The latest

Ranking NFL’s top 10 instant impact rookies for 2025: Travis Hunter, James Pearce Jr. high on list, RB No. 1 | CBS Sports

8. Ashton Gillotte, EDGE, Chiefs

Gillotte is simply one of those defensive linemen that produces. He’s not a freakazoid athlete. He doesn’t have outstanding measurables. He just learned how to defeat blocks efficiently while getting upfield — or bending the corner — in college, and that nuance is rarely seen in trench prospects.

At Louisville, Gillotte pieced together back-to-back seasons with more than 55 quarterback pressures on 363 and 373 pass-rushing opportunities respectively. At a hair under 6-3 and 264 pounds with shorter arms, he demonstrates a unique bend of speed-to-power conversion, an occasional flash of bendiness, and he plays with the pedal to the floor on every snap. Kansas City needed a secondary outside rusher beyond George Karlaftis, especially given the lack of development for Felix Anudike-Uzomah. Gillotte won’t be earning Defensive Rookie of the Year consideration in his debut campaign. He’ll be a steady producer from the jump as a rotational piece who can hold up against the run and flash as pass rusher without much attention on him in 2025.

NFL Draft 2025’s best undrafted free agent fits: One player to watch on each roster | The Athletic

Kansas City Chiefs: Esa Pole, OT, Washington State

A former basketball player who never played a snap of high school football, Pole (who learned the game from his older brother, Toni, a former Washington State defensive lineman) is a natural mover on the outside. His pass-protection instincts are better than what he can offer as a run blocker right now, but the 6-5, 323-pounder hasn’t come close to his ceiling yet.

2025 NFL Draft: Ranking all 32 rookie classes; plus, overall grades, favorite picks and Day 3 sleepers | NFL.com

13 – Kansas City Chiefs

SLEEPER

Jalen Royals, wide receiver. Just a well-rounded wideout with great YAC-ability, Royals caught 21 touchdown passes in his final 19 games at Utah State. Andy Reid will enjoy scheming up ways for Patrick Mahomes to utilize this new toy.

Around the NFL

NFL trade predictions for Kirk Cousins and George Pickens, plus more players on the block | SB Nation

Kirk Cousins to the Steelers

Pittsburgh has a lot of work to do on offense if they want to achieve anything this season. Right now nobody has a worse quarterback room in the NFL — which consists of Mason Rudolph, Will Howard, and Skylar Thompson.

At some point this team needs to cut bait with the idea of signing Aaron Rodgers and go in a different direction, and Atlanta is the perfect partner to make a deal. Kirk Cousins showed at the start of last season that there’s gas left in the tank, and his arm strength makes him a better match with D.K. Metcalf than Rodgers would be.

There were two main blockers to getting a deal done prior to June 1st. Pittsburgh wanted to keep its draft picks in a deep class like 2025’s, and the Falcons didn’t have much leverage with Cousins’ immense salary. Now this becomes a possibility for Atlanta to get something in return.

Jalen Ramsey-Rams reunion coming? Trade talks with Dolphins for star CB ‘ongoing,’ Sean McVay says | CBS Sports

Big reunion coming? Rams coach Sean McVay addressed that possibility this week.

“He is a total stud,” McVay said of Ramsey, via ProFootballTalk. “And you look at — obviously he has continued to play at a really high level. He and I have kept in great touch even since we ended up trading him to Miami. Special competitor, great person, great father.

“And so there are a lot of layers when you’re talking about a player of his caliber, all right, with regards to the contract, the compensation that they would be looking for in exchange for receiving a player of his magnitude. And so those conversations are ongoing as I’m sure they are with multiple teams. And we’ll see, but we’re never gonna shy away from opportunities to increase the competitiveness of our roster or add great players as long as it fits within the framework of everything that an acquisition like that would entail.”

Phil Simms’ No. 11 to stay retired with Giants amid Abdul Carter search | ESPN

First, Lawrence Taylor. Now, Phil Simms.

For Abdul Carter, the toughest part about being in the NFL might be finding a uniform number.

Carter’s hopes of bringing the famed No. 56 of Taylor out of retirement were rebuffed last weekend by the Hall of Fame linebacker, who respectfully urged the New York Giants rookie to make his own mark instead.

Simms then entered the picture when he said on FanDuel TV that he would be open to unretiring his No. 11 so that Carter, or fellow Giants first-round pick Jaxson Dart, could wear it.

“I told some of my friends and people around me, ‘I’d let him have it in a second. Can you just help it a little or make it better?’” Simms said. “I think it would be a lot of fun. It wouldn’t bother me.”

Carter, who wore No. 11 at Penn State, seemed keen on the idea, writing on social media: “It would be an HONOR.”

Colts GM Had Refreshing Take on Being Patient With QB Anthony Richardson | SI

Indianapolis did sign veteran Daniel Jones and draft Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard this offseason, but general manager Chris Ballard made it clear that the team does believe in having patience with the quarterback position. Ballard just also feels adding competition will allow both Richardson and Jones to improve.

“Competition brings out the best in everybody,” Ballard said on the Rich Eisen Show. “We’re so impatient nowadays, we have zero patience with players. If they’re not, especially the quarterback position, if they’re not a superstar right away, they’re a failure. Which I disagree with. They’ve got to work through their struggles, and they have to fail, and they have to get up, and have to get better from it. I think we have two guys that are an example of that had moments of success but also had some struggles. To watch both Anthony and Daniel compete against each other is going to be good for both of them.”

In case you missed it on Arrowhead Pride

Alex Smith says Chiefs ‘reaping rewards’ of Patrick Mahomes’ redshirt

But his former teammate Alex Smith doesn’t travel in those circles. As far as he is concerned, Mahomes is still the league’s top dog in one critical category — and perhaps not the one you might think.

“I think he’s the best quarterback in the NFL at the line of scrimmage — when you talk about making protection adjustments [and] getting to the right play,” Smith said in an interview on “The Rich Eisen Show” that aired on Thursday. “But the problem is [that] he’s so good at [improvising] that I think it gets the attention.”

Still, he told Eisen that while Mahomes was a rookie backup during Smith’s final season with the Chiefs in 2017, it wasn’t immediately apparent that the former Texas Tech gunslinger was ready to go.

“It’s hard when you’re a backup quarterback,” explained Smith. “You’re on the scout team, [so] you don’t get a lot of reps to shine. As quarterbacks in practice, we wear this bright yellow jersey; you’re kind of untouchable. [But] there was no thing early on that he did that made you think, ‘Oh, he’s got it.’”