The NFL has argued that Jimmy Graham shouldn't receive the franchise tender as a wide receiver, using his Twitter account bio with tight end listed as the position as one of its pieces of evidence.

Graham's grievance hearing began Tuesday and is expected to conclude Wednesday. At stake is whether the New Orleans Saints will be required to offer Graham a one-year franchise-tag salary of $7.035 million or $12.3 million.

Even more critical is how the ruling will affect their negotiations over a long-term contract. The two sides have until July 15 to reach a long-term agreement, or else Graham can only play under a one-year deal this season.

Graham's argument is that he should be considered a receiver because he lined up either in the slot or out wide 67 percent of the time last year. And the collective bargaining agreement states that the franchise-tag designation is based on the position "at which the Franchise player participated in the most plays during the prior League Year."

Steelers icon Chuck Noll, the only coach to win four Super Bowls, died at his Pittsburgh-area home Friday night. He was 82.

The Allegheny County Medical Examiner said Noll died of natural causes at 9:45 p.m. ET.

Colin Kaepernick's new $126 million extension with the San Francisco 49ers seems like a huge contract for a quarterback with 23 regular season starts, but it could be a relative bargain moving forward due to the anticipated NFL salary cap increases.

The salary cap will increase by $10 million per team this season and will increase even more in coming seasons.

The upper limit of the quarterback market, already at $20 million when the cap was $123 million per year, also will go up as the cap increases.

The high-water mark could soon be $25 million per year and then eventually hit $30 million.

The Carolina Panthers, for example, would be well-advised to quickly get a deal done with Cam Newton before these escalating salary figures kick in.