Sports

Four years after being named the AP coach of the year with the Titans, Patriots coach Mike Vrabel could be in line to win the award again.

He has a chance to bolster his case on Thursday night, when New England hosts the Jets.

Via NBC Sports research, Vrabel can become only the sixth coach since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger to win eight or more games in a row in his first season with a team.

The others who accomplished that feat were Colts coach Jim Caldwell (14 in a row in 2009), 49ers coach Steve Mariucci (11 in a row in 1997), Chiefs coach Andy Reid (nine in a row in 2013), Colts coach Ted Marchibroda (nine in a row in 1975), and 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh (eight in a row in 2011).

Marchibroda and Harbaugh each won coach of the year to cap the respective seasons.

Vrabel currently is a +120 favorite to win the official coach of the year prize, followed by Colts coach Shane Steichen (+175) and Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald (+350).

The Ravens can collectively exhale.

According to multiple reporters on the scene, quarterback Lamar Jackson is practicing on Thursday after he missed Wednesday's session.

Head coach John Harbaugh told reporters on Wednesday that Jackson did not practice due to knee soreness, but he was expected to return to the field on Thursday.

That has now happened.

Jackson missed a few weeks earlier in the season due to a hamstring injury. Harbaugh noted that Jackson's practice absence on Wednesday did not have anything to do with his hamstring.

In six games this season, Jackson has completed 70.1 percent of his passes for 1,249 yards with 15 touchdowns and one interception. He’s also rushed for 216 yards with one TD.

Jackson and the Ravens will play the Browns in Cleveland on Sunday.

The NFL Players Association's annual report cards are working. The best evidence? The NFL hates them.

The league hates them enough that it has, according to Seth Wickersham and Don Van Natta Jr. of ESPN.com, filed a grievance regarding the practice.

The NFL contends that the effort violates the Collective Bargaining Agreement. In an August 2025 letter from the league's Management Council to NFLPA general counsel Tom DePaso, the NFL argued that the union must "use reasonable efforts to curtail public comments by club personnel or players which express criticism of any club, its coach, or its operation and policy."

The union informed players about the grievance last week, adding that it plans to proceed with this year's survey.

"We have responded to the grievance with our intention to fight against this action and continue what's clearly become an effective tool for comparing workplace standards across the league and equipping you to make informed career decisions," the NFLPA said in an email to its members.

Some owners have taken the scrutiny to heart by making changes. Others, like Jets owner Woody Johnson (who had no qualms last month about publicly criticizing his quarterback) have opted to attack the process. Which, obviously, is what dysfunctional teams will do when faced with real feedback regarding the overall operations of a dysfunctional business.

It's been one of the best innovations from the NFLPA in years, because the people who own NFL teams typically avoid any and all criticism or accountability. Fans aren't inclined to boycott their favorite teams; even when they hate the product their love of the team keeps them from emotionally detaching. Thus, even when a team consistently loses, it continuously wins the battle of the balance sheet.

As one ownership told ESPN.com, "[T]he only owners who don't care for [the report cards] are the ones who get the subpar grades."

It's a symptom of the modern age. If you don't like something, attack it. If there's a way to kill it through available legal channels, even better.

Here's hoping the NFLPA stands firm, and prevails. And if the NFL doesn't like it, they can make an appropriate concession (high-quality grass fields in every stadium, for example) to get rid of it in the next CBA.