The United Football League is struggling to get much attention this spring, but an unusual ruling on the final play of Friday night's game has football fans talking.

The game was awarded to the Orlando Storm, 29-27 over the Louisville Knights, when Louisville committed a penalty on Orlando’s overtime two-point conversion attempt.

In the NFL, a penalty on the defense on a two-point conversion attempt would result in the ball being moved half the distance to the goal line and another attempt being granted. But UFL overtime has different rules.

Orlando and Louisville were tied 27-27 at the end of the fourth quarter, sending the game into overtime. In UFL overtime, teams take turns trying two-point conversions to determine a winner. Neither team scored — but Louisville committed two defensive penalties, and under UFL rules, the second defensive penalty is considered a successful two-point conversion attempt. That gave Orlando the winning 29-27 score.

Dean Blandino, who both oversees the UFL officiating department and serves as an officiating analyst for Fox, said on the Fox broadcast that the rule was put in place to stop defenses from committing penalty after penalty to prevent an offense from ever scoring a two-point conversion.

"We wanted to make sure we had a winner and we got the game over with. we didn't want the team to continue to foul to prevent scores, so the second live ball foul by the same team during overtime results in the score being good," Blandino said.

Blandino said the rule is a fair way to make sure overtime doesn't go on too long.

"You think about player safety and extra snaps, we've already been playing for over three hours," Blandino said. "The second live ball foul during overtime by the same team results in a successful try."

It's a unique aspect of the UFL, a league that needs all the unique rules it can imagine to generate some buzz among fans.

There's no hard evidence to support the idea that 49ers players are more susceptible to injuries because they practice near an electrical substation. But that doesn't stop people from asking questions. And 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk thinks those questions should be asked.

After 49ers General Manager John Lynch said the team hired an independent expert and found there’s no connection between the electrical substation and player injuries, Juszczyk sounds satisfied. But he also thinks it's reasonable for players to have their concerns.

"I don't stand next to the microwave while it's on. Who knows if that does anything to you. But if there's any chance or inkling or thought process that maybe it has a 1 percent affect on you, I'm going to avoid it," Juszczyk told Jim Rome. "I'm happy that John said they did some studies and it was a big nothing burger. I would love to hear more about it."

Juszczyk says he heard a lot of opinions from people who had their own ideas about whether or not there's any merit to the substation theory.

"It was a very entertaining talking point, one of those things I had everybody asking me about," he said. "I think it's OK to be skeptical and ask questions. I don't think that means I have a tinfoil hat on. The fact that they did science, looked into it and found nothing."

For his own part, Juszczyk has only missed seven games in his 13-year NFL career.

"It hasn't affected me too much," he said. "I've been pretty damn healthy since I've been in San Francisco."

The New York Times has reversed course regarding NFL insider Dianna Russini.

Three days after The Athletic, owned and operated by the Times, issued a statement of unequivocal support in connection with photos obtained by the New York Post of Russini and Patriots coach Mike Vrabel, the Post now reports that Russini "will not be reporting" while an internal investigation unfolds.

An unnamed source with knowledge of the situation told the Post that “new details from the Page Six report and information from the investigation raised additional concerns that are now being reviewed further. The investigation is ongoing."

Added the source, to the Post: "Her coverage is being reviewed. That process is expected to take time. She will not be reporting in the interim."

Ryan Glasspiegel of Front Office Sports reported on Friday afternoon the existence of an internal investigation. He noted a prior FOS report that Russini's contract expires in August 2026.

A three-person panel has issued a ruling in the January 2025 appeal of the collusion grievance filed by the NFL Players Association.

The Thursday ruling, a copy of which PFT has obtained, upheld the arbitrator's ultimate finding.

That said, the panel also confirmed the finding that the NFL invited its teams to collude in resisting fully-guaranteed contracts for veteran players.

At page 8 of the ruling, the panel specifically writes that the NFL's "efforts to solve the perceived problem by encouraging joint action by its member Clubs was improper."

The appeals panel also found (contrary to the arbitrator's ruling) that the NFLPA proved by a "clear preponderance of the evidence that each Club was aware that the others were being invited to participate in collusion." Here's the key line, also from page 8: "We cannot fathom these sophisticated businesspeople did not comprehend they were being encouraged to limit or reduce guaranteed contracts."

That said, the panel ultimately concluded that the evidence failed to show that "some or all of the Clubs" accepted the invitation to collude. It's the same decision the arbitrator reached, and that's what kept the case from resulting in an award of financial damages.

Regardless, the appeal underscores the fact that the NFL was caught with its hand in the collusion cookie jar. Now that the case is fully resolved, it will be interesting to see whether and to what extent the NFLPA attempts to leverage the language that is favorable to the union, and unfavorable to the league.

Under executive director Lloyd Howell, the outcome was hidden for months. New executive director JC Tretter has a chance to make hay regarding the finding of an active attempt to collude — especially at a time when the Department of Justice has opened an antitrust investigation regarding the NFL.

Free agent cornerback Jack Jones' visit to the 49ers apparently went well.

Jones, 28, has agreed to terms with the team after his visit to San Francisco today, according to multiple reports.

He spent last season in Miami, starting all 17 games for the Dolphins and playing 980 defensive snaps. He totaled 77 tackles, an interception, six pass breakups and two forced fumbles.

The Patriots made Jones a fourth-round pick in 2022, and he moved on to the Raiders after New England waived him in November 2023.

He had 136 tackles, seven interceptions, four interception return touchdowns, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery before getting to Miami.

Jones has appeared in 59 games with 38 starts in his career.

The 49ers spent some time with a possible veteran addition to their secondary on Friday.

The NFL's daily transaction report shows that Jones visited with the 49ers. It's the first reported visit for Jones since he became a free agent last month.

Jones played in Miami last season and started all 17 games for the Dolphins. He had 77 tackles, an interception and two forced fumbles in those appearances.

Jones was a 2022 fourth-round pick by the Patriots and moved on to the Raiders after being waived in November 2023. He had 136 tackles, seven interceptions, four interception return touchdowns, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery before getting to Miami.

Ole Miss wide receiver De'Zhaun Stribling has had a busy itinerary.

He has top-30 visits scheduled with the Vikings, Buccaneers, Bears and Eagles, Jeremy Fowler of ESPN reports.

Stribling played for three college programs in five seasons.

He played two seasons at Washington State and two seasons at Oklahoma State before moving to Oxford for his final college season. Stribling made 55 catches for 811 yards and six touchdowns last season after 50-catch seasons at each of his first two stops as well.

He ran a 4.36-second 40 at the NFL Scouting Combine.

A couple of defensive players from the SEC had a pre-draft visit with the Steelers on Friday.

Brooke Pryor of ESPN.com reports that former Texans cornerback Malik Muhammad and former LSU linebacker Harold Perkins were in Pittsburgh. Former Memphis offensive tackle Travis Burke also met with the team.

Muhammad was a starter during his final two seasons with the Longhorns and wrapped up his college time with 30 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, a sack and two interceptions last season.

Perkins excelled in his first two seasons at LSU, but a torn ACL in 2024 slowed his ascent to the NFL. He returned in 2025 with 56 tackles, eight tackles for loss, four sacks and three interceptions.

Burke spent one season at Memphis after playing at Gardner-Webb and Florida International. He saw time at both tackle positions over his time in college.

The Falcons have put one of their best players under contract for 2027.

Per Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports, Atlanta has exercised running back Bijan Robinson’s fifth-year option on Friday.

Robinson is projected to make $11.3 million in 2027 under the option.

This was an expected move, especially after Robinson led the league with 2,298 yards from scrimmage in 2025. He rushed for 1,478 yards with seven touchdowns and caught 79 passes for 820 yards with four TDs.

The No. 8 overall pick of the 2023 draft, Robinson has played every game for which he’s been eligible over the past three seasons. He’s registered 3,910 yards rushing with 25 touchdowns and caught 198 passes for 1,738 yards with nine touchdowns.

The Eagles have made a trade involving a wide receiver, but it does not involve A.J. Brown.

According to multiple reports, they will send a 2026 fifth-round pick and 2027 sixth-round pick to the Packers for Dontayvion Wicks. Wicks has also agreed to a one-year, $12.5 million extension with his new team.

Wicks was a 2023 fifth-round pick, so he was headed into the final year of his rookie deal before the extension. He had 30 catches for 332 yards and two touchdowns last season and had 108 catches for 1,328 yards and 11 touchdowns over his three seasons in Green Bay.

Brown's future with the Eagles has been cloudy all offseason and the move to add another wideout is unlikely to dim speculation that the team will move him ahead of the regular season. The cap implications for the move are less onerous for the Eagles if they wait until after June 1 to make such a deal.

DeVonta Smith, Hollywood Brown, Elijah Moore, Johnny Wilson, Darius Cooper, and Britain Covey are also on the receiver depth chart in Philadelphia.

The Commanders signed outside linebacker K'Lavon Chaisson to a one-year, $11 million deal this offseason. He was one of the top edge rushers on the free agent market after a breakout 2025 season.

"It’s huge, man. It's huge," Chaisson told Bryan Colbert, via the team's YouTube channel. "Obviously coming off a phenomenal year, man. Didn't get a chance to seal the deal like I wanted to, but a lot of things have been moving in the right trajectory of my career. Getting a chance to be a part of this, and continue the rebuilding phase, but honestly, I'd say put the final touches on something that has already been progressing.

"I want to continue to be that guy, to be that missing piece that can send us in the right trajectory. . . . I think it's everything and more for my career and for this team for sure."

Chaisson, 26, played a career-high 639 snaps, a career-high 10 starts, a career-high 7.5 sacks and a career-high 18 quarterback hits.

"You've got to decide to block me all four quarters, and that's my favorite part about it," Chaisson said. "I'm willing to take it to a fifth quarter if it has to go there. I like that part about it. I never quit; I can go all day long. The mindset and the energy that I play with, it's now or never for me."

The current attack against the NFL's antitrust division can go in several different directions. Some good, some not so good. Some disastrous.

The league could potentially be ordered to stop selling game packages to cable, satellite, and/or streaming providers. The league could possibly lose its entire antitrust exemption, ending the NFL's ability to sell broadcast rights in a block.

The end result could be chaos for the NFL. Chaos in the form of some teams earning many millions more for their home games than other teams. Chaos in the form of the end of TV revenue sharing. Chaos in the form of the implosion of the salary-cap formula.

Chaos in the form of, eventually, cries that the federal government needs to "save pro football!"

It's the same kind of thing college football is currently dealing with, as a result of the chaos that has unfolded in the aftermath of a series of successful antitrust lawsuits against the NCAA.

For college football (and other high-revenue college sports), the crumbling of the apparatus for its antitrust violations has created a mess that the NCAA and its members can't (or won't) solve on their own. For the NFL, the same thing could happen.

The difference is this: College football could cure its chaos by embracing collective bargaining. The NFL's chaos could be incurable.

The NFL's chaos could create the situation the league managed to avoid in the early 1960s, when the popular teams at the time (led by the Giants) were willing to share and share alike with the other 12 franchises as to the overall TV money. Suddenly, after decades of selling the TV rights in one bundle and carving up the money in 32 equal shares, a dramatic inequality could emerge.

Some teams would be highly profitable. Some teams would be less profitable. Some teams could become unprofitable.

Competitive balance could suffer. The league could eventually separate into multiple leagues. One league would consist of the teams that can sell their rights for top dollar, and the other would be made up of teams that can't. There could be, in theory, relegation and promotion based on overall revenue and profitability.

However it goes, the collapse of the antitrust exemption — or, at a minimum, a court order preventing the league from selling game packages to cable, satellite, and streaming providers — could spark an avalanche of changes to the way the NFL does business.

And, ultimately, the changes could throw out the pigskin with the hot dog water.

It's all to be determined. But there's a worst-case scenario that the league needs to take seriously. Because, after decades of not having to even think about it, it's on the radar screen of possibilities.

Browning Nagle, a Jets second-round draft pick who played quarterback in the NFL for six seasons, has died of colon cancer at the age of 57.

Nagle is best remembered as the 34th overall pick in the 1991 NFL draft. Nagle was selected one pick after Brett Favre, and the Jets envisioned Nagle as their starting quarterback for years to come. It didn't work out that way.

The Jets liked Nagle because of his strong career at Louisville, where he was MVP of the 1991 Fiesta Bowl win over Alabama.

"We are saddened by the passing of Browning Nagle, former Fiesta Bowl MVP quarterback and Louisville great," Louisville football said in a statement. "His leadership on the field and passion for the game left a lasting mark on our program. Our thoughts are with his loved ones and teammates during this difficult time."

His college success did not translate to the NFL, however. He played three seasons with the Jets, one with the Colts and two with the Falcons, starting 14 games and throwing eight touchdown passes and 20 interceptions.

One of the top guards in this year's draft class is visiting with the Giants on Friday.

Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that Chase Bisontis is meeting with the NFC East club. Bisontis is generally projected to be selected at some point in the first two days of the draft.

Bisontis started at right tackle at Texas A&M for most of his freshman season in 2023 and then moved over to left guard for the last two years. He has also had meetings with the Panthers, Dolphins, Eagles, Chargers and Falcons over the course of the pre-draft process.

The Giants signed former Raven Daniel Faalele recently and they have Jon Runyan Jr. back after he filled a starting spot last season.

Shane Bowen is reuniting with Mike Vrabel.

Per Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, Bowen is joining New England's coaching staff as a defensive analyst.

Bowen, 39, previously worked with Vrabel on the Texans and Titans. He served as Vrabel’s defensive coordinator from 2021-2023 with Tennessee.

Bowen then spent the last two seasons as the Giants’ defensive coordinator. He was fired in November as New York reshaped its coaching staff multiple times during the season.

A busy week for receiver KC Concepcion is continuing on Friday.

Via Tom Pelissero of NFL Network, Conception is visiting with the Bills.

He previously spent time with the Browns and the Dolphins this week. While Cleveland and Miami each have two first-round picks in this year’s draft, Buffalo selects at No. 26 overall.

Concepcion, who was born in upstate New York, told reporters at the scouting combine that the Bills are his father’s favorite team.

While Concepcion recently underwent a procedure to have his knee scoped, he is expected to be ready for rookie minicamp.

In his one season with Texas A&M in 2025, Concepcion caught 61 passes for 919 yards with nine touchdowns. He previously spent two seasons with N.C. State, catching 71 passes for 839 yards with 10 touchdowns in 2023 and 53 passes for 460 yards with six TDs in 2024.

The biggest story in the NFL continues to be the recent photos of, and the denials issued by, Patriots coach Mike Vrabel and New York Times reporter Dianna Russini.

Everyone is talking about it. Most of the people who cover sports media have written about it. Even NBC News had an item about it.

Reasonable minds differ on what the photos show, and what they don't show. A significant question lingers as to how the photos came to be. Between accident and design, it feels like someone was looking for something.

As mentioned on Wednesday’s #PFTPM, the situation also invites scrutiny of Russini's past reporting. (Alex Reimer of Awful Announcing has ventured down that specific rabbit hole.) It will impact the reactions to her future reporting.

It also created a practical question as to the right way to assume a business-as-usual presence on social media.

On Thursday morning, Russini authored her first tweet since the situation came to light. It was innocuous; she posted an item that ran a link to an article about the NFL's ongoing collective bargaining brouhaha with its officials. It felt like a trial balloon.

If so, it fell flat.

The responses were as toxic, mean, and hateful as anyone would imagine, given the toxic, mean, and hateful nature of the Twitter ecosystem. There were, as of this posting, more than 2,300 responses to the tweet.

So what's next? Given that the job of the NFL insider relies heavily on winning the thumb races to Twitter, it's going to be hard to abandon the platform. But she may have to.

Yes, things tend to blow over. Collectively, we have the brains of goldfish. In this specific case, however, the facts are sufficiently unique from the typical merry-go-round — and Russini's job is sufficiently polarizing in nature — to invite the same kind of response to everything she reports from now on.

There's a story behind the publication of compromising photos involving Patriots coach Mike Vrabel and New York Times reporter Dianna Russini.

Some of that story is trickling out.

Ryan Glasspiegel and Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports report that the photos were shopped before being published by the New York Post on Tuesday.

TMZ was approached by, per the report, an "anonymous tipster" regarding photos of Vrabel with an "unidentified woman." The tipster, who was not from a known paparazzi or photo agency, requested a sum in the "four figures."

The Post declined comment to FOS regarding how it obtained the photos, including whether it paid for the images.

Vrabel and Russini denied, in separate statements, that the photos show anything improper. There are inconsistencies between the statements, the photos, and the reporting from the Post.

Russini returned to Twitter early Thursday, posting what seemed to be an innocuous trial balloon. It did not go well, with the usual Twitter toxicity emerging in overwhelming fashion in the responses to the post.

The Patriots have not commented on the situation. Vrabel likely won't be available to reporters again until the typical press conferences that occur during and/or after the draft.

The NFL and the NFL Referees Association have resumed their efforts to get a deal done. And the NFL, as expected, showed up with the big guns.

Via Tom Pelissero of NFL Network, the attendees at Thursday's bargaining session included Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.

Kevin Seifert of ESPN reports that Thursday's "meeting was productive and there is an expectation for continued discussions."

While the current labor deal between the NFL and the NFLRA runs through May 31, the league has made noise about wanting to get a deal done by May 1, given that it plans to commence hiring replacement officials at that point.

The overriding question is the real deadline, and whether both sides agree on it. That's the key. Setting a deadline and agreeing to it. Until that happens, both sides will be leery about moving toward their bottom-line positions.

So is it May 1? Is it May 31? Is it Week 1? The answer to that question will go a long way toward letting everyone know when nut-cutting time arrives.

The Buccaneers announced three signings on Friday.

In addition to the previously reported moves to sign defensive backs Kemon Hall and Chase Lucas, the NFC South team also announced that they have signed defensive lineman Haggai Ndubuisi.

Ndubuisi is from Nigeria and joined the NFL's International Player Pathway Program in 2022. He was originally an offensive lineman with the Cardinals, but switched sides after joining the Broncos in 2023 and spent time on the practice squad with Washington in 2024 before landing with the Texans last year.

Ndubuisi appeared in one game for Houston and made one tackle while seeing action on both defense and special teams.

The Patriots are set with starting quarterback Drake Maye, but they could use the draft to add a developmental prospect behind the 2024 first-round pick.

One possibility for that role is spending time with the team on Friday. Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that former Kansas starter Jalon Daniels is meeting with the reigning AFC champs.

Daniels spent the last six seasons with the Jayhawks and started games each year while also missing significant time with injuries. He was healthy enough to start every game the last two years and threw for 4,985 yards while running for 843 yards.

Tommy DeVito is currently the only quarterback other than Maye on the roster in New Englad, so they'll likely be adding at least one more player to the room during or after the draft.

The Bengals are doubling down on meetings with draft prospects on the defensive side of the ball on Friday.

Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reports that former Texas Tech linebacker Jacob Rodriguez is visiting with the team. Former Miami edge rusher Rueben Bain is also meeting with the team.

Rodriguez won the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, Butkus Award, Lombardi Award, and Chuck Bednarik Award in recognition of his efforts for the Red Raiders during the 2025 season. He finished the year with 128 tackles, 11 tackles for loss, a sack, four interceptions, seven forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries and a fumble return for a touchdown. He also ran for a pair of touchdowns while moonlighting as a running back.

The Bengals are set to pick 10th in the first round and adding defensive help seems like a likely direction for a team that's struggled on that side of the ball for the last couple of seasons.

Broncos owners Carrie Walton Penner and Greg Penner are expanding their footprint in Denver sports.

The Penner Sports Group, the family entity of the Penners, has become the largest minority owner of MLB’s Colorado Rockies, the team announced on Friday.

Rockies majority owners, Dick Monfort and Charlie Monfort, will continue to run the team with Walker Monfort leading day-to-day operations as team president.

“We are excited to expand our commitment to the Denver sports community through a minority partnership with the Colorado Rockies,” the Penners said in a statement, via Thomas Harding of MLB.com. “This investment from Penner Sports Group reflects our deep appreciation for what the Rockies mean to this region, the passion of their fans and our confidence in the future of the franchise.

“Our family’s had such a positive experience with the Broncos, reinforcing our interest in partnering with another team in this dynamic sports market. We’ve enjoyed getting to know the Monforts and are grateful to join Dick and Charlie in the Rockies’ ownership group along with the other partners.

“While our focus remains firmly on the Broncos, we look forward to being supportive, long-term partners of the Rockies and Major League Baseball.”

The Penners officially bought the Broncos in Aug. 2022.

Wide receiver Denzel Boston has made a lot of visits around the league ahead of the draft and he is adding Baltimore to the list on Friday.

Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that Boston is meeting with the Ravens. He spent time with the Panthers earlier this week and has also met with the Raiders, Steelers, Browns, Dolphins and a number of other teams while looking for his NFL landing spot.

Boston is entering the league off of back-to-back strong seasons at Washington and will be trying to join recent Huskie products Rome Odunze, Ja'Lynn Polk and Jalen McMillan as an early pick in the draft.

With the draft getting underway in less than two weeks, the pre-draft visit window will come to an end next week and Boston will turn to waiting to find out where he'll land after a busy few weeks getting to know his potential landing spots.

Bears owner George McCaskey was pleased with the team's run to the playoffs last season. Very pleased.

McCaskey used words like "great" and "miraculous" and "surreal" to describe how he felt about seeing his team continue to come from behind and win games on their way to the NFC North title and a win in the wild card round of the playoffs.

"It was a great run," McCaskey said, via ChicagoBears.com. "It was a miraculous run. Surreal run. But ultimately, we fell short of our goal. The goal is to win the Super Bowl. So there's some more work to be done. I think we have a good core of players. They fight like hell for each other. They fight like hell for their coach. I think they're confident that he will find some way for them to win, and that's a great and elusive ingredient in our great game. He's already said that complacency is not going to be an issue. What do we have to be complacent about? We haven't achieved our goal."

McCaskey said the Bears don't think they're out of any game, and that comes from head coach Ben Johnson.

"He's intense," McCaskey said. "He's intelligent. He's innovative. He's passionate. He's got the players believing in him and more importantly believing in themselves. No matter what happens, this group of players figures, 'we're not out of it; we're going to have to find a way to win and we will find a way to win.'"

The Saints have meetings with a couple of wide receivers on the docket for Saturday.

Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that Ted Hurst and Omar Cooper are both slated to visit with the NFC South team.

Hurst had 127 catches for 1,965 yards and 15 touchdowns at Georgia State the last two seasons. He transferred to the school after playing at Valdosta State and is meeting with the Falcons on Friday. Another local prospect, former Georgia defensive tackle Christen Miller, is also in Atlanta.

Hurst is not generally projected to go as early in the draft as Cooper, who starred at Indiana en route to last season's national title. Cooper is meeting with the Commanders on Friday.

Gabe Taylor was six when his brother, Sean, died at 24. Now 24, Gabe Taylor is a day away from playing his first home game as a member of the D.C. Defenders.

Via Todd Archer of ESPN, the younger brother of Washington great Sean Taylor plays defensive back for the local UFL team. Like Sean did, Gabe Taylor wears No. 21.

Gabe didn't play football until his senior year in high school. He had 11 interceptions and six pick-sixes in his only season at Gulliver Prep in Miami, where the field is now named for Sean Taylor.

After playing college football at Rice, Gabe Taylor wasn't drafted in 2025. He had a tryout at the Commanders’ rookie minicamp, but there were no NFL offers.

Enter the UFL.

"I'll tell you this, if he was two inches taller, he wouldn't be playing in our league right now, for sure," Defenders coach Shannon Harris told Archer. "He'd definitely be playing in the NFL. But Gabe, man, the kid is very smart. You can see the football pedigree there. He's another guy that flies around. He's sticky in coverage. He does a great job getting his hands on the ball, lot of pass deflections."

Last week, Gabe Taylor sealed a win over the Columbus Aviators with an interception.

"This is everything to me," Gabe Taylor told Archer. "It's definitely a reminder, especially with the Taylor name on the top. I can't just half-ass everything. So it's definitely a reminder, I have to put my best foot forward because I can mess up and people be like, 'Oh, you suck,' just like that. I can make everybody smile by making plays and then give it one play and it's like, 'Oh, this kid can't play.' So it's like, this means everything. The legacy I feel like I have to carry, but it's definitely a reminder, it's bigger than football."

And, frankly, this is the kind of story the UFL needs, if it hopes to become bigger than it currently is. For D.C. fans on Saturday, the home debut of Sean Taylor's brother will make it a very big game at Audi Field.

Only 14 months ago, Myles Garrett made a public push to be traded by the Browns. In response, the Browns did what the Browns usually do with any problem they encounter.

They threw money at it.

A market-level contract ($40 million per year) moved the boiling pot to a back burner. There's still reason to think it could be simmering.

The truth on Garrett and the Browns is elusive. On one hand, G.M. Andrew Berry continues to call Garrett a "career Brown." On the other hand, Garrett seems to be ready to give up a $1 million workout bonus by skipping the team's offseason program.

Then there's the recent contract modification, which delays the deadline for Garrett's offseason option bonuses from the 15th day of the league year in March until seven days before the start of the regular season. Obviously, that allows the Browns to trade Garrett without paying the option bonus.

It's hard to imagine that everything is fine. The Browns had another non-playoff season in 2025. They fired coach Kevin Stefanski. They didn't promote defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, who's now long gone.

What does Garrett think about all of that? Maybe the answer resides in his willingness to give up $1 million.

And if the Browns really are thinking about getting the most value possible for Garrett while he has time left in his prime, the best way to maximize the return is to insist he's not available.

Consider this: Has anyone reported that the Browns have flatly refused to take any and all calls about Garrett?

Even if they don't trade him, the analytics-obsessed Browns view every player as an asset that, in theory, could be converted into other assets. Why would they view Garrett any differently?

Look at what the Cowboys got for Micah Parsons. Look at what the Raiders almost got for Maxx Crosby. Garrett broke the single-season sack record despite having few if any chances to pin the proverbial ears back and chase quarterbacks during pass-happy garbage time. How dominant could he be with a contending team that routinely has a second-half lead?

That's not to say he will be traded. It's hard to believe at this point that he absolutely won't be.

The Browns lost a good defensive coordinator this offseason when Jim Schwartz left Cleveland after being passed over as the team's next head coach. But new defensive coordinator Mike Rutenberg is making a good early impression.

Browns cornerback Tyson Campbell says Rutenberg, whom players call Rudy, has energized the defense even at this stage in the offseason, when coaches aren't doing on-field work with players.

“Rudy, off rip, he brings a lot of energy, a lot of passion,” Campbell said, via Cleveland.com. “And that’s what you want out of a D-coordinator, a guy that brings a lot of energy and passion to the group and all about team camaraderie, 11 guys playing as one on the field and rooting for each other.”

Campbell was only in Cleveland for the second half of last season, arriving in a trade, so he didn't spend as much time in Schwartz's defense as most of his teammates. The time he's spending with Rutenberg, however, has been promising.

“You bring in that type of positive energy into a room, it’s so addictive and I feel like everybody around him can pick off of that energy,” Campbell said. “And that’s what you want out of a defensive coordinator, a guy that’s passionate about ball, passionate about his guys, and it’s contagious and other dudes around the room will be able to open up and reflect that same energy around the locker room.”

New Browns head coach Todd Monken had a tough decision to make when Schwartz declined to stick around. Campbell thinks Monken made the right decision.

Rueben Bain's busy pre-draft season is continuing on Friday.

Per Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, Bain is visiting with the Bengals on Friday.

Cincinnati has the No. 10 overall pick in this year's draft.

Bain had a visit with the Chiefs on Thursday after previously meeting with multiple teams, including the Titans and Dolphins.

Bain had a strong junior season in 2025, helping Miami reach the CFP National Championship game. He registered 9.5 sacks with 15.5 tackles for loss plus an interception last season. In his three years with the Hurricanes, he tallied 20.5 sacks with 33.5 tackles for loss.