Fifty days before the NFL regular season begins, five teams opened training camp on Tuesday with rookies reporting for the Bills, Texans, Patriots, Panthers and Dolphins.

Carolina kicks off the preseason with the Pro Football Hall of Fame game in Canton, Ohio, on Aug. 6 against the Arizona Cardinals. Arizona’s report day is Wednesday for rookies and veterans.

Before starting the regular season in Australia, the Rams and 49ers are also set to start camp this week. The NFC West rivals face off Down Under on Sept. 10.

Every NFL team reports to camp no later than July 28.

Nearly one-third of the league introduced a new head coach in the offseason with 10 coaching changes. A few don’t truly qualify as “new” with familiar faces relocated to Pittsburgh, Nashville, New York and Atlanta.

Buffalo elevated offensive coordinator Joe Brady to head coach, replacing Sean McDermott.

Mike McCarthy is back on the sideline with the Steelers and has Aaron Rodgers returning as his quarterback. Former Jets coach Robert Saleh took over the Tennessee Titans and longtime Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh is now calling the shots for the Giants. Former Cleveland coach Kevin Stefanski was fired by the Browns, but quickly hired to lead the Atlanta Falcons.

The reigning Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks — who were the first team to have their rookies report on July 17 — will hold their first full-squad workout at the team facility in Renton, Wash., on July 24. The Seahawks open the preseason at home on Aug. 15, welcoming the Dallas Cowboys to Lumen Field.

Seattle plays the first regular-season game of the 2026 campaign on Wednesday, Sept. 9 in a Super Bowl rematch with the visiting New England Patriots.

SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif, hosts the Super Bowl on Feb. 14.

–Field Level Media

Longtime baseball broadcaster Karl Ravech and NFL Network insider Tom Pelissero are among the ESPN employees being laid off in a wave of cuts, according to multiple media reports on Tuesday.

These layoffs are linked to ESPN’s acquisition of NFL Network, according to an internal memo from ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro that multiple media outlets obtained.

After the deal was announced last August and gained government approval in January, NFL Network’s employees were brought under the ESPN umbrella starting on April 1.

Other ESPN employees reportedly laid off or who announced the news on social media include longtime “SportsCenter” anchor David Lloyd, NFL Network analyst Charles Davis, injury/fantasy football writer Stephania Bell, First Take contributor Cam Newton, radio host/NFL analyst Bart Scott, staff writer Dan Hajducky, and combat sports reporter Andreas Hale.

It was also reported on Monday that NFL analyst Ryan Clark was being let go, with news breaking while he was on “NFL Live.”

“Over the past several months, we’ve made significant progress integrating the NFL assets that we acquired into ESPN,” Pitaro wrote in the memo. “Throughout this process, we have taken the time to carefully evaluate our collective teams, resources and organizational structure to best position us for the future. As a result, we had to make some difficult decisions about job impacts that we will be communicating today.

“While most of the job impacts are tied to the acquisition, we will also notify colleagues in other parts of the company today that their positions have been impacted. We are committed to treating employees with compassion and respect and to providing support as they navigate this transition.”

Ravech has been with ESPN since 1993, working as a “SportsCenter” anchor, college basketball and baseball broadcaster and studio host for “Baseball Tonight.” He was ESPN’s primary MLB broadcaster, including for Monday night’s Phillies-Dodgers game.

Pelissero has been with NFL Network since 2017, establishing himself as an insider. However, he’s reportedly not being retained over ESPN’s Adam Schefter and NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.

Besides the more visible on-air personalities, several production and behind-the-scenes employees are expected to lose their jobs during this round of layoffs.

–Field Level Media

Kirby Smart borrows strategy, philosophy and teaching tools from many walks of life to maintain an edge at Georgia.

In the past he’s studied corporate success stories, the Chicago Bulls’ dynasty and crossover elite athletes. So it’s not abundantly surprising to hear the Bulldogs’ head coach to invoke the 2025 NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder when discussing expectation-setting in Athens this offseason.

“We study successful programs all the time,” Smart said at SEC Media Days in Tampa on Tuesday. “If you’re not studying how other people are doing it and you’re just fixated on your own team and your own roster, I think you’re missing out.

“We’re always trying to grow in our program. We don’t want to stay the same. You need to study how other people are doing it and maybe the ways they’re doing it in creating roles for others. It’s very unique what the Thunder was doing, especially when they won the championship in terms of leading in so many categories, but most importantly selflessness. That’s what we try to emulate.”

A lot of programs are trying to emulate Smart and Georgia.

He’s 117-21 and Georgia has 11-plus wins in five consecutive seasons for the first time in program history.

But Smart said he’ll never stand still or rely on the same recipe year-over-year.

“We chose to study a successful brand or team or follow someone, and this year the reigning NBA champions at the time was the OKC Thunder and they talked about being uncommon and how you can be uncommon in today’s world,” Smart said. “Our guys took a week-by-week section of being uncommon, believing in the success of others is greater than the success of yourself in a day and age when that’s not normal.”

Smart finds himself in novel territory entering the 2026 season as the longest-tenured SEC coach. He remains a throwback when it comes to roster building, emphasizing again Tuesday he recruits to marry and welcomes the label “retention team.” Of course, the current college football landscape won’t allow any program to fully ignore the transfer portal.

“It’s changing more rapid, yes, but what wins football games has not changed,” Smart said. “Has the role of the head coach changed? If you want it to, it can. You can be as involved in offense, defense in coaching and remove yourself from all this changing landscape. Or you can dive over here and spend your time in the changing landscape and try to navigate it better and let your coaches coach. Each coach has to decide within their own program what they want to major in, because you cannot sit back. … You got to be able to wear multiple hats, more than I ever imagined.”

–Field Level Media