PLEASANTON, Calif. — The best seat in the house is still reserved for John Madden.

His throne is fully reclined and draped in a fleece Raiders blanket. It sits squarely before a 20-foot-tall LED wall, a study in sensory overload, showing every NFL broadcast at once.

When the Hall of Fame coach retired from the TV booth in 2009, until his ...Read more

With 2:57 left in the first quarter Sunday, Geno Smith took a shotgun snap, looked left and saw a 6-foot-4, 235-pound blur behind the defense. The 33-year-old quarterback’s feathery spiral hit DK Metcalf in stride, and he high-stepped into the end zone for a 56-yard score.

The play was perfectly executed.

The celebration?

Not so much.

...Read more

PITTSBURGH — If anything has become evident about the Steelers offense after two games — beyond the inability to score points — it's that replacing Diontae Johnson's production will be more difficult than imagined.

In other words, it has become apparent why the Steelers were in pursuit of receivers Brandon Aiyuk and Mike Williams before ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins might want to know if “You like that!”

Cousins guided the Falcons on a clutch six-play, 70-yard touchdown drive and Jessie Bates III sealed the 22-21 win over the Eagles with an interception with 19 seconds to play on Monday at Lincoln Financial Field.

The Falcons took a lead into the ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — With 1:39 remaining in the fourth quarter, down by six points, the Atlanta Falcons stormed 70 yards down the field and spoiled the Eagles’ home opener.

Kirk Cousins, the familiar Week 2 foe who signed with the Falcons in the offseason, completed a 7-yard touchdown pass to Drake London to pull off a 22-21 comeback win on ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Jalen Hurts finally looked like he got his legs back after a two-year absence.

Saquon Barkley 2024 continued to look like Saquon Barkley 2022, showing just how good he can be when performing behind an excellent offensive line (rather than a Giants offensive line).

DeVonta Smith excelled in the absence of A.J. Brown, the team�...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Some mornings, depending on how awake and alert one can be around 5:30 a.m., Jeff Stoutland will pause on his walk through the hallway inside the Eagles' NovaCare Complex. There are photographs of people and moments memorialized all over the building, but there's a specific image that Stoutland, the Eagles' offensive line coach ...Read more

BOSTON — Patriots linebacker Ja’Whaun Bentley suffered a torn pec in Sunday’s loss to the Seahawks and is out for the season, a source confirmed.

The news was first reported by NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport.

The defensive captain appeared to suffer the injury with 3:35 remaining in the first quarter of the 23-20 loss to the Seahawks. He ...Read more

The San Francisco 49ers’ biggest question coming into the 2024 season was whether they could avoid many of the same issues that befell them in the post-Super Bowl 2020 campaign.

Luckily, the world hasn’t been stricken with a worldwide pandemic again.

But the Niners sure seem to have caught the injury bug again.

Two of the team’s most ...Read more

LAS VEGAS — The vast majority of bettors lost Sunday when six NFL underdogs won outright.

But it was a glorious day for a Caesars Sportsbook bettor who turned $3 into $10,976 after hitting a nine-team NFL money-line parlay.

The bettor correctly called all six outright upsets and threw in three favorites for good measure.

“This person’s ...Read more

Let’s see. There’s the Cleveland Browns three-time Pro Bowl cornerback Denzel Ward. He suffered the fifth concussion of his seven-year NFL career in August.

No NFL coach ever said of him, as the Las Vegas Raiders’ Antonio Pierce did after Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa’s third concussion last Thursday, “I’ll be honest, I�...Read more

BALTIMORE — The Ravens blew a 23-13 fourth-quarter lead in a disastrous home loss to the Las Vegas Raiders that dropped them to 0-2.

Here are five things we learned from the game:

The Ravens concocted the perfect recipe for a shocking defeat, and their season is already in peril

Here are the ingredients to a demoralizing loss that no one on...Read more

DETROIT — This one will take a while to decipher, even longer to digest. And when the Lions finish sifting through it, they’ll probably feel worse.

They’ll kick themselves for all sorts of reasons, including the fact they literally didn’t kick themselves when they had a chance. Time and space kept running out on the Lions, and in the ...Read more

When Christian McCaffrey went down, the 49ers could take solace in the fact that they had another versatile and dynamic weapon in Deebo Samuel.

For the next two games, the 49ers will be without both as Samuel reported to work with a calf strain that coach Kyle Shanahan said would likely keep him out two weeks.

That means the 49ers will face ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Like so many mistakes made in the sports world, they seemed like reasonable ideas at the time.

In 2023, the Vikings would replace Dalvin Cook with longtime, reliable backup running back Alexander Mattison. The team would save money and, theoretically, get enough production out of the position to keep defenses honest.

The ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The number of significant Rams players who will be out for extended periods continues to grow.

Receiver Cooper Kupp suffered an ankle sprain and safety John Johnson III and offensive lineman Jonah Jackson suffered shoulder injuries during the Rams' defeat by the Arizona Cardinals and all are possible candidates to be placed on ...Read more

NEW YORK — Two weeks into the season, the Jets have already lost a key defensive member.

In a video on his X account, Jets pass rusher Jermaine Johnson confirmed his MRI revealed he tore his Achilles during Sunday’s 24-17 victory against the Titans and will likely miss the rest of the season.

“It’s official, man, MRI just came back ...Read more

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Dave Canales has seen enough.

The first-year head coach of the Carolina Panthers, after an 0-2 start that saw his team be outscored a league-worst 73-13, has elected to bench starting quarterback Bryce Young ahead of his team’s Week 3 contest at Las Vegas.

Veteran quarterback Andy Dalton will start Sunday against the ...Read more