There are currently two NFL head coaching vacancies.
But there will surely be several more after the regular season concludes in January.
Could a college coach be on the radar for a team in 2026?
Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua believes his program’s head coach, Marcus Freeman, is on the radar for NFL teams. He has reason to, as Freeman is the current betting favorite to land the Giants’ job.
“Everybody has eyes on Marcus,” Bevacqua said this week, via Adam Rittenberg of ESPN. “College has eyes on Marcus, NFL has eyes on Marcus. I bet Hollywood has eyes on Marcus.
“He’s the absolute best coach in the country for Notre Dame, full stop, one of the greatest college coaches in the country.”
Freeman, 39, has been Notre Dame’s head coach since Brian Kelly departed the program for LSU late in 2021. He had just been hired earlier in the year as the team’s defensive coordinator/linebackers coach after spending 2017-2020 as Cincinnati’s defensive coordinator/linebackers coach.
He’s accumulated a 43-12 record with the program, coaching the Fighting Irish to the CFP National Championship Game to cap the 2024 season. Notre Dame lost to Freeman’s Alma Mater, Ohio State, where he’d played linebacker from 2004-2008.
While Freeman has never coached at the NFL level, he briefly spent time with the Bears, Bills, and Texans before retiring due to a medical condition.
But with NFL teams potentially circling South Bend, Bevacqua wants to ensure Freeman doesn’t feel tempted to leave the job he has by making sure the coach feels valued.
“I can say with 100 percent certainty he feels that way, and Notre Dame is totally aligned around the importance of college football for Notre Dame,” Bevacqua said. “I make sure that he knows that he will be where he deserves to be, and that is at the top, top, top tier of college football coaches when it comes to compensation every year.”
We’ll see if there’s more smoke around Freeman as a potential candidate when the NFL’s regular season ends in January.
Giants Clips
The Giants are opening the 21-day practice window for a pair of defensive players as they return from injured reserve.
New York has designated linebacker Darius Muasau and cornerback Art Green for return, interim head coach Mike Kafka told reporters in his Tuesday press conference.
Muasau, a sixth-round pick in 2024, has been sidelined by an ankle injury. He has appeared in eight games with seven starts so far in 2025, recording 32 total tackles with one sack.
Green has also appeared in eight games for the Giants in 2025, playing exclusively on special teams. He has recorded six total tackles this season.
Giants tight end Theo Johnson’s reaction to Patriots linebacker Christian Elliss’ legal hit on Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart landed him a penalty last Monday night and it also landed him more discipline from the league.
Johnson has been fined for $6,488 for his reaction to Elliss hitting Dart in bounds at the end of a run. Elliss was not fined for the hit or for one that dislodged a piece of punt returner Gunner Olszewski’s helmet later in the game.
While Elliss wasn’t fined, Patriots defensive back Jaylinn Hawkins did earn one. He was fined $9,944 for a hit on Johnson when he was deemed a defenseless player. Hawkins was also penalized during the game.
Giants cornerback Dru Phillips was also fined by the league for the same infraction. He was docked $7,292 for a play that went unflagged in the game.
The Giants fired assistant defensive line coach Bryan Cox, Pat Leonard of the New York Daily News reports.
Cox’s bio is no longer on the team’s website.
Defensive line coach Andre Patterson is still on staff.
Cox joined the team’s staff in 2022 after three seasons as the Falcons defensive line coach.
He has also coached for the Bucs (2012-13), Dolphins (2011), Browns (2009-10) and Jets (2006-08).
Cox played in the NFL for 12 seasons before his second career as a coach.
Jameis Winston and Russell Wilson are teammates. On Sunday, they’ll be working as mutual enemies.
Winston will appear on the Fox pregame shows. Wilson will spend the day with CBS.
Neither is playing that day, since the Giants are off. Neither would be playing that day, if the Giants were on. (Unless, of course, starter Jaxson Dart had gotten injured. Which is a more than hypothetical possibility, given his style of play.)
For Winston, the No. 2 quarterback with the Giants, it’s a renewal of his star turn with Fox during Super Bowl week in New Orleans. For Wilson, the No. 3 quarterback, the invitation comes six days after the first healthy scratch of his 13-year career.
If both are angling for a post-career broadcasting job, Wilson likely will get a head start. Chances are that, unless he’s willing to receive the minimum or close to it and to hold a proverbial clipboard far more often than not, there won’t be a roster spot in 2026. Winston, in contrast, remains a viable option — and could eventually be traded to a team that wants a veteran starter, with possibilities including the Vikings.
At Fox, our guess is that they’ll have Winston do a raucous and entertaining pregame speech for the on-air crew at the outset of the show. At CBS, maybe they’ll have Wilson come up with a two-word slogan.
Or maybe four.
“Let’s murder . . . she wrote.”
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.
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.
