The Texans check in with the day’s only minor move among playoff teams:
Houston Texans
Wayne will take the roster spot of Diontae Johnson, who saw a fourth team since March cut ties with him. The Texans waived Johnson three weeks after claiming him. A 2023 UDFA out of Pitt, Wayne played in three Texans games in December.
Many teams have started signing players to reserve/futures contracts, allowing the organization to retain (routinely) young, practice squad players through the offseason. Here are the latest reserve/futures contracts:
Arizona Cardinals
Cleveland Browns
Denver Broncos
Green Bay Packers
Los Angeles Chargers
Pittsburgh Steelers
Just one practice squad move to pass along:
Minnesota Vikings
Marcellus Johnson, an undrafted rookie out of Mizzou, spent much of the preseason with the Giants. He was later scooped up by the Vikings, where he had a short stint on the team’s practice squad. He’s once again landed on Minnesota’s taxi squad, and this could bode well for his chances of sticking around via a reserve/futures contract.
Today’s minor moves:
Indianapolis Colts
Los Angeles Rams
The Colts announced that they’ve re-signed linebacker Cameron McGrone to a one-year extension. The former fifth-round pick has spent the past two-plus years in Indy, including a 2024 campaign where he collected six special teams tackles in nine appearances.
To no surprise, the Patriots have named Mike Vrabel as their next head coach. Ian Rapoport of NFL.com was the first to report that the hire was imminent.
Just yesterday, we learned that New England and Vrabel were engaged in contract discussions, a clear sign that a deal was forthcoming. Now, just over a year after he was dismissed as head coach of the Titans, Vrabel is back in the HC ranks at the helm of the team with which he won three Super Bowls as a player.
Per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Vrabel is the seventh person to become the head coach of a team that he once helped win a Super Bowl as a player. The sixth person on that list, Jerod Mayo, was fired by New England last week after just one season in the top job.
Mayo was owner Robert Kraft‘s hand-picked successor to Bill Belichick, and for a long time, it appeared that Mayo would be given at least another year in charge. After all, he inherited a team that was clearly in the early stages of a rebuild, and despite a few public missteps, it would have been easy to justify allowing him to return for 2025.
Last week, however, it was reported that those public “gaffes” — in conjunction with a locker room culture that may not have been as strong as some players portrayed it to be and an embarrassing defeat at the hands of the Chargers in Week 17 — were conspiring to drive Mayo out of Foxborough. He was canned later that same day, shortly after the Pats’ regular season finale.
Speculatively, Vrabel’s availability may well have clinched Kraft’s decision to hand Mayo his walking papers. During his time as the Titans’ head coach, Vrabel established himself as one of the league’s better bench bosses, and he is highly-regarded for his game management and his ability to develop a strong culture predicated on accountability. The Titans posted a winning record in each of Vrabel’s first four seasons in Nashville, which included three playoff appearances and a trip to the AFC title game. He earned Coach of the Year honors following the 2021 campaign, but things took a turn for the worse over the 2022-23 seasons.
A seven-game losing streak to close out the 2022 season left Tennessee with a 7-10 record after a division title seemed to be in the cards, and the team slipped to a 6-11 mark in 2023. During that 2023 campaign, Ran Carthon‘s first as Titans GM following Jon Robinson‘s surprising firing, there was reportedly tension between Vrabel and Carthon (a situation that may have been exacerbated by the fact that the Titans hired Carthon instead of Ryan Cowden, who was Vrabel’s preferred Robinson successor).
Vrabel may have also wanted more input in personnel matters in Tennessee, a situation that will bear monitoring in New England. The Pats have already announced that they will retain executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf and top front office executive Alonzo Highsmith, though as Mike Reiss of ESPN.com wrote this morning, the roles of those two men are to be determined. Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports reports that Cowden, who is currently serving as a personnel advisor for the Giants, will likely be added to the Patriots’ personnel department in a non-GM capacity, though he believes Wolf will retain final authority.
Another situation worth monitoring will be whom Vrabel chooses as his offensive coordinator. Josh McDaniels, a familiar face for Patriots fans, has been named as an obvious choice, and the defensive-minded Vrabel will need to get that hire right in order to maximize the potential of young quarterback Drake Maye. Maye, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2024 draft, showed flashes as a rookie and is one of the reasons why the New England HC job was generally seen as a desirable one, and his continued development will be a top priority.
Indeed, as Reiss points out, Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson — one of the most respected offensive minds in the game — was New England’s second choice. If they had offered Johnson the job, and if Johnson had accepted, the Pats would have had an ideal coach-QB pairing, but unlike Vrabel, Johnson has never had to create his own team culture. Vrabel, on the other hand, does have that experience, and the Pats are banking on his ability to properly fill out his staff.
As our head coaching search tracker shows, Vrabel was connected to each of the six teams in need of a new HC this year, further underscoring the strength of his candidacy. Per Dianna Russini of The Athletic, the Bears and Jets made “consistent and late pushes” to land him, and Zack Rosenblatt of The Athletic believes New York had a real shot at him until the Patriots’ job became available. Meanwhile, Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network reports that, despite the Raiders‘ (and minority owner Tom Brady‘s) interest in Vrabel, Brady’s former teammate declined a Las Vegas interview because he knew he would be accepting the New England gig (video link).
Despite the Patriots’ 4-13 record in 2024, the presence of Maye, the hiring of Vrabel, and the prospect of the most salary cap space in the league will surely create plenty of excitement in New England in the coming months.
A rare Sunday practice squad transaction as we head towards a playoff game tomorrow:
Minnesota Vikings
Marcus Williams‘ third campaign with the Ravens has not gone according to plan. The veteran safety has found himself a healthy scratch for multiple weeks, and he is on track to see his contract terminated in the coming offseason. 
[RELATED: Tracking Each Team’s 2025 Cap Carryover]
Williams and the Ravens recently agreed to a restructure, Jason Fitzgerald of Over the Cap reports. A release taking effect after June 1 was the likely outcome of this situation once Williams fell out of the team’s plans on defense. In the meantime, though, Williams’ cap impact will be lowered. His base salary has been dropped from $12MM to $2.1MM, Fitzgerald notes, creating immediate savings. Players designated as post-June 1 cuts immediately become free agents, but their teams do not see the additional cap space until after that date.
Now, as a result of the restructure, Baltimore will have $9.9MM in space which would not have otherwise been available during the early portion of the offseason. The team will free up the remaining $2.1MM once Williams’ contract is officially off the books on June 2. This move will result in $6.72MM in dead money charges in 2025 and ’26.
Following a five-year run in New Orleans, Williams was one of the top free agents in 2022. He inked a five-year, $70MM deal with the Ravens and as such faced high expectations upon arrival. The former second-rounder matched his career high with four interceptions in his first Baltimore campaign, one which was limited to 10 games due to injury. Last year, Williams only made 11 appearances while spending much of the year at less than full strength. His starting spot was not in jeopardy early in the current campaign, but part of the team’s midseason defensive adjustments was the decision to bench him.
Through the closing stages of the regular season and into last night’s wild-card game, Baltimore has used Kyle Hamilton and Ar’Darius Washington as safety starters. That setup is set to continue the rest of the way, and Williams will no doubt welcome a fresh start this spring (although his market has obviously taken a major hit). The 28-year-old’s next contract will surely fall well short of the $15MM annual average value he secured from the Ravens. With Williams set to depart, meanwhile, safety will be a position to watch during the offseason for the team this offseason.
Saturday’s minor transactions and more standard gameday practice squad elevations for the wild-card round of the playoffs:
Baltimore Ravens
Buffalo Bills
Denver Broncos
Green Bay Packers
Philadelphia Eagles
Pittsburgh Steelers
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Washington Commanders
As a member of the practice squad this year, Clifford, the second-year passer out of Penn State, was elevated twice. As a member of the active roster, he will be able to serve as Green Bay’s emergency third quarterback, which could be beneficial after starter Jordan Love was knocked out of the team’s Week 18 loss with an elbow injury on his throwing arm, and his backup, Malik Willis, was dealing with a thumb injury on his throwing hand. Both players had two full practices this week and carry no injury designation, but the team will be taking no chances.
Head coach and general manager interviews are underway, and the Raiders are looking to hire both. Already looking to hire a new head coach after firing Antonio Pierce, the Raiders made the move to fire general manager Tom Telesco, as well, at the alleged behest of part-owner Tom Brady. According to Dianna Russini of The Athletic, that may not be the only influence Brady has brought to the equation.
Initially, reports were that Brady preferred to start clean with a general manager who would work in tandem with a new head coach, resulting in the termination of Telesco. Now, Brady’s effect on the team continues as his influence seems to be bringing in candidates that they otherwise wouldn’t typically land
Russini notes that coaches like Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, who has notoriously been picky over his potential jobs, are showing interest in Las Vegas perhaps because of Brady’s influence. We’ll see if that influence continues into the search for a new general manager, as well. The presence of the future Hall of Famer seems to be making Las Vegas a premier destination.
Here are a few other coaching updates around the NFL:
Today’s practice squad transactions:
Pittsburgh Steelers