INDIANAPOLIS — The NFL world has descended upon the middle of Indiana to look at draft prospects and get the ball rolling on other league business.
The combine, which runs through next Monday technically, takes off Tuesday. It’s the first day where prospects will undergo medical exams, and will continue with team interviews.
Tuesday is also the day for the various team executives, including Browns general manager Andrew Berry, to step in front of the microphone and speak to the media. Berry is scheduled to speak at 1 p.m. Tuesday at the Indiana Convention Center.
The prospects will start talking to the media on Wednesday morning. Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski also speaks on Wednesday, at 1 p.m.
Follow along here throughout the day for updates from what comes out of the various availabilities with the NFL’s team decision makers:
One of the biggest questions surrounding the Kansas City Chiefs is the future of tight end Travis Kelce. Kelce has acknowledged he was taking some time to think about his future after completing his 12th NFL season.
Chiefs coach Andy Reid, who has been Kelce’s coach since he entered the league in 2013, said he’s chatted with the future Hall of Famer.
“Yeah, I did, and that’s up to Travis,” Reid said. “At this point, you get out of town and relax, you know, that’s kind of my motto for these guys. They played a lot of games, and a lot for a consistent amount of seasons here. And so you get to the end of the thing, you’ve exhausted yourself mentally and physically, step back and take care of that, then we’ll talk. But for right now, I think that’s what he’s doing. And he and I will get together. Now, listen, I had exit meetings with all the guys before they left, so we did have a chance to talk to answer your initial question.”
The Philadelphia Eagles have made plenty in the NFL mad with the massive success of their short-yardage play. In Philly, it’s known as the “Brotherly Shove,” while it’s become known as the “Tush Push” elsewhere.
The Green Bay Packers have reportedly formally introduced legislation to ban the play, where players behind quarterback Jalen Hurts will push him forward to get the yards. It’s been wildly successful for the Eagles, although other teams’ success with similar plays have not produced the success at the level they’ve achieved.
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni has found a way to take it personally.
“I almost feel a little insulted because we work so hard at that play,” Sirianni said. “The amount of things that we’ve looked into how to coach that play, the fundamentals. There’s 1,000 plays out there, but it comes down to how you teach the fundamentals and how the players go through the fundamentals. … The fact that it’s a successful play for the Eagles and people want to take that away, I think is a little unfair.”
The Raiders hired John Spytek to be their new general manager last month. One of his first moves was to turn around and hire Canton native Mark Thewes to be his senior vice president for football operations and strategy.
Thewes came over from the Denver Broncos, where he was originally hired by former McKinley High School teammate Josh McDaniels in 2012. Spytek was with Denver from 2013-15.
“I think it’s as important of a hire as I could make,” Spytek said. “Mark and I really had a connection when I was there for sort of those three years. It might stem from our love of golf together and the amount of times we played Inverness back then. But his knowledge across an organization is really amazing to me, his vision, his ingenuity, the innovation he thinks that we can install it with the Raiders is going to be great. And he’s a nice, calming presence for me. He’s structured, he’s organized. I can be a little bit kind of freewheeling and instinctive sometimes, and so he’s a little bit of a nice balance to me. So I’m really grateful that he thought enough of this opportunity to join us.”
When Pete Carroll was hired by the Las Vegas Raiders as their new head coach, he needed to find himself an offensive coordinator. Ultimately, Carroll stole from Ohio State by hiring its offensive coordinator, Chip Kelly.
Kelly helped the Buckeyes win the national championship last season. Carroll, though, goes even further back with him to when they were Pac-10 rival coaches while at Oregon and USC.
“I’ve been a fan of his for a long time,” Carroll said. “We met way back in the Oregon days. We were against him in SC. At the time when he was setting the pace of the game at a whole different level. It was a really fun relationship. He used to come see us at Seattle. It’s been a long-time friendship.”
The Jaguars didn’t hire James Gladstone to be their general manager until this past weekend. Coming from the Los Angeles Rams, he’s taking a very circuitous route to his new home.
“Currently I’m living in Indianapolis, and then I will return to Jacksonville here in a handful of days and start looking for a new home that’s a little bit more permanent,” Gladstone said. “But my wife is in fact pregnant and she’s due at the end of May, so we got about a 30 day travel window before we can work with here, bring it all to life. So there’s a shot clock for sure.”
The Titans control the draft by their standing with the No. 1 pick. The New York Giants, in desperate need for a quarterback like both the Titans and Browns, sit at No. 3.
The Giants have been widely projected to be a team that will try to be aggressive to get up to the top to take either Miami’s Cam Ward or Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders. General manager Joe Schoen didn’t dispute that, but didn’t say anything was imminent either.
“We haven’t had any of those conversations yet,” Schoen said. “This week there will be a lot of that going on, conversations, what the time frame will be on teams open to moving. Again, it’s the infancy stage of getting to know these kids and getting around them. … Teams are on different time frames. They’re at different points in their process in terms of the information they have and the capability to make those types of decisions. A lot of that information will be gathered in the next week or so, and that will help us map out our spring.”
The Ravens had been mum since allegations emerged over the last month about sexual misconduct involving kicker Justin Tucker and multiple massage therapists in the Baltimore area, a number which has now reached at least 16. Baltimore general manager Eric DeCosta was asked about the volume of allegations against his kicker and how it impacts the organization’s reponse.
“I think the biggest thing we have to do first of all is look at every single case differently,” DeCosta said. “There are no absolutes and, in this case, we’re still awaiting as much information as possible. We’re fortunate that the league has come down to Baltimore. I met with the league; I believe the league is meeting other people in Baltimore. We’ll wait for details about the investigation, then make a decision based on that.”
The NFL has opened an investigation into the allegations, which were first reported by the Baltimore Banner. Tucker could face a personal conduct policy suspension like Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson did in 2022, when he was suspended for 11 games for the more than two dozen allegations from his time in Houston.
The Falcons don’t view it as a looming competition between quarterbacks Kirk Cousins and Michael Penix Jr. In fact, it’s pretty cut and dried as far as they’re concerned.
“Michael Penix is our quarterback, and Michael Penix will continue to be our quarterback,” Atlanta head coach Raheem Morris said. “We stood there last year and we talked about looking for that guy and we believe we found him, and I got so much confidence in Michael Penix leading us into the future, and I believe our whole building does, and I believe our fan base does, and I believe our owner does that. We are really excited about that young man.”
Falcons head coach Raheem Morris’ definitive statement is why there’s a high expectation that the Falcons will eventually cut Kirk Cousins. That could open the door for the Browns to sign him as the veteran they need at the position.
However, the Atlanta front office continues to hold firm on keeping Cousins. As general manager Terry Fontenot said when asked about keeping the veteran, “That’s the plan.
“Any, whether it’s Kirk Cousins or any other player, we have to really help our team and how it’s going to affect the Atlanta Falcons,” Fontenot said. “Not just with Kirk, but with anybody. All those decisions we make, that’s what we have to look at. What’s right for this football team.”
The Atlanta Falcons made a splash in free agency a year ago by signing quarterback Kirk Cousins to a massive contract. Then, a month later, they stunned the NFL world by taking quarterback Michael Penix at No. 8 overall in the draft.
Falcons general manager Terry Fontenot was asked Tuesday about doubling up on the position.
“At the end of the day, when you talk about building a team and building it the right way, you got to have it,” Fontenot said. “It’s the most important position in pro sports in my opinion. It’s the most important thing. And the way, if you look at the history of the drafts, the way it works, the last time we had as many quarterbacks as we had last year was 2020. That draft when you had those quarterbacks that came out of there, and then you can have a draft where you don’t get a starting quarterback out of it.
“So you just have to make sure when you see a quarterback that you believe can be a future franchise player, you have to do it. And that’s the vision for that, and that’s how you have to operate.”
File it under the very expected, but it was still noteworthy on Tuesday when new Tennessee Titans general manager Mike Borgonzi said the team had received calls about the No. 1 overall pick they hold.
“Any time you have the No. 1 overall pick, it’s going to be a topic of conversation,” Borgonzi said.
Borgonzi wouldn’t divulge who has called about the pick. The Browns sit at No. 2, right behind the Titans, but the New York Giants, who have the No. 3 pick, have been mentioned as a possibility.
All of it centers around finding a franchise quarterback. It’s believed Miami’s Cam Ward and Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders are the two most likely to fit that mold in the first round.
The first one to speak was actually Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott. He spoke Monday afternoon.
The first round of interviews Tuesday begin at 10 a.m. The group includes New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen, Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst, Pittsburgh Steelers general manager Omar Khan, Atlanta Falcons general manager Terry Fontenot and Los Angeles Chargers general manager Joe Hortiz.
Browns general manager Andrew Berry will talk at 1 p.m.
The placekickers, defensive linemen and linebackers are the first groups to go through the routine this week. They registered and went through an orientation on Monday, will undergo medical tests, team interviews and pre-ordered studies.
Defensive backs and tight ends are registering Tuesday. They’ll go through what the previous groups went through on Monday: Orientation, pre-exams and team interviews.
The NFL Network will have live coverage throughout the week. It can also be streamed on NFL+.
On Tuesday, the NFL Network schedule from Indianapolis is as follows:
Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ
