Football

Indianapolis Colts interim coach Jeff Saturday wants the chance to become the team's permanent coach.

"I'm not wavering," he said Tuesday, per ESPN's Stephen Holder. "I've loved it. I've had a great time."

The Colts are 1-3 since Saturday took over for Frank Reich, losing their last three games after a win over the Las Vegas Raiders. The team lost to the Dallas Cowboys 54-19 on Dec. 4 before its Week 14 open date.

Despite the struggles, Saturday wants an opportunity to earn the full-time job.

"I plan on interviewing," he said. "As long as they give me the interview, I'm in. I enjoy the heck out of this and have had a lot of fun doing it. Again, I'm not discouraged at all. I have a vision of what this could look like in the future and plan to work that way. That's what I do every day—work toward that goal, understanding what that could look like."

Saturday was a surprising hire last month considering he wasn't already on the staff. The six-time Pro Bowl center hadn't coached in the NFL or college prior to joining the Colts.

Team CEO Jim Irsay was still confident Saturday would thrive in the role, leaving open the possibility he will keep the job:

Jim Irsay on Jeff Saturday: "You wanna bet against this guy? Put your money down, people ... this is for eight games, hopefully more."

— Zak Keefer (@zkeefer) November 8, 2022

Irsay told reporters there will be a full interview process at the end of the season, which will be necessary to satisfy the Rooney Rule. The Fritz Pollard Alliance initiated an inquiry into the Colts' hiring process last month to check if it conformed with the league's guidelines.

According to ESPN's Dan Graziano, Buffalo Bills defensive coordinator and assistant head coach Leslie Frazier could be a candidate for the job.

Saturday will have a chance to improve his résumé over the next four games, starting with a Week 15 matchup against the Minnesota Vikings. The playoffs are a long shot for the 4-8-1 Colts, but a strong finish could help Saturday impress the decision-makers in the front office.

The Baker Mayfield show in Hollywood will continue for at least one more week.

Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay told reporters Tuesday that quarterback John Wolford is expected to be unavailable for Monday night's game against the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field because of a neck injury, putting Mayfield in line to start under center.

The Rams claimed Mayfield off waivers last week after he was granted his release from the Carolina Panthers. Just two days after joining Los Angeles, he was thrust into action in the first quarter of Thursday night's game against the Las Vegas Raiders.

Mayfield pulled off one of the most improbable feats of the 2022 season when he led his new team on a game-winning 98-yard touchdown drive over the last 1:45 of the fourth quarter. He found wide receiver Van Jefferson for a 23-yard score to earn the 17-16 victory. The win snapped the Rams' six-game losing streak.

Los Angeles brought in Mayfield after starting quarterback Matthew Stafford was deemed unlikely to play again this season because of a spinal cord contusion. McVay said last week that Stafford was not expected to require offseason surgery.

Wolford started two games earlier this season while Stafford missed time with concussion symptoms. He threw for 390 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions in losses to the Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals. While he started against the Raiders, he took only three snaps.

At 4-9, the defending Super Bowl champions are unlikely to even make the playoffs this year. Mayfield will have the chance to use his time in Los Angeles as an audition for the rest of the league, as he will benefit from playing without pressure. The 2018 No. 1 overall pick is set to be a free agent this offseason.

San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel is expected to be out for "threeish weeks" while he recovers from knee and ankle injuries, head coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters Tuesday.

The 49ers said Monday that the 26-year-old suffered a sprained MCL in his left knee as well as a sprained left ankle. They added that he was expected to return during the regular season.

Samuel was injured in San Francisco's Week 14 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers when he carried the ball up the middle and landed awkwardly after being tackled. He was visibly emotional as he was carted off the field.

The South Carolina product this season has recorded 54 catches for 612 yards and two touchdowns while adding 228 rushing yards and three scores on 41 carries.

Samuel established himself as one of the most productive offensive players in the NFL last season, racking up 1,770 yards from scrimmage and 14 touchdowns on his way to earning first-team All-Pro honors and his first Pro Bowl selection.

The 49ers rewarded him with a three-year, $71.6 million contract extension with $58.1 million guaranteed in July.

While he hasn't put up those astronomical numbers, he has been a major part of San Francisco's success. The 49ers are the hottest team in the NFL with a six-game winning streak heading into Thursday night's game against the Seattle Seahawks.

Without Samuel in the lineup, Brandon Aiyuk will be San Francisco's top option on the outside. Running back Christian McCaffrey and tight end George Kittle could also get more targets in the passing game.

When the Atlanta Falcons made the decision to give rookie quarterback Desmond Ridder a chance to start this week instead of veteran Marcus Mariota, they were reportedly unaware that Mariota would be out indefinitely.

According to The Athletic's Josh Kendall, Mariota is away to have a "chronic" knee issue evaluated, and the Falcons "don't know when or if" he will return to the team. Kendall added that Atlanta anticipates placing the signal-caller on injured reserve.

Mariota, who signed a two-year deal with the Falcons this offseason, started the first 13 games of the season. He threw for 167 yards, a touchdown and an interception in last Sunday's loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. At 5-8, Atlanta has a slim chance of making the playoffs, prompting the switch to Ridder during the team's bye last week.

Falcons head coach Arthur Smith acknowledged that not having Mariota as a safety net increases the risk that comes with starting a rookie quarterback. Smith said Mariota's knee "is nothing that has been an issue this season, but that's (Mariota's) prerogative so… Of course, you want all your guys to be here, but guys have to make decisions. It's part of professional sports. You have to have contingency plans."

Earlier this week, the Falcons signed quarterback Logan Woodside off the Tennessee Titans practice squad. The 2018 seventh-round pick will act as the backup to Ridder and is the most experienced quarterback on the roster now that Mariota is out, having attempted three passes in his NFL career.

Second-year player Feleipe Franks, who switched to tight end this offseason, will act as the emergency quarterback. The former Arkansas and Florida signal-caller attempted one pass as a rookie in 2021, and it was intercepted.

The Falcons will hope to see some promise from Ridder when he takes the field this Sunday against the New Orleans Saints (4-9).

New England Patriots receiver DeVante Parker called out the NFL for its handling of the concussion protocol after he suffered a head injury in Monday's game against the Arizona Cardinals:

DeVante Parker speaks out on the NFL’s handling of his head injury (and thanks Nelson Agholor for his help). pic.twitter.com/6iKAK0pYYk

— Zack Cox (@zm_cox) December 13, 2022

Parker suffered a hard hit in the first quarter while making a catch and showed signs of a concussion, but he remained in the game and was set to take part in the following play, even though teammate Nelson Agholor was signaling officials to blow the whistle. The Cardinals challenged the catch, which stopped the game, and Parker was subbed out.

He was later ruled out with a head injury.

The NFL and the NFLPA are reviewing the incident, and Parker wants to hear the results:

Please tell me https://t.co/NyeXMMTtz6

— vante (@DeVanteParker11) December 13, 2022

The NFL has unaffiliated neurotrauma consultants at each game who are supposed to remove players from games when they show signs of a possible concussion.

The league also updated its protocols in October after a high-profile incident with Tua Tagovailoa. The Miami Dolphins quarterback remained in his team's Week 3 game despite showing balance issues after hitting his head. In Week 4, he took another big hit and was carted off the field and sent to the hospital.

The situation also took place on national television, and the announcers recognized issues with the receiver.

"They're going to be watching him—somebody upstairs should be," ESPN's Troy Aikman said of Parker (h/t Awful Announcing). "He looked a little wobbly coming up."

Parker is in his first season with the Patriots after spending seven years with the Dolphins. He has 460 yards on 25 catches this season, leading the NFL with 18.4 yards per reception.

New England Patriots wide receiver DeVante Parker suffered a concussion during Monday's win over the Arizona Cardinals, and the league and the NFLPA are investigating how the injury was handled.

Parker appeared to come up wobbly following a hit, as ESPN broadcaster Troy Aikman noticed.

The game only stopped because fellow Patriots wide receiver Nelson Agholor recognized something was wrong and waved his arms to catch the attention of others.

Parker does not seem pleased with the situation:

DeVante Parker speaks out on the NFL’s handling of his head injury (and thanks Nelson Agholor for his help). pic.twitter.com/6iKAK0pYYk

— Zack Cox (@zm_cox) December 13, 2022

Please tell me https://t.co/NyeXMMTtz6

— vante (@DeVanteParker11) December 13, 2022

The play happened during the first quarter when Parker took a hit from Cardinals defensive back Antonio Hamilton.

It wasn't clear whether Parker completed the catch, so the Patriots hustled to the line of scrimmage in an effort to snap it before a challenge could occur. While that added to the confusion of the situation, Agholor lined up alongside Parker and attempted to call for a stoppage.

The stoppage came, but only because the Cardinals challenged whether it was a catch.

Parker left for the locker room during the unsuccessful challenge and never returned to the game.

The treatment and recognition of concussion symptoms has been a major storyline in the NFL this season because of a previous review of how Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa's injury was handled.

As ESPN noted, Tagovailoa hit his head on the ground and then stumbled on his way back to the huddle during a Week 3 win over the Buffalo Bills. He told the team physician and an independent neurotrauma consultant that ankle and back injuries caused him to stumble.

However, he suffered a concussion during a scary scene just four days later against the Cincinnati Bengals and was hospitalized, and he missed nearly a month of play.

The independent neurotrauma consultant from the Week 3 game was fired, and the league and NFLPA changed the concussion protocol to include ataxia, which would have covered Tagovailoa's stumbling, to the list of symptoms that mean a player should not be on the field.

As for the Patriots, they improved to 7-6 with Monday's 27-13 win over the Cardinals even though they were without Parker, wide receiver Jakobi Meyers and running backs Rhamondre Stevenson and Damien Harris for most of the game.

Tyreek Hill has offered new insight into the discussions that led to his trade from the Kansas City Chiefs to the Miami Dolphins during the offseason.

Appearing on the Club Shay Shay YouTube show with Shannon Sharpe (starts at 3:40 mark), Hill said he approached the Chiefs about what the Dolphins were offering him for a contract extension and they decided to trade him rather than try to match the proposal.

Hill previously said on his own podcast he told Chiefs head coach Andy Reid they didn't need to give him the same deal as Miami was willing to in order to re-sign him.

"I'm like, 'Hey Coach, yo like, I ain't even gotta be the highest-paid, for real. I just want to be put in like a realistic position that's like realistic for me and my family,'" Hill said. "I don't gotta get $30 million. At least get me 25, 26. ... Numbers wasn't even close to that."

Despite expressing some desire to remain in Kansas City, Hill told Sharpe he started to realize around "mid-last season" he might not finish his career with the team and he felt like the Chiefs weren't getting him involved in the offense enough.

"I'm the type of guy, like, I love playing ball and I love being about the team, because football is a team sport, right? And it would be some games where, like, I'd get two targets; I'd get three targets," he explained. "And we'd go into meetings and my coach would be like, 'Hey, 'Reek. We've got to get you involved, we've got to get you involved.'"

Hill was traded to the Dolphins in March and signed a four-year, $120 million extension. The deal made him the highest-paid wide receiver in the NFL by average annual salary ($30 million) and total guaranteed money ($72.2 million).

The Chiefs already had several veteran players on expensive contracts that limited their cap flexibility. Patrick Mahomes, Chris Jones, Orlando Brown Jr. and Frank Clark all have cap hits of more than $13 million, per Over the Cap.

Hill was still very productive in Kansas City last season. The six-time Pro Bowler led the team in targets (159), receptions (111), receiving yards (1,239) and tied for the team lead in touchdown receptions (nine).

Things have worked out well for both parties since the trade. The Chiefs offense remains one of the most dominant units in the NFL, ranking first in yards per game (423.8) and second in points per game (29.5).

Despite the Dolphins' dip in performance over the past two games, they are still on track to make the playoffs for the first time since 2016. Hill leads the league with 100 catches and ranks second with 1,460 receiving yards.

Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray will miss the rest of the season after an MRI confirmed he tore his ACL during Monday's 27-13 loss to the New England Patriots, head coach Kliff Kingsbury confirmed Tuesday.

Murray was carted off with a non-contact injury during Arizona's Week 14 game. It was another difficult break in a season that has been filled with them for the Cardinals.

The 25-year-old is one of the league's best dual-threat playmakers at quarterback when healthy and has an Offensive Rookie of the Year and two Pro Bowl selections on his resume.

The Oklahoma product has completed 66.4 percent of his passes for 2,368 yards, 14 touchdowns and seven interceptions while adding 418 yards and three scores on the ground in 11 games this season.

Colt McCoy entered the game against the Patriots after Murray exited and figures to be the Cardinals' quarterback while the starter is sidelined. He is best known for his collegiate career at Texas, but he is an experienced backup who can keep the offense afloat if needed.

The 36-year-old has played for the Cleveland Browns, San Francisco 49ers, Washington, New York Giants and Cardinals during a career that started in 2010.

Will Anderson Jr. remains the top prospect in the 2023 NFL draft, according to ESPN's Todd McShay.

The Alabama pass-rusher made the Associated Press All-America First Team for the second straight year after tallying 10 sacks this season, and he should hear his name called early in the upcoming draft.

Crimson Tide teammate Bryce Young is also a contender to go No. 1 overall as McShay's top quarterback available.

Here is the top of McShay's big board heading into bowl season.

---

1. Will Anderson Jr., OLB, Alabama

2. Bryce Young, QB, Alabama

3. Jalen Carter, DT, Georgia

4. Tyree Wilson, DE, Texas Tech

5. C.J. Stroud, QB, Ohio State

6. Bijan Robinson, RB, Texas

7. Peter Skoronski, OT, Northwestern

8. Myles Murphy, DE, Clemson

9. Bryan Bresee, DT, Clemson

10. Paris Johnson Jr., OT, Ohio State

---

Quarterback rankings will see significant debate leading up to the draft, but McShay sees Young as the top player at the position and the second-best player in the class.

The 2021 Heisman Trophy winner's numbers declined this season, although he remained productive with 3,007 passing yards and 27 touchdowns with only five interceptions.

He stays ahead of Ohio State's C.J. Stroud, who dropped two spots in McShay's overall rankings.

Stroud has 37 touchdowns with only six interceptions this year, but he struggled in his last game against Michigan's elite defense with two picks in a 45-23 loss. The pressure is on him to improve his play in the College Football Playoff against Georgia.

Kentucky's Will Levis remains the third quarterback on the board (13th overall) while Florida's Anthony Richardson is fourth (32nd overall). Neither player had a great year by the numbers, but both display traits that impress NFL scouts.

McShay's rankings differ significantly from those of ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr., who lists Levis as the top quarterback in the class and No. 3 overall.

Bleacher Report's Scouting Department ranks Levis fourth among quarterbacks behind Young, Stroud and Richardson.

Texas running back Bijan Robinson also rose on McShay's big board, climbing from eighth to sixth overall. Though teams might not prioritize running backs in the draft, Robinson is hard to ignore after totaling 1,580 rushing yards, 314 receiving yards and 20 touchdowns.

Based on the current order for the 2023 NFL draft, ESPN's Todd McShay is projecting three of the first six picks will be quarterbacks.

In his latest mock draft released Tuesday, McShay has Alabama's Bryce Young going No. 1 overall to the Houston Texans. He projects the Detroit Lions will use the No. 4 pick on Ohio State's C.J. Stroud, with Kentucky's Will Levis going to the Atlanta Falcons at No. 6.

Young's size has become a talking point as we get closer to the draft, but McShay cited several other areas in which the 2021 Heisman Trophy winner excels that make him an elite NFL prospect.

"Scouts will knock Young's frame (he's listed at 6-foot), but there is no debating his high-level processing ability, excellent ball placement to all three levels of the field and mobility when forced to go off schedule," McShay wrote. "He has regularly lifted a lackluster offensive supporting cast in Alabama this season, and he can do it again with the Texans."

The Texans' roster is in such dire straits they could almost go in any direction, and it would make sense. But having the No. 1 pick in a year when it looks like there are multiple quarterbacks worth taking at that spot should make their decision easier.

The Lions face a potentially interesting dilemma. They have put themselves into playoff contention with five wins in their last six games. Jared Goff is playing at a high level with 3,352 passing yards and 22 touchdowns and is surrounded by a wealth of talent on offense.

If the Lions want to ride with Goff, who has two years remaining on his contract, they could look to add help to a defense that is allowing the second-most points per game (26.7).

But the Lions are also playing with house money right now because the No. 4 pick they have is from the Los Angeles Rams as part of the Matthew Stafford trade. They also have their own pick, which is currently at No. 16 overall.

If Stroud is the second-best quarterback in the class and is on the board when the Lions make their first pick, why not take the shot? He will be walking into a situation with a great offensive line to protect him and wide receivers Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams on the outside.

Levis and the Falcons are an interesting pairing because we're still waiting to see what Desmond Ridder can do in head coach Arthur Smith's offense.

Ridder was the second quarterback taken in the 2022 NFL draft at No. 74 overall. He is set to take over as Atlanta's starter in Week 15 against the New Orleans Saints.

Even though it will only be a four-game trial run for Ridder, the team could alter its draft plans if he shows the talent that made him the top-ranked quarterback in the 2022 class for some draft analysts.

McShay noted Levis "still needs some developing, especially when it comes to decision-making, but the traits are outstanding."

It seems unlikely Levis will make it out of the top 10 at this point. Despite a lackluster senior season with 2,406 passing yards, 19 touchdowns and 10 interceptions, his skill set is proving to be tantalizing for NFL teams.