Malik Willis, the top free-agent quarterback on the market in 2026 (if one assumes the Indianapolis Colts re-sign Daniel Jones), will not be cheap. If the Minnesota Vikings are interested in his services, it will cost at least $30 million per year, says the latest intel from the NFL Combine.

If Willis is suddenly a $30M-a-year bet, Minnesota’s cap plight gets tight in a hurry.

The Vikings don’t have $30 million lying around, so if they want Willis, the salary cap magic must be sophisticated.

Willis’s Market Could Price Him Beyond Minnesota’s Comfort Zone

A miniature Willis bombshell just 12 days before the start of free agency.

Jordan Schultz: Willis to Be a $30M per Year Man

There will be no prove-it discount for Willis if NFL insider Jordan Schultz has it right.

He tweeted Wednesday, “Packers free agent QB Malik Willis is in demand, as expected, and interested teams I’ve spoken to at the Combine in Indianapolis believe him getting at least $30M per year is a foregone conclusion.”

Until the Schultz tweet, recent deals for passers like Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield suggested Willis might pull down $20 million to $25 million annually. That forecast has changed.

The Vikings’ Salary Cap Situation

The “legal tampering” phase of free agency begins on March 9th, and the Vikings are over the cap by approximately $43 million. What does that mean? They’ll have to release several players or backload many existing contracts to free up any money at all.

The likelihood of a team over the cap by $43 million, some 12 days before free agency, finding $32 million to spend on a quarterback feels low. We’re talking about a $75 million gap. A team with cap problems isn’t usually in the market to sign the top available quarterback in free agency.

And, not for nothing: if Minnesota wanted to spend around $30 million on a quarterback, it should’ve re-signed Darnold last year.

Daily Norseman‘s Warren Ludford recently floated the idea of restructuring Justin Jefferson’s contract: “Jefferson has a $25 million base salary this season and a contract that runs through 2029 with a void year so converting that base salary to a signing bonus would spread the cap hit over the remaining years of his contract and save the Vikings around $20 million in cap space this year.”

“That’s probably enough to accommodate the signings of free agents such as Jalen Nailor, Eric Wilson, Ryan Wright, Andrew DePaola, Jalen Redmond (EFRA), Bo Richter (EFRA), Ivan Pace Jr. (RFA), and a few others, along with Mac Jones and Anthony Richardson if the Vikings opt to trade for them.”

Willis’s GB Production

Willis started three games for the Green Bay Packers over the last two years, leaving general managers around the sport drooling, according to Schultz’s reporting. In fact, a quarterback with three starts under his belt fetching a $30 million per year contract is wild.

Still, if one translates Willis’s statistics from those three starts to a 17-game sample, a full season would look like this:

• 3,468 Passing Yards
• 34 Total TDs
• 0 INTs
• 6 Fumbles
• 79.6% Comp
• 986 Rushing Yards

Those are Lamar Jackson numbers. Some team will take the risk.

The Frontrunners for Willis

Where will Willis land? A handful of teams may need quarterbacks in March. Here’s the theoretical list:

• Arizona Cardinals
• Cleveland Browns
• Miami Dolphins
• Minnesota Vikings
• New York Jets
• Pittsburgh Steelers

In the court of public opinion, the Dolphins and Jets are considered the frontrunners as of late February. In fact, the Green Bay Packers’ defensive coordinator, Jeff Hafley, landed the Dolphins’ head coaching job last month, and then Miami hired an executive from Green Bay’s front office as its general manager.

For the Jets, they have no quarterback solution on the horizon at all, unless they draft Alabama’s Ty Simpson in April and call it good.

Pro Football Network‘s Zachary Johnson noted on Willis’s free agency this week, “The Jets, meanwhile, signed former first-round pick Justin Fields to a two-year contract last spring. He’s entering the final year of his deal, but an uninspiring, injury-plagued campaign left head coach Aaron Glenn wanting more out of his signal-caller. The Cardinals are expected to release Kyler Murray for contractual reasons.”

“The former 1st overall pick is likely to have played his last down in Arizona, and, in the eyes of many, a divorce appears to be on the horizon. As for the Dolphins, the connections with Willis are obvious. Jon Eric-Sullivan was just hired as the team’s next general manager after ascending the ranks in the Packers’ front office over the last two decades.”

NFL franchises have watched in the last three seasons as Baker Mayfield and the aforementioned Darnold have reclaimed their careers. Willis is the next in line, or so goes the theory.

Manchester City will discover their Champions League last-16 opponents on Friday when the draw takes place

Manchester City will face either Real Madrid or Bodo Glimt in the Champions League last 16 draw on Friday.

The play-off ties concluded on Wednesday evening with Madrid booking their place in the next round with a 2-1 win over Benfica (3-1 on aggregate). City had a straight path through to the last-16 as a result of securing a top eight spot in the League Phase and the Blues knew their four potential opponents ahead of the play-off fixtures.

Friday’s draw in Nyon, which is scheduled to start at 11am, will now confirm which of the two teams Pep Guardiola’s will be facing next month. City will also be allocated into a half of the draw which will enable the Blues to plot their path to a potential final in May.

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City already know they could face Bayern Munich or Arsenal in the quarter-finals but the draw on Friday will firm up the permutations.

City have already played Bodo/Glimt this season, slipping to a surprise 3-1 defeat in the League Phase in Norway. The Norwegians stunned last season’s beaten finalists Inter Milan in the play-off round, winning 3-1 at home and then knocking out the Italian champions with a 2-1 victory in the San Siro.

The last-16 ties take place next month with the first leg on March 10/11 and the second a week later. City, by virtue of finishing higher in the League Phase, will be at home in the second leg.

The quarter finals are on April 7/8 and 14/15 with the semi-finals following on April 28/29 and May 5/6. The final is in Budapest on Saturday, May 30.

City are one of six English sides still in the draw after Newcastle United came through the play-off round on Tuesday. Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham are still in the hunt.

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Former Premier League defender Curtis Davies said the decision was an “absolute disgrace”.

“Kelly goes up for a header, he’s gone for the header cleanly. His feet have to land on the ground somewhere,” he added on BBC Radio 5 Live.

“Unfortunately, he lands on the player. There needs to be a level of understanding – where is he meant to put his feet? I understand Kelly’s frustration.”

Davies’ sentiments were echoed by football journalist Rory Smith, who called the decision “awful” and a “disgrace”.

Meanwhile, former Tottenham midfielder Andy Reid felt football was “moving closer and closer to being a non-contact sport”.

“There needs to be contact in football and sometimes people do get painful ones. It happens. There’s nothing you can do about that. It’s part of the game,” he said.

According to Uefa rules, any player sent off by the referee – whether that is via two yellows or a straight red – is automatically suspended for the next match in European club competition.

However, in light of Juventus’ exit from the Champions League, Kelly’s suspension will carry over to next season.

Former Manchester City defender Nedum Onuoha added: “If I was Kelly I’d be really disappointed, but with how football works, it’s always going to be a red.”

But former Liverpool full-back Stephen Warnock disagreed.

“I don’t agree with it because it is purely accidental. I understand the yellow card, but not the red,” he said.

The title defence rolls on, but, in sharp contrast to 12 months ago, Paris Saint-Germain really do not feel like a team who are bound for the final. The dynasty might just be on pause for this season at least.

If that seems a curious response to a 2-2 draw that took the holders beyond Monaco then ask yourself this question: how different might this tie have been if the young men from the principality had not contrived to get themselves sent off in the critical moments of both legs? For Aleksandr Golovin in the Stade Louis II read the previously exceptional Mamadou Coulibaly. 

When he careened into Achraf Hakimi in the 58th minute, Monaco were level in the tie and looked slightly more likely to find its seventh goal. Adi Hutter’s side were doing a little with a lot: purposefully breaking out from their lines of five and four without the ball, exploiting the running power of Folarin Balogun out in the channels and getting players up in support of him. They might not have dominated possession — who does against a Luis Enrique team? — but they were getting into the right spots and doing with an energy that their illustrious hosts could not match.

That is a real problem for PSG, who did get the job done quite swiftly after Coulibaly saw red. Desire Doue’s cross from the byline was turned in by Marquinhos, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia pounced on the rebound when Philipp Kohn spilled a long ranger from Achraf Hakimi: these were partly a reward for the final third pressure the hosts applied with their man advantage but no less a reflection of a young opponent who’d had the stuffing knocked out of them by their reduction in numbers. 

There might have been more in this for Monaco than they realised, Jordan Teze ghosting in at the back post to turn in almost unmarked in a fashion not dissimilar to the opener from Magnes Akliouche. On both occasions, PSG had the numbers to comfortably deal with the situation, and none of them seemed willing to take control of the season. 

That could scarcely be a greater contrast from last season, when intensity was the defining trait of this team. Luis Enrique’s men would outrun anyone in Europe, and at this stage, their blend of quality and industry was shining through so clearly against Ligue 1 opposition that you suspected this was a different outfit to the many who had fallen short in the Champions League.

Tonight, you half expected to see one of the old guard ambling around the field out of possession, waiting for the other guys to do the defending and get the ball up to them. It is becoming increasingly clear that PSG relied on Ousmane Dembele for more than just his clutch goals. It is hard to believe that the best pressing Ballon d’Or-level striker of his generation would have allowed Monaco to so easily work their way out of the counter press when PSG frequently gave the ball away in the Monaco half. 

The issue here is that the 13 total starts Dembele has made this season is altogether more normal for him than the run of fitness he found 12 months ago. Good squad planning means having good cover for the players you know are most vulnerable. It’s not entirely clear that a front three of Bradley Barcola, Doue and Kvaratskhelia, with Goncalo Ramos filling in here and there, is that.

Dembele is not the only one who is feeling the burn. Fabian Ruiz was missing tonight; it is hard to find a cornerstone of that championship team who hasn’t missed time. And that’s not a surprise. This was a team coached to hit its peak on May 31, 2025. Then they had to play on for another six weeks and seven games. The Club World Cup exacted a heavy burden. Luis Enrique has tried to mitigate that with rest and rotation, but maybe that explains why so many basic passes were going awry.

When they didn’t, this was still a team that could run rings around better opponents than Monaco. There is something irresistible about PSG’s left winger dragging the opposition out of position to create space for an underlapping Nuno Mendes to fizz in a low cross from the byline. Get Kvaratskhelia going at his man, and it’s good night and good luck. Last season, PSG could manufacture those spots a dozen times a night. Now they are flashes of what once was.

What they are now is not a team that exists at the same level as Arsenal and Bayern Munich, the two clear favorites to win this competition. It might not even be enough to get comprehensively clear of Barcelona or Chelsea, the two teams that they could get in Friday’s draw. At this stage a year ago PSG seemed to have the momentum to push themselves to the heights they had always dreamed of. Now they are back to the crushing realities of what a team looks like when it doesn’t have the energy to match its talent.

A popular WWE Superstar made a massive claim about his real-life relationship. He compared his relationship to that of Seth Rollins & Becky Lynch and CM Punk & AJ Lee.

The star in question is former WWE NXT Champion Trick Williams. He is engaged to fellow SmackDown star Lash Legend. The couple recently made an appearance on Wake Up Barstool.

The host asked the duo what it would take for them to be the number one power couple in professional wrestling, with the likes of Seth Rollins & Becky Lynch and CM Punk & AJ Lee already being there. Trick Williams came up with a cheeky response claiming that he and Lash Legend were like an upgraded version of the other WWE couples.

“Shout out to [CM] Punk, AJ [Lee], Seth [Rollins], Becky [Lynch]. But you ever put your phone down on the nightstand, and that thing updates overnight, and then you pull it out the next day, and you’re like, ‘Whoa, I didn’t know that my phone could do all this. Look at all these upgrades. Wow, this phone is better today than it was yesterday.’ That’s what happens when you get Trick and Lash,” Williams said.

You can check out his comments in the video below:

WWE Superstar Trick Williams recalled the time Lash Legend friend-zoned him

During a recent interview with SPORTbible, Trick Williams opened up about a hilarious conversation he had with Lash Legend back in the day when they were not dating.

The Anointed One recalled how he got nervous while approaching Lash Legend and forgot what he had planned to say to her. However, he still told her that they could be together. Williams added how Legend turned him down and friend-zoned him instead.

“So, I see her. She’s getting out of her Mercedes-Benz and everything. So I walk up and say, I don’t know what happens, like, as soon as I got to her, I had, like, this great promo in my head that I was gonna drop on her, but as soon as the moment of truth happened, like, no words was coming out. I was like, ‘So, yo Lash, I don’t know if everybody else saying it, but you and me together good.’ And then she friend-zoned me so quick. She was like, ‘Yeah, I heard people saying that, but nah you my homie for real,’” Williams said.

Both Trick Williams and Lash Legend have already impressed fans with their impressive performances on WWE’s main roster. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for the beloved wrestling couple.

If you use any quotes from the first half of this article, please credit Wake Up Barstool with an H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription.