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Joe Thomas has entered the chat.

A day after Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB Baker Mayfield took a swipe at his former Cleveland Browns head coach and new NFC South rival Kevin Stefanski, Thomas weighed in on the simmering beef. He’s team Stefanski.

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Thomas, an eight-time All-Pro and 10-time Pro Bowl former left tackle for the Browns, posted this on social media Wednesday:

“I could be wrong,” Thomas wrote. “But I’ve heard that communication is a 2-way street and there are no laws against you [Baker] sending Stefanski a text or calling him after you got traded.”

In case you missed it, Thomas’ tweet is in response to one from Mayfield on Tuesday taking a shot at Stefanski out of left field.

Why is Baker mad?

Stefanski was recently hired as the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons following six seasons as Cleveland’s head coach.

On Tuesday, Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer D. Orlando Ledbetter wrote a story on Stefanski and tweeted that “Stefanski had a dumpster fire at quarterback in Cleveland” and that Mayfield “failed” as the Browns’ starting quarterback.

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Mayfield took umbrage at this. And he used the opportunity to bring up old beef with Stefanski, whom he’ll now face twice a season:

“Failed is quite the reach pal,” Mayfield wrote in response to Ledbetter. “Still waiting on a text/call from him after I got shipped off like a piece of garbage. Can’t wait to see you twice a year, Coach.”

“Pal,” in this instance is Ledbetter. “Coach” is Stefanski. And Mayfield is clearly still steaming over his Browns tenure.

To be clear, Stefanski didn’t say or do anything to provoke Mayfield. Not recently or publicly, at least. But Ledbetter’s comments opened old wounds for Mayfield, who’s not pleased with how his time in Cleveland ended in 2022, four seasons after the Browns selected him with the No. 1 pick in the draft.

And now the stage is set for some more bad blood in an NFC South that’s never lacking for spice.

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At its core, this is lingering Browns beef. And Thomas is as Browns as it gets.

Thomas, a 2023 Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee, played his entire 11-season NFL career with the Browns and retired after the 2017 season. He didn’t play with Mayfield (drafted in 2018) or play under Stefanski, who coached his first year with the Browns in 2020.

But before Myles Garrett, Thomas was unquestionably the best player in modern Browns history since the franchise returned to the league in 1999. His voice carries weight in Cleveland.

As for moving forward, this will surely be revisited the first time the Bucs and Falcons play next season — if not sooner.

Darian Mensah’s departure from Duke is getting messier.

One day after Duke filed a suit against Mensah in North Carolina state court in an attempt to prevent him from transferring away, a temporary restraining order says Mensah can enter the transfer portal — but can’t play for another school before the judge’s ruling at an injunction hearing on Feb 2.

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The quarterback announced Friday that he would be entering the transfer portal on the final day it was open amid heavily rumored interest from Miami.

According to Sportico, Duke contends that “enrollment at another school and commitment to play football at that school” would violate the terms of the NIL deal he signed with the Blue Devils and that the contract he signed with the school stipulates that “no other school can use Mensah’s NIL.”

According to On3, there was no buyout in Mensah’s contract with the school.

Duke’s suit is not the first time a school has taken legal action involving a transferring player. Wisconsin sued Miami in June over Xavier Lucas’ transfer from the Badgers to the Hurricanes. Wisconsin contended that Miami tampered with the defensive back to get him to break his NIL deal with the Badgers. Miami contends it did nothing wrong and that family reasons led Lucas to transfer.

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Earlier this offseason, Georgia’s athletic association said in a legal filing that Missouri DE Damon Wilson owed the school the balance of the NIL contract he signed at the end of the 2024 season. A month after Wilson signed his NIL deal with Georgia, he entered the transfer portal and signed with Missouri.

Wilson, who has filed a countersuit against the UGA athletic association, is now in the transfer portal again after recording nine sacks in 2025.

Neither of those cases, however, have the potential to be as high-profile as the legal fight surrounding Mensah. He transferred to Duke early in the 2025 offseason after a breakout season at Tulane in 2024. Mensah’s arrival in Durham was one of the biggest QB moves of the offseason — along with Miami’s addition of former Georgia QB Carson Beck — and the Blue Devils won the ACC title as Mensah threw for 34 touchdowns.

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After Duke capped a 9-5 season with a victory over the Sun Bowl, Mensah announced he would be staying for the 2026 season. But with Miami and other schools potentially in need of a quarterback for the 2026 season as the quarterback transfer carousel slows down, Mensah announced his intention to transfer days before the national championship game.

The Denver Broncos will be significantly shorthanded in Sunday’s AFC championship game without starting quarterback Bo Nix. But there may be some good injury news on the way in the offensive backfield.

After opening the practice window for starting running back J.K. Dobbins to return from injured reserve on Monday, he was back in practice on Wednesday for the first time since going down with a foot injury.

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Dobbins has been sidelined with an injury to the Lisfranc ligament in his left foot since November. He suffered the injury in Week 10 against the Las Vegas Raiders and required surgery that was initially believed to be season-ending.

Now there’s a chance that he can play in the AFC championship game Sunday against the New England Patriots. And whether he plays or not this week, he’d also be eligible to play in the Super Bowl if the Broncos advance and he receives medical clearance.

His return would provide a boost to an offense that needs one with the news that Nix’s season is over due to a fractured ankle sustained late in Sunday’s playoff win over the Buffalo Bills. Backup Jarrett Stidham will start against the Patriots on Sunday with a trip to the Super Bowl at stake. He hasn’t thrown an NFL pass since the 2023 season.

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That means the Broncos could lean more heavily on the run game. If healthy, Dobbins is Denver’s No. 1 option out of the backfield.

Prior to his injury, Dobbins was off to a strong start in his first season with the Broncos. In 10 games, Dobbins tallied 772 yards and 4 touchdowns on 5 yards per carry.

His backup, rookie RJ Harvey, has taken over the lead back role in his absence. Harvey tallied 540 rushing yards and 7 touchdowns on 3.7 yards per carry while playing in all 17 regular-season games.

The winner of Sunday’s game will advance to face the NFC championship game winner between the Seahawks and Rams in the Super Bowl.

Gary Patterson is headed to Southern California.

USC is expected to finalize a deal with Patterson to make him the program’s next defensive coordinator in the near future, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel. It marks Patterson’s first step back to the sidelines in a top role since he was fired from TCU during the 2021 campaign.

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Patterson spent 22 seasons with the Horned Frogs, and was the second-longest-tenured head coach in the sport when he was fired during the 2021 season. He trailed only Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz, who has been with the Hawkeyes since 1999.

[Get more Trojans football news: USC team feed]

Patterson turned the Horned Frogs into a football powerhouse, first in both CUSA and the MWC before the program made the jump to the Big 12 in 2012. Patterson finished with a 181-79 record, which made him the winningest head coach in school history, and frequently had the Horned Frogs in the national conversation. They won the Rose Bowl in 2010 over Wisconsin, too. But the school fired Patterson midway through the 2021 campaign, which marked their third straight without reaching a bowl game.

Patterson has since spent time as a special assistant at Texas and a consultant with Baylor, though he left that job ahead of the 2024 season.

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The 65-year-old will now join Lincoln Riley at USC, where he’ll replace D’Anton Lynn as the Trojans’ defensive coordinator. Lynn left last month to join Matt Campbell’s staff at Penn State in the same role after two seasons. The team gave up fewer points per game in each of the past two seasons under Lynn’s leadership, but struggled badly on that side of the ball in each of their three road losses that eventually knocked them out of the College Football Playoff conversation. The Trojans went 9-4 last season after falling to TCU in overtime at the Alamo Bowl.

While he’s not in charge of a program anymore, and it’s unclear if he wants to do that again, Patterson is back running a defense after several years away. A fresh, veteran presence there should undoubtedly help Riley as he enters his fifth season with the Trojans.

During a nine-game win streak to end the regular season, the Houston Texans committed only five turnovers.

In two playoff games, they were responsible for a total of eight giveaways. Third-year quarterback C.J. Stroud accounted for all but one of those, throwing five interceptions and losing two fumbles.

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Stroud coughed up the ball three times in a 30-6 wild-card win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, but his four picks in the Foxborough snow, rain and cold ultimately proved insurmountable in a 28-16 divisional-round loss to the New England Patriots.

Stroud has owned up to his uncharacteristic ball-security issues. His head coach, DeMeco Ryans, has stood by him in the aftermath of a disappointing playoff exit.

As for general manager Nick Caserio, he’s looking at the body of work more than anything.

“Look, he’ll be the first to tell you: He didn’t play well on Sunday, alright. I’m not going to sit here and tell you he played well, either. He knows that,” Caserio said of Stroud.

“In the end, you got to learn from it. What can we do better? And then we’re moving forward. You look at his body of work, this guy’s been a damn good quarterback in this league for three years. I mean, it’s the truth.”

During his end-of-season news conference Wednesday, Caserio, who just finished his third season with the Texans, repeatedly emphasized the importance of examining “everything in totality.”

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Caserio and Ryans came in 2023, and they’ve authored the most successful three-season stretch in the young franchise’s history. They placed their faith in Stroud when they drafted him No. 2 overall out of Ohio State before the regime’s first season.

Stroud starred immediately, winning NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year, earning a Pro Bowl nod and guiding the Texans back to the playoffs after a three-season postseason drought. But in the two seasons since, he hasn’t achieved the same explosiveness and efficiency through the air.

That said, this season he kept his turnover numbers down.

Although his 1.9% interception rate was still higher than the 1.0% mark he registered in that category as a first-year NFL quarterback, it was lower than the one he posted during his sophomore campaign. He threw just eight picks and didn’t lose either of his fumbles in the regular season.

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Plus, he completed a career-high 64.5% of his passes.

It’s also important to note that he didn’t have to take as many chances, given that the Texans boasted the second-ranked scoring defense and top-ranked total defense in the league.

[Get more Texans news: Houston team feed]

“C.J. had a really good season,” Caserio said. “He’s done a lot of great things, done a lot of great things for his team, a lot of great things for this organization.”

Against the Patriots, however, Stroud was too careless with the football. It didn’t help that he was without wide receiver Nico Collins, and that tight end Dalton Schultz got hurt — and that Houston’s run game was ineffective. But his first half was undeniably abysmal.

“When you go back and look at the game the other day, you can’t turn the ball over five times,” Caserio said of the Texans’ latest divisional-round face-plant.

“We control that. I’d say the three touchdowns that New England scored, we didn’t play the coverage or the technique the right way on calls that we’ve done countless times. So in the end, we’ve proven that we could do it, but in games of that magnitude, the margins are as small as any, and you either make the plays and do the right thing or you don’t.”

The Texans are now 0-7 all-time in the divisional round. That’s where each of their past three campaigns have ended.

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Caserio told reporters that he anticipates first-year offensive coordinator Nick Caley returning next season after the positive signs he saw down the stretch of the regular season.

Now 24 years old and entering his fourth offseason, Stroud is eligible for a contract extension for the first time in his career. He’s signed through 2026, and Houston has a team option for 2027 it can pick up.

Caserio was asked Wednesday if signing Stroud to an extension is a front-office goal at the moment. He declined to talk about players’ contracts and gave similar answer when a reporter inquired about defensive end Will Anderson Jr., whom the Texans took a pick after Stroud in the 2023 draft.

“Every year you kind of start from scratch. So everybody is focused on individual improvement,” Caserio said later in the news conference.

“C.J.’s played a lot of good football, won a lot of games … and I think all of us are excited about the opportunity in front of us for the ’26 season. It’s a year-to-year league. We’re focused on the 2026 season, trying to put the best team together and hopefully put ourselves into position so that we can go out there and play pretty good football and win a bunch of games.”

Fernando Mendoza celebrated Indiana’s national title win in a way that only he could.

Mendoza, days after leading the Hoosiers past Miami to pick up the school’s first football national championship, ran to LinkedIn.

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Yes, LinkedIn.

And, in true LinkedIn influencer fashion, he had a lesson about “B2B sales” for everybody.

“Monday night, my teammates and I had the honor of raising the National Championship trophy and bringing a CFB title back to Bloomington, Indiana, for the first time in history,” he wrote, in part. “With the guidance of our coaches and the unwavering support of Hoosier Nation, our band of brothers made the unbelievable believable.

“Here’s what winning a National Championship taught me about B2B sales 🏆 (kidding…kinda)”

While Mendoza appears in on the joke, at least a little bit, LinkedIn has been the only social media platform that he’s kept on his phone during the season.

“LinkedIn, it’s a positive site,” he told ESPN before the championship game. “I’ll post clips throughout the season whenever something big comes up like a career update, if an award happens or we have a huge win.”

He’s done just that. Even after winning the Heisman Trophy, Mendoza added it to his “Honors And Awards” section. The national championship win is there, too.

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Mendoza went 16-of-27 for 186 yards and ran in a wild late touchdown on Monday night at Hard Rock Stadium to lead the Hoosiers to a 27-21 win over Miami. That completed a 16-0 season and gave Indiana — which has traditionally been one of the worst programs in the sport’s history — a national title. Mendoza is widely projected to be the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft in April, too.

While he may want to branch out with his social media usage as he turns pro, LinkedIn is just fine for now. It’s doing the job.

“I don’t think it has the same detriment of scrolling through an Instagram or Twitter, but I do love … I’m not going to lie to you, I still do need my scrolling,” he said.

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Brian Flores is very likely staying in Minnesota.

The Vikings signed Flores to a contract extension Wednesday, the team announced. Terms of the deal are not yet known, but Flores will be back with the team as their defensive coordinator next season so long as he doesn’t land a head-coaching job elsewhere.

“Brian has a unique ability to connect with players, understand their skill sets, and put them in positions to maximize their impact on the field,” head coach Kevin O’Connell said in a statement. “The identity of our defense is a reflection of his leadership and preparation. On a personal level, I’ve really valued the relationship we’ve built over the last three years, and that shared trust, alignment and high standard will continue to be critical to our success.”

[Get more Vikings news: Minnesota team feed]

Flores is still a candidate for the head-coaching job with both the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers. Both of those teams split from their longtime coaches — John Harbaugh and Mike Tomlin, respectively — earlier this month.

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Flores has spent the last three seasons as the Vikings’ defensive coordinator. The Vikings allowed a third-best 282.6 yards per game and seventh-best 19.6 points per game last season, though they went just 9-8 and missed the playoffs.

Though he’s found success in Minnesota, Flores is still a top candidate to land a head-coaching job — whether that is this offseason or in the future. Flores spent 15 seasons as a defensive assistant with the New England Patriots under coach Bill Belichick before he was hired as the head coach of the Miami Dolphins, where he spent three seasons before a tumultuous exit. He spent one season as an assistant with the Steelers before O’Connell hired him.

Sean Payton is confident ahead of Sunday’s AFC championship game despite taking the field without starting quarterback Bo Nix.

The Broncos head coach sung the praises of backup Jarrett Stidham Wednesday as Denver prepares to face the New England Patriots. And he expects Stidham to “rip it” against an aggressive Patriots defense that’s given C.J. Stroud and Justin Herbert fits in the first two rounds of the playoffs.

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“That’s his personality. He’s going to rip it,” Payton told reporters of Stidham. “He has a calm demeanor that suits him well.”

[Get more Broncos news: Denver team feed]

In fact, Payton says he believes that Stidham is a starting-level NFL quarterback.

“I felt like our two [QBs] were inside the best 32,” Payton said, per Troy Renck of the Denver Post. “I am glad that acquisition took place.”

If Stidham is a top-32 quarterback, Payton knows something that the rest of the league doesn’t. Stidham is a career backup who hasn’t thrown a pass since the 2023 season.

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It’s not all bad news for the Broncos

The good news for the Broncos is that Stidham won’t be going in completely cold. Stidham joined the Broncos as a free agent in 2023, Payton’s first season as Denver’s head coach. He’s been practicing in Payton’s system for three seasons.

The Broncos will be counting on that familiarity and comfort level with the Denver offense against a Patriots defense that sacked Herbert six times in the wild-card round and intercepted Stroud four times last week in the divisional round.

It would be a daunting task for Nix, much less a quarterback in Stidham who’s made four career NFL starts. And practice experience, obviously, doesn’t equate to a playoff atmosphere with a trip to the Super Bowl at stake.

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Stidham: It’s just another game

Stidham said on Wednesday that he’s taking the approach that it’s just another game.

“What I always go back to — in any game — regular season, preseason, AFC championship — it’s still the same game,” Stidham told reporters. “Obviously there’s implications — winner advances, and all that kind of stuff. But at the end of the day, it’s still football. And that’s how I view it.

“I’m not treating it any differently. I’m not treating my preparation any differently. I’m just gonna go out there and play and be myself.”

He sounds confident. And that’s certainly what you want to hear if you’re Payton or a Broncos fan.

Broncos are built to win without elite QB play

The Broncos have a team that doesn’t depend on high-level quarterback play to win. Denver earned the AFC’s No. 1 seed on the strength of a defense that finished second in yards allowed and third in points allowed (18.3 per game) this season.

The offense was no slouch and finished in the top half of the league in yards and points per game (23.6). But the Broncos neither depended on nor received elite quarterback play from Nix.

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Nix’s passer rating (87.8) was below league average (91.4) and ranked 27th among quarterbacks who started eight games or more. His completion percentage (63.4%) and yards per attempt (6.43) both took a slight dip from his rookie campaign as he threw for 25 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.

Nix’s best attribute, arguably, was his play late in close games. Thanks in part to not having an offense that pulled away from opponents, the Broncos found themselves repeatedly in tight games in the fourth quarter. More often than not, Nix found a way to make the plays the Broncos needed in those situations, including a late go-ahead touchdown pass against the Bills last week that ultimately forced overtime in Denver’s 33-30 divisional round win.

Nix addressed that finish and his confidence in Stidham Wednesday in an Instagram post that included his first public comments since learning of the season-ending ankle injury he sustained at the end of the win over Buffalo.

“This is not how I imagined my season would come to an end, but our season has been defined by overcoming adversity and responding to it,” Nix wrote. “I can’t express how much this team and organization mean to me and how much I believe in them.

“I couldn’t be more proud of our guys. I couldn’t be more confident in Jarrett. And I couldn’t be more excited for what’s next.”

Confidence exudes from the Broncos’ practice facility despite Nix’s injury. But what ultimately matters is what that confidence looks like when the whistle blows on Sunday.

For all the issues with the current college football calendar — including the College Football Playoff overlapping with the transfer portal window — Josh Pate has come up with a simple six-step plan to fix it. He even uses an expanded 16-team playoff format.

Step 1: Move Week 1 to Week 0’s current slot

“We need to move the season up one week. It’s going to be a little hot. I understand that Saturday prior to Labor Day weekend, that’s the weekend that we’re going to start. Rivalry week, because of that would be the week before Thanksgiving instead of Thanksgiving week. So your Ohio States, Michigans, your Iron Bowls, we’re getting all of those done. And your regular season is done the week before Thanksgiving, which leads to a revolutionary Thanksgiving weekend.”

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Step 2: Move Rivalry Week; keep conference title games

“We’re just going to have them Thanksgiving weekend instead of the week after Thanksgiving. So last weekend in November instead of first weekend in December, we’re having conference championship games. Your SEC, ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, all the Group of Fives.”

Step 3: Play 6 bowls on same weekend as conference title games

“Don’t particularly care which ones they are. Let’s just call it the Citrus Bowl and the Pop Tart Bowl, Cheez-It Bowl, et cetera. I would like to have a 13th game, essentially for a bunch of teams. … Take all the teams are going to play in conference championship games off the board. They’re already preoccupied. This is what it would have looked like this year: My Pop Tart bowl is Oregon versus Houston, my Cheez-It bowl is Ole Miss versus Michigan. I’ve got [Texas] A&M-Arizona. I’ve got Oklahoma-USC. I’ve got Texas versus Utah. I’ve got Notre Dame versus Vanderbilt. These are bowl games. They are also College Football Playoff data points. Those games count because the final playoff rankings are after those games happen, so those are final data points. … You could play yourself into or out of the playoff in many cases in the Pop Tart Bowl.”

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Step 4: Hold Selection Sunday on Thanksgiving weekend

“We’re not scared of the NFL around here, but we’re also not going to be stupid and run opposite to them. So we’re going to reveal the College Football Playoff rankings and seedings and the bracket 9 a.m. [ET] that Sunday.”

Step 5: Move up CFP schedule; hold first 2 rounds on campus

“Round 1 of the College Football Playoff on campus is held the first Saturday in December. Round two of the College Football Playoff held on campus is held the second Saturday in December. Round three finally going to kick it to a neutral site. That’s the third Saturday in December and then we break for Christmas and our national championship game is held New Year’s Day and we crown a national champion and the season’s over.”

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Step 6: Move signing day and transfer portal

“I don’t even care in which order you do this. You have signing day and you have your transfer portal window and wrap that thing up in a couple of weeks and then spring semester is here and everyone can go kick their feet up and take a little vacation. Maybe have a junior day.”

Why it works

“We made everyone play the same amount of games to win it all. Notre Dame is not even immune from this. If Notre Dame wants to win a title, Notre Dame’s going to have to play 17 games. Everyone’s playing 17 to win it all. You got two rounds of on-campus playoff games. The bowl games are enhanced in many different ways and you totally resurrect the spirit of bowl season because you maximize the relevance of six of those bowls and you totally reconfigure the importance of them. I think that would be an amazing spectacle.”