Welcome back to The MMQB newsletter. The NFL combine is in full swing, with the league descending upon Indianapolis for the week. The festivities kicked off with coaches, GMs and prospects taking to their respective podiums to answer the media's questions, which generated plenty of news ahead of the on-field workouts. Albert Breer has provided daily notes from the combine, including a breakdown of the teams facing crucial quarterback decisions this offseason. Matt Verderame and Gilberto Manzano are also on-site, letting readers in on the sights and sounds around Lucas Oil Stadium and analyzing the prospects making waves.
The MMQB will be reporting from Indianapolis all week and through the weekend, so stay tuned for more daily dispatches from the combine.
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By Albert Breer The Browns' willingness to give Deshaun Watson a go is logical, even with how poorly the 2022 trade to get him has gone. And the reasons are largely a matter of simple economics.
Cleveland owes Watson $46 million this year. The quarterback's getting that $46 million one way or the other—and if the Browns were to cut him neither he nor his new team would be compelled to do a deal with him at more than the league minimum, and stick Cleveland with the remainder. So with that in mind, and with a new staff getting a fresh set of eyes on Watson, and Watson potentially fighting for his career, it makes sense to give a healthy 30-year-old three-time Pro Bowl quarterback a good long look this offseason. It'd be different, by the way, if the Browns were drafting a quarterback with the sixth overall pick, which would create a scenario where you'd want to clear the decks for the young guy. Based on the makeup of this year's quarterback class, that isn't happening. So instead, Todd Monken will try to do with Watson what Kevin Stefanski couldn't. And if it doesn't work out, I don't think you've lost much that wasn't already gone. Which, I think, is why both Monken and GM Andrew Berry have left that door open this week. |
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By Matt Verderame Rueben Bain Jr. wants to kill everything. David Bailey can get inside your head if he chooses. Two approaches toward the same goal: Find the quarterback and get him to the ground.
With the 2026 NFL draft only a couple months away, Bain and Bailey are universally seen as the two best pass rushers in the class alongside Ohio State's Arvell Reese, who some draft experts believe is an inside linebacker at the next level.
Bain, 21, starred for the University of Miami (Fla.) for three seasons. The 270-pounder totaled 20.5 sacks and 33.5 tackles for loss with the Hurricanes, while dominating in the College Football Playoff this past season, amassing five sacks and eight tackles for loss across four games. Now at the NFL combine, Bain has taken the same attitude from the field to his draft preparation. "I came in with the mindset of just a kill-all mentality," said Bain of his postseason success. "It's the playoffs. Win or go home. If you take my track record in the playoffs, that's my best football." Bain also noted that he continued with his kill-all mentality in interviews with teams in Indianapolis. It's an approach that has served Bain well throughout his football journey, as evidenced by winning ACC Defensive Player of the Year and All-American honors in 2025. |
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By Gilberto Manzano For a second, I thought Fernando Mendoza was in the middle of the moving circle of people heading my way in one of the hallways at the Indiana Convention Center on Wednesday. Once the horde of media and this mystery subject walked past the safety and health conference, which is being held at the same time as the NFL combine, I realized that it was Titans GM Mike Borgonzi, not the popular Indiana quarterback, who was holding the walk-and-chat session.
Eventually, Borgonzi said goodbye to the local reporters before seeing them again seconds later at the podium for another interview session. It never hurts to get more opportunities to ask Borgonzi about how he plans to add more weapons for quarterback Cam Ward, last year's No. 1 pick.
As for another combine quirk, Borgonzi was at podium No. 7, right next to Patriots coach Mike Vrabel, who was speaking at the same time as the GM of his former team. Vrabel and Borgonzi didn't cross paths in Tennessee, but Todd Monken and Mike Macdonald did for one season in Baltimore.
In 2023, Monken was the Ravens' offensive coordinator, while Macdonald was the defensive coordinator. On Wednesday, Monken and Macdonald spoke at the same time as head coaches and were side by side at podiums No. 4 and 5, to the left of Vrabel, who sported a denim shirt and offered interviewing advice to the reporters. More on how Vrabel prefers to interview draft prospects later on. |
Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard/USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images |
By Albert Breer Oregon TE Kenyon Sadiq Sadiq has a chance, if he goes through the physical testing, to be what Nick Emmanwori was a year ago—the prospect who proves too much of a physical outlier for anyone to ignore. Some expect that Sadiq, at about 6' 3" and 240 pounds, will run in the 4.3s and jump 40", which would be outstanding numbers for a receiver half his size. And the bonus with Sadiq (who did have a little issue with drops) is that, within his Shannon Sharpe-type skill set, there is a real willingness to block as well.
Linebackers to watch Some view Arvell Reese as the draft's best prospect, with size, length and freakish range that would be confirmed if he decides to run and jump (his 40 time could be pretty eye-opening, I've heard). Similarly, Sonny Styles—a 6' 4", 250-pound converted safety who doesn't have the pass-rush value that Reese does—is believed to have the potential to test like Tremaine Edmunds in 2018, and show to be the class's most well-rounded athlete. If you want to have fun with that one, you can Google Styles's high school hoops highlights. |
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Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images |
By Matt Verderame The whispers of the early offseason are growing into shouts over the drinks and din of the bars in Indianapolis, with the NFL world buzzing at the 2026 NFL combine about the weeks ahead. A few conversations stand out above the rest, including the players about to get paid and surprise the masses. To that point, look no further than two quarterbacks who couldn't play more differently and couldn't be in more different stages of their careers, but are tied by the common bind of being available at the right time.
Malik Willis and Kirk Cousins. On Tuesday, a few announcements from podiums at the Indiana Convention Center should tell you plenty. For starters, first-year Falcons general manager Ian Cunningham told reporters the team would release Cousins on March 11, the first day of the new league year. Cousins, 37, will be free to find a new home, or perhaps return to an old one. Then there were the words of the general managers, Jon-Eric Sullivan of the Dolphins and Monti Ossenfort of the Cardinals. Both stated that any possibility is on the table for their starting quarterbacks, Tua Tagovailoa and Kyler Murray, opening the door for both to be shopped in trade talks. In Cleveland, GM Andrew Berry expressed false optimism about Deshaun Watson competing with Shedeur Sanders, a potential outcome born of the roster not having a solid starter at quarterback. |
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By Gilberto Manzano As for another competitive game, reporters found unique ways to get Raiders GM John Spytek, who has the No. 1 pick, to speak about what he's looking for in a quarterback. Spytek played ball a bit, but he avoided saying much about Indiana's Fernando Mendoza. More on that in a bit. Also, I spotted several Indiana Hoosiers flags on my morning walk. Here are more sights and sounds from Day 1 at the combine. Without hesitation, Spytek said he expects star edge rusher Maxx Crosby to be in a Raiders uniform when the season starts. He was then asked what gives him confidence that Crosby will be back in Las Vegas.
"Maxx is an elite player, and I've been very upfront from the start when I got here that we're in the business of having really good players on the team, and we need a lot more of them. And it's hard to build a great team without elite players," Spytek said. The Raiders would be better off trading Crosby to acquire more draft picks, which is the best path to adding the elite players this team desperately needs. But Spytek doesn't seem interested in moving his disgruntled star player, or maybe this is his way of driving up the asking price. Las Vegas shouldn't hesitate if a team offers two first-round picks for Crosby, but it's tough envisioning that for a player who will turn 29 in August and has battled injuries in recent seasons. |
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By Matt Verderame The wily old general manager had one last trick up his sleeve. It was just before the championship and the opposing team's quarterback was a total ringer—a kid who played big-time ball in high school at the nearby prep academy and Division I at the college down the road. The kind of guy who could topple his Mill Valley flag football dynasty and snatch a fifth championship from his grasp. So the night before, he invited the quarterback to a concert, Neil Young's famous Bridge School benefit at the Shoreline. He recruited, according to friends, two "beautiful hippie chicks" to keep the quarterback's cup full and asked that they not bring him back until just before kickoff. Sure enough, just after 10 a.m. the next morning, as panicked teammates milled about the field at Tamalpais High, 22 miles north of San Francisco, staring at their watches and calls to start the game began to mount, the quarterback arrived at the field in the clothes he'd worn the night before. As the story goes, if someone had lit a match inside the quarterback's huddle, all of Marin County would have gone up like a mushroom cloud. He played a step slow all afternoon (and in jeans). And sure enough, the GM's team, the Tamalpais Chiefs, won in the end on a heroic fourth-and-forever touchdown run. All part of the plan. |
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