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Football news for every down

Saturday, February 28, 2026Edition No. 2

Combine Week Winding Down — The QB Market, the OL Depth, and What Happens Next

NFLIndianapolis

Combine Skills Day: Golden's 4.29, Loveland's Routes, and Starks's Everything

Texas receiver Matthew Golden ran the fastest 40 of the week. Michigan tight end Colston Loveland's positional work was a reminder of why his grade is what it is.

The 2026 NFL Scouting Combine moved to its skill-position evaluation days Saturday, and the group of wide receivers, tight ends, and defensive backs who took the field in Indianapolis delivered enough standout performances to reshape at least a handful of draft boards by the time the day concluded.

Texas's Matthew Golden ran the 40 in 4.29 seconds at 6-feet, 185 pounds — the kind of number that makes teams who didn't have him in their top-10 receiver groupings reconsider the math. Golden had a quiet regular season by raw stat standards, but scouts who spent time on his film came away convinced the production didn't reflect the ability. Saturday gave those evaluations a data point that will be difficult to ignore.

Michigan tight end Colston Loveland continued his case for being the most complete tight end in the draft. His three-cone time of 6.78 seconds is elite for the position, and his route-running in the on-field drills was notably clean — not the stiff, route-after-route precision of a player who worked on it specifically for Indianapolis, but the kind of fluency that comes from doing it correctly for three years. Teams selecting in the top half of the first round that don't have a tight end of consequence are going to be doing serious Loveland math this week.

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The NotebookBusiness & Process
NFLIndianapolis

The Notebook: The QB Market Is Thin, the OL Class Is Deep, and the Combine Hallways Are Telling

Mendoza goes first overall and that part is settled. What happens after him — and what a GM said Thursday evening that stuck with me.

A few things I've been thinking about as the combine wraps up in Indianapolis this week. The quarterback class is thin. I don't mean thin in the way that draft analysts use as shorthand for "no generational talent at the top." I mean thin in a structural way — there are fewer quarterbacks who can step into a starting role in year one without significant protection around them than there have been in any class I can remember covering over the past decade. That has real implications for roughly a third of the league.

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From the TrenchesFilm Room
First & TenThe Joy of the Game
NFLIndianapolis

First and Ten: What Sonny Styles' 43.5-Inch Vertical Actually Means on a Football Field

A 245-pound linebacker leaping out of the gym in Indianapolis. Stop what you're doing and understand what you just watched.

Here's the thing about watching Sonny Styles post a 43.5-inch vertical jump. You see a number, and then you think about what the number means, and then it takes a moment before it actually registers. That's the highest vertical jump by any player 6-foot-4 or taller since 2003. He is a linebacker. He weighs 245 pounds.

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Today in FootballNews & Notes
NFLPhiladelphiaDallasGreen Bay

72 Hours to the Tag Deadline: Brown in Philadelphia, Pickens in Dallas, Myers in Green Bay

Three franchise tag situations, three different levels of urgency. The decisions made before Tuesday afternoon will shape how the March 11 market opens.

The NFL franchise tag window closes Tuesday at 4 p.m. ET, and the decisions that organizations make — or don't make — in the next 72 hours will define how the March 11 free agency period opens. Philadelphia's situation with A.J. Brown remains the most-watched. Multiple outlets reported Saturday that the Eagles have not yet initiated meaningful extension discussions with Brown's camp, which makes a tag increasingly likely if the team wants to retain any control over his immediate future. The alternative — letting him hit open market — would remove a player from the roster who had 67 catches for 1,020 yards last season despite what multiple league sources described as a deteriorating relationship with the organization. Whatever happens Tuesday, it will carry consequences.

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NFLIndianapolis

The 2026 Quarterback Class Has One Answer and a Lot of Questions After That

Mendoza goes first. The rest of the class is thinner than teams with quarterback questions would prefer. That gap will reshape the trade market.

The 2026 NFL Draft quarterback class is being described as thin — and thin at the top specifically — in ways that will have real consequences for organizations that enter April without a solution at the position. Indiana's Fernando Mendoza is the consensus top quarterback in the class after leading the Hoosiers to an undefeated season and a national championship. His combine week has been measured and professional — no splashy throwing session numbers, no moments that will be replayed on highlight reels — which is typically what you want from a player who already has consensus first-overall support. The Texans hold the first pick and have been publicly noncommittal, which is standard operating procedure for teams in their position. Mendoza goes first unless something unusual happens between now and April.

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NCAA

Spring Practice Opens Across the Power 4 in March. Here Are the Programs to Watch.

Penn State under Schiano, Georgia with its largest returning class in years, LSU in its first spring under Charlie Strong. The evaluation season begins.

Spring practice windows open across the Power 4 in March, and the programs that moved fastest — either in the hiring cycle or in the portal — will enter those eight weeks with a real advantage over organizations still assembling their rosters. The most interesting spring to watch is at Penn State, where James Franklin's abrupt mid-season departure and the hire of Greg Schiano has created genuine uncertainty about what direction the program is heading. Schiano built Rutgers into a competitive program twice, so the pedigree is there. What isn't there yet is any clarity about whether Penn State's returning roster fits what Schiano wants to do. The spring will answer that question, but it will do so publicly, in front of a fan base that is still processing what happened in October.

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CFLEdmontonWinnipegHamiltonCalgary

CFL 2026 Training Camp Opens May 18. Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Hamilton Enter With Different Questions.

The league set its camp schedule Friday. Four weeks of preseason before the June 12 opener. What each contender needs to figure out before the games count.

The CFL announced its 2026 training camp schedule Friday, with all nine teams opening camp the week of May 18. The regular season begins June 12, which gives organizations approximately four weeks of camp and preseason activity to finalize their rosters before the games that count. Edmonton, which was the most active team in free agency, will enter camp with a reconfigured offensive unit built around the additions of Austin Mack and the returning offensive line that protected Trevor Harris last season. The Elks were a playoff team in 2025, and the front office moved this offseason with the energy of a team that believes it's close. Camp will confirm whether the pieces fit together.

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NFL

The Cap Is $277.5 Million. Twenty-Three Teams Have More Than $40 Million Available. March Will Be Active.

The $15.5M cap increase created the conditions for the most active free agent period in three years. The teams best positioned to buy, and the ones most constrained.

The NFL salary cap for 2026 has been set at $277.5 million per team, a $15.5 million increase from 2025's number. That increase, combined with the contracts that expired after last season, has created the conditions for what several team salary-cap experts are projecting to be the most active free-agent period in three years. Twenty-three teams currently have more than $40 million in available cap space, which is a meaningful number. For context, the most coveted free agents at positions of scarcity — quarterback, pass rusher, cornerback — will command annual values in the $30 to $50 million range. Teams that enter free agency with multiple roster holes and limited cap space will be competing for the players left after the first wave of signings, which is rarely the most efficient way to build.

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NFL

The 2026 Edge Rusher Class Has Depth the Position Market Has Needed for Years

Bailey is the consensus top pass rusher. Behind him, a dozen prospects who could develop into NFL starters. Teams picking in the second and third rounds have real options.

The edge rusher class in the 2026 NFL Draft is drawing more attention from scouts than it has in previous years, partly because of its depth and partly because of how the position has evolved at the NFL level over the past two seasons. Texas Tech's David Bailey is the consensus top edge rusher in the class and a candidate to go in the top five picks overall. His athletic profile — 4.50 40 time, exceptional first step, fluid hips in change-of-direction work — translates to the kind of every-down pass rusher that championship-caliber defenses are built around. The question scouts have been asking isn't whether Bailey can be a starter; it's whether he can be an anchor, the kind of player who makes the players around him better through the threat he creates.

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