With the NFL season just days away, teams are finalizing roster adjustments ahead of the regular kickoff.
This process includes settling quarterback battles. On Wednesday, the Las Vegas Raiders announced Kirk Cousins as their starter, edging out Fernando Menoza. Meanwhile, the Dallas Cowboys re‑added Joe Milton to their practice squad. Continuing the quarterback theme, Minnesota Vikings General Manager Nolan Teasley addressed J.J. McCarthy’s role with the club.
Despite injury concerns, the San Francisco 49ers got encouraging news on the recoveries of All‑Pro edge rusher Nick Bosa and tight end George Kittle, raising the possibility of Week 1 appearances.
Here is a roundup of the latest NFL developments from Wednesday.
Entering their first season under head coach Klint Kubiak, the Las Vegas Raiders had signaled all offseason that they wanted Kirk Cousins as their starting quarterback for the majority of the year. On Wednesday afternoon, Kubiak confirmed Cousins as the Week 1 starter, choosing him over the No. 1 overall pick, Fernando Mendoza.
Although Cousins has moved between several teams, his prior work with Kubiak in Minnesota likely influenced the coach’s confidence. Over more than a decade as a starter, Cousins has played for the Washington Commanders, Minnesota Vikings, and Atlanta Falcons.
Kubiak also outlined his development plan for Mendoza, who will begin the season as the backup quarterback.
“There’s always early work, late work, extra meetings, and plenty of field time between drills with Coach Sullivan and Coach Janocko,” Kubiak said. “Every player not starting the opener contributes to the look team, and we’re seeking every advantage to improve him and his teammates.”
Mendoza is the first No. 1 overall pick since Baker Mayfield in 2018 not to earn a Week 1 starting role. The Raiders will host the Miami Dolphins next Sunday afternoon.
On Wednesday, quarterback Joe Milton rejoined the Dallas Cowboys, signing to the practice squad after clearing waivers. His release earlier in the week opened a spot for running back Emari Demercado, confirming Sam Howell as Dak Prescott’s primary backup.
Head coach Brian Schottenheimer explained the quarterback decision on Wednesday, citing Howell’s performance in training camp and the preseason as the key factor.
“We evaluated the entire body of work,” Schottenheimer said. “We felt Sam had demonstrated slightly better execution of the offense in several areas.”
Milton served as Prescott’s backup in 2025 after arriving via a trade with the New England Patriots. Although he posted a productive preseason—378 yards, three touchdowns, and zero interceptions—Howell, who boasts 18 career regular‑season starts and signed a one‑year free‑agent deal with Dallas, ultimately secured the backup role.
On Wednesday, San Francisco 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa took part in a full practice for the first time since sustaining a right‑ACL tear in Week 3 of last season. He participated in individual drills and team sessions after overcoming a training‑camp bout of knee tendinitis.
Both Bosa and tight end George Kittle are aboard the team’s flight to Melbourne, Australia, for the September 10 season opener versus the Los Angeles Rams. Kittle, who is healing from a torn right Achilles suffered in January’s playoff victory, completed several productive practice sessions before departure.
“I’ve been working to get as strong and confident as possible so I can jump back into team activities today,” Bosa told reporters after Wednesday’s session. “You hope your body responds as you’ve prepared it, and today there were a couple of moments where it did.”
When asked whether he will suit up against the Rams in Australia, Bosa stopped short of confirming his availability, but he replied, “After today, yeah, that was pretty good.”
Besides Bosa and Kittle, the 49ers also saw wide receiver Mike Evans (adductor), fullback Kyle Juszczyk (finger), and cornerback Ephesians Prysock (shoulder) return to practice on Wednesday. Bosa said his recovery plan for the 16‑hour flight to Australia includes compression machines and ice, as the team readies for four practices there before kickoff.
Following weeks of speculation, the Minnesota Vikings are expected to retain third‑year quarterback J.J. McCarthy on the active roster.
On Wednesday afternoon, General Manager Nolan Teasley outlined the Vikings’ long‑term vision for McCarthy after he lost the starting role to Kyler Murray, offering only praise for the former first‑round selection.
“McCarthy’s role is to keep developing, improving, and supporting his teammates,” Teasley said. “He has done an excellent job of that since I arrived, and based on what I know from his early days with the club.”
When asked if he anticipates McCarthy staying on the roster this season, Teasley gave a clear answer while declining to detail depth‑chart specifics, leaving open whether McCarthy will backup or if that role might go to Carson Wentz.
“I do,” Teasley replied. “I won’t comment on depth right now, but I’m pleased he’s part of our current Vikings roster and excited about his future.”
The Vikings will host the Green Bay Packers next Sunday afternoon, with Murray slated to make his first start at U.S. Bank Stadium.
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![block at absolute beginning, then rewritten content. Must clean text: remove promotional lines, “SEE ALSO” links, footer junk. There’s no promotional lines or “SEE ALSO”. There’s a footer note about credit. Probably remove that. Also remove maybe any trailing tags? The provided HTML includes If you use any of the quotes … and an iframe. The instruction: “Clean the text content by removing promotional lines, “SEE ALSO” links, and footer junk.” The credit line might be considered footer junk, but it’s a note. It’s not a “SEE ALSO”. It’s a disclaimer. Probably remove it as footer junk. Also remove any unrelated promotional lines (none). So we keep main content: the headings, paragraphs, and the iframe. We must preserve all media elements exactly as they are (the iframe). Keep them inline. We need to rewrite headline: unique, fresh, professional. Original: “Kofi Says He’s Not Bitter About WWE Exit, Is ‘Super Thankful’ For His Time There”. We can rewrite: “Kofi Asserts No Bitterness Over WWE Departure, Expresses Deep Gratitude for His WWE tenure”. Something like that. Now rewrite body into natural, high-quality professional English. Need to rewrite the paragraphs while preserving meaning. Also need to keep headings? The headings are part of article; they are not media. They can stay but maybe we rewrite the heading text? The instruction: “Rewrite the headline to be unique, fresh, and professional.” That’s the main headline (the block). The surrounding news story body text should be rewritten. The headings are part of body; likely need to rewrite them too? It says “rewrite the surrounding news story body text”. The headings are part of body; but maybe keep them as is? Safer to rewrite them as part of body, but keep tags? The instruction: “Output ONLY the requested [TITLE] block at the absolute beginning, followed immediately by the rewritten content.” So we need to output a block with the rewritten headline, then the cleaned, rewritten article HTML body text. So we need to produce HTML body that includes the rewritten content. Should we keep the tags? Probably yes, because they are part of article structure. But we need to rewrite the text inside the paragraphs, not the headings? The headings are part of article; we can rewrite them too to be professional, but maybe keep as headings. The instruction: “Rewrite the headline to be unique, fresh, and professional.” That’s the main title. For the body, “Rewrite the surrounding news story body text into natural, high-quality, professional English.” So we need to rewrite the paragraph texts (the contents) while preserving meaning, and keep the headings maybe unchanged? They are headings, not body text; but they are part of the story. I’d rewrite the headings as well to be more professional? Not required but could be okay. However must not alter any HTML media elements; the tags are not media, but they are structural. Changing them might be considered altering content; but it’s allowed as part of rewriting body text. Probably safe to keep headings as they are, but rewrite the paragraph text. Let’s rewrite paragraphs: Paragraph 1: “Kofi says he doesn’t have bitterness over his and Austin Creed’s WWE exits and is “super thankful” for his time there. As you surely know, the former New Day members left WWE in May and are now in AEW as the New Level, making their debuts at AEW All In.” We can rewrite: “Kofi emphasizes that he feels no bitterness regarding his and Austin Creed’s departure from WWE, and he remains profoundly grateful for his tenure there. The former New Day members departed WWE in May and have since joined AEW, debuting as The New Level at AEW All In.” Paragraph 2: “The two have been making the media rounds following their AEW debuts, and they spoke with The Ariel Helwani Show for a new interview. During the conversation, the two were discussing their exits and Kofi took a minute to make clear that there is no bitterness toward WWE. He spoke fondly of his time there and said the first thing he did was reach out to people in the company to express his gratitude. You can see the highlights below:” Rewrite: “Following their AEW debuts, the pair has been appearing on various media outlets, including an interview with The Ariel Helwani Show. In the discussion about their exits, Kofi reiterated that there is no lingering resentment toward WWE. He spoke positively about his experience and noted that his first action was to contact several WWE colleagues to convey his appreciation. The highlights are shown below:” Paragraph under “On Not Being Bitter About Their Exit:”: Original: “So, I think like sometimes when people do these interviews, there’s all this angst and bitterness and like, ‘Oh, these guys. Oh, you can’t stand–‘ And I don’t want to come across as that… I just want to say like I’m super grateful for the time that we had there, you know what I mean? Like living out my childhood dream, it would have never been possible if it wasn’t for WWE. We had so many great moments as a team, myself individually, before New Day. Like, it’s been a dream job.” Rewrite: “I understand that interviewers sometimes anticipate anger or bitterness, but I want to assure you that I’m genuinely grateful for the time we spent with WWE. Realizing my childhood dream would have been impossible without the company. We shared countless memorable moments both as a team and individually before the formation of New Day, and it truly felt like a dream job.” Paragraph 2 under same heading: “So, one of the first things like I did, I reached out and I said ‘Thank you’ to a lot of different people once the information started to really come out. Because I’m super grateful for it. I think everything happens for a reason. And like Austin said before about doors closing and opening, my mom also says the same thing. She said, ‘When one door closes, seven doors open. And the opportunities have been amazing, and the universe was just telling us that it was time. It was time to move on to bigger and better. It was time to level up, to move to the next level.”” Rewrite: “One of the first things I did was reach out to many people to say thank you as the news became clear. I’m deeply appreciative, and I believe everything happens for a reason. As Austin mentioned, doors close and open; my mother often says, “When one door closes, seven doors open.” The opportunities have been extraordinary, and the universe signaled it was time to move forward, to pursue bigger and better possibilities, to level up and advance to the next stage.” Paragraph under “On Being Grateful For His WWE Time:”: Original: ““I don’t want to set the tone that like, ‘Oh, we’re so mad and angry and pissed.’ It is what it is, you know? Like, it happened and then we move on. We can’t dwell in the past. I would never allow anything to have that kind of power over my emotional psyche, that I’m brooding and thinking about the bad times when 99% of the time there was great. The house that I live in right now, my kids are, you know what I mean? The life that we live is really — we wouldn’t have been able to do that without WWE. A lot of it is because of that. So super thankful for that part of our career.” Rewrite: “I don’t want to convey that we’re angry or upset. It happened, and we’ve moved on; we cannot remain stuck in the past. I refuse to let any resentment dominate my emotions, especially since the overwhelming majority of my experience was positive. My current home, my children, and the life we enjoy are directly a result of my time in WWE. I’m immensely grateful for that chapter of our careers.” Paragraph 2: “But again – very, very, very, very excited for the future. Because we get to continue this wild ride. How many people can say that they can do this for this long on such a grand stage? So we’re blessed to be in this position. We’re blessed to have these problems; we’re blessed to have people care that we lost our jobs. There’s people that lose their jobs every day. There’s people that were really upset that we were out of work, and they wanted to see us back in work. And now here we are, we get to give them what they want. So yeah, man. It’s all good, it’s all love, it’s all gravy. And we’re happy to embark on the next chapter.” Rewrite: “I’m extremely enthusiastic about what lies ahead. We have the chance to keep enjoying this extraordinary journey. How many can claim to have sustained a career on such a grand stage for so long? We feel blessed to be in this position, blessed to have the opportunities we have, and to know that many people care about our return to work. Others face job loss daily, and they hoped to see us back. Now we have the chance to deliver what they desire, and we’re happy to move forward together.” Now we need to include the iframe element unchanged. We also need to remove the footer note (the italic credit). Also maybe remove any extra whitespace or trailing tags. Ensure the cleaned HTML body only contains the relevant parts. We need to output: [TITLE]Rewritten headline](https://i1.wp.com/411mania.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Kofi-Kingston-New-Day-TLC.png?w=1024&resize=1024,1024&ssl=1 "block at absolute beginning, then rewritten content. Must clean text: remove promotional lines, “SEE ALSO” links, footer junk. There’s no promotional lines or “SEE ALSO”. There’s a footer note about credit. Probably remove that. Also remove maybe any trailing tags? The provided HTML includes If you use any of the quotes … and an iframe. The instruction: “Clean the text content by removing promotional lines, “SEE ALSO” links, and footer junk.” The credit line might be considered footer junk, but it’s a note. It’s not a “SEE ALSO”. It’s a disclaimer. Probably remove it as footer junk. Also remove any unrelated promotional lines (none). So we keep main content: the headings, paragraphs, and the iframe. We must preserve all media elements exactly as they are (the iframe). Keep them inline. We need to rewrite headline: unique, fresh, professional. Original: “Kofi Says He’s Not Bitter About WWE Exit, Is ‘Super Thankful’ For His Time There”. We can rewrite: “Kofi Asserts No Bitterness Over WWE Departure, Expresses Deep Gratitude for His WWE tenure”. Something like that. Now rewrite body into natural, high-quality professional English. Need to rewrite the paragraphs while preserving meaning. Also need to keep headings? The headings are part of article; they are not media. They can stay but maybe we rewrite the heading text? The instruction: “Rewrite the headline to be unique, fresh, and professional.” That’s the main headline (the block). The surrounding news story body text should be rewritten. The headings are part of body; likely need to rewrite them too? It says “rewrite the surrounding news story body text”. The headings are part of body; but maybe keep them as is? Safer to rewrite them as part of body, but keep tags? The instruction: “Output ONLY the requested [TITLE] block at the absolute beginning, followed immediately by the rewritten content.” So we need to output a block with the rewritten headline, then the cleaned, rewritten article HTML body text. So we need to produce HTML body that includes the rewritten content. Should we keep the tags? Probably yes, because they are part of article structure. But we need to rewrite the text inside the paragraphs, not the headings? The headings are part of article; we can rewrite them too to be professional, but maybe keep as headings. The instruction: “Rewrite the headline to be unique, fresh, and professional.” That’s the main title. For the body, “Rewrite the surrounding news story body text into natural, high-quality, professional English.” So we need to rewrite the paragraph texts (the contents) while preserving meaning, and keep the headings maybe unchanged? They are headings, not body text; but they are part of the story. I’d rewrite the headings as well to be more professional? Not required but could be okay. However must not alter any HTML media elements; the tags are not media, but they are structural. Changing them might be considered altering content; but it’s allowed as part of rewriting body text. Probably safe to keep headings as they are, but rewrite the paragraph text. Let’s rewrite paragraphs: Paragraph 1: “Kofi says he doesn’t have bitterness over his and Austin Creed’s WWE exits and is “super thankful” for his time there. As you surely know, the former New Day members left WWE in May and are now in AEW as the New Level, making their debuts at AEW All In.” We can rewrite: “Kofi emphasizes that he feels no bitterness regarding his and Austin Creed’s departure from WWE, and he remains profoundly grateful for his tenure there. The former New Day members departed WWE in May and have since joined AEW, debuting as The New Level at AEW All In.” Paragraph 2: “The two have been making the media rounds following their AEW debuts, and they spoke with The Ariel Helwani Show for a new interview. During the conversation, the two were discussing their exits and Kofi took a minute to make clear that there is no bitterness toward WWE. He spoke fondly of his time there and said the first thing he did was reach out to people in the company to express his gratitude. You can see the highlights below:” Rewrite: “Following their AEW debuts, the pair has been appearing on various media outlets, including an interview with The Ariel Helwani Show. In the discussion about their exits, Kofi reiterated that there is no lingering resentment toward WWE. He spoke positively about his experience and noted that his first action was to contact several WWE colleagues to convey his appreciation. The highlights are shown below:” Paragraph under “On Not Being Bitter About Their Exit:”: Original: “So, I think like sometimes when people do these interviews, there’s all this angst and bitterness and like, ‘Oh, these guys. Oh, you can’t stand–‘ And I don’t want to come across as that… I just want to say like I’m super grateful for the time that we had there, you know what I mean? Like living out my childhood dream, it would have never been possible if it wasn’t for WWE. We had so many great moments as a team, myself individually, before New Day. Like, it’s been a dream job.” Rewrite: “I understand that interviewers sometimes anticipate anger or bitterness, but I want to assure you that I’m genuinely grateful for the time we spent with WWE. Realizing my childhood dream would have been impossible without the company. We shared countless memorable moments both as a team and individually before the formation of New Day, and it truly felt like a dream job.” Paragraph 2 under same heading: “So, one of the first things like I did, I reached out and I said ‘Thank you’ to a lot of different people once the information started to really come out. Because I’m super grateful for it. I think everything happens for a reason. And like Austin said before about doors closing and opening, my mom also says the same thing. She said, ‘When one door closes, seven doors open. And the opportunities have been amazing, and the universe was just telling us that it was time. It was time to move on to bigger and better. It was time to level up, to move to the next level.”” Rewrite: “One of the first things I did was reach out to many people to say thank you as the news became clear. I’m deeply appreciative, and I believe everything happens for a reason. As Austin mentioned, doors close and open; my mother often says, “When one door closes, seven doors open.” The opportunities have been extraordinary, and the universe signaled it was time to move forward, to pursue bigger and better possibilities, to level up and advance to the next stage.” Paragraph under “On Being Grateful For His WWE Time:”: Original: ““I don’t want to set the tone that like, ‘Oh, we’re so mad and angry and pissed.’ It is what it is, you know? Like, it happened and then we move on. We can’t dwell in the past. I would never allow anything to have that kind of power over my emotional psyche, that I’m brooding and thinking about the bad times when 99% of the time there was great. The house that I live in right now, my kids are, you know what I mean? The life that we live is really — we wouldn’t have been able to do that without WWE. A lot of it is because of that. So super thankful for that part of our career.” Rewrite: “I don’t want to convey that we’re angry or upset. It happened, and we’ve moved on; we cannot remain stuck in the past. I refuse to let any resentment dominate my emotions, especially since the overwhelming majority of my experience was positive. My current home, my children, and the life we enjoy are directly a result of my time in WWE. I’m immensely grateful for that chapter of our careers.” Paragraph 2: “But again – very, very, very, very excited for the future. Because we get to continue this wild ride. How many people can say that they can do this for this long on such a grand stage? So we’re blessed to be in this position. We’re blessed to have these problems; we’re blessed to have people care that we lost our jobs. There’s people that lose their jobs every day. There’s people that were really upset that we were out of work, and they wanted to see us back in work. And now here we are, we get to give them what they want. So yeah, man. It’s all good, it’s all love, it’s all gravy. And we’re happy to embark on the next chapter.” Rewrite: “I’m extremely enthusiastic about what lies ahead. We have the chance to keep enjoying this extraordinary journey. How many can claim to have sustained a career on such a grand stage for so long? We feel blessed to be in this position, blessed to have the opportunities we have, and to know that many people care about our return to work. Others face job loss daily, and they hoped to see us back. Now we have the chance to deliver what they desire, and we’re happy to move forward together.” Now we need to include the iframe element unchanged. We also need to remove the footer note (the italic credit). Also maybe remove any extra whitespace or trailing tags. Ensure the cleaned HTML body only contains the relevant parts. We need to output: [TITLE]Rewritten headline")
