Author: rb809rb

Yahoo Sports AM is our daily newsletter that keeps you up to date on all things sports. Sign up here to get it every weekday morning.

🚨 Headlines

📺 Huge ratings for CFP finale: Indiana’s win over Miami in the national title game averaged 30.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched non-NFL sports telecast since Game 7 of the 2016 World Series.

Advertisement

🏈 Minter is coming (to Baltimore): The Ravens are hiring Chargers DC Jesse Minter as their new head coach. After spending the last four years under Jim Harbaugh in Los Angeles and at Michigan, he’ll now succeed Jim’s brother, John, in Charm City.

⚽️ Rodman inks historic deal: Trinity Rodman has signed a three-year contract with the Washington Spirit reportedly worth over $2 million annually, including bonuses, making her the highest-paid women’s soccer player in the world.

🏆 NFL awards: MVP finalists Matthew Stafford, Drake Maye, Josh Allen, Christian McCaffrey and Trevor Lawrence headline the list of finalists for the NFL’s end-of-season awards, which will be announced during the “NFL Honors” show on Feb. 5, three days before the Super Bowl.

⚾️ Nats trade All-Star: In their first big move under new leadership, the Nationals traded All-Star lefty MacKenzie Gore to the Rangers for five prospects, including the No. 12 pick in last year’s draft, Gavin Fien.

Advertisement

🍿 Sports make Oscars splash

“Marty Supreme” and “F1” both received Oscar nominations for Best Picture on Thursday, becoming the 18th and 19th sports movies* to be up for the top honor at the Academy Awards.

Historic duo: This marks the first time that two sports movies received Best Picture nominations in the same year.

The full list (winners in bold):

2. The Pride of the Yankees (1942)

12. Million Dollar Baby (2004)

*Editor’s note: This list is according to Variety. There may be other Best Picture nominees that could be considered sports-themed (this list on IMDB includes “Gladiator,” for example). It ultimately comes down to your own definition of what is and isn’t a “sports movie.”

Advertisement

📺 Weekend Watchlist

🏈 Conference Championships

The Final Four teams take the field on Sunday with a chance to earn their place in Super Bowl LX. Who ya got?

Patriots (-4.5) at Broncos (3pm ET, CBS)

While the Patriots are starting MVP finalist Drake Maye, the Broncos are starting backup Jarrett Stidham, who hasn’t thrown a pass in over two years. He’s just the second QB in NFL history to make his first start of the season in a Conference Championship, joining Roger Staubach (1972 Cowboys).

Rams (+2.5) at Seahawks (6:30pm, Fox)

This is the ninth time since the 1970 merger that the No. 1 scoring offense (Rams) has faced the No. 1 scoring defense (Seahawks) in the Conference Championship or later. Good news for Seattle: the top defense went 7-1 in the first eight meetings.

Advertisement

🎾 Australian Open

The year’s first Grand Slam reaches its halfway point this weekend (Fri-Sun, ESPN+/ESPN2), with all quarterfinalists set to be determined by Monday.

Stan the Man: 40-year-old Stan Wawrinka, who plans to retire at season’s end, won a marathon five-setter on Thursday to become the oldest man in 48 years to reach the third round of a major. Next up is a date with No. 9 Taylor Fritz.

🧗 “Skyscraper”

Netflix’s latest foray into live sports arrives tonight (8pm) in the form of Alex Honnold’s death-defying, untethered climb up Taipei 101, the 1,667-foot skyscraper in Taiwan’s capital city. Honnold is best known for his untethered ascent up Yosemite’s El Capitan, as documented in the Oscar-winning film, “Free Solo.”

Advertisement

What he’s saying: “One of the big differences between climbing a building and rock climbing is that there really isn’t a hardest single move,” says Honnold. “The challenge comes from the overall physicality of it. The fatigue that [sets in] over the course of the building is slightly harder to anticipate. I don’t know how it’s gonna feel.”

🏀 No. 5 Vanderbilt at No. 2 South Carolina

The undefeated Commodores will try to keep their perfect season alive in Sunday’s blockbuster women’s hoops matchup between SEC foes (3pm, ESPN).

Best of the rest: No. 1 UConn, the nation’s only other undefeated team, visits Seton Hall (Sat. 12pm, Peacock), and No. 10 Iowa hosts No. 12 Ohio State (Sun. 2pm, Peacock).

Advertisement

👊 UFC 324

Paddy Pimblett and Justin Gaethje’s lightweight title bout on Saturday night in Las Vegas (9pm, Paramount+) headlines the first UFC event of the year, and the first of the Paramount+ era.

No more PPV: This is the first event under the UFC’s new broadcast deal with Paramount+, which will allow viewers to watch every fight with a basic subscription to the streaming service ($8.99/month). That’s a substantial change after years at ESPN+, where every numbered event cost $79.99, on top of the monthly subscription.

❄️ Winter X Games

This weekend’s event at Buttermilk Mountain (Fri-Sun, ESPN/ABC) marks the 25th annual Winter X Games in Aspen, Colorado.

Advertisement

Athletes to watch: Americans Alex Hall and Nick Goepper (slopestyle), Austria’s Anna Gasser (big air) and Australia’s Scotty James (halfpipe) are among the Olympic medalists who will be using this weekend as a warm-up for next month’s Winter Games.

More to watch:

• 🏀 NBA: Rockets at Pistons (Fri. 7pm, Prime); Knicks at 76ers (Sat. 3pm, ABC); Warriors at Timberwolves (Sat. 5:30pm, ABC); Lakers at Mavericks (Sat. 8:30pm, ABC) … Detroit (32-10) leads the East by a season-high 5.5 games.

• 🏒 NHL: Lightning at Blackhawks (Fri. 7pm, ESPN); Canadiens at Bruins (Sat. 7pm, NHL); Avalanche at Maple Leafs (Sun. 1:30pm, NHL) … Colorado (34-5-9) has more regulation losses in their last eight games (3) than they did in their first 40 games (2).

• 🏀 NCAAM: No. 22 UNC at No. 14 Virginia (Sat. 2pm, ESPN); No. 11 Illinois at No. 4 Purdue (Sat. 3pm, Fox); No. 6 Houston at No. 12 Texas Tech (Sat. 6:30pm, ESPN) … Houston (11 straight) and Illinois (8) are both riding long winning streaks.

• ⛳️ Golf: The American Express (Fri-Sun, Golf/ESPN+); Hero Dubai Desert Classic (Fri-Sun, Golf) … Min Woo Lee and Pierceson Coody (-10) lead in California; Francesco Molinari (-7) led after Round 1 in Dubai, with the second round already underway.

• ⚽️ EPL: Newcastle vs. Aston Villa(Sun. 9am, Peacock); Arsenal vs. Manchester United (Sun. 11:30am, Peacock) … Matchday 23 of 38.

• ⚽️ Friendly: USWNT vs. Paraguay (Sat. 5:30pm, TNT) … In Los Angeles.

Full weekend slate.

❤️ Why we love sports

Today’s reader submission is especially timely given the QB situation in Denver, with backup Jarrett Stidham stepping in for the injured Bo Nix.

Kathleen Dobe-Call (Syracuse, New York) writes:

Since we’re lifelong Syracusans, we of course closely follow SU teams. Our younger son, Jesse, was just a toddler when Donovan McNabb was drafted by the Eagles, so he quickly claimed Philadelphia as his NFL team. He wore his McNabb jersey everywhere — even to a Lions game when we took the boys to Detroit.

Advertisement

He was crushed in 2005 when the Eagles lost the Super Bowl. He got his hopes up again in 2017 when they were playing so well, but was distraught when Carson Wentz went down with an injury, because he really thought they had a chance to go deep.

As the Eagles made their playoff run, Jesse was excited that Nick Foles kept leading them to wins, but he tried not to get too confident, especially once we realized the Patriots would be their Super Bowl opponent.

Jesse came home from college to watch Super Bowl LII with us, and we gathered around the living room TV together. As the teams traded touchdowns in the second half, we started to get that familiar sinking feeling that Tom Brady would pull it off yet again.

But when Foles made that fourth-down pass to keep the drive alive, Jesse jumped up and yelled, “SO HELP ME GOD, IF NICK FOLES WINS THIS SUPER BOWL FOR US, I’M NAMING MY FIRST DOG AFTER HIM!”

Advertisement

Sure enough, Foles then threw the touchdown to Zach Ertz, and it was upheld! More tense moments followed, until Brady’s Hail Mary fell incomplete. The Eagles had won their first Super Bowl! Jesse was ecstatic! I was so, so happy for him. And sure enough, three years later, when Jesse got his first apartment, he got a sweet little corgi.

Meet Foles…

✍️ Submit your story: Do you have a fondest sports memory? Or an example of sports having a positive impact on your life? If you’d like to share, email me at kendall.baker@yahooinc.com. We hope to feature at least one story per week throughout 2026.

Advertisement

🏀 NBA midseason grades

Every NBA team has played 41 games and most have played more, which means we’re due for midseason report cards.

Find your team: East | West

📚 Good reads

In addition to Yahoo Sports’ original offerings, we have a growing list of best-in-class partners. Here are the best reads of the week, courtesy of the Yahoo Sports Network.

🏀 College Basketball: How NYU women’s basketball quietly became D-III’s No. 1 team (Eden Laase, The Athletic)

There is a purity to this level of basketball. No pro dreams clouding minds. No bank accounts overflowing with NIL money. No scholarships tying players to the program. “Other levels are transactional,” associate head coach Nettie Respondek said. “There’s nothing holding these girls here. They can walk away at any time. But they play because they love their team, they love the game and they love the work.”

⛳️ Golf: Tommy Fleetwood finally won. Now comes the hard part (Sean Zak, GOLF.com)

Advertisement

Whether it’s fellow pros, family or just another golf writer, everyone has been asking him the same thing lately: “What’s different, mate?” The truth: Tommy still doesn’t know. “It’s an obvious question to ask,” Fleetwood admits. “Surely there must be something different. I ask myself that all the time as well.”

👊 UFC: ‘I was born to be here’: Ateba Gautier is UFC 324’s most terrifying young force (Chuck Mindenhall, Uncrowned)

Ateba Gautier, a Cameroon-born middleweight built like a perfect Mr. Olympia, is an exception to the rule. He happens to be a lover AND a fighter. For Gautier, fisticuffs are an act of love. Love of fighting. Love of the warrior standing opposite him, welcoming him into the pocket. Love of the sport, the moment, and the ritual of parting a man from his senses. It’s a love of fraternity, because to be locked in the cage is a shared experience that will last forever.

⚾️ Collectibles: ‘This isn’t me’: Seven MLB error cards featuring photos of the wrong player (Ben Burrows, Cllct)

Advertisement

When Carlos Beltrán was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame on Tuesday night, collectors might have started searching for his key rookie cards. Here’s the problem: One of those cards, Beltrán’s 1995 Topps Traded rookie, features a photo of a teammate who never climbed higher than Class AA. Beltrán isn’t alone with this unfortunate case of mistaken identity. In fact, he’s not even the first Hall of Famer to have an image of someone else pictured on his card.

🏀 NBA trivia

The last seven NBA MVP Awards went to non-Americans, and that streak looks poised to continue as the current betting favorites for this season’s award are Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Canada) and Luka Dončić (Slovenia).

Advertisement

Question: Who was the last American to win NBA MVP?

Hint: Guard.

Answer at the bottom.

🏈 The Cowboys’ drought continues

This weekend’s NFC title game, which yet again does not feature the Cowboys, serves as our annual reminder that “Big D” has had a rough go of it for, well, a while now.

The drought continues: Dallas’ last trip to the Conference Championship came all the way back in 1995, a 30-year drought that’s the longest in the NFC and third-longest in the NFL. In fact, just six other teams across the “Big Four” leagues have suffered such a run of final four futility.

Advertisement

• 🏈 NFL: Browns (last trip to the final four: 1989) and Dolphins (1992)

• ⚾️ MLB: Pirates (1992) and Reds (1995)

• 🏀 NBA: Wizards (1979) and Hornets (never, enfranchised in 1988)

One is not like the others: It’s not all that surprising that the six teams above have endured such droughts; they’re not exactly considered “Blue Bloods.” But the Cowboys? They’re “America’s Team”! The most valuable sports franchise in the world! Yet they haven’t reached their league’s semifinals in three decades and counting. But hey, if they pull it off next year, that might just warrant another eight-episode Netflix documentary.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Trivia answer: James Harden (2017-18)

We hope you enjoyed this edition of Yahoo Sports AM, our daily newsletter that keeps you up to date on all things sports. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.

Four starting quarterbacks remain in this year’s NFL playoffs. One has thrown as many regular-season passes as you have over the last two years. One is in the midst of a remarkable career rehabilitation. One is already getting fitted for GOAT status after just two seasons.

And then there’s Matthew Stafford. Depending on your perspective, he’s either bound straight for Canton or a fortunate stat-padder, no in-between. And what he does this weekend in the NFC championship is going to give one side of those perspectives a whole lot of new ammunition.

Advertisement

Stafford is absolutely a member of the Hall of Very Good, but Hall of Fame? That’s where it gets tricky, and the first task when considering Stafford is to consider what exactly your standards are for the Hall of Fame. Should the Hall of Fame select just a tiny handful of players from every generation, or should the Hall expand and contract based on the talent under scrutiny? Should players be compared to their peers, or across all of NFL history?

You can frame the debate on Stafford however you want to achieve your desired outcome — Hall of Famer or close-but-not-quite. Let’s dig in on some of the philosophical questions that accompany every Hall of Fame application:

Was he among the best quarterbacks of his generation?

It’s Stafford’s bad luck to be playing quarterback in the absolute Golden Era for quarterbacking. It’s tough to get much notice for your play when you’re in the mix with Brady, Manning, Rodgers and Mahomes. Stafford is firmly in the second tier of quarterbacks — Matt Ryan, Philip Rivers, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson — and an unquestioned star, but is that enough to get him to Canton?

Advertisement

Was he among the best quarterbacks of any given season?

This one, we can track. Outside of two seasons (2023 and 2025) Stafford hasn’t received any meaningful support from voters assessing his year-to-year credentials. He only has one notable MVP finish (8th in 2023, though he could win this year) and just three Pro Bowl seasons in his 17 years in the league. Again, it’s tough when you’re fighting for elbow room against at least two of the heads on the Mount Rushmore of QBs, but still … isn’t that what a Hall of Famer is supposed to do?

Did he win games?

Here’s where we have to start applying some retroactive grace to Stafford’s career. He labored in Detroit for 12 long years, a stretch where Detroit only reached the playoffs three times and didn’t win a single game. Stafford led the league in game-winning drives in three of these seasons, in part because that was the only way the Lions could win. Once Stafford hit LA, of course, things changed in a hurry to the tune of a Super Bowl victory in his very first season there.

Advertisement

His final tally in Detroit: 74-90-1 (.452)

His running tally in LA: 46-28 (.622)

Did he win big games?

This is why the 2025 season is so important for Stafford’s Hall of Fame case. Two Super Bowl wins in five seasons, combined with his massive stats, ought to be more than enough to usher Stafford into the Hall eventually. Stafford doesn’t yet have the epic Big Moment that Eli Manning claims, but two rings make a pretty good case all their own.

Did he put up big numbers?

Absolutely. Stafford currently ranks sixth all-time in passing yardage, and he could pass Aaron Rodgers by Halloween if Rodgers retires. Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Peyton Manning are likely out of reach, but Brett Favre at No. 4 could be in play with two more decent seasons. Stafford also ranks 7th in career touchdowns — Rivers is two ahead of him — and in the top 10 in passes both attempted and completed. In technical terms: the dude has spent his career slinging it.

Advertisement

The knock on Stafford’s numbers, of course, is that so many of them came in the service of futile causes, both in games and seasons already lost. “Stat Padford” is a wicked nickname that nonetheless serves its purpose. If Detroit had been a relevant team in competitive games and seasons, would Stafford’s gaudy numbers still look the same?

Once you get past Brady and Manning, Hall of Fame candidacies are basically campaigns, and campaigns are won and lost based on storytelling. Stafford is setting up for a perfect narrative arc here — laboring for a decade-plus on a terrible team, then exploding once he got some talent around him. Going from QB obscurity to a late-career MVP and Super Bowl appearances would be an easy story to tell for a Hall of Fame campaign.

So there you go. Matt Stafford might just have a whole lot more to play for this weekend than just a single season’s success. Football immortality might just be on the line.

The College Football Playoff will stay at 12 teams for the 2026 season.

Sources told Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger that college football’s conference commissioners could not agree on an expanded format for the postseason ahead of Friday’s deadline set by ESPN. That lack of an agreement means the playoff will include five conference champions and seven at-large teams for the third straight season.

It’s pretty clear that those in charge of college football want to expand the CFP again. They just can’t agree on how they want to do it. The Big Ten and SEC hold the decision-making power for the playoff. The Big Ten wants to double the size of the playoff to 24 teams. The SEC wants a 16-team playoff that adds four at-large teams. There’s been no common ground. Yet.

Advertisement

The wrangling on the playoff format lasted for much of the 2025 season and is set to continue until the playoff inevitably expands … until the SEC and the Big Ten come to an agreement. One option on the table? A 16-team playoff for multiple years before the playoff expands to 24 teams like the second-tier FCS playoffs.

Other conferences are amenable to the SEC’s 16-team idea, but they’re also the minority voices in the room. Thanks to a 2024 vote, the playoff format decisions ultimately come down to the common ground the Big Ten and SEC can find.

The 2027 title game is even later

If you thought there was a long wait for the 2026 title game on Jan. 19, you better start prepping for next season. That wait is going to be nearly a week longer.

Advertisement

The 2027 CFP national championship game in Las Vegas has an announced date of Jan. 25. That’s the week after Martin Luther King Jr. day — the date of the first two CFP title games in the 12-team playoff era.

The dates of the other games haven’t been announced, but if the quarterfinals are on Jan. 1 again, it reasons that the semifinals will be played on Thursday, Jan. 14 and Friday, Jan. 15 to prevent a team from playing on less than a week’s rest and having a three-week gap between the semifinals and title game.

ESPN again has the TV rights to the CFP — hence the network’s deadline for expansion talks — and it will sublicense games to TNT for a third straight season. TNT will broadcast a semifinal game for the first time in 2027 in addition to two first-round games and two quarterfinal games. This past season, TNT showed two first-round games while the nine other playoff games were on ESPN’s networks.

Fernando Mendoza’s next snap could be with the Las Vegas Raiders.

The 2025 Heisman Trophy winner announced Friday that he would declare for the 2026 NFL Draft. Mendoza is widely expected to be the No. 1 overall pick in April after he led Indiana to a 16-0 season and a win in the national championship game over Miami.

Advertisement

Mendoza rushed for a touchdown in the 27-21 win over the Hurricanes. It’s a play that immediately became the most famous in Indiana football history as it provided the winning margin in the Hoosiers’ first national title.

Mendoza admitted after the game that he was initially surprised by the defensive coverage Miami was showing prior to his TD run.

“We called the quarterback draw and we were hoping they’d do a [cover] 2 Tampa drop eight where they basically kind of like defend in front of the line, it being fourth-and-5 and us likely to throw the ball in the red zone,” Mendoza told ESPN after the game. “We were anticipating them, ‘Hey let’s drop back, let’s make Mendoza throw in a tight window to one of his stud receivers’ which, you know, is a good thought. However they didn’t come out in that.

Advertisement

“They came out in something that was a little bit of that, a little bit not and … play clock rolling down, I’m like, ‘Screw it, here we go.’ I see half the field going zone, half the field going man, I’m like, ‘Wow, if it’s man I’m supposed to throw it, if it’s zone I’m supposed to run it so I’m like, ‘You know what, screw it, I’m gonna run it myself, I’m going to die on that field,’ and we got in.”

It was Mendoza’s 48th touchdown of the season. He threw for 41 and added seven more on the ground while completing 72% of his passes and throwing for over 3,500 yards with just six interceptions.

The Cal transfer was phenomenal in his only season at Indiana. He joined the Hoosiers after spending two years at Cal and had five games with more touchdowns than incompletions. Before he was 16-of-27 passing for 186 yards in the title game, Mendoza had thrown eight touchdown passes to just five incompletions across Indiana’s first two playoff games.

Mendoza’s announcement was merely a formality in the days after Indiana’s win. The Hoosiers had telegraphed his NFL intentions when the transfer portal window was open by signing TCU QB Josh Hoover. Hoover spent four seasons at TCU and has one year of eligibility remaining.

Advertisement

Las Vegas Raiders need a quarterback

Mendoza is considered the clear top quarterback in the 2026 draft after Oregon’s Dante Moore announced that he would return to school for the 2026 season. And it just so happens that the Raiders are in desperate need of better quarterback play.

[More on the Raiders: Las Vegas team feed]

Las Vegas went 3-14 in 2025 and clinched the No. 1 overall pick with a loss to the New York Giants in Week 17. After Pete Carroll was hired to be the team’s coach ahead of the season, the Raiders traded for former Seattle Seahawks QB Geno Smith with the hope that Smith could replicate what he had done over the past three seasons with the Seahawks.

Advertisement

That didn’t happen. Smith was 302-of-448 passing for 3,025 yards and threw 17 interceptions in 15 games. That was two more than any other QB threw all season.

Carroll was fired after the season and Smith’s future with the franchise is especially unclear after the 2026 season. He has a $26.5 million cap hit this upcoming season as part of a two-year extension he signed with the franchise. But Las Vegas can release Smith after the 2026 season and leave no dead money on the team’s salary cap for the 2027 season.

If (or when) Mendoza is taken at No. 1 overall, he’ll be the third quarterback to win the national title and the Heisman in the same season before being picked first in the NFL Draft along with Cam Newton and Joe Burrow.

Advertisement

Here’s what Charles McDonald had to say about Mendoza in Yahoo Sports’ most recent mock draft:

The Raiders need a quarterback. Mendoza is the best one in the draft. Easy. He fits the profile of a top-10 pick with his ability to run the offense at a high level, strong arm talent and enough mobility to keep plays alive under duress. No one is confusing him for a Drake Maye- or Josh Allen-level athlete, but he’s not the stiff many have made him out to be. This is a fine and logical pick for the Raiders.

NFL Free agency and the 2026 NFL Draft will completely shake up the fantasy football landscape in the coming months.

Before the roster movement begins, Justin Boone is identifying one fantasy-relevant player from every team who’s most likely to break out during the 2026 season.

Advertisement

Early Breakout Candidates

Early AFC South Breakout Candidates

Houston Texans – Jayden Higgins, WR

Higgins was unable to achieve full-time status in the Texans offense as a rookie, but he earned playing time immediately while taking the field for 42% of the snaps or more in every game this season.

The second-round pick saw his role grow later in the year, leading to at least 50 yards and/or a touchdown in six of his last nine games. That included 88 yards and a score during fantasy championship week.

Most importantly, Higgins looked like a player who belonged and could eventually emerge as a quality No. 2 receiver in Houston’s passing attack behind Nico Collins.

Advertisement

Though Higgins’ fantasy ceiling is slightly lower due to Collins’ presence, the 23-year-old still looks like a WR3/flex option in 2026. If you doubt that, just know that from Week 10 on, Higgins was the WR35 in fantasy points per game.

Fantasy breakout potential: ★★★★☆

Indianapolis Colts – Josh Downs, WR

Downs is a talented playmaker packaged in a smaller frame at 5-foot-9 and 171 pounds. That might be why the Colts have primarily used him as their third receiver, which has limited his production and fantasy outlook.

Even so, Downs did manage at least 50 yards and/or a touchdown in 50% of his games this season.

Advertisement

There’s also the potential for a shakeup in the Colts’ WR room this offseason with Alec Pierce heading to free agency. That’s led some to suggest the team could cut Michael Pittman Jr. in favor of re-signing Pierce. Either way, it appears as though the depth chart will look a little different in 2026.

That could create an opportunity for Downs, who has the skill to be a more impactful player if he gets the chance.

Remember back in 2024 when Joe Flacco replaced Anthony Richardson Sr. in seven games? During those Flacco starts, Downs posted weekly fantasy finishes of WR8, WR25, WR16, WR34, WR21, WR75 and WR18 — all while averaging 7.1 receptions and 66.4 receiving yards. It’s a small sample size, but a glimpse of what Downs could do in the right setting with competent quarterback play.

Advertisement

Perhaps I’m being a little hopeful for a Downs’ breakout in Year 4, but there’s no doubt in my mind he can perform as a fantasy WR3 with upside in the right environment.

Fantasy breakout potential: ★★★★☆

Jacksonville Jaguars – Bhayshul Tuten, RB

Despite being a Day 3 pick, Tuten was highly touted heading into his rookie campaign due to an intriguing prospect profile and the ambiguity in the Jaguars’ backfield. When Tank Bigsby was traded, it only fanned the flames of Tuten eventually carving out a major role and possibly even emerging as the starter.

However, Travis Etienne Jr. had an outstanding season and didn’t leave the door open for his new teammate to emerge.

Advertisement

Tuten’s first season wasn’t a total bust, though. The 23-year-old scored seven touchdowns and made some big plays in the process.

We now enter an offseason where Etienne is set to become a free agent, and if the Jags don’t bring him back, then Tuten would immediately become one of the hottest names in fantasy drafts.

As it stands, Tuten remains an explosive young talent who was a favorite of general manager James Gladstone. If a path to the starting job presents itself, fantasy managers should be ready to draft him everywhere as a potential top-20 back.

Fantasy breakout potential: ★★★★☆

Tennessee Titans – Cam Ward, QB

We can talk all day about how Ward played better than his stats might indicate during his rookie season, but he still has a long way to go before he proves himself as the potential franchise QB the Titans hoped they were getting with the first overall pick.

Advertisement

From a fantasy perspective, he’s not going to give you big numbers with his legs, so we’re talking about more of a pocket passer in an offense that lacked weaponry last year.

However, Ward did enough his first year to keep me interested in what he can develop into if his situation improves.

That will depend on what the front office can do this offseason in terms of adding skill position talent and finding an offensive coordinator to pair with new defensive-minded head coach Robert Saleh.

Just know that Ward doesn’t come with an elite fantasy ceiling. Even in a best-case scenario, he likely tops out as a low-end QB1, and we are a long way from getting there.

Advertisement

The 23-year-old will likely be more of a volatile fantasy QB2 in 2026, unless we see some stunning moves by the Titans before next season.

Fantasy breakout potential: ★★★☆☆

Early Breakout Candidates

Texas announced Friday that Arch Manning underwent “minor foot surgery” earlier in the week.

The school said the procedure was “a preventative measure to address a previous injury.” Manning “will be limited during off-season workouts but is expected back during spring football.”

Advertisement

Manning was 248-of-404 passing for 3,163 yards, 26 TDs and seven interceptions in his first year as Texas’ starting quarterback. He was the preseason favorite for the Heisman despite throwing just 95 passes over his first two seasons of college football.

Manning’s season got off to a bit of a rough start as he threw an interception in each of Texas’ first three games and he had five picks through the first five games of the season. Things got a lot better after a Week 6 loss to Florida, however. Manning threw 15 TDs and just two interceptions across Texas’ final eight games of the season and rushed for scores in each of the Longhorns’ last three games.

He was named the MVP of the Longhorns’ Citrus Bowl win over Michigan after he was 21-of-34 passing for 221 yards and two scores while rushing nine times for 155 yards and two touchdowns. Manning ended up as Texas’ No. 2 rusher in 2025 with 92 carries for 399 yards and led the Longhorns with 10 rushing TDs. No other Texas player had more than three rushing scores.

Advertisement

Texas has bolstered its offense ahead of the 2026 season through the transfer portal. The Longhorns have added ex-Arizona State RB Raleek Brown and former NC State RB Hollywood Smothers and also landed star Auburn WR Cam Coleman. He’s set to pair with Texas’ top receiver Ryan Wingo to give the Longhorns one of the best receiving duos in the country in 2026. Texas also said Friday that Wingo had undergone offseason wrist surgery. Wingo had 54 catches for 834 yards and seven scores in 2025.

Former Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding has been arrested in Mexico, the FBI announced on Friday.

Wedding, 44, was on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List for charges that include murder and money laundering. He is also accused of being the leader of the largest cocaine distribution operation in his native Canada.

Advertisement

The FBI had announced in November it was increasing the reward for information leading to Wedding’s arrest and/or conviction from $10 million to $15 million.

FBI director Kash Pastel posted on social media that Wedding was arrested in Mexico and will be transported back to the U.S.

“This is a huge day for a safer North America, and the world, and a message that those who break our laws and harm our citizens will be brought to justice,” Patel wrote.

Wedding placed 24th in the parallel giant slalom as a part of Team Canada during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. The Department of Justice claims that, since then, he built a criminal enterprise that worked with prominent Mexican cartels to move hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia into Mexico by boat or plane, then into the U.S. and Canada via semi trucks.

Advertisement

Additionally, authorities allege that Wedding’s group orchestrated the murder of three people, one of them a federal witness who was set to testify against Wedding before he was gunned down at a restaurant in Medellin, Colombia. Wedding allegedly found the witness by posting his picture to a website that has since been taken down.

During a November news conference, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi called Wedding “one of the most prolific and violent drug trafficking organizers in the world,” while FBI director Kash Patel described him as “a modern-day iteration of Pablo Escobar.”

Bondi claimed over 2,000 kilos of cocaine have been seized over the course of the investigation, as well as “numerous” weapons, $3.2 million in cryptocurrency and $13 million in other assets.

Advertisement

Wedding also faces separate charges from 2015 for drug trafficking in Canada. He had been previously convicted in the U.S. on conspiracy to distribute cocaine and was sentenced to prison in 2010, according to federal records.

If convicted on the murder and attempted murder charges, Wedding faces a mandatory minimum sentence of life in federal prison in addition to the continuing criminal enterprise charges.

The Kansas City Chiefs will go into next season trying to bounce back from their worst season in over a decade. The Chiefs missed the playoffs at 6-11 and lost QB Patrick Mahomes to a torn ACL that might hold him out to start 2026. TE Travis Kelce might also call it quits and retire.

On the coaching front, the Chiefs opted to go back to former OC Eric Bieniemy with Matt Nagy out of town. There will be several things on the offseason to-do list, but one thing the team must surely address is the running back position.

Advertisement

Matt Harmon and Joel Smyth discussed Kansas City’s need for a legit No. 1 running back going into 2026 on a recent episode of the Yahoo Fantasy Forecast. Smyth has the Chiefs as the No. 1 team in need of a back going into next season. The two talk about the fit between pending free agent RB Breece Hall and K.C.

Smyth points out that while Hall got all the goal-line carries with the New York Jets this past season, the Jets were also never in the red zone due to poor QB play. Hall had consistently been an RB1 and even was an RB2 this past season despite the Jets’ struggles.

Hall was still the RB21 in fantasy points per game (11.9) in half-PPR scoring despite New York ranking in the bottom five in most offensive categories this season. He finished with 1,065 rushing yards and four touchdowns, plus 36 catches for 350 yards and another score. Hall has never had more than five rushing touchdowns in any of his four NFL seasons.

Advertisement

The Chiefs went most of the season with inconsistent play at RB between Isiah Pacheco and Kareem Hunt. Rookie Brashard Smith also mixed in here and there. Kansas City posted 106.6 rushing yards per game, in the bottom third of the NFL. The running game has never been a strength of the Chiefs during this current dynasty under Andy Reid but it was never a huge weakness.

Harmon points out one potential snag in Hall going to the Chiefs — the franchise tag. New York has plenty of cap space, around $66 million to be exact, so Harmon thinks there’s a good chance the Jets smack the tag on Hall at $14 million for running backs and keep him at least up until the 2026 trade deadline.

Yahoo analyst Justin Boone has Hall ranked as the RB20 in fantasy football for 2026 as we approach the offseason. In his early top-150 rankings for next season, Boone has Hall at 37th overall.

Before Sunday’s AFC Championship game against the New England Patriots, Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton encouraged the home fans to be loud and told them that they would get a break soon.

“They’re going to have plenty of rest after this one,” Payton said. “Two weeks.”

After being asked about Payton’s comments, Patriots wide receiver Kayshon Boutte said he did not hear the comments, but that the Broncos “can rest in Cancun too at the end of the day.”

After his response to reporters on Thursday, Boutte downplayed his comments on social media.

Advertisement

“I was saying its obviously “win or go home” so you’ll rest regardless,” Boutee wrote on X.

This Sunday, the Broncos and Patriots will revive a rivalry that featured matchups between Tom Brady and Peyton Manning in the later stages of their careers. Both teams dominated the regular season, going 14-3.

One team will have two weeks to prepare for the Super Bowl, while the other will start their offseason, in Cancun or elsewhere.

The Patriots are coming off back-to-back wins over the Chargers and Texans to reach their first AFC Championship since 2018. New England is led by second-year quarterback Drake Maye, who was announced as an MVP finalist on Thursday.

Advertisement

The Broncos are coming off a 33-30 overtime win over the Buffalo Bills to advance to their first AFC Championship since 2015. On one of the final plays of that game, Broncos quarterback Bo Nix suffered a season-ending ankle fracture.

Former Patriots quarterback Jarrett Stidham will start in Sunday’s game for the Broncos, who could get running back J.K. Dobbins back for the game. Dobbins has been out since Week 10 with a Lisfranc injury.

With the 2025 fantasy football season now complete, it’s important to take stock of what we learned during the year — what we got right, what we got wrong. Today, I’ll do my AFC audit. The NFC audit is also out.

We’ll start in the west and move our way back east.

Advertisement

AFC WEST

Kansas City Chiefs

What I got right: I appreciated that the 2024 success was misleading — the Chiefs outkicked their metrics and point differential by about four wins — and this team was likely headed for a major regression season.

What I got wrong: I didn’t grasp how much of a screaming value Rashee Rice presented. Although Rice ultimately got hurt, he was unquestionably a right answer when he was active.

Los Angeles Chargers

What I got right: Although I did project the Chargers to be a playoff team, I don’t think I read anything right with their fantasy prospects.

What I got wrong: I expected Ladd McConkey’s second half of 2024 to be symbolic of what he might do in 2025, and that was a gigantic miss. I also expected Omarion Hampton to be a smash rookie, something that might have happened had he not been injured, and working behind an injury-ravaged offensive line. I also underestimated what Keenan Allen had left in the tank.

Advertisement

Denver Broncos

What I got right: Courtland Sutton would be a steal at his ADP — his 2024 and 2025 stats are just about identical — and J.K. Dobbins would be a useful “play for now” pick, someone who starts fast but might not have full-season relevance. I also faded Evan Engram all summer, and he didn’t do much.

What I got wrong: I was ahead of the market on Marvin Mims Jr., to my detriment. The Mims breakout I envisioned ultimately belonged to Troy Franklin.

Las Vegas Raiders

What I got right: I was bearish on the Pete Carroll experiment. I suspected Ashton Jeanty would get more receiving work deeper into the season, which he did.

Advertisement

What I got wrong: Nothing major. This looked like a bad team in the summer and it played out as such.

AFC SOUTH

Indianapolis Colts

What I got right: Daniel Jones winning the QB job would be a boost for the entire offense. Alec Pierce was a late-round sleeper or early-season FAAB target.

What I got wrong: I didn’t expect Tyler Warren to start as fast as he did, though like several teammates he slumped after Jones got hurt.

Jacksonville Jaguars

What I got right: Liam Coen is a right-answer head coach who would perk up this offense and organization. Trevor Lawrence was a value QB pick. Travis Hunter would struggle in his rookie year.

Advertisement

What I got wrong: I wish I had seen Travis Etienne Jr. as a smash pick, emerging from a nebulous backfield. I coveted Brian Thomas Jr. all summer; he was an enormous bust. I didn’t expect Jakobi Meyers to onboard so seamlessly after a midseason trade from the Raiders.

Tennessee Titans

What I got right: Tony Pollard would be a useful value pick. Cam Ward would show signs of future stardom, despite an ordinary supporting cast.

What I got wrong: I projected Calvin Ridley to have another boring value vet season, but he was a total bust.

Houston Texans

What I got right: C.J. Stroud was a player to avoid. Nick Chubb had little left. The rookie WRs wouldn’t onboard quickly.

Advertisement

What I got wrong: Nico Collins was a mild loss for fantasy, because of injuries. That hurt. My timing on Woody Marks was off for most of ranking season.

AFC NORTH

Baltimore Ravens

What I got right: Nothing major. I had them going to the Super Bowl, and the Ravens didn’t even make the playoffs.

What I got wrong: I thought this would be the season Zay Flowers had some positive touchdown regression. Flowers was an effective player, but the touchdown column remained light.

Pittsburgh Steelers

What I got right: Aaron Rodgers would cap the upside of the offense. DK Metcalf would be inconsistent. Jaylen Warren would be solid.

Advertisement

What I got wrong: I underestimated Kenny Gainwell all season; he wound up being the MVP of the team.

Cleveland Browns

What I got right: The quarterback room had zero right answers. Jerry Jeudy couldn’t be trusted.

What I got wrong: Although Quinshon Judkins did little down the stretch, he outkicked my expectations in the middle of the year. I also didn’t expect Harold Fannin Jr. to be so impactful as a rookie.

Cincinnati Bengals

What I got right: Chase Brown was a summer value. Cincinnati’s defense would be horrible again, to the benefit of the offense.

What I got wrong: My dreams of a Joe Burrow/Ja’Marr Chase stack were quickly crushed by Burrow’s injury. I also had trouble timing the market after Burrow came back — note the Bengals scored 32 points on the Ravens for Thanksgiving night, then were shut out by the same Ravens two weeks later. Doesn’t make a lot of sense. Cincinnati also scored 45 points one week after the Baltimore shutout — it was that kind of season.

Advertisement

AFC EAST

New England Patriots

What I got right: I had Drake Maye taking a big step forward and Mike Vrabel guiding the Patriots into the playoffs. Two clean hits.

What I got wrong: I didn’t expect Stefon Diggs to be this useful in his age-32 season, off a major injury to boot. I expected TreVeyon Henderson to take over the backfield at some point, which never happened.

Buffalo Bills

What I got right: Dalton Kincaid was one of my most rostered tight ends — he was very good when he played. I didn’t see a breakout season for Keon Coleman.

What I got wrong: I expected a minor regression year for James Cook, and although he lost four touchdowns from the previous year, he also won the rushing title. An unmistakable right answer.

Advertisement

Miami Dolphins

What I got right: I pretended Tua Tagovailoa wasn’t on my cheat sheet, and projected a lost season for Tyreek Hill. Even if Hill had stayed healthy, this passing game was unlikely to support him.

What I got wrong: I misjudged the chances of De’Von Achane smashing despite all the failure around him. He’s a special talent, and he was a league-winning player in 2025.

New York Jets

What I got right: I expected them to be one of the five worst teams in football, a mark they met the entire season.

What I got wrong: I thought the Konami Code could push Justin Fields into fantasy relevance, no matter how mediocre his passing might be. Fields basically forced the Jets to bench him.