Day: March 2, 2026

INDIANAPOLIS — Nearly three hours after his media availability in the Indiana Convention Center for the NFL Scouting Combine, I bumped into Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider, breathing a sigh of relief as he exited the facility. Everyone wanted a piece of Seattle’s top personnel man in Indianapolis. That comes with winning a Super Bowl, and that’s why it’s so hard to repeat. Schneider got a chance to briefly exhale after his team’s Super Bowl victory parade a few weeks ago, but now he’s back on the grind, figuring out how he’s going to keep the foundation of his football team together with the start of free agency looming and the draft right after that. “It’s really going to be about my private time, the studying and getting caught up with that,” Schneider said when I asked him at the podium about the shrinking timeline this offseason after the Seahawks won 17 games this year. “We had great free agency meetings during the season, so we’ll learn a lot about what’s going on down here this week. But yeah, the timeline part of that is real. … It’s like the discipline on the weekends to try to figure out how to get caught up. “We’ll get to it.” Schneider also said he does not expect the sale of the Seahawks by owner Jody Allen to impact his team’s plan for this offseason. “It’s just business as usual for us,” Schneider said. The Seahawks only have four draft picks this year. Schneider said part of the reason for that is Seattle anticipated last year’s draft class would be stronger than 2026 and wanted to take advantage of a deep draft talent pool in 2025. Schneider accomplished that by hitting on the team’s first-round selection in offensive guard Grey Zabel, one of the key pieces to Mike Macdonald’s defense in safety Nick Emmanwori, a pass-catching tight end in Elijah Arroyo and a developmental quarterback in Jalen Milroe. While everything fell into place for the Seahawks in 2025, Schneider has done a nice job building a roster that can compete for a Super Bowl for an extended period. Seattle’s average roster age of 25.8 was tied for the fourth-youngest roster in the league at the start of the regular season. Still, Schneider and the Seahawks have some work to do in free agency. Seattle has some money to keep many of its foundational pieces in the fold, including potentially offering new deals to young players eligible for extensions in wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba and cornerback Devon Witherspoon. Seattle’s projected over $60 million in salary cap space is the sixth-most in the NFL. The top player set to hit the market is running back Kenneth Walker III, but return specialist Rashid Shaheed, edge rusher Boye Mafe, safety Coby Bryant and cornerbacks Josh Jobe and Riq Woolen also will command attention in free agency. Schneider said he’d like to have Walker back. However, a Memphis native who trains in Dallas in the offseason, will have a robust market after finishing as Super Bowl MVP, potentially pricing himself out of staying in Seattle. Along with that, new offensive coordinator Brian Fleury comes from a franchise in San Francisco that has done a nice job of finding productive runners as mid-round selections in the draft. And Seattle’s zone blocking scheme, which originated in Denver decades ago with Mike Shanahan, is known for producing at a high level with less talented running backs. “We’ll start talking to all the agents and we’ll have a better feel where we’re going here towards the end of the week,” Schneider said, when asked about bringing back Walker. “Obviously, we’d love to have everybody. We want to have everybody back, you know, right? When you get done with something special like that, you’re like, ‘Let’s run it back. Let’s run it back.’ It’s going to be an interesting process.” Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald said he still hasn’t watched a replay of the Super Bowl victory and doesn’t plan on doing that anytime soon. “I’m going to Hawaii next week, so I ain’t doing it there either,” joked Macdonald at the podium last week. How Macdonald recreated the unique connectivity he established last season will be a priority once players return from a needed break this offseason. Macdonald emphasized the importance of evolving as a franchise, not being complacent about having won the Super Bowl and understanding the fragility of implementing a winning culture within a building. “The principle of how we are going to operate is we want to nail the daily goals — the daily standard of what we’re trying to achieve to become a championship team again,” Macdonald said. “It’s really going to be that simple. How we build the offseason program and what we do on a daily basis, that’s going to look a little different for a variety of reasons. “But how we do our business, how we interact with each other and how we attack schematically and how we put things together, that will all stay the same.” Macdonald also lost continuity with offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak leaving to take the head coaching job with the Las Vegas Raiders. However, he expects the core principles to remain the same on the side of the football with Fleury taking over. “We’re going to be the Seattle Seahawks,” Macdonald said. “We’re going to have a different evolution of our offense. It’s going to be built on the same principles, but how it comes to life and the exact plays we’re going to run, I can’t answer that yet. But I know how Brian is going to operate and how our staff is going to operate, and I’m really excited to see this offense come to life.” The bottom line is Schneider and Macdonald both understand the arduous task ahead in defending their Super Bowl title. But Schneider believes the Seahawks will be up for the challenge. “Even in the locker room, at the parade, they’re all talking about next year,” Schneider said. “It’s just cool. There’s a great mix of veteran leadership — dogs, young dogs, athletes, speed – and then guys that are willing to buy into development and their coaches, and the people in the building that are supporting them.” In the Big Picture, we contextualize key moves and moments so you can instantly understand why they matter.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

Here’s what’s happening this week Inside The Garage: Tyler Reddick knows how difficult it is to win one race, let alone three in a season. But three in a row? That’s hard for even him to fathom. And he just accomplished it. “What I see out of our competitors, it’s really hard to, week in and week out, be in contention to win,” Reddick said in the news conference Sunday following his victory at Circuit of the Americas. “So to be able to put it together like we have these first three is just pretty unreal.” [NASCAR HISTORY: 4 Takeaways From Tyler Reddick’s COTA Win] Reddick became the first driver in NASCAR Cup Series history to win three consecutive races to open the season as he followed his Daytona 500 victory with wins at Atlanta and Austin. Not only did Reddick set a new standard for wins to open the season, no organization has won three races to open the season since Petty Enterprises in 1963. For 23XI, which was formed late in the 2020 season and started competing in 2021, it is another sign of growth for the organization co-owned by Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin and basketball legend Michael Jordan. “When I started kicking around trying to find a race team that would let me buy in, none of them were going to give me the control that I wanted,” Hamlin said during his post-race news conference as the winning owner. “I don’t know what the word is for that, but I wanted to make sure if it failed, it was because of something I did, not someone else.” Reddick had just eight wins in 218 career starts before the streak. Those eight victories came at different tracks, as did the first two of 2026. He won at COTA in 2023, his fourth career win and his first victory for 23XI Racing. The year prior, he won the pole at COTA driving for Richard Childress Racing. And his first career victory, for RCR, came on a road course at Road America. So it’s no surprise that he won Sunday, but the odds of him doing it after back-to-back drafting-track victories were slim. “[I’m] just trying to soak it all in, honestly,” Reddick said. “I think it’s so fitting that it had to happen coming into here, a place where I got my first pole years ago. A place that, road-course wise, is a great fit for me.” The victories have come, thanks to better race craft. Reddick hit the hole at the right time to win at Daytona. He put himself in position to make a move for the win at Atlanta, where he led the final two laps. And he didn’t panic when it appeared Shane van Gisbergen and Ryan Blaney would be the class of the field at COTA after Reddick won the pole and faded a little in the opening stage. “Whether it was at the Roval or a number of these other [road-course] races, I kind of just burn up a little too quick and I ended up on the other side of it at the start of the race,” Reddick said. If he continues to show this type of race craft, who knows what 2026 could bring? But even those who do win three consecutive races know how hard it is to continue that dominance. The last time a driver won four consecutive races came in 2007, when Jimmie Johnson did it late in his championship run. Christopher Bell won three consecutive races last year — Atlanta, Austin and Phoenix — and then went on a 24-race winless streak before winning the playoff race at Bristol. Hamlin has confidence that his driver has more wins coming (although maybe not in a row). “He’s complete,” Hamlin said. “The one area that we continue to work on with him is on the short tracks. I think that’s where he can still improve a little bit. But we’re working pretty hard on improving him at those types of tracks. “But he’s complete. Certainly more complete than I am at this stage, where I’ve got a handful of races where it’s like, it would be tough for us to go out there and compete for a win. There’s less of those for him.” Gabehart-JGR Swing In Court Chris Gabehart can continue working as the Spire Motorsports Chief Motorsports Officer as long as his duties aren’t the same as they were when he was Joe Gibbs Racing’s director of Cup Series competition, according to a ruling Monday afternoon as reported by The Associated Press. Joe Gibbs Racing has sued Gabehart and Spire over allegedly stealing confidential information and over possible non-compete clauses in Gabehart’s contract. JGR has requested a temporary restraining order to keep Gabehart from working at Spire and an injunction to keep him from working there for 18 months. A hearing Friday in federal court in Charlotte centered on the non-compete clauses. With North Carolina being a right-to-work state, Gabehart indicated he had a non-tenable situation at JGR. Spire argues that his role — overseeing operations in Cup, trucks, sprint cars and late model programs — is different than his Cup Series director of competition role at JGR. Gabehart, in an email to a JGR executive and in court filings, said that his relationship with team co-owner Heather Gibbs, and her son, Ty, who drives for the team, was so strained that he didn’t think it could be repaired. Gabehart alleges that Gibbs is not held to the same accountability standards as the other drivers on the team. Attending the St. Petersburg Grand Prix truck and INDYCAR weekend (Spire parent company is TWG Motorsports, which also owns Andretti Global) Gabehart chose his words carefully when speaking to me and to the Associated Press. He said he felt bad that this is putting a cloud over NASCAR. And he also said that he doesn’t dislike Ty Gibbs, who won the O’Reilly Series title in 2022 and then whose father (Coy) unexpectedly died in his sleep that same night. Gabehart gave up his role as Denny Hamlin’s crew chief to become the team competition director and believed his role was to help strengthen the entire organization. “Deep down, I believe Ty is a really good person who has been dealt a really tough hand the last three years. Him and his family and all of that, and I feel really bad about that,” Gabehart said. “I share a ton of sympathy because of where I’ve been in trying to help, in a small way, to get through that and am thankful for all the family has done for me. “But unfortunately the 54 car [of Gibbs] and everything that went on last year, starting early in October of ’24 to where we are now, is an important part of my story. It’s an important part of how I’ve gotten here. And if this is something that we’re going to continue to have to talk about publicly, then I’ve got to continue to tell my story so it is understood. This is not about Ty personally, this is not about the family personally. ” TWG Motorsports CEO Dan Towriss backed his organization and said JGR was upset that Gabehart didn’t go to one of the blue blood teams in NASCAR. “I guess, apparently, there’s a caste system in NASCAR that I was unaware of,” Towriss told me and other reporters, later adding: “Do you want your employer telling you what you can and can’t do? This is Spire sticking it to the man. That’s what the story is about, or should say, Chris Gabehart.” In The News — INDYCAR’s officiating board confirmed that Kyle Novak will continue as the race director, Kevin “Rocket” Blanch remains overseeing tech and Arie Luyendyk and Max Papis will remain as chief stewards. Former Andretti crew chief Nick Allen added as a technical inspection manager. — JR Motorsports announced that long-time short-track standout Lee Pulliam will drive for the team in the O’Reilly Series race at Martinsville later this month. — The Indianapolis 500 test dates have been set for April 28-29. — Richard Childress Racing announced that Austin Hill would do a partial Cup schedule this year with his first Cup race this weekend at Phoenix. — Kyle Busch and Pacific Life Insurance (and all parties) have agreed to a settlement in Busch’s lawsuit against the company alleging misrepresentations in policies issued. Busch had sought more than $8 million in damages. Under The Radar It was a great opening INDYCAR weekend for Dale Coyne Racing in St. Petersburg, as Romain Grosjean finished eighth and rookie Dennis Hauger placed 10th. “This weekend is a dream come true,” Hauger said in a team news release. “I have been dreaming of this for a long time, … I know we have more we can find in ourselves to finish even better going forward. “We can build off of this performance, and I’m excited to go out and do this all again next week.” Social Spotlight Maybe it was NFL quarterback Jameis Winston’s pep talk that helped boost Hauger? Sweet Ride For you Tom Petty fans out there, the Felix Rosenqvist paint scheme for the INDYCAR season opener: They Said It “[Michael Jordan] reminded me early this week, he does things in threes. He expected no less today. I was really glad to be able to live up to the standards that he has for us and be able to deliver three in a row. That was really cool to share that moment with him.” —Tyler Reddick In Inside The Garage, Bob Pockrass takes us behind the scenes of the motorsports world the way only he can.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

INDIANAPOLIS — There was plenty of discussion all last week regarding whether the 2026 NFL Draft class might underwhelm both at the combine and on the field this fall. Time will tell on the latter. But man, the top prospects were outstanding during their workouts in Indy. They demonstrated elite athleticism that, maybe, folks didn’t see coming. (I didn’t.) The 2026 class generated real buzz for draft day. I’m much more enthusiastic than I was at the start of last week. Welcome to “Sound Smart,” this time focusing on observations from the NFL Scouting Combine. If I do my job, you’ll be fluent in the NFL’s offseason action. You might notice there are several notes that have nothing to do with the combine. That’s because the event plays host not just to draft prospects but to almost every NFL coach, GM, scout and agent. It’s a great time to dig deep into what’s to come this offseason. Let’s dive in. 1. IF THERE’S ONE THING YOU SHOULD KNOW The castoff quarterback market will offer a massive opportunity. By now, it’s common knowledge that the QB options are especially limited this offseason. In the draft, there’s Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza (the presumptive No. 1 pick) — and that’s just about it. In free agency, the class should include Aaron Rodgers, Malik Willis, Kyler Murray, Tua Tagovailoa, Kirk Cousins and Geno Smith, among others. I predict that Willis is going to be the hottest ticket and top earner at roughly $30 million per year, which is relatively cheap for a starting QB — but of course, you have to keep in mind that he has started only six NFL games. It’s the offseason of the castoff quarterback. But there was a word that I kept hearing in Indianapolis when it came to the quarterbacks. Value. One QB-needy executive expressed confidence to me about his team’s search. And that was, in part, fueled by the prospect that the team wouldn’t have to make a large financial commitment to get a good quarterback. These QBs are not necessarily castoffs because they’re bad. Rodgers, Murray, Tua, Cousins and Smith — they’ve all been highly productive in recent seasons. You could contend that every single one of them was, at one point, a top 10 QB. And that’s why they’ve all been highly paid in recent seasons. In most cases, they were overpaid. That exorbitant pay actively interfered with their performance levels, because the bloated contract made life difficult for their team to provide the supporting cast that the QB so badly needed. The beauty of a guy like Smith or Tagovailoa, they’ve already made at least $100 million each during their careers. They shouldn’t need to bank a whole lot more than that. And so, when they look at contracts this offseason, they can pick the best situation — rather than the most lucrative deal. That’s where the opportunity comes into play. An NFL GM could find his QB1 and criminally underpay him. I’m not going to foolishly predict all of these quarterbacks can bounce back by taking $10 million per year. But I will say that there are some compelling places where these quarterbacks might be lining up to sign that contract. The Vikings. The Steelers. The Rams. The Chiefs. I also don’t hate the Falcons, given their talent on offense. Murray might not have looked great in Arizona at $55 million per year. But what about in Minnesota, where coach Kevin O’Connell is dialing up plays that get the ball in the hands of talented pass-catchers Justin Jefferson, T.J. Hockenson and Jordan Addison? That actually sounds pretty good, right? Smith might have been a disaster in Las Vegas. But what if he was playing distributor to running back Bijan Robinson, receiver Drake London and tight end Kyle Pitts in Atlanta? That unit is stacked like the Seattle offense was when Smith finished fourth in NFL passing yards from 2022-2024. He could do it again, right? It’s not a sexy year to get a QB. But because of that, it might be a sensible one. 2. EDUCATED GUESSES ON THE OFFSEASON Here are 11 quick-fire takes, based on what I heard in Indianapolis. 3. WORKOUT WARRIORS Oregon TE Kenyon Sadiq: He wasn’t just the fastest tight end ever at the combine, with a 4.39-second 40-yard dash. He also measured in at a true 6-foot-3 (which some scouts thought wouldn’t happen). And despite being on the shorter side for a tight end, he hit a 43.5-inch vertical leap. He’s not the prototype at tight end, but he could still be remarkable if used properly. Ohio State LB Sonny Syles: His workout was so good that Ravens star Kyle Hamilton, probably the best safety in the NFL, said he got “framemogged” for a combine workout comparison. Styles’ measurables might’ve made him the most complete athlete in this class. Oregon safety Dillon Thieneman: If there’s a guy who might be able to go pound for pound with Styles, it’s Thieneman. And it’s not just that he ran a 4.35-second 40-yard dash or jumped 41 inches in the vertical leap (or 10-feet-5-inches in the broad jump). It’s also that the film showed an elite safety and a three-year starter. Just an absurd workout. Notre Dame RB Jeremiyah Love: The measurables came in where you’d expect after watching his film, including his 4.36-second 40-yard dash (matching what Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs ran in 2023). But it was actually his movement skills in drills (not just running back drills but also receiver drills) that jumped — confirming that he would have no business sliding down the board. One scout told me something that echoed the sentiment around Indy: “Love is a better prospect than [Ashton] Jeanty.”Jeanty went No. 6 to the Raiders last season and rushed for 975 yards and five touchdowns as a rookie. 4. SAVING HIS DRAFT STOCK There’s Mendoza. Then there’s Alabama’s Ty Simpson at QB2. But what about Garrett Nussmeier? If you’re a draft nerd or a college football fan, you’ll know that there were high hopes for LSU QB Garrett Nussmeier in 2026. He had high hopes for himself, too. In Indy, he said he returned to school this past season to win the national championship. And no doubt, he wanted to land in Round 1 of this year’s draft, given his pedigree. After all, his father, Doug Nussmeier, is a former NFL QB and currently the offensive coordinator for the Saints. For Garrett, things haven’t quite gone according to plan. He helped the Tigers upset then No. 4 Clemson in the season opener, which started a four-game LSU win streak. But it has been mostly bad news from there. For most of the season, Nussmeier played through a “torso injury,” which clearly hampered his game. And at the end of the year, he couldn’t keep the Tigers competitive with the nation’s top teams — suffering blowout losses to Texas A&M and Alabama. “Hopefully the next few weeks go really well for him and he can get back to where he should be — in the first round,” Joe Sloan, former LSU OC and current Kentucky OC, told me by phone last week. “All it takes is a couple teams to go, ‘You know what, we got the opportunity to do this. Let’s look at the entirety of all the information and make the right decision.’” I’m not sure Nussmeier did what he needed to do to solidify his spot as QB3 — and the first round might be a pipe dream. “He played well in 2024 — not so great in 2025,” a high-ranking AFC executive told me. “His combine performance was OK overall. He did have a couple nice throws. Meetings will be important for him the rest of the spring, and pro day.” Nussmeier probably can’t leapfrog Simpson as the draft’s QB2. But the LSU product can probably secure a Day 2 draft slot as a team’s developmental project. If that’s a team with a track record of success at the position, it will probably be what’s best for the QB. 5. PEELING BACK THE CURTAIN How the Seahawks triggered Drake Maye’s mental lapses in the Super Bowl. Even after all the film breakdown of the Seahawks’ Super Bowl win, I went to the combine wanting to better understand how cornerback Devon Witherspoon became the hero of the game — and in the most unlikely way. How did the Witherspoon blitzes go so right? A source familiar with the Super Bowl game plan laid out how the Seahawks fooled Maye so many times with Witherspoon. He was, after all, the real Super Bowl MVP. His series of blitzes on third down completely changed the complexion of the game — contributing to New England picking up just six of 15 third downs and snagging an interception to close out the game. The Seahawks recognized an opportunity to use New England’s two-by-one receiver sets to disguise their cornerback blitzes. Every time, Witherspoon came from the two-receiver side — right out of the slot. As good as Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels usually is at exploiting matchups, that formation ended up giving the Seahawks a Trojan Horse to get into New England’s backfield on third down. To make matters worse for the Patriots, Witherspoon ended up being an especially apt blitzer, in part because — as he explained it — he was exploiting New England’s propensity to overset (sliding toward the sideline), which opened up interior rushes (by a speedy, slippery 185-pound cornerback). The Patriots must have known the blitz was in Seattle’s repertoire, especially after seeing it the first time. But Maye just couldn’t recognize it, even with indicators (often a safety standing over the blitzing cornerback). “He got caught napping,” a source said. Maye’s intellectual maturation went exponential in 2026, but he had yet to hit the heights he needed for the Super Bowl against Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald, undoubtedly the smartest defensive mind in football. 6. WHAT WE LEARNED Broncos coach Sean Payton gave up playcalling to retain OC Davis Webb, per source. It was surprising to see a tenured coach like Payton turn over playcalling at this point in his career. But it wasn’t for a lack of dominance or confidence. Instead, it was to make room for a young voice. There were several teams interested in hiring Webb as their offensive coordinator — including but not limited to the Buffalo Bills. To keep Webb, Payton offered playcalling duties “as a part of the deal,” per a team source. Payton will continue to contribute heavily during the week on the game plan while also weighing in on the playcalling during the games. But Payton knew he had to keep Webb. And this was, apparently, the only way. While on the topic of playcalling, I found it interesting to hear that Payton admitted internally to the Broncos that he did not regret going for it on fourth down against the Patriots in the AFC Championship — a play that ultimately determined the outcome of the game. Payton said he regretted the play call, per a source. It was fourth-and-1 from the 14-yard line, and Payton dialed up a play-action throw from Jarrett Stidham. No one was open, and the backup QB threw an interception. Payton was right to own the poor play call. It was a mess. The decision not to kick a field goal — that’s one that’ll fuel offseason discussion.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports