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FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — Atlanta Falcons running back Bijan Robinson has a tight relationship with another superstar player who also wears No. 7: Brazilian national team and Real Madrid star Vinícius Júnior.

Robinson discussed his friendship with Vinícius, also known as Vini Jr., on Wednesday during the final day of Falcons minicamp. World Cup games are being played in Atlanta at Atlanta Stadium — also known as Mercedes-Benz Stadium — the Falcons’ home field, and the Falcons will play this coming season at the Bernabéu, home of Real Madrid.

Robinson is an avid soccer fan. He said he and Vini Jr. have the same jeweler and met three years ago. When Brazil played a friendly at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in 2024, Robinson said they met up after the game and the two really hit it off.

“From there, we’ve been the closest,” Robinson said.

Robinson said Vini Jr. watches all of the Falcons’ games and the two text regularly.

“Last year, he was just like sending me the highlights of the game and stuff like that,” Robinson said. “So, it’s cool to hang out with him, talk to him. He’s such a great dude. He’s a really, really good person. And I know what he does on the field and what I do on the field, [there are] a lot of similarities. So, we’re both fans of each other. So, it’s been a great relationship, man. And I’m excited to see what he can do with [the] World Cup.”

Robinson said Vini Jr. is a big jokester and loves to have fun.

“I smile a lot, he smiles a lot. But we just talk about everything, like random stuff, just what’s in the moment, what’s in the time, and then that’s about it,” Robinson said.

When asked who is faster, Robinson said he thought he might beat Vini Jr. in a 40-yard dash. But if the race is the length of a field, “he might have me on that.”

But Robinson said he doesn’t think Brazil will win the World Cup. Though he has hope for the U.S. national team, the NFL’s 2025 leader in scrimmage yards said believed France would take home the crown.

Soccer has become a recent interest for Robinson. But he is awestruck when he travels and witnesses just how big the sport is just about everywhere.

“The sport of soccer is so worldwide,” Robinson said. “Everybody watches around the whole world.”

Baker Mayfield isn’t the only Buccaneer searching for a new deal.

Vita Vea has been sitting out of practices, including mandatory minicamp. The defensive tackle’s lack of participation is contract-related, NFL Network Insider Mike Garafolo reported Tuesday, per sources informed of the situation.

The 31-year-old Vea is entering the final year of his four-year, $71 million extension signed early in 2022. He’s set to make $17 million in base salary with zero guaranteed money. Vea’s $17.75 million per-year average ranks 19th among interior defenders. Nine of those players are earning $24-plus million per season, topped by Chris Jones at $31.75 million.

Coach Todd Bowles brushed aside a question about Vea on Tuesday, noting that the veteran was healthy, but mentioned nothing of a contract dispute.

“We don’t need to see him right now,” Bowles said, via Joe Bucs Fan.

A two-time Pro Bowler, Vea manhandles offensive linemen in the middle of the Bucs’ defense. He’s a one-man run-game destroyer and can still generate penetration, earning 35 career sacks. Sans the big man, the Tampa defense would be in a sore spot.

It remains to be seen whether the Bucs have an appetite for an extension for the veteran nose tackle, or how long such a deal might be. A short-term extension that leapfrogs Vea up nearer the top of his position but doesn’t break the bank long-term could make sense for both sides.

If a deal doesn’t get done by training camp in late July, the question is whether Vea will conduct a hold-in that is a bit louder.

Tennessee Titans coach Robert Saleh brushed aside questions about Cam Ward’s accuracy issues during offseason workouts.

“Every quarterback is going to miss a couple here and there,” Saleh said Tuesday, via ESPN’s Turron Davenport. “I would say Brock Purdy’s one of the most accurate quarterbacks in all of football, and he would miss a lot of throws, and that’s OK. These guys are all working on a few things here and there.”

Ward has reportedly struggled with accuracy during OTAs over the past few weeks.

Saleh is right to dismiss concerns at this stage. Offseason workouts are a time to test boundaries and, particularly when learning a new offense, work out the kinks. Perfection isn’t the goal. Development is. With development comes some ugliness at times.

Having written that, it is notable in so much as Ward entered the offseason needing to improve his accuracy consistency. During his rookie campaign, Ward’s play would ebb and flow. Finding more consistency on a down-to-down basis will bring the QB to a new level. It’s something he’ll continue to work on as we get ready for training camp in late July. Davenport noted that Ward had a much better start to mandatory minicamp on Tuesday than at previous OTAs.

In addition to learning Brian Daboll’s scheme and experimenting with it during offseason workouts, Ward is still building chemistry with new wideouts Carnell Tate and Wan’Dale Robinson.

“We’re making good progress,” Daboll said. “You have to make the mistakes, and you have to see it. We’re still learning. But I’m very pleased with where he’s at; he understands the offense well. I think his feet are really good. His eye discipline, his vision down the field. Cam can make all the throws.”

Come training camp and the preseason, we’ll see if that progress has been tangible. The Titans’ success in 2026 depends on it.

The Jets hope to follow in the Knicks’ footsteps.

The New York Knickerbockers brushed off 53 years of failure last week, earning their first NBA championship since 1973 with a five-game victory over the San Antonio Spurs. The Knicks’ run, and the city’s overwhelming response to it, has Gang Green dreaming of one day pulling off a similar journey.

“I think that’s a special thing, to see the energy and just how devoted the fans are to the team and the city,” quarterback Geno Smith said Tuesday. “It gives us a little bit of added motivation. We’re motivated already, but, man, just watching those guys win that championship, it has to do something for you as a competitor.”

Jets coach Aaron Glenn will use the Knicks, who came back time and time again in the NBA Finals, including a miraculous 29-point revival in Game 4, as an example of how his players can persevere in tough times.

“You’ve probably heard me say this before, but, man, competitive stamina — that’s something that those men showed throughout that whole series and that’s a real thing,” Glenn said. “It’s something that we’re working on, and the way you do that is, me as a coach, I have to make sure I create that in practice. It’s hard to do that in OTAs because the physical part of it, but once we come to training camp, you can bet your ass that we’re going to work on competitive stamina, because those Knicks, those guys showed it.”

Running back Breece Hall was at the title-clinching game Saturday night in San Antonio, taking in the scene in a suite with New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart. Hall said he’s friends with two Knicks players, Mikal Bridges and Tyler Kolek.

“I went to eat wings with Tyler the other day in the city — we were watching UFC fights — and I congratulated him and I’m like, ‘I can’t wait to have that feeling,’” Hall said. “So there’s definitely positive jealousy because I want my team to be able to do that as well.”

Expected by most to continue their perpetual rebuild, which last saw the Jets make the playoffs in 2010, New York may not return to glory in 2026, but Gang Green can dream of one day hoisting their own championship trophy. The Jets have gone 57 years since their last NFL title in Super Bowl III.

The Cincinnati Bengals are all-in on returning to the Super Bowl.

The offseason upgrades, including trading the No. 10 overall pick for veteran Dexter Lawrence, have Cincy primed to make a run after missing the playoffs the past three seasons. Now the pressure is on to live up to the expectations.

Quarterback Joe Burrow likened it to the pressure he felt in college before leading a 15-0 LSU team to the championship.

“I think that’s great. Put pressure on guys. I love it,” he said Wednesday as Cincy’s mandatory minicamp wrapped up. “I thrive in it. We’ll find out who else does. I know that we have the kind of people that want to be in that spot. I want everybody talking about the Bengals. I want everybody talking about what I’m saying in my press conferences.

“You go back and watch what I’ve said before. 2019 season at LSU, I feel very similarly about this team. I’m so excited to get started and get moving. I wish we would ramp this right into training camp, so we can continue to improve because I feel like there’s so much greatness that we’re gonna be able to achieve this year.”

Burrow noted that the Bengals “filled just about every hole that we’ve had” entering the offseason. Cincy made significant upgrades to a struggling defense, an area Burrow noted after the 2025 season needed to improve. In addition to Lawrence, they added Boye Mafe, Jonathan Allen, Bryan Cook and rookie Cashius Howell.

“This is a lot of urgency, a lot of urgency this year, certainly,” the Bengals QB said. “We have everything we need. We’re deep at just about every single position on the team. We’ve talked in the locker room this year about in years past, you wonder who’s going to make the team, and it was top-heavy, and you wonder about the bottom guys. This year, it’s guys that were once that top level, they’re on the team for sure now, [but] there’s a lot of competition at those spots on the 53, 54, 55, at the end of that list. This is the first year that that is really the case in my opinion. It’s an exciting place to be when you have too many good players.”

The Bengals are a trendy offseason squad to go far in the AFC — assuming Burrow can stay healthy. The star QB doesn’t shy away from the expectations.

“We’re going in expecting to win every game that we step foot on the field,” he said. “Obviously, you want to win a Super Bowl, and that’s certainly the plan, but you’ve got to take it one day at a time, one week at a time. I’m excited for the journey.”

Los Angeles Chargers running back Omarion Hampton is heading into Year 2 bolstered by some Hall of Fame praise.

At his Wednesday news conference during the team’s mandatory minicamp, Hampton said that his new offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel told him he reminds him of Terrell Davis, per Bolt Beat’s Alex Insdorf.

Davis had a short but spectacular peak for the Denver Broncos before eventually receiving his gold jacket in 2017. A 1995 sixth-round pick, Davis ran for 6,413 yards and 56 touchdowns during his first four seasons, a stretch that concluded with a 2,000-yard rushing campaign. He made three Pro Bowls and three All-Pro teams and won two Offensive Player of the Year awards and two Super Bowls during that span.

Hampton, who said he’s “watched some of the highlights,” obviously has a long way to go to close the achievement gap following an injury-plagued rookie season, but McDaniel recognizes the talent.

The No. 22 overall pick from the 2025 draft was just coming into his own last year, fresh off a 165-yard, one-touchdown performance, when he fractured his ankle in Week 5. He returned in Week 14 and went on to finish the year with 545 rushing yards, 192 receiving yards and five scores in nine games.

McDaniel, a player’s coach never shy to heap praise on his offensive weapons, now has the task of helping elevate Hampton’s play closer to such a lofty comparison.

Along with McDaniel being in his corner, Hampton has a multitude of things going his way ahead of his second season. For one, he’s the unquestioned RB1. The Chargers signed Keaton Mitchell this offseason, but Hampton doesn’t need to carve out a role as he did last year when L.A. rostered veteran Najee Harris. Los Angeles should also have a much-improved offensive line, with bookends Rashawn Slater and Joe Alt both returning from injury and free-agent addition Tyler Biadasz now manning the center position.

Most importantly will be the introduction of McDaniel’s offense. Though shorter than the 6-foot-0, 220-pound Hampton (and the 5-11, 206-pound Davis), De’Von Achane, a blur who weighs in at 5-9, 191 pounds, showed how fortuitous McDaniel’s scheme can be for ball-carriers.

Running lanes were open and the passing game was consistently channeled through running backs, allowing Achane to rack up 1,838 total yards and 12 touchdowns on 305 touches (238 carries, 67 catches) last season.

Hampton acknowledged his excitement to take his turn playing in the system.

“I like it a lot,” he said of McDaniel’s scheme. “Really all the running backs like it a lot. Getting in the groove of it, just figuring it out, figuring out the details of it, it’s gonna be super good for us.”

He certainly won’t be throwing up the Mile High Salute, a celebration that Davis made his own when he was with L.A.’s AFC West-rival Broncos, but perhaps Hampton will be able to put together a highlight reel reminiscent of the Hall of Fame runner in 2026.

New York Giants running back Cam Skattebo already declared he’ll be ready to go Week 1 following last year’s season-ending ankle injury.

Now, he’s made it clear he’ll be the same old Skattebo when he retakes the field.

“It ain’t gonna change who I am,” he said Wednesday on The Insiders when asked if he would alter his running style at all. “I had an injury, you know, it is what it is. I’ve still got plenty of football left, plenty of life left, I’m not going to let this little ankle thing bother me. I’m going to get back [to] running people over like you see on the videos. It’s going to be normal Cam Skattebo from here on out.”

Skattebo took the NFL world by storm as a fourth-round rookie in 2025, gaining fans in droves thanks to his violent, bowling-ball approach to the running back position. He amassed 617 total yards and seven scores during a season cut short by a dislocated ankle in Week 8.

He’s since worked his way back. During New York’s mandatory minicamp last week, Skattebo partook in some 11-on-11 drills in limited fashion. The week before that, he performed a backflip during Brian Burns’ celebrity softball game, which he noted on Wednesday was actually the first one he’s done following his injury.

His impromptu flip at home plate already hinted Skattebo has no plans to change his rambunctious style, but his confirmation adds yet another layer of excitement for Big Blue’s upcoming first season under head coach John Harbaugh.

Given Harbaugh’s long-established reliance on a strong run game, Skattebo should feature prominently in New York’s quest for a quick rebuild, likely leading an RB room that also includes Tyrone Tracy Jr. and Devin Singletary.

Though Skattebo is still ramping up toward full participation, everything in the interim has gone swimmingly so far, hopefully leaving less than three months to go until he’s back doling out damage from the backfield.

“Coach Harbaugh and [offensive coordinator Matt] Nagy, I’ve felt nothing but support and love from them,” Skattebo said. “They’re always on me about getting back, and they’re starting to see where I’m at in my process and they’re starting to trust it. They’ve been really good to me. I trust both of those two, as [well] as everybody else on the staff.

“It’s been nothing but joy and happiness for me, just starting to fall back in love with the game after an injury for sure.”

New York Knicks owner James Dolan said Wednesday that he will not go into the punitive second apron to keep his team together for the 2026-27 season, even after it won its first NBA title in 53 years.

“We cannot go into the second apron,” Dolan said on WFAN radio in New York.

If any team surpasses that threshold, it is limited in what it can do in free agency and other roster-building mechanisms. Only the Cleveland Cavaliers exceeded the threshold this past season.

According to ESPN’s Bobby Marks, the Knicks are projected to be $13 million below the second apron this summer. Rotation players Mitchell Robinson and Landry Shamet are free agents. Jose Alvarado could be, too; he has until Monday to opt in to a $4.5 million player option for next season.

That could pose a problem as the Knicks were just $200,000 under the second apron this past season.

New York’s starting five is under contract for next season, and should the team want to, there’s no rule restricting it from re-signing its own players.

The Knicks and All-Star center Karl-Anthony Towns couldn’t come to terms on a contract extension before the start of the 2025-26 season, and they can go back to the negotiating table this summer. Towns helped key the Knicks’ record 13-game playoff winning streak.

During the interview on WFAN, Dolan was asked if he wanted to bring back the entire team, which would be one of the favorites to get back to the Finals if intact.

“I don’t know if we’ll be able to.

“We’re willing to stretch, but there’s certain things in the NBA that you’d have to be suicidal to do. One of them is the second apron,” he told the WFAN.

Only Cleveland, the Boston Celtics, Phoenix Suns and Minnesota Timberwolves have gone into the second apron since its inception in the latest collective bargaining agreement in 2023. If the Knicks were to follow suit, they wouldn’t be allowed to send cash in a trade, use the $6.1 million tax midlevel exception on a free agent, aggregate salaries in a trade or use more than 100% of the traded player exception.

A team also can’t trade its first-round pick seven years out if it finishes a season over the second apron. That same first also could be moved back to the end of the first round if a team finishes over the threshold in three out of four seasons.

Dolan said he’ll put the personnel decisions in the hands of Knicks president Leon Rose.

“I’ll write as big of a check as possible, but I can’t write a check into the second apron,” Dolan told the WFAN.

The victory parade for the NBA champion New York Knicks in Manhattan on Thursday will be safeguarded by 10,000 members of the NYPD, the largest number of police officers ever assigned to a planned event, the department said Wednesday.

The security follows the ebullient but sometimes chaotic street celebrations and incidents of violence during the Knicks’ run to the NBA championship over the San Antonio Spurs.

The contingent will include heavy weapons teams, explosive detection K9s, transportation, transit, highway, aviation, drones and more, according to police.

The parade will kick off at 10 a.m. near Bowling Green, a park in New York’s Financial District, and the route will continue north along Broadway until it reaches City Hall, where Mayor Zohran Mamdani will present the Knicks keys to the city. This route is known as the “Canyon of Heroes” for its history as the setting of ticker-tape parades.

“From a playoff run that left New Yorkers breathless to a tip-in that will be talked about for decades, the Knicks have earned a hero’s welcome,” Mamdani said in a news release Tuesday. “We have dreamed of this moment for generations. This Thursday, our city will rise to the occasion.”

Knicks legends Walt “Clyde” Frazier — a member of the two 1970s champion teams — and Patrick Ewing are expected to be in the parade, a source told The Associated Press. Mike Breen, the Knicks’ play-by-play announcer on MSG Network, was set to emcee the City Hall ceremony, the source said.

Alicia Keys, the singer who joined with Jay-Z on the 2009 hit “Empire State of Mind,” has been tapped to perform.

“How could I not?” Keys said Wednesday in a social media post that featured her chatting with Knicks forward OG Anunoby.

Some 650 sanitation workers have been assigned to clean up what could be tens of thousands of pounds of debris, if recent history is any guide.

In the hours after the Knicks won Saturday, 63 people were arrested and at least 10 members of the NYPD were injured amid victory celebrations in the city, according to police.

Thursday’s ticker-tape parade for the new NBA champions will be a first. When the team won the title before, in 1970 and 1973, it wasn’t honored with New York’s signature procession.

LOS ANGELES — A banged-up Shohei Ohtani has allowed multiple earned runs in back-to-back starts on the mound for the first time this season.

Pitching with residual soreness in his left knee and a blister on his right middle finger that got bloodied later in the game, Ohtani gave up more than one run in an inning for the second time in a week after opening with four scoreless innings Wednesday against Tampa Bay.

His knee caused him to miss a game in Chicago last week, and his four-start winning streak on the mound was snapped with a no-decision at Pittsburgh.

“Just part of the game,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “There’s not a lot of situations where you feel 100%, so I just took it as that. It’s big that we were able to win a game like this.”

Ohtani (7-2) gave up four runs and five hits in the fifth on 26 pitches. But he responded with a 1-2-3 sixth to complete his time on the mound and wound up with the win when the Dodgers rallied for a 5-4 victory to finish their second-ever sweep of the Rays.

“It’s just really that inning, that fifth inning, that I wasn’t really too pleased,” he said, “but aside from that the stuff was good and I felt pretty good overall.”

Ohtani has allowed eight runs (seven earned) in his past two starts after yielding just seven runs (five earned) in his first 10 outings. His ERA rose to 1.47, still second best in the majors among pitchers with at least 50 innings.

“Obviously, we expect close to perfection out of Sho every time he goes out there,” Dodgers catcher Dalton Rushing said. “So does he. But there’s no reason to worry at all.”

Ohtani was not in the starting batting lineup, but he hit for DH Miguel Rojas in the sixth after the Dodgers regained the lead on a two-run homer by Freddie Freeman that saved Ohtani from potentially taking a loss.

He grounded out on one pitch, and the Dodgers lost the DH for the rest of the game.

“I talked to [Ohtani], and he said he felt really comfortable about taking the at-bat,” manager Dave Roberts said. “If we were ahead, would I have fired that bullet? Probably less likely, but again, there isn’t much cost if he feels like he can take the at-bat, whether you’re up one or down one, or whatever.”

Offensively, Ohtani came in with five homers in his past nine games and was hitting .367 during that span.