NFL training camp news and live updates (2024)

We are two weeks into NFL training camps while the preseason schedule begins in earnest this week.

Last week around the league, more deals were extended, restructured or reworked, like Miami Dolphins star Tyreek Hill earning the most guaranteed money for a wide receiver in NFL history. Tampa Bay Buccaneers OT Tristan Wirfs also became the highest-paid OL in league history.

Notable injuries continue to be prevalent during this time of year, too. Tennessee Titans receiver DeAndre Hopkins is dealing with a knee sprain. Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert is dealing with a right foot injury.

Camp holdouts continue as well, such as CeeDee Lamb being absent from Dallas Cowboys practice. New England Patriots star edge rusher Matthew Judon is also at odds with his team over his deal.

Elsewhere, the Houston Texans and Chicago Bears met in the Hall of Fame Game, which was shortened because of thunderstorms in the area. And seven new faces were inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday.

Stay tuned here for the latest news, updates, analysis and more from The Athletic's NFL beat reporters as the regular season inches closer.

Required reading

• Full preseason schedule
• Preseason Week 1 schedule
• 2024 Pro Football Hall of Fame profiles
• Kickoff rule debuts in Hall of Fame Game
• "Cheat" motion remains legal

After Davante Adams, Jakobi Meyers and Tre Tucker, the Raiders have two or three open spots to fill at receiver. Could Kristian Wilkerson make a charge among Raiders receivers battling for a roster spot?

Read more here.

There’s a balance between being competitive during a joint session like this and having so many altercations it disrupts the flow of practice.

Monday’s practice, which featured what felt like double-digit skirmishes, was the latter.

At least, that’s how Dan Campbell saw it.

“Certainly too much,” Campbell said Tuesday morning. “When you have to stop practice that many times to reset the drill and load it, it’s a waste of everybody’s time. Look, I don’t want those. That’s not what it’s about and I know Dabes (Giants coach Brian Daboll) doesn’t want it. We’ve talked about it, addressed it with the players and that’s part of the balance. It’s, ‘Man, how do you really, really push yourself to compete at the highest level, but you’ve got to keep your composure?’ So, we’re good, we’re going to have a great day today.”

These teams met for joint practice a year ago and things weren’t nearly as chippy. Maybe the Lions are starting to feel the effects of being a contender — getting everyone’s best shot when the moment arrives. Maybe the Giants, coming off a disappointing season, are looking to bounce back and take on a competitive mindset entering a new year. No matter the reason, it was real. You could feel the tension, and just because Campbell and Daboll wanted things turned down, it still spilled over to Tuesday’s practice.

Catch up on more from Lions-Giants here.

Nobody expects Easton Stick to be Justin Herbert, but the offensive struggles in Los Angeles Chargers camp can still be reason for alarm. The Athletic has more here.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The Tennessee Titans have placed offensive guard Saahdiq Charles on the reserve/retired list, a stunning development for a player who has worked most of preseason camp as the team’s No. 1 right guard. Charles, 25, has recently missed time for personal reasons and “informed the team he is walking away from the game,” according to the team’s official site.

That leaves Dillon Radunz, who was drafted in the second round in 2021 to be the team’s right tackle, as the top right guard on the depth chart. LaChavious Simmons is listed next on the team’s depth chart. But No. 2 center Daniel Brunskill, the Titans’ starting right guard in 2023, figures to compete with Radunz to claim that spot again.

The right side of the offensive line has been problematic for the Titans in camp, though Nicholas Petit-Frere just returned to the No. 1 spot at right tackle last weekend after offseason arthroscopic knee surgery.

RENTON, Wash. — John Schneider pled for help from a higher power.

That’s how badly the Seattle Seahawks general manager wanted to meet with Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald about the team’s head coach vacancy. So on Jan. 28, as Macdonald’s Ravens were preparing to take on the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game, Schneider spent some time at mass praying for a Ravens loss.

A Ravens defeat was the only way the Seahawks could interview Macdonald because of the NFL’s rules about coaching hires during the playoffs.

“This is heathen s—,” Schneider said with a laugh during a recent sit-down with The Athletic.

But Schneider’s prayers were answered, as the Ravens fell to the Chiefs, and the Seahawks interviewed Macdonald on Tuesday in Baltimore.

They hired him a day later.

“He absolutely crushed his interview,” Schneider said. “The first part of it, two hours felt like 20 minutes. It was just a really clear, purposeful, great plan. He nailed it.”

Schneider had undergone weeks of prep work on Macdonald, and the coach came as advertised. For Macdonald, the hiring was the culmination of a years-long journey that was nearly sidetracked multiple times. In fact, his coaching career had nearly ended before it ever truly got started. But Macdonald kept pushing.

Now, the 37-year-old — the youngest head coach in the NFL — is leading the Seahawks in the post-Pete Carroll era. And for Macdonald, who once took out a $20,000 loan just to scrape by to pursue his dreams, the man who bet on himself has hit the jackpot.

Read more here.

The Seahawks and free-agent center Connor Williams have agreed to a one-year contract worth $6 million with $3 million guaranteed, according to Williams’ agent, Drew Rosenhaus.

Williams was the Miami Dolphins’ starting center for the past two seasons, but his 2023 season was cut short by an ACL tear in December. Williams reportedly passed his physical during a July 24 visit with the Seahawks, and Rosenhaus said Monday during a radio interview that his client will be available for the start of the regular season.

Williams, 27, will compete with second-year center Olu Oluwatimi and free-agent signee Nick Harris for the starting job. Seattle offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb said Tuesday that Oluwatimi and Harris have been competing at a high level while splitting the first-team reps.

“They’re doing great,” Grubb said. “It’s exactly what you want: Two high-operating guys that are battling it out for one of the most important positions on the offense. We want that. We want high-level competition. They’re both doing a great job. They’re splitting reps. I think it’s making them both a lot better.”

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — The question about his team’s short red zone offense wasn’t finished when Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton interjected Monday.

In 2023, Denver scored touchdowns on only 53.3 percent of its goal-to-go drives. That figure ranked 30th in the NFL and was by far the lowest percentage posted by a Payton-coached team. In fact, during the 16 seasons Payton served as the Saints’ head coach (2006 to 2021), no team had a better touchdown rate after reaching a first-and-goal than New Orleans (76.3 percent).

“Awful,” Payton said of his team’s work in that condensed area of the field.

So who or what was to blame?

“There’s a number of things,” the coach said. “We’ve got to do a better job as coaches, but we’re talking about first-and-goal inside the 9(-yard line), we’ve got to do a much better job — and we will. … There’s a combination. If we went back and went through the whole self-scout, there would be 11 things we didn’t do well.”

Read more from this story here.

The Giants and Lions got in a camp scuffle that took the NFL internet by storm this week. Our own Dan Duggan just so happened to be there, and he joins Scoop City with the real story of what went down. Plus, Dianna attends Texans practice and catches up with Stefon Diggs, Chiefs have WR questions they think are answered, and will Justin Fields be the starter in Pittsburgh by Week 1?

You know how certain memories in life remain so vivid? How you can think of an event and still hear, smell or see it? Well, weird as it may be, one of these for me is an inconsequential 5-yard run from the Minnesota Vikings last season.

The play happened in December at the beginning of a forgettable Week 14 game against the Raiders in Las Vegas. The Vikings offense had been reeling, having just produced a stinker of a performance on Monday night against the Chicago Bears. And now here was The Passtronaut, Josh Dobbs, clapping, breaking the huddle and finding his place behind the center.

Immediately, something felt different.

Dobbs stationed himself neither under the center nor in the shotgun. Running back Alexander Mattison stood directly behind him. To their left was fullback C.J. Ham. Surveying the formation, I blurted to the person next to me, “They’re in the pistol!”

Before the snap, Dobbs motioned wide receiver K.J. Osborn from the left side to the right. Once he crossed Dobbs’ face and trotted out wide to the right, the quarterback called for the snap and handed off to Mattison, who barreled inside for 5 yards. I waited for the formation again. Once, in the second quarter, the Vikings utilized it on a third-down incompletion.

And then … nothing. No pistol in Weeks 15 or 16. Once, in Week 17, Minnesota turned to the formation for a 17-yard completion from Jaren Hall to Josh Oliver. But that was it. An interesting trailer with no full-length feature film to follow.

Read more here.

The Athletic spoke with first-year Bengals OC Dan Pitcher on Joe Burrow's progress, Ja'Marr Chase's absence and the encouraging TE room in Cincinnati. The Bengals' OC says it looks like Burrow will be able to do "everything we need him to do to win a whole lot of football games.”

Read more here.

Defensive end Nick Bosa, who ultimately signed a record-breaking deal with the 49ers just days before the start of the 2023 regular season, shared his own training camp contract experience on Tuesday with much of the conversation this year surrounding wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk and his future.

"As it got closer and closer, it gets pretty dicey," Bosa said Tuesday. "But I definitely didn't want to get traded. It's a good place to be, for sure. I'm very grateful to be paid and here. Because I don't think theres many other organizations that are as good as this one."

Bosa held out through all of training camp and the preseason before he finally reported following the execution of his deal in Week 1. Aiyuk is handling this situation differently; the receiver has been an active participant in team meetings but is not participating in practice as he stages a "hold-in". Bosa said that he's talked to Aiyuk during camp, but only as a friend and that he has no specific knowledge of contract discussions.

Bosa did, however, also chime in on the stakes of the 49ers potentially trading Aiyuk away.

"I think it'd be a huge loss," he said. "I trust John (Lynch) and Kyle, but he's a very tough player to replace."

CeeDee Lamb’s absence has generated positive developments at wide receiver. With Lamb on the field, which the Cowboys feel is inevitable, passes easily flow in the direction of No. 88. Without Lamb, not only does each receiver move up a spot on the depth chart but the ball is getting spread around, too.

To this point, the Jalen Tolbert hype is real. It needs to carry over to regular-season games, but Tolbert has been the No. 2 receiver and drawn the attention of some of the top players in the Cowboys’ secondary, which is a talented group. Tolbert has responded by consistently getting open, and Dak Prescott has gone his way a lot. They haven’t always connected, but Tolbert has rarely dropped catchable passes and made a lot of great plays along the sidelines.

Brandin Cooks looks solid, which isn’t anything new in terms of practices. Digging further on the depth chart, KaVontae Turpin has been involved in situations that cater to his quick, shifty skill set, such as passes into the flat or the occasional jet sweeps. Jalen Brooks has been involved a lot and was a player Prescott went out of his way to single out, in terms of rapport between the two. And as anybody following camp developments knows, Tyron Billy-Johnson has been one of the biggest camp standouts.

Read more here.

The Browns will play some starters in their preseason opener Saturday vs. the Packers, but quarterback Deshaun Watson will not be one of them.

Jameis Winston will start at quarterback, Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said Tuesday. Stefanski said the team "has a plan" for the rest of preseason with Watson, who's recovering from shoulder surgery, but Stefanski said he doesn't want "to get too far ahead."

Earlier Tuesday, Packers coach Matt LaFleur said that his starting quarterback, Jordan Love, would play Saturday. Stefanski said he and LaFleur talked about their plans for Saturday "as a courtesy" but said the Browns' plans wouldn't be affected by what the Packers choose to do.

The Browns host the Vikings for two joint practices next week, and Stefanski generally considers those the most important days of the preseason from a competitive evaluation standpoint.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan confirmed Tuesday the team has given wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk permission to negotiate a potential new deal with other teams. Multiple teams have contacted the 49ers with interest in trading for Aiyuk, but so far nothing has been agreed to, a league source told The Athletic on Monday.

Read more here.

If the Cleveland Browns really want wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk, they can get him. They’ll have to commit major future resources to Aiyuk and his current employer, the San Francisco 49ers, but Cleveland can fit Aiyuk into its evolving offense and swelling payroll.

The exact asking price for Aiyuk remains uncertain, as does the number of teams bidding for his services. But the Browns have deep pockets, a new company-wide continuity that’s built around taking big swings and an urgency to load up on as much talent as possible for difficult battles ahead in what looks to be a loaded AFC.

The Browns also have experience doing this. If they’re trying to get Aiyuk, it’s probably a lot like their 2022 pursuit of quarterback Deshaun Watson.

No, the circ*mstances for the players aren’t the same. And, yes, Aiyuk would obviously be added with the idea of helping Watson re-find his Houston form and helping the Browns develop an offense explosive enough to become true AFC contenders. But this is more about a team unafraid of big (and expensive) deals identifying a rare opportunity to add a player who, under most circ*mstances, would not be available.

It hasn’t worked with Watson yet, but for this fairly loaded Browns roster to even come close to maximizing its potential, it has to. And in everything this Browns’ front office does right now, it has to operate under the assumption that Watson will play well. There’s no other choice.

Read more on the Browns pursuit of Aiyuk.

FOXBORO, Mass. — Jerod Mayo chuckled when he reached the gathered reporters before Tuesday’s practice, already well aware of what everyone wanted to know from him.

For nearly 24 hours, the New England Patriots have been at the heart of speculation and rumors surrounding a potential trade for San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk. For the whole offseason, the Patriots have done little to hide their interest in landing the kind of No. 1 receiver this franchise has lacked in recent years.

“I know what all of you want to know,” Mayo said, “but one thing I learned from Bill (Belichick) is that I don’t talk about players on other teams.”

Still, Mayo went on to address the rumors more than Belichick would. While he neither confirmed nor denied that the Patriots have the framework of a trade in place with the 49ers, as NBC Sports Bay Area reported, Mayo said he chatted with receiver Kendrick Bourne, whose name has been linked in a potential trade, and claimed that “the story is so much further along than anything else,” hinting that nothing was imminent.

Read more on the Pats' pursuit of Aiyuk here.

LAKE FOREST, Ill. — The Chicago Bears finally got good news on their offensive line Tuesday in their return to practice when right tackle Darnell Wright, left guard Teven Jenkins and right guard Nate Davis were all participating.

It was not a full padded practice, and Davis didn’t partake in team drills. Coleman Shelton was at center with Ryan Bates at right guard. Davis, whose availability was an issue last season, hasn’t been a full participant since July 26.

When asked about Davis needing to be back at a certain time to remain the starter, head coach Matt Eberflus said he doesn’t believe in the adage, “You can’t lose a job because of injury.”

“I think if the guy that’s playing there gives our team a good look and a good benefit for him being in that position, then it’s a competition,” he said. “Or the other guy could take it over. That’s not just at guard. That’s at all positions.”

Cornerbacks Kyler Gordon and Tyrique Stevenson, safety Jaquan Brisker, defensive end Montez Sweat, defensive tackle Andrew Billings, linebacker Noah Sewell, offensive lineman Theo Benedet and running back Ian Wheeler remained out.

Safety Jonathan Owens returned to practice Sunday after spending time in Paris to watch his wife Simone Biles win two gold medals in gymnastics.

“Overjoyed for her,” Owens said. “All of her accomplishments that she's made. Just being a face for gymnastics, man. She became the most decorated American gymnast ever. So it was amazing that I was able to be there and witness that for her.”

The Jacksonville Jaguars plan to sign free agent safety Adrian Amos Jr., a league source confirmed to The Athletic on Tuesday. The terms of the forthcoming deal were not disclosed.

Amos, 31, will soon rejoin Darnell Savage Jr., whom he started alongside in Green Bay’s secondary from 2019 to 2022. Both players have experience playing at free and strong safety.

Amos has recorded 10 interceptions and 49 pass breakups through his first nine seasons in the NFL. He's also started 125 of the 142 games he’s appeared in. However, his role tapered off significantly last year when he was not retained in Green Bay and signed with the Jets in free agency. Amos started a career-low three games for the Jets before being released midseason and joining the Texans as a reserve. He’ll have the chance to face his former team when Jacksonville plays at Houston in Week 4.

Amos becomes the second veteran safety this week to strike a deal with an AFC South franchise, joining Quandre Diggs. The three-time Pro Bowler agreed to a one-year deal with the Titans on Sunday after spending the previous five seasons in Seattle.

KPRC2 Houston’s Aaron Wilson first reported Amos’ agreement with the Jaguars.

LAKE FOREST, Ill. — The football playing career of Chicago Bears quarterbacks coach Kerry Joseph changed during a workout for the New Orleans Saints in 1997.

The organization wanted to see Joseph play quarterback, running back and safety.

“All in one day,” he said.

After the workout, a member of the Saints front office told Joseph that if he wanted to play in the NFL, he should play safety.

“I kind of looked at him sideways,” Joseph said. “He said, ‘You’re so talented, but that’s what I would do if I was you.’

“And I did. I embraced it.”

Joseph entered the NFL as a quarterback, a decorated record-setter from McNeese State (then Division I-AA) who won 41 games over four seasons and two conference championships. He went undrafted but joined the Cincinnati Bengals as a quarterback before moving to slot receiver and running back.

Playing defense would be significantly different. But his drive endured. Joseph’s first hit came in practice while playing for the Rhein Fire in NFL Europe. With two quarterbacks on the roster, Joseph switched to defensive back. Defensive coordinator Pete Kuharchek objected at first.

“I don’t want a quarterback playing in my secondary,” Joseph remembered him saying.

Joseph asked for one week to prove himself.

“I promise that you won’t regret it,” he told his coaches.

Read more here.

Catch up on Hoge & Jahns here.