🐺 Wolf Sports Weekly

The Bears and Texans play in the Hall of Fame Game this Thursday at 8:00 PM ET on ESPN and ABC. We’re getting close! Contract news starts this week’s Wolf Sports Weekly.

😳 Tua, Love get paid

The start of training camp always generates urgency for contract extensions, and the Dolphins and Packers both just locked up their young quarterbacks. Miami signed Tua Tagovailoa to a four-year, $212.4 million extension on Friday. Hours later, Jordan Love signed a four-year, $220 million deal with Green Bay.

• Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel strongly embraced Tua from the start when he got the head coaching job in 2022, and the former Alabama standout led the NFL in passing yards last season.

• The Packers have believed in Love since taking him in the first round of the 2020 draft. He sat a few seasons and took over for Aaron Rodgers last year, throwing for 4,159 yards and 32 touchdowns with 11 interceptions.

• Love’s $55 million per year ties Joe Burrow and Trevor Lawrence to make him the highest-paid player in NFL history on a per-year basis—and it comes after just one season as a starting quarterback!

• Remember, Matt LaFleur’s balanced offense helped the great Aaron Rodgers post back-to-back MVPs in 2020 and 2021, and now Love is the beneficiary.

The bottom line: Both Tagovailoa and Love are in ideal situations, and it’ll be fun to watch them attempt to play up to these mega deals. Also, the 2020 quarterback draft class headlined by Burrow, Tagovailoa, Justin Herbert, Love, and Jalen Hurts has now earned well over a billion dollars combined:

💰 More players with new deals

Tagovailoa and Love were not alone, with several other players getting new contracts early during camp:

• Jaguars cornerback Tyson Campbell signed a four-year, $76.5 million extension with the team.

• Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford had his contract adjusted.

• The Browns gave receiver Amari Cooper a $5 million raise while guaranteeing him the $20 million left on his contract.

• Lions left tackle Taylor Decker signed a three-year, $60 million extension with the club. Detroit also extended quarterback Jared Goff, receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown, and right tackle Penei Sewell this offseason.

• The Seahawks signed safety Julian Love to a three-year, $36 million extension, and Patriots safety Jabrill Peppers signed a three-year extension worth up to $30 million.

🧐 The holdouts (and “hold ins”)

Not everyone is happy, and there are holdouts as well as hold-ins (where players report and avoid fines but sit out of practice—it’s basically a loophole that teams in many cases probably aren’t thrilled about) to begin training camp. The two big holdouts are Cowboys superstar receiver CeeDee Lamb and 49ers all-world left tackle Trent Williams. (We also mentioned Haason Reddick holding out from the Jets last week.)

• Lamb is on fifth and final year of his rookie contract (a fifth-year option the team without hesitation picked up during the 2023 offseason).

• Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones told NFL Network’s Jane Slater that the team made another offer to Lamb on Friday and that conversations have been good.

• As for Williams, his holdout came as somewhat of a surprise given that he has three years left on his massive contract—but he’s arguably the best offensive lineman in football and wants a raise.

• The Niners are clearly a much better team with Williams, and we’d think the two sides will work something out.

Big picture: Both San Francisco and Dallas are in tough spots, as the downside of having such talented rosters is that it can be difficult to pay everyone while staying under the salary cap.

As for the hold ins, the 49ers have one of them, too.

• We mentioned Brandon Aiyuk’s potential holdout last week, and it turns out he at least reported to the team—yet is not practicing (again, to avoid fines).

• Bengals star receiver Ja’Marr Chase is also not practicing despite the team indicating that an extension isn’t likely this year.

Bucs pass rusher Randy Gregory, who just signed with the team in April, has not reported to camp and is racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.

There is good news: Saints running back Alvin Kamara—despite leaving minicamp early over his contract—reported and is participating in camp, saying that he isn’t going to give money up (by getting fined) and only wants to play for New Orleans.

🩼 Injury news

We’ll start with the positive injury news first. Both Giants quarterback Daniel Jones (coming off a torn ACL) and Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins (coming off a torn Achilles) avoided the PUP list to start camp.

However, there have already been a number of season-ending injuries already:

• Cowboys DE Sam Williams (ACL)

• Rams CB Derion Kendrick (ACL)

• Colts DE Samson Ebukam (Achilles)

• Vikings CB Mekhi Blackmon (ACL)

• Browns C Brian Allen (calf)

• Lions K Michael Badgley (hamstring)

In addition to the season-enders, Patriots star defensive lineman Christian Barmore will miss time with blood clots that were thankfully discovered by the team. He is out indefinitely.

Saints quarterback Jake Haener has a rare skin cancer, but he’s still at training camp ahead of determining a treatment plan.

Also, Browns CB Greg Newsome II (hamstring surgery) and defensive lineman Dalvin Tomlinson (knee scope) will both miss several weeks but are hopeful to be back for Week 1.

📝 More NFL news and notes

Wide receiver Michael Gallup retired after six NFL seasons, all with the Cowboys. Injuries including a torn ACL to end 2021 unfortunately derailed a very promising career for an excellent touchdown and deep threat, but at least he signed a $62.5 million extension with Dallas in 2022. The veteran had signed with the Raiders this offseason, and his retirement caught the team off guard. Gallup’s best season came in 2019 when he posted a 66/1,107/6 line.

Texans defensive end Denico Autry was suspended six games for violating the NFL’s PED policy, but he said in a statement that it’s important to him that the league knows he “did not intentionally or even knowingly ingest a banned substance.”

Mark your calendars: A Raiders fan brought a Patrick Mahomes Kermit the Frog puppet to training camp, and Mahomes said at a press conference, “It’ll get handled when it gets handled.” Already one of the best current rivalries in the league, Vegas and KC play in Week 8 and Week 13 (Black Friday). We’re guessing Mahomes might put up some big numbers in those contests.

On Hard Knocks, it was confirmed that the Giants did attempt to trade up in the draft for a quarterback.

Signings: The Jets signed quarterback Adrian Martinez, the UFL MVP; and the Falcons added wide receiver James Washington.

Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow buzzed and bleached his hair because he was “bored” this offseason, and teammate BJ Hill had to do the same after making a promise to Burrow.

Other Sports Updates

🏟️ The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris are underway. Japan currently leads with six gold medals, while the United States leads in total medals with 20.

🏔️ Salt Lake City, Utah will host the 2034 Winter Olympic Games.

⚾️ The MLB trade deadline is tonight at 6:00 PM ET, and the player movement to this point includes:

• The Yankees acquired Jazz Chisholm Jr. from the Marlins.

• The Mariners traded for outfielder Randy Arozarena from the Rays.

• The Orioles acquired starting pitcher Zac Eflin from the Rays.

• The Braves acquire outfielder Jorge Soler from the Giants.

• The Phillies traded reliever Seranthony Dominguez and outfielder Christian Pache to the Orioles for outfielder Austin Hays.

• The Diamondbacks acquired reliever A.J. Puk from the Marlins.

😮 Padres pitcher Dylan Cease threw a no-hitter versus the Nationals.

🔒 Manager Alex Cora received a three-year contract extension with the Red Sox through 2027.

🏒 Highly touted Russian prospect Matvei Michkov officially joined the Flyers earlier than expected. Also, Philadelphia signed forward Travis Konecny to an eight-year extension.

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