Russell Wilson has made it official.
In a social-media video posted on Wednesday, Wilson announced his retirement from the NFL and confirmed that he will be working for CBS, on The NFL Today.
A third-round pick in 2012, Wilson won the starting job as a rookie, beating out free-agent arrival Matt Flynn.
Wilson made it to the Pro Bowl nine times in 10 seasons with the Seahawks. Traded to the Broncos in 2022, he had two seasons in Denver, one in Pittsburgh, and one with the Giants.
The Jets had interest in adding Wilson as a backup to Geno Smith, who once backed up Wilson in Seattle. Ultimately, Wilson chose TV over continuing to play.
In the years to come, Wilson’s Hall of Fame candidacy will be debated. Former Patriots defensive back Devin McCourty said on Tuesday’s PFT Live that Wilson was in the second tier of NFL quarterbacks during McCourty’s career, which largely overlapped with Wilson’s.
Still, Wilson had a strong run in the NFL. He defied his size, won a Super Bowl, and was the highest-paid player in the NFL, twice.
Giants Clips
Odell Beckham Jr.'s return captured the most headlines, but he was only one of three wide receivers that the Giants signed this week.
Braxton Berrios and JuJu Smith-Schuster also joined the team and the decision to bring in the trio of wideouts was the subject of questions for head coach John Harbaugh at a Wednesday press conference. The Giants lost Gunner Olszewski to a torn Achilles in practice last week and Harbaugh called that “a catalyst,” but said that Malik Nabers’s ongoing recovery from last season’s torn ACL was not part of the equation.
“No, I’d say it’s separate from that. Nothing to do with that,” Harbaugh said, via a transcript from the team. “There’s room enough for Malik and whoever the next four or five receivers are. There’s room enough for all those guys.”
Darius Slayton, Calvin Austin, Darnell Mooney, Isaiah Hodgins, Jalin Hyatt, and third-round pick Malachi Fields are also in the mix at receiver for the Giants, so there won’t be room for all of them when it comes time for the Giants to make decisions about their 53-man roster. That should make for a very competitive first training camp under Harbaugh this summer.
Wide receiver Odell Beckham practiced with the Giants on Wednesday and said it has been “surreal” to return to the team after leaving for the Browns in a trade ahead of the 2019 season.
Beckham spent five seasons with the Giants as their top wideout and won a Super Bowl with the Rams after the 2021 season, but tore his ACL in that game and struggled to find his previous level of play while in brief stints with the Ravens and Dolphins. He sat out the 2025 season and told reporters on Wednesday that “taking a step away from the game was what was best for me” because he felt playing had become “detrimental” to him.
Over time, though, the manner of his departure became “unsettling in my soul” and he felt he wanted another opportunity to show that he can still perform at a high level. Beckham also said that he knows he’s not guaranteed anything beyond that opportunity.
“I came here to earn it. Just work hard every day and be the best I can for the team,” Beckham said, via SNY.
Beckham said that Giants head coach John Harbaugh told him he didn’t want “to bring you here and then have to cut you.” Beckham said he replied that he’ll be “going out on my sword either way it goes” because he will be able to live with that better than he’d be able to live with not knowing how his comeback attempt will play out.
The signing of Falcons receiver Drake London nearly closes the books on the top-10 picks from the 2022 draft. And it’s not a happy ending for the New York Giants.
Of the first 10 players picked in 2022, seven of them have earned extensions. Three have not. Two were picked by the Giants.
Defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux (fifth overall) is in his option year with no expectation of an extension. Offensive lineman Evan Neal (seventh overall) became a free agent in 2026 and re-signed for the one-year minimum.
Most other players taken in the top 10 (Travon Walker, Aidan Hutchinson, Derek Stingley Jr., Sauce Gardner, Drake London, Charles Cross, and Garrett Wilson) have their second deals. (Panthers tackle kem Ekwonu is the lone exception.)
In April, the Giants had two top-10 picks again. They picked linebacker Arvell Reese (fifth overall) and tackle Francis Mauigoa (tenth overall). Time will tell whether it turns out better for the Giants this time around.
The Giants cut veteran kicker Jason Sanders on Tuesday. They needed the roster spot to get wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster on the roster.
Sanders’ departure leaves Ben Sauls and rookie Dominic Zvada as the kickers on the roster. Sauls was 8-for-8 on field goals for the Giants in 2025.
Sanders, who missed last season with a hip injury, signed with the Giants on March 10. He will leave a $100,000 dead cap hit for the Giants, with the other $200,000 of the guaranteed money containing offset language.
The Dolphins made Sanders a seventh-round pick in 2018, and in seven seasons in Miami, he made 84.6 percent of his field goals and 96.6 percent of his extra points. Sanders is 33-of-48 from beyond 50 yards with a career-long of 57 yards.
He made first-team All-Pro in 2020.
The Giants added a trio of veteran receivers on Monday, at a very minimal investment.
Via Jordan Raanan of ESPN, Odell Beckham Jr., JuJu Smith-Schuster, and Braxton Berrios each signed one-year contracts for the veteran minimum of $1.3 million.
It makes the situation an extended tryout. It costs the Giants only the 90-man roster spot and the per diem for the offseason program and training camp (if they last that long).
The contracts also show that the Giants don’t expect any of them to be starters or key contributors. They necessarily accepted that by taking the financial terms that were offered.
The overriding question is this — can any of them land high enough on the depth chart to avoid the expectation to play special teams? That raises the stakes for both Beckham and Smith-Schuster; older receivers usually aren’t gunners on the punt team.
For now, the stakes are low for the Giants. They can see what the new receivers will do, in relation to the players on the roster.
And (perhaps as importantly) the Giants can turn the page on the recent non-football dustup that created obvious issues for the locker room and consternation within the fan base.
The Giants made official their signings of wide receivers Odell Beckham and Braxton Berrios, announcing both moves.
In corresponding moves, the Giants placed wide receiver Gunner Olszewski on injured reserve and released long snapper Zach Triner.
Olszewski’s torn Achilles on Friday necessitated the workout of three wide receivers on Monday, and the Giants signed two of them. JuJu Smith-Schuster also worked out for the team, and he also is expected to sign.
The Giants also announced that offensive lineman Jarrod Gray was granted an exemption as an international player.
Triner’s departure leaves Ben Mann as the only long snapper on the roster as the Giants replace Casey Kreiter, who left this offseason.
Triner appeared in only one game last season, long snapping for the Commanders in Week 13 against the Broncos. He played eight snaps.
He was the Bucs’ long snapper for most of the previous six years.
Triner, 35, played 81 games for the Bucs and has played 85 in his career. He was with the Dolphins for three games in 2024.
The Giants found what they were looking for three times over during a wide receiver tryout on Monday.
NFL Media reports that they are signing former Steelers and Chiefs wideout JuJu Smith-Schuster after the workout. The news comes after word that they are also signing Odell Beckham Jr. and Braxton Berrios.
The moves come as the Giants wait for Malik Nabers to return from last season’s torn ACL. Head coach John Harbaugh said last week that it is “impossible to predict” when Nabers will be fully cleared to return to action.
Smith-Schuster had 33 catches for 345 yards and a touchdowns while appearing in all 17 games for Kansas City last season. Matt Nagy was the Chiefs’ offensive coordinator in those contests and he now has the same job on Harbaugh’s staff with the Giants.
Odell Beckham Jr. is coming back to where his NFL career started.
Shortly after multiple reports on Monday said that Beckham will sign with the Giants as a free agent, the Giants announced the agreement. Beckham worked out for the team the second time this offseason earlier in the day.
Beckham was a 2014 first-round pick and was named the offensive rookie of the year after catching 91 passes during his first NFL season. He had 197 catches over the next two seasons, but missed most of 2017 after fracturing his ankle and dropped to 77 catches after signing a contract extension ahead of the 2018 season. He was traded to the Browns the next year and went on to play for the Rams, Ravens, and Dolphins before sitting out all of last season.
Beckham played for first-year Giants head coach John Harbaugh while with Baltimore in 2023, so it will be a dual reunion for the wideout now that he’s back with the NFC East club.
The Giants are also signing wide receiver Braxton Berrios after a Monday workout.
Russell Wilson is staying in New York. But he won’t be playing for the Jets.
Via Adam Schefter of ESPN, Wilson is “finalizing a deal” to become an analyst with CBS.
Wilson will be joining The NFL Today, which currently features James Brown, Nate Burleson, and Bill Cowher. A seat opened when Matt Ryan left to become the Falcons’ president of football.
The Jets were considering Wilson as a veteran backup to Geno Smith, who once was Wilson’s backup in Seattle. Wilson has said he had an offer from the Jets.
It’s rare for any quarterback who was once the highest-paid player in the league to happily accept the second spot on a depth chart. (Joe Flacco is the one of the most significant exceptions.) Wilson was the Giants’ starter when he signed there in 2025, and he was the Steelers’ starter when he signed there in 2024. His days as a starter are and were over.
As to the biggest TV opportunities, those seats don’t always pop open. With Ryan exiting, there was a current opportunity for Wilson. If he didn’t take it now, it may not have been there in a year.
Wilson, a third-round pick out of Wisconsin, started for the Seahawks from 2012 through 2021. He was traded to the Broncos in 2022.
A Super Bowl winner and a 10-time Pro Bowler, Wilson was never a first-team All-Pro or a serious MVP candidate. At 16th on the all-time passing yardage list and 12th on the all-time passing touchdown list, he’ll have a somewhat challenging case to get to Canton.
That’s where a great career in TV can make a difference. Yes, the debate will be about his playing career. And, yes, his case will get stronger if he becomes a successful and enduring presence in NFL broadcast universe.
