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Welcome to the Thursday edition of the Pick Six newsletter! 

We are officially just three weeks away from the start of the 2025 NFL Draft, which means you have just three weeks left to read every mock draft that you can get your hands on. My goal is to read six different mock drafts per day, and yes, there is a chance that I will be completely burnt out by the time the draft gets here on April 24, but I’m willing to take that chance. 

Speaking of mock drafts, we have one in today’s newsletter, plus we’ll be looking at the trade that the Cowboys just made with the Patriots and we’ll give you all the information you need to know about the possibility that the Bengals could eventually leave Cincinnati. 

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. 

1. Cowboys make trade for Patriots’ QB: Joe Milton headed to Dallas 

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With Cooper Rush and Trey Lance no longer in Dallas, the Cowboys were in desperate need for a backup QB and they found their guy on Thursday by making a trade for Joe Milton. 

Here are the details of the deal: 

• Cowboys get: Joe Milton, 2025 seventh-round pick
• Patriots get: 2025 fifth-round pick

During his rookie season last year, Milton started exactly one game for the Patriots and his numbers weren’t bad: He went 22 of 29 for 241 yards and a TD in a 23-16 win over the Bills. 

Of course, whenever there’s a trade in the NFL, we have to hand out some grades, so let’s do that. 

• Patriots: A. The Patriots selected Milton with a sixth-round pick last year and then flipped him for a fifth-rounder this year, which is a pretty solid move on their part. The bottom line is that there was just no room for Milton on New England’s roster. The Patriots have Drake Maye locked in as the starter and they signed Josh Dobbs to be his backup, which left Milton as the odd man out. The fact that Milton played so well in Week 18 actually helped the Patriots, because it helped create a trade market for him. 
• Cowboys: B+. Two years after trading a fourth-round pick for Trey Lance, the Cowboys are once again giving up a draft pick for an unproven quarterback. In the Lance situation, the Cowboys already had Cooper Rush as their backup, so giving up a pick for the former first-rounder didn’t make much sense. In this situation, the Cowboys absolutely need a backup so giving up a fifth-round pick to land Milton isn’t the worst thing in the world. The other upside for the Cowboys is that Milton is under contract for three more seasons and his base salary for 2025 is just $960,000. 

One thing to keep in mind here is that Dak Prescott suffered a serious hamstring injury back in November that ended his season and although his rehab seems to be going well, the Cowboys had to find a backup QB that they trust and if it seems they’ve found that. 

2. Bengals could be free to leave Cincinnati after the 2025 season

There’s been a lot of talk about the Browns’ stadium situation this offseason, which is interesting, because there’s actually another team in Ohio that might be in a worse spot than the Browns. The Bengals are in a stare down with Hamilton County, and if nothing gets resolved, the Bengals could be free to leave Cincinnati after the 2025 season. 

Bengals executive vice president Katie Blackburn talked about the situation this week at the NFL’s annual league meeting. 

Here’s what you need to know: 

• Bengals lease expires on June 30, 2026. The Bengals have been playing in Paycor Stadium since it opened in 2000. The team’s lease at the building expires on June 30, 2026, but it doesn’t HAVE to expire because the lease includes a total of five two-year extensions that can be exercised by the Bengals. The team has until June 30, 2025 to pick up the first of those five options and if that happens, then they’ll be locked into Paycor until June 30, 2028. However, if the Bengals don’t pick up the two-year option by June 30, then all five options become void, which will set the stage for the entire lease to expire on June 30. The short version here is that the Bengals have less than three months to decide what they want to do and if they decline the option, then they’ll be free to move out of Cincinnati following the 2025 season. 
• Negotiations aren’t going so well. Hamilton County sent a proposal to the Bengals in September that included $1.25 billion in upgrades for Paycor, but everyone isn’t quite on the same page. “We’ve all been working really hard on looking at a lease extension and renovations that might be part of that,” Blackburn said, via The Athletic. “And so there are a lot of great ideas out there. It’s just finding a way to bring it all together, make sure everyone’s on the same page, and pulling it together. We seem to have a lot of work to do to make that actually happen.”
• Bengals are very aware that they could move after 2025. “We could, I guess, go wherever we wanted after this year if we didn’t pick the option up,” Blackburn said. “We’ll see. Like I said, all these things will be done in due course. We are having discussions, and so we’re hopeful that the county is thinking about it a lot, too, and wants to get it addressed in a way that would be beneficial to both of us.”
• Bengals do like Cincinnati. Although the Bengals might eventually have the freedom to move, that doesn’t mean they will. Blackburn noted that the team likes being downtown at Paycor. “We love where we are,” Blackburn said. “I’m a big proponent of being downtown. I think that’s a great thing for the city. I think the location of the stadium right now is good. I think our stadium, obviously, needs to continue to be maintained appropriately, and you want to keep it at a certain level. That’s important just so that we’re competitive with others.” 

This is going to be a situation that the NFL will certainly have its eye on over the next few months. The Bengals don’t exactly have a great relationship with Hamilton County right and the team will likely want to see negotiations heading into the right direction before it agrees to pick up the two-year option prior to the June 30 deadline. 

3. NFL record book being rewritten after addition of AAFC stats 

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The NFL record book will be undergoing a slight change this offseason after the league decided to incorporate stats from the defunct All-America Football Conference into the modern record book. The NFL’s decision, which was announced at the annual league meeting, is going to have a huge impact on the record book. 

Let’s take a look at some of the biggest changes: 

• Otto Graham now tied with Tom Brady for most championships. The former Browns QB won three NFL titles, but he also won four AAFC titles, so now he has seven, which puts him in a tie with Brady for the most titles won by a QB. Brady has the record for most Super Bowl wins, but when it comes to all-time championship wins, he now has some company. 
• Paul Brown comes out a big winner. Like Graham, Brown won four AAFC championships with the Browns, which means the NFL coaching legend now has seven titles for his career, which is the most by any coach in NFL history. Belichick has the most Super Bowl wins with six, but Brown has the most overall titles. Brown also had 52 victories added to his career total, which bumps him up to 222 wins, which is the seventh most in NFL history (Brown had been ranked 22nd). 
• Ravens lose a record. The 2019 Ravens had held the single-season record for most rushing yards by a team with 3,296, but that’s no longer the case. The record now belongs to the San Francisco 49ers, who led the AAFC with 3,663 rushing yards in 1984. 

The AAFC consisted of eight teams that played for four seasons (1946-49). After the 1949 season, three of the teams in the AAFC — the Browns, 49ers and Colts — made the jump to the NFL. 

You can read more about the NFL’s decision to incorporate the AAFC’s records here. 

4. Jets seven-round mock draft: Five of first six picks used on offensive players

With exactly three weeks to go until the NFL Draft, it’s time to get serious around here, and when we get serious, we start producing SEVEN-ROUND mock drafts. Today, we’ve got an entire seven-round mock draft devoted to the New York Jets, who have a total of eight picks this year. 

Jared Dubin was in charge of making the picks, and here’s what he came up with for their top six picks: 

• Round 1 (7th overall): OT Armand Membou (Missouri)
• Round 2 (42nd overall): CB Trey Amos (Ole Miss) 
• Round 3 (73rd overall): TE Mason Taylor (LSU)
• Round 4 (110th overall): OL Jalen Rivers (Miami, Fla.) 
• Round 5 (145th overall): WR Kyle Williams (Washington State)
• Round 6 (162nd overall): QB Dillon Gabriel (Oregon)

If you want a full explanation for the picks or if you’re wondering how the other two picks turned out for New York, then be sure to check out Dubin’s full mock draft here. 

In other Jets news, if you’re betting on the draft, Jason La Canfora thinks it would be smart to sprinkle some money on the Jets taking a quarterback in the first round. At +1700, it’s an enticing value considering Woody Johnson is the kind of owner who loves to make a splash. JLC has several best bets for the draft, and you can check them out here. 

5. NFL schedule rumors: Chiefs might be heading to Brazil, Lions could have two holiday games

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The 2025 NFL schedule won’t be released until next month, but we’ve already got some rumors floating around regarding some of the biggest games that will be on the schedule. 

Two of those rumors involve the Chiefs, so let’s check them out: 

• Chiefs the ‘favorite’ to be the road team in Brazil. The NFL is holding a total of seven international games this year, and right now, the Chiefs are “the No. 1 franchise in consideration” to be the visiting team in Brazil against the Chargers, according to The Athletic. The game in Sao Paulo will be played in Week 1 on Friday, Sept. 5. There hasn’t been a single divisional game scheduled outside North America over the past six years and one reason for that has to do with competitive balance. If the Chargers play the Chiefs in Brazil, that means a home game against a key divisional rival now becomes a neutral-site game. According to The Athletic, the Chargers are “not opposed” to the idea of facing the Chiefs. You can read more about Kansas City’s possible trip to South America here. 
• Chiefs want to play on Christmas EVERY year. The Chiefs have played on Christmas in each of the past two seasons, and if they get their way, it sounds like they’ll once again be playing on Christmas this year. According to The Athletic, the Chiefs would like the NFL to make them a “fixture” for Christmas games. Just like Santa, the Chiefs want to start showing up every Christmas. The team is hoping they can start playing on Christmas every year just like the Cowboys and Lions play on Thanksgiving every year. Playing on Christmas isn’t ideal for every player, because you’re away from your family for a big holiday, but the Chiefs are looking to embrace it. We’ve got more details on the Chiefs’ Christmas request here. 
• Lions might also play on Christmas. Although the Chiefs want to play on Christmas, it doesn’t sound like the Lions want to be playing on Dec. 25. With the Lions already playing on Thanksgiving, team president Rod Wood said the organization would prefer not to be considered for a Christmas game. “I wish there was (an exemption for playing on Christmas),” Wood said at the NFL owners meetings, via MLive.com. “I know we’re a big TV draw, so I wouldn’t rule out that they might ask us to do it.” You can read Wood’s full comments here. 

There will probably be quite a few more scheduling rumors between now and May when the 2025 schedule is finally released, and we’ll be sure to cover them all. 

6. Extra points: Trey Hendrickson not happy with the Bengals

It was a busy weekend in 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. 

• Trey Hendrickson calls out Bengals’ front office. The 2024 NFL sack leader wasn’t thrilled with some comments that Bengals executive vice president Katie Blackburn made this week. Blackburn said Hendrickson should be “happy” at certain rates that the Bengals are offering. “That was a little disappointing, because communication has been poor over the last couple months,” Hendrickson said Wednesday on “The Pat McAfee Show”. Hamilton County might want to use that line on Blackburn during the current stadium negotiations with the Bengals. Anyway, you can check out our full story on Hendrickson here. 
• Aaron Rodgers to Minnesota looking even more unlikely. The Vikings seemed to have left the door slightly open for Rodgers, but general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah might have just closed it a little more this week. Adofo-Mensah said that he’s built a team “that’s very quarterback-friendly to a young player.” He also mentioned that he wants J.J. McCarthy to be the starting QB for a long time. You can check out his full comments here. 
• Russell Wilson getting the number he wants with Giants. The Super Bowl-winning QB has been No. 3 for his entire career and he’ll be getting that number with the Giants. Cornerback Deonte Banks had the number, but he decided to give it to Wilson and he’ll now be wearing two for the 2025 season. We’ve got more details on the number switch here. 
• Bills star puts his house up for sale. Bills running back James Cook has made it clear that he’s looking for a new contract, but he got shot down this week with general manager Brandon Beane saying that a new deal won’t be happening anytime soon. In what may or may not be a coincidence, Cook put his Buffalo-area home up for sale just days after those comments. Maybe those two things are related or maybe they aren’t, but it will now be interesting to see if Cook shows up to the Bills’ offseason workouts.