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EDITOR PICKS

  • Watch: Carvajal's header delivers killer blow for Madrid in UCL final

  • An introduction to Top Soccer News on theScore ??

  • An introduction to Top Soccer News on theScore ??

  • Real Madrid beat Dortmund to win 15th European Cup

NFL

Bengals' Hendrickson: Won't play on current deal

  • Ben BabyMay 13, 2025, 12:58 PM ET

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      Ben Baby covers the Cincinnati Bengals for ESPN. He joined the company in July 2019. Prior to ESPN, he worked for various newspapers in Texas, most recently at The Dallas Morning News where he covered college sports. He provides daily coverage of the Bengals for ESPN.com, while making appearances on SportsCenter, ESPN’s NFL shows and ESPN Radio programs. A native of Grapevine, Texas, he graduated from the University of North Texas with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. He is an adjunct journalism professor at Southern Methodist University and a member of the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA).

CINCINNATI — Trey Hendrickson will need a new contract if he’s going to step on the field for the Cincinnati Bengals in 2025.

The All-Pro defensive end met with reporters Tuesday during the team’s offseason workout and spoke at length about his current contract dispute with the team. Hendrickson is entering the final year of his current contract but is seeking a long-term deal.

Wearing a golf cap and a blue polo T-shirt, Hendrickson met with reporters for more than 20 minutes to address the situation while the team wrapped up its voluntary workout.

The relationship between Cincinnati’s star edge rusher and the front office reached a boiling point Monday. According to Hendrickson, Bengals coach Zac Taylor sent him a text message Monday that missing the team’s mandatory minicamp, which is exactly four weeks away, will result in a fine.

Trey Hendrickson said Tuesday that being told he’ll be fined if he doesn’t attend mandatory minicamp 30 days in advance tells him the team has no plans to negotiate a new contract with him in the meantime. AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

That prompted Hendrickson to voice his side of the situation.

“We’ve tried to keep it as least amount as personal as possible, but at some point in this process it’s becomes personal,” Hendrickson said. “Being sent 30 days before mandatory camp, or how many ever days it is, that if I don’t show up I will be fined alludes to the fact that something won’t get done in that time frame.”

Hendrickson, 30, said the message from Taylor prompted his statement to ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Monday, in which Hendrickson refuted a report that the Bengals had been in communication with him since the NFL draft in April.

The four-time Pro Bowler said the business negotiations started to take a personal turn over the past week.

“And when there’s a lack of communication in any relationship, if it’s business or personal relationship, lack of communication leads to animosity, and that leaves my narrative only to me with no clear direction,” Hendrickson said.

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Since joining Cincinnati in 2021 as a free agent, Hendrickson has become one of the best players in the league. Last season, he led the NFL with 17.5 sacks and, along with Ja’Marr Chase, helped Cincinnati break a nine-year drought of not having an All-Pro selection.

In March, the Bengals granted Hendrickson the ability to seek a trade. On Tuesday, he said he wanted to clear up the misconception that there was a predetermined return that Hendrickson believed he could fetch in a trade.

“There’s no way of knowing that,” Hendrickson said. “We were told what they were looking for and if it was five first-round picks, I would have agreed.”

Hendrickson said the team is pushing for a short-term contract while he has maintained his stance of wanting long-term security in Cincinnati.

There has also been several questions about why Hendrickson has continually sought action on his deal. In 2023, Hendrickson signed a one-year extension on the four-year, $60 million deal he originally signed with the team. Last offseason, he requested a long-term deal and then a trade before he ultimately participated in offseason workouts.

Hendrickson casted doubt on his ability to explore in free agency if the original deal he signed in 2021 had expired and he didn’t sign the extension.

“I think if I did not take that deal, we’re talking franchise tagging the 30-year-old, right?” Hendrickson said. “That’s the magic number.”

As things stand, Hendrickson is set to make $15.8 million in base salary this season. Hendrickson noted how much the market has changed over the last 12 months, especially in light of Cleveland Browns star Myles Garrett resetting the market this offseason with a contract extension that averages $40 million annually.

What happened this week has escalated the tension between Hendrickson and the front office that has simmered through the offseason. In recent months, the native Floridian has taken exception to comments made by the front office at league events regarding his status with the team.

“There are unprovoked shark attacks and there’s provoked shark attacks,” Hendrickson said.

With his comments Tuesday, Cincinnati’s star defender is no longer looking to tread water while trying to find a long-term deal.

Hendrickson did offer the franchise praise and said Taylor, the team’s sixth-year coach, has been honest with him through the process. And as for the relationship between himself and the decision-makers in Cincinnati, Hendrickson believes it can be salvaged. He pointed to Garrett, who requested a trade before later signing his extension with the Browns.

“That relationship will repair with time,” Hendrickson said. “And same with this. This is just the uncomfortable business side that we’ve unfortunately had to deal with for the last couple years.

“And quite frankly, I think we’re all spent.”

NFL

Raiders sign veteran LB Smith, who sat out '24

  • Ryan McFaddenMay 11, 2025, 06:03 PM ET

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      Ryan McFadden covers the Las Vegas Raiders for ESPN’s NFL Nation. Prior to ESPN, McFadden was a Denver Broncos beat reporter for the Denver Post. McFadden also wrote about the Baltimore Ravens and University of Maryland athletics for The Baltimore Sun.

Jaylon Smith will attempt to resurrect his career in Las Vegas. The veteran linebacker has signed with the Raiders after a weekend tryout at rookie minicamp.

The team made Smith’s signing official Monday.

Smith, 29, last played in 2023, appearing in one game for the Raiders. He totaled two tackles in 25 defensive snaps in Las Vegas’ Week 9 victory over the New York Giants. He was later waived.

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He began his career with the Dallas Cowboys, who chose him in the second round of the 2016 NFL draft.

Smith played five seasons with the Cowboys and was a Pro Bowl selection in 2019 after collecting 142 tackles, 9 passes defended and 2 forced fumbles.

Smith bounced around teams during the 2021 campaign. He was released by Dallas after four games but then signed with the Green Bay Packers. Following two games with the Packers, Smith was let go and later picked up by the Giants.

His last productive season came in 2022, when he registered 88 tackles in 13 games for the Giants. Smith has started in 69 of 88 career games, totaling 626 tackles, 11 sacks and 6 forced fumbles.

In Las Vegas, Smith will compete for a role in an inside linebacker group filled with question marks. Newly signed linebackers Elandon Roberts and Devin White — who is also trying to revive his career — are projected starters. The rest of the group, however, consists of unproven players, including Cody Lindenberg, who was selected in the seventh round of last month’s draft.

NFL

Hunter's reps on D for Jaguars to start next week

  • Michael DiRoccoMay 10, 2025, 04:41 PM ET

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      Michael DiRocco is an NFL Nation reporter at ESPN and covers the Jacksonville Jaguars. He previously covered the University of Florida for over a decade for ESPN and the Florida Times-Union. DiRocco graduated from Jacksonville University and is a multiple APSE award winner.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Travis Hunter’s first appearance on defense for the Jacksonville Jaguars will come next week.

Coach Liam Coen said the two-way standout has been learning the offensive and defensive playbooks, but they opted to have him just catch passes during the Jaguars’ two-day rookie camp that concluded Saturday. The team will get him some defensive reps for the first time during the last week of Phase Two of the offseason conditioning program.

“We just kind of ended up making a decision that from yesterday to today, we wanted to be able to clean up some of the things that we may have been able to miss yesterday [and] get extra reps on the offensive side of the ball and next week he’ll start to roll on defense,” Coen said after the roughly 90-minute workout.

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The Jaguars’ plan for Hunter — who played receiver and cornerback in college at Jackson State and Colorado — was to start out on offense because that’s a more complex system to learn and then have him get time on defense as he became more comfortable. But Hunter already has started going through the defensive playbook.

“You’ve just got to get used to it,” Hunter said. “It just has a lot of different types of calls, but other than that, the defense is pretty easy. You’ve just got to get used to the offense.

“Just longer calls and concepts are different [on offense than defense].”

Coen said Hunter already has learned some of the coverages despite not having spent as much time in the defensive playbook as the offensive one.

“He’s been able to dive in and learn some of our three-deep coverages, what do we call our three-deep coverages on the outside, if he has to be manned up on the backside of a three-by-one, he knows all of those calls already,” Coen said. “So, at the end of the day, it’s going to be about, on the defensive side of the ball, communication. The technique and fundamentals, we’ll continue to harp on, but it’s really about being on the same page as the rest of the guys on the back end from a communication standpoint and the rest will kind of take care of itself.

“He’s obviously having to learn both sides of the ball. He’s a football-smart guy. The game makes sense to him. And so now it’s just about putting in that time, that extra time that he’s going to have to do in order to be successful.”

The reigning Heisman Trophy winner played 1,481 snaps and had 1,258 yards and 15 TDs receiving to go along with four interceptions on defense last season at Colorado. He averaged 113.9 snaps per game.

The Jaguars traded with the

NFL

Saints kick off QB competition as Carr retires

  • Katherine TerrellMay 10, 2025, 10:52 AM ET

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      Katherine Terrell came back to ESPN to cover the New Orleans Saints in the summer of 2022. She left the company in 2019 after joining in 2016 to cover the Cincinnati Bengals. Katherine is a graduate of LSU and a Baton Rouge, Louisiana, native, and she has covered the NFL since 2013.

NEW ORLEANS — The New Orleans Saints already were looking to the future on Saturday afternoon.

Rookie quarterback Tyler Shough was taking snaps in the team’s indoor practice facility a few hours after the Saints announced the retirement of veteran quarterback Derek Carr. That retirement frees up a competition in the quarterback room between second-round pick Shough, Spencer Rattler and Jake Haener.

“We’re going to let all three of these guys roll, and they’ve all earned these opportunities,” New Orleans coach Kellen Moore said. “We’ll let Jake, Spencer and Tyler, all three, go through this process. Again, we’ll play patience, let these guys compete, let them get into training camp and naturally these [competitions will] take care of itself.”

Shough said that Moore told him about the Carr news before practice Saturday morning.

“I think that’s all you can ask for is an opportunity at any position, and I’m going to treat it the same way, as if, whoever was on the roster, I’ve got to continue to grow and get better and do my best to elevate the quarterback room,” he said.

Carr’s retirement ends a month of uncertainty about his future due to a right shoulder injury in his throwing arm. News of Carr’s injury was made public in early April before the beginning of the team’s offseason workout program, but Carr and the Saints had been publicly quiet about the details of it until Saturday.

Derek Carr has announced his retirement.

In late March, while ramping up his preparation for the 2025 season, Derek experienced pain in his right shoulder. It was his first time throwing a football at significant volume since recovering from both a concussion and left hand… pic.twitter.com/SrcJEzDDnU

— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) May 10, 2025

In a statement, New Orleans said Carr experienced pain in his right shoulder in late March after his first significant throwing session of the offseason. The Saints said scans determined Carr had a labral tear and “significant degenerative changes to his rotator cuff.”

According to the team, surgery was an option, but that would have put his 2025 season in jeopardy with a possibility Carr never would return to his previous level of strength and function. Carr said he decided to retire instead after consulting with his wife, Heather.

“For more than 11 years, we have been incredibly blessed, and we are forever grateful and humbled by this experience,” Carr said in a statement. “It’s difficult to find the right words to express our thanks to all the teammates, coaches, management, ownership, team officials and especially the fans who made this journey so special. Your unwavering support has meant the world to us.”

Carr released another statement on his Instagram account Saturday afternoon thanking his former team, the Raiders, and the Saints, along with their fan bases.

“Through it all, I gave this game everything I had every day. I sleep well knowing that I gave my teammates, my coaches and my cities my all,” Carr wrote. “Now, I look forward to whatever God has next and I’ll pursue it with the same fire I brought to the field. God bless and see you soon.”

Moore said New Orleans found out about the injury in March, before the news was made public in early April. However, general manager Mickey Loomis said before the draft that the Saints were seeking “a resolution and clarity” on the shoulder issue in the near future.

Moore said Saturday that they meant clarity about the injury itself and not because of a communication issue.

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“He did everything he could,” Moore said. “As he’s gone through this, he’s communicated extremely well. He’s worked really hard to himself in position, and ultimately this was the outcome.”

Carr’s first public comments came in late April, when he confirmed he had a shoulder injury and dismissed speculation about the issue, saying he and the team had been in “constant communication.”

Moore said that he and Carr missed meeting in person because he was at a pro day when Carr was at the facility earlier in the offseason. He said Carr had multiple discussions with the team’s front office in recent days.

“He spoke mostly with Mickey and those guys as we’ve gone through this process, and obviously the last few days they had those communications and those conversations and made a whole decision that felt best for him,” Moore said.

Carr, a 2014 second-round draft pick by the Raiders, retires after 11 seasons. He spent the first nine seasons of his career with the Raiders before signing a four-year contract worth up to $150 million with New Orleans during the 2023 free agency period.

Carr ultimately won’t see all of the $150 million, as he will forfeit his $30 million base salary this year due to his retirement, although he will keep the $10 million roster bonus for 2025.

Carr was drafted by Dennis Allen when Allen was coach of the Raiders. He reunited with Allen in 2023, when Allen was coaching the Saints.

The 34-year-old started 169 games for the two teams and finishes with a 77-92 record as a starter. He completed 65.1% of his passes for 41,245 yards, 257 touchdowns and 112 interceptions.

“My experience with him was outstanding,” Allen, now the

ESPN’s Courtney Cronin contributed to this report.

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Soccer

  • Watch: Carvajal's header delivers killer blow for Madrid in UCL final

  • An introduction to Top Soccer News on theScore ??

  • An introduction to Top Soccer News on theScore ??

  • Real Madrid beat Dortmund to win 15th European Cup

  • Police arrest dozens of ticket-less fans at Wembley final

  • Dortmund boss Terzic lauds 'brilliant' Sancho after UCL defeat

  • Modric, Kroos among Madrid stars to make history with latest UCL triumph

  • Madrid's inevitability is a superpower no rival can match

  • Transfer window preview: 50 players who could move this summer

  • Vinicius Jr. named Champions League Player of the Season

“If you think about it, I've never held a job in my life. I went from being an NFL player to a coach to a broadcaster. I haven't worked a day in my life.”
-John Madden


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