Tag: NFL

Over his first two seasons with Denver, Dulcich played in a combined 12 games. He made his way to the New York Giants in during the 2024 season, but played in just nine total games for the Broncos and Big Blue in that campaign.

Eventually heading south to Miami in 2025, Dulcich didn’t play his first game of the season until Week 8 and didn’t see a target until the following week. Over the final nine games of the season, Dulcich tallied 26 catches for 335 yards and a score while averaging 12.9 yards per catch. His sustained production down the stretch resulted in him getting re-signed to a rebuilding Dolphins squad under a new regime.

One of the leaders of the new regime, general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan, is on the record that he views Dulcich as a breakout candidate.

Though Dulcich’s time last year was spent catching balls from Tua Tagovailoa and Quinn Ewers, it’s his quick chemistry with Malik Willis that’s carried the offseason buzz through organized team activities.

The two are 2020 draftmates, with Dulcich taken 80^th overall and Willis falling to the Tennessee Titans six picks later in the third round. Previoulsy, had shared the same field at the Senior Bowl, Dulcich easily growing to appreciate the strong arm flexed by his quarterback.

“We played at the Senior Bowl together. We had that little connection which was cool, and when you got a great quarterback like Malik, he does a good job of learning everyone’s tendencies really quickly,” Dulcich said. “He knows how you’re going to run a route just because he’s got great football IQ and he’s a great player.”

It’s not arduous to draw parallels between Willis, 27, and Dulcich, 26.

Taken within six picks of each other in the third round of the 2022 draft, Liberty product Willis and UCLA alum Dulcich are each on their third NFL teams, both having showcased enough impressive play in limited opportunities last season to garner larger opportunities with the Dolphins in 2026.

“He could always rip it, so that’s similar,” Dulcich said of how Willis at the Senior Bowl compares to Willis in Miami. “Yeah, that’s the same sort of stuff, and he’s always had that confidence and swagger so yeah, it’s cool.”

In two seasons under Matt LaFleur with the Green Bay Packers, Willis resurrected his career when called on to fill in for Jordan Love.

He signed a three-year, $67.5 million deal to join the Dolphins and captain them through the rough waters ahead, a product of taking on a tidal wave of dead money after releasing Tagovailoa.

Second – or third chances – aren’t foreign for this Dolphins roster, which is facing low expectations from outside the building for the season ahead. That’s fine by Dulcich, the former walk-on looking to walk tall and make the most of his and Willis’ opportunity.

“We got some pieces, man,” Dulcich said. “I’m excited about it. We got guys that can go. I alluded to it earlier, everyone’s hungry and just excited to go out there and fly around and make plays.”

Miami kicks off the 2026 season Sept. 13 at the Las Vegas Raiders.

Denver indeed rolled to a 14-3 record and the AFC’s top seed last season with a quartet of receivers whose utilization ebbed and flowed.

Sutton was a constant, tallying his third 1,000-yard receiving season on 124 targets (74 receptions) on the way to his second Pro Bowl, but Troy Franklin only trailed slightly behind him with 65 catches on 104 targets. Pat Bryant became more involved as his rookie year progressed, averaging six targets over his final five regular-season games, and Marvin Mims Jr. actually tied Sutton for the team lead in playoff targets with 14.

There was unselfishness among them, and Sutton is harping on that theme as Waddle joins the ranks.

Denver paid a steep price for Waddle, packaging three 2026 picks — highlighted by the No. 30 overall selection — to pry the wide receiver and a fourth-rounder away from the Dolphins. It will be well worth it if Waddle and Co. can help third-year quarterback Bo Nix reach the next stage of his maturation.

Waddle profiles as a pass catcher who should make finding completions as easy as possible for Nix. He excels at short and intermediate routes, and despite Miami’s offense taking a downturn at the end of his time there, he ended his five-year Fins tenure with 373 receptions for 5,039 yards and 26 touchdowns.

His presence, combined with Sutton’s, should guarantee contributors such as Bryant and Franklin easier matchups than they faced last year. It should also help Waddle and Sutton directly, in turn leading to the victories Denver’s incumbent target leader covets over personal glory.

“Courtland is an elite playmaker, so anytime you have a playmaker on the other side of you, it’s just makes it easy,” Waddle said during the same media session. “It’s someone that the defense has to be looking for, and vice versa.”

It’s notable, then, that Ramsey is now the one entering his age-32 season. Similar to Woodson, he’s taken on new defensive roles to make an impact.

Due to injuries elsewhere during his inaugural season with the Steelers in 2025, Ramsey played more snaps at safety than anywhere else for the first time in his 10-year career. He lined up at free safety on 462 plays and in the box for 186 snaps, compared to 367 in the slot and 165 at corner out wide, per PFF.

Ramsey made his eighth Pro Bowl while doing so. He had an interception, doubled his career sack total from three to six, and matched his career-high in tackles with 88.

He’s unlikely to spend the majority of his time at safety again in 2026, nor is he expected to primarily be out wide. The Steelers signed safeties Jaquan Brisker and Darnell Savage to pair with DeShon Elliott. Joey Porter Jr. has one outside corner spot locked down, and the signing of CB Jamel Dean and drafting of third-rounder Daylen Everette also gives Pittsburgh depth there. Nickel is the assumed home for Ramsey. However, the coaching staff’s comments suggest an openness to moving him wherever a mismatch might be, and the Steelers’ offseason acquisitions make doing so possible without exposing themselves elsewhere.

Ramsey is a natural fit starting off lined up at nickel, closer to the line of scrimmage, where he can make use of his tackling talents. He’s long been one of the NFL’s most physical cornerbacks, having earned a PFF run defense grade of 81-plus in four of the past five seasons.

After spending most of his previous seasons lining up at the boundary, another season not doing so might take an adjustment for Ramsey, but he’s entering an inflection point heading into the second decade of his career.

Most defensive backs don’t string together a ton of standout performances well into their 30s. Woodson was unique in finding magic through a changed role. He made four Pro Bowls, two All-Pro teams and won Defensive Player of the Year from age 32-35.

Ramsey, three times an All-Pro but not since 2021, could be in prime position to follow those footsteps.

He possesses the experience and skill set, now combined with some of the main coach who played a part in Woodson’s heroic second act.

“Charles is definitely one of the best, if not the best, ever to play the game,” Ramsey said. “I want to be in the positions he was once in when playing, and then obviously ultimately be in the Hall of Fame one day like he was.

“So, yeah, he’s definitely somebody I look up to. Knowing that I’m around the coaches who he was around in some of his best years is pretty cool.”

Ward’s comments would appear to squash any worries that the five-time Pro Bowler has become disillusioned with Cleveland’s trajectory. Rather than lament the signaling of a potential long-term rebuild while entering his age-29 season with just two playoff trips under his belt, Ward is bought into trying to deliver an expectation-busting 2026 season.

He fits in nicely on a Browns defense that kept Cleveland in countless games last season, a unit that added All-Pro linebacker Quincy Williams in free agency, bolstered the secondary through the draft with second-round safety Emmanuel McNeil-Warren and now has 2024 Defensive Rookie of the Year Jared Verse to build around as part of the haul for Garrett.

Still, Berry admitted earlier this week that trading Garrett, who the team handed a megadeal just last offseason, was never on his “bingo card.”

Ward has two years left on the extension he signed in 2022 but doesn’t have any guaranteed money remaining. Even if his wish — and Berry’s — is for him to continue with the Browns, Ward’s contract can be moved. Having just seen it with the Garrett trade, he’s fully aware how quickly things can change.

“I could get traded, but I don’t look too much into that stuff,” he said. “It’s the nature of the game. Say I do get traded, for me, wherever I’m at that’s where I’m supposed to be. So if I’m here, I’m supposed to be here. If I go to a different team, that’s where I’m supposed to be. But I love playing for the Cleveland Browns. I want to be here. I’m grateful wherever I’m at, whatever opportunity I get to go play football, that’s what I do.”

For now, he’s a Brown, gearing up for his first professional season sans Garrett but confident in what Cleveland has cooking.

Kupp, who turns 33 on June 15, caught on with his hometown Seahawks last year after being cast off by the Los Angeles Rams, with whom he won 2021 Offensive Player of the Year on the way to a Super Bowl LVI victory.

The Seahawks — nor Kupp at this stage of his career — entered last season with high outside expectations for any sort of similar ending to that Rams one. Winning a Lombardi Trophy is exactly what Seattle went on to do, though, this time with Kupp playing a complementary role to wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who likewise achieved the OPOTY-Super Bowl combo.

Kupp did his part, finishing third on the team in receptions (47) and second in receiving yards (593) with two scores. He produced his third and fourth contests of the campaign with 60 or more receiving yards during the playoffs. Against his former squad in the NFC title game, Kupp hauled in a TD and, holding onto a narrow lead with three-plus minutes remaining, made a crucial first-down catch on third-and-7 to avoid giving the ball back to Los Angeles.

Seattle managed not to punt until 31 seconds were left, then held on to advance to Super Bowl LX, where Kupp had six catches and 61 yards on 12 targets, all team highs.

Of course, those contributions mean little to the mission that lies in front of Kupp and the 2026 Seahawks. They can now operate from a standpoint of knowing what it takes, but no catch or play from last season will directly lead to victory this time around. It took Kupp for years to reach another Super Bowl following his first one, and there’s little likelihood he has that many shots at a third still to go.

Not content to ride into the sunset, Kupp instead intends to to make the most of his next chance when Seattle’s new season dawns.

“There’s moments of reflection, right?” Kupp said when asked what goes through his mind as he sees the Seahawks’ championship banners in the facility. “There’s moments of understanding when you see these banners, there’s a story and a lot of blood, sweat and tears behind each of them. So, there’s a respect for what went into those things and what those stand for, and the journey that they stand for, the hardships that were overcome. But also, at the end of that moment of reflection is the period at the end that says, ‘Well, now what?’ Yeah, that’s what it took. This is what that was and now you’re in it and you’re moving forward, and there’s an opportunity to go and be a part of another one.”

Stacking success has long been a problem for the Jags, whose last five playoff runs have all come nonconsecutively — a far cry from the four made postseasons in their first five tries as an expansion team from 1995-1999.

Following that initial flood of success, things dried up. Jacksonville made it to the Wild Card Round during the 2005 season and the Divisional Round in the 2007 campaign before a nine-year postseason drought. An AFC Championship Game appearance during the 2017 season seemed to mark a turning of the corner, only for the Jags to post four straight losing seasons.

The 2022 division title again gave way to playoff-less campaigns, this time two, before Hines-Allen and Co. racked up 13 victories last season — but a wildly successful year that exceeded all expectations still ended with a wild-card loss to the Buffalo Bills

Can the Jaguars finally maintain momentum from one season to the next?

Hines-Allen figures to play a pivotal role in their attempt. A two-time Pro Bowler, he’s superb among pass rushers at defending the run and in 2025 led the team in sacks for the fifth time in his career. He also has reason to believe his best is yet to come.

Though he’s collected a respectable eight sacks in each of the past two seasons, his most recent Pro Bowl campaign came in 2023, a 17.5-sack effort during his second year in then-defensive coordinator Mike Caldwell’s system. A big proponent of familiarity breeding success, Hines-Allen foresees a similar leap in his second season under DC Anthony Campanile, who recently coached Jacksonville to its first top-10 ranking in points allowed since 2018.

“I think the sky’s the limit for myself this year,” Hines-Allen said. “Year 2 [in a new defensive system] I feel like is always going to be the biggest jump. Year 1 is really feeling it out. Obviously, you want to be the best player on the field at all times, but there’s going to be a lot of situations where you don’t know if you can make that decision. But going into Year 2 knowing I’ve got the trust of the staff, trust of the players to just go out there and be able to make more plays, just go out there and be a dog. They’re allowing me to flourish in the scheme. (Defensive coordinator Anthony) Camp(anile) is doing a heck of a job on getting everybody schemed up, getting everybody open, having our secondary be a lot more sticky on the back end so we can have an opportunity to go rush.

“I’m excited about this team. I’m excited about my journey. I think when I had 17 (sacks), that was the second year in that system, so for me to have that thought process and that mindset going into Year 2, I feel like I’m a better player than I was a few years ago. I’m really looking forward to this year.”

After a challenging rookie season, the No. 1 overall pick of the 2024 draft blossomed in 2025, his first season spent playing under offensive mastermind, Bears head coach Ben Johnson. The results were magical: 3,942 passing yards, a 27-7 TD-INT ratio, an 11-6 record, an NFC North title, a Wild Card Weekend win over the rival Green Bay Packers and a highlight reel with enough thrills to fill a major motion picture.

The sudden turnaround transformed the Bears from a frequently frustrating club into the most promising franchise in the Windy City, with the source of optimism wearing No. 18.

It’s up to Williams to ensure 2025’s successes weren’t a fluke.

Williams carried an air of confidence into Thursday night’s preview event for both Madden 27 and College Football 27 — which EA Sports dubbed their first-ever “Opening Drive” — but despite his years spent in the spotlight at Oklahoma and USC, it’s clear the stardom is still relatively new to the quarterback.

It’s either that, or Williams understands the work is more important than the theatrics.

Take his response to a question regarding the feared “Madden curse,” a belief that a Madden cover athlete is destined for doom in the upcoming season, for example. Williams quickly pivoted away from the hype and back toward the field.

“No more of this Madden curse,” he said. “We’re going to go out and do all the things we need to do, stay healthy, do all the things we need to do study film and be prepared each week, and go out there and handle business.”

The business should be a bit easier, at least during the current portion of offseason activities. At this time one year ago, Williams was submerged in Johnson’s new scheme, absorbing as much of it as possible while preparing for his second NFL season that suddenly carried heightened expectations.

“I was learning so much and it felt like I was just drowning with all the information and things like that,” Williams explained.

Now, after a year spent together, Williams believes the Bears are properly positioned to grow.

“Where we’re at now is different than where we were at last year,” Williams said. “A lot of last year was trying to figure it out. A lot of last year was trying to trust teammates and coaches and all of that. I think at this point, we trust our coaches, they trust us. We’ve got a lot of returning guys, at least on the offensive side of the ball that we know the offense well enough to be able to go out and practice and have these good practices, and with the information that we’re gaining on these plays and on these different schemes that we have, it just heightens the awareness for the scheme and when we’re out there we have a better understanding of where we need to go and what we need to do.”

Denver Broncos pass rusher Jonathon Cooper was arrested Thursday night in Colorado on domestic violence and criminal mischief charges, per Douglas County Sheriff’s Office jail records.

Cooper was taken into custody by the Parker Police Department at 11:16 p.m. local time and booked into the Douglas County jail at 2:38 a.m.

Cooper appeared in court Friday morning. His next scheduled court date is Monday at 10 a.m.

It is unclear what led to Cooper’s arrest.

The Broncos told The Associated Press they “are aware of the matter and are gathering more information.”

A seventh-round pick out of Ohio State in 2021, Cooper has developed into one of Denver’s top edge rushers. He’s started 65 of 81 regular-season games played, including 55 straight since 2022, totaling 63 QB hits, 31.5 sacks and an interception. Paired with Pro Bowler Nik Bonitto and 2024 Defensive Player of the Year Patrick Surtain II, Cooper headlines a Broncos defense that ranked in the top three in points and yards allowed last season. The linebacker finished with 16 QB hits and eight sacks, second only to Bonitto on the team.

Cooper, 28, signed a four-year, $54 million extension in Denver in 2024 and is under contract through the 2028 season.

Denver wrapped up its first week of voluntary organized team activities on Thursday. The Broncos reconvene for OTAs on June 9 and then mandatory minicamp on June 16.

Mayfield signed a three-year, $100 million deal in 2024 following a prove-it campaign in 2023 when he led Tampa back into the playoffs and secured a postseason win in the year following Brady’s retirement. He followed that up with his best season in 2024, notching career highs in passing yards (4,500), passing touchdowns (41) and completion percentage (71.4) while continuing the club’s string of NFC South titles.

The Buccaneers’ streak of five straight playoff appearances ended in 2025 with a lowly 8-9 campaign. The team dealt with a number of key injuries along the season, but lost four their final five games to end it in a three-way tie atop the division, which was claimed by the Panthers despite losing to Tampa Bay in Week 18.

A disappointing season was soon followed up by a disconcerting exit for the Buccaneers. Mike Evans, the club’s all-time leading wide receiver, went to San Francisco via free agency for less money than what Tampa offered.

“There’s no way to sugarcoat it. It’s disappointing to not have him back,” Mayfield said of Evans leaving. “Just the caliber of player he is, he’s a Hall of Famer, deserved to be a Buc for life. Things happen, but luckily, him and I have a great relationship, we’ll still be friends for life, and I’ll be cheering him on except when we play them, if it comes down to it.”

While Mayfield recognizes the loss of his top target will have an impact, the veteran QB remains confident in a strong receiver corps that returns Chris Godwin, Emeka Egbuka, Jalen McMillan and Tez Johnson. The Bucs also drafted third-rounder Ted Hurst, a 6-foot-3 wideout they hope can alleviate Evans’ absence as a big-bodied target.

“For Mike to leave, it allows Chris to step up — he’s always been an unbelievable leader — but for him to really take charge of that room,” Mayfield said. “With all the injuries we had, a lot of guys played last year. So to also have J-Mac, Chris, Emeka, really, really healthy right now, feeling good, to lead those guys and just to watch the steps that they’re taking from Year 1 to Year 2 when it comes to Mek and Tez, and watching them help Ted Hurst out as well… There’s a lot of weapons in that room. So when you lose a guy like that, you’ve got to have a lot of people to fill those shoes, not just one person, and we have that.”

Mayfield has yet to miss a start during his three-year tenure with the Buccaneers and has proven himself as a more than capable passer who can run a healthy offense that has shown flashes of dominance.

Seemingly, the Buccaneers and the 31-year-old found each other at the perfect time. Mayfield made his intentions clear of what he wants for his future in Tampa and maybe the Buccaneers will heed his deadline. If not, an intense negotiation is instead in their future with other teams able to contact a valuable free-agent QB.

Schottenheimer’s comments were clearly meant to challenge the 24-year-old Guyton; otherwise, the coach wouldn’t have needed to make a declaration at all. He’d just let the process play out. After two years of inconsistency, opening the potential for a switch is a warning to the former first-rounder.

Thomas, a 2024 seventh-rounder selected 204 picks after Guyton, started four games last season but struggled, leading the Cowboys to flip Pro Bowl left guard Tyler Smith out to tackle for the final four games. Dallas prefers to keep Smith at guard, which has led to competition at LT. However, if things go awry, Schotty could elect to revisit the issue. Instability on Dak Prescott‘s blindside is a recipe for disaster.

Guyton is simply taking a one-day-at-a-time approach.

“Same equation, come to work every day, try to get better, prepare myself for the next day,” Guyton said. “There’s competition everywhere on the team. It’s a football team and everybody wants to play. Friendly competition isn’t bad. It brings the best out of people.”

The Cowboys are hoping it brings out the best in their former first-round pick; otherwise, they could face issues in 2026.