You won’t miss a thing from Indianapolis as Football Insiders has you covered with all the major news coming out of the NFL Combine.

Tag, You’re It!

The first two franchise tags of the season will reportedly be used on Kansas City Chiefs sackmaster Justin Houston and New York Giants former first-round pick Jason Pierre-Paul respectively.

The move by Kansas City is anything but a surprise as the Chiefs have reportedly not been very close to putting together a new deal with Houston.

Although Pierre-Paul has looked like an elite pass rusher at times in his career, he’s battled injuries and some inconsistency. In his contract year, JPP registered 12.5 sacks to lead the Giants.

With the tag on Pierre-Paul, it’s very likely that the Giants will struggle to be able to keep safety Antrel Rolle.

You can expect the Dallas Cowboys’ Dez Bryant to be the next player to be franchised.

No Surprise, Lovie Not Tipping His Hand

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will certainly be the most interesting team in the 2015 NFL Draft as they own the first-overall pick in the draft after working hard to lose 14 out of their 16 games in 2014.

When head coach Lovie Smith spoke at the NFL Combine, the obvious subject of Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota came up.

“I understand the allegations against him,” Smith said of Winston. “I understand that he went through the justice system, the court system to be exonerated on some allegations against him. I understand the college things that a lot of guys do that you wish you wouldn’t later on. I understand some of the things that he did that are on his record right now, but you just take all the information that we could possibly get at this point, and it’s early. Keep in mind that we’re just to the Combine. We have a lot more research to do that we’ll do. But with the information I have right now, we haven’t taken him off our list right now or anything.”

Smith, the master at speaking for copious amounts of time yet saying nothing, went on.

“I’m looking forward to getting to know and spend time with, not only Jameis but Marcus also and the rest of the athletes,” Smith said.

“I think you just start the process … you just start asking questions on a lot of different topics. Of course we understand the obvious ones. We do our research,” Smith said of Winston. “We’ve talked to a lot of people so far on both players if we’re just talking quarterbacks and we’ll continue to do that. I think you just start the process and in the end you gather all the information that you have and you make a decision. And for us, with the first pick in the draft, it will be an organizational decision where everybody’s on board.”

Smith was asked about his quarterback situation.

“Going forward with Mike Glennon only will give us our best chance,” Smith explained. “Josh (McCown) is a lifetime friend, he did a great job for us in the locker room with different things, leadership wise. I thought it was fair to him to let him go and explore his options elsewhere.”

Kubiak Wants Manning Back

When new Denver Broncos head coach Gary Kubiak met the media Wednesday morning, the main subject on everyone’s mind was the future of Peyton Manning.

Gary Kubiak made it clear in no uncertain terms that he wants the five-time league MVP back in orange.

“We want to play with him,” Kubiak said. “This organization has won a lot of games with him and we want to get back and do it again. We’re expecting him to come back.”

Kubiak was later asked if Ravens’ quarterback Joe Flacco was “elite”

“You bet he is,” Kubiak responded. “He’s one of the greatest players in the league and I wouldn’t be here without him.”

Fox Will Employ 3-4

The Chicago Bears defense was a problem in 2014.

The Bears ranked 30th in total defense last season and 31st in points allowed (27.6 ppg).

New head coach John Fox plans to bring his customary 3-4 defense to the Windy City.

“We will be out of a 3-4, terminology wise,” Fox said. “I’m confident that we’ll be able to piece together a good defense. Players will define that.”
With Jay Cutler being under contract with over $15 million guaranteed, he’s likely to be on the Bears roster this season. That doesn’t mean he’ll automatically be the starter or have a long leash.

The Bears met with journeyman quarterback Josh McCown, Cutler’s former backup, and Fox had positive things to say about the veteran.

“He’s the right kind of guy from my perspective that you want on your football team and we’ll see where it goes,” Fox explained.

Chicago will have to make great strides in the offseason to finish out of last place in the very competitive NFC North.