Defensive end Myles Garrett and quarterback Mason Rudolph became forever linked in NFL lore on the night of November 14, 2019, when Garrett ripped away Rudolph’s helmet and struck him over the head with it.
Rudolph, who is still with the Steelers after a one-year break with the Titans, explains that he, and his team, are happy that Garrett has been traded out of the division, from Cleveland to the Rams.
Via Steelers Depot, Rudolph said this in an appearance on teammate Cam Heyward’s Not Just Football podcast: “As a Pittsburgh Steeler, I’m thrilled that he is no longer in the AFC North. I think [coach] Mike McCarthy’s fired up about that, I think [offensive coordinator] Brian Angelichio is fired up about that. I know our tackles are fired up about that. . . . And the top of my frontal lobe, yes.”
If the season goes as planned, Rudolph wouldn’t have been on the field at the same time as Garrett. And Pittsburgh won’t see Garrett at all in 2026, unless both teams make it to the Super Bowl.
That destination is far more likely for one team than it is for the other.
Rams Clips
49ers defensive end Nick Bosa returned to practice today, and afterward he said he thinks he’ll be good to go for next week’s regular-season opener against the Rams in Australia.
Bosa said he felt great on the practice field and feels confident that he should be out there for Week One.
“Today was a great day,” Bosa said.
Bosa, who suffered a torn ACL last season and was dealing with pain in his injured knee over the summer, said recovery has been hard but he felt good on the practice field.
“It was a long road. There was some stuff I dealt with, with the patellar tendon, and I kind of ramped it up a little too fast with the football a month ago, and they told me to back off, so I’ve just been trying to get as strong and confident as I can,” Bosa said.
When healthy, Bosa has been one of the best defensive ends in the NFL. A healthy Bosa could give the 49ers’ defense a huge boost against the Rams next Thursday night.
A report on Wednesday morning brought good news about 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa’s outlook for playing in Week 1 and the afternoon brought more good news.
Video from the team’s final practice before they head to Australia to continue preparing for their September 10 game against the Rams shows Bosa on the field with the team. The report earlier in the day said that Bosa will travel with the team to Melbourne.
Bosa is returning from last season’s torn ACL and missed most of training camp after developing tendinitis during his rehab. General Manager John Lynch said on Tuesday that the time off “got everything to where it was feeling better” and the return to practice is another sign that Bosa is on the right track.
Tight end George Kittle is also expected to travel with the 49ers and having both in the lineup would be a welcome development after months of uncertainty about their status.
With 11 captains on the Rams, the Chargers had a chance to one-up them.
In a perfect metaphor for the L.A. rivalry, they came up short to their landlords at SoFi Stadium.
The Chargers have a mere 10 team captains for 2026. They are, based on the order they appear on the graphic the Chargers posted: linebacker Daiyan Henley, linebacker Tuli Tuipulotu, tackle Joe Alt, quarterback Justin Herbert, cornerback Elijah Molden, receiver Ladd McConkey, safety Derwin James Jr., linebacker Khalil Mack, tackle Rashawn Slater, and long snapper Josh Harris.
Unlike the Rams, which seemed to pick a captain from each position group, the Chargers have two tackles and three linebackers. They have five on defense, four on offense, and one on special teams.
It should be three. Offense, defense, special teams. One for each primary component of the team.
But each team has to make its own decision. If it wants to dilute the honor by taking a participation-trophy approach to handing out the “C” patches, so be it.
Still, the first team that goes with three will receive high praise from this tiny corner of the media ecosystem. Which probably means none will.
49ers tight end George Kittle’s chances of playing in Week 1 are going up.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that Kittle will travel to Australia with the team ahead of their matchup with the Rams in Melbourne. Kittle has practiced the last two days and, per the report, is trending in the right direction to play.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan said earlier this week that he’d prefer not to take Kittle to Australia if it looked like he would not be ready to play on the Achilles he tore in January. Making the trip doesn’t guarantee he’ll be in the lineup, but it is certainly a good sign.
Rapoport reports that defensive end Nick Bosa will also travel with the team on Wednesday. Bosa did not practice for much of training camp as he recovers from a torn ACL, but General Manager John Lynch said on Tuesday that he’ll be ramping up his work with an eye toward playing in the opener.
Stan Kroenke now has covered all bases when it comes to sports ownership, by buying a team that literally covers bases.
Via Sam Farmer of the L.A. Times, Kroenke has bought the Los Angeles Angels of Major League Baseball.
Kroenke also owns the NFL’s Rams, the NBA’s Denver Nuggets, the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche, the MLS’s Colorado Rapids, and Arsenal of the Premier League.
The purchase price for the latest transaction was not announced. (Via Bill Shaikin of the Times, it’s a record price — north of the $3.9 billion recently paid for the Padres.)
“The Angels are a storied franchise anchored in a great market,” Kroenke said in a statement. “We look forward to an exciting future with the Angels organization.”
Kroenke has acquired the Angels from Arte Moreno, who owned the team for more than 20 years. The Angels are in the midst of an 11-year playoff drought, which likely will extend to 12 in 2026.
Six months ago, Trent McDuffie was on the Chiefs, Myles Garrett was on the Browns and Aaron Donald was retired. Now they’re three key members of the Rams’ defense.
McDuffie was traded to the Rams in March, Garrett was traded to the Rams a couple months later, and Donald just came out of retirement. McDuffie told Andrew Siciliano of NFL Media that he wouldn’t believed it was possible for Rams General Manager Les Snead and head coach Sean McVay to bring all three of them onto the same team.
“I probably would’ve said you’re lying, for real,” McDuffie said. “There’s no way you can get me. There’s no way you can get Myles. There’s no way you can get A.D. But, hey, hat off to Les. Hat off to Sean. Those guys are masterminds and they did it.”
The 25-year-old McDuffie has already been a first-team All-Pro once and won Super Bowl rings twice in his first four NFL seasons -- and he’s the least accomplished of the trio: Garrett has been named the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year two of the last three years, while Donald is one of only three players in NFL history to win Defensive Player of the Year three times. Most teams don’t add even one player with those kinds of credentials to their defense in an offseason. The Rams added three. McDuffie is still having a hard time believing it’s real.
Aaron Donald officially came out of retirement and practiced with the Rams on Sunday, but the three-time defensive player of the year was not on the field with the team on Monday.
Rams head coach Sean McVay said that Donald’s absence had nothing to do with anything that happened during his first practice with the team. McVay said it was “part of the plan all along” for the defensive tackle and that the team will see where that plan takes them as they move toward their Week 1 game against the 49ers in Melbourne.
“I wouldn’t rule anything out yet,” McVay said, via the team’s website. “Sometimes when you put unnecessary parameters or guidelines on something, you can skew things. But what I think what’s really good for us is if he’s able to go, great, if not, that’s kind of how we’ve been operating as is, and guys have done an excellent job of being able to do some really cool stuff in the meantime. So, if he’s not ready, and that’s not what’s best for him and for the team, (we) absolutely wouldn’t have him play in Australia.”
Donald’s participation as well as that of defensive end Myles Garrett will continue to be closely monitored as the football world waits to find out when we’ll see the duo on the field at the same time.
Every team in the league is in the process of calling players to ask them to join the practice squad, but the Rams and 49ers have another question: “Do you have a passport?”
Because the Rams and 49ers will open the season in Australia, those teams need to know that any new additions to the team will be able to get into a foreign country. Players who have been with the teams all offseason have been preparing for international travel, but 49ers General Manager John Lynch says making sure new additions to the team can get into Australia is a logistical challenge.
“We’re bringing practice squads from the outside. I’ve never asked a potential practice squad, ‘Do you have a passport?’ Those are questions we have to ask now,” Lynch said. “One guy who’s coming into town, his parents are next daying it, because it was at the house. So there’s a lot of little logistics like that that are complicated by this, but we’re embracing it, we’re having a plan for everything, and we’re getting it done.”
Lynch said the 49ers’ staff behind the scenes has had to work overtime to get the team ready for the longest road trip in NFL history.
“There’s a lot, and I think it’s an opportune time to give a shout out to our staff,” Lynch said. “Everything from getting visas, which is much more complicated than I knew, they’ve been outstanding. They’ve worked in conjunction with the league but most of the work has been done on our part and hats off to those guys for pulling off a monumental task, and it’s not done yet. There’s a lot.”
If Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald is ready to go following a two-year retirement, he’ll play against the 49ers in Australia next week. 49ers General Manager John Lynch says that just makes the rivalry more intense.
Lynch has long subscribed to a philosophy he attributes to legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden: “Don’t lose sleep over what other teams are doing; let them lose sleep over what you’re doing.” Lynch was asked if he still feels that way when it comes to Donald returning to the Rams.
“The guy’s different,” Lynch said of Donald. “He’s an exceptional player. One of the greats. I do subscribe to that. I think we’re pretty good, too. They got better, certainly, with him deciding to come out of retirement.”
Lynch said he believes Donald will arrive in top shape.
“There’s time away, but I know that guy trains like a madman,” Lynch said. “I ran into him in a hotel somewhere a while back and we had some fun chatter back and forth. Never thought he’d do it, but he’s doing it, so we better get ready for it.”
The Rams have not said whether Donald will be active for Week One, but the 49ers are preparing as if they’re going to face the three-time defensive player of the year in his first game in two and a half years.
