Before edge rusher Abdul Carter got a real call from the Giants that would make him the third overall pick in the 2025 draft, he got a fake call telling him the Jaguars were taking him at No. 2.
Carter’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus, told Adam Schefter of ESPN.com about the phony phone call.
“It’s unfortunate that these private numbers are getting to the people making the prank calls,” Rosenhaus told Schefter. “Abdul and I knew it was BS and didn’t even tell his family about the call.”
Not every prank call necessarily traces to an NFL team. It’s unclear whether the NFL will be able to prove that any of the other prank calls started with someone from one of the teams disclosing confidential information.
Schefter reports that the league continues to investigate other prank calls. At least two other first-round picks — Colts tight end Tyler Warren and Commanders offensive lineman Josh Conerly Jr. — received them. Another player got a call after being drafted; the caller said he had been traded.
It happened last year, too. Eagles cornerback Cooper DeJean was pranked.
By next year, it likely won’t be happening. The league will (or should) tighten up its procedures. And the players will be more leery about the possibility that the call isn’t real.
To those who ask, “wHy aREn’T yOu TaLKinG aBoUt oThER pLaYeRs wHo wERe pRaNk CaLleD?” We have, and we will.
Commanders first-round tackle Josh Conerly Jr., the 29th overall pick in round one, told 106.7 the Fan on Tuesday that he was on the wrong end of a Jerky Boys skit during the first night of the draft,
“I got one prank call,” Conerly said. “It was somebody in Colorado acting like they were the Broncos. Mine wasn’t as bad and as cruel as some of the other ones.”
The Shedeur Sanders prank call has gotten the most attention, because Sanders has gotten more attention than any other player in the draft — and because the prank call happened when Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich allowed his son to see Sanders’s number on an “open iPad.”
Colts tight end Tyler Warren also received a prank call, as did another player who was called roughly 30 minutes after he was drafted. He was told he’d been traded.
While the Sanders prank traced to a team, other players could be pranked by folks who already have their numbers. That’s why the best alternative could be to ditch phone calls and use FaceTime.
The Commanders are swapping out one kicker for another.
Per Tom Pelissero of NFL Media, Washington is signing Matt Gay to a one-year deal and releasing Zane Gonzalez.
Gay, 31, was recently released by the Colts. He played the last two seasons for Indianapolis, connecting on 82.1 percent of his field goals for the club over that span. In 2024, Gonzalez was 31-of-37 on his field goal attempts, with all six of his misses coming from at least 50 yards out. He made all 33 of his extra points.
Gonzalez joined Washington midway through the 2024 season after not kicking in a regular-season game since 2021. He connected on 5-of-7 field goals and 19-of-19 extra points in the regular season, plus 7-of-8 field goals and 8-of-8 extra points in three postseason games.
Pelissero notes Gay’s contract is worth over $4.25 million, with the most fully guaranteed money for a kicker on a one-year deal in league history. Gay has made 85.5 percent of his career field goals for the Buccaneers, Rams, and Colts in 90 games.
The Commanders and the District of Columbia announced an agreement for the Commanders to build a stadium at the site that the franchise once called home.
It is a $3 billion deal that will allow the Commanders to erect a new building where RFK Stadium once stood. That was the franchise’s home base from 1961 to 1996 and they have been playing in Landover, Maryland since 1997.
The proposed stadium will include a roof, which is a must if they are going to hold a Super Bowl in Washington D.C. for the first time, and Commanders owner Josh Harris said at a Monday press conference that the team has eyes on hosting big events in a stadium that he says will set a new standard.
“Without exaggeration, this will be the best stadium in the country when it’s built,” Harris said, via Mark Maske of the Washington Post.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was also at the press conference and called the stadium an “important project” that the league has been looking forward to for many years. He also said that its construction will “dramatically” increase the city’s chance to host the Super Bowl, although it will be a while because the target date for construction to be completed is 2030.
Gabriel Taylor, the younger brother of Commanders legend Sean Taylor, will get a chance to follow in his brother’s footsteps.
The former Rice safety has accepted an invitation to participate in the Commanders’ upcoming rookie minicamp on a tryout basis.
Gabriel Taylor played five years for Rice. In 2024, he had 52 tackles, three sacks, two forced fumbles, and three interceptions.
Sean Taylor was on track to have a Hall of Fame career until he was murdered during a home invasion in November 2007, at the age of 24.
While it’s always an uphill climb for any player who hopes to get an offseason roster spot as an undrafted free agent based on the performance at a weekend minicamp, it’s an opportunity. A chance. And it would be a great story if Gabriel Taylor could earn a chance to show what he can do in the offseason program, training camp, and the preseason.
A deal is in place. All that’s left is the approval.
The Washington Post reports that the Commanders and D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser have reached an agreement on a new facility to be built at the site of the defunct RFK Stadium. The deal is expected to be announced on Monday in a joint news conference featuring Bowser and Commanders owner Josh Harris.
Approval will still be needed both from the D.C. Council and from Harris’s NFL business partners.
Prior reports pegged the stadium cost at $3 billion, with D.C. paying as little as $500 million.
An effort is underway to secure enough signatures to put a stadium initiative on the June 2025 ballot in D.C. Also, multiple D.C. Council members have expressed concern about the use of public money for the stadium.
The mayor and the team will be hoping to generate enough public support to fuel the approval process. And there is plenty of sentiment among the fan base to return the team from Maryland to D.C.
If, however, the question ends up on a ballot, it likely will fail. Even though pro football is king, the voters who don’t care about football generally outnumber those who do. Given the current public sentiment that taxpayer money shouldn’t be used to subsidize multi-billionaires, the best chance for success comes from keeping it out of the hands of the voters and hoping to get enough D.C. Council members to get behind it.
The other owners could be concerned about the deal, too. Currently, these projects typically entail a 50-50 split between private and public resources, with the team/league on the hook for overages. If the Commanders end up responsible to a significant majority of the expense, other owners could be concerned about the precedent being used against them in their own markets.
Washington was one of the surprise stories of last season, improving from 4-13 in 2023 to 12-5 in 2024. Led by new head coach Dan Quinn and rookie QB Jayden Daniels, Washington won their first playoff game since the 2005 season, beating the Bucs in the Wild Card before upsetting the top-seeded Lions in the Divisional Round. The Commanders’ run came to an end in the NFC Championship Game (their first NFCCG appearance since 1991), where they lost against NFC East rivals Philadelphia.
Washington’s first pick of the draft is No. 29, marking the first year since 2014 that the Commanders do not have a top 25 pick. While Washington hit with Jayden Daniels (2nd overall) last season, they have struggled with their first round picks in recent years. In five drafts from 2019-2023, the Commanders had six first-round picks, and none of those six players are still with Washington.
Washington Commanders 2025 NFL Draft Picks
Round 1: No. 29 - Josh Conerly Jr., T, Oregon
Round 2: No. 61 - Trey Amos, CB, Ole Miss
Round 4: No. 128 (from HOU) - Jaylin Lane, WR, Virginia Tech
Round 6: No. 205 - Kain Medrano, LB, UCLA
Round 7: No. 245 - Jacory Croskey-Merritt, RB, Arizona
Check out 2025 NFL Draft picks for other teams in the NFC East:
Dallas Cowboys 2025 NFL Draft picks
Philadelphia Eagles 2025 NFL Draft picks
New York Giants 2025 NFL Draft picks
Click here to see the entire 2025 NFL Draft order. Coverage of the latest news from around the NFL is available all year round from Pro Football Talk on Peacock and the NFL on NBC YouTube Channel.
For the full slate of NFL Draft content from across NBC Sports, click here.
The Commanders added tackle Laremy Tunsil in a trade with the Texans. The Commanders have now used their first-round pick on another tackle.
Oregon’s Josh Conerly Jr. becomes the 29th pick, and another player who can help protect franchise quarterback Jayden Daniels.
Conerly was on the wrong end of a Senior Bowl practice rep, when Conerly was driven into the ground by Marshall defensive end Mike Green.
Conerly got the last laugh. He’s been drafted, and Green is still on the board.
Former NFL linebacker Steve Kiner died Thursday, the National Football Foundation announced. Kiner was 77.
Kiner played at the University of Tennessee from 1967-69, earning consensus All-America honors in 1968 and unanimous All-America honors in 1969. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1999.
Kiner appeared in the 1970 Senior Bowl, and the Cowboys selected him in the third round of the 1970 draft. He played nine NFL seasons with Dallas, New England and Houston.
He appeared in 114 games but only 14 of those came with the Cowboys despite his special teams play as a rookie. Kiner, who didn’t start any games as a rookie, was angered when Chuck Howley came out of retirement in 1971, relegating Kiner to a backup role for another season.
The Cowboys traded him to the Patriots for a fourth-round pick.
The Patriots traded him to the Dolphins in 1972, and the Dolphins cut him before training camp ended. Washington claimed him for their taxi squad, but he did not see any game action.
The Patriots claimed him off waivers in 1973 but traded him to the Oilers in 1974 for a ninth-round draft choice.
His last season was 1978.
In 1994, Kiner earned a Ph.D. in clinical psychology. He later established a mental health therapy practice in Carrollton, Georgia.
Born on June 12, 1947, in Sandstone, Minnesota, Kiner was reared in Tampa, Florida, and attended Hillsborough High School.
The Eagles are declining the fifth-year option on wide receiver Jahan Dotson’s contract for 2026, Jordan Schultz of Fox Sports reports.
The move is not a surprise given Dotson’s lack of production last season in his first season with the Eagles.
The team’s No. 3 receiver, who had 19 catches for 216 yards in 2024, would have received a fully guaranteed $16.8 million.
He now is scheduled for free agency in 2026.
The Eagles acquired Dotson and a 2025 fifth-round pick from the Commanders for a 2025 third-round pick and two 2025 seventh-round picks. Washington used the third-rounder and one of the seventh-rounders in the trade with the Texans to acquire left tackle Laremy Tunsil this offseason.
Dotson made three catches for 53 yards and a touchdown in four postseason games for the Eagles in their championship run.
