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Alex Cappa has been a starter on the Cincinnati Bengals offensive line for the past three seasons, but he won’t be returning for a fourth season. The team has decided to cut ties with Cappa in a move that was announced on Monday.

Although Cappa had started 50 games for the Bengals over the past three years, their decision to release him isn’t a huge surprise. For one, his production went down last season. Joe Burrow was sacked 48 times in 2024, which was the tied for the fourth most in the NFL, and Cappa was part of the problem. According to Pro Football Focus, Cappa’s overall grade last season was 50.5, which ranked 110th out of 135 guards.

The other reason this move wasn’t a huge surprise is because it frees up a massive amount of salary cap space for the Bengals. Cappa was set to have a $10.25 million cap hit in 2025 and although the Bengals will take a dead cap hit of $2.25 million, the important part is that the move will free up $8 million in cap space.

Agent’s Take: Bengals could pay a much steeper price if they don’t heed Joe Burrow’s plea to lock up stars
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Agent’s Take: Bengals could pay a much steeper price if they don’t heed Joe Burrow’s plea to lock up stars
The Bengals now have roughly $68.7 million in cap space, according to OverTheCap.com, which is the fifth most in the NFL.

The fact that Cappa got released one day before the franchise tag deadline probably isn’t a coincidence. If the Bengals don’t get an extension done with Tee Higgins by Tuesday’s tag deadline, then they’ll almost certainly tag the wide receiver in a move that will cost $26.1 million. Once they use the tag, that money will immediately count against the cap, so the Bengals likely wanted to free up as much cap space as possible before officially using it.

If Higgins does get tagged, the Bengals need to make sure they still have an ample amount of cap space remaining so that they can get new deals done with both Ja’Marr Chase and Trey Hendrickson. On top of that, the team will need some cap space for free agency, which explains why the Bengals have been busy looking for ways to add extra cap room.

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Alex Cappa
CIN • OG • #65
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This is the second time in less than two weeks that the Bengals have freed up a chunk of salary cap space by cutting a player. Back on Feb. 21, they released Sheldon Rankins in a move that freed up $9.6 million in cap space. Between Rankins and Cappa, the Bengals have picked up $17.6 million in cap room for the 2025 season.

Cappa likely won’t have an issue finding a job in free agency. Although he struggled in 2024, he’s been a consistent starter in the NFL. After the Buccaneers made him a third-round pick in 2018, Cappa ended up starting 46 games over four seasons in Tampa. He then signed with the Bengals prior to the 2022 season and ended up starting at least 16 games in each of his three seasons in Cincinnati.

The 2025 NFL offseason is now in full swing, with the Super Bowl in the rear view and the scouting combine complete. There is plenty more still to come, however, as all 32 teams prepare for the annual shuffle of veteran players via free agency and trades. And that’s not accounting for April’s draft, when a swarm of other prospects will enter the professional stage looking to carve out roles of their own.

Spring programming follows the winter activity, with teams quickly transitioning from roster-building to on-field work, and before you know it, the 2025 season will be upon us. Need a handy guide for all the important offseason dates still to come? We’ve got you covered.

Here’s a full rundown of the biggest events and when they’re scheduled to take place:

Starting now
Trade negotiating: All NFL teams are permitted to discuss and/or agree to any trades involving players or draft picks. However, if a trade includes players on existing contracts, it cannot be finalized and processed until the start of the league year in March (see below).

March 4
Franchise tag deadline: At 4 p.m. ET, teams are no longer permitted to apply the franchise or transition tag to eligible players. Players who’ve been tagged, however, do not yet have to sign their contract.

2025 NFL free agency: League releases numbers for franchise and transition tags this offseason
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2025 NFL free agency: League releases numbers for franchise and transition tags this offseason
March 10
Free agent negotiating period begins: Starting at 12 p.m. ET, all NFL teams can contact and negotiate potential contracts with the certified agents of players with expiring contracts. Agreements can be reached in principle, but they cannot be officially signed.

March 12
New league year: At 4 p.m. ET, the 2025 offseason officially gets underway, meaning any negotiated contracts or trades can be finalized and processed. Any free agent or trade discussions that begin after this point can be finalized immediately.

March 30-April 2
Annual league meeting: NFL owners will gather in Palm Beach, Florida, to discuss proposed rule changes and other league matters.

April 7
Offseason programming begins: NFL teams that hired a new head coach — the Chicago Bears, Dallas Cowboys, Jacksonville Jaguars, Las Vegas Raiders, New England Patriots, New Orleans Saints and New York Jets — are eligible to gather for spring workouts.

April 18
Restricted free agent deadline: Any players without contracts as restricted free agents (three or fewer accrued NFL seasons) must sign an offer received by their respective teams, or remain free agents.

April 21
Offseason programming expands: All NFL teams can begin spring workouts.

April 24-26
2025 NFL Draft: Teams will select college prospects in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

May 1
Fifth-year option deadline: NFL teams wishing to exercise the fifth-year option built into the contracts of 2022 first-round draft picks must do so by this date.

May 2
Rookie minicamps begin: Starting now, NFL teams are able to hold one three-day minicamp (from Friday to Sunday or Saturday to Monday) on one of the two weekends following the draft.

May 20-21
Spring league meeting: NFL owners will gather to discuss league matters in the Minneapolis area.

July 15
Franchise tag extension deadline: Teams desiring to sign tagged players to long-term contract extensions must do so by 4 p.m. ET, or said players will be required to play under the tag in 2025.

Mid-July
Training camps open: NFL teams can begin their summer training camps, first for rookies, then for veterans, in preparation of the 2025 preseason and regular season.

Through the early part of this offseason, rampant trade rumors surrounded Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford. The New York Giants were interested, as were the Las Vegas Raiders and presumably other teams.

Alas, Stafford isn’t going anywhere. He agreed with the Rams to a reworked contract, and he’ll remain in Los Angeles for at least another year. According to head coach Sean McVay, Stafford was never really going anywhere anyway.

“That was never something that felt like ever got close, and it was never something that I allowed my mind to go to,” McVay said, via ESPN.

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Matthew Stafford
LAR • QB • #9
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65.8
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3762
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20
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8
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7.28
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McVay also said he expects to go through the same process again with Stafford next year, via The Athletic, and to do it again on a year-to-year basis for as long as Stafford wants to continue playing. The Rams also agreed last offseason to adjust Stafford’s contract so that he would remain with the Rams for 2024.

Stafford’s 2024 numbers look somewhat pedestrian on the surface: He completed 65.8% of his passes at an average of 7.3 yards per attempt, with 20 touchdowns against eight interceptions. Yet once Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp returned from their injuries, his numbers spiked. He went from 7.3 yards per attempt to 7.9, and his touchdown-to-interception pace jumped to 29 touchdowns and seven picks while he was on a 4,029-yard pace.

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2025 NFL Mock Draft: Giants trade up to No. 1 after missing out on Matthew Stafford; defenders dominate top 10
He then played well in the postseason, going 45 of 71 for 533 yards and four scores against two of the NFL’s best defenses. It makes sense, then, that McVay is breathing sighs of relief upon his return to the fold. He has “been sleeping better these last couple days” since the team agreed to terms with Stafford, McVay told The Athletic.

Payton Pritchard burst into the national consciousness with a pair of stunning buzzer-beaters in the 2024 NBA Finals, including one from beyond halfcourt at halftime of the Boston Celtics’ title-clinching Game 5 victory. But for all of his long-range exploits, he doesn’t want to be known as a specialist.

“It kind of bothers me if anybody ever classifies me as just a shooter, because I’m not,” Pritchard said. “I want to be a ball player. Somebody that can do it all, every aspect.”

Utah Jazz coach Will Hardy used a different descriptor. “Payton’s a badass,” Hardy said.

Pritchard, 26, has been one of the league’s best snipers this season. But if you’re picturing a standstill shooter whose primary purpose is to space the floor for his superstar teammates, you have the wrong idea.

“He’s fearless, he’s incredibly tough, physical,” said Hardy, who coached Pritchard while on Ime Udoka’s staff in Boston. “His work ethic is second to none. I’ve never been around a player who is as obsessive as Payton is.”

That’s the kind of characterization Pritchard can get behind. “I’m somebody that loves to hoop,” Pritchard said. “Every time that I step on the floor, I like to leave it all out there.”

Pritchard is averaging 15.5 points — up from 9.6 last season — along with 2.8 assists, 2.6 rebounds and 1.1 steals per game for the defending champs, who are 11-3 entering Tuesday’s matchup with the undefeated Cleveland Cavaliers. He’s the early betting favorite for Sixth Man of the Year (FanDuel Sportsbook listed him with +190 odds as of Tuesday morning), and that’s only partially because of his increased minutes and shot attempts. He has raised his efficiency and his usage rate at the same time, a sign of genuine improvement. Pritchard said he’ll never “sacrifice playing the right way” to win the award.

He’s making a career-high 41.9% of his 8.9 3-point attempts per game, putting him right on the cusp of a historic club. In NBA history, only Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Damian Lillard have shot 40% for an entire season on at least nine 3s per game. Pritchard is at 52.4% on corner 3s, and boasts a 66% true shooting percentage, which is tied for eighth in the league among players taking at least 10 shots per game.

In short, the shooting has been absurd.

“He can get into the paint and score, he can score from 3,” Celtics guard Jrue Holiday said. “Shit, he can score from half-court.” As a result, the Celtics’ vaunted offense has been 6.4 points per 100 possessions better with Pritchard on the court than without him.

Few athletes take the offseason as seriously as Pritchard, who is known to pay overseas players to train with him so he can get realistic live reps. He says he sees the summer not as a time to rest, but as “another opportunity to add something new to my game.” Shooting off the move and off the bounce were key focuses this year, and the work is paying off.

When Pritchard shoots directly off a screen, he’s scoring an outrageous 2.143 points per possession, per Synergy Sports. Off the dribble, he’s at 34.7% on 3.5 attempts per game, up from 30.6% on 1.4 per game last season. Overall, he’s tied with Malik Beasley for the eighth-most 3s (52) in the league. The only nit one could pick is that he hasn’t made one of his patented buzzer-beating heaves yet (at least not one that counted).

Pritchard is playing more than ever thanks to his all-around development, even in seemingly minor areas such as fitness. “It’s not just the offense that helps us,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said before praising Pritchard’s ability to play for extended stretches, which allows him to experiment with different substitution patterns.

“The thing that’s most important,” Hardy said, “is he has the respect of all of his teammates.” Luke Kornet called the 6-foot-1 Pritchard “the best rebounder at that size I’ve ever seen.” Holiday said Pritchard is someone you “love to play with” because he pushes the pace and makes opponents work on both ends. Jaylen Brown praised Pritchard’s “big-time” ability to “be ready when his name is called.”

For the Celtics, Pritchard is an “energy source,” Hardy said. For opponents, he is the exact opposite.

“It’s almost like a game of chicken with him,” Bucks coach Doc Rivers said. “He picks whoever up full-court and basically sends a message: ‘I’m coming after you the entire night on either end.’ And if you’re not up to that challenge, he will eat you up.”

For all of Pritchard’s skills and work ethic, he wouldn’t be an NBA champion and a 6MOY candidate without the “supreme confidence” that Jayson Tatum first recognized more than a decade ago when they were both still in high school. Hardy saw it, too, when he watched Pritchard play one-on-one with Tatum and Brown after every practice without backing down.

That confidence starts with shooting and extends to every facet of his game. “Every time I shoot it, I really believe, no matter the distance, that it’s going in,” Pritchard said.

As superb as Pritchard’s shooting stats are, they don’t capture what Kornet called his “unrelenting” approach to the game. “He’s always trying to win every possession,” Kornet said, adding that he’ll offer resistance defensively against bigger players when “a lot of guys his size will give up.” Holiday, a two-time NBA champ and two-time gold medalist, said the way Pritchard plays “is winning basketball.”

“I love Payton,” Hardy said. “I have so much respect for him because — you talk about people who are maximizing their talent — he’s not the biggest guy, he’s not the fastest guy, but he’s a tough motherf—–, man.”

We’ve got another exciting NBA Cup 2024 matchup on Tuesday’s schedule as the Dallas Mavericks will host the New Orleans Pelicans. Dallas is 7-7 overall and 5-3 at home, while New Orleans is 4-10 overall and 1-5 on the road. The teams split their four matchups last season. Dallas is 8-6 against the spread (ATS) in the 2024-25 NBA season, while New Orleans is 4-10 versus the line.

Tip-off is at 8:30 p.m. ET at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. The Mavs are favored by 12 points in the latest Mavericks vs. Pelicans odds, per SportsLine consensus, and the over/under is 222 points. Before entering any Pelicans vs. Mavericks picks, you’ll want to see the NBA predictions from the model at SportsLine.

The SportsLine Projection Model simulates every NBA game 10,000 times and has returned well over $10,000 in betting profit for $100 players on its top-rated NBA picks over the past six-plus seasons. The model enters Week 5 of the 2024-25 NBA season on a sizzling 109-74 roll on all top-rated NBA picks dating back to last season, returning more than $3,000. Anyone following at sportsbooks and on betting apps has seen huge returns.

The model has set its sights on New Orleans vs. Dallas. You can head to SportsLine to see its picks. Here are several NBA betting lines for Mavs vs. Pelicans:

Mavericks vs. Pelicans spread: Mavericks -12
Mavericks vs. Pelicans over/under: 222 points
Mavericks vs. Pelicans money line: Mavericks: -714, Pelicans: +503
Mavericks vs. Pelicans picks: See picks at SportsLine
Mavericks vs. Pelicans streaming: FuboTV (Try for free)
Why the Mavericks can cover
The Mavericks skirted past the Thunder 121-119 on Sunday, and among those leading the way was PJ Washington, who dropped a double-double on 27 points and 17 rebounds. The Mavs smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 18 offensive boards, which enabled extra possessions and helped make up for Dallas missing Luka Doncic.

Batting a knee injury, Doncic is questionable for Tuesday, but New Orleans has a much lengthier injury report. Zion Williamson (hamstring), Dejounte Murray (hand), CJ McCollum (adductor) and Herbert Jones (shoulder) are among those sidelined for the Pelicans. With those absences, New Orleans ranks 29th in scoring, which should make it hard to put points on the scoreboard versus a Mavs team that ranks eighth in points allowed. See which team to pick here.

Why the Pelicans can cover
Meanwhile, the Pelicans were within striking distance but couldn’t close the gap on Saturday as they fell 104-99 to the Lakers. Brandon Ingram put forth a good effort for the losing side as he had 32 points plus eight assists and three steals. Despite the defeat, the Pelicans did cover, and they’ve now covered in back-to-back games for the first time this season.

New Orleans is the best team at the league in keeping opponents off the free throw line, as it allows both the fewest free throw makes and attempts per game. That’s a big part of Dallas’ offense with the likes of Doncic and Kyrie Irving combine for more than 10 free throw attempts per game. New Orleans is also fourth in the NBA in offensive rebounds per game, while Dallas ranks third-worst — despite its outing versus OKC — so the Pelicans can take advantage of their work on the glass. See which team to pick here.

How to make Mavericks vs. Pelicans picks
The model has simulated Pelicans vs. Mavericks 10,000 times and the results are in. We can tell you that the model is leaning Under, and it’s also generated a point-spread pick that has all the value. You can only see the pick at SportsLine.

The Denver Nuggets hit the road for a 2024 NBA Cup matchup with the Memphis Grizzlies at the FedEx Forum on Wednesday night. Denver is 7-5 on the season and is currently 6th place in the Western Conference standings, while Memphis is 8-6 and is sitting in eighth place in the West. The two franchises played on Sunday, with the Grizzlies winning 105-90. Three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic (personal) missed Sunday’s matchup and is listed as a game-time decision for Wednesday’s contest. Aaron Gordon (calf) remains out for Denver, while Ja Morant (hip) is out for Memphis.

Tipoff from the FedEx Forum in Memphis is set for 8 p.m. ET. The SportsLine consensus lists Memphis as the 3.5-point favorite in the latest Grizzlies vs. Nuggets odds, while the over/under for total points scored is 227.5. Before making any Nuggets vs. Grizzlies picks, you’ll want to see the NBA predictions and betting advice from the proven computer simulation model at SportsLine.

The SportsLine Projection Model simulates every NBA game 10,000 times and has returned well over $10,000 in betting profit for $100 players on its top-rated NBA picks over the past six-plus seasons. The model enters Week 5 of the 2024-25 NBA season on a sizzling 109-74 roll on all top-rated NBA picks dating back to last season, returning more than $3,000. Anyone following at sportsbooks and on betting apps has seen huge returns.

The model has set its sights on Nuggets vs. Grizzlies and just locked in its picks and NBA in-season tournament predictions. You can head to SportsLine now to see the model’s picks. Here are several NBA betting lines for Grizzlies vs. Nuggets:

Nuggets vs. Grizzlies spread: Memphis -3.5
Nuggets vs. Grizzlies over/under: 227.5 points
Nuggets vs. Grizzlies money line: Memphis -165, Denver +135
Nuggets vs. Grizzlies picks: See picks at SportsLine
Nuggets vs. Grizzlies streaming: FuboTV (Try for free)
Why the Nuggets can cover
The Nuggets are a completely different team with Nikola Jokic on the court. Denver has an offensive rating of 125.8 when the three-time NBA MVP is on the floor, which is the best number in NBA history. When Jokic is off the floor, the Nuggets have the worst offensive rating in league history at 86.3. Jokic (personal) will be a game-time decision tonight.

The Nuggets still have some solid pieces to work with if Jokic is unable to play. Point guard Jamal Murray is capable of taking a game over on the offensive end, and enters Tuesday averaging 17.3 points, 5.4 assists, and 4.3 rebounds per game. Forward Michael Porter Jr. is one of the more explosive offensive players in the league as well. Porter is averaging 17.8 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 2.8 assists per game. See which team to pick here.

Why the Grizzlies can cover
The Grizzlies blew the Nuggets out on Sunday, winning 105-90 in Memphis. Denver was short-handed in that game, but with the way the Grizzlies played on both ends it may not have made a difference. Memphis dictated the pace in that game, and played a smothering brand of defense that forced 14 turnovers by Denver.

Ja Morant (hip) remains out for Memphis, but the Grizzlies still have a dynamic duo in forward Jaren Jackson Jr. and shooting guard Desmond Bane. Jackson enters Tuesday averaging 23.1 points and 5.7 rebounds per game. Bane, who is coming off a double-double on Sunday, averages 17.6 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 3.3 assists per game. See which team to pick here.

How to make Grizzlies vs. Nuggets picks
The model has simulated Nuggets vs. Grizzlies 10,000 times and the results are in. The model is leaning Under on the point total, and it also says one side of the spread hits well over 60% of the time. You can only see the pick at SportsLine.