One reason for optimism for every NFL team, plus ranking the best 25 teams since 2000 and more NFLPA fallout

Welcome to the Monday edition of the Pick Six newsletter!

After getting a small taste of football last week, we’re in for a full taste this week and that’s because all 32 NFL teams will be reporting to training camp over the next 48 hours. The Steelers and Falcons will be the final two teams to report and that will come on Wednesday. After that, we’ll be going full steam ahead into the preseason. 

Right now, we’re going full steam ahead into today’s newsletter. 

As always, here’s your daily reminder to tell all your friends to sign up for the newsletter. To get them signed up, all you have to do is click here. Let’s get to the rundown. 

1. One reason for optimism for each NFL team heading into training camp 

As we mentioned at the top, we’re just 48 hours away from having all 32 teams in training camp, so Tyler Sullivan thought now would be a good time to give each team a reason to be optimistic about their upcoming season. Sullivan is a glass half-full guy, so he was the perfect person to handle this. Also, since it’s easy to be optimistic about teams that made the playoffs last season, we’re going to check out Sullivan’s reason for optimism for four teams that missed the playoffs last year. 

• Browns: Myles Garrett is still in Cleveland. “While their quarterback situation will need to be sorted out with five signal-callers on the depth chart, one person they don’t need to worry about any longer is Myles Garrett. … With Garrett intact, the floor for Cleveland’s defense remains high entering 2025.”
• Cowboys: Dak Prescott is fully healthy. “Dallas can look forward to getting their starting quarterback back on the field and healthy. Last season, Dak Prescott was limited to just eight games due to a hamstring injury that landed him on injured reserve, but he is expected to be healthy for the 2025 season.”
• Patriots: Mike Vrabel is changing the tone. “New England has gone through quite the roster overhaul this offseason. After Mike Vrabel was hired as the organization’s newest head coach, the Patriots have seemingly gone out of their way to pave the way for new blood and new leadership. …This offseason, the Patriots have parted ways with five of their six captains from 2024. This is a clear effort by Vrabel to set a new tone after back-to-back 4-13 seasons, which should be a welcome development throughout the building and region.”
• Saints: Offensive tackle spots secured long-term. “While they are closer to the bottom of the league than they are to the top, they do have a key aspect to their rebuild established. Over the last two seasons, New Orleans has deployed key draft capital to replenish their offensive line. … In 2024, they selected Taliese Fuaga and then turned around this year to select Texas offensive tackle Kelvin Banks Jr.”

Sullivan has one reason for each team, and you can see his full breakdown here.  

2. NFLPA fallout continues with another resignation

Three days after Lloyd Howell resigned as the executive director of the NFLPA, JC Tretter followed suit by resigning from his post on Sunday in an interview with CBS Sports lead NFL insider Jonathan Jones. There was some thought that Tretter might actually replace Howell as executive director, but that won’t be happening. 

Here’s what you need to know: 

• Why Tretter resigned. “Over the last couple days, it has gotten very, very hard for my family. And that’s something I can’t deal with,” Tretter told Jones. “So, the short bullet points are: I have no interest in being [executive director]. I have no interest in being considered. I’ve let the executive committee know that. I’m also going to leave the NFLPA in the coming days because I don’t have anything left to give the organization.” Tretter resigned his job as the NFLPA’s chief strategy officer. He had served as the NFLPA player president from 2020 to early 2024 before Howell appointed him to the CSO job. 
• Tretter said the players didn’t even want to hire Howell. In his interview with Jones, Tretter revealed that the NFLPA’s executive committee — a group of about a dozen players — didn’t want to hire Howell as executive director in 2023. There were two candidates and the 11-person executive committed voted 10-1 in favor of the other guy (David White). However, the committee doesn’t have final say. The final vote went to the board of representatives, which consists of players from all 32 teams, and that board voted for Howell. 
• Howell situation gets uglier. We covered the Howell situation on Friday, but there was at least one new detail over the weekend: Howell expensed at least two strip club visits during his time as executive director, according to ESPN. That’s not a great look for a guy who was on the job for barely 24 months. 

The NFLPA is in total disarray right now. The next executive director is going to have to deal with a multitude of huge issues, including the NFL’s push for an 18-game schedule, which is something most players don’t want. As for Tretter, he had a lengthy interview with Jones, and you can check out his full comments here.   

3. Two surprise teams confident they can win the Super Bowl

When our NFL writing team makes their picks for the 2025 season, there probably won’t be a lot of people taking the Cowboys or Falcons to get to the Super Bowl. But maybe we should, because their players seem pretty confident that it could happen. 

Let’s check out a few comments that came out over the weekend: 

• Tyler Smith says Cowboys can win the Super Bowl. The Cowboys offensive lineman was asked about the team’s goal this year, and he could have gone small with something like “win the NFC East.” Instead, he said winning the Super Bowl is the goal. Smith also added that it’s a completely “realistic” goal. So why is he so confident? “I think we built a great core on offense; the addition of George [Pickens] and all the other key pieces,” Smith said, via ESPN. “I think drafting [Tyler] Booker, he’s going to be a hell of a guy just to bolster the front line. And we have many guys across the board, but those are some of the guys who are the key pieces on what we do this year.”
• Falcons receiver says Atlanta can get to Super Bowl. After just one season in Atlanta, Ray Ray McCloud has seen enough of his new quarterback, Michael Penix Jr., that he thinks the Falcons could be a Super Bowl team this year. “I’ve watched [Penix] every day for the last year at practice, and I’m just ready to see him go into an experienced year, a polished year, and see how it goes — go all the way to the Super Bowl,” McCloud said. You can see his full comments here. 

The oddsmakers definitely aren’t as confident as these two players. The Falcons have 35-to-1 odds just to GET to the Super Bowl while the Cowboys have 22-to-1 odds. (The Falcons are 80-to-1 to win it all while the Cowboys are 50-to-1.)

The Falcons are actually a dark horse team to get to the playoffs, according to Tyler Sullivan. At +155 to make the postseason, Atlanta is one of five bets Sullivan likes right now. You can check out the other four here.  

4. Eagles get their Super Bowl rings: Three things to know

The Eagles finally got their Super Bowl rings and that happened during a ceremony Friday night. And just in case you’re wondering, yes, I’m 99% sure the rings are worth more than my car. If you want to see a picture of the rings, we’ve got one here. 

Here are a few notable aspects about the rings: 

• The rings have a hidden surprise. Every Eagles’ ring contains a button and if you press that button, two ACTUAL EAGLE WINGS spread out from the ring. Are these wings absolutely necessary? Probably not, but they do make the ring more awesome (We’ve got the story on the wings here.)
• There’s a Brazilian flag on the ring. Since the Eagles started the 2024 season by winning a Week 1 game in Brazil, they decided to honor that fact by engraving a Brazilian flag on the inside of the ring. 
• There are a lot diamonds. I’ll just go ahead and let the Eagles describe the diamonds, “The bezel of the ring features 145 diamonds, which celebrates the Eagles’ 145 points scored in the playoffs – the most in NFL postseason history. … On top of the ring, “WORLD CHAMPIONS” consists of 40 points of diamonds, commemorating the Eagles’ 40 points scored in the Super Bowl LIX victory. … Ten points of diamonds in the Super Bowl LIX logo signify the Eagles’ franchise-record 10-game winning streak in the regular season.” That’s a lot of diamonds. 

You can read more about the rings here. 

5. Ranking the 25 best NFL teams of the past 25 years

We are a quarter of the way through the new century, and we’ve been celebrating that fact all summer long here at CBS Sports. In Friday’s newsletter, we ranked the most surprising Super Bowl participants of the past 25 years, and we’ve got more fun in store today: We ranked the NFL’s top 25 teams since 2000. 

Bryan DeArdo was in charge of this ranking, and here are the top three teams on his list:  

1. 2024 Eagles. “It’s hard to match the 2024 Eagles resume. Their 18 wins are tied for the most in NFL history and most by any Super Bowl champion this century. The Eagles capped off their historic season with a decisive win over a team that was on the precipice of history. No other Super Bowl-winning team this century had a top-10 quarterback in Jalen Hurts, two top-20 receivers in A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, a 2,000-yard rusher in Saquon Barkley, a big, powerful offensive line and a second-ranked scoring defense that wreaked havoc on quarterbacks without having to blitz.”

2. 2016 Patriots. “This team went 3-1 with Tom Brady serving a suspension to start the season. When Brady came back, the Patriots were nearly unstoppable, going 14-1 that included the biggest comeback in Super Bowl history. … Making the Patriots’ success more impressive was the fact that they didn’t have Rob Gronkowski for the stretch run after he suffered a season-ending injury in Week 11.”

3. 2007 Patriots. “The 2007 Patriots came just up short in their quest to join the 1972 Dolphins as the NFL’s only perfect team. Had they completed the journey, they undoubtedly would have topped this list.”

Although Patrick Mahomes has led Kansas City to the Super Bowl five times, only one Chiefs team cracked the top 15 on DeArdo’s all-time ranking. If you want to know which one that was, you’ll have to check out his full story here. 

6. Extra points: Steelers unveil new throwback uniform

It’s been a busy 24 hours the NFL, and since it’s nearly impossible to keep track of everything that happened, I went ahead and put together a roundup for you. 

• Steelers bring back their gold helmets. The Steelers unveiled a wild new throwback uniform on Monday that will honor their 1933 team. The uniform features a gold helmet with a gold jersey that has black vertical stripes on the front. If you want to see what the new uniform looks like — and trust me, you do — you can check out photos here.  
• Titans won’t have Will Levis in 2025. Levis, who started 12 games for the Titans last season, won’t be suiting up at all for them in 2025. The team announced Monday that Levis is set to undergo surgery on his throwing shoulder, an operation that will end his season. Cameron Ward, who was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, will be the Titans’ starting QB this year, and Brandon Allen will likely now be his backup with Levis out. 
• President Trump wants Commanders to change their name back. If the Commanders don’t switch back to their old name, they might have a tough time getting a stadium built. Over the weekend, President Donald Trump said he might keep the Commanders from building a stadium in Washington if they don’t revert back to the Redskins. “I may put a restriction on them that if they don’t change the name back to the original ‘Washington Redskins,’ and get rid of the ridiculous moniker, ‘Washington Commanders,’ I won’t make a deal for them to build a Stadium in Washington,” Trump wrote on his social media site. Commanders owner Josh Harris has said he plans to stick with the current name. 
• Lions lose key defensive starter for the season. Levi Onwuzurike will miss the entire 2025 season due to an ACL injury, head coach Dan Campbell announced Sunday. “Levi’s out for the year,” Campbell said of his defensive tackle. “Levi’s surgery, it was significant, but it needed to be done. Out of his control, and it needed to be done. So he will miss the season.” Onwuzurike played in 16 games last year with 10 starts. You can read more about his injury here. 
• George Karlaftis gets extension from Chiefs. The Chiefs pass-rusher won’t be leaving Kansas City any time soon. Karlaftis has signed a four-year, $93 million extension that includes $62 million in guaranteed money. The 2022 first-round pick is now tied to the team through the 2030 season. We’ve got the full details on his deal here. 
• Shemar Stewart doesn’t report to training camp. The Bengals had their rookies report to training camp over the weekend, but Shemar Stewart wasn’t part of that group. Stewart is the only 2025 first-rounder who remains unsigned. The Bengals will hold their first practice of camp on Wednesday, so if Stewart isn’t under contract by then, the problem will go from bad to worse for Cincinnati. In other Bengals news, the team signed former Falcons and Raiders starting quarterback Desmond Ridder over the weekend. Ridder is expected to the the third-string signal-caller in Cincinnati behind Joe Burrow and Jake Browning.