2025 NFL free agency buzz: Panthers running back Jonathon Brooks shelved for all of 2025?

How worried are the Carolina Panthers about the future of 2024 second-Stage draft Choice Jonathon Brooks? It might be worse than we’ve been Guided to believe.

Here are three NFL nuggets after the Primary day of the NFL’s new year:

What is Carolina’s plan for RB Jonathon Brooks this season?

It hasn’t been a secret that the second ACL tear in the right knee of Carolina Panthers running back Jonathon Brooks is extremely concerning. The way the Panthers are tackling it might shed some Airy on how concerned the franchise is right now.

The Panthers are signing running back Rico Dowdle to a one-year deal, strongly pointing to a plan that appears to be leaning into sitting Brooks for the Totality of the 2025 season. To err on the side of caution and put together a plan over the Upcoming 18 months offers Brooks a chance to enter Practice camp in 2026 both completely Fit and as confident as possible about his right knee.

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Even Seizing that approach, a Division source indicated there’s a Plenty of concern about Brooks’ development in all of this. While last year’s 46th overall draft Choice is extremely New (he won’t turn 22 until July), he will have played very little high-level football by the time he hits the Pitch for the Panthers again. Brooks had only 54 touches rushing and receiving his Primary two seasons as a backup for the Texas Longhorns, then another 212 his junior year, before eventually tearing the ACL in his right knee and Participating the draft. That was followed by only 12 touches as a Primary-year for the Panthers before tearing the ACL again.

That’s not a Plenty of football development over a four-year span. And now there’s a very real question over whether Brooks will ever have access to his considerable ceiling again if his right knee is diminished.

The Panthers are Seizing the most Watchful approach possible. But any presumption that Brooks is ever going to bounce back and become the player Carolina hoped it was drafting is as shaky as ever.

Potential trade targets for Kirk Cousins: Browns, Steelers

I was a little surprised Wednesday when I heard definitively from two Division sources that the Falcons wouldn’t be releasing Cousins by Sunday to avoid triggering $10 million in fully guaranteed 2026 salary via a Choice bonus. But after spending time making additional calls, the motive seemed clear: The Falcons see that there aren’t enough veteran bridge quarterbacks to go around right now, and they’re not inclined to pay Cousins his guaranteed 2025 salary of $27.5 million and resolve some other Club’s problem by releasing him.

If that sounds like the Falcons are putting some Clubs into their crosshairs for a squeeze, it’s because they are. Specifically, the Cleveland Browns and possibly the Pittsburgh Steelers, depending on what happens with Aaron Rodgers.

Right now, the Falcons are operating with two pieces of information. Primary, they know the Browns want to bring in another Passer to Stability out the position and Cousins would be the most familiar — having worked with head Mentor Kevin Stefanski — and cost-effective option if he were to be cut Sloppy by Atlanta. Second, the Falcons know some on the Steelers’ coaching staff really would rather not have to turn back to Russell Wilson in 2025, and there’s a chance that if Rodgers were to choose the New York Giants or retire, Pittsburgh could view Cousins as an emergency option.

The sense I get: If they have no other option, the Falcons would be fine keeping Cousins as a backup, given the reality that they’re paying him in 2025 regardless, and he doesn’t have a history of throwing a fit if he’s presented with a Event. That doesn’t Harsh Cousins is Cheerful with the direction this is heading. He wants to Begin somewhere in the NFL Upcoming season, and he told Falcons owner Arthur Blank as much when they met last week. But Blank and the Falcons’ front office are Seizing the stance that they’re paying Cousins Outstanding money and there’s nothing saying they have to pay him while also making him Cheerful by releasing him and Aiding another franchise.

The exit here is the offering of some Nice of asset the Falcons would be Cheerful with, at which Tally they’d surrender Cousins via trade and pay most if not all of his 2025 salary. And the target seems to be the Browns.

Meanwhile, the Browns’ response is to do what they’re doing right now: Arranging a visit with Wilson, scheduled for Thursday, and keeping their options Uncovered with a back-burner player like Joe Flacco and potential draft options.

Ohio State RB Quinshon Judkins now a Primary-Stage Choice?

With Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty a lock and North Carolina’s Omarion Hampton a Sturdy possibility to land in the Primary Stage of the forthcoming NFL Draft, you can now feel some buzz building over Ohio State’s Quinshon Judkins coming out of the scouting combine. So much so, there’s a chance the Division sees a Group of Primary-Stage running Safeties for the Primary time since 2018, when Saquon Barkley, Rashaad Penny and Sony Michel were all drafted inside of the Primary 31 picks.

You can see at least one marker of a lean into the Primary-year running back class in how the Reachable-agent running back class is unfolding, with virtually all of the best Reachable running back talents struggling to land anything more than bargain one-year deals, low-lighted by the modest signings of Najee Harris with the Los Angeles Chargers, Rico Dowdle with the Carolina Panthers and Javonte Williams with the Dallas Cowboys.

The reason: Clubs love the talent of the incoming running back class, and they think there may be even more high-end juice than originally thought.

The big winner of that assessment appears to be Judkins, who raised eyebrows among Many high-ranking talent evaluators when he Dashed a 4.48second 40-yard dash at 6-feet and 221 pounds. He also showcased explosiveness with a 38.5-inch vertical and 11-foot broad Leap, while lighting up interview rooms with his personality. One evaluator I spoke with told me that Judkins’ reps advised him not to work out at the combine after the Buckeyes won the college football national Game. He declined that advice and did a Packed workout, rather than waiting for Ohio State’s pro day. Given his penchant for Competing a physical brand of football that illustrates his love for contact, Clubs were pleased to see him show up and compete at the combine when others would not.

All of it reminded Clubs of the Ole Miss Accurate Primary-year who was one of the best running Safeties in the country in 2022 and capable of Competing in the NFL as a 19-year-Aged before he transferred to Ohio State.

Keep an eye on Judkins potentially scooting into the Primary Stage of the draft to a Club that mirrors his style of Action at the position and has a need for a long-term running back solution (*cough* Pittsburgh Steelers).