The Carolina Panthers are signing former Atlanta Falcons tight end Feleipe Franks, according to a report from NFL insider Jordan Schultz. Franks, 28, signed with the Falcons as an undrafted free agent in 2021 and spent his first two seasons in Atlanta.
Despite playing quarterback in college, Franks switched to the tight end position under former Falcons head coach Arthur Smith. In 2024, Franks signed with the Panthers and appeared in 16 games. He returned to Atlanta last season and was active for all 17 games, primarily contributing on special teams.
Over four NFL seasons, Franks has recorded one catch for 12 yards, and 10 career rushing yards on six attempts. Atlanta did not re-sign Franks after the 2025 season. Instead, the team franchise-tagged Kyle Pitts and signed former Falcons tight end Austin Hooper in free agency.
The Falcons also completed a trade on Friday afternoon, swapping fourth- and sixth-round picks with the Philadelphia Eagles in exchange for safety Sydney Brown.
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA – AUGUST 16: A detail view of a New England Patriots helmet during the third quarter of the NFL Preseason 2025 game against the Minnesota Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium on August 16, 2025 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Coming off a Super Bowl berth, the New England Patriots have a clear plan in mind for the 2026 offseason: it’s about remodeling, not rebuilding, as head coach Mike Vrabel said after the season.
The NFL Draft naturally is a major part of this process. Until the event in late April, the Patriots — led by Vrabel and EVP of player personnel Eliot Wolf — will be conducting interviews, working out prospects, inviting them for a finite number of pre-draft visits, and in general try to get as complete a picture as possible. It remains to be seen what this process eventually leads to, but there will be plenty of news to report.
In order to find out who the Patriots have already spoken to or worked out thus far, please make sure to bookmark this regularly-updated pre-draft tracker. We will have all contact listed to the best of our knowledge.
(Note: Please scroll down for a meeting-by-meeting breakdown)
Quarterback
Haynes King (Georgia Tech): Pro Day
Running back
Kejon Owens (Florida International): Senior Bowl
Adam Randall (Clemson): 30 visit
Jordon Vaughn (Abilene Christian): College Gridiron Showcase
Michael Lunz II (South Carolina State): HBCU Legacy Bowl
Akheem Mesidor (Miami): Combine
T.J. Parker (Clemson): Senior Bowl
R. Mason Thomas (Oklahoma): 30 visit
Zion Young (Missouri): Combine
Linebacker
Shad Banks Jr. (UTSA): Hula Bowl
Khalil Jacobs (Missouri): Pro Day + Virtual meeting
Javin Wright (Nebraska): American Bowl
Cornerback
Caleb Anderson (Michigan): College Gridiron Showcase
Rashad Battle (Pittsburgh): American Bowl
Elijah Culp (James Madison): American Bowl
Michael Dansby (Arizona): American Bowl
Andre Fuller (Toledo): East-West Shrine Bowl
Al’Zillion Hamilton (Fresno State): American Bowl
Jaden Rios (Texas State): Hula Bowl
Avery Smith (Toledo): Combine
Safety
Dathan Hickey (Youngstown State): College Gridiron Showcase
Cam Smith (Marshall): Hula Bowl
Gavin Gibson (North Carolina): Hula Bowl
Kamari Ramsey (USC): Combine
Robert Spears-Jennings (Oklahoma): Pro Day
Jalen Stroman (Notre Dame): Senior Bowl
Emmanuel McNeil-Warren (Toledo): 30 visit
Zakee Wheatley (Penn State): 30 visit
Specialists
Garrison Grimes (LS | BYU): East-West Shrine Bowl
Laith Merjan (K | Kansas): Hula Bowl
Whereas the list above gives an overview over the prospects the Patriots have been in contact with before the draft, the following overview is a breakdown by meeting opportunity plus the source of each report.
Kevin Willard is famously combative in the media. Last year, when he was head coach at Maryland leading the famed ‘Crab Five’ to the Sweet 16, Willard was obstinate to the press on a daily basis when asked about the rumors connecting him to the Villanova job. Willard would leave for ‘Nova days after Maryland’s season ended, and he got back to the NCAA tournament this season in his first season on his new job. Unfortunately, Willard’s debut March run with the Wildcats might be remembered more for an off-the-cuff comment he made during a season-ending loss than anything he did on the court.
No. 9 seed Utah State beat No. 8 seed Villanova, 86-76, on Friday afternoon. As the game was slipping away from the Wildcats, Willard used an interview with CBS to say he was going to “fire his staff” for “giving up eight points” on baseline out of bounds plays. The video went viral after Villanova’s loss. Watch Willard’s comments here:
“I’m gonna fire my staff. Yeah, I am … The only thing I’m gonna do is fire them and get a new staff.”
— CBS Sports College Basketball 🏀 (@CBSSportsCBB) March 20, 2026
After the loss, Willard again said he was going to fire his staff, but this time he was clearly doing it in jest. Willard said he was joking during the in-game interview, and didn’t care about any online criticism.
Call me a killjoy, but I just don’t think that joke is funny. During a moment of strife, Willard’s defense mechanism was some dry humor about blaming his staff, but not taking any responsibility for loss himself. A good head coach should credit his players and staff in public when things are going well, and take the blame when things are falling apart. Even if we take Willard at his word that it was all a joke, it’s still not that cool and pretty distasteful.
My advice to Kevin Willard is tell a funnier joke next time. Or, you know, just win the game.
What’s actually funny is that Willard’s staff is probably safer now after his bad joke. It will be a horrible look for Willard if he actually replaces staff members this offseason after joking about it during the elimination game.
Making the tournament is nothing to scoff at, so in that sense Willard’s first year at Villanova was a success. Hey, the Jay Wright era had a few early exits too before the program broke through with two national championships. Hopefully Willard learns some lessons on and off the court this season, or at least some better jokes.
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. (AP) — Ohio State scored four goals in the final 10 minutes of the first period, and the No. 1 overall seed Buckeyes beat fifth-seeded Northeastern 5-0 on Friday in the first of two semifinals Friday night at Pegula Ice Arena.
Ohio State (36-4-0), which set the program’s single-season wins record with 36, advanced to its fifth straight national title game to improve to 14-4 in the NCAA Tournament and 7-4 in the Frozen Four.
Northeastern (29-9-1) was making its fourth Frozen Four appearance in program history and first since 2023 when Ohio State defeated the Huskies 3-0. The Huskies dropped to 5-7-0 in the NCAA Tournament.
Five different players scored for the Buckeyes and 10 players recorded a point.
Joy Dunne, a Patty Kazmaier top-10 finalist, scored on a rebound 10 minutes into the game for her 27th goal of the season. Then Kaia Malachino and Sanni Vanhanen scored a minute apart for a 3-0 lead.
Emma Peschel beat the first-period buzzer with a slap shot to make it 4-0 and Sara Swiderski sent a shot from the blue line that deflected into the goal in the third.
Hailey MacLeod recorded her fifth shutout this season with 15 saves — five coming in the first 10 minutes. She ended a breakaway chance five minutes in and finished the frame with eight saves.
Northeastern goaltender Lisa Jönsson made 37 saves.
Up next
The Buckeyes will face the winner of the second semifinal between No. 2 Wisconsin and No. 3 Penn State.
NORTH PORT, FL – MARCH 13: Austin Riley #27 of the Atlanta Braves reacts after getting a base hit during the spring training game between the New York Yankees and the Atlanta Braves on March 13, 2026 at CoolToday Park in North Port, FL. (Photo by Jeff Robinson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Atlanta’s bats continued to make some noise here in the Grapefruit League as the Braves slugged their way to yet another win during spring training action.
It took a while for the bats to get going but once they did, a couple of the Braves regular made their presence felt in a loud manner. Jorge Mateo did deliver an RBI single in the second inning but the fifth inning was when things got pretty loud. With a runner on first and one out, Matt Olson appeared to have gotten all of a changeup from Pirates pitcher Nick Dombkowski. Olson crushed it with an EV of 109-mph with a 27 degree launch angle but it only ended up landing at the fence (386 feet away from home plate, to be exact) for an RBI double. Drake Baldwin scored a run on the play as the Braves went ahead in the contest.
Austin Riley came up to the plate right afterwards and he proceeded to earn bragging rights in the dugout by hitting a pitch from Dombkowski over the fence for a two-run dinger. Now granted, Riley’s batted ball was “softer” at 102-mph and shorter at 368 feet but the idea is to hit the ball over the fence and that’s what Riley did for the fourth time this spring. That gave the Braves a three-run inning as the middle of the lineup continued to look solid with the regular season looming.
While this was going on, José Suarez ended up throwing 75 pitches across 5.1 innings. He did a very solid job of keeping the Pirates lineup quiet in this one and it wasn’t like the Pirates sent a lineup full of organizational depth to North Port, either. Suarez finished with just one run allowed on two hits, two walks and six strikeouts as well. Suarez’s strikeout victims included Marcell Ozuna (twice), Oneil Cruz and Mississippi State baseball legend Jake Mangum, so it wasn’t like the strikeouts were coming against lesser competition, either. This certainly helped Suarez’s case for leaving North Port and heading to Cobb County instead of Gwinnett County.
Joel Payamps entered the game in the sixth inning in relief for Suarez and he ended up going 1.2 innings while striking out a pair of batters as well. That set the stage for Raisel Iglesias to enter the game in the eighth inning and he tossed his third scoreless inning in five spring training appearances so far. While Iglesias did give up a hit, he did strike out two batters along the way so as long as he’s doing that once the season is underway then people around here will be pretty happy about that. Robert Suarez ended up closing out the game with a scoreless inning and two strikeouts of his own, so it was nice to see the set-up man and closer both clicking in this one as well.
Going back to the regulars at the plate, Drake Baldwin and Dominic Smith each picked up hits in this one. 2026 World Baseball Classic champion Ronald Acuña Jr. was greeted with a very nice ovation upon his return to Braves camp and while he didn’t get a hit, he did make his presence felt by reaching base twice via walks. Meanwhile, Cal Conley hit a double, stole third base and scored on an RBI single, so that’s pretty encouraging. Luis Guanipa drove in Kevin Kilpatrick Jr. with an RBI single of his own and Jorge Mateo’s aforementioned RBI single was his only knock of the day.
If you’re the type who’s encouraged by spring training results then you have to be pleased to see the Braves currently at the top of the Grapefruit League standings. While nobody’s ever hung a banner for winning the Grapefruit League pennant, it’s still nice to see the Braves continuing to click out there as they get ready for the games that will actually begin to count by this time next Friday. Are y’all excited yet?
NEW YORK — Baseball is changing at a dizzying speed in 2026 with the arrival of robot umpires, the return home of the Tampa Bay Rays and an alphabet soup of networks televising games in perhaps the last season before a labor shutdown.
Much has transpired in the 4 1/2 months since the Los Angeles Dodgers rallied in World Series Game 7 to beat Toronto in 11 innings and become the first repeat champion since the 1998-2000 New York Yankees.
There was the usual free agent musical chairs that saw Kyle Tucker wind up with the Dodgers, Bo Bichette with the New York Mets, Alex Bregman with the Chicago Cubs and Pete Alonso with the Baltimore Orioles.
Venezuela became a first-time champion of a World Baseball Classic with record attendance and television viewers.
But looming above the usual excitement for opening day on Wednesday is the possibility of no games in a year.
Tony Clark was forced to resign as players’ association head and replaced by Bruce Meyer as talk intensified about a possible management salary cap proposal the players’ association vows to fight. Major League Baseball is likely to lock out players on Dec. 2, leaving 2027 in limbo.
Cy Young Award winners Paul Skenes and Tarik Skubal are on the eight-man executive subcommittee that directs collective bargaining.
“We need people that are invested and kind of have status among players and within the game to go into the negotiations and be comfortable going toe to toe with the owners,” Skenes said. “It’s not something that I sought out. Some guys nominated me for the position and that’s not something you say no to.”
Send in the robots
Following testing that started in the minor leagues in 2019, MLB decided last September to use the Automated Ball-Strike System in the regular season.
While human umps call every pitch, each team has the ability to challenge two calls per game, retaining the challenge if successful, and have the possibility of at least one more in each extra inning.
“You want get the egregiously wrong calls fixed and you want make sure you get it right in a big spot,” three-time Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander said.
ABS won’t be used for a two-game series between Arizona and San Diego in Mexico City on April 25-26, for the Philadelphia-Minnesota game at the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa, on Aug. 13 or the Atlanta-Milwaukee matchup in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, on Aug. 23.
Finding where a game is televised is more complicated than ever.
Regular-season national broadcasts are split among Fox/FS1, TBS, ESPN, NBC/Peacock, AppleTV and Netflix. NBC’s networks take over the Wild Card Series from ABC/ESPN.
In addition, MLB will produce and distribute the local telecasts of 14 teams following the financial problems of Main Street Sports Group, which operates the regional FanDuel Sports Network stations.
When the New York Yankees play the MLB season opener at the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday, the game will be exclusively on Netflix.
Dodgers go for three-peat
After becoming the first team to win consecutive championships since the 1998-2000 Yankees, the Dodgers try to become just the fifth group to win three in a row, joining those Yankees, five by the 1949-53 Yankees, four by the 1936-39 Yankees and three by the 1972-74 Oakland Athletics.
“When you’re a Dodger, people want to take us down. They want to beat us,” manager Dave Roberts told players in his spring training speech. “It’s a Game 7. So I think that we’ve got to look ahead and say that this is going to be harder than it’s ever been and we got to work even harder. And so my ask as a team, as an organization is to push ourselves even more. We already got the talent. There isn’t any more talent in a major league clubhouse than in this room.”
Coming off his fourth unanimous MVP award, Shohei Ohtani is expected to be a two-way player over a full season. He returned to the mound last June 16 following his second major elbow surgery on Sept. 19, 2023.
Back at the Trop
Tampa Bay returns to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg after a season playing home games across the bay at Steinbrenner Field, the spring training home of the Yankees.
Damage to the Trop caused by Hurricane Milton in October 2024 has been repaired. The Rays were 41-40 at Steinbrenner last year, their lowest home winning percentage since 2016. They drew 786,750 for an average of 9,713, selling out 61 games.
“There is genuine, authentic excitement to get back to the Trop,” manager Kevin Cash said. “We’ve played well in the Trop. We’ve had a lot of success in the Trop. And I think we’re going back to something that’s probably going to be a little bit newer, a little better than maybe as we left it because they had to do so many repairs.”
Milestone watch
Four players could reach 400 career home runs this year.
Manny Machado starts the season at 369, followed by Freddie Freeman at 368, Aaron Judge at 367 and Bryce Harper at 363.
PHILADELPHIA, PA — If there is one thing about March Madness that is consistent on a yearly basis, it is the rallying love from men’s college basketball fans for the mid-major programs that are included in the 68-team field.
But it isn’t necessarily love from the high-level programs when it comes to non-conference scheduling. It’s something that fourth-year Miami (Ohio) head coach Travis Steele said needs to change from an analytical standpoint.
“A lot of it’s analytically driven. There needs to be adjustments made,” Steele said after Miami (Ohio) fell to 6-seed Tennessee on Friday at Xfinity Mobile Arena in the first round of the Midwest Region. “… I don’t know when’s the last time that they made an adjustment to it or if they have. But fans want to see those games. Our fans do. Their fans do. They want to see brands. It stinks.”
RedHawks senior guard Peter Suder agrees with his coach on why high-major programs won’t schedule mid-majors.
“I wouldn’t say they’re afraid. It’s a numbers thing, an analytical thing,” said Suder, who scored a team-high 27 points on Friday against the Volunteers. “We would like to play them. It’s a great opportunity for the mid-majors to go out there and prove they’re just as good. It’s more of an analytical thing.
Steele and Studer’s comments come less than 24 hours after High Point coach Flynn Clayman spoke on the matter after his team knocked off 5-seed Wisconsin in Portland on Thursday. Clayman’s emotion in his postgame interview came a few days after Miami (Ohio)’s metrics were once questioned ahead of Selection Sunday because the RedHawks did not have a single Quad 1 win until their First Four win over SMU.
“It looks pretty obvious to me that high-majors need to play mid-majors during the season,” Clayman said. “Because they said we ain’t played nobody? We played somebody now.”
The conversation of Miami (Ohio)’s resume and metrics started well before Selection Sunday for the RedHawks, who are now No. 91 on KenPom and No. 86 on Bart Torvik, two analytical websites, after Friday’s win. The RedHawks entered the day as a Quad 2 game for Tennessee, with their No. 64 ranking in the NCAA’s NET system.
“Most of the scheduling’s done on the phone, and it’s frustrating,” Steele said.
Steele said he knew back in June of last year that his team would be “in trouble” with its non-conference schedule.
“We didn’t finish our schedule until mid-October. We played two weeks later, which is ridiculous, especially in today’s college landscape,” Steele said. “It sounds crazy to me, but again, I get why they don’t want to play because you want to stay away from Quad 2 or Quad 3 games. It does nothing for you.
Forward Tyler Bilodeau was ruled out just before the Bruins’ first-round matchup against the No. 10 seed UCF Knights. He was listed as questionable on the NCAA injury report prior to East region contest on Saturday, March 20.
Bilodeau sprained his right knee during UCLA’s win over Michigan State in the Big Ten Tournament earlier this month.
Bilodeau absence is a blow to the No. 7 seed Bruins. The senior forward is UCLA’s leading scorer, averaging 17.6 points per game. He was selected third-team All-Big Ten this year.
Without Bilodeau, the Bruins will rely on guards Donovan Dent, Trent Perry, Skyy Clark and Eric Dailey Jr. to carry most of the scoring load. All four guards average more than 10 points per game this season.
Bilodeau, a 6-foot-9 senior, played his first two collegiate seasons at Oregon State before transferring to UCLA in 2024.
UCLA is hoping for a deeper run in this year’s NCAA Tournament. The Bruins won their first-round matchup last season against Utah State but were bounced out in the second round by Tennessee.
UCLA is 23-11 this season and finished sixth in the Big Ten.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Family matters at High Point, enough that coach Chelsea Banbury has no problem with assistant Katie Clayman missing the Panthers’ last practice before their NCAA Tournament opener.
It’s March Madness, and Clayman got to watch her husband win his tournament debut Thursday as the High Point men upset No. 5 seed Wisconsin in Portland, Oregon. Clayman spent Friday traveling back across the country to Nashville for the 15th-seeded Panthers’ first-round game Saturday night against No. 2 seed Vanderbilt.
“There’s not any direct flights …,” Banbury said. “I’ve been in touch with her. She’s watching film. I’ve given her a task of what I want to see when she gets here and what to have broken down by the time she is, and we can go around tomorrow and shoot around with the team.”
Of 136 teams, there are 30 schools with both their men’s and women’s teams in the two tournament fields. Flynn Clayman and his wife get to juggle not only coaching duties during March Madness while managing parenting duties for 19-month old son, Quinn.
The High Point women should be done with their opener Saturday night when the High Point men tip off against No. 4 seed Arkansas with a Sweet 16 berth in the West Region on the line.
Banbury said watching the 12th-seeded High Point men pull off the biggest win in program history in the West Region was unbelievable. She watched while packing with her son jumping on the couch and yelling.
“It was awesome,” Banbury said.
The High Point women should be done with their opener Saturday night when the High Point men tip off against No. 4 seed Arkansas with a Sweet 16 berth in the West Region on the line.
Then again, Banbury had her son with her Friday at practice. At High Point, families are around for support.
“She should be there supporting Flynn,” Banbury said. “This was his first NCAA Tournament as a head coach. I couldn’t imagine what she’d be going through if she missed it. It was incredible. She was 100% where she needed. She’ll be here with us and where she needs to be tomorrow.”
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Flau’jae Johnson scored 20 points, Mikaylah Williams had 18 points and 10 assists, and No. 2 seed LSU easily surpassed it’s nation-leading scoring average with a 116-58 victory over 15th seed Jacksonville on Friday night in the first round of March Madness.
LSU (28-5), entered the game averaging 94.5 points per game, scored 100 or more for the 15th time this season.
The Tigers also had a season-high 18 steals and finished with a 38-13 advantage in points off of turnovers.
Jada Richard scored 17 points and four steals, and ZaKiyah Johnson added 16 points for the Tigers, who had seven players score at least 10 points. MiLaysia Fulwiley scored 13 points.
Carmaya Bowman scored 14 points and Tatum Brown scored 10 for Jacksonville (24-9), the Atlantic Sun Conference tournament champions, who were making just their second NCAA Tournament appearance.
LSU began the game on a 14-0 run highlighted by Williams’ 3-point play on a fast-break layup as she was fouled and her 3-point shot.
Flau’jae Johnson’s fast-break basket and free throw made it 21-4 less than five minutes into the game.
Bella Hines’ transition 3 made it 27-7 just more than six minutes in and the quarter ended with the Tigers up 34-14.
Jacksonville was able to match LSU nearly basket for basket during much of the second quarter, but still couldn’t get within 20 points.
The Tigers then closed the period with six straight points, capped by ZaKiyah Johnson’s fast-break layup set up by Williams’ steal near mid court, and LSU led 64-36 at halftime.
During the third quarter, Flau’jae Johnson’s 3 ignited a 9-0 run highlighted by Williams’ behind-the-back pass to set up Jada Richard’s fast-break layup. That spurt made it 84-46, and it was 94-48 after Richard’s jumper as the period ended.
The only question after that was how close the Tigers might get to their season high of 126 point in a game at New Orleans in December.
Up next
LSU hosts a second-round game against the winner of Friday night’s matchup between No. 7 seed Texas Tech and 10th seed Villanova.
