The Packers had an opening in their defensive line group in the wake of Devonte Wyatt’s season-ending ankle injury and they filled it on Wednesday.
According to multiple reports, they have signed Jordon Riley off of the Giants’ practice squad. Riley was on the practice field with his new teammates as they began their on-field work ahead of Sunday’s game against the Bears.
Riley was a 2023 seventh-round pick for the Giants and played in 21 games during his first two seasons with the team. He started five times in 2024 and ended his Giants run with 20 tackles.
Colby Wooden, Warren Brinson, Karl Brooks, and Nazir Stackhouse are the other interior defensive linemen in Green Bay.
Giants Clips
What was supposed to be the slow time from late June through late July was anything but, thanks to an unexpected collaboration with Pablo Torre. And the fuse we lit together in the days preceding July 4 is making its final push toward either an impressive display of fireworks — or another dud.
Per multiple sources, a decision on the appeal of the collusion ruling that both the NFL and the NFL Players Association hid for multiple months is coming.
The hearing before the three-judge panel happened roughly two weeks ago, we’re told. The decision is expected sooner than later, we’re told.
The case was sparked by the five-year, $230 million, fully-guaranteed contract that the Browns gave to quarterback Deshaun Watson in March 2022. As originally framed, the grievance focused on the refusal of the Ravens, Cardinals, and Broncos to give fully-guaranteed deals to Lamar Jackson, Kyler Murray, and Russell Wilson, respectively.
The arbitrator found that the NFL urged teams to curtail fully-guaranteed contracts, but that the teams didn’t heed the directive. It was, in my opinion, a failure by the arbitrator to properly review, process, and analyze the circumstantial evidence, accepting predictable denials while ignoring common sense.
Along the way, the case was expanded to include all veterans who signed contracts during the relevant window. If the NFLPA prevails as to all players who were allegedly affected by the collusion, the financial consequences could be crippling for the league.
The reporting that first emerged in an episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out exposed the existence of the hidden ruling, raising pointed questions about the union’s failure to weaponize the portion of the ruling that essentially caught the NFL with both hands buried in the collusion cookie jar. And it became the first domino that resulted in aggressive scrutiny of the NFLPA, culminating in the resignations of NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell and NFLPA chief strategy officer JC Tretter.
After the collusion ruling came to light, the NFLPA appealed the decision. That process has played out quietly, with no reporting as to the arguments made, either in writing or during the hearing.
When a decision is announced, we’ll possibly be back to where we were in January, when the initial ruling was issued. Will the NFL or the NFLPA release the document? Or will they once again hide it? Will the media collectively shrug at the situation (as it did for months), or will it aggressively seek to obtain the decision, to study its terms, and to analyze its implications?
The vast majority of the “journalism” that happens in sports media consists of being spoon fed by the team or an agent the specifics of a transaction that often is announced only minutes after multiple reporters engage in a race to be the first to tweet the “news.” When the parties are committed to secrecy, the game changes. Most don’t even try to find out the things they don’t want us to know.
They didn’t want us to know about the initial collusion ruling. They may not want us to know about the appeal decision. One thing I know is that Torre won’t let it go, and that there will likely be another PTFO collaboration once we get our eyes on the thing they may hope no one ever sees.
The Giants waived linebacker Tomon Fox from their 53-player roster on Tuesday, the team announced.
The team signed Fox to the active roster on Monday ahead of the game against the Patriots. He played eight defensive snaps and 16 on special teams and totaled one tackle.
Fox has appeared in five games and made one start this season. He has three tackles this season and 42 tackles and two sacks in 33 career games.
He is in his fourth season with the Giants.
Some great teams tend to play with their food. On Monday night, the Patriots devoured everything on their plate.
It was obvious from the get-go. The Patriots were hitting hard last night. Early, often, and consistently.
Perhaps it was a reaction to the failure to deliver a knockout blow to the Bengals eight days earlier. Perhaps it was a product of coach Mike Vrabel ensuring that the Pats didn’t miss a beat during the inherent distractions of Thanksgiving week. Perhaps it flowed from an intense desire to not coast into the bye week. Perhaps it was an the first step in a deliberate effort to leave little doubt as the Patriots chase down the AFC East crown and the No. 1 seed in the AFC.
Whatever the reason(s), it’s clear that Vrabel poked, prodded, and pestered his players to bring the heat for a prime-time audience. With nine wins in a row entering the game, last night wasn’t the time to let the foot slip off the accelerator.
Instead, they punched it. Figuratively and literally.
The message to the rest of the league, as the Patriots get 13 days to host the Bills before visiting the Ravens, was unmistakable. At a time when many teams are fighting their way through a long, up-and-down slog, the Patriots are throwing haymakers. If they can keep it up, it will make a major difference.
It also could deliver the team’s first postseason win since 2018. And more.
When the Giants fired head coach Brian Daboll last month, they announced that General Manager Joe Schoen will lead the search for Daboll’s replacement.
Daboll and Schoen were both hired in 2022, which made the decision to fire one and not the other a major topic of conversation at Schoen’s bye week press conference on Tuesday. Schoen said “my hand’s in it just like Brian’s is” in regard to the team’s dismal record since their arrival, but that it was an ownership decision and that he will “control what I can control.”
Schoen said that he thinks he’s better at the job today than he was when he joined the team and acknowledged that “the chances of me batting a thousand” in terms of his moves is long gone. He said that he’s learned from what’s gone wrong and is “not going to make the same mistake twice” while noting the presence of players like Jaxson Dart, Malik Nabers, Brian Burns, Andrew Thomas and others as signs that they’ve gotten some things right as well.
He cited those things as basis for his belief that he can take the team where it wants to go in the future.
“There’s pieces in place,” Schoen said. “I do have confidence in our ability and our process to find the next coach to lead the organization. I do believe in that process. I know we’re going to get it right.”
Schoen’s track record has created plenty of doubts about whether that’s the case, but it looks like Schoen is going to get an opportunity to prove them wrong in 2026 and beyond.
Giants General Manager Joe Schoen spent the third overall pick in the 2025 NFL draft on Abdul Carter, a pass rusher who to this point in his career has more benchings than sacks. But Schoen says he remains confident that the Giants picked the right player.
Schoen says Carter still needs to learn more about conducting himself as a professional, but he noted that Carter is young (he turned 22 in October) and will grow and mature.
“Abdul is a young man that’s 21 years old that’s smart and understands the magnitude of his actions and also understands what it means to be a pro,” Schoen said. “These kids are 21 years old and thrust into the spotlight in New York City. It’s not always going to be perfect. People make mistakes. Nobody’s perfect. Part of our job is to develop them as football players, but also as people. We will continue to do that with everybody in our organization.”
Giants interim head coach Mike Kafka has benched Carter for the start of two of the last three games for disciplinary reasons. Schoen said Kafka makes the player discipline decisions and the franchise supports the head coach doing that.
“I support him with that decision and I’ll just leave it at that,” Schoen said.
But Schoen also supports his own decision to draft Carter, even as a disappointing season winds down.
Midway through the first quarter of Monday night’s matchup between the Giants and Patriots, New England linebacker Christian Elliss put a hard, legal hit on Jaxson Dart as the quarterback was headed toward the sideline to cap a scramble.
While a scuffle broke out, only tight end Theo Johnson was flagged for the play for unnecessary roughness after taking exception to how hard Dart got rocked.
Elliss noted after the game that he was just doing his job — which is true.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday as the Giants begin their Week 14 bye, Dart shared his own view of the play after watching it on film.
“It was a good hit — good hit,” Dart said, via SNY. “I appreciate my guys having my back. That’s just something that I know they’d do for me, and I’d do the same for them.”
In his postgame press conference, Dart said he’s not playing soccer and he’s going to continue to approach his job with physicality. He reiterated that stance when asked about the fine line between taking care of himself and trying to make a play.
“There’s a time and place for things,” Dart said. “I mean, I watch quarterbacks who play kind of like me around the league. I wish how Josh Allen plays, I watch how Patrick Mahomes plays. They take hits, too, so I’m not an anomaly here.”
When Dart says there’s a time and place for aggressiveness, he’s right. But as he continues to gain experience in the league, Dart must do a better job of knowing when to hold ‘em, and knowing when to fold ‘em if he’s going to stay healthy and available for his team.
A fight started on Monday night after Patriots linebacker Christian Elliss drilled Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart near the sideline. Ellis said after the game that he was surprised by how the Giants reacted.
Ellis’s hit was hard, but it was clean and legal. Giants tight end Theo Johnson took exception to the hit and laid his own hit on Ellis, which led to a fight breaking out. In the end, Johnson was the only player who got a penalty for the altercation, and Ellis said after the game that there was nothing he would have done differently.
“I saw the scramble, I started chasing him down. He started tiptoeing on the sideline. I thought he was just going to go out of bounds, but then I saw him tiptoeing,” Ellis said. “So I was like, He’s staying in bounds — what am I supposed to do? We play hard on defense. We try to bring life to this team. I was just doing my job and hit anything in the whites.”
Ellis is right and Johnson was wrong. If Dart doesn’t want to take hard hits, then Dart needs to get out of bounds before the defense can get to him. Ellis hit Dart in bounds and was just doing his job.
The NFL will head into the final five weeks of the regular season with the fewest number of teams still in playoff contention since at least the 2002 season.
The Giants, who fell to 2-11 on Monday night, became the first team eliminated from postseason consideration in Week 12 and four teams joined them in Week 13. The 1-11 Titans, 2-10 Raiders, 2-10 Saints, and 3-9 Cardinals are also set to start making their plans for the 2026 season.
Per NBC Sports research, that is the most teams out at this point in the season since the divisional realignment that took place ahead of the 2002 season.
While all of those teams are out of the running, no teams have clinched a playoff spot at this point.
A handful of other teams should be joining that quintet soon. The 3-9 Jets, 3-9 Browns, 3-9 Commanders, 4-8 Falcons, and 4-8 Vikings are going to a lot of things to break in their favor to keep the playoff fires burning much longer.
The Commanders and Vikings play this week and the loser will have no remaining path to the playoffs. The Commanders will also be out if they win and the Eagles win while the Jets, Browns and Falcons are all out with a loss this week.
Whether quarterback Russell Wilson gets a bronze bust in Canton remains to be seen, starting five years after he retires from football. On Monday night, Wilson picked up an item that few if any Hall of Fame players ever have on their permanent NFL records.
Via Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post, Wilson was a healthy scratch for the first time in his 13-year career.
It was also his first NFL game after his 37th birthday.
Wilson had missed time due to injury, while in Seattle. In 2023, Wilson was benched by the Broncos in an effort to avoid the vesting of millions in 2025 compensation.
But he wasn’t made inactive. And when Jameis Winston leapfrogged Wilson as the No. 2 quarterback, Wilson continued to be on the active game-day roster.
Last night, Wilson was inactive — with the emergency quarterback designation.
Wilson has consistently said he won’t ask to be released in the hopes of finding an opportunity to play elsewhere. It’s unclear whether the Giants would do it, given Dart’s propensity to take big hits.
It’s also unclear Wilson will have any suitors when he becomes a free agent in March.
Regardless, those who will oppose Wilson’s Hall of Fame candidacy have a clear, objective fact that can be brought to the table during any debate about whether he’s worthy of a spot in Canton. For at least one night (and possibly for the rest of the season), Wilson was deemed to be not worthy of a spot on the game-day active roster for a team that is currently among the worst in the NFL.
