After retiring from the NFL last year, Teddy Bridgewater returned home and led his alma mater, Miami Northwestern Senior High School, to the Class 3A Florida High School Athletic Association state title and may be considering a return to the league.

Bridgewater faced a significant challenge when he was hired as the new head coach at Miami Northwestern High School in February 2024 to lead the program that had finished the previous season with a 4-6 record. Bridgewater successfully navigated this challenge, and after winning a state title, has announced to NFL Network that he plans to return to the NFL.

‘My team is aware of the plan. We aimed to win a state championship, after which the coach would return to the league to see what happens. Then, he would come back in February during the offseason to continue coaching high school football. We will see how it all plays out,’ Bridgewater told NFL Network.

Bridgewater’s time in the NFL

Teddy Bridgewater, a first-round pick in the 2014 NFL Draft by the Minnesota Vikings, has had a remarkable 10- year journey in the NFL. Over his career, he accumulated 15,120 passing yards and 75 touchdowns while playing for seven NFL teams, primarily with the Detroit Lions. Bridgewater was named to the 2014 NFL All-Rookie Team in 2014 and the Pro Bowl in 201.

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The 32-year-old veteran quarterback has not specified which team he is considering and is focused on enjoying the hard-earned championship with his current team.

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The Milwaukee Bucks are the hottest team in the NBA.

With their NBA Cup championship – earned with a 97-81 victory Tuesday over the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Cup final – the Bucks have now won 13 of their past 16 games, and Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard continued their stellar play.

That 2-8 start and talk of Lillard’s challenging adjustment to a new team alongside Antetokounmpo are fading in the embers of October and early November.

Antetokounmpo earned NBA Cup MVP, helping finish off the Thunder with a 26-point, 19-rebound, 10-assist triple-double. He also had three blocks and two steals.

Lillard contributed 23 points.

Here are the NBA Cup winners and losers:

NBA Cup winners and losers

Winner: Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo

In six Cup games, Antetokounmpo averaged 30.5 points, 10.2 rebounds, 7.7 assists, 2.8 blocks and 1.2 steals and shot 66.7% from the field.

Nikola Jokic is having a great season and almost averaging a 30-point triple-double. But no one is playing better and helping his team win right now more than the 30-year-old Antetokounmpo.

He is the NBA’s top scorer at 32.7 points per game and averages 11.5 rebounds, 6.1 assists and 1.6 blocks and shoots 61.4%, which would be a career high if he maintains that percentage.

A third MVP for the Bucks star is a strong possibility if he continues to play like that and the Bucks continue to win.

Loser: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s production

OKC’s MVP candidate was limited to 21 points on 8-for-24 shooting Tuesday, including 2-for-9 on 3s. The Bucks did a fantastic job, using their size to prevent Gilgeous-Alexander from controlling the game. He had just four rebounds and two assists.

“The way I felt tonight, I still got to my shot, my spot, I just didn’t make anything,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Things like that happen.”

Winner: Damian Lillard-Giannis Antetokounmpo combo

They are the highest-scoring duo in the NBA at 58.4 points per game, and playing like the almost-unstoppable combination the front office anticipated when the Bucks acquired Lillard before the start of the 2023-24 season. Of Lillard’s 23 points, 15 came on 5-for-10 3-point shooting.

Lillard and Antetokounmpo playing at that level puts immense pressure on an opponent’s defense.

‘So proud of the group,’ Antetokounmpo said. ‘Everybody was extremely locked in. We came in, we were focused and played great basketball, and we were able to win this game. We had this goal as a team, and we accomplished it. … I’m so happy for Dame that we got our first trophy together. This is just the beginning. We have to keep on improving and getting better, and we will be better.’

Winner: Milwaukee Bucks

The Bucks used the NBA Cup to help turn around their season after that 2-8 start. Now, can they use this success to propel them through the remainder of the season? They have moved to sixth place in the Eastern Conference standings and are just 1½ games behind the New York Knicks for third place.

“I don’t think you can flush it,” Lillard said of the poor start to the season. “But we’ve shown the team we started the season as is not the team that we are now, and it was never who we truly were. Just got off to a tough start.”

Loser: Oklahoma City Thunder

The Thunder lost, and their offense abandoned them in the Cup final. It’s difficult to win an NBA game with 81 points. They scored just 31 points in the second half – 14 in the third quarter.

Oklahoma City is still a quality team with depth, an MVP candidate in Gilgeous-Alexander and another potential All-Star in Jalen Williams. They will get Chet Holmgren back later this season and will be a team to beat in the West playoffs.

“We didn’t score nearly enough points, especially in the second half, to give ourselves a chance to win, but we can learn from it,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “We’ll move forward here.”

Winner: Milwaukee’s 3-point shooting

The Bucks were 17-for-40 on 3-pointers (42.5%) and outscored Oklahoma City 51-15 on 3s. Five Bucks made at least two 3s, and it was indicative of Milwaukee’s success from that distance this season. It is third in 3-point shooting percentage and 10th in 3s made per game this season.

Winner: Darvin Ham and Taurean Prince

Special shoutout here for Bucks assistant coach Darvin Ham and Bucks reserve Taurean Prince. They are now 14-0 in NBA Cup play. Ham was 7-0 as the Los Angeles Lakers’ head coach in 2023 and 7-0 as a Bucks assistant this season. Prince played for the Lakers last season and joined the Bucks for this season.

‘We brought our secret weapon,’ Bucks coach Doc Rivers said. ‘Darvin Ham is now an undefeated coach in two years in this Cup and then when I said it, TP, he was like, ‘What about me?’ ‘

Loser: Thunder’s 3-point shooting

The Thunder were a dismal 5-for-32 (15.2%): 1-for-6 in the first quarter; 0-for-11 in the second quarter; 2-for-7 in the third; and 2-for-8 in the fourth. The Thunder are an OK 3-point shooting team (19th in 3-point percentage), and that area of their game is worth monitoring. A team needs to make 3s in today’s NBA, and the Thunder are 12th in made 3s per game.

Winner: NBA Cup

Now in its second season, the NBA Cup is showing potential as a major event on the NBA calendar and momentum is building. Players want to win, and they created compelling games and matchups.

‘It’s fun playing in Vegas,’ Antetokounmpo said. ‘It’s my second year of playing in Vegas. I’ve played a couple of Summer League games, maybe 10 years ago here in Vegas. The atmosphere is incredible. I think the atmosphere in the game tonight was also very, very fun.’

Michael Vick became the latest NFL legend to dip his toe into college football coaching when Norfolk State hired him to lead its program.

The news, first reported by The Virginian-Pilot, was confirmed by Vick Tuesday night via a post on his verified Facebook page.

And for most of us who are not particularly invested in Norfolk State football, that means just one thing: Better watch your back, Brent Pry!

Who’s Brent Pry? He’s the largely unremarkable coach at Virginia Tech who has gone 3-8, 7-6 and 6-6 in three seasons and would probably not be recognized at any grocery store or airplane terminal in America beyond a 30-mile radius from Blacksburg. 

That’s not intended to be a knock on Pry, who made his name as James Franklin’s defensive coordinator at Vanderbilt and Penn State and parlayed that into a contract making $4.75 million a year. Nice work if you can get it. 

But let’s be real for a second. Vick is a star. A cultural icon, even, despite misdeeds in his past that he’s worked hard to atone for. And he’s especially a star at Virginia Tech, the school he put on the map by taking the Hokies to the brink of a national title in 1999.

Do we really need to put two and two together here? 

If Vick shows even a hint of competence as a head coach this coming year, and Virginia Tech continues on its current mediocre path, athletics director Whit Babcock (or whoever replaces him) will have no choice. Vick is coming for this job, and good luck being the guy who tells the Hokies’ fan base the most important player in school history needs to pay his dues for a few more years. 

That’s not how this stuff works anymore (see Sanders, Deion), and that’s probably a good thing. 

Coaching competence, development and experience matter in college football, but this is now a game of paid-for player acquisition and roster building through the transfer portal, which require a different set of skills than the traditional model. 

Will Vick know what he’s doing on the sidelines? Impossible to say. He’s never coached. 

But ideas that were once laughed at are now part of the mainstream thought in college football. And anyway, what does Virginia Tech have to lose? Since Frank Beamer retired at the end of the 2015 season, the program’s record is 60-53. Its identity as a scrappy little powerhouse in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains has been replaced by complete irrelevance. As we’ve come to learn over the last decade, Beamer — and Vick, too — made that job look a whole lot easier than it actually is. 

That’s why this scenario is going to be fascinating to follow over the next 12 months.

Virginia Tech has a great fan base that hungers for a winner, if not an outright return to the Beamer era when they were regularly competing for conference championships. Vick has the star power to reignite interest in Virginia Tech, and don’t think for a second that other athletics directors and school presidents haven’t noticed how Sanders has transformed Colorado’s national image — and not just as a football program.

For people of a certain age — OK, my age — Vick was like something we had never seen before in football. Now, we are used to quarterbacks who can dominate games with their speed in addition to their passing. But when Vick showed up at Virginia Tech, and then later with the Atlanta Falcons as the first Black quarterback to be drafted No. 1 overall, he was one of one. For a lot of reasons, he’s truly one of the landmark players in the history of the sport. 

The next phase of Vick’s life wasn’t a picnic. He spent 21 months in prison over the dogfighting ring he was part of, and dealt with significant financial troubles and lawsuits. But since then, Vick has put his life back together and worked in television with Fox Sports since the end of his NFL career. 

Vick’s college coaching candidacy seemingly came out of nowhere, but it makes sense in this era. As schools navigate a new financial reality of paying players, a lot of schools are looking outside the box or are more willing to take chances on unproven coaches that they don’t have to pay $8 million a year. 

Norfolk State, which plays at the FCS level, just fired Dawson Odums after he went 15-31 in four seasons. They have nothing to lose here. And when Vick shows up on the sidelines next fall, coaching just a few miles from where he grew up, it’s going to be pandemonium. 

Maybe he gets a couple players. Maybe he wins a few games. It’s unlikely Vick will ever say this publicly, but the next move from there is obvious. 

Will it happen? Will Vick get that fairytale return in a year or two to rescue his alma mater from its long-running misery? 

That’s largely up to him. If he is good at the job, that is going to happen. If you’re Brent Pry — the guy who has the Virginia Tech job, in case you forgot — you’re on notice. The countdown to your assumed successor has begun. 

Kirk Cousins signed with the Atlanta Falcons during the 2024 NFL offseason in the hopes of turning the team into a legitimate contender. Just 14 games into his Falcons career, Cousins is heading to the bench.

The Falcons announced that they would start rookie Michael Penix Jr. over Cousins in the team’s Week 16 matchup against the New York Giants. The lefthanded Penix was selected with the eighth overall pick in the 2024 NFL draft and will become the fifth of the class’ six first-round quarterbacks to make a start during his rookie season.

Cousins’ benching comes amid a rough five-week stretch for the Falcons. Atlanta snapped a four-game losing streak in its 15-9 win over the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 15, but the team nearly blew a 12-point lead in the fourth quarter to its former starting quarterback, Desmond Ridder.

Cousins completed 11-of-17 passes for 112 yards, a touchdown and an interception in the contest. Raheem Morris and the Falcons coaching staff seemed reluctant to let Cousins throw throughout the contest, instead leaning on Bijan Robinson and Tyler Allgeier to carry the ball a combined 34 times.

The writing appears to be on the wall for Cousins’ Falcons career given that erosion of trust and Penix’s status as a high-end draft pick. Both parties could seek a change of scenery during the 2025 NFL offseason and it shouldn’t be too difficult for Atlanta to part with Cousins’ contract if it so desires.

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Here’s what to know about Cousins’ contract in Atlanta and future with the team.

Kirk Cousins contract details

Cousins signed a four-year contract with the Falcons during the 2024 NFL offseason after spending six seasons with the Minnesota Vikings. His deal with Atlanta was the largest given to a member of the 2024 free-agent class and ranks 12th in the NFL in average annual value (AAV) among quarterbacks.

Below are the details of Cousins’ contract, per Spotrac.com:

Term: 4 years
Total value: $180 million
Average annual value (AAV): $45 million
Guaranteed money: $100 million

The Falcons guaranteed $90 million of Cousins’ salary at signing and have already paid $62.5 million of that in the form of a $50 million signing bonus and his $12.5 million base salary for 2024.

Atlanta can move on from Cousins during the 2025 NFL offseason while absorbing a dead-cap hit – a term given to salary cap space taken up by a player no longer with a team – of $65 million. This stems from remaining $37.5 million of his signing bonus, which was prorated over four years, and the $27.5 million base salary he is owed for the 2025 NFL season, which the team has already guaranteed.

Cousins will also be guaranteed a $10 million roster bonus for 2026 if he’s on the roster past the fifth day of the NFL’s 2025 league year, which will begin after free agency in March. That represents a deadline of sort by which the Falcons must move on from Cousins to avoid owing him extra money.

Cousins’ $65 million dead cap would be the third-largest in NFL history behind only the $85 million the Denver Broncos took on in releasing Russell Wilson and the $69.3 million the Giants accrued for 2024 and 2025 by releasing Daniel Jones earlier this season. While that may not seem palatable, the Falcons having a cost-controlled young quarterback in Penix may soften the blow of doing that.

That said, the Falcons can lower their dead-cap hit to $37.5 million if they are able to trade Cousins. That may be their best path toward parting with the 36-year-old quarterback.

Can the Falcons trade Kirk Cousins?

Cousins’ recent performance has left a lot to be desired, but his contract looks like a moveable asset.

Any suitor wishing to take on Cousins’ current contract would only owe him a guaranteed $37.5 million over the rest of his contract. That would stem from his fully guaranteed $27.5 million salary for the 2025 NFL season and his $10 million roster bonus for 2026.

Such a financial commitment is more than reasonable by today’s quarterback standards. And if either Cousins or the team acquiring him were unhappy with the remainder of the deal, they could work out an extension that lowers Cousins’ present-day cap hit, which would benefit the team acquiring him, while adding more guarantees to the future deal, which would benefit Cousins.

The only way the Falcons might fail to trade Cousins is if the rest of the NFL’s teams believe his downturn is permanent. But given the dearth of talent at the quarterback position in general, it stands to reason that at least one team would be interested in trying to rebuild Cousins into a quality starter.

Kirk Cousins contract history

Cousins has played for three teams during his NFL career – Washington, Minnesota and Atlanta – and has signed several lucrative deals with each club. Below is a run-down of each deal that he has signed, dating back to his rookie contract in 2012.

2012: Cousins signs four-year, $2.57 million rookie contract with Washington
2016: Cousins signs one-year, $19.953 million franchise tag with Washington
2017: Cousins signs one-year, $23.9 million franchise tag with Washington
2018: Cousins signs three-year, $84 million contract with Minnesota
2020: Cousins signs two-year, $66 million extension with Minnesota
2022: Cousins signs one-year, $35 million extension with Minnesota
2024: Cousins signs four-year, $180 million contract with Atlanta