Those hoping for some positive momentum with the ongoing contract negotiations between the New England Patriots and Christian Gonzalez might come away feeling disappointed with the latest update.
According to NFL insider Albert Breer, the two sides "aren't close" in contract negotiations. Granted, Breer did acknowledge that things could quickly change. He also continued to suggest that Gonzalez's tactics could potentially be in line with Seattle Seahawks cornerback Devon Witherspoon, with whom he shares the same agent.
Breer thinks both players are looking for a market-setting deal from their respective teams.
"No, they aren't close right now. That doesn't mean it can't change quickly. These things can change fast," Breer said on NBC Sports Boston's Arbella Early Edition. "I think it is a gesture of good faith that he is practicing, but I think both of these guys are looking for the same thing, which is a market setter on every measure."
Gonzalez has been a full participant at training camp practice despite the ongoing contract negotiations.

#breer #change #gonzalez #things

Whether Kayshon Boutte remains a New England Patriot or not, the 24-year-old wide receiver was present and accounted for at the start of training camp.
Boutte is entering the final year of his rookie contract, and there's still a chance that he winds up on the trade block at some point. His presence on the roster makes the team better, but it won't benefit him in the long run with his future contract tied to this season's production.
The best opportunity for Boutte would come in an offense where he'd see significant snaps and maximize his stat output. He won't have an opportunity to do that in New England, where A.J. Brown and Romeo Doubs are expected to be the top receivers.
With that said, the Patriots aren't going to give Boutte away, either. NFL insider Albert Breer noted that he believed that the former LSU standout could have been had for a fifth-round draft pick during the 2026 NFL Draft. If that remains the case, a receiver-needy team could float the Patriots an offer at some point.
Until that happens, it looks like Boutte is in New England to stay.

#boutte #england #receiver #team

It's officially the dead season for the NFL. OTAs and minicamps have concluded, and the players are off until the end of July. So, this is when members of the media tend to come up with their own things to discuss regarding the NFL. Usually, this is when we ****** s offseason moves, acquisitions, departures, and how all of the little nuances of each organization will affect the team going forward.
Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer recently discussed where every NFL team currently stands at the summer break. For the Washington Commanders, he's pretty on point with where things stand.
The Commanders are coming back with a bit of a different approach after going for broke with veteran additions last year. Obviously, getting Jayden Daniels healthy and trying to avoid injuries will be key—and the coaches, with new OC David Blough leading the way, believe playing Daniels under center more will help. I’d also say adding Brandon Aiyuk, if he has his head on straight, would help, with Terry McLaurin and a really good line already in place.
There are still many questions about the Commanders' offense in 2026. General manager Adam Peters didn't make a ton of adjustments there, and it's still unclear whether Brandon Aiyuk will even land in Washington, when the San Francisco 49ers eventually release him. Peters is close friends with 49ers GM John Lynch, and it seems he isn't a fan of some of the things Aiyuk has said. Which is why Breer qualified his statement with "if he has his head on straight."
The Commanders' defense looks vastly improved on paper, but it is yet to be tested. The Commanders' offense doesn't look that different from 2025, and that has some people worried. However, every year, every NFL team has a chance to prove itself. After a stellar 2024 season and a wildly opposite 2025 season, the Commanders will have to do just that to get people to buy in.

The NFL offseason has drawn to a crawl as fans count down the days until the start of training camp.
Although it seems like forever, Tennessee ******* ans' training camp will kick off in less than a month, and some outside ******* ysts are excited about the potential developing in Nashville. Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated is one of those who can't wait to see how the new-look ******* ans look when they can finally take to the field.
Tennessee ******* ans
The ******* ans have one of the NFL's youngest rosters heading into camp, so it'll be interesting to see how an exceptionally experienced staff—the head coach and all three coordinators have extensive previous experience in their roles—manages that. And the offense is intriguing, with rookie Carnell Tate arriving, Wan'Dale Robinson coming with OC Brian Daboll from New York, Elic Ayomanor coming off a big spring, and Cam Ward back for his second year. Daboll has been down this road before, maximizing the athletic potential of young quarterbacks in New York (Daniel Jones) and Buffalo (Josh Allen). We'll see if he can do it again.
This excitement and outlook may be a small positive for ******* ans fans who continue to come to terms with the heartbreaking news surrounding Chris Johnson's tragic ALS diagnosis. While this should in no way take the focus and support away from Johnson and his family, it may at least offer fans a small ray of hope for the remainder of the 2026 season.

With a pause in the NFL schedule, as new Cleveland Browns DE Jared Verse stated, a break that the team needed to ‘earn,’ teams find themselves with a chance to evaluate their rosters before heading to training camp. For the Browns, trading DE Myles Garrett squarely puts the future, not the present, as the primary focus. A great 2025 NFL draft, followed by an exciting 2026 selection process, is now the foundation of the team.
Cleveland has their entire draft class signed, full of top athletes that Browns fans graded very highly. Overall, Cleveland’s 2026 NFL draft class got the highest grades of any team and is considered a “potential home-run class.”
All of that lauding came before the seven-person draft class showed up in Berea and put the pads on. After the rookie minicamp, OTAs, and mandatory minicamp, how do the Browns see their new class now? According to Albert Breer, all the post-draft hype is turning into real-life excitement:
And the hope, after the spring they just had, is that their double downs on two particular offensive positions will pay off in a very big way in big-time areas of need.
Breer notes that both rookie receivers, KC Concepcion and Denzel Boston, have “already flashed.”

The Tennessee ****** ans made a bit of a splash last week when they signed star defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons to a record-setting contract extension, making him the highest-paid defensive tackle in NFL history.
Simmons was more than deserving of this extension, one that was rumored throughout the offseason, well, except by those who talked about trading him up until the deal was done. Now that the ink is dry, its full impact is clear, and Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated believes it will have a lasting effect on the defensive tackle market.
Jeffery Simmons
The defensive tackle market has been a little slow to jump in recent years, and interestingly enough, it’s largely because of how rare guys like Aaron Donald and Chris Jones are. So the fact that Jeffery Simmons got a new deal in Tennessee, which we covered in the takeaways, too, is pretty important in that it’s going to create a framework for younger guys at the position.
Along those lines, there are a few keys to the deal. First, the $100 million injury guarantee is protected by early vesting dates, which ****** ure that, one way or another, Simmons will see that money. Second, he gets $45.8 million in new money through the third year of the deal, which is the first new year of it (he was previously under contract through 2027). And his APY of $35.276 is a significant jump, about $3.5 million, at the top of the DT market.

The NFLPA has undergone its fair share of turmoil in recent years and as they're set to begin negotiations with the league over a potential 18-game schedule in the near future, the players' **** ociation needs to prepare itself for what could be the most consequential conversation the league has witnessed since the AFL-NFL merger.
An 18-game season would be a massive shift in the league's yearly schedule. The additional game would likely lead to the league increasing the amount of international games played per season, and this is a major topic, as the NFL and the NFLPA would have to make serious changes to their current collective bargaining agreement; it doesn't expire until March 2031.
Current NFLPA executive director JC Tretter is the first player to occupy the role since legendary guard and player advocate Gene Upshaw passed away in 2008. As Upshaw was a pillar for protecting players' rights, Tretter looks to do the same. Since taking over the role, he has stated that his job is to figure out what the players want, and to fight for those wishes.
In order to do so, Tretter visited with eight different organizations, including the Los Angeles Rams, according to Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer. The Rams are at the forefront of the NFL's plans to expand into the Pacific, hosting minicamp in Hawaii last season and they're set to kick off the season in Melbourne, Australia.
The other piece is information gathering, and that's underway in earnest. Tretter has already done visits with the Bills, Patriots, Ravens, Giants, Eagles, Commanders, Vikings and Rams, in conjunction with other parts of the job. He popped in with the Vikings, for example, when he was in Minnesota for the AFL-CIO national convention. He saw the Giants as part of a visit to see owner John Mara, who is the head of the NFL management council's executive committee. He visited the Eagles because they didn't have a voting rep at his election.

The Miami Dolphins last hoisted a Lombardi Trophy over 50 years ago, when Don Shula led the team to back-to-back wins in Super Bowls VII and VIII over Washington and Minnesota.
With the New York Knicks recently ending their 53-year championship drought in the NBA, the Dolphins have come up a lot in discussions for their 52-year drought, which is the 11th-longest in the NFL and 21st-longest in the four major sports.
Interestingly, Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer recently compared the Dolphins and Knicks saying that the parallels are "too striking to ignore."
Here are his reasons for the comparison:
• Both the Knicks and Dolphins were iconic in the early 1970s, playing in venues that became legendary at multiple levels of their respective sports (Madison Square Garden and the Orange Bowl), and winning pairs of championships. As result, the franchises were elevated to becoming flagship brands for their leagues.

The NFL offseason is often defined by roster building and contract disputes. While it’s unclear whether he’ll hold out during training camp, Jalen Carter has already been holding in during Philadelphia Eagles minicamp. A recent report suggests this contract situation won’t be resolved quickly. In fact, it could become contentious if Carter’s camp decides to push the issue.
According to a report from Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer, the Eagles are not only in no rush to extend Carter. They are also hesitant to seriously engage in negotiations at this stage. Carter underwent offseason surgery on both shoulders. The team may want to see him return to form before committing to a long-term deal.
MORE: Los Angeles Chargers RB Omarion Hampton gets exceptional endorsement from OC
“[The Eagles] are hesitant to pay him,” Breer wrote in a Q&A response regarding Carter’s contract situation.
“Philadelphia is telling you what you need to know with its actions. The Eagles have always been aggressive paying their own, in large part because they know that the earlier you do the deal, the better the price you’ll get.”

Cowboys strangely being viewed as team that could impact Jets and Browns finding their franchise quarterback originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Some teams around the NFL are still searching for their franchise quarterback, and we can probably say that for about half of the league. There are about 10 good quarterbacks, five elite ones, and a handful of others who are just kind of fillers at the moment. At any moment, those teams could look to move on from those guys, or at least replace them.
At the bottom, we have some veterans and guys who just simply aren't going to do the job.
The New York Jets and the Cleveland Browns are at the top of that list, though there's reason to believe that they could fix that in the near future if they're willing to take a chance on somebody like Brendan Sorsby, who was recently told he won't be able to play college football any longer after a gambling investigation.
It remains uncertain which other teams will be interested in Sorsby in what is expected to be the supplemental draft, but Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated recently noted that the Dallas Cowboys could be in the mix.

NFL Referees ****** ociation approves new CBA by 116-4 vote

Some votes are close. Some are not.
The NFL Referees ****** ociation approved the new seven-year Collective Bargaining Agreement with the NFL by an overwhelming vote of 116-4, via Albert Breer of SI.com.
That's a 96.67-percent "yes" for the new deal. Which is good news for all involved.
The best news is that the league and the NFLRA ditched the propaganda (the NFL at one point had shifted to overdrive in this regard) and did what was right for the game, in the short term and over the long haul.
The game is bigger than anyone connected to it. The game will endure. The current stewards of the game, all of whom are handsomely compensated, have an overriding obligation to make decisions not in their own interests but in the interests of the game.

https://sports.yahoo.com/a...

NFL insider says not to rule out a Rams OC already on staff

The Los Angeles Rams are currently the only NFL team without an offensive coordinator. Mike LaFleur left for the head coaching job with the Arizona Cardinals, and the Rams are still doing their search a few weeks later.
While many speculated that passing game coordinator Nathan Scheelhaase would get the job, especially after he interviewed for multiple head coaching gigs himself, Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer made a different prediction about the team's next offensive coordinator.
"I wouldn’t dismiss the idea that quarterback