🐺 Wolf Sports Weekly

2025 NFL expansion series

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Wolf Sports
June 24, 2025

If you’re a longtime Wolf Sports follower, you’ve probably seen our popular annual NFL expansion series where we dive into what an NFL expansion team might look like each year. After hitting on the news around the league, this week’s newsletter will dive into the 2025 expansion series.

🏈 Quick-hitting NFL news

LB C.J. Mosley retired after 11 NFL seasons with the Ravens and Jets. The former first-round pick out of Alabama was named a Second-Team All-Pro five times in his career. Mosley had over 1,000 tackles, 12 sacks, 12 interceptions, and two defensive TDs over his 11 years.

The Ravens signed star CB Jaire Alexander to a one-year, $6 million deal. The move reunites Alexander with former Louisville teammate Lamar Jackson shortly after the two-time MVP QB called for Baltimore to sign him. You might remember Alexander’s reaction after Jackson joined him as a first-round pick in 2018.

Recent transactions around the league:

Key KC players healthy: Chiefs HC Andy Reid says first-round OT Josh Simmons and WR Rashee Rice are both ready to go for the start of training camp coming off knee injuries.

Browns rookie QB Shedeur Sanders was pulled over twice for speeding this month.

Watch: Tom Brady ripped an Eli Manning jersey before Eli fake-jumped him.

Tight End University is officially back this week, with the Class of 2025 announced by the program yesterday.

Netflix released the trailer for the upcoming docuseries, Quarterback, premiering July 8.

🤔 NFL Expansion Series: Part I

The NFL expansion series poses a fun question: What would an expansion franchise look like in 2025? Part I picks the city, team branding, and coaching staff.

City: Austin, Texas
San Diego, St. Louis, Orlando, and Salt Lake City are among the other options for the expansion city. A study by the data company Windfall has Austin, Texas as the No. 1 choice—and that’s who we’re going with. California and Florida both have three NFL teams, and Texas should also add a third squad along with the Cowboys and Texans. The Austin metro area has over two million people, and San Antonio’s Alamodome down the road can initially host games.

Team Name: Rogues
Austin has a ton of bats, so Bats is among other strong possibilities—as well as Imperials and Centurions. Rogues is the best overall fit. It’s a match for Texas’ history of outlaws but arguably sounds better with less of a negative connotation. Austin Rogues just flows nicely, too.

Head Coach: Jon Gruden
Slowly, Jon Gruden appears to be working his way back into the NFL. He informally worked with the Saints over the past couple of years, and the media team of the Ravens recently had him on their podcast after he visited the squad during OTAs. Gruden is a Super Bowl champion who would bring fire and credibility to an expansion club.

🔒 NFL Expansion Series: Part II

The most interesting part of the NFL expansion series might be Part II, which dives into what an expansion draft might look like. The last expansion draft was in 2002 with the Texans. Each of the NFL’s 32 teams must decide on five players to make available for the Austin Rogues to select from in the expansion player pool.

Among players available were QB Aaron Rodgers, QB Kirk Cousins, and DL Jonathan Allen. Contract size plays a major role in players available—and if we decide to take them on or not. These were our first five additions:

  • WR Davante Adams ($38.3M): The contract is massive, but we’re not passing on a touchdown-maker like Adams on an expansion roster that needs all the talent it can get. Gruden recently said he’d throw to Adams every play if he had him, and Adams previously said he almost didn’t want to go to Vegas (as he planned to do) after Gruden resigned.

  • CB Jaire Alexander ($24.6M): Released by Green Bay in real life, Alexander would’ve been made one of the Packers’ five options in the expansion draft. The durability is the risk, but Alexander’s talent is worth taking a shot on.

  • TE Evan Engram ($19.5M): This is the toughest salary to take on, but as stated we need all the talent we can get. Engram can do it all as a receiving option at TE, and he caught 114 passes two years ago.

  • EDGE Leonard Floyd ($10.1M): With 8.5+ sacks in each of his past five seasons, Floyd is a versatile edge rusher bringing immediate credibility on defense.

  • DL Javon Hargrave ($10.3M): Another gamble but worth it at this 2025 cap hit, Hargrave can still push the pocket if healthy and on the field.

In total, the Rogues took on $168 million in contracts across 22 selections during the expansion draft.

💰 NFL Expansion Series: Part III

Following the expansion draft, the Rogues need to add more to their roster via free agency. The strategy is one of signing guys mostly to one-year deals to be immediately competitive but giving us more flexibility in future years.

  • At QB, Austin signs Marcus Mariota, who went under the radar for how well he played when thrust into action for the Commanders last season. Mariota previously played for Gruden with the Raiders.

  • On multi-year deals, the Rogues sign G Mekhi Becton and DL Poona Ford. Becton joins Jonah Jackson and Garrett Bradbury to form a solid interior OL.

  • Among the other defenders signed, EDGE Azeez Ojulari, LB Devin White, and S Xavier Woods give us experience on all three levels.

Overall, our free agent haul allows us to supplement the roster ahead of the 2025 NFL Draft.

⭐️ NFL Expansion Series: Part IV

The Rogues have the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. To keep things as realistic as possible, we’re sticking at No. 1 instead of getting too crazy with a trade back for a boatload of picks to build the roster. These were our first five selections:

  • 1.01 | CB/WR Travis Hunter, Colorado: The two-way nature of Hunter basically gives us a cheat code with a superb WR2 and CB2 paired with Adams and Alexander.

  • 2.34 | QB Jalen Milroe, Alabama: While Milroe went late in Round 3 in real life, we were extremely high on him and don’t want to cheat things too much. He’s our guy to begin Day 2 as someone who can develop under Gruden, who is a big fan of a relatively similar player in Lamar Jackson.

  • 2.52 | CB Benjamin Morrison, Notre Dame: It’s not an exaggeration that if Hunter and Morrison transition smoothly to the next level, the Rogues would have the best CB trio in football.

  • 3.88 | S Xavier Watts, Notre Dame: Watts had a productive end to his college career at Notre Dame, and he happens to fill a need at S next to Xavier Woods.

  • 4.107 | QB Shedeur Sanders, Colorado: This is a Kirk Cousins type of situation, where we like Sanders enough to double-dip at QB and see how things shake out.

Oregon WR Tez Johnson was another headliner from Day 3. The big disappointment from the full draft is that we missed on the opportunity to take an OT like Josh Simmons.

If you want to read each part of the 2025 NFL expansion series in full, you can check them out here:

Other Sports Updates

🏆 Back-to-back Stanley Cup champions: The Panthers beat the Oilers in six games to win the title for the second straight season.

⚾️ LSU defeated Coastal Carolina to win the College World Series.

👊 UFC legend Jon Jones announced his retirement on social media.

🏒 Three-time Stanley Cup champion Jonathan Toews, who last played in 2023, signed with Winnipeg.

🪏 The Athletics broke ground on their new stadium being built in Las Vegas.

🐺 Found on wolfsports.com