Owings Mills, Md. – Lamar Jackson said he never gets over losses.

And he also dislikes fans criticizing one of his teammates online.

After the Baltimore Ravens’ first day of mandatory minicamp Tuesday, Jackson called out the social media criticism directed at tight end Mark Andrews following the tight end’s crucial drop in January’s playoff defeat to the Buffalo Bills.

“I’ve been seeing my guy getting talked about, and I really don’t like that, because he’s done so much for us,” Jackson said of Andrews, who let a potential game-tying, 2-point conversion pass slip through his hands in a 27-25 loss in the divisional round.

“He’s done so much for us, and how people did him, I just don’t like that. Cause Mark’s still Mark.”

The criticism that Andrews received prompted speculation the Ravens might trade the three-time Pro Bowler before the final season of a four-year, $56 million deal. That hasn’t happened, and Andrews was with the team to begin optional team activities last month, when he also spoke to reporters about the play.

In Andrews’ defense, Jackson was quick to mention the two turnovers he committed during the first half that helped Buffalo take a 21-10 halftime lead.

“People were trying to dog him on comments and stuff,” Jackson said. “And he’s accomplished so much. For us, for himself. So I just feel like, let things happen sometimes. We wish we would’ve won the game. I wish I didn’t throw that interception. I wish I didn’t fumble. I wish the (conversion) mishap didn’t happen. But it happened. Lesson learned, man.”

Jackson was visibly upbeat on Tuesday in his first session with reporters since his postgame news conference in Buffalo.

And he expressed awe of his newest receiving option, 33-year-old DeAndre Hopkins, who signed a one-year, $6-million deal with Baltimore in March.

“He’s different, man,” Jackson said. “I threw him, like, a shallow (cross) today. He caught the ball so smooth, got up. I don’t even think he put his other hand on the ground to get up. He just caught the ball and start running. I’m like, ‘Bro, that’s some vet-type stuff. Like some super-vet-type stuff.’”

And he suggested there’s no point in trying to erase the pain from the latest in a string of frustrating playoff defeats during his career.

“I don’t think I get over any loss, to be honest,” Jackson said. “I’ve got losses from youth football that still haunt me. So I never get over a loss. I don’t care how small it might be to someone else or how great it might be. It’s always the same for me.”

Tight end Kelce attends Chiefs minicamp

Kansas City, Mo. – Four-time All-Pro tight end Travis Kelce and Pro Bowl right guard Trey Smith, who skipped voluntary workouts after receiving the franchise tag, were present for the start of the Kansas City Chiefs’ mandatory three-day minicamp Tuesday.

Kelce also was absent for the voluntary workouts that had been open to reporters in recent weeks.

Smith is hoping to land a long-term contract with the Chiefs, who chose him in the sixth round of the 2021 draft, when his stock had plummeted amid health concerns. He has far outplayed that draft positioning, though, and that is why the Chiefs gave him the franchise tag – essentially a $23.4 million guaranteed salary for the upcoming season.

Smith and the Chiefs have until mid-July to work out a new contract, otherwise he will play the season on the one-year deal.

Smith was not made available to reporters Tuesday, but the fact that he reported to the mandatory minicamp – rather than risk a potential fine – was noteworthy. Two years ago, defensive tackle Chris Jones held out all summer and into the start of the regular season before eventually agreeing to a contract with Kansas City.

“It’s good (Smith) didn’t take my approach,” Jones quipped. “He shouldn’t take advice from me.”

While the Chiefs worked through several lineups during the roughly 90-minute session, Smith’s decision to report did give them an opportunity to see what their revamped offensive line could look like this upcoming season.

After they struggled to protect Patrick Mahomes for most of last season, and especially during a lopsided Super Bowl loss to the Eagles, the Chiefs began the makeover by trading two-time All-Pro left guard Joe Thuney to the Bears for a draft pick in March.

The Chiefs proceeded to draft Josh Simmons, an offensive tackle from Ohio State, with the final pick in the first round.

Simmons was widely considered the top tackle available, but he was coming off a knee injury that caused him to slip to the 32nd overall pick. The Chiefs were confident in their medical workup on him, though, and that gamble appears to be paying off: He was on the field and moving around well during the start of the minicamp.

“Just trying to be available as I can right now,” he said.

It’s unclear whether Simmons will be a full participant when training camp begins in late July, but things appear to be trending in that direction. And that raises hopes around Kansas City that Mahomes will finally have a capable blind-side protector.

“I wanted to be able to throw the pads on ASAP,” Simmons said. “Whatever the staff allows me to do, I’m definitely going to do.”

Meanwhile, the Chiefs are hopeful that second-year pro Kingsley Suamataia can continue his transition from tackle to guard, and take Thuney’s place alongside Simmons on the left side of the line. And when they are joined by All-Pro center Creed Humphrey, Smith at right guard and veteran Jawaan Taylor at right tackle, the Chiefs could have their best offensive line in years.

New Packers president/CEO optimistic

Green Bay, Wis. – Ed Policy got a keen understanding about the realities of his dream occupation while growing up in a football family.

Now that he’s about to take over as the president/CEO of the Green Bay Packers, Policy gets to put into practice the lessons he learned as the son of former San Francisco 49ers and Cleveland Browns president Carmen Policy.

“It was an incredible education,” Policy said. “We talked about the NFL and the business of the NFL and pro football every night at the dinner table.”

Policy experienced the joy of Super Bowl championships and the adversity that came when his father made difficult decisions such as trading Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana. The training continued as Policy spent the past 13 years in Green Bay while the Packers continued succeeding after the 2023 trade of four-time MVP quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

Now it’s his turn to make the tough calls.

Policy, 54, assumes his new role July 25 when the Packers hold their annual shareholders meeting. He was recommended by a search committee and unanimously selected by the Packers’ board of directors to take over for Mark Murphy, who reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70 next month. Murphy had held this position since 2008.

Don’t expect this transition to result in major changes.

“We both approach the importance of this job and especially the stewardship nature of this job – we take that very importantly – so I think you’ll see a lot more similarities than differences,” Policy said. “Obviously we’re slightly different generations, different communication styles. We’re different people. But I don’t think there are going to be any real glaring differences.”

Policy, a former Arena Football League commissioner, president and CEO, joined the Packers as vice president and general counsel in August 2012 and was promoted to chief operating officer in January 2018.

In Policy’s new role, Packers coach Matt LaFleur, general manager Brian Gutekunst and executive vice president/director of football operations Russ Ball will report to him. Policy says all three of them have multiple years left in their contracts, though he wouldn’t specify beyond that.

Policy said there are no plans to extend those contracts before this season, but he praised LaFleur, Gutekunst and Ball as “three exceptional people doing an exceptional job right now and working well together.”

Policy was part of the panel that hired Gutekunst and LaFleur. He has a longer relationship with Ball through their Arena Football backgrounds.

Although he wants more meetings among top Packers officials to foster better communication, Policy said he has no plans to meddle.

“I would communicate very frequently and openly and directly with them on all things, but certainly no team needs two head coaches or two GMs,” Policy said.

This is the type of opportunity Policy always wanted. Policy said he started thinking about a career in football as far back as high school.

“I had two dream jobs in mind,” Policy said. “Running a team or commissioner of the league were the two.”

Policy remembers riding in a passenger’s seat and listening to his dad negotiate Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young’s contract on a car phone. He also recalls the hate mail his father received after making controversial decisions.

“I think my dad just always had thick skin,” Policy said. “And I think I inherited that, so I’m grateful for that.”

Policy says he still calls his dad a couple of times a week and often seeks his advice.

But he also realizes his new job has its own set of challenges based on the Packers’ unique ownership structure.

He expects his years working alongside Murphy to help in that regard, because it taught him how to become more collaborative. Policy calls Murphy “probably the strongest consensus-building leader I’ve met.”

“In my opinion, every NFL team is a community asset, and every president is a steward of that assets,” Policy said. “Here, it’s literal. I think it’s more figurative everywhere else. Here it’s literal, and it’s more important.”

Policy said the Packers’ status as a publicly owned franchise provides advantages and disadvantages.

The benefit is that the Packers can invest any money they make right back into their team, and there are no worries about family squabbles interfering with anything. But he also noted that other teams can bring in limited partners and make revenue way beyond anything the Packers gain through their occasional stock sales.

“From an organizational and operational standpoint, it’s a competitive advantage,” Policy said. “From a raising capital standpoint, it’s probably not an advantage.”

That requires the Packers to make smart decisions in order to remain competitive. Policy looks forward to that challenge, while continuing to utilize the guidance he received from his dad at the dinner table.

“To this day, I will tell you I rely on the lessons I’ve learned from him,” Policy said.

Giants’ Thibodeaux aiming to bounce back

East Rutherford, N.J. – Kayvon Thibodeaux expects a lot more from himself this season.

Especially sacks.

The New York Giants edge rusher had just 5 1/2 of them last season after setting a career best with 11 1/2 in 2023. Thibodeaux, who missed five games with a broken bone in his left wrist, has clear – and what he believes are realistic – goals heading into this season.

“I think I’m a consistent double-digit sack guy and I’ve got to do that, you know?” Thibodeaux said Tuesday after the first practice of the Giants’ three-day mandatory minicamp. “It’s been three years, going on four now, and it’s been a lot of ups and downs in my career and as a team.

“But I think this is a team that can win and I can help that.”

The fifth overall pick in the 2022 NFL draft out of Oregon had four sacks as a rookie after being rated among the top edge rushers coming out of college that year. Thibodeaux showed impressive progress in 2023 and further raised expectations for last season when he made headlines by saying he was aiming for the NFL’s single-season sacks record of 22 1/2, held by former Giants star Michael Strahan and current Steelers edge rusher T.J. Watt.

And the 24-year-old Thibodeaux isn’t backing off that lofty aspiration.

“Every time I come out on the field, I want to have more sacks than I ever had, more tackles than I ever had, and whatever I’ve got to do to help the team,” he said. “Yeah, I’m still going for the record. I’m going to go for the record every year.”

But after last year’s disappointing showing, Thibodeaux spent a chunk of the offseason watching his performance snap by snap while critically assessing his play.

“I didn’t finish,” Thibodeaux said. “I think I had like five half-sacks, which should’ve been whole sacks. I had probably like four or five missed tackles at the sack point, so just finishing my plays and just being able to come out on top in every situation.”

Thibodeaux enters this season feeling great – “I’m healthy, I’m fast, I’m strong, I’m excited” – and is part of a Giants pass rush that includes Brian Burns, Dexter Lawrence and rookie Abdul Carter, the third overall pick this year.

“He gives us another guy up front to rush,” Thibodeaux said of Carter. “He’s been taking his roles really strongly and he’s been doing his thing in the inside, on the outside. So, excited to have another guy to add to the gauntlet.”

But the addition of Carter, in particular, prompted some speculation that New York could look to deal Thibodeaux, even though the team insisted it was happy with him and not shopping him.

The Giants mostly quelled that talk in April when they picked up the fifth-year option on his rookie deal, keeping him under contract through the 2026 season.

“I don’t really think about too far ahead,” he said. “I think for me, I can only control the now, and the now, I’ve got to get better pass rushing, I’ve got to get better at stopping the run. And that’s what I’m focused on. I think the more I can do for the team, the better off I’ll be. So just hone in on that.”

Thibodeaux knows he has his doubters – he hears the outside noise whether it’s comments on sports radio or on social media. But he also knows how to handle it better, focusing on what got him to this point.

So, his inspiration doesn’t come from those critics. Or even from the adversity he has faced.

“I’ve always been hungry,” said Thibodeaux, a Los Angeles area native. “I grew up poor and this is an opportunity to make more money than you’ll ever make in your life. So, there’s no added pressure, there’s no added motivation. I think the motivation is not only to get here, but to stay here and then once you’re here, you’re in a land full of lions, you’ve got to come out on top.

“So, for me, I just want to be the best now. That’s kind of what my motivation is and that’s what I’m here to do.”

2025 Lions schedule

▶ Sun., Sept. 7: at Green Bay, 4:25 p.m. (CBS)

▶ Sun., Sept. 14: Chicago, 1 p.m. (Fox)

▶ Mon., Sept. 22: at Baltimore, 8:15 p.m. (ABC, ESPN)

▶ Sun., Sept. 28: Cleveland, 1 p.m. (Fox)

▶ Sun., Oct. 5: at Cincinnati, 4:25 p.m. (Fox)

▶ Sun., Oct. 12: at Kansas City, 8:20 p.m. (NBC)

▶ Mon., Oct. 20: Tampa Bay, 7 p.m. (ABC, ESPN)

▶ Sun., Nov. 2: Minnesota, 1 p.m. (Fox)

▶ Sun., Nov. 9: at Washington, 4:25 p.m. (Fox)

▶ Sun., Nov. 16: at Philadelphia, 8:20 p.m. (NBC)

▶ Sun., Nov. 23: N.Y. Giants, 1 p.m. (Fox)

▶ Thur., Nov. 27: Green Bay, 1 p.m. (Fox)

▶ Thur., Dec. 4: Dallas, 8:15 p.m. (Prime Video)

▶ Sun., Dec. 14: at L.A. Rams, 4:25 p.m. (Fox)

▶ Sun., Dec. 21: Pittsburgh, 4:25 p.m. (CBS)

▶ Thur., Dec. 25: at Minnesota, 4:30 p.m. (Netflix)

▶ TBD-Flex Game: at Chicago, TBD

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