The last roster transaction before Super Bowl LX is official, as the Patriots have elevated two practice squad players to the active roster.
Patriots running back and kickoff returner D’Ernest Johnson and defensive end Leonard Taylor III have been activated for Sunday against the Seahawks.
Johnson has played in all three of the Patriots’ playoff games, exclusively on special teams, where he has four kickoff returns for 106 yards.
Taylor has also played in all three playoff games after playing three games in the regular season.
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The Seahawks are bringing in reinforcements at running back for Super Bowl LX.
Two running backs on Seattle’s practice squad, Cam Akers and Velus Jones Jr., were elevated to the active roster for Sunday against the Patriots.
With running back Zach Charbonnet out because of a knee injury, Seattle wants to make sure it has plenty of options to run the ball on Sunday. Kenneth Walker III will start at running back and George Holani will be Walker’s backup.
Akers hasn’t carried the ball a single time for the Seahawks this season, but he does have Super Bowl experience, having played for the Rams when they beat the Bengals in the Super Bowl after the 2021 season.
Jones was most recently active for the Seahawks in their divisional round win over the 49ers, carrying six times for 10 yards.
Fans who waited until the last minute to buy their Super Bowl tickets are finding some bargain-basement prices — at least by Super Bowl standards.
Ticket sites are now listing cheap seats for less than $4,000, which is a lot of money for most sporting events but represents a significant drop over the last two weeks.
Thirteen days ago, when the Patriots and Seahawks won their conference championship games to earn their spots in the Super Bowl, the cheapest seats available were about $6,500.
According to TicketData.com, tickets to the Super Bowl are now less than tickets to last month’s College Football National Championship Game.
Tom Brady may be changing his tune about having no dog in the fight between the Patriots and Seahawks at Super Bowl LX.
Brady, who won six Super Bowls with the Patriots and one with the Buccaneers, said this week that he had no rooting interest because he’s no longer with the Patriots. But Brady posted an Instagram story on Friday with a picture of himself and Patriots owner Robert Kenneth Kraft in which he said he wants Kraft to get another ring to match the seven that Brady has.
“You know I got your back RKK,” Brady wrote. “Get that 7th ring so we can match.”
Brady took plenty of criticism, including from former Patriots teammates, for his comment that he wasn’t going to be a Patriots fan while watching the Super Bowl. Perhaps his Instagram post is an attempt at softening that criticism, as the Patriots attempt to win their first Super Bowl without Brady.
The Associated Press informed the 50 voters for the various NFL awards that, after the announcement of the winners, the ballots would be disclosed. The AP ultimately chose not to do it.
We asked the AP about the decision to refrain from revealing the ballots.
“We’ve given out the AP NFL Awards for many years, and sometimes we try new approaches,” AP director of media and corporate communications Patrick Maks said via email to PFT. “For example, last year for the first time we released individual voter ballots. This year for the first time we worked with a third party to tabulate votes. As ever, there are no restrictions on voters revealing their individual ballots after the awards are announced, if they choose to do so.”
Last year, the ballots were disclosed even though the voters were not informed in advance that it would happen.
The AP also did not release the full tabulation of points for the awards, opting to list the top five and, where applicable, any others who received first-place votes.
For 2025, the MVP vote was the closest it had been since Peyton Manning and Steve McNair shared the award in 2023. Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford finished with 24 first-place votes and 366 points. Patriots quarterback Drake Maye secured 23 first-place votes and 361 points.
A first-place vote counts as 10 points, a second-place vote is worth five, a third-place vote equates to three points, a fourth-place vote is worth two points, and a fifth-place vote counts for one.
Two first-place votes went to Bills quarterback Josh Allen, who finished third. One first-place vote went to Chargers quarterback Justin Hebert, who did not finish in the top five.
Sam Monson disclosed (possibly while under the impression that all votes would be revealed by the AP) that he gave Herbert the first-place vote.
Without full disclosure of all ballots, it’s impossible to pinpoint the specific decision(s) that may have swung the final MVP outcome away from Maye and toward Stafford.
Regardless, transparency is good. Last year, the AP applied full transparency. This year, the AP did not. Next year, who knows?
Whether and to what extent the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s selection process changes in the aftermath of the Bill Belichick snub remains to be seen. For now, however, the Hall of Fame will be making a pair of important procedural tweaks.
In a Friday phone conversation with PFT, Hall of Fame President & CEO Jim Porter said the annual selection meeting will happen on an in-person basis in 2027. During the COVID pandemic, the meeting switched to a virtual gathering of voters. It has remained that way.
He also said the selection meeting and final voting will occur closer in time to the announcement of the annual class of Hall of Famers. This year, the meeting and voting were held on January 13.
Porter initially made these disclosures in a Thursday night interview with Josh Dubow of the Associated Press.
Ideally, the annual selection meeting will happen early in Super Bowl week, when most if not all of the voters will already be present in the host city. Then, the new Hall of Famers can be revealed during the NFL Honors ceremony, on Thursday night.
If nothing else, a tighter timeline will limit the opportunity for leaks. Beyond that, the in-person discussion and debate could be more meaningful and efficient than an all-day Zoom call with 50 different voters participating.
Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold is good to go for Super Bowl LX.
Darnold has been dealing with an oblique injury for the last few weeks, but he moved up to full practice participation this week and he has no injury designation for Sunday’s game against the Patriots. That puts Darnold in position to finish a remarkable turnaround from washing out with the Jets after being selected third overall to leading his fifth NFL team to a championship.
Safety Nick Emmanwori is also set to play in the Super Bowl. Emmanwori hurt his ankle in practice on Wednesday and sat out Thursday’s workout, but he was back to full practice participation in the team’s final practice session of the week.
Tackle Josh Jones (ankle, knee) and fullback Robbie Ouzts (neck) were the only limited participants on Friday. Ouzts is listed as questionable and is the only Seahawks player with any kind of injury designation for the final game of the 2025 NFL season.
The Patriots have only three players who carry an injury designation into Super Bowl LX.
Linebacker Robert Spillane (ankle), outside linebacker Harold Landry III (knee) and defensive tackle Joshua Farmer (hamstring) are all officially questionable.
Patriots quarterback Drake Maye is off the injury report and good to go after working through a right shoulder injury in the AFC Championship Game. He was a full participant in all three practices this week.
Maye said earlier this week that his shoulder feels “great.”
Spillane exited the AFC Championship Game two weeks ago with an ankle injury in the first quarter and didn’t return. He sat out every practice until Thursday when he returned to limited work, and he remained a limited participant on Friday.
He said this week he plans on playing, but the question is how effective he will be with his injury.
Landry missed the conference title game after playing only part-time in the first two playoff games. He initially injured his knee in Week 6 and sat out the final two regular-season games to rest his knee.
Landry was limited in practices on Wednesday and Friday. He did not practice on Thursday.
The stunning exclusion of Bill Belichick from the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2026 overshadowed the players who were selected. Belichick would seem a near-certainty to get into the Hall of Fame in 2027, alongside a new crop of players around whom there will be plenty of big debates.
Among the players who will be eligible for Hall of Fame induction for the first time in 2027 are Rob Gronkowski, Adrian Peterson, Ben Roethlisberger, Richard Sherman, Antonio Brown, Cam Newton and Andrew Whitworth.
The three players who were on the final ballot but didn’t get selected for the Hall of Fame this year were Willie Anderson, Terrell Suggs and Marshal Yanda. They’ll go right to the list of finalists in 2027.
The other finalists who weren’t selected this year were Jahri Evans, Frank Gore, Torry Holt, Eli Manning, Reggie Wayne, Kevin Williams, Jason Witten and Darren Woodson. They’ll all get consideration in 2027 as well.
Belichick, Gronkowski and Peterson would seem to be the three candidates with the strongest case in 2027. Then again, Belichick was the candidate with the strongest case in 2026, and he didn’t make it. One way or another, some controversy is likely coming next year.
Former Buccaneers and Raiders coach Jon Gruden’s lawsuit against the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell continues. And, as Gruden sees it, the potential financial damages will be very significant.
In a Case Conference Report filed on Wednesday, February 4, Gruden’s lawyers revealed that his losses “total well over $150,000,000.” The damages flow from, per the Case Conference Report, “loss of his employment, interference with future employment opportunities, loss of contract value, loss of sponsorships, reputational damage, costs, expert fees, and attorney fees incurred as a result of this dispute.”
Gruden filed the lawsuit roughly a month after his forced resignation from the Raiders, following reports from the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times containing emails Gruden had sent and received while employed by ESPN. Those emails had been harvested as part of an investigation regarding the Washington Commanders and former owner Daniel Snyder. Gruden contends that the emails were leaked with the specific goal of prompting the termination of his employment.
The Case Conference Report was prepared following an “early case conference” in which the NFL declined to participate. The league, we’re told, contends that discovery in the case has been stayed pending the appeal of a denial of a motion to dismiss under the Nevada anti-SLAPP statute.
In the Case Conference Report, a copy of which PFT has obtained and reviewed, Gruden’s lawyers list in the form of mandatory disclosures the potential witnesses in the case. They include: Goodell, various attorneys from the Paul Weiss law firm, former NFL general counsel Jeff Pash, chief NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy, Snyder, former Raiders general counsel Dan Ventrelle, Raiders owner Mark Davis, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, Patriots owner Robert Kraft, attorney Beth Wilkinson, various attorneys from the Reed Smith firm, Desiree Perez of Roc Nation, former NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith, and Gruden.
The Case Conference Report does not expressly indicate that any, some, or all of these individuals listed will be deposed by Gruden’s lawyers, and it does not mention any current attempts to compel their deposition testimony.
The Case Conference Report lists several specific NFL teams that have potentially relevant information: the Commanders, Raiders, Cowboys, Patriots, Seahawks, Giants, Jets, and Dolphins. It does not identify any of the reporters from the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times.
In a separate portion of the Case Conference Report, Gruden’s lawyers list various documents that they contend the NFL should disclose “immediately.” The documents include all 650,000 documents generated during Wilkinson’s investigation of the Commanders and a so-called “‘Blackmail Powerpoint’ presented by Daniel Snyder and/or Reed Smith to the NFL Defendants, containing communications by Roger Goodell and Jeff Pash.”
The Case Conference Report also states that no settlement discussions have occurred.
It remains unclear whether the NFL has filed, or plans to file, a petition for appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the question of whether Gruden should be required to pursue his claims through arbitration controlled by the NFL.
The case has been pending for more than four years, due mainly to the preliminary skirmishes regarding the arbitration question. At some point, depositions will occur and documents will be obtained — unless the case is dismissed or settled.
