The Pro Football Hall of Fame will induct the nine members of the Class of 2023 on Saturday, August 5, with Zach Thomas opening the show and Joe Thomas closing it. After Zach Thomas's speech, Ken Riley will be posthumously inducted. His son, Ken Riley II, will deliver remarks on his behalf. DeMarcus Ware will be the third member of the class inducted, followed by Joe Klecko fourth. Next will be Chuck Howley, who will not give a speech as he is 87 years old and suffering from dementia. His son, Scott Howley, will represent his father on stage. Darrelle Revis will be the sixth member of the Cl ..read more

Browns linebacker Sione Takitaki set a career high with 71 tackles during the 2022 season, but the year did not have a happy ending. The Browns finished with a 7-10 record and Takitaki missed the final five games of the season after tearing his ACL. During an appearance on the Browns' in-house Best Podcast Available, Takitaki updated where things stand with his rehab and said that he thinks he is going to be able to bounce all the way back during the 2023 season. "I am excited," Takitaki said. "The rehab process has been going well. I like where I am at. Just been rehabbing a ton and just tr ..read more

Entering his fourth season, Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert is in line for a contract extension that will make him among the highest-paid players in the sport. But even as a new deal has not been finalized, teammate Austin Ekeler feels like Herbert is primed for a big 2023. "As an individual, he’s already super motivated, wants to do the best, but now there’s more on [his plate]," Ekeler said in an interview with the Rich Eisen Show last week. "So, it continues to solidify how you want to continue to impress and move forward and progress. I know he’s going to be locked in even more than ..read more

ESPN's recent purge creates spots that need to be filled, presumably with internal candidates. For one of the bigger spots during football season, a pair of internal options have emerged as the leading candidates. Andrew Marchand of the New York Post reports that Scott Van Pelt and Laura Rutledge are the favorites to replace Suzy Kolber as the host of Monday Night Countdown. Kolber was included in the recent round of layoffs. Van Pelt already hosts the SportsCenter that follows the game. If he becomes the host of Monday Night Countdown and performs double duty, the post-game SportsCenter wou ..read more

Former NFL running back Le'Veon Bell now regrets ever leaving the place where his career started. Bell posted a video on social media over the weekend apologizing to Steelers fans and saying that in hindsight, he never should have left Pittsburgh. "I never apologized to the fans for sitting out, or leaving the Steelers," Bell said. "I never apologized. So I want to say I apologize for leaving the best damn fans there is in this damn world. I shouldn’t have left. I apologize, I should never have left. I apologize. That's my fault. That's on me.” Bell spent his first five NFL seasons with the ..read more

Expectations for the Packers in their first year without Aaron Rodgers aren't terribly high and that's quite alright with defensive tackle Kenny Clark. Clark has been with the team since 2016, so he's very familiar with the feeling of heading into the season with people predicting deep playoff runs in Green Bay. During an appearance on The Zach Gelb Show, Clark was asked if he feels the absence of such predictions this year is a sign of disrespect for his club. “One hundred percent, but that’s cool," Clark said. "I like it that way. This has been one of the first offseasons where we ain’t re ..read more

The slow time is over. In two days, the New York Jets become the first team to open training camp. They're getting the early start because they play in the Hall of Fame game in Canton, on Thursday, August 3. (Their opponents, the Browns, open camp on Friday.) For the Jets, the launch of camp includes the arrival of Hard Knocks cameras and microphones. It's well established that the Jets don't want the assignment. If the show hopes to maximize interest, NFL Films should fully embrace the tension, featuring (for example) scenes between producers and Jets officials regarding the limits of filmi ..read more

Cowboys running back Tony Pollard signed his franchise tag earlier this offseason and it looks like that will be the only thing he signs ahead of the 2023 season. Jeremy Fowler of ESPN reports that Pollard is not expected to sign a multi-year deal with the Cowboys before Monday afternoon's deadline for tagged players to sign anything other than a one-year deal with their teams. Barring a late change of heart on both sides, Pollard will be in line to make $10.091 million this year. He won't be able to sign a new deal with the Cowboys until after the 2023 season and will then be on track for a ..read more

The excellent Quarterback series on Netflix provides unique access and insights regarding the work and the lives of Patrick Mahomes, Kirk Cousins, and Marcus Mariota throughout the 2022 season. One surprising revelation from Cousins relates to the one day per week that he refuses to work. "If we're on a Sunday-to-Sunday schedule, unlike most quarterbacks I choose to take Tuesday entirely off," Cousins explains. "About eight years ago, I made the decision that I'm going to truly rest for 24 hours a week during the season. I think a first it threw the coaches off a little bit that, 'Wait a min ..read more

As the annual deadline for franchise-tagged players signing multi-year deal contracts arrives, it's a good time to address a couple of interesting wrinkles regarding what comes next. One is potentially relevant to this year's franchise-tagged players. One is not, but could have been. And there's a third one to file away for future reference, possibly. First, a reader asked last week whether a team could rescind the franchise tag after the mid-July deadline and then sign the player to a long-term deal. That cannot happen; the Collective Bargaining Agreement addresses it with this sentence in ..read more