With roster cuts barreling toward Sunday night’s 6 p.m. ET deadline, the NFL spent the week packing in plenty of movement before teams trim from 90 players to 53. There are still 12 preseason games left after Thursday night’s four, but the league has already handed fans a full slate of news to sort through.
One of the biggest changes is the end of the Pro Bowl Games. The NFL has officially moved on from its annual all-star event and will instead “shift to celebrating the honor of being a Pro Bowl selection” starting in the 2026 season.
The honor itself is sticking around. The league will still recognize 88 selections as the top players on offense, defense and special teams across both conferences, with no alternates. Fans will remain part of the process, and coaches, players and fans will each account for 33.3% of the vote.
“Smart to move on from the game,” an NFC coach told Sports Illustrated’s Gilberto Manzano this week. “I like fans having a vote.
All-Pro will always mean more anyway. But the fans matter, and that’s why the sport is as popular as it is.”
The NFL is also changing how it handles fines for on-field conduct beginning in 2026. Players can still be fined for violations such as using their helmet or roughing the passer, but the league will place more weight on five specific penalties. If a player commits any of those fouls three times in a season, the punishment escalates to a one-game suspension.
Indianapolis got a boost this week with the return of Alec Pierce. The Colts activated the wide receiver from the physically unable to perform list after he missed time following surgery to repair an ankle injury that had bothered him late last season.
Pierce signed a four-year, $114 million deal with the Colts this offseason. In 2025, he posted career highs with 37 catches and 1,005 receiving yards, and he has led the league in yards per reception over the past two seasons.
“We have two weeks to get him ramped up,” coach Shane Steichen said Thursday. “He’s a veteran.
He’s a pro. I know he’s going to handle it the right way.
We’ll be smart as we ramp him up and get him ready for Week 1.”
The Colts begin the 2026 season at home against the Ravens on Sunday, Sept. 13, with kickoff set for 1 p.m. ET.
Seattle kept one of its core defenders in place, agreeing to a three-year, $90 million extension with Leonard Williams, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport. The deal includes $56 million guaranteed and keeps the defensive tackle under contract through the 2029 season.
Williams, 32, has 61.5 sacks across 11 seasons with the Jets, Giants and Seahawks. In 2025, he earned second-team All-Pro honors while helping Seattle win its second Super Bowl title.
ESPN says he is tied for the most run-stop wins when double-teamed over the past three years with 120. SI ranked him seventh among defensive tackles heading into the season.
Houston made a move to fill the void left by Jayden Higgins. Just days after Higgins tore his ACL during a joint practice with the Raiders, the Texans traded for Kayshon Boutte from the Patriots. New England received safety Jaylen Reed and a 2028 seventh-round pick in the deal.
Boutte gives C.J. Stroud another weapon after emerging as Drake Maye’s top deep threat last season, and Houston added him without giving up anything from the top of its secondary depth chart or any meaningful draft capital. The Texans now pair Boutte with veteran Nico Collins.
Green Bay is dealing with a different kind of issue. Packers running back Josh Jacobs was charged Thursday in Wisconsin with misdemeanor battery and misdemeanor criminal damage to property, stemming from an alleged domestic incident involving his girlfriend this past spring.
Jacobs was arrested in May on five charges - battery/domestic abuse, criminal damage to property/domestic abuse, disorderly conduct/domestic abuse, strangulation and suffocation and intimidation of a victim - after police responded to a disturbance at his Hobart, Wisc., home. He spent a night in jail before the charges were dropped the next day.
The league is watching closely. “closely monitoring all developments in the matter,” NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy said Thursday, and added that the situation remains under review. Green Bay has said it is aware of the charges, and general manager Brian Gutekunst said earlier this week that the team could carry an extra running back if Jacobs begins the season facing a suspension.
The Rams got a familiar face back on Thursday, trading for Tutu Atwell after his one-year stint with the Dolphins. Miami had signed the 26-year-old earlier this offseason, but he is now back in Los Angeles, while the Dolphins received running back Jarquez Hunter in return.
Atwell spent his first five NFL seasons with the Rams, where he won Super Bowl LVI and recorded 105 receptions for 1,535 yards and five touchdowns. He returns to the team that drafted him in 2021 with another shot at a Lombardi Trophy.
Hunter, a fourth-round pick by Los Angeles in 2025, joins a Miami running back group that includes De’Von Achane, Jaylen Wright and Ollie Gordon II.
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