Troy Vincent: Tush Push Ban Not Proposed Before Deadline
The Eagles’ reliance on the tush push, a play they introduced in 2022, helped power them to a Super Bowl championship in 2024. Last February, a couple of weeks after the Eagles crushed the Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX, the Packers proposed a tush push ban.
Led by since-retired team president/CEO Mark Murphy, Green Bay lobbied to “prohibit an offensive player from pushing a teammate who was lined up directly behind the snapper and receives the snap, immediately at the snap.”
Commissioner Roger Goodell and the NFL’s committees on competition and health and safety supported the Packers’ proposal. Nevertheless, after a heated debate across the league, it did not receive enough votes to pass last May. Twenty-one of the league’s other 32 teams were in agreement with the Packers. They fell two votes shy of the required 24.
The tush push was a legal play again in 2025, but as of September, momentum toward eliminating it was reportedly growing. However, it appears it will remain part of the game next season. Troy Vincent, the league’s executive vice president of football operations, said Monday that a new call to ban the play did not come in this year (via veteran reporter Mark Maske).
“Haven’t seen one,” Vincent revealed. “And that deadline has passed.”
The Packers’ new president/CEO, Ed Policy, and all other teams apparently did not feel strongly enough to submit a fresh proposal. It’s not especially surprising in the wake of comments that NFL competition committee co-chairman Rich McKay made on Sunday (via Mike Reiss and Kevin Seifert of ESPN).
“There’s no team proposal that I’ve seen from it,” McKay said. “So, I wouldn’t envision it. But you never know.”
As part of their proposal last year, the Packers pointed to player safety and pace of play among their reasons for requesting a tush push ban. A season has passed since then, and the league still has not publicized any health data related to the play, Reiss and Seifert note.
While the Eagles and the rest of the league may continue running the tush push, Vincent said the NFL could consider doing something “about aiding the runner. I mean, we saw players being literally picked up and kind of walked into the end zone. Is that really what we want?”
Patriots Interviewed Browns Safeties Coach Ephraim Banda For DC Job
The Patriots’ decision to promote linebackers coach Zak Kuhr to defensive coordinator came as no surprise.
Kuhr spent the 2025 season as New England’s defensive play-caller and de facto DC with Mike Vrabel‘s original hire, Terrell Williams, going through cancer treatments.
But the Patriots still had to comply with the NFL’s Rooney Rule requirement to interview at least two external minority candidates for any coordinator vacancy. One of those interviews was with Browns safeties coach Ephraim Banda, per ESPN’s Mike Reiss. The Patriots’ other minority DC candidate is not known.
Banda, 44, interviewed for DC jobs with the Browns, Cowboys, and Jets this offseason. He did not get any of them – nor, obviously, the gig in New England – but Cleveland added defensive passing game coordinator to his title.
Banda has overseen successful efforts by a number of Browns safeties during his tenure, including Ronnie Hickman, Grant Delpit, and Juan Thornhill. He previously served as the defensive coordinator and safeties coach at Utah State and Miami.
The Patriots also hired Southern Mississippi running backs coach B.J. Edmonds as an assistant on their defensive staff, per ESPN’s Pete Thamel. The former Arkansas State cornerback actually worked under Banda at Utah State in 2021 and 2022, though the two will not reunite in New England. Edmonds previously worked with the Patriots during training camp in 2025.
Lions Promote Bruce Gradkowski To Assistant WRs Coach
The Lions announced their full 2026 coaching staff on Monday. Almost all of their moves were already known, save for the promotion of Bruce Gradkowski from offensive assistant to assistant wide receivers coach.
Gradkowski, 43, arrived in Detroit last offseason after two extremely successful years as the offensive coordinator for the XFL/UFL’s St. Louis Battlehawks. His offenses were extremely successful in both years with strong production from former Bengals quarterback A.J. McCarron and former Cardinals wideout Hakeem Butler.
A journeyman quarterback who played for five different NFL teams between 2006 and 2016, Gradkowski moved into coaching swiftly his retirement as a player. He began at the high school level for three years before spending the 2022 as an offensive analyst at Toledo.
Gradkowski is clearly valued by the Lions and seen as a rising coach in their organization. They blocked the Dolphins from interviewing Gradkowski for their quarterbacks coach vacancy and created a position to promote him internally. Detroit did not employ an assistant wide receivers in 2025.
Gradkowski will continue to work under wide receivers coach Scottie Montgomery to hone the Lions’ air attack. Detroit’s offense was expected to regress significantly last season after Ben Johnson’s departure, but they still finished with a top-three passing offense and a top-five offense overall. Gradkowski was crucial to that effort and will likey be a key asset during the transition to new offensive coordinator Drew Petzing.
Mutual Interest Between Broncos, Mike Zimmer For Senior Coaching Position
The Broncos boasted one of the league’s best defenses in 2025, but head coach Sean Payton is still looking for ways to improve the unit.
To that end, he has spoken with longtime defensive coach Mike Zimmer about a senior position on his staff, per 9News’ Mike Klis. There is mutual interest between the two, but no hire is imminent. Zimmer would likely take on a senior position on Denver’s staff.
Zimmer, 69, has 45 years of coaching experience with 15 years as an NFL defensive coordinator and an eight-season stretch as the Vikings’ head coach. His most recent posting was as the Cowboys’ defensive coordinator in 2024; before that, he served as a defensive analyst/consultant on Deion Sanders‘ staff at Jackson State (2022) and Colorado (2023). Zimmer was the Cowboys’ defensive coordinator during Sanders’ time in Dallas. The two won Super Bowl XXX together, and Sanders picked up three first-team All-Pro nods from 1996-1998.
Payton and Zimmer do not have any direct history together, but the two are no doubt familiar after facing off several times over the last three decades. Zimmer did work closely with Broncos’ general manager George Paton, who was the Vikings’ assistant GM for much of Zimmer’s time in Minnesota.
Zimmer has run a 4-3 defense during his time as a head coach and coordinator, but that should not affect his ability to contribute to Vance Joseph‘s 3-4 unit. They have not previously coached together, either, but they have run in the same NFL coaching circle for the last two decades.
Adding such an experienced defensive mind certainly does not seem like a bad idea. The Broncos’ defense nearly carried them to the Super Bowl in 2025; if not for Bo Nix‘s injury, they may have faced the Seahawks with a better chance of slowing Sam Darnold and Seattle’s offense. If there is another level to be reached, and Zimmer can help them get there, Denver could be knocking on the door of the Super Bowl once again next season.
Dolphins Add Jon Robinson To Front Office
New Dolphins general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan is adding a former GM to his front office. The Dolphins are hiring Jon Robinson as a senior personnel executive, according to Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero of NFL Network.
Robinson met with the Jets about their GM gig in December 2024 and later conducted two interviews with the Jaguars for their vacant post last winter. He didn’t land either position, though, and will now return to the NFL for the first time since the Titans fired him as their GM in December 2022.
Before his seven-year reign in Tennessee, Robinson worked in scouting roles with the Patriots from 2002-12. He left the dynastic Pats to serve as the Buccaneers’ director of player personnel from 2013-15.
The Titans’ firing of Robinson came as a surprise at the time. While the club finished a lackluster 7-10 in 2022, it was 7-5 when owner Amy Adams Strunk canned Robinson. His teams won between nine and 12 games in each season from 2016-21. The Titans earned four playoff berths and two AFC South titles along the way, but they never got past the conference championship game.
Robinson’s ouster happened to come shortly after Eagles receiver/ex-Titan A.J. Brown torched his former club for eight catches, 119 yards and two touchdowns in Week 13. The timing was curious, though Strunk said she had already decided Robinson’s fate before the Titans lost a 35-10 blowout that day. Despite extending Robinson’s contract during the previous offseason, she quickly grew displeased with his roster.
Robinson was wise to spend a 2019 second-round pick on Brown, who developed into a star. On the other hand, in trading Brown to the Eagles for a first- and third-round pick in 2022, Robinson wasted a prime asset. He used the first-rounder, No. 18 overall, on former Arkansas wideout Treylon Burks. The Titans waived Burks last October after he busted over three years in their uniform.
Robinson’s last draft in Tennessee also included third-round quarterback Malik Willis. In assessing the former Liberty passer then, Robinson said: “He was the best player on the board, and excited to add him to the team. … Good arm, athletic, moves around well. Got a really good skillset. Throws a good ball. He is tough to tackle.”
Although Willis did not pan out with the Titans after Robinson chose him 86th overall, that pick is aging better. Willis’ stock is soaring on the heels of a successful two-year stint as Jordan Love‘s backup in Green Bay. Now two weeks away from hitting free agency, Willis will cash in big in March as he seeks a starting job. Robinson’s new team is among the rumored suitors.
New Dolphins head coach Jeff Hafley, the Packers’ defensive coordinator during Willis’ time there, reportedly wants to sign the 26-year-old. Sullivan also came to South Florida from Green Bay. The fact that the GM who drafted Willis is now a member of Miami’s front office adds yet another interesting connection between the team and the coveted QB.
Minor NFL Transactions: 2/23/26
Here is Monday’s lone minor NFL transaction…
Buffalo Bills
- Re-signed: DT Phidarian Mathis
Mathis came into the NFL in 2022 as a Commanders second-round pick, but he has not lived up to his draft stock. The former Alabama lineman missed all but one game as a rookie as a result of a calf injury. Mathis went on to combine for 22 appearances from 2022-23, though he came off the bench in all of those games and totaled just 25 tackles. The Commanders waived Mathis in December 2024. The Jets claimed the 312-pounder, but he was unable to crack their roster last summer.
Around three weeks after the Jets cut him, Mathis caught on with the Bills’ practice squad in early September. The 27-year-old went on to play in six games and pick up 13 tackles on 120 defensive snaps. Mathis will remain in Buffalo on a one-year pact.
Rams Add Kliff Kingsbury, Robert Woods To Staff; Aubrey Pleasant Not Returning
Kliff Kingsbury agreed to join the Rams’ coaching staff on Feb. 6, but his specific role was not publicized for over two weeks. The Rams announced Monday that Kingsbury will work as an assistant head coach.
Kingsbury is officially returning to Southern California three years after serving as an offensive analyst at USC. After coaching star quarterback Caleb Williams that year, the former Cardinals head coach returned to the NFL as the Commanders’ offensive coordinator in 2024.
The Bears chose Williams first overall in the 2024 draft. Kingsbury wound up helping the No. 2 pick, Jayden Daniels, to an otherworldly rookie campaign. Not only did the dual-threat signal-caller earn Offensive Rookie of the Year honors, but he guided the Commanders to the NFC title game. Philadelphia steamrolled Washington that day, 55-23, and the Commanders did not bounce back last season.
With Daniels and No. 1 wide receiver Terry McLaurin battling injuries that cost them a combined 17 games, the Commanders’ offense plummeted from fifth in scoring to 22nd in the matter of a year. The team reversed its record from 12-5 to 5-12, and Kingsbury reportedly clashed with Commanders general manager Adam Peters and head coach Dan Quinn along the way.
Kingsbury and the Commanders went their separate ways Jan. 6, but he drew plenty of interest in the month before he agreed to partner up with McVay. The 46-year-old interviewed for head coaching vacancies in Baltimore and Tennessee. He also talked to those two teams and the Giants about their offensive coordinator openings.
Brian Johnson, Kingsbury’s colleague in Washington, will rejoin him on Los Angeles’ staff. After two years as the Commanders’ assistant head coach/offensive pass-game coordinator, he’ll serve as a senior offensive assistant.
The Rams’ offensive staff will also include one of their former wide receivers, Robert Woods. A highly successful Ram from 2017-21, Woods retired from playing on Feb. 17. The 33-year-old will now reunite with McVay, who’s bringing Woods aboard as an assistant WRs coach.
McVay also hired former Rams offensive lineman Brian Allen, one of Woods’ old teammates, as an assistant OL coach. The 30-year-old Allen played his entire career as a member of the Rams, with whom he started in 32 of 50 games from 2018-23. He was the Rams’ No. 1 center on their Super Bowl-winning 2021 team.
In other adjustments to his offensive staff, McVay promoted WRs coach Eric Yarber to senior offensive assistant/WRs and upgraded Rob Calabrese from offensive assistant to WRs coach. Jimmy Lake will move from senior defensive assistant to pass-game coordinator/defensive backs coach, while Michael Hunter will come in as an assistant DBs coach. Hunter held that job at Ohio State over the past two seasons.
Lake’s promotion suggests the Rams will not retain Aubrey Pleasant, who is no longer listed among their coaches. It’s unclear why the sides appear to have parted ways.
Pleasant first worked for McVay as the Rams’ cornerbacks coach from 2017-20. After dividing the next two seasons between Detroit and Green Bay, he returned to the Rams as their pass-game coordinator/DBs coach in 2023. He continued to handle the PGC role from 2024-25, but McVay also bumped him to assistant head coach.
Pleasant landed D-coordinator interviews with the Cardinals, Browns, Raiders and Chargers earlier this winter. Those teams hired different candidates instead, but perhaps he’ll take an assistant position with one of them or some other club.
NFL Not Expected To Make Big Changes To Kickoff Setup
With the NFL’s onside kick setup failing to provide enough drama, executive vice president Troy Vincent suggested last October that changes could be in store in 2026. Replacing the onside kick with a fourth-and-15 or fourth-and-20 play was at least a possibility then.
Current rules dictate that the onside kicking team has to announce its intentions in advance. It was already difficult for the kicking team to recover an onside try before the league introduced that change in 2024. Unsurprisingly, it has been even more of a challenge since then. A meager five of 52 onside attempts were successful last season.
Multiple sources told Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk that introducing a fourth-and-13 play as an onside kick replacement would be addressed this offseason. However, the competition committee did not have discussions regarding a fourth-and-long alternative during Sunday’s meeting at the scouting combine, according to Vincent (via Kevin Seifert of ESPN). Any tweaks to the onside kick would require 24 votes to pass. There does not appear to be much support across the league for such a radical change, though, per veteran reporter Mark Maske.
“When it was first proposed, it picked up a couple of votes,” Vincent said Monday. “And then it just kind of stalemated. I don’t think there was … much appetite.”
Then the Buccaneers’ head coach, Greg Schiano first floated the fourth-and-long idea to commissioner Roger Goodell over 13 years ago, according to a 2012 Time Magazine piece. Schiano’s suggestion came a couple of years after one of his former Rutgers players, Eric LeGrand, was paralyzed from the neck down while making a tackle on a kickoff in 2010. The NFL has since made other significant adjustments to the kickoff in the interest of player safety.
When discussing the kickoff with the competition committee on Sunday, special teams coaches voiced concerns over returners and tacklers suffering concussions (via Maske). However, there will not be any “major changes” to the 2-year-old dynamic kickoff format this offseason, Maske reports. Jeff Miller, the league’s executive vice president, said “the competition committee, the health and safety side agree that we’re definitely on the right track.”
The league moved the touchback spot from the 30-yard line to the 35 in 2025, leading to a massive increase in action. Returners took the ball back on 74.5% of kickoffs last season. The number checked in at 32.8% in 2024.
Chargers C Bradley Bozeman Announces Retirement
After eight seasons in the NFL, Chargers center Bradley Bozeman is hanging up his cleats. The 31-year-old announced his retirement on Instagram on Monday (via Adam Schefter of ESPN).
The Chargers were the third team for Bozeman, an Alabama product who entered the league as a sixth-round pick of the Ravens in 2018. With Matt Skura then serving as the Ravens’ center, Bozeman’s lone start during a 14-game rookie season came at left guard. Bozeman became a full-time starter at left guard in 2019, his first of three straight 16-game seasons.
After Skura left the Ravens to sign with the Dolphins in 2021, Bozeman switched back to center. It turned out to be the last season in Baltimore for Bozeman, who accepted Carolina’s one-year offer in 2022.
Although Bozeman only started in 11 of 17 games in his first season in Carolina, he was impressive enough for the Panthers to bring him back on a three-year, $18MM contract. The 325-pounder notched a 17-start season in the first year of the deal, but the Panthers released him in March 2024.
A week after his Carolina tenure ended, Bozeman moved to the West Coast on a one-year agreement with the Chargers. Bozeman made just over $1.1MM during another 17-start season, leading the Chargers to award him a raise on a two-year, $6.5MM accord last March.
While Bozeman was again a full-time starter over 16 games in 2025, Pro Football Focus ranked his performance last among 37 qualifying centers. His struggles were among a handful of problems up front for the Chargers, who went without injured left tackle Rashawn Slater for the season and didn’t have right tackle Joe Alt for most of it. As a result of the Chargers’ O-line woes, quarterback Justin Herbert took the league’s second-most sacks (54).
The Chargers may have been in the market for a center this offseason had Bozeman kept playing in 2026. They definitely will be now that Bozeman is walking away after 129 games and 110 starts in the league. His exit will clear the way for yet another new starting pivot for the Chargers. The Bolts have not used the same primary starting center for three straight years since longtime staple Nick Hardwick retired in 2014.
Commanders Re-Sign OL Andrew Wylie
Andrew Wylie was on course for free agency. Instead, he will be remaining in the nation’s capital for at least the next two years. 
Wylie and the Commanders have agreed to a two-year contract, as first reported by Ari Meirov of the 33rd Team. The deal has been confirmed by ESPN’s John Keim, who notes Wylie preferred to re-sign with Washington rather than testing the open market. That will indeed be the case.
According to Meirov, this deal has a base value of $7.5MM. It can reach a maximum of $10.5MM, making this a notable raise compared to Wylie’s most recent contract. In 2025, he took a one-year, $4MM pact to stay in place with the Commanders. The 31-year-old will now be in line to continue serving a notable role along Washington’s offensive line. Wylie will collect a $1.5MM signing bonus, Aaron Wilson of KPRC2 adds.
A former undrafted free agent, Wylie found an opportunity for playing time with the Chiefs and established himself as a regular with them. Over the course of five seasons in Kanas City, he totaled 59 starts. That stretch was followed by a three-year, $24MM deal in free agency which sent Wylie to Washington. It allowed the Eastern Michigan product to operate as the Commanders’ starting right tackle.
Things changed last year when Washington drafted Josh Conerly in the first round. Conerly took on right tackle duties during his rookie campaign, and he is in line to continue in that role for 2026. The Oregon alum could be seen as a potential left tackle in the future, but Washington is interested in extending Laremy Tunsil. As long as Tunsil and Conerly are in the fold, Wylie – who drew trade interest in the fall – will be tasked with handling a backup tackle gig; he could also see time at guard, as was the case in 2025.
The Commanders still have a long list of pending free agents whose futures need to be decided on over the coming days. That includes several offensive linemen, but given today’s news Wylie will offer familiarity and a veteran depth presence up front.