As the NFL draft approaches, Minnesota Vikings-themed rumors and misconceptions are circulating, as they always do this time of year. It’s important to address some of the speculation promptly, so here’s a look at the rumors that simply aren’t true.

Three Vikings rumors made noise this week, and each one needs context.

Each week, this column debunks dubious narratives surrounding the Vikings, as well as ideas that never had a chance of becoming reality — or stuff that just didn’t work out as planned.

Breaking Down the Week’s Shakiest Minnesota Talking Points

These are the Nopedy Nopes with the NFL draft about 3.5 weeks away.

The Nopey Nope: The Bears will sign Harrison Smith.

DaWindyCity.com‘s Ernesto Cova thinks Smith, a lifelong Viking, is a real free-agent option for the Bears.

He wrote this week, “The Bears should make a run at Harrison Smith. Smith is still a free agent, and the Bears could certainly use some help at strong safety. Given Smith’s age, he’s obviously not going to be a long-term solution at the position. That said, the Bears’ Super Bowl window is wide open right now, and he’s the type of proven veteran who can help this young team push through in the second year of the Ben Johnson era.”

“The Chicago Bears already lured a former divisional rival to the Windy City. And even though the addition of WR Kalif Raymond may not be as impactful, bolstering the team while hurting an NFC North rival is a double win. Now, GM Ryan Poles might repeat that approach, this time to bolster the defense with a Minnesota Vikings star.”

A six-time Pro Bowler, Smith has never indicated interest in playing elsewhere, despite speculation that he could, in theory, find a new team. Smith’s situation this offseason has never been about exploring free agency, an opportunity that passed years ago without his pursuing it.

In 2026, his decision will be straightforward and personal: retire or return for a 15th season in Minnesota. The Vikings and their fans recognize this reality, even staging a retirement ceremony for him at U.S. Bank Stadium in January following the season finale against Detroit.

While longtime teammates like Adam Thielen and C.J. Ham have moved on, Smith remains undecided. His choice is imminent and hinges on a single question: should he return for a 15th year, or retire?

One thing is for certain: he won’t sign with a Vikings rival on his way out the door.

The Verdict: Nopedy nope on Smith signing in Chicago. Like really?

The Nopey Nope: Jonathan Allen adds a major boost to the Bengals’ defensive trenches.

ESPN’s Seth Walder didn’t hold back on Cincinnati’s move for Allen, grading it harshly and questioning the payoff.

He explained, “Grade: D. A year ago, I handed the Vikings a D+ for signing Allen to an expensive contract shortly after he had been cut by the Commanders, a deal that called for him to make $16.2 million in 2025 and fully guaranteed $8 million of his $17 million in cash due in 2026. Now this year, the Vikings cut Allen after a lackluster first season in Minnesota, and the Bengals are going to pick up some of the tab and then some.”

“Cincinnati needs to improve its defense, and I understand wanting more pass rush from its interior. B.J. Hill, T.J. Slaton and Kris Jenkins Jr. all had below-average pass rush win rates for a defensive tackle last season. But this is too much to pay for what will likely be too little.”

The Vikings also parted ways with defensive tackle Javon Hargrave, who quickly landed in Green Bay, earning a ‘B-‘ from Walder for that signing.

Walder continued, “Allen was a very good defensive tackle earlier in his career. But the numbers clearly paint a picture of a 31-year-old player who is well into his decline. And I think the Bengals are overpaying him based on what he did several years ago. There’s another wrinkle here that affects Allen’s old team.”

“Though the Vikings had guaranteed $8 million of Allen’s 2026 money, the defensive tackle had offset language in that deal. Which means that the Vikings could receive a cap credit at the end of the season for whatever the Bengals pay Allen in 2026. While we don’t know the structure of the deal yet, that could be a nice break for Minnesota.”

Both Allen in Cincinnati and Hargrave in Green Bay will get fresh opportunities to reset their careers. Walder isn’t buying the upside on Allen.

The Verdict: Nopedy nope on Allen as the Bengals’ big offseason DT fix.

The Nopey Nope: LSU CB Mansoor Delane will be on the board for the Vikings at pick No. 18

Delane put real speed on display Monday at his Pro Day, and it showed up in a big way.

SBNation’s Dale Altman wrote, ‘Mansoor Delane ran a blazing 4.35 40-yard dash today at the LSU Pro Day. The LSU cornerback was already considered to be the top prospect at the position for the 2026 NFL Draft. All he did by running that time was solidify himself as the top guy, and potentially another step closer to going in the top 10.”

“Delane was tremendous in 2025 with a 90.7 coverage grade. He allowed just a 40.0% completion rate against him this past season. He was a shutdown corner for the Tigers. He isn’t just a cover corner either, Delane is a more than willing participant against the run.”

That speed turned heads across the league, and teams hunting for rookie cornerback help took notice quickly. He now looks firmly in line to be the first cornerback selected, wiping him off the board for the Vikings all the way down at No. 18.

In January, he was a popular mock-draft selection for Minnesota. Not anymore.

The Verdict: Nopedy nope on Delane to Minnesota; he’s too good and too fast.

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The confetti having fallen, the celebration very much ongoing, and here’s the guy responsible for most all of this just off to the side, somehow, by himself. 

Here stands Tommy Lloyd — steps away from the risers, blue-and-red shreds of soft, celebratory paper at his feet; and no doubt more underneath his cotton, black Cats quarter-zip — just hanging out. He’s got a smile on, but not too big of a smile.

There’s still two more games to win.

But he can pause for now to acknowledge the long-awaited return to the biggest stage in the sport for the Arizona Wildcats. The program’s going to the Final Four for the first time in 25 years, getting there with an authoritative second half power stroke over No. 2 seed Purdue that ended with a 79-64 anticlimax. Thousands in red, blue and white in the stands are screaming, laughing, crying, celebrating. 

Lloyd’s taking it in. 

Less than a minute ago, he was hugging and high-fiving with none other than Mix Master Mike, forever of Beastie Boys fame and acclaim, now a dear friend of Lloyd’s. Life has changed so much, but also not that much at all, for the 51-year-old former Gonzaga assistant who helped guide two of those teams to the national title game in 2017 and 2021.

This, tonight, is different. Those Gonzaga teams were the design of Mark Few. This is now Lloyd’s doing. He’s brought Arizona back to the promised land, and as thousands cheer, he’s humbly standing alone, just waiting for a reporter to interrupt the moment.

Of course I had to. 

Did Lloyd think this was possible all those years ago, as a carefree hooper growing up in Kelso, Washington?

“I would say, yeah,” Lloyd told CBS Sports on the court. “I 100% believed it. I’ve always dreamed big. I mean, I’m not surprised. I’m respectful of the moment, but this isn’t the greatest thing to ever happen in my life. I’ve got a great family, and I’ve had a lot of good experiences, but I’m a big dreamer.”

For decades, Lloyd dreamed up what he would do and how he would run a program if he was ever given the chance. In April 2021, Arizona gave him that opportunity despite Lloyd never being a head coach. His reputation was terrific as a program-builder and international recruiter, but it was still a gamble. 

It paid off on Saturday night. Hiring Lloyd altered Arizona’s trajectory and redefined the upper echelon of the reformed, 16-team Big 12.

And as Arizona readies for a trip to Indianapolis, it must be acknowledged: Arizona has spent more weeks as the No. 1 team this season and been the winningest program over the past five seasons because Lloyd has tripled down on his refusal to bend to modern convention of overl relying on 3-point-oriented offense. 

The best coaches, no matter the sport, not only innovate, they force those around them to adapt by virtue of their convictions. Tommy Lloyd is that, and Saturday night’s dismantling of Purdue was the latest evidence that shows his style was always going to work. 

“He builds confidence,” Arizona associate head coach Jack Murphy told CBS Sports. “I’ve just seen that from Year 1 to Year 5. He’s been steady, the same person every single day when it comes to work. Doesn’t change, doesn’t get too high or too low. Now, he’s very competitive, yes, and I’ve beaten him in pickleball. He doesn’t like that. But he does not change, and he instills ultimate confidence in everybody, his staff and his players.”

At a time when Steph Curry’s influence and modern analytics’ grip on the 3-pointer has never been more inescapable, here is Lloyd’s Arizona program bucking convention and kicking ass on the way to potentially the best season in program history. 

The Wildcats rank 363rd in 3-point rate, shooting from beyond the long line just 26.4% of the time. What’s more, this team is the first ever to be bottom five in 3-point rate and make the Final Four since North Carolina did it (with something of a similar system) in 2008.

The message is always: north-south, go! go! go! Go at the opponent every time. Drive the ball. Play on two feet as often as possible. The gaps are there, find them, and drive your line when the space comes open. From there, the 3-point options will emerge, but don’t take a good shot when a great one is waiting for your teammate two or three passes away — and that teammate might wind up being you. 

“He likes us to call it an insurance policy,” Arizona star senior point guard Jaden Bradley told CBS Sports.

Bradley‘s ever-reliable second-half steadiness was one of the key components that drove yet another Arizona win over yet another ranked opponent, now the 14th of its 36 victories this season.

“Obviously everyone wants to go shoot the basketball; it’s a huge part of the next level,” Arizona assistant TJ Benson said. “That’s all they ever talk about. But I think as the season started going along, these guys have been the most coachable group I think we’ve had in five years, and we’ve had some great groups. But just understanding, nah, man, we’re gonna put our head down. This is a strength of ours. We’re not gonna let people take that away.” 

Through four games in this tournament, Arizona is averaging a modest 13.3 3-point attempts, the fewest of any Final Four team since 2014-15 Kentucky. Only five other Final Four teams in the past 20 years averaged fewer, doing so before the 3-point revolution to the evolution. 

It’s not that Lloyd’s team can’t shoot the 3 — at 36.7%, it ranks a solid-but-not-spectacular 37th overall — it’s that it gets the win by most other avenues. 

Two years ago, when Arizona left the Pac-12 for the Big 2, Benson went to Lloyd and they discussed whether they needed to change and lean into the 3-pointer because of the league upgrade. Lloyd was open to it but came back to his style: tough players with incredible conditioning who magnetize to the paint instead of floating around on the perimeter. 

Said stud freshman Brayden Burries: “Coming here, I actually didn’t know too much about the play style. I just knew what coach Lloyd told me, that he believed in me, and I believed in him.”

Burries got off to a slow start this season. In June he’ll be a lottery pick in the NBA Draft. 

“He is who he is and who he’s always been,” Benson said. “Gonzaga was that smash mouth basketball. At the end of the day, we’ve had a lot of good players that are great at putting their head down, getting to the paint, and then making plays with their teammates or for themselves.”

And it showed again on Saturday night, especially in the second half. The game was really good until it wasn’t. The SAP Center felt tense … until Arizona cut the slack and ran away down the stretch. At halftime, it looked like Purdue might pull off the upset and get to a second Final Four in three seasons. The Boilermakers drained seven 3-pointers in the first 20 minutes and had a seven-point lead on Arizona going into the break. 

Arizona proceeded to pick up the pace, only shooting 3-pointers as necessary (4 of 9) and ultimately overcame their sixth halftime deficit of the season — and their largest NCAA Tournament halftime gap in program history. 

“We went back to our Plan A,” Lloyd told CBS Sports. “We kind of lost our way at the end of the first half on offense. We put JB (Jaden Bradley) on Braden (Smith) instead of Ivan Kharchenkov, and JB was unbelievable chasing him through everything.” 

The Wildcats held Purdue to just nine points in the first 10 minutes of the second half and outscored them 48-26 overall after the break. The 22-point differential was Purdue’s worst of the season — and this coming after Purdue averaged 81.4 points in its previous seven wins heading into Saturday night. Arizona held it 17 below that number.

Purdue coach Matt Painter put it bluntly Saturday night when he said, “Sometimes people don’t understand those great teams, they just cause problems.”

Arizona is a 40-minute problem every time it suits up. 

The defense is the best of any team Lloyd has coached, both at Arizona and Gonzaga. The Wildcats are No. 1 in defensive efficiency. After Purdue’s senior nucleus of Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer and Trey Kaufman-Renn averaged 58 points on 55% shooting in the three previous games, Arizona stymied them to 31 total points on 31.6% shooting.

This group has won its past four games by 20.5 points on average, the sixth-best margin of any Final Four team since 2000. 

“We have the personnel to do it, the will to do it, and I know how to coach it,” Lloyd said. “I think that’s it, the place of my strength as a coach. … You’ve just got to hang with it. You can’t abort mission, you know? You just can’t. It’s not how you win.” 

This team showed who it was in the first game of the season, when it shot 2-of-5 from 3-point range and beat the reigning national champions/future fellow No. 1 seed Florida 93-87. Koa Peat had statistically maybe the greatest freshman debut ever in that game, going for 30 points, seven rebounds, five assists, three steals and a block.

Peat won the West Region Most Outstanding Player after averaging 17.5 points and 6.8 rebounds the past four games in the tournament. That’s not an outstanding stat line, but that’s Arizona basketball. The Wildcats had six players score at least 14 points in the 109-88 Sweet 16 slicing of Arkansas, becoming the first team ever to pull off the feat. 

“Tommy has done an unbelievable job with culture-building, team building, getting the right combination of guys,” Jason Gardner told CBS Sports. Gardner holds a special place on this staff. He was part of the last team to make the Final Four back in 2001. 

“To get back here,” Gardner, “it takes a camaraderie. It takes an unbelievable staff. It takes guys to buy in. It takes guys to share the wealth. It takes the community, fan base to rally around you when times are tough. It takes everybody.” 

Lloyd has won 148 games in his first five seasons, easily a record for the best five-year start to a head coaching career in men’s college hoops history. He’s done it with the belief that freshmen can get you there, too. That’s a privileged place to recruit from, and only a handful of schools can try it. But beyond all else, he’s done it with conviction without bending to convention.

That’s living the dream.

And the dreaming isn’t done. 

“I can’t wait to get a couple days off, put my feet up a little bit, and then let’s start preparing for the next one,” Lloyd said before he went to find his family on the floor. 

Calm, casual, unwavering belief. You can’t fake that. Arizona is no dream. This team is as real as it gets and should be considered the favorite to win two more in Indianapolis. 

Punjab Kings will begin their IPL 2026 campaign on March 31 against Gujarat Titans in New Chandigarh. After finishing as runners-up in 2025, Shreyas Iyer and his team are determined to replicate last year’s heroics and clinch their maiden IPL title. At the auction, PBKS retained their core squad and brought in four new players, including Australian all-rounder Ben Dwarshuis. The 31-year-old is no stranger to the PBKS setup, having previously been part of the franchise during the 2018 season. Ahead of their opening match, Dwarshuis interacted with NDTV and shared his insights on the team’s preparations and Shreyas Iyer’s leadership.

Here are the highlights of NDTV’s exclusive interaction with Dwarshuis:

NDTV: PBKS’ first match of IPL 2026 is against GT. How’s the mood in the camp?

Ben: Yeah, the mood’s been really high. I think we’ve had a really nice lead-in. We’ve had a couple of really competitive practise games and we’ve got a few training sessions to go to sort of sharpen up our skills and really get ready for the 31st.

NDTV: You are not new in the PBKS setup as you were also there in the 2018 season. Does this familiarity in the camp helps in you any sense?

Ben: Yeah, I mean there’s a couple of familiar faces. Obviously, a lot has changed in the eight years that I haven’t been here, but you know it’s nice to be back here and have a little bit of familiarity to help you settle in. The stadium is also beautiful. Looking forward to seeing it packed out with fans and it be really loud and noisy. All the facilities are great and we’ve had a couple of great training and practise games, so vibes high and the ground looks great.

NDTV: How does it feel to work under the guidance of Ricky Ponting, who is widely known for his smart cricketing style?

Ben: It’s great. I’ve had a little bit of experience with him in the past and really enjoyed those times, so to have a nice two months stint with him is gonna be really great and hopefully I can learn a few things.

NDTV: Some words on Shreyas Iyer and his captaincy?

Ben: I mean from all reports, he’s one of the strongest captains in the league. Great cricketing brain, really understands the game and I’m excited to hopefully get to play a few games and see out in the middle what he’s like.

NDTV: PBKS are filled with youngsters like Priyansh, Prabh, Nehal, Musheer. With whom do you get along the most?

Ben: Initial take is that they’re all incredible cricketers. They all got an opportunity to showcase their skills in the practise matches and it’s been really impressive to see the young proper players, how strong they are. Maybe Mushir (whom you get along the most). He’s a funny character and he’s loud and outgoing, so it’s been nice to have a few conversations with him.

NDTV: IPL is played on various venues in India, you think that these different pitch conditions will be affecting the game?

Ben: Yeah, I think each ground you go to is always going to slightly alter the way that you want to go about your game and having that adaptability to be able to play not only in different conditions in India but all around the world I think is what makes great cricketers.