Chiefs and Patriots rumor could lead to bidding war for Packers $81 m… — and more

Chiefs and Patriots rumor could lead to bidding war for Packers $81 million free agent originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The Green Bay Packers may lose offensive tackle Rasheed Walker to an AFC contender in free agency.

According to SportsBoom's Jason La Canfora, the Kansas City Chiefs and New England Patriots are expected to show interest in Walker if he hits the open market.

La Canfora adds that Walker will be one of the hottest names on the market this offseason:

Walker makes sense [for the Chiefs]. He has the size (6-foot-6) they want on the edge. Then he can go skill guys on day one and day two (of the draft). They need more speed and twitch at receiver, tight end, running back," an NFL gm said to La Canfora.

Another GM noted the Patriots, off a surprising Super Bowl run, as a potential suitor for Walker as well, with rookie Will Campbell struggling in the second half of his rookie season and perhaps being a better fit on the right side," La Canfora said.

Regardless of where he lands, Walker will have multiple offers to sort through and is one of the hottest names at the annual scouting combine as agents and teams meet to formulate offseason plans. 

Walker has started 48 games over the last three seasons for Green Bay, and though he has struggled at times, he's been a solid starter on the Packers' offensive line and incredibly reliable.

The 26-year-old hasn't missed a game in three years and ended the 2025 campaign on a high note, not allowing a sack in the final four contests, including Green Bay's wild-card loss to the Chicago Bears.

Spotrac projects Walker will land a $81 million over four years, which would be an average annual value of $20.3 million. That is a steep price, but Walker does play one of the most vital positions in football and is an ascending player.

New England invested the No. 4 overall pick in last year's draft on left tackle Will Campbell, so it wouldn't make much sense to sign Walker to a lucrative deal. Walker could slide in and play right tackle, but Morgan Moses is still under contract for a few years.

However, Kansas City could be a potential landing spot, as the franchise could be looking for an upgrade over Josh Simmons at left tackle. Additionally, protecting quarterback Patrick Mahomes must be a priority this offseason as he works his way back from knee surgery.

We'll see where Walker lands, but there's no denying he'll have a competitive market, and it'll be tough for the Packers to retain their starting left tackle.

Manchester City have largely put last season’s disappointments behind them as Pep Guardiola pivoted during the summer to not only introduce a slightly different style of play, but significantly shake up options available to him through an expected rebuild.

Reducing the average age of the squad, moving on stalwarts and those more on the fringes failing to live up to their earlier billing and fees, and bringing in new talent from across the globe has worked out pretty well for the 55-year-old former defensive midfielder.

For the more confident City fan during pre-season, they would have picked the best 1xbet website odds predictions suggesting a good year lay ahead and they would have been right to.

With 27 games played so far in the 2025/26 campaign, Manchester City are comfortably in second spot in the Premier League table and Guardiola will be demanding that the gap to Arsenal is cut given the game in hand held over Mikel Arteta’s side – who have begun wobbling and showing signs of ‘bottling’ it again.

Whilst City fans understandably have eyes on what happens in the remainder of the season with the fixture calendar at the business end of the year, there will be those who are not only wondering whether or not Guardiola will remain at the Etihad Stadium for the 2026/27 season, but also what kind of second stage rebuild will be seen – whether he stays or not.

Fans are already beginning to see some predictably nonsense stories doing the rounds as the press and media trawl the bottom of the speculation transfer window rumour mill ahead of the summer.

Even though we are barely into a new week, there have already been strong – but in reality baseless – claims that Barcelona are preparing a blockbuster move for Norwegian superstar Erling Haaland, and now there are claims that the La Liga giants are sniffing around Rodri.

On the Haaland front, the claims come from Joan Soler – who has been part of Joan Laporta’s board since 2021 and has just stepped down with the president re-contesting the upcoming election.

He also claimed they were going to sign Julian Alvarez and it appears he is telling anyone who will listen how Laporta single handedly kept Lamine Yamal at the club, so we think we can guess his motivations and truthfulness here.

As for Rodri, some outlet’s are peddling that Real Madrid also have the 29-year-old at the top of their wish list for the summer and City can expect a bidding war. This is unlikely as one side favours free transfers and both sides have incredibly well-known financial problems and constraints hanging over their heads.

Not least it was only the other week that Guardiola effectively doubled down on Rodri remaining at the club irrespective of whatever else may happen, and with a contract until the summer of 2027 no one is in a position to force the club’s hand here unless Rodri himself wants to investigate pastures new.

That is unlikely given his recent injury issues and the player simply focused on getting back to his true best, and of course, pretty much from day one in Manchester he has been linked with both Spanish clubs and nothing ever comes of it.

There is no reason to think this round of speculation is any different.

Koy Detmer Jr. has quarterbacking in his veins. Not only was he a signal caller for BYU (he was on the Cougars when they visited Ann Arbor in 2015, Jim Harbaugh's first season), but he's the son of NFL QB Koy Detmer and nephew of standout NFL QB Ty Detmer, as well.

Thus, when it was time for him to hang up the cleats, he started putting that knowledge forward by coaching the position.

Now Detmer is overseeing the quarterbacks in Ann Arbor, having followed offensive coordinator Jason Beck first from New Mexico to Utah, and then from Utah to Michigan. Speaking with Jon Jansen on the In the Trenches podcast, Detmer delved into his background and his coaching philosophy, what he looks for in the position, and how he tries to mold his players into the best version of who they are -- not just who he wants them to be.

"I'm football through and through," Detmer said. "I've grown up around it my whole entire life with my dad playing, my uncle playing, and then my grandfather being a longtime high school head coach. And being around that game for so long, I'm so passionate about, obviously, the game of football, but developing young men and watching them grow. 

"I always believe that these are the most important years of their life, because they're gonna affect the next 30 to 40 years. And so from the quarterback position, they got to be themselves, and I try to put some of my twists and deals and things like that on them. But they got to be who they are. There's a reason why they've been so successful to get to this point, and so I don't want to sit there and try to change who they are. Let's just try to kind of tweak and fix certain things that maybe can help us be better. And so when it comes down to developing the quarterback position, really being who they are, and then kind of my taste and what I've kind of been around."

What does the best version of themselves look like, though? And how do they get there?

For Detmer, it isn't just about leaning harder into your talent. It's quite the opposite, actually. It's more about striving and performing off the field, doing all of the extra little things, building up a mixture of callousness and toughness, in order to be both prepared as well as a leader that others can look up to.

"You got to put in the extra time, you got to put in the extra work, and finding more time than what is asked of you to do extra study and extra film study," Detmer said. "Extra training in the weight room, extra training with your guys on your team that you're gonna play with in the fall I think is huge. Something that I always talk about with our guys is that you got to be the toughest individual on the team, and that doesn't always be mean being some meathead muscle dude. But when those guys look at you and they see you out there on the field, and you're getting hit, and you're popping right back up -- man, that says a lot. 

"So being the most, the toughest both physically and mentally is important as a non-negotiable, really, for us in the quarterback room. And then just training your tail off every single day when you walk through those double doors, and you go into that weight room, you're training your tail off and giving everything you got. Not just for yourself, but for every single guy in that room. And so those are some non-negotiable kind of habits that I try to instill in our guys."

While Bryce Underwood will remain the starter, the room has been completely overhauled this offseason, with Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi, Colin Hurley, and true freshmen Brady Smigiel and Tommy Carr all joining the squad this offseason. We'll get a chance to see them in action on April 18 when Michigan football hosts the annual spring game at The Big House.

This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Michigan QB coach Koy Detmer Jr. on developing players

Radko Gudas has apologized for saying what is considered a homophobic slur during the Canada-Czechia quarterfinal at the Olympics last week.

Gudas told Athletic reporter Eric Stephens he “didn’t mean anything by” the slur and that it came out of frustration in a story published Tuesday. During the broadcast of the game, Gudas can be heard yelling two words as he goes to the penalty box for roughing Canada forward Brandon Hagel in the second period.

“I’m a very passionate guy,” Gudas told Stephens. “I put my heart on a sleeve, and I take the game very seriously. I didn’t realize at that moment the full meaning of the word and I’m really sorry they had to be part of it. Learn from our mistakes.”

Gudas also told Stephens in a follow-up answer that “in the heat of the moment, the emotions got the best of me and I’m sorry for the way it looks in all of hockey. Nothing I can do about right now, but I feel sorry about that.”

Canada won the game, 4-3, to advance to the semifinals against Finland before losing in the gold-medal final to the Americans.

Gudas also was involved in the hit on Sidney Crosby that appears to have resulted in a leg injury that sidelined the Canadian superstar for the remainder of the Olympics as well as the next four weeks.

Although he was not penalized during the game for the comment or disciplined by the IIHF or IOC afterward, in the NHL, Ryan Getzlaf was fined $10,000 for saying a similar thing in a game in 2017.

In 2018, Chicago forward Andrew Shaw was suspended for one game and fined $5,000 for directing a homophobic slur toward an official during a playoff game.