Blog

Nate Tice & Charles McDonald join forces to answer the NFL offseason’s biggest looming questions submitted by the audience. The duo start off by diving into the New York Giants’ potential NFL Draft plans with the 5th overall pick, how the Chicago Bears can fix their defensive line and whether or not Brian Daboll is a good fit with QB Cam Ward as the new Tennessee Titans OC.

Advertisement

Next, Nate & Charles discuss whether or not the Los Angeles Chargers can fix their offensive line in one offseason, if the Jacksonville Jaguars defense can take a leap next season, who the Denver Broncos should be targeting in free agency (Tyler Allgeier?) and what our expectations for the 2026 Washington Commanders should look like.

Later, the two hosts wrap up with thoughts on the New England Patriots’ upcoming offseason decisions, why Sean McVay changed to a duo run game style with the Los Angeles Rams, whether Sean McDermott was really the problem with the Buffalo Bills and more.

(2:40) – Biggest offseason questions: Giants draft plans, Bears DL, Daboll & Cam Ward

(24:30) – Biggest offseason questions: Chargers OL, Jaguars defense, Broncos, Commanders

Advertisement

(44:15) – Biggest offseason questions: Patriots, Rams, Bills & more

🖥️ Watch this full episode on YouTube

Check out all episodes of Football 301 with Nate Tice and the rest of the Yahoo Sports podcast family at https://apple.co/3zEuTQj or at yahoosports.tv

Subscribe to The Cooligans

The Cooligans welcome former MLS head coach and analyst Giovanni Savarese for a deep dive into the 2026 MLS season. Gio shares his predictions, breakout teams to watch, and how the league continues to evolve ahead of a massive 2026 on home soil. The conversation also turns to the USMNT, as the guys assess expectations, pressure, and what success should realistically look like at the 2026 World Cup.

Advertisement

Christian and Alexis then tackle the troubling racist incident involving Vinícius Júnior during Real Madrid’s clash with Benfica. They unpack how these situations are currently handled, question whether the responsibility to stop a match unfairly falls on the player experiencing abuse, and debate what meaningful structural changes could better protect players moving forward.

Finally, it’s a jam-packed Champions League recap. Folarin Balogun shines in a statement performance against Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus suffer a shocking defeat to Galatasaray, and Bodø/Glimt pull off a stunning win over Inter Milan. The boys react to all the drama, surprises, and what these results mean going forward.

Timestamps:

(6:30) – 2026 MLS preview and predictions

Advertisement

(30:00) – Gio Savarese’s USMNT World Cup outlook

(39:00) – Vinicius Junior deals with racism again: time for a rule change?

(59:00) – Folarin Balogun shines in Champions League loss to PSG

(1:04:30) – Serie A teams suffer shocking Champions League losses

🖥️ Watch this full episode on YouTube

Check out the rest of the Yahoo Sports podcast family at https://apple.co/3zEuTQj or at yahoosports.tv

On today’s Kevin O’Connor Show, KOC is joined by NBC broadcaster John Fanta to talk everything NBA. They start with Eastern Conference contender power rankings: who’s the number one team in the East? Could Cade Cunningham really be MVP?

Advertisement

Then, they turn to Team USA hockey’s gold-medal win against Canada before John tells the story of his call-up to the NBA on NBC by Mike Tirico.

Plus, they discuss if Anthony Edwards is the face of the league, address the troubles in Phoenix & Houston, and take a look at the top prospects in this year’s fiery draft class.

That and more, today!

Eastern Conference Contenders (1:39)
USA Hockey and John’s NBC Career (43:16)
Draft Class (1:10:20)

🖥️ Watch this full episode on the Yahoo Sports NBA YouTube channel

Check out all episodes of The Kevin O’Connor Show and the rest of the Yahoo Sports podcast family at https://apple.co/3zEuTQj or at yahoosports.tv

The Utah Jazz are running out of players to put in their frontcourt. Utah Jazz center Jusuf Nurkić will undergo a season-ending surgical procedure on his nose, according to NBA insider Chris Haynes. Nurkić has reportedly experienced complications with breathing and sleeping since fracturing his nose a few years ago.

Nurkić averaged 10.9 points, 10.4 rebounds and 4.8 assists while shooting 50.3% from the field in his first season with the Jazz. The 31-year-old has also spent time playing for the Charlotte Hornets, Phoenix Suns, Portland Trail Blazers and the Denver Nuggets.

Advertisement

Nurkić is the latest Jazz player to be ruled out for the rest of the season. Jaren Jackson Jr. was also ruled out for the remainder of the season after undergoing surgery on his left knee. Jackson was reportedly shut down to ensure his long-term health after a localized PVNS growth was discovered post-trade.

Jackson was acquired by the Jazz in a trade in February that sent multiple players and three future first-round picks to the Memphis Grizzlies. Jazz center Walker Kessler played in five games this season before undergoing surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder.

With Nurkić ruled out, expect the Jazz to go with Kyle Filipowski, 37-year-old Kevin Love and two-way contract player Oscar Tshiebwe. The Jazz could also experiment with playing star forward Lauri Markkanen at center, as long as he is not shut down.

The Jazz injuries come at a time when the league is trying to crack down on tanking, with teams near the bottom of the standings eyeing a loaded 2026 NBA Draft. The Jazz and the Indiana Pacers were recently fined for “overt tanking behavior.”

Advertisement

The Jazz and Pacers have been under scrutiny because both team have a chance to keeping their 2026 NBA Draft picks, depending on where they land. The Jazz can only keep their pick if it lands in the top eight.

Teams such as the Sacramento Kings and Washington Wizards have also recently sat star players they recently acquired. The Jazz are 18-39, currently second to last in the West.

Subscribe to The Cooligans

LAFC sent a loud message in their 3-0 dismantling of Inter Miami, and it wasn’t just about the scoreline. Los Angeles FC looked sharp, organized, and ruthless, while Inter Miami CF looked frustrated and overwhelmed. We break down what went wrong for Miami, what this result means long-term, and whether Lionel Messi’s heated postgame interaction with referees is a sign of deeper cracks. Plus, we recap the rest of MLS opening weekend and highlight the teams that set the tone early.

Advertisement

Across the pond, the Premier League title race is heating up once again. Manchester City and Arsenal continue to push each other to the limit at the top of the table. Can City pull off another late surge, or is this finally Arsenal’s year? We examine the remaining fixtures, squad depth, and pressure points that could decide the title.

Off the pitch, concerns are growing around the 2026 tournament. With New Jersey canceling its World Cup fan zone and Gillette Stadium reportedly resisting FIFA licensing without additional funding, we ask whether the 2026 World Cup is starting to show serious organizational strain. Is this just early logistical turbulence—or a warning sign for what’s ahead?

Timestamps:

(7:00) – LAFC thrash Messi and Inter Miami

Advertisement

(23:00) – MLS opening weekend recap

(32:00) – Arsenal and Man City continue to battle in PL title race

(47:45) – World Cup in danger of falling apart already?

🖥️ Watch this full episode on YouTube

Check out the rest of the Yahoo Sports podcast family at https://apple.co/3zEuTQj or at yahoosports.tv

The NFL may be getting closer to allowing replay officials to throw penalty flags during games.

The league’s competition committee is discussing this week in Indianapolis the possibility of allowing replay officials to throw flags for non-football acts during games, according to ESPN.

“You don’t just want to be expanding the Pandora’s box, but we believe that things like the non-football act, you can really, really restrict what that is,” NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent said. “That’s something that we believe that potentially there’s a little bit of tweaking in the language, that may be the first step.”

Advertisement

Though the chance would be extremely limited, and wouldn’t be able to change anything football-related, Vincent noted a pair of incidents from last season in which the rules official would have been able to throw a flag if this were in place.

The most notable incident came during Super Bowl LX, when New England Patriots wide receiver Stefon Diggs and Seattle Seahawks cornerback Josh Jobe got into it on the sideline. Jobe threw a punch that drilled Diggs in the facemask in the fourth quarter of that game.

The contest continued once the two were separated, and no flag was thrown.

Had the on-site replay official been allowed, they could have thrown a penalty or even ejected Jobe for the punch in the moment. Instead, as nothing was assessed in real time, neither Jobe nor Diggs were penalized.

Advertisement

Vincent was admittedly hesitant about the possible change and knows how frustrating it could be for a player to be hit with a delayed penalty like that during a game.

“That may be the first step in getting to putting flags on the field,” he said. “I just think in the era of legalized sports betting, just as a former player, I would’ve found it very difficult to be at Lincoln Financial [Field], a big play occurred, nothing happened real-time in the stadium and then all of a sudden, 10, 12 or 25 seconds later before the ball snapped again, I see [a flag] on the field before the next snap. I don’t know.”

Just over a year after he suffered a torn Achilles, New Orleans Pelicans guard Dejounte Murray is ready to return.

Murray, 29, is listed as available on the NBA injury report for Tuesday’s matchup with the Golden State Warriors. The nine-year veteran ruptured his Achilles on Jan. 31, 2025, sustaining the injury on a non-contact play versus the Boston Celtics during which he lunged for the ball then immediately fell to the court.

Advertisement

[Subscribe to Yahoo Sports NBA on YouTube]

Murray was in his first season with New Orleans after being acquired from the Atlanta Hawks for Dyson Daniels, Larry Nance Jr. and two first-round picks. He also missed 17 games with a broken hand earlier in the season, limiting him to 31 games overall.

The Pelicans are slogging through a season that has them second-to-last in the Western Conference (and fourth-worst in the NBA) at 16-42. With 24 games remaining, some might question Murray returning. But tanking doesn’t serve much purpose for the Pelicans after trading this year’s first-round selection to the Hawks to move up to select Derik Queen.

[Get more Pelicans news: New Orleans team feed]

Murray also wants to see some game action after being sidelined for more than a year.

“I’m here, I love New Orleans, I love the people. This is the reason I’m coming back,” Murray said to Pelicans Film Room on Monday.

“I’m not one of those guys like, I’m paid, I could get an extra 6-7 months, or our team is 14th in the West,’” he added. “There are a lot of excuses for a chump to say, ‘No, I ain’t playing.’ I am the opposite of that.”

Advertisement

Murray will likely be on a minutes restriction as he works his way back. Pelicans interim head coach James Borrego didn’t say for certain how much Murray might play, but praised him for wanting to get on the court.

“It speaks to his character, that he cares,” Borrego said, via the Associated Press. “I’m not saying that everybody coming off this injury would even play right now. This kid wants to play. He wants to be out there on the floor. He wants to compete. He wants to be out there with his teammates. He wants to win.”

During his eight NBA seasons, Murray has averaged 15.5 points, 5.8 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 1.5 steals per game playing for the San Antonio Spurs, Hawks and Pelicans. He missed the entire 2018-19 season with a torn ACL sustained during the preseason.

The WNBA has floated a March 10 deadline for the framework of a new collective bargaining agreement to avoid an impact to the 2026 season, a source confirmed to Yahoo Sports’ Cassandra Negley Monday.

Per Negley, the league “suggested March 10 as a date after which the season schedule could start being impacted” in a virtual meeting that included league officials and more than 50 players.

Advertisement

ESPN’s Alexa Philippou first reported the league’s proposed deadline Monday afternoon.

That news arrives amid high-stakes and frequently publicly contentious negotiations between the WNBA and the WNBPA over a new CBA that will shape the future of the league when and if the two sides reach an agreement.

Amid explosive growth in women’s basketball and league revenue, the players association is demanding historic changes from the previous CBA that capped the league’s supermax salary at roughly $249,000 with a minimum salary of $66,000 in 2025. The WNBPA opted out of that CBA in 2024, and it expired at the conclusion of last season.

The two sides have reopened talks in recent days following a weeks-long stalemate and multiple extensions to a deadline to reach a new CBA. The 2026 WNBA season is scheduled to tip off on May 8. Per Monday’s news, that start date is at risk if the two sides don’t agree to a new CBA in two weeks.

Advertisement

Where negotiations stand

In the latest round of publicly reported negotiations, the WNBA offered a counterproposal that addressed player demands for housing and agreed to offer team housing for all players through the 2026 season. That was on Saturday.

Days earlier, the WNBPA reportedly offered a proposal with concessions to its revenue-sharing demands, reducing its asks from an average of 31% of gross revenue to 27.5% over the course of the agreement. The union reduced its demand of a 10.5% salary cap to less than $9.5 million. The salary cap in 2025 was roughly $1.5 million.

The league scoffed at that proposal, calling it “unrealistic” and declaring in a statement that it would “cause hundreds of millions of dollars of losses for our teams.”

Advertisement

Per ESPN, the league has proposed instead that players receive 70% of net revenue — which adds up to less than 15% of gross revenue — while proposing a $5.65 million salary cap.

Under that proposal, the supermax salary would increase from $249,000 to $1.3 million in 2026 and would project to nearly $2 million by 2031. The average player salary would increase from $120,000 to $540,000 in 2026 with a projection of $780,000 by 2031, according to ESPN.

Those proposals remained largely unchanged in the league’s latest counter, per ESPN, and the two sides appear to remain far apart on those fundamental issues. The union’s executive committee previously authorized players to strike.

Despite the apparent gap, WNBPA vice president and All-WNBA Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier sees room for optimism. She offered hope last Wednesday that “I think negotiations are trending in the right direction.”

Advertisement

“You want movement,” Collier said on Yahoo Sports’ Hoops 360 podcast. “You don’t want to be in a stalemate. You want there to be hope for the future, and I do have that. I think there has to be a lot of movement in a lot of places in the CBA, but the fact that we are moving, I think, is really hopeful.”