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. — The Jaguars are not picking up the fifth-year option on linebacker Devin Lloyd, a league source told ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler.
Lloyd will now be set to become an unrestricted free agent after this season.
Lloyd was the 27th overall pick in 2022 and the Jaguars gave up the 33rd overall pick, their fourth-round pick and sixth-round pick to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to move back into the first round to get him.
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But while Lloyd has put up solid stats in his first three seasons — 355 tackles (he led the team with 113 in 2024), four interceptions, 19 pass breakups and four fumble recoveries — he has struggled in pass coverage and has had issues being out of position.
Lloyd is the third of the Jaguars’ six first-round picks from 2020-22 to not have his fifth-year option picked up, joining 2020 first-round picks cornerback C.J. Henderson (ninth overall, traded to the Carolina Panthers in September 2021) and linebacker K’Lavon Chaisson (20th overall).
The Jaguars earlier this month announced they were picking up the fifth-year option on defensive end Travon Walker, whom they drafted first overall in 2022.
Veteran offensive tackle D.J. Humphries has agreed to a contract with the San Francisco 49ers, his agency announced Tuesday.
“Back healthy and ready to work,” AMDG Sports posted to X.
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Terms were not disclosed.
Humphries, 31, tore his left ACL late in the 2023 season for the Arizona Cardinals and joined the Kansas City Chiefs late in the 2024 season as they searched for a suitable left tackle. Rookie Kingsley Suamataia and Wanya Morris had shared the left tackle spot before Humphries’ signing but played so poorly that they were benched.
Humphries started in his first game with the Chiefs in Week 14 against the Los Angeles Chargers. He left the game early because of a hamstring injury and didn’t return to the starting lineup until a Week 18 game against the Denver Broncos.
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Humphries himself was passed over for the starting spot for the playoffs and the Chiefs made guard Joe Thuney their starting left tackle for the three postseason games.
Humphries, a first-round draft pick in 2015, played eight seasons with the Cardinals, all as a starter. He was a Pro Bowler in 2021.
The 49ers did not select an offensive tackle this year in the draft or sign one in free agency. Humphries likely projects as a swing tackle behind Trent Williams and Colton McKivitz, the starters at left and right tackle, respectively.
Jaylon Moore, the 49ers’ previous swing tackle, signed with the Chiefs in free agency.
ESPN’s Adam Teicher and Nick Wagoner contributed to this report.
Brooke Pryor is a reporter for NFL Nation at ESPN who has covered the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2019. She previously covered the Kansas City Chiefs for the Kansas City Star and the University of Oklahoma for The Oklahoman.
PITTSBURGH — The most influential person of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2025 NFL draft wasn’t sitting in the team war room. He wasn’t even on the other end of any of the seven phone calls made by Mike Tomlin to his draftees over the three-day event.
Instead, he was elsewhere, perhaps at his Malibu home, sitting on his deck watching dolphins frolic in the Pacific. Or maybe in a dark cave pondering his future, or even at a Costa Rican retreat searching for clarity in holistic healing rituals.
Aaron Rodgers isn’t a member of the Steelers, but the team assembled its 2025 draft class as if he soon would be.
“We’re still kind of getting the same signals that we’ve been getting recently,” team owner and president Art Rooney II told Steelers Nation Radio, the team’s flagship program, on Friday night. “He does want to come here, so I do think we may get word soon.”
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Despite the Steelers’ repeated insistence that Rodgers would not influence their draft strategy, their actions in the 2025 draft speak louder than the words uttered by team brass. Passing on a quarterback four times before finally selecting 24-year-old developmental prospect Will Howard out of Ohio State in the sixth round suggests Rodgers was very much present in their decision-making process.
“We did not factor in whether Aaron is coming or not into that,” Rooney said of the team’s draft to that point. “If we do draft a quarterback — and we still might — it’s probably not going to be somebody who is going to start for us this year. It’s going to be somebody who is developing and may play down the road.
“As far as I’m concerned, it’s not somebody who is going to have a big impact [this year] if we draft a quarterback.”
At the time of Rooney’s interview, the team was still 20 hours away from selecting Howard, but the owner’s words still appeared true with the pick. Though Howard has a national championship pedigree and four years of FBS football on his résumé, he doesn’t project as a day one starter. Despite completing an impressive 73% of his pass attempts at Ohio State, Howard still needs work to correct the inconsistent throwing mechanics on display in his combine performance and improve his processing speed to adapt to NFL defenses. The Steelers had plenty of opportunities to draft higher-rated prospects, yet each time, they elected to address areas they viewed as more pressing.
The Steelers waited until the sixth round to selected a quarterback in the 2025 draft. Above, Lynn Swann announces a pick by the team. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
That suggests that either the Steelers are incredibly confident Rodgers will sign in Pittsburgh or they strongly believe — far more than those outside the organization — that Best of NFL Nation
April 26, 2025, will live in Ahmed Hassanei’s memory as a special day for more than one reason.
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First, Hassanei officially entered the National Football League ranks when the Detroit Lions made him pick No. 196 in the 2025 draft, selecting the defensive end in the sixth round Saturday.
But the memorable moment didn’t end when Hassanei got off the phone with the Lions — because he then proceeded to get down onto one knee and proposed to his girlfriend.
Hassanei’s draft-day call with Detroit coach Dan Campbell likely won’t be soon forgotten by Lions fans either. The former Boise State Broncos pass rusher gained notice for his passionate promise to his new coach.
“I’ll die for you coach,” Hassanei said. “I will die on that field for you. I promise I would.”
The clip of Hassanei’s call with Campbell has over 350,000 views on X.
Hassanei is now the first Egyptian to be drafted into the NFL. He amassed 22 sacks across his final two seasons at Boise State.
