The Commanders have just two practices left in this offseason program. There’s a minicamp practice on Wednesday afternoon and another on Thursday before players leave for a long break heading into training camp.
It offered a perfect time for a progress report on how Washington’s defenders are learning coordinator Daronte Jones’ new scheme.
“I feel pretty good about it,” rookie linebacker Sonny Styles told on-site reporters after Tuesday’s minicamp practice. “Coach Jones does a great job of teaching the defense. It’s super easy to understand, so guys are really far along right now.”
That’s a positive evaluation, one that was key because of who said it. Styles will likely be an every-down linebacker and the odds-on favorite to wear the green dot this season. Styles schematic mastery must be high if he’s to assume such a large responsibility relaying play calls and making pre-snap checks.
The No. 7 overall NFL draft pick seemed supremely confident in his ability to get the scheme down and credited Jones for making the process easy.
“If you like to run, hit and play fast, this is the perfect defense for you,” Styles said. “You don’t have to a whole lot of crazy thinking. We’re a multiple defense but it doesn’t feel crazy for us. The way he teaches it and uses formations, he makes it easy to digest.
“… Being able to learn all these different concepts and mix and match them, it feels like a totally different, new call, but for us it’s simplified because it’s so easy to understand.”
Styles isn’t the only one who feels that way. Every defender interviewed at the podium Tuesday felt confident in the progress being made and ease of understanding the scheme.
Head coach Dan Quinn has been impresse by the level of communication between different levels of the defense, especially the rapport between linebackers and safeties.
Jones remains in an experimental phase, as he sees what plays and concepts work best with the talent he has available. One thing is clear, however, that Jones is giving all his guys a chance to shine.
“Everybody has a role within the defense to make a play,” edge rusher K’Lavon Chaisson said in a press conference. “Whenever your name is called, you make that play. That’s the case with everybody. As long as you have an opportunity, it’s a good place to be.”
LAS VEGAS, NV - AUGUST 23: Tight end George Kittle #85 of the San Francisco 49ers interacts with defensive end Maxx Crosby #98 of the Las Vegas Raiders after an NFL preseason football game, at Allegiant Stadium on August 23, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Brooke Sutton/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Rumor: 49ers among teams still interested in trading for Maxx Crosby “But according to a source, they’re one of several teams still interested in trading for Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby….Theoretically, the 49ers could offer a first-rounder and Mykel Williams to the Raiders for Crosby,” Cohn wrote. “If the Raiders would prefer a second-round pick rather than Williams, who was the 11th pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, the 49ers could do that as well. Williams is coming off a torn ACL, but he’s only 21 years old.”
49ers 90-in-90: How many touchdowns does Brock Purdy throw for in 2026? “The yards per attempt should be closer to nine than seven thanks to the speed on the field. The lack of speed bogged down the offense a year ago. We know Brock is a chucker. We know he wants to push the ball down the field. When Kendrick Bourne and Jauan Jennings are two of your primary options, passes over 10 yards aren’t going to be the norm.”
49ers Set to Release Brandon Aiyuk Ahead of Training Camp “The 49ers want the situation resolved before training camp opens in late July, and given Aiyuk’s limited trade market, the former All-Pro’s release is the most likely end to the multi-year saga.”
The Eagles haven’t even gotten to training camp yet and Jonathan Greenard is already excited to play with Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis.
Really excited.
“I think about it all the time,” Greenard said last week. “It’s going to be fun, man, because those are two guys who are selfless but also understand how much impact they can have on the game. I just told them when I got here, ‘Look, I feed off of y’all. I’m just going to let y’all do y’all thing’ and I’ll eventually obviously read and see how they like to play vs. certain opponents. But I’m not here to slow y’all down.”
The Eagles traded for Greenard during the draft and will make him their top-of-the-rotation edge rusher this season. Greenard, 29, was a Pro Bowler just two years ago and should bolster the Eagles’ pass rush.
Over the last few years, the Eagles have stressed group rush and that likely won’t change in 2026. They have a strong group on the edge with Greenard, Jalyx Hunt and Nolan Smith and a strong interior trio with Carter, Davis and Moro Ojomo.
Greenard is excited to play next to defensive tackles who demand attention.
“Just knowing that those two guys who can just take and dominate the entire game, change the whole game plan, change the whole protection for slides and stuff like that,” he said. “Having that as an advantage is going to be great as an edge guy. Every edge guy is going to tell you that. You got two guys like that inside pushing the pocket, just causing disruption, it makes our job a whole lot easier.”
Because he’s coming off of shoulder surgery in December, Greenard was held back from team drills this spring but still participated in individual drills. Jalen Carter also didn’t participate in team drills.
So as excited as Greenard is to line up next to Carter and Davis, he hasn’t gotten that opportunity yet. Despite that, he already feels like he has a good sense of how they’ll work together.
“I watched film of them a good bit,” Greenard said. “ My first week here a couple weeks ago, we sat down as a unit and kind of talked about how we wanted to run certain games and what do they like to do, what’s their favorite moves and things of that sort, what’s my favorite moves and things of that sort. But yeah, we kind of worked it a little bit today, just trying to get on the same page, which is great.
“We’ve already got the chemistry. I already know how they’re going to play already. I just add what I’ve been doing already. I don’t really play like an unorthodox style. I can kind of fit into any scheme. But ultimately, man, those guys make my job easier. I don’t have to say much. They’re like, ‘Hey, listen, if I tell you to go, just go. I’ll clean up the rest.’ Or vice versa. I think that’s just that balance that we’re going to have. They understand what they can do, I understand what I can do. I think that when we put it all together, which we’re trying to do right now, I think it’s going to be good.”
Even though he’s just entering Year 7 of his NFL career, Greenard is already one of the most experienced starters on the Eagles’ defense. He and Zack Baun both came into the NFL in the 2020 draft and recently reminisced about their paths to becoming teammates.
Greenard now headlines an edge rusher room that includes two young and talented players in Hunt and Smith. He expects big things from both of them in 2026.
“Jalyx and Nolan, their game is only going to continue to grow,” Greenard said. “And I think my job here is just to continue to help them with that. Any two cents I can add, I’m going to do that to make sure that they get to that point that I know they want to get to.”
FOXBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS - JUNE 09: Drake Maye #10 of the New England Patriots runs drills during a minicamp at Gillette Stadium on June 09, 2026 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Photo by Jaiden Tripi/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The Patriots concluded their offseason program last Thursday, which resulted in five open practices (one being a walkthrough) across organized team activities and mandatory minicamp. While no jobs are won or lost in the spring, several players still caught the eye.
Here’s who stood out for better, or worse, across the last few weeks.
Winners
QB Drake Maye: Entering his second season in Josh McDaniels’ system, Maye looked to be in complete command of the offense. The Patriots spent the spring challenging him mentally, often sending him to the line of scrimmage without a play call and asking him to get the offense into the right look. The results followed. The 23-year-old was particularly sharp during the final two competitive minicamp practices — where all the work came in the red zone.
WR A.J. Brown: The Pro Bowl receiver was as advertised upon his arrival. He made an immediate impact and produced highlight-reel plays on both days of minicamp — including a high-point back-shoulder fade and an impressive adjustment in the end zone to haul in touchdowns from Maye. Brown also showed his ability to win on slants and other routes along the outside, while his role should only continue to expand as he becomes more comfortable in the offense.
ED Elijah Ponder and ED Bradyn Swinson: The Patriots could use one of their second-year edge rushers to take a step forward in 2026. While it was Ponder who lined up opposite Dre’Mont Jones with the top unit, both he and Swinson received high praise from head coach Mike Vrabel and outside linebackers coach Mike Smith for their work this spring.
“I think maybe confidence of, ‘I am actually here, I am actually doing this again. I didn’t go through the post draft process, and I know what I am comfortable with what the practices are going to be and the meetings,’” Vrabel said of Ponder’s growth. “Young players that work hard and have a full offseason to train, sometimes that’s a great window of opportunity for a guy that is 22, 23 years old, to make some significant improvement in their speed, in their strength, explosion. So, hopefully that is what we will see.
“I would include Bradyn Swinson. I think those two are kind of in the same category. I think Bradyn has done a nice job of working hard in the offseason, knowing what it is that we are looking for, what he is going to need to do to help himself and help our football team.”
CB Kindle Vildor: Vildor was a quiet addition in free agency, as the Patriots signed the cornerback to a one-year deal worth less than $2 million. But with Christian Gonzalez not participating in competitive team drills, it was Vildor who repped opposite Carlton Davis. The 28-year-old, who briefly overlapped with members of the coaching staff in Tennessee, is the most experienced depth option in the room and won his fair share of battles on the outside against A.J. Brown and Mack Hollins throughout the spring.
Losers
ED Gabe Jacas: Jacas is the only second-round rookie yet to sign his contract and has been away from the team while recovering from a procedure to clean up his knee. That has caused him to miss not only valuable on-field reps, but classroom time as well — a concern for a player expected to contribute immediately at arguably the Patriots’ biggest position of need.
“Will he be a little bit behind? Yeah. Who wouldn’t?” outside linebackers coach Mike Smith said. “As a coach, I coach things different; I’ve got a different [approach] than every other OLB or edge coach in the NFL. So yeah, he’ll be a little bit behind but that’s my job — to try to get him ready to go when his opportunity [comes].”
WR Romeo Doubs: It wasn’t necessarily a bad spring for one of the Patriots’ top free-agent additions, as Doubs worked well underneath and over the middle of the field. But the chemistry between Doubs and quarterback Drake Maye remains a work in progress, particularly down the field. Doubs caught just five passes (10 targets) across four competitive open practices, while several deep targets between the duo fell incomplete. Perhaps those connections come later this summer with more reps together, or Doubs is simply a player who saves the big plays for Sundays.
Tight end depth: The Patriots had big plans for free-agent addition Julian Hill this season. That was until Hill suffered a season-ending injury during OTAs, one Mike Vrabel described as both “devastating” and “awful.”
His absence leaves New England thin behind Hunter Henry. Rookie Eli Raridon is expected to take on a larger role, while Jack Westover handled many of the backup reps during the spring. C.J. Dippre and UDFA Tanner Arkin remain in the mix as well, but the position is now far less settled than it was to start the spring — especially if the team hopes to ease Raridon into the action.
That led to Vrabel already hint that the team will explore additions.
“I think just from a numbers standpoint in camp, I think that’s somewhere we’ll probably have to evaluate the numbers,” he said. “There’s 90 guys, 91 guys on every team. So, we’ll just have to take a look at that, but I would say that’s probably somewhere where we would have to address.”
PHOENIX, AZ - DECEMBER 26: Minnesota Golden Gophers quarterback Drake Lindsey (5) warms up before the Rate Bowl college football game between the New Mexico Lobos and the Minnesota Golden Gophers on December 26, 2025 at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Kevin Abele/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
This summer, the quarterbacks the Steelers are the most concerned with are Aaron Rodgers, Drew Allar, Will Howard, and Mason Rudolph.
But if you’re a fan who enjoys summer scouting the college ranks, there are probably a few more passers worth keeping an eye on.
Besides the household names such as Arch Manning and Dante Moore, there’s a crowd of quarterbacks in the first-round conversation entering the 2026-27 college football season. And in a new three-round 2027 NFL mock draft, Pro Football Network’s Ian Cummings has the Steelers selecting Minnesota passer Drake Lindsey 14th overall.
You can read what he wrote below:
Drake Lindsey is a wild-card passer who could ascend as an early-round candidate in the 2027 NFL Draft cycle. At his best, and this is contingent on development in 2026, he could invite stylistic parallels to Big Ben from Steelers nation.
In 2025, while leading his team to a 8-5 record and a bowl victory as a redshirt freshman, he turned in a respectable PFN QB Impact Score of 77.8, and his 0.5 EPA per dropback in close-game scenarios was 15th among passers with at least 10 starts, according to TruMedia.
At 6-foot-5, 230 pounds, Lindsey perfectly fits the profile of the old-school, big-armed pocket passer. He’s big and high-mass, with quantifiably elite arm strength, velocity generation, and angle freedom, and those domineering traits aren’t just for show.
On top of having elite size and arm strength, Lindsey also shows off impressive pre-snap command, post-snap vision, opportunity identification skills, and layering ability for such a young QB. With another year of growth and accuracy improvement, Round 1 is possible.
Cummings had the Steelers making Lindsey as the fourth quarterback in the draft, behind Manning, Moore, and Notre Dame’s CJ Carr.
Drake Lindsey was en fuego vs. Northwestern—showing off his arm strength with anticipatory throws to the intermediate part of the field, with a few javelins mixed in for good measure.
Only a RS sophomore, he's a very AFC North-pilled gunslinger who's overflowing with potential. pic.twitter.com/KvddwZo6db
As a redshirt freshman in 2025, Lindsey passed for 2,382 yards along with 18 touchdowns and six interceptions. He added four more touchdowns on the ground, but because sacks count against rushing yards in college, he finished with a grand total of -119 yards as a runner. He is more of a pocket passer, with a career-long rush of just six yards.
Later in the mock draft, Cummings has the Steelers selecting Miami guard Samson Okunlola in the second round and Notre Dame linebacker Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa in the third.
Drafting another early-round offensive lineman would be a surprise for the Steelers, who have heavily invested in the position in their last several drafts. However, linebacker is absolutely a position to monitor ahead of the 2027 offseason with both Patrick Queen and Payton Wilson’s long term Steelers status in question.
Notre Dame’s Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa is the top returning linebacker in college football imo.
Was an all-around star for the Fighting Irish as a sophomore.
Viliamu-Asa recorded 48 total tackles, three sacks, one interception, and one pass defensed as a true sophomore in 2025. He missed the last game of the season with a torn ACL, which will limit him ahead of the 2026 season.
However, Viliamu-Asa was still named to the 2026 Lott Impact Trophy watch list, an award for the most impactful defender in college football, on and off the field.
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK - MAY 30: Jared McCain #3 of the Oklahoma City Thunder drives to the basket during the game against the San Antonio Spurs during Game Seven of the Western Conference Finals on May 30, 2026 at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2026 NBAE (Photo by Morgan Givens/NBAE via Getty Images) | NBAE via Getty Images
Jared McCain’s NBA career has had an odd start. The former Duke star was a leading candidate for Rookie of the Year last season when he had a knee injury in mid-December. He suffered a thumb injury this year, and Philadelphia had a deeper backcourt rotation as well, and he didn’t get that much time. Then, on February 4th, he was traded to Oklahoma City, and by the end of the season, emerged as a deadly weapon for the Thunder.
Maybe next year, we can see what he can do across a full season.
Now that he has some downtime, the Sacramento native and his OKC teammate, Jalen Williams, hit L.A. to take in Friday’s U.S.-Paraguay match in the World Cup. The U.S. rolled, of course, winning 4-1, so maybe they should ask the pair back for their next match as a good-luck charm.
Here are some more links about McCain and how well things have worked out for him in OKC so far.
NEW YORK (AP) — By the time Jalen Brunson and the Knicks returned home, it was as easy to find something orange around New York as at Halloween.
The city was caught up in this championship run for nearly two months and the party will last at least a few days more, with the Knicks' first parade through New York — they didn't have one in 1970 or '73 — scheduled for Thursday.
The team will be remembered long after the confetti is picked up off the streets of Broadway — and not only in New York.
The 2025-26 Knicks have a place in NBA history.
Their postseason performance is in the discussion for the best in the 80-year history of the league, a run of routs and then comebacks to their first championship since 1973.
“What a run!” former President Barack Obama wrote in a tweet congratulating coach Mike Brown, Brunson and the rest of the Knicks.
One that was arguably as good even as any of Obama's beloved Bulls.
The Knicks finished 16-3, an .842 winning percentage that matched the 2024 Boston Celtics for the second-best since the format switched to best-of-seven series in all rounds beginning in 2003. The 2017 Golden State Warriors finished 16-1.
The Los Angeles Lakers went 15-1 in 2001 and the Philadelphia 76ers finished 12-1 in 1983. Five teams finished a postseason with two losses.
The Knicks won 13 consecutive games at one point, second only to the Warriors' 15 in a row in 2017. They set records by winning nine straight on the road and outscoring their postseason opponents by 283 points.
They were still midway through the NBA Finals when rapper Fat Joe, one of the Knicks' orange-and-blue dressed celebrity fans, came to Brown's press conference and said what the team had spent weeks making clear.
“Let’s just wait until it’s over, but right now you analyze the numbers, we might be looking at the greatest team ever, like if you analyze the numbers,” he said.
And when things stopped coming easily, the Knicks set records for the ways they won the other way. Their comeback from a 29-point deficit in Game 4 was the biggest rally in an NBA Finals game since detailed play-by-play began in 1997, and they Knicks capped it off by coming from 16 down in the clincher.
Add it up, and the Knicks can make a compelling case for the most dominant postseason ever.
“It's absolutely one of the greatest ever," said Mike Breen, who calls Knicks games on MSG Network during the regular season and has been ABC's lead announcer for the NBA Finals since 2006.
"It's impossible for me to rank it, but when you take into account the point differential, the nine straight road wins, clinching all four series on the road, the two losses by one point, the two record-setting comebacks, it's in the conversation as the best ever.”
Two of the Knicks' losses were by one point to Atlanta in the first round. The other was by four points in Game 3 against the Spurs, leaving them six points from a perfect postseason.
On the other side, they won clinching games by 51, 30 and 37 points in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
The Knicks were never going to care about how they won, just that they did. Before the playoffs started, All-Star center Karl-Anthony Towns summed up the pressure the players faced in trying to get back to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999 by saying: “At the end of the day we’ll be judged by what we do in this run.”
They will be judged well — historically well.
“We went through a lot this season, a lot of ups and downs, but we just stayed with it,” forward OG Anunoby said. “We’re resilient, mentally tough and we won.”
