he feels the failure to turn that back around was the reason for the Rams’ loss.
“When we started having trouble, we didn’t know what to do,” Verse said. “Like some of us on the defense, some, you know, I’m going to take full blame, too. Like, there were a couple of times I’m like, but they’re running the other way. Like, I don’t know what to do. I can’t chase. Like I’m not that fast. I can’t chase him on the backside. What do I do? So when we had some troubles, we just kind of like mentally shut down.”
Verse and his teammates will get two more shots at the Seahawks this season and they’ll get a chance to show what they learned from their last experience against their division rivals.
