The weekend between the AFC and NFC Championship games and the Super Bowl has finally come to its anticlimactic conclusion. Even with no football to watch, the NFL managed to stay at the forefront of the sports news cycle. It’s something the NFL remains exceptionally good at, thanks to the coaching carousel among other hot topics.

$.01--For just the third time in over 50 years, the Pittsburgh Steelers have made a coaching change. The Steelers replaced longtime headman Mike Tomlin with someone exceedingly unlikely to last the 19 years in Pittsburgh that Tomlin did, or even the 15 seasons Bill Cowher served prior to Tomlin. 

That’s not necessarily an indictment of making Mike McCarthy the new Steelers head coach. McCarthy won a Super Bowl title with the 2010 Green Bay Packers and has a career coaching record of 174-112-2 in his 13 seasons in Green Bay and five more with the Dallas Cowboys. He’s 62, an ancient change of hiring pace for Pittsburgh after Tomlin and Cowher, who were each 35 at the time of hiring. 

McCarthy is a proud Pittsburgh native, enough that he teared up during his introductory press conference. In his coaching career, McCarthy has generally been pretty darn effective with a stacked roster, but not known as someone who can make an average roster overachieve. At this point, before free agency and the NFL Draft, calling Pittsburgh’s roster “average” might be a stretch. There are real questions at quarterback, where Aaron Rodgers is older than several newer NFL coaches, and he’s not the only key Steeler past his NFL prime. The talent cupboard isn’t bare at all, but it’s in transition. It’s going to be fascinating to see how McCarthy manages that transition. 

$.02--In a surprisingly timed move, the Minnesota Vikings fired GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah. Coming nearly a month after Minnesota’s season ended short of the playoffs, it happened to coincide with Sam Darnold leading the Seahawks to the Super Bowl.

Darnold, you might recall, led the Vikings to a surprising 14-3 finish and playoff berth in 2024. After washing out with several other teams, the No. 2 overall pick (by the Jets) in the 2018 NFL Draft finally clicked for Minnesota. And while Darnold’s final two games in 2024--a division-deciding loss to Detroit and an uncompetitive postseason loss to the Rams--were largely awful, his steady play in Kevin O’Connell’s offense and leadership were positive beacons for a franchise desperately seeking just that. 

Unfortunately for Adofo-Mensah, he’d invested heavily in J.J. McCarthy as that beacon of hope at quarterback. Darnold was a pleasant surprise as a stopgap to bridge McCarthy’s injury-ruined rookie season. The Vikings chose to ride with McCarthy and let Darnold (and Daniel Jones) walk away. And that proved to be, at least in 2025, a terrible decision. 

Is it the only reason Adofo-Mensah was fired? No, but it’s an easy headliner to point at. Adofo-Mensah’s paternity leave during 2023 was clearly a sore point as well, even though it’s perfectly within his rights, and his contract, to take a little time to be with his newborn and wife. It’s shameful that being a good father and husband is viewed as a terrible thing by so many, but that’s the state of the NFL and his considerable responsibility as a GM. Three of his four draft classes haven’t produced as hoped, either. 

The timing is truly bizarre for the Vikings. It came well after other teams had made their changes, leaving Minnesota out of the running for the top candidates in the cycle. It also came during Senior Bowl week, one of the primary NFL Draft preparation and communication weeks on the calendar. For a team that desperately needs a strong 2026 NFL Draft and free agency period, switching leadership well into the offseason seems perilous. Then again, that’s how little they felt of Adofo-Mensah as the Vikings GM… 

$.03--The NFL announced over the weekend that the projected salary cap for the 2026 season will increase to over $300 million. That’s an unexpectedly lucrative bump up from the 2025 cap figure, which was $279.2 million. 

In short, revenue is booming for the NFL. The new streaming venues are producing higher returns above and beyond the more traditional network deals, and that’s reflected in the nearly $25 million cap bump.

For all we (the collective we) find so very frustrating and disappointing with the NFL, it’s still thriving. Injury issues, officiating scandals, insanely expensive game tickets, poor broadcasts and the lack of any dynastic team to passionately root for or against, it doesn’t matter. The NFL keeps growing and surging financially. 

The growth is a credit to just how well NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell continues to serve his employers, the 32 NFL owners. Goodell remains quite unpopular with the fans, who never resist the chance to boo him vociferously at the NFL Draft or when the camera pans to him in the luxury suites. But for those who pay him millions per year to be the shield that directly protects them from much of the fan venom, Goodell has been a godsend. A very lucrative one. 

$.04--The Pro Bowl, as it currently exists, took place on Tuesday night. I had little intention of watching the contactless exhibition or any of the skill competitions that constitute the annual exhibition. 

For those who (justifiably) gave up on the Pro Bowl years ago, it’s no longer an actual tackle football game. The “game” is now a flag football contest with no offensive or defensive linemen. No blocking. No tackling. No touching other than pulling flags off the waist. Those flags seem decidedly easier to rip off from the belt than the ones we had in the 90s for college intramurals at Ohio University, by the way…

I flipped it on after watching Cooper Flagg and his neon green shoes prove unable to lead the Mavericks over the Celtics by himself (though he gave it a great try!). The first play I see is Lions QB Jared Goff throwing to Lions WR Amon-Ra St. Brown. I’m a Lions guy, so that roped me in. 

At that point, the NFC led the AFC by something like 60-52. I admittedly didn’t catch a lot of the game, but I did find it more compelling, more entertaining and engaging than the “old” Pro Bowl. If you can accept the fact that it’s not football as the NFL plays it these days, I see the appeal. I’ve become a fan of watching girls’ HS flag football, soon to be a varsity sport across the country (and bankrolled largely by the NFL). 

It’s certainly not going to be for everyone. Those who value tackling, hitting, line play or blocking in space are not going to like it. Eliminating the big guys in the trenches requires a major leap of faith for a lot of fans that they shouldn’t be expected to make. And that’s okay. The old Pro Bowl was mocking all those things while pretending to be a football game. This new format is different and more accessible to non-football fans. See $.03 above for why that’s important…

$.05--NFL Draft quickies

I missed the Senior Bowl this year, just the second time since 2008 I was not in Mobile for the week. I also wasn’t able to attend the Shrine Bowl in Frisco, TX, though that will be a big priority for 2027. The organizers of both events were gracious enough to make practice film available for those of us credentialed media who could not attend. Some of the observations from the practices:

Shrine Bowl winners for me:

• Kentucky OC Jager Burton
• Louisiana LB Jalen Dugger
• Iowa WR/RS Kaden Wetjen
• Miami OH LB Jackson Kuwatch
• Kansas QB Jalon Daniels
• Oregon CB Jadon Canady
• Nebraska CB Ceyair Wright
• Florida State DT Darrell Jackson

Senior Bowl winners:

• LSU QB Garrett Nussmeier
• Clemson DL T.J. Parker
• Michigan EDGE Derrick Moore
• Texas Tech DT Lee Hunter
• Western Michigan EDGE Nadame Tucker
• TCU S Bud Clark
• Arizona State OT Max Iheanachor
• John Carroll WR Tyren Montgomery
• Baylor WR Josh Cameron
• Pittsburgh LB Kyle Louis
• SMU TE Matthew Hibner

Special mention for Iowa OL Gennings Dunker, who is a late Day 3 prospect in my grading at tackle, but took to kicking inside quite nicely.